I am really enjoying being able to teach Leah & Andrew at home this year. Each time I hear about a school shooting or something happening in a public school, I thank God that I have the privilege of keeping mine safe at home. They get plenty of social interaction and are learning so much more than just things taught from books! Here’s some of the things we’ve been doing this year:
Leah is so easy to teach. Usually things come very easy to her. The problem with that is that if it doesn’t come easy, she gets quickly frustrated. She sometimes requires a lot of patience but she really does love to learn and is excelling far beyond where I could have imagined. We are probably at a first-grade level in some aspects of math. We are learning: adding & subtracting (in the picture I would call out an addition problem and she had to jump to the right answer), telling time, counting money, graphing, patterns, skip counting, and a whole lot more. She doesn’t really like doing the worksheets but she loves games!
In reading, I would definitely consider Leah on a 1st or even 2nd grade level. We are halfway through our reading book, which, when finished, brings us up to a 4th grade level. She can read A LOT of words, even ones I haven’t even really taught her yet. She surprises me all the time! She’ll read captions on the news or titles of my books, everything! Now, if I gave her a 2nd-grade level book, she probably wouldn’t have the stamina to completely read it, but she would probably be able to sound out most of the words. Each day I’ll write the new words from her lesson on a white board, she’ll read through them and then we usually play a game of some sort to review, and then read practice books.
My focus this year is primarily on reading, math, and handwriting (which is Leah’s one weakness—she loves to write, but her handwriting is horrible), we do add in some science and some social studies. Each week we take one country of the world and learn different things about that country. We’ll do a coloring page, learn how to say “hello” in their language, read about a kid from that country, look at animals from the country, and ocasionally cook a dish or make a craft. It’s really given Leah a good worldview and she really looks forward to studying our country for the week! We’ve also done some basic map work, learning about what maps are for and how to read them. Andrew often joins us for the fun-type things, so he’s learning through exposure. Here they are working on drawing their own town, including all the important places a town needs to run.
We usually do seasonal science activities, focusing on nature and things like that. There’s no specific topic, just whatever I think would interest them. In this picture they’re actually doing math & science together, learning about how many cups of liquid could fit into different size containers. We also looked at ice and how it freezes and melts. I try to find a “theme” to focus on each week, whether it be based on a holiday or something like that.
Leah absolutely loves going to Classical Conversations every Monday. It is by far her favorite part of the week. She has made some really good friends in her class, and other moms have even told me their kid talks about Leah at home. (I think it’s a good thing she isn’t in public school or she’d probably have about 10 boyfriends!) She is not at all shy and she’s willing to try anything if her teacher asks! In addition to their memory work each week, they do a science project and either art or music. The past few weeks they’ve gotten to paint in the style of some famous artists. She has been exposed to so many different things and she’s learned how to interact with all different types of kids. We have already signed up to return next year, and Andrew will be in a class too!
Andrew’s going to be a little more difficult to teach. Don’t get me wrong, he’s very smart and he also knows a lot of things I don’t have to teach him, but he’s not really near where Leah was at his age. I try hard not to compare them, because I know each child is different, and I know Leah was a little advanced. Andrew can probably recognize about 80% of the letters of the alphabet, and he’s working on their beginning sounds but not quite there. We’re also working on numbers. He’s already got down shapes & colors, and he even understands patterns, as you can see in this picture. Andrew’s fickle when it comes to doing schoolwork. He usually wants to be a part of whatever Leah’s doing (and do it exactly like she’s doing), but gets bored quickly and wants to go do something else. He wants to do things on his own time table. He’s going to be a challenge to get to sit still!
My littlest baby is growing and learning soooo fast! I looked at her the other day and no longer saw my little baby, but a big girl! She started walking at the beginning of February and walks almost all the time now, although it still looks a little like Frankenstein! She wants so badly to keep up with her big brother and sister! Her new favorite activity is climbing on the kitchen table and throwing crayons and school supplies all over the floor. I can pull her down and she’ll be right back up minutes later. She’s not too good at understanding “no”! She has stopped taking a morning nap now (if I give her one, she won’t nap in the afternoon) so I have to find things to keep her busy while we do school work and she gets bored easily. She isn’t really a fussy baby unless she’s hungry or just wants to be included—she really is easygoing but there’s just only so long she can play on her own!
She imitates everything now and is so silly (especially when she has no clothes on!). She still loves to snuggle and she likes to be read to (although she also likes to close the book while you’re reading it), she loves to pretend to color, she loves to get into Andrew’s toys, but she especially just loves to climb!
