Preschool report: June

This month we studied the joy of the earth. It was a good month to study it. We did lots of fun things, but I think our favorites were going to the zoo and camping out.

We went to Tautphaus Zoo in Idaho Falls. Brian and I had the most fun, since it was so hot and the kids got tired. But I know that they still enjoyed it. We loved seeing the otter show off for us under water. Helen told me afterwards that her favorite part of the zoo was seeing a snake from Asian that was pink with purple stripes (Imagine that--pink!). She still talks about it. She also liked the pink flamingos. Eric really liked the tiger. Eric also loved feeding the goats. To me, the zoo was the highlight of the month.


But if you ask the kids, I think they would tell you that their highlight of the month was our campout with Jeff, Heidi and their kids. Jeff took us up above Mesa Falls and Warm River. The cousins had a lot of fun playing together and roasting hot dogs and marshmallows. That night, as we were going to bed, Helen saw the stars, which were amazing. She must have been inspired, because she started quoting poetry. The next morning, Helen woke up really early, so I took her on a hike through a mountain meadow. It was very beautiful. The sun was just coming up, and there were wildflowers everywhere. Helen burst into song, singing primary songs about nature. So I know she was feeling it!


We did so many other things too. We've also listened to Vivaldi's Four Seasons and Peter and the Wolf, for a touch of culture. We've tried yoga that imitates animals, and we sang nature primary songs every night. I also checked out a Farms discovery kit from the library, and Helen was enamored with Charlotte's Web. She loves pigs, and she's decided that she likes spiders too. We also checked out the Ecology discovery kit, and we got some books about plants and food from Usborne. We put some seeds in a jar and watched them sprout and grow (which is something I've always wanted to do).

I also bought a bird feeder, and it has been so much fun to watch the birds up close. The birds became really comfortable, and they'd eat while the kids played underneath, which was so cool! We've seen some birds that we haven't seen before, too.

And now, since we've found the camera, here are some pictures from last month:

Preschool report: May

So now we have finished our second month of preschool. Our focus this month was the joy of the body. It was a lot of fun, and we all learned a lot. One day Helen told me, "I have a beautiful body!" That is exactly what I was hoping she'd feel.

The first week I checked out a five senses story kit from the library, and we focused on learning the five senses. Helen loved reading the books and doing the activities. The second week I checked out a whole bunch of books about the body and different body systems. One favorite was Inside Your Outside, a Cat in the Hat book. It's not written by Dr. Seuss (the author is Tish Rabe), but reading it you would think it was. Helen also loved the Magic School Bus books that were about the body. We also traced the kids on a big piece of paper and let them color it. We played Simon Says to learn the names of different parts of the body (Simon says touch your shins. Simon says pat your hips.)

The third week we talked about how our bodies are temples and how to take care of them. We learned about the Word of Wisdom.

And then the last week was a lot of fun. I found a Youtube channel called Dance and Beats. It has dances for preschool kids. I picked three that I thought were good, and we danced Monday, Wednesday and Friday for preschool. We danced the crab walk, little butterfly and catch a fish. Eric really liked catch a fish, and Helen liked little butterfly. They both really liked crab walk. It was a lot of fun to use our bodies for art! I wanted to take pictures of the kids dancing, but I couldn't find the camera all that week.

For the first part of the month I was using Sandi Queen's Language Lessons for Little Ones Vol. 1. But it wasn't meeting Helen's needs. It was a lot of fun in some ways. But Helen was way beyond it when it came to letter recognition. But she wasn't ready to write the letters yet. She tries, but it wasn't working very well. And I realized I needed something that didn't require a child to learn to write while they are learning to read. The curriculum that I would prefer is out of print and so is very unaffordable.

So I checked out a whole stack of books on phonics and teaching children to read. I also grabbed The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading, by Jesse Wise. I'd had an impression that it didn't use sight words to help the kids get started before they learned the rules for those words (which isn't correct). But my sister-in-law has used it for her kids, and I respect the author a lot, so I thought, why not? I discovered that it was similar to the curriculum I had wanted, and we have been using it. The first 26 lessons review the letter sounds, which is what Helen needed. We are about half way through that part. And Helen has been doing very well! It's just what we've needed. I'm hoping that Helen can start reading short words by the end of June.

We also focused on colors and shapes (mostly colors) for Eric. We made a color sorting train (that turned into a color train that I just put on the wall) like one that I found online. He also did a shapes puzzle and put it together really well. We also did a shapes collage all together. Helen ended up doing most of it. One week we also checked out a colors discovery kit from the library, and that had some good books, including The Color Kittens by Margaret Wise Brown. I think that one was Eric's favorite.

So far preschool has been a lot of fun and we're all (including me) learning a lot.

I have some pictures, but I will have to add them later when we finally find our camera ...

Preschool report: April

I've finally come up with a more formal long-term plan for Little Pink Girl's preschool. I'm incorporating things for Little Boy Blue as well since he's involved most of the time.

Last fall (or summer, I can't remember which) I read a book by Richard and Linda Eyre called Teaching Children Joy. I loved it. I feel as though is more of a program for boosting E.Q. (emotional quotient) rather than I.Q. Recent studies have shown that the real indicator for success is E.Q. rather than I.Q. It has 13 "joys" to focus on.

The authors suggest that you put together a co-op school with other mothers, and they even have a whole curriculum all prepared that you can use (find it at valuesparenting.com). It costs $100 per family ($150 the first time), and it sounded great. It really is a lot cheaper than any other private school, and I like the idea of Little Pink Girl having some time with friends a couple of times a week. She thrives on social interaction.

But we just didn't have the money to do something like that. But when I re-read the introduction to the book (which, by the way, you can get for free on valuesparenting.com) I realized that I could still do it all at home. We'd have to work a little harder to provide the social interaction Little Pink Girl needs, but I could do everything else.

So, as the book suggested, I am focusing on one "joy" each month and planning our school time around it. I am also using Sandi Queen's Language Lessons for Little Ones since Helen is ready for it. We do that three days a week.

Then two days a week we are focusing on Shapes and/or colors for Little Boy Blue until he has both down. Both of them do whatever activity we are working on, so it's a good review for Little Pink Girl and a good preview for Little Boy Blue.

We started in April this year. This first month has been very informal as I've been figuring out exactly what it is we need to do. The joy for this month is "spontaneous delight." That really means to me just having fun. :) So it's been a good start to preschool. We've blown bubbles, had tickle sessions, read fun books, popped popcorn and watched it fly, played with play dough and made cookies.

We also used a Shapes discovery kit from the library, and I've been pointing colors out to Little Boy Blue all over the place. We did a color dot hide-and-seek, which actually didn't go so well. They didn't want me to hide the dots; they just wanted to play with them. At the end of the month we got Language Lessons for Little Ones and started it. Helen was most interested in learning the letters and not so much the art and poetry. I had her narrate one book back to me, and she did ok for the first time. But we need to do it more.

I'm afraid I didn't take any pictures, but this month I have a plan for every day and I'll take pictures to share with you next month. I'm also writing it all down in journal so I can remember more of what we did.

Until next month ...

Book Review: Ten things this mama taught her kids about having their own businesses

Ten Things This Mama Taught Her Kids About Having Their Own Businesses was a short, free e-book that I downloaded after reading a really good article by the author, Rhea Perry. Perry is a homeschool mom who writes for homeschool magazines. While this book had some really good ideas and principles, I also had some issues with it.

I’ll talk about the good things first.

I love some of the principles that she talks about. All the principles can be taught to children from the beginning. My favorite is to do your share of the work and to pick up after yourself. In other words, take responsibility for yourself.

Another principle she talked about was to plan ahead and set long term goals.

I love how Perry aptly describes this principle: “If the fish ain’t biting, sell your bait to the sushi bar.” It’s the same thing as “If life hands you lemons, make lemondade.” If things don’t go as you’d like, make it work for you anyway.

She also advises that we teach kids to get help, to build a team when they are starting a business. Don’t think you can figure it all out on your own. Surround yourself with smart, reliable people.

So there were lots of good things. But now I’m going to talk about the things that drove me nuts to read.

The first problem I ran across in the first chapter. I feel like she places moms up there with God. I’m pretty sure she didn’t mean to be quite so offensive, but it irked me to no end. Moms just aren’t perfect and they don’t know everything. And they’re not on the same level as God. And this is a mom saying this!

It also bothers me that she says, “Don’t give no free rides to nobody!” Sometimes we should to help those who can’t give us anything back. If nothing else, we just get one step closer to heaven.

And then her chapter on women. “They want a nice house where they can raise a bunch of great kids, watch Oprah in the afternoons, eat great food (hopefully that they don’t have to cook) and live a peaceful life.” Yes, women want security, but we’re not that lazy! I have no desire to sit around and watch TV and eat food I didn’t cook. I can live without a nice house. I’m not that shallow, and I don’t think most women are, either!

As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I have been taught that you don’t put marriage off for career or education. So I don’t agree with her view that you should wait to get married until you are financially secure. I believe you should trust God to take care of you instead of thinking you need to be in control of everything.

And finally, Perry writes like she’s from Hickville. It bothers me that she tries to sound uneducated.

I hope this review isn’t too harsh, because she had many good ideas that I hadn’t thought about. It is a wonderful idea to teach your children to be entrepreneurs and to take care of themselves.

Have you made it a point to teach your children to be entrepreneurs? How have you done that?

Teaching letters and their sounds

Charlotte Mason suggests that you teach children their letters as soon as they can talk, about two years old. Well, Little Pink Girl could talk really well by the time she was two, and I was so excited to teach her. I had all sorts of ideas about how to introduce letters.

My original plan combined Montessori and Mason techniques. I was going to use sandpaper letters to introduce the letters so she could trace them with her finger, as well as using her three-step process (association, recognition, remembering). I was also going to make some foam letters that she could just play with between lessons, and I was going to use Mason’s letter game (having them find the letters on a page in a book) that she describes in Home Education. We’d read books that were related to the letter we were learning, and we’d make crafts and do all sorts of things. I figured that we’d focus on one letter per week, and have them learned by spring.

I made some foam letters for Little Pink Girl, but she tore them up almost as soon as I handed them to her. I didn’t dare give her the sandpaper letters. I decided to wait until she was older and just use them to teach her how to write in a couple of years.

I found that I didn’t need them to teach letter recognition. While we were reading, I would point letters out to her. I would also tell her the sounds. I basically used Montessori’s three-step process—association, recognition and remembering. Originally, I tried focusing on one letter a week, and just talking about it when we read books. But after the first week I found I didn’t have to wait that long. She was learning a letter a day.

After she was able to remember a letter without fail, I would ask her to find all the A’s on a page, or all the B’s, or whatever letter we were working on. After she found them all (often with help), I would ask her what sound it made. She’s not even two and a half, and she already knows all the letters and their sounds.

This process complimented Little Pink Girl’s learning style. She hears things, remembers them and repeats them. Before she was two she would say words like chemistry, dividend, vertex and bonjour. Language and learning things by hearing them seems to be her strength.

I was amazed at how easy it was to teach her letters. We did it all while we were reading stories!

Book Review: Charlotte Mason Companion

A kind friend who had homeschooled her children gave me a stupendous book. Charlotte Mason Companion: Personal Reflections on the Gentle Art of Learning, by Karen Andreola, is a book that I’d heard of, but I don’t think I would have read it if it hadn’t been given to me. I’d read two of Charlotte Mason’s books (Home Education and School Education) and didn’t think I’d find anything new or interesting in someone’s rehash of her philosophy.

But I was wrong. This book was great! It wasn’t a rehash at all. Andreola wrote about how she had implemented Mason’s philosophy, what they had gained from it and how it had affected their homeschool, as well as adding her own thoughts and personal insights.

I’d read this book after teaching Little Pink Girl her letters using a combination of Mason and Montessori. But I was fascinated to read that Andreola had done a very similar thing. At that point I knew we must be kindred spirits.

Although Andreola is not of the same faith I am, I find that she believes many of the same things I do. In her chapter on Greek Myth, she talks about how the Greeks lived the truths they knew, and so God gave them more. All good and truth comes from God, and they seemed to have a lot, especially at first. She explains that they did originally believe in one God who had created everything. And she believes that children can benefit from the truth that they did have. Does this sound familiar?

I also love her thoughts on narration. I, too, have thought that when a child narrates back to you what they have read, that they have to make it their own. They have to integrate it into their thinking, and therefore they really learn.

I wasn’t so sure about the chapter on hero worship. I’ll have to think on that one.

Reading her chapters on nature study convinced me that we can use it for science for kindergarten through 4^th grade. I didn’t realize what you could do with nature study. You can use star gazing, rock collecting and zoo trips! I also believe that when children form “relations” with things around them, and they are used to watching certain phenomena in nature, that they will make connections when studying out of a textbook that are amazing. The stuff in the book will come alive in their minds.

Andreola also gives lots of ideas for books to read and activities to complete. She also has some good suggestions for picture study.

Do you use Charlotte Mason’s ideas in your homeschool? Why?

Applying Montessori’s 3-step teaching process

Today I’m going to share how I’ve been applying a few of the things I learned about teaching very young children.

Montessori, in her book The Montessori Method, wrote about a process she used to teach colors to the children in her schools. The process involved 3 steps.

It’s incredibly simple. She would hand a child a red object. “This is red.” Then she would hand them a blue object. “This is blue.” That was the first step. She called it associating the sensory object with its name.

For the second step, she would ask, “Hand me the red block.” Or “Hand me the blue block.” (I think they were blocks.) This was called recognition of the object corresponding to the name.

The third step was more difficult for the child. “What is this?” This was called remembering of the name corresponding to the object.

Before I’d even read Montessori’s book I had been doing basically the same thing with Little Pink Girl to teach shapes and colors. I feel that this method is intuitive. Its simplicity is the best thing about it. You don’t need to buy books or DVDs or toys.

It’s amazing what kids can learn without any extra frills, sounds, images or games. In fact, I feel that when you strip it down like that, the child learns much faster and at an earlier age. At least Little Pink Girl seemed to learn faster. She knew her colors and shapes and could count to ten before she was 2.

It’s not much different than what we do with children all the time. We show children a picture and say, “This is a cow. It says moo!” That’s about all we do to teach about animals and their sounds. We tell them, directly or indirectly, what things are all the time without a game or video. We don’t include music when we explain what our couch is called or what the tree outside the window is. Little children can pick things up so much easier than we expect.

These realizations sold me on the idea.

Now that I have the process spelled out for me, I can use it more purposefully. I used it, combined with some Charlotte Mason ideas, to teach Helen the alphabet and all the letter sounds.

This is an A. It says ă. This is a B. It says buh.

Which one is B? What does B say?

What letter is this? What does it say?

Karen Andreola, in Charlotte Mason Companion, talks about how she used Montessori’s method. She says, and I’ve found this to be true, that you may have to do step one over and over, and then steps one and two, over and over, before they are ready for step three, and really have the concept down.

Little Pink Girl now knows all the letters, big and small, and their sounds. It was so simple!

Have you heard of Montessori’s three-step method? Have you used it? How did it work for you?