I love teaching Eliza at home.
This year has been pretty relaxed and we have not had much of a schedule. When we have time and what we are interested in tells us when and how and what we do. In 2014 we will get a little more structured and I will have certain things I will want to teach her, but for now we have just enjoyed the time with just the two of us. It has been an adjustment having Henry in school. After we got over the part of missing him sooo much (we still miss him:)) we really have been mostly having fun! She is only three and what I have learned with Henry and in teaching other children...there is so much time! There is such a push to teach your child everything as fast as possible...everyone is so worried how smart their kids are going to be and when they are going to read, write, do arithmetic.
They do not have to experience everything and learn everything that the world has to offer by five years old!!!:)
In saying this...when my children read this later on they will probably wonder what I am talking about for I love education and value my role as educator in our home. I am always trying to "teach" them throughout our day. When I had just Henry we read so many books and talked about so many things and played on the floor and I tried to meet him where he was at and teach him what he wanted to know. I will try to do the same with Eliza...but I am not in as much of a hurry with some things I think. I have realized there is so much time. I am still learning so much as an adult. I finished reading Henry a non-fiction quite technical book about the Wright Brothers and their many attempts and inventions having to do with flight. It is really cool that he now knows so much about this subject at such an early age and I know it will shape him and how he thinks about things...but I am 34 years old and I feel grateful I was able to learn something new and think about things in a different light. I am starting to really ramble now...I get very philosophical at times:).
So children when you read this later on
and you are wondering what to do with your own children at home.
Here is my advice as best as I can say....
LOVE them...and with this goes along
TOUCH (hold hands, hug, cuddle, stroke their hair, kiss them on the cheek, squeeze their shoulder as you pass). We all need a loving touch...it is a connection of who we are and who we belong to.
READ to them as often as possible (not just about anything, but about important things like friendship, love, sharing, manners, gospel subjects, human anatomy, how things work, dinosaurs, weather, counting, rhyming books, storms, space, cowboys, inventors, silly fiction, poems, fables, fairy tales, nursery rhymes, music, nature, etc...I could keep going on for a while:))
CREATE things...(paint, draw, glue, staple, tape, mold...)
Sometimes all you need is a good pile of play dough and a plastic knife!:)
TALK about the world and explain things about our world through out the day (in the car, on a nature walk, at home, at the doctors office). I have had some interesting conversations about the different parts of the eye and the diseases you can get just while waiting for Henry's appointment.
And while you are doing all these things
WORK together. I can teach about pairs and matching and colors just while doing the laundry. Kids feel so good about themselves as they accomplish a task around the home. They feel included and important in their role in the family. Eliza loves to get her step stool and help me pour the soap and then put the clothes in the washer. She feels so proud that she "helped our family." We all know the benefits of learning how to work...benefits that will bless your whole life through.
SING...silly songs, primary songs, hymns, children's songs, little ditty's you made up about the colors of the stop light. There is also something so magical about singing around the piano with your little ones.
MUSIC is powerful! Listen to music in the home and dance, listen to music in the car and learn (Henry your favorite CD is all about the states and what grows there and what they are famous for and their capital cities/all set to music...you love reciting the Pledge of Allegiance along with Eliza).
EXPLORE...your home, your neighborhood, your city, your parks, your nature trails, your museums. We have learned so much by just going for a hike or visiting our local museum and planetarium. We have even explored the field in back of our house and made a great game out of old corn husks.
With all of this said there is always room for a really great alphabet puzzle, a workbook, an educational movie (we love the Letter Factory by leap frog), doing sight words and reading BOB books and learning about money and time on the clock and shapes and....it goes on forever.
I guess I know all of these sorts of things will come later on through me and through their teachers at school. What I don't know will come later on is another time when we are laying on our backs outside and see the perfect bunny rabbit made out of a cloud, or the still moment in the car when either of you ask me an important question about Jesus, or the time we watched the potato bug conquer all!
Live and love and learn through out your day...love your little ones, they grow up so very fast!
Know you are really going to mess up sometimes. That sometimes you will not want to read a book to them and you do not want to explain for the umpteenth time about a certain law of gravity. You want them to go and play and let you fix dinner in peace (which reminds me it is great to cook with your kids:)). Life can be a struggle and raising kids is hard work and sometimes it feels overwhelming and you wonder if you are teaching them anything...is it working, is it worth it? You will have to repent for losing your temper and apologize for your behavior to your kids. Pray hard and start over the next day...even when sometimes you want to run away. It will not kill them to watch a movie and you go in your bedroom and read a book or cry or call a friend to vent:).
The journey of parenthood...so much to say...
I think I will now post the pictures that I was meaning to before getting caught up in all of this...:)
We invited our friend and neighbor over to have preschool with us. I have a big canvas that I bought awhile ago to teach preschool with. It is for circle time (calendar, letters, rhyming words, colors, shapes, gumball counting, weather, etc.). We did that and then went for a nature walk and talked about the wind and bugs and leaves and how things grow and dew drops and all sorts of other things. We collected whatever we found that was interesting and that we wanted to talk about. We came home and wrote about what we learned and wrote what we wanted to know more about. We looked up certain things on the internet to learn more about them...like what exactly happens with the creation of dew drops. We then glued our objects onto paper. This is Kate and Eliza. They are too cute!
