Random Monday

Chloe recently learned how to work all the buttons and remotes on the upstairs and downstairs stereos. She still needs Evan's help to put her favorite tunes on repeat though (this is one skill we should never have taught anyone because at least they tire of pushing the skip back button three thousand times in a row....)
She is loving "Ooby Dooby" and "Ladybug Picnic" by Elizabeth Mitchell right now. At least she is over the Rudolph and Friends CD that's been in the player since November (ugh). Downstairs they still play "Jesus is My Superhero" over and over and over... This has brought them an immense amount winter exercise though since they dance and gallop and run all around while it's playing.

Evan has at least a dozen Star Wars books from the library right now. Informational ones like these are fun for Todd to learn from too.
He really studies them and knows so much detail about the "universe" that is Star Wars. At bedtime, he and Evan are reading aloud the novelization of the first movie (Episode IV). He is so into being "old enough to handle" the scary or mean parts of books now -- it's interesting to watch our sensitive boy mature in this area as he has been ready to.




The kids are always building forts with couch cushions, pillows, sheets and blankets (we keep extra sheets just for this purpose). Evan actually built this one and invited Chloe in after she persuaded him. He was building some Lego creations and narrating every bit to her. He answered all her questions and taught her random things about Star Wars as he went along. So sweet (when they aren't fighting).






I love how pictures turn out all misty like this one in the bathroom -- the steam from the kids' bath makes it so warm.

A woman at church yesterday asked me why we didn't have Evan involved in modeling since he has all that beautiful stylish hair and adorable face. "He won't smile for a camera on command," I told her. "Tell him he can make two thousand dollars for some smiles and he might reconsider," she said.

In the car, I told Evan her idea and asked him to think about it. He said, "Mom I already have... and YES."
Not sure what this means for our future (child modeling?? um....) but it was a fun conversation to have and maybe I can get some better pictures of him now.

Chloe has grown and inch and a half in six months. She is all long and leggy and crazy tall-looking to me. Her 4Ts are getting so short at the ankles and tight on the waist! Her feet are still itty bitty though, with lots of room in a size 8.

Chloe had these nine Breyer Stablemates books from the library for six weeks and was devastated to return them. Hopefully they'll all be there today when we head out to pick up books on hold. Up until she read these books, she didn't realize horses could do jumps and tricks and competitions and races.... Her whole world opened up, and so did our home to all sorts of horse arenas in the living room.

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Since so many of you have been giving me great feedback about how helpful the homeschool info has been I thought I might start sharing links I find, so here are a few if you're interested.

Curious About Unschooling?

Guide to Homeschool Parents

I Want to Homeschool but....

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I've also got a bunch of my made-from-scratch recipes to share, since I've been experimenting and having much success. I'll post some of those in the coming weeks.

Systems :: School (Part 3)

How can we "unschool" and have our children still manage to learn anything??



I've given a bunch of links and books to research for yourself, but I wanted to end these school system posts with an outline of how we learn in our home. This time it's personal( some of this I briefly touched on in the part 2 post, but it bears repeating here).

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We trust our children. I've said it before but I'll keep saying it. It's critical to trust them to know what they need to know when they need to know it. And we do. We believe it doesn't matter if you learn something at six or at sixty. I just learned all about flower gardening two years ago -- names of flowers, growing zones, plant hardiness, pest control. Because I wanted to. Flower gardening isn't any more or less important than knowing what date a battle in the French and Indian War happened. We don't need to keep testing or questioning our kids to make sure they are learning something because we believe learning is ongoing, so who is to say what stage of learning should be happening and when.



We read aloud everyday. Lots of books flow in and out of the house from the library and as gifts. Even if the kids don't ask me to read on a (rare) given day, I make it a priority to grab a book and sit down -- they always come running. I believe in reading aloud no matter how old a child is, as long as they enjoy it. I also believe that children who are read to often develop reading/writing/spelling/grammar skills just by sitting there next to me. The older they get the more time we spend in books. Along with reading aloud to our kids is being readers ourselves -- Todd and I have books in our hands quite often too.



We answer our children's questions (or help them find the answer). The number of questions asked in one day rises and falls like waves in the ocean. Sometimes we are so swamped that we actually grow weary from listening to and answering the questions, but we never ignore them. Our kids ask us anything and everything, from the important to the trivial. We've established that we don't know it all, but that we are willing to hear them and help every time.



We try to be interesting people. If we have some kind of project or hobby, the kids are all over it. And they should be. Todd does carpentry work and all sorts of construction/ plumbing/ electrical projects. He is also the resident mechanic for our cars. He likes dreaming about building his Jeep. He is interesting to be around. I play the piano and sing and draw. I take pictures and work on scrapbook pages because of my photography hobby. I dig around in my flower garden weeding and transplanting and caring for my flowers. I am interesting to be around. The kids have learned all sorts of things alongside and hands-on with both of us.



We learn together. Something that is interesting to one of us isn't always interesting to the rest, but often times we get involved because we are family and it matters. Learning cooperatively is what families should do anyway, but we are intentional about this. In the early spring we are all starting a vegetable garden. None of us knows anything about growing food but we will all play a part and learn something together.



We have made our home a stimulating environment. It is hopefully obvious to anyone coming to our house that learning happens here. The toy collections we have are open-ended and can be used for all sorts of play. We have baskets and jars filled with acorns and buttons and gemstones and seashells and popsicle sticks and cotton balls.... I like to call them un-toys. We have maps and reference books and measuring tools and art supplies.... All of it is accessible to the kids -- it belongs to them. They don't have to ask so this gives them freedom to just keep on playing and learning without interruption stunting their creativity. Children who live in a stimulating environment don't grow to depend on things or on people to entertain them or teach them. They naturally self-learn and it can stay that way. (This paragraph was a bit hard to put into words or even summarize in a few, so I hope it came across right.)



We leave the TV off. I know this one's a controversial topic, but this is just how it is in our house. There are just so many more things we find to enjoy in a day besides just letting the screen entertain us. We do have a TV in our basement set up for movie watching (about once a week at most). They like three: the new favorite Wall-E, the former favorite Mary Poppins and original favorite Cars. They also love the Planet Earth set we have. Upstairs we keep a mini-TV upstairs on my bedroom dresser specifically for home-video watching (instead of cartoons while I'm cooking dinner or something). If we're going to do TV time, we almost always try to make a way to sit together (even if it means I'm quietly reading a book or journaling while they watch).



We spend time in nature. Even the backyard counts here. There has always been a place in our yard they can dig up and call their own. There are beautiful intriguing things everywhere and kids will find them if they are given the chance to look around. I find that being a quiet observer outdoors helps them to be the same way. Instead of wandering around pointing out everything I notice, I let them lead or point things out. We have found a handful of places over the years that seem extra special to our family, so we revisit them often to get to know those areas of the world as our own -- certain parks, specific places in the woods, a special creek, the perfect beach for rock collecting.

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If you still don't believe that any of this could possibly work, then I guess all I can say is, wait and see :-) We know you will like what comes out on the other side!


This may be the final installment of my school posts since I think I covered everything I wanted to.

Systems :: School (Part 2)

The kids did some color mixing with food coloring and water this week -- after which Evan figured out that in order to make black, you add all the colors together. Then he told me he couldn't make red. That puzzled him, so he asked me why. I told him there were three colors that make all the others and red was one of them. That's all he wanted to know (since he didn't ask any other questions and went back to playing). Chloe was enthralled with how she could add a drip of one color and make the water get darker with each drip: "Watch this Mom!!" Most of her experiments turned dark green, not black, she told me.

Did they learn anything?
I believe so.

This is sort of a picture of unschooling.

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So I already mentioned there really is no 'system' for what we do, but these posts are to build the foundation for it all.

I read a lot of books (probably six a month) so when I had to narrow down a list of reference books for what helped us decide on unschooling as our method of choice, it took some thought. If you are intrigued by this topic or want to learn more in any way, there are three books I recommend:

Teach Your Own by John Holt
You have to start here. It's the overview and best book if you are only going to read one.

The Well-Adjusted Child by Rachel Gathercole
Are you worried about "socialization" for our kids? Read this book and I guarantee you will never pester any homeschooling family with such a ridiculous topic ever again. Ever. It's simply not a concern.

Better Than School by Nancy Wallace
This book is outdated but worth a read if you want to find out what unschooling looks like on a daily basis for one family. It also covers how the parents showed the school district that a fantastic education was, in fact, happening in their home. And her kids are incredible.


There are several other great books, but I'm not going to list them here. Search the internet and you'll find dozens of them the same way I did.

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Here are a couple websites devoted to information about natural learning, if you have time to click around and read. Not everything on these sites is what we believe, but unschooling looks different in every family.

besthomeschooling.org

joyfullyrejoycing.com

livingjoyfully.ca

sandradodd.com


Again, there are hundreds of links, so you could get lost in all the information. I haven't even read all these, but have used bits and pieces from each.

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To show the school board what we are learning, I have been keeping track of "schoolish" things on a word document list over the past two years (I do this as practice, since I don't have to report until next year). I divided things into subjects (which always seems unnatural) and wrote them as a list of things Evan has learned.

I'm attempting to link my word document as a web page but it's not working so I'll try some other way to show it here later today..... not working..... here's the copy and paste version till I figure it out. I know this is not a good format for seeing the big picture, but it will do in the meantime.

Kindergarten 2009-2010

Read Aloud Literature

Stone Soup -- Marcia Brown

Chanticleer and the Fox --Barbara Cooney

Peter Rabbit books -- Beatrix Potter

Capyboppy -- Bill Peet

Velveteen Rabbit -- Margery Williams

Winnie-the-Pooh -- A.A. Milne

Charlotte's Web -- E. B. White

Pippi Longstocking -- Astrid Lindgren

Stuart Little -- E.B. White

Readers for Fluency

Billy and Blaze -- C. Anderson

Mr. Putter and Tabby -- Cynthia Rylant

Frog and Toad -- Arnold Lobel

Henry and Mudge -- Cynthia Rylant

Dr. Suess Beginner Readers

Handwriting

1) display alphabet chart

2) allow writing/spelling experimentation

3) practice writing letters in cornmeal

4) write short "notes" to each other

Math

count objects up to 100

make and recognize patterns with beads/objects

do addition to 10 using objects

money play

calendar posted to reference months/days

measurement

Anno's Math Games -- Mitsumasa Anno

How Much Is A Million -- David Schwartz

Geography

globe familiarity

US A map familiarity (placemat and puzzle)

books about states in USA

Science/Nature Study

My Big Backyard magazines

Animal Stories

Phoebe Dunn's collection

James Herriott 's collection

various Field Guides (library)

nature study through observation

insects, trees, flowers, seasons, day/night, sky

experience frequent outdoor time

various scenic walks

various beautiful views

water scenes

experiment with color mixing

visit Children's Museum and Zoo

World History

Child's Story Bible -- Catherine Vos

(age-appropriate stories)

American History

recognize National symbols/holidays/President

Picture Books

The Little House --Virginia Lee Burton

Mike Mulligan --Virginia Lee Burton

Katy and the Big Snow --Virginia Lee Burton

Choo Choo --Virginia Lee Burton

Make Way for Ducklings -- Robert McCloskey

Blueberries for Sal -- Robert McCloskey

One Morning in Maine -- Robert McCloskey

The Story About Ping --Marjorie Flack

The Story of Ferdinand --Munro Leaf

Tikki Tikki Tembo --Arlene Mosel

Miss Rumphius --Barbara Cooney

Owl Moon-- Jane Yolen

Millions of Cats -- Wanda Gag

The Little Engine That Could -- Watty Piper

My First Little House series -- Laura Ingalls Wilder

Ox-Cart Man -- Donald Hall

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Grade 1 2010-2011

Read Aloud Literature

James and the Giant Peach -- Roald Dahl

Little House in the Big Woods -- Laura Ingalls Wilder

The Trumpet of the Swan -- E.B. White

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory -- Roald Dahl

Mr. Popper's Penguins -- Richard Atwater

Farmer Boy -- Laura Ingalls Wilder

King of the Golden River -- John Ruskin

?Pinocchio -- Carlo Collodi

?Peter Pan -- James M. Barrie

Tales

Just So Stories -- Rudyard Kipling

Poetry

A Child's Garden of Verses -- Robert Louis Stevenson

Handwriting

Write sentences copied from reading material

Write notes and cards

Math

count by 2's, 5's, 10's

addition and multiplication with objects & mentally

play games -- Monopoly, Dominoes, Bingo, etc.

play store (money)

work in the kitchen with recipes (fractions)

card games (scorekeeping/following rules)

Science/Nature Study

various Field Guides (library)

nature study through observation

insects, trees, flowers, seasons, day/night, sky

experience frequent outdoor time

various scenic walks

various beautiful views

water scenes

observe first-hand the life cycle of a butterfly

observe and tell stories about our pets

wildflower collecting

leaf/seed collecting

shell/rock collecting

visit Children's Museum and Zoo

World History

Child's Story Bible -- Catherine Vos

American History

begin discussion of American discovery and colonizing

Geography

learn address/phone #/map our yard

recognize sunrise/sunset and wind direction

continue learning map of USA (placemat and puzzle)

Picture Books

various library books as interested

You can see that an education has already occurred without any prompting. I do my part to read aloud every day and to make sure good literature is on the bookshelf at all times since I find that children who are read to develop in all areas just by exposure to language. I also make sure we are having experiences that are worthwhile, not just sitting in our house staring at the walls (although that has it's place in our lives too). We don't watch tv. We enjoy a movie maybe once a week, but not as a rule. This offers us lots of TIME to enjoy the world and from there learning just flows.

I didn't list learning in the areas of music, art and physical education yet (even though they happen throughout our days), but will add them for next year as they are part of our requirements.

Also my Grade 1 page is obviously still in progress since we are halfway through the year. At the end of the year I'll fill in the picture book list with library titles he loved.

So, you can hopefully see Evan is thriving and will continue to thrive as he pursues his passions and has all the opportunity to live and enjoy his days as a child.

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Is there anything else you would like to know or something I haven't covered that you wondered about? Most of what I wrote was general information, so if you want to know something specific, let me know! (I write these long posts in fragments as I'm taking care of kids and household stuff, so I'm sure they don't make complete sense sometimes!!)

Systems :: School (Part 1)

If you get our blog updates in a reader, you have not seen our sidebar updates, but the rest of you surely have noticed on the right my list entitled "how our children are learning." We do what is called unschooling. Here in our home we just call it living... learning.... following our interests.

We know that most of you readers (grandparents especially) have a serious interest and concern that we don't screw things up for these two and their education :-)
So that's really why I'm typing. Hopefully this post about what unschooling is (and isn't) will give everyone a taste of what's going on and also some confidence that Todd and I haven't lost our marbles. Please know I am no expert. Click on all the sidebar links for a better explanation -- this is just a summary of what it is like for US.

First the back story has to be told so you know what a journey we've been on to become the extremists we seem to be. I'll try to keep it brief and not bore you with every detail, as there are indeed many, and I'm sure this will be long regardless.

We have been on this homeschooling path since Evan was about four. We were able to shrug off most of the pressure to put him in preschool -- most folks were fine with it when they said to themselves, "oh, well you're a teacher, so...."

I had taught preschool for a couple years and never liked the feel of it all. Actually, I never saw myself being my own kids' teacher. I'm sure that works for many families but it felt foreign to me since all along they had taught themselves so many things already -- it just came naturally to them to be curious and learn. I figured, why intervene unless they asked me to.

When we committed to keeping Evan at home at least for Kindergarten I started wondering what I was supposed to do. I asked a long-time homeschooling mom at our church what she did for kindergarten, and she very briefly said, "Get 'Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons.' That's the only book you need."

This floored me since I expected to be diving in headfirst to the unfamiliar world of curriculum and she suggested only one book?? And the only part of that entire year that mattered was reading? This got me thinking. Maybe doing this at home wasn't as complicated as it seemed.

We never got that book. (I'm sure it's a great book.) We never bought any books at all. (I'm sure there are great books to help all kinds of families do this in their own way.) We just kept using our library card. (That was what was working great for us.) And you know the rest of the story: Evan learned to read with minimal input from me.

So the Kindergarten year passed and Evan was obviously still curious and learning constantly. His never-ending stream of questions fueled his need to learn more. And I was right alongside him as he explored.

But I still wondered about reporting things to the state and all the legal jazz that overwhelmed me. How would we convince anyone that an education was indeed happening? I knew that we could keep him out of 'the system' till he was eight. So that was enough to keep our preferred and effective natural learning going for at least another year. We'd just have to figure out a "system" for reporting to the state how we would do second grade in 2011-2012. And like most people we believed we would have to buckle down and "do school" for third grade and beyond since that was when all the meaty stuff came into the picture. This worried me.

Around this time a friend of mine told me about Charlotte Mason -- a woman who did a natural type of homeschooling over 100 years ago. This was intriguing and I soaked it up -- all about nature and literature as the basis for all learning. After months of researching the Charlotte Mason method, it still seemed a bit too 'schoolish' for me so I took notes on what I liked and ditched the rest. I found a book during that time called For the Children's Sake by Susan Shaeffer Macaulay and loved it -- it was about looking at education differently than I ever had. I started asking myself important questions and realized what we had been doing all along felt so much more right for us.

This was the turning point.

I decided to immerse myself in books on learning and homeschooling. In the process of searching for a book (not at my library) called Dumbing Us Down by John Taylor Gatto, I found out about John Holt. This was it. I read his book Teach Your Own and knew we were on the right track. Everything he said rang true in my heart. He summed up our teaching 'method' in one brief sentence. Trust children.

Amen.

I read several of his other books (all that my library had) and began researching "unschooling" on the internet. It began to seem possible that natural learning could work all through the school years, not just the beginning. He gave success stories that opened our eyes and lifted our spirits even more. We had finally found our match. (And once I found out how to do the reporting so that the school board wouldn't question our method, we had sealed the deal. The trouble was in telling others about it. This unschooling thing is not well-received :-) We still call it homeschooling -- that way no one questions it -- but we know it's not school at home for us in any way. It's life. Learning happens all the time. It can't not happen. Try to go a day and NOT learn something.

By the end of summer 2010 (before his first grade year began) I realized how much learning had taken place without any help from a "teacher": Evan had been playing with numbers in his mind so much that he had taught himself how to multiply most numbers up to at least 10x10. He knew about the inner workings of the human digestive system. He knew the names of the planets. He could talk about a space shuttle launch and the parts of the shuttle itself. He knew how to care for our cats and had a responsibility for them each day. He could describe and name dozens and dozens of plants (fruits, vegetables, trees and flowers). He knew the characteristics of the four seasons. He had a rock collection, a shell collection, a feather collection, a dried leaf collection. He knew exactly how the suspension of an automobile goes together and can build a model with technic legos.

This is just the tip of the iceberg of where his ideas and interests have led. I have tons more things he has learned in my mind right now that would take hours to write.

He is self-taught.

Will he learn everything the "average first-grader" learns? Nope.
Will he skip right over things like American history or fractions or other subjects most adults find boring? Probably.
Will he decide to learn them if they are important to him? You bet.

We trust him.

It is a proven fact that people only retain in their memory what has personal significance to them. Isn't that how your brain works? Children are people too :-)

Unschooling doesn't mean leaving kids to themselves and hoping for the best. It means making their environment stimulating and being an available resource and a learner alongside them. Most importantly it means trusting them, that they know what they need to learn when they need to learn it.

We want to give our kids the childhood we ourselves felt robbed of. Freedom to dream. Freedom to wander. Freedom to question. Freedom to play. Freedom to think. Freedom to become themselves.

The end



(And you're thinking, oh my... this was just part 1?!! Yeah, next time I want to post a list of other books to read and links to follow for more info. It'll be shorter, I promise)


If you have any questions about any of this (now or at any time) feel free to inquire. I will do my best to answer :-)

His Hair

Evan's hair is currently the longest it's ever been (even more so than in the summer when he let it grow and then got tired of it in his eyes and requested a trim). He is committed this time to getting it l-o-n-g and we are letting him because it's his hair and this is what he wants it to look like.


I'm just not sure why this bothers so many people.

I have had some interesting conversations ("He wants long hair and... you're okay with that???") and confrontations ("He looks like a girl." OR "You have such beautiful daughters.") and cases of mistaken identity (in which my son has been labeled "Goldilocks").

What's the deal with all this?

We are glad our son is making choices that he is proud of and to hear it belittled by grown-ups with strong opinions is difficult.

I guess this hair thing is just a precursor to what we are in for in our upcoming homeschool adventures. We have a difficult time explaining our natural-learning philosophy for education and finding acceptance about it in a world that likes things to be done in a certain way and seems to feel threatened by those who go against the grain.

In a way, Evan's hair defines our family values and if no one else gets that, we don't mind at all.

We value self-confidence and we believe that kids who grow up free from a controlling environment (school systems, parenting methods, the opinions of others...) establish a solid sense of security. That is our vision.

We want our children to discover their passions and God-given gifts and pursue them with their whole hearts. They can only do this if they are strong enough to trust themselves and believe that they are capable of making choices for their own lives. We want them to think for themselves -- to be individuals -- and not go along with any crowd. We want them to be independent, strong-willed, free thinking children who become adults with a solid sense of personal responsibility.

And, for us it's all built on choices... like his hair.

Geography

This morning I found Evan with his USA map (placemat) looking at the blank side, then guessing a particular state and finally flipping it over to the filled in side to see if he was right. He really knows a lot of states!

I had no idea until I overheard all of this, because, as you probably know by now, I did not teach him any of it. It came from his own interest and wonder of the world which all kids have. Homeschool in our house is UNschool. I trust him to know what he needs to know when he needs to know it, and amazingly he surpasses most kids his age and 'grade level' in what he does know.

After he quizzed himself, he let the Star Wars Lego droids loose on the map, giving them each a home state to rule over:

.... so there you have it, a geography moment in our homeschool :-)

Constant

We were at the library on Monday for new books and came home with some favorites, old and new. We have been reading constantly since and especially this morning, when it seemed no one could get enough books. We were reading together, separately, aloud, quietly, near each other, all spread out....

Evan is hooked on Bill Peet's books -- they are adventure, nature, fantasy and comedy all in one. He brought eight of them home this time. (Sidenote: anyone who has read 'Capyboppy' by this author and been turned off by his style, please know that is not a reflection in anyway of his great writing! In fact it might be his worst. Give him a try!)
Chloe got some new ones like 'Madeline' and a lift-the-flap book (which she has always loved) along with her most favorite train books 'Choo-Choo' and the 'Little Engine That Could.'

And she never goes a day without a Thomas story in her hands...
They both also really like these 'Anansi' books we stumbled across. Chloe even has large portions of them memorized word for word (and this is not how she usually is with books, she is all about the paraphrase and made up ideas).
This sight -- of them on the couch with books and blankets, Evan reading aloud and Chloe listening while she flips through pages of her own book -- seems constant. He's been reading to her since she could sit up by herself.

It's not just the little ones doing all the reading either, Todd and I have gotten in on the deal too. He has been reading the 'Lord of the Rings' series and is on the last of the three books. I've been reading bunches of short novels looking for good read-alouds for Evan in the upcoming school years. I also love getting non-fiction stuff for myself, the latest ones are: 'The Well-Adjusted Child' and 'Teach Your Own' which are both about homeschooling.

So we are constantly stacking books and reshelving and searching for bookmarks and sharing with each other the things we are reading about :-)
And to think, it's all on my library card... not a penny spent on such good family memories and learning times. I am constantly thankful for such a wonderful resource.

Posted by Bree

Reading

How did Evan learn to read?

I get asked this question constantly and never really know how to answer it. He has always loved books. We have always read aloud to him and talked with him constantly to help him develop an extensive vocabulary. I believe reading, speaking and writing are all integrated in our brains and so we expose our kids to all of it frequently.

We would read between 6 and 10 books daily when he was little. He started memorizing and reciting word for word his favorite books when he was 3. This skill was developed naturally because of the repetition. We kept getting longer and longer books (well-written books being key here, not just books full of cartoons with shallow stories, but beautifully illustrated works) as his attention span continued to lengthen.

He plain out asked me one day, when he was about 4, how I knew what it said on the pages. This opened the door for the "how-to" lesson: Every letter makes a sound, some make more than one sound, and when you learn them all you can start to put them together to read words. He quickly realized he could already read many words just from everyday life like the word stop on a stop sign or toys-r-us or his name.

When he asked any questions about reading/sounding out/big words, I would answer. I never bought a program or taught him phonics rules or did worksheets. We did get some super simple "readers" out of the library to encourage him. to try, but he preferred to "read" the ones he had memorized (and why not, they were better stories, right?).

Then one day when he was 5, it was like something in his mind just clicked. We had always read before bedtime and one night he was "reading" to me instead. It was a Little House book (the ones made for 3-6 year olds) and I noticed he was trying to match what he was saying to the print on the page. It was pure magic watching his finger slide across while he talked. He got stuck on big words a lot and it frustrated him, but he just kept going with me right there to help. On another day, I found him on the couch "reading" a Billy and Blaze book he had memorized and he was doing the same thing again. He still sounded choppy when he read but he was practicing.

He had figured it out.

We found some more simple stories (like Billy and Blaze) at the library that were still enjoyable but easy to read on his own. He really liked "Mr. Putter and Tabby" as well as "Frog and Toad" books. At the same time we never stopped reading aloud and never stopped getting his favorite books from the library for him to "read" from memory. He built his reading fluency from just practicing everyday and by 5 and 1/2 he was officially a reader.

That's it. I truly believe the key was exposure and a love of reading modeled from a parent. I believe that if they see me reading, they will want to do it too. I have read hundreds of books on my own as well as to him over the past few years. He sees me do it and enjoy it. It is a part of our daily lives.

And now reading is the key to our homeschool. We don't have a curriculum. We use books. Real stories about real people. Great literature written by the best authors. Field guides. The Bible. It's glorious learning this way! Whatever Evan wants to learn about he has the key and it's reading.

It's So Natural

He's in Kindergarten.
Right here in his yard, covered in dirt, with his family...

because we are "home-schooling" him.

There is no curriculum, no time in the day set aside for lessons... he actually doesn't even realize he's doing school. We have a basic list of attainments we have established to guide him through, but our mindset is very relaxed and natural. He has truly been learning and seeking knowledge since his birth so we are just continuing on.

Anyway, I hung a handwriting alphabet chart next to his seat at the kitchen table a few weeks ago. I am not teaching him handwriting. I don't see any need for that yet. I just put it there for him to notice. And he did. And he stares at it and occasionally asks me questions about parts of it. And traces the letters with his fingers. And spells things by pointing to the letters as he's eating.

He's been able to "write" his name and a few small words since he was three, just by copying and figuring it out, and now his interest has grown in it. And all about the house I am finding his writing... lots of it... with the addition of lowercase letters. Here are two:

Dog's face and the writing: Evan ma{6}de in Erie Yinko the dog

Giant cat head and the writing: Huge is his name

I know this isn't some huge feat for an average six year old/kindergartner, but the fact that no one taught him this stuff is truly beautiful to me. This is real learning because it is real life.


And I also know that some of you may not agree with home-schooling or anything I'm saying. And that is fine :-)

Posted by Bree