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"A baby needs not to be taught a trade, but to be introduced to the world."
- G. K. Chesterton
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What We Did, November 2009
Reading instruction for D1 has settled down into simply sitting down together and reading whatever book looks interesting and manageable to her. We've done most of Fox All Week (not recommended); some other early readers that were lying around; Even Steven and Odd Todd; and The Night Before Christmas. Obviously with The Night Before Christmas I was helping her out with a lot of the longer words, but it was still fun for her. She's got all the most common sight-words down and can easily sound out short words; she is starting to learn common digraphs (sh, oo, etc.) and can tackle some multisyllable words (especially where it's just -ed or -ing added to the end.) So I'd say she's reading pretty solidly at a first grade level.
D2 wants to practice reading occasionally. We've gotten the Word Bird books from the library and he enjoys learning the short words from there. One day we got out a bunch of cereal boxes and he made up "puzzles" and copied out words onto them. (Hat, cat, fan, etc.)
One topic we've been reading a lot about has been outer space. We've read a few books about the planets and have been singing a song about them. We are trying to go out star gazing on clear nights (not, alas, very common). They wanted to make a rocket, so I showed them how to pump up a balloon and send it fizzing across the room. |
Posted: 1:56 PM, Dec. 7, 2009 |
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A few things
Well, the posts have been infrequent and the learning unconventional, but we have certainly been busy.
We've driven across the country, learned the basics of reading maps, seen mountains and rivers and prairies.
We've met new people and slept in new places. Hiked through the woods, scaled cliffs, thrown rocks, watched seagulls and bison and geysers.
We've eaten home-grown food and picked our own berries. D3 is pretty convinced the world is a smorgasbord just waiting for her.
We've been reading *Little House on the Prairie* through all of this and felt much in common with the Ingalls' journey.
This week things are starting to settle down a bit. We got our library card today. D1 wanted to check out some books she could read, and we were excited to see this library has a full collection of Bob Books. I found several of the next level up, and was pleased to discover when we got home that she can now read books made up primarily of three-letter words with ease and only a little help on sight words and very similar words. (When we left Ohio, these were still quite a challenge.) D2 wanted to try, too, of course, but mostly was content just to repeat the sentence after hearing it. He can sound out a few short words, though.
Last week my dad picked up a baby-weighing scale at the thrift store. He had no plans for it, just couldn't resist the bargain. The kids had fun weighing themselves (it goes up just high enough to register D1.) Today D1 and D2 started weighing stacks of books, adding more and more books and watching the weight go higher and higher. |
Posted: 9:38 PM, Nov. 9, 2009 |
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Rebel Without a Cause
A co-worker of mine used to theorize that homeschoolers were intrinsically rebellious, what with their rejection of the mainstream and outside authority. (I don't think he meant this as a bad thing.) Well, it does describe me pretty well, but it always seems to me that homeschoolers are still just as herd-minded as anyone else. The new product comes out that is the One Great Thing that is going to be perfect for everyone and I know because I tried it! And it's been so wonderful! For the past week!
Right.
The current buzzy product happens to be workboxes, which I am sure are a great idea that will prove helpful for many people.
But they're not all that. They are not the solution for everyone, regardless of age, temperament, and homeschooling style.
I'm not even remotely interested, for lots of reasons. I don't want to mess with keeping up multiple boxes organized and out of reach of the toddlers; I have enough trouble with the dish cupboards. I enjoy winging it more than following plans--even if I made those plans myself. I don't want to miss out on the chance to build a math activity on something that happened to come up at breakfast just because something else happened to be in the box.
Most significantly, I don't want to diminish their natural zest for learning by dictating a lot of what they do during the day. A limited amount of that when they are older, perhaps, for those dull but necessary tasks like handwriting. Oh, I know workboxes are so fun and everybody's kids just whiz through them and they finally get to do all those activities they've never gotten around to. It's just like play!
That's the worst part, in my book. I don't want my kids having fun learning because I have it all prepackaged out in the right-sized doses for them. I want them to learn because they know how to exercise their natural curiosity in healthy ways. I want them to do activities because they choose them, because it really is enough of a challenge and relevant enough to keep them interested, not because it's better than a worksheet.
Modern parents--even conservative homeschooling ones--exercise a lot less overt authority over their children than those of a century or so ago. There's a lot less "must" and a lot fewer trips to the woodshed. But at least those stern Victorians let the kids go off and occupy themselves for hours at a time. School was painful but at least a relatively small part of life.
Whereas modern parents cajole and entice and make learning fun, but they seem to leave the children very little time to be, to work out things for themselves, to learn from real successes and failures in barns and empty lots.
So that's why I'm skeptical about the claim that workboxes increase self-direction. Following someone else's sequence of tasks is not self-direction. It's a valuable skill, but still less valuable than being able to set goals, plan, and execute for yourself. |
Posted: 9:21 AM, Sep. 25, 2009 |
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What We Did, August and September 2009
Despite my best efforts to dodge doing school, the ducklings have insisted upon it most days they are here. (They are still spending Tuesdays at Grandma's until we depart.)
We've done some pages of words with a common sound or rhyming words, making a list, then a silly sentence and an illustration. D1 wanted to do ones with "th" one day, so that led us into digraphs. She is comfortable reading all the first set of Bob books (which is good, because they had to go back to the library) and made some of her own books copying words and illustrations from a board book. D2 can write his own name now and has tried sounding out short words.
In math, we talked about "5" families one day and found all the ways to combine and make five. We've played math games--"Go Fish" with numbers adding to five and then "War" with just adding whatever cards turned up.
We did a couple of days studying road signs, drawing different signs and learning what words were on them. We talked a bit about the color code.
They wanted stories from far away one day, so I told them about William Tell and the Little Dutch Boy; I wish I could have remembered more. The next day I told them how the secret of silk was smuggled out of China.
One sunny morning we marked our shadows at different times and watched how they changed through the morning, predicting how they would progress through the afternoon. We've done a lot of chalk drawing in general, too. They love drawing houses with stairs and chimneys and furniture.
We've read about Lewis and Clark again, and some chapters in Winnie the Pooh, and some Beatrix Potter and *The Sleeping Beauty* and a treasury of all McCloskey's picture books.
Next we're getting some books on China from the library, although it doesn't seem quite the thing when we're about to cross the west, but they wanted "far away."
The little ones are both walking very well now and starting to put two words together. Both of their first sentences were quite characteristic. D3: "More bite!" D4: "Out door!" Their eagerness for the out-of-doors drags us outside for a good part of their waking hours, plus the need to be out of the house for showings. We've been visiting our favorite parks one last time. |
Posted: 12:37 PM, Sep. 20, 2009 |
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What We Did: July 2009
Well, with typical abruptness, immediately after I wrote last month's summary of our first week of school, DOB and I decided to sell everything, quit his job, and move out west. (Well, just about.)
So that sort of put formal school on hold for a bit. Instead, we're doing a massive family project on moving, the frontier, and anything else that fits in. Plus they're continuing their own independent investigations. D2 has started copying and writing letters. I haven't seen him write his own name yet, but he wrote his cousin's name (well, all the straight letters) from dictation.
D1 counted up to 199 for DOB, and then DOB showed her about place value and numbers up to 1000. She copied out all the months of the year one afternoon. She still will "read" books some, mostly reciting but occasionally really reading words. Sometimes she asks to read to me.
They both have done quite a bit of coloring, drawing, painting, and stamping.
We've been reading books about the pioneers. Two favorites are Apples to Oregon, a tall tale about the Oregon trail, and How We Crossed the West: The Adventures of Lewis and Clark, with beautiful illustrations and excerpts from actual journals. I'm working up things to take on the journey, like bingo cards and coloring pages for each state. |
Posted: 12:17 PM, Jul. 24, 2009 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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.
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Posted: 5:29 AM, Nov. 11, 2008 |
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