Home Learning

My son made the cutoff for kindergarten this year by nine days. For many reasons Adam and I decided that official kindergarten wasn't going to start until next September. The biggest reasons are that he would be one of the youngest in his class and we want him to be 18 when he graduates not when he's already on his way into a dorm room.

I thought this would be a good opportunity for us to try our hand at homeschooling. I like everything about schooling my kids. Still I find myself very intrigued by the idea of unschooling but I'm not a fan of that term because to some it sounds the same as not schooling or not learning. (Even though that is not the case.) 

Last August I picked a couple of curriculum books that work on both pre-reading and pre-writing skills as well as a set of pattern blocks.I did get all excited at first and schedule out a curriculum of what we were to do on which day (generally three days a week) and had success with that but now we seem to just find things that he is interested in and take those on as they come. We make sure to do letter sounds and sight words often and math with legos and just try to make it fun for all of us, two year old included.

So far so good. It's possible that my son is just making this easy for me because he's very eager to read and is a motivated learner at the moment. He does it on his own for the most part. Yesterday, he really read to me, really reading the words! He loves playing with his calculator and enjoys finding numbers that he can add up to make the same number. Like 4+5 and 8+1.

It's funny because I notice most of the learning happening not from anything I'm doing or teaching but mostly from his initiation. All I do is provide an environment that encourages learning and attempts to make it fun.

There are a lot of teachers in my family and I know that a public school education is good, even great. I turned out decent and everything! If we choose not to go this route for our children we are by no means saying it is not good. We are making choices based on our family and individual child’s needs as their parents. I like to see his motivation, determination and even frustration. Scratch that, I LOVE it!

Is it going to be more work? Yes. Am I sacrificing me time while my kids are at school? Possibly. Are my kids going to have gaps in their education? Probably, there certainly are in my own. Am I going to regret it? Absolutely not!

We may not make the decision to homeschool every year and we plan to keep our options open to what the future may hold. Honestly, I'm not going to miss the lack of me time. In 16 or so years I'll have more of that than I want!

No longer will I say that we are sort of homeschooling or just trying it out, we are on this ship and ready for the next adventure.

As Random as a MacGyver Style Stethoscope

So how's twenty-ten starting for you? Good?Great?Happy?Blah?Busy?Boring? Boring.....I wonder if I remember that feeling.

So far so good here. I generally don't do resolutions but this year I'd like to exercise more, (original, yeah, I know!) read more for myself and not nag so much. I'll take it one day at a time, grateful that each day is a chance to start anew, being the mom/wife/teacher/homemaker/daughter/sister/woman that I want to be.

This morning I took my first step-aerobics class in ages and you and your next belly laugh wish there was a video camera in there. I was SO off, turning the wrong way, even tripping over my step a couple times. It was fun but more so funny, made me grateful that I have a sense of humor about myself. Checking off an extra hour of exercise after which my Pilates class (who made fun of my beet red face) felt very good.

We eased into school this afternoon. I figured writing 'thank you' and 'love, Nathan' a bunch of times was a good way for my son to learn the importance of thanking loved ones for gifts as well as a lesson in handwriting. It was just the right amount of time for both of our attention spans, while my baby colored on the stool next to him. (Take that to mean both she sat on the stool coloring and she colored on the stool.)

Our next craft I had seen in a magazine and wanted to see if it would really work. We took a paper towel tube, wrapped it in aluminum foil, added some stickers for fun and held it to each other's chests. Sure enough it worked; it was much fainter that the real thing but you could most definitely hear the beat. Then we were to run in place for one minute and observe the difference. Really fun! If we ever need a stethoscope in a pinch, MacGyver style (I know I'm totally dating myself here) now we've got that in reserve!

Another random note: We've found the Three Cousins Detective Club series by Elsbeth Campbell Murphy and they are a hit! I've been reading them every day, my son really loves to be read to, and they are fun. Neither one of us wants to stop reading until they've solved their case! Along with another series we found at the library, Nate the Great, we may never make it off the couch this winter!
It is true READING IS FUN!

More about our current schooling choices to follow shortly.