Walking Therein

Can I Homeschool Just A Little Bit?

Mominpa asked a very good question. She is expecting her new baby any day now, and she is wondering a few things about teaching her other Littles, ages K and 1st Grade. 

"I have really been thinking about trimming down and ONLY doing the 3 R's.

Reading practice (Sing, Spell Read and Write) with additional reading practice and read alouds

Writing- basic handwriting practice..using Sing Spell Read and Write and also our memory verses.

Math- continue in our Horizon math books.

Can we put off SS, Sci, and so forth for an entire year? It would be K and 1st grade years.

How many of you have done this?

How long can I stick to just the basics???

My thinking is once ds's are reading...the worlds of SS, SCI etc..will really open up to them in a whole new way anyway.

Any thoughts????"

Just in case you are new to my blog and my philosophy of homeschooling - and incorporating Living Learning Moments (as I have coined them) here are my thoughts on some of her questions:

You are talking about a time when the best learning is done as you wash dishes, pick up toys, take a walk... feed the dog. You are talking about the time when your Littles will notice all of the letters and numbers and words and you can ask all kinds of questions to get them thinking and adding and reading without even a texbook!
Baking with Mommy is a great time to do simple addition - 1 Cup + 1 Cup = 2 Cups and so forth... it's a good time to introduce simple fractions... give them an understanding that you just add the top number. Simple little Living Learning Moments.

It will be a blast to read books on a historical person or see if your library has a video on a historical subject, person, place, time.

I think handwriting at this age is overrated. I think memorization is FANTASTIC. You can sit around and talk about and memorize Scripture, poetry, famous speeches... kids this age are *so* good at memorization. It is pretty amazing, actually.

You can do it, and it will benefit your children and impact your homeschooling in a way you would have never imagined.

I have a wonderful suggestion that I am just learning to love - sketch. Get each of your children their own drawing pad and take them outside and let them draw something. Then you can go to the library, get online, find some books and read about the flower they drew or the frog or the grasshopper or the house with the dog. You can teach science, history... whatever you can, be creative with whatever interests them.
If they like cars, let them draw cars and then have them write different parts of the cars (you can use almost *any* school subject in this manner). You know what they like. Let their interests lead their learning, and you will be amazed!!!

I wanted to share this comment, because sometimes it can be overwhelming to feel like you have to stick to someone else's idea of homeschooling. You do not. Yes, you have to teach your child. You have to follow the law. But, life is the school. Truly it is.

blessings! -Jacque

and, a note to my new reader in FW and surrounding areas- no, that does not mean Fort Wayne, which is actually only 20m away, that would be FW in the great state of TX... you know who you are! ;) You most likely will not find what you are looking for here or at The Daily Planet or Lothlorien!   Have a great day!

Um, Hello...

11:27 PM, Thursday, July 26, 2007 .. Posted by Jocelyndixon

Can't really leave you a comment since you're sitting next to me in the van... yeah, we NEED highspeed, ok? Mom? dear?

Ok...
LOVE you a 1000 purple squashes?
Jocelyn

:D

Great Help

11:44 PM, Thursday, July 26, 2007 .. Posted by hugabunchmom

What a wonderful bunch of advice. I've browsed your blog and found several of your previous ones a great help and I absolutely love your list of what you are using with each child. It helps a ton to see what others are doing, I appreciate your sharing. I'd like to add you as a friend so I can check in easily now and then. Hope you are enjoying a fantastic summer. I found you through the blogger babies calendar, we had our fifth in April!

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11:03 AM, Friday, July 27, 2007 .. Posted by Marye

This is really great advice...I know that the times that we have had major life transitions doing this type of thing has helped alot.

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11:14 PM, Saturday, August 4, 2007 .. Posted by Anonymous

Wonderful advice...and there apparently is some recent research suggesting that children who focused on the "3 R's" actually did better on the other subjects later on. That was in the public school, so I can imagine that any child that was actually taught to read would do better in other subjects later. But reading and math really are fundamental and there isn't really a need to push other subjects if they aren't mastered. IMHO, anyway.

A lot of what a K or 1st grader needs to know at that age comes through living with family, anyway, as you pointed out. Community helpers? Please. Who needs a unit on that when you can pull over and watch the firemen wash their trucks?

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11:19 PM, Saturday, August 4, 2007 .. Posted by Anonymous

sorry, that anonymous was me.

Dana
http://gottsegnet.blogspot.com