A quick update brought to you by the letter Z. As we have been doing preschool with Madeline (age 4) I have learned a lot about myself as a homeschool momma and about the learning styles of my kiddos.
Madeline who has been doing the only “formal” schooling, has been doing a great job. However, there have been many times of distraction and what I call helplessness. Where she looks to me for the answer that I would like her to figure out. (Example: sounding out a word.) Yet, when I reflect that we have only been doing this a few months I am amazing at the growth of this lovey of mine.
I am so proud of her, not just academically but because the fruits of the spirit are showing through her day to day.
I started out the year with “worksheets” (glorified coloring pages) for my now 3 year old Noah. And at times he really enjoys them. However, I would say the majority of the time he would rather learn through play. He enjoys puzzles, pretending with his younger brother Jonah, he enjoys games, and he enjoys looking through books. All these things I find he is learning far more then the coloring pages and it is fun to see him expanding his mind.
This kid enjoys hands on and spacial reasons so much (future builder or engineer like his uncle) but also has some much compassion. Today he was pretend playing with the animals seen in the above picture. He was worried that the Zebra had no water, he was saying the Zebra was sad to the other animals and the elephant came over to the Zebra and showed him the way to the water.
When I started homeschooling my youngest Jesse was only a few weeks old and I was sure that he was going to be my biggest hurdle to overcome. Boy was I wrong, this sweet boy 9 times out of 10 sleeps through school time. We start school right when we lay him down for his morning nap (love that we can be flexible) and by the time he has woken we are past the direct instruction and on to the hands on activities.
My biggest overcoming obstacle this year is my sweet pie 1 and a 1/2 year old Jonah. He wants to bad to do what his siblings are doing but needs to switch activities every 5 mins. We have found a lot of new activities and things we save special for school time which has been enjoyable for him.
His latest favorite activity is cooking. Family have got him some fake food and some small pans and he can play with these toys for a long amount of time. Which is such a blessing during direct instruction time with Madeline.
Another hurled I have learned about myself is that when I used to teach in a public school setting since there was 26 students I was in a constant state of teaching and rotating from student to student. In this setting now I started the year almost hand holding too much, getting in and watching every move. I have learned to step back and watch more. I have also figured out how to create a laundry schedule where I can be running loads and folding clothes while we are all in the same room. (Our homeschool room is downstairs conveniently next to the laundry room).
Laundry has always been a little overwhelming but just like kids thrive off structure, so do I when it comes to laundry. If I miss a day I can feel it. And I know if I work on laundry when we do school time (3 times a week) my life won’t revolve around always doing laundry. Put in the time and get the reward!
There is an update on how school has been going for us 🙂
