It’s amazing how kids learn. It’s so totally effortless. There are always the examples of four-year-olds casually using curse words in polite company, much to their parents’ embarrassment, or course. Yesterday, on the other hand, Lucy was walking around the house with her Fish do the Strangest Things book, standing on top of things, holding the book in front of her, and proclaiming, “A reading from Saint Paul. Babies and sisters…” I stopped in my tracks. She is clearly paying much closer attention while she wiggles away through Mass than we have been giving her credit for. (I asked about the “babies”, and she seemed to think that made more sense than “brothers”, which is understandable I guess since she has a severe lack of brothers at the moment.) Anyway, we are redoubling efforts to have such good influences and Saint Paul and his letters around, so that her osmosis can do its thing.
Tag Archives: Homeschooling
We are one Body
We went to a “young adult” gathering in the Baton Rouge diocese last night, and it got me thinking. So I’m really just thinking out loud (as it were) here, most of this isn’t clearly formed yet, but it has been bothering me for a while. The meeting itself was fine, they had a change of plan since the speaker had to cancel, so we had dinner, discussed what we would like to see from the young adult ministry (they’re really just getting started) and then had a brief prayer service. But it was the assumptions underlying the conversation that interested me most.
Mmmm…bread
Today’s lesson: how the bread machine works. Including discussion of the heating element, the rotary motion of the mixing paddle, basic and more elaborate bread ingredients, etc. The bread machine then got a good scrubbing. What subject does that go under? : )
Lucy’s Tower
Lucy got some new blocks while we were in Texas, and has been quite busy with them. Her favorite constructions so far are all sorts of towers, the taller the better.
I think I learned how to turn the pictures and forgot. Sorry.
Zoo Trip with Nana
This is Lucy’s first “official” narration. A big part of the homeschooling method we’re looking at is telling back stories the child has heard as well as the story of what happened on a trip, during the day, etc. We went to the zoo today with Craig’s mom today, and here’ is Lucy’s story (which required some prompting, but not too much). Here it is!
Day Three
Don’t worry, we won’t be doing this every day. But it’s fun for the first week. 
Day three of homeschooling included…
more reading
and collages
I hope you can see how much glue was required for this. There wasn’t much more paper added after this point. Next time, I’ll follow my better judgement and use a glue stick.
Days One and Two of Homeschooling
Day one was mostly tracing letter “c” and reading lots of “c” books. And a trip to get ice cream to celebrate. And science with Daddy:
spaghetti bridges
That has nothing to do with “c”, but Craig had to test the experiment he was doing at school the next day.
But day two included…
Dress up
Samantha climbing (that starts with “C”!)
And caterpillar cookies!
It was a delicious day!
Home Schooling
We start tomorrow with “official” homeschooling. I thought it would be fun to let grandparents, et alia, follow along, so there is a new page (you should see it at the top under the title) devoted entirely to Lucy’s little projects, my lesson plans, the books were’re reading, and the like.
Before you get too excited about it though, remember that Lucy is only two. So “homeschooling” at this point is going to focus on a letter a week (with themed books, crafts, snacks, etc.), a saint or two a week, and lots of playing and being two. But I’m hoping that getting an early start on the structure (!) of organized (!) home learning will pay off when we get to quadratic equations and the like in a couple of years (kidding, only Craig thinks that will really happen).
This week’s news
We are experimenting to see how long we can survive without air conditioning. I’m shooting for Memorial Day. (We will get a respite on Mother’s Day, since Craig’s parents are coming over and I’m not going to impose this penance on anyone else!) We didn’t use it last month, and our electric bill was less than 1/3 of what it had been. We’ve been spending lots of time outside (in the shade mostly!) and leaving the house open for the breeze. It’s not terrible, just a little uncomfortable, and I have a new appreciation for those little breaths of cool air!
