Last night we bought Addy her very first workbook. I’m not sure what her proclivity toward the academics is at this point. She doesn’t exactly seem gifted in the same way that she is developmentally advanced. She learns some things easily but it seems to be on her own terms. I don’t believe in shoving academics down a child’s throat. I am an unschooler at heart so I believe childhood should be a time to play and explore and discover and that there is so much learning that goes on through these actions that little supplementation is often needed. I do some more standard “teaching” - mostly reading fundamentals and math.  I start ever fall much more structured and planned than we end each spring.  Even knowing this, I still do it every fall.

So I’ve been planning our Fall 2008 for awhile now and this time Addy-Mai is included as well! We’ll see how her new Kumon workbook goes but if she loves it, we’ll work through the other two this summer and this fall we’ll chose from one of these three options:

Mother Goose Time: I got this for a short time with Noah but he wasn’t interested in doing any of it, really. I think it is a much better fit for Addison. Basically it is “preschool in a box” and it is SUPER organized but still flexible. You get all the materials and supplies, the lesson plans, the shopping lists, etc and then you have a full preschool program for your child. Each month you get a new box, each box has a new theme. I’m not sure how educational it is - probably more education for some children than others. But it is a fun diversion and I have a feeling Addy will want some “school” while her brothers are doing their school next fall. It costs a little under $500 for 12 months which is a lot cheaper than actual preschool but at the same time, it isn’t exactly free. If I get it, I want to really USE it. So I’m still debating this one.

Before Five In A Row: We have the Five in a Row curriculum for Noah and have enjoyed what we have done in it. I really like the basis of it, it jives with my own unschooly educational philosophy. The curriculum gives you a book to read for the entire week. You read that book every day for the week and each day the curriculum gives you supplementary learning ideas like recipes, field trips, crafts, art appreciation, math skills, etc to include to expand on the book. The literature is all really great. They also have a Before Five In A Row curriculum for younger kids. I really REALLY love this learning model and it is extremely inexpensive ($25) if you use the library for the literature. But right now Addison has NO interest in being read to. She loves books - she likes to look at the pictures, ask bout words, play “where’s the ____” on the page, open the flaps, turn the pages, talk about what she sees. But she is not even remotely interested or willing to hear the actual text on the pages. So unless something changes (and Addison will be 2.5 this fall so it very well might), I can’t see this as being a good viable option for her this fall.

Do-It-Yourself Theme Weeks: I have a plethora of preschool teaching books, activity books, craft books, learning resources etc. But really all you need is the Internet. This is the essentially free option. I did this for awhile for Noah and the planning was easy but the implementation took more effort than I had to give at the time. I hope that is different this fall. Basically what I did was to chose a theme for each week: fire stations, apples, pumpkins, clowns - whatever. Then I picked out books from the library, a DVD or too, recipes, a craft, coloring pages, a field trip when possible so there was something fun to do every day that revolved around that theme. It is the least “academic” of the three options but that isn’t always a bad thing. If Addy shows an interest in more academic pursuits, there is always the option to make it more academic (focusing on a letter of the week, a color of the week, a number of the week, etc). If I were to start something more formal right now I think this is probably what I’d choose. It requires more upfront planning and organizing but it doesnt take too long and it is easy if you do a whole month or two of weekly plans at a time.

So I guess we’ll see what Addy’s learning style is, come fall.

Noah will be in first grade this fall and he will be a lot more baffling for me to figure out than Addy. He is a true unschooler - he sometimes needs a tiny bit of instruction to get the hang of something he isn’t familiar with but most of the time he takes what knowledge he possesses and applies it to the world around him in order to expand. He didn’t know any of his letter sounds or names this fall and now he’s reading and writing and spelling probably at a mid-first grade level. He couldn’t count past 10 this past fall but now he can count to any number, forward and backward, has figured out all sorts of skip counting (start with 11’s - haha) and can add and subtract in his head, has figured out multiplication and division, has learned to tell a bit of time, has learned about money and place value, etc. We did start with a math program (Math U See) but when Noah’s learning was growing faster than the lessons were going, we scrapped it. Otherwise, he spends his days reading, writing, coloring, drawing and exploring. I am not sure exactly where the learning “gaps” would be, for him. He knows all about government and is interested in hearing stories about history and he just really loves to learn. I think Noah has brought me back to my unschooling roots and as long as he seems to thrive that way, I’ll embrace it.

Dalton & Teegan are easy. They will be in 9th and 6th grades, respectively. We have a good system going and it is working so well. They have both done so so well this year, They have a good math program they are both really thriving on. Dalton will do Geometry and Algebra II next year and Teegan will do Fractions, Decimals and *maybe* PreAlgebra. They work at their own pace, though, so they can go as fast or as slow as they need. They have awesome science classes in the neighborhood and we’ll continue to do the occasional WebQuest and reading good literature. Hopefully our homeschool coop will revitalize this fall, too. Its a presidential election year which means we’ll focus almost exclusively on politics and government until 2009. In 2004 we went to rallies and talked a lot about the process but now that they are older, we will be delving much more deeply into the process. Because guess what? This is the very last presidential election we will have before Dalton is old enough to VOTE!!!!!!!! So this is it - my only chance to show him, in living color, what the election process entails. We’ll also continue learning about finances and money management - two very important topics for teens (this will have a post of its own in another few days). Their own interests and passions tend to take them to much higher level places than a curriculum could take them. They have been spending MAJOR time outside, exploring, chasing snakes and lizards, catching tadpoles and crayfish - the stuff childhood is made from. I plan to continue encouraging that as much as possible.  On an exciting note, Dalton can start phase one of driver’s training this fall when he turns 14.  I’m not sure if we will (because of some weird law that requires I hold a Texas license for 3 years prior to teaching him) but its exciting to have that option.

So that’s my spring cleaning in the homeschool department. We’ll wrap up the school year when Dalton is done with math. Teegan has already finished his two math books this year and is starting his third but will finish this fall unless he wants to finish over the summer. This summer I plan to have the boys keep reading good literature. Dalton & Teegan will be taking some higher level science classes locally this summer that we are all excited about. Teegan and Addison will both be in gymnastics all summer and Addison will take her first ballet class, too. And we plan to spend every other waking moment in the water either in our pool or in one of the community pools. Usually we continue homeschooling through the summer but the kids have all worked really hard and almost never complained this year and everyone has learned so much that we will take a much deserved break. I’m counting down the days!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 16th, 2008 at 8:28 am and is filed under Homeschooling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.