What we've done

This is Mom. Caley's sleeping right now otherwise she'd be updating you. I just wanted to post some pictures, etc of what we've done in school so far. From about March-June of this year I tried to do "school" with Caley a few times a week. We would do free choice reading, a few workbook pages and then a game or puzzle or art. We started "Teach Your Child To Read..." in April sometime and moved really slowly, usually doing half a lesson and repeating the lessons at least two times (on a different day). For a while I was very strict about sitting in the mud room for school because there is a counter. Then I started to let her choose if she wanted to sit on the couch in the green room or the brown living room. I found it kind of hard to sit next to her and keep her occupied. I forgot she was only a new three-year-old.

This fall so far it's been much more relaxed. She's having a lot more fun. I have been giving her choices like where she wants to sit and recently she's wanted to sit on the floor in the living room on her yellow blankie. It's worked best to sit across from her, especially for her reading book. Games and projects she has been doing at the kitchen table, because Amelia is all over everything if it's within reach.

I attend Montessori school in Wyoming as a preschooler and have always loved the Montessori philosophy of "A child's work is his play." This has helped me so far this fall. I'm less strict and hopefully less controlling over what she will do at school. Really it's made me more intentional about teaching her throughout the week. She'll see a letter she's learned in her reading book and yell, "Mom I see a 'mmm' and 'ssss'!" It's also giving her a good repertoire of activities to do when she's bored or just says, "I want to watch a movie." She's seemed more likely to do crafts instead of wanting to watch TV.

I also think that even if we didn't do "school" this way, Caley would learn what she needs to know. She'd learn how to play appropriately and eventually would learn her letters and sounds. A lot of this "school" is really for me, to be thinking in the teacher mindset, that Mom and Dad are her first teachers.

This wasn't a project, or part of school at all, but she's just silly like that!