Snapshots Sept. A New School Year

Ballet for the princess

Long Beach Aquarium. Sea life with special interest in sharks, rays, & otters.

Discussion of harbors, cargo, shipping, & Queen Mary.

Riding lessons continued. Intro to trail riding.

Airplanes. Weather & geography & types of plant life. Reading a map.

Horses & cows & uses on a farm. Animal care. Riding. 

Visit to our new library. Types of literature & how to find.

A few of many books & read alouds. Other notables not pictured: Goonie Bird Greene, Put Me In The Zoo.

Numbers to 100. Counting by 2's, 5's, 10's.

Place value.

Snapshots of what the "fun" stuff has looked like. There has also been plenty of not fun, workbooks, & at-school learning as well. I have a first grader & a pre-k-er who was determined to "do school" regardless of my beliefs on academics at age 4. In her classroom she greatly exceeded all pre-k objectives on a brief assessment & none of it has been formally taught. She's a determined little thing. My first grader is moving right along with a growing interested in reading & writing; growing interest being my primary concern academically.He's  sounding out short words, showing some interest in reading books on his own, loving read alouds, growing his vocabulary like crazy, and very interested in writing for any real purpose- yay for pen pals on the horizon. We discuss the importance of being able to read, write, speak, & listen well. His number sense is solid and he's gradually getting more confident in tackling new math tasks. My ultimate goal with him is playing & working together, connecting with his heart, & reminding myself constantly that concepts of good/bad, right/wrong, true/false are pretty much formed for life by about age 6 - I can't believe he's 6! And as comparisons come rolling along I must go back to my research & convictions about his heart first & secondly the success of delayed academics. Not that we are really delayed academics, but much targeted instruction takes a backseat & I am confident that by 11 or 12 he'll be no worse off academically for plenty of time spent gardening, playing, building, and imagining at age six. 

Wonderfully Uneventful

Up until August, decisions and plans for this school year consumed me. It was as if making some decisions about my firstborn's education was the culmination and standard of measure of all my years of learning, reading, theorizing, and teaching. August came, decisions were made; life carried on. And it was all so totally, wonderfully uneventful.

Today we went to an assembly to celebrate the end of Luke's kindergarten year. August, September, October, November, December, January, February, March, April, May. These months passed and my son changed from young child to mature big kid, dare I even say young man. He amazes me. Two days at school was the right decision. He flourished. In spite of my doubts regarding the base curriculum, he is reading and writing. In spite of the early distress of playground chaos, he loves recess and has solid friendships. Three days at home with me was the right decision. We had so much fun (for the most part). He learned and did and drew me into deep conversations and we read and read and read (Charlotte's Web four times for starters!) and saw and tried and played and worked and hiked together. I'm regretting that I let the monthly photo records slip!

After many years of formal education as student, and then some more as professional, I am just about through my first AS PARENT. One down, 17 to go; and these 18 years (between three kids) are the pinnacle, purpose, and gauge of all my previous experience and preparation. It has been a huge year for Luke, but also for me. In homeschooling, I DID what I have overseen, observed, contemplated, and analyzed for years. It was freeing. It was not exactly as I had pictured. It was three days a week, not full-time. And the other two days were not just anything - they were a dynamic, incredible core of Luke's kindergarten year. He thrived at school (much to my surprise and delight). It was not what I had thought but God led us there and this year far exceeded my expectations.

The HEART at the school is remarkable; the tone set by the principal is reflected in staff and students and can be felt walking down an empty stairway. The teacher who started out the year giving up her lunch time to assure me that my sensitive boy wasn't too overwhelmed on that chaotic playground, spent the rest of the year loving and teaching and guiding him purposefully and perfectly. I sit here overwhelmed with thankfulness for Luke's teacher who poured herself into Luke and cared for him individually. Today she spoke of each child in her class individually, a minute of nice words to sum up 10 months spent truly knowing and investing in each. I didn't expect to hand him over twice a week and not need to ask and assure myself of all details, both academic and emotional. I expected to really do it all myself even if I wasn't the hands-on, go-to person every minute. I expected to have to guard over Luke's heart and mind very consciously. But these expectations were without factoring in a teacher who would take all of that on herself. Academics soared. Luke was engaged and excited. Socially and emotionally he flourished. A school teacher knows MY Luke and cares for his mind and heart like I do. On the at-school days, I dropped him off and picked him up. I was at ease. He was at ease. No need to ask my questions. No need. The whole year was beautifully uneventful in day to day operation, but ever so eventful when I look back - a five-year-old changed from little kid to young man. I cannot find words to express my gratitude to Mrs W for partnering with me in my son's education.

School. Food. House.

My last post was in November and that was only pictures! My baby just turned one. My big boy is over halfway through the kindergarten year that I spent so much time analyzing. And my princess in the middle watches the boys and says things like, "OH brothers." She's also taken to calling her baby brother, who will soon outweigh her, "Tiny," but in tender moments pets his head and says, "I wish we could make him stay a baby forever."

Writing helps me think clearly and it helps me relax and focus to put things down in black and white; writing's good for me. I am trying to get better about making habits of things that are good for me. Trying . . . . this post sat in draft form for nearly three weeks and even as I type, I'm not committed to getting another post done right away. However when I do, I know what I need to be writing about. Distinct topics on my mind are pooling into potentially murky waters and in need of stirring and an outlet.

In the near future, I would like to do some reflecting on this school year and upon the little sister who has made herself much more of a student than I intended by sheer will power.

I will probably also share some food thoughts because I have been doing a lot of reading and thinking in that department lately. My idea of good food doesn't exactly match those typically considered health foods. At this moment, I'm loving some dark chocolate and various stages of new experiments sit in my fridge, including sourdough and sauerkraut.

Lastly, I foresee myself possibly using this as an outlet for my thoughts about our home and the season of change that may be upon us. I need to be getting organized and getting rid of physical stuff and writing may be a very useful mental tool to couple with my labors.

Learning Snapshots November

Discussion intro to United States government, voting, Office of Presidency 

Wildfires, tree life & death, regrowth, purposes, clearing, observation

 local gold mining history, tools, local deer & turkey

 Thanksgiving: history, being thankful

 Ice skating

 Wild Animal Park: following a map, burrowing animals, gorillas - diet, keeper feeding talk, size & comparing, animals of Africa, & more!

 Baking, following directions, measuring

 Building, following a plan, drawing

My Son & I Are Different

It was a Saturday morning, probably about 6:00. I was drinking coffee and feeding the baby. Luke came in and announced that we were going to spend the morning "getting this house organized." Organization is far from being my strong point. It drives my son crazy. He preceded to draw a map of the house and then number the rooms or areas in order of priority, the visual plan for the day. He took at least a few minutes to show me his map and explain the plan in very careful and simple terms. He wanted to get started and I told him I'd meet him at the hallway cabinet (#1) as soon as I finished feeding the baby. After about five minutes he came back into the room; stomping, frustrated, tearing his map to shreds, and declaring "this is never going to work in this house!" I held back laughter and felt genuinely sorry for him at the same time - poor organized kid trying to survive in this crazy house with two unorganized parents. This episode made me realize a few things. The first, that in a few years - Praise God - I'll have a kid who will actually be able to bring some order to this place! Secondly, I realized that he would do better with a school work space that was his own and could be organized. I had been preparing an area for a desk because it's not rocket science for a mom and teacher to think a desk is a good idea but I hadn't realized just how critical it would be. I got the desk in place a lot faster after this Saturday morning episode and really haven't struggled much over the independent school work since. He can leave his separate books and work set out just how he wants them. He set up a cup with a few pencils and a few crayons. It's all right there for him, laid out, organized, not touched and moved about by unorganized people.

Learning Snapshots October

 

Pumpkins, life cycle, seeds, uses, harvest, types of squash

Motors

 Frogs & essentials for life (frogs found in closed cooler)

 Stencils, writing names, capital letters



Dad's work, basic concepts of hydraulics/design/geometry

     READING

Guinea pigs, origination in wild, research skills, public speaking skills

Learning Snapshots September

 Intro to sight words

 Luke creates lots of his own (practice) writing for real purposes - signs, books, cards, & more

 practice forming letters with Play-Doh

Playing school. "To teach is to learn twice."

 Cutting, collages, fine motor skills

 Sport skills class: kicking, throwing, catching, batting, hand/foot - eye coordination

 Read Aloud Charlotte's Web with comprehension & learning about spiders . . . . It was just perfect that while Luke was in the pool a spider decided to capture a bee for his observation!

 Working with numbers - Number Bingo - recognizing amounts, number & word form

 Gardening, vegetables, how plants grow, what they need, caring for plants, parts of plants, flowering plants, blackberries

 Cooking, measuring

 Farm life, plants, animal care, horse safety, intro to riding

 Fish hatchery & helping care for the fish

Learning about Fall












We have read numerous short stories. Luke is just beginning to grasp the concept of trying to sound out simple words. We work daily on days of the week and weekly on calendar skills. He continues to work in Word Building & Math workbooks & I work to add depth & different types of activities to supplement/deepen topics covered in the workbooks. He regularly works with math concepts on his own initiative - counting, building, comparing. He loves to draw & loves to create written works on his own initiative. We are taking care plants & his animals at home daily.