School Tidbits

I frequently have in my mind a picture of how I would arrange the perfect school setup - what I would need and how perfect this or that would be.

The perfect school setup would, of course, include an incredible outdoor learning area. Naturally, we don't have that imagined school setting. But, not having it is kind of like not have toys that do everything. Sometimes not having is so much better than having because we are forced to use our God-given creativity! Like using a toy-storage tub and a couple of kid-sized chair to make a perfect outdoor work place. True, I don't exactly fit, so a lot of our interactive teaching time had to be done inside this time around, but the girls had a great time doing their independent work outside the other day! God is so good to us!

Something else that has been fun with school lately has been watching Steven grow in his ability to be involved in school. He's progressing from rambunctious toddler to learning preschooler, and I love it! The toddler years are so much fun to me, but this is the first time I've actually had the chance to be homeschooling grade school with a preschooler around since Livie and Angie are fairly close in age.

Steven loves history and read-alouds as much as his sisters. He even participated in creating our rain forest (more to come on that this week!), and yesterday he picked up some scissors and began to cut. And did quite well, I might add! Yes, we need to work on his grip, but he had a little strip of construction paper less than half an inch wide, and he was cutting little grooves in it! Occasionally he'd cut a piece totally off, but for the most part he did quite well just cutting those little grooves. As you can see by the grin on his face, he was very proud of himself! I just found a tip on making a rice tub for preschoolers, so I put that together earlier this week. It's a tub full of rice in which we will hide things, put cups for filling and emptying, and play matching games. I'm excited about introducing that to him. Learning is so much fun!

I'm in the process of slowly going through next year's curriculum, gaining familiarity with the books, planning some of our extras, and creating a picture book wishlist. We're having a great time finishing up this year, and I'm sure next year will be just as fun, if not even moreso!

Comments

Ruthanne said…
What a fun idea! We love to do school outside when the weather is nice, too.
Mandy said…
School outside totally rocks! Even in public school I had some amazing teachers that would take our entire class outside as long as we "behaved ourselves." You never saw a more perfect class! lol

I love your creativity with the kids.. and I'm sure it rubs off on them big time! (and theirs onto you!)

Steven is just the cuttest thing... I don't know if it's b/c he's similar in age to Samuel or what.. but I could just eat him up! You may have to throw him into my 4/5yr old class during VBS. ;)

Popular Posts