'School' with Toddlers (via Mom)
My son Isaac was all set to enter Pre-K this coming Fall at an awesome school. I was SO NOT ready for this. There is so much going on in our life now (we might be moving to a new home soon, my husband is constantly applying to new jobs all across the country, I'm just finishing my Masters degree and will have to student teach somewhere soon...) on top of the fact that we just didn't think Isaac was ready to be away from us for a full day of school. So, I came up with a plan and I am so glad my husband was on board with it. We are in week two of my crazy plan and it is, so far, one of the best decisions I have ever made for my family.
I've been getting my Master's in Education for the better part of a decade. I've had to switch programs to 3 different schools because life got in the way. With the last switch I was able to move my program online so that I could do it from anywhere. The birth of my three children also prolonged this process since I would take time off from school when they were born. But, because of all of that I have taken so many extra classes that I have an extremely solid understanding of curriculum, learning across the lifespan, child development (some of my favorite classes!), special education, and education policy. I've seriously taken enough classes at this point and have enough credits (with a solid 3.5 GPA) to equate to 4 different Master's degrees. I love learning about education. So, who better qualified to teach my children than myself? (No idea why I didn't think of this sooner.)
As I grappled with the decision on if we should send Isaac to school, I realized that there is no rush. One day, when the time is right, we will hopefully send him to the private school I went to for him to start his traditional education journey. But, once he is in school, he is not going to be taking a break for 18+ years from it. I knew if he wasn't going to be in school we needed to up what he was doing at home with me to make sure he is on track with the other students when he does enter school. So, I built an entire curriculum for him and his brother. This was no easy feat but I loved doing and was so excited about all of it that it made it so much easier.
The Curriculum
Isaac is most likely a gifted learner (if you want to learn all about gifted & talented students or are looking for a fantastic resource for students or parents of students who are gifted & talented please visit my Gifted Education Blog and Activity Site. I made it for one of my classes but it is a genuinely fantastic resource that I continue to update). Isaac exhibits many textbook behaviors of gifted students and has the intellectual ability to complete and understand tasks and material far beyond his peers. His phenomenal eye hand coordination is another indication of this. Because he is most likely gifted, this required me to tailor a very specific program for him that started by pulling from his interests, was challenging but not overwhelming, and one that his little brother could also participate in (because let's be serious, if Logan isn't doing it with him there is no chance Isaac is going to do it).
Experiential, problem-based, and hands-on learning are the best things you can do for your children/students. We live just outside of Philadelphia so there are so many wonderful resources right outside our door. We have so many things available to us just in Philly and we can also make it to NYC, Baltimore, DC, the Jersey Shore, Gettysburg all in a day trip. I made a list of all of the historic sites and culturally significant sites near us and then pulled worksheets, or created worksheets in some cases, that would be age appropriate, engaging, fun, and educational for them. The picture to the left shows the historic sites, cultural experiences, and nature centers near us that we're going to go to. The list to the bottom right shows the bigger field trips that we will make 2 Fridays a month. The "M" next to a lot of them are ones that my husband decided he would like to join us on. It's on my master list which I copied for here so you get to see all the places he wants to go to.
Safety is SO important to me (I'm a safety freak) so I want to make sure the boys are ready to go to some of these places and be in large crowds in busy cities. These first two/three weeks I am calling it boot camp. They need to really hone their listening skills and I need to be able to trust that they will not run away anywhere before we take on these field trips. I'm using very kid friendly places right now to practice with them and really enforcing good listening. For instance, we just left the Please Touch Museum yesterday because Logan didn't listen. We had only been there for an hour and had planned to stay much longer, but when he ran off after I told him we would leave if he did, we left. Consistency, consistency, consistency.
The worksheets I found mainly on Pinterest. There are so many resources for students and teachers for any age group on there. My teachers and peers in my education classes always talked about using it, but I didn't think it could be used as reliable source. Let me tell you, I was wrong and it is. It's fantastic and has so many things to help bolster your curriculum. I wanted to focus on Isaac learning to write and read so most of the worksheets I pulled where for the Kindergarten level. He has a solid understanding of math so I pulled worksheets that would work from where he is at and push him further. For the field trips I made a list of all the places we are going to go and first found coloring book pages of each place.
Each morning they get to color in fish or animals or something directly related to the specific place we are going, like the Liberty Bell for the Liberty Bell. If there wasn't an easy one, for instance like the Edgar Allan Poe House, I pulled a picture of a Raven for them to color in. After they are done coloring, and have woken up a little bit, they work on writing and reading. I have a chalk board I set up that has our letter of the day, the date, and I write where we are going. Between the worksheets and working on their reading they have to figure out where we are going. When they complete their worksheet they earn a star. I set up their very own special pencil boxes and folders so that they feel like they are in school and have ownership over something. They collect all their worksheets so they can look at how they are progressing. They get to decorate their boxes with a star that they can earn each day from completing their worksheets. It motivates them and they really enjoy getting to chose from glittery stars that are different colors and sizes.
I am so proud of how they are advancing through their worksheets. Right now they are just tracing letters but in two weeks Isaac has gone from needing help tracing, to doing it all on his own. Next week he will practice writing without tracing. Logan still needs help tracing, but he is quickly progressing in his understanding of the letters. I know that they will advance at different rates just because they are different ages.
After putting this together I was greeted with the question of if I will continue to homeschool them officially from Kindergarten on. I am in no way against home schooling, if it is what works for your kids throughout their school years, go for it. But, I think that kids can lose very valuable social interaction if it's not done appropriately. It is really important to make sure that your children are getting that experience in learning how to deal with other people, especially people who are different from them, that traditional school provides. This allows them to better learn how to regulate their own emotions and will make them more apt to be successful in diverse situations and environments later in life. While I was putting this curriculum together, I made sure that both my sons would be doing activities that were in group settings and that a large portion of each day would give them the opportunity to interact with other students or children. For their actives I picked soccer, karate, ballet, tennis, and swim.
Below is a sample week, our first week, of activities. Grey is for travel time, purple is field trips, orange is worksheets, blue is our fitness center, green is karate, dark blue is swim, and black is bedtime. The boys start their activities at different times during different weeks so they are not all on the sample week schedule from our first week that I put below. I mapped out a basic schedule for 16 weeks. Each Sunday I sit down and look over the week, set up the daily worksheets based on what we are doing, and put in any appointments we have with the kids (like the dentist and Dr.'s appointments on the one below) and am ready to go for the week.
I wanted to make sure I was doing this in an affordable way (all these experiences can become expensive!) so I became a member to 5 different places that are safe environments for my children and areas we can easily go to a lot. I picked the Aquarium, Philly Zoo, Longwood Gardens, Franklin Institute, and Please Touch Museum. I also know we will go to the Cape May Zoo a lot (it's free) and the Jersey Shore (also free). I planned to pack lunches every day and have breakfast at home. (We just started the Keto diet and that is a whole other blog entry in itself but I am now a dedicated cook for every meal for our family).
The Results
Getting the kids onto this schedule, having them do something every day, engaging them with worksheets each morning, having more interaction with other kids, involving them in more activities, has made SUCH a difference in their behavior and demeanor. They were always happy and well behaved kids (they've always done classes, interacted with other children, etc. but just not to THIS extent), but just in these last two weeks they have shown such growth. I know that children like consistency but our crazy life was not prone to that. With this schedule they are up every morning at 8 and the boys go to bed exhausted. They are so excited for each day. It makes me so happy that they are excited for our activities and that they LOVE their morning worksheets. My quality of life has also increased dramatically. I used to think that it was so hard to leave the house with just one baby, and now I have three and am going everywhere. As long as I prepare for the day it is easy. I love spending all of this time and it is so fulfilling to watch them learn and know that I am helping to guide and teach them with their accomplishments.
