Oh that God would give every mother a vision of the glory and splendor of the work that is given to her when a babe is place in her bosom to be nursed and trained! Could she have but one glimpse in to the future of that life as it reaches on into eternity; could she look into it's soul to see its possibilities; could she be made to understand her own personal responsibility for the training of this child, for the development of its life, and for its destiny,--she would see that in all God's world there is no other work so noble and so worthy of her best powers, and she would commit to no others hands the sacred and holy trust given to her." -JR Miller

Monday, September 13, 2010

Woo Hoo - Success

Today we attempted the back to school routine again - slightly different as we took our books down to my Mums (she only lives a few doors away) as my son had stayed there for the night - but what a success!!! We did calendar time, followed by bible memory verse - from raising rockstars preschool with lots of singing - then I did hooked on phonics with my son - who surprised and pleased me by having no problems even with the long break! I set my 8 year old daughter on her handwriting - she didn't do great but her attitude was willing which is a huge step forward! And I let my 4 year old girl start her handwriting for a reason book - though I have to watch her as she likes to skip pages and just do what she fancies!
I let Bethany (8yo) have a break when she'd finished as I didn't want to push too much on the first day and next thing I know she comes to me with the teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons book - asking me if we can do it :-0 - this is the child who I've had to really push to get any school work done -actually wanting to learn - I can't describe how pleased and over the moon I am - the best part being the fact that she flew through the lesson with no problems so I think she is now finally ready to read and will be an independent reader within no time!!

Then I got my 5 in a row book out (for a quick review of what I could focus on for the day) chose language and proceeded to read how to make an apple pie and see the world - one of our favourite books - and I got the children to act it out as I read it, also stopping to point out particular words and what they meant - i.e brush up on Italian didn't mean literally get a brush out (as they acted out lol)

I am learning that my children are "active" learners (if there is any such style) in the sense that just sitting down and listening they don't take it in (bit like me) especially my eldest daughter so I have to tailor what we are doing to make it fun for them - I do believe in training them to sit ok for read alouds too but maybe I've been making too big a deal of it!

Today the learning didn't even end there - how amazing was it when we came home we were talking and planets came up and we couldn't remember which one had the ring round it - well I never said a word and next thing I know my 6yo son has gone to the bookshelf and got down the planets and stars book and says to me "maybe this will help us" - so I'm succeeding in my goal to teach them how to research and find out answers without even putting too much effort into it!!

4 comments:

Mary-Jane Potter said...

that sounds like a great day sarah. a good christian author on learning styles is Marlene Lefever, i found her theory very helpful. theres also a lot on the net about it. Actually if thats something you want to look into i have one of her books, its just called 'learnign styles' i think, its so good ive referred to it loads, i can lend it you if your interested in reading it, can bring it to the retreat.

Our Family for His Glory said...

Hurray! So happy for you!!
Jessica

Homeschool on the Croft said...

Glad to hear this! Isn't it so encouraging when we see character and attitude changes.....much more pleasing than educational progress, isn't it?
Hope you keep having encouraging times, and you'll be able to look back at those encouragements when times are a wee bit more tough.
Love, Anne x

Deedee said...

Way to go Sarah! See? They get there in the end. :o) I knew you were doing a great job and it would pay off. I think the end of this week looks ok. Friday would be better than Thursday as I'm taking my driving test on Thursday at lunchtime!!!! Yikes! I'm nervous but can't wait to be mobile again! Whooppee! Give me a ring and we can finalise plans. (((HUGS)))