Real-world discoveries

Pickle expressed an interest in nature walks/exploring nature. Who was I to argue? So to kick off pre-k week 2, we set out this morning and started walking. I pointed out an unusual tree and we walked up to have a look. I took a picture; we moved on. He pointed out another unusual tree; I took another picture. After I took a few more photos, he asked,

"Why do you keep taking pictures?"

To which I replied, "Because I want to be able to remember our the discoveries we make on our nature walk."

At which point, his excitement blossomed and he led me around the neighborhood pointing out things to photo. He pointed out practically everything! Haha. I can't really describe his excitement during our little walk around the block this morning so I'll just present some of our more photogenic finds.

The Three R's

First time homeschool mom confession: Curriculum choices both fascinate and confuse me. But I think I'm getting closer...I hope I'm getting closer!

Since Nicholas spent a year in preschool--a year I wasn't as involved in as I'd wanted to be due to health circumstances--I'm not sure where he is on the foundation continuum. I've been hunting high and low for evaluations and foundation builders so I can find out what page he's on and get on that page with him.

For math, I've decided to go with Mathematical Reasoning Beginnings 2. I had all these grand plans to start official school with a fun "Official School" day but I was so excited to start on the Mathematical Reasoning book that I...kind of just started. We did our calendar page and I asked if he wanted to do math, and he eagerly grabbed a pencil. I'm not sure yet what kind of pages-per-day schedule we'll go with, or if we'll even devise a quota/goal per day at all, so I decided to just let him run with it. He whipped through 18 pages! 18. I could tell he was starting to get frustrated/tired around page 14 or 15, though, so I think I'll use approximately 10-12 pages/session as a loose goal and limit. I don't want to stress him out and I do want to keep him hungry for more.

And then, phonics/reading. Oh, phonics/reading.

I had no plans to start on reading yet. I figured I'd go with a casual approach, and start a formal reading program next year. He's been asking me things like "What's that?" (question mark) and "How do you spell X" for a while, though, so I think he's ready and it would be a disservice to him to not at least present the option of reading.

Unfortunately, I again find myself lacking knowledge of exactly where he is in conjunction with a phonics program. I've ordered a few books from the library and looked at some very expensive reading/handwriting programs (VERY expensive) but I think for now I'm going to keep studying and thinking and decide on something formal (if we go formal at all) at a later date. To that end, I went into my Confessions of a Homeschooler K4 packet and printed out some Beginning Sounds worksheets so I can evaluate where he stands on letter/sound recognition and, again, go from there.

As frustrating and time consuming as the Great Curriculum Hunt is, I'm glad I didn't go with my initial desire for a packaged/boxed curriculum kit. I was lusting over the expensive Timberdoodle but I'm not sure it would have met our between-stages needs. I'm going to be cobbling phonics and math a bit, but that's okay, because I'm discovering that preschool meant I don't know my baby as much as I thought I did, and this exploration period is bringing us closer.

For now, if anybody needs me I'll be pouring over The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading and Teach Your Child to Read with Children's Books (which I think might be a winner).

And FIAR, of course, although I'm scaling back a bit on that to make it more discussion-based and less Pinterest-focused. I need to play with my kiddo, not spend playtime on Pinterest.

Jenny's Surprise Summer (Before Five in a Row)

Our "row" of Jenny's Surprise Summer by Eugenie began and ended! I started this post a week ago intending to journal as we went but time flew and here I am, another "row" concluded.

We kicked things off by reading Thy Friend, Obadiah by Brinton Turkle, which is a story about a Quaker boy who becomes the subject of a seagull's affection. Immediately after Nicholas wanted to read Jenny, and who am I to turn down a request for a book?

Jenny's Surprise Summer is a story about a young girl who visits her grandmother for a summer on the beach. She discovers two kittens in a cave and bonds with them during the lazy days of beach and water play (which really fill me with longing for that sort of childhood for Nicholas, but we live in a different world now than we did when Jenny was published in 1981). However, Jenny lives in an apartment in the city and her parents believe their apartment will only accommodate one kitten, which leaves Jenny with the dilemma: Which kitten to keep?

In preparation for this book, I reserved several books at the library.

Naturally I didn't write down the titles of any of those books before I returned them, but they included two Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That titles (beach, cats), a collection of stories about children adopting animals (The Little Bunny, The Little Puppy, The Little Lamb, etc), a world "dictionary" about cats around the world, a Clifford book about a storm and a couple other kitten/cat stories. I also reserved a children's Oceans encyclopedia but by the time it arrived at the library, we'd moved on from our row. I'm going to make a note of it for when we revisit the sea with Night of the Moonjellies in September.

In a nutshell, we looked at beach life and cats around the world, watched a PBS documentary about Hurricane Sandy, which swept through during his first Halloween, we did a salt water vs tap wter experiment (which freezes faster?) and I created my first sensory bin with white rice, seashells, plastic pearls and an assortment of little toys from our Octonauts collection. We enjoyed the study but it went quickly, much quicker than I anticipated and I didn't have an opportunity to set up a seashell painting craft.

I thought Nicholas would be interested in pursuing different avenues but I think he might have gotten the beach/ocean fascination out of his system during his 2s and 3s. Thus far, I'm finding that, in general, a week is about the extent of our interest in a FIAR book. I believe some linger for up to two weeks, following different interests, and I think we might eventually hit upon one of those books but this wasn't the one.

Next up...I'm not sure, to be perfectly honest. I noticed we're not reading as many of our favorite pre-FIAR, purely-for-enjoyment stories when we're in the middle of a FIAR study so I think we'll take a week off to enjoy the books and toys we have for play and entertainment.

I won't be completely un-busy, though. I've just received a copy of The Well-Trained Mind from the library and I'll be reading that on my own. I'm still trying to get a solid handle on what our homeschool year will look like and I feel like I'm coming a bit down to the wire for math, reading and handwriting.

Confession: Part of me is tempted to ditch it all and buy a copy of A Year of Playing Skillfully.

I'm afraid I'm going to be one of those homeschooling parents who is always looking.

We're on our way

I meant to start recording our homeschool shenanigans way back in May when I created this blog, but good intentions and all that. We did start, though. For the foreseeable future, we'll be exploring and discovering with the Five in a Row curriculum, which specifically aims to foster a love of books and an even greater love of learning.

I've looked at several other curriculum sites this summer and even purchased the Confessions of a Homeschooler curriculum for K4 (an extremely thorough and affordable curriculum! just not the one for us because I think I need to take a more sneaky approach and tiptoe around Nicholas's general aversion to worksheets and "seat work"). I spent a few weeks drooling over the Timberdoodle pre-k boxed curriculum (I still might pick up their pre-k science kit) and checked out some free stuff but from the moment I read about Five in a Row, my gut yelled, "this is it!" - and yes, this is it!

Five in a Row is founded in the philosophy that an early love of  books and learning will lead to lifelong learning. That's what I want for Nicholas. Even before he was born, I wanted him to know the richness of worlds and people that could be found in literature (and I don't just mean *literature* literature). I've filled his bedroom with books, and now we're going to continue as we began.

I regret that I created this blog and then abandoned it until now because we went ahead and started our Quest for Knowledge back in May with The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss and we've already come a long way through Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina, Angus Lost by Marjorie Flack, The ABC Bunny by Wanda Gag, and, just wrapping up this weekend, Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton.

We've enjoyed some books more than others (I think Angus Lost was a favorite - when I found a Scottie dog Beanie Baby at a flea market, Nicholas squeed with joy) but we've learned something from every one.

Best of all: Nicholas now tells everybody he meets that he's homeschooled, and "my mommy is the best teacher" (without any prompting at all)!

I have plenty of fears. I'm worried I won't give him enough or I'll push him too hard or I'll rob him of social experiences found in a classroom...but I hope in time my fears will shrink in the shadow of his success (don't look at me like that; I'm a writer, exaggerated language is what I do).

But I'm learning that right over there beside my fears are opportunities. We've found a co-op that meets once a week and I'm tentatively hopeful those families will become our tribe. I'm finding that the more I learn with Nicholas every day, the closer we become and the more confident he becomes. I never thought of him as a little boy who has a shell, but suddenly a switch has been flipped and he wants to draw and color and listen to music (deafening volumes, hah!).

With the world in the state it is right now, I'm not sure what kind of future we face as humans, but whatever comes, I want his present to be warm, memorable and joyful.

So, here we go! (Or here we continue!)

Watch for some pictures and thoughts on our Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel "row" soon! I've started planning our next adventure but I want to put Mike Mulligan down on e-paper while it's still fresh in my mind.