We previously talked about behavior stoplights and the treasure box in Part I. Here are two more areas that have made the biggest difference in our homeschool.
Reading & Writing
My child is like many other boys who do not like to write. We have our biggest struggles over formal handwriting. And I have had to realize that there will be plenty of time for formal handwriting as NoNut gets older. While we struggled through Handwriting Without Tears during first grade (but with fewer tears than the year before), we took the rest of the year to find ways to make handwriting fun and to create that need and desire to write.
We took NoNut to the toy store with pen, paper and clipboard and he had to write his own Christmas list. His "copywork" was copying the logo or item name to his paper. He would write shopping lists (especially when it came to planning for fun family dinners or parties). He wanted to write signs for his door, his bed and even the bathroom. It may not be a formal writing program, but he is getting writing practice in without realizing it.
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| Fun with sight word cookie game! |
Learning IS fun especially when you think outside of the box and discover that there are so many non-book ways to learn! One of the big lessons we learned in first grade is that curriculum should be viewed as a guide. It steers you in the right direction, but you should take advantage of the things your child is interested in. NoNut quickly learned to count change by making Lego creations for his pretend Lego Store or "selling" his Ninja Turtle collection to the employees at work. He learned to tell time when snack time depended upon it. I would tell NoNut that snack time is at 10:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. He was in charge of keeping an eye on the analog clock and letting me know when it was snack time. It didn't take him long to learn to tell time as well as learn a bit of responsibility in that way.
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| "Selling" Ninja Turtles. |
And the cool part is that after we would finish sections of our year-end testing (required by the state), NoNut would tell me he "saw" this activity or that activity in his mind and that helped him figure out the answers. It wasn't pages in a book that he remembered, but the activities, the movement, the crazy motions or silly skip counting cheers that we made up. It was really neat to see that reinforced with his testing results as he scored anywhere from well above average to highest level in every category.
Yes, we do our fair share of book-learning, but book learning isn't everything. Don't be afraid to get wildly creative in teaching your child. It might not work for anyone else but your child, but you can be confident in knowing that he will learn, understand and retain regardless of method!
Bedtime
One of the biggest things that helped us was putting our child to bed at the same time every night since birth. I am an introvert and crave time alone to recharge and essentially function. Having a newborn altered my world big time and I wasn't used to having someone constantly take from me every second of the day and it got draining fast. I struggled for a long time over whether that was a selfish mindset or the way God created me. And it didn't take long to see that if I don't have alone time to think, write, pray, read, etc., I cannot wholly function. A firm, consistent bed time was my sanity saver, and it still is seven years later! We do the same routine every night that we've done with NoNut since Day 1 -- pjs, brush teeth, prayers, story and glow stick (these are completely dependent on behavior) and bed.
For the first 6 1/2 years of NoNut's life, he went to bed at 7 p.m. One of his 2013 Christmas presents was an extended bedtime to 7:30 p.m.! He thought he was big stuff to stay up that late! Since Christmas and with Daylight Savings Time, it's been a bit harder to hold fast to the 7:30 p.m. bed time. But we do our best to get him in bed at 7:30 p.m., and then I enjoy reading to him in bed until 8 p.m. After that, he is expected to stay in bed and go to sleep. NoNut does a great job respecting that time. We have all had to learn to decipher what is a legitimate need that needs a parental response/attention versus trying to work the system which we do not respond to. If he can't sleep, he'll turn on his little camping light and read, play Legos or play with his glow sticks in bed. I count on that time between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. to spend time with my husband and get my work (personal work, school work, housework, ministry or volunteer work, and sometimes professional work) done without constant interruptions. Putting NoNut down to bed at a specific time every night has saved our marriage and our sanity. My husband and I have time to connect and communicate every day and I can get a "break" to get stuff done that contributes to who I am as a person, not just as a mom, especially a homeschooling mom.
With each of these things, setting and defining the expectations and then following through with consistency are the key. There is a way to do this outside of homeschool and to incorporate expectations and consistency into every day life outside of homeschool hours. However, I haven't been consistent enough to figure it all out. First grade taught me a lot about the importance of building on the foundation, but you have to have to lay the foundation first before you can begin to build on it! If the foundation isn't there, you don't have anything to build on! It's worth the work and consistency to start out right. And it's worth it to start out building the foundation throughout your child's whole life and throughout your whole home rather than limit it to just your homeschool hours!
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