Kindergarten!

We started this year's homeschooling on September 12th. Last year's pre-school was laissez-faire, mostly reading Sonlight's Pre-K 4/5 book list and memorizing catechism questions and answers. This year we're going about schooling a little more seriously: I have some concrete academic goals, we do at least some schoolwork daily, and we're adding more subjects.

But this doesn't mean I force the kids to spend the day seated, workbook in hand! On the contrary, I want them to have lots of time to play, especially outdoors. I've read lots about the negative impact of pushing academics too early, of forcing little boys to read too soon, etc. So this year is primarily about establishing some good habits; feeding the children's curiosity about the world; cultivating a love of learning; and furnishing their minds with interesting and beautiful words and ideas. How's that for high aims?

We do plenty of this on school days!

When she was here a few weeks ago, my mom gave me a blessed few hours to read and prepare all by myself. I took my Bible and Ruth Beechick's The Three R's and Language and Thinking for Young Children over to the library. These gave me the proverbial kick in the backside I needed to get over my perfectionism and just plan, schedule, and do--especially daily math activities.

Beechick is clear, down-to-earth, inspiring, practical, and empowering. I won't follow every idea she proffers, but I do appreciate her emphasis on my ability to teach my children lots without relying on formal curriculum. Despite being homeschooled myself, I felt a bit lost in the sea of good choices. There is so much I could be doing with the kids, so much they could be learning! Beechick's books helped me set some goals and figure out ways to meet them without overloading myself or the children. 

While this is technically Josiah's kindergarten year, and my goals are for him to learn certain concepts, the girls are eager to be part of everything, so they may end up about where he is academically. 

Abby

So what are we doing this year? 

1. Sonlight Core A - We found this discounted on eBay last year, when we were doing Sonlight's Pre-K 4/5. It's an introduction to "world cultures," primarily through read-alouds. The Egemeier's Bible Story Book is a step up in depth and difficulty from last year's simple, one-page summary stories. It's closer to scripture and lengthier, but the children love it and ask me to keep reading more each morning! 

I like Sonlight's use of Usborne books--Living Long Ago and The Usborne Children's Encyclopedia have captured the children's interest. So far we've read about the beginning of civilization, ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and a bit about ancient Rome. (This is a broad introduction to world cultures--we're not going very deep yet!) Last night as we drove somewhere, Josiah told Jeremy, "The Egyptians shaved off one of their eyebrows when their cats died!" Apparently even the little details have stuck with him from these books!

The "fun" read-alouds are mostly chapter books, but the girls seem to handle them just fine. They loved The Boxcar Children, though I think Sonlight should switch it out for a better-quality book. Jeremy took on some of the reading as bedtime stories. He read them My Father's Dragon (a re-read for us) and is currently doing James Herriot's Treasury for Children. 

All of us enjoy Sonlight's selection of poetry! We're reading Mary Ann Hoberman's collection of poems The Llama Who Had No Pajama (that title poem Abby begs me to read every single day) and Arnold Lobel's Book of Mother Goose. What fun!

Josiah checks out a poetry book

2. Scripture and poetry memorization - We finished up Psalm 1 last week. I had the kids "present" it one at a time to the rest of us as audience--they were so cute! Now we're beginning 1 Cor. 13:4-8. Then I hope to do another psalm and probably Luke 2 near Christmastime. I haven't planned for the winter/spring yet.

The children can almost recite Christina Rosetti's "Who has seen the wind." Maybe we'll do Joyce Kilmer's "Trees" next--but I'm not sure.

Josiah and Lydia

3. Math - I looked over my mom's old Saxon 1 teacher's manual and nixed it for this year. Josiah needs a better grasp of counting, comparing, grouping, measuring, etc. before we launch into that, if we decide to use it. So for now I'm making up math curriculum as we go, based on Ruth Beechick's summary of first grade math skills. A friend gave me a bunch of colored plastic frogs to use as counting manipulatives. They've worked nicely in lots of homemade games to reinforce counting and work on some basic addition and subtraction. (Josiah always claims the green ones.) 

Lydia counting frogs

 Josiah likes to play "battle" between different colors of frogs

I purchased a set of dominoes on eBay, and I think they'll be worthwhile! Even with our short use of them, the kids can identify numbers of dots quickly and do some easy addition without really thinking.

We found pattern blocks at Goodwill awhile ago, and I found a book of pattern block puzzles on eBay, so we'll use those some, too. Our initial foray into the puzzle book proved more difficult than I anticipated. But I think the pattern blocks will add variety to our math activities and help teach shapes, even if the kids can't complete all the puzzles yet. 

Abby

Ruth Beechick emphasizes the importance of everyday activities in teaching a child math. I'm working to be more intentional about this: allowing a child to divvy up apple slices or cashews for snacks, letting everyone measure ingredients when baking, counting how many plates we need to set the table, etc. 

4. Reading - We haven't started this yet, but I plan to begin Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons with Josiah sometime in the next couple weeks. This instruction I'll probably limit to him for now, taking about 15-20 minutes a day and seeing how he does. We can stop if it's frustrating him or clearly beyond him.

I am working on letter/sound recognition with all three of them, and I'm using the Developing the Early Learner set of workbooks (quite different from your typical workbook). So the girls are getting some pre-reading instruction. They're eager to identify letter sounds and write their own names. They've been regularly asking me what various words would sound like if they began with a different letter. Lately they've latched onto "Peter Pan" as their key word: "Mama, what if it started with Z?" "Zeter Zan," I respond, and they giggle and repeat it. Now they'll say iterations of it to each other and laugh.

5. Botany - I bought A Beka's flower identification cards to teach some basic parts and names of flowers. I hope to do some "nature walks" a la Charlotte Mason when the weather cools off enough. 

6. Chores - When better to work at habit training than when they're still little and academics aren't much of a concern? I want to get a good handle on regular chores this year. Currently I have a breakfast helper, a housekeeping helper, and a dinner helper, each with specific jobs. Each child will keep that particular helper job for a week, and then switch. The girls are much more eager to help with chores than Josiah is! They often ask, "What else can I do, Mama?" Lydia even begged Abby to let her help with Abby's chore of emptying the small trash cans the other day.

Lydia

7. Manners - How to teach a plethora of mealtime niceties and polite societal conventions when some days all I seem to do is mediate one brawl after another? I want manner training to be positive vs. negative (encouraging and fun vs. lots of "don't do that"). I have yet to formulate a good plan for this.

8. Art and Music - I liked Sonlight's A Child's Book of Art in the pre-k curriculum, and I might use that again for some basic art appreciation. I plan to do some art projects scattered throughout the year (a daunting prospect for me . . . oh, the mess!), and I'd like to do some basic drawing instruction. All three have developed a real interest in drawing, especially Josiah, who spends hours on his detailed pictures, which are typically either Star Wars or Robin Hood themed.

I hope to find a good and reasonably priced Suzuki teacher with whom to start piano lessons. So far I haven't had much luck. 

I'd also like to do some music activities at home. We have a box of scarves, sticks, egg shakers, bells, etc., so ideally we could use those and learn some folk songs or work on rhythm with our Music Together CDs, Wee Sing books, and others. We sing before each meal, and I'm using that time to introduce new hymns. 

9. Extras - Josiah, Lydia, and Abby started swimming lessons in July, and we picked back up with them a couple weeks ago. Lydia especially really took off with her water skills--she seemed entirely fearless this summer and eager to dive deeper and swim further on her own. She regressed a little during our break and was fearful on our first swim lesson in September. But she seems to have recovered her confidence. "I'll be brave, Mama!" she tells me. And now she aims to be a swim teacher when she grows up. 

Abby started saying she didn't want to do swim lessons anymore while we were on vacation in August. This aversion turned into hours of wailing and passionate declarations of "I won't go! I wanna stay home and sleep! My belly hurts! I'm tired! I won't buckle my seat belt! I won't get out of the car!" on the day of our first swim lesson after the break. She got through it, but not without tears and some tantrums. 

I dreaded the next one, and sure enough, she launched into the whole shebang again. Thankfully--and in answer to prayer--the lesson ended happily! Even though she spent about 20 minutes of it crying on the teacher's back and resisting each activity, she cheered up and even jumped in by herself (no hand-holding) a couple times by the end. Hopefully we can finish out the next few (we'll end in mid-October when it gets too cold) with minimal resistance!

Josiah started speech therapy in July and will continue that indefinitely. He's reached the therapist's goals for saying "g" and "k" sounds correctly about 80% of the time, mostly without prompting. Now we're working on "s," "y," and final "r." 

That about sums it up for now! I wonder what I'll think of my plans and goals come May?

On Our Bookshelf, Vol. 2

Josiah always likes to join in on listening to the picture books the girls choose. (He likes to pick some out to read as well.) I'm glad to settle on the couch with them after lunch and read through several books as we wind down toward naptime. But despite my love of quality picture books, I'm excited that Josiah is solidly interested in chapter books now, too!

Early last year (2015), we started with a nightly chapter of My Father's Dragon, and he begged Jeremy to read more each night. We borrowed the second and third books in the My Father's Dragon series from the library, and Jeremy also read those chapter by chapter before bed. The first of the series is definitely the best, even if (or perhaps because) it's quirky with some feeling of deus ex machina in the form of Elmer's fortuitously packed knapsack. Particularly in the third book, we parents were a little put off by the docile dragons and their wimpy inability to make much real conflict and climax in the storyline. But still, they're enjoyable stories and Josiah liked them--he was sad to see them end. "Read the next chapter in My Father's Dragon, Dad!" he said the night after we finished the series. Jeremy reminded him they finished the book. "But why, Dad?"

Just look at these cuties from last January (2015)!

Next, I pulled out my copy of Winnie the Pooh, and I was pleasantly surprised at how Josiah took to the stories--despite sparse illustrations (some pages have none). He wiggled around a little more when I read the Pooh stories, but he certainly listened--and often asked for his favorite chapters again and again.

We followed up with A. A. Milne's second volume, The House on Pooh Corner. He loved it, too, and we've re-read the chapter about Piglet and Pooh making a house for Eeyore several times. He likes to take the Pooh books back to rest time with him to look over on his own. (He also likes the ribbon bookmark on the nice hardback version we have because he is obsessed with tying things up.)

J and L a year ago

Since My Father's Dragon and Pooh started us into chapter books, we've read E.B. White's Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little. I found Charlotte's Web a little disappointing; I thought I remembered better-rounded characters and a more robust storyline. But Josiah and I did enjoy it, and for a while he took to calling most rats "Templeton." I enjoyed the detail of Stuart Little but found inconsistencies I don't remember seeing as a child--and the ending certainly didn't match up with Josiah's idea of a satisfying conclusion. I think the book as a whole was a bit over his head, but he did like hearing about Stuart's escapades and studying the illustrations closely.

Before Christmas, I pulled out The Trumpet of the Swan, thinking Josiah might like it since he and I previously read through the other two E.B. White books often included with this one in trio. The Trumpet of the Swan has fewer pictures than the other two (I think), but Josiah enjoys it. He sometimes says, in dismay, "Mom! We haven't read the swan book!" I'm not as keen on it as Farmer Boy right now . . .

We read Little Pear after returning from summer vacation. I enjoyed seeing Josiah's reaction to the pleasant, simple stories of a little boy from an entirely different country and culture (China) and time period. He wants to taste a tang-hular now, too!

Josiah likes to look through our Bible story book after I read it at breakfast

I tried Misty of Chincoteague back in July, but it was beyond Josiah's current intellectual capacity. We read another of Marguerite Henry's books, though--Justin Morgan Had a Horse. While it was probably a bit beyond Josiah, he really enjoyed it and asked lots of good questions. So we kept at it through to the finish. I enjoyed Henry's horse stories immensely as a child, and it was fun to re-read this book with Josiah.

When we next began The Little House in the Big Woods, Josiah loved it! He pored over the pictures and wanted me to re-read chapters. He was fascinated by panthers and the story of Laura's cousin who danced on a yellow-jacket nest and was stung horribly. So with a chapter or two a day, we finished it apace, and went right on to The Little House on the Prairie. Josiah still regularly talks about both books, now a few months after we read them. He reminded me periodically that we need to check out the next book of the series from the library. Now we're part way through Farmer Boy and both look forward to reading that after the girls go to their room for nap.

This often devolves into a fight over the blanket they're all sharing

I'm considering what else to introduce. I think Narnia may be a bit beyond him yet--actually, I think he'd love it, but I'd like to save it for when he'd enjoy and understand it more. As Tolkien says, there's nothing quite like encountering a really good story for the very first time. Once you've read it, you've lost the enchantment of the first meeting forever. I never read E. Nesbit as a child, so I reserved a couple of her novels at the library and plan to preview them--I think for when Josiah is a bit older. Maybe we should try The Wind in the Willows--which I'm ashamed to admit I also haven't read!

Right now we're about thirteen weeks into Sonlight's P4/P5 preschool curriculum  (we've gone more slowly since Clara's arrival), and I've found the books in it nicely bridge between Josiah and the girls. The girls do have trouble staying interested in some of the books with very few pictures, lengthier stories, and more archaic language (primarily Uncle Wiggily's Bedtime Storybook). Mostly I've saved Uncle Wiggily for Josiah's pre-nap story; he enjoys it more than I anticipated (and probably more than I do--it's one I wouldn't mind skipping in the future).

Sometime I'll post more about this year's "school stuff," as the kids call it. Mostly we just read the books Sonlight has assigned for a given week and do some workbook pages. The kids love the Mother Goose book included and beg me to keep reading. Their other favorite so far is The Berenstain Bears' Big Book of Science and Nature, a fun mix of pictures, rhymes, and simply stated facts about the natural world. Usborne's Stories from around the World is a good one, too. The kids were delighted that they already knew this past week's story, The Musicians of Bremen.

This past weekend, when Josiah, Lydia, and Abby came down with a stomach bug, their love and capacity for read-alouds were a great aid to us all. As they lay around the living room feeling miserable, audio books kept them pretty content. They listened to the complete stories of Beatrix Potter, Winnie the Pooh, all the Frog and Toad stories, Mouse Tales and Mouse Soup (also by Arnold Lobel), Burt Dow, Deep-Water Man, a whole bunch of Dr. Seuss, and Jim Weiss' Fairytales.

I'm so glad Josiah (and the girls) love books!

Josiah "reading" to Kezzie last February