Week One of Homeschooling Completed

We have officially completed week one of our adventure of home education. However, as I think more about what we are doing, I think it is more like "structured parenting." Not a lot of actual teaching is going on, but I think that is okay. It's more about "Atmosphere, Discipline, and Life" as Charlotte Mason would say.

It was definitely hard to get started this week. We did make it to the library on Monday and the store on Tuesday, but that was about it. We didn't get a chance to read our books on Monday because by the time naptime was over, it was too nice and sunny outside not to go out and play. And considering that the weather hasn't been as nice the rest of the week, that was probably the best thing. I realized late that doing the emergency kit with my preschooler wasn't going to work out the way I planned. We really didn't need anything special from the store since we pretty much had everything already. I did buy some batteries for our flashlights in the house though.

Wednesday worked out nicely. I borrowed a fantastic book with CD from the library on the Carnival of the Animals, and my son just LOVED it. It had a different poem and picture for each of the tracks on the CD, and the poems were narrated as well. He spent well over an hour on the couch in the morning going through the book that first time. We had already been listening to the music before this, but he hadn't made any connections with it. It seems that he is a visual learner. Every time I put the music on now, he wants to go through the book. We've been doing this mainly at lunch time. I just prop the book up on the table, and change the pages for him after every track.

On Wednesday, we also made our yummy granola bars. He helped me measure out all the ingredients and stir the batter together. He loves getting the stool out to help me with this, and he was very proud of his accomplishment (especially when he got to eat the result). While the bars were baking, we read all the school books to prepare him for traditional preschool the next day. He really enjoyed this as well. (It's amazing what you can accomplish when your one-year old takes a nice long nap!)

Thursday's traditional preschool went well. My son seemed to enjoy it, but trying to figure out what happened from my two-year old was quite difficult. I do know that it completely wore him out. He took a nap much earlier than normal. I also figured out that I need to probably bring him lunch to eat on the way home since he seems to have used up all his calories that morning with structured play! He is looking forward to going back to school next week.

On Friday, we got out the playdough. I had made playdough for him a few months ago, and it was still good! He really enjoyed using all the cookie cutters and other manipulatives. We had to listen to Carnival of the Animals again then too. It was quite fun!

Our Successes This Week

• Carnival of the Animals! I had borrowed this book from the library, but I'm sure that we will be getting it for our own library in the near future.
• I wasn't surprised that my son also really enjoyed all the books we got about starting school. His favorite one was called Little School by Beth Norling, but my favorite one was The Berenstain Bears Go to School.
• Baking the granola bars. This wasn't on our list "to do" this week, but it is definitely something I'd like to add to our weekly line-up. The granola bars were awesome and were consumed within 48 hours of baking!
• Although we could have worked more on his Bible verse this week, my son is recognizing it. While listening to a lullaby song with the words of Philippians 4:13, he announced that it was the "I can do all things" song. I was really surprised.

What Could Have Gone Better

• We had a hard time getting started.
• I need to put holds for books at the library earlier if I want to make sure we have them by the start of the week. Some of the books I wanted to go through didn't become available until Thursday, at which point it was too late. Not that we can't go through those books later, it just won't complement what we are talking about that week.
• I underestimated how hard it is to "do school" with a one-year old in the picture. It's hard to read books because he wants to grab at them and take them away from his older brother. I do think that this will get better with time, and he will have had the benefit of absorbing what we are doing.

What I've Learned

• I think I want to incorporate crafts more into our routine. I'm not an artistic person, but the granola bars were a hit. I'm thinking that we might do some baking together once a week, and choose another day for more artistic (i.e. paint, scissors, glue) type crafts.
• For our monthly music selection, I need to find books or art prints to go along with it. This will help my visual learner understand better what he is listening to.

I'm getting a better feel for what we are doing here. I think the next few weeks are just going to get easier. Adventure part two starts Monday!