All of my friend's with children DD1's age seem to be sending their kids to preschool. In fact, we are often asked where she goes to preschool. She doesn't. And she won't. In fact, she already knows everything she might learn at preschool, except for maybe following directions and sitting still, which I think are overrated anyway. :)
BUT, I have thought for quite some time that I would homeschool my children, and after talking with some homeschooling families, and reading THIS book(which I recommend if you have even the slightest thought that you might want to homeschool), my husband and I are confident that homeschooling is a path we want to pursue.
With that in mind, I must admit that I worry that I'll be able to be dedicated enough to teach my kids at home. I certainly don't want any major gaps in their education. And I want them to become thinkers, and to pursue what they are passionate about. I want to have adventures and to learn through real-life experiences. I want our learning to be genuine, and not forced by some politicians who know little about children and nothing about education (don't get me started on the politics of public ed right now, it's a downward spiral).
For October, our theme is Autumn. I'm excited to see where it takes us. I do want to outline a daily rhythm that is fairly flexible, and I'm excited to see how that pans out, especially with three children. I'm trying to be organized, but not to let that take away from any spontaneity that should occur through our learning together. I am sure the only way I will survive is if I have an outline of how I'd like things to go, but I must be willing to let that go (especially due to a hungry baby, a cold, lack of sleep, or any of the things that tend to mess up "schedules" when you have three kids 3 and under.)
The books we plan to read:
Leaf Man and Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf, by Lois Ehlert
The Apple Pie Tree, by Zoe Hall
Leaves Fall Down; Learning about Autumn Leaves by Lisa Marie Bullard
Are there any other Fall-ish books that you suggest for my little ones?
The songs we plan to sing:
My Montessori Journey typed up songs that go perfectly with our theme. I'm so excited to sing these with my girls!
Other skills we plan to learn:
Sight words the, a, and, see
Counting to 100
Gospel concepts to learn:
We Believe in God, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost
Social Skills to practice:
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Any ideas for this one? :)
2 comments:
I want to try some of these things...sadly our library just closed down so they can move to the new building...I might have to raid the neighbors and see if they have books I can use!
Sounds like you are going forward with a plan, which is half the work! Best of luck juggling all three in the mix-- but you are superwoman so I know you can do it!
As far as social skill lessons go (you KNEW I was going to ring in on this, right?? ha ha), 'do unto others as you would have done to you' is not quite there for them developmentally.... so it might be hard for them to internalize the concept-- I don't get to that until age 8 or so. They CAN understand at this age the idea of how their actions can affect another person though, so you could do a game where they have a sad face on one side of a popsicle stick sign and a happy face on the other, and have them show you what emotion a person might feel if you did "this" and give them an example. Then after 3-5 turns of various scenarios, you do role-plays of situations from your house having the girls guess how the actions would make someone feel. --Remember you ALWAYS play the part of the offender (i.e. if someone tattles, you pretend to be the tattler, etc.). Don't know if this makes sense but it will get them to begin to think less selfishly, although that is fighting against their development as well. :) Then during the week you can reference their behavior in that context: "When you acted that way how do you think it made Mommy feel? Lets make better choices that would help everyone to feel more happy." Empathy is a basic but pertinent principle!
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