DING! The bell has sounded, the learners are in the ring, mommy throws a fast jab to the right, delivering the reading lesson, dodge-dodge, the two boys duck out of the way, mommy gives a high-math kick, leap-jump, the boys outsmart her! Tired and out of new ideas, mommy sags over the ropes, sure she's defeated....but just when all seems lost the boys fight back! Hi-YAH, roudhouse kick from the oldest, he can now read four sight words, uppercut from the younger, he can count to ten by himself! Mommy WINS! The boys WIN! Homeschooling, round two, has succeeded!!
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Sometimes teaching kids seems like a losing battle. You preach and rant and try to cram information into their little brains in tricky ways that are disguised as "play" and it never seems to stick. "I know, mommy, I know" My soon-to-be four year old is constantly saying when I try to explain a new concept to him. But then, in the end (actually it happens a few days, or even weeks, later) they heard you, and understand, and usually repeat the information back in such a way that astounds me. Be it to them to actually be learning something and having the brain power to turn around and create new ideas with the information I've given them. Especially amazing given that my brain power theses days is nil due to lack of sleep and fuzzy new-again mommy brain.
This year we are doing a little bit more organized preschool than our random when-I-had-the-energy teaching moments I pulled out of my hat (pinterest I love you) and deployed at will last year.
Monday we do reading. Were using Bob Books and following 3 Dinosaurs printables to go along with the books. So far we've read book 2 and book 3 of set 1. We have four sight words and are working our way up to every word in the first three books so Monster can read them by himself. He can read the third book almost verbatim from memory now (mostly because we lost the second book for a few weeks...). Monkey gets a worksheet to work on and reads the books with us as well. I also have done a few writing our name projects, one with beans, one with bingo dot painters, and next week we will do another with pom pom balls.
Tuesday is music and our weekly playgroup. Tapping the corresponding letters to the keyboard and writing out a simple song was a little too advanced for us, so we usually just play "kids" music and sing and dance. :)
Wednesday is math day. Most of it has revolved around those interlocking plastic building blocks kids love (you know what I'm talking about). Today we did some measuring objects with them and guessing how many it would take and charting it all. Monster did really well with the guessing, getting most spot on to what it actually measured out to, and Monkey had fun playing with the objects we had gathered for measuring.
Thursday we do science. Most of our science projects I have gotten from pinterest or a book called Mudpies and Magnets. We have explored concepts such as friction with a ramp, sand paper, and different objects; germs with cinnamon oil, and hand washing and placing food in the fridge and on the counter to see which molds fastest; and (the boys favorite) "science experiments" with baking soda and vinegar or just colored water to dump and pour with.
Friday we have a play date with friends and when I feel up to it we do a season or holiday themed craft. We made hand print trees this month so far.
We started school a few weeks before September mostly because we welcomed our third boy the beginning of August and since we were not leaving the house much in August, I decided to implement school to keep us busy.
Below, Monster and Monkey are meeting baby Muskrat for the first time. :)
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