I want to keep posting for the accountability, but there hasn't been anything terribly exciting to say. I suppose that's life, so here's a recap....
The book we started reading after we finished The Boxcar Children is The Apple and the Arrow and I find it excruciatingly boring so far. It's hard to keep her attention- I think it's pretty far above kindergarten comprehension level. Amazon.com says ages 9-12. Hmm. Sonlight always says to tailor the curriculum to suit your family, but I feel guilty just throwing something out, and I'm not sure what to put in its place. Right now we're avoiding it and working on other things. She says she wants to learn all about dinosaurs, and I don't really have anything to give her for that, so maybe we'll go to the library this week and get some books that are more interesting.
Officially it's week 6. We're in week 7 for math, right on schedule for Bible and language, and a bit behind in poetry. We've been doing lots of Bible stuff lately- they're memorizing the books of the Old Testament in her Sunday school class and I think she only knows up to Judges so far, but she's supposed to know through Psalms. :) For me she's memorized Romans 3:23, Acts 16:31, Colossians 3:20, and Matthew 7:12 so far. We're using Sing the Word from A-Z (music in the link, watch out!) and she'll be learning 26 verses throughout the year, one for each letter of the alphabet. They're fun. Typing this I was singing in my head, "Colossians 3, verse 20, obey obey, Colossians 3, verse 20, obey obey, Colossians 3, verse 20, obey obey, for this pleases the Lord!" I like the way they include the address in the song. We have Steve Green's Hide 'Em in Your Heart, and she knows a lot of those verses but he doesn't work the reference into the song so she never learned where they're found in the Bible. This is better for that. We're both learning.
Robin Hood is making good progress on his animals and colors. Right now he's obsessed with rabbits. He likes to throw them at people and then look at me innocently and say, "HOP!" Like, this is what rabbits do, mom, don't get on my case!
Showing posts with label robin hood. Show all posts
Showing posts with label robin hood. Show all posts
Monday, September 29, 2008
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Week 2
So much for posting every single day. :) I knew that wouldn't last long.
The Labor Day holiday has thrown us off a bit for week 2, plus we've had other things going on and she hasn't been in much of a school mood. I finally told her today that it wasn't a choice, that everybody who was five HAD to do kindergarten, and it was her choice whether she would listen to me and do work here, or if we needed to think about sending her down the road. I hate to use that as a threat- if we ever do decide to send her to public school I don't want her to think it's a punishment. On the other hand, I DO sort of feel like it would be a punishment and I don't really plan to do it. There's no teeth in that argument, but just the thought of having to go away to school made her buckle down and do some work, so there you have it.
Now she's leaning over my shoulder watching me type and saying, "Dog. You almost typed dog before, with the capital letters, but you didn't put the G. What word is that? Dog with no G?"
Anyway, what's working this week is to let her pick one book or activity, and just to keep working with it until she's tired. We've done all the poetry for the week and she's on lesson 16 I think in math. She says after lunch she wants to do Bible stories, and I'm just going to chug ahead until she begs me to quit. The curriculum is a guide, not a stranglehold around our necks. We can adjust it to suit ourselves.
And on the animal front, Robin Hood will roar at me now if I show him the fisher price lion. He still calls it a dog, and he watched a documentary on lions with his daddy and didn't recognize that's what they were. So clearly there is more work to be done. But his roar is adorable.
The Labor Day holiday has thrown us off a bit for week 2, plus we've had other things going on and she hasn't been in much of a school mood. I finally told her today that it wasn't a choice, that everybody who was five HAD to do kindergarten, and it was her choice whether she would listen to me and do work here, or if we needed to think about sending her down the road. I hate to use that as a threat- if we ever do decide to send her to public school I don't want her to think it's a punishment. On the other hand, I DO sort of feel like it would be a punishment and I don't really plan to do it. There's no teeth in that argument, but just the thought of having to go away to school made her buckle down and do some work, so there you have it.
Now she's leaning over my shoulder watching me type and saying, "Dog. You almost typed dog before, with the capital letters, but you didn't put the G. What word is that? Dog with no G?"
Anyway, what's working this week is to let her pick one book or activity, and just to keep working with it until she's tired. We've done all the poetry for the week and she's on lesson 16 I think in math. She says after lunch she wants to do Bible stories, and I'm just going to chug ahead until she begs me to quit. The curriculum is a guide, not a stranglehold around our necks. We can adjust it to suit ourselves.
And on the animal front, Robin Hood will roar at me now if I show him the fisher price lion. He still calls it a dog, and he watched a documentary on lions with his daddy and didn't recognize that's what they were. So clearly there is more work to be done. But his roar is adorable.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Day 3
We've had a few setbacks today. Already? Really? I thought we're still in the honeymoon stage. Anyway. She got frustrated writing her 5s last night and erased all of the math work she'd done so far- 12 lessons worth. So today we had a talk about practice and how NO I do NOT expect perfection from her, it's OKAY if it doesn't look good, that's what practice is FOR! And I want her to leave her work there so that we can look back in the book after we've finished and see her progress. She's redoing it and is already up to lesson 7, and it's only day 3, so we're still ahead.
I realized there's a study guide for history that I was supposed to be reading ahead of time, and it had a whole bunch of stuff in it about Martin Luther that frankly confused me. They said the book I was reading was written inaccurately and had a strong Protestant bias and might anger some readers and that Luther would be studied again a few years down the road and that it was okay to skip it for now if it didn't make sense. And yeah, that didn't make sense. So we blew off the history reading for today, but did do some more map work because they had a blow-up of Germany to discuss the different towns in the reading.
We've done our poetry and copywork for the day, and we'll read more Boxcar Children later, so officially we're still right on track. I just feel like we didn't do anything today.
And oh yeah, I have two kids! I need to be making a list of goals for Robin Hood and figure out what I want him to learn this year. He's never been to the zoo, and we haven't gone in so long that Maid Marian barely remembers going either, so I know I want to do a lot of animal work with him. It's still too hot to go, but we're planning a trip for the fall. I'm going to do a lot of Little People zoo "work" with him and teach him the animal names. I haven't gotten in the floor and just played with him lately.
I realized there's a study guide for history that I was supposed to be reading ahead of time, and it had a whole bunch of stuff in it about Martin Luther that frankly confused me. They said the book I was reading was written inaccurately and had a strong Protestant bias and might anger some readers and that Luther would be studied again a few years down the road and that it was okay to skip it for now if it didn't make sense. And yeah, that didn't make sense. So we blew off the history reading for today, but did do some more map work because they had a blow-up of Germany to discuss the different towns in the reading.
We've done our poetry and copywork for the day, and we'll read more Boxcar Children later, so officially we're still right on track. I just feel like we didn't do anything today.
And oh yeah, I have two kids! I need to be making a list of goals for Robin Hood and figure out what I want him to learn this year. He's never been to the zoo, and we haven't gone in so long that Maid Marian barely remembers going either, so I know I want to do a lot of animal work with him. It's still too hot to go, but we're planning a trip for the fall. I'm going to do a lot of Little People zoo "work" with him and teach him the animal names. I haven't gotten in the floor and just played with him lately.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Getting Started
Kids,
I knew before you were born that I wanted to homeschool you. I've heard all kinds of reasons why I shouldn't, and how you will grow up to be sad strange little people. I've also heard many reasons why it's the most rewarding, best, and most fun job I'll have. Those reasons win by a landslide.
So if you do turn out sad or strange, don't blame me. I'm doing the best I can here, and I just really feel like you are supposed to be home with me. I want to teach you about the way God's world all fits together, and help you find His plan for your life, and nobody can do that better than I can. No matter how high your test scores are or if you can memorize all the important facts, that pales next to knowing without a doubt that you are God's creation and that He made you because He loves you. Public school won't do that, private school won't do it, and most of the time neither will Christian school. Family does that.
Besides, you are two of the funniest, smartest, most awesome kids to be around. Why would I not want you with me all day? Marian, you are barely five years old. The thought of sending you off into the world makes me sad. Neither one of us are ready for that yet. I want to be the one who sees your face light up as you sound out words and make connections. I want to kindle your love of learning and let you set your own pace as we go. I want to be able to take all the time in the world to do extra research on topics that interest you, and have the freedom to skip over something you already know how to do. I want to watch you interact with your sweet brother and help him grow.
I don't want to be that mom crying on the first day of school as she sends her baby away. And FOR WHAT? Why do we buy into the lie that other people can teach our children better than we can?
Tomorrow morning we start kindergarten. You won't be getting on a bus. I'm not packing you a lunch. We don't have to rush around in the morning feeling Nervous Tummy about meeting new people. We're adjusting our schedule just a bit to account for this new exciting work we're doing and all of the reading I'm going to be doing with you, but our days may not change that much. We're doing the things we always have, in the way we like to do them.
Last week I took you to Target and we looked over the kindergarten supply list for the school you would otherwise be attending. I gave you $27 in cash (because that's all I had in my purse) and we decided which things were a good idea, and which things we didn't need. We got the specific scissors they asked for, because you didn't have any like that, and we changed almost everything else on the list. We got a big pack of white paper to feed your drawing habit and some other office supplies, and then you wanted a new school outfit with the rest of the money. You ended up with a pink sparkly shirt and two pairs of shorts, a pack of glue sticks, some markers... it cost much less than buying everything they thought you needed, it's stuff you'll actually use, and you budgeted it yourself.
I am proud of you. No matter what we do together in school this year, I am proud of you and your spirit and your love and the way you're living your life. I'm so glad that I can be here every day to watch you do it. I'm glad your little brother gets to have you around to help him out. I'm glad we're a family.
I knew before you were born that I wanted to homeschool you. I've heard all kinds of reasons why I shouldn't, and how you will grow up to be sad strange little people. I've also heard many reasons why it's the most rewarding, best, and most fun job I'll have. Those reasons win by a landslide.
So if you do turn out sad or strange, don't blame me. I'm doing the best I can here, and I just really feel like you are supposed to be home with me. I want to teach you about the way God's world all fits together, and help you find His plan for your life, and nobody can do that better than I can. No matter how high your test scores are or if you can memorize all the important facts, that pales next to knowing without a doubt that you are God's creation and that He made you because He loves you. Public school won't do that, private school won't do it, and most of the time neither will Christian school. Family does that.
Besides, you are two of the funniest, smartest, most awesome kids to be around. Why would I not want you with me all day? Marian, you are barely five years old. The thought of sending you off into the world makes me sad. Neither one of us are ready for that yet. I want to be the one who sees your face light up as you sound out words and make connections. I want to kindle your love of learning and let you set your own pace as we go. I want to be able to take all the time in the world to do extra research on topics that interest you, and have the freedom to skip over something you already know how to do. I want to watch you interact with your sweet brother and help him grow.
I don't want to be that mom crying on the first day of school as she sends her baby away. And FOR WHAT? Why do we buy into the lie that other people can teach our children better than we can?
Tomorrow morning we start kindergarten. You won't be getting on a bus. I'm not packing you a lunch. We don't have to rush around in the morning feeling Nervous Tummy about meeting new people. We're adjusting our schedule just a bit to account for this new exciting work we're doing and all of the reading I'm going to be doing with you, but our days may not change that much. We're doing the things we always have, in the way we like to do them.
Last week I took you to Target and we looked over the kindergarten supply list for the school you would otherwise be attending. I gave you $27 in cash (because that's all I had in my purse) and we decided which things were a good idea, and which things we didn't need. We got the specific scissors they asked for, because you didn't have any like that, and we changed almost everything else on the list. We got a big pack of white paper to feed your drawing habit and some other office supplies, and then you wanted a new school outfit with the rest of the money. You ended up with a pink sparkly shirt and two pairs of shorts, a pack of glue sticks, some markers... it cost much less than buying everything they thought you needed, it's stuff you'll actually use, and you budgeted it yourself.
I am proud of you. No matter what we do together in school this year, I am proud of you and your spirit and your love and the way you're living your life. I'm so glad that I can be here every day to watch you do it. I'm glad your little brother gets to have you around to help him out. I'm glad we're a family.
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