Lessons From the Bookshelf

We just finished building a new bookshelf for our living room.  We've outgrown our Kindergarten bookshelf.  And, we've pretty much outgrown our first grade bookshelf, but it'll have to do.  ...You know how it is!  We just love books, learning games, math manipulatives and videos.  And, I like the fact that NoNut can easily access these things and play with them now rather than have them hidden in bins and forgotten about until next summer! 

As I put NoNut to bed and listened to his bedtime prayers, I heard him say, "Thank you, God, for such a fun time with mommy tonight!  We had fun building my school shelf!"  He was my little helper and was so excited to build the new bookshelf. 

However, it wasn't all a picture of roses.  And the fact that he had such a great time and thanked God for it after my desire for perfection and impatience won out is such a sad testament to what his life is like, and he doesn't even know any different.  About five minutes into building the shelves, my desire to control the situation and get it right the first time without messing up the shelves took over.  Sure, NoNut helped some, but every time he asked if he could do something and took awhile doing it, I would come up with excuses as to why he needed to stop and I needed to take over.  NoNut finally went off to play with Legos, leaving the building and arranging to me. 

Sadly, this par for the course.  How many times has NoNut wanted to help with something and I took over for him because he wasn't doing it quick enough or my way?  How many times does he get so excited over something only for me to crush his spirit with constant instruction and critique as to make sure something gets done right?  How many times does he want a simple "yes" but instead he gets a "no" followed by long explanations as to why not and it usually boils down to inconvenience? 

To hear NoNut's prayer tonight was a stab at my heart.  Such innocence and desire for fun!  He has this uncanny ability to find fun in everything even in the midst of continual nagging and correcting over trivial things.

This week has been really eye opening for me as I see how many times I speak for my child, prod him to be perfect and use perfect manners, do for my child because it's quicker to do it for him and then rob him of trying things because I'm too pressed for perfection or time.

Ephesians 6:4 keeps coming to mind this week as God is seriously pruning away at my life.  It's painful as no stone is being left unturned.  How much I need God to infiltrate my heart and my parenting before my child turns a deaf ear! 

"Fathers, don’t exasperate your children by coming down hard on them. Take them by the hand and lead them in the way of the Master."  (MSG)

"And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord."  (NKJV)

The Matthew Henry commentary says the following (emphasis mine):

 "Though God has given you power, you must not abuse that power, remembering that your children are, in a particular manner, pieces of yourselves, and therefore ought to be governed with great tenderness and love. Be not impatient with them, use no unreasonable severities and lay no rigid injunctions upon them. When you caution them, when you counsel them, when you reprove them, do it in such a manner as not to provoke them to wrath. In all such cases deal prudently and wisely with them, endeavouring to convince their judgments and to work upon their reason.”

“Bring them up well, in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, in the discipline of proper and of compassionate correction, and in the knowledge of that duty which God requires of them and by which they may become better acquainted with him. Give them a good education.” It is the great duty of parents to be careful in the education of their children: “Not only bring them up, as the brutes do, taking care to provide for them; but bring them up in nurture and admonition, in such a manner as is suitable to their reasonable natures. Nay, not only bring them up as men, in nurture and admonition, but as Christians, in the admonition of the Lord. Let them have a religious education. Instruct them to fear sinning; and inform them of, and excite them to, the whole of their duty towards God.”

As I read that, I have to stop and wonder what education I am giving my child through high expectations and the implied messages that comes from taking over for him because he's not doing something "right".  What alternative messages would be sent if I took the time to slow down and let him explore and slowly guide him through projects or experiences...walk next to him instead of five steps ahead of him urging him to "hurry up"?  How do my current actions and responses excite him toward God?  And if children are "in a particular manner, pieces of yourselves", what does it reveal about me and my heart when I treat my child in impatient, nagging ways?  The answer to that gives a more accurate picture of myself than I care to see...ouch!! 

As hard as it is at times, I'm thankful for the correction and instruction in God's Word.  What makes it even more powerful is to consider just how many times God has "[taken me] by the hand and [led me] in the way of the Master."  What would my son's life be like if I were to truly learn from tonight and live out Ephesians 6:4 and "Take [him] by the hand and lead [him] in the way of the Master?"

Let the Wiggles Out

After a stretch of handwriting, NoNut will ask if he can get up and do some jumping jacks.  I was floored the first time he asked me if he could exercise in between school subjects.  Seriously, a child asking to exercise?!?!  So, NoNut will do ten jumping jacks.  When I see how much fun he's having, I usually add to it and make game out of it.  He will twirl a few times and then end with somersaults across the living room back to his desk.  NoNut will then sit down without any complaining and finish his handwriting or move on to math, another "desk subject".

There is just something about that those brief minutes of physical activity that help get the wiggles out and activate the brain for more learning.  Moments like that remind me of the benefits of homeschooling and letting your child be a child--wiggles and all. 

Last year, I saw the Thumball at a local school supply store but couldn't justify the price.  However, this weekend, it was on sale big time and we purchased the "Move Your Body" Thumball to incorporate into our Language Arts and Math. I couldn't wait to surprise NoNut with it today! 

He was soooo excited when I explained the Thumball and let him play with it.  Thumball was perfect for those much-needed energy breaks between Explode the Code, Handwriting Without Tears and his copywork (it's a lot of writing for one sitting and we're still playing around to find our groove).  And, I even had fun joining in with NoNut because he wasn't sure how to act out some of the exercises.  It didn't take long for him to catch on and come up with his own ideas. 

While the Thumball is great, you can make something similar with balls you have around your house.  Use a Sharpie and write out little exercises for your child to do.  Tie it in with math and write addition or subtraction problems for your child to solve.  Make an A, B, C ball and have your child tell you the letter that his thumb landed on.  You can even do the same thing by writing exercises on slips of paper and having your child pull several of them out of a jar or envelope. 

However, there is just something special about a boy and a ball!  Make it a Thumball and laughter and creativity are sure to abound!

(You can find Thumball at teacher supply stores, Amazon or at http://thumball.com/)

Our First Day of First Grade

First grade!!  Can't believe it!  I've had a touch of nostalgia lately as I think about how quickly my baby is growing up!  It is such a blessing and joy to be able to homeschool him again this year! 

We postponed our first day of school last week because of sickness and prayed that we could start this week.  Though I'm still not up to par, I've been ready for our first day and thought we'd give it a try by relying on God's strength!  I wasn't sure what to expect because NoNut was NOT looking forward to school and wanted to keep having summer break.  He loved homeschooling last year so I wasn't sure why the big change of attitude.  However, it didn't take long before he was full of smiles and saying, "Wow!  This is fun!  This is like last year!"

Our first day was three hours long...much longer than our typical 45-60 minute school day.  But we also added in a couple extra things and adopted a much slower pace.  The other difference is that I wanted to let go and be flexible enough to go at his pace rather than rush through our agenda to get everything done and move on with our day.  I also wanted to work on saying "yes" more than "no" and not being so "serious" about everything all the time.  It was a definite change of pace, but a very special and rewarding day for both of us!

We started the day with "first day pictures" and then moved on to handwriting.  Last year, I didn't realize that handwriting was a process and in my impatience, lost it with my son those first weeks more often than not because he just wasn't getting it.  We ended up in tears several times--him because he couldn't get it and me because I didn't like my attitude and the words that came from my mouth.  It didn't take long before copywork equaled frustration in his mind and he gave up before he even got started.  His defeated spirit revealed a lot about my spirit and changes were made both in my attitude and expectations.  However, this year was a totally different story!  I removed my hands from it and gave NoNut his book and ownership of his book.  He was soooo excited when he opened his book and realized that he already knew how to write the letters!  It was such a boost to his confidence!  We did the first couple pages in Handwriting Without Tears, the "at" pages in Explode the Code Book 1 and followed it up with Sonlight Language Arts 1 Copywork.  It was a lot of writing for him, so I may alternate HWT and ETC. 

We then moved into reading where NoNut surprised himself with each word he read! He enjoyed Lesson 1 of Sonlight's I Can Read reader and even laughed pretty hard at what he was reading (second picture).

After reading, we did Lesson 1 of Horizon Math where he was greeted with a dot-to-dot!  The dot-to-dot was a picture of a boy going to school, but NoNut wouldn't hear of it!  He colored the boy's books blue like his Bible story book from last year and colored the school the same color as our church since "the boy was going to church, not school"!  I got to thinking about how NoNut has no concept of what it's like to walk into a school building every morning (not a bad thing) and why he thought it was crazy someone would walk to school instead of church.

We then ventured into history (Sonlight Core B) where we had a special time talking about the 10/40 Window and THUMB.  We discussed the tribals and how they are animists and that prompted an insightful discussion.  It always amazes me how perceptive NoNut can be, even at age 6!  In the picture below, he's showing off the cross he made a month ago--he wanted to hold it when he prayed for the tribals. After THUMB, we dove into Usborne's Peoples of the World and talked about the differing characteristics of countries and began our own "country collection."

NoNut was all excited about science and doing science experiments.  It became evident that this day wasn't going to pass without a science experiment (we reserve one day a week just for experiments).  So after we began our study in zoology, we went to the kitchen to do some pop bottle science experiments.  My parents had dropped off a pop bottle science kit with tons of experiments to do last week...it was such a God-send on those sick days!  There was a lot of excited laughter and shrieking as the experiments proved to be successful! I love how the second picture captures a little bit of that science excitement!

We then did Bible.  Last year, we started off with Bible and I intended to do the same, but since NoNut wanted to do handwriting and reading first, I took advantage of it.  This year's Bible is different.  We are supplementing Sonlight's Bible with Positive Action.

Though Positive Action has a detailed teacher's guide that's more geared toward a classroom setting, I wasn't really sure how it would translate into our home setting.  It's not divided up by day but rather by week.  I penciled in each day but with the natural conversations we were having as we worked through Genesis 1:1-5, we ended up covering half the week and doing a couple extra activities.  Last year, we didn't do a lot of crafts or drawing, etc. so it was a novel concept to NoNut when I told him we were going to make a creation poster.  The whole idea of making a poster was lost on him so we are starting from scratch (lol, it's a learning experience)!

 

We were using Sonlight's Bible plan for family devos but NoNut loves Leading Little Ones to God so much that we might forgo the Instructor's Guide (which only does two lessons from Leading each week) and just do our own thing.  I really like Leading Little Ones to God because it's basic theology.  It also introduces a hymn with each lesson.  It's well-rounded, deep for a child's devotional, and asks follow up questions to gauge your child's understanding.  I had no clue how many of these questions my son was wondering about God until we read the first few chapters of Leading last week.

We did decide to keep Sonlight's Bible memory program (over Positive Action's) because we love the "Sing the Word" CD.  We try to make scripture memory lively to make Bible memory fun!  I still remember hand motions, tiny songs and voice inflections that my own mother did with me when I was a child...so it works (no matter how corny the hand motions or moves may be)! 

Then, we concluded our day with art.  We are rotating between a scissors skills book I picked up at a local bookstore and Barry Stebbing's I Can Do All Things (How Great Thou Art) program.  I broke down and bought the corresponding DVD to teach us how to do art and it took a load off my shoulders!

It was a great day filled with learning and fun...a great start to our new school year!