While I do not plan on starting “officially” with Isaac until next week, we are getting into the swing of things this week. Our main curriculum is down in the classroom, but I have compiled and sorted and re-compiled all of his reading, writing, math, individual games, and independent art materials upstairs. This way, Isaac can do some of his activities at his school desk in the kitchen while I am doing housework in the morning, which is beneficial in two ways – first, I can get stuff done without wondering what in the world he is doing downstairs (we’ve had a glitter, a glue, and colored sand incidents in the past couple weeks). It is also good because Isaac is able to do most of these activities, after my initial demonstration, on his own without me hovering.
So I sorted everything and labeled it into the above categories and then set up a shelving system with four containers (we are doing school Mon, Tues, Thurs and Fri) that are labeled with that day. I gave Isaac four writing activities, and he got to put one in each tub, etc., etc., until each container had one of each of the subjects in it. He enjoyed seeing all the things he was going to get to do during this, and felt he had some sort of control over when he did them. We have tons of activities, more than 4 in each subject area, so I have those in labeled containers that I plan to rotate out the daily tubs at least once per month if not more depending on Isaac’s level of continued interest. Isaac also got to pick out what color of notebook he would like to use as this year’s journal (red, in case you were wondering). Finally, I put all the “monitored” supplies (scissors, glue, crayons, paper, etc) in a separate container in a separate cupboard.
Next I printed up little spreadsheets of what a general day looks like for Isaac (breakfast, make bed, journal & box, kindergarten/library/etc, lunch . . .) with each spreadsheet taylored just slightly different with the few activities that we are doing outside the house. I found some great week-name magnets at Michael’s in their $1 bins, and I stuck the spreadsheets up on the fridge with the corresponding magnet just to make them fun and attractive (now I just have to remember to change them before Ike gets up). So now he will be able to get up in the morning, see the new day’s routine and be able to do a lot of it on his own (right now I am reading the routine to him, but he remembers most of the items, and is starting to recognize some of the words). When he gets to the line that says Journal & Box, he will look at the day magnet and then find the matching container in the closet to take out for the day. He can write/draw/dictate in his journal and then I demonstrated how to take everything out of the tub and put the items back in as he finishes them. He knows that the activities all go really quickly, that I am not hovering over his every move, and that the sooner he is done, the sooner he can have free play before the guided part of his Kindergarten studies starts.
He was so excited about the tubs and routines that he wanted to start with them yesterday, which was fine with me – strike while the iron is hot and all. He wrote a letter to his Grampa Brad and drew a picture of Gpa’s house. Then he did the dry-erase drawing kit (it has different scenes and static cling stickers to inspire new drawings). He then did a set of nomenclature cards with my help. They are multi-level ones that start as a rhyming set (root/foot, pea/tree, bat/cat, etc). He matched all the rhyming words and then used the set with the words on the bottom to match the word strips to. Because I did this with him, I demonstrated all the ways to use that particular set, but I don’t see him doing the rhyming AND the word strips in one sitting by himself. For Numbers, it was a simple set of 1-10 cards that he was to put in a row in order. I then had him count forwards while pointing to the numbers, and then backwards. I can certainly say that he can easily recognize 1-10 (with 6 and 9 being a guessing game of confusion, but nonetheless) without hesitation. After Numbers, he got out the Copy Work (writing) flashcards, which he sorted out into his own thought-up categories (food, animals, gold things, silver things, toys, etc). I was amazed at how quickly he created these categories. I then assigned him to pick just one (since we are just getting used to this idea) – his favorite card – and write the word on the next page in his journal. He picked “ice cream”, wrote it (by copying the word on the back), and drew and colored a picture of it. At the end, he put everything away and on the proper shelf.
Today, he charged out of his bedroom with much exuberance to read what day it was (he saw the “t” and guessed “Tuesday” right off!), then asked me to read the activities for the morning (breakfast, make bed, journal & box, Daddy time – a special for today, library . . .). He wolfed down breakfast and eagerly (I kid you not) scampered off to make his bed in record time so he could start. Today he drew a map from our house to the park down the street. He included our house, a squiggly path and then the park consisted of a tree, slide and lake. He then dictated “A secret code map from our house to the park in Greeley by Isaac”. After that, he got out the colored pegs and shape boards. Because he was excited about Daddy Time today, I worked with him more than I typically will. He needed a little guidance with picking a shape board, placing the pegs on the circles and then doing a second one, but it got done! Then he layed out a set of all capital letters and all lowercase letters mixed together. He went through the entire alphabet (mostly standing on the arm of the couch and pointing for me to pick them up, or leaping down to grab matching letters). I can say with confidence that Isaac also knows all upper and lower-case letters – even d/b and p/q! We picked that up and took out a set of printed numbers and corresponding number of objects on separate cards. He ran scattering the printed numbers all over the living room, then got one object card at a time, counted and placed on the number. Considering the mounting excitement and arrival of Daddy, Isaac did really well counting accurately, and identifying numbers 1-20. This is where we stopped for today. If he chooses to do more this evening, that will be up to him.
So far I really like this new system for both Isaac and me. I know that as a firstborn myself, I am driven to drive others to perfection, especially my own firstborn, so letting him have some space to do his thing, and for me to understand that he can accomplish without me cracking the whip per se, it is a good arrangement. I also like it because I don’t have to plan what activities we will do each day or week, they are already in the containers and will simply just need rotating. This means that when days like today happen and the whole container doesn’t get done, it’s not a big deal. Isaac worked on the things he found most interesting and learned what he needed to know today. Next week, he will perhaps work on the other half of the tub, or the same part, but that’s okay because that’s what he needs.
I have also been working on just setting up what next week will look like, and which subjects I can expect to do on which days. I am not worrying any farther out than next Friday, as I tend to get frustrated with myself that I let us “fall behind” and then feel burdened to “catch up” (to what I am not sure).
For my next post, I plan on recording the Copy Work, Reading, Art, Numbers and Games activities that are in the tubs upstairs for this month. I will update these as I rotate through them so you can see the different things he is working on. I will also provide what our subject schedule looks like daily, and what next week’s plans will cover (in the best-case scenario).
