School

We started this year with some big challenges. I was terrified at the step up required and uncertain I was going to get everything done in any given week. I've been pleasantly surprised at how well we've managed so far. Not much housework is done during the week. But we have managed to stay on task and I have yet to be found crying in a corner when Mike comes home.

Kyrie desperately wanted to do Kindergarten this year. She has been looking forward to it for months. I was terrified: her learning style is completely different than Ben's, she can't hold even close to still, she is extremely stubborn, and it meant more time. And sure enough, Day 1 started when I gave her a coloring page and she said, "I only color girls." A few times over the last two months, she has decided she didn't want to do school on a given day. With an internal war going on between not destroying her love of learning and not wanting her to see that I care one or another which only makes her dig in her heels more but also wanting her to stick with what she's started, I've continued through a few bumps in the road.

And then Friday, she informed me she was quitting school and would resume when she was 6. (Which is a month away.) Now my dilemma is heating up. I'm busy and would like that 20 minutes for something else anyway. But I'm not entirely sure how to maintain a firm guiding hand amidst her insistence on controlling her own schedule.

To give you an idea of our brutal Kindergarten program:

• a brief 10 minute devotional, usually a short reading from the Bible and a prayer
• We work on verbal phonics, usually memorizing poems that help to remember what sounds different letters make (The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading).  This takes 15 minutes a day. 
• She has a writing book in which she practices writing the capital and lowercase letter she worked on in phonics and three words that begin with that letter. 
• She can choose whether or not to listen in on Ben's Latin class and history (where she can choose to color a historical person or scene if she chooses)
• I read a lot...after lunch and before bed. 
• We do an art or cooking project once a week. 
• She takes a science course every other week for 90 minutes. She can participate with Ben's science on the off week if she chooses, or not. She loves her science course. She studied amphibians and reptiles this week, complete with live frogs, salamanders, and a corn snake.

So there is my Kindergarten program. Corresponding is a preschool program for a very precocious 2-year old who loves to chant Latin conjugations and demands to do "school" every day. (She thinks this means coloring or drawing.) Everleigh LOVES puzzles and I'm a little freaked out that she recently pointed out "Annie's Salad Dressing" in the grocery story as "Annie's." (I've never used Annie's Salad Dressing but we do use other products and she seemed to read "Annie's." Which is very like Ben. But colors and shapes...hmm....I'm spending more time trying to do age-appropriate things with her. Fortunately, Ben loves to educate and helps both of the girls with their learning activities.

 And Ben....Well, I'll save his program for a later post.