We're on our third week of homeschooling, and I'm noticing that the novelty is beginning to wear off. The kids are more rambunctious, and there is a little more power play going on between me and Mario (5) again. It's soured the last few days a little. But these moments of irritation and butting heads aren't the whole of our school experience. They are also interspersed with the kids enthusiastically asking for a new goal chart to set their second goal of the year after completing their first; or they are interspersed with Mario surprising me by finishing a sheet of math when some friends came over to play and I told him he was free to go (after which he went exploring through a maze with them, dodging bad guys and smiling from ear to ear); and they are interspersed with us browsing a book about the body and reading most of a book about germs. So does every day, every moment go perfectly? No. Still, overall I'm glad we're doing it and, despite the frustrations of this week, I think we can still call it a success.
On Tuesday evening, I was reading The Well-Trained Mind now that I have my own copy, and I was highlighting/taking notes, etc as I read. Wise and Bauer's philosophy is that you spend the first five years of your child's life surrounding them with language and making them familiar with numbers. During that time, she also believes you should teach them to read. She does not promote formal preschool or even kindergarten. It was comforting to remind myself of that this week. Right now, my goals are to help Mario to read, for me to read to my kids a lot, to familiarize them with math, and to encourage curiosity. If I'm doing those things right now at the 4k preschool level, then my kids are going to be just fine. I also remind myself that playing is learning at this age, so if I get out blocks to talk about shapes and my kids only listen to my explanations and only do what I suggest for a minute, and then start building with them, then they are still learning about shapes.
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