Jun. 18, 2008
Homeschool Q&A - Part 3
Answers: Part 3
Okay. Let me see if I can wrap it up here! I think there is at least one question I have not yet answered...
Q - Have you started teaching [your children]?
I am teaching DD a little. She is eager to "do school" but I don't want to overload her or do too much too fast. Once DS catches up developmentally, and no longer needs therapy, he too will be home full-time. That will be fun!
As for DD (and I realize your sons are all past the preschool age), I have some workbooks she likes to do that we got from our local dollar-mart or the bookstore, as well as a series of preschool readiness books from Rod and Staff Publishers, and the preschool book from Handwriting Without Tears. We have a Kumon activity book and we do lots of play-dough, cutting, pasting, coloring, crafting and reading. Lots of reading! Sometimes I read to the children and look at the pictures together, and other times I read aloud while they play quietly near me. We just purchased a couple of beginner books from The Critical Thinking company and are looking forward to the arrival of Pre-Math-It.
DD also loves making lapbooks. Look it up online, they are great fun. Since she's still small, I get the materials together and help her put it together. Some of my favorite resources for lapbooking and notebooking are: Lapbook Lessons, Christian Preschool Printables, Homeschool Share, Unit Studies, Notebooking Pages, and the Notebooking Nook.
DD is chomping at the bit to learn to read. I don’t want to push it too hard and burn her out, or strain her eyesight, but she is anxious to learn. I plan on working through “Teach Your Child to Read” by Siegfried Engelmann with her in addition to our regular reading aloud. She has already started recognizing some words as we read. They are not your typical “sight words” perhaps, but she recognizes “God”, “love”, “Jesus”, “Lord”, “Ruth”, “David”, “Daniel” and a couple others.
We have been working with DS on more basic skills for the most part, but are starting to be able to introduce some new “school” concepts. During the traditional school year (Sept-May) he has therapy in a preschool class setting two-three days a week. He has vision therapy (working on learning to use and trust his eyes; learning to identify similar/different items – sizes, colors, shapes, animals etc.), speech therapy (learning how to make sounds and combine them into words; identifying items, recognizing similarities & differences, and following instructions), occupational therapy (gross motor & fine motor skills – learning to play with toys appropriately, dressing/undressing skills, self-feeding skills, coloring/pre-writing, cutting, pasting, exploring new textures (tactile), and more), and behavioral/developmental therapy (learning to express himself appropriately, exposure to preschool level activities & learning how to function in a group setting).
DS is making good progress and is developmentally somewhere around the two year old mark, more or less. We review his therapy activities at home and do plenty of things to augment it. We talk about everything we do – labeling things and explaining what we’re doing and why as we go along. His favorite shape is a circle and he finally seems to enjoy coloring. We are practicing ABC’s, basic counting, and introducing colors and other shapes. He enjoys the DVD's from Preschool Prep Company. We have the numbers, letters and shapes DVD's. We used them first with his sister, and saw amazing benefits. His low-vision affects his ability to absorb the content as quickly as she did, but he is learning. We sing a lot of songs and read stories (though his attention span is not very long for books). He can recognize and imitate the sounds of a few animals and say their name (doggie, cat, bird, cow, sheep). He’s not fond of play-dough, glue or finger paint, but likes sand, rocks, grass and chalk. I have been working through several of the activities from “Slow And Steady, Get Me Ready” by June Oberlander with him. It came highly recommended and it has been a good fit for us.
My personal preference for curriculum or method of teaching is kind of an eclectic mix of Charlotte Mason/Classical/Unit Study approach. My children are not ready for the regular "formal" learning yet, but I like what I see with the Heart Of Wisdom teaching approach, Tapestry Of Grace, Trivium Pursuit, Homeschool In The Woods, Christian Perspective, and Classical Astronomy to name a few. For Creation materials I love the resources at Answers In Genesis. They also have several Biblical history resources. Lots of great stuff there.
Aside from the books and activities, I try to weave learning into our daily lives. As my children are still so young, it is not too complicated. We identify colors and shapes of things we see; count the number of items; match like things together and identify why things are different; fractions and following directions in cooking; addition and subtraction of anything; recognizing words in books or elsewhere; memory skills with songs and verses; answering TONS of "why" questions; and practical things like helping with laundry, cooking and cleaning (my children are still young enough to think household tasks are fun) and a myriad of other things.
You want your boys to grow up to be godly men and to love to learn. Help their "book learning" come alive by integrating it into everyday things. Have them help plan meals and prepare them (home economics, nutrition, meal planning, science [what is the difference between baking soda & baking powder, and why does it matter]...), help with shopping (math, budgeting, planning, logistics [how do you keep the cold stuff from getting warm while still getting everything you need]...), gardening (science, botany, math/geometry, archeology [depending on what you uncover in your garden bed!], engineering [how to keep tomato plants or beans growing upright]...), and dozens of other ways.
Finally, a few things I have learned from others and will share with you. 1) Let your boys be boys; 2) Keep them active - a healthy, active body is necessary for a healthy, active mind; 3) Give them work to do around the house and yard - they need to know that they are a useful, contributing member of the family, and it helps to build a good work ethic; 4) Read good books with them and to them, and see that they have good books to read on their own; 5) Find ways to serve others as a family - nothing helps put our self in its place better than helping and encouraging others; 6) Help them to see God's hand in creation, in history and in your own lives.
I guess that will do it for now. I hope I have not completely overwhelmed you with all this information. If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to ask. I hope I have been helpful.
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