Is It Naptime Yet

My friend Elizabeth, who lives in Iowa, asked why I’m choosing homeschooling, she didn’t know that I was planning on doing this, and it’s mostly because I talk to people about it, but I guess I haven’t blogged about it a lot.

Some reason’s why I’m wanting to home school in no particular order:

• We live in a highly populated Spanish speaking area. I had a friend who taught kindergarten at a school close to us, though not the one Lilah would attend, and in a class she had in 2006 there were about 4 English speaking students, the rest she had to teach English. I know this would be a large disadvantage to Lilah, who at the age of 3 knew more than some of her kindergarteners. Plus the Spanish speaking children could not communicate with the English speaking students, so the English speakers had a harder time making friends.

• No Child Left Behind = Teach to test

• Everything, even the potty breaks, are planned to the minute for the teacher. ( I’d put a link to a kindergarten teacher here in Nevada talking about the schedule, but it’s a private blog.)

• There’s no creativity for the teacher and the students.

• Being able to teach Lilah at the level she is.

• 6 hours of school and another 2 hours of homework.

• Children will learn a subject once they’re interested. If they’re not interested, they’re not going to learn without a person forcing them.

• Kids are weird if their parents are weird. So my girls have no hope anyways… No, the excuse of socialization is weak to me.

• Parents are losing more and more power to choose what is taught to their children. Even if you’re actively involved it’s not always enough.

• Jon has talked me into it. I figure I can indoctrinate them while he’s at work. 😉

• Enjoying time and discussion with my girls.

• The girls deciding what they want to learn, in some ways, and me being able to develop their sense of curiosity.

• I’ve never, ever, wanted to be a teacher, but it is fun to see them learn something new.

• The public school system, at least to my belief, doesn’t develop a desire to learn.

• The public school system was implemented to teach the poor and the government just continued to go with it.

• It would be nice to have some time to myself during the day, but I think I can teach the girls what they need to know and get with other homeschooling groups, to help my children learn in a smaller, more adaptive setting, to their needs.

Some people think we’re totally weird for wanting to home school, even within the family, and are highly opposed to it because home schooled kids are “weird”, but others are very supportive and say how the home schooled children they know are more mature and less indoctrinated about sex, drugs, and violence.
While we’re not homeschooling because we don’t want them exposed to the “horrible world”, we are planning on homeschooling because we believe we can provide a better education for our children than the public school system.
Once our girls are older they can choose to go to public school, but we’re not going to force them to stay out or go in, I just hope we’re in a better school district by then.

So most of you know that we’re planning on homeschooling our girls. I’m needing to do some research, but I’ve been teaching her since birth, as Jon would say, and am going to start a couple of new things with Lilah.

First I’ve gotten some Zoo Phonics cards from a friend (so let me know if you want hooked up), in hopes that Lilah will have better memorization of the letter sounds, though she probably knows all of them except the vowels easily, so she can hopefully feel more comfortable sounding out words. (She hates sounding out words, ’cause she hates to make mistakes depending on her mood.)
She only likes to read when we read scriptures at night. If it’s one of their books she doesn’t want to help read, but be read to.

At night when we read scriptures it use to be I taught her a word and as I read I would continue to point to the words but pause at the ones she knew so she could read them. Now she’s having me read each word, she repeats it and on words she knows I still don’t say anything. She recognizes a lot of words like: and, is on, be, the, that, etc. and the other night she read the word people! I just wasn’t fast enough and she read it before I did!

She saw the zoo-phonics cards and I think she’s excited about them, so I’m hoping this gives a boost to her motivation to read and to sound things out especially. (I just need to get more self laminating stuff, which was expensive so if I’m planning on making my own stuff I need to find a cheaper way to make it last.)

The other thing, which I just started yesterday, is writing in a composition book.
To get a real feel for dates, months, and the days of the week, which she already knows, I’m planning on writing with her each day. I basically ask what she wants me to put down and I do, then we read it together. (I’m planning on reading about seven days worth each time we go to write once we get at least seven pages down.) I’m also having her read the words she already knows and she likes to repeat the larger ones. She pretends to phonetically read sometimes. She’ll ask what the word is and then slowly read it like she’s sounding it out, though she does also try to point to the letters. It’s cute. I think it does help her remember the words though.

With the notebook I’ve made this our Mommy and Lilah time. I think she’s been feeling a little left out in not getting a specific time with me anymore. Right before each of the girl’s naps is Mommy and (insert name here) time, but since Lilah doesn’t take naps anymore she doesn’t always get a specific time where my attention is on her, since by the time I’m done putting Eden down it’s time for Super Why and her shows, or she’s playing the computer, or I’m tired and need a nap well, you get the picture.
She’s been wanting to encroach on Eden’s time with me, so I think this will help her know and look forward to our time together and know that she will get time with me.

This was our first day’s work, in which I think my girls are bound to have terrible handwriting, due to their mother teaching them, though it’s kinda hard to write so large, and excuse my misspelling of gymnastics, I almost forgot the y at first.
She did the drawing and that top part is her writing her name without my dotted lines and help.

So these are two things I’m doing to encourage reading and writing with her thus far.

I need to find a way to help her correctly write letters. I remember my friend Danielle talking about a video they had for it and having the kindergartners trace the letters with their fingers for practice. I just need large letters that are more in the handwritten manner or a video, since I think tracing with her fingers, on paper, with mommy will probably wear off fast with Lilah.

Also our next science project: to order some caterpillars and watch them become butterflies.