Monday, June 7, 2010

Our First School Lesson

****Our family has a vision to home educate our children. I want to share our journey, thoughts, ideas, trials, errors, and successes. I will be adding a new side bar with links to homeschooling posts. I don’t believe this is the time to start a new blog so I will utilize Finding Michelle to share with you on this expedition. And like all things on Finding Michelle…this may last, it may not. My blogging life revolves around my faithfulness to my husband and children first and foremost.****

Lily really wants to ride a bus. And she also really wants to go to school with her 5-year-old cousins. Sometimes the bus thing pulls at my heartstrings a little bit since I know she will probably never go to a public school unless God has other plans. It pulls at my heartstrings, but not enough to become a Halloween Hypocrite all over. We’re just hoping Daddy can hook us up with a field trip ride on a bus.

This morning while in town Lily saw a bus and once again we spoke about her desire to go to school with her cousins. I explained that Daddy and Mommy felt that God’s desire was for them to teach her instead of sending her to school. She wanted to know what her cousins did in school and I explained that they learn about numbers, letters, shapes, and colors in school. I told her if she wanted we could go ahead and start school with her. Later in the car ride she spoke up and said she wanted to “do school” and when asked what she wanted to learn about, her answer was… “God.” (Reason #1 to homeschool, we can learn about God anytime!)

So, today when J.J. went down for a morning nap, Lily and I spent time “schooling.” Of course, the only difference between this and any other day of our life, I told her it was school. I have adopted the philosophy you homeschool your children from the time they are born. They learn simply though living. Some parents choose to do preschool curriculum. We believe we can teach them everything they need to know in preschool and probably through kindergarten virtually free.

Our first lesson today was on colors. I was aware she basically knew her colors, but this was really a great illustration for me to see just how much she knew. I equipped myself with a role of pennies and Lily with a small purse we got out of a kids meal. We decided to venture off in search of colors. The first few questions consisted of me asking Lily to find something a specific color. As we went on, she pointed to things and told me what color they were. She did a great job and earned 26 coins for her bag! After all the color finding, we counted the coins and she put them in her piggy bank to add to the money she is saving to buy a horse. And finally, we took time to pray and thank God for all the wonderful colors He has blessed us with.

What a great day of school and it only costs me 26 cents!

5 comments:

Chel's Leaving a Legacy said...

That's awesome! That is really the best kind of learning. I taught my oldest to add and subtract when he was 4 by picking up rocks one at a time (adding) and then throwing them (subtracting) and counting how many we had left each time we threw one.

Albeit, I do use a small amount of preschool curriculum just to get him used to doing some pages. Boys just don't sit down and color a lot like girls do...or at least mine don't. :-)

OH, and when my 12 yo was 5 and asked about "going" to school, I explained that in school, they can't teach or even talk about God, so we don't want to send them where God isn't allowed. That was and has been all the answer he has ever needed.

Tracy said...

I really like how you tie the "learning" into every day life situations. One of the sad things about formal education is that it can sometimes, as my oldest son Devon says, "suck the joy" out of learning. Your approach keeps learning enjoyable.

Amber said...

I'm so glad you had a good time on your first day of 'school' - I can't wait to hear more about your days of schooling!!

Tony C said...

Smart girl...must get that from her daddy!

This is going to be a great series. Let me recommend a fellow blogger you share a common interest- http://www.sonlightblog.com/

Luke has a great blog too and I think you will like it.

Hope you stay with this...good stuff. Like a strawberry Newton!

Liz Woolridge said...

Michelle - I had no idea how Christ centered you are and I must say that I am THRILLED that you want to homeschool. God gave Sarah the desire to homeschool early on. For us it took longer and was only for a season. It hit me less than half way through Sarah's 3rd grade year that God was directing us keep Sarah home her 4th grade year. This surprised me because 4th grade was always my favorite group to work with and the 4th grade teachers at her school were the best!!! Nevertheless we answered His call. We met so much opposition along the way but as Satan reared his ugly head to deter us, God just stepped in and removed any doubt. This ended up being the year that Ken left the ministry here and wemoved back to Florida. Our circumstances in FL were different and Sarah went back to public school in 5th grade, but the foundation God provided the previous year has stuck with her. She will be a sophomore this fall.