Smrt Lernins

Amelia asks, “If you’re going to homeschool for preschool next year, what will that look like? Will it look different from the usual parenting of a preschooler?”

We’re definitely home preschooling next year. We haven’t re-enrolled Tank in his current preschool and he’s quite excited about “doing homework” (he used to call it “table learnin’”) with Captain Science and (more importantly, to him) with Patchfire’s Fabulous Boy, whom Tank swears he is going to either grow up to marry or to crush (with requisite iron-fist-of-Stalin crushing hand gesture). Even if we didn’t have plans to homeschool Tank, we’d have to start doing something during Captain Science’s school time, because Tank wants so badly to be homeschooled, too.

Another reason I want to homeschool is to make sure Tank doesn’t have gaps in his basic knowledge. Because Captain Science was so bright in most areas (he was reading at 2), his teachers either didn’t notice that he didn’t have certain important skills or thought that, because he was so gifted in other areas, he would either catch up or the skills weren’t that important. As a result, Captain Science never really learned how to hold scissors properly or cut well, to hold a pencil correctly, or to trace a straight line. It’s been an uphill battle to instill those skills in my now-9-year-old. I don’t want Tank to end up the same way, so I’ve carefully compiled a list of skills I want to make sure he has, and will address each of them in turn.

While any of the skills we’re planning on working on next year could be taught through the informal daily routine of parenting, Tank will have a short instructional period every school day to work on these concepts more formally.

We’ll start with the cheap and simple, using Kumon workbooks for the basic skills like tracing and cutting. We might also use them for some beginning math skills. Tank is already pretty good with numbers and does simple arithmetic using fingers or objects. We’ll probably also find some “fun” math activities to do with him.

On the recommendation of several homeschooling friends, I’ll be using The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading, which is co-authored by one of the authors of The Well-Trained Mind, for teaching phonics and other reading skills. I’m also considering getting the flashcards that go with this book. We have a magnet board and a fairly good collection of magnet letters, so as much as the idea of something like this magnetic phonics teaching set appeals to me, we’ll probably stick with the letters we have.

Something I am going to put in the formal schedule, just to make sure I don’t put it by the wayside, is art. Tank loves all arts and crafts. He loves to paint, draw, glue, model, and make ridiculous projects out of various substances. Patchfire and I have talked about doing art class with our small boys, so that will satisfy both Tank’s need to have a class with FB and my need to make sure he has art regularly.

I’m also going to make sure I address some of those things that he might otherwise miss as a homeschooled student, things like knowing his parents’ names, address, phone number, and how to react in a fire or other emergency.

The most noticeable difference between days where I’m home preschooling and the days when I’m just parenting a preschooler will be that he will feel like he’s having school time. I don’t have to keep records or worry about him making tremendous academic strides, but I can give him a way to be closer with Captain Science and feel included.

That’s how the [Smrt] Homeschooler plans to do preschooling at home!

Do you have a question for the [Smrt] Homeschooler? Email them to
smrtmama@smrtlernins.com

Daisy asks, “How do you keep Babypie busy (and Tank when he is home) while you are teaching?”

Babypie is an uncommonly easy baby, so entertaining her has not been a problem thus far. She’s happy to wander around, nibble on a snack, play with her toys, and just generally observe our school lessons. The biggest problem with Babypie isn’t that she is herself distracting, but that Captain Science is often distracted by her. He loves her so much, and if he so much as looks at her, she always gives him the biggest, hammiest grins, which means he’ll keep smiling and talking to her instead of doing his work. This can be a problem.

The solution has been to set up multiple work areas for different needs. We have our school room, where my computer, the books, and homeschool materials all live. The desk has chairs on both sides so Captain Science and I can both sit at it. This is my base of operations, where I explain the lessons, go over the work (pointing out things that need correction or asking Captain Science to explain how he came to certain answers/conclusions), or do discussion/instruction portions of work. When Captain Science needs to read without Babypie milling about the same room, or if he needs room to spread out materials (science labs at home, for example), he goes into the gated kitchen to work at the table. When he needs a quiet place to work on math, grammar, writing, etc., he goes down to the roll-top desk we have set up in the craft room on the basement level. The desk is tucked around a corner so there’s not a direct line of sight to upstairs (he can’t see what the smalls are doing, they can’t see and bother him) and it muffles the sound a bit. That works really well and allows him to get work done with varying levels of family interaction as needed.

The Tank is…well, more of an issue. The main day he’s home during intense instruction is Friday, so I have to work hard to make sure he isn’t bothering Captain Science. I sometimes set him up with a movie or show on the opposite level of the house from where Cpt. Science is working. Sometimes I send him up to his room or down to the playroom for a while. When all else fails, he will happily sit at a table with markers and color on paper, himself, or the table. He’s easy to keep busy for short periods of time, but he likes something never every 15-30 minutes. Luckily, he really wants to start homeschooling with us, so I am going to begin phasing in some “table lernin” (his word for work done at a desk/table) for him to do on Fridays, which will give me another way to keep him occupied.

Our big challenge will be next year, when Tank isn’t re-enrolled in preschool and is preschooling at home. I’ll probably have to rotate their work (and play) stations around several times each day to keep Tank interested and out of Captain Science’s hair. I’ll try answering this question again next year and see what I’ve learned!

That’s how the [Smrt] Homeschooler entertains her smalls!

Do you have a question for the [Smrt] Homeschooler? Email them to
smrtmama@smrtlernins.com

Captain Science’s cast is off as of Wednesday and we are moving and grooving again! Hooray for a return to something like a normal schedule.

Ancient Greek history continues smoothly. Captain Science used Eyewitness: Ancient Greece as his main text this week, and covered Troy, Athens, Sparta, and Greek Warfare. He wrote summaries about Athenian history and warfare, and was quite stoked to learn that flamethrowers were used in Ancient Greece. He now knows what agora, frieze, strategoi, hoplite, perioikoi, helots are. He finished Tales of Troy and a retelling of The Odyssey. We’ll start back with maps and time line next week, since he didn’t get his cast off until Wednesday and still has limited arm mobility.

The Captain started his first memorization project, the poem Prometheus Amid Hurricane and Earthquake by Aeschylus, though I admit we weren’t nearly as good about practicing that this week as I’d wanted us to be. He enjoys it, has learned the first four lines, and was inspired to write his own Greek poetry. He covered chapters 5.7-5.12 in Growing with Grammar. He also began Vocabulary from Classical Roots, Grade 4, completing lessons one and two. He also read the second book in the Percy Jackson series.

Math was rough this week. He struggled with the first bridge for Life of Fred: Fractions chapters 16-19, so we made him complete all five tries this week. By the fourth and fifth try, however, he got everything right, so today he completed chapter 20 with no trouble. We’re glad to have him rolling on that again. His biggest issue is just not wanting to write everything out. He can do most of it in his head, but if he makes a tiny mistake mentally, his answer will not only be wrong, but we have no way of knowing how he went wrong. It’s hard to make him show work for problems when the answer he gives is correct, but I’ve told him that until he shows mastery of the concepts, he has to always show his work. I know that’s the best course of action, but it’s a little hypocritical, as I always hated having to show my work when my answers were correct.

We haven’t actually done science yet, because it was Dance Mat typing program. The Captain loved it and did all the parts of Lesson 1. He’s going to do the lesson a second time to show mastery and print his certificate, but he’s having a good time learning to type correctly.

We were unable to start our Spencerian handwriting lessons when I realized that we didn’t have the theory book and I had no idea what to do with the copy books. Hopefully can remedy that soon, even if it means a return trip to Scary Jesus Book Store. His handwriting has suffered from three weeks of his arm being casted at a 90 degree angle.

The Tank also had some table lernins this week. He’s working on a Sesame Street numbers workbook. He counted, circled, wrote 1 and 2, and traced 1-6. He loves doing homeschool with us, so I’m considering not sending him back to preschool out of the home next year. I’m just happier having them here with me!

Today I learned that: