A Return to Education

At long last, after a TWO week vacation, we have hit the books again. The children were very excited to have the opportunity to tackle some of the new items in the room. It was a little humorous for myself, as I wanted to use that motivation for my advantage in getting some of less glamourous tasks out of the way.

Grace and I got started first while Jack was still in major pretend play mode in the office with Dad. When she discovered that she would not be able to grab a new item off the shelf until she had practiced her memory verse and done her copywork work, she was deflated. After three words into her copywork, she began to feel dizzy and tired, and I had to smile as I recalled how two weeks ago they were begging for school work, and now I was dealing with a child who seemed a bit more "normal". After a few more reaffirmations that this is how it was going to be done, she quickly moved on and finished her copywork. Her reward, working with small tacks and a hammer to create this:

Grace smiling a little oddly because of her loose tooth.
The rest of her day went very smoothly. Her reading went very well, as this term, rather than focusing our reading on "I Can Read" books (which she does anyway on her own), it will be a little meater. Today's reading consisted of the first two poem selections from Walter de la Mare that AO has listed in their Year 2 area.

We are concentrating on geometry this term, specifically polyhedra and other 3D shapes, so today Grace decorated and cut out a template for a cube and we put it together. The fun part, however, was she was unable to guess what it would turn out to be as she colored it before cutting it out. She was surprised to see that it was going to be something 3D. Grace also began working on cutting out a number of different types of squirrels and squirrel tracks for us to begin putting together on a giant yellow board for our nature study.

Jack was happy to be back into the routine of things. He also was required to do some of his usual tasks first, but there was little complaint. He's weak in the area of the order of the days of the week and calendar months, so we'll be focusing on that, as well as progressing through his strong desire to read like his sister. Jack's favorite subject is Bible reading, and with two new children's Bibles (in addition to 4 others) he is loving the new fodder for this term. It is my sweetest time with Jack.


Lastly, in the late afternoon, we had our very first music lesson for guitar. Thankfully Daddy was around to help me out (who knows a fair amount of guitar) as I was actually a little nervous about teaching guitar. I will be learning with them as we go, and I feel very ill prepared in the area of music lessons. Grace was into the lesson, Jack was a little less patient with the idea.

I played our new Puccini CD for the children as they had some free time, and it went over very well. Tomorrow...Monet! :)

The School Doors Are Locked Again

The children endured a day of locked doors to the school room today, as I prepared for our next term. Locking the doors has proved to be a great way to instantly kick up the anticipation for a new term. They were finding every excuse in the book to find things that needed to get put away in the playroom, just for a quick glimpse of changes to the room. Unfortunately, I am SO TIRED from all of our other preparations around the house, that the playroom will not be the beautiful spick and span it was at the beginning of our last term. I warned the children tonight that I probably wouldn't get it all done. Ken teased that they might not be able to do school until later in the afternoon. This was met with instant protests, and thoughtful words to Mom that they wouldn't care if it was still a little messy.

This term I am trying to add a little more to our load (CM style), but still maintaining short lessons. We are diving head first into Grace's 4th term of Year 1/2 AO requirements, and Jack has made it clear that he would like to dive into reading this term. Plus our new nature study (rodents), Claude Monet, and the wonderful music of Puccini. We will be adding music to our load with an introduction to guitar, piano and recorder lessons.

I placed an order through Montessori-n-Such and Amazon earlier in the week, and the children were able to peek (but not touch) at a few of the hands on activities they'll have available. I'm equally as giddy with the beginning of a new term. There is something about a fresh start, and new material, that is re-energizing. I wish the schoolroom was cleaner, but Baby Faith and my aching pelvis will have no more of it tonight.

Vactioning Breeds Pretend Play

Our vacation has been one of the best things we have done in a long time. Specifically, for the children. Ken and I were growing more concerned as we saw a drastic decrease in Grace and Jack's imaginative play over the last term. It was our impression that perhaps they were being entertained with too much multimedia time, so we reduced their time to only one hour --- the choice of what screen they wanted to sit in front of for that hour (TV, Computer, or PS2) was their decision. After a few weeks of this strategy, we still weren't happy with the results.

Then came Christmas, and my need to stop schooling and relax for two weeks. The first few days were really difficult. The children had an honestly hard time trying to adjust to the disappearance of routine. We weren't homeschooling, there was no AWANA, no gymnastics, nothing for them to grasp and count on except for church. They frequently requested those markers of routine back, especially school, but after a few days, the requests began to ease back.

What I saw over the next two weeks was remarkable. Pretend play began to ooze out of the woodwork. Grace and Jack are often imaginative and pretend, but the play is short and fleeting. This play was different: The children started pretending in overdrive, talking in various voices, with all sorts of props, people and trains. For HOURS they would do this, scampering off to one of their rooms to pretend and make up games. It was interesting that it took the removal of routine for them to break out into this type of play. Their days are not structured hour by hour, but it must have been enough to squelch the art of full blown imaginative play.

I will be watching this next term very closely. I desperately want to KEEP that side of the children alive and fluent and free. It was a real joy to watch them play so well and so freely with anything for long periods of time without interruption.

A New Year Come Full Circle

First off...Happy New Year everyone!

This New Year's Eve brought with it some unexpected sentimental feelings. After a marathon viewing of a few 24 episodes from season 4, Ken and I headed up to the green room to watch the ball drop. Our neighborhood was in full firework display for almost 30 minutes straight before midnight. The fireworks were really large and made enough noise to wake up our oldest, and bring her sleepy eyed downstairs with her favorite yellow blankie she has had since birth.

It was an odd feeling to have her by our side, as we explained the tradition of the ball dropping, and why people were lining the streets screaming and shouting. She counted down with us in the final minute, and we huddled together for a round of kisses and hugs. I get a little teary eyed when I recall that 6 years ago, we have pictures of us as brand new parents, both holding a little 2 month old in front of the TV while the ball dropped into the next century. And here she was now, a child I can barely pick up anymore, again by our sides.

How fitting to have an extra second to enjoy the moment. :)