Family update!!!

Christina admited last night that me losing my job was a blessing, if for any other reason than it forced us to homeschool.  We were planning on sending Maura to school in Pre-K 4, although she'd be 5, because her birthday was after school started.  Likewise, we were going to send Nolan to Pre-K 3. 

In retrospect, that would have been horrible.  Although Maura likes to play, and would have had fun at school, when it came time to learn, she'd be bored out of her mind.  Currently, she is reading books, mostly on her own, at a second or third grade reading level.  This is what she loves to do.  She will read to Nolan sometimes as well.  She is in her first grade math program.  With math, she's not as motivated.  She is bored by the busy work, which is what it appears to her to be, and likes the learning sessions.  This is not to say she's not as bright, she'd just rather be reading.  She is really taking to her end-of-the-day journal, and this seems to help her synthesize some of what she learned or did that day.  Maura is very mature.  Its hard to believe she's only 5.  She looks and acts like a 7 year old (and reads like one too),

Nolan is a bundle of energy.  At home, he can mostly be bouncing around and yet learn.  I'm not so sure that would happen in a school.  Maura is on level 4 for reading, while Nolan is on level 2.  He enjoys reading, but enjoys being read to much more (he likes the attention).  In math, it is another story.  He is only a few lessons behind Maura.  According to Christina, he'll ask for help for the first problem on a page, and once he knows how to do that, will do the rest on his own.  His handwriting is a bit more advanced than a "normal" 4 year-old, and it is one of the only things that clues you that the kid is only 4 years old. He speaks at a level much higher than a 4 year old, and he remembers extremely well.  Besides his habit of saying wierd things ("Mommy, why are you a bat that was swallowed by your hand?"), it almost impossible to tell he's only 4.

Little Colleen isn't saying much, but she's a smart little bugger.  While Nolan had a vocabulary of like 20 words by 15 months, Colleen says "No, no, no!" and "How!" (from Peter Pan).  I think she's saying other things, but its hard to say.  However, she doesn't need to be verbal, because she's picking things up left and right.  She helps unload the dishwasher, and helps put toys away on her own.  She also is learning to join in with Maura and Nolan in their play (they might not understand it, but it is clear that she is attempting to join them).  Oh, and she loves all our pets: Maggie, our three gerbils, and our fish.  She's particularly fond of pulling Maggie's tail and staring at the gerbils.

Getting a groove on.

Since the day after Thanksgiving, it is customary for us at the Aukema to start playing Christmas music.  This year is no different.  Maura and Nolan love the music, and Maura will dance and dance and dance to it, especially the music to the Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky (which she loves since she saw Barishnikov's version on video).  Someone else decided it'd be fun to dance:

Reading is fundAmental: why homeschooling rocks

There are various reasons to homeschool versus sending your children to a public or non-public school.  There is the obvious fact that in public and non-public schools, education takes a seat for socialization.  Sometimes, that socialization isn't optimal.  Of course, many people homeschool for religious reasons, and some don't trust their local public schools and can't afford a non-public school.  Then there's Maura and Nolan.

Maura is nearly finished with her Kindergarten reading and math curricula.  She is reading wonderfully, and is picking up new skills every day.  We haven't been able to get her to read easy-readers on a regular basis, but wow, she's picking it up fast!  She loves math, and is eager to learn more and more.  Nolan isn't too far behind, however.  While not yet reading, Christina has started him with blending letters to make new sounds.  In addition, he's even beginning Maura's kindergarten math workbook. 

Nolan and Maura are of course, different styles.  Maura is easily distracted, while Nolan can focus on something he's got his little mind on for a while (that doesn't mean he sits still during that time, though).  This creates a problem, because while Nolan is working on whatever he's working on, Maura is watching him.  When you get them one-on-one, however, they are both very productive.

What is so neat about this arrangement is that we can move at a more natural pace, we allow them to learn at their own pace in a way that flows naturally.  While we provide a structure to the learning process, we aren't pushing anything.  Maura has always loved "school".  She loved doing "letters/ABCs" with Christina before she went to school, and she even asks to do school now.  Nolan, on the other hand, would be diagnosed with ADD already at 3.  He's everywhere (including walking on the window sills).  Get him one-on-one and he'll do great.  We just started him on Maura's kindergarten math workbook, and he flew through the first unit...at 3.  He loves it.  The key is we are letting them work on their own pace.  Nolan really isn't concerned with writing (he just recently wrote his name, with no practice and no prompting), and he is perfectly content for us to read to him. 

As teacher, I've seen how the curriculum can drive education.  What to teach, when to teach it is crucial to the modern school, but what isn't crucial is whether or not the individual children can handle it at that time.  Homeschooling allows the child's needs to be met, not the school's or the state's.