Homeschooling moments

Education doesn't just start in the formal school age years - it's something that is ongoing from birth. Or at least that is my philosophy. Our decision to homeschool wasn't something that came easily or without much heated discussion at times. However now that we're all on the same page - the only burden that remains is choosing which curriculum we're going to use next year. 

Until then I'm just improvising with little lessons for both of them. We've been working hard on phonics and sight words and I'm ecstatic to say that Maddie is reading simple sentences! I bought her these little books (similar to BOB books) at Toy Magic and last night we sat down and she read them both to me with very little help. I'm so proud of her!

I took these pictures a few weeks ago - Maddie was asking about the number 100 so we counted out 10 groups of 10 beans and counted by 10's and 1's all the way to 100. She also practiced writing her numbers. 

Who says homeschooling has to happen at a certain time of day or for a certain amount of time? I took these pictures one night last week. Wyatt took a late nap that day and was wired still by later in the evening. I think I was cleaning the kitchen and turned around to see that he'd dragged his chair and the little folding table into the kitchen. He was sitting there looking so cute - and then he said - "I want to do school!"

Even at 10 p.m. I was thrilled that he wanted to learn! I bought him a Do a Dot activity book called Play and Learn at Toy Magic in FWB and this was the perfect opportunity to do it without Maddie wanting to do it, too.

I haven't worked with him much honestly - but he's definitely learning from his sister! He can count to 10 and knows many of the numbers to 20, just not in the right order. We're just starting letter names and sounds and I'm going to do them phonetically instead of the straight names.

I had to make him stop after doing six letters - he would have kept going I think! It was late and I was tired! We'll work on writing letters some other time. I don't think he's ready just yet.

So hard to start again...

I feel like it's been weeks since I've written anything of substance in either of my blogs. I've been caught up in the self pity and frustration that came with my laptop's accident - it's incredibly difficult to type on a keyboard where the space bar sticks and every other key you hit doesn't work the first time. I've had to compose a certain rhythm to my typing - trying to remember which key I need to hit twice before the letter appears on the screen. For someone whose fingers fly at the speed of my thoughts - having a keyboard that isn't up to par is enfuriating.

And because I've not been writing I have guilt - guilt over not capturing the little moments that I want to remember - guilt that I'm not staying true to what brings me peace - guilt that I haven't even taken more than 2 pictures of my kids in the last 3 weeks!

All the guilt aside - we have been having fun just enjoying life. We're working on the backyard and have successfully constructed one of the 4x8 foot gardening containers - 2 more to go! I never thought I would find so much excitement in the prospect of dirt and seeds! Last night I stayed up until almost midnight pouring over the website at Rare Seedsdreaming of what my garden is going to produce this summer. So far I've decided on three different types of eggplant and 2 types of cucumbers and some zucchini and a summer squash called lemon squash.

I'll be trying my hand at exotic fruits like "Yellow Wonder Wild Strawberry" and "Giant Cape Gooseberry." I'm thrilled to plant the 5-color Silverbeet Swiss Chard that Barbara Kingsolver writes about in her book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and am even going to try planting some "Marina de Chioggia" pumpkins which hail from Italy and are a prized winter squash for soups and roasting.

I've yet to pick out my tomatoes - the choices are just too many and I feel overwhelmed!

My gardening journal is started - with my seed choices and the year. I hope to add lots of notes to help expand my choices in 2010.

Maddie and Wyatt are growing up so quickly. It's been crazy to see and hear Wyatt's vocabulary and speaking explode over the last few weeks. Last night he called me back into his bedroom and talked for almost 5 minutes about the basketball that is stuck up in the rafters at church in the Community LIfe Center. He was so funny - very concerned about it and adamant that it needs to be fixed.

My little princess is almost 4 years old and I find myself constantly wondering where the time has gone. It's so hard for me to accept that she'll be starting VPK (voluntary pre-kindergarten) next August and then ready for kindergarten in just about 18 months from now. I'm still trying to decide if she'll go to public school or if I'll try my hand at homeschooling. I am very interested in homeschooling but doubt my ability to stick to a routine or schedule. Lisa Ausley - our senior pastor's wife - keeps telling me that I will be a fabulous homeschool mom and that she has all this faith in me. I love that she's so encouraging... I just have to convince my husband that it will work out.

The busy season is about to start again and once again I find myself not ready for the time I'll be left to myself. Mike has a busy schedule already - which is a huge blessing in the light of our economy's current state. He's going to be gone half of March and there are several other week-long trips on his books.

I'm looking forward to taking my doula certification workshop and am excited to already have a client or two lined up. My goal is to finish my certification requirements before the end of this calendar year.

Whew - it feels better just writing all of that!

Sometimes the hardest part about writing is starting again. We writers tend to sit and obsess about all that we wanted to write - pictures we should have posted or taken, things we wanted to say, memories we wanted to remember - and suddenly weeks have passed and we've nothing to show for it other than a happy family.

The first words are hard - but it's best to start from where you are in this moment than to try and pick up where you left off.

Summer School

It's hard to believe that Madeleine will be starting preschool at the Wesley Academy in about 2 months. I was every so surely reminded of this fact when I got the first tuition statement yesterday. It came as quite a surprise - the school is requesting it by July 1 - and school doesn't start until the end of August...

Maddie is a smart little girl - she started with words at around 10 months and by 18 months was conversing in short 4-5 word sentences on a daily basis. These days you can't get her to stop talking. I read recently that the average 3 year old has a vocabulary of 300-500 words and I think she's a little over that number herself!

She knows her colors, numbers, recognizes most of her letters, shapes, etc.

Recently she's shown an interest in telling time, and I've noticed a distinct difference in her coloring. Before it was just random splatters of color strew across the page and whatever picture was on it, but now she's really trying to color "in the lines." Do not get me wrong - I've never once told her to stay in the lines! She's just progressing developmentally.

As excited as I am about her going to preschool - we are looking seriously at homeschooling our kids. In light of FCAT testing - teaching to the tests and the lack of morals and values taught in public schools I really feel that I can do a better job at home. I'd also like them to learn about the Bible and Jesus and let's be honest - it is not going to happen in a public school. Private schools are also an option, but expensive. I won't be going back to work anytime in the next 5-10 years probably so unless Mike gets a hefty raise and we pay off our vehicles I don't think it's a possibility for us in the immediate future. It's all we can do really to send them to the Wesley Academy for preschool.

So back to homeschooling...

I've started doing school at home a few days a week right now. I found some really awesome books by KUMON and we're having fun with the "let's color" and "let's fold paper" books. I also bought "let's cut paper" but it has wandered off it seems. 

Mike's mom, Paula, also sent a whole stack of preschool home schooling books she bought at Christianbookstore.com  and Maddie loves doing the workbooks. They're published by a company called School Zone and the one we've been working in lately is Preschool Basics.

Here are some of the things she's done this past week:

From the Kumon- Let's Color book:

This page instructed her to use a BLUE crayon and draw the rain coming out of the clouds

Instructions were for her to use a black crayon to give the boy some hair!



Mmm spaghetti with an orange crayon


Sprinkles on the ice cream. We chose purple, pink and green instead of the orange, yellow and brown - those weren't very girly colors!



Workbook pages:

The first day she got the books we did almost 30 pages in one sitting. I wasn't sure if she'd be ready for some of the exercises but she most certainly was!

We started with instructions to find the dog and girl that had short (hair and tail)



Then we worked on finding the things that were the SAME



This exercise asked her to find the object that went with the first object



She had to switch gears from drawing circles around things to drawing lines to match the items with the place they belonged




I'm excited about the prospect of teaching her at home and out and about. I like the idea of more flexibilty in our days and schedules. We are fortunate in this area to have a very active home schooling community that plans lots of activities for the kids to learn and socialize. And any of you who know Maddie personally will agree that she lacks nothing when it comes to social skills!