Well, the good news (for me) is that because of her "late" birthday...Sophia doesn't actually become of age to enter in Kindergarten for 2 more years. The bad news (for me, again) is that the time is sure to pass by quickly.
We are keeping our options open for what will come at that time - private school? public school? homeschool? However, we have decided to start her off with a little bit of early education at home. It seems the perfect match for us right now.
Most of her "friends", or kids she knows from other activities, have entered into preschool/daycare this year. While we have decided not to enroll her at this particular time, I do feel there is great benefit to that path.
I am home with my children and willing to attempt this endeavor. There are SO many other women before me that are so wonderful in sharing their resources, plans, ideas, etc. that I feel that I am not alone. (Mental note: add some of the links to these resoures on my sidebar). It's PRESCHOOL...so I can't really mess it up (right?). It will at least give us a little experience with the unknown, so that next year we will know a little bit more about our options. We both attended public schools. I know how to research schools, interview schools, visit schools. But I have never tried to teach my own child at home, so how could I possible draw from any experience in that area? I think that this will be the perfect time to get our feet wet. Will this work for our family? Is her younger brother going to be too much of a distraction? Can I organize our days well enough that this will be enjoyable? Will my home fall apart? Will it be fun? Is our home conducive to learning? All of these simple things are really unknown at this point.
I had done lots of research (and continue to do so for possible future needs) and decided that for our first attempt at educating her at home, I was going to completely use the Letters of Grace curriculum. Unfortunately, for a gazillion reasons that I need not go into here, the curriculum was taken off the web for a brief period of time and is only recently being pieced back together for the public to view and use. I am so thankful for their efforts. My little girl has just turned 4...following an EXACT agenda is not the most important part of this whole thing. (Right)?
We decided this would be our first week. It's not exactly the beginning of the Liturgical year, but it worked for us (vacation and birthday parties included). I loaded up the printer with ink, printed out our plans and it has been going well so far. Aa is for Andrew (St. Andrew) is the theme of the week.
The Cross on the Hill is the spiritual book and we've read it a few times already. After reading it the first time in it's entirety, I found that it was a little easier for her to understand if I stopped along the way and paraphrased what was happening, asked her questions and answered hers as well. Today she seemed to understand it much better. The book is geared for children a little older than she is, but easily adaptable.
Sophia has been working on her writing of the letter, recognizing it everywhere (street signs, cereal boxes, etc), forming it out of her macaroni and cheerios, too !
Aa is also for Apple. So we have made some "apple" crafts. Some of them I came up with myself (read: ultra simple) and others I copied from other bright and crafty moms. I saw THIS great apple craft on THIS blog and just had to do it. EVEN I (uncrafty) made a few. Sophia loves them and wants to make them for everyone. I guess we can, since I will not have any other use for that entire roll of yarn (it's not called a "roll" is it?) Oh well.
We had jotted down a bunch of books from the "recommended reading" list of the LOG site and found many of them at the library...she has really been enjoying reading time. Luckily, my son still takes a pretty long afternoon nap - so we have been taking advantage of that.
This week we also celebrated the Feast of the Elevation of the Cross - attended Vespers and Divine Liturgy. We will also be celebrating the little lady's Nameday on Friday. It has been a busy week !
Isn't it amazing how quickly they grow up!?
ReplyDeleteIt is great how many resources there are online now. Keep up the good work.