Looking at my title I’m not sure if that’s the learning Hannah is doing or the lessons I’ve been learning being Hannah’s teacher.   I was responding to a post on the egroup I belong to and it hit me how much different my teaching experience has been with Hannah than the boys.  First I started so much earlier.  She just seems to need and thrive on school where her boys could still take it or leave it.  Now she does have days where she has no interest in learning activities but since she started so early I don’t stress about those days at all.  And these moods are usually followed but big gains elsewhere like learning to pedal her trike and later riding her bicycle without training wheels. 

What amazed me when I was answering the post was just how many different things she is using.  I’ve also making decisions about what I will phase out as she gains more maturity.  I didn’t want to pressure or overwhelm her so instead of doing 10 pages in one math book and going through it very rapidly we have chosen to work in 3 different math books for example.  How much will I change in the future depends on her.  If I think she is ready to move faster then we pare down to one and do more pages for example.  But I also think there have been some advantages to spreading the learning around for her.  She loves to puzzle over things and by using a variety of materials she has had the ability to look at the same types of problems from differing approaches. 

Also I’ve noticed that she more “verbally” aware than the boys seemed to be with possibly the exception of my oldest that was also very verbal as well although in some ways different than Hannah.  Her new game has been asking for deeper explanations for words or phrases she hears being used around her.  For example the other day she asks what does good luck mean?  I said well when people to say it to someone else they mean that they hope that everything goes well for them.  If someone says they had good luck they mean that thinks have been going well.  Then she wanted to know what bad luck meant.  And she asks this stuff several times a day.  Some times it’s a real test to my brain power to puzzle out how to explain something in depth that seems rather obvious and simple on the surface.  And after learning about an Awesome God in Vacation Bible School she has concluded that Awesome is slightly better than way cool. 

So for those who are wondering just what this girl is doing here is a list of what we are working on and what is coming up in the near future. 

Reading/Phonics/Language Arts – She is currently using Phonics Museum K and Classic Curriculum Reading 1 and Writing Series 1.  And in the next couple of months will start Winter Promise Advanced K LA.  We have tried Christ Centered Curriculum in the past.  I’m not sure if it was too intense for her or me but it just seemed to be the one we kept skipping until I dropped it.  She doesn’t do the Classic Curriculum everyday and we are moving through it more slowly as it has a lot more writing involved and this tends to bog Hannah down.  We have just finishing up the 1^st of 4 workbooks for the series.  Not sure if I’ll go for Series 2 or not.  I will most likely continue the Phonics Museum as she seems to really enjoy it and it doesn't have too much writing.  I’ll be starting WP because I like their phonics approach and the ability to choose a variety of book choices starting with the next LA level so I can match up to something similar to what every SL level we are doing.  Finally she is working through Language Lessons for Little Ones by Sandi Queen.  This has been really fun and gentle.  I love the little lessons and plan to go through the full series with her. 

 Thinking Skills – Developing the Early Learning Hannah is currently on Book 3 of a 4 book set.  She is doing the Rod and Staff series and is on Book 5 of the 6 book series.  She is also working on Primary Building Thinking Skills and Mind Building Reading.  I have lots of these thinking skills books that I’ve picked up over the years and so we will continue to work through these books over the years. 

Math – Currently she is finishing up the final book for Singapore K and will begin Singapore 1.  She is also working through Essential Skills Maths K also out of Singapore and when she finishes that up she do Power Math K mainly because it’s already on the shelf.  Much will be review but there are a few things that will be new or presented in new ways.  In addition to math skills there is lots of thinking skills build in as well.  This was printed in the US by Aristotle Press but I did purchase through Singapore at the time I purchased the Essential Skills series.  Also Hannah just finished the 1^st of 4 workbooks in the Classic Curriculum Arithmetic Series 1 from Mott Media.  So far she has enjoyed this series.  I think my plans at this point are to continue moving through the Singapore and Classic Curriculum through elementary school and then decide where to go from there.  Possible with something like Teaching Textbooks but that’s so far out who knows what will be available when the time comes.  And I do still have Christ Centered on the Shelf which I sort of abandoned when I dropped their reading program.  Its there and if Hannah asks for it I’ll work on it again but if not that’s fine too. 
 

So I’m not sure if that seems like too much or not but I definitely don’t push.  Some days I do have to strongly suggest we get started and other days she ready and willing.  The biggest thing I’ve found with Hannah is if we go too many days without school her attitude and behavior suffer.  It seems she really needs to keep her little mind busy with something or she just gets into trouble.  See I’m learning more with Hannah every day. 

Well I’m finally getting another update done on the blog. 

Last week was interrupted by the children’s semiannual visit to the dentist.  Caleb and Hayden both were cavity free.  Joshua and Hannah both have to return for minor dental work but all in all it was the best report we’ve had in a long time.  Yeah. 

Early last week Hannah suddenly didn’t want to do her school so I decided to follow her lead and not push it.  I guess she was just stressed by the dentist because she back to doing her 3 hours of school again.  We have added the Ace and Christi Kindergarten to our day and are moving more slowly through the Christ Centered Material.  Some of the Kindergarten material is easy for Hannah but she is enjoying it.  Also it’s helping me to remember to include some basic things that I might have forgotten just because I’ve done it already with the boys.  I think she loves having paces just like her boys. 

Hayden is really doing so much better now that he has restarted at the lower pace level.  This is such a better fit for now.  He is excited to see how much faster he is moving through the material.  It is also freeing up his time to push himself a little more in the math level as well. 

Overall with the first month of school behind us I feel that everything is really coming together.  It is much easier to see where we are and what needs to be done.  We are still enjoying our reading time together. 

And now that I have access to a PC and I have my business software for my Creative Memories business up and running and Edu-Track up and running for our school stuff and everything up to date I should hopefully be able to keep record keeping simple.  With my background in Data Entry both programs are easy to use and should work really well. 

We’ve gotten one letter from Jacob and we were actually able to talk to him last week on the phone for a short time.  He is really enjoying his experience and is really so busy enjoying himself that he doesn’t take a lot of time to write.  Also it seems that mail is taking 2-3 weeks to back it back and forth so there is a real lag time.  He has internet access over there but it is much slower than even dial up over here so while he can stay in touch with email its not as easy as when he is in the states. 

Well I think that’s all the updates for now.  Thanks for stopping by.