National Geographic Kids has a line of gorgeous paperback pictures books for children.  They are full of colorful photography and wonderful words that make the books so much more enjoyable and vivid to read.  They are also beautifully designed and make the most of the photography and text.  Overall they are just a visual treat!

We’ll be enjoying these three this fall:

and

and

There are other books in the series as well.  Enjoy! 

Today I asked Caroline to get a can of pineapple from the basement.  While she was down there she just happened to decide to stop at her chalkboard and write the numbers 1-15. Out of the blue. No, I haven’t worked on this with her. She just writes numbers because it interests her.

I have to say I think this is pretty good for a preschooler who will be four in about six weeks!

This is really how homeschooling happens at this age. It just happens.  Tonight I was writing a numbered listed. Caroline came over to see what I was doing and asked to count the numbers 1-22.  So I pointed and she counted.  Homeschooling on the fly. In my teacher mode, I’m mentally taking note of whether or not she has any difficulties with any of the numbers.  I also note that she is now easily counting 1-19.  She sometimes forgets what 20 is called, but once I tell her what 21 is she can rattle off the rest of the 20′s.

This is what I love about homeschooling one as opposed to teaching in a classroom.  I don’t have to do pages of math with her and formal assessments. It is just organic this way. Life happens and learning happens.  It will get more complicated as she gets older, but right now it is so easy to fit into everyday life.

Which brings me to another reason why I don’t want to send her to preschool.  This came to me the other day.

I’ve paid my dues the past four years in getting through the newborn, infant, toddler and initial preschooler phases.  Although every age is interesting and enjoyable, Caroline is to the age where she’s really interesting and interactive in a whole new way.  I realized that the other day and thought, “Why would I want to send her to preschool now so someone else can benefit from all my blood, sweat and tears!?!?!?!?”  

It was just a tiny revelation that I’ll revisit on the hard days. 

Some interesting articles related to education and learning.  There’s a whole bunch because they kind of piled up while I took a break from writing here this summer!

Enjoy! 

Study Rethinks Importance of Kindergarten Teachers from The New York Times

Boys failed by education system says Eton headmaster from UK Telegraph

Don’t dock students for missing deadlines from Winnipeg Free Press (Oh. brother.)

Play, Then Eat: Shift May Bring Gains at School from The New York Times (Very interesting)

Denver high school wood stops buck trend of shelving industrial arts classes from Denver Post

Scholars turn their attention to attention from The Chronicle of Higher Education

Strong Debate on Both Sides Over Bill Requiring Dissection Option in Schools from Courant.com

I mentioned in April that we were going to give homeschool preschool a try for a bit and see how it worked.  It has been interesting.  Here are some random observations in no particular order…

Caroline does not enjoy doing the same thing or similar things more than a few times. We started out making those cute foam letters and by the time we got to about F or G she had lost interest.  It didn’t matter that they were different or super cute.  She just didn’t care to do the same kind of project again.  She craves and thrives on new experiences.

So that means the Confessions of a Homeschooler Letter of the Week curriculum was only partially helpful.  It is a great curriculum, but it has not worked well for us for a couple of reasons.  One, Caroline was already well past a lot of what was in it.  And, two, many of the activities are ones that are repeated multiple times with multiple letters. Again, Caroline has no interest in doing something again.

I’ve also realized that a great deal of what I have saved from teaching will probably never get used.  I have lots of files that I am going to pitch because they just won’t be relevant with the child I have.

This past week David and I talked again about whether or not we should consider sending Caroline to preschool this fall.  I admit that part of it would simply be for a break, even if just for this year.  But now that she is already sounding out words all over the place… I think she would be bored.  She’s definitely not ready for a kindergarten class, but when I read the four year old curriculum online for the place I was researching… I just think she would be bored.  I have tons of little readers that she’ll be reading in probably another week (as soon as I sit down and work on some basic sight words with her).  And even when I think about the fact that I would get a break, I think of the running back and forth to drop her off and pick her up and the volunteering in the classroom, etc.  It really would not be a break.  So I think we’ll just stick to the babysitter thing we’ve been doing.

Starfall.com has been a great tool.  Caroline is thoroughly enjoying it and has learned a lot simply by playing games on there.  Using the LeapFrog videos was also very instrumental in helping her.  We have had the first two since last winter:

We haven’t bought this one yet, but will since it focuses on long vowel sounds and I know it will be helpful:

This weekend we bought this one and she’s already talking about commas and periods:

I looked at this at Target this weekend, but am not sure.

It has two sets of phonics books you can buy to use with it (one short vowels and one long vowels) which could be helpful.

But so much of the rest of it is marketing propaganda (Little Mermaid, Dora, Cars, etc.) and I refuse to go in that direction.  (We do Hello, Kitty! and Pooh.  That is enough.)  The books I would buy are kind of pricey so I’m not sure I want to open that can of worms.  Ten bucks for a DVD is one thing.  The entire Tag thing will get a lot more expensive and I’m not sure it will make that big of a difference.  So the verdict is still out on that.

So now I’m trying to decide what to do about the fall. I’ve been looking at the Sonlight curriculum this week, but am not sure we really need that much for a four year old.  I’m thinking just an organic, teachable moments-based learning approach will probably still work just fine for this year.

One of the other big things I’ve learned admitted to myself is that I do not want to spend a lot of time in planning.  Reading through the 27 Reasons Families Love Sonlight and 27 Reasons Not to Buy Sonlight was helpful in a few different ways, especially after doing our practice preschool.  While I thoroughly love doing research and planning out units, I do not have the time to do it at this point in my life.  When I went through my elementary education program, I was in a selective, specialized program called Academic Learning.  The focus was on developing curriculum.  I ab.so.lute.ly. love to develop curriculum.  But if I am honest with myself, I just do not have the time and energy to devote to it.  So I think we will eventually end up with an all-in-one type curriculum where everything is basically planned and then we’ll supplement as necessary.  But I’m thinking we are still a year away from that (at least).

So that’s where we are.  Learning is happening all the time because we’re just three learning type people.  And it will all continue to evolve as we move forward! 

Some books are just fun.  This is one of those books.  I’ve lost track of how many times we’ve already read it and how many times Caroline has recited just the title.

She’s also memorized quite a bit of the inside text.  I suspected this would be a winner because funny animals are all the rage right now.