Homeschooling the Six-Year-Old

We are finally settled, up here in the beautiful Midwest. This past week I began a completely new homeschooling routine with Isaiah. Maybe it's the deployment, maybe it's living with grandparents, maybe it's his age and intelligence, and maybe it's all those put together, but I was really craving a learning routine with Isaiah. Last year, we pretty much winged it day by day. The children played a lot, did a few workbook exercises here and there, went to museums, took nature walks, made art, counted legos. Last fall we would say Isaiah was in first grade, but the last month, when I looked at what first graders are learning in school and what most homeschooling books had for a first grader, I thought Isaiah would be better off as a kindergartner this year. Isaiah and I talked it over a little. He was fine with being in kindergarten "again" this year.  It's not really again.  It's not like we are doing the same books over again. He turns 7 in November, so I think he is actually supposed to be in first grade then. Glad I got that all figured out. I do not ever want to rush formal learning. Kids should be kids. Kids should want to learn. So far, mine do.

Now we have four subjects we officially work on: math, science, reading, and writing. Unofficially, we also do art, religion, astronomy/earth science, zoology, music, singing, literature, puzzles, etc. etc. etc. 

Art: The kids are into art these days. I pretty much let them do whatever they want. I bought some new markers and they have these tracer/stencil/shape/pattern rulers - see it in pink below? What do you call those? They use those to draw submarines and then give them to me as bookmarks. We also got a bunch of new crayons, booklets, stickers, notebooks, toys, and coloring books from a military kids appreciation program. They got backpacks full of these things, plus a note from a boy, thanking my sons for being heroes for sacrificing time with their Daddy while he's in Afghanistan. The note said that they hope the boys can use these tools to keep in touch with Daddy better. I could barely read it without choking up.

Everything but the basket, pencil box, and markers came in the backpacks for the boys - donated by a family who took the time and effort to make a military child feel appreciated.

Math: I bought Life of Fred back in Texas. I heard about it, looked into it, found a sample, bought the first four books. We (me, my 6 year old, and my 3.5 year old) all enjoy these books. We are almost done with the first one. I cannot really explain why I think they are so great. I guess it's like they say on their website: they teach your child to think. They don't just say: here's a problem; here's how to do it; now you do it. That kind of math left me very frustrated and now I know why: because I am very curious and always want to know all the why's and details of everything. Life of Fred has all these little details and more. Isaiah can already complete the equation: 3x + __ = 7x. He just gets it, because it is simple, and it's presented in a very simple and logical way in these books. I wish I had had these books when I was little.

Gotta love homeschooling: race car on the table.

Our Lenten beans come in handy for math.

Science: Another purchase I'm so happy about is Science 2 for Little Folks. I assumed there was a Science 1 book, but I couldn't find it anywhere, so I just bought this one. We love it! It is not a workbook, although each chapter does have a few questions at the end, but we just answer them orally so we can re-use this book every year. One of the chapters we did recently was about the circulatory system. After we read the bloody chapter, I pulled out the laptop and googled youtube videos that show blood flowing through the body and the different blood cells and what they do. The kids love 'em and I like them too. We all can remember things better when we can see it in action. Now the boys keep asking: "Can we watch some more blood videos?"

Reading: A few years ago, when Isaiah was only about four years old, a homeschooling mom sold me Little Stories For Little Folks for ten bucks. I didn't really know what it was, but it looked good to me, so I bought it. We haven't really used it a whole lot until recently. Isaiah learned to read sometime last year, but he really doesn't enjoy reading all that much. These little books are perfect. When it's time to read, I just ask him to read one booklet, and that is all. He reads it to all of us around the table and Luke will always come sit next to him to listen. I require him to read here and there because I know he needs to practice to get better, but I don't force him to read too much because I want him to enjoy it. My favorite is when I catch him spontaneously reading things in daily life, like labels, brands, and signs.

Writing: I am convinced that no little boys like to write. Ok, I'm sure there are some out there who do, but none of my three brothers liked writing and Isaiah doesn't either. I didn't make him practice very much last year, but when he would ask me which way to write the S every single time he wrote his name, I realized that he needed a little more practice. So I bought a new handwriting book. My old one was Seton Handwriting for K. Not a huge fan. Waaaay too repetitive, but you can use it how you want, and only do a few pages, skip a few, etc., but I really like CHC's Level K Handwriting pad. This is our only "workbook" so far - kind of hard to practice handwriting without writing. =) I like that the lessons are short and varied, and by that I mean that they don't have you write 3 lines of backward circles. They have you write at, at, at, pat, pat, pat, just a few times. We only do one page, unless he feels like doing more (which hasn't happened yet).

So, this seems like a lot of work, doesn't it? But we do not do all four subjects every day. Our new routine consists of spending time after breakfast doing either math, writing, art, or science, reading, and sometimes more math because he really likes it. So we just alternate what we do each day. Our sit down work, only takes us an hour or so in the morning and we are very relaxed about it.

Read Aloud: Then if we have extra time, we read more books on subjects we are interested in. I have a friend who is a homeschooling mother who has a billion resources, all organized. She sent me home with two tubs full of beginning reader books on every subject you can imagine. What a blessing, especially for this year that I cannot accumulate a lot of books because we'll be moving again in less than  a year and the library only has so much and rarely has it available when I want it. So in the last week we have read books about:

• avalanches (and watched some crazy youtube videos too)
• volcanoes
• wind and weather
• amazing rescues - which had us on the edge of our seats
• space mysteries - about the sun, moon, plants, our solar system, galaxy 

I am also still reading about Laura and Mary in On the Banks of Plumb Creek. The boys and I love these books. You'd think I would be making them listen to these, but no, I keep asking Isaiah: "Are you sure you want to hear about Laura and Mary? We don't have to finish the whole book if you don't want to", but Isaiah insists that we keep reading, and I'm glad. Even Luke listens to the stories more now than he did late last year, especially today, when we found out {SPOILER ALERT - like there's anyone left who hasn't read these yet..but hey, it's my first time, so just in case}Pa's wheat and oat fields were completely ruined by the grasshoppers!


Audio Books: We never finished listening to Swiss Family Robinson. It was too boring, even for me. I will find an abridged version with pictures (like this one) and read that to the boys this year. Meanwhile, Isaiah still listens to Heidi, daily! Over and over and over again. I don't even mind it, because John McDonough's voice is pleasant to listen to. Even Isaiah said: "How does he change his voice for different people?" It's not that he changes it so much, but you can really tell when he is reading a different character and his pronunciation of the Swiss words always make me smile, because he does them so well.

TV and DVD's are not a part of the our days anymore. This video reminded me why it's so important to keep children away from fast moving shows. Please watch it if you have time: What TV Does to My Kid's Brain. But that is not the only reason. Main reason I keep it off is because: my kids turns into monsters even after 20 minutes of Wii or movies. So forget it, it's just not worth it.

That's all for now...what was going to be a quick blog post is now already a long novel! Virtual high five, if you made it to the end. =)