Recently, a monolingual speaker asked me "how good" my Polish was. I did not feel the need to get into my insecurities about losing fluency in my heritage language, so I responded with a truth that dodged the question. I said, "well, it's my native language, so..."
And even though what followed made me feel insecure (unbeknownst to him), it did force me to consider what my language goals are for my children, as well as accepting my own languge competence. He talked about bilingual immigrants whose native languages plateaued at a 12- to 14-year old's level. I believe he was referring to the limited vocabulary of an adolescent versus an adult.
The moral of his story was that employers do not want someone with "12-year-old Spanish" or "14- year-old Vietnamese." The nerve he touched without knowing or meaning to was what I've long been aware of. I cannot move back to Poland and pick up where I left off when I migrated at age 8, in part, because I do not have the vocabulary necessary to land a job. I have often wondered what the point of knowing Polish was if I couldn't become a translator with my current level of the language. I've wondered the same thing about my third language, Spanish, but at least there isn't the emotional association to that language.
But having reflected on it, I have to disagree with this person's assessment of the uselessness of knowing a language less than fluently. Even without perfect fluency, another language allows me to listen to (or read!) news from a different perspective. English monolingual speakers could accomplish the same thing by watching not only American news but also British, Canadian, Australian, etc. Imagine the additional perspective though of being able to learn first hand what non-English speakers have to say about world events.
Knowing another language less than fluently also allows one to enjoy cultural experiences more than when depending on translations. Music, theater, foreign films all lose something in the translation. One doesn't need a college-level proficiency in a language to experience these cultural expressions.
Travel also becomes more meaningful (not to mention easier!) when one can read the menus, signs, directions, etc. in the language of the country one is visiting. Starting even a basic conversation with the locals allows a dimension unattainable by mere eye contact and smiling.
So what's the point of knowing a language if you don't know it fluently? Employment is not the singular goal of language aquisition! Income, wealth, status, none of these are the reasons I'm raising my kids multilingual. My reasons are much more nuanced. I want my kids to have an additional lens through which to experience the world. And that's not even mentioning the benefits to brain chemistry of knowing multiple languages!
Perfection - in language aquisition, overall academics, or life in general - is not the goal. If my kids can enjoy the various benefits of experiencing the languages they know, who's to say they won't catch the polyglotal bug and embark on a lifetime of langauge learning for the sheer pleasure of it?
Regardless, one of the most important benefits of multilingualism is the understanding that there is more than one way of seeing anything. This is a skill that easily transfers to all areas of life, and it simply cannot be measured in dollars and cents!
Showing posts with label ASL. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ASL. Show all posts
Monday, August 7, 2017
Tuesday, July 4, 2017
Catholic Ecclectic Unschooling?!
I recently have had two realizations about our approach to homeschooling. I'm slowly starting to take ownership of it and finding what works and what doesn't. I'm glad that I'm using these preschool years to do this trial and error, so that once we start to report for kindergarten, we can hit the ground running.
Here is a list of subject areas that I am currently working with when planning out lessons for our preschool.
1. practical life skills
2. sensorial
3. literacy
4. numeracy
5. nature/science
6. culture/geography
7. health
8. physical education
9. music & music appreciation
10. art & art appreciation
11. languages (ASL, Polish, Spanish)
12. literature & poetry
13. religion (faith, morals, liturgy, prayer)
I come back to the way I utilize lesson plans after first discussing the first big overhaul of our approach to homeschooling, faith.
At last Sunday's homily, our pastor drove home the point that Christ needs to be at the center of our lives, and that religion cannot be merely one of the areas of our life, something I've been guilty of for sure. The first thing that popped into my mind was that we needed to rethink our homeschooling approach. I pulled out the book on Catholic homeschooling that I got at the Catholic homeschool curriculum fair we attended and started reading.
We always said that we decided to homeschool for various reasons, none of which were religious. But that doesn't mean that we are stuck with a secular homeschool for life! One of the things that really struck me so far from the book was relating how children sent to secular schools to learn "real subjects" and only hearing about God's presence in their lives on the periphery come to think that God has nothing to do with what they're learning in school! Science and History in particular have a way of pretending that God doesn't exist that is detrimental to a person's world view.
As catholic Christians, we believe that God created the universe and everything in it. There is nothing science can discover that doesn't directly point to the glory of God! Evolution (a theory, by the way, not fact) can nonetheless point to the fact that God's days are not limited to our 24-hour-periods, and perhaps the creation story is not something that happened thousands (or millions) of years ago, but rather something that is ongoing. Just like God forms us in our mothers' wombs, but He doesn't stop working on us after birth! To study science without acknowledging God's hand in it is to betray our Christian world-view.
Likewise with history. To look at the events of human history without addressing the role of sin, virtue, and the human longing for something greater than itself is to again miss entirely how God is present in our daily circumstances. Not that He orchestrates what happens, but that He is there with us. That people turn to Him, and He listens. That people turn away from Him, and He forgives (though not without meting out justice). Eliminating God from a history curriculum is pretending that humans don't need God. Again, this is a total contradiction of our Christian world-view.
Other subjects also can either serve to build up the spirit of a young Chrisitan or not. What we read penetrates our imaginations. Are we reading about what is true, good, and beautiful? Or are we reading merely what has always been taught? Just because certain works of literature are famous doesn't make them crucial to read. Likewise for art and music. I agree that there is an element of cultural competency that needs to be addressed, meaning that a person's education ought to prepare them to at least be aware of the existence of things that have shaped our society in meaningful ways - for better or worse. After all, we study wars rather than ignoring them because of the violence, death, and evil it portrays.
But if presented without any commentary from the perspective of the catholic Christian parent, the child is left to possibly conclude that anything famous in the secular world is "good", or "true", or "beautiful". I don't know if I completely agree with the adage, "beauty is in the eye of the beholder". Some things are just plain ugly. The same applies to what is good and true. We live in a relativist society. I am certainly a victim of this mentality. There is no objective truth, therefore there's no objective goodness. Virtue is whatever best suits me, the individual.
***
I'm returning now to the idea of lesson planning. I tried unschooling for several months when Antonio was born, and I was amazed how Natalia continued to learn in various areas without my so much as lifting a finger. Yet after those few months, I decided that we couldn't unschool long term because one of the motivating factors for me to educate my children at home is that I get to teach them!
So I make lesson plans. I try to make sure certain subject areas are covered. I attempt to figure out the best schedule to implement. And over and over I realize that everything always looks perfect on paper, but never works out in real life. Finally it occurred to me that while I love to plan and organize, I also love to stay with a natural flow of learning, following whatever sparks Natalia's curiosity. I tried to sit down with her and do X for a set amount of time one time, and it immediately felt artificial and not at all educational! Perhaps this will change as she gets older. But for now, for preschool, I'm starting to understand what my homeschooling method really is, and it's not any of the official methods out there. I've said we're ecclectic before, but I think I fially understand what that means to me.
Ecclectic homeschooling to me means several things. 1) I make plans and goals so I know what to look out for in terms of library materials, outings, etc. I plan and organize because I enjoy the very process of planning and organizing. I do not intend to meticulously implement any of my plans, and I expect them to be altered and updated periodically. 2) I observe the natural interests and inclinations of Natalia. I answer her questions and find resources for subjects she shows an interest in. I do not interrupt her indpendent play unless absolutely necessary (say, it's time to leave for church). 3) I return to my plans periodically and take note of what has already been learned. I then can move on to the next set of goals in a given subject as I reimagine the lesson plans.
So there is definitely a strong component of unschooling that remains. I think the only thing that isn't "pure unschooling" with us is that I do have subjects in mind for Natalia to be exposed to, and certain skills and knowledge that I do intend for her to learn. Nothing we do is done against her desires, though. She is loving memorizing various things, so why wouldn't I take advantage of this stage of her development and try to surround her with things I think are good for every person to know by heart? (Basic geography comes to mind. She knows her contients and oceans, and we're slowly moving into the concepts of countries. I'm not sure that she would've become interested in geography if I hadn't brought it up and if I wouldn't continue to bring in resources to build on this interest.)
I like labels, and perhaps that's what this is for me - a labeling of what was all along. Ecclectic unschooling with a hint of classical? Because I am drawn to some of the features of the classical approach/Charlotte Mason. What finally did it for me and forced me to cut my emotional ties with CM is the feeling of guilt over not spending hours outside. It just isn't for us, not where we live. I couldn't shake the guilt, so I shook the label instead!
I also think that unit studies may be making an appearance. As I think about incorporating God into our subjects and not just keeping Him in "religion", I instantly think of making unit studies around the liturgical year. I see unit studies as supplemental to a core curriculum, though. I don't want to tie myself to the idea of forcing ever subject into every unit study. History and science may need to unfold along separate timelines!
I'm probably overthinking the whole preschool homeschooling thing, but it's for a good cause - the whole education of both my kids. I think Antonio will benefit from this time, as I will hopefully have an idea of what crucial elements to include in his preschool in a couple of years. I also think Natalia will benefit because by the time we have to officially report her home education in two years, we will have ironed out the details and can hit the ground running without having to second guess ourselves.
Speaking of state reporting, I had to finagle the terminology a little to get from the list of mandatory subjects to the list of our home school subjects above. The mandatory subjects in our state are as follows:
1. language arts (literacy, literature/poetry)
2. math (numeracy)
3. science (nature/science)
4. social studies (culture/geography/history)
5. health (nutrition, safety, hygiene/disease control, exercise, rest, stress avoidance)
6. physical education (gross motor skills)
7. art (& art appreciation)
8. music (& music appreciation)
Confession time - the title to this post just occurred to me, so I think I will address the nuances of this "methodology" in a future post.
Here is a list of subject areas that I am currently working with when planning out lessons for our preschool.
1. practical life skills
2. sensorial
3. literacy
4. numeracy
5. nature/science
6. culture/geography
7. health
8. physical education
9. music & music appreciation
10. art & art appreciation
11. languages (ASL, Polish, Spanish)
12. literature & poetry
13. religion (faith, morals, liturgy, prayer)
I come back to the way I utilize lesson plans after first discussing the first big overhaul of our approach to homeschooling, faith.
At last Sunday's homily, our pastor drove home the point that Christ needs to be at the center of our lives, and that religion cannot be merely one of the areas of our life, something I've been guilty of for sure. The first thing that popped into my mind was that we needed to rethink our homeschooling approach. I pulled out the book on Catholic homeschooling that I got at the Catholic homeschool curriculum fair we attended and started reading.
We always said that we decided to homeschool for various reasons, none of which were religious. But that doesn't mean that we are stuck with a secular homeschool for life! One of the things that really struck me so far from the book was relating how children sent to secular schools to learn "real subjects" and only hearing about God's presence in their lives on the periphery come to think that God has nothing to do with what they're learning in school! Science and History in particular have a way of pretending that God doesn't exist that is detrimental to a person's world view.
As catholic Christians, we believe that God created the universe and everything in it. There is nothing science can discover that doesn't directly point to the glory of God! Evolution (a theory, by the way, not fact) can nonetheless point to the fact that God's days are not limited to our 24-hour-periods, and perhaps the creation story is not something that happened thousands (or millions) of years ago, but rather something that is ongoing. Just like God forms us in our mothers' wombs, but He doesn't stop working on us after birth! To study science without acknowledging God's hand in it is to betray our Christian world-view.
Likewise with history. To look at the events of human history without addressing the role of sin, virtue, and the human longing for something greater than itself is to again miss entirely how God is present in our daily circumstances. Not that He orchestrates what happens, but that He is there with us. That people turn to Him, and He listens. That people turn away from Him, and He forgives (though not without meting out justice). Eliminating God from a history curriculum is pretending that humans don't need God. Again, this is a total contradiction of our Christian world-view.
Other subjects also can either serve to build up the spirit of a young Chrisitan or not. What we read penetrates our imaginations. Are we reading about what is true, good, and beautiful? Or are we reading merely what has always been taught? Just because certain works of literature are famous doesn't make them crucial to read. Likewise for art and music. I agree that there is an element of cultural competency that needs to be addressed, meaning that a person's education ought to prepare them to at least be aware of the existence of things that have shaped our society in meaningful ways - for better or worse. After all, we study wars rather than ignoring them because of the violence, death, and evil it portrays.
But if presented without any commentary from the perspective of the catholic Christian parent, the child is left to possibly conclude that anything famous in the secular world is "good", or "true", or "beautiful". I don't know if I completely agree with the adage, "beauty is in the eye of the beholder". Some things are just plain ugly. The same applies to what is good and true. We live in a relativist society. I am certainly a victim of this mentality. There is no objective truth, therefore there's no objective goodness. Virtue is whatever best suits me, the individual.
***
I'm returning now to the idea of lesson planning. I tried unschooling for several months when Antonio was born, and I was amazed how Natalia continued to learn in various areas without my so much as lifting a finger. Yet after those few months, I decided that we couldn't unschool long term because one of the motivating factors for me to educate my children at home is that I get to teach them!
So I make lesson plans. I try to make sure certain subject areas are covered. I attempt to figure out the best schedule to implement. And over and over I realize that everything always looks perfect on paper, but never works out in real life. Finally it occurred to me that while I love to plan and organize, I also love to stay with a natural flow of learning, following whatever sparks Natalia's curiosity. I tried to sit down with her and do X for a set amount of time one time, and it immediately felt artificial and not at all educational! Perhaps this will change as she gets older. But for now, for preschool, I'm starting to understand what my homeschooling method really is, and it's not any of the official methods out there. I've said we're ecclectic before, but I think I fially understand what that means to me.
Ecclectic homeschooling to me means several things. 1) I make plans and goals so I know what to look out for in terms of library materials, outings, etc. I plan and organize because I enjoy the very process of planning and organizing. I do not intend to meticulously implement any of my plans, and I expect them to be altered and updated periodically. 2) I observe the natural interests and inclinations of Natalia. I answer her questions and find resources for subjects she shows an interest in. I do not interrupt her indpendent play unless absolutely necessary (say, it's time to leave for church). 3) I return to my plans periodically and take note of what has already been learned. I then can move on to the next set of goals in a given subject as I reimagine the lesson plans.
So there is definitely a strong component of unschooling that remains. I think the only thing that isn't "pure unschooling" with us is that I do have subjects in mind for Natalia to be exposed to, and certain skills and knowledge that I do intend for her to learn. Nothing we do is done against her desires, though. She is loving memorizing various things, so why wouldn't I take advantage of this stage of her development and try to surround her with things I think are good for every person to know by heart? (Basic geography comes to mind. She knows her contients and oceans, and we're slowly moving into the concepts of countries. I'm not sure that she would've become interested in geography if I hadn't brought it up and if I wouldn't continue to bring in resources to build on this interest.)
I like labels, and perhaps that's what this is for me - a labeling of what was all along. Ecclectic unschooling with a hint of classical? Because I am drawn to some of the features of the classical approach/Charlotte Mason. What finally did it for me and forced me to cut my emotional ties with CM is the feeling of guilt over not spending hours outside. It just isn't for us, not where we live. I couldn't shake the guilt, so I shook the label instead!
I also think that unit studies may be making an appearance. As I think about incorporating God into our subjects and not just keeping Him in "religion", I instantly think of making unit studies around the liturgical year. I see unit studies as supplemental to a core curriculum, though. I don't want to tie myself to the idea of forcing ever subject into every unit study. History and science may need to unfold along separate timelines!
I'm probably overthinking the whole preschool homeschooling thing, but it's for a good cause - the whole education of both my kids. I think Antonio will benefit from this time, as I will hopefully have an idea of what crucial elements to include in his preschool in a couple of years. I also think Natalia will benefit because by the time we have to officially report her home education in two years, we will have ironed out the details and can hit the ground running without having to second guess ourselves.
Speaking of state reporting, I had to finagle the terminology a little to get from the list of mandatory subjects to the list of our home school subjects above. The mandatory subjects in our state are as follows:
1. language arts (literacy, literature/poetry)
2. math (numeracy)
3. science (nature/science)
4. social studies (culture/geography/history)
5. health (nutrition, safety, hygiene/disease control, exercise, rest, stress avoidance)
6. physical education (gross motor skills)
7. art (& art appreciation)
8. music (& music appreciation)
Confession time - the title to this post just occurred to me, so I think I will address the nuances of this "methodology" in a future post.
Monday, September 19, 2016
Preschool Week 7
Outside Time
We grab what we can in regards to outside time. We are certainly not outdoorsy people at this point, at least I'm not, but I try to celebrate every occasion we have to be outside.
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| Getting a jalapeno plant for daddy's dinner. |
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| Observing moss and tree roots. |
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| Watching a far off bird soaring. |
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| Watering our pine trees. |
 |
| We made a rainbow! |
Language Arts
Tea time!
I've started our version of tea time during breakfast to help encourage Natalia to stay at the table and feed herself, as this has become a daily struggle for us. I collected all the books that have poetry I can see us using later on for copywork and memorization, and I've started reading from them during breakfast. Below, we had breakfast outside, and we read a fantastic book in Polish that was all in rhyme, with wonderful illustrations, and lessons in geography as well as some character formation.
Social Experiences
In addition to her weekly Skype session with my mom, the biggest socializing took place at the end of the week, during Daddy's birthday party. Natalia was a champ, and has confirmed my suspicions that she is an extrovert, meaning she is energized by being around other people. She met a ton of new people, and enjoyed spending time with some friends as well as family.
Nature Study
Growing cucumbers! I bought a little kit at the dollar store and we prepped the soil and I had her push in the seeds and water them. We essentially put it into a mini green house (closed plastic bag) and set it on her windowsill, where it's getting plenty of sunlight. To our surprise, the seeds started to germinate within 48 hours! Now a week later, there are five tall sprouts that she gets a kick out of checking on every day. Here's hoping we are able to keep it going and end up at the harvest :)
Natalia pointed out the number "0" on her daddy's birthday card. Unprompted. We had recently read a numbers book a couple of times that starts with the number zero. I'm loving how these early math skills are just sufacing on their own! She's got a solid hold on the number "1", pointing out she's got one dog, or there's only one cupcake. We have been reading another book on numbers as well where we go through and point out on each page how many of some object are on any given page, which combines repetition of the number from that page.
Art & Music Appreciation
We put in a frame a print out of a lovely painting I found on A Well-Trained Heart, and we talked about it a few times. I'll leave it on a low shelf for another week and then swap out the image. The idea is just to expose her to beauty. We're not doing artist study per se right now.
We practiced singing the happy birthday song in English, Polish, and a little bit Spanish (it's too long still) in preparation for Daddy's birthday, which was on Friday.
Crafts
We've been neglecting these as I've tried to figure out how to be more deliberate about the types of crafts we'll be doing. But this week, we made a birthday card for Daddy!
She was also surprised by a bouquet of carnations from one of the birthday party guests, so we got to do some flower arranging as well!
Independence
We had a rough day early in the week, and upon reflection, I realized that I need to fill Natalia's love bucket before expecting her to feel comfortable playing independently. So rather than trying to get through my to-do list first thing in the morning, I've started reading to her during breakfast (while pre-loading her spoon and encouraging her to feed herself - something she's stopped doing a few months ago, presumably a regression in anticipation of becoming a big sister), and then I give her my attention for about an hour before trying to do anything that would require her to entertain herself.
In related news, she's started wanting to go on the toilet more, and I've had to bring out the toilet seat reducer, something I thought we had another year before I'd need. I still supervise her bc it's a bit flimsy, plus I don't like the idea of giving her free access to the bathroom without supervision for safety reasons (I'm thinking falls, as the cabinets are child-proofed).
ASL
Among the guests at Daddy's birthday party, there were two deaf coworkers. Not only did Natalia get to see the entire office using sign language, but when one of the deaf coworkers came to say hello, she signed that she remembered him! It blew my mind!
Spanish
Natalia got to practice her Spanish with someone other than Daddy. She was able to see the usefulness of the language (just like ASL above) outside of just our home, by speaking Spanish with her aunt, uncle, and several cousins.
Saturday, September 10, 2016
Preschool Week 6
HABITS
Natalia has been helping me, as usual, with the various chores around the house. Usually, it's something in the kitchen. Here, she's rolling up baby sausages in croissants.
Not sure if I mentioned this previously, but she has started to be very independent with her potty routine. She's been potty "trained" for over a year, since 18 months (ie. no diaper day or night while at home, and only a back-up pull-up on outings). Around 2.5 yo, we finally got brave and quit using pull-ups all together, with zero accidents in or out of the house in over 3 months. That said, she's recently taken it upon herself that there's no need to announce her need to go, or to request help or company (she would want books read to her during #2s). She goes to her potty when she needs to, never says anything about it, and I have to learn to periodically check to see if the potty needs emptying!
Independent play hasn't been terribly succesful this week, we'll refocus again next week.
LANGUAGE ARTS
I've noticed that Natalia has been bringing us books to read at various times of the day, something she didn't really do much before. She has her favorites that she likes to read over and over until they get old. Then we rotate them out. I try to humor her whenever she asks, if I'm not really tied up otherwise, to encourage this. That said, I'm looking into story-telling as an aspect of literacy that I want to incorporate into our routine, which includes letting her tell the story without me literally reading the words on the page, and/or acting out what's going on in the story (forthcoming).
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| Reading with Daddy (+ outdoor time!) |
MATH
I'm amazed how easily Natalia is picking up counting and actual numbers of things without formal instruction (imagine that!). She still stumbles over the correct numerals-to-items, but she is very enthusiastic about it, so I am not going to squelch that with instruction! Usually, she'll point to some group of objects with the correct (or incorrect) number of fingers and say the number out loud (which may or may not correspond to the number of fingers or objects!). If one of those is correct, I say "that's right", and repeat the correct number. If neither is correct, I just preface my correction with "silly goose" (a term of endearment she likes to use). She is choosing counting books as well as bringing up numbers of real world things throughout the day. For instance, she informed us a few times that we have only one dog. On walks, she's pointed out how many dogs different neighbors are walking. These are all self-initiated observations.
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| Color sorting finger puppets - her initiative |
SCIENCE
The weather got hot and humid again, unfortunately, so we were unable to start daily walks as I had hoped. But we did find a (dead) butterfly on our walk. We carried it back home and put it on our rose bush, though we found it on the ground the next day. We looked it up later to see what kind it was, but I must say that I'm going to have trouble with death-related facts of life when they are staring at me like this. I teared up thinking about this dead butterfly, but I'm going to blame pregnancy hormones on that!
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| Found Red Spotted Purple butterfly |
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| new foam blocks |
ARTS & CRAFTS
Not much to report here. After a couple of requests for dry erase markers so she can write on that side of her board, I've decided to leave them out for her and just need to remember to be checking that she's closing them all the way to prevent them from drying out too quickly. She isn't using them on any forbidden surfaces, so that's good. Below she is pointing to the belly button of the pregnant lady's tummy. (I always ask what she drew, never assume.)
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| Own initiative: "pani z brzuszkiem" (lady with belly = pregnant lady) |
FOREIGN LANGUAGE
I finally have some ASL photos to share! We were excited to be clocking in some outside time on the hammock in the evening, after a thorough anti-mosquito spray down, when she spotted the crescent moon in the sky. She proceeded to sign "moon" in its direction - something she learned from one of the Signing Time videos she watches periodically lately.
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| Signing "moon" when she spotted it in the sky. |
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| Bonus: outside time! |
BIRTH PREPARATION
I couldn't think of where exactly this should go, but it definitely deserves to be here, so I thought its own category might be most appropriate. In preparing for her brother's birth, we have been watching both her birth video and birth videos online. Last week, she started asking for scissors to "cut the umbilical cord" off all of her stuffed friends, and I figured it was only a matter of time before the pretend play evolved, and here it is. Her largest stuffed animal, Giffy the giraffe, has been popping out babies left and right yesterday and today. I have been assisting (by propping Giffy up, providing "pushing noises", and giving the relaxation cues from my HypnoBabies preparation). There have been big sisters and big brothers, and explanations of why Mommy (Giffy) can't play with them right now (because she has to focus because she has a baby). She starts the birth play by checking the baby's heartbeat with her stethoscope, usually putting the ear of one of the big siblings on the tummy to hear as well. After a bit of pushing noises (courtesy me), she says she sees the head, and next thing you know, she's putting baby on Giffy's tummy (at this point one of the big siblings magically transforms into the newborn) and covers mom and baby with a blanket. She assists with nursing, after some time (I asked if it was time several times before she finally agreed), she cuts the cord, and finally, wraps baby up in a blanket. I am just swelling with pride, and hope she is this calm and reasonable (!) at her brother's birth. :)
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| "I'm the midwife" |
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| immediate skin-to-skin contact |
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| helping with first nursing |
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| cutting umbilical cord |
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| wrapping up the newborn |
Swimming classes started this week, with Daddy. The next day, she pulled out her swimsuit from her little hamper and said it wasn't dirty. Next thing you know, she's wearing it. Hence, the photos above of her wearing a swimsuit for seemingly no reason.
Natalia has also indicated that she is prone to cabin fever. On our way back from an appointment, she asked where we were going and was disappointed to hear "home". She asked to go to the store or restaurant! Daddy obliged. We also had a grocery run where she and her dino helped put items in the cart, and a meal out where she noticed at the end the indoor playground and asked to go in the car they had up in the air.
OUTDOOR TIME
We didn't start getting regular good weather yet, like I had hoped, so only the first couple of days did we spend any meaningful time outside. Natalia has started to decide for herself if she finds it comfortable or too hot to be outside. She lets Bigos (our dog) out through the deck and goes out to see if we can also go out. When doing laundry, she wants to go out with me to hang up the clothes on the line, but after the first trip, she realizes how nasty hot it is, and opts not to join me on subsequent trips. One day, she actually fell asleep on the sofa while I was getting the clothes. It was naptime, and she said she was going to wait for me. If only all falling asleep would be that easy!
Sunday, August 28, 2016
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 :) )
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.
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. |
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. |
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. |
 |
| The success: we will be adding more threading activities! |
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. |
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. |
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.
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