Preschool teachers have more fun

Until I really committed to homeschooling I had a horrendous time with my 4 year old. He would refuse to learn. If I sang the ABC song, he would put his hands over his ears and yell NO!!!!

Then he began watching me teach my daughter and would ask to do school too. At first I still struggled to get him engaged. And then one day, it clicked for all of us. I gave him a worksheet page and explained what to do. Then as he did it, I ran around the classroom and grabbed assorted colors of everything. Different shapes of things and set up stations all around the pool table. After he spent about 5 minutes on red and circles as the page indicated, he came over to see what I was doing. He sorted all the red items out, found the circles, and it clicked. He was smiling and laughing and learning. No hands over his ears. No yelling at me to stop! Learning suddenly became fun for him. And for me! 

Now he will point out red things, red lights, circles, wherever he sees them. And he wants to play learning games now too. He is suddenly getting phonics. Before he would look at letters like I look at hieroglyphics. Now there are letters that make sounds that mean something. 

I'm enjoying him more and he is enjoying life more. He even seems to be behaving better now. Granted, something clicked in his brain. But something also clicked with me in the ways I teach him and I have to admit, this is fun. 

Coops, Karate and our Not-so-much-at-Home Schooling

When we first thought about homeschooling and began pursuing it with my daughter's father, he told me how afraid he was she would be isolated, stuck at home all the time and unsocialized. It's a common misconception about homeschooling and even though I knew it wasn't true, I am actually a little stunned (now that we're in the midst of it all) at how busy, socialized and un-isolated we both are. Since we began homeschooling two weeks ago, I've made more friends, met more moms, been out doing things and seeing things and experiencing things that I previously would never have had time for. I love it, and truthfully, I'm a little overwhelmed.

I'm coping because I know three things - 1) like anything new and strenuous, you get better at it, stronger and more able, 2) the beginning of the school year, developing new routines and deciding which field trips to participate in will get easier and I can manage our time, and 3) we are having so much fun in the process.

In the last two weeks, in addition to usual school work, we've had three field trips, found a weekly coop group, a library group, started twice a week karate and are just about to sign up for pottery classes, cake decorating and a one time jewelry making class. It sounds like a lot and it is! Yet, she is learning a lot, gaining confidence, developing skills, and making new friends - and I am too.

I didn't expect to meet people myself or make new friends of my own in this journey. I guess I was so focused on her that it just didn't occur to me. But while I was quite isolated at home with little ones while my kids were at school before, I now am engaged with parents a lot like me. I am chit chatting with moms I've met before once but previously failed to connect with - at karate, the library, church, picnics.... The ones who are not homeschooling their children think its interesting and approach it very positively. The ones who are homeschooling are super encouraging to me. I think I like this homeschooling thing... just one more reason.

I had wanted to find a coop, but the idea also scared me. I knew it was important so I trudged on toward that goal even though I didn't know where it would take me. Then suddenly I met a woman who passed my phone number along to the leader of a closed coop - already maxed out on number of families. To my delight, she called me and we chatted and received us warmly into the group. And really from the sound of it all, this coop is better than I could have ever hoped. It's everything I wanted and more. Kids my kids ages, bible and prayer and missions, art, gymnastics, legos, games, and more mamas just like me.

The field trips have been great! Places that offer homeschool days really do an unbelievable job at engaging these kids and letting them explore and discover. Even our own little outings have been fun and relaxing.

Yes, I'm new to this whole thing, parts of it feel overwhelming, and I love it. Every minute.

Taking Initiative

Taking initiative in your education is what learning is really all about and one of the main reasons I wanted to start homeschooling. I was so excited that my daughter approached me and asked for an art project and specifically an opportunity to sketch something. We headed to a local park where we enjoyed a picnic and a short hike before she pulled out her pencil and sketch book. She has absolutely no art training and she quickly got frustrated with herself. Perfectionism strikes again. She wasn't looking at the lines of the tree or the parts. She was looking at the whole and trying to get it on paper. At the end of the day she was relatively pleased with her sketch. Was it a masterpiece worthy of hanging in a museum? No. But she took initiative, learned how to break down an image in order to draw it. I imagine her drawing will improve now in time, but honestly that is not as important to me as her having curiosity, desire to learn and improve and grow, and to take the initiative to make it happen.

New Beginnings

Today was my first official day of homeschooling my 4th grade daughter. It was so much fun. I am sure it wasn't anything extraordinary in the world of homeschool, but it was extraordinary to me as a new homeschool mama.

It began with her geography/geology reading while I washed dishes and eggs and the conversation became really interesting when she told me about Neptune's orbit compared to ours. We talked about what that would mean and compared it to other planets in the solar system. We then calculated her age, my age, dad's age and grandma's age on some of these different planets to see how old or young we'd be. We talked about why some orbits take longer than others and did some comparisons running around a chair, the house, the neighborhood so she could understand these differences. It was fun to take a small little concept like an orbit and blow it out so many different ways.

She then did her math on the computer which was a whole other issue. My daughter is a major perfectionist and was freaking out because she got one problem wrong and wasn't offered more than two bonuses. Her score for her day's work was 105% and she was crying. We had to have a talk. I am seriously considering grading her on a "Great Job" vs "You can do better" scale.

I then gave her a challenging book to read. It was on a topic that interested her, but over the summer I discovered that she has developed a distaste for reading. She outright refused to read anything all summer long. I am not entirely sure if it could be the 4th grade reading slump related to a difficulty processing what she reads or whether its more of a result of school making reading not fun. I wanted to take the pressure off either way, so I told her I wanted her to read every day, that I wanted her to read for about 20 minutes, but that if she started and felt like she just was unable to concentrate that she could take a break and come back to it. I also encouraged her to read for fun, at bedtime, for as long as she wants as often as she wants. She was so pleased and I think relieved, that she gave me a big hug, a big smile and said thank you and that she loves this. She then told me how reading at school went and it sounded like a chore, not fun and not interesting at all. So, all in all, day one went well. It was very interesting and inspiring and we will have to wait and see how the rest of the week goes.