Homeschooling Convention and what I learned

James and I recently attended the OCHEC convention in downtown OKC. It was a great get-away for us. Mom kept the boys, and we stayed the night at the Marriot in Bricktown next to the Ford Center. Had a wonderful time! OCHEC is Oklahoma Christian Home Educators Consociation. As first timers, we were able to attend for free. We don't agree 100% with everything that many OCHEC members believe (ex. original sin doctrine) but thankfully nothing like that was thrown out there while at the convention. General Christian values were discussed in the workshops, so it was a safe, great environment to learn more about homeschooling. There was a great big exhibit hall full of curriculum to browse. James and I decided we will probably want to attend again next year. The speakers were really great. Overall it was a very uplifting experience, and I learned alot!

I learned so many things that it there are too many to name, but I'll hit some of the highlights or the things that really stuck with me.

*Homeschooling is not easy, but so worth it and so rewarding.

*Don't stress about the PASS skills or what the govt says your kid should be learning at a certain age. Every child is different. The joy of homeschooling allows flexibility and time for children to develop their interest in learning certain skills/topics.

*Preschool in the home should be all about learning through exploration and play.

*Focus on the 5 senses with doing activities with your preschooler!

*Children's eye muscles are not fully developed until 6-8 years of age. Don't force early reading!

*Many gross and fine motor skills must be developed before reading.

*A typical homeschool day for the preschooler might include: running & kicking a ball, observation games, gardening, puzzles, nesting toys, self-directed play, board games, read alouds, learning manners, setting the table, cooking with mom, etc.

*Enjoy your child. Spend time with them in play. It goes so fast.

*Just because your child can recite his ABC's and their sounds early, doesn't mean he is "smart" or destined to be an achiever.

*So most important of all: Break out of the box of the current educational trends. PLAY- not early formal education - is the best education for a child, and it is the best foundation for future learning!

So with that in mind. We've been doing alot of playing around our house. The boys and I have been building trails in our backyard woods. (pics to come of that!)

We've been playing and using our imagination with pattern blocks.

We've been stacking and sorting!

We've been having fun with play-dough!

We've been having a blast outdoors!

Playing in the rain!

And drinking rain water?!

Decisions Decisions

PreK enrollment was to take place in the first two weeks of March. James and I made the decision to not send Isaac. All day at 4 years old? I didn't go to Kindergarten until I was 5 and then it was only in the mornings. I have some very personal opinions about all day preK, but I might step on some toes.

So lately we've been working on AT and AN words, making patterns, painting letters, puzzles, finished Joseph lessons, started on Daniel, counting, measuring with blocks, building with blocks, sorting items, folding laundry, exploring ants... That is all I can think of right now. I'm very informal about all this. Don't think I'm a drill sargeant with Isaac at 3. We usually spend an hour doing something each day while Eli sleeps.

James and I are looking to attend the homeschoolers state convention in OKC at the end of next month. It is free to first timers. We hope to get some more info to make our decision.

I think one of the biggest factors currently influencing my decision to homeschool is the fact that it gives you so many more opportunities to bond with your kids. It forces me to spend more time with them. Always a plus. I like that we have more time to work on Bible lessons.

Downside I'm beginning to see. We will have to make the effort to get out of the house every day. Weekly library trips, frequent field trips, and simply trips to the park etc. I find this difficult because whenever Eli goes down for a nap, he usually sleeps 3 hours! That gives me so much time to work on lessons with Isaac, do housework, etc. It is tempting to make sure we are home for his nap, so sometimes I dont' want to venture out. I guess if I know I want him to get that good nap in, we gotta get moving of a morning and do our outside stuff before lunch. This will be easier as it gets warmer because the mornings will be the nicest for weather!

I'm working on creating a general plan for next year. Basically I'm looking at the OK Pass Skills for PreK and Kindergarten and trying to decide what I want to cover next year with Isaac.

A variety of things

I find myself reading and re-reading my education books all the time. Skimming for ideas, reminding myself how to teach a certain concept, etc. I received a book called, “Teaching Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.”  I had heard a lot of praise for this book, but I was skeptical. I read the intro or the How-To teacher’s section and was a little annoyed.  Disagreed with some, but agreed with some things as well. Among many things the author discouraged, the author discouraged Language Learning Experience for teaching reading. WHAT?!?!  This is basically the educational jargon for the Morning Message thing I do with Isaac. (Which has been very successful for him.) I think what the author failed to point out is---You don’t just use one thing in teaching a child to read. I don’t think you can take a whole language approach 24/7. You have to mix it up. So yes, using the LLE alone would not be a good thing. A child needs phonics instruction as well. However, phonics instruction alone could be potentially detrimental as well. A child can be so hung up on “decoding” that they’ve missed the comprehension.

So the book said that you could use their method with as young as bright 3.5 year olds. Naturally, I felt my son fit in this category (haha) so I thought I'd give it a go. I followed their method exactly. Isaac was extremely bored and irritable with it. Maybe he thought it was too easy. Maybe he needed something hands on. I felt there were some good points to the book about sounding out the letters slowly and properly and then "Saying it fast." So I decided to take another approach but using the same method. Isaac likes to put his magnetic letters on his board and make words, so I told him to make a few words he knew. He spelled Isaac, no, yes, and Pa. Next, I told him that we would make some new words. So I put a-t up and modeled sounding out the a then t, and then saying it fast. I asked him to slowly sound those two letters out and then asked him to say the sounds together fast. He immediately said, "at." So I added "m" to the front of "at." We sounded out all three sounds again, and then 'say it fast.' "Mat!" he said. We continued with bat, rat, hat, other -at word families. So the method of the book works, but I don't think I will follow their dictations exactly. Isaac definitely learns better with a little bit of hands-on.

A little bit of geography comes in the form of the Bible maps and USA puzzles. We talk about the country we live in and its name. We talk about various states.

 I

Isaac loves to point out Texas, because that is where his Pa and Granna live.

The first puzzle was a little too easy, so Isaac began tackling the individual state one shown here. Smaller pieces and each state is a piece, not a cluster of states as in the last puzzle. He can now do this puzzle on his own! He loves it, and he's starting to learn a few of the states. The easily recognizable ones--TX, CA, OK, FL.

What would preschool be without a doctor kit? Haha...he loves to play doctor with me.

He loves to play "Hungry, Hungry Hippos" too. He started individually counting the balls and separating them out rather than trying to count them in a big pile and recounting the same ones over and over. Another developmental milestone. Small, but way cool for Mommy.

Colors and Words

Isaac was watching  a Blues Clue's cartoon about colors and said he wanted to try it. Who said TV was all bad? ;) So we got into my paints and started mixing colors to see what would happen. He got a kick out of it. 



Isaac helped me label items around his room. We talked about the letter sounds, what sound each word started with, how the letters worked together to make words etc.  Even little Eli has started pointing and babbling about our ABC strip around the room.

Yesterday was a productive day. We did another Bible lesson on Joseph. The lessons are certainly great for his spirituality, but he gets exposed to cause/effect, sequence, emotions, predictions, to name a few. He learns new words by using the timeline. It is just great!

I know not everyday will be as productive as yesterday. Somedays we seem to be having "lessons" all day. Somedays he and Eli just play all day. But that is preschool to me. :) I feel so blessed to live in the state of Oklahoma because if I choose to continue in this endeavor, there are no regulations on my homeschooling. I just fear that freedom could change someday.

On the Road to Reading!

It is just amazing how much the Morning Message really helps Isaac. He is learning so many new words. Learning that letters make words, words make sentences, sentences have periods, capitalization. Best of all he is learning in context. He helps come up with the sentence that is always about something going on in our life right now.

As said before, I think, I have always believed that instruction should be broad, use a variety of techniques. I tend to lean more towards natural settings and letting Isaac take the lead, but there is a time and place for drills sometimes, too. So I got out the Hooked on Phonics stuff that was given to me. Isaac was excited. I guess he was just thrilled with the cuteness of the box with the little books, flash cards, cds and stickers...I don't know. But he listened to the cd and used the cards which drilled him on his sounds---got bored with that pretty quickly. (too easy) And then together, we just went through the small word families -an -at -ig. And then read the short stories with those words in them. He did so great! I was excited to see him reading! True, he is doing alot of memorizing right now rather than sounding out-reading, but that is totally normal. Any exposure I can give him is great, and he'll pick up on the rest as he gets older. I'm hoping by then, he may have developed his own techniques for figuring out a word. Right now I can see he is mainly using pictures, context, and sometimes beginning sounds to figure out a word. He is starting to figure out those word families though, and I think we are going to start doing alot more with that. For some reason he really got  the -ig family. The p's, d's, and b's sometimes thrown him off, but again, normal.  I think we'll start a word wall in his room.

I really need to start emphasizing some other subjects, but he is really so drawn to the alphabet and reading right now, that I can't see doing anything else while he is so into it!

For those of you that have encouraged me in this homeschooling endeavor, thank you! Please keep it up! There are times when I'm like, "I can do this. I can do this. I can do this." and then other times where, "I'm scared. What about as the kids get older? What about when I have more kids? What about this...what about that..." Anyway, I need all the help and encouragement I can get!

Bible Study Guide for All Ages

 

A new year, a fresh start to Isaac’s homeschooling. As said before, I’m not kicking it in high gear considering he is only 3. Just testing the waters. James and I still plan on keeping him home this fall when most kids his age will be going to PreK.

The last few months have been slow since we moved into our new house and had some adjustments. I still tried to create learning experiences whenever possible. I have noticed a big time change in Isaac’s play. He does a whole lot more make believe and wants me to participate with him more. He loves playing cowboy the best. The obsession started after he watched part of Lonesome Dove with us. He really liked Gus.

Over the Christmas break, I drug out the sight word flash cards. He still remembered at least a third of them. He still knows all his letters and letter sounds. I'm bought the Leap Frog Scribble n Write for him for Christmas, hoping he'd like to try to start writing his letters. I know he's really not developmentally there yet, but he is getting alot better with coloring, so I figured he's getting better at holding a crayon/pencil. He colored this with map pencils. For a three year old, I was impressed, but I am his mama. ;)

He has also started actual drawing rather than scribbling. It excites me yet makes me sad to see he is growing up! A little boy, not a baby! As a former student of childhood development ;) it was "a moment" for me when he brought me these pics. It was like overnight he learned to create figures with his pencil. "A horse" and "a spider."





So today we picked up where we left off on our calendar and Morning Message. He seemed to forget a few things, but when I reminded him of "a period at the end of the sentence" he got excited and wanted to do it himself. He remembered a few sight words too from our sentences, so that was good. He still loves to learn. (See previous entries to find out why on earth and how I'm teaching this stuff at a young age. Morning messages are wonderful!)

I need to find a good "Days of the Week" song to help him learn his days of the week. For now, we talk about it when we set the date on our calendar. If it is Wednesday, we talk about how we will go to worship that night, etc. I just associate a day of the week with our routine.

I love his new bedroom. It has a nice nook off of the bedroom where I have put his charts and stuff. I also put his alphabet letters/pics back up around his room. He loves his alphabet---the nerd.

We picked back up on his chore chart. He wanted to do everything on the list right then and there. We also had game time while Eli was asleep. I pretty much let him make up all the rules, and we played as he commanded. Interesting game of Yahtzee and Battleship is all I can say.

I also started doing the Bible Study Guide For All Ages curriculum with Isaac and Leah. This is a great curriculum, and I highly recommend it for anyone!  Even at 3, Isaac loves the timeline and maps. I can't wait to see his progress and what he actually picks up from it. We did the first lesson today on Joseph. He seemed to be really interested. I was proud of his answers. At his age, he is just coming to grips with emotions, so this was a good lesson to talk about hate, anger, and jealousy. I like how the lesson page presented it.

Here is our map. I did this with Isaac today, but learning the actual locations may be more for Leah. With Isaac, I mainly stressed that the blue spots were water and green was land. I did tell him that Canaan was where our story took place. We worked on a puzzle of the United States later in the day after our Bible lesson, and he was so excited, "This is a map like our Bible map!" So he's making connections and learning some stuff.

 Here is our timeline. Leah and Isaac LOVE it. I know they are going to learn so much here. It really is the backbone of the curriculum. I can give Isaac labels, and he can already find where some of them go, and tell me a little bit about them. He is just thrilled that "Isaac" is in the Bible.



Been a While!!

Homeschooling updates got put on the back burner for a while! At the first of September, we found a house and then bought it, so I've spent the last two months very busy with all of that!

So what have I done along the way for learning at home? Isaac has watched ALOT of LeapFrog DVDs. haha... He loves the Letter Factory. Great way to preoccupy your child when you need to pack and he learns alot! He stills plays on his educational websites, too.

I've been taking him to the Duncan Public Library for Story Time. Great learning experience and time spent in a controlled, safe setting.

I've really focused more on my Bible class lessons lately than working at home with Isaac on secular things. I was using thedowschoolroom.com, but they recently shut down their site. I was so disappointed. Isaac loved learning the songs from that site. He has been singing the Parable and Miracle song. I hope they create a new site soon...