Trying to figure out how to post the little Daybook banner still, but hopefully will figure it out when I have a little more time later....
Any way, this is the Simple Woman's Daybook! Please stop by Peggy's for other Daybook links!
For Today...still raining and glooming as the rain from Hurricane Gustav is still moving through.
Outside my Window...
I am thinking...How glad I am to have time to write a bit this morning!
From the learning rooms... letter L this week! We are drawing lots of straight lines, and Big Kid thinks it's quite funny to draw circles around his straight line because they are "opposite"!
I am thankful for... the fact that daily housework is all caught up around here!
From the kitchen... Blueberry muffins today!
I am wearing...A nice black button-up shirt, jeans, and my warmest socks- all this rain is keeping me from warming up!
I am reading... The Boleyn Inheritance by Phillipa Greggory
I am hoping...to finish organizing the new order of piano music down in the studio sometime this weekend!
I am creating... baby blankets! I finished 2 quilt tops the other day, now need to back them and bind them, and I'm working on knitting a third blanket. It's not going well, and I think I'm going to need to rip it out and try again. I'm still learning this knitting thing!
I am hearing... Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. Hee-hee!
Around the house... Most everything is picked up at this very second! I don't get to say that often. I have some deeper cleaning to do on Saturday though. The boys have been busy in Big Kid's room and I have to check frequently since they are so quiet! Quiet boys often leads to troublemaking, but this time they are just intent on building with lincoln logs and blocks.
One of my favorite things... is writing in my paper journal. There is something about a real pen scratching across real paper that I can never fully get away from...
A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week... Heading to the library, piano lessons on Saturday, a grocery run, lesson planning for the studio, and a rare child-free date night with my husband!
Here is a picture thought I am sharing with you... I have an excellent picture of the boys at their block table, but I'm having the worst time posting pictures! Hopefully I can get it sorted out soon!
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Monday, September 1, 2008
So what do I do next?
Big Kid will be 3 in just a few weeks and we've unwittingly been raising him in a way that coincides happily with the Montessori method. A homeschooling friend of mine made a few comments under the assumption that I was specifically following the method, and when I became very confused we got things cleared up and she sent me off to read a few books. I was never so happy as to see that I wasn't just being weird! I knew I was doing things differently than my friends, but I didn't know it had a name and that I wasn't alone.
We have worked with Big Kid in the last year on many things that some people think are quite silly to teach a 2-year-old to do. He can completely dress himself down to shoes except for laces, he can handle buttons, snaps and zippers, he pours his own milk, sets the table, gets his own plates and cups out of his cupboard. He cuts with scissors, cleans up after his own spills and helps me cook much of the time.
We haven't made a big deal about teaching these things. There have been no lesson plans or specific goals I set out to accomplish (except for getting his own clothes and shoes on!). I just felt like it was all part of life, and why not learn it now since he wants to be helpful and work alongside me at this age? His younger brother is just recently at the age where they can play together well, so before that I kept Big Kid with me to do laundry and cleaning and baking.
Now I'm a little lost. I'm not sure where to go from here! I'm reading more about working on preschool skills in a Montessori fashion, but Big Kid is trying to take me in a different direction. He's a very logical orderly kid- everything he touches gets lined up in a specific order that only he knows. He's always trying to figure out how things work, and he and Superman spend many evenings taking things apart and putting them back together. He wants to know everything about everything.
We read quite a bit every day and I run my finger underneath the words as I read (mostly to reinforce the left-to-right thing). He asked me several weeks ago why I was doing that and I told him that some day he would learn to read like Mama and Daddy and this would help him to read. He was very quiet and then said, "I think those letters all mixed up tell you the words." I told him he was right and gave a pretty simple explanation about each letter making sounds that work together to tell us what word to read. Now he's determined to read RIGHT THIS SECOND. He asks me the sounds of every letter he runs into and he remembers after I tell him once or twice- even the long vowel/short vowel stuff! Now he knows almost all of the sounds and he tries to sound things out if he thinks I'm not looking. It's so funny- he won't do it in front of me, I think because I told him it was a "someday" activity.
Here's my dilemma: Isn't he too young for this? Shouldn't he play for awhile longer? He is just barely turning 3 and my big worry is about pushing him. I don't want to start doing phonics or anything like that seriously at this age because I really feel like he should be building blocks and fishing and running and all the playing he can come up with for a few more years. But he's got it in his mind that he wants this and he's going for it.
And on the other hand I absolutely don't want to discourage him from this! It is so very important to me and Superman that he read well and that he enjoys reading! I do want to follow his interests, which is why we've been doing unit study type things over the summer. I'll be honest and say that he often baffles me. I've taught many many different personalities and many different kinds of learners, and he is my opposite in many ways. He is very analytical and ordered and I'm creative and more spontaneous. I have had to learn to plan more things so that life runs more smoothly and while I value that it has never been natural! This child has been orderly since he was in the womb!
So any suggestions on what to do next? Books for me to read to prepare myself to teach him to read? phonics programs you love? Books on what to do with such a logical kid?
We have worked with Big Kid in the last year on many things that some people think are quite silly to teach a 2-year-old to do. He can completely dress himself down to shoes except for laces, he can handle buttons, snaps and zippers, he pours his own milk, sets the table, gets his own plates and cups out of his cupboard. He cuts with scissors, cleans up after his own spills and helps me cook much of the time.
We haven't made a big deal about teaching these things. There have been no lesson plans or specific goals I set out to accomplish (except for getting his own clothes and shoes on!). I just felt like it was all part of life, and why not learn it now since he wants to be helpful and work alongside me at this age? His younger brother is just recently at the age where they can play together well, so before that I kept Big Kid with me to do laundry and cleaning and baking.
Now I'm a little lost. I'm not sure where to go from here! I'm reading more about working on preschool skills in a Montessori fashion, but Big Kid is trying to take me in a different direction. He's a very logical orderly kid- everything he touches gets lined up in a specific order that only he knows. He's always trying to figure out how things work, and he and Superman spend many evenings taking things apart and putting them back together. He wants to know everything about everything.
We read quite a bit every day and I run my finger underneath the words as I read (mostly to reinforce the left-to-right thing). He asked me several weeks ago why I was doing that and I told him that some day he would learn to read like Mama and Daddy and this would help him to read. He was very quiet and then said, "I think those letters all mixed up tell you the words." I told him he was right and gave a pretty simple explanation about each letter making sounds that work together to tell us what word to read. Now he's determined to read RIGHT THIS SECOND. He asks me the sounds of every letter he runs into and he remembers after I tell him once or twice- even the long vowel/short vowel stuff! Now he knows almost all of the sounds and he tries to sound things out if he thinks I'm not looking. It's so funny- he won't do it in front of me, I think because I told him it was a "someday" activity.
Here's my dilemma: Isn't he too young for this? Shouldn't he play for awhile longer? He is just barely turning 3 and my big worry is about pushing him. I don't want to start doing phonics or anything like that seriously at this age because I really feel like he should be building blocks and fishing and running and all the playing he can come up with for a few more years. But he's got it in his mind that he wants this and he's going for it.
And on the other hand I absolutely don't want to discourage him from this! It is so very important to me and Superman that he read well and that he enjoys reading! I do want to follow his interests, which is why we've been doing unit study type things over the summer. I'll be honest and say that he often baffles me. I've taught many many different personalities and many different kinds of learners, and he is my opposite in many ways. He is very analytical and ordered and I'm creative and more spontaneous. I have had to learn to plan more things so that life runs more smoothly and while I value that it has never been natural! This child has been orderly since he was in the womb!
So any suggestions on what to do next? Books for me to read to prepare myself to teach him to read? phonics programs you love? Books on what to do with such a logical kid?
Sunday, August 31, 2008
We're Still Alive. Promise!
We've been getting ready for the school year around here! It means so many things to our family this year.
Superman is going back to college this year to help shape the direction of his career, so he has had to crack the books for the first time in several years! He's technically been in school for 2 weeks now and he's having to re-learn how to study.
For me it has meant the start of my studio's school year. My schedule doubles through the school year, and along with the bigger schedule comes more paperwork. I do all of our billling, ordering and paperork right now, so that adds a few hours to my week! There will be a lot of music going on over here starting Tuesday.
For Big Kid it means starting "school". I have 4 siblings who are still in college so he sees his aunts and uncles (and now daddy too!) doing homework all the time and he wanted some of his own. So I've added some papers to the units we're doing and since we've enjoyed the little bit of lapbooking we've done in the last few months, I've got plans to do a little more. Big Kid *loves* scissors and glue, so there is quite a big of art going on over here too! It's nice to be able to give him a stack of construction paper, scissors and a glue stick and tell him to make whatever he can think up. I taught him how to make a collage a few weeks back and he's starting to go from just randomly sticking pieces anywhere to having a bit more shape and direction.
Little Bit doesn't have anything special going on just yet, but soon he'll graduate out of Baby Storytime at the Library and go on to Toddler Laptime. That will be a big day for me. I can't believe I have to call him a toddler already. Didn't I give birth to him just a few weeks ago???
I'll be back to regular posting soon. There have been many unexpected changes to the studio this year and adjusting to Superman being in school 2 nights a week after working his regular hours has been tough.
Superman is going back to college this year to help shape the direction of his career, so he has had to crack the books for the first time in several years! He's technically been in school for 2 weeks now and he's having to re-learn how to study.
For me it has meant the start of my studio's school year. My schedule doubles through the school year, and along with the bigger schedule comes more paperwork. I do all of our billling, ordering and paperork right now, so that adds a few hours to my week! There will be a lot of music going on over here starting Tuesday.
For Big Kid it means starting "school". I have 4 siblings who are still in college so he sees his aunts and uncles (and now daddy too!) doing homework all the time and he wanted some of his own. So I've added some papers to the units we're doing and since we've enjoyed the little bit of lapbooking we've done in the last few months, I've got plans to do a little more. Big Kid *loves* scissors and glue, so there is quite a big of art going on over here too! It's nice to be able to give him a stack of construction paper, scissors and a glue stick and tell him to make whatever he can think up. I taught him how to make a collage a few weeks back and he's starting to go from just randomly sticking pieces anywhere to having a bit more shape and direction.
Little Bit doesn't have anything special going on just yet, but soon he'll graduate out of Baby Storytime at the Library and go on to Toddler Laptime. That will be a big day for me. I can't believe I have to call him a toddler already. Didn't I give birth to him just a few weeks ago???
I'll be back to regular posting soon. There have been many unexpected changes to the studio this year and adjusting to Superman being in school 2 nights a week after working his regular hours has been tough.
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