Packing Up Summer, Easing into Fall

Most of the books I ordered for fall have arrived. There was only one I was really disappointed with (Sounds the Letters Make), but I'm glad to have the rest around. As all this curriculum was delivered to our house, I pondered how I can place such a high value on child-led learning and still crave curriculum. The answer seems to be that the books are mostly for me. I like to read through them and cull ideas, which are then filed away and help to inform my observations of what Ladybug wants to do.

Of the books I ordered, one of my favorites is Count on Math. The first couple of chapters are full of sensory-play ideas--actually appropriate for a very young child. This book is perfect for me. The planning side of me is satisfied with having a mathy book with lesson ideas laid out in a row. And the side of me that's concerned with free play is thrilled that the activities are just that: set up an environment for the child to explore as she will. It reaffirms for me that when we are playing at the beach, stacking toys, or digging in the dirt, that Ladybug is doing and learning exactly what she needs to.

Homeschoolers really enjoy the freedom to create their own family schedules rather than follow the ones required by school. I'm starting to feel that freedom this year. As the days get a little cooler, I think to myself, "Is this it? Are we starting? Should I 'ramp up' or do anything 'official' now?" And I answer myself no, just relax. Keep doing what you're doing and ease into it. Last week we spent a lot of time out of the house, so this week we're doing a lot more just hanging out. Going at a comfy pace.

Most of the "school" books are set aside in the basement for me to check out in the evenings. Ladybug did ask me to read "Math Play," so I read the first activity to her and we wound up singing and clapping and stomping "1 2 3!"  Our current Winnie-the-Pooh is Eeyore Has a Birthday, because several friends have birthdays around now. That fits in nicely. And we've continued reading our poems for each month in Treasury for All Seasons. With my reluctance to let go of summer, I was a particular fan of the final poem for August, "What Shall I Pack in the Box Marked 'Summer'?" The image of carefully storing the fun summer memories is a sweet transition to the new season.

Okay, Some Fall Planning

Just days after writing my post, "August," about how I'm not going to think about Fall yet, I have placed a large order of books in anticipation of this homeschool year. I'm thinking of it as our first year of preschool. I just love learning things! The other homeschool moms got me all excited posting their curricula, lol.

So here's what I'm thinking. Unit studies based on children's literature. Books selected based on seasonal appropriateness and from lists of recommended books.  Move forward with pre-reading at a very gentle pace -- whatever works for her. I'll try to borrow most picture books from the library, but I did purchase a lot of curricula today.

Math
Count on Math: Activities for Small Hands and Lively Minds

Math Play! (Williamson Little Hands Series)

Twelve Hats for Lena : A Book of Months

Pre-reading - I went a little nuts here. I have no intention of sitting Ladybug down in front of the "Learn to Read" curriculum and doing a phonics force-march. Many of these are for me to read so the ideas are in my brain to be adapted when the moment is right.

Letter Sounds (Rock 'n Learn)

Hape Happy Puzzle Alphabet Puzzle Wood Toy (and the lowercase one too)

Sounds the Letters Make or A Phonic Alphabet

The Reading Lesson: Teach Your Child to Read in 20 Easy Lessons

The Monster Book of ABC Sounds (Picture Puffins)

Teach a Child to Read With Children's Books: Combining Story Reading, Phonics, and Writing to Promote Reading Success

Art - I loved First Art for Toddlers and Twos, so I bought the author's preschool program (ages 3-6).
Preschool Art: It's the Process, Not the Product!

Science
Project Garden: A Month-by-Month Guide to Planting, Growing, and Enjoying ALL Your Backyard Has to Offer

Autumn Board Book

Poetry
Julie Andrews' Treasury for All Seasons: Poems and Songs to Celebrate the Year   

Literature - I'm focusing on Winnie-the-Pooh in Easy Reader format. I blogged about this here. I ordered four more Pooh readers today. Maybe early next year we'll do read-alouds from unabridged Pooh.

Pooh Invents a New Game: (Dutton Easy Reader)

Eeyore Has a Birthday (Easy-to-Read, Puffin)

Christopher Robin Leads an Expedition (Dutton Easy Reader)

Winnie-the-Pooh and Some Bees (Dutton Easy Reader)

...And because I'm a sucker for anything matched up to seasons: Five in a Row Holiday : Through the Seasons. I might put the word out on the homeschool lists that I'm looking for the rest of the Five in a Row books as well. 

The one thing missing from this order is a bookshelf! There's no way I'm springing all these books at once. Some will need to be stored for later. That shelf will also give me a good place to put all the out of season holiday books. I will have to carve out another corner of basement for this!

My First Homeschool Planner

Yesterday I had a great day for homeschool planning. I visited the local garden center and came home with a large planter and a packet of sunflower seeds. I just need to buy enough potting soil, and we'll be able to plant flowers together. I am very excited about this project!

After the garden center, I made a quick stop at Target and bought my very first homeschool planner. It's a typical student planner with monthly and weekly layout pages. It's pretty too, with a trendy blue and green chrysanthemum pattern on the cover. Lately I've had too many ideas for just the sticky note program on my smartphone. And given the way that our homeschool revolves around the seasons, I like being able to plan with a calendar in front of me.

I mostly want to use my "planner" as a record book, to write down after the fact what we did on a given day. It gives me another way to reflect, come up with more ideas, and correct imbalances. I can see, for example, if it's been way too long since we got to the playground. Although I have gotten plenty of things for Ladybug's education lately (like sunflower seeds), I kept coming back to the idea of a set of matching cards/tiles to play memory. I couldn't figure out why my brain refused to let go of this idea, or leave it for another time. Then, after jotting notes in the planner, I realized that the memory game is the next math activity, and there hasn't been much new in that subject lately. So I quit fussing over it and just bought the game. The planner helps me make decisions and clarify my thinking.

Something about having this first planning book, which begins its dated pages July 2013, makes me feel like I just officially signed up to homeschool preschool. 2.9 - 3 seems to be a magic age for preschool entry, as well as readiness for so many fun activities it's overwhelming. I think that's why I intuitively reached for my planning book around now. There's so much to choose from, yet some days are filled with illness, bad weather, and tons of TV. When I get down about these times, it really helps my mood to have a record of the big picture, in brief notes about how we spent our time.

The cover of the planner reads "2013 // 2014," and with those tiny dates it creates a school year. A host of holidays, Ladybug's 3rd birthday, rotating seasons that will wind up somewhere in summer 2014. However we fill the time, it will be her first year of preschool, and -- it's official -- we're doing it together at home.

2 Year Check In, Looking Forward

I have (in books and online) tons of lists of milestones that my toddler probably-might-should meet by her second birthday. Or some of them are considered ones she'll meet during this, her third year. I'm really reluctant to get too caught up in them, but they are good to review now and then. So here goes.

Here's a list of life skills from the blog Busy Kids = Happy Mom. The first item, "undress self," makes me laugh right out loud. Ladybug is so good at undressing herself that for a while we found her naked after every naptime. But do we let her use this skill practically? So I just suggested to my husband that during the bedtime routine, Ladybug should be encouraged to take of her own outfit before diaper change and PJs. Moving toward independence once skill at a time. Cool!

The rest of the items on that list are similar. Things she can do that we would like to start encouraging as part of the routines. We're doing well with teeth brushing. A lot of the cleaning up items would be nice to do more regularly, especially clearing her space at the table. I hadn't thought of that! She does play independently for a good long stretch during afternoon quiet time. She doesn't comb her own hair, but I'm going out on a limb and assuming this list wasn't made with mixed girls' tight curls in mind.

Slow and Steady: Get Me Ready has lists for each year entitled "Measurable Parameters to Profile Child Development." According to the book, your child needs to attain 16 out of 20 parameters to consider development satisfactory. Okay. Let's look at 2 to 3 years:

To keep it brief, let me just say checkity check check. Jumping, climbing, running. Crayon scribbles, stringing words together, listening to stories, imitation, understanding of simple concepts, quiet play. The only things she isn't really doing are skills I would expect a little later into her third year. These are: knowing her full name, knowing her sex, and knowing her age. I bet she understands her gender, but she hasn't started talking about it. Although the other day she pointed at my husband and me, dubbing us first "the dad and the mom," and then "the brother and the sister." I think that is gender identification. She didn't make it personal to herself though.

The other day I had the markers out and Bug made a game out of matching the caps to the right marker. She was pretty insistent on doing this, so I watched her carefully. With no input from me, she was able to match them all up, correcting her own mismatches once or twice. I enjoyed this and decided to mention it in my "assessment" post, because it seems like exactly the kind of exercise that I could have nervously administered as a test. Instead it happened naturally in the course of play, which is the way most of these mini-milestones took place.

Winter Planning

Christmas and the other winter holidays do a good job of getting us through the first part of the cold, dark winter. This year they kept me so busy that I'm just now getting around to planning and thinking about the season. It's almost as if December is its own holiday season, and ordinary winter begins in January with the new year.
I spent way too much time last night perusing class offerings. I have already decided not to do Music Together again for this Winter. We have enjoyed music class, but our nearest location just moved further away. I used to be able to walk there in 20 minutes, but now there would be a bus and a longish walk as well. We'll reconsider in the spring. I did find a toddler gymnastics class a fifteen minute walk from here. But that class doesn't begin until mid-March. What I'm looking for is activities now, to help us through cold, short days. I think I've found something just right.
I mentioned in this post that there is a farm-based preschool I'm interested in, but Ladybug wouldn't be enrolled there until at least Fall 2014. Who knows if I'll still be as excited by the place in a year and a half. I've decided to take advantage of as much other programming as they offer this year. Maybe we can reap the benefits of learning at the farm sanctuary without enrolling in their preschool. It's a relatively affordable preschool, but still costs a few thousand dollars per year.
So I've signed us up to go feed and brush the pony tomorrow. I'm also planning on enrolling in a six week class where children can feed the sheep, collect eggs, make bird treats, and assorted other fun farm activities. There are several other courses for older children based on winter books, and I'm picking through those for winter story book ideas.
Speaking of books, we had a nice trip to the library yesterday. Ladybug is really getting into it. On Monday we took a shortcut through the library without stopping, and she was furious with me. Oops. So we went back Tuesday and came home with several winter books, and one more dinosaur book. I think Bug's interest in dinosaurs deserves its own post. There are so many dinosaur books and toys she's enjoyed.
The winter books we picked up yesterday include Winter Song, which is an excerpt from Shakespeare. It's not too much complicated text, but Ladybug wasn't so into it. I think it will be better for elementary age, when a child can understand who Shakespeare was, and benefit from learning a couple archaic turns of phrase. But the favorite book from this library trip is Cat and Mouse in the Snow. It's simple and a little boring to me, but Ladybug is charmed.

So I think I finally have a rough sketch of how we'll spend the rest of the winter:
Mondays: Farm
Tuesdays: Library
Wednesdays: Regular play date
Thursdays: Indoor playground
Fridays: Open/floating

Seasonal Planning - Summer

Ladybug is only 18 months old, but I already do some homeschool planning. While most of it is spent on Amazon wish-listing books and curriculum ideas that will certainly change before Ladybug grows into them, some of it is beneficial to me now. Earlier this year I was inspired by a post on City Kids Homeschooling about homeschooling rhythms. I immediately started working out a similar schedule for my days with Ladybug. I have been updating them at the beginning of a new season, roughly corresponding with our music class. It helps me to take a step back and more deliberately choose how our days will flow. And it really helps me to have something to lean on during my 3:00 pm slump!

This is our summer routine. One of the best things I was able to do was recognize my 3:00 slump and plan to get outside around that time. The weather is usually wonderful, and I can't think of a better season than summer for frequent playground time.

Of course, like anything with a toddler, this routine is flexible. I adapt it to meet our needs. This is the basic outline that serves us well.