September into October

Well, it's been a month since we've started Homeschooling. Definitely fun and challenging.
It's all so new and not at exactly what I've expected, although I have no clue as to what I've been expecting. Originally I had our days all scheduled and planned out. But after the first week, I found myself beginning to stress out over not getting everything on our check off list done. Amelie was doing just fine, loving everything. But I was the one overwhelmed! After the first week, I had to step back and deconstruct back to the basics. To date, I have revised our schedule about six times, and will probably do it again before the week is out. Each week, I incorporate a new element into our day.

The Enki rhythm has been so wonderful and pleasant. I had such trouble with our movement circle at first, but now that it's memorized (mostly ;) ) it's so much fun.
I just want to say thank you so much to the Enki Support group. I am such a lurker, but there were so many suggestions on how to improve the movement circle. It really helped me ALOT!!.

I begin by calling Amelie in with Come Follow, I sing it anywhere from 4 to 10 times. When the song starts, we clean up whatever we are doing, and Amelie follows me to the sun room where we begin the movement activities.
From there we do Round and Round, and Amelie likes to spin around slowly as we move around the room. Then it's Sally Go Round the Sun, Sally marches, skips, runs and jumps. After those 5 verses, we do My Little Pony about 4 or 5 times usually until we are winded and need to sit down. But not for long because next is Kookaburra who sits, climbs, turns, swings, and hops from limb to limb. Then it's Squirrel Bounds 2 or 3 times, and the short form of Autumn Leaves another 2 or 3 times. Since the first week, I've added a new verse Caterpillar (we have some in a jar who have just formed Chrysalis') and once the Caterpillars have transformed I'll add Butterfly. We've been closing the circle (which we never really do in a circle since it's just us and sometimes Daddy) with Owl. For I while I had trouble with Owl, but it all came together after watching the Kindy Movement DVD.

The pattern has been circle, snack then story, lunch and quiet time. But I never get to craft time in the afternoon. After lurking on the yahoo group (I don't know what I would do without it!!) I saw one mom post that she did all her activities in the morning. So starting next week we'll be doing Breakfast, Story, Creative Play, Circle, Snack, Craft, Lunch, Quiet Time. We'll have to eat breakfast at 8am, but Creative play will be outdoors while I work on the garden. Thank goodness the weather is getting so nice.

For our core stories we have read, Coyote's Rain Song, Masha and the Bear and now Stone Soup.
We also read Duchess Autumn as our Nature story.

We made some stone soup on Monday night with a friend. It was so much fun! I read them the story, and then we acted it out putting the stone and veggies in the pot. Both girls ate it all up!

Now need to make my lesson plan for this and next month, and include some harvest crafts. There are so many to choose from!

I also want to note, in addition to Enki, we also do 2 outside classes a week.
Tumbling on Tues, and Ballet on Thurs.
Occasionally, I let Amelie play Jumpstart World Kindergarten on the computer (this happens maybe once every 2 or 3 weeks)
And lately we've been listening to Hop, Skip and Sing French twice a week. and doing the Muzzy French program once a week.

I'm trying to keep everything very light. So it's on and she sings along, but I don't push her to do anything she doesn't initiate herself. I just play along with her and try to model the correct way. I try not to tell her how to do something, but then she'll try to correct me into doing it her way. Then I have to remind her that I'm the teacher... :)

First Days of School

Our first week

Well, the week isn’t over yet, but I’d like to get it down while it’s still fresh.

It seems surreal that we’re really doing this. Home schooling, and at times I wonder what the big deal is. One extreme to the other. I’ve spent years preparing for this. Inside I’ve always known we’d do this, and what I’ve seen around me has only confirmed that my intuition is correct. But, I digress.

Monday we began our 1^st official day of home school. I stayed up till 3am the night before preparing. I wanted to do something simple and symbolic on our first day to make it concrete for her.

In the morning I presented her with her first set of carved wooden figures and a blessing to begin her formal education. I lay everything out on our wooden chest in the living room. She was so surprised when she saw the display. She saw the typed blessing next to it and asked me to read it to her. I did, and it was so beautiful how she connected with it.

When I described her like the pine tree, straight and tall and strong, I saw her raise up on her toes and reach her arms high. It was amazing to me how she just intuitively physically absorbed the description into herself. It was the same with the fox, as I described her with the fox properties; she picked it up and made it move quickly to sit under the branches of the tree. The deer moved more calmly and gently, and the rabbit hid behind the tree. It was so delicious to watch. All I did was slowly read the blessing and watch her absorb it. When I was done, she turned to me and asked who wrote that poem. I told her that I wrote that blessing for her, and that her daddy and I wanted to gift her with all these blessings from our heart to give her as he started Kindergarten.

She smiled the sweetest smile and gave me such a strong hug. I was completely blown away. I didn’t think she would get it, but I am so glad I made the extra effort.

Weeks before I had purchased some beautifully handcrafted wooden figures to present her with at the start of the school year. My plan was to have the classroom with all the toys and supplies already set up on our first day. But that’s not how it’s going. Too much stress and pressure, and I want to keep the focus on relaxed learning, joy, rhythmic ease and flexibility. I figure the best way to go about is to just create it all with her. We could make the log blocks together as a craft. Also putting the school room together will be a good project for the two of us. She is just so much more connected to it all when she has a part in it.

Back to our first day, after the blessing, I showed her our weekly schedule, and we talked about how we would take our week slowly so we could learn what worked for us.

Then she played with her wood figures and dollhouse people for the next hour and a half.

In retrospect, it’s good that I didn’t have everything all set out at once. I think introducing it to her bit by bit will make it that much more enchanting.

The rest of this week and next, I want to work on the wood blocks with her. And I think next week or the week after I will bring out the play silks.

Today Tuesday was enrichment day, we went to H.O.M.E. for home

scholars. It’s an enrichment program with lots of classes for homeschoolers. We signed up for Tumbling. She had a ball. She was so excited to go, but when we got there, the amount of kids and the noise was a lot for her. She got a little shy and began hiding behind my legs. The teachers of the tumbling class were 2 young men. One of which was home schooled himself, and whose mother taught the musical theater and piano classes for the group.

The other teacher was so high energy; he had her a little wary. On his first approach I could feel her little body trembling. He came right into her space and very loudly tried to roughhouse her. Needless to say she wasn’t having it. When he walked away she confessed to me that she was scared. I reassured her that that was normal, and reminded her of how she felt her first day of dance class and at the carol center. She still looked concerned, but since I assured her I would stay for the class, she sat down and participated. She had so much fun. They started out with Simon says for stretches, and then there was much jumping and running and bouncing. By the end of the class she and the loud scary teacher were good buddies. On her way out she said she had so much fun, and how now that she was used to the class she was not scared any more. I love her so much.

Then we came home for lunch and a nap before heading back out for ballet.

Then we came home, and I set up the computer for her to work on Kindergarten Jump Start while I made dinner. We ate, washed up put on jammies and finished the last chapter of The Princess and The Goblins. We’ve been reading it for maybe 2 weeks now.

Now she fast asleep while try to capture it all into words, and prepare things for our day tomorrow. How fun and exciting it all is.