Cultivating Readers

I have not begun homeschooling my 3-year-old, Wesley, who is pictured above looking at a book, I just thought it captured my children's love for books. Books are invaluable in our house, and all of us enjoy getting together and looking and reading, either together or alone. I will often find my 2-year old daughter curled up on the couch paging through a book (the book sometimes upside-down).

I hope to cultivate avid readers in my family, or at least individuals who value books as a wonderful resource for information and relaxation. Above all else, I pray they would enjoy reading so when reading the very most important book, The Bible, it would be thrilling!

I can't stress reading aloud to children enough. The reason we chose our homeschool curriculum, Sonlight, is because of its literature base and how they include reading aloud as a huge part of educating your child.

Other benefits of reading aloud to your children:

• It helps our children master language development
• Bonding time
• It is proven to foster a love for books
• It helps develop attention spans
• It develops a child's curiosity and creativity
• Expands a child's vocabulary
• It's a vital tool in helping our children learn to read themselves
• Exposes children to a variety of situations and is a tool for teaching proper behavior

 So, go, read to your child!!

When They're All Preschoolers

If you are in a similar boat as I am (all your children are kindergarten/preschool age or younger) than you have probably wondered or asked another mom "How are you managing?"

I couldn't have said it better myself when I found this article. We have implemented just about all of her ideas over the past couple of years and it works so well! From having the little baby on a schedule, to consistent quiet times for everybody to practicing obedience in a fun way, this mother has summed up her tips beautifully. Please read her article - if you have time, or quickly scan the bullets below. (In no particular order by the way)

• Put your baby(ies) on a schedule--makes for a more predictable day
• Everybody has quiet time after lunch
• Practice "obedience" time we call it Training Time in my house. Make up things for you kids to do for 10 or so minutes, so they are practicing obedience without tough emotions in the heat of a moment.
• Prepare for the next morning Tonight! Get the coffee ready, lay out clothes for yourself, or everybody. Make your husband's lunch. Run the dishwasher! :) Put clothes in the washing machine. Whatever you have to do to make your morning more seamless.
• Simplify - stay home more.
• Be flexible. Be willing to change as the Lord leads you to. If something isn't working, make the appropriate change that is best for your family!

Poetry + Play-Doh

My First Homeschool Curriculum

This is one milestone that I thought I MUST blog about. Now, I don't believe preschool to be required or necessary, but I was just far too anxious to start "doing" something with my preschool aged daughter that I went and purchased Sonlight's 2nd preschool program. This one is geared for children 4-5 years of age, so I know we will enjoy this program for at least a couple of years!

Now, I did hesitate at the price at first. This 30 pound box of goodies cost me about $350USD, but considering we will use these great books over and over again, I could justify it as an investment worth making!

If you've never heard of Sonlight before, head over to their website and take a look. If you are looking for a solid literature based program with Biblical undertones and emphasis on teaching your children to have a Christian worldview, it's a must-see.

I think any typical homeschooling mom will agree with me when I say I was too excited about these books to wait until September to start! So Faith and I dove in right away, and we are happily enjoying Week 2 of the curriculum. We are taking it slowly, only really 'doing school' on afternoons or mornings where we need something extra to do together. It's been wonderful for her. And for me... not the most creative mommy in the world, it's given me ideas for things to do with her too. I especially like that it's not overwhelming. A 'big' day of school only takes about 45 minutes to an hour, and it's so nice to have something for her and I to do alone together.

The most exciting part about this so far is seeing her energy and enthusiasm in regards to Bible memory. A memory verse is introduced at the beginning of each week, and I am completely amazed at her ability to memorize. (I have to say it's also helping ME memorize Bible verses, which is getting more and more difficult these days.)

I'll just add this too... another big reason I chose Sonlight over other programs, is because they have done all the planning for me. I'll admit I like to plan and organize, but the last thing I wanted was to start having to hunt for books and put a curriculum together myself. I know if I'd been left to gather their material for myself, I probably would have looked at some of the titles and said, "I don't think we'd look at that book enough to make it worth while." Now that I have all the books in my house, I'm so glad I bought the whole lot. I see it forcing me to introduce things I'm not so interested in to my children as well!

Tot School Update

Despite the lack of posts pertaining to tot school and my adventures in learning new things with my soon-to-be 3-year-old, there hasn't been an actual lack of learning in our house. I would say it hasn't been very structured lately, but who needs structure when they're 2 right?!

We continue to visit the library frequently. If not every time our books are due back, every week or so we are in the library perusing the children's isles in search of interesting and fun books to read together. My daughter's love for books is so encouraging to me, and I can only hope my son will also foster a little love for them as well. Lately, I have tried holding him in my lap while we read, and he is content to sit and listen...sort of. Except his curious little hands get in the way a little too much sometimes. To the point of frustration for me and his sister most of the time!

I have started a little tradition in our home, which I hope will grow into a fond memory for my daughter and other children some day. Because of the incredibly LONG time it takes her to eat lunch (or any meal, for that matter) I have started reading longer stories to her, advanced picture books, beginner novels? We are working through the classic Winnie-the-Pooh stories right now, and she is thrilled. The lack of pictures doesn't seem to bother her, as she is usually pre-occupied with eating her lunch or breakfast.

My daughter has also reached another important milestone in her academic development! Recently, she has started drawing people. It all started with mommy drawing large circles and asking her to fill in eyes and nose and a smile, and then before I knew it, she was adding arms and legs to these "heads." Her little people drawings are so cute. I'm sure every mommy can relate to my pride.

She has learned how to spell her name. She has yet to identify the letters in her name on paper, but she can spell it outloud if you ask her.

So, mommy is proud, daughter is proud, and both are having fun. I am looking forward to the years of learning ahead of us. What a joy it will be to see my children learn new skills, discover stories in books, and (oh, I pray) serve the Lord with all of their hearts, souls, and minds.

Tot School #4

We made Peanut Butter in the vita-mix this week. That was very fun, and very yummy :)

Daddy has been spending time reading to the children before bed. I borrowed Mike Mulligan from the library and they have been enjoying the stories in that book. He remembers his mom reading it to them when he was young!
DD copies mommy by reading her Bible on the floor in front of the fireplace one morning.
I made these two name plates for DD to practice spelling on. I got the idea from another mom on the Tot School webpage. It seemed a little too easy for her though! She placed all the letters in their correct spots in order the first time! She still enjoyed it though, and we are learning the names of the letters in their names. I might make another one with our phone number on it.
This is our countdown calendar to Christmas that DD and I made. Every morning she pastes another ornament on the calendar.

These are advent cookies that mommy baked for us to eat every day leading up to Christmas.

Tot School #3

This week wasn't terribly busy... but we had fun anyways.

As always, DD helped mommy do LOTS and lots of things in the kitchen. We made a batch of pumpkin muffins one morning, and she tried cracking eggs, which she loved. :) I don't know if I will ever be able to crack another egg without her asking to do it herself now!

She also had fun washing dishes beside mommy. She has done this lots in the past, but this time, I filled both the kitchen sinks, and she washed in one and then passed her dish to me and I really washed it and finished up. She thought this was great! And I was so glad to have her involved in this very important chore!

I went to Bible study one morning, and DD spent that morning at a friend's house. They have introduced her to beading! She had help putting little pony beads onto a piece of pipe cleaner, which I thought was genius! It is so difficult to teach her how to bead onto a piece of floppy string.

We also visited the library! We now have a TON of books in our house to read, and I'm so glad DD enjoys listening to me read to her. We are enjoying the booklist that Sonlight recommends for the P3/4 level. We are almost through Snow Queen and we read the first story out of Mike Mulligan last night, which daddy and DS also listened to. (It was very cute)


Also, at the library there was a multi-cultural festival, hosted the the local home-school group. We visited that, because my friend had developed a display about Zambia and she was promoting her book Shadows of Promise there.

Tot School #2

We had a fun week! It was very busy though! Not too much time for tot school, but mommy is freshly inspired to do simple activities with DD. I also received my very first homeshooling resource in the mail this week. I ordered the parent guide from Sonlight for level P3/4. I decided against ordering the entire preschool curriculum because it is almost $300US. Instead, over the next three years I think I will slowly start to accumulate the books they suggest using.

Now a little peek into our week...

For a fun sensory experience, DD had fun pouring dried lentils and chick peas into different containers. This kept her nice and busy for awhile... she was also very good about keeping them on the tray I gave her... I worked away in the kitchen so proud of how nicely she was playing, until I suddenly found her flinging dried lentils EVERYWHERE :)

No, she is not taking piano lessons, and I have no intentions on starting her this young. Being a piano teacher once upon a time, I think it's worth waiting until they're older. Meanwhile, she has fun plunking away on the keys and listening to the demos that are programed.

DD played play-dough for hours, literally, this week! It was absolutely amazing. In the past I bought play-dough for her, but more recently I made some at home, and it is so much easier for her to play with. So much softer! I am also amazed at how long the play-dough has lasted.

I have been gradually trying to involve her in more of my daily jobs. And one day this week we were cleaning the bathroom. DD loved practicing using the spray bottle in the bathtub and then wiping up with a cloth. I didn't realize the hand-eye coordination that it actually takes. ;)

We have also spent lots of time reading aloud together this week. We got the book Horton Hatches an Egg from the library this week, and she absolutely loves the book. I even caught her convincing daddy to read it to her. Should have had my camera out. :)

Tot School #1

I took pictures this week of those sort of intentional, (yet spontaneous at the same time, if that makes sense) teaching times that I had with my DD 2 and a half year old. She is eager to learn new things and be more and more independant. I have been surfing the net to find some preschool ideas, and I was so excited to purchase the Sonlight P3/4 Parents' Guide. I am eagerly waiting for it to arrive in my mailbox now.

We colored and pasted a picture of the human body. DD enjoyed pasting the neck below the head and the feet below the legs.

We also visited our little scallion garden. We have harvested a couple of scallions this fall, and have enjoyed eating them in salads. DD goes out and samples them every now and then.


We also practiced throwing this week! We rolled up socks and practiced throwing them into a basket. This kept DD busy for about 45 minutes! I was surprised.