As you can imagine, any “school work” that I had planned on went out the door with the results of Hope’s evaluation.  It was very clear that any attempt to hammer on in the formal phonics and math instruction would be an exercise in futility.  So what now?

I knew that I wanted to still be engaged with her and stimulate her mind but was wondering what to do.  The solution was a slow revelation that just built upon itself over time until I was able to develop a clear plan.  As much as I fought this, I am about to become a unit study creator.  What is a unit study you may ask?

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine’s Tutoring Center page gives a general synopsis on how to begin homeschooling and has a column that describes the various philosophies, styles and methods.  Unit Studies are where,

“All or most core subjects are covered while studying any one topic or unit study, using a variety of resources and supplemental activities” 

TOS Magazine, Summer 2009

I have been collecting classical music CD’s over the last few months and I have been playing one composer’s works occasionally throughout the month.  One month the focus was on Bach, the next on Mozart, Vivaldi and so on.  We finally purchased a shelf sized CD player to go into the family room where we could listen to the music while we were eating.  One CD set I ordered recently had 60 top works of various composers, so when a song would come on, I would have to look at the CD case to see who’s work it was.  Unfortunately, Hope began having the same curiosity, and once when she picked up the case to “see”, she dropped it.  So with the help of Bill who dictated, I decided to type up the composer and the song title on spreadsheets, one sheet per disc.  Then we would just tell Hope what disc was in and she would pull out the appropriate list and then she started seeing the track number on the CD player and look at the listing on the spreadsheet.  At first I would have to tell her the name of the composer, but within no time, she was recognizing the composers, even Tchaikovsky.  It was so reassuring seeing how excited she was that she could recognize the names of the composers and that she was enjoying being engaged in learning.

We then began watching a few performances on YouTube of Bach, Tchaikovsky and Vivaldi’s works.  I wanted to be able to show to Hope how these instruments are being played, especially the strings.  There is one clip showing the “Miniature Overture” from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite that is from a performance in Germany by Berliner Philharmoniker with Seiji Ozawa, conductor.  Hope has begun to imitate the conductor’s movements when she hears this song.  We joke that she has been exhibiting “management potential” in her bossy behavior lately so I guess that would be an asset when needing to wrangle a very diverse and temperamental group of artists.  J

A while back, I had purchased several “educational” placemats and have rotated them out over time.  One has watercolor pictures of music instruments with their names and grouped by type, Brass, Woodwinds, Percussion and Strings.  There is also some basic music theory information on the border, such as full note, half note, quarter note; the treble and bass clefs, sharp and flat symbols; a keyboard along the bottom border with the key names written on them and the corresponding place on the staffs.  When we are listening to a piece and a specific single instrument is playing, I will point out the instrument and have her listen to the sound.  Yesterday while at a friend’s house, a Curious George video was being played and the storyline revolved around an orchestra.  Hope was recognizing the instruments by sound and even picked up on the bassoon.  I was shocked.  The cartoon rendition was anything but faithful to its true form, but when the instrument was being played, that’s when she called it. 

One of my goals with her in doing this exercise was to help her to focus on one thing and to not only be able to listen to it but be able to retrieve it later from her memory.  One of the main issues with someone who has auditory processing skills is that the information usually goes in but the information is difficult to find later, like filling a file in the wrong filing drawer and not being able to find it later.

In addition to this I have been reading a really great book Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin!  Each page introduces a new instrument and builds up to ten instruments.  The concepts of the titles of the groups are also introduced. The first is solo, then duo, trio, quartet, quintet, sextet, septet, octet, nonet then chamber group (10).

So after all of these events, I realized that I was slowly and unknowingly developing a unit study based on music.  I then decided I needed to just run with this and develop it further.  We have in our hallway that leads to the garage a lot of wall space.  Currently I have a couple of weather/seasonal related posters on one side and maps of the US and World on the opposite wall.  I decided to develop a time line chart under the maps, have Hope color pictures of the various composers we’ve been listening to and place them on the time line.  Then a friend on an online home school support group suggested I take a string of yarn and connect it from the picture to the country that composer was from.  Not only would she begin to be exposed to the concept of time and history but also location and geography.

So there you have it, she is increasing her vocabulary through reading, strengthening her math skills with counting and learning new words related to numbers, understanding the concept of grouping which is used extensively in scientific study and now will incorporate history and geography.  I’ve always thought that I wouldn’t be able to do this and focused mainly on purchasing curriculum that is ready to use with little prep work.  That may still be an option, but given that so many of them are heavy in phonics and math instruction, I will keep those options in the bullpen for now.