A Taste of Homeschooling

On Friday I had a taste of what homeschooling could be this year, and I liked it. We dropped Monkey2 off at preschool, and Monkey1 and I went home for her lessons.

First I made a list on the chalkboard side of the art easel, so Monkey1 would know what we needed to do. I think she likes to know that the list is finite, and not that Mom keeps making up more things to do. At the bottom I wrote: READ BOOKS, explaining that this would not get crossed off because we would probably read books several times during the day (I would read aloud to her, and later, to both Monkeys). Then I wrote: Math, Letters, Read Blue Hat book, review CC.

I let her chose the first thing. She chose "READ BOOKS" and wanted to hear another chapter of The Story of the World.

Then we worked through the other items, with quick recess breaks in between subjects. We did some matching and memory games for Math, to drill recognition of seeing groups. For Letters we reviewed the "S" sound and some three-letter words and then worked on some four-letter words like PASS, RUST, STOP, ans SPIN. Combining consonant sounds is tricky. Then we sat down with a "We Both Read" book I found in the beginning readers section at the library called The Old Blue Hat. This is laid out so the parent reads the left-hand page, several short paragraphs, and then the child reads the right-hand page, starting with half a sentence and building up to four or five sentences. The book is beyond where Monkey1 is in sounding words out (we haven't worked on the long vowel sounds yet), but there are enough words she can get while I help with the harder ones, so she is willing to work on reading. Then we read another chapter of The Story of the World before going to pick up Monkey2.

Still preschool orientation week, so it was only a two-hour day for Monkey2, but in that time Monkey1 and I had completed the lessons.

The item we hadn't done "review CC," continue drilling the memory work for Classical Conversations, was done by popping the audio CD in the car stereo. Also, Monkey2 likes to be part of this; this week she's enjoying the history sentence song about William the Conqueror in 1066.

Then today, Monday, we did it again. Dropped off Monkey2 at preschool, who said 'bye looking vaguely everywhere but not particularly to me, and then Monkey1 and I went home for lessons again. And it worked out just as well. Actually, better, since she dragged The Old Blue Hat book over to me, "Don't forget this Mommy."