Giving It a Go

Registration for kindergarten has come and gone and Matthew is not registered. Its been on my heart the past little while to consider homeschooling as our mode of education. I really love the idea of having the boys at home and I think it could be a lot of fun for us all. I have been thinking realistically too though.

How does one focus on a child who needs guidance when there are two others who need attention?

This is where my experimentation has begun. I while back my sister in law told me about a alphabet curriculum she was going to try with my nephew. It focuses on one letter a week and requires a lot of extras too it (www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com).

Erica- the lady who makes the activities and has a blog (above)- always has a load of activities that the youngest child gets to do so they feel involved in school even when they are not doing the same things. This is where I thought I could start with my experiments.

I loaded a basket full of different activities that I thought would interest Levi so that when I sat down to work with Matthew he would be distracted.

Here's Ewan sitting down at the table loving being with us - see his top teeth coming in?

Here is Levi and Matty hard at work. Matthew is really enjoying writing and colouring and as you can see, we've only made it to the letter c. Levi is colouring and using his chalk board that he got from Aunty Jo and Uncle Aidan for his birthday. We also had some colour sorting bears that he had been playing with.

Once the table was boring, Ewan went to spend some time with his toy basket

and Matthew drew his people ( I love the face with legs) and wrote his name (can you spot all the letters?)

Levi later found a marble and a baby sock and was enjoying the ball with the sock and then finding it again. So odd.

As far as I can tell this system is a lot of work. It takes a lot of organizing and a lot of my mental energy but I think they really enjoy it. Matthew daily asks to do activities (still called tivafies) and Levi runs along behind him ready to do whatever I give him.

I give no guarantees that this is where we will remain. I have a few years yet to know for sure. I think this coming school year will give me a better idea of what to do and how to do it. It is only kindergarten after all which in many ways it just organized play time with a few educational moments attached. Would I love the few hours a day Matty free? Absolutely! But I think in the end I would miss how little time I had him around too.