Wednesday, September 9, 2009

What homeschooling looks like around here.

It's rare that I get any of our homeschooling in print like this. Having such a small adult/child ratio and such curious children means that most of our exchanges happen verbally. Sounds quite idyllic but let me tell you there are times when I want to rinse the conditioner from my hair without having to answer questions about the toilet's plumbing.

I can't complain though. Both boys have learned so much so far just on their own and asking questions pretty much on a constant basis. These four simple words represent a spontaneous learning moment. Like DJ Lance says, "ah, break it down."

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1. Oldest wrote "groch" and told me he wrote "garage". Garages, much like firemen have been an obsession since both boys began speaking.

2. I saw it, and told him that I was impressed with his trying to sound out words. I told him that garage is one of those funky words that sounds a bit different than it looks. Would he like to know how the word looks?

3. He said yes, so I wrote garage at the top in all upper case letters.

4. He wrote garage below his first attempt.

5. Oldest then begins to verbalize words that sound like garage and stumbles on "crouch". He figures out the vowels from a previous attempt at sounding out letters the day before, then sounds out the first two letter combination and finally asks for my help with the final syllable.

6. Momma notices that he has transitioned (on his own, mind you) from writing in all upper case letters to a combination of upper and lower case letters. No formal lessons, curriculum or sit down lessons going on. This is all him. It's just the way he prefers to learn.

I love to watch the human at mind work.

1 comment:

Ms Moreno said...

Ah your kids are Yo Gabba Gabba fans too.