You are currently browsing the monthly archive for July 2007.
B2 is showing an interest in counting, and E4 has been helping him as we teach him to count to four or five. At dinner tonight he wanted to count the pikelets on his plate. There were four. Each time he said One, two, One Two. We said One Two Three Four with him and I could see that he wanted to repeat it over and over until he “got” it!
He is such a sweet grateful boy. Tonight after bath time he was playing hiding under his towel. When Dad came in and participated in his game he said “Thanks for finding me Dad.”
We haven’t read much of The Magician’s Nephew lately…..mostly because of my trying to get us into a daily routine, and reading has fallen a bit. Also though because I think she was losing interest as the plot became more detailed. Maybe a bit beyond her, but perhaps if we’d stuck to it more regularly it would have been easier for her. Will keep trying.
E4 tidied the lounge and dining room the other night without being asked. I was so blessed by her helpful attitude.
She is also a great encourager and genuinely rejoices when B2 or R4months learns something new.
Today in the car, E4 and I played our first game of I Spy. We had each taken a few turns and guessed each others. It was E4’s turn. She was saying the sound of the beginning of her word rather than the name of the letter so I took the opportunity to match the sounds to the letters. For example she’d say “something beginning with sss” so I would say” “Thats the letter S, something beginning with S. The sound is sss”
“I spy with my little eye, something beginning with fffff” she said.
I guessed a number of things like, fast cars, funny faces and so on. Finally I said “Fingers!”
E4 replied “No Mum, that’s uncorrect. There are lots of big ones around and it’s something for when you want to take a picture of something”
“Ahhhh” I said “Photos!”
At risk of repeating myself, another post about reading.
“The biggest secret to homeschooling, I believe, is to teach your child to read. Ignite the fire of learning underneath the seats of their little pants when they are just toddlers – and continue to expect them to read throughout their lives…and you won’t have to worry about their achievement tests in high school. This is true for any method of educating your child – not just homeschoolers. (Although as homeschoolers, you have the potential to know just how much and what they are reading every day. Sometimes you have to force them to stop reading…)” From Seeking Faithfulness.
Tonight I read The Little Yellow Digger to B about 7 times in a row. He didn’t appear to be listening to me as he was busy with a puzzle at the same time, but each time I finished he said “Again, again!” By about the 5th time I would leave a word out and prompt him to finish the sentence. Once he got what I was trying to get him to do , he managed to remember this from the first page: “poured and poured with rain“. Which sounded more like “Pile and pile to rain!”
When his Daddy walked in through the door he shouted “Daddy, we reading DIGGER!!!!”
I love it that when you read something, it gives you thoughts you’ve never thought of before. That sounds silly doesn’t it, but really…I can almost feel my brain working and it hasn’t done much of that these last few years I’m sorry to say. It feels nice to make it think.
Things that are in my head are based around what I have been reading these last few days. I’ve just devoured When You Rise Up by RC Sproul Jr. I found it challenging, inspiring and it also confirmed in my mind many of the reasons I have decided to home school. There are a few paragraphs in the book that I disagree with (theology stuff) but overall sound and given me heaps to think about. I say “I have decided to home school” not because it has been only my decision, but because D is far less concerned with the details of it and much less analytical than I am. He’s happy enough to go with a conviction just because he thinks it’s the best thing to do. I however have felt the need to explore our conviction and know Why we do what we do. I think some of that will make a more quality decision and not something that is just a phase or a whim, and also, knowing the why’s will help me answer those who question. (Being the one who tends towards ‘people pleasing’ and wanting to blend in and all…I find it hard already when people ask when E’s going to start school. Being clear on why we are not sending her to school will help me answer that one.)
I never intended this to be a home schooling blog, and yet here I go again prattling on about it. I am finding that home educating and simply parenting, in my mind are becoming more and more the same thing. So much so that I don’t even want to use the terms home schooling or home education because it’s like saying water swimming. (OK…if that one doesn’t make sense, you’ll just have to gloss over it because although there is a point there, I’m finding it hard to make! It is late after all.) When I first considered home schooling probably 18 months to 2 years ago I used to say to myself and in conversation “Oh, I’m considering home schooling but I’m not sure that I’m cut out to home school” and now I see how I thought so differently then.
It just seems so normal to me now to keep my children at home and live life with them, teaching them as we go. Now I think that any parent is actually qualified to educate their children. Our parenthood; that in itself qualifies us. I see my children differently too. I am appreciating them for the blessings that they are to us and the incredible privilege and responsibility it is to have them in our family. I want to enjoy being with them (don’t get me wrong, I already do enjoy being with them) more and more. There seems to be something in our culture that tells us kids are an inconvenience and so often you hear mothers say they can’t wait to send them off to school. To me there is something very wrong in our families (and society as a whole) if that’s how mothers are feeling consistently. Of course we all have our days when we’d like some time away from them, but I’m talking about the pattern of our lives.
There’s so much more rolling around in my brain, but not formed into words yet. I’m sure there’ll be more on this subject.
E4 loves to draw and/or write, and apart from starting to write lots of letters, most of her drawings are rather abstract. Here’s her latest drawing of a cat. She’s been watching an animated Stuart Little DVD and there’s a “learn to draw’ session on the special features. It shows you step by step how to draw Snowflake the cat. It’s the proud mother speaking here, but I think she did a great job. It’s made me wonder that maybe I just need to get her going by showing her how to draw certain things.
The other day she spent about an hour sitting quietly making these play dough cookies. She had such fun putting colourful heart stickers on the top which was entirely her idea and something I’d never have thought of. (After all, stickers don’t go on play dough, stickers go on paper don’t you know!)
We wrapped them up to keep them fresh and showed them to Daddy when he got home. The large one on the left hand side is especially for him. It was in the shape of a heart, but was a bit over handled.
