Kindergarten Countdown!!

The countdown has begun... we made a paper chain to count down the days left until Kindergarten. Today = 71 more days! This is our new calendar set-up, still working on it - but you can see the paper chain off to the side. :) I also have a laminated piece of paper on the bulletin board and every day, we write down the new countdown number.

Plants!

We have been talking about plants lately. As I posted awhile back, we were working with a plant kit we got at Barnes & Noble. That was a dud. Despite us giving the plants sun, water, and love, they did not grow. So I guess that turned into a lesson of how sometimes, things just don't work. :)

I'm so excited that Bug is reading all sorts of words. It has expanded our horizons as far as school goes. We sat and did the "parts of the plant" board I created for spring, and she read all the words out loud and put them where they went. Without prompting from me. Wow! :)

I re-purposed our train table into a Learning Center, and this week it's still all about plants. (Next up: Bugs and Butterflies!) Here is the center - I created a bunch of activities that involve matching words with food from plants, parts of plants, etc. I will put out one or two a day this week. (Monkey is getting in on the action too!)

Here is a close-up of the file folders I created with the plants we eat, what "group" they belong in, and their names:

Fun! :) Also going to order this for the Monkey: flower toy from Amazon. I love these stacking wooden toys. But they are EXPENSIVE. So I'll buy one every so often.

Will post soon with more info about starting school for Monkey @ home.

Our year is almost over...

At the end of last week, I read through this blog and then I spent the weekend reflecting on this whole homeschooling thing. I am very happy with our school choice. I think Bug will have a great time making friends, and will thrive there. However... I am sad that we are not exclusively homeschooling. These past 8 months have been truly wonderful. Exhausting at times, and kind of scary as I pondered the idea of being solely responsible for my child's education, but looking back at the posts and thinking about all that we have done, it has been a great experience. So I can say with absolute certainty that if I am not happy with Bug's experience at her school, I can bring her back home and we will be a-okay.

Time for a post-mortem of the year, to get my thoughts jotted down somewhere:

We started out doing the boxed curriculum from Calvert. Great package, but not right for us at this time. For one thing, trying to re-create a classroom at home did not work. And, the curriculum was too easy. I will save that curriculum and use it with Monkey towards the end of next year. It's a good fit for a 2-3 year old, I believe.

Then we moved on to doing our own curriculum, and the workboxes. That was wonderful - it was great to tailor the day to suit our needs, and to tailor the projects/lessons to our teaching/learning styles. But, when the weather outside got nicer, we wanted to spend more time out there doing fun things. So we eased off a bit.

The past 3 months, we have been doing "unschooling", if I had to put a label on it. It was great for us to step back and just have fun without planning every lesson. When Bug asks for worksheets, we do them. When she wants to do something formal, we do it. Otherwise, it's just been games (Memory, Monopoly, Yahtzee, etc.), reading a LOT of books, and getting outside to enjoy the beautiful desert air. We have been to the zoo, the Desert Museum, the park, and on some lovely walks where we have explored our world. We visited California and discussed how different the climate and terrain are there. We have had some wonderful conversations about life and learning, without the assistance of curriculum. It's been very laid-back and refreshing. Amazingly enough, without doing Hooked on Phonics very much during this time (maybe once or twice in the past three months), Bug is suddenly reading all sorts of random words that haven't been "taught". I love that. Every day brings unstructured learning experiences, and it's been a joy to go through that together.

We really did get into our homeschool groove this year. I could do this, and strike a great balance. For me, a truly Type A person who likes to have things organized and planned as much as possible, it has truly been a learning experience for me as well. I can step back and not have to micromanage every aspect of this. We can have weeks (or months, like we just did :)) where we just learn through living. My children will learn at their pace and be OK, and even thrive while doing it. I think there is a great balance between unschooling and workboxes, and that is what we are going to do this summer, and going forward, with the Bug. Monkey is ready for some more structured "playtime" that includes purposeful toys designed to help her start learning shapes/colors/letters/etc. And as she gets older, I will move on to learning centers with interesting learning toys set out for her to play with at her leisure - much the same as what I did with Bug at this age.

I think I'm going to continue this Blog. Life gets so crazy sometimes, it's nice to come back and look at what we have done. Also, since I'm posting it to FB, it's a good way for friends and family who are far away to see what we are up to. :)

Thanks to you all for joining me this year, and for all your comments and support!

Spring!

Our spring table: (which now has additional nature-y items from California)



Spring is in full bloom here in the desert! It's wonderful to see all the seemingly harsh and prickly plants opening up. The cactuses have flowers, our rose bushes are in bloom - spring!

So that has been our main theme lately. Along with that, we have been talking about plants. We started a plant project this week. Just a little kit I picked up at Barnes & Noble awhile back. Bug is so excited every morning to check out the plants to see if any progress has been made overnight.

Fairies & Dragons, oh my!

This month has been all about fairies and dragons so far (and of course, leprechauns and pots of gold!). We have been collecting branches and rocks and anything we can find to build a fairy house. We put it together today, complete with a tiny swing that Bug thought the fairies would enjoy. It's all ready to go outside under the "perfect fairy bush" - today is too windy, though, so we are waiting until tomorrow. The rock pile consists of all the rocks Bug has collected for the "fairy path". She has put a lot of thought into this. :)



The weather is wonderful here right now. March & November are my two favorite "outdoor" months in the desert. We have been doing a lot of walking, hiking, and exploring. Bug is getting into running and bicycling, so she has been joining me when I exercise. Monkey is good for about an hour in the stroller, but then shows signs of distress. She wants to run and bike too!

Here is what our learning table looks like right now:


It will be changed over the weekend to reflect a more spring-y theme. We have truly enjoyed exploring the wonder of fairies, though. It's great to see mystical creatures through the eyes of a child. :)

In more school-y news, we are continuing to work on the basics: writing numbers and letters correctly; lots of reading time; and a lot of excitement about school!! We are so fortunate - we ended up getting into the number 1 public elementary school in the area on open enrollment. Despite the longer drive (compared to the one I referenced in earlier posts), we have decided to go there next year. It has a very earthy vibe (a garden out front to work on!! mosaics throughout the campus with messages about respecting everyone and everything!!) and a few perks that added up to be a lot for our family. So it's official - on August 11th, my little girl will start Kindergarten!!!

And also in the category of "Time goes too quickly!", my little Monkey is about to turn one, so I am starting to think about her learning space. It was about this age with the Bug that I started looking into Montessori, Waldorf, homeschooling, etc. and boy have I learned a LOT since then! I have many ideas, and will start working on creating a space for her in the months ahead.

Happy St. Patrick's Day! :)

February & The Future

(Side note: I just looked over and Monkey is STANDING in her playpen!!! On her own. WOW - break to take pictures and marvel at this new milestone.)

Appropriate oohing and ahhing has taken place, complete with Bug running out and knocking the Monkey over. (Cue the story about how I used to do that to my little brother when he was learning to walk... must run in the family!) Bug has been sentenced to her room, Monkey praised some more, and back to your regularly scheduled post. :)

~~~

February always flies by. Probably because it's a short month. :) (How profound!) But also, because it's truly the first "post-holiday" month to me. I am usually back in my groove by February, and then it zooms by.

We really didn't do much in the way of formal learning this month. We did some Phonics, a lot of Valentines crafts, dance class (which is not very interesting to the Bug, so when the session ends in a couple weeks, back to gymnastics with us!), and various worksheets and lots of game playing. So lots of learning, but not a lot of "We will have school from 8-10 today" going on.

We really enjoyed our unofficial game of the month, Monopoly Jr. It's a great practical use of addition/counting/reading, and Bug thoroughly loves it.

The new language-type skill we worked on this month is putting words in context, into a sentence. I got a game on clearance at Kohls, called My First Spelling Bee. It's just a wee bit above her skill level, but the "put the word into a sentence" portion was a hit. We've done that with Phonics words that Bug isn't familiar with, as well. We also randomly ask her to put a word into a sentence and she complies with gusto. :)

I have been giving a lot of thought to what I want our homeschooling experience to be for the spring/summer and going forward. We are waiting to hear if Bug got into an (even better than the one mentioned in my previous post) elementary school on open enrollment. We will find out next week. I'm so excited that we have these options, but also a wee bit sad that we will not be homeschooling. (Unless, as I mentioned before, something unforeseen occurs.) However, I want to continue learning together at home, supplementing what Bug may be learning at school, or even doing things that she is not. I envision a lot of science experiments, crafts, exciting field trips, and learning projects... for many years to come.

So. Here's where I am at on this crazy journey:

Before, I had a plan. Kindergarten this spring; 1st grade this fall; I was creating lesson plans and settling into my role as teacher. Now that has shifted a bit, and I'm still formulating how to proceed here. It took me several months to really get in my groove with homeschooling, and now I feel a bit adrift. I had a plan and a vision, darnit! :) I was all set to be THE educator in Bug's life. I'm pretty Type A and a borderline perfectionist. So when I do something, I want to do it RIGHT. I read all the books, I scour the websites, I take the quizzes ("What type of homeschooler are YOU?" etc). I soak it up and live and breathe it. I don't know if that's a good or bad thing. But it is what it is. :) Now, that role of TEACHER (at least the way I was approaching it -- a formally homeschooling teacher) has faded to the background once again, I find myself returning to where we were before this all began. I think I mentioned in one of my posts that I had an epiphany along the way this fall -- that we have been homeschooling for years. Just not in an official capacity. No forms filed, no grade level assigned... but my role as mom also included teaching my daughter about anything and everything that we encountered. It was organic and it was wonderful.

I am feeling more confident, after taking a breath to regroup and reframe my thoughts, in returning to the "Waldorf mixed with Montessori mixed with our own ideas" way of life we had going on. Maybe it's knowing that I don't have to be SO hyper-vigilant in ensuring that Bug learns everything @ home that she would have in a school environment now? I feel like there aren't any externally (I accidentally typed "eternally" the first time - that too!) imposed requirements or regulations on how we are doing things anymore. Nobody looking over my shoulder and saying "Oh you homeschool her? What is she learning at home this week?" like we have to report to everyone we meet about our progress. That pressure is gone now. (And, btw, I know this is an innocent question, and I love when people get interested in how we have done things -- but because I'm so Type A, I felt like I had to be on top of everything, so that I would feel I was doing it the "right" way and that nobody would judge where we were at.)

Anyway, that's where my brain is at the moment.. moving forward... to March -- Flowers and Bugs!! St. Patrick's Day and Spring!! I'm currently gathering things for us to do. I am also toying with the idea of buying Little Acorn Learning for the month. We used this program when Bug was about 18 months old, and since I'm feeling less "must-teach-everything-and-be-formal-about-education-y" and more "let's-do-this-my-way-and-create-our-own-rhythm-y", I think I would like to try this program again. It has a great rhythm to it and an earthiness that we both enjoyed. There are songs, stories, great crafts, and even recipes. Also a bonus - Caregiver Meditations. I LOVE those, and I have been missing something like that in my life lately.

So. Thanks for joining me on this journey as I figure out what the heck I'm doing!! And letting me be my extroverted self in sharing all my thoughts as they come to me. Whenever I do that, I am reminded of those who complain that blogs are just a vehicle for people to talk about themselves incessantly and then put it out there into cyberspace for all to read. Guilty! :)

ZOO

This isn't really about homeschooling, but it is peripherally related I suppose. It has to do with organizing the kazillion and three stuffed animals that Bug has accumulated.

I was online a couple of months ago, after yet another marathon session of tracking down and putting away all the little creatures my child can't live without (oy), looking for inspiration on how to contain the adorable critters, beyond the usual basket and bin method. Or the hanging net where they would be unreachable and probably just become dust collectors. I found this and immediately fell in love.

But, in the interest of saving money, I decided to be frugal and make our own. So, I took the box that previously housed Monkey's new car seat, turned it inside out, cut a little opening, and let Bug go to down decorating. I added some leftover Valentine's Day wrapping paper at the top to cover up the Safety First Logo, so it's all cute and heart-y. :) Thankfully, it JUST fits all her stuffed animals. Hurrah, problem solved!


I probably should not admit how blissfully happy organizational, creatively frugal projects make me.