Helena has been very into rhyming lately, constantly saying things like "bop and pop" or "Mommy, light and bright - they RHYME!" Yesterday I told her how people make poems where the end of each sentence rhymes. Tonight she came up with this *completely* by herself.
There's a merry-go-round, a merry-go-round
With a mommy lying down
And horses around her
And a carousel around
Not a bad poem for having just turned 4 a month ago!!! :)
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Homeschooling
On the way down the hill from blackberry picking this afternoon, I found a milkweed covered in newly hatched monarch caterpillars. Helena was thrilled when I put some leaves in a jar and knocked 6 bitty critters into it. We covered it with cheesecloth so they won't escape and are looking forward to watching them grow, shed their skins, form a crysallis and hatch as monarchs. A wonderful science lesson.
And a language and art lesson as it turned out... First Helena brought me a drawing showing me the caterpillars legs and face and all. Then she wanted to know how to spell "caterpillar". So I helped her to sound it out "C-Caterpillar" and she said "c" then cA-A-terpillar and she said "a" and so on. Next she asked me to write it for her in her little notebook so she could see it. She pointed to each of the letters and spelled out the word. Then she wrote down her name to show the caterpillars, convinced that they'd be thrilled by it. So cute!
I love the intermix of living and learning. While I will never be a total unschooler, I'm completely amazed at Helena's ability to learn things for herself. For example, I recently picked up a workbook in Borders and quizzed her on the letters. When I got to the end, surprised that she knew almost all of them, I went back and asked her the sounds they made. Again, she knew almost all of them. I was really surprised! We have some alphabet books in our HUGE book collection. We don't read them on any regular basis but they do get read. Plus she has an alphabet puzzle. We've done a few "letter of the week" activities but stopped for summer and never did more than A thru D. I am completely amazed that she knows all of this.
Lately I've found her studying books or her alphabet puzzle with a look of intense concentration. "I am learning my letters so I can read mommy". Part of me wants to encourage daily workbook pages and work on phonetic word blends and see how soon she can be reading. But part of me wants to honor this beautiful process of self learning and see how and when she figures it all out herself. After all, what's the rush, she's only just turned 4!
I'm also proud to report that she can count almost to 50 now.
This fall she'll likely attend preschool 1-2 mornings per week., but for the socialization not so much the academics. A lady in town has a small preschool in her home which I'm comfortable with. Helena is VERY excited.
She's at a funny stage of wanting more time to play with other children and feel independent but then wanting to still be with mommy too. She hasn't quite figured out how to reconcile these feelings and so she wavers from one extreme to the other. One minute, when other kids are around, she is asking me to leave, saying she wants to live at her friends house, saying if other kids were there to play with all day she wouldn't need to be with me. Next she's panicking that I've walked into the next room without her or that I'm going to go for a walk and leave her home with daddy. I'm not offended at her adamant "Mommy, go away". She wants to sit all by herself in the front on the cushions with other kids at the library theater program and asks me to sit in the back lol. But then she wandered back to join me nonchalantly last week haha. I find it all sort of amusing since I know we have a very very close bond. (I should add that it's a *very* small library so it's not like she's sitting where I can't see her in some large theater.)
Later this week we are visiting a private school that has a homeschool initiative in which homeschooled students can spend between 1-3 days per wk at school. I am AMAZED that such an option exists! Just a wk or so ago, I found myself wishing out loud that I could just send her to school part time. That way she'd be socialized, not away from me all the time and I'd not be having to look for someone to watch her 2 days per wk while I go to grad school. But of course such a thing didn't exist - or so I thought. I can't say how amazed and excited we are over this option. We have spent oodles of time lately re-examining school options in light of her extrovered personality.
The school is heavily environmentally based so children spend much of the day outside. They begin each day with just under a mile walk. It's child centered with much freedom of choice and expression in assignments and activities, no testing or homework. It sounds really wonderful and we can't wait to check it out further!
And a language and art lesson as it turned out... First Helena brought me a drawing showing me the caterpillars legs and face and all. Then she wanted to know how to spell "caterpillar". So I helped her to sound it out "C-Caterpillar" and she said "c" then cA-A-terpillar and she said "a" and so on. Next she asked me to write it for her in her little notebook so she could see it. She pointed to each of the letters and spelled out the word. Then she wrote down her name to show the caterpillars, convinced that they'd be thrilled by it. So cute!
I love the intermix of living and learning. While I will never be a total unschooler, I'm completely amazed at Helena's ability to learn things for herself. For example, I recently picked up a workbook in Borders and quizzed her on the letters. When I got to the end, surprised that she knew almost all of them, I went back and asked her the sounds they made. Again, she knew almost all of them. I was really surprised! We have some alphabet books in our HUGE book collection. We don't read them on any regular basis but they do get read. Plus she has an alphabet puzzle. We've done a few "letter of the week" activities but stopped for summer and never did more than A thru D. I am completely amazed that she knows all of this.
Lately I've found her studying books or her alphabet puzzle with a look of intense concentration. "I am learning my letters so I can read mommy". Part of me wants to encourage daily workbook pages and work on phonetic word blends and see how soon she can be reading. But part of me wants to honor this beautiful process of self learning and see how and when she figures it all out herself. After all, what's the rush, she's only just turned 4!
I'm also proud to report that she can count almost to 50 now.
This fall she'll likely attend preschool 1-2 mornings per week., but for the socialization not so much the academics. A lady in town has a small preschool in her home which I'm comfortable with. Helena is VERY excited.
She's at a funny stage of wanting more time to play with other children and feel independent but then wanting to still be with mommy too. She hasn't quite figured out how to reconcile these feelings and so she wavers from one extreme to the other. One minute, when other kids are around, she is asking me to leave, saying she wants to live at her friends house, saying if other kids were there to play with all day she wouldn't need to be with me. Next she's panicking that I've walked into the next room without her or that I'm going to go for a walk and leave her home with daddy. I'm not offended at her adamant "Mommy, go away". She wants to sit all by herself in the front on the cushions with other kids at the library theater program and asks me to sit in the back lol. But then she wandered back to join me nonchalantly last week haha. I find it all sort of amusing since I know we have a very very close bond. (I should add that it's a *very* small library so it's not like she's sitting where I can't see her in some large theater.)
Later this week we are visiting a private school that has a homeschool initiative in which homeschooled students can spend between 1-3 days per wk at school. I am AMAZED that such an option exists! Just a wk or so ago, I found myself wishing out loud that I could just send her to school part time. That way she'd be socialized, not away from me all the time and I'd not be having to look for someone to watch her 2 days per wk while I go to grad school. But of course such a thing didn't exist - or so I thought. I can't say how amazed and excited we are over this option. We have spent oodles of time lately re-examining school options in light of her extrovered personality.
The school is heavily environmentally based so children spend much of the day outside. They begin each day with just under a mile walk. It's child centered with much freedom of choice and expression in assignments and activities, no testing or homework. It sounds really wonderful and we can't wait to check it out further!
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