Aidan's Milestone

Is there a right age to start giving your child some structured learning?  Are there any benefits if you start your child early?  How early is early?  Just like many moms out there, I also struggled with similar questions.  My first son was enrolled in a whole day pre-school program when he was 3.5yo.  My youngest one is almost four and he hasn't been in a "regular" school setting.  Did I regret sending my eldest one that early?  Part of me says yes, especially when I remembered him being so tired at the end of the day.  He used to start school at eight in the morning and by the time I picked him up from work, it's usually three or four in the afternoon.  On the other hand, was the education that he received then gave him an advantage now, in terms of gaining knowledge and developing life skills? 
The way Anthony (my eldest) and Aidan (my youngest) started their pre-school years are totally different.  My youngest son Aidan never attended day care or pre-school and this is his first year to have some sort of structured instruction.  He is currently enrolled in Seton Homeschooling Pre-K Program.  When I read his curriculum, I am encouraged to start it with him because it has a lot of suggestions and fun activities on how to approach teaching especially in such young age.

When we learned about God's Creation, we went around the neighborhood and took pictures of the different things that God made.  We later printed the pictures, cut, paste and label them. 

To review a letter that we've been learning, Aidan will go around the house with a post-it paper (written on it is the letter we are reviewing) and find items around the house with the beginning letter sound.  In these pictures, he labeled oven and onion for the beginning letter O.  If you have an older child, he or she can do this activity with your pre-schooler.

 I made lily pads (out of green construction paper) and wrote a word that starts with letter F on each lily pad and a couple of fillers.  Aidan pretends to be a Frog and hops only on lily pads that has the beginning F sound.

"Aidan feeding the Lion and the Tiger."  This is a fun way to teach beginning sound. The pattern for these adorable bag puppets are provided by Seton. If you want to make your own, you can print a picture of any animal that starts with the beginning letter you want and glue it in front of a paper bag (brown sandwich bag is a good alternative).  I cut a hole in front that serves as the mouth of the animal.  I make the puppets first and then I print various pictures that have the beginning sound of the letter we are learning.  You can add pictures that have different beginning sound to make it challenging. 

Aidan practicing his letters on a tray with flour.  You can also use oatmeal, sugar salt or sand to write on.  I love doing this exercise when I introduced a letter or number to Aidan.

One of the things that the Pre-K curriculum stressed upon is developing the fine motor skills of the child and we've been incorporating that in our daily lessons.  As we learn the alphabet, sounds, numbers, or Religion, Aidan do activities that also help him develop his fine motor skills. Manipulative such as blocks, LEGO, playdoh, puzzles are great tools for Aidan's fine motor skills development.  It is amazing to see the changes in how he grasp the crayons or markers when coloring or tracing lines; he is now more confident in the use of scissors and even showing less frustration when writing on papers.  I remember when we first started.  He would not color the pictures at all, or if he did, it will be the whole page without any consideration on staying with in the line.  What line? hahahahahahaha
He stills doesn't enjoy coloring or tracing broken lines but now I am running out of paper and tape because he loves to draw and make me pictures.  His imagination just flourished as he make up story about his pictures or as he pretend play with his stuff animal friends.  In addition, I have to constantly clean the floor for small pieces of paper that he loves cutting. 

Aidan with his friends, Bear, Eyeball and Bear

I realized that you can't expect them to write directly on papers that is why I love Seton's idea of introducing the letter strokes using "heavenly writing" first,  then having the child use his fingertips to write on sand or any sensory materials (finger painting, use of 3D blocks) before you can even proceed to have the child write on a board or paper.  These progression really eliminates the frustration in Aidan's part as he learns how to write. 

 

 

The curriculum has suggested lesson plan each day but it always emphasizes that the phasing will depends on the child's ability, interests and motivation.  We are now in ninth week but I am not embarrassed to say that we are still doing week 7 of his Math and Early Literacy units.  The Seton's curriculum gave me the confidence to tackle Pre-K curriculum because in each lesson, it explains where should I focus on and the importance of the "focus" to my child's development.



 

 

In the short time that we spent homeschooling, Aidan grew and developed so much.  Besides "school", he is enrolled in a swimming class. We are so proud of his progress in swimming.  Aidan can now swim a couple of feet without a floatie and he is not afraid anymore to put his face in the water.  We've been spending a lot of times outside as well, going on trails with our homeschooling group and oftentimes with the whole family during the weekends.  He loves to collect things as we go on these

walks. 

 

Aidan's nature art from the twigs, leaves and rocks he collected in one of our walks... ooops is that a whooly caterpillar? (Pratts Farm, Middleborough MA).  Below is the Cardinal trail within UMass Dartmouth's Living Classroom initiatives.

Below are some of the investigation lesson that we did- Math, Science and Literacy Pumpkin mini-lesson by Ms. Cara Carroll, http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Cara-Carroll, Making Sugar Crystals (http://chemistry.about.com/od/growingcrystals/ht/blsugarcrystal.htm), and Walking Water activity (http://royalbaloo.com/the-walking-water-experiment/); and the different places we visited for our field trips. 
As Aidan's mom and teacher, I am proud of his accomplishments and I can't wait to continue to explore, investigate and learn with my free spirited little guy!
BTW Aidan's name means "Little Fire"....  Fits him well!

Free Friday in Plimouth Plantation (Plymouth, MA)

Corn maze and other fun activities at Sauchuk Farm, Plympton MA

Our Big Backyard and Beyond The Fence Naturescape at Roger Williams Zoo

"Five Habits After Waking-up"

I was inspired by a friend and a fellow homeschooler, Martianne Stanger.  I read Martianne's blog where I got the inspiration for this. 

We called ours "Habits After Waking-up".

Who wants their kids to learn independence and at the same time reduce the chaos that comes in the morning? ME! Sooooooooo...The boys and I brainstormed things that they should do between the time they wake up and before our lesson starts. We had some sort of a system prior to this but I think making the hand and writing on it the five habits they picked made it more concrete and a very useful reminder that they can refer to each morning.

 

 As for my younger son, I drew pictures of his 5 HAW too since he doesn't know how to read yet.  After making their 5 HAW hands, the boys put them in their headboard so they can easily look at what they wrote everyday.  

 

 

 Our goal is for the boysto make these five things really a habit that eventually, they will be part of their morning routines without even thinking about them.  I'm looking forward tomorrow how will this go! YAY

Week six and seven: Let Kids Be Kids!

We spent most of these last two weeks, outdoors.  We took advantage of the nice cool Fall weather before the winter kicks in.   We joined an Art-N-Hike event where the kids had a chance not only to enjoy nature but really to be one with it.  They had a blast "playing" and building forms from things they found along the trail.  It was really a very good experience for exploration, creativity, imagination and discovery.  Friday was spent on a field trip with other homeschooler families where Anthony participated in a class about whales.  It ended to be another fun-filled and enriching experience not only for Anthony but as well for me.  I've met amazing moms and kids who are just simply inspiring and helpful.  We've been also spending a lot of times in the playground.  After Aidan's swimming lesson, we usually head to the library for their story time then the kids spend sometime playing at the playground and have picnics there.  I wish the weather will stay just like this past week, cool and dry,  all winter long.  I would love to bring my kids learning experience outdoors if not all but at least most of the time!
Aidan continues to improve in his swimming skills.  It's nice to watch him enjoying his class and having a fun time in it.  You can see how Aidan is slowly conquering his fears of water as he builds confidence in class.  Anthony on the other hand took his karate to the next level by joining a competition to show his forms.  He took home third place which he is happy and proud about. I feel I was more competitive than him and then I have to remind myself, being number 1 is not the ONLY thing.  Giving your best and enjoying what you do is more important.

Since there is no way of stopping Fall and the celebration of Halloween, we continue to use harvest/fall themes in our lessons.   We did a pumpkin investigation unit where the boys made some predictions and observations, developed their math skills in measuring and counting, and of course used their creativity in carving their pumpkins.  To cap it off, I roasted the pumpkin seeds and made pumpkin cheese cake pie that we later enjoyed during dinner.  We also celebrated Columbus Day which I tied with our history lesson.  We read his story, mapped his voyage, review cardinal directions and locate different places on the map and even made a Columbus hat as an art project.
As for Aidan,  we finished Unit 1 (yeheyyy) of his Early literacy book.  It is a big accomplishment for both of us.  There are still some days that it was a struggle making him sit and do his work.  My greatest fear actually is to turn him off to learning especially at this early age.  I am still trying to find a balance with teaching him in a way that he enjoys, and set boundaries and some sort of structure at the same time.  That is the reason I entitled this post "Let Kids Be Kids!" because I have to consciously remind myself that learning is and should be FUN, that kids learn in various forms and shapes, that kids can direct their own learning, and that they can learn not only in the four corners of the "classroom" but in any place and at any time.  I just have to provide that opportunity for my two boys whatever we are doing...wherever we are.

Week Four and Five... Challenging and Fun!

 

Fall is finally here!  This is my favorite season and I'm excited to tie in our lessons with the Fall theme.  The challenge for my self as we continue in this journey is how to make our lessons more fun and engaging.  Can you imagine, this is our fourth going to fifth week of homeschooling.  I understand that in order to keep the energy and motivation high among my boys, I have to learn to vary my lesson presentation and keep them challenging (but not frustrating).  The weather has been cooperative these past days.  We are fortunate to be able to go outside during our morning and afternoon breaks.  The boys just ran around, play in their play set, did some obstacle course one day, they love having picnics in our yard, and even did some lesson/game as well.  I am also excited that one of the mom in our homeschool group started a weekly hike and nature art event.  This Tuesday, we ended up hiking in a local trail where the boys explore with other children and even ended up bringing a pet home.  Currently we are taking care of a wooly bear caterpillar which hopefully will survive the winter in our care, and turn into a tiger month come spring time.  That will be exciting to see.  On Thursday, we had some fun in a farm, getting lost in a corn maze, enjoying the "dusty" hay ride, playing some fall games and picking our pumpkins from their patch (which by the way we are going to use in our mini-pumpkin lesson and carving next week).  Now you see why I love this time of the year!
To jumped start this season, we became crafty with our  "Fall tree".   We still have them showcased in our window sill  by the dining area. They are just nice to look at! Aidan showed his creativity when he made an apple face in the artsy-smartsy homeschool event, his own design and interpretation.  Anthony did an awesome job sharing his talent in his art class by making a "Pumpkin Patch" out of water color.  No matter what medium or materials are available to them, structured or "whatever goes" art it is, children will always surprise you with their unique creation and imagination.
Recently, I've also been prowling the web for more games, activities and ideas that I can utilize to support our curriculum.  I bumped into this amazing site TeachersPayTeachers which is just abundantly overflowing with resources that I can download (some are free, some you have to pay but the prices are reasonable).  Anthony's been working on with number ordering in Math and rhyming/synonyms/antonyms words in English and the unit "Let's Give Thanks" by Ms. Carroll is just full of hands-on, manipulative activities that Anthony enjoys doing with out realizing that he is actually learning.  The bonus side, the unit is full of Fall/Thanksgiving theme!  I also try to incorporate more manipulative activities to develop Aidan's fine motor skills in addressing his lessons.  We've been using play doh, flour, paints and other sensory materials to practice his letters and numbers (because he still doesn't like writing using a pencil).  I see a great improvement though in terms of his tri-pod grip when he colors or traces pictures.
Another thing that I wanted to focus on this week is how important it is to expose our kids to new ideas/practices and continuously challenge them so they don't complain about being "bored".  I've mentioned about the science fair that we are participating in November.  Initially, when I asked Anthony if he wanted to do it, his response was NO.  I really wanted him to try to do it so I explained to him what it is all about. We even went on a field trip to a zoo to exposed him about endangered species (which is the focus of the science fair).  Eventually he agreed to do the project for the science fair and he even decided on his own that he is going to work with the African Wild dogs as his endangered animal.  During this process, I really tried hard to keep a balance between inspiring him to join the science fair but at the same time not pushing him of doing something that he'll hate eventually.  He made the final decision to take on the task  and his science fair project is still a work in progress.  One thing I am assured of as I observe him works on it, I can see that he enjoys working with his project, and he even told me today that he can't wait to do the next task.
Lastly, our family decided to respond to the call to pray the rosary everyday for the rest of October. Honestly, I didn't know what to expect from my children. We haven't done this before (just think about reciting five decades of the rosary with two kids every night) and I was worried that they will just complain the whole time.  Amazingly, with God's grace, everything is possible.  Anthony took the initiative to lead the rosary (he's been doing it for two nights) and both of them are excited about praying every night.  I even communicated with another homeschooler mom about doing an end of the month celebration with other families to celebrate this Month of the Rosary.  Who wants cupcake rosary? ME!
Lessons learned:  Learning can still be FUN!  and Challenging ourselves and our family to do something that is worth wile even though it can feel daunting is the only way to achieve growth spiritually, intellectually and even emotionally. Till next time!

Week Three...A Juggling Act!

 I am a little bit of a slacker writing this blog for our third week of homeschooling.  Things are getting busier but I know... NO EXCUSES!
More so, It seems such a perfect timing to talk about being busy and trying to get things done at the same time which led to the focus of my blog this week.  Homeschooling is like a balancing act!
We were at a walk to benefit a local school for special needs children, when I heard a comment to my husband from somebody once she found out that we were homeschooling how I should not be distracted with doing house works while trying to teach my kids.  True, it is a challenge not to be concerned about keeping the house in order, making sure meals are prepared, and laundry are washed and folded while  preparing for everyday lessons. As a homeschooler mom, I understand that it is necessary to create a balance between my role as a "housewife", a mom and as my children's primary educator.  I take all these roles seriously.  I can tell you, I am busier now than when I was working full time.  The difference though is now, life is more rewarding.  Being able to stay with my two boys and taking a very active role in shaping their lives as good Catholics and hopefully responsible and conscientious individuals as they grow are such a blessing that I am always thankful for (special shout to my husband Steve).
Another balancing act that I'm sure a lot of homeshoolers encounter is, when should homeschooling stop being like a "typical" classroom to something that allows children to discover, explore and learn things that they have interest in and still maintain a "structured" curriculum and learning environment.  Personally I am still learning to juggle with respect to these idea.  Sometimes I still can't help to compare what I do to what other families do in terms of how they approach homeschooling.  Am I being too structured?  Is four hours of "classroom" learning enough each day?  How are my kids learning compared to those who go to regular schools?  Am I exposing them enough to develop their social skills?  plus more.  One advice that I am confident to share to families thinking to homeschool or into homeschooling...  You can not do it on your own.  There are tons of resources on-line, in the community and even beyond that we can access to make our homeschooling experience richer and more meaningful.  We can choose and pick activities (or even develop our own) that we can use to enhance lessons to suit our kid's needs and interests.  I am thankful to Seton for providing academic and even tech support to homeschoolers under their program, and I've been supplementing the children's learning with things I find suitable either on-line, from other parents or other resources available to us.
Some highlights of the week:
Monday: Anthony became a synonym chef and baked some "synonym" rolls to reinforce out synonym lesson this week from last week.  Thanks to Miss Carroll and her blogspot http://thefirstgradeparade.blogspot.com/.  Anthony also came out with the idea of attaching words that are synonyms as leaves of a flower after he sorted them out.  Aidan worked on his fine motor skills by cutting blue paper strips and making a collage of Jonah's whale.  It also served as a review for his color blue lesson.  The kids love to listen to bible stories and this week's story was Jonah and the whale so it was a good connection to Aidan's art project.  We also fed the Tiger puppet with picture words that begin with letter T to review his T lesson.
Tuesday:  It was a little chilly but we still joined other homeschoolers for a picnic at a park where the kids had an opportunity to play and interact with other homeschooler kids.  Aidan also had his first speech therapy after the picnic which he did great.  My little boy is growing up so fast!
Wednesday:  For our story time I read the kids these awesome books about synonyms which ended up to be so much fun (Stroll and Walk, Babble and Talk; Pitch and Throw, Grasp and Know by Brian Clearly).  Libraries and librarians are great resources that we've been utilizing on a regular basis.  Anthony also started writing alliteration poems in connection to the letter sounds we've been learning in Phonics.  It is also a good way not only to introduce naming (noun), describing (adjective) and action (verb) words, Anthony's creativity  is also develop as he comes up with his own (and oftentimes) silly sentences.
Thursday:  We took our class outside as the weather turned out to be that perfect fall day.  I've been slowly introducing geography to Anthony by using and making maps, pointing out places and routes that we encountered in his history lesson on the globe, while teaching him cardinal directions, and other parts of the map.  Aidan and Anthony also did some stamping art using apples and leaves they collected in our yard.
Friday: Aidan had his swimming lesson and we ended up going to the beach where the kids did some exploring (Anthony loves finding crabs under rocks) and building "rock" sculpture.  You can tell that our children's parents are biologist and engineer.
Going back to my previous concern, "Am I good in doing the "juggling act"? Time will tell but right now, I am just giving my kids the best that I can, and continuously asking God for help.

Week Two... Here We Go!

 

Our second week of homeschooling flew by fast!  We are getting comfortable with our daily routines and schedules and I am thankful that I am enjoying this wonderful times with my kids more, with less worries and uncertainties.
Both Anthony and Aidan are making very good progress.  Believe it or not, we are ahead of schedule which gives us ample time to make the lessons more interesting like play memory game for Anthony's synonyms lesson in English, and card games for his Math lessons.  I also gave Anthony breaks from  just doing worksheets.  Instead he practice skills using the board or through oral reviews.  Anthony is also spending some time teaching or helping Aidan with his works.
Aidan shows more enthusiasm and willingness this week (as you can see from the video.)  Seton's (our program) well planned and well laid out curriculum has been a valuable resource for me ever since.   I actually re-read Aidan's curriculum and realized that our phasing is a little faster for him which can be a reason why he was frustrated doing his works last week.  I have to back tracked my teaching style towards scaffolding, that allows him more time to develop and master skills before moving to a new lesson or activity.  This taught me to slow down and appreciate slow but steady progress.  I also continue to practice patience with both of them whenever they become challenging to me.
Other highlights of our second week:
On Monday we did a mini-lesson about crystals and rock formation.  Aidan actually picked a book about crystals from the library and I tired to tied it up with the exploration lesson we are doing in History.  I connected the lesson as well to their past experience from our visit to Luray Cavern this past summer where we collected some rocks and quartz that we also used in the lesson .  For the fun part, we set up an experiment to make rock sugar (crystals).  It was a perfect opportunity for Aidan to reinforce what he learned about coming up with new colors by mixing up different primary colors using food coloring.  We also used this for Anthony to develop some scientific method skills like making predictions, doing daily observations (about the changes in crystal formation), and keeping a log of his observations in his science journal everyday.
On Tuesday, as an incentive by finishing our lesson early, we went to the zoo where the kids had some free play time.  They had a blast in the water garden which is perfect on that hot muggy day.  We also used this chance for Anthony to observed various animal exhibits and picked an endangered species that he will work on for the Homeschool Science Fair this October.  His top three picks were the Snow loepard, African wild dog, and the Red wolf.  And the winner is ..... the African wild dog!  What really fascinates me from this outing is that Anthony developed a better understanding about endangered vs. vulnerable or extinct species, what makes them vulnerable and why, based on what he read from the zoo exhibits.
Wednesday was interesting because the kids ended up doing a puppet show about the Story of Creation.  I can tell you, the process was not easy.  In addition to spending at least an hour making the puppets and setting up the show, it took us more than 5 takes to have the video that you can see here. At the end, it was a fun learning experience for all of us!  Anthony not only know now the proper sequence of the story (not from memorization but by doing the play),  we also learned patience and hard work from this activity.
Life lessons for this week: Kids (and even adults) learn better by doing; progress is still a progress even if it takes time;  and as a teacher, I can definitely learn a lot of things from my kids (students)!
Till next time.

Week One Of Our Journey

Week one of homeschooling, DONE!  What's the BIG DEAL? Sounds like nothing to celebrate but I considered it a milestone.  After the first week of staying home with my children, being a mom and their primary teacher 24/7, I'm beat! Would I still do it for the next 173 days or 8 years? YESSSSSSSS no question about it.  Yes, it is stressful; trying to balance home and "school"; worrying if I am being too rigid with our schedule or that I'm not doing enough; frustrating when what I've planned didn't materialize; but the rewards overshadow the challenges.  Seeing my children learn, ask questions, create things and just have fun is something that I won't trade for anything, and knowing that I am there to share those memories with them is just simply priceless.
Here are some highlights of our week:
The first couple of days were very gloomy and rainy so we spent most of the times indoors, however, the kids still managed to enjoy themselves and be creative.  Monday, I left a CD playing with songs connected to our lessons about the Holy Trinity while I went upstairs to prepare lunch, and the boys stayed in their "classroom" playing with KNEX.  The next thing I know, my oldest son was calling me and showing me what they built. A "TUB-low" and "ZIG-lophone".  Both of them were holding a "musical" instrument  from the KNEX they made and marching around the classroom pretending to be part of a  band.  It's just a testimony that children can have the most creative and imaginative minds given the right tools. On Tuesday, we met up with other homeschooler families and the boys played with other children in the group.  It's interesting to share ideas and learn form other families "How they do it?" Wednesday, finally the sun showed up and we were able sit outside, do some lessons and play some games.  You can see in the pictures how my youngest son is learning to balance on one leg, they also tried to do the wheelbarrow and inchworm race.  My eldest son came up with the idea of doing a treasure hunt for my husband in our yard since we were talking about voyages during the times of crusaders and early navigators for our history lessons.  He made a map of our yard and we applied the "rhyming" lesson from English to make the clues.  It was a successful treasure hunt. I loved it because we were able to combine together various lessons in one fun-filled activity.  Thursday, I introduced the food pyramid as part of their science lessons.  Talking about picky-eaters.  This was a perfect lesson about eating healthy and why we need to eat healthy.  The boys made a book about the five food groups and Anthony wrote a story about his favorite food, the "Corn".  We also decided to do a "Good Deed" chart where each of them can earn stars for their every good deed.  I've got the inspiration from Anthony's karate teacher and his story about the good and the bad dragons. He said, "If we wanted the good dragon to grow and become stronger, we have to feed it."  What do we give the dragons as food?  Good deeds!  Which ties in with our lessons about obedience and following rules.  I think it's really awesome that I can make connections with things that we do in school, at home and outside our home/school to reinforce values that we wanted them to have.  The week went by fast, Friday was extra special because we celebrated Mary's birthday.  Both of them made cards for Mary, and helped me maked her birthday cake which we shared later with two of Anthony's classmate from his old school during our "movie night."  Overall, I can say that I can't wait for our next class, and I am looking forward to more stressful but rewarding weeks with my boys!