We are celebrating our 10th official day of school! Yay!

We have been very relaxed this week with school and it has been great! I feel better about school and so do the kids, we actually get more work done and it is a great feeling of happiness. We are concentrating on getting Marlee to count. She can count to 100 memorized , but doesnt have meaningful counting, so we are working hard on that. We have been reading counting books galore, counting everything in sight, watching counting movies, doing counting poems, and tommorrow we will be playing counting games. Anything we can think of! She is really starting to get the hang of it and that is awesome!!!!!

I am hoping to do some more phonics work with dylan today and some gospel things. that will probably be it!

Love, Jaelle

• Post A Comment! • Send to a Friend!

Posted by MomsBookNook

Three kids under 4 - why are you doing any school at all?!!!

I remember when my son was born. I was going to do everything right with him. When he was 8 months old I got this great book who's title translates something like "Believing in your child" (it's "Croire on son enfant" - we were living in France at the time). It was all about the "superbaby" mentality. I did flashcards, tapes, music lessons, exercises, you name it, I did it. Simon could read 10 words at the age of 18 months, count, recognize music, etc. I remember panicking when I read it that I had already missed 8 months of education!

I stressed myself out completely so that I had little fun time with my son, and by the time my daughter arrived 17 months later, I had no energy to do anything. Guess what? There has been no difference in my daughter's ability to "cope" with school. In fact, she's a lot less stressed about it.

I found in my homeschool I did the samething - huge goals and plans in September, totatl burn out by October, and then started the whole cycle again in January.

Now I just relax. My kids are in 8th grade (they school together) and I have a very simple plan for math and language arts. Pretty much everything else comes from their own choices at the library and life.

Be easy on yourself and your kids. Relax. Love them. Play a LOT. DON'T do school this early. Teach as you go, like you did with their speaking and walking skills. You have enough on your plate just surviving the day-to-day with those little ones.

If you want GREAT inspiration for this, read things by Raymond and Dorothy Moore (especially "Better Late than Early) and find Marilyn Howshall's website at Lifestyle of Learning.org.

You'll be glad you did.

Darlene
http://www.mom-defrazzler.com

• Permanent Link

Posted by Veronica

Jaelle it's been a while since I have checked in with you. Sounds like you are off to a great start. We also have had to curb our styles a couple of times. Find that little medium that works best for us. Kindergarten so far has been fun and I think for a 5 year old that is the way it should be. I have unsubbed from the group we both were in so if you want to email me... scpepccee@aol.com

Take Care,
Vickie

• Permanent Link