Preschool, Week Three

Week three of preschool saw some additional changes, or least decisions to change.  Towards the end of the week, I reread John Holt's "Learning All the Time", which reminded me why I was originally interested in unschooling, and I became convinced (again) that I need to take the less-is-more approach to academics, reading/writing and math in particular, if I want Natalia to truly internalize what she's learning, and not just to begrudgingly parrot back facts.

LANGUAGE ARTS

I decided to add thin books to the potty book container, not sure why I was restricting them before. Since that is a guaranteed spot where Natalia asks to be read to, I thought it would behoove us to have more choices so that we can get through more books during the week.  The selection is swapped out weekly. We also started trying to include reading in our winding down process before bed.  That is definitely still a work in progress, but Natalia was happy to go to her book rack and pick out two books to bring back to the bedroom for me to read.  Added bonus, as she was picking out a book, I suggested she pick two, and so she did - instant math!  We still "officially" covered the letter "Nn", but really, this just seems so artificial, that I think I'm going to abandon any focus on a letter of the week, with the exception of just writing it down on Mondays, and going through the letter books to locate it, and having the flashcard on the fridge.  But that'll be the extent of it.  Mere exposure.

MATH

When helping Oscar put the sofa cushions back, she said "ultimo" (last one) as she handed him the last cushion.  After eating some of her cocktail sausages for "kolacja" (supper, I suppose), she said she wanted me to eat the rest.  I was washing dishes and asked her how many she left for me.  She went back to look at her plate and then informed me that there were two left.  And indeed, there were! So there are definitely math concepts being internalized there.   I learned from "Learning All the Time" that rote counting is pretty useless, and that I need to be focusing on actual quantity representations.  Also, recognizing patterns is more important than just the symbol of the numeral. So I'm going to work on demonstrating ***** = ** *** (5), etc. instead of just drilling numerals out of context.

SCIENCE

We created a "nature corner" in the living room that has been quite popular.  Pretty much on a daily basis, Natalia gets her treasure chest and looks at the materials in it, sometimes with her magnifying glass, sometimes not.  She sings "baby finger" with one of the seashells on her pinky.  I've been showing her to take her plant off the shelf and put it on the coffee table for the day to get some sunlight, and once a week she waters it.  I also brought in a bamboo place mat that I'm trying to convince her to use as the basis of her play, but so far she usually just sits on the sofa with the treasure chest on her lap.

                                     


Yesterday, we went on a walk because she noticed through the window there were puddles and wanted to go jump in them.  It wasn't so hot that it was unbearable, so we went, and soon realized that the puddles were all concentrated on our side of the street, so we went to discover that a neighbor was pumping out his crawl space, which had flooded.  So that was a nice, unexpected little social interaction and nature walk.  We brought in a few sticks to add to her nature corner.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Even when it's been a few days since watching Singing Time, Natalia remembers and practices new signs on a daily basis.  A few times, I didn't know what she meant, so now I see I must watch with her, at least the first time, so that I can reinforce the signs she's learning.  This of course sounds obvious now that I type it up.

CRAFT & SENSORY

We did some animal footprints and tail prints in playdoh, made a couple of 3D stickers, and a neat little horse from glued hole-punched holes.  I've also made her a new sensory bin with dry rice, but sadly it doesn't hold her attention nearly as long as I would hope.

playdoh cutting was a flop :(

crumbs for the patitos was a much better activity

sensory play with rice

MUSIC & ART APPRECIATION

I have pretty much abandoned these endeavors for the time being.  Even having classical music in the background as we went about our day was starting to drive me nuts.  I tried several mornings in a row, but turns out that I really need silence in the background!  So we'll return to classical music appreciation in a year or two, when we can have a more focused timeframe for it.  In the meantime, I am thinking we should explore music from different cultures instead.  Art appreciation also is going to wait for another year or two.  Verdict: We'll try these again in Kindergarten.

SOCIALIZATION

Since realizing that playdates are not the be-all-end-all of socialization that I was led to believe, I've had a very laid back approach to this area.  I've decided to keep track of outings and visits on a calendar to document that indeed, Natalia is being socialized around people other than her parents, and that these encounters are teaching her about appropriate social behavior so much more than meetings with peers could.  That's not to say I've abandoned play dates, just that I am not going to make a point of them being "on the curriculum".

PHYSICAL FITNESS

I have been trying to get Natalia to do yoga with me.  I'm realizing I only have three more months of pregnancy and need to get with the program, and it can't hurt to have Natalia do the postures and breathing exercises with me.  So far, it's been hit or miss.  Sometimes she hangs on me or tries to get my attention away from the YouTube videos I'm following in my practice.  Other times, she watches with me and I can hear her breathing deeply and see her moving her body from my peripheral vision. Hopefully, as this becomes a regular occurrence, and as we do the same videos/postures over and over again, she will accept it as part of our routine and join me rather than interrupt.


To sum up, I'm paring down the curriculum to focus on arts and crafts, sensory experiences, nature study of some sort, reading aloud, and ASL, as well as manners, self-care, and chores, or what I believe the Montessori approach would call "habits".  After trying to artificially create some activities for this area, it occurred to me that I am not running a preschool.  We are learning in an actual home, with actual chores and self-care to do and meeting real people we can actually practice our manners with. So I'm switching gears to instead focus on reflecting on these areas and observing Natalia's progress and recording it here, rather than giving her fake activities that are supposed to translate into the real world.  That's not to say I don't see value in this approach.  It's just not working in our family. So I think I'll have a section on "Habits" that will include independence, helpfulness, and politeness from now on, replacing the much more limiting "Socialization" section.

gargling

 And I will be focusing on reporting after the fact rather than planning in advance, with the exception of arts & crafts (and maybe sensorial and nature sudy), since Natalia is too young to have independent access to various crafting materials.  She's never been big on coloring, so it's not like I can just leave out coloring books and crayons for her to peruse when the mood strikes.  Maybe that will come with time.  But because of this after-the-fact approach, I suppose I'm swinging back into a more unschooling method.

I previously shied away from it as I found myself being quite frustrated with Natalia's lack of choosing her own activities, always resorting to asking for screen time.  That is what motivated me to look into Montessori and Charlotte Mason for inspiration.  But now that we've been at it for a few weeks, I see that I was just being a lazy unschooler!  Unschooling doesn't mean not taking an interest in what your kid does!  It means quite the opposite!  It means preparing activities, providing options, yet remaining flexible to always delve deeper or abandon anything based on the child's interest.  So in that regard, I think I'm at a place now where I have a reasonable sense of what I need to be bringing to the table as far as planned activities, but without any expectations of compulsory coverage of anything in particular.

Bottom line, and I think this falls under the "Socialization"-turned-"Habits" section of the curriculum, I need to be working on weaning Natalia off of needing my input and interaction when she plays.  I have definitely been guilty of interfering unnecessarily in her play, by constantly commenting, making suggestions, praising.... two and a half years of this, and she has learned to depend on my participation in her play.  So it will take some time to help her relearn how to play without input from mommy.  Believe me, this is much more difficult than it sounds, because I love to play with her, and I've said before that the playroom is MY favorite room in the house!  But if I want her to discover that wonderful experience of "flow", both in play and in learning (which really is one and the same at this point), then I'm going to have to bite my tongue and sit on my hands and just get her used to doing things on my own.

Helping with the dishes / water play

First, I need to remember that this is new to her, too, so I'll have to still stay with her for large parts of the time, and just observe quietly, only giving feedback or minimal assistance if asked.  Once I am able to sit in the same room with her without her looking to me for input for a good 10 minutes at a time, I'll start leaving the room for that length of time.  I need to remember that I'm at the damage-control stage, and I can't expect to leave the room and actually get anything done before my little shadow follows.  I've tried this, and my unrealistic expectations always frustrate me, because sometimes she really does get into her play for up to even 15 minutes, and so I assume she should be able to do so all the time.  But I haven't weaned her off of my input yet, so I have to go through that stage before I can expect consistent results.