Look! We're Learning!

Early Learning. Happy Teaching.

A Visit to the Interactive Neighborhood for Kids (INK)

by 1 Comment

Long time, no post. Sorry everybody! Things have been a little hectic around here. And I’ve learned first hand that trying to start homeschooling full steam with a new baby is…an insane proposition. Anyhoo…Roo is almost four months old and basically sleeping through the night, so hopefully our schedule will be a lot more stable from here on out.

A couple of weeks ago, we got the chance to visit the Interactive Neighborhood for Kids (www.inkfun.org). It’s a child’s pretend town where kids can engage in all sorts of grown-up professions.

As you can tell from the first pic, one of the biggest draws is the indoor playground. We literally spent the first hour just sitting there watching Tigger play and, naturally, bounce around. After dragging her away, we started actually seeing some of the exhibits.

Here’s the fam on the fire truck. Christopher Robin seems to be having the most fun, huh? Then it was on the doctor’s office…

Tigger gives Daddy a checkup.

Pooh was taken with the medicine bottles. A future pharmacist, perhaps? After getting checked out, we stopped at my favorite place, the restaurant.

Tigger served up what she said was a hamburger (it was really pretend baked beans, but we didn’t want to spoil it for her).

I don’t know what she put on that pizza, but it was delicious!

Pooh makes a selection at the jukebox. Afterward, we had some letters to mail, so we went to the post office.

Tigger waits on Daddy behind the counter.

Pooh delivers some high-priority mail. We needed to do grocery shopping, but of course, we had to go to the bank to get our spending money.

Tigger went to work on our account.

Daddy celebrates our newfound riches. It’s probably the most money we’ll ever see. =D

The bank just didn’t seem to do it for Pooh and Roo. So we went to every child’s favorite place, the dentist’s office. (sarcasm intended)

Tigger worked on a stuffed lion. He had really big teeth for some reason. It was actually a little creepy….We hurried off to take x-rays.

Tigger donned a lead apron and went to work.

After reviewing the x-rays, Tigger understood why his teeth were so big. Turns out he wasn’t a real lion. Mystery solved! We went shopping.

Items galore and no prices! Why don’t they have stores like this for adults?

Tigger filled her basket with enough food to make dinner. So we headed home to eat.

Overall, we had a great time! I definitely recommend INK as a low-tech, family-friendly attraction. It’s a nice change to go to a place that inspires imaginative play instead of stifling it.

Feet of Strength….

by 1 Comment

So before jumping in the dino-stuff, I thought I’d finish up what we had left of me and myself. (Remember that way back when in September?)

Recognize this book?

A classic, right?

We decided to check out our feet, so we did the most natural thing, which is, of course, tracing around our feet with markers. Doesn’t everybody do that?!?

Here are Tigger’s:

Here are mine: (don’t laugh)

After some beautifying, we ended up with these:

After supplying Tigger with a brown crayon for her left foot, I asked her what color she wanted for her right foot. She replied, “Green”. When i asked why, she answered, “I like green feet”. …um, okay….

We cut them out and were prepared to finish, when Christopher Robin suggested the great idea of tracing Pooh’s feet. Here they are in all their adorableness:

So teeny! I mentioned doing Roo’s feet, but we didn’t think he would hold his toes out long enough… 🙂

All together now…

Anyone care for a waltz?

Okay….Our Library Officially Rocks!

by 2 Comments

For the last year and a half, our local library has been going through a renovation. In the meantime, we’ve only had access to about half the space as before and about half of the circulation materials have been unavailable (due to space restrictions). Honestly, I had gotten so used to our mini-library, I forgot that they would be unveiling the finished product soon. Anyway, I was astonished at how much they’ve done! Check out the pics below to see our new, way way way better library!

This is a view of the audiovisual department from the entrance. I like the layout much better, because you can actually see all the videos and CDs! Before, they were stacked on top of each other and it was hard to know what was available. and look at how bright it is! It was very dark in there before….

Here’s the same department from the other end of the room.

Here’s a peek back into the nonfiction and reference section. For now, all the computer stations are stashed behind that wall to the left, but I’m told that the downstairs is now being renovated and eventually, all the computers will go down there along with a special area for teens! (I think that’s pretty cool….maybe it’ll get teens interested in reading more, right?) Now, for the fun part….the children’s section!

Here’s a view of the entrance to the children’s section. To the left of this pic is the information desk and the computer stations for the kiddies. I like how the books are arranged in a way that gets the children’s attention…

 

One extra special part of the new children’s area is the seating….there are comfy chairs everywhere! And they’re all next to the newly added picture windows….there are even outdoor seating options for when the weather’s nice!

As you can see, Tigger took to the caterpillar seat right away! If i hadn’t been taking the pictures, I would have wanted to sit on it too…(head in bag)

This is the story room….the staff is offering several story programs for children this fall. We’ll be doing preschool storytime (3-5 year olds) on Monday afternoons and baby time (0-18 month olds) on Thursday mornings. It’ll be a nice intro to outside socialization, which homeschoolers definitely need. We’ll also be doing some park days, but more on that later….

 

And last, but certainly not least, the toddler and prek section…..see how height-friendly the bookshelves are? And the little tree table and chair sets are too cute! We’ll probably be spendingthe majority of our library time here.

So, I’ve decided that we will have days when we will spend the bulk of the day at the library. I don’t
think I’ll schedule particular days for that, but I’ll probably use it when we need a change of pace or
when I need to regroup. I’m very impressed by the new selection of educational materials. Just
browsing through the biography section in the children’s area made me feel a lot more confident about covering the topics we need to consider…..this unschooling thing might just work!

An Epiphany….

by 1 Comment

After spending last weekend doing a homeschool method book read-a-thon, I got a better idea of what I like and don’t like from all the methods. If you would like a summary of the main methods of homeschooling, check out this link: http://www.successful-homeschooling.com/homeschooling-methods.html. It summarizes them nicely and explains pros and cons of each one.
I’ll be trying out different methods during this year, so you’ll get to see different aspects of each one as we go. You could probably describe us best as relaxed/eclectic, because that way, I don’t have to commit to any particular style and we have flexibility to change when we need to.
To start out, we’re going with school at home. That is usually what homeschooling parents start with, especially parents who remove their kids from school. basically, it’s exactly like school, just….at home. (Hence the clever name.)

We’ve decided on a list of things we would like Tigger to learn by the end of kindergarten (or her educational objectives, if we’re getting technical). She already reads well, so we’re focusing on math, handwriting, and art.

– to count to 100
– to skip count by 2, 5, 10
– to cut paper on a straight line
– to improve handwriting, esp. writing on the lines (ha!)
– to tell time/count money
– to identify lines (straight, curved, wavy)
– to perform basic addition/subtraction
So, to get started, we spent last week working on writing the alphabet and numbers 0-9. In true school at home fashion, I made extensive use of the chalkboard.

I also made use of a Charlotte Mason technique: copywork to teach penmanship AND spelling. So, when we got to writing number words, I asked Tigger how to spell the word and had her sound it out to try to figure it out herself. Most of the times she could spell just by using phonics; other times, words like eight confused her. (Why is eight spelled like that anyway?) But, she grasped the concept well and liked it! I think the chalkboard is a keeper….

Look! Mommy Has a Lot to Learn!

by Leave a Comment

So I’m finally posting again after 2 weeks…(head in bag). Christopher Robin went back to work last week for the first time since Roo’s birth and I was completely thrown off guard by the logistics of caring for 3 children under 5!  I had no idea that it literally takes an entire morning to run one errand! So school was completely forsaken last week. Now that I have a better idea of what day to day is like, we started back with school again today; but a modified version of what I originally intended.

For one thing, I had to completely throw out the schedule. Now that everything takes longer than before, it’s difficult to know ahead of time how much can be planned for each day. So I’m going with broad goals for the week instead.

Teach Me Mommy Unit (spread out over 5 days instead of just 3)
Daily Text (every morning)
Bible Story (every morning)
Scripture Copywork (every morning)

As for Reading and Math, I’m far less concerned with reading. Tigger is reading on a 2nd grade level already, so I’m going to focus instead on math. She needs to brush up on counting and skip counting and possibly simple addition/subtraction.

My main area of concern is her attitude toward learning. She doesn’t like to be “taught” per se; she would rather just watch and take things on herself. While that can be good, because it means she’s self motivated, it can also be bad because it can cause her to think more of herself than she should (because she’ll think she learned things on her own). So Christopher Robin and I are spending more time working with her on that. Personally, I’ll be having her join me in doing more household tasks so she can learn as she goes and so she can get used to following directions.

Anyhoo, I’ll keep posting our progress and pics here. In the meantime, I would love to hear your schedules or suggestions as well!

Me, Myself and Tigger

by 1 Comment

Our first unit from Teach Me Mommy is “Me and Myself” and it teaches kids all about, naturally, themselves. Day 1 was about learning the day of our birth and our vital stats. We started with Tigger detailing things she likes to do. Running around and playing made the top of the list and I am quite proud to say that watching TV was far, far down the list.

Then we made a growth chart to measure her height. I spent the greater part of an hour carefully taping together cardstock and measuring the correct height off the floor for the chart to be perfectly correct and then, of course, trimming the edges as evenly as humanly possible. (Did i mention I’m still doing the type A rehab?)

After copious effort, I anxiously taped the chart to the wall to measure Tigger and what happened was this….

 

The child is already almost at the top of this thing! Lesson of the day for Mommy: “It does not have to look perfect, especially if it turns out you can only use it for a few months”. On to the next activity:

We baked cookies in the shape of Tigger’s initials. and I’m not ashamed to say I used the store-bought ready-to-bake cookies to do it, so there!Prior to baking the cookies looked like this:

Okay, it’s officially time for a new cookie sheet….and yes, Tigger’s initials spell the word “sir”.

After baking, we had the joy of feasting our eyes on this culinary creation:

 

Say it with me, my fellow type A’s: “It doesn’t have to look perfect, since you’re going to eat it anyway”. Besides, Tigger seemed quite pleased with the result.

 

She was even happier after the initial tasting….

Can’t argue with that face! And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to put the R cookie out of its misery. (Gruesome, I know.)

Our Newest Family Portrait

by 2 Comments

Tigger had an assignment during her schoolwork earlier this week to draw a picture of her family. After much creative brainstorming, she produced this masterpiece….

Apparently, Daddy is the biggest, because Tigger said “he’s the tallest”. Then comes me, Roo, Pooh, and finally Tigger herself. You may be wondering why the drawing of me is so little. Well, Tigger forgot me at first, then squeezed me in next to Daddy. (I think little children look at mammas more as home furnishings than people.) Looks like we need to move up art appreciation, huh?

Look! We’re Homeschooling!

by 2 Comments

After years of consideration and months of planning, it’s finally time to start homeschooling! We decided on this years ago after having our daughter, but I never thought about what it would be like to actually carry it through…..until now.

I have to admit, I’m a little nervous. Will I be a good teacher? Will I stick with our schedule? How will our children respond? But, with persistence, flexibility, and humility, hopefully we’ll settle into a nice rhythm soon.

In any case, we’ll be posting our progress here and would love any input we can get!