Week 3 Reflections

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.

Goals for Sprecher (preschool)

Sprecher just turned three in November. I'm not in a rush to "school" him, but he's anxious to do school with his brother. During Mario's three-year-old year, he was participating in Joy School with a group of our friends. I taught about once a month, two times a week. The other weeks he was at the home of his friends with their mothers teaching. I don't have that option for Sprecher, and now, even if I did, I wouldn't use it because part of the pleasure of homeschooling at this stage is the simplicity of it -- particularly, not driving kids all over the place constantly. Still, I like the Joy School principles and I want to introduce them to Sprecher (and I would be happy to reinforce them with Mario too), so I'm including a Joy School discussion in our daily schedule. Also, Sprecher doesn't know pre-k things that Mario knew at the same age, so I'd like to work on that with him.

So here are my goals for Sprecher for this next semester:

Language Arts
-- learn to recognize the letters of the alphabet
-- start introducing the sounds of the letters
-- read together voraciously

Math
-- work on getting a firm grasp of shapes (circle, rectangle, square, triangle, oval)
-- talk about same/different
-- start introducing the concept of patterns
-- start getting him familiar with numbers

Science
-- Keep an interest notebook with things we are curious about or interesting things we notice.

Fine Arts
-- Have fun making music and making art.

Active Play
-- Get exercise.
-- Be able to move while learning.

Spiritual/Emotional/Social
-- Introduce the Joy School values he's learned before.
-- Introduce him to stories from the last General Conference that can reinforce his faith.
-- Get together with other children to play.

2013 Possible Schedule

8:30 - 9:00 Reading/Writing Training
-for Mario: Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons 
-for Mario: write a message to Dad everyday
-for Sprecher: coloring page with letters/numbers/shapes

9:00 - 9:30 Carpet time
-calendar/clock
-devotional story from the last General Conference
-Joy School discussion/story

9:30 - 10:00 Fine Arts (Art M/W & Music T/Th)
-biography of an artist or musician
-active/hands-on activity

10:00 - 10:30 Math(M-W) & Science (Th)

10:30 - 11:00 History/Geography & Reading
-History/Geography lesson/discussion/reading
-Mario read a book
-fable, picture books, etc.

11:00 - 11:30 Active Play (indoor or outdoor)

11:30 lunch