Planning for next year - Preschool (YIKES!)

I love planning. I get all excited and like to browse and look at stuff for ideas for HOURS! C is going to be 3 soon - where did the time go? He gets bored easily and wants to do work like A, so I figured I needed to do more with him this coming school season. I don't expect to do worksheets, or activity pages or anything, but I think we will do unit studies in conjuction with what A is studying or whatever takes his fancy.  Of course, I have been looking at all these ideas from all these great sites and it's easy to get carried away. That being said, I created my list of goals for C today and it looks something like this:

Know:

Colors

Shapes

Counting objects to 5

Be able to sort different objects by color, size, and/or shape

Be able to sort animals according to characteristics

Draw a circle, square, triangle

Be able to complete an ABC pattern

Sing songs

Be able to do:

Lacing work

Pasting

Cutting

Coloring

Crafting

Puzzle work

Building skills

Sharing

Patience

Would be nice:

Recognize A, C, D, M, S

To change:

Less TV, more books and toys

More one on one time

More hands on fun like painting and messy work

As you can see, there is nothing in the above list that involves "seat work" - which is how it should be. I have found a site called Confessions of a Homeschooler that has some great free printables for lacing, patterning, letters, and colors. She has puzzles that correspond with each letter that I will be using just as puzzles - we will talk about the animals on those puzzles and the beginning letter sounds, but I TOTALLY don't expect him to know those sounds. I do want to expose him to that concept though so that when we start PreKinder stuff he has heard the idea before and it isn't alien.

So far I have decided that we will make a cardboard car and gas pump, sensory floor tiles(round or square cardboard tiles covered in different stuff like sponges, Bath sponges, bubble wrap, etc), lacing cards, sensory balloons, craft stick shapes, giant felt shapes, a felt button worm made from felt scraps that can be ordered by color or shape, etc.  

Some of the items that I can't make, I will have to buy.  Those include wooden puzzles, sorting trays(wood silverware trays), craft items like paint, pom poms, etc, aquarium gravel, rawhide dog bones in all shapes and conditions for dinosaur bone hunts, stampers, paint rollers, and dot dot painters, etc.  IF you live up in the great white north and want me to send you money for when you go to Goodwill and can pick me up some of those things, I'd be super excited :) Send me a message, I'll send you money :) :)

Attempting Unschooling.....

UnSchooling?!  WWHHAAT???  

I know, that was my first thought, when I heard about unschooling.  I will admit, I thought, “Oh those parents are too lazy to try to teach their children. They just let them sit around, watch TV, and do nothing." and "How are they ever going to be able to do anything with their lives?”  Yes, I was biased, and too immature of a homeschooling parent to even consider the benefits.

Let’s back up a second here.  

Homeschooling is teaching your child at home what they might learn while at a public or private school. IE: Reading, writing, math, science, social studies, etc.  It is taking their education in hand and teaching them yourself instead of having someone else do it.  It has its benefits and its drawbacks. It allows you as a parent to see exactly what your kid is learning and help them to learn in a way that works best for them.  That said, there is the potential to abuse homeschooling, and not teach your children what they need to know, or to do such a bad job at it, that they are way behind because you just didn’t care enough to do it right.  Of course, the flip side is that you are the most awesome teacher in the whole world and  your child turns out to be a genius and grows up to be a mad scientist who speaks 10 languages, reads, writes, and dreams in dead languages, and discovers that the origin of man was truly as it is written in the Bible because he got to interview God.  I like to think that I am an awesome teacher, but that my child is normal and that she will just be smart and happy enough to be comfortable in her own skin and will know how to help herself learn new material in order to be able to pursue her own dreams to the best of her ability.

Aislin has been prospering as a homeschooled student. Her reading and comprehension levels are WAY up, her math is up, her knowledge of science (chemistry and biology) are up, etc.  So why change a good thing?

Well, we decided a while ago, that if we ever got to opportunity to put Aislin in school again, we would make her the eldest in her class rather than the youngest, as she had been.  So, going with that thought we made the decision that since she has completed all the second grade work from last year, and is halfway through her third grade work, we would give workbooks, and 3^rd grade "lessons" a break and do real life experiences.  Some of the experiences she wants to learn from are pretty interesting, and all her own choices.  She wants to see how Jan Mitchell makes her glass plates, volunteer at the animal shelter, figure out how to classify corals, understand our local history and why chaney is what it is, "do" marine biology as it pertains to our marine environment, learn more about sushi and cooking in general, learn about rocks, crystals, and minerals, learn about farming, etc. 

I figure that unschooling is about letting kids learn about what interests them, and providing them with as many primary sources as possible to make that learning successful. So, with that in mind, I am going to set up interviews with key people, field trips, find books on those topics, and really get down and dirty with Aislin and what interests her.  Of course, since I am slightly A type, when I want to be, it will be planned, and it will be in an orderly manner.  She WILL keep reading and doing math; and she will learn about stuff that many kids her age do not get to explore in an in depth manner at such a young age.  Hopefully this will serve her well later in life, and give her some good memories of the fun side of learning.

I will have to keep you all posted as to how it goes, but if you are reading this, and you have any skills that can help us in any of her topics of interest, email me :).  If I know you have those skills, never fear, I will be calling you!  It could be as simple as lending us a book, or talking to Aislin after she reads some books on the topic, or hosting a field trip, or even putting her to work to give her hands on experiences.

Let the Unschooling begin!

Homeschool 2012 Outlook

It has been almost 1 year since we started homeschooling Aislin and we are loving it. I noticed that during December we were having issues staying on track and the whole schooling thing was just not fun anymore. I also started having my own issues with staying on track and getting anything done.  Part of it was that it was getting close to Christmas and the other part was that I just didn’t seem to have a schedule and it was really easy to goof off.  In order to rise above the rut, meet our schooling goals, and have fun again I am revamping our homeschool routine.  We are going to do more fun games more breaks where outdoor fun is on the menu, and we are going to use a schedule book.

I could have gone out and bought a premade schedule book, but it was much more fun to make one.  I got to use some of my scrapbooking paper stash, made cute cards to stick on each page, and was able to be crafty.  There is a page for everyday of the school week, mini cards that have the activities or lessons we are going to do, and it spiral bound.  I set it up in a weekly format so that I could set it up each Sunday and not have to worry about redoing it every night. I think it looks pretty cool, and it seems like it should help keeping us on track as long as we use it! Aislin also seems very motivated to use it, so that should be half the battle taken care of.

In order to incorporate more fun into our homeschooling lives I decided we are going to do more learning through play. Does that mean that we are not going to do our worksheets, required readings, or curriculum? Nope. It means that we are going to do those, but when I can I will add a game that teaches the lesson in a fun and innovative way.  For example, I prepped the other night for our weekly science lesson, and I noticed that the first week we were going to work on classifying as it relates to Biology.  So, yesterday, I packed up Stephen, the Little Monster and Aislin and we went off to the beach to pick up flotsam and jetsam so that we can classify what we found our beach instead of boring household objects. Aislin had a great time, we examined sea urchins in various stages of decay, found loads of stuff to classify, AND spent quality time together – BONUS!!

Flotsam and Jetsam we found at the beach.

I also found some great paint chip word games for spelling online, floating math addition games, construction projects that will give Aislin a better sense of measurement, creative ways to experience history, and some great cooking experiments to help all of us have more fun and keep the learning going on.   Above all, since I have to keep the schedule book in order every week, I need to prep for school the week before – sort of like my past life as a teacher – that way I can figure out where to stick games, and fun in so school becomes FUN again.  With all these changes, schooling should be fun again without loosing productivity, and I should be able to keep us on track. 

Our basic academic challenges this first half of 2012 is to have Aislin master her spelling rules, and master multiplication facts up to 6.  Stephen’s goal in math for Aislin is to not have her counting on her fingers at all, which means rote memorization but I will make it fun – I hope.  As for the other subjects, her reading and her comprehension are great so I am not worried about that at all.  Social studies and history are fun for her, and she LOVES science.  I do want Aislin reading and writing in Spanish by June so that might take a little work, but we are starting a new program called PowerSpeak and it seems like between me and PowerSpeak, that goal should be easily met.

Here’s to a fun filled 2012!