We are working on homeschooling. This is our first “official” year. Thomas is five and Tabitha is four. Although formal education isn’t required for their ages, they both seem to be ready to learn.
Our curriculum consists of :
- Reading a chapter from the Bible each day (this always proves to be interesting – yesterday’s chapter was on the rape of Dinah.. after reading the chapter through, I explained in the review that Dinah didn’t want to get married, but Shechem stole her and made her marry him and that made her and her dad and her brothers very angry…)
- Saxon Math 2 (plus math helps like flashcards and speed drills)
- Handwriting
- Kids reading aloud – usually library books (I try to get books in sets of themes, fiction and non-fiction… a recent theme set on nutrition, for example, also included Gregory the Terrible Eater and Bernstein Bears’ “Junk Food”)
- We use daddy’s travel to as an excuse to look up places where he has visited or plans to visit
Also, the kids were in swimming lessons earlier this year and we may put them in swimming or another sport when things settle down a bit (heh… like after baby #5 gets here.)
Thomas and Tabitha are reading pretty well. Tabitha likes to write a little more than Thomas does. Lately, she has been getting a pencil and paper to respond to my questions instead of saying the answer aloud. She sounds words out phonetically. Here’s an example of a chat she had with Tom (and yes, she is typing this by herself):
20:40:00) Tab: hidad
(20:40:14) Dad: hey… who’s this?
(20:40:42) Tab: tabitha
(20:41:19) Dad: Tabitha! How are you?
(20:42:10) Tab: rugoengtowrk
(20:42:27) Dad: I’ll be going to work tonight
(20:42:47) Dad: I’m going to work a long time tonight. 17 hours
(20:42:59) Dad: Did you see the pictures daddy took in Japan?
(20:43:21) Tab: yes
(20:43:28) Dad: http://www.glamdring.org/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=10675
(20:44:19) Dad: Do you see that building in the back? It’s covered in gold!
(20:45:10) Tab: relgold ?
(20:45:22) Dad: yes. Real gold.
(20:46:49) Tab: cool
(20:47:41) Tab: iliket
(20:47:56) Dad: I’d like to bring you here to show it to you.
(20:48:30) Tab: osum
(20:48:54) Dad: heh… I think you mean “awesome”. But you’re a doing a very good job typing.
(20:49:25) Dad: I showed my friends at work your picture and they said you were very pretty.
(20:49:58) Dad: I showed them this picture
(20:49:59) Dad: http://www.glamdring.org/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=10404
(20:51:08) Tab: idedentnodat
(20:51:47) Dad: tabitha… I need to get ready for the day, and you need to go to bed.
(20:52:46) Tab: oka
(20:57:24) Tab: yrdubest
(21:29:05) Dad: you’re the best!
(21:30:23) Tab: gudbidade
(21:30:32) Dad: goodbye, Tabitha
(21:35:02) Tab: hadadmibrutrzdedentoktouonthecomputr
(21:35:52) Dad: can mommy translate?
(21:36:00) Mom: “hey dad, my brothers didn’t talk to you on the computer”
(21:36:54) Dad: well, then tabitha is my special girl
(21:37:17) Mom: She’s screaming “YES! Dad said “Tab is my SPECIAL GIrL!!!”
(21:37:28) Mom: “Isn’t it cool? Isn’t it awesome?”
(21:37:41) Mom: time to put them in bed
(21:37:45) Mom: glad you got to talk to them today
(21:38:34) Dad: I love them all, sarah…
Aiden (age three) is working on his counting and identifying letters. We count everything from pennies to cereal… His favorite books are “Are You My Mother”, “Good Night Moon”, “Caillou Goes to the Doctor” and “Green Eggs and Ham”. Aiden is quite the actor – he prefers fighting scenes and dying scenes. He does talk when he’s dead – has to make sure we know that he’s not faking it 😉 He loves playing with blocks and building some pretty crazy versions of Mr. Potato Head. He saw the doctor the other day for his annual check-up and is now convinced there are bunnies in his right ear. The doctor said he didn’t see any in the left ear.
Micah is learning new words lately (banana, apple, spiderman, Pete, Elly, Grandma, NO! NO! NO!, ouch!, Bonk head, Up please, Down please, More please, Some? (I want some), bottle, drink, Mommy, Daddy, Tabitha (Ta ta ta), Get down!, uh-oh, car, bye-bye, peek-a-boo, hooray are a few he knows – he also chants “10 little monkeys jumping on the bed” (with scolding hand motions) and sings “Itsy bitsy spider” (he loves to shout the OUT! and push his arms behind him as far as they can stretch), “The ABC Song”, “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”, “The B-I-B-L-E” and “He is the King of Kings, He is the Lord of Lords.” Pastimes include emptying the water cooler onto the floor and putting things in the microwave and pushing buttons until they start to cook. Both he and Aiden look forward to Thursdays so they can watch the Recycling truck together and make truck noises (and holler at the workers — “Why do you pick up trash?” Aiden asked today.)
So far during this trip, it’s been a little crazy here.
In addition to school work, Micah and Aiden’s physicals, the car getting inspected, doing paper work to keep my husband out of jail (long story involving a ticket and an incorrect address), the junking of Tom’s gold car, fighting a kidney related infection (me), and having a bat in my house (thank God for Laura, my friend and neighbor, who responded to my early morning call (1:30am) armed with tennis racquet’s), I’m doing my best to keep my feet up and not go into labor while Tom’s gone. My biggest problem is that I forget to eat and then start to have contractions.I hope to make both blackberry jam and pesto in the next few days, as those are about the only crops that fared well from our garden this year due to extreme rain followed by a draught, as well as some sauce or salsa due to the abundance of tomatoes from my friend Susan’s garden. Looks like we have grape tomatoes that are about to ripen on our vines… if the beetles don’t get to them first!
I leave you with two more kid quotes – to me, they’re getting funnier these days as the kids try to reason more:
Tabitha to Aiden: “Don’t call me “baby” ever, ever again! It’s disrespectful!”
—
Aiden to me: “I need the hall light on because I can’t see my eyebrows when you turn off the light.”
😉