Weeks 10 and 11 Round Up

Week 10/11

Session A activities for these weeks:  primary colors, vowels, pledge

Session B activities for these weeks: #1-12 dot to dot & coloring, Consonant sounds project (a poster for each letter and we cut out pictures and pasted them on the right letter sound), READ Preschool (finished all the upper and lowercase letters Gg-Zz), Played missing letters or numbers games, played a math dice counting game, READ Preschool (mazes, dot to dots, rhyming words, etc...), Counting with Numbers Book p2-11 (#1-4 and counting practice), art card review, "A Harbor in Moonlight" painting, Nat Geo little kids, Cam Jansen,

Total time spent was approximately 7.5 hours structured time or about 4 hours per week.

Trusting Free Play

I'm not even going to post a "round up" for this last week because Jack and I had a sort of battle of wits so my patience was worn just a touch too thin to put on the patient awesome teacher hat.  And I was tired.  That never seems like a legitimate excuse for things but really, I was so tired I caught a bug and I'm just now feeling better.

So all the nothing we did this week reminded me of how important it is to understand that the times when you aren't *doing* something are just as valuable as the times that we are cramming activity after activity down their throats.  School and more school then homework and dance class. Soccer, music, spanish, and even structuring the play at home into "educational" activities.  The school year is in full swing now and it is hard to resist the urge to put my son in something because that is what people do with their children when they reach a certain age.

As I complained to my friend over the epic showdown we'd had over a cup of juice earlier that day, she calmly explained that it was because he was just too bored with me.  I got defensive and started naming off all the things he'd done that week without me but realized that we are just on two different planes.  She, and most others of our generation, believe that children must be dropped off somewhere for a structured activity, for which we must then excuse ourselves for the duration of, in order that they don't become bored and therefore stagnant in their development.

I disagree.  And I'm not alone.

Play is so important to optimal child development that it has been recognized by the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights as a right of every child, or so says a 2006 paper published by the American Academy of Pediatrics.  If you haven't read it, you definitely should check it out.

Yet we are increasingly paranoid about our very young children (ages 3 and 4) falling behind academically and constantly finding ways to put more stuff on their shoulders.  A mother once commented to me that her 3 year old was trying to get out of doing extra academic work at home by saying that she was "so tired."  This 3 year old goes to school from 8:30 - 2:30 pm Monday through Friday and attends 2 dance classes per week.

And then there is Jack.  We spend probably 8 hours a week on structured school activities and he goes to gymnastics once a week.  It sure does sound like he could be bored compared to his friends, who all have structured activities away from home for nearly 40 hours a week.

Sometimes he says "I don't know what to do" which is I think the same thing for him and I direct him into an activity.  However, most of the time, he is really busy.  Too busy to eat and sleep actually.  He is building towers and robots and setting traps for monsters.  He is pretending to be a garbage man or drawing himself a story.  He grabs a few things from the toy box and heads outside to play for hours in the dirt.  I hear him making up his own songs and singing them on stage at a rock concert.  We talk endlessly about topics that have endless "Why's" and he has time to fit the information into his worldview.  They aren't the games I would choose nor does he construct things the way that they *should* be but all his inventions are his own.  He is absolutely NOT bored and he is NOT getting behind by "missing out" on soccer or school.

And I have absolute faith in him that these things he is pretending and building with household items are teaching him what he needs to be resourceful and hardworking.  He relies on no one for entertainment.  He needs no toys.  Experts are now saying that boredom is GOOD for children and that unstructured time is just the thing.

I just have to keep reminding myself that I am giving him a gift here.  The gift of time.  He has time to explore the world and himself without anyone or anything telling him how to do it.

H is for Halloween

I don't have much to share this week.  We slogged through the phonics week but things still aren't clicking so I am sticking with my decision to step back a little and take the next several weeks as review on the reading front.  I'll talk more about that later.  First I'd like to show some of our art for the week!

Jack's favorite holiday is Halloween and he was really counting the days until October 1st on the calender because that is the day I promised we could finally decorate the house and begin halloween crafts.  We picked up a pumpkin and put a silly face on it with Mr. Potato Head-like pieces, put up window clings, and he chose 1 new decoration to add to our collection (a jack-o'-lantern with a plug in light).

We stamped feet and made them into monsters!  He is still giggling about the little rhyme that goes with it.  I decorated M's feet and he decorated his own.

Little Frankenstein's Monster Feet!

In other art news, our painting this week was Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.  I was really impressed with how many elements he picked out of the painting.  Watercolor is exceedingly difficult to work with so in the end, all of his colors melted together but he talked about each color he chose and what piece of the painting he was working on.  When we were finished, he was upset that his painting hadn't "turned out" like he wanted and told me we were switching. Now when people ask, he claims he painted the one on the top.

Again, please excuse my hasty art work.

I don't want him to get frustrated with his work but I think that it is inevitable that as he becomes more aware of artwork the more he is going to compare what he does to what he sees.

We also talked about primary colors and color mixing.  I found this lovely little book by Leo Lionni (author of Frederic) called Little Blue and Little Yellow to use as an introduction to the lesson.  My goodreads review is here.

Anyway, Week 10.

We'll head toward math land and give the phonics a rest.  I've updated the homeschool links page with several resources that have free printables.  I have printed off several dot to dots and other activity pages for the week.  There are several number games to play and we introduced the idea of addition/subtraction at the end of last week so we'll practice that idea some more.  We'll be reviewing consonant sounds by going through magazines and finding pictures that begin with letter sounds we've worked.  We'll cut them out and paste them on the right letter board.  My walls are about to get colorful!

I also have several fine motor skills activities planned.  He'll be using scissors and doing some writing.  We'll be adding to his "Book About Jackson".

Week 9 Round Up

Day #1
Session A-  0    Calender X
Notes:  None

Session B- 45 min
Notes: Numbers Coloring "9" p. 22-23 , Alphabet Coloring "H" & "T" p18-19 and 42-43, Alphabet Animals "T"

Day #2
Session A-  5 min    Calender X
Notes: #1-20 cards

Session B- 60 min
Notes: FSR Book A Lesson 14 p.30-31 photocopy, Numbers Book "8" & "9" pp34-36, Primary Phonics Readers (Al, Ben Bug, Meg, Tim), Nature Reader (T for Turtle and others), Practiced putting #1-10 cards in order

Day #3
Session A- 5 min     Calender X
Notes: Pledge, Vowels

Session B- 60 min
Notes: Numbers Book pp37-39, Alphabet Animals "H", Halloween Craft, #1-10 game (put in order, find the missing #), Primary Phonics books

Day #4
Session A- 5 min   Calender X
Notes: Vowels, Geography

Session B- 60 min
Notes: Numbers book p40-41 (10), READ (preschool) H is for Hello p.85, Lots of read aloud books after a trip to the library

Day #5
Session A- 0     Calender X
Notes: none

Session B- 60 min
Notes: Numbers book p42-43, Number cards game 1-20, Read "Little Blue & Little Yellow" and discussed primary colors, practiced mixing colors with paint to see what happens, art card review, other library books

Learning is actually fun

Each week, we are completing more work than the week before but it has stopped feeling like a mad rush to cram everything in.  We are enjoying each activity and the progress he has made in just 8 weeks has given me confidence in my decision to make things much more informal in terms of the actual curriculum.  I have stopped trying to follow it closely and instead substitute in things that are more fun and reinforce the areas we are working on.

Art is still his favorite, and I am surprised by how well our method of introducing classic art pieces is working.  I tape up the piece for the week on the refrigerator and we talk about the painter.  Then sometime during the week we look at the painting and try to pick out elements to re-create.  He is getting more observant (even if you can't tell by his finished product - watercolor is really hard) each week, noticing more colors and features.  Last week was Mona Lisa.

Excuse my work - I really know nothing about painting

We are also continuing our letter crafts and it is so nice when the craft aligns with something that is happening in real life.  He did the letter P out of order when he pulled his workbook out but that's ok because we just got a pumpkin at the grocery store and he is so excited to carve it.  We painted pumpkins as well. 

He wrote the word "Pumpkin" free hand

We also started working on "A Book About Jackson", an activity recommended by the curriculum but they included it as just a thing to make in 1 afternoon.  I decided to make it more in depth and keep adding to it as the weeks roll by.

He tells me what to write about each topic we touch on and then he traces the words I have written in pencil on the lines.  He pastes the pictures on too.

So far we have added pages about his immediate family, his grandparents, and about where he lives.  I am proud of this page here:

All this really great work aside, he is a lot further from "reading" than I had thought he was.  He just is not ready at all.  It is maddening trying to get him to sound words out.  He knows individual sounds and does really well when we complete pages but he cannot rhyme and he cannot even "hear" what word is being said when he blends the simplest of sounds together.  This is the most frustrating thing about homeschool.  I can't even get him to follow simple instructions on sounding out the words.  Things haven't clicked into place yet and there really isn't anything I can do to move him further along.  He just has to make the connection on his own.  I just hope he makes it soon because sounding the same 15 words out all the time is making me want to rip all my hair out.  The thing making it even harder is how well the kid writes.  The writing normally comes much later but he can copy words out of a book like there is no tomorrow, left to right, in order.  He KNOWS but doesn't know.  Oi.

On we go to week 9, where we are going heavy on the phonics.  After this, I plan to just review for awhile and keep reading the primary phonics books, pointing to each word and having him read a few for himself.  After this week, he'll have worked consonant sounds P-, S-, M-, F-, H-, T-, N-, R-, the vowel -a-, and word endings -at, -am, and -an.  He knows more consonant sounds (for sure B-, J-, L- and D-) but they aren't officially logged yet.

Week 9 also marks the completion of numbers 1-10.  We worked their actual numeric value (counting), writing the number, and writing the word.  From here we'll also spend several weeks in "review" with math exercises that include drawing by numbers, number lines, counting and writing the correct number, and a few other activities.  Then we'll move on to writing numbers 11-20 and basic addition/subtraction exercises.

In recitation, I'll also be adding some different content.  We no longer need the ABC flashcards or numbers 1-10 cards every day (and haven't needed them for awhile).  He knows the full Pledge of Allegience, can recite our geography "We live on the planet Earth.  There are 7 continents.  We live on the continent of North America.  We live in the United States of America.  There are 50 states.  We live in the State of Texas.  Our city is Richmond, our street is xxxx, and our house number is xxxx." 

Week 8 Round Up

Day #1
Session A -  5 min   Calender X
Notes:  #1-20

Session B - 90+ minutes
Notes:  FSR Book A Lesson 21 "P" ALL ON OWN (p 44-45), Alphabet Animals p.32-33 "P", Pumpkin Stamps craft, Numbers Book P.1 p28-29 (7), Mona Lisa painting w/ watercolor, Art Card Review, FSR Book A Lesson 12 p.26, "This is Not A Pumpkin" x3, "Ben Bug" x2, "Al", "Mac & Tab" (reading all while pointing to each word, having him read some words like "man" and "ran"), Puzzle Book, Sea Creatures book

Day #2
Session A - 5 min    Calender X
Notes: Pledge

Session B - 60 min
Notes: FSR Book A Lesson 15 "Hh" started p 32-33 (ALL ON OWN again), Numbers Coloring "7", READ preschool p.50-51 (m,n,o), Primary Phonics (Al, Ben Bug, Meg, Mac&Tab), This is Not a Pumpkin x2, Started a "book about me"

Day #3
Session A - 5 min   Calender X
Notes: Pledge

Session B - 25 min
Notes: FSR Book A Lesson 15 cont'd, Phonics Books (Ben Bug, Al), Nature Reader "H is for Hippo"

Day #4
Session A - 10 min  Calender X
Notes: pledge, geography, ABC song, vowels

Session B - 45 min
Notes: letter sounds with cookie monster (p, f, h), alphabet animals H, book about me (where i live)

Day #5
Session A -5 min   Calender X
Notes: vowels

Session B - 25 min
Notes: FSR Book A Lesson 12 cont'd (p. 27), Scary Stories to Read in the Dark

Hard At Work

During week 7 we did a lot of writing.  My son has adapted so well to sitting down and "working".  I'm impressed.  He can completed whole lessons in a sitting and he really loves that school is his work.  We talk about daddy being hard at work while Jack is hard at work and how impressed he'll be when he comes home and sees everything that we've completed that day.

With all the talk of ADHD diagnoses in classrooms, zero tolerance policies, how little movement children get during the day, and how boys in particular struggle with the requirements of the modern school day, you can imagine how pleased I am to see that my son is completely capable of completing tasks and focusing on this "work".

So after all we have done together to establish a routine and get him to appreciate the value of practice and hard work, he does this amazing thing today:

The Letter P

This is a normal workbook page.  He has done very well with his letter formation here and done a pretty good job by the last line of staying inside the guide lines.  But all that is beside the point.

He got done swimming in the pool, went inside by himself while the rest of us remained outside, got himself completely dressed and came downstairs.  He then got into the school cupboard, pulled out his "First Start Reading" workbook, and began a lesson for himself.  When I came inside to check on him, he was hard at work, head bent over the page, carefully forming the letters with his avengers pencil.  He hardly noticed me so I pretended to need a towel from the bedroom.

When I came back, he announced proudly that he had completed his work all by himself!  And he had.  Not one direction from me.

What is the take away?  So many things.  

One is that our children can be so independent at such a young age when they are in an environment where their confidence can be built and when it is the work itself that is valued most.  I tell him always that it is ok when his letters don't turn out "right", that is why we practice!  

Another thing is that it is so much easier to ask him to sit still when I know all of his other needs have been met.  He'd been playing outdoors all day and had his fill.  He was ready to sit down for a quiet activity.  Maybe there is a way to integrate this into our schedule?  I can definitely make an effort to be more mindful of his physical needs before we sit down.  Now that the temperature outside is finally manageable, we will definitely be outdoors a lot more and I may try moving our "classroom" outside on some days.

This coming week will include less writing and more reading.  I'll be trying to choose simpler books and pointing to each word one at a time.  I'll ask him to pick out words I know we've practiced or that he can easily sound out.  Hopefully this will build his confidence.  When we do reading worksheets and books, he often simply makes up the words, which I'm told is very common this early on.

We'll also be doing more arts and crafts.  These are his favorite things and seem to help make letters and their sounds really stick with him.

I'm never cutting another circle out again.

We're having fun and I'm feeling confident.  This is working *for us* and seeing him learn first hand is very rewarding.

Week 7 Round Up

Day #1
Session A- 10 min           Calender :(
Notes: geography, #1-20 cards
Session B- 60+ min
Notes: numbers coloring book p. 10-15 (#3-5), numbers book part 1 p18-24 (#4 + #5), FSR Book A p.20-21 Lesson 9 (Rr), Sugarland Baptist Playdate (apple stamps, leaf on a popsicle stick)

Day #2
Session A- 10 min           Calender X
Notes: ABC flashcards, Pledge, geography
Session B- 45 min
Notes: The Skeleton Inside You, Christian Liberty Reader (N,R,S), FSR Book A p. 22-23 Lesson 10 photocopy, Numbers Book Part 1 p.22-23 (#5), Alphabet Coloring Ff p.14-15

Day #3 
Session A- 10 min           Calender X
Notes: Pledge, #1-20 cards
Session B- 60 min
Notes: FSR Book A p.24-25 Ff, Fish Craft, Numbers Coloring (6), Blaze & The Forest Fire, Christian Liberty Nature Reader ("F is for Fox and "B is for Beetle")

Day #4
Session A- 10 min          Calender X
Notes: Pledge, geography
Session B- 45 min
Notes: Numbers Book part 1 p26-27 (6 cont'd), FSR Book A p22-23 Lesson 10 in book, "READ" pp28-29, 42-43 (Aa, Bb, Cc, DEF)

Day #5
Session A- 10 min          Calender :(
Notes:  pledge, #1-20, ABC Cards
Session B- 45 min
Notes: Numbers Book Part 1 p30-31 (7 cont'd), READ p32-33 (MNO) & 44-45 (d,e,f), Alphabet animals animals "F", The Mightiest, The Glorious Flight

Curriculum

I got this e-mail from my sister this morning:


Sooo...

Just so you know...

That curriculum I gave you is the exact curriculum that we use for Junior Kindergarten and Kindergarten at our private school. Many of our homeschoolers are finding it too difficult for their children. Having a qualified teacher in a classroom makes a big difference. So Memoria Press is coming out with a homeschool curriculum that covers all the same material, just at a slower pace.

So, I just wanted to let you know that there is no hurry with the curriculum. If he is struggling, you can slow it way down and still be totally okay, especially since he is already younger than those students.

How is homeschooling going?

<3

Yeah.

I could have said that.  Only my kid is actually still 3 so I just assumed it was because he was 3.  It does make me feel better though about the pace we are able to make on it.  We're still kicking butt!

That said, this week was challenging.  This curriculum, and really, classical curriculum in general, is SO. MUCH. WRITING.  It is so easy to get behind, even when we're not doing all the copywork that this program requires.  He is finding it tedious and boring but I think I have finally *forced* us into a routine where he accepts that there is WORK to be done.  I make a big deal out of this WORK being just like daddy's WORK and that daddy will be so proud to know how hard he has worked at it that day.  They can sort of compare at the end of the day.

Why can't I rotate this?  Too tired to find out.  Deal.

Then there is the personality thing.  J makes things up.  A lot.  Combine that with his desire to entertain all the time and you have a guy who is probably capable of reading but barely even glances at the words on the page before making up the whole damn story.  He makes it all up and I just don't even know anymore if he actually knows anything except for the fact that he breezes through the lessons themselves just fine.

So then I re-read my sister's e-mail and carefully repeat the phrase "he's only 3" in my head 10 times fast before reacting to him throwing his pencil on the floor and telling me he "doesn't know" how to read the words on the page that he literally just read 47 seconds earlier.

He's 3.  And he's pretty good for 3, if I may brag about my own for a second.

Rainbow begins with the "R" sound!

He loves the art projects and since we've started to take classic pieces and make our own versions, he's been really excited about that too.  I need to do more of these things that he loves but I find that between getting in the actual work and taking care of both my kids during the day, I'm spent in the evening and if I stay up at all, it isn't with any kind of motivation to do some more work.  Pinterest helps but even the set up is too much some days.

Next steps?

I invested in a deck of sight words ($2.99).  Not really a part of the curriculum but I think it just might save our sanity.  Having a few more than he can recognize by sight may help push him over the edge into reading land and he LOVES being read to and the idea of reading is appealing.  If he starts recognizing more words in print, it may help him stop making up so many of them and actually take a look instead.

Week #6 Round up

Day #1
Session A - 15 min  Calender X
Notes: Pledge, #1-20, geography (add # of states), ABC cards,

Session B - 50 min
Notes: Alphabet Animals "N", A Tree is Nice, The Little Engine That Could, Coloring Book "4", Thanksgiving Story (he'd been asking me about Thanksgiving out of the blue so we read it together)

Day #2
Session A - 10 min  Calender X
Notes: Pledge, Geography, #1-20

Session B -45 min
Notes: Coloring Book "Rr", Rainbow Craft, FSR Lesson 7 photocopy (p16 only, 17 skipped)

Day #3
Session A - 10 min  Calender X
Notes: Pledge, geography w/ states & continents

Session B - 90 min
Notes: FSR Lesson 5 & 6 (p12-15) in book, Numbers Book (p10-12) #2 & 3,  Copybook (p9) "I am Jack. I am three. I ran."), Mac & Tab x3

Day #4
Session A - 10 min  Calender X
Notes: Pledge, Geography

Session B - 60 min
Notes: Numbers book "3" (p14-15), FSR Lesson 7 (p16) in book, rhyming game "an" and "am"

Day #5
Session A - 15 min  Calender X
Notes: Pledge, ABC Cards, #1-20 cards x2

Session B - 45 min
Notes: Numbers Book "4" p16-17, Letter Sounds w/ Cookie Monster (r,s, n), Alphabet Animals R page, Art card review Weeks 1-3

Week #6 Planning

Well, we made it through our week long trip to see "Grammy & G" without too much hassle but we failed to finish the second half of week #5.  This is just fine though, as I had designated every 3rd week as review.  We'll just catch up this week.  We've been moving right along with the curriculum though so if we hadn't had the trip in the middle I might have only needed a day or so of catch up.  This is pleasing, as it means he is doing very well with the lessons and also that our system is working well as a whole.

The big news is that he is actually READING now!  Week #4 was the first week he had enough letters to begin making simple sentences and he seems to *get it*.  We had a lot of fun thinking of anything to read that began with "I am" in front.  I don't want to exaggerate his skills though; he is a long way from getting through even the simplest of books but I'm pretty excited to see him move forward with this and gain competency.

I am thinking that this means I should find or make a deck of sight words for him.  This will help me also as I will likely memorize the deck and remember to have him read those words when we are having story time.

We'll review our art cards this week and we have 2 to recreate.

His letters of the week are finishing up the "N" pages and also the "R" sections.  There is a rainbow craft for R that I am going to do with him.

We are up to the number 4 in "math".  He can easily count 4 out of course but he is learning the symbol for the number and the written word as well.  The books are also starting to include activities like pattern recognition, number lines, and measuring.  I do think that the 1 number per week is too easy for him at least through 10 and probably more so we may accelerate there so we can move on to simple addition and subtraction.

Weeks 4 & 5 Round up

WEEK #4

Day 1
Session A - 15 min  Calender X
Notes: Pledge, ABC cards, geography

Session B- 45 min
Notes: Alphabet coloring book "Ss", Numbers book p8-9 ("2"), Birthday card for Grammy (tracing "happy birthday" and "jackson loves grammy"), CL Nature Reader "S", Babbit

Day 2
Session A - 15 min  Calender X
Notes: Pledge, New numbers flashcards (1-20, with number and word)

Session B- 90+ min
Notes: Art card review + new one, FSR Lesson #4 (S), FSR Lesson 3 (in book), Dinosaurs Before Dark (MT#1)

Day 3
Session A - 10 min  Calender :(
Notes: Pledge, #1-20 flashcards
Session B-
Notes:  Traveling

Day 4
Session A - 10 min  Calender X
Notes: geography, pledge, abc cards

Session B- 25 min
Notes: Numbers coloring "3" page, "I am" writing, "S" writing, Sheila Rae the Brave

Day 5
Session A - 10 min  Calender X
Notes: Pledge, #1-20 cards (12/20)

Session B- 35 min
Notes: Numbers book "3" (p12-13) photocopy, FSR lesson 5 photocopy, Owl Moon, Rumpelstiltzken

Day 5.5
Notes: Pledge, Letters Review (wipe off book A, M, S)


WEEK #5

Day #1
Session A - 10 min  Calender X
Notes: Pledge

Session B - 35 min
Notes: Numbers book p14-15, Writing "I am three", Alphabet coloring p30-31 (Nn) - Photocopies

Day #2
Session A - 5 min  Calender :(
Notes: Pledge

Session B - 15 min
Notes: FSR Lesson 6 p14-15 (Nn) Photocopy

Day #3-5
OFF - travel and recovery. some reading, some letters in the wipe off book

Pressure off

This week was so much more relaxed and by the end of the week, my son and I both liked each other a lot more than in previous weeks.  It is a good sign that I was pushing him too much and frustrating both of us.

We had fun with the new approach to the art cards in which we tried to recreate the painting.  This way allowed us to focus on the painting in detail and still have fun with it.  I was concerned in subsequent weeks about the paintings being too complicated for us but a friend of mine suggested just choosing an element to copy and I think that is a fantastic idea!

Here is some of our work for the week:

There hasn't been enough writing for my liking but this is one of our biggest pressure points.  He doesn't want to.  It isn't fun and making him do it just sucks out any desire he has to do it correctly.  I don't know now whether he can't write some things properly or whether he just chooses not to.  I think it is mostly the latter but I can't be sure.  I'm still brainstorming on this.

The phonics lesson went "ok" but that is all.  I'm on the fence.  We'll hit it again in the morning as well as the letter "S" this week.

We are traveling beginning Wednesday so I'm hoping to do anything that requires home supplies in the first part of the week.  He can practice writing anywhere.  I'll bring along a workbook or two and the flashcards.

And a bonus picture of the kiddo trying on hipster glasses. :P

Week 3 Round Up

Day #1
Session A -10 min  Calender X
Notes: Pledge, ABC Cards 24/26

Session B - 45 min
Notes: Numbers Book (finished the "1" page), FSR lesson 3 photocopy, Colored an American Flag print out

Day #2
Session A -5 min Calender X
Notes: Pledge

Session B - 30 min
Notes: Letter M Page (cookie monster book), M is for Mitten Page, Reading - Gingerbread Man, David Gets in Trouble, Christian Liberty Nature Reader, A New Home for a Pirate

Day #3
Session A -10 min Calender X
Notes: Pledge, Numbers 1-10 cards (10/10  - Need to add the next 10)

Session B - 30 min
Notes: "Birch Forest" - we used watercolors to try to recreate the painting, "Black Beauty" (simple), flower craft, "A Tree is Nice"

Day #4
Session A - 10 min Calender x
Notes: Pledge

Session B - 35 min
Notes: Babbit, Keeping Safe, "Still Life with Apples" - we used watercolors to try to recreate the painting, The Mightiest

Day #5
Session A- 5 min Calender X
Notes: Pledge

Session B - Hours!
Notes: Brazos Bend State Park (hike and nature center), Drawing & Writing his and O's name, Numbers Coloring Book "2" page

Day #5.5
Notes: Preschooler Workbook first 25 pages

Week 3 Planning

I'm finding a little groove here but I think that the kindergarten curriculum is moving too fast for us now.  So week 3 is going to be a blend of things from the first 2 weeks that we were unable to complete on time.  I think that this may be the case every few weeks, so I'll just plan that in.  Every 3rd week will be review and covering items we didn't get to.  This feels like such a relief because now I feel I have so much more time to cover the things in the curriculum without forcing him to sit down longer than what he is really able to.

So this week will bring a little writing practice.  We'll try to focus on writing his name left to right a bit more consistently.  We'll also be doing his first phonics lesson ("am") and his ability to absorb that will probably determine our pace for the rest of the year.  I have some fun ideas for "am" and I'm excited to try them out.

I will also try to integrate the 2 art cards this week and I'm going to have access to the recommended read-alouds this week as well.  There is also room in our schedule for counting practice.

I'd like to re-visit the geography portion of our lessons a bit more and discuss other continents and countries, not just our own.  We've already talked about our country and the flag, maybe this would be a good opportunity to take a look at some flags from other countries.  Maybe then he'd like to create his own?

Hopefully I'll get to taking some more pictures of what we're doing day to day because pictures are always nice to break up a wall of text and I want to show off our projects as well!  Until then, remember I also update our goodreads page and I try to keep an active pinterest as well.

Wish me luck this week!

Week 2 Round Up

Day 1
Session A - 15 min  Calender X
Notes: geography (planet, continent, country, state, city, street), introduced pledge, ABC Cards 24/26

Session B - 90+ min
Notes: Magic Treehouse #5 (Night of the Ninjas), looked up Japan in the encyclopedia, Alphabet coloring "A", Numbers Coloring "2", Babbit


Day 2
Session A - 15 min Calender X
Notes: Geography, Pledge, Numbers 1-10 (8-9 / 10)

Session B - 20 min
Notes: "A" is for Alligator (Nature Reader), Alphabet Animals "A" page

Day 3
Session A - 15 min Calender X
Notes: Pledge, ABC Cards

Session B - 45 min
Notes: Numbers book "1", Treasury of Curious George (2 stories), Beading craft, Apple craft

Day 4
Session A - 10 min Calender X
Notes: Geography, Pledge

Session B - 25 min
Notes: "In A Dark Dark Room & Other Scary Stories", FSR Lesson 2 ("A), Star Spangled Banner, Discussed the flag of the USA

Day 5
Session A - 5 min Calender X
Notes: Pledge

Session B - 120 min
Notes: Children's Museum! We met SuperWhy!

He was shy at the last second! 

Week 1 Round-Up

My school notes for the week -

Day #1
     Session A - 10 min.   Calender X
          Notes: ABC cards 25/26, Numbers 1-10 cards 6/10
   
     Session B - 25 min.
          Notes: Coloring Book "M" page, Numbers Book "Zero" page, Most Loved Monster

Day #2
      Missed completely.  Tooth pain that had me laying on the couch wishing for death and I had to make a trip to the dentist.

Day #3
     Session A - 10 min.   Calender X
          Notes: ABC cards 24/26, Numbers 1-10 cards 8/10
   
     Session B - 25 min.
          Notes: Alphabet Animals "M" page, Coloring Book "1" page, Nature Reader "M is for Manatee",
                     Drawing time (he drew a house)

Day #4
     Session A - 10 min.   Calender X
          Notes: ABC cards 25/26, Numbers 1-10 cards 9/10
   
     Session B - 35 min.
          Notes: FSR Book A Lesson 1, Lots of reading (Babbit, The Tiger Who Came to Tea, The
                     Nutcracker, The Wizard of Oz)

Day #5
     Session A - 10 min.   Calender X
          Notes: ABC cards 24/26, Numbers 1-10 cards 9/10, Vowels
   
     Session B - 40 min.
          Notes: Numbers book "Zero", Wipe off ABC's "M" page, Reading (How the Grinch Stole                           Christmas), Construction paper, glue, scissors project, Practiced writing his first name

Day #6 (Make-up)
     Session A - 10 min.   Calender X
          Notes: ABC cards 25/26, Vowels
   
     Session B - 20 min
          Notes: Just drawing.  He drew a pretty wonderful shark.  Daddy accidentally threw it away : (

-------

Overall observations:

• ABC flashcards are getting boring and he keeps missing the same 1 letter every time.  I also need to separate them into uppercase and lowercase so that he does them separately.  Currently he says "Big Letter, Little Letter" on each one but I'm not sure how many he would recognize independently.  He *knows* his letters so he is losing focus on it.  Time to move on to a new challenge.
• He improved a lot very quickly on recognizing the written numbers.
• He is not interested in the art cards at all.  We spent maybe 2 minutes on this all week.  I need a new strategy for art stuff.  Maybe we try to recreate the pictures on our own?  I'll be brainstorming.
• This was a really hard week for me.  I dealt with a lot of other things that were not *school* and we still did most of what we were meant to do.  I feel I could do better with making things more fun for him.
• Lots of other things he did this week are not recorded because it was a lot of free play time.  Not sure how I capture this in logs because he is learning, it just isn't structured and often doesn't involve me in any way.  He spent almost 2 hours with play-dough one afternoon with friends, for example.

And now I lesson plan for next week!

Unexpected Lessons

I have already discussed positive reinforcement in my home and my gold ticket system.  I've been using the tickets now for just over a week and I have to say that I'm unexpectedly pleased with the results, but not for the reasons that I began this system in the first place.

I wanted to reinforce good behaviors in an effort to curb all those "bad" behaviors that were trying my patience.  All those behaviors that most 3.5 year olds display every now and again but wear on us even if they are normal (does anyone notice that it never matters what our children do, it is still considered some variation of normal?).  Has it helped?  To be honest, I'm not really sure.  But something even better has happened.

I started to notice all the great things about my son.  Don't get me wrong, I have always thought that he was a pretty cool kid but when you're in the midst of the 3rd tantrum of the day over how the crust on the bottom of the pizza looks, it is difficult to keep things in perspective.  Handing out these tickets gave me a reason to be on the look-out for things he does right and he does a whole lot of awesome stuff as it turns out.

He's really good at playing with his sister, for example.  I always get hung up on him putting his hands on her and running and jumping around her too much because I'm afraid he will hurt her but all week long, I kept noticing how he made her laugh and played chase with her and let me know if she was about to put something in her mouth that she shouldn't.

One more fabulous thing about my child is that he likes cleaning up.  If I ask him to pick up his toy room, he does it.  By himself.  Until every single toy is picked up off the floor and put into the toybox.  Most days, that's more than I can say for my husband (sorry T - it doesn't count as cleaning the kitchen if there are still dishes in the sink :P ).  He even sings his own little pick up, clean up song to himself.  Not only is he cleaning, but he is cheerfully doing so.  I definitely don't sound cheery while I'm cleaning.

There is something else totally unexpected happening here too.  After about day 4, my son started awarding ME gold tickets out of his own pile.  I cut him up an apple and he awarded me a ticket, saying, "Mom, thank you for getting me a snack.  I appreciate it.  Here, you earned a gold ticket!"  I've also earned a ticket for taking care of his sister and for helping him get dressed.  Can you believe it?  I have my kid appreciating me for doing things for him.  He is so sincere and doesn't mind at all that he has fewer tickets at the end of each day, which is just crazy.  The rewards don't matter to him.  He only wants to have a pile of gold tickets to remind him that I think he's done well at something and to hand out to his mom and dad at his discretion.

This has all turned out to be a nice little exercise in appreciating one another in spite of all our flaws.  I'm so happy that he loved being recognized so much that he modeled it back to me exactly to show me how nice it feels.

Week 1 Planning

Week 1 begins tomorrow.  I'm going over the core curriculum lessons plans as I write.

Recitation this week will be ABC's, numbers 1-10, and I'm going to add knowing which letters are vowels. We will note the month/day of the week/day each morning and discuss the weather and anything we have planned for the day.

Lesson 1 Phonics is the letter Mm.  We will work with this letter all week.  We'll read "M is for Manatee" in our Nature Reader.  Each week includes a music selection and a painting selection.  I'll play the song while we're doing things during the week and I'll probably tape the painting up somewhere prominent and we'll return to it for a moment each day.  My notebook will probably have just a check mark each day for touching on the music/art at least 1 time.

I'll be skipping the read-aloud book this week and return to it later.  I've got books from the library that we can integrate in.  I also have a book called "Most Loved Monster" and all the monster names begin with the letter "M".  I will do the poem selection for the week.

For math, we'll just practice writing and spelling the number 1.

Finally for what the curriculum calls "copybook", we'll just work on his first and last name.  This is just to help improve fine motors / penmanship.  It can also help with memorization.  This is one place where the curriculum will quickly become too advanced for him I think.  He isn't ready for the amount of writing that kindergarten will require.

Crafts will include drawing ("Me" and/or "Mommy") and possibly a poster with "M" pictures glued to it (cuttings from a magazine?).

Week 0 Round Up

I made it to the end of my practice week.  We did...ok.  He did his recitations and the calender every morning.  This week his recitations were simply his alphabet flash cards and numbers 1-10 flashcards.  I kept a notebook log of this.  The PM sessions were a bit tougher.  We put in the actual *time* but most of it was in 2 days instead of 5.  There is just so much to squeeze in naptime and I was otherwise engaged during it 3 days this week.

I did realize a few things though:

1. Kids are a lot more self-reliant than we give them credit for.  He did really well this week when given a task to complete.  Friday morning, he even went through his flashcards by himself from beginning to end.
2. I need to relax.  All this organizing and planning and wanting awesome things to happen is resulting in anxiety that I am passing on to kiddo.  No bueno.  Part of this homeschooling thing is letting them direct their learning and trusting that they will learn in their own good time as long as you keep giving them opportunities.  And...he's 3.  Only 3.
3. Planning lessons can be so much work.  For the PM sessions I don't know that I had any coherent plan.  We read.  He practiced some writing.  He painted and cut and glued.  Themes and more detailed crafts will need more prep.

We also made a big effort to get out of the house this week.  We went to the Japanese Garden in downtown Houston on Tuesday and the Matagorda Nature Park (Beach) on Wednesday.  These were both nice activities and the children really enjoyed the beach in particular.

Another topic that I stumbled upon this week is "bullying" and/or managing conflict with his friends.  I found a book at the library called "The Little Bully" and I am really glad that I decided to check it out.  Its a very simple book but it was such a nice way to talk about how our friends don't always treat us nicely but that the reason why usually has nothing to do with you but more to do with them.  In the book, the main character has an opportunity to be mean to the bully back, but he chooses not to.  I like that too.  Its something that I think parents should discuss with their children.  Rarely can someone be labelled a bully in such black and white terms and often children take turns wearing that hat.  I like the idea of teaching them to see past unkind words and actions and find the real reasons for them.

Gold Tickets

Ok, so I made these yesterday:

I totally sang "I've got a golden ticket" over and over again

Yeah, I'm not an artist.  Sorry.

I could not find laminating paper in any of my normal haunts so I am without it until I go shopping next.  The tickets are made from 3 pieces of yellow construction paper, gold foil stars, and I painted the "1" on with black paint and a stencil.  Easy peasy and I didn't have to buy a single thing.

I also made the reward chart so he knew what his tickets were worth.  For this I bought one sheet of large poster paper in the color of his choice.  It was $1.19.

I don't know why but I feel the need to explain why I chose these particular rewards.  The candy would be 1 small piece and I make the smallest ice cream servings ever, lol!  We would rent a movie on amazon on demand not go to the theater (I don't know how I would ever do that with the baby in tow anyway).  We have an annual zoo pass and children's museum pass so there is no extra cost associated in that for me.  So the only thing that really costs any money would be buying him a book or small toy but I don't see him saving his tickets that long anyway.  He was pretty eager to "spend" his 3 today.

I'm not 100% happy with the reward chart.  He can't read yet so I am not pleased that I wrote them instead of using pictures but I don't draw well enough to get my point across and I hadn't the time to find another way to convey what the rewards were.  I may re-make it when I have some more time.  I am thinking cutting out pictures from magazines or printing out some clip art from the computer (but I need ink for the printer, ugh).

We used this system for the whole day today with mixed results.  He is still getting the hang of the whole thing but he was very motivated to earn the tickets and beyond ecstatic when he was awarded one.  I let him earn 1 before bed last night and he earned 2 tickets today for a total of 3 in about 24 hours.

At the end of the day, he opted to spend them on an icecream.  At first though, he was thinking they were like real money and the darling child wanted to use one ticket for an ice cream for himself, one ticket for an ice cream for his sister, and then use the third ticket to buy a beer for his daddy.  Yep, a beer.  He knows his father well.  I melted a little knowing that he was willing to share his "money" so easily.  I almost gave him another ticket just for that.

Stay tuned, I'm doing my trial week still and will post on that and I need to work out how I feel about some other aspects of homeschooling.  I also want to do a cost estimate thus far.

Positive Reinforcement

It is good, right?  We all know that.  Animals love it.  So do people.  And it is really fantastic because nobody has to be the bad guy.  That's my favorite part.  I do my best with it, I really do.  I make sure to mention how well he has done at sharing with his sister or sitting at the table properly or getting himself ready to leave and thank him for those things well done.  I could do so much better though and I've been thinking a lot about it since I decided to inject a little structure to our learning this year because, well, what happens when he doesn't want to do something in the curriculum?  Plus, I think some days all I do is put him in time out and that just makes a bad day for everyone.  Isn't there something better?

As it turns out, teachers have some really great classroom management ideas that I *think* can be crossed over into the parenting world.  Some teachers use the system where you get some sort of marker to indicate whether you are behaving well or poorly.  You "earn" your way up to the higher bits of the chart with good behavior and your marker can be demoted for poor behavior.  I've heard that this works quite well and I recall it being used when my sisters were in kindergarten. (I honestly have no earthly idea what happened in my kindergarten.  Maybe I've blocked it out?)

But the system I liked better came from A Teeny Tiny Teacher, whose blog I mentioned on the last post. She uses a sort of "gold ticket" system for positive reinforcement and I fell in love for a few reasons.

1. It gives you the ability to separate dealing with poor behavior from rewarding good behavior.  Kids are given gold tickets when they are caught doing something we want to reinforce.  You don't need to take them away for bad behavior if you don't want to.  Use something else.  This way you can demonstrate the idea that making a mistake doesn't invalidate all the nice things you've done and that they are still good kids even when they have fallen short of our (and their) expectations.
2. This can be a great way to practice counting, addition, and subtraction. I plan to put up a reward chart.  Different rewards are worth different numbers of tickets.  He can count up how many he has, figure out how many he still needs to earn the reward he wants, and count how many he has left when he turns them in.
3. Finally, I love giving out "prizes".  I am in the drivers seat here.  The prizes are completely up to me and maybe I can even change them week to week or month to month.  He could earn an extra trip to the park, an ice cream treat, or maybe a new movie from amazon on demand.  Maybe I could slip in a cheap toy he's been eyeing or a book we've checked out multiple times from the library.

So.  Tomorrow I'm off to the store for several last minute items.  I'll need laminating stuff for the gold tickets and some poster paper for reward charts.  I still need a world map.  I'd also like to use some poster paper for "house rules" though I'd rather that be printed out on something nice.  I'm thinking that I may need to adjust as I go though so I'll settle for handwritten for now.

I'm also starting a trial of our schedule this week to see how it goes.  Wish me luck!

A Schedule is for Mom Too

I'm terribly forgetful.  If I didn't have my smartphone with the calender app I don't think I'd show up anywhere I was supposed to be.  I have to be really really diligent about putting things in it but once I made it a habit, it seriously changed my life.  Adding a structured homeschool program, even just pre-k, puts a serious kink in my routine, or lack thereof.  It does take away some time I have to do all the bajillion other things that compete for my attention including, oh yeah, a whole other person who needs me and I do not function well when I fall behind on cleaning or laundry.  I get grouchy.

Cleaning. Ugh.  There are not enough hours in the day for this and I do not like clutter or mess at all.  So for the first time in my life, I'm going to hire a house cleaner.  The idea would be for this person to come every 2 weeks and hit a few things really hard so that I can be in maintain mode rather than omgnastythisneedscleanedinstantly mode.  That latter mode is awful and makes me feel like I suck at keeping house, which I am not really awesome at but who likes to be reminded?  I say this after spending hours today scrubbing things which should have been scrubbed a long time ago.  Woops.

I'll write myself a schedule and probably print it out and put it in the kitchen somewhere.  I haven't decided whether I really need it in my calender app.  We shall see.  It will be something like this:

Daily (M-F) : AM School Stuff (calender, recitations) 10-15 minutes, PM School Stuff (45 min- 1 hr), Sweep tile and hardwood floors (kitchen/main living areas mostly), Dishes, Wipe down kitchen countertops & table, 1-2 loads laundry

Monday : Vacuum carpets
Tuesday :  Toilets & Sinks
Wednesday : Library story time 11:15, dust
Thursday: Mop tile & hardwoods, Music 6pm
Friday-Sunday: Planning for following week lessons, misc cleaning & laundry

Right now he is also in swim lessons but that ends this Saturday.  I am looking into gymnastics so that will probably replace it for the fall/winter.  That will be 1-2x per week depending on cost and if they have open gym times.

I have my notebook ready to note what we cover in each lesson and how much time we spent on it.  I like the idea of focusing on the time we worked rather than his performance on any particular topic.  If there is anything I've learned about parenting, its that things click with kids on their own time and getting frustrated that they aren't mastering a topic is such a waste of time and energy.  He'll get it.  I just need to trust that he will and keep introducing him to things and eventually circling around and returning to them again.

The only thing I am really nervous about right now time-wise is giving the baby all the attention she needs from me.  I am trying to remember that even though she isn't talking or walking, I need to be engaged in play with her and talking TO her as much as possible.  As long as I am mindful of it, I think I do ok.  I do feel guilty that she just won't have the 1 on 1 that my son had but she does have a really cool older brother that she can follow around.  I hope he will challenge her by having her play on his level as she grows.

This post is just everywhere.  I'm sorry.

Still on the agenda: Chore chart & House rules. Also would like to make a master list of major themes that I want to integrate throughout the year somehow (like our last few weeks on Ancient Egypt).  And I'll do a trial run starting next Monday of my schedule!

Teachers are Awesome

No, really.  Teachers are the best.  I've done all this moaning (mostly to my husband) about how school can't do this or that but you know what?  Teachers are just as frustrated sometimes.  A lot of times their hands are tied.  A lot of times they have too many kids in their classrooms.  Not enough supplies.  And definitely not enough parents who give a damn.

I have so many fond memories of my teachers and now I simply marvel at their patience and dedication.  And organization.  A lot of organization.  As I've waded into this whole school idea for myself, I've begun stumbling upon blogs of these teachers that not only keep their classrooms organized but have done us the invaluable service of sharing exactly how they do it.  I've already stolen several ideas from A Teeny Tiny Teacher as I clicked around last night and I'm so excited now to find out what other wonderful things our teachers are doing with their kids.

I felt a little ashamed of myself too.  All these people working so hard to educate our youth and here I am talking about keep my son at home because it just isn't good enough?  And then I get to just pinterest ideas and replace you?  First world problems anyone?

But teachers, that's not the message I wanted to send at all!  First of all, there is no replacing you.  I can't do it.  If you had the time with just my son that I did, you'd run circles around me.  He'd be ready for high school by now, I think.  And second, if I could change the system to better enable you to do your job, I would.  Most of my beef is with the institution itself, not with the ground troops!  And ultimately, it would be my honor to work with you if/when my children do attend public school.

That's all I have for today.  I've got to get down to business again tomorrow with a few more nuts and bolts of this thing as the clock ticks down but I wanted to let my teacher friends know that I still give them all my love.

A Desk Free Classroom

I remember being so excited about field trips as a kid.  The zoo or the science museum or to the fire station.  Now I watch the teachers and parent volunteers try to guide 15 kids through something like that in a few hours and I just feel exhausted.  The kids don't get to linger on the things that interest them most and the teachers and parents look around wild eyed to make sure they haven't lost a member of their crew.

Yet there they are, trying to squeeze in any measure of hands on learning they can.  We know that experiential learning is such a valuable thing to have in the arsenal of teaching tools but one of the hardest things to inject into a classroom.

I don't think we'll have that issue at home.  I found online that the Miller Outdoor Theater in Houston was having free children's shows all week.  Today there was a showing of Mulan and I hauled the kids downtown to see it.  My son complained that he wanted to go to the Dinosaur Museum instead (Houston Museum of Natural Science) but I convinced him to stick it out and he had a good enough time that he wanted to thank Mulan afterwards. 

The show begins!

Thanks Mulan!

After the show, we walked across the street to the Science museum to see the most amazing collection of fossils I have ever seen.  They also have this beautiful permanent exhibit of Ancient Egyptian artifacts, including lots of painted coffins, several sarcophagus displays, and 3 real mummies.  This exhibit worked out really nicely with our Magic Tree House Book #4 last week where the children traveled to a pyramid and our follow up nonfiction books including Mummies, Pharoahs, and Pyramids (in our goodreads reviews).  He remembered more things than I thought he would and he had a great time "deciphering" the hieroglyphs on the walls, observing the canopic jars, and getting up close to the mummies.  I was pleased he noticed the scarab beetle as a reoccuring theme and we began pointing them out each time we saw one.  We decided that the beetle must be an important symbol in their culture and we'll look it up when we get a chance.

Outside the museum, a volunteer from the butterfly exhibit was outside with a large iguana.  We touched him and watched him eat apple slices.

Iguana

And it isn't as though these are isolated events.  Over the weekend, my husband took him to the Children's Museum of Houston and as a family, we had a really lovely visit to the Houston Arboretum on Sunday.  We are so lucky to live in a city with so much to experience and the ability to make it happen.  You can practical see the wheels turning in his head piecing things from books, idle conversation, and playtime all together.  

Of course we can't make every week as eventful as this one but we certainly have the freedom to do a lot more than a classroom model.

Day -13

Today was a good day.  It was a day without TV or tantrums.  Any day like that is a win in my book.  I am such a better mother when I've had enough sleep and there are no major meltdowns.  The children get more smiles and giggles, better things to eat, and more "yes" than "not now".  Too bad they don't see it quite like that.

Anyway, I want to step back from school things for tonight because as the blog title suggests, I'm in the weeds on this.  Hyper-focused, maybe.  Ask my husband.  So today I'm just going to remind myself of all the good things about staying at home with my kids and all the great things about having time to enjoy a little life with them.  The days without worry and work and endless chores and illness and finances and milestones and discipline.  Just being us.

Our day:
My daughter wakes first, nursing herself awake in the early morning light.  I hear my husband leave and I share smiles and giggles with the baby before I get up for coffee.  We are playing in her room when I hear my son's heavy feet on the stairs (how is 30 pounds so noisy?) and he sleepily greets his sister with a half grin and kiss.  She returns the smile.  We talk about the day.  There will be friends over to swim and we'll have to pick up the house before they arrive.  We'll still have time to read stories.  But first we'll need to visit the grocery store to get food for the week!

They both ride in the cart but he wants to hop out and help me choose when we arrive in the produce department.  He carefully selects as much sweet corn as I'm willing to shuck for him, a sweet red pepper, and handfuls of green beans.  Grapes and bananas are thrown in.  He wants some butternut squash too but they are out of season now and not as good.

He helps me unload the groceries and he picks up his toys and things around the house.  I find everything tucked into his toy box, whether it goes there or not and decide against fixing it.  He's so proud of himself.  The baby is down for a nap so we read 2 or 3 books.

When friends arrive there are NO fights and the moms are left to play with the babies.

There is swimming and lunch and more playing.  Pretend cookies are baked and eaten.  Evil wizards are vanquished.  Then we are invited to swim again at the waterpark and we do.  When we get home there is laundry to do and dinner to make but no problem, mom, we'll play nicely together.

Dinner is served and all he wants to eat is sweet corn.  There are worse things.  We finish dinner and the little girl has banana in her hair so we all take a bath.  A bubble bath.  More smiles and giggles when Daddy gets home and then I have time for dishes and more laundry and at long last, time in bed to sort photos and videos and write something.

On days like today, I think I could manage a lot more children.  I suddenly remember why we do it all.  These days are few, it seems, but you don't need many of them to get by.  Maybe these kids will turn out ok after all.

Socializing v. Socialization

Socialization is the number one reason that parents with means have cited to me for putting their young children in a daycare or school environment and the number one concern when I discuss with others the possibility of homeschooling my child (or theirs) long term.  It is certainly a very critical element of a child's early education and I don't want to dismiss its importance.  However, I would like to explore the difference between socializing and socialization, which I believe are different concepts and may relieve the pressure to thrust a child into school before he/she is ready.

Definitions vary but generally speaking, socialization is the continuous process by which humans acquire their personal identity and assimilate the norms, values, and behaviors appropriate to one's social status.  This process begins in infancy and continues through adulthood.  Early on, the most influential agents are the family and primary caregivers.  As children grow and become more independent, peers and other outside influences become stronger, peeking in adolescence and then waning in importance as a young adult's sense of personal identity strengthens and solidifies.

Socializing, on the other hand, is just a single piece of the total socialization puzzle.  This is what we're talking about when we organize play dates, put our children in sports, and when we enroll them in early education programs where they will have chances to play and interact with other children.  Yet when I hear parents talk about giving children the opportunity to be around other children, they seem to use the concept of socializing and socialization interchangeably.  I want to make two points very clear.  First, putting your child around other children in the absence of any other ingredients produces a well socialized child in of itself about as well as putting flour in a mixing bowl and expecting it to turn into a cake does.  Second, your importance as a parent in the role of socialization is not secondary to the role of peers or educators.  Regardless of mode, you are the mold by which all other events will be assimilated into the whole picture.

Let me say it again: YOU are the most important part of your child's assimilation into society even if your only message to them is your lack of presence or participation in it.

So, now that we've established that by considering socialization for our children, we are mostly considering the socializing of children with each other but not the whole shooting match, let's discuss that.  In my view, the daycare or classroom model where 10-20 children are regularly put in front of a single caregiver is not the only way nor oftentimes the best way for kids to interact with one another.  How many times have we asked ourselves after hearing about a severe bullying incident, "Where was the teacher?"  My own mother asked me this many times when I'd relay school events to her at the end of the day.  I'd usually just shrug.  Where WAS the teacher?  Or even worse, the teacher IS told and the response to the child is "Don't be a tattletale".  Truth be told, teachers don't have time to deal with the natural outcroppings of the interaction of 20 relatively socially inexperienced children nor are they primarily concerned with it.  We're so worried about children having early social experiences that we haven't stopped to analyze whether those experiences are good or bad for their overall socialization.  The regular barrage of forced social interaction by children in school seems like a perfect way for normal children to feel as if they are actually introverted or unable to solidify friendships and I blame lack of guidance and importance placed on the quality of interaction v. the quantity of interaction.

If we're going for a "let them figure it out themselves" model of peer socialization, why mix academics in it at all?  Let playground rules reign supreme on the playground and let them learn their lessons in peace.  This amounts to the modern day homeschooling student.  The student spends a few hours a day on the curriculum and the rest is filled with other activities of the parent's and child's choosing.  In today's world, it is easier than ever to provide opportunities for socializing through social media and various clubs and activities.  Here, we can easily control the quality v. quantity.

My son is only 3.5, but we are already overwhelmed by the number of activities there are for him to participate in.  Most are wonderful ways for him to interact with another adult (teachers and coaches) and for him to meet other children.  He's had no lack of peer experience these 3 years.  He's done swimming lessons, kindermusik, Little Gym, art classes, and soccer for formal activities and had hundreds of mommy organized play dates and impromptu neighborhood play times.  He finds children to play with at the zoo and the children's museum and at the fast food restaurant playland.  My son is notorious for butting in on parent/child reading time at the library by plopping himself down next to an interesting pair and listening in.  And as I've mentioned before, people seem confused when I disclose that he has never been to daycare or preschool.  I am social, therefore my child is social.  Put like that, it makes perfect sense, does it not?

But what if you are not social?  What if your child isn't social?  First, let me assume that you are a functioning and happy adult.  If you are, why the need to feel bad for not wanting a lot of out of the home socializing?  The same goes for your child.  If he/she is introverted, will placing them in situations where they are required to be social change their innate preference to play by themselves or with 1 or 2 friends?  If they aren't behind with language development or manners when they do interact with others, what are you worried about?

What we're really hoping for our children is the ability to make solid and rewarding friendships with good people and to react appropriately to social situations.  I believe that the chances to make good friends are not increased by exposure to children alone nor do I believe that we should downplay our importance as parents in helping our children become socially aware.

Lots of homeschoolers have written on this very issue.  Please check out my (still in progress) homeschooling links page for some links to articles on homeschool and socialization.

Finally, I just want to reassure anyone who has chosen to put their children in daycare or school for the social interactions, I am SO with you.  It IS important to have them around other kids at times.  And if you are there at the end of the day to help them interpret those interactions, great!  If it gives you the time you need to work or just recharge your batteries, great!  I'm so supportive of all the choices we make in doing the best things for our own family situation.  I'm no psychologist and I certainly don't judge.  These are my swirling around my crazy head thoughts only; take them for what you will.

Day -17

When I was a kid, homework was always done around the kitchen table.  Mom could cook dinner there after we got home from school but still be nearby if we had questions or strayed from our purpose.  It seems a natural place for schoolwork since it is large enough for books and paper both and also for extra chairs and people.  Kitchen tables are a place of collaboration and family, where we all gather around for meals and chatter.  I think it is the perfect place for us to work.

I knew that the kitchen would end up as our work station but I was caught up in not wanting all the school supply clutter in it.  I also wanted a place where most things could be easily available to my son so that he could get supplies out on his own.  The solution thus far was cleaning out some cupboards next to our dishwasher and using it as a supply center.  Isn't it amazing how there are never empty places in the kitchen but we can always find room for more?  The space was poorly used and already had a myriad of child-centered things floating in it so it made sense to organize there first.

Oh my messy! And hello baby :)

Finished!

On the upper left I've got any child friendly writing / coloring utensils I trust him with (crayons, pencils, washable markers).  The bottom left is our play-dough supply center with a tub underneath that collects toilet paper rolls, baby food jars, egg cartons, or anything else that might be handy for a craft.  I've also got beads, stickers, paper, and glue sticks in there.  The silver case is contains all the painting supplies and it locks with a key (from the beauty section of target!).  And of course we have all of our curriculum inside as well, from workbooks to flashcards.  My daughter is still in the "out of sight, out of mind" stage, so I haven't worried yet about her getting in here.

I love the wooden crates that melissa & doug toys come in.  They make handy trays for little hands to grab out all the materials for play / work at once.  This is a little bit montessori style, as I hope that he will be able to get his supplies in and out of this area on his own.  He will be responsible for returning the things to the proper place when he is done.

I also found a super cheap planner that I will use for calender work and marking the weather.

I've written in his weekly activities in pencil for July and will continue throughout the school year.  I've located some weather stickers on Amazon but I want to see if I can purchase them locally first.

More to come!  I've had several private messages in the last few days discussing the very same things that I am struggling through right now.  I'd like to elaborate on topics such as socialization, getting some "me time" and the worry that we are creating a situation where our children will never be challenged by public school if we put them ahead right now.