The Park...Our Classroom.

The park is our classroom!

Today was sooo much fun! We went to one of the many playgrounds/parks in our area of the world and had class. Above, Chelsea practices writing the capital letter M as Madison works on her math. The weather was beautiful! One of the best days yet. I suppose Mother Nature wanted to share an inside scoop on what she has in store for us this coming Spring. The pollen fell from the trees like snow from the sky, covering everything beneath it. The bees were buzzing and wasps flying as 6 year olds (only mine) ran screaming in tears. LOL! Madison is truly working through her distrust of bumble bees and wasps. We've researched them online to help her realize that if she doesn't bother them, the chances of her being stung is nil. She calmed down quite a bit from last Spring but is still on alert at every turn. A couple of times I heard her coaching the children in what not to do as it relates to Mother Nature's little helpers. She my little leader in training. They both are.

Mr. Lizard...where are you???

We woke up today around 10am after getting in from church a little late last night. Come to think of it my kids always wake up after 9:30 what a blessing for me! I usually need a couple of extra hours of sleep after my husband goes to work. We ate breakfast, brushed our teeth, got dressed and headed to the park. I packed a lunch and our entire curriculum and off we fled the indoors on our way to the best classroom of all times.

The girls played with three different sets of children today because we were there so long. We picked out our table and Madison continued to work on a "chapter book" that she began writing early this morning entitled The Prince and Princess go to the Ball so I started working with Chelsea with her sight words. It is so amazing to watch her go through her words so effortlessly these days. I'm very happy that I started with them really early with reading, it has made all the difference in their confidence level when it comes to reading anything in print. And although Chelsea is reading the simplest of books right now, at three years old she is poised and on track to be a fluent reader within the year. What more could a Mommy/Teacher ask for from her right now.

Discovering science and nature - a vacated bird's nest found on the ground!

After Madison finished the first chapter of her story, and Chelsea read about 30 or so sight words, I let them take a 10 minute break to run around the park just craving the attention of two little girls. We started back up with Math and writing, then we had to move to another table because the sun started to shine its glory right above us. Around 1pm, we ate lunch and the kids headed back out to play some more. I gave them 30 minutes of play time but to my surprise, Madison came back after 10 minutes wanting to move on to her next subject. I should have seen this coming. Her next subject was cursive writing and she LOVES "fancy writing" she's doing quite well. She's very artistic and I think that this is why cursive writing appeals to her so much, it's a lot like art, in fact I feel that it is an art. It's no longer being taught in public schools but since it is part of her curriculum, and since she is always trying to write fancy like Mommy does sometimes and partly because they are no longer teaching it in schools, I wanted to make sure she learns it and thankfully, it is not a struggle, she looks forward to doing it each day.

After going back to play, I planned on calling them back to the table for more schooling. However, they'd gotten into such a zone with James and Lilly, a brother and sister who came to the park with their Grandfather, that I found it hard to call them away. So I gave them a 10 minute warning. Ten minutes later, I just couldn't do it. They were having such fun. James and Lilly were the kind of kids that I wish I could have on some sort of retainer fee to call on to play with my kids ANYTIME! Well behaved, kind, considerate, able to work well within a group (sounds like a resume' right)? I am just saying, finding good kids who are disciplined along the same lines as your kids is like a breath of fresh air these days. Not like when my husband and I were kids, most parents were teaching their children the same things...not these days...kids are allowed to say and do a lot more than we were at their age and frankly I can't handle it. I still believe in a well behaved kid. Yes, one who is allowed to make choices and who speaks up for themselves and who has an opinion; but selfish, disrespectful  and mean, I just find almost unbearable and prefer my kids hang out with the opposite. So, in no uncertain terms, thank God for James and Lilly and kids like them.

Whoa!!! What a rabbit trail. Anyhow, I decided not to call them back to the table for work. I decided that today...they were learning leadership skills and how to work well within a group and how to make new friends and discovery and getting plenty of exercise while at it. Now I am the kind of mommy/teacher who can be very rigid and I tend to push my kids because I feel I know when they are giving it their all so for me to relinquish my plans and abandon my lesson plans for a life skills day was HUGE and our first! But I am so glad that I did. I can honestly say that I believe my kids learned just as valuable a lesson today as reading, writing and arithmetic. They learned how to make new friends. Everyday comes with its own set of opportunities and built in lessons, I have to be flexible enough to recognize it and submit to it from time to time. :)

Stephy.

Review: Speak Up - The Morgan Love Series by Stephanie Perry Moore

Let me start by saying that no one has asked me to review this book. I am reviewing it simply because of how my daughters and I have loved reading it together night after night. I was in a department store looking in the book section and came across this book entitled Speak Up. On the cover was a beautiful little girl about my child's age and she appeared to be bi-racial so naturally I was intrigued. I read the back cover and the little girl was writing in her diary (it reminded me of my love for Judy Blume books when I was in elementary school) and talking about some of the tough things that she was going through in second grade and whether or not she should do what her Daddy has always told her to do which was, speak up.

At that point the book was as good as bought because that was a subject that we'd discussed with Madison every since pre-k. Madison was very reserved then and very compassionate and understanding. She's still very compassionate but not so reserved. At any rate, my husband and I found ourselves telling her that she needed to speak up when she found herself in unfavorable circumstances. She had been bossed around by one of the little girls in her class in pre-k. She got better with time definitely but this year her kindergarten teacher made the same comment to us about her being more of an advocate for herself in negative situations.

You can imagine my elation to find a book on that very same subject matter by an author of young adult Christian fiction titles, that's not a picture book but an actual chapter book. This meant that we could read it over a series of weeks and dissect each section and pick it apart bit by bit. You may be wondering if that is even possible with a 6 and 3 year old. It is. We'd read chapter books before like the classic, Black Beauty, and a really cute book she'd brought home from the Library about kids playing on the playground, unfortunately I don't remember its title. So reading chapter books at night before bed have been some of the most enjoyable reading times for us because we get to pick up where we left off and kind of put the whole story together in our minds as we go and the girls really enjoy it as do I.

Now to the point, this book it is great! It is written in an easy to read format and the story flows very smoothly so that the kids can truly see in their minds what is happening in the story and maintain interested from section to section. Stephanie Perry Moore is a really great children's book author for this age group!

Madison Reading While Walking

Not only that, but she sincerely and with detail dives into the topic on an elementary level. The conversations that take place in the book by the main character flow really well and sound age appropriate, as if a second grader is really talking. I'm sure this is not easy when the author passed that stage of life some decades ago! Madison said to me just tonight after I finished the section that we're on, "I'm really interested in this book Mom!" A SIX year old! She even picked it up earlier today to read ahead and I joked with her about it and she said "I just want to know what happens!"  I even caught her reading while walking, it was funny and cute.

Reading Ahead

If you are looking for a book to help you talk entertainingly on the matter of your child speaking up for themselves, this is a great one. If you are looking for something that will reiterate what you have already discussed with your child(ren) in this area, this is a great book! If you are just looking for an entertaining read for your story time, this is a really, really great one. If you want to spark a love for reading in your little ones this book may surely help with that. It has both my kids hooked and looking forward to story time more and more every night. This book has everything in it for any family with elementary age children dealing with family changes, making friends, talking issues out with parents, prayer, etc.

I am eager to obtain more Stephanie Perry Moore titles! I hope you check it out if you are in this stage of life with your kids.  

Home Schooling: It's a Process!

Hello there again!

I am so excited to be sharing from my blog again about my personal journey and experiences with home schooling. Now I can hardly be called an authority on the subject so if that is what you are looking for, keep reading, then go to WeirdUnsocializedHomeschoolers.com. She is an authority along with a lot of the bloggers that she guest writes for and some of the followers of her blog. Beyond that, I just love reading her posts. I happened upon one today from another blog that she'd written an article for last year called 30 things she's learned about home schooling or something like that that just blessed  my socks off! Seriously, it was just so darn real and good. But first, as I said, keep reading since you've landed on my blog THEN go to hers. :) All is fair in love and blogging. Just kidding.  LOL Can you tell that it is late and I'm silly?

Ok, before I bore you to tears and send you running to another blog, I'd like to share another little something about what I've learned so far on this journey. We are now entering our 3rd month of schooling from home and I can tell you point blank, beyond any doubt at all, that learning from home is a process for the child and for the Parent.

My sweet little 6 year old is going through a major adjustment to home schooling and she has jumped in with both feet. She LOVES being home with her mommy and sister and she absolutely loves Mommy the Teacher. She hasn't asked for any of her school friends or to go back to school at all so, all in all she is doing quite well. The learning process however, does not stop just because her Mommy is the teacher now. She is still only a 6 year old who grasps some concepts easily and others more slowly. She still gets bored with a lot of instruction at one time and prefers it broken up into smaller chunks. She likes to "hear and do." Then hear again and do again. Sometimes she's taken the marker right out of hand to do what I just taught and at that moment if I remain "Teacher" and not Mommy it is o.k. But if my Mommy gene kicks in, I will reprimand her for snatching - as I see that as impolite. I've learned though, that that puts a stopper on her enthusiasm for learning. Boy, the first time I realized that one, I wanted to crawl into a whole and not come out for about 4 days! No one wants to thwart their own child's love and excitement for learning (that's what shcool is for) just kidding...but this process of learning is not just for her, it has been - and I have a sneaking suspicion - will continue to be for me as well.

One of my home schooling friends warned me about expecting her to grasp an entire concept immediately and how that is totally unnecessary as all good curricula will revisit and review a former concept over and over again throughout the year. Yet, I found myself and still continue to catch myself in the mindset of trying to milk a concept in its entirety all in one day. Insanity.

I'm very sleepy and I hope this post has been helpful. In short, when I look into my daughters, loving and compassionate eyes during our school day, I wish I could think to say to her in a most loving manner...sweetheart, learning is a process, for you and for me. But I don't, that's the last thing that I am thinking when I am trying to get her to read and understand how to use a ruler correctly. LOL!!!

G'nite.
Stephy