Learning Zone

The social structure at our little "school" has really taken off this year, much to the delight of my Asa. The boy needs people to buzz around him... or for him to buzz around. If I had only had Addison, we would have been perfectly content studying at the dining room table, alone. As long as someone knew how to play chess, and as long as he could go over to my Papa's house and play Hand and Foot Canasta with Martha Ann, he would be fine... for a long while, at least.

On the home front, the girls have been soaking up the homeschooling that takes place all around them, all the time.  They know songs for how to spell their first names (to the tune of BINGO) and their last names (to the tune of Mary Had A Little Lamb).  They love to write their letters, and are well on their way to sounding out words.  Both of them know 15 sight words, which we practice in super fun ways.  With the boys, I was so nervous that I wouldn't know how to teach them.  I worried that I wasn't trained in early childhood education.  I am now realizing that I am better off not to.  I do not have preprogrammed ideas of what children at 2, 3, 4, or 5 should or should not be able to do.  I read them, and I provide them with what they ask for... knowledge.

The girls' recent surge in the love for school-like learning has made me so excited to homeschool them.  They will be doing it together, both at the same time, in the same grade.  Why?  Because Olive can do it.  And, I can adjust however I need to, whenever I need to.  With the boys, I was nervous.  Now, the boys have transitioned into these amazing, motivated, independent learners.  Now that 1st grade is getting closer and closer with the girls, I can hardly wait!