Okay. So things have been WAY crazy around here the last few months... and while we're still crazy with all that is happening, I've decided that it's easier to get back to a more "normal" day - and get into the habit of school a bit more.
Now, the Charlotte Mason philosophy suggests kiddos don't officially begin educating before age 6 or 7 - meaning they don't begin with such things as narration. Now, we all know kids come in all shapes and sizes. Learning styles and what they show readiness for, of course, all vary as well. So, we recently started with narration of various types with Ainsley. It's definitely is a skill to be learned and a great life skill to possess...but I digress.
So with that said, we started "back to school" which is such a funny notion for me at these tender preschool years. The last three weeks have been more "formal" than anything we have done so far. I mean, I really only did anything that was formally planned for about 2 months last fall! Even still, these more formal weeks still wouldn't much resemble anything you'd find in a traditional classroom. Well, maybe the fact that we gather around our kitchen table for part of it, perhaps.
For us, learning time has been averaging about an hour a day. I'm just going to go through what we have been doing so I can look back and chuckle as we make changes and things progress... If anyone else ever reads this, you just get the bonus or boredom of hearing what we have been up to lately...
We begin our time with reading straight from the Bible and chatting on it awhile. My favorite is listening to the prayers of my kiddos as they ask God to help them with the lessons we've listened to and how we might apply them to the day. Some of the applications the kids come up with are hilarious! This sets the tone for all that comes next.
After Bible, we read from one of our FIAR books. Not everyday, bc the girls know the story and basically tell it back to me without even hearing it again. Which lets me know they really know it. They often share new insight into various lessons or new ideas that pop up from just seeing the book again. If we read a book, we often do a short activity that relates to the story... depending on the day, it would cover geography, language arts, science, math or art.
Following any FIAR discussion or activity, Ainsley works on copywork that I have taken from a portion of a hymn. I used to take the StartWrite program every once in a blue moon and have her do her name and some numbers and some letters. How boring is that??? Who wants to spend time making ten "t's" - certainly not me! I have found that she is delighted to see what the next part of the hymn will be for that day. She's seeing news words such as "ransomed" and "reconciled" and it has provided a great springboard for some discussion on meanings of new words. She loves it. Often, she asks to start with this before anything else. I've found she really works to do her very best for the ENTIRE time she's working, because she doesn't become bored with the endless repetition of something that, to her anyway, seems to possess no practical application. While she works on that, Emmalyn and I have started work on reading. She's reading the beginning Bob Books (which are probably twaddle, but she feels successful and that's what I'm going for!) and some of the early readers from Abeka. I didn't do any phonics with Ainsley, but picked up an Explode the Code book 1 for Emmalyn. She loves reading the exercises and she likes the idea of having her own "school book" so we do a page or two in that together. I think it is beneficial bc of how quickly Ainsley took to reading. This gives Em a chance to have her own thing with me and she thrives with that. It takes the competition out of it and for my very competitive child, this is a great thing!
So that takes about ten to fifteen minutes or so. Then we move on to Early American History or Science.We alternate days unless the kids ask to read from both books. We are currently reading and narrating episodes from either the D' Aulaire book on George Washington or The Burgess Animal Book for Children. The kids love it! They were enthralled with the fact that a woodchuck (
Marmota monax) is a member of the Squirrel family. It's great to curl up on the couch to read from these books...the girls continue to amaze me with their ability to recall what we have read from past days and also share their excitement and insight on what we read that day together.
We usually end with Math. I use a couple of things: Math U See and MEP and mostly just a whole lot of games from a Math Game book for elementary kids. This week we started with beginning place value concepts. Ainsley has been building numbers through 35, but wants badly to build up to 100. I told her we have to get really good at this part first. It's a fun way to make this concept easier to grasp. It's also a game that reinforces one to one correspondence in counting and a great deal of the other basic skills. The other game we just started has them using manipulatives (noodles, acorns, puff balls) to add and subtract numbers which is reinforcing their addition and subtraction of numbers 0-9 but also branching into the two-digit numbers as well. It's nice to see them starting to do math in their heads as we continue to practice in these concepts in a fun, game-playing manner.
So that's about it. We read from one chapter book in the afternoons - not everyday, but many. We also have one going for evening reads... Many times, Ainsley takes the one we haven't done together yet, and goes off to read it on her own. I am really having trouble keeping her in good chapter books....and we have quite a few around here. I feel like I am constantly running to bibliomania for some new books for her....which I am not at all complaining about!
Just for my own need to recall where we were at such and such time, Ainsley has read
Beezus and Ramona (not a living book, but fun anyway) and
Farmer Boy, in their entirety, this week. She also has read large segments from
In Grandma's Attic and one of the American Girl doll books. She would bring a book everywhere she goes if we'd allow it. She plays tons (often reinacting parts from the Bible or books she's read or reading) but often I'll find her riding her bike with a book under her arm or playing play dough with a book tucked under her seat. After awhile Il'l find her laying in the grass or on the floor reading. Now, we aren't ones to squash her love of reading, but we do curb it a great deal most weeks. She'd have her head buried in a book for hours and hours every single day (and she's known to take her head lamp into her closet to secretly read after we have put her to bed). I do ask that she comes back to tell me about her favorite parts of the books she's reading. She could rattle on and on for hours about various portions of the books. I try to keep it light bc it's pleasure reading, but I want to be sure she's gaining skill in comprehension - which I guess is silly, she wouldn't read it if she wasn't understanding and comprehending it. Anyway, I hope that passion for reading never leaves her.
So that's what "school" has been shaping up to be so far. Sounds far more involved than it actually is. We love it. The kids beg for it. The other moments of the day are spent hearing them laugh and use their imaginations in play (and fight and pull hair and hit) and they are often collecting tons of crazy stuff outside to draw or paint in their nature journals. They are all out and about - pulling out crayons and paper or using puzzle pieces as "food" for picnics.
Oh, I almost forgot... This week, we chatted about watercolor medium and the kiddos painted for a good while. I had them paint something from at least one of the books we were reading. The rest of the time was spent painting rainbows and butterflies and flowers. We also did artist study for about 10 minutes one morning at breakfast. I have some prints of Jan Vermeer up on clipboards near the table, so we shared some funny conversation (little kiddos have some amazing thoughts about art pieces in my house!) together. I share a few tidbits on what I read about the artist that struck me just as some added FYI material.
Yep, that's what we did... and well, this week we didn't do anything but read a loud on Tuesday and only spent 40 minutes on Wed. We're not hard and fast about this. I just like having things planned out so that we can utilize our time and move with ease through the day - esp when it's hot and being so pregnant, I don't much want to be outdoors. I have been trying to do something in the realm of "school" daily. Just to get myself in practice for more work/structure/subject matter next spring as we continue to move into more and more areas of learning. It's truly relaxing and has offered much in the way of interesting dialog between my wee ones and me.
Now, I'm primarily working with Ainsley with all of this, Emmalyn just comes to do what she is interested in. Micah comes and goes - he's mostly in for the Math games - but we spend time counting something or another together. The boy doesn't get a bit about colors... but no worries, he's either color blind or it just hasn't come together. It will eventually. I don't push. If any of my kids aren't feeling like doing what I have planned. They are still very young and I don't push it. We just find something in the bin they might be interested in. Once we start on that, I like to work at increased attention span, but if I sense we're on the verge of losing interest, we move on or end.
So this is a post mostly for my own benefit. I'd like to look back and see where we've gone from here...
I did make some scratch pumpkin bread this week using a friend's pumpkins. I also made approx 10 gallons of beef stock for use in my marathon cooking adventures that will come next week - I hope! I think Sat will be the day for roasting 8 chickens... and then Monday will be fixing chicken stock from the leftover bones. So by the following weekend, I'll have much done. With hubby traveling in and out and all around, I have to be far more prepared than I have ever been in the past. Mostly bc I'll have the 4 peanuts around while I try to get this process underway. It's also more work this time, bc this will be my biggest cooking event yet. Meaning, I'm cooking more meals this time than I have tried before. I just don't feel like cooking when it's hot. It's only getting hotter. I also don't like to cook at the end of my pregnancy. So I don't want to cook come Sept. That leaves me with cooking now.
So, maybe it won't be so long till I post again. Maybe I'll include some photos of the giant cook-a-thon after my Azure Standard order comes in! I have my second freezer all ready to go. Who would have thought I'd be where I am today - homeschooling goodness, freezer giddiness, and all my little helpers under age 6? Certainly not me... but I seriously couldn't be happier or feel more blessed than I do right now.
Thank you, Jesus.
