Slowly working our way up to speed

I've started school back up this week, but our expectations are much lower. We have been pretty successful at doing a math and reading lesson each day, and I'm happy with that. We started out with Saxon Math 1, but I've moved on to a workbook series that my mom gave me (from her kindergarten teacher friend) called Harcourt Math. I've loved it so far, it's actually a bit challenging and includes games and activities that are engaging. And it's shorter than our daily Saxon lessons, which the kids are appreciating. Always better to have lessons be too short than too long.

We still keep part of the Saxon Math lesson: the Meeting book. This has been at the beginning of each math lesson we write out the date, make a weather graph for each month, count to 100 in various ways and someone leads the group in "left and right." I like how this part of the lesson incorporates science and writing.

Jenna has been participating too. Through our math lessons she has picked up her basic shapes and a few colors. Play-doh is also a great way to practice naming the colors.

Hiatus

We're on a bit of a break from schooling since Junior #4 (Aaron) was born two weeks ago. I've been trying to at least do our five minute reading lesson each day, but even that gets swept under the rug occasionally. Our Math lesson is next priority and only happens about once a week. The last one we tried to do only got half finished. But an unexpected bonus has emerged: the last two days the boys have been completely engaged in entertaining themselves all day long. They have fully discovered "pretend play" which has never been a huge part of our day before. Now they spend all day building forts, putting action figures in train cars, playing "family," etc. I often will hear the a call of "Mommy!" only to get a confused look when I answer. Oh! The big truck is the Mommy truck.

At times I feel a twinge of guilt knowing that most other kids Ethan's age are getting a whole days worth of stimulating structured activities in their kindergarten class. But I have to remind myself that free play is just as important as any other activity at this age (if not more), and we will make up for it later when I am more able to predict our daily routine.

Creative Fridays

We do our academic schoolwork Monday through Thursday, but by the time Friday rolls around, Ethan is ready for a lesson-free day. So we do an art project (collage the last few weeks), a five minute piano lesson, story dictation (they tell me a very meandering story and I type it up while they tell it), and the highlight: play-doh. I hate play-doh, but have recently discovered they love it, especially Jenna. So I'm going to make an effort to get it out once a week. I have to sit down with them and focus my full attention on those little bits that escape the table, but I suppose it's worth it in moderation.

I'm understanding the art of quitting while you are ahead. I have to consciously remember not to push too hard, or Ethan will resist the next time we get the lesson out. Keep it fun! Save the pushing until he is older and can see the benefit of self motivation and mastry.

Feeling the Rhythm

We're finally starting to feel a routine forming during the day and it makes things go a lot more smoothly. In the morning we have breakfast and scripture study (2-3 min long and a captive audience with their mouths already full--works well for us). Then everyone does chores and we go to the park when they are done. Usually Ethan finishes in 5 minutes, most of the time without me reminding him to do anything, and an hour later (after my chores are done), Ethan, Jenna and I wait in the car while Sean finally decides he actually CAN do his chores and quickly finishes them up.

While at the park, I study for my BYU class for about an hour, the kids get nice and tired and we head home for lunch. After lunch, Jenna naps and then the real fun begins. We do a math and reading activity Monday through Thursday, and alternate between science and social studies during those days as well. We also do "binders" where I tear worksheets out of our various workbooks that coincide with whatever we're working on. Mostly handwriting and math pages. They stick each page into a sheet protector and use dry erase markers (I have at least three more kids that have to do this same stuff eventually!), which I think also makes it more fun.

Fridays are our fun days. We do an art project and last week we started piano lessons. I fill their binders with activities like dot-to-dots and cut out art projects, and I've been trying to get out and do a field trip. Our monthly homeschooling parties are also scheduled on Fridays, which are not to be missed for anything.

I'm beginning to appreciate the principle of "line upon line." If I looked at what I do now a year ago, I think I would have fainted. But we started with just one thing, and once I had that thing down, another something occurred to me that we should incorporate. I can see later how when I try to keep life in line with the spirit, I am prompted at just the right time to add another thing. It's really an amazing principle, and I have become more tolerant of others as I have seen it work in my life. We are all at different stages, and the spirit propels us forward at just the right pace if we are trying to stay close to Christ. It also gives me comfort that when the time comes for me to have several kids homeschooling at different levels, I will be ready for it then. Not now, but then.

Math Lesson

Sometimes I wonder how kindergarten teachers do it. I can't imagine teaching concepts to 15 five year olds and expecting them all to get it. I love that I can do activities I know Ethan will respond to and once he gets it, we can move on. We've been working on counting by tens this week. Yesterday we counted beans in piles of ten to 100. This number-card activity ended up taking about 45 minutes. Sean gave up shortly after the picture was taken, but by the end of the activity, I was convinced Ethan was cured of the "twenty-tens." It is so exciting to see him actually learning school stuff at home and understanding it. We can do this!

Another week down

We made it through another week. This is the first week I tried to apply my curriculum: a week long schedule, complete with activities for every subject. I feel like I have an epiphany every day on how to make it work better. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But Ethan seems to actually be learning stuff despite our lack of a regular school routine. That makes me feel like I can explore and try new things and not worry about him suffering.

It has been hard being pregnant. I feel like my brain is not at full capacity. Today I was at the library perusing some books about teaching art to children, and I ended up checking them all out because I could not focus. I just couldn't make myself concentrate enough to decide if the book was good or not. Is this going to get better after that baby is here? I will just be more sleep deprived and my time will be spread thinner. But maybe it won't be so hot all the time!

This morning we woke up and he had already emerged. You can see his empty cocoon on the front of the planter. Ethan remembered at the zoo they put out plates of fruit for the butterflies to suck on, so we thought we'd see if he'd take a nibble when he's ready.