Learning as we go

Now that fall has arrived, Bella and I are baby-stepping our way into preschool lessons. I have a big container that I have filled up with artsy-craftsy stuff: pipe cleaners, cotton balls, popsicle sticks, googlie eyes, empty baby food jars, etc. These are supplies for our "projects" and she gets really excited when she sees that box!

This is going to be a learning experience for me as much as here. My experience with learning education in college consisted of teaching people oral hygiene. You want to know the proper technique for flossing, I'm your girl. Teaching preschool, not so much. Till now. So even though I know absolutely nothing about the theory of education, I do know a lot about Bella. And I am learning how to teach her. So far the biggest thing I'm realizing about homeschooling is to seize opportunity. Almost anything you do can be made into some sort of a lesson.

So, for now here's pretty much what I do. I go through my resource file and decide what "unit" we'd like to study and choose a few ideas. I read through them and make a list of supplies I'll need for the lesson. For example, for today's lesson we needed glue, cotton balls, construction paper, and I had to put together a little booklet for her to "read" with me. Then if one is not already provided, I get out my Bible dictionary and find a Bible verse that goes along with our lesson.

Todays lesson was based on "Mary Had a Little Lamb". We had a little picture booklet to look at as we recited the poem. We answered questions about the pictures, what Mary was doing, what color is her dress, is the lamb happy or sad, etc. For our art project, I cut out a lamb and Bella glued white cotton balls all over for the "fleece as white as snow". Then we put in on a piece of construction paper and wrote Psalm 23:1 ("The Lord is my Shepherd") under it, and we talked about what a shepherd is, and how the Lord takes care of us like a shepherd cares for his sheep.

Next we got out our math manipulatives. I kept seeing that term, "math manipulatives" in the homeschooling catalogs when I was first looking at them. I was kind of intimidated by that. My friends all know that math and I do NOT get along. But I am trying to keep a positive attitude for Bella's sake. Anyway, I figured out that math manipulatives are pretty much just something you use to demonstrate a number, or adding, etc. Like a counter. We are pretty plain jane around here: I used dry macaroni noodles.

We practiced our counting. I gave her an empty baby food jar and told her to put x number of noodles in it. Then we did some "who has more?", for example I would give her 3 and myself 1 and ask "Who has more, you or mommy?" She had a little trouble with that at first but caught on really quickly.

Last I got out her number flashcards. (1-10). She does really well recognizing her numbers, she only has trouble with 7 and 9. I don't expect that will last long, as she learns fast! So I would hold up a 4 and have her tell me what it was, then count out that many noodles.

So it may not seem like much, but I am just tiptoeing into this. If I sit back and think, "I have to teach this child to read," it is overwhelming. But if I think, "Tomorrow we'll work on recognizing A through E and learning their sounds," I'm much less intimidated.

I spoke with a patient of mine this week who homeschools her three children. She said, "Homeschooling is great and I love it, but there are days when I want to shove my kids out in front of the school bus and say 'Here! Take 'em!" That made me feel better!