homegrown preschooler

Term 1, Week 1

What I’m Reading: At Home in Mitford by Jan Karon
I was introduced to this author over twenty years ago, but I’ve never read her books. Christian fiction has not been at the top of my list of favorite books, but I do end up reading quite a bit more than one would expect. I’m glad to be reading this one, have put the DVD on hold at the library and plan to check out the next book in the series. Over the summer I really enjoy reading books I know I can finish within a week or two. I typically read one of the Grace Livingston Hill books in my collection and then move on to the latest chick-lit or something from the Goodreads shelves of the ladies in my in-real-life book club. This year I have found that I’ve really needed uplifting books. The past two years I’ve filled this in with Jane Austen books, and while I did read a retelling of a Jane Austen novel this year, I haven’t really been in the mood yet to reread any of her books. I was disappointed in my chick-lit pick for the year (Enchanted August – I don’t recommend), so I have found myself falling into the world of Mitford. It’s a rabbit hole worth the journey. The characters are shallow enough that you don’t feel the weight of their burdens, but deep enough that you enjoy spending time with them in their daily lives. I love all the Scripture peppered in and haven’t found it corny. I have found humorous jokes and loveable characters. And I’ve learned a little bit about the set-up of an Episcopalian church.

What I’m {nature} Journaling: Vegetables!
I have vegetables! Since my harvest is still in miniscule proportions, I’m easily able to keep a log of the yield. The geranium kiss tomatoes were deliciously sweet tossed into warm pasta with olive oil, Italian seasoning, and parmesan cheese. The Italian striped zucchini surprised me after I thought I drowned it and awaited root rot. Instead, I’ve been met with tender and sweet zucchini. I’m also eagerly awaiting Gold Medal tomatoes and red and purple bell peppers. My harvest is later than friends’ since I started everything from seed rather late in the season. My harvest may not be quite as plentiful, but it has still be a really great season.

New Routine

The first month of school is all about establishing a routine. I’m not much of a morning person, but my children wake up early. They are allowed to watch the kid shows on Right Now Media each morning while I slowly wake up, drink coffee, and get started on the day. This year the tv is getting turned off 15 minutes earlier to give us time to incorporate our new devotional time. It is taking some adjustment on all our parts.

We are also adding two commitments of being away from home on an afternoon and a morning. I will need to shuffle around the way we complete our school week. Typically we do academic work in the mornings with riches mixed in to break up the brain work and then finish the more time consuming riches in the afternoon. We are losing a full afternoon at home one day a week. We are gaining a lot in other ways by being out that day, so I will figure out where we can eliminate or move school plans. The morning we will be gone affects us differently. We will not be gone as long, but it’s right in the middle of what would be a normal school day. I have decided we will make that day a riches day. While I’ve really enjoyed using our riches to break up the more rigorous parts of our mornings, I think it will work out nicely to have a day of refreshing ourselves with art, music, outdoors, and games. I want to maintain a sense of rest and renewal even when we have full days.

The first six weeks of school are generally following our most recent school routine, but I have goals on the horizon for my son to keep working towards more independence. I have made a list for him to follow that tells him the school that he can do or start on his own. I have also made him a list of afternoon occupations that he can choose from of his own initiative.

My daughter is needing more engagement during the day. While she plays very well on her own, I can see that she is ready for new challenges. I’m also wanting to soak up this last year of preschool (even though kindergarten will look much the same). She’s becoming more and more eager to be a big kid, and I know these days of all day play will be full of responsibility before we know it.

Third Grade Highlights

I taught my son how to make loom potholders this week. This is a tradition passed down from my mom. I’m so happy that he has found another handicraft that he likes in addition to all of the cardboard creations he makes. He made four potholders this week and has plans to make more. We decided we would give them as part of Christmas goodie gifts. He also wants to help make snickerdoodles.

He’s obsessed with Swallows and Amazons. We watched the movie last month when my dad came for family pizza night. We had been saving it knowing that it was on our reading list for school this year. As soon as we finished Little House on the Prairie, we started listening to Swallows and Amazons. We’ve been listening to it for far longer than we usually do with our free reads. (Lots of potholders are getting made during this book. )My son also asked for a copy of the physical book, which I obliged since he loves seeing good books on his shelf as much as I do. I’m hoping this will be a book he’ll want to read again.

Preschool Highlights

I have had so much fun with my daughter this week. I’ve set up a small checklist to help order our days. She participates in our devotional, feeding the fish, and morning self-care. When it’s time for school to start, I sing the same song four days in a row (this week it was Row, Row, Row Your Boat), read a Bible story, read a picture book, work on her speech therapy, and give her a letter coloring sheet and paper to cut. By the time she’s done, she’s ready for independent play. She goes off to her room or sets things up in the living room. Sometimes she plays next to us with the educational toys I have on the shelf by the school table. I split up our day into two parts. The other part of the day, I sing the same song four days in a row; this song includes movements, clapping, or dancing (this week it was Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes). I picked out a nursery rhyme to say four days in a row (Humpty Dumpty this week), and then I have her repeat the memory verse for her Sunday school. I’m using this time to set out some kind of sensory or preschool activity. This is just the right amount of “school” to help her feel like she’s a part of school and not too much that she loses interest.

I had two favorite parts of school with her this week. Each time we got together to sing, she had a giant smile on her face. It makes any effort I make worth it. (Because, let’s face it, she doesn’t always like the activities I pick for the day – like the wipe clean book as opposed to a worksheet or the giant coloring page as opposed to a pirate ship drawing lesson.) I also rearranged our schedule to play outside for half an hour the morning we had decently coolish weather. I loved watching my daughter playing with the bubbles. She had a magnificent time.

Needs Improvement

We don’t need to improve on this just yet, but I’m keeping it at the front of my mind – I really want to enjoy my children. I already enjoy spending my days with them, but I have times where I get too caught up in staying on track due to all the days where I throw our schedule by the wayside or where I just can’t control life around us. I want to remain balanced by not adding too many things into our days while maintaining excellence. What I want more than anything for this year is to enjoy all the moments of my kids being little.

Curriculum Spotlight

We are continuing with the brain training exercises for at least two more terms. We are using three exercises 5 days a week for 8-10 weeks. I’m using the YouTube videos from whatif244. I’m not tracking their effectiveness, but I am looking at the overall picture that my son is learning some resetting techniques. These exercises are also great brain breaks in between challenging subjects. If I need five minutes to write out some notes, I can easily send my son into the other room to complete the exercises on his own. Currently, this is in place of Charlotte Mason’s Swedish Drill. I like the idea of Swedish Drill, of my children getting in physical activity and carefully following instructions, but adding in another activity into our daily or even weekly life is too much right now. My son is training in another sport in the evenings, so this is my preference for outsourcing at this time.

Our first term artist study is Vincent Van Gogh. We are using the artist study packets from Simply Charlotte Mason. We study an art print on the odd weeks and read a short portion of the biography on the even weeks. I was very intimidated by artist study when we first began, but the SCM resources have been incredibly helpful. When I’m able to find good videos or picture books, we use those too. I’ve been a big fan of the BabyLit books for my kids through the years and there’s a good one for Van Gogh. I also have some coloring pages of Van Gogh’s work. I do not require my children to use coloring pages, but I offer them as an extra. Our biggest focus right now in artist study is to observe what we can in the artwork and narrate accordingly. This is a perfect subject for our riches day as it takes very little time, but it is such a good practice in engaging our whole selves into the school day.

Preschool and Second Grade Year in Review

What I’m Reading: Hard Times by Charles Dickens I’m reading this in preparation for The Literary Life Podcast. This is a great fictional account of the educational system and expectations that Dickens (and Charlotte Mason) were against. I think it’s a good warning for modern education, as well. Since studying Charlotte Mason, I have learned more and more about feeding the whole human as opposed to shoving facts in the brain.

What I’m {nature} Journaling: Hornworms. Gross! They are so, so gross. Giant, gooey caterpillars. I didn’t get my first hornworm until the end of tomato season last year. I went out to the garden on the first of July to see a tomato half way eaten. I knew to immediately look for hornworms. Not only did I have a hornworm but around 100 eggs too! Ewwww! I killed the hornworm, removed some leaves and dug out some dirt where eggs were visible. I’m going out each day now to make sure more don’t use my tomatoes as their food source.

On the first day of July and the fifth day of July, my son woke up asking what we were doing for school that day. I informed him (again) that we are taking a break but still have plans for crafts, games, and reading. Don’t tell him, but I have checked out picture books containing math! I don’t have expectations he’ll retain anything of importance, but I would like to keep his brain engaged over our break.

Preschool

The Best
My daughter makes a great school tagalong. She is eager to do “school” and then does a great job of going to play independently while I’m working with my son at the table. She worked really hard with her speech exercises and loves singing and dancing. She is always ready to jump in to try new things.

The Worst
I was looking through my son’s preschool keepsake folder, and I noticed some activities I didn’t do with my daughter. Obviously, my days ran differently than when my son was an only child. While he was napping, I was prepping some kind of sensory or art activity for the late afternoon. My recovery downtime between lunch and afternoon occupations is short and must be used fully for recovery now that we don’t have nap/rest time. It’s also time consuming to prep something different for each child. I think this upcoming school year, I can shift this a bit as my son is ready for some more independence. I did include other forms of sensory and art activities for my daughter in the mornings, but I chose easier access items or things I could include her in with my son. So it wasn’t a complete fail.

Plans / Goals for Pre-K
Before we began homeschooling, I tended to be dazzled by all things classical. My first introduction was through friends who were doing Classical Conversations, and then I heard of the Robinson Curriculum. I loved the idea of the vast aptitude of students in CC, but I also really fell in love with my students becoming independent in their education. I read Susan Wise Bauer’s educational philosophy books to tell me how to get started. And I went to a homeschool conference when my son was two. While I briefly heard a statement about Charlotte Mason while I was at that conference, I had very definite ideas it wasn’t for me. I bought The Homegrown Preschooler while I was there and then began my scattered and stressed homeschool. When my son was in kindergarten, I first heard of Ambleside Online. A couple months later, I met someone who used Ambleside Online. And then I looked it up and decided it was the perfect fit. It transformed our homeschool. Completely. All of a sudden the challenges I was having teaching my son were eased and became peaceful as my approach changed. I had finally found a philosophy that incorporated all of my goals and seemed so practical at the same time.

So here we are the second time around. I was so stressed out about teaching my son letter sounds and ALL the things in pre-k hoping to keep him on track and possibly get ahead of all the other kids to prove that homeschooling is the best educational solution. Not this time around. I feel far more relaxed now knowing that my daughter will learn ALL the things she needs when the time is right. We’ll be working on letter sounds, shapes, and numbers, but none of those things will be my primary focus. Our primary focus will be curiosity, seeking beauty, reading a lot of good books, singing, and playing. We will still be using The Homegrown Preschooler at times since it is a play-based curriculum with good ideas, but I won’t be wondering if my daughter is ready to start reading and doing math. The next two years of my daughter’s education will probably look different than my son’s did. I look forward to the working out of things.

Second Grade

The Best
We completed the year without major upheaval as in all our past years. We have had a major life change every year since we started homeschooling. No major life changes this year (minus a kitchen renovation that kicked us out of the house for a couple of weeks and then gave us the opportunity to camp out amongst the construction for another month). My son can read and LOVES to read. He can write. He can do math. He can do the academic things that *seem* to matter. He has turned into a very kind and thoughtful young man. I love hearing the things on his mind and heart. We read great books this year. And my son was engaged.

The Worst
1. We had challenges starting new things. This is normal. It gave us the opportunity to learn how to face hard things.

2. We didn’t quite reach my handicraft goal. I wanted to learn a new handicraft each term, but we only learned how to stitch on plastic canvas. My son only learned one stitch. I wanted him to learn more stitches and create more detailed designs. He did learn how to start and end the yarn on his own.

3. And we ditched The Story of the World Volume 2. While I love the series as an overview, it isn’t engaging enough for us. To make the lessons more engaging, we would need to include the activities or reading more the suggested reading. My son doesn’t like the coloring pages, and I don’t like spending more than two time slots a week working on history. We enjoyed reading biographies instead.

Plans / Goals for Third Grade
We are not going to follow Ambleside Online completely for third grade. I have been reading Charlotte Mason’s volumes on my own, listening to a lot of podcasts, and reading countless articles about a CM education. My confidence is growing in following a method versus a system. I’m thankful that I came to AO when my son was in kindergarten so that I could have time to adjust the way we’re doing school. Now that we have completed years zero, one, and two, I am confident that I’ve adjusted from school to education. Ambleside Online is a thorough curriculum and allows freedom for implementation. I like those things. I also love that there are so many Charlotte Mason voices in other curricula. All those other voices can speak into our education to make the best fit for our family. In setting aside parts of AO and picking up others in those places, my goal is to remain true to a CM education. The best way for me to do that is to continue reading her volumes. The best way for us educate in our home is to also go back to our original list of goals that I wrote out when my son was two. Over the next school year, I hope you will see the working out of our educational philosophy. I hope you will see that we are learning about God, humanity, and the world around us. I hope you will see the freedom we have in seeking simplicity while working towards excellence.

Term 3 Week 1

What I’m currently reading: The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton – This is the current selection for my in real life book club. I’m enjoying it far more than I expected. I’m loving the connection to The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It is increasing my excitement for when the time approaches for us to include this in our free read time.

What I’m {nature} journaling: Bluebirds – The bluebirds have found their home in our backyard. We installed a bluebird house last year. This is our first occupancy, so I’m enjoying the show. I first began seeing the male bluebird checking out the house the day after I thought the chickadees were going to move in. I’ve since watched the male and female scope out the house, stand guard on the fence, and bring bits to build the nest. Each day I catch them tending their home.

We’re in term 3. We’ve successfully (so far) followed our plan for the first time ever. I still have this underlying nag in my teacher depths that we aren’t going to be able to fit in what we need to, but I think this is based on all our past years of me trying to figure out a good rhythm and unexpected things happening with our circumstances.

One new thing for us this term is trying out brain training/ primitive exercises to our school days. While I don’t think we need to incorporate every single one, I do plan on us rotating through all of them at some point because you never know how they might help. I chose three exercises for us to work on for eight weeks, and then we will rotate to a different set of three exercises.

Our field trip highlight for our first week is getting to see portions of the Calpulli Mexican Dance Company’s performance. We are learning Spanish and studying Hispanic cultures, so this was rather exciting. My son said that the musicians were like rockstars. I enjoyed it because it reminded me of the time my parents took me to a Cinco de Mayo celebration in the city we lived in as a child. The performance was fun and also educational as we learned about the battle that Cinco de Mayo celebrates and the real Mexican Independence Day in September. Of course, all of the costumes are delightful, and I was inspired to learn more about their folk style patterns and fashions. I also have a doll my grandmother gave me when I was younger that is wearing one of the traditional dancing dresses. Now that I’ve seen this doll come to life, I want to learn more about that dress in particular.

A preschool highlight for the first part of this term is our study of rainbows, colors, and the sounds instruments can make. We created a rainstorm using tambourines. We watched the way clouds release moisture using shaving cream, water, blue water, and a pipette. My daughter wasn’t a fan of the messy painting projects we had, so I guess it’s time for me to start adding in some more variation in our sensory play to help her be more comfortable with messes…maybe.

1/3 Year Update

We completed the first term of three sometime in November. We were very consistent with school despite appointments, sickness, and a kitchen renovation. And by consistent, I don’t mean we completely followed a schedule, but we did complete our readings and activities well. We also had extra time to visit museums and take many nature walks.

We made several changes in the way we went about school this year. First of all, I started doing some preschool activities with my youngest. While her “school” is not a priority, spending one-on-one time with her is extremely important in our day. I do keep a “weekly” print out of activities for us to complete. I keep it to help me provide variety to what we are doing and to keep track of “academic” type goals. Again, her “school” is not a priority. My main goal in anything regarding numbers, letters, shapes, and colors is purely introduction; I’m just introducing it all in a systematic way for my own sake. My bigger priority is the time we spend in sensory activities like art, going outside, music, movement, and lots of playtime. I’m loosely following The Homegrown Preschooler since that is what I did with my son. Mostly my youngest is along for the ride, and I do my best to include her in some way in everything that we do. I’m still learning how to balance time between giving her my time and full attention and lessons with my son. As my son gains more independence, this will become easier. However, many of the activities I do with my preschooler are still educational and fun breaks for my second grader.

Another change we made this year is how we do our together time. When I was assessing last year’s schoolyear, I decided it was too much work for me to switch our songs and poems monthly. We weren’t getting out of it what I wanted especially the months where we were less consistent with our school days. This year I have shifted all of our together time activities to a six week cycle. (We do sit down school four days a week.) On days one and three, we say the Pledge of Allegiance, sing a hymn, and work on our memory verse (Old Testament first six weeks, New Testament second six weeks). On days two and four, we pray for specific people or circumstances, sing a folksong, and work on memorizing a poem from our current poet.

My son likes to know what school we are doing each day, so this year I created a board with a magnetic list of everything we’re doing. We often take turns choosing what we will do. While it has changed the rhythm of the day, I like that it’s giving my son some choices in how his day is going. It has also helped me grow in flexibility and my own attitude about all that education includes. Instead of feeling the pressure of getting school done by lunch so that we can have fun in the afternoons, I’ve been able to shift my attitude to see that all we’re doing is important no matter what time of the day certain activities fall into.

One very big thing I learned during this term is that Charlotte Mason schools were six days. We only do sit down school four days a week. No wonder I was feeling overwhelmed by all that I was trying to accomplish! We’ve been cramming six days into four. Well, that isn’t going to work, except it is. Since I learned that bit of information, I have been modifying some of the things we do and shifting how we do our field trip days. This is still a work in process. A Charlotte Mason education is a very rich one full of so many good things. I don’t really want to remove anything at this time (minus a few readings from our chosen curriculum that I substitute with something else) because what we’re learning is so much fun, and I don’t think there’s one subject more important than another when I go through contemplating what to remove.

I am also making shifts toward giving my son more independent work. If he was in public school, he would have more independent work, but it would be in the form of a worksheet or something written. The only activities we have that resembles that is copywork and math practice. For the most part, he does those things on his own minus his cursive lessons (because he’s currently learning that) and when he needs help interpreting math directions. I’m at a crossroads where I enjoy doing all the schoolwork with my son, but he is at a point in his maturity that he can handle a little flying on his own. I’m going to be exploring this more during our current term as we come off our break. What can he handle on his own? I know that as a leader, it will require even more from me. I think that’s why I’ve hesitated. At some point, it will free me of some of my time, but the initial transitions will be time consuming.

My final assessment of the term: it was one of the best yet. I have thoroughly enjoyed our readings and riches and academics. We’ve been having fun with Spanish, artist study, astronaut academy, nature journaling, geography, art, piano, and poetry. What we’re working on doing better this current term: discussing the lessons from the Bible, listing characters and places to help with narrations.

I’m enjoying my children’s ages. We have interesting talks. They understand how to play games. They encourage curiosity.

Kindergarten in Review

I prefer a slow transition into school. We start out with a review that leads into books we’re working on or the new books we’re trying out. I’ve added in bigger transitions into the middle of the school year rather than the beginning. I feel like it breaks up our year, gives us doable goals, and gives us something new to look forward to in the new year.

Kindergarten looked like Pre-K for one week until I realized that Little Guy learned and retained much more than I was aware. We officially added in daily phonics lessons. (We use The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading.) We also added in Saxon Math K since I was able to find a very inexpensive copy at a used book sale. (We skipped a lot of lessons as we had learned a lot of the concepts from The Homegrown Preschooler.) My biggest goals for the first half of the school year were to know very well all the letter sounds, be able to write all the capitol and lower case letters, and to complete the lessons I planned from math. We reached our goals and plenty of time to use the holidays to travel, complete fun crafts, and play with friends.

When January rolled around, we continued to the reading lessons in our phonics book, moved to Saxon Math 1, and started reading through the Y0 booklist on Ambleside Online. We also added in hymn singing during our together time, short piano lessons, and art lessons. We continued in our enrichment co-op (till COVID-19 cancelled everything). I also introduced lined paper to help with writing practice. As we were introduced to more Charlotte Mason philosophy, I also started including more nature study. (I will elaborate on our CM journey in this upcoming school year.)

During the year we incorporated some other resources that included Dollar Store letter workbooks, a Star Wars school series for letters and numbers, a few worksheets from totschooling, and some Usborne wipe clean books. I prefer hands on learning, so we limit the amount of time we use workbooks or worksheets. I try to save them as extra practice. We also listened to chapter books on audio.

Kindergarten and first grade meshed into one another during the second half of the school year. We fully completed our kindergarten goals early since we had extra time at home due to social distancing. We started on the Year 1 reading list.

The second half of the year included a transition with the baby’s nap time. We had to learn a new routine to work around interruptions and quiet time in the afternoon. We will be continuing this learning curve as the baby is now a very busy toddler.

Pre-K in Review

Our state offers a free public pre-K program. Even though children in our state do not have to officially start school until they are six years old, most people choose to enroll their children into Pre-K. We were enjoying homeschooling, so we continued our journey.

We slowly built our progression of schooling when we started pre-k. We continued to use The Homegrown Preschooler as a guide. We added in 3-4 days of about 20-30 minutes of instruction at the dining room table. Our goal was to have focused time listening or being engaged with 1-3 different activities. We introduced a phonics curriculum, but we still focused more on hands on activities.

There was a new baby in the mix, so we had a learning curve on how to balance focused learning time with play and daily life. While I was taking care of the baby, Little Guy would hang out with us. Nearby, I kept picture books for him to “read” to me. I also kept a rotation of activity books for him to entertain himself when I was occupied. Since Little Guy was four years old, there were many ways I could get him involved in caring for our Little Sunshine. He could sing learning songs and tell her stories.

I had my own lessons to learn during the year. Growing up I learned phonics the 80s style; I didn’t know there was another way of making the sounds so that they are made individually, more closed off. As a result, I bought a phonics program for us to slowly incorporate into our lessons. I also learned how to better structure our day. The best learning happens in the morning. I learned to remain flexible. I was able to navigate through The Homegrown Preschooler. Little Guy was finally ready for all the activities, so we had new adventures and games to play.

We completed our year with a celebration that included pizza and a silly string fight in the back yard. We also filled our summer with a MOPS themed scavenger hunt that had us doing all kinds of fun activities together as a family.

Preschool in Review – Part 2

Our second year of preschool was great! We were more consistent in implementing The Homegrown Preschooler. Little Guy’s mind had grown exceedingly over the last year, and he was ready for more. We enjoyed playing with the animal manipulatives in the kit I purchased the previous year. We grew in our exploration of the world around us and worked on motor skills.

We continued to read books and started learning the alphabet. Little Guy was not interested in sitting for long, so we mostly did activities that kept him moving and engaged.

One of the things I found frustrating was setting up an activity that took a lot of work to prepare and clean for Little Guy to spend a very small fraction of the time not enjoying. I’ve since learned that this is a weakness of mine that I work out in other ways. I found other ways to complete the project, invited friends to do the project with us, or found a completely different alternative to accomplish the learning goal. I also learned to change a lot of my expectations and not to compare my child to others. Every child is different. Approach open play with an open mind.

Little guy was at a great age for field trips and play dates. While we did participate in them before, our time was limited. We were working around naps and my husband’s rotating work schedule. After my son turned three, we could easily get up and go. I felt like a new world opened up to me as he matured and grew in his awareness of the world around us.

Preschool in Review – Part 1

My son was two when we began to introduce preschool at home. I purchased a starter kit from The Homegrown Preschooler. My son wasn’t quite ready for a lot of the activities presented in the book, but that offered me time to get to know my son better and to adjust my academic expectations. Even now it seems a little silly to say “academic expectations.” My goal was to set my son up for his future success and try to make as few mistakes along the way. I’ve grown in my parenthood to know that I will never be perfect, and circumstances are usually different than what we picture.

During our first year of school focus, we enjoyed playing, reading, and getting involved in our local MOPS group. We spent time being curious, digging into our interests, and being okay with messy. We listened to a lot of music, had dance parties, and visited parks where we lived. It was such a wonderful time. I look forward to doing all this again with my daughter.