Starting to do daily home schooling. I am taking advantage of the ipad and some apps that build skills that will translate to handwriting. I can see that the younger set want a turn with the fun educational programs. That is good, will give them a turn later.
The main goal at the moment is to gently build a habit of schoolwork in the mornings. I will be pulling out the curriculum bit by bit and we will be using the workbooks in the various subjects. Right now, the preliminaries are being honed so that the math and language arts will not overwhelm.
Today we played Bugs and Buttons 2 (I forget the company, but their games are wonderfully fun), and Fish School by Duck Duck Moose. Basic, but also fun. These hold the attention of the 4 yr old, and are challenging enough to gently push skills to develop.
Some children are ready for workbooks sooner than others. Mine are very much movement and action based learners. This has been a challenge for me because I love workbooks. I also like the wide open exploration. The workbooks provide structure and a clearly understandable record of material covered. Grade level is good enough.
The real learning, or deeper learning, is in the free exploration of the world, reading fun books about interesting parts of the world, and plenty of time to play and discuss discoveries. All this is much more difficult to record, so I think I shall merely blog on it and let the traditional workbooks sit as my written record that we are indeed covering the required subjects. My goal is self motivated learners who whip through their grade level work books and jump into their own chosen studies.
Later I will use the need to record the more open learning to teach them various forms of writing. They will create their own unit studies as a means of recording their explorations of subjects. That is a ways off right now. Right now, colors, shapes, basic numbers, fine motor skills, pattern recognition, and many other basics are needed.
So the adventure begins. Wheee!
Dear Lord, please bless our home school. Please give me wisdom as I plan and provide my children’s educations. Please give them patience and diligence in their work. Thank You for this amazing journey. +Amen.