Puttin' on the [denim] Jumper

Figuratively speaking, of course! Miss A actually has one which I suppose makes us qualify as authentic homeschoolers!

We have begun our home school-preschool this fall. ("Home-school-pre-school has the same syllables as Miley Cyrus' song, "Hoe-down Throw-down" . . . I sense a parody and disclaimer: I only know this song because it is played fifteen times a day at camp)

Did I digress? Oh, yes.

So we began our home schooling journey this year. Although J is only four and A two-and-a-half, I thought that perhaps beginning on a small scale this year would be easier than jumping into it head over heels for Kindergarten or (augh) 1st grade! Three to four mornings a week J, A, and I gather at the table for about an hour's worth of "school." They are loving it and so am I!

I had no expectations--high or low--and am glad we are taking baby-steps, but they come running when I say it is time for school and we have a good time of it.

I polled several folks about their curriculum choices and ended up choosing a mostly free program that my mom already had on hand. It is called Sing, Spell, Read and Write. We are loving SSRW. They like the repetition of it and it has been amazing to see J's progress and ability to absorb things! Ideally, after twenty-six lessons we'll beginning pairing phonics sounds and be on our way to reading. It will be interesting to see if J is ready for that next step or just ready to go back through the alphabet.

We start our time with catechism review, then move onto our A-Z Theology (only word I can think of) book that goes through the different attributes of God. We do whatever letter we are studying that day. The kids are very funny with the catechism. Miss A frequently grabs the book and asks us the "questions" and praises us heartily and in a cheerily chirpy voice when we answer.

We then move onto SSRW. A gets a hand-drawn copy of the main letter page and it's corresponding picture which she works at diligently, then cuts up and glues back together. Consequently at the end of the day when we proudly hang up their schoolwork, J's looks like a respectable first-born four year olds' school work, while A's is more like an abstract, mutilated, multi-coloured, exclamation. J gets a bit put out when she gets started and I just have to remind him that he is a scholar and she is an artist.

While A is creating, Mr. J and I work at our different lesson worksheets. We review the sound of the letter, then there is a page of practice lettering and a multiple-choice cutting/pasting elimination excercise and finally a connect-the-dots. Our last project is piling into the car to listen to the audio cassette of the alphabet song. They love the novelty of getting into the car to finish our day. I think it would be nice to have a tape player inside the house!

It is neat how Miss A is learning by osmosis and how much J can handle. I am so thankful God has given us a good start to our year(s) of school.