Saturday, October 15, 2011

One Room Skool Hizzy

What is that you might ask?  Well, it is a modern day one room school house or rather a one room school room or something like that.  My friend, Amy, told me the other day I had the Little House on the Prairie school house/room going on. Okay maybe, but I can promise I will not wear a braid twisted up in a bun or wear a calico dress. No looking glass will hang from around my neck. If you think about it, we do have a one room school house/room. I love our little school room.  It is quite cozy. I do not have it just like I want it but we will get there.  We have plenty of time.  I school multiple ages and ability levels in that little room formerly known as our dining room (sometimes still used for that purpose).  I guess you could say it is a multipurpose room.  Weren't all school rooms in days of long ago.  Those rooms were used for schooling, church services, town meetings. Lots went on in those rooms and lots goes on in our little room.  Yet again, I catch myself digressing. Its not about the room so much as what takes place in the room.  We all have learned so much in that little room.

The boys are on a pretty equal playing field as far as academia.  Lucie Rose is just beginning to understand this school thing. For the boys, we purchased formal curriculum.  They are both working on the same things in Social Studies, Science, Bible, and Reading. Wordly Wise, Grammar, and Math are from the same publisher but different grade levels.  The one on one that I am able to give them is amazing compared to the one on one I was able to provide when I had a class of 25-30. I honestly think that was the most frustrating thing about public school teaching.  I knew that there were so many that just needed that extra time and that time did not exist.  I can give that time now. 

Lucie Rose does not have a formal curricula.  I bought much of what she does from Target and Wal-Mart. Target had some wonderful beginner books, flash cards, and games on their dollar isle before school started this year.  I stocked up.  I also was able to go online and find some printable things for her. She is working on colors, shapes, numbers recognition, letter recognition, letter sounds, tracing, rhyming, opposites, and just a host of other little things like that.  I plan on starting her on the ABeka phonics once she gets her letter recognition and letter sounds down.  She seems to be soaking it up pretty well.  She loves, loves, loves to be read to.  I will read her a book and then she will take that book and sit and retell it to her dolls.  It is so cute. Who said kiddos do not learn through play? She plays school and that is really the time that I can tell what she is learning. She loves to write on our new dry erase board.  So, I will write her letters and numbers up on it and let her trace them or copy them.  She does pretty good with that.  Her learning comes in spurts though. She will school for a little while and then she will play for a little while.  Sometimes she takes a break and watches one of her shows that she enjoys.  Her attention span is pretty short right now.  She really loves the hands on activities. I found that she likes to take spaghetti noodles and break them up to make letters with them.  (Mental note: Buy some round noodles. She gets frustrated when she can not make some letters with straight noodles.)  Sometimes we get the glue and glitter out and make bling letters.  She thinks that is pretty cool but does not like to wait for the glue to dry.  She gets her patience from her daddy.  That's my story and I am sticking to it! I also have found that if I keep her busy with activities, I have more time with the boys. Keeping her busy has seemed to help with my disappearing laundry detergent as well.  For those of you who have been reading for a while, you may or may not remember her little escapades last year.  She was constantly getting into things.  Let's just say she likes to help with the laundry.  I found quite a large amount of detergent in my dryer one day last year.  She was so stinking proud of herself that I couldn't get on to her.  She was just trying to help after all. She keeps me on my toes most of the time.  I have noticed fewer pop-tart trails although she did eat almost an entire family size pack of cookies one day last week.  Little stinker, she was sneaking them and taking them to her room while she was "playing".  I discovered what she had done when Jamie got home and went to have a little snack. There were no snacks left.  I should have known what was up because of that darned ever present chocolate ring on her mouth.  I guess I am just so used to seeing it, I overlooked it.  She also gets her sweet tooth from her daddy.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it!!!!

Schooling multiple age groups is not as difficult as I had imagined, but it does take some work.  I have often said that I'm not that great of a multi-tasker.  I'm learning the fine art of taking on multiple projects.  Perhaps when I get a little more experience under my belt, the cookie monster will not invade my pantry.  Some days I just get completely undone with the enormity of it all and when that happens, I just take a step back and go have a cookie myself.  Then I call Jamie and he cheers me on from the sidelines.  We all need a cheerleader now and then don't we? PuuuLeeeze don't tell him I called him a cheerleader.  That would not be cool. 

Seriously, It is not all that hard.  You just have to plan and be ready.  You have to have a game plan, put on your game face, and go with it. 

So that's waz up in our one room skool hizzy round here! Waz up in yours?
Much love,

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