Homeschooling Mom

Alene is not really my only student. During the same hours that Alene is doing her daily work, two other girls are begging for my "teacher" attention. Today, Esther snuck into Alene's seat and finished three pages of handwriting practice for Alene before I caught her. Rebecka grunts and begs like a teenage boy for me to help her do something bookish. I read to her, and she loves it. I help her hold a pen correctly, and she screams to do it "her way." I get her started stacking blocks or cans, and she squeals when she does it just like me.

Also today, Alene and I did a new math game. Hopscotch. We used some 1 foot square, foam, floor puzzle tiles with numbered Disney Princesses on them for the "board." Rolled a dice to tell us which numbers to jump to. And jumped from floor to "one" to the dice number to "nine" (the highest number in the puzzle) and back to the floor. After mixing up the pattern, shape, and order of the number tiles, I made her do mental math (addition and subtraction) to get to each successive number. She played until she was sweaty and tuckered out. It is the longest math lesson she has endured to date!

With only one month of schooling under her belt, Alene has already learned the art of delay and slow down to avoid her least favorite subjects. She earned frowns on three of last week's four school days. I am pleased to see that she doesn't like to receive frowns on her pages, but so far, that hasn't motivated a change in her behavior.

Read more »

Our 5 year old has begun kindergarten at home this year. We are just finishing our third full week of school. For a kindergartener, that seems like a long time. For her Mom, it seems like we haven't even begun. Our schedule is relaxed but with a definite pattern.

Read more »