First Day of Homeschool

Leah began Pre-K yesterday! We decided to start earlier than Labor Day since we were both ready to go. After the curriculum was delivered and some of the supplies were stocked on shelves in her playroom, Leah was ready to start and see what homeschool was all about. I spent last week putting together a bulletin board and got myself mostly organized and prepped.

When I reviewed the first lesson, the manual suggested having some type of introduction each day, to signal the start of school. The suggestions included a poem, a pledge to the flag, a prayer, or a song. None of those really appealed to me, so after thinking back on my Kindergarten teaching assistant days and scouring a few homeschool blogs, I decided to begin our day with Calendar Time. Talking about what day and season it is, as well as the weather outside, seemed like a natural way to start our day. Though it may be awhile until Leah truly understands the passage of time, the months of the year, and how to tell the date, being exposed to it will only aid her comprehension. There is also a section to label "Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow" so that she begins to understand those terms as well. Leah certainly grasps the concepts of whether an event has happened in the past or will in the future, but she'll sometimes refer to something that happened a few weeks ago as happening "last night". So, this will hopefully introduce her to some proper terms.  Leah very much enjoyed Calendar Time both yesterday and today!

Afterward, we moved onto our first lesson. We spent some time talking about school (some kids go to a specific school with other kids while some stay home with their parents), talking about our new supplies, where they're located, and the importance of putting things away when school is complete. We read a story together, discussed the concepts of "in" and "out", and listened to a short song that tied into our lesson. Interestingly, I thought the in & out lesson would be too easy for Leah and we'd be through it in no time. But I got to witness firsthand how you can understand a concept one way but need help when it's translated to another context. For example, we began by placing various objects "in" and "out" of a basket or small box. Leah whizzed through that, knowing what that meant, saying things like, "The crayons are IN the basket" when she placed them there. After this exercise, I presented her with an activity sheet of different animals that were either in an object (a bird in a cage) or out of one (a dog standing beside his doghouse). I asked her to point out a picture that showed "in". She pointed to the dog by his house and said something about how he goes in there. I understood what she meant, though she was skipping over the fact that right then, in that particular picture, he was not in there currently. So interesting how her mind worked. After some explanation, she quickly picked up what we were looking for and completed highlighting the various pictures, underlining the "in" pictures with one color crayon and the "out" pictures with another. She then colored the pictures however she wanted. When she was done, I asked her again to show me the picture where the dog was "in" or the cat was "out", etc and she completed it with no problem. Awesome. She learned!

There are certain objectives in this curriculum she does know. For instance, today we were supposed to introduce the color red. Leah already knows her colors, so I modified the lesson somewhat. Instead of presenting her with red objects to illustrate what color they are, I asked her to look around the room and find red objects herself. Then, I gave her a couple old magazines and asked her to cut out red pictures that she would then glue on a separate sheet of paper. She's still a scissor newbie, so this helped her work on those motor skills instead, while still sticking to the red theme.

One thing that I'm not quite sure of is how to modify our storytime. The curriculum provides a storybook in order to promote good listening and comprehension skills, that we read from at least once a day. Leah is used to picture storybooks while these stories I'm reading contain only a couple tiny illustrations in order to condense the curriculum material. She's claiming the stories are "boring" and I think it's because she doesn't have that visual to follow. Not quite sure how to remedy that one, or maybe it will just come with more maturity.

Otherwise, things are going well thus far. I am already enjoying the new routine and the extra quality time we're experiencing. I think this will be a really interesting adventure. :)

Leah created this red clay guy with no prompting from me. I love it!

Homeschooling

Yup. We are that family.

As many children Leah's age prepare to start Pre-Kindergarten or to attend preschool, we have chosen to homeschool. Dan & I made the decision a year ago, and as we draw closer to the beginning of our journey, it seemed like the right time to post about it.

When we first began discussing school options, public schools here did not thrill us. We considered private school, though the tuition of the one secular private school in our area is astronomical. That was out. All the affordable options were Christian-based private schools, and while we entertained that notion for a short time, ultimately, that felt very disingenuous to me. Dan and I are not religious; the most you could call us is agnostic. To be fair to our family and to the school, we felt it was better that we not pretend to be people we are not.

So, on a whim, I mentioned homeschooling as an option. Since joining a mommy message board years ago as well as following a few money-saving blogs, I found that homeschooling was more popular than I ever realized. In the following days, as I did some research and Dan & I discussed the pros and cons, we discovered that homeschooling was the only thing that got us both excited.

What we're looking forward to:

• Discovering Leah's learning style and teaching her in a way that suits her best
• Choosing our curriculum and following Leah's interests and curiosities
• Being able to take breaks or vacations whenever we want, working at Leah's most alert time of day, and having free time during the day for lessons, sports, or whatever she wants to explore
• Providing her with a safe, supportive environment to begin learning and building her self-esteem

I know the biggest hangup regarding homeschooling is the socialization issue. That was our first concern as well. But after talking to other homeschooling moms and reading various articles and blog posts on the topic, it's really not an issue unless you live in a cave. There are local homeschool groups to join. Leah will meet other kids in whatever activities she gets involved in (dance, gymnastics, etc). Not to mention the other interactions she has in a typical week - meeting and talking to people at the grocery store, the pet store, the bank, etc. We hope to involve her in volunteer projects down the line as well. "Socialization" is not just about making friends with a bunch of other kids who are the exact same age; it's about learning to interact with others in a productive manner.

The three of us attended our first Homeschool Expo in Atlanta during the last weekend of July. It was so helpful, as I was able to see the various curriculum options right in front of me and learned about several programs that I wouldn't have previously thought of. After deliberation and research, I chose our Pre-K curriculum last week (Calvert) and it arrived in the mail on Tuesday. I am super excited to begin!  There are a lot of homeschooling folks who say that you don't really need to shell out the money for a boxed curriculum for Pre-K or K... but being as this is our first year doing something we never thought we would do, I want the advantage of guidance and structure. Maybe in a year or two, I'll have more confidence to pull from different resources and put something together myself. But for now, I love that everything is laid out for me.

I am aiming to start after Labor Day, though it could potentially be earlier if I feel we're ready to go. I want to go through the curriculum a little more closely and I am also in the process of getting myself organized in various aspects of home management as well. Really trying to streamline my days and weeks, so I can truly devote the time necessary to educating my daughter.

This is an exciting time! It's funny, Dan and I have joked that we are that "crazy", no-cable-TV-let's-bake-our-own-bread-homeschooling-family. Couple of hippies. *wink*  If you asked me 5 years ago if we would be doing these things, I would've told you that was ridiculous. Ha. Life can take you places you never imagined and oftentimes, those are the best journeys. One of my favorite quotes is: "I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." Yup. Here's to a new challenge, a new journey!

I'm not Leah, I'm Dorothy!

Most of you who read the blog already know this, but I still wanted to write about it so that it's in the record books.

Sometime in June, I believe, I introduced Leah to "The Wizard of Oz". Dan had recently shown her "E.T." to which she responded favorably and without anything really scaring her. So, I figured I'd give Oz a try. Needless to say, she loved it. I should have known; the main character is a female who wears sparkly shoes and has a cute little dog. That spoke to her!

Leah soon began acting out scenes from the movie. Naturally, she was Dorothy and she assigned roles to Dan (Scarecrow) and I (sometimes the Tin Man, sometimes the Cowardly Lion) and she had us skipping around the yard while she sang, "We're off to the see the wizard..."  We have one of those crabapple trees in the backyard and she even pretended to pick apples off while the tree got upset. It was very dramatic.

Do you ever see pieces of yourself and your childhood in your own children? Um, yeah, this one's a whole chunk of mine. I also used to watch "The Wizard of Oz" constantly and assigned roles to my family members. I never suggested anything to Leah about acting out scenes or making each of us a particular character or what-have-you, but boy, it is uncanny how Leah is doing the exact same things I used to. Is that kind of stuff passed along in your genetic makeup? She does seem a bit more forceful in reminding family members that she is Dorothy, not Leah. I don't quite remember carrying that out to such an extent but hey, who knows. Maybe I needed the shoes to truly feel the part. And unfortunately, when I was a kid, Target wasn't around to make super cute ruby slipper lookalikes. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't the least bit jealous. ;)

Yesterday, when Leah received those awesome red shoes in the mail from Grammy, she was talking about how we don't have the Dorothy dress but that we could look for it around Halloween. I agreed, then glanced in her closet and realized we could put together a Dorothy outfit that was a close enough match. She has been ecstatic ever since. She wore it for the rest of the day and is wearing it again today. She took Toto and her basket to the pet supply store today and yesterday, she even told the Trader Joe's cashier that her daddy is the Scarecrow. Ha!

Steps to Learning

On Saturday night, Leah very proudly wrote her name all by herself! YAY!!!  She had been writing each of the letters just moments earlier, so I grabbed some chalk and wrote them in order to spell "Leah", talking about which one came next. She said, "I can do it, I can do it!" and promptly wrote what you see here. I am so proud! Yesterday, I saw her playing with the alphabet magnets on the fridge and she correctly spelled out her name again. This is a great step! Mostly, I'm so glad she has an interest in trying to write her letters and figure this stuff out.

Leah has also developed a love of books, which really makes me happy! We used to read books together sporadically, and at random times of day. So, a few months ago, I decided we really needed to incorporate a story before bedtime. Leah caught on after one night and was asking to read a book! Partly, I think she loved the excuse to delay bedtime a few more minutes but hey, it worked. ;)  She is now familiar with lots of books, loves a few certain characters that we read over & over, quotes lines from some of the stories, and gets excited about bringing different books home from the library. I am so thrilled!

4th Birthday

Once again, the blog has escaped me. Whoops. I wanted to provide a summary on Leah's 4th birthday... but now it's over a month later. Seems like old news, eh? Oh well, let me just get a little recap out of the way so we have something to look back on in twenty years. ;)

Other than the day she was born, this was the first year Leah's birthday did not fall on a weekend... so it was the first time we got to celebrate with Leah on her big day just the three of us. Began the morning with cake batter pancakes for breakfast, followed by a visit to one of Leah's favorite parks where she played for nearly two hours. Even Dan was able to stop by for a few minutes on his lunch break - yay! Afterward, we picked up a dozen cupcakes from our favorite cupcake shop. Leah spent the rest of the afternoon playing at home, while I prepared a favorite dinner - homemade chicken nuggets, homemade mac & cheese, and carrot sticks.

After dinner, Leah opened her gifts from us: a Jane doll (from Disney's Tarzan - thank you, Ebay!), a Lady & the Tramp nightgown, and... what she's been waiting for... Cinderella's dress and accessories!

The following weekend, the grandparents arrived for Leah's annual party! This year, Leah chose a ballerina bear cake, so we went with an overall pink, ballet theme. Again, we went with Leah's favorite for our meal - Peppino's pizza. :)  She's got good taste! Leah had a great time showing off her new playroom to her grandparents, getting pushed on her swings, opening her gifts, and leading everyone down a favorite trail at the Botanical Gardens the following day. As always, a very fun weekend.

The first year Leah could blow out her candle without help!

I already have a few ideas for upcoming blog posts, so let's hope I can get them up this week. :)

Playroom

Leah's new playroom is, for the most part, complete! Dan finished the painting and installation of the new ceiling fans a couple weeks ago. We spent a couple days moving most of her toys upstairs and organizing/setting them up. Then, this past weekend, we flip-flopped the layout of the room again! Seems to flow better now.

We still have a few items to add: a kid-size table & chairs for coloring/crafts, some additional posters or decor for the walls, a small TV stand, and a large chair for the far corner (underneath the Pooh poster) for an adult to sit. Maybe one of those nets you can string up in a corner to hold stuffed animals. I also bought a corkboard for displaying Leah's "masterpieces" that still needs to be hung on the wall.

Still, it is pretty much good to go! Leah loves playing up there, sometimes wanting one or both of us with her and other times telling us, "I'm going upstairs. Please don't check me."  Yes, ma'am! Enjoy! I think it's one of the best rooms in the house!

Dress Up

Leah has a new obsession: dresses. She wants to wear a dress or a skirt everyday (unless they're all in the laundry basket and I tell her she has to choose something else) and often wears multiple dresses a day, thanks to all her costumes and tutus. We recently sold a bunch of baby items in a local consignment sale and at the preview sale, I bought her three dresses, one of which is pictured to the left. She calls this one her Minnie Mouse dress because of the red with white polka dots! I love how happy and proud she looks. :)

Leah is also obsessed with shoes. (She is so my child. Ha.) Or, maybe I should say, she's obsessed with ONE pair of shoes. We picked out some new shoes and sandals last week. Her favorite pair are pink & sparkly with little bows on the front - similar to the ruby slippers, only pink and flat - and Leah has worn them constantly since we got home. She puts them on with her dresses, wears them on errands, wears them outside, even wears them with her pajamas on occasion. The only time we can get her to wear sneakers is when we've gone to the Botanical Gardens or when it's wet/muddy outside after it's rained. And the new sandals I bought? They're sitting in her room, untouched. Oh boy.

Playing dress-up and role-playing her favorite Disney characters is currently her favorite thing to do, as you can probably guess. She impressed me recently with her creativity. She has the store-bought costumes for Snow White, Rapunzel, and Belle so, naturally, it's clear who she is when those outfits are on. But one day, while wearing a new yellow dress that we picked up at the consignment sale, she also added her white mittens and told me she was Jane.

Jane from Tarzan.

Awesome! We've watched that movie quite a bit recently (totally underrated Disney movie, by the way. Music by Phil Collins is amazing!) and Dan & I were rather excited that Leah chose to emulate such a cool, intelligent female character like Jane and that she put the outfit together herself.