First of all, the carnival is up at Consent of the Governed.  I've been reading a few here and there, and there's just so much to share, I don't know if I can do it.  Good food for thought, at least.

I especially like SalmonMe's thoughts about teaching a preschooler, specifically two-year olds.  I will only have a two year old for twenty-some more days.  *sniff*  However, her thoughts ring true from my experiences with 5-year-old Rachel and soon-to-be 3yo Danielle.  I had to wonder if there was something 'wrong' with my children for knowing more than their peers.  Of course, I know there's nothing wrong, that they lean toward giftedness, but really, it just seems so simple to me.

Isn't it?  If you actually TALK to your children, hug them, respond to them, open the doors to their interests, it just happens!  How is that hard?

I was a bit irritated with the homeschool conference speakers for saying things like "How To Teach a Literature" and then not actually explain how to do it.  Yet, I think SalmonMe pulls it off brilliantly.  This isn't really about how to teach, but how to be ever-present and willing in your child's life.  This is such a great experience as a parent.  And then, when they read at a third grade level at five years old, you're not bragging, but celebrating the gift of learning and love of life that you've been able to give your child.

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A few other things to share...
Rachel has absolutely no fear in telling people that she's homeschooled.  Even though her every desire was to go on a bus and take a lunch and backpack to school, this is all she knows.  More importantly, I take it as a sign that she's HAPPY.  She's thriving and loving to learn at home.  It's such a blessing to see.  It's also a major challenge!  Can you imagine telling the local principal that lives on our block that we're homeschoolers? *gulp*

As it is, we haven't been super consistent about strict lessons every day, every week.  I keep saying we'll get there, but... we're not, and I'm not sure we should.  Anyway, when we do lessons, we're all feeling pulled toward more Biblical and character education over reading, spelling and math.

We start with a devotion.  This usually leads to conversations about the topic, rather than a lecture.  This is more than fine with me.  The devotional prayer, a song, a prayer from me- always thanking God for the great blessing we have to keep our children close to us.  Then, Rachel has been asking for history lessons first.  We're using CLP's Little Pilgrims.  It's not my favorite, but it's serviceable.  More than that, at this point, it's still tied to Biblical history (YAY for Christian timelines!) and we end up going BACK to the devotion, then the history lesson, and we have to pull out her Beginner's Bible, too, to read the story there.  What's 'worse', I ordered ANOTHER Bible for her that's being mailed today.  A real every-scripture Bible that's written at her level and in a good sized font.

Devotions have gone from five minutes to at least a half hour.  The only problem I see is that she really loves, absorbs, and needs the other lessons, too.  Let me tell you, this is NOT a problem I anticipated six months ago.  ;)

OH!  Lest I forget, we went to the zoo this weekend.  I didn't make it high pressure, I didn't even read most of the placards in front of the cages.  It just needs to be *real* for them to learn.  They've talked and talked and told every stranger they've met about the zoo.  When Danielle wakes up in the morning, the first thing she says is that we 'went to see the kangaroos, the hippos, the SNAKES!, the monkeys..." etc, etc.

I have to say, the zoo was pretty cool.  There's a free day coming up in October to another zoo, and it would be nice to go again!