The importance of early reading
By the time night rolls around I’m exhausted, so the thought of reading something else to my kids is not always enticing.
Many articles point to the importance of reading to your child at an early age,
so my husband and I try to incorporate doing so. Plus, it’s a really sweet way to end the organized chaos of the day.
Truthfully, it’s rare that I ever feel like I’m doing enough in their education. Homeschoolers constantly question the decisions made in academics and in other areas. It’s just a potential pitfall of the environment…
http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Importance-Of-Reading&id=354498
Garage doors and spring fever
Today was one of those days infused with interruptions in the school schedule. We had new garage doors put on the house so we had workers with us. Add to that having to drag everything out of the garage prior to their arrival. Then, cleaning, etc.
It was good though because the kids were given responsibilities in helping out and were encouraged not to complain and be thankful! We were still able to get some of our core subjects in. Truthfully, I’ve got spring fever, and they do too. I need to sit down tonight and see how to make what we’re studying a little more exciting. Maybe a field trip is needed soon. Going for coffee..
The Fourth Child
Maybe you can relate to this..
Our fourth child seems to be the comic relief in our family, likely due in part to his birth order. He tends to be a little more laid back, also. When you have 3 other children in front of him, your energy is spread out, and you learn not to react to the little things going on. It’s more like you just throw food onto the high chair table and hope it works out that he teaches himself how to eat because you’re being consumed by everybody else.
Today, he gave me a good laugh while we were driving to preschool (all of our kids have attended outside preschool programs). Today was show-and-tell with the letter “T” so we were discussing all of the items that he could have taken for his presentation. He said with a serious tone, “Well, we can’t bring a girl’s private parts”. I paused for a moment as I processed what he had just said and then tried to figure out what he might be referring to. My first thought was “tit” referring to a woman’s chest, but I couldn’t believe he’d know that word yet. So, I went on to ask him what he was referring to. He said, “You know, toody”. I tried hard not to laugh. You see, in our household the word “toody” has sometimes taken the place of the word “vagina”. I don’t particularly like replacing anatomical words with obscure words like “toody” but for some reason this one has stuck with my kids. Now why he would have thought to say that he couldn’t take a “toody” to preschool.. I have no idea.
The conversation made me think about how different my children are from one another. Then, it made me wonder how in the world I’m going to teach all of them at one time as they get older! Will I just throw the books at the fourth kid and hope it works out for him? No, I can honestly say I don’t think I’ll do that because I’m a bit neurotic with academics and desire that they love to learn. That being said, I don’t know how I’ll do all of the little things to make it all come together. The big picture will be accomplished through His grace, so I’m going to give it my best shot. Big fan of homeschooling, BIG FAN.
P.S.-The above picture occurred after we’d just finished reading about the Olmec and Aztec Indians. My children thought it would be fun to paint their bodies like the Indians had done. You can imagine how my face looked after I saw what they had created, and I’m only showing you just a little bit of the art. Help me.
Use your state’s FREE (or almost free) educational resources to supplement your lessons
Today we took a quick road trip to our Learning Resource Center. Jersey has the LRC, a teacher’s lending library housing all kinds of great teaching supplements. The cost is $2.00 for the year! We checked out several math manipulatives and games. Our library has lots of kits, books, etc for just about any core subject. Just another way to keep your daily studies more interesting for your student.
For those in Jersey, check out this site:
http://www.eirc.org/website/programs-services/school-service-center/[
For other states, I’d check with your Department of Education website to see what they offer.