The Frustrations of Starting School

Well, we've started. The girls and I ran around this week gathering up last minute supplies. A world map which needed an extra day to laminate, 4x6 index cards for vocabulary words (I still need to get to the office supply to get a file box for those), and some anatomy information sheets (these were three-hole punched very detailed sheets and were only $.99 each). I figure the $3 I spent on those is much more worth it than the child-size posters for $15 that Big Daddy would be irritated to come home and find hanging on our kitchen wall.

So, we've started. I wanted to start with Madeline, even though the recommended start is The Story of Ping. Why change it up? Because I knew I'd need something good to get the girls interested in giving up their morning play time. And they LOVE Madeline.

The handwriting portion killed us, though. Roni absolutely hates handwriting. She isn't good at it and doesn't want to practice. She only wants to do the academic type stuff that comes more easily to her. It is frustrating to me to have her cry for almost an hour over writing her name, address and phone number. I wasn't forcing the issue, but told her that she could take breaks after each word. In the end, all she really did was play connect the dots over the spotty letters that I drew. But, it is a start. It made me realize we need to start at the beginning again and practice handwriting more than most everything else. She is good at the rest. I will be sitting down tonight to create some practice sheets for her with dotty letters for her to trace and space to write them on her own as well.

Little A isn't crazy about the idea of sitting with us even for reading the story each day, but I think she'll grow to like it more. She did get excited this morning when she was allowed to color with markers, so that's something. :)

Until next time, God Bless you.

Getting Started

Finally, we received the rest of Roni's curriculum just this Friday. I read through it last night and am rather excited about using this program. They even had examples showing how you would schedule in extra lessons if your child was ready for more advanced work. That made me happy because I had already decided that we would need to cover more math than what is included in the FIAR curriculum.

.

The books all sound great and I am really looking forward to including Little A in our daily lessons. She can sit through part of the lessons and participate minimally, but I think it will help all three of us for her to be included daily. Obviously, she won't sit with us the entire time and I hope she'll let me divide my time between her and Roni during our schooltime.

.

As I was reading through the parent/teacher information last night, I also realized there are some other things that the curriculum recommends, so I will be getting some 4x6 cards to use for vocabulary words and a box to store them in. They have a great idea about not only writing the word on the card, but having the student either draw or cut out a picture of something that illustrates the word, along with the definition. I thought I should get a children's dictionary, but then remembered that my grandma has bought one for the girls as part of their Christmas gifts. So, I'll have to just encourage her to actually send it at Christmas instead of waiting until next summer when they come to visit.
.

Well, we were planning on starting school after Labor Day, but I think we'll actually start Monday morning with a short lesson. I spent an hour or more organizing our school cabinet and making a list of items I'd still like to get to use right away (only a few things).

.

My mom gave Roni a huge and beautiful wood-framed chalkboard for her birthday and we need to decide which wall it will hang on and then hang it. I have plans to get to the teacher supply on Tuesday to get a world map that we will also put on the wall during the week. The FIAR curriculum has little circles for each story that we are supposed to color and cut out and then place on the map to help teach geography. Like I said, I am really excited to use this curriculum!

.

So, we're getting started. I'm excited. Roni's excited. Little A is anxious (as much as a 3 year old can be) because she just found out today that she will be learning along with her sister. She wasn't planning on school starting so early for her. But the way I look at it, she should be doing preK stuff now to get ready for Kindergarten next year (if she is ready then). She has been surprising me lately by counting in Spanish spontaneously. She has also just figured out counting on her fingers - and that each number actually has an assigned number of fingers you hold up. Before, she was just counting and her fingers going up at random speed.

.

And she's been showing interest in knowing which letter is which. So, I think that is pretty exciting too, since she really wasn't very interested at all in learning anything academic. She doesn't even like to sit through an entire story. :)

.

All in good time. For each of them. I'm looking forward to a good time with my girls. I think it will make a huge difference for our days to have a schedule again. And now that I have lesson plans laid out for the next month, I can start plugging in field trips and play dates.

.

Until next time, God Bless you and your family. Don't forget to pray for those affected by Hurricane Katrina. If you can, please donate here.