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Copyright (c) 2008 by Robyn
Dolan
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A Day in the Schoolroom
Here we are again, starting a new school year. As last year wound down,
Mrs. D decided she needed some time to digest what she had learned about Li'l
Homesteader and about teaching. Primarily, that this boy, like his older
brothers, is a hands on learner, with a short attention span. This means
that there is a lot of activity in the schoolroom, with a minimum of
seatwork. Puzzles are employed daily, interactive charts are
popular, and many lessons are made into "games" with mom. We abide by
Charlotte Mason's recommendation of hours of outdoor activity daily whenever
possible.
Mrs. D is formulating her own lesson plans this year, drawing from several
sources. Still using Ann Ward's "Learning at Home, Preschool and
Kindergarten", and CORE Knowledge's "What Your Kindergartener Needs to
Know", we are also incorporating Li'l Homesteader's catechism lessons into
our curriculum. We'll start with an overview of our schoolweek this
month, and get into detail on how we're working on various subjects in upcoming
months.
We start the day with prayer, usually one he is learning for catechism, then
the Pledge of Allegiance with Li'l Homesteader holding the flag. We move
on to calendar time and charts, which include drills of months, days of week,
counting to 30 (or whatever number of days is in the current month) with number
recognition, deciding on today's weather by going outside and observing,
predicting tomorrows weather; tracing the letter of the day, and pointing to and
saying each letter of the alphabet, learning the vowels and their sounds.
Religion is next, reviewing his catechism lessons and reading Bible stories,
stories of saints, and making little books about the basic tenets of our
faith.
Reading readiness consists of the letter of the week (tracing, finding,
making its sound) currently working our way through the alphabet, poetry,
stories, puzzles, sewing cards, stringing beads (hand/eye coordination),
clapping patterns (a favorite), rhyming words, etc.
Art and music are daily subjects here, Li'l Homesteader loves to paint and
play his guitar and sing.
Arithmetic is progressing well. He knows his colors and shapes and is
working on counting to 100. He is developing a concept of addition and
subtraction as he counts his fingers or toys in various combinations.
Science is planting a seed and watching it grow,then picking the flower or
eating the corn; tossing a rock and watching the ripples; mixing up a batter,
cutting out shapes, baking and eating the cookies.
History, geography and community are learned in our frequent travels and
outings by car, bus and train, around the state and to other states, our errands
around town, field trips to museums and parks and fairs and shows.
We feel that it is also important to train him in habits, values and
character, personal health, safety and manners.
Physical education would seem to be unnecessary for a four year old boy, but
besides hours of outdoor activity there are certain activities that help to
increase a body's coordination and flexibility, so some organized exercise is
taught. Somersaults, balancing, jumping back and forth over a
line...needless to say, this also keeps Mrs. D in shape, though teaching
somersaults by example nearly resulted in some pulled muscles - must learn where
to draw the line.
Storytime is held daily and we go on frequent nature walks, a la Charlotte
Mason. Mrs. D considers foreign languages important, so we have a monthly
rotation of basics in Spanish, French and American Sign Language.
Numerous educational games and skills are studied on computer as well, to
develop those skills and because they hold Li'l Homesteader's attention, but
that time is limited, as well as TV time, even with educational videos, as Mrs.
D has observed that the screen, while holding li'l guy's attention, also seems
to shorten his attention span when overdone.
Let us clarify, before the reader becomes overwhelmed by all this activity,
we are teaching preschool here. Some of the subjects are only taught once
or twice a week, and only 10 minutes are spent on each subject when the lesson
involves sitting still and listening. As much as possible is covered
during daily activities so that "classroom" time is short and efficient.
Time to get on to this week's lesson plan.
Thanks,
Mrs. D
Copyright (c) 2007 by Robyn
Dolan
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What Lesson Plan?
A what? What exactly is a lesson plan? This is preschool, for
heaven's sake! No matter, there are certain goals we want to accomplish this
year, so how to go about it one bite at a time?
Mrs. D learned in homeschooling her older children that she has two primary
(and unfortunately critical) weaknesses. Lesson planning and record
keeping. How to chop that big goal into 35 weekly bites and each of those
35 bites into 4 or 5 nibbles. Then how do we show the world (and the
grandparents) that we actually did it. With her now young adult children,
Mrs. D invested hundreds of dollars in curriculums and tuition to a private
school that offered a homeschool program. This resulted in an environment
where one child thrived and the other two did only slightly better than they had
in school. In efforts to save money and find a way to help the boys learn
better, we began to "shop" around. Thanks to the greater availability of
the internet, we began to find other sources for learning materials and
styles. We experimented with unschooling and finally adopted a fairly
middle of the road approach. All this was for the middle and high school
years.
Now with a preschooler on board, it would seem there are a plethora of
materials available. Just walk down the school supplies section of any
Wal-Mart. The children's programming on PBS would seem to offer much of
what a preschooler needs to learn - if you want your child in front of the TV
all day. Numerous videos, dvds and computer programs are available, all
with the same drawback - they don't give the child hands on experience in his
day to day environment.
Mrs. D starts googling. www.handsonhomeschooling.com
provides a Three Years Skills Checklist of core academics, support courses,
electives and growth & development. As with most things, when the student is
ready, the teacher appears. Charlotte Mason has been highly touted in
certain homeschool circles, and even just halfway through her first volume, Home
Education, her philosophy of practice, discipline and fresh air makes so much
sense that it's amazing these basics so quickly get lost! A friend who
is a tutor pointed us toward "What Your Kindergartener Needs To
Know", which offers a framework of activities and suggestions
for additional resources at the Kindergarten level in Language and
Literature, History and Geography, Art, Music, Mathematics, and
Science. By far, Mrs. D's favorite resource for now was passed
along by another homeschooling mom whose children had grown out of it -
"Learning at Home: Preschool & Kindergarten" by Ann Ward. We checked
and this book is still available from several sources. Ann Ward has a
bachelor's degree in Elementary Education and several years experience in
teaching in elementary schools, business experience in banking and direct sales,
and real world experience in homeschooling her own children. Now she has
Mrs. D's attention.
Mrs. Ward wrote this book, as well as 2 other volumes for first and second
grade, while schooling her own children, with the insight that there might be
those of us who do not have her professional experience in lesson planning and
record keeping. This book offers a sample daily schedule, profiles the 3,
4, and 5 year old, gives daily lesson plans for 36 weeks for preschool and
kindergarten, and suggests additional resources, emphasizing the use of the
library. Subjects covered are Bible concepts, reading readiness,
arithmetic readiness, science, geography, community, character building,
personal health & safety, manners, art, music, physical education skills,
memory verses, stories and weekly field trips. Wow. Just take us by
the hand and lead us along. Of course there is plenty of room for
variation. We just started using this book, which assumes a fall start
date, so instead of making Grandparents Day cards for art, we made a Nativity
Scene magnet. And instead of the recommended reading, we have been using
Robert Louis Stevens "A Child's Garden of Verses" and other library books.
Each day starts with a prayer, the pledge of allegiance (with "one nation under
God" included!) and calendar time, where we learn the months, days, numbers and
concepts of today, yesterday and tomorrow. A ten minute play period breaks
up the first 45 minutes of lessons, and phys ed refreshes the second
session. This is just about right for li'l homesteader's attention span,
and the projects leave physical proof of what he's learning. For record
keeping, you can write right in the book or copy the lesson plans, as we do, and
date and make notations on the copies which we keep in our permanent record
book.
Homeschooling is a wonderful way to educate children, however, keeping
records and achieving or exceeding certain goals which are in common
with the public education system are necessary not only in helping our children
to make it out "on their own", but also to protect our freedom to homeschool by
showing that we are doing "a good job" of it. Thanks to homeschooling
groups on the internet and in our own communities, we don't have to go it
alone.
For additional info on the resources cited here:
www.handsonhomeschooling.com
www.coreknowledge.org/bookstore/index.php
www.homeschooldiscount.com/home2/NPpreschool.htm
www.homeschoolhighlights.com
www.charlottemason.com
Thanks,
Mrs. D
Copyright (c) 2006 by Robyn
Dolan
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Hornbooks vs. the computer
In her last article on homeschooling, Mrs.
D was discussing toddlers and sign language. When Homestead Baby began
talking, sign language and other foreign languages were put on the back
burner. Now that he is talking quite well and quite often, sign language
and spanish are making a comeback. As he has just turned 3, we are now
having some "school time" every day in addition to all the unstructured learning
we do. Homestead Baby loves school time, because we have a special box of
really cool stuff that we use only at school time.
One of the tools we use is a children's
V-Tech Desk Pro computer. Now this is not something Mrs. D would have
purposely invested in, but Uncle City Slicker was using it with his son and
was so impressed that he got Homestead Baby one. We have to admit, it is
truly amazing. This model is supposed to be for ages 7 and up, but
Homestead Baby(HB) learned very quickly where the on button was and the rest is
history. No matter what he does, something happens, but nothing gets
messed up. And believe it, HB likes to push buttons and make things
happen.
Desk Pro has a standard keyboard and mouse
and 3 CD's with even more activities on them. We're still exploring what
the main drive will do. As it is designed for older children, it doesn't
help with alphabet or counting. It does have some great games.
In "Math and Logic", there is a balloon pop
that HB particularly enjoys. It did not take him long to
learn to hover the mouse over the balloon and pop it. We also discovered
an Art Studio where he can draw pictures (scribbles) with the mouse and then
choose a "stamp", his favorite is the truck, and stamp his picture. He can
also choose a border for it. Mom has to get into each different section
for him, but he has the drawing and stamping down. Then there is
Spanish. The activity we are working on is words. The screen shows
an english word and its spanish translation and we try to find the object
itself, or a picture of it to supplement.
As HB gets older, there are many more
activities to supplement his learning such as "Spelling Snake", "Word Scramble",
"Math Snake", "World Trivia", "Science Solver", "Typing Tutor" and dozens
more. The computer stores a progress report and has an auto shutoff
feature to conserve the 4 AA batteries.
On the low tech end of the spectrum, and
this is almost always Mrs. D's preference, a friend gave HB a set of
Hornbooks. They are 2 small wooden paddles with Raggedy Ann and Andy hand
painted on one side, and the alphabet in upper and lower case and vowels on the
reverse side of Raggedy Andy and the numbers 1-100 on the reverse side of
Raggedy Ann. These hornbooks were a precursor of flash cards used for alphabet
and number recognition. Numerous games can be played using the paddles
including counting by 1's, 2's, 3's, 5's, 10's, etc. They can also be
used to practice copying the numbers and letters with pencil and paper, and even
learning them in sign language.
Hornbooks originated in the 16th century
when paper was expensive. There were many variations, but the most common
was a single sheet of paper with the alphabet in upper and lower case, phonics
letter groupings (ba, ca, etc.) and The Lord's Prayer, glued to a wooden paddle
and then covered with a thin sheet of cow's horn. This enabled young (and
older) children to learn the alphabet, letter and number recognition and
beginning reading without the use of alot of paper. Usually there was a
string through the handle of the paddle so that it could be worn at the waist
and studied frequently during the day (and to prevent its becoming lost).
HB's hornbooks are finished with a clear
varnish rather than horn, but it is interesting to note how the original horn
covering was manufactured. Cows' horns were soaked for several weeks in
cold water to separate the outer and inner parts. The inner section was
heated in boiling water, then over an open fire. It was carefully cut and
pressed flat. Now it could be separated into many layers which were
cleaned and polished to a clear gloss, then trimmed to fit the horn
book.
The upshot of all this is, while the
computer is nice at times, HB has come farther with his ABC's and numbers, even
working on starting to write them, since we started with the hornbooks than he
has watching Sesame Street or playing with flash cards.
Hmmm....
Resources for this article:
www.vtechkids.com
www.cedu.niu.edu/blackwell/books.html
www.encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia -
the rest of the url is complicated, so go here, search hornbooks, go to
children's literature, and it will be in a small article that includes 16th
century literature.
Mrs.
D
(c) Copyright 2006 by Robyn
Dolan
Homeschooling the Homestead
Toddler
Well, the goat herd is recovering nicely
from last year's dog attacks. New babies are joining the herd, and mommas
are in milk. Soon we will be offering goat's milk soap in the store
again.
This month I would like to talk about
homeschooling. Although I have spent several years homeschooling my older
children through parts of junior high and high school, I now find myself the
teacher of an almost 2 year old. I thought we would not be schooling too
much this year, but the little guy is so interested in everything (read - into -
everything). One of the great things about homeschooling is you learn the
educational value of every day activities. As Mrs. D feeds the stock,
Homestead Baby offers a handful of hay to the horses, who tentatively
accept. He works on his hand/eye coordination while we wash dishes, he
pouring water into various containers as I work around him. Snow is
eagerly scooped into buckets, and anything in a bucket (including fresh milk) is
enthusiatically dumped out. Crayons are eaten but markers, ah yes, paint
everything including, occasionally, the marker board.
Book addict that she is, Mrs. D is grateful
for the public library. Somehow, she cannot walk in without walking out
with at least a dozen books and videos. There is a children's activity
area full of puzzles which Homestead Baby has enjoyed since he could walk.
Preschool offerings at many libraries include books on tape with read along
book, board books, videos including Blue's Clues, Sesame Street, foriegn
language for children, ABC's, 123's, colors and shapes. Many also
have a story hour.
Sign language is also a very practical
addition to a preschool curriculum. This can be started as early as 7-8
months of age. Early signs often include eat, milk, more, done and thank
you. The value of sign language in communicating with a child who cannot
yet speak is immeasurable. Homestead Baby started his sign language at
about 14 months old and grew quite proficient although now he often stubbornly
refuses to use it in favor of trying very hard to speak his mind.
Many resources are available to
homeschoolers of preschool age children. The public library is always a
good place to start. Next check for programs like Blue's Clues and Sesame
Street on television. Some of Mrs. D's favorites on the internet
are: www.signingbaby.com sign language,
www.preschooleducation.com activities,
www.preschoolerstoday.com
articles.
Thanks,
Mrs. D
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