We are finally beginning to get into a groove with our little homeschool (I hope). It has been a bit of a process and a learning curve. The curriculum we are following is rich and challenging and offers more than is needed, thus my first lesson- not everything needs to or will get done in a given day. Lesson two- kindergarteners only have about a 15 minute attention span before they need a quick break to reset. The day I was pounding home the fact that there are seven continents and going over and over the names on the map for 45 minutes only to then ask "ok, which continent is this?" and then get "I don't know" as a response... yeah that was an unpleasant learning day for everyone involved! I don't recall what grade I was in when this material was covered, but I am certain it was not kindergarten.
Another challenge has been that the kids each have a different learning style. Lorelai is very artistic and visual. She loves seeing art, learning about artists, and creating. Not surprisingly, she is a visual learner- every day I need to think of ways to present the material more visually for her (like phonics), sometimes she just needs to see the word rather than hear it. Kellen is analytical and loves science. He does well with our math and science segments and my challenge with him has been to keep him from getting bored and to keep him on task. I do love seeing the differences (even if it does make things a bit harder for me as the teacher).
I soon realized that this is more about exposure than mastery for a lot of the topics. I have also been surprised by what they have retained even when I didn't know it. Like when they start singing the continent echo song in the car for me and then telling me all about what animals you might find in each. So, it is working and I am beginning to just relax and figure out ways to make it fun for them. One way we started making it fun was to create a token economy (they learn about money and have fun too!). If they try really hard with their assignments and listen well (ok fairly well- we are talking about kindergarteners here) they earn a penny per assignment sometimes more if it is particularly challenging and they have worked through it. They trade the pennies in for nickels or dimes and then can buy things from Mama's Emporium such as stickers, little crafts, glow sticks etc. They love it and are now looking for ways to earn pennies (like doing extra online learning/tutorial games). Some of the bigger crafts may cost a dime while a small sticker just a couple of pennies. After getting the first joys of spending out of the way (they each bought a glow stick for a nickle right away), now they are interested in saving so that they can buy something bigger. So many great lessons there!
Today, for geography we started our exploration of each continent individually with Australia being our first stop (we previously made little suitcases and passports for our future travels from North America). We learned about the animals that are native to Australia, learned about the coast (where most people live), the Great Barrier Reef, and the Great Dividing Range. After, we had a picnic lunch while watching the amazing Coral Reef Adventure. I had bought this when the kids were three, but they were a bit young for it. Today, it was perfect and really brought the lesson to life. An unplanned but cool thing happened while watching the movie, after the Great Barrier Reef segment the diving team went to Tahiti and Moorea specifically which is where we went on our honeymoon (almost ten years ago!). When I told the kids, while we were watching, that Mama and Dada had been there their eyes got really big and they both said "really?". I then pulled out the pictures we took from our trip and was able to share them in a whole new light. They had seen the pictures before, but now it had context. It was such a neat experience and gave us a great start to our new week.
Kellen's Great Barrier Reef he created while we explored Mama's shell collection (complete with Mermaid!):
We use many things like our Wii to relax and have some fun in between all the lessons. Here's a couple of pictures of our Rock Princess:
Hopefully, the kids are enjoying the process more now, the worst thing that I could imagine would be if I made this an unpleasant experience for them. I want them to embrace the wonder of learning and to become lifelong learners like their parents.
