Category Archives: Homeschooling

A log of activities and happenings.

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Words and Writing

Natasha wrote her first Thank-you notes today.

She and I practiced the letters in “THANK YOU” (She only wanted to do caps) until I felt they were recognizable, then I drew a straight line in a blank card and she wrote her thank-you on it. Then she decorated all the rest of the inside with stamps and markers.

The writing wasn’t easy. I coached her through each letter— where to start and which direction to move, how to space, and so on— four times.

But she was *very* proud of herself when she was done.

I don’t know if she would have been willing to try if she hadn’t just seen Mr. Rogers write a thank-you yesterday.

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During snuggles tonight Melody was telling me a story and used two “big” words– a couple times, like she was practicing. I didn’t write them down immediately so I lost one. The one I remember is “horrified.”

“He was just horrified,” she articulated, mouthing the word as if it were delicious. There was a huge smile in her voice.

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Natasha and Kindergarten

I’m not sure where exactly she got the concept of “kindergarten,” but Natasha’s asked a couple times now when she’s starting and how it will be different than preschool.

In case you haven’t heard, I’m planning to start her in the Fall of ’08. She’ll be 5, then. I had wanted to wait until she was 6, but then I realized that Melody would be 5 that fall (maybe ready to start, herself), and I did want them to be separated a year.

I explained that kindergarten will be different because she will be doing school every day that Daddy goes to work, and we will be spending more time on some new things. The idea pricks her interest, but I can tell she’s not ready for it yet. She has a terrific attention span for things of her own choosing, but she hasn’t learned to consistently apply it to something of my choosing, which is something school will require.

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Only the child of a storyteller…

Natasha’s first homonyms:

Roc and rock.

Second homonyms:

Knight and night.

Both sets are presented in the order we encountered them in the stories.   Phonetic and observation (of spelling differences) lessons smoothly inserted themselves.  This kid is sharp.

ETA: I have since learned that these are not true homonyms– rather, they are homophones, sounding alike while looking different.

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Pre-School begins

Couldn’t wait to share these. This many pix is an experiment.

Let me know if these are too much (Teena) and clutter up your modem– I’ll still do pix if you want, but maybe not so many in one post?

I didn’t think to get out the camera until the second activity, but you can see what we’ve got started.

pleased-look.jpg

This is Natasha’s sweetly pleased with herself look. (I think she got it from my “I’m pleased but don’t know what to say” look)

I set the kids’ table inside the baby-pen to keep all the pre-school stuff from the baby (they started with playing with beans), and the mess contained (they have to clean up each project before getting a new one).

chair-climbing.jpgElisha was *really* not this pleased to be locked out.

Though he did show a remarkable (and basically new) interest in sitting still and listening to stories. We got all the way through Going on a Bear Hunt for the first time. It was like he recognized his regular source of entertainment (Melody) was unavailible, and “Well, I guess this is entertainment too.” The cutest part was when he would repeat “Uh-oh!” at that part of the story.

So this is good for Elisha too. I’m a little nervous that it might create a (new) “mom entertains me” mentality, but we’ll wait and see.

They played with dried beans first– scooping, spooning and pouring with different-sized containers and spoons– then got the lovely practice of detail-work getting all the loose beans re-collected. Natasha practiced with her little broom.

After that I brought out the big beads that have been out-of-reach for a while and suggested they match beads by color.

beads.jpg

Then we did playdough with some letter-cutters I got from Dad’s school’s stuff-dump last night. One advantage of this over magnetic letters is that you don’t run out of the letters you need– you can just make more 🙂 .

spelling-rat.jpg

This was also the first word the girls got the sound-it-out figured out on. The blending of sounds has been a concept just beyond them every time we tried before. They both “got it” at the same time, which was sweet, since Melody’s feeling (being) increasingly left behind in some things.

And then here they all are in rubber boots outside– probably no one is in boots that actually fit, but the novelty-factor beat out any discomfort. (Natasha requested they be brought out of the garage to wear in the wet grass.)

booted-crew.jpg

booted-boy.jpg

So there you go. First day. Not even done yet.

Not sure how far or long this will go– but (especially!) getting a specific space figured out has made it more likely to carry on.

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About Feeding…

One of the largest concerns in my mind after Natasha made her decision for Christ was how to feed her. And then, how did I know it was real?

I poked around on-line and made some calls (knowing I’ve seen a very competent “arrival kit” for adult new believers I hoped there might be something I could use with my 4-year-old). Not easily finding something, my mind went next (I’m sorry! It’s been trained!) to “Maybe that means I should write something myself…”

Then, as my mind was there, I began to wonder how I could know if Natasha knew what she was doing (after all, 4 is awfully young…). I didn’t want my clumsy efforts to guinea-pig her and cool her interest in things of the faith.

God graciously encouraged my heart, though.

  • Natasha didn’t want to call and tell anyone (e.g. grandparents), which was what made me wonder in the first place, but when I was on the phone she wanted me to tell them.
  • She’s had an increased appetite for the Word (tell me that isn’t inspiring), wanting the real thing.

I grabbed the picture-bible because it was near-by and I was nursing the baby, but she said, “No, Mama, I don’t want the picture one, I want mine.” “The one with just words?” “Yes.” And she went and got it.

  • She’s been willing to pray “publicly” for the first time (volunteering to pray over dinner tonight)
  • And she told grandma about her decision as soon as she saw her.

So I was encouraged. And I did find a couple picture books that bring up concepts I wanted her to think about (because I expect she’ll still want picture books at her age).

The break-through for my first concern came when a church secretary called me back and said none of the right people were around to ask the curriculum question of.

Then she pointed out that with her three daughters (all grown, and all raising their children in the Faith) she had just continued with the same tack as before, reading bible stories, talking about the things of faith. The difference being that after a decision for Christ those talks have more meaning for the child.

This was such a wonderfully simple truth and I had never seen it this way. It lifted my concern (that I believe most young parents have) about how to feed my baby “right” on my own.

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In all the bible stories we’ve read since Wednesday night, I’ve been able to bring up questions about our response to God and how He interacted with the people in the stories.

As a storyteller, the idea of staying with the stories themselves is so freeing. I don’t need to find a way to introduce a “simplified” Romans or Galatians to my 4-year-old. There is plenty of time for that later. For now I can be thankful for the many truths that God has provided in the stories he gave us.

From Balaam and we’ve already filled-in some gaps I had woken concerned about the morning after. God is faithful, and will always make provision for the right thing at the right time.

In the same way that I can say, “No, we’re not reading about Judah and Tamar,” knowing it’s not age-appropriate, I can wait on many other things as well.

“Jesus loves me, this I know,” is a beginning that has confounded scholars and kept them busy long enough to let my daughter grow ready for other eternal truths.

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Charlotte Mason’s Teaching Philosophy

Charlotte Mason: What I’ve pieced together so far:
(All things that appeal to me)

  • Formal schooling doesn’t start until age six*
  • No special textbooks—everything (except math, I suppose) drawn from good writing
  • Word-based
    • reading (good writers, good books, chosen to shape character)*
    • memorization* (giving the child something substantial to meditate on)
    • and narration,* early on a child’s answer to essays or composition, but the beginning of training the mind to formulate and organize the information it is taking in.
  • Lots of reading/reading aloud all through schooling*
  • Short lessons* (“quality over quantity” and working withing the natural human patterns of remembering/attentiveness)
    • The schooling of the day is ideally finished by lunch-time*
  • Pre-school seems to be mostly about observing the world around you and using the every-day.* (This idea was a relief to find.)
    • This in contrast to Montessori or other pre-school programs that utilize all sort of cool little doodads that have no further purpose after preschool
    • And have to be bought and stored.
    • Emphasis on learning from the environment that is, rater than changing the environment to make it “learning-conducive.”
  • Art and foreign language elements as a matter of course.
  • Large emphasis on God/the Bible/Creation-study*
    • (Though, oddly enough, she was one of the many Christians in her era who thought Evolution was compatible with the Bible)
  • Independent creative play encouraged/required**

So much of what I’ve been reading so far feels like an uncanny fit. I’m a little nervous because it seems to emphasize one main learning style, but with so many elements (*) already things that fit my personality/our lifestyle, I’m definitely researching this further.

One interesting element that is very like to the way I think involves avoiding “unit” studies. By the discription I read, “units” present multiple subjects around a connecting theme.

CM’s objection to this practice is that the children may be trained to expect adults to make their connections for them, rather than making connections on their own (and thereby training their brains).

This was interesting for me mainly because I seem to be making random connections all the time, and it’s kind of fun to imagine encouraging that sort of thing.

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Daily Life

Had a very peaceful day today.

All three kids were doing a wonderful job of entertaining themselves constructively. All three impressed me.

The last several weeks have been challenging because the kids seem to be working as a team to keep me short shrift on sleep.

I’ve been very unproductive. Or, less productive than I imagine I’d be with more rest.

Everything I’m doing is productive in it’s own way (like researching homeschooling methods–I’ll have to choose something eventually), but the volume of what I’m doing is not large enough to prevent a backlog.

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Applicable Bible Verses

I mentioned in another post the first verses we taught our girls and how they responded.

We’ve begun a new round (and type) of memorization recently.

After a hiatus (where we did no verses at all), Natasha began responding very well to working on her Sunday School verse at bedtime. I like that verse very much, but I was beginning to think about how we explain verses to little kids.

Then I started wondering about the application bit of it. That led me to look for verses that have immediate applicability at the age they are now.

When Natasha made the connection between her song (“Lift up Your Countenance”) and what she saw (a fussy sister), that was her first instance of extracting application (or at least, relation) from words she’d memorized.

So in an effort to replicate that type of experience, I made a “set” of verses, distinguished by color, and printed out several pages and hung them around the house:

Hebrews 12:11

No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields the fruit of peace and righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Psalm 139:14

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

 

Ephesians 4:29

No rotten talk should come from your mouth, but only what is good for the building up of someone in need, in order to give grace to those who hear.

I love the attitude of Psalm 139:14. I also like the concrete elements of Hebrews 12:11 and Ephesians 4:29.

Tonight Jay came in as we were practicing “the pink one,” and joined in. Immediately the tenor of the whole exercise changed. We did the verse as a family, several times, and then Natasha volunteered (for the first time) to say it on her own. There was much giggling, fun and encouragement as Natasha worked her way from beginning to end.

We gave her a word when she got stuck, and encouraged Melody to prompt from her few memorized phrases. It was the family-ist recitation time I can remember. Melody took a shot at it too.

And, if you’ve never heard a 2-year-old say things like “enjoyable,” “Later on, however,” and, “peace and righteousness,” you’ve really got to try and coax those out of her sometime. It was pretty great. The girls were so jazzed by their success they requested (and we practiced) the other two for a while also.

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So Proud of Myself

If I get around to posting the goals I drew-up last night, you’ll understand better why these were so significant to me. Either way I enjoy going back over my morning and creating a “done” list:
Today (and it’s just naptime) I

  • Did an involved (messy, new) craft with the girls
  • Had an extended reading time

Both while Elisha was still awake. (Both firsts.)
I also

  • directed (and enforced/followed-through) cleaning up after breakfast and each activity as it was finished, resulting in a slightly tidier house at naptime than at waking this morning.
  • had some instrument practice-time
  • helped Melody use the Baby Taylor
  • Took pictures
    • Elisha pulled up to his knees today. Is working at getting his feet under him.
    • The girls working on their art projects
    • Natasha mugging for the camera (These are going to have to be in the next batch we put on-line. They were amazing.) and washing the table.

Now everyone is down and I’ll be able to do a bit of reading before I clean up the front room some more. The bedrooms are still cluttered, but I expect we’ll get them some more after nap.

I figure part of the success is me shifting my whole focus to these things (I think lists are good for me sometimes), and part of it is Elisha reaching some magical age where he (his personality, whatever) clicks into the gears of what’s going on in our family, and he fits the workings. I am very encouraged.