Description
"A baby needs not to be taught a trade, but to be introduced to the world."
- G. K. Chesterton
My Links
»
»
»
»
»
|
What we Did: June 2009
Our start to official "school" didn't go off too well, with tears about five minutes into the first day. But it went better than the first day of potty training, at least.
The tears were not really about school, they were about restricted use of the erasable markers. It was ok for her to use them for writing words; it was ok for her to use them for practicing her handwriting strokes. But when those activities were done they were to be put away, not to be used for coloring all day. Life is tough that way.
At the same time, they didn't want school to end when I was ready for it to be done. But they didn't really want to do it on my terms, either. What plans I had went out the window pretty quickly. I don't know how much of this is a maturity issue, how much is a character issue, and how much is just a personality issue. I still can't imagine following an actual curriculum.
Here is what we settled on instead: For fifteen minutes (I set a timer for this part) we do *something* related to reading and writing. We choose the activity ahead of time so we don't waste time deciding during our fifteen minutes. Among the possible activities:
- Alphabet book pages for D2
- Making words with alphabet magnets. (This is a lot slower than I would like it to be, especially since D1 *always* wants to start by spelling her name, after which there's not much time for anything else. D2 does this the most.)
- Learning words to/ practicing reading a poem. (This is from what I actually prepared to do, but we are not really doing it the way I planned. She has no interest in the word cards, which I thought would be fun.)
- Reading a book together. (We got the first set of Bob Books from the library--unfortunately that's all they have--also stacked up all our Beginner Books.)
- Writing labels and sticking them on appropriate things around the house.
- Practicing writing with dry-erase markers on a worksheet inside a page protector.
- Making a book with words she can read.
I'd like to also try writing short commands (Sit in a box. Get on the bed. Set a car in a box. etc.) for her to read and act out. I'm still looking around for ideas for this stage. She can sound out a short word pretty easily if she actually looks at it, but she has that beginning reader trick of staring at the ceiling and spouting a random word at times. D2 is still just playing with the letters, but he seems pretty comfortable with most of them.
Anyway, after our fifteen minutes of reading and writing are done, we have another fifteen minutes for another activity of their choosing. This usually winds up being a game (involving math, no doubt--there are few that don't) or using the messier art supplies. I am hoping at least once a week to take art supplies outside and add to a nature notebook. I don't set the timer here and we usually keep going until I am tired and want to take some time by myself before the babies wake up from their morning nap.
I still haven't worked Spanish into this, but let's let this all work for awhile and maybe on the next rainy day I'll give it a try.
So here is what a day looks like:
7:00-8:00 Get everybody up and dressed.
8:00-9:30 Breakfast and outside play time; I do yard and garden work when no one needs rescued.
9:30-11:30 Singing time and babies' morning nap; school with big kids and then my rest time while big kids play.
11:30-1:30 Lunch and kids play all together while I try to catch up on dishes.
1:30-2:30 Get babies ready for nap; read stories to babies; put babies in play pen and read Bible story, sing, and read picture books of their choice; once or twice a week a chapter from a chapter book.
2:30-3:30 or 4 if I'm really lucky: everybody's nap time! Big kids often don't nap but are expected to play quietly alone and not ask for anything.
4-6:30 snack; more play time, outside if I'm caught up on housework and supper prep; pick up house (hopefully)
6:30-8:00 DOB gets home; supper; get everybody ready for and in bed.
A bit tedious and very exhausting, but it does work. |
Posted: 11:26 AM, Jun. 29, 2009 |
Comments (0) | Add Comment | Link |
|
Organizing Thoughts
I love creating organizational plans. However, I have lived with myself long enough to know I am far better at creating the plans than at living with them. I also know that standard organizational methods often don't work well for me (I cannot follow a shopping list to save my life) and it usually takes a lot of tweaking to get things to work right. So I'm a bit apprehensive about having to actually organize and plan schooling rather than simply sticking to my strength of capitalizing on the children's questions and interests.
This is my practice year, though. D1 at five (in two weeks) now seems to be ready for a small (very small) amount of regular practice in reading and writing, but our state does not require formal lesson plans or reporting until six. So I can play with what works for just a few subjects and hopefully find the right mix.
One particular challenge is the interrelationship between keeping things on paper and keeping things on the computer and/or online, both for planning and for record keeping. There needs to not only be a specific place to put different things, but a particular reason for putting things where they are--and it has to be easy, because in the throes of a new idea I am far too likely to grab something and plunk it in the handiest place, quickly resulting in total chaos.
So here's my initial plan:
Planning
Computer: General links, organized by topic; Forms, customized; materials to print.
3-ring binder: Specific curriculum plans and lessons (by topic); calendar;
Files in portable basket: immediate month and next two (topical subdivisions) for hard copy materials for students (maps, magazine pictures, etc.)
Recording
Computer: Month by month general summary with pictures of highlights (on blog); end of year personal summary of best books, materials, etc., for use with future children and reporting purposes.
Composition notebook: Monthly book list; daily record of activities and observations.
For this year I plan to continue with the things we have been doing (more or less sporadically, as energy allows): daily read-aloud time (which has now expanded to chapter books as well as picture books and a Bible story), with singing and prayer; reciting a Bible passage at breakfast; playing math games or with math manipulatives as a free choice; observing nature while playing outside; telling stories of holidays; playing with art materials.
To this I would like to add a brief reading and handwriting lesson with D1 (we're going to try italic handwriting, although I'm having trouble finding free materials); playing "Visitors" and "Simon Says" in Spanish; and making a weekly journal page, perhaps collectively, that shows a seasonal nature observation. If D2 wants to participate in the reading lessons I have an alphabet book made for him using vehicles for each letter of the alphabet to get us started; we'll see what interests him from there.
It sounds like a lot all written out together like that (well, at least it sounds like a lot when you also factor in constant supervision of two very inquisitive toddlers all by one very sleep deprived mother), but we *have* been doing the things on the first list (some with the aid of hired help) and most of the things on the second list should only take a few extra minutes a day. It is definitely going to be less work than it would be to take her to kindergarten and bring her back every day, with four little ones, no car, and a district that doesn't have bus service! |
Posted: 12:13 PM, Jun. 5, 2009 |
Comments (0) | Add Comment | Link |
|
Math Conversations
Sometime last year I picked up a 100-bead style abacus at a second-hand sale. It's wooden and sturdy--the tag says IKEA. Irresistible to touch. Fun to arrange into patterns.
Asking around about how to use it finally directed me to RightStart Math. A little perusing of their website and I figured out the secret was the way the beads are divided in fives. I taught the kids their rhyme about numbers from six to ten (six is five and one; seven is five and two, etc.). You can also demonstrate with fingers, which we did as well. With those visualizations in place, you can learn addition and subtraction by relating them to fives and tens--which unlocks all the addition facts. D1 caught on quickly: pondering how many children she would have if she had six girls and five boys, she realized it would be one more than ten ("five and five").
The abacus also allowed them to easily count and visualize numbers up to one hundred. They liked watching me count and demonstrating large numbers on it themselves. One of their favorite random things to do is to announce how old they are: "I'm 54!" "I'm 72!" Now they can illustrate these numbers on the abacus. I really like this even better than base10 style blocks--it's neater and helps more with visualizations.
I'm also impressed with the math games that RightStart uses for review. I don't think we need a curriculum yet, but when we do, RightStart is going to be at the top of my list. Right now playing "War" and "Go Fish" are pretty good math exercises. D1 will probably be ready to play two-card War soon, where you add the two cards together and the highest sum wins. D2 understands the larger number concept, but still has trouble with the losing concept. He announced his own rules to DOB: "Let's play it so that whatever card I play, it wins."
The other day we were riding in the car and D2 announced to DOB that we had seen one workerwoman and two worker men, which made three worker persons. This set us off adding other disparate groups: "Two boys and one girl is three kids." "Two apples and one orange is three fruits." "Two buckles and one car seat are three things around you in the car." We kept this up all the way to the chiropractor. |
Posted: 12:02 PM, Apr. 27, 2009 |
Comments (0) | Add Comment | Link |
|
Teaching Reading
D1 is edging closer to really reading, and I've been re-examining how to teach (or just promote) reading yet again. She is memorizing whole books; she knows the most common sound of each letter (we used those first, before letter names) and she has heard me break words apart into sounds and put them back together many times, sometimes as a game, sometimes when writing words at her request. She will spell words with me just helping her break apart the sounds and explain any unusual constructions.
Now she is starting to be able to hear all the sounds in a short word herself, and even blend together sounds. She will "read" books and stop and correct herself at times when she sees that the words she is saying are not the ones she is seeing.
The more aggressive phonics advocates would probably say this is bad. She clearly knows many words by sight, and she might get in bad habits of guessing at words. However, this is exactly how I learned how to read and how DOB learned how to read, and we read and spell better than most. Since she understands the basic concept that letters represent sounds, she looks to understand how the sounds are represented in the words she knows. I think this will lead her to the same place as a more orderly phonics progression, and it's far more natural for her.
I do think it's about time we had some more formal lessons on reading, though, and I've promised her we will start on her fifth birthday. I'm dissatisfied with everything out there, though (of course!). The sight-word people are right that real reading involves *knowing* words, not sounding them out or guessing; the phonics people are right that memorizing every word in the English language is simply impossible; and the whole-language people are right that reading controlled-vocabulary or phonetically-correct text is unbearably painful. I'm impressed with the way Diane McGuinness organizes the sounds and spellings of the English language, but the curriculum based on it, while quicker and simpler than phonics, is just as tedious and twaddly while it's in process. Also it seems to be written for children who are struggling readers, which doesn't seem necessarily appropriate for a child who takes naturally to decoding.
The trouble with English is the irregularity is up front. If you simply start with the most common words, many of them use advanced spelling patterns (the) or practically unique spellings (once). On the other hand, if you start with the most common sounds that will be used in words of every length, you find it impossible to write an actual sentence, and even with a few concessions like "the" and "of" the books are full of sentences that sound like nothing else in the language. (Dad did nab a dab of jam. Right.)
Charlotte Mason advocated an approach using short poems and simple prose (but real ones, that you might actually want to read), working with the words until the poem can be read off perfectly and with expression at once, and then doing word-building exercises with the words thus learned. The lessons sound fun and engaging, but the actual understanding of the English code seemed haphazard. English may not be as regular as some languages, but there is some logic to it and trying to learn it without that logic makes it unnecessarily difficult.
Naturally not being satisfied with anything out there, I want to do my own. With careful selection, I can find real poems, Bible passages, folk tales, that predominantly use the spellings and structures studied thus far. A few words will need to be memorized at sight, but very few. A few other words, to be studied later, can simply be read by me. We can work with these words until they're known at sight--so that reading proceeds easily--and with care I can also make sure we spend the most time on the most common words, so that she will be able to easily read most of the words in real books. But because we start with a firm understanding of the basic code, she should still realize that individual letters represent individual sounds and she doesn't need to guess at whole words. (Even the most irregular words usually only have one or two sounds spelled irregularly.)
That's my theory anyway. We'll see how it works. |
Posted: 7:37 AM, Mar. 31, 2009 |
Comments (1) | Add Comment | Link |
|
Saint George and the Dragon
DOB has recently discovered the world of LEGO trading (and also come to admit that he still loves LEGO as much or more as he did twenty years ago) and acquired a huge castle set with a dragon and a knight on horseback. The older ducklings delighted to watch him assemble this castle. D2 dug out a plastic sword and shield I picked up off Halloween clearance two years ago and was ready to face the dragon.
Naturally this called for a book, and I already knew what one to get: Saint George and the Dragon, by Margaret Hodges. It's really meant for somewhat older children--Ambleside has it scheduled in Year One--but I knew it was the right call as soon as I brought it home. They had figured out the story by poring over the illustrations before I even began to read it to them. D2 of course was the knight, and D1 the lady. We had considerable discussion over who would be the horses, the dwarf, and the lamb. I volunteered for the dragon; I'm noted for my ability to die dramatically.
We still haven't finished it, as we have been reading only a couple of pages a day. But it's been great fun to read. I'm wondering if I should suggest the possibility of making a dragon mask or head to lend a more realistic touch. |
Posted: 7:28 AM, Mar. 11, 2009 |
Comments (1) | Add Comment | Link |
|
What We Did, December, January, uh-oh
It's been a while since I did one of these. It's not for lack of activity, I just lose interest in record-keeping from time to time. Not that it matters now. But someday it will, as I realize watching my mother-in-law scramble to come up with adequate high school records for her youngest two. Must. Learn. To. Keep. Good. Records.
Bible: Continuing our Bible reading plan, we are now reading through the gospels, accompanied when appropriate by pictures from The Victor Journey Through the Bible by V. Gilbert Beers.
Memory: Currently we are reciting I Corinthians 13:4-7 at breakfast every morning. Then I will pick out a single phrase to emphasize each week, talking about the meaning of the words and perhaps telling a parable that illustrates it. They love that part.
Poetry: "The North Wind Doth Blow" seemed appropriate. I also read a few A. A. Milne poems the other day.
Song: I made a notebook with a few hymns for them to choose from and selected paintings from the Web Gallery of Art to go along with them. Current options are "Amazing Grace," "Holy, Holy, Holy," "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross," "Hallelujah, What a Savior," "Christ Arose," and "Christ the Lord is Risen Today." I also made a prayer notebook for missionaries with a page about each country and its needs.
I'm also trying to put on some fiddle music and dance every day we can't get out.
Projects: Although I felt like I was lost the whole time, I do think the project we did on African animals turned out well in the end. They learned something about the habits of the animals; interacted with the ideas in books, on the computer, in imaginative play, and in making a diorama with salt dough and paint. I was really pleased with the final project; I did suggest it but they did (voluntarily) nearly all the work themselves, from mixing the dough to painting. We took it slow and easy; it was probably over a week. I love my new paint supplies!
Here are some pictures:
 Making the diorama
 Lions eating animals at the waterhole!
Next we plan to work on birds. So far we are just reading books and watching birds out the window, but we are discussing ideas for something more.
Observations:
D1 and D2 have both advanced greatly in counting larger numbers; I admit this is due to a book I loathe, Curious George Counts to 100. D1 is figuring out how to read the higher numbers, too, while D2 usually counts correctly up to 30 and beyond. Playing hide-and-seek also reinforces this, except when D2 gets stuck in a loop by saying twenty-ten and going back round through the teens again!
After I put the coloring books away, D1 protested for awhile, but recently has been more eager to draw on her own, trying out the same theme several different ways (one day it was three robed figures of graduated sizes, alternately herself, me, and D3, or Jesus, Mary, and the Angel.) She's especially interested by patterns, tracing ones she sees in books, and I got her some books that I hope will encourage exploring that.
We tried to do observational drawing a couple of times, but I haven't really gotten them into it yet.
They've played grocery store for days on end, setting up, sorting, shopping, buying, and putting away the groceries.
D4 has learned to creep forwards and could sit himself up if he had the slightest desire to sit--which he doesn't. D3 is rolling both ways and starting to push herself up, too. She can babble several different sounds, including "Mama."
Activities:
Playing in the snow.
Playdough
Pattern blocks
Felt shapes
And generally, just the usual round of things. They are doing better at keeping things in various "stations" picked up, although things are starting to get out of hand again. |
Posted: 11:49 AM, Feb. 4, 2009 |
Comments (0) | Add Comment | Link |
|
Mathematics for a People Person
D1 is most definitely a people person. This child had mastered small talk by the age of two: "So how was your day, Papa?" As we drive around random neighborhoods she will point to the houses of total strangers and ask when we can go visit those people.
She is also a quick study at mathematical concepts. We've done no study of mathematics at all yet, except for what arises in casual conversation or from books of her own choosing, yet she understands numbers up to a hundred, addition, basic multiplication, and has some glimmerings of place value.
What amuses me is watching how these two interact. By the time she was three, she would calculate future ages for herself and D2 and their friends: "When I am 6, J will be 7 and A and D2 will be 5." Now she loves to look over a hundreds chart and locate everyone's age: here she is, here are her cousins, here are Mama and Papa, aunts and uncles, Grandma and Grandpa, and even great-grandparents. Thus she learns about larger numbers and how they fit together.
She also thinks a lot about number groupings; I think she learned some of this playing with the glass gems. Right after the twins were born, we were commenting on having a family of six and she said, "Now we can be in threes or in twos!" The twins themselves gave her an interest in groups of twos, and she is starting to notice which numbers can describe groups of twins and which can't. She likes to tell all about her imaginary families and how many girls and boys, how many twins and "separate" and how many all together. (And on a more morbid note, how many have died!) |
Posted: 12:39 PM, Dec. 26, 2008 |
Comments (0) | Add Comment | Link |
|
Reading progress
I found this interesting Stages of Reading checklist on a blog today. It's an interesting look at all the little steps there are from first encounters with a book to really reading.
It does seem to be written with a schoolish slant, which means some parts seem out of order for children learning reading at home. For instance, the ducklings were "retell[ing] a story by looking at pictures after repeated listening experiences" before they were two, but they still don't know what their last name looks like. (Hmmm . . . maybe we should work on that.) And was there ever a time when they didn't "enjoy having books read to them?"
Looking it over, though, I would say that D1 is in "Stage 4." She can write the entire alphabet out and knows all the basic sounds and a few of the secondary ones. (I never really even worked on teaching it to her in order, but she's seen it enough in puzzles and charts to work it out, plus she loves the Alphabet Song I was so reluctant to teach her.) She's comfortable picking out the initial consonant sound in a word, but tends to get lost after that. She generally starts writing left to right, although if she runs into an edge she turns and writes in the opposite order below, like the Ancient Greeks, so she's in good company. She doesn't have any of the standard "sight words" yet, but she does recognize "cat" and all of the family's names.
D2 is in "Stage 2." He repeats phrases from books constantly. (One evening I commented to DOB that we could easily reproduce our children's conversations by reading their favorite books onto an iPod and hitting "shuffle.") He can identify several letters and is starting to ask me to help him write them.
One little note: I see way far down on the list the milestone "sees self as a reader." This week D2 found a board book in the babies' toy basket and was horrified. I told him it was OK for the babies to have that book, but he objected: "They can't read!" He took it off for himself, so I guess as far as he's concerned, that doesn't apply to him.
I'll try to look back every few months and see how they're progressing on this. It's fun to watch. |
Posted: 2:06 PM, Dec. 11, 2008 |
Comments (0) | Add Comment | Link |
|
Tell, Don't Show
A little-known aspect of Charlotte Mason's teaching is that she actually discouraged too much reading aloud to preschool children; she suggested it was better for the parents to tell a few stories over and over. It seems rather opposite to her decrying of teachers of older children getting between children and writers or allowing the rereading of material, but there it is.
Every father and mother should have a repertoire of stories––a dozen will do, beautiful stories beautifully told; children cannot stand variations. "You left out the rustle of the lady's gown, mother!" expresses reasonable irritation; the child cannot endure a suggestion that the story he lives in is no more than the "baseless fabric of a vision." Away with books, and "reading to"––for the first five or six years of life. The endless succession of story-books, scenes, shifting like a panorama before the child's vision, is a mental and moral dissipation; he gets nothing to grow upon, or is allowed no leisure to digest what he gets. It is contrary to nature, too. "Tell us about the little boy who saved Haarlem!" How often do the children who know it ask for that most hero-making of all tales! And here is another advantage of the story told over the story read. Lightly come, lightly go, is the rule for the latter. But if you have to make a study of your story, if you mean to appropriate it as bread of life for your children, why, you select with the caution of the merchantman seeking goodly pearls. Again, in the story read, the parent is no more than the middleman; but the story told is food as directly and deliberately given as milk from the mother's breast. Wise parents, whose children sit with big eyes pondering the oft-told tale, could tell us about this. But it must be borne in mind that the story told is as milk to the child at the breast. By-and-by comes the time when children must read, must learn, and digest for themselves.
~Charlotte Mason's Original Homeschooling Series, Volume 5, p. 216
I'm not sure I fully understand her reasons--perhaps some of it was the little availability of books for small children in those days, but given her dislike for literature designed for children in general, I doubt it.
Anyway, I'm not giving up reading out loud, but over the past few months I've been trying to suppress the urge to go hunt up a library book with a story they need to hear, and replace it with telling the story myself. We skipped the Thanksgiving books and I told them the story of the First Thanksgiving. When D1 asked about Santa Claus, we told her the legend of St. Nicholas. Monday I revived "Henny Penny," which I used to read to them out of an anthology.
The practical advantage I can see right off is that I don't have to have my hands free to hold a book. Thus, it's even easier for the children to beg for the same story over and over while we're working or caring for the babies--until they know it well themselves. On Thanksgiving Day D1 heard a passing radio reference to Squanto and recognized it immediately.
Perhaps long term, the difference is that a child this small first needs to know their parents above all, which means it's good for the stories to come filtered through the parents' experience and philosophy. The parent also can better adapt the story on the spot to the child's needs and understanding. (I do this anyway when reading books, but perhaps it goes smoother when I'm telling the story off the top of my head.) My children don't mind brutal endings (like in Henny Penny!) but other children might.
Since books written for preschooolers are inevitably accompanied by large pictures, perhaps telling the story rather than reading the book gives a greater motivation for the child to learn to picture the story for himself instead of relying on outside props. Seeing parents telling stories, not just reading them, might also provide a greater model for narration later on.
Above all, telling stories instead of reading them means that a few stories will be learned, dwelt upon, and slowly understood. A good folk tale or historical legend has far-reaching implications, moral, literary, historical--it is worth coming back to again and again.
Whatever the reason, I'm enjoying the experiment enough to continue. There are still some favorite picture books I couldn't bear them to miss out on, and we'll still read non-fiction books when they're interested in a topic, but I'd like to focus our read-alouds on the Bible and an occasional chapter book, and give them their heritage of folk tales and religious and cultural icons by telling them the story myself. |
Posted: 5:15 AM, Dec. 10, 2008 |
Comments (7) | Add Comment | Link |
|
Yahtzee
This past weekend DOB discovered the Yahtzee game in the attic. The ducklings saw us playing and naturally wanted to be included. We agreed, after we had added felt to the cup so that D4 wouldn't scream every time we rolled.
They both caught on to the general idea very quickly. D2 somehow managed to roll three Yahtzees in his first game. D1 wrote some of her own scores and would often comment on which numbers would be used to write a score (25 would take a two and a five). They had to count groups of numbers (three fives, four twos) and thus learn to think of groups as objects. They had to sequence when they had a straight.
And we all had a blast. I don't think we're missing anything by not having worksheets to count and color the apples. |
Posted: 8:49 AM, Dec. 1, 2008 |
Comments (0) | Add Comment | Link |
|
What We Did, November 3-29
Bible: Later Kings, Return from Captivity, Queen Esther. (The stories seem to have gotten out of order, I need to fix that for next year.)
Memory: None, really.
Hymn: We Plow the Fields and Scatter
Poetry: A few random selections, A. A. Milne, "Goody O'Grumpity" for Thanksgiving
Books:
Finished Little House in the Big Woods, went on to Farmer Boy
Autumn Leaves, by Ken Robbins. Nice depiction of different leaves. We found some linden leaves that matched the description, but I'm not sure what tree they came from.
Way more Curious George and Curious George knockoffs than I like to admit or endure.
Z is for Zookeeper. Enough with the stupid rhyming already!
OK, so I'm not very pleased with this month's books, except of course for the Little House series. D2 also selects The Three Billy Goats Gruff several times a week.
I decided to tell the Thanksgiving story rather than read it from a book. I'm really pleased with the results. D1 especially begged to hear it over and over, and while listening to the radio perked up and recognized it when it came up.
Activities:
Made puppets and had a puppet show.
Finished digging and mulching beds for spring planting.
Baked rolls, birthday cake. D2 helped with making stuffing and pumpkin cheesecake for Thanksgiving.
Looked for leaves and decorated for fall.
Visited the Krohn Conservatory and took pictures of the different rooms. D1 used her own money to pick out something from the gift shop.
On their own initiative, played bank and grocery store. They also played cows a lot.
Observations:
D1 said to me, "I have nine daughters that are twins and two separate boys." "Really?" I asked. "Yes," she said, "Two and two and two and two and . . . one separate girl." She also counted eggs and poker chips by twos.
I taught D1 to play War, which she grasped immediately. D2 wanted to learn, too, but he still doesn't like the idea of giving up cards. |
Posted: 12:39 PM, Nov. 28, 2008 |
Comments (0) | Add Comment | Link |
|
Curious George and Puppets, 3
We used our puppets for a puppet show Friday night. (Actually a week ago Friday, now, but it's been a busy week.) We rigged up an impromptu puppet stage with a tension rod and a blanket. (This took paint off the doorway.) The puppets had some trouble with shedding glued-on parts; I think we need to find a better way to attach things.
The ducklings asked the grownups to go first, so we improvised something involving a lot of screaming, puppet angst over not really being lions and bears, and explaining why one puppet was missing an eye. When the ducklings took their turn, they mostly copied us and knocked the puppet stage down.
Since then puppets have been shoved aside for Thanksgiving preparations, but D2 especially has expressed interest in making more puppets. I have some library books on making puppets I will pull out to see if the interest is sparked again when the Thanksgiving rush is over.
Curious George continues to be popular in general; they found a counting book (up to 100) which they demand everyone who walks into the house to read and also the alphabet one. |
Posted: 1:59 PM, Nov. 23, 2008 |
Comments (0) | Add Comment | Link |
|
Curious George and Puppets, 2
I made good on my promise to make up puppet shapes while the ducklings were at Grandma's house this Tuesday. On Wednesday when they came home I told them everything was ready and they immediately abandoned all thoughts of whining for printed-out coloring papers (something I'd like to get away from) and headed downstairs.
I had hunted through the craft boxes my sister made for us and found feathers, pom-poms, scraps of fabric, felt, ribbons, lace, bits of fake fur, googly eyes, buttons. Having it all waiting on the table was definitely better than hunting it out on the spot; having a table where we could spread things out and leave it during meals really made the whole thing possible. I'm still working on the balance of collaborating with them (rather than either directing or just leaving them alone.) I did keep charge of the glue (was not satisfied with how either glue I used worked) and encouraged them to wait and try out what they wanted with everything rather than gluing one thing on immediately and then discovering later they wanted something else in that spot.
D2 came up with the idea of making fuzzy eyebrows by trimming fuzz off the pom-poms. He imitated D1 a lot but also had some of his own ideas. I really love the way D1 did hair on her puppets; I helped her make the braid for the red-haired one.
We worked for about an hour on Wednesday and another hour on Thursday. After we had made the first two puppets on the first day, I realized D2 still had no idea what they were for. I put my hand inside and had it say a few words, and he instantly lit up and they began taking the puppets around, naming them and talking with them. D1 had hers nod and shake its head rather than talk for it for awhile.
Next up: tonight we hope to do a puppet show. |
Posted: 8:19 AM, Nov. 14, 2008 |
Comments (0) | Add Comment | Link |
|
Curious George and Puppets
D1 has mentioned Curious George's puppet show several times since we got the book Curious George Goes to the Hospital. On Saturday morning, while we were out shopping, they apparently improvised puppets from socks and did a puppet show with the baby sitter. They kept talking about them.
I asked D1 if she would like to make puppets, and she agreed. I suggested she could draw what she wanted her puppets to look like. She got several small stuffed animals and traced around their shapes, then adding details for the kind of puppets she wanted.
Then I was searching online for ideas on making puppets (it was clear that she expected her hand to go inside, so stick puppets were out) and came across a very simple outline for a puppet shape. She immediately wanted it printed out and colored. About this point D2 woke up from his nap and wanted one, too, although he flipped out at even the slightest hint of suggestion as to what he could do with it. ("I will not make it look like ANY ANIMAL!!!!!")
D1 colored hers an assortment of colors and added a mane, saying it was a lion. D2 of course then wound up coloring a lion, too. I said while they were gone on Tuesday I would try to sew up some puppet shapes that they can then decorate (it's gotten cold and we will probably be inside a lot more this week.) We'll see how this goes--I'm still not sure how well I'm going to be able to extend a project long-term. I'm too eager to move on to new things.
We keep coming around to lions, too. Not only did they both color lion puppets, but they watched the lion videos again while D2 was having his hair cut and then played lions drinking from the water hole outside. Their desire to be lion hunters has been stymied by a lack of volunteering giraffes.
|
Posted: 5:29 AM, Nov. 11, 2008 |
Comments (0) | Add Comment | Link |
|
Curious George and African Animals
So I'm playing with what we can do to expand interest in African animals sparked by Curious George.
We started last week with looking through some pictures on Earth Album. We decided to look for a monkey and found a picture that reminded us of Curious George, so we made a powerpoint page with him on it. D1 typed in "Curious George" and D2 typed the species name. (Actually I looked it up later and it was a chimpanzee. But it did look curious.)
Yesterday (Wednesday) I let them watch some footage from Africam. It was dark at the time so there wasn't much to watch on the live cams. Instead we watched some saved footage of a lion taking a drink. They noted the way it licked its lips as it drank. They then wanted to watch lions eating. I warned them that lions ate other animals, like giraffes, but they were still interested. They enjoyed it thoroughly. (Not bloodthirsty, exactly, but they're certainly not overly sensitive.)
I have a couple of books on hold about African animals and about the zoo--not sure which way those will go or if they will intersect. Their cousins did a fun project of making their own zoo; or of course making a model jungle would be fun, too. I think we have some pictures of animals they could use. The question is how to make them aware of the possibilities without taking over. I think first I'll help them compile a "building box" and then we'll talk about different things people have done so they can make their own plans. |
Posted: 5:13 AM, Nov. 6, 2008 |
Comments (0) | Add Comment | Link |
|
Cognitive Functions in the Learner/Teacher Interaction
Now that sounds like a dissertation title. Maybe it could be work for a dissertation, but I have no aspirations to a PhD, so I'll just blog about it.
We have long been familiar with the Myers-Briggs personality type system, but only recently have DOB and I begun to really comprehend the underlying cognitive functions originally defined by Jung. Here is a helpful website if you're not familiar with the terms.
For purposes of this post I'll just point out that there are two ways of perceiving information: intuition and sensing; and two ways of judging information: thinking and feeling. Each of those ways can then be expressed in a more introverted or extraverted manner, thus making eight possible functions. Everyone has a primary and a secondary function, one of which is a perceiving function and the other of which is a judging function, one of which is extraverted and one of which is introverted. (Everyone uses all the rest of the functions, too, but that's the important part for this discussion.)
Now, typing preschoolers is probably a bit iffy, but we know our children quite well and it seems pretty clear to us that D2's dominant function is introverted intuition (or Ni)--he's always off in his own little world, from which he returns with out-of-the-blue flashes of insight. It's harder to be sure what his secondary function is, but we think it's probably extraverted Thinking (Te), the ability to organize and marshall resources. D1's dominant function is clearly extraverted Feeling (Fe), the ability to interact and seek harmony with others; it seems likely her secondary function is Ni, as she also is prone to those sudden insights and not that responsive to step-by-step demonstrations (which would be more in line with an introverted sensing outlook, the other possibility).
That means I have two kids (and a husband) whose primary way of taking in data is through introverted intuition, a process that is utterly mysterious to an outsider. These are the kids who you show them a thing five thousand times--because they seem smart and you thought they were ready for it--and they DON'T GET IT. You give up. Then a month later you happen to pass them using that information or skill flawlessly. They do not respond well to external motivation. They don't like to be shown how to do things (though they do like to watch).
My primary function is extraverted intuition--I'm always bubbling over with new ideas for how we can do things. These ideas, I have observed, do not usually catch on very well right away. In fact, usually when I come up with something new I want to do right now! Come on! It's fun! I'm greeted with blank stares or wails of dismay. Plus I haven't yet thought through whatever it is, so things are not prepared and it doesn't work anyway.
This, I realize, is why the classic preschool activities do not work at all for us. They are dependent on Mother being able to carefully prepare and set out what is to be done, and they are dependent on children who are easily stimulated by what is set out in front of them. Here is an extract of a day last week:
D1 and D2: "Can we do playdough today? You said we could do playdough today!"
QOC: "Oh yes, you can do playdough today. Go get it out." (Returns to puttering about on the internet, thinking about Christmas presents.)
D1 and D2 start setting up the playdough.
QOC: "Hey, what if we made our own salt dough. I mean it's playdough! Just like playdough! And we can mix it ourselves. Only we can roll it out and make Christmas ornaments with it."
D1 and D2: "Nooooo! You said we could do playdough! We want to do playdough! We can do that another day."
QOC: "Oh fine, do playdough. Hmm. We're almost out of salt."
D1 and D2 remain happily engrossed in playdough for two hours. QOC has twenty more ideas about potential Christmas presents.
For a similar reason, Montessori-style materials do not quite work--even though the ducklings love "projects" and beg to get them out. But I am no good at showing them a precise way to use something, and they are no good at following someone else's ideas of how things should be used. A basket full of jars to screw and unscrew the lids on in precise order? Boring. A basket full of jars and another basket full of glass gems with which to work for an hour of "canning" like Little Sal's mother (this all being their own idea)? Engrossing.
So I'm intrigued by the potential of a more project-based approach--especially at this age. Free play is supposed to be the order of the day, but even free play needs stimulation of new ideas, a variety of materials (with guidance on how to use them properly), and a feeling of purpose and value. There's a need for something "more" in our days, especially with winter coming (though even outside there are moments of dullness when they start climbing all over me and the babies or squabbling), and it's not Letter of the Week with Matching Snack. That's not our style.
What works best--what I want to see more of--is for me to spend time simply observing and analyzing them (that's my secondary function, introverted thinking--Ti). Then I have an "aha!", a thought of something that would enhance and enrich their play and learning. Here's the tricky part: Instead of inflicting it on them right away, I want to move toward then analyzing that idea, working the bugs out (give my Ti a little more time to work), and transforming it into a simple provocation of a new arrangement of available materials or an offer of a new activity that can be done at any time in the future. (Usually they respond well if given plenty of advance warning.)
I'm also working on using their interests better instead of, at times, fighting them because they don't fit my scheme. I'm not too bad at this, but there are a couple of areas that have bugged me. One is D1's obsession with cooking. Every toy--every toy--becomes either something to cook with or something to cook. And then everything gets dumped together instead of being in nice separate containers and I cannot find a single wooden spoon or the pasta pot. Well, instead of fighting this, I'm going to give her more materials that are meant to be dipped and poured and stirred. And maybe we could tie it in to her budding interest in writing by giving her some recipe cards? And, of course, I should be giving her a larger role in real cooking--not just stirring the dish, but learning to measure properly. (D2 has some interest here, too, but I would say D1 is the driver.)
Similarly they love Curious George, which doesn't quite fit my standards for Excellent Children's Literature. Still, it's not awful, and there are quite a lot of directions you can go with Curious George, who tries to do all sorts of interesting thing. Right now we're just looking up more about jungle animals.
Looking back, this is something I have done in some ways instinctively, and it is always the way things have worked best. It sounds a lot like my earlier fantasies of how I wanted to homeschool. I've been leaning pretty strongly towards Charlotte Mason purism for awhile, but I'm feeling more comfortable with the idea of loosening up and using her (wonderful!) insights in a way that works for us.
I'm still not quite certain how Charlotte Mason and project-based learning will interact--they have some strong similarities in core philosophy and look almost totally different in outworking. A common factor that will be key both ways is the setting out of ideas before the children and then giving them time and opportunity to ponder and interact in their own ways. And there's still time to develop that, to blend the different flavors into our own unique homeschooling stew. After all, we've still got almost two years before "formal school" is even supposed to start. |
Posted: 7:14 AM, Nov. 4, 2008 |
Comments (3) | Add Comment | Link |
|
Some Ideas With Resonance
Project-based learning.
Making art more accessible.
Juxtaposition
Organization
Yesterday we cleaned and reorganized the basement to make a play/work area and an art area. Now, how to arrange and supply the materials.
What do I have? How can I use it better?
What interests the children?
What do I need/want to do that I can involve them with?
How do I balance/intersect giving them ownership/following their interests with discipling/leading them in the way they should go? |
Posted: 7:40 AM, Oct. 31, 2008 |
Comments (0) | Add Comment | Link |
|
What We Did, October 1-November 3
Bible: King David, King Solomon, Elijah
Memory: Psalm 1, review of books of Bible learned so far, started Psalm 100.
Hymn: "Now Thank We All Our God," then we switched to "We Plow The Fields and Scatter" which was more fun and tied in more to our gardening.
Poetry: Just some random different reads, Mother Goose, etc.
Stories:
We went on a circus kick
Peter Spier's Circus: DOB thinks this is one of the most fascinating books ever, and the ducklings seem to agree. What goes on in the big ring and behind the scenes, start to finish, in a circus.
If I Ran the Circus, by Dr. Seuss: But of course.
To the Big Top, by Jill Esbaum: This gave us the flavor of the circus from the viewer's side, instead of the performer's. I found the overuse of vintage sayings a little tiresome, but on the whole it was a pretty good read.
Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert: Fascinating artwork and inspiration for some of our own.
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, by Betsy MacDonald: Our first chapter book! I thought this would be a good place to start, since the chapters stand alone rather than having a complex plot. They thought it was hilarious.
Little House in the Big Woods, by Laura Ingalls: When we started this I thought--this will never work. It's mostly about 19th-century food preservation techniques. They love it. They love to find out how things are done. The only thing that could make it more fascinating would be if she described the outhouse in detail. D1 likes to play she is Mary (being the oldest) but D2 refuses to be Laura. I'd better get to Farmer Boy soon.
Curious George Flies a Kite, Curious George Takes a Job, by Margaret and H. A. Rey. I've decided to give up fighting Curious George and instead milk it.
The Contest Between the Sun and the Wind, Heather Forest. This has really weird illustrations, and the retelling is not my favorite, but D2 latched onto it and so we have read it several times.
Activities
Digging up the backyard and building garden beds. This has been my project, but they have really enjoyed it. They like to play the trenches are their houses or try to walk down the narrower ones.
Making a "Leaf Man" from gathered leaves and sticks. (The perfect art activity! No supplies, no mess, no cleanup, no storage.)
Planting garlic
Organizing the basement
Dressing up as the Cat-in-the-Hat characters.
Looking up jungle animal pictures online and finding one that looked like Curious George; creating a powerpoint slide about it.
Observations
D1 continues to work very hard on writing. She can almost write the entire alphabet in order--she still has trouble with J, K, N, and Z. She writes everyone's name and is beginning to sound out other words. She wrote a long letter to D2 and told me what it said. I need to make her some small books and get out lined paper for her to have another variation. I also need to organize the supplies so it's more accessible and give her a place to keep her papers so there is a defined limit. She draws more houses and people and also lovely geometric designs.
D1 also has striking insights on math and spacial relationships. She observes things like, "Half of the family are dressed." We then had an interesting time arranging pieces of apple and glass gems at breakfast in halves and thirds.
D2 is enjoying block construction even more and can get very absorbed in it; he made a bed and jungle trees.
D2 can draw some basic shapes and combines them into lovely designs.
D2 also asked to learn to crack eggs. We're still working on it. They both have helped more in the kitchen; I have split up the chores so I can work with them more one-on-one and attitudes and skills are gradually improving.
|
Posted: 6:58 AM, Oct. 22, 2008 |
Comments (0) | Add Comment | Link |
|
What We Did, September 3-30
Bible: Joshua, Judges, now working through I Samuel up to David and Saul.
Memory: Psalm 1, Books of Moses, History, Poetry.
Hymn: The Bible Stands, but it hasn't gone over very well and I'm not too excited about it. I may move on to a Thanksgiving selection.
Poetry: Halfway Down, by A. A. Milne. Now it's caught on. We've also read a few other poems here and there, especially ones about pirates, and Edward Lear's "Pelican Chorus," and I think Mother Goose has been out a time or two.
Stories:
Doctor De Soto, by William Steig. Continuing on the doctor theme. It took them awhile to get this one, but they did eventually catch on.
The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies, Beatrix Potter (a few others earlier in the month, too, I think)
Peter Spier's Fast-Slow, High-Low: Not a story, but a lot of fun to look through and discuss.
Rooster's Off to See the World, Eric Carle. Also several Eric Carle matching books.
Two of Everything, Lily Toy Hong. Not a profound folk tale, just a fun little story. This one had them running around yelling "humble little hut," and "bamboo furniture."
Put Me in the Zoo, by Robert Lopshire. The guy with spots.
Animals Born Alive and Well, by Ruth Heller. A rather cool, if rhyming, book about mammals. We had a good discussion off of this one.
And some old favorites: Curious George, Henry the Explorer, A Birthday for Frances, Boats on the River (Which has spawned a forbidden game of pretending one is the river coming down from the mountains to the sea--by leaping off the back of the couch.)
Activities
Watching our wedding video, which triggered a little discussion on family history. (Also much excitement over getting to watch a real movie at last!)
Drawing around themselves and then adding clothes and faces--we did this out on the driveway with chalk, which both allows for much more numerous tracings and eliminates the need for storage. Far superior to butcher paper.
We had a windstorm and resulting 37-hour power outage, which resulted in a lot of play with flashlights and some basic instruction in fire safety.
Building houses with the downed limbs from the storm
Dressing up as pirates and going on a treasure hunt (done with photos of different locations around the house.)
Watercolors, especially with D1.
Snakes and Ladders
Picture sorting with D2.
Visited Eden Park, overlooking the Ohio River. We watched barges and riverboats; they climbed a hill in the woods with Papa, and we fed the ducks.
Acting out "The Three Billy Goats Gruff" with an old board propped up outside.
Observations
D1 has started painting recognizable objects, such as flowers, even copying a vine with flowers I had painted. She is also coloring and painting designs of different shapes: small squares within larger squares, for example.
D1 continues to copy letters. She got out the Eric Carle matching books (one word per page) and copied numerous words out of them.
We had one lesson in word-building with the magnets one afternoon. She is getting closer to grasping word-blending but still isn't ready to make the leap yet. D2 is quite good at picking sounds out of words.
D2 is making solid improvement in governing his tendency to melt down over small difficulties and ask for help instead. D1 is doing well at obeying instructions (at least ones having to do with doing helpful jobs) with a cheerful, "Yes, Mama."
D2 can handle climbing on bars well. He is doing fairly well at dressing himself when I am feeling up to requiring him to do it or when he forgets that he wants help.
When playing Snakes and Ladders, D1 was making observations on how many she would have had to have rolled to land on a different square. |
Posted: 12:53 PM, Sep. 30, 2008 |
Comments (0) | Add Comment | Link |
|
|