So the second week of school went better than the first. We scaled back, and I think we were all more relaxed about it all. One day we did our "lessons" at 7:15am, and we were finished by 7:45! :) Informal, spontaneous, natural...learning at it's best! :) I didn't put as much emphasis on the writing activities, and chose activities that I felt Isaac would be most interested in. Again, some held his attention and others did not. We didn't even really do our "group" time each day like I was originally planning. We'll occasionally sing the "Days of the Week" song, and talk about what today is...but nothing structured each day.
He has enjoyed showing off how he can write an "A" all this week, but since we didn't focus as much on the "M" he hasn't really grasped that one yet. Not a big deal. What he DID manage to do was construct his very first 6-piece puzzle without any assistance. He was very happy with his accomplishment. He also memorized his second Bible verse in two weeks: "My sheep listen to my voice. I know them, and they follow me." John 10:27 I am continually amazed at how well he does with these verses. He also knows his first five sight words: "Isaac, God, cat, my, all." I tried choosing a couple that I felt like he already knew (his name and "cat"), and he picked up the others quickly.
As he memorizes these words, we'll be pinning them up onto a cork board, that we'll call our "Word Wall" so he can look at all the different words he knows. This week, we've moved on to the letter "T" and it has already gone SO much smoother. They were both so eager to get into their workboxes and start working on their activities this morning. We introduced the new letter and its sound, as well as our new sight words and memory verse. Our sight words for this week include: "be, to, the, you, is." I'm so excited to watch him memorize all of these words, and then begin to recognize them when we're reading together. :) In addition to memorizing these sight words, he's also really enjoying sounding out short words as well, so we work on that too.
Overall, I am feeling MUCH better about this whole homeschooling thing. :) I just had to change my expectations and be flexible. I will just continue to remind myself that they are only 2 and 3, and that they already pretty much know what they need to for "preschool." This completely takes the pressure off of me, and helps me to maintain realistic age-appropriate goals for them both. Here's to a wonderful, relaxed, informal, and FUN school year!! :)
I'm glad you've found a balance! And it's true-- they are learning all the time. Sam is 4, and I decided to start doing phonics with him here and there a couple of months ago, so first I had to find out if he knew his letters. (Which cracks me up; I made sure Jack knew all of his by age 2!) Not only did he know their names, but also their sounds, and could read 3-letter words. OH. It was a good reminder that this tiring season with young children is just showered with grace! I probably won't have to teach Elisabeth much of anything at this rate. :)
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