Home-pre-school!
SAM has been getting really excited about school, because all the neighbor boys go, and we drive past the playground every time we leave the neighborhood. He doesn't make the age cut-off this year (and I'd be inclined to wait until he was at least six anyway...), but he says he wants to do "practice school".
I posted about this on Facebook, but I feel the need to get the details down in writing. I still have a lot to get ready, we're starting Wednesday!
I think playing is still the most important thing a four- (and five-, six-, seven-, eight-, etc) year-old can be doing, so I want to keep the formal lessons short and fun. The fun part is what worries me most. I have to remember to keep a good attitude and not get frustrated when he's acting silly. I want to have everything well planned and organized and thought-out on my end, but flexible and rich in choices on his end. (A mix of classical education and unschooling, if such a thing is possible.) :)
Every day, he can choose from:
Reading or writing - 5-10 mins
I have the Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading from the library, and I think I'll go ahead and buy one of my own to use. I started going through the letters with him today to see where we are, because the book goes through each letter one at a time, and he knows most of it. Though he can read well for a four-year-old, I've never sat down with him and asked him to tell me each letter sound before in an organized way. I was surprised to see that he couldn't tell the difference between short E and short I (as the Ordinary Parent's Guide warned is very common), so we'll work on those. He liked the vowel game that's in the book. I'll go through the rest of the letters with him tomorrow, and then we can review any letters he hasn't already mastered, then start on the later lessons.
For writing, he needs a lot more practice, though in the past few weeks I've noticed sudden improvement. He has a workbook that he saw at Target, so we'll go through that first, and by the time we finish it I should have a chance to look into the more in-depth writing programs like Zaner-Bloser or Handwriting without Tears. I have noticed that he tends to draw each segment of a letter separately and often in a weird order (when he makes an X he does it with four little lines instead of two), so one of the things where they have the little arrows by each stroke to show you how to write the letter will be good, before the bad habits become entrenched. Also, I think dictating a story to me will fall under this heading.
On Wednesdays we go to the library for story time, and I may count that as his reading/writing lesson for the day. Also, we can pick up books for the next week's stuff. Which reminds me, I need to quit writing this and put in my orders for the books I want right now.
Apart from the lessons, we're setting aside a reading time for SAM and BAM both, after lunch. He gets a story at bedtime and any other time during the day he wants one, but I think having another time set aside is good too, with how busy we've been. I've got my list of chapter books going, and a million more books to add to it. :) He "reads" by himself during nap every day, too.
Math - 5-10 mins
I was going to do math just once a week, but Adam thinks it's important for some reason. :) There are lots of math things to do, starting with just learning to write the numbers, SAM hasn't had much practice with that. I plan to include telling time, learning about the calendar and days of the week, money, and shapes under the heading of math. When I mentioned today that cooking was a good way to learn math, he wanted to make cookies right that second. :P He has yet another Target workbook, which we'll probably start with for number-writing practice. He wanted to pull it out and work on it in the car on our trip, but the car was too bouncy. Shapes and counting by twos and fives will probably be next on the list (he already has ones, of course, and today I found him counting to himself by tens and hundreds). There are lots of fun ways to learn math - I've put a hold on a book from the library about shapes. He's learned a lot of adding already from games with dice, so those will be an option for math time. I'm considering getting some Cuisenaire rods or other manipulatives, but I'm not sure yet if they're particularly worth it, when I could just give him some beans or something. :)
Language - French or Sign Language - 5-10 mins
We have a book of baby sign language, and I know of some good websites will little video dictionaries of signs. He's really interested in this and keeps asking me how to say things in sign language, or making up his own signs for things I don't know (most things), so we'll probably save French for a little later - plus we can include BAM in this learning.
For French, I really just need to start speaking French to him, and I've tried it in the past, but I always forget after a day or two, so having it on a schedule should help. He also has another workbook that my mom brought back from Paris.
Exercise/Outside time - 1 hr
I've been bad about this during the horrid hot summer, but it's time to get back outside. I think I'm going to have to give up my Wii Fit exercises for a while, and take the boys on a morning walk instead. I'd like to try running a bit after seeing how badly out-of-breath I got from just a little bit of fleeing from Seku this past event, but I don't think I can manage that without bouncing the baby to pieces. Fast walking may have to suffice. If I get Seth on his tricycle he can probably set a good pace.
Then each day we'll have one of the following, 5-10 mins:
Science
He wants to start with learning about the planets - specifically Venus. Obviously we'll never lack for subject matter under the "science" heading - I hope to do some fun projects on these days.
Geography
Classical education seems highly focused on history, but I don't know how you can understand history without knowing where things happened. We'll start by learning basic geographical definitions (peninsulas and that sort of thing - project opportunities here) and learning to find our home on maps. SAM's already ahead of many Americans, he can usually find the US on an unlabeled map. :) I've put some awesome puzzles on his wishlist, with the pieces in the shapes of countries. I had one with the states when I was little, and loved it. If all that goes well, we'll progress to learning the names of the states.
Music
He can either make music on his own, have a little basic piano lesson, or listen to world music and learn about the composer. We can also learn about instruments. Field trip opportunities here!
Art
He can make art of various kinds (when I mentioned this today he immediately went and started drawing), learn about art techniques, or look at famous art and learn about the artist. Field trip opportunities here!
Friday
This will be a wild card day. Adam works half-days Friday, so his idea was that he could take a lesson and teach Seth something interesting or do some sort of project or experiment with him. :) Sounds good to me.
So, not counting outside time, that adds up to 20-40 minutes of "school" per day, in theory. I don't think that should be too hard on him.
Now I just have to get my folders and things ready and organized!
I posted about this on Facebook, but I feel the need to get the details down in writing. I still have a lot to get ready, we're starting Wednesday!
I think playing is still the most important thing a four- (and five-, six-, seven-, eight-, etc) year-old can be doing, so I want to keep the formal lessons short and fun. The fun part is what worries me most. I have to remember to keep a good attitude and not get frustrated when he's acting silly. I want to have everything well planned and organized and thought-out on my end, but flexible and rich in choices on his end. (A mix of classical education and unschooling, if such a thing is possible.) :)
Every day, he can choose from:
Reading or writing - 5-10 mins
I have the Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading from the library, and I think I'll go ahead and buy one of my own to use. I started going through the letters with him today to see where we are, because the book goes through each letter one at a time, and he knows most of it. Though he can read well for a four-year-old, I've never sat down with him and asked him to tell me each letter sound before in an organized way. I was surprised to see that he couldn't tell the difference between short E and short I (as the Ordinary Parent's Guide warned is very common), so we'll work on those. He liked the vowel game that's in the book. I'll go through the rest of the letters with him tomorrow, and then we can review any letters he hasn't already mastered, then start on the later lessons.
For writing, he needs a lot more practice, though in the past few weeks I've noticed sudden improvement. He has a workbook that he saw at Target, so we'll go through that first, and by the time we finish it I should have a chance to look into the more in-depth writing programs like Zaner-Bloser or Handwriting without Tears. I have noticed that he tends to draw each segment of a letter separately and often in a weird order (when he makes an X he does it with four little lines instead of two), so one of the things where they have the little arrows by each stroke to show you how to write the letter will be good, before the bad habits become entrenched. Also, I think dictating a story to me will fall under this heading.
On Wednesdays we go to the library for story time, and I may count that as his reading/writing lesson for the day. Also, we can pick up books for the next week's stuff. Which reminds me, I need to quit writing this and put in my orders for the books I want right now.
Apart from the lessons, we're setting aside a reading time for SAM and BAM both, after lunch. He gets a story at bedtime and any other time during the day he wants one, but I think having another time set aside is good too, with how busy we've been. I've got my list of chapter books going, and a million more books to add to it. :) He "reads" by himself during nap every day, too.
Math - 5-10 mins
I was going to do math just once a week, but Adam thinks it's important for some reason. :) There are lots of math things to do, starting with just learning to write the numbers, SAM hasn't had much practice with that. I plan to include telling time, learning about the calendar and days of the week, money, and shapes under the heading of math. When I mentioned today that cooking was a good way to learn math, he wanted to make cookies right that second. :P He has yet another Target workbook, which we'll probably start with for number-writing practice. He wanted to pull it out and work on it in the car on our trip, but the car was too bouncy. Shapes and counting by twos and fives will probably be next on the list (he already has ones, of course, and today I found him counting to himself by tens and hundreds). There are lots of fun ways to learn math - I've put a hold on a book from the library about shapes. He's learned a lot of adding already from games with dice, so those will be an option for math time. I'm considering getting some Cuisenaire rods or other manipulatives, but I'm not sure yet if they're particularly worth it, when I could just give him some beans or something. :)
Language - French or Sign Language - 5-10 mins
We have a book of baby sign language, and I know of some good websites will little video dictionaries of signs. He's really interested in this and keeps asking me how to say things in sign language, or making up his own signs for things I don't know (most things), so we'll probably save French for a little later - plus we can include BAM in this learning.
For French, I really just need to start speaking French to him, and I've tried it in the past, but I always forget after a day or two, so having it on a schedule should help. He also has another workbook that my mom brought back from Paris.
Exercise/Outside time - 1 hr
I've been bad about this during the horrid hot summer, but it's time to get back outside. I think I'm going to have to give up my Wii Fit exercises for a while, and take the boys on a morning walk instead. I'd like to try running a bit after seeing how badly out-of-breath I got from just a little bit of fleeing from Seku this past event, but I don't think I can manage that without bouncing the baby to pieces. Fast walking may have to suffice. If I get Seth on his tricycle he can probably set a good pace.
Then each day we'll have one of the following, 5-10 mins:
Science
He wants to start with learning about the planets - specifically Venus. Obviously we'll never lack for subject matter under the "science" heading - I hope to do some fun projects on these days.
Geography
Classical education seems highly focused on history, but I don't know how you can understand history without knowing where things happened. We'll start by learning basic geographical definitions (peninsulas and that sort of thing - project opportunities here) and learning to find our home on maps. SAM's already ahead of many Americans, he can usually find the US on an unlabeled map. :) I've put some awesome puzzles on his wishlist, with the pieces in the shapes of countries. I had one with the states when I was little, and loved it. If all that goes well, we'll progress to learning the names of the states.
Music
He can either make music on his own, have a little basic piano lesson, or listen to world music and learn about the composer. We can also learn about instruments. Field trip opportunities here!
Art
He can make art of various kinds (when I mentioned this today he immediately went and started drawing), learn about art techniques, or look at famous art and learn about the artist. Field trip opportunities here!
Friday
This will be a wild card day. Adam works half-days Friday, so his idea was that he could take a lesson and teach Seth something interesting or do some sort of project or experiment with him. :) Sounds good to me.
So, not counting outside time, that adds up to 20-40 minutes of "school" per day, in theory. I don't think that should be too hard on him.
Now I just have to get my folders and things ready and organized!