School Days, School Days...

Well, it's official...somehow it always has been, and yet it feels different. We home school. We really always knew we would, but when Zach started participating in family scripture study...by reading the verses, not just listening, we knew we couldn't make him wait to "start school"until the school system deemed him old enough (his birthday is in September, so he misses this arbitrary cut-off date that deems kids ready for school. Chayce will miss it, too.) I think it feels different because we all know that Zach's peers are sitting in a classroom somewhere.

I wasn't really going to set aside time to shove information down his throat at this age, I have just made a list of goals to accomplish by May of 2009. Funny thing is, Chayce is keeping up (not on reading, yet, but she is catching on just by watching Zach learn) so, my list of goals may have to be altered as time goes on. Who knows, maybe my goals won't mean anything soon, we'll have done them and moved on. If not, that's OK, too.

Here's my list, mainly so I can be accountable to those loving grandparents who always ask what the kids are up to. Now, you know!

• Reading fluently
• Writing each letter correctly (upper & lower case)
• Writing numbers 1-10 (and then understanding that this ability allows them to write larger numbers)
• Counting by 2's
• Counting by 5's
• Counting by 10's
• Tell time
• Identify currency (dollar, quarter, nickel, dime, penny)
• Use cooking to introduce fractions, so they are familiar and not a scary math topic later on.

Here's how we're doing:
Zach has the reading down. Like I said, he's taking his turn reading in the scriptures & discussions. He also gave a talk in church and read his notes when necessary. We're not too worried about keeping him interested in books. We have to clean books off his bed in order for him to sleep at night. Chayce has started recognizing sounds when we talk, she'll say m-m-m Mommy. M. Sometimes she gets confused and says t-t-t Mommy. T. But, gentle correction sets her back on the path. It's cute.

Zach can write, but not as neat and tidy (size consistency would be nice in a sentence! Although some fonts seem to think variation looks cool.) We'll work on that. Chayce LOVES to write. Once she gets spelling down, we'll be lucky to keep a pen out of her hand. We already can't keep a pen out of her hand. She can copy very well, so she has the motor control, but not the understanding.

Zach can count to 40 on his own, to 100 with help. He understands the concept of counting by 10's, but not the other skip counting methods. Chayce enjoys counting to about ten...especially if she's dividing a treat (I get 4 pieces! You get 2. ha ha)

Zach can sometimes tell time digitally, and can explain a clock to you, but doesn't seem to use it... Chayce asks if it's time to eat yet, and she'll look at the clock but doesn't know what time to eat really is. (besides hunger). I think I'm going to put up a sign with times on it that say, we eat at: 12:00, we bathe at: 7:00 so they can match the clock to the sign & know if it's time yet.

Zach knows what money is, but the different values don't make sense to him...why not use a penny to pay for the grocery bill...money is money, right? We're working on that. Chayce wants pennies for the horse at Meijer. Yes, the rides are still 1 cent! So, she knows she has to earn her penny by being on her best behavior while mommy gets the groceries (work for a 3 year old, right?)
Fractions...cooking yay! Messes, aaarrrggh! But, it's all in the name of school, right?

Payge is working on learning to crawl, imitate sounds and overall just being cute. We all love to spend our free time with her giggliness.

As for curriculum, we have decided to follow Saxon math. Their lessons build on each other well & both children seem to understand what is being asked of them (even though Chayce is only 3, if she shows interest in a lesson, I ask her to participate with us, if she'd rather color or dance or whatever, that's fine, too). The first part of the book is teaching counting, so it only takes us 5 minutes to do a lesson. I'm torn between combining lessons so we cover more, or letting the first week or two be review as they get into a sort of routine. I think I'm voting for the latter. Plus, I'm letting this be very easy going, like I said, no information shoving and/or overload. I want the kids to learn, not to just pass tests. If we get to a topic that takes more time to really grasp, then we will take that time, maybe approach it from different angles.

The library is our reading curriculum. We go, we read, we go again! We are slowly learning the parts of speech (noun, pronoun, verb, adverb, adjective, conjuction, preposition & interjection, if you were wondering). We do this in our conversations (because I'm an English freak, OK?), for example, on the way home from the library (we were walking) I said, "Look a squirrel! What part of speech is squirrel?" Z: " A noun!" Me: "Yup! Oh, he's running. Running is a..." Z: "Verb!" Me: "Yes! So, see, no pounding of info.

We're also studying maps. This is fun. Right now just learning what the parts of a map are, but then we'll move on to "A Child's History of the World" and map the happenings. I'm looking forward to learning a lot from this part. It all started when Zach found a state map of Indiana & wanted me to explain it. Then later (coincidence? I dunno.) Chayce & I were goofing on the web & found a game called Stateris...like Tetris, but with states & then other countries once you ace the USA. Fun. Try it!