Bonding Time

I know it is a common area of mommy guilt to feel that you aren't able to spend as much quality time with the youngest as you did when the oldest were little. For some, there are very little baby pictures of the younger ones. Maybe some don't remember to get that video camera out as often (guilty). For me, my guilt lies with not spending enough quality, quiet, learning time together. It is a rarity that I sit and read to the girls. Lord knows I don't read to them one on one. As a mother of twins and almost-twins, I do we'll to just get quality time in with them as pairs.

I used to sit and work puzzles with the boys. We would play together outside. We drove down the UGA campus just to ride the orbit bus and let them chat it up with every college kid that sat in a 5ft radius of them. We talked more. I listened more. Forget the fancy birthday cakes that I would make or the fact that I actually knew some of the parents from their preschool classes, my mommy guilt sets in when I think of the missed opportunities that I have had to connect those synapses and develop their love of learning. Yes, they have it. But, surely they would have a different environment, a different version of me, if they had been the first "set".

This year, the girls have been in the 2 year old class and the 3 year old class... which is where both of them are a perfect fit, socially.  Both of them started the year already knowing each letter of the alphabet by sight, the sound it makes, and how to write it on paper. They knew the meaning of addition, how to do it, and could use it when we set the table (well, you have two spoons, how many more do you need to set the table?), or to convince me to give them "just two" more cookies. They are very bright little girls. But, I feel like if they had a chance to play with me more, they would learn more.

Before Christmas, I started introducing the idea of "special sounds" to the girls, mainly to Olive only since she was the most interested. My Ivey is a wiz-kid, too.  But, she has lots of other things that she thinks are fun! We sound out words all the time, so I decided to throw out the "oo" sound, as in"tooth".  Ivey and Olive both soaked this UP.  They can now point out the "oo" sound in words, as well as add it to their "sounding it out" mental toolbox.  That sound went so well that I decided to teach "sh" as in "ship".  It's not hard for a little girl to understand that if an "s" and an "h" are best friends, they get to make a special sound.  I simply love the limitless possibilities for the minds of young children!  We, the adults, put stipulations on what concepts can be learned when.  We base it on what we have been told, how we were taught, and by the limits that we have placed on our own minds.  They are sponges.  Why can't a preschooler who can add be taught that adding the same amount over and over is called multiplication.  We learned that concept later in childhood, and so it is foreign and feels impossible to teach to a young child.  That is our misconception, not truth.

Both Ivey and Olive understand the concept of adding.  They can add by counting on their fingers.  So... why not introduce them to number bonds?  One of the most helpful things for my boys was that they already had many math facts memorized by the time 1st grade rolled around.  They could work out 34 + 25 easily because 4 + 5 and 3 + 2 were no-brainers by that point.  So, over a "how many more pancakes do you need to get 6?" breakfast discussion the other morning, I drew a number bond on Olive's plate.  I didn't explain.  I just wrote it and went back to what I was doing.  I then asked her again, "What is 3 + 3?"  She looked at her plate... and knew the answer.  She went back to her plate over and over again, following the lines and absorbing the meaning.  She had it.  She understands that you can count your fingers to figure out 3+3, but now she knows that she doesn't have to.  She has not committed that one to memory.

My girls have practiced their numbers up to 30 simply because I put their preschool calendars on the fridge.  I don't tell them to... they just do it.  So, now there is another paper on our fridge.  It has a "special sound" for the week, as well as a "number bond". 

One more year of preschool for us.  After Olive finishes the "3's" next year, and Ivey finishes the "4's", I'm bringin' my girls home.  I think back to when the boys were in kindergarten, when I made the decision to homeschool.  I think back on the anxiety and overwhelming sense that I had no idea what I was doing... and I see how far I have come.

I can't imagine it any other way.