Preschool Week 4

This week was a lot less structured, if you can call the first three weeks structured to begin with. Trying to scale back on the premature formal academics and instead focus on habit formation, in particular independent play.

LANGUAGE ARTS

No formal sit-down reading times planned.  Going through her book rack before swapping books and asking what she likes and doesn't like.  If there's a book she says she likes and I know she's looked at it multiple times that week, I'm keeping it in the rack for another week.  If she doesn't like the book, and I don't particularly like the book, we are not going to be keeping it.  So far, we haven't agreed much on this, so either I could stand to get rid of the book but she says she likes it, or she says "eh" but I really like it and think she'll come back around to it (or her brother will like it).

Also, adding longer, paperback books to her potty bin has been very helpful, as we read these books the most frequently.  Even though they're not displayed in any sort of fancy way, she still seems to remember after the first day of rotation what's in there and sometimes asks for a book that's from a different week's rotation.

One newish thing we've been trying to do is add reading as part of bedtime, so when she may not want to go to bed just yet, but we want her to be winding down, so we "allow" her to pick a book or two or three to bring to one of us to read to her. ( One day, after I initially said she could pick one book, once she had it in her hand, I said she could pick two, so she picked an additional one, totalling two books.  Sneaky little math "lesson", eh?) This is turning out to be another great way to work read alouds into the day, and it shows which books she's really enjoying.

MATH

Ok, so since abandoning "formal" math "teaching", I think Natalia is teaching herself.  When asked how many apples were left on the table for the next day, she went and counted "one, two, three" and reported back that there were three!  Another day, she did the same with the accurate number (I think it was 2) again.  So since this teaching-herself business seems to be working, we're going to stick with it.  (I should note that leaving a tray of fruit that she can easily get to by herself is what encouraged this sudden urge to count, as well as increasing the whole family's fruit intake, as she practices sharing when helping herself, usually to an apple.)

That said, even though I decided not to count "rote counting" as a necessary skill anymore, she has nonetheless reached it anyhow.  When asked to count, she counts in the "correct order" 1-10.  In English.  When prompted in Spanish, she counts in Spanish.  When prompted in Polish, she counts in Polish.

I've started pointing out groupings in books and the like by saying how many of something there is without first counting them one by one.  The idea is that she associate the number to the real world objects and doesn't think any given number is a "name" for an individual item.

Very cool color and light experience.

I've been reading up on the Reggio Emilia approach to learning, and one of the things that appeals to me is the focus on light and color and shadows (hence my excitement over the shadows during our late night walk - see the science section below).  We also found a neat lesson in observing the color shadows of her shape decals. She was intrigued by the fact that, according to the decal shadows, there were two ovals, but she knows we only have one oval, and one circle.  She got up and went to the window to point out this fact!

SCIENCE

Natalia's nature corner gains her attention nearly every day.  She gets her treasure box and looks through its content, sometimes with a magnifying glass, sometimes not.  I'm trying to encourage her to use her bamboo placemat to keep things more organized.  She also reminded me one day when I had forgotten and it was already lunchtime that we need to bring her plant out into the sun for the day.

One night we went walking, the three of us, once it was dark outside, to avoid the nasty heat.  With the assistance of a flashlight, we were able to get up close and personal to some flowers, trees, bushes, but also to have some fun learning with shadows.  Unfortunately, I have no idea how to capture shadows on photo.  But she got a kick out of the giant Natalia with her braided pigtails walking ahead of her on the sidewalk and on fences!  When we returned to the house, right before we went in, she found a slug in the grass thanks to her flashlight pointing.  We spent another 10-15 minutes observing the snail, picking it up, watching it stay still and then start slithering on my hand.  In the end, she finally braved it and touched the snail herself.

A great end to a late evening walk.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Even though she hasn't been watching Signing Time daily (it's not "on the schedule" - I play it for her whenever she asks for it, since we don't have all the episodes purchased and are limited to what's available online), she nonetheless is using the new signs she picks up throughout the day.  This morning, when Oscar came in to cuddle, upon waking she signed to Daddy in response to something he asked, even before saying anything.  Of course now it escapes both of us what that sign was!

CRAFTS & SENSORY

So this was one of the few things "on the schedule" for the week.  The artsy idea was a flop.  We did crayon rubbings of various textures, but it was mostly me showing her what crayon rubbings were, and then she was ready to move on to something else.  So she didn't care for the crayon rubbings or the textured pieces in themselves either.  I left the whole set up on her little table for hours, but she never went back to it.

The flop - crayon rubbings and textured material.

I also gave her a little box of various beads and pompoms, with the idea of this being a sensory experience, but she quickly realized the beads had holes in them, and wanted to make a necklace. (She's played with these same beads many times before, but this was the first time she took note of the holes!)  I gave her a few small pipe cleaners and helped her thread a couple on, and she was able to work on this without assistance for a good 10 minutes.  We made a necklace and a bracelet for one of her toys. She also remembered that there were a few other beads on a necklace elsewhere in her room, so she went to get it and asked me to untie the ends so that we could add those beads to her box.  I'm going to need to get better pipe cleaners for her to work on this, as the ones I have are Christmasy, and as such sparkly and a bit messy, plus not very soft.

The success: we will be adding more threading activities!

Also under sensory activities, we have to include water play. This week, this was limited to bath time, during which time she did some "swimming" practice (laying in the water and blowing bubbles into the water), but also squirting with some bath animals, washing her plastic dinosaur, and sticking foam letters onto the side of the tub.  When putting them away, she's shown she recognizes a new letter -"W", and counts the items as she takes them out - language arts and math without ever being on the schedule!

Natalia has also started to show a bit more interest in her easel, especially since I rearranged her playroom a bit and it has been left out, right by the door to the room.  (It was previously inside the closet next to her doll house.)  Almost daily, I see that she has stopped to draw or write something on the blackboard.  I'm careful not to guess what it is, and instead, ask her.  I'm getting some pretty creative responses.

This is a picture of "ongos" (mushrooms) that we had observed in the yard earlier that day.

PHYSICAL FITNESS

This is really a section for me to stay accountable rather than her.  At her age, it takes effort NOT to be running around burning off calories all day long!  But since I've become intentional about fitting prenatal yoga into our daily routine, Natalia has started joining me in some of the poses.  I follow a YouTube video, and sometimes she compares what I'm doing to what the instructor is doing and corrects me!  At times, I can hear her taking in slow, deep breaths.  Other times, she just plays in the vicinity and waits for my practice to be over.

 

One time, when I was using a yoga ball, she came up behind me and placed her hand on my back, saying "relax, peace, good" - cues that she's learned from participating in a HypnoBabies script Oscar was reading to me, in preparation for birth.  (Perhaps not exactly "physical fitness" in the traditional sense of the word, but certainly in the realm of health :) )

Ready to read my HypnoBabies script with daddy.

SOCIALIZATION

She had two Skype sessions this week, one with my mom and another with my grandmother and aunt.  This also reinforced her Polish. In addition, we went to a restaurant for dinner one night, to church, and we had some friends over the house yesterday.  Even though the adults mostly spoke among themselves, she was able to introduce her "friends" (toys) to our guests, and charmed one of them into playing especially well with her. There was a little girl, about 10 months old, also here, so they enjoyed the air coming out of the A/C vent together.  She had also planned on scaring one of our guests with the assistance of her dinosaur, because I had mentioned to her that this friend enjoys being scared (which she said she does).  So she looked forward to the get-together and got a real kick out of yelling "boo" as if the dinosaur was saying it.  She practiced greeting our guests and saying goodbye to them and taking turns at the table and in conversation.

When everyone left, I was able to reflect on the importance of Natalia referring to these adults as HER friends.  And why not?  Why would she be limited to only friends her own age?  We don't impose such restrictions on adults!  So I'm feeling very good now about our approach to socializing, without contrived same-age groupings that honestly, I think do more harm than good if not kept in check.

INDEPENDENT PLAY

This week, I removed all ideas of scheduled activities and focuses on encouraging independent play.  I am happy to report that this "deschooling" of myself has already started to bear fruit.  Here's what we're doing.  First of all, I don't carry my phone with me everywhere I go, which would encourage constant checking and Natalia would just see me looking at a screen and be reminded of her own screen time.  Second, if she was playing on her own and no one was in danger, I LEFT HER ALONE!  I didn't join in.  I didn't make suggestions.  I didn't comment.  I also didn't call her away from her play for meals or to start bed time.  It seems that she plays independently the best towards the evening, but luckily I do not need to be at work in the morning, so we are flexible on when she goes to sleep.

Also, when she did want my participation in her play, I would humor her, but only minimally.  I'd do my best to try to turn questions on their heads instead of giving her solutions.  I literally found myself sitting on my hands and biting my lip to let her play how she wanted.  At times, I had to go start an activity with her to gain her interest, and then I'd quietly withdraw.  Once she was enthralled in her play for a while without coming to me for anything, I'd leave the room for a bit.  If gone too long, she'd come looking for me, and I found that I couldn't get on the computer in the next room just yet.  So I started to just sit in her room and read a book silently to myself.  Or even across the hall in the bathroom with the door open!

On one occasion, she played like this on her own for a good hour!  Another time it was around 45 minutes, and several sessions of 20 minutes or so.  The biggest hurdle was myself.  I'm so used to being hands-on when it comes to playtime, that it was difficult for me to just observe quietly.  But I'm seeing the benefits, and the goal is for her to consistently entertain herself for at least a half hour at a time with me in another room.  It seems that if I'm up and doing something - cleaning, for instance - she doesn't look for me.  But the moment I sit down to the computer, she somehow senses that I'm "not doing anything" and stops playing independently.

HABITS

Aside from socializing and independent play, I've been trying to bring Montessori-inspired activities into our everyday lives, instead of concockting artificial experiences that are more appropriate for a preschool setting than home.  Instead of giving her a tray with cutting as a skill to practice, I let her cut up all the mushrooms for our lunch one day.  She followed that up with wanting to cut up some banana for her cereal on another day.  I give her a plastic knife and leave her to her work.

 

Another daily new thing is letting her pour her own drink - usually water - at the table.  I give her a small pitcher with what she's drinking, and let her fill it, drink, refill as needed.  The first day, I only gave her enough to fill her cup half way.  But the second day, I got brave and gave her more water than could fit in the cup, trusting that if she was paying enough attention to what she was doing, she'd know to stop pouring before it was too late.  And she did!  One time she literally caught herself with the water already bulging above her cup, looking to me for guidance on what to do next.  I showed her how to slurp the excess off the top (!), and she hasn't overfilled her cup again.

Along the same lines, instead of giving her a scooping activity, which I've tried multiple times with very limited success with various materials (dry beans, dry pasta, rice, cornmeal), Natalia is in charge of feeding our dog, Bigos.  She is still working on staying consistent with the correct amount to scoop, so this is a supervised activity.  She can open the door to where the dog food is kept, she can open the bag of dog food, and she can scoop the food into the bowl, as we keep both measuring cup and bowl next to the food.  However, we have to keep the dog away long enough for Natalia to prepare the meal, and then we have to open the gate for her to place the bowl where it goes.  In the picture below, we were still mixing Bigos's old and new food, so we had a separate container.

 


She also has started to ask to floss - her own teeth and mine!  She saw this in a Signing Time video.

CHARLOTTE MASON PRESCHOOL

This is the newest take I want to introduce into our preschool, very laid back, which I discuss in my previous post here. Since I haven't had a chance to implement any of these ideas, them being brand new to me and all, there's nothing to say about it yet.  But in future weeks, I will have a section on our progress in this area.

What About Unschooling?

I had previously taken a brief interest in unschooling, after reading "Learning All the Time" by John Holt, pioneer of this educational movement.  But the teacher in me wouldn't allow me to see outside the box.  So I have dabbled here and there, in Montessori, Classical, Unit Studies, Charlotte Mason, Waldorf... I knew for a fact that I wasn't going to be merely holding school at home with my daughter.  And the alternative options all had something of value to offer.  Since Natalia is only 2, I had settled on a Montessori-inspired approach, though I most definitely am still solidly in the Ecclectic camp of home educators.

I started to have an inkling that I had begun to go down the wrong path when I bought my first set of flashcards for her - shapes and colors.  Or maybe it was once I finally typed up a proper lesson plan with all the various areas of study I wanted to cover on a daily basis?  Perhaps it was actually much earlier, when the alphabet went up on our wall? Regardless, I had finally been awakened to the fact that I was trying too hard when I began reading "Homeschooling and the Voyage of Self-Discovery" by David H. Albert.

Again, my gut objections rose to the top.  The idea of child-led learning sounds reasonable, sounds like the ticket to a truly freedom- and passion-based education, one that can set my daughter on the path to a lifetime of enjoying learning.  But.  But I'm still a teacher.  A big reason I wanted to homeschool was because I wanted to teach.  Also, how can I just sort of let her pick what she wants to learn about without first exposing her to what's even out there for her to choose from?

In the most recent conversation I had about this with a friend, I remember myself saying that at this point I'm definitely on board with unschooling for the teenage years - middle school (which I've already become convinced, from my time learning about the Classical approach, can be skipped entirely), and most definitely high school.  But the elementary years?  She's got to have some basics, doesn't she?

Eeek!  What are these basics, exactly?  And who decides what's basic knowledge, what's basically important to know?  Certainly not the school board or textbook authors or curricula writers.  But was I really doing my daughter any favors by merely replacing these "authority figures" with myself?

Well, I actually think the answer to that question is, yes.  As her parent, it is my responsibility to decide what she "ought" to be learning - about life, values, habits, etc.  So as long as I stay away from dry academic subjects, I have every right - responsibility even - to come up with a flexible, child-led to-a-degree, values-based curriculum.

To satisfy my teacher instinct, I see my role as twofold.  One, I will set forth goals for my daughter's education, but they will not be anything that can be measured via a standardized test.  When she was born - or even before - I had said that my goal for her is that she be healthy, happy, and kind.  And that still stands.  So as a home educating parent, I simply need to translate this three-fold goal into more practical experiences that I believe will enable her to reach this ideal.

And two, I do not need to put away all lesson plans and curricula in order to unschool.  Rather, I will write these as we go, filling in the details after the fact.  Instead of "what WILL we do in the area of math/science/language arts.... on Monday".... our approach will be, "what DID we do in the area of math/science/language arts.... on Monday?"

This will not only satisfy the teacher in me, but will also serve as an assesment of sorts, making sure that we do get around to the various areas that Big Brother mandates of us in our state.  This way, if we've been away from an area for too long, I'll know to gently steer our experiences in that direction for a while.

Yesterday was the first day I consciously paid attention to Natalia's lead, rather than trying to reference my lesson plan (which to be honest I hadn't even followed for more than a week since writing it up).  After waking up (on her own, that's generally the rule in our home), she pulled out her foam letter puzzle and dragged it all into the bathroom before I was even finished getting ready for the day.  So we went and practiced her letters - her initiative, though I was there to guide her, name the letters and sounds for her as she asked, and light-heartedly said yay or nay when she matched letters incorrectly.  (She does this herself as well, in any puzzle, she seems to enjoy purposely making an incorrect match, saying "tutaj?  nieeee!"  (Polish for "here? nooo!") until finally she makes the correct match.)

Next, she had remembered a science experiment - turned art project and asked to play with the ice again.  So I dutifully took out the large frozen ice in a bowl with old food coloring, gave her salt and more food coloring and she proceeded to salt the ice to get it to melt, added food coloring, and finally used a brush to smear everything together.  We then dumped the ice on the balcony (the whole project was an outdoor activity - bonus points for fresh air!) and proceeded to chip away at the ice to see what would happen.  Before putting the ice back in the fridge for a future time, we dumped the colorful water that had melted at the bottom of the bowl onto the balcony for one of Natalia's favorite activities - jumping in puddles!  (She calls it "charcos" from the Spanish version of Peppa Pig that she watches at times.)

Today, she started asking to watch Maya the Bee before she had a chance to get bored with any other activity, and I began to worry.  Feeling a little burned out anyway, I thought we had been good with limiting screen time and I could use the time to do some cleaning around the house.  She watched a bit of her favorite shows, in Polish and Spanish (so bonus points for language reinforcement), and about 45 minutes later just got up and found me to see what I was doing.  She took out some of her musical instruments and started playing.  She had naturally gotten bored with her shows and moved on to something else!

I took the opportunity to compensate for the screen time by taking the dogs for a walk.  We spent roughly the equivalent time she had watched her shows, outside.  Again, I had to remind myself to let her follow her curiosity, instead of insisting that she follow where I'm going and make no pit stops.  We ended up going by some tall dried up grass near a creek, she collected sticks and dried pine needles and piled them up for a "bonfire", and of course she shuffled her feet for a bit in a pile of fallen leaves.  She found a lone holly berry on a bush and asked about it.  When she gets older, we can take these lessons farther, actually looking up the answers to whatever we are curious about.

For now, for crying out loud, she's only 2!  Most of her peers will continue to wear diapers for another year, while she's been potty trained for six months, and going on the potty and/or toilet since 6 weeks old!  Let's count that as advanced learning already (and why not?  At this age, she learning the true basics of life!), instead of rushing to get to the next thing and never savoring the present moment.

I see already that the joy of home educating will be not so much that I get to teach my daughter, but that she gets to teach me!

Education & Language Update (Homeschooling: Reading)

As I've become more and more interested in incorporating preschool activities in our day to keep us busy, break up our day, provide learning opportunities for Natalia, and homeschooling practice for me, I started to wonder about one skill in particular that is one of the first to be mentioned among preschooling families: reading.  I hadn't really thought about the fact that I was going to have to teach Natalia to read when I decided to homeschool.  I thought of all the different content areas (subjects) that we'd explore together, and I sort of took the reading bit for granted.

So I frantically researched what the options were.  I keep hearing about phonics everywhere, as if it's God's gift to literacy, but I've always despised flashcards and never utilized them in my own studies, and I certainly didn't see myself using them to drill phonics.  Nor did I envision drilling anything.  Memorization was not part of my goal for homeschooling, period.  The whole-language alternative seemed to be essentially the same thing - flashcards and memorization - but of entire words instead of parts of words.  I kept thinking, there's got to be a better way.

I googled "can kids teach themselves to read", and imagine my delight when I realized why I had a hunch that everyone seemed to be making it sound much more difficult than it needed to be.  I had previously read a book by John Holt, considered the father of unschooling, where he describes how young children pick up reading and basic math skills on their own, without formal teaching.  I had actually recently left a facebook group for unschooling preschool because I decided I didn't see myself utilizing the approach broadly to all of Natalia's education.

But here I was, back in unschooling, and I realized that when it comes to the basic skills that Natalia will inevitably learn, unschooling is the most natural alternative, and the path of least resistance.  As I read this article in Psychology Today on the subject, I was instantly reminded of how simple it was for Natalia to gain 90% potty independence at the age of 18 months.  I certainly don't consider us as having taught her how to go on the potty instead of in a diaper.  Instead, we had observed her, noticed she was showing signs of readiness, and provided an environment conducive to going on the potty. Within weeks she was sleeping diaper-free and staying diaper-free at home all day.  When we're out and about, she usually goes on the toilet,either prompted or when she announces she has to go.  We keep her in a diaper on longer trips outside the home (we call this her "backup system") because accidents do happen once in a while, especially when she's engrossed in some activity, and it's a lot easier to clean up at home than elsewhere!

But anyway, as I was reading the article on kids teaching themselves to read, I saw the parallels between that and potty independence.  I thought, my job in regards to Natalia's reading is the same as it was with potty "training".  Watch for signs of readiness, surround her with the written word, have her see me reading, read to her, point out letters and numbers, practice writing them, but do all of these things in bits and pieces as part of a larger play time, with no particular set goal in mind, and certainly no drilling!

She is already showing some of the early signs of reading readiness.  She has a book area in the room where books are displayed and rotated, as well as a bucket of books next to her potty that she utilizes frequently throughout the day.  She knows which way to hold the book (turns them when they're upside down), she knows to turn the pages from left to right (though she's browsing, so she goes back and forth as she studies the pictures - truth be told, I read magazines from back to front or middle to wherever, so it's not that strange!), she follows text with her finger (from left to right, might I add), and pretends to read.  These are all signs of early reading readiness.

But, unlike what some advice givers would have me do, this doesn't mean that I should step in and ruin the process for her by introducing formal academics, drilling, flashcards, memorization, worksheets, what have you.  Why do people not see that if she's managed to get this far all on her own, the most prudent thing to do is to keep doing what we're doing, namely not interfering, but rather guiding and encouraging!

Minimalism and Green Living Update

After several initial purges, I have been going through a minimalism dry spell.  We've gotten rid of several large pieces of furniture, at least half of our wardrobe, at least half of our books, and the more we get rid of, the more stuff we notice we don't need.  But it's been a bit tricky with some items, as we want to sell some, gift others, and not just donate things that we feel are more valuable.  

The other problem is that the biggest category in need of decluttering is paperwork, and that's really hard!  I scanned and recycled all of our photos, leaving only our military scrapbook, wedding album, and an album with old photos of older relatives and our countries of birth.  Now we have these three albums on a shelf for easy access to share with guests, and all the other photos are on our external computer drive for whenever we may want to find them.

The next project is converting VHS tapes to DVDs at Walmart, which I intend to get done before the next update. 

As for green living, I was holding off on composting because we were going to buy a house, but then we put a hold on that and I want to get an apartment-compatible composter, which isn't being met with equal enthusiasm from the hubster.  Other than that, hubby is growing some jalapeno and ghost peppers on our balcony, which does me no good because I don't like or tolerate spicy food.  As for the cloth versus disposable diaper dilemma, we're sort of out of that, as Natalia is 90% potty independent, so we no longer wonder if it's better for the environment to launder cloth diapers or to dump disposable ones into the landfill :)  Win-win!

Our Toddler's February

A day in the life of a toddler....

.... nourishing the body...

....napping (in her fort!)

 .....going potty with her lala (dolly)

..... our little cuddle bug....

Valentine's Day

"Yup, I've still got it!"

Looking out the window with mommy.

Loving her fort (courtesy daddy).

Bigos the center of attention (notice Natalka inspecting her ear).

Deep in thought....

Giving her dolly a bath.

Helping to carry puppy poo to the toilet for flushing :)

Our little helper....

Enjoying the little kitchen at Ikea...

Playing in her ball container... (yes, she got in there by herself)

Story time with mommy...

On a walk...

Helping to carry Pooper Scooper...

Read it and weep... wise beyond her years!  ;)

Learning all the time...


And some yoga poses with daddy...

Butterfly

cat/cow

twist

Our Toddler's January

First things first:  Snow!

First snow of 2015

Writing in the snow

"I'm being snowed on!"

Indoor snow!

Evening walk.  Natalia loves to feel tree barks!

At a La Leche League meeting, just chilling.

Next, we celebrated Tio Elliott and Tia Mari getting married :)

Meeting Tio Elliott for the first time.

Running the halls with cousin Jade.

Waiting for the ceremony to start.

She was quite interested in the flower petals.

My little dancing queen!

With the bride and groom at their reception.

Natalia with her daddy, Abuela, & Abuelo.

Learning all the time!

Learning to eat with chopsticks!

That's right, folks.  13 month old feeding herself veggies with a spoon!

Ambidextrous for now!

Reading - a favorite pastime. 

Creativity abounds!

Helping mommy with dinner by putting cut up potatoes into the pot.

Concentrating on scooping snow!

Mommy's little helper getting my purse.

Trying to put on her socks.

An idea we got from a Montessori approach to preschool education.

Potty learning!

"Hmmm, I don't think this is right..."

Well, at least the diaper is off this time!

And some things you just gotta see and hear for yourself!

That's right, our toddler repeating the five vowels of Polish and Spanish!

Finally, a few clips for fun!

Yup, learning to blow her nose!

"Who's going to put these pants on?"

Playing with her dollies - Hanusia, Jolka, and Lena.