13th September, 2009
Creation/ I Like Me Wrap-up, Letter Ll
Tater is 40 months old Cheezer is 19 months old.
I think next year, we’ll start preschool after the Labor Day holiday. Daddy was home on Monday- so naturally- we took the day off. Tater has battled a sinus infection all week. She’s very good about saline drops and having her nose suctioned, but when she woke on Thursday, her breath was so bad that we went to the pediatrician. I told him just to get a whiff of her breath, he did and agreed. We got our prescription filled and she’s 100 % better. Forgive the cream on her nose in the pictures. We were originally scheduled to have our portraits done on Tuesday- but there was no way with the skin breakdown on her lip and nose.
We started swimming lessons again on Tuesday. She’ll go twice a week on Tuesday and Thursday. I had a moment of pride I had to really fight off when another parent in the class couldn’t believe she was just three. She asked if we had considered the swimming team for her- which we have, but not until she’s five. The summer swim team is open to children starting at age 5. This mom had all of her children in swim team, and now her four year old was in Tater’s class. Apparently they do allow children as young as four in who have the ability and potential. She’s a natural swimmer. She gets that from her Daddy. I play in the water; he swims and dives and strokes and does all that other stuff. I can’t even hold my breath under water. The temptation to be a parent that pushes my kid won’t be hard for me to ward off. She’ll join swim team when she asks to join the swim team. I can’t imagine that she’ll be asking by May, or that she will even know what the swim team is.
On Wednesday we finished up our study on Creation. This artwork has really helped her recall, and she goes to it often when she wants to talk about it.
We finished up our work from Itty Bitty Bookworm. We created an “I like me” booklet for tater”, and another booklet about the letter L.
As much as I don’t like worksheets- she likes them, and when she wants to “do school” Daddy can pull them out and do them with her- as long as I have them pre-prepared. Since I sunk the money into the Christian Liberty Preschool books, I ripped all the pages out related to the letter L and the color red and stuffed them in a folder. We ended up doing them in the waiting room at the pediatricians office. In the examining room, she laid on the floor and the Dr had to wait while she finished up.
I went to a consignment sale on Friday and picked up a Supegirl costume that she’s worn most of the time since then. I also picked up this Melissa and Doug puzzle- which I have had my eye on for some time, some lacing cards, and a Blue’s Clues Memory game. She took a break from getting her hair curled for her rescheduled portrait sitting to play with it. We don’t watch Blue’s Clues, but she really enjoyed matching the cards, even if we didn’t play the traditional way.
Thanks to the Letter Factory DVD- Tater knows her phonics, but she occasionally misses one when we do letter recognition. I can ask her what the letters say- in any order, and she is always correct, but when I ask her “what letter says …” she struggles with it. When we talk about words, and I ask her what letter the word starts with, her answer is phonetical- which I believe is acceptable. It shows that she can isolate the sound. Once we get all the skills working together, I’m not sure what I’ll do. I have to admit I don’t know where to go from here. I have Get Ready, Get Set, and Go – I guess the primers for Explode the Code, but I hadn’t planned on working with them any time soon. I believe the correct path for us to take would just be more of the same- really permanently lay the phonetical foundation before moving onto “reading”. I have my eyes on some Leap Frog Toys- like the World Builder- that Santa will probably bring. I’m also thinking of getting Tater the Tag reading system- complete with the Learn to Read books, and Cheezer the new Tag Jr. If Tater shows an interest, great, we’ll move forward, if not, we’ll wait until she’s ready. I’m kind of confused about how the phonics system from Leap Frog works. There seems to be a lot of stuff to go along with it- that I didn’t think was necessary at all- until someone on a homeschooling board suggested the Letter Factory DVD. I still don’t think investing in interactive educational toys is necessary as the core of learning, but obviously, to supplement learning, it works great. Tater loves words because she’s read to every day. She can’t wait to learn to read, and once she does learn, I’ll have more time on my hands. Right?
Posted at 8:28 pm | Comments (4)
25th July, 2009
Mommy- we do school!
We’ve received all of our materials. Tater was very excited to see the boxes sitting at our front door. “What do we got? More books!”. When Daddy got home she’d tell him of all the new books she had received that day. I am impressed with the simplicity of Explode the Code. After reading the first couple of pages, I learned that there was some optional supplemental material I had not ordered. Suddenly I’m not saving so much money in doing this at home. (I’ve asked for a laminator for my birthday). There is a very cute alphabet wall chart that you can order to use with the program that I’m very tempted to buy. It’s on sale at CBD this month. Tater isn’t ready for a phonics program, but I anticipate probably next summer she will be.
Tater is very excited to start “school”. I’ve settled on Sept 14- well, because that’s the day Christian Liberty Preschool in Illinois starts their program- and they are the designers of the program I am using. I want the Christmas lessons to correspond with Christmastime. I could start earlier and put in week long breaks, but I need time to get prepared.
Prepared for what? My house is in a constant state of upkeep. I want things to be clean and organized. I want a beautiful school room with shelves, a desk, a pocket wall calendar to do daily orientation, an American flag, my laminator. I’ll steal one of Daddy’s many computers and load it up with educational software. Maybe next year- or by time she starts kindergarten. This year, I’ve decided to do it in our dining room. I just want to be orgnized about it. I’m going to get a rolling cart and plop a desk apprentice on top of it. I made it through 3 years of grad school on my dining room table. I taped outlines of papers to the wall, littered the floor with index cards, and dared anyone to cross the threshhold when I was in writing mode. I’m sure one or two years of at home preschool will be just fine there also. It’ll give me time to scour craigslist for good deals on classroom furniture, and to nag daddy into painting the schoolroom.
I’ve also recently read The Well Trained Mind. I checked it out from the library and I loved it so much that I’m going to be getting my own copy. Heather (Camian Academy in my links) was the first person to mention it. It’s a great resource, and puts into words what I haven’t been able to articulate about my desire to homeschool. It’s more than controlling the influences my children have at an early age, but it’s also being there to recognize their strengths and weaknesses, to be sure that they aren’t being dumbed down in order to keep up with the rest of the class, or passed over when they haven’t fully learned a concept- but the class is ready to move on. Children don’t learn the same way, and it’s ridiculous to teach them all the same way. If you’re thinking about homeschooling, or homeschooling, I’d suggest you read it. In each section it gives suggestions on resources to use. I was happy to see that Explode the Code was on there. I’ve quickly learned to be cautions when reading the Well Trained Mind Forums. One can quickly start to second guess their curriculum choices, opting for the next best thing. The book suggests switching when it’s obvious a program isn’t working, but once you find something that works with your child- to stick to it. There will always be something new out, and I can already sense that I could easily be one of those parents posting with curriculum regrets.
Posted at 2:18 pm | Comments (2)
