Youngling and I have been taking some time off, and only doing light lessons here and there. It's been enough to keep her interested and cutting down on any information lost throughout our break. I wanted to give her a little time to just relax and have fun for a bit, so we can make a more formal start to school, as the other kids begin their classes. It doesn't mean a great deal to me, but this is important to Youngling.

In the meantime, I have been doing a bit of reading and planning for the coming "school year". The following are some of the books that have been recommended for Youngling's age group, that I have been able to find at our public library.

The Complete Tales of Beatrix Potter	Beatrix Potter	J 823.82 P
The Little Engine That Could	Watty Piper	JE P
Blueberries For Sal	Robert McCloskey	Caldecott JE McCloskey
The Story of Ferdinand	Munro Leaf	Newbery J Trans L
Ox-Cart Man	Donald Hall	Caldecott JE Hall
Stone Soup	Marcia Brown	J 398.2
The Story of Little Babaji	Helen Bannerman	JE Bannerman
Brer Rabbit; Stories From Uncle Remus	Joel Chandler Harris	J 398.2
A Child's Garden of Verses	Robert Louis Stevenson	J 821.8 S
The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes	Iona Archibald Opie	Ref 398.8 O
Frog And Toad All Year	Arnold Lobel	J Trans L
Mouse Tales	Arnold Lobel	JE Reader

While this isn't a comprehensive list, and I will probably hand-pick many books for Youngling, this gives us a place to start. I remember reading some of these stories when I was a child. I look forward to finding more "treasures" between the covers of good books. Youngling enjoys books so much, and is finally coming along with many of her letter sounds, and understanding how they fit together. One resource that we are really enjoying is :

Star Fall

Today was a good day for learning, and for fun. During the afternoon, we made "Alphie the Alphabet Worm", or rather- I did.

I noticed something last night that is a little bothersome. Youngling has begun to "play dumb" so that I will give her extra help, and she asks me to basically do her work for her. Last night, I actually cut our lesson short because I felt that she wasn't enjoying it enough, and I was becoming a little frustrated. So, that seemed like a real good indication that it was time for us to put the school work away.

Youngling and I are having a grand time reading through "Little Women". She is really enjoying the book. When we were at the bookstore last, we picked out "Anne of Green Gables" for our next reading adventure. She even wanted to start reading it right away, but I told her that we had to wait until we finished "Little Women".

As far as handwriting goes, Youngling is doing well. I have begun to make her worksheets where she must find the item that does not belong among the rest, for each exercise. She is doing fairly well. She has even caught some of the more subtle changes that I included.

Unfortunately, Youngling is still having a hard time with letter sounds. We go over it time and again, but I'm not sure that she cares to pay much attention. I'm sure that she'll get there. So, I am just sticking to real small words, and asking her to read them to me and sound out the letters, before she begins her writing exercises. We are having small successes, and that is all I need. Just so long as I know she is absorbing a little bit, here and there.

Today, Youngling and I used the internet for her lessons. We really had a fun time today, searching out whatever it was that we wanted to learn about. Together, we learned a little bit about a whole bunch to topics. Youngling decided what she wanted to learn next, and we just kept pointing and clicking.

First, we started out by researching animals, though Youngling thought that it would be best to learn about INSECTS, while there we read on the American House Spider, Daddy-long-legs, Fireflies, Rose Weevils, Black Flies, and the House Mosquito.

From there, we moved on to learning about FISH. From here, we read about Goldfish, Great White Sharks, Tiger Sharks, and Whale Sharks.

While we were on the topic of animals in the sea, Youngling and I moved onto DOLPHINS. We both really enjoyed the flash presentation about the Dolphins. There was only one "slide" that I did not elaborate on very much, and that dealt with the interesting comment , "dolphin ancestors looked like wolves but were more closely related to modern-day cows." As anyone who knows me can attest, I don't buy into evolution. I agree that adaptation takes place, but no one has ever seen a canine change into, or give birth to, a non-canine. lol

The topic of dolphins brought up lesson on sound, how we speak, and how our ears work. While we were talking about our bodies, we also ventured into the realm of the DIGESTIVE TRACT. I didn't get as indepth as the included text, but rather just explained the picture in more child-friendly language. Youngling liked being able to see how the inside of her body works, especially since she has issues with using the toilet properly. I've tried to explain her intestines to her previously, but it went so much easier with a picture to show her.

Before we stumbled upon the presentation about dolphins, Youngling and I had originally found ourselves at the site to research VOLCANOES. Youngling seemed to really like learning about volcanoes, though I am sure that we will have to revisit the topic again when she is older.

Youngling is finally beginning to show an interest in knowing where she is, and expanding her understanding of our world beyond our house and neighborhood. I think that a lot of that comes because her grandma has moved to Tennessee. So, I showed her a map of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. I also showed her a closer map of MICHIGAN, since that is where we live.

Lastly, it is hard to learn about the United States without learning something about the President. So, Youngling asked to learn about our President, George W. Bush. The funny thing is that what was most noticeable to Youngling was that she really thought his necktie was pretty. lol

Youngling and I have been on a short hiatus, being that we have family staying with us, from out of state. She is so happy to have her grandma here that she spends tremendous amounts of time attached to her. lol

Now, Youngling hasn't gotten away from her studies completely. We have still made a point to sit down for some "school time" here and there, but we are not observing her schedule right now. Spending time with family is more important at this time. Still, Youngling is having a good time, picking up lessons along the way.

This past weekend, Youngling and I made good use of a coupon that I had received from a bookstore. After poking through all sorts of books for little ones, she and I settled on a kindergarten level workbook. I had thought about finding her a reading book, but she has so many already. I think that we should finish what we have, before spending money on more reading material. Besides, I enjoy a little break in my own work, as I normally sit down each night and create Youngling's learning pages by hand.

Youngling had a longer school session this afternoon, clocking in at about 45 minutes. I had a small stack of papers for her to complete, some of which was just to keep her fresh. For example, she had three fun pages with letter tracing exercises (A-I). She knows how to write the letters, but I would hate for her to forget. lol

Included in the packet, I also wrote out a spelling page for her, along with a page of simple addition. Adding something new, I drew up a shape matching page for her, which was interesting. lol Finally, her large lesson was learning how to spell her full first name. Normally she goes by a nickname, a shortened version of her name. I want her to be able to spell her full name though, and she is doing pretty well. I am sure that with a little work, she should be able to write her full first name in a couple weeks.

Today, Youngling had a writing assignment of two words. Her words for the day were "DOG" and "CAT", because she wanted to learn about something concerning animals today. Later this evening, we will be reading her new library book that is about butterflies.

Handwriting:

Youngling is doing very well with her handwriting. Her "D" still looks a little bit like an "O", but she is getting better each time she writes. Youngling's "G" is very good, especially since it is such a hard letter for her to write. Still, they are easily read.

I think that I have struck gold, in changing the pages that I make for Youngling to write on. Instead of using lined paper, we have switched to blank pages. I have taken to drawing rectangles for her to write her words inside, and she is finding it much easier to control her letter size. With the boxes, she is able to keep her letters roughly the same size.

Reading:

Today, I introduced Youngling to the word "NAME", by giving her a place at the top of the page to write her name, and labeling the line. I am using that word as a way to explain to her the different sounds that a vowel can make, and how having an "E" at the end of the word can change the vowel sound. She doesn't quite seem to have caught on yet, but it doesn't matter. She is only becoming aquainted with the idea right now.

Today is working out to be a spelling day. Youngling has been doing fairly well in remembering how to spell the words that I give her. She loves being able to write her words, and I can see that they are slowly replacing scribbles on her drawing papers.

The other day, Youngling decided to draw on her father's hand, which is actually normal in our house. She saw a cartoon one time that showed the characters having a mark of friendship on their hands. So, now she asks me to draw a "friendship" on her hand, which is usually a star or a heart. In return, she draws something on mine and DH's hands, so we can all three have a friendship together.

Well, when she drew on her father's hand, she inked on a little stick person. At the top, she wrote "daddy". She had a difficult time getting the first two letters to look as she wanted them, but we could still read what she was trying to write. It was so cute. I had only shown her how to write "daddy" one time, the day before, for Father's Day. She has really enjoyed being able to write her own name, fill out cards on her own, and write letters to people.

Today, we made a special point to learn how to spell "God". Later this afternoon, I am going to help her write the word a few times, so she gets the hang of it. Our lesson was very informal this morning, taking place over our bowls of oatmeal. It's funny though, because Youngling taps her finger on the table with each letter, just like I do. lol

I understand that everyone does homeschooling differently, and that is a beautiful thing. One thing that I do keep hearing over and over again is a great deal of negative speak from ladies who bemoan "bringing school home". For many, homeschooling should (read: must) be a night and day difference from what they experienced as children, or what their children have thusfar experienced. I have no problems with people unschooling, and homeschooling in whatever fashion works for them and their progeny.

For our family, it looks as though we are going to have a more structured "school" than many other homeschool families. The reasons for this are multiple, one of which is the fact that I trive on organization. lol I had such lovely visions of designing my own curriculum and unit studies, but it does not look as though we will be moving in that direction. My dear husband feels more secure in using a purchased curriculum, which stems a great deal from negative comments given by his family members. So, in an effort to make our home educating look more formalized, we will be purchasing a ready-made curriculum when Youngling gets a little older.