A Learning Rich Environment

Years ago, I realized that having a learning rich environment was going to be an essential ingredient of my mothering and of my children's education. I think it's the foundation upon what I allow in the home and what I veto. It's also an attitude I have towards what kinds of things I encourage my kids to spend their time doing. For example, I try not to interrupt them when they are "practicing/playing" the piano even if they do have chores to do because I want them to develop their musical talents. We have several maps up in the house...the World and the US maps in the kitchen that frequently spawn geography discussions. We have book shelves everywhere, including in both of the kids' bedrooms. I used to keep the crayons and markers out of my oldest son's reach when he was little to avert messes, then I decided to make them more accessible to everyone. They're on the 4th shelf of the bookshelf so my baby doesn't get into them at will. My daughter gets them down daily to draw, color, or write. (Maybe that's why my oldest has an aversion to writing...I prohibited him free access to it when he was 3...). I try to be available to answer their questions. Sometimes I try to encourage the older one to find his own answers.

My house often looks this crazy!

I try to say Yes to my kids. I so often tell them No, we can't do that right now--so it's really good when I tell them Yes. Usually it's something that creates a mess or requires a lot of me/time to make it happen. Lately, my 6yo has just been doing his own thing when I tell him Yes. Sometimes I just have to take a deep breath and allow him to do it his own way because I know it's ultimately good for him to try and succeed or try and fail on his own. He also is exercising his independence and leadership when he does that. My 4yo daughter will just do it anyway...so it's better when I give her permission so I don't have to scold her later. 

I also try not to interrupt my children when they are doing "constructive" play...like pretend play and cooperative play and inventive/building play. Lately, I've been getting a little stingy about the types of toys I allow in the house. There are so many "junk" toys out there that don't encourage make believe play or interaction or invention/building and just make lots of messes, so I've been putting my foot down on those. And I've encouraged their Grandma's to get them toys and activities that encourage learning. We still get plenty of "junk" toys from birthday parties. But I try to limit what they bring home on their own. I think that helps.

A Good Day

One thing about homeschooling is that "productivity" is unpredictable. Especially in the sporadic way I go about it! But today was a good, productive day. Although I didn't get all the cleaning done I was hoping to do (the blasted vacuum), the kids were very interested in learning. So I went with it. And I learned something, too.

Also, I've had a friend ask me how I homeschool. This is a glance at how I do it. I try to inspire my kids with books and learning in general, but I also follow their lead when they are interested in learning or doing something educational.

5yo...he did lesson 53 in his Reading lesson book. He practiced counting to 100...and he did most of it himself, with only a little prodding from me with getting his 10s right (he kept wanting to say "thirteen" for 30 and so on). I also had him place beans on a 1-100 number card...I figured that was a good prep exercise for future games like putting beans on random numbers and skip counting. He also insisted on "writing" in oatmeal. I put about a cup of oatmeal on a cookie sheet and he practices his letters. The oatmeal then became the desert for his animal toys. And, here's the best part, almost everything he did today was his own idea! Yeah!! (I'm all for self-guided learning!)

For both boys, we worked on and worked on and worked on picking up what we get out before moving on to the next activity. That still needs a lot of working on.

4yo...he couldn't keep his hands off of anything. It did drive me crazy at one point, but I think we're both learning lessons on how to channel his curiosities in a positive way. Okay, so, what was he doing? He kept taking things apart on the vacuum...(it's not his fault it wasn't working...I just bought it from a yard sale and the person missinformed me about its usefulness). Well, he happened to remove the bagless container after I had vacuumed, and since it's a new vacuum to us, he didn't know that a certain lever would open it and...very dirty couch, yelling mom, time out, learn a lesson, help mom clean it all up.
My 5yo took out a stapler for a craft, and while we were doing the reading lesson, the 4yo was trying to figure out how it worked. He successfully removed the spring, stretched it in the process, and couldn't put it back together again...because the spring had lost its sprung.
He also kept fidgeting with our new printer.
And he asked me how soda was made. We found a couple of videos on YouTube, this one is our favorite (it's very entertaining). He watched it over and over...and then he had to show his brother and then watched it over and over. I think we'll have to make some home made soda.

So, my 4yo is clearly into tinkering and figuring out how things work. I've known this for a long time, but he has never been into so many things in one day. I've decided that we need to set up some rules: like where to tinker and with what. So, instead of trying to sell our ink-guzzling old printer on Craig's list, I think I'll let him tinker with it. Instead of trashing the old vacuum (not the garage sale one...I'm going to try to get my money back for that), I'll let him tinker with it...in the garage.

I'm really excited about this "discovery." I do want to allow him a safe environment where he has things he can take apart and try to put back together. He has already asked me what motors are and what engines do. I remember hearing (or reading) about how Steven Spielberg's mother allowed him to rearrange the house to create sets for the movies he created when he was younger...and he later became an amazing movie director. So, I don't want to hold my little guy back just because it makes a mess. I want him to explore his potential so he can reach greater heights.

And my 21mo--she "helped" me with putting away laundry, "helped" with making breakfast, made us laugh, went to time out for fake crying too much, ran around being teased and teasing back, pulled books off of shelves, wore everyone's shoes at least once, and pointed to a car in a book and said "maw, maw." I guess that's her word for car. Yay. She's learning more words! She also looked at almost every page in my "coffee table" book about the country of Jordan. She kept pointing at the ancient Roman ruins and she loved the waterfall. She also enjoyed the buildings of Petra. Who knows what future mysteries this girl will unravel?

Learning to Read

My 5yo developed a fascination with Harry Potter and told me that he wanted to read the book. Since his reading skills are at a minimum right now, I figured this would be a great motivation for him to do his reading lessons (taken from the book, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons).

We made a chart with the numbers 1-100 on it (which is also helping him learn those numbers) and he gets a sticker every time he finishes a lesson. When he finishes all 100 lessons, I will buy him a copy of the first Harry Potter book, which he has to read before he can watch the movie (I figure if he can read the book, he can handle the movie...he still gets easily scared about stuff, so if he knows what will happen beforehand, then he shouldn't get nightmares). So, he is learning how to read! He's already on lesson 28 (well, we started in October then went very sporadically through the first dozen lessons). He's been really good about learning how to read, and I catch him reading other things, too.

So exciting!

To reinforce what he learns in his reading lessons, I also encourage him to read Bob Books (which is a collection of phonics-based books that teaches kids to read a few letters and concepts at a time). My 3yo also likes to read those books (one letter at a time, while bobbing up and down off the couch...a little kinetic learner).

To The Mooooooonnnnnn!!!

We love to go to outer space. Literally. We have to have an outer space class about once a month. Why? Because we get to dress up like astronauts and jump around on the moon! This is my 3yo's top requested "class." Yesterday, they saw Wallace and Grommit's trip to the moon, so today, they had to do it, too. I didn't get pictures of it today, but this is what it's like...

Pillows and bean bags and sheets turn into craters and low gravity. Today, we listened to Fanfare for the Common Man, by Aaron Copland (just go listen to the first 30 sec on iTunes...and you'll see why). That is such an inspiring song. To me, it speaks of the amazing accomplishments that common men have done and still do. It speaks of the great potential we have within us, that as we reach down and search and work for it, we begin to realize it and become our greatest selves.

(For some reason, I associate the advancements in space with that song...so I looked it up in Wikipedia to see if it was a theme song for a shuttle mission or something. Not so. It was written during WWII to uplift and encourage people during the war.)

Speaking of a common man, I had taught the kids before that Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon. Today, my oldest remembered that! It was amazing! So, we repeated that oft repeated phrase, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." As the music was playing, I excitedly told the kids how normal people do amazing things...like Neil Armstrong and Aaron Copland. They just loved it! And I just loved how they loved it!

Other things we have done with this space "class":

• use star and sun paper punches and glue stars and suns on black construction paper
• go to the St Louis Planetarium to see a show about stars and learn where the current locations of stars and planets are (for a few weeks, we knew right where Jupiter...or was it Venus...sat in the sky)
• go to National Geographic's interactive Solar System web site to learn more about our Solar System

One fact I have re-learned: Pluto is no longer considered a planet. We only have 8 planets orbiting our sun. But there are at least 3 dwarf planets, Pluto included, that orbit the sun (I thought I remember learning about a 4th at the Planetarium...but the NG website says 3). A dwarf planet has not "cleared the neighborhood" around its orbit, which means it shares it's orbit with other objects.

Interesting, huh.