Why Can't I Comment?!?

Well, here is when I should lead by example. I don't know how to comment on other people's sites, and finding out the answer is difficult. Or rather, reading long paragraphs is difficult.

Don't You Want to Learn ....

I was teaching Simone how to read her first words, "at, am, an." We were then poised to move onto three-letter words like "pat, pan, ham," but she didn't want to repeat after me. I asked her, "Don't you want to learn to read?" She replied,

"No, I want to learn how to drive!"

Slow down, little mama!

Apples or Shakespeare?

This weekend, the kids and I have an opportunity to experience something new. We can either attend an apple festival or a Shakespeare festival. I already know that lots of people are heading to the former and the long lines I anticipate do not enthuse me. But my kids aren't familiar with Shakespeare and anything renaissance fair-like. In fact, I myself have never been to a "ren fair."

Hmmm, I think I'm leaning towards all of us experiencing something new at the Shakespeare event. If it sucks or if the kids freak out, we'll leave! Simple as that.

Read Aloud and Comprehension

About 2 months ago I started reading the only child-oriented novel I have in the house, The Tale of Despereaux. I got it while rummaging through a used book section at the local maternity / baby consignment store. (No, we don't trade in our babies - we trade in baby stuff).

Simone liked it a lot! But she didn't seem to be remembering what was going on. This is another example of my adult mind expecting too much from my little girl's still growing mind. I've been an adult so long and have been used to memorizing what I've just heard that I forget that it took a while to gain these skills. I would be reading about different characters and she would ask questions such as "Who's that?" "That's the bad guy Roscuro." "Who's Roscuro?"

I became quite frustrated. It was partially the expectation factor and the other part was being tired at the end of the day, the time I would read aloud to her. But I thought it had to be something else! So I started looking at other books that might be appropriate for her attention span.

I tried Usborne's Illustrated Stories for Boys (I got it for Max, but it's fun for Simone too!) and she still asked questions like "Who's that guy?" "That's Sinbad." "Who's Sinbad?" Ay-yai-yai!

I turned to professional help and skimmed through The Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease. Armed with ideas, I tried to get some books at the library. Operative word: tried. Max and Simone were so squirrely that I turned to the librarian for quick help instead of just looking for what I had on my list. "I need something more advanced than picture books, but not as long as Despereaux." She picked up a couple of suggestions for my situation and we came home with The Stories Julian Tells and Jenny and the Cat Club. They weren't on my list but I was in a hurry with my whining kids making so much noise in an environment that is supposed to be quiet!

Last night I eagerly started reading Jenny and the Cat Club to Simone. It's a book that has lots of cute pictures and is not too long. I tested her after 2 paragraphs to see if she was listening. She wasn't, or at least she wasn't owning up to it. Maybe she was too scared to answer based on the look on my face. Maybe she could tell I had a lot of hope riding on her answer. Maybe that shut her down. I read just a little longer and we went to bed.

Extremely disappointed and lost as to what to do, I read the Read Aloud book again - this time with much more concentration. Hey, maybe Simone gets her lack of comprehension from me! My goal is to find out how important it is that Simone is understanding what's going on. Turns out it isn't. You read to your infant even though they don't even know words, right!? In fact, one of the "DON'Ts" is to not quiz your child about what was read. D'oh! I was doing it all incorrectly!

Simone later that night was up because of a low-grade fever. I read to her again and it went so smoothly! She asked obvious questions but I just answered them anyway without irritation in my voice.

Sigh ... I have some relief again that I'm not messing up my kids' development!

Homeschool Convention 2011

We became members of HomeSchool Association of California so we could get discounted tickets to their conference, which was recently held August 4 - 7 in Sacramento. I went there to learn more about how I would go about in homeschooling our kids. The wealth of information out there is astounding! We already decided we wouldn't include religion in our schooling, but the other choices of curricula, method of teaching, scheduling, and whatever else I didn't know I'd need to know, were still looming out there. I had been hoping that there would be many vendors who could show me what textbooks look like, but there were barely any there. There were a few online schools, but they gave off this vibe of "we want your money more than we want your child to succeed."

Despite not seeing as many books as I wanted to, I got a much better understanding of how I want to approach teaching the kids. I was particularly impressed with giving our kids a classical education. It seemed to be more organized than other such methods as Waldorf, Montessori, Thomas Jefferson, and Unschooling. I learned about mini-methods like afterschooling (which is what I originally thought I would do) and carschooling!

I don't know if the presenters were just used to addressing kindergarteners, but some speakers talked to us as if we were 5 years old. The Waldorf lady thought it imperative to show us firsthand how kids sing a song and move while learning their even numbers. I left after 30 minutes because I didn't want to do a third song and dance. I noticed that these speakers talked a lot about what happens up to 5th grade, but became vague in the middle school years. But maybe it was a time-crunch that affected their presentation. This was also true of the classical education lady.

I'm not a fan of the child-directed movement called unschooling. Maybe all the uncertainty of when to teach what is unsettling or maybe I legitimately don't think a child should have that much control in our relationship. Interesting thing though is that I recently have let Simone guide our approach to phonics. But I think it's more of my figuring out her learning style. For example, she doesn't want to do the busywork of repeating 5 times the /k/ sound for the letter "c", nor learning the extra poem lines.

The HSC Conference had a superduper sale that started at 8am on one of the days. I was so set! I had an excel sheet of books I wanted to buy, how much they cost on Amazon, on Ebay, and if they were available at our local library. I scored some sweet deals and found a lot of childrens books for prices as low as $0.25! All in all, I paid $21 for about 2 grocery bags of books. We still haven't read through everything.

While I went to lectures, Michael took care of the kids. And with confidence too! He just required that I give him instructions of when and what to feed them. He had hoped that they would sleep everytime I left, but he did well taking them to the designated play spaces and to the hotel pool. We found out how much of a fish Max is when they visited the pool for he jumped in with gusto while Michael wasn't paying attention. Max sank for a few seconds before Michael got to him. Max was still a happy camper and after coughing out the water, he continued splashing and kicking around the water while Michael held onto him.

If I have the opportunity to go to another convention, I will first check out the vendors and see if they're worth meeting in person. I think I'm lectured-out and for now, my research mainly consists of going online and reading forums and reviews. The super sale, however, was so kick ass that I think I might by a day pass for just something of that nature.

The convention also served as a mini-vacation. Simone loves to go to hotels and, while her needs are easily met, we are going to wow and pizazz her with our trips to hotels as much as possible. Observe her glee when we hung out at our room ...

Max wanted in on the fun ...

Simone happily obliged by wrestling with her brother.

Max had fun in the room, wandering around the mess.

We don't know what he was doing here, but his facial expression is so hilarious! He was looking at the TV, but he usually has a more affectionate gaze towards it.