Playing Games with a Five-Year-Old

… is so much fun.  Gage has been sick this week; battling a cough, gooky throat and a fever, so we’ve been taking it easy during ‘school’ time.  Puzzles, stories and games have filled our time rather than thinking hard about the work we normally do.  I know how hard it is to concentrate when not feeling well, so I wasn’t going to push it with this little guy. He happily agreed to this arrangement. Surprise surprise. 

Anyway, we played the Thomas math game… which he won.  And was clearly excited about… And we played Sequence For Kids… the game Sequence brings back great memories for me, of playing it with family and with Brian and Melissa before we had our kiddos. Now, the Kid Version is  my favorite game to play with Gager. For those who don’t know, the object is to get 4 chips in a row.  When we draw a card we have to say the animal, the letter it starts with and emphasize the sound that letter makes.  He, not surprisingly, knows the name that goes with almost every animal… like, “Polly the Penguin” and “Wiley the Whale”. 

This boy used to be SO competitive when playing games, but now he’s showing a softer side.  When he picked the dragon card which allowed him to remove any chip he wanted, he removed one of HIS so that he could help me try to win.  THAT shocked me. 

Then, he only needed “Gloria the Gorilla” to win in THREE directions at once and he got it!

…and he got to flick his fingers in triumph over his win.  This celebratory gesture was started long ago between me and my mom, and now Gage loves to bust it out when he wins, too.  I love it.

And this is how much I love this little guy… sharing the last piece of Mint Brownie with him.  Maybe not the best thing to eat while fighting an illness but… oh well.  

Then I suggested we play this game… I will not disclose whether I may or may not have learned a similar game in college… involving a quarter and a little bitty glass…

… this version was MUCH more fun. 

He won this one, too.  I love game days. 

I’m finishing typing this as I’m listening to Gage coughing miserably in my bed… please pray he gets well, soon!

Reading, For the First Time…

I know this photo isn’t very original… it is in-fact very similar to one I posted just last week.  But taking pictures of my boy learning is addictive.  Especially when he is, in this picture, reading for the first time. 

I am really enjoying how these Explode the Code books are laid out… this one in particular is really jiving with how Gager learns.  He loves making sense of things, and that is exactly how these lessons are organized. He sees the connection between the activities, and in tying them together, is learning quickly.    I may be reminding myself often, that being able to witness moments like this – him reading words, on his very own, for the first time – is one of the many blessings of homeschooling. 

Homeschooling: One Week Down…

… and how many to go??   I don’t know.  I won’t let the first week (okay, 3 days) determine the longevity of our homeschooling adventure.  As with starting anything new, there is a transition period, and beginning our first year of actually homeschooling is no exception.  For me or Gage.  And I really probably shouldn’t have embarked on this new beginning when both of us were sick with colds.  

But as a whole, I haven’t figured out how I want to go about homeschooling… how to approach it as something he gets to do rather than has to do (although he does have to do it), without talking down going away to school.  I am already realizing that a structured curriculum (Sonlight? Abecka?) is probably in our future and that school-time should probably happen when Cooper is napping. 

Although, on Day 2, I tried to get Cooper involved in the learning, which he was all for. 

I’d look at an Alphabet flash card, that contained the letter, picture beginning with that letter, and the word.  Cooper was in charge of telling Gage what the picture was of, and then Gage had to figure out what letter it began with.  No problem.  Gage would then show Cooper the letter that he wrote down…

… and Cooper would try to find it on the wonderful Alphabet quilt my aunt made for the boys… some letters were harder for him to find than others, and this exhausted him…

And sometimes Gage would have to help him… “J is for what Papa always gives us!”  ie.  Jelly Beans. 

The game lasted about a half-an-hour and it encouraged me that this is possible! 

I am really enjoying working with Gage on his letters and sounds and I have heard that the fundamental of homeschooling is to teach your child to read and teach them discipline, and then they will teach themselves. 

But I know there is more involved than just the letters and numbers, so that is where I feel a curriculum would be beneficial.  So that I know I am covering all the bases I am supposed to.  

I unfortunately feel like I’ve started off Gage’s year of Kindergarten under-prepared.  I should have already researched curriculums and planned out weeks worth of lessons.  At this point, I don’t know if I’m lazy or just embracing the flexibility of homeschooling.  I don’t want to say “Its just Kindergarten” because this is a foundation we are laying.  And I know that if I mess this up at the age of 5, it’ll be hard to later foster a love of learning in this kiddo. 

And if I don’t embrace Cooper’s snippets of interest in being involved in school, I may mess him up, too.

For a few other reasons, too, I am wondering if homeschooling is the best option for Gage.  Does he need more time with other kids, his own age?  Does he need to learn to be instructed by other adults besides me and his dad? 

I’m not giving up (Ha!  That would be crazy after only 3 days…) but definitely need to evaluate our situation each day. I need to put more time into his lessons, more time into thinking about creative fun ways to teach, and I need to make sure I am choosing to home-school for the right reasons.  Not because I’d miss him too much if I sent him to school.  Or because it would interrupt the flow of our day… a flow we have become quite accustomed to. 

But I also need to know that I wouldn’t be sending him to school for the wrong reasons too… like to get a break from having 3 kids around.  I find that thought popping into my head an awful lot lately.. 

So, after only 3 days of homeschooling, I’ve determined that I am going to be learning as much from this adventure as he is.  So goes life.