It is currently 10:21 pm on the eve of my very first official day as a homeschooling mom. My thoughts aren't coming very clearly due to the hour and the overall business of the day, but I realize that I will only be at this moment once in my life, so I have to write about it now before the opportunity passes by.
Tomorrow I am planning to start homeschooling Ryenne. While I have been very intentional about teaching her when we are home together through play, I could tell that Ryenne was at a point where she seemed to be needing a bit more of a challenge, more structure to her day, and a general goal and plan of action for her learning. I floundered around a bit, thinking at first that I wanted to try more of a "unit study" approach, but that quickly died out and we were back to square one with Ryenne on the brink of more learning but without any sort of bridge to get there. As a preschool teacher, I could recognize this need and sought to challenge her learning by offering more of a variety of activities for her. She loved this, of course, but I still felt like we were lacking an actual schedule and rhythm for her day.
Providentially, God lead us to a wonderful curriculum that seems to be exactly what we have been looking for for our bright little 2-year-old. I have only shared with my mom and one other person that we are planning to go ahead with this curriculum as I know that Ryenne is still so young and frankly I am afraid of people judging us as being overly-ambitious for starting her so early. I also didn't want the added pressure of people asking me questions and wanting to know how things were working out just in case they weren't! The Peaceful Preschool is the curriculum we have chosen to go with, and the plan is to give this year at age 2 a "trial run," with the hope that next year we will do it again and hopefully she will be able to glean even more from it. This "Montessori-meets-Reggio-Emilia-meets-Charlotte-Mason" approach focuses a great deal on exposing children to literature, intentional play and experiences, practical life skills, and phonics. I am uncertain about how Ryenne will respond to phonics as she has never really been exposed to that concept before, but I am very excited about the rest of what the curriculum has to offer.
It is so nice to have a week-by-week, day-by-day plan. It feels good to be able to look ahead in my calendar and know what we will be learning about in a couple of weeks, and plan field trips for Ryenne that will coincide with her learning.
In all honesty, I did wrestle a bit with purchasing a curriculum when I know that as a preschool teacher I could come up with my own sort of curriculum myself. But as my husband pointed out, this is going to save me so much time and effort, and I can still choose to add activities or change up things to meet Ryenne's needs. It is really a "no pressure" sort of thing. If Ryenne does not take to this whole "school" idea at 2 years of age, then we can revisit in 6 months or a year and see where she is at at that point. We are in no rush. But at the same time, if we see a need in our daughter where she seems to be needing more of a routine and challenge, then we are going to try to meet that need and this is one of the first ways that we are going to try to do that.
I hope to come back here and write about how our first day goes tomorrow. We are so thankful for this bright, smart little girl that God has given us and we pray that He continues to give us guidance in how best to train her up in the way that she should go.
Tomorrow I am planning to start homeschooling Ryenne. While I have been very intentional about teaching her when we are home together through play, I could tell that Ryenne was at a point where she seemed to be needing a bit more of a challenge, more structure to her day, and a general goal and plan of action for her learning. I floundered around a bit, thinking at first that I wanted to try more of a "unit study" approach, but that quickly died out and we were back to square one with Ryenne on the brink of more learning but without any sort of bridge to get there. As a preschool teacher, I could recognize this need and sought to challenge her learning by offering more of a variety of activities for her. She loved this, of course, but I still felt like we were lacking an actual schedule and rhythm for her day.
Providentially, God lead us to a wonderful curriculum that seems to be exactly what we have been looking for for our bright little 2-year-old. I have only shared with my mom and one other person that we are planning to go ahead with this curriculum as I know that Ryenne is still so young and frankly I am afraid of people judging us as being overly-ambitious for starting her so early. I also didn't want the added pressure of people asking me questions and wanting to know how things were working out just in case they weren't! The Peaceful Preschool is the curriculum we have chosen to go with, and the plan is to give this year at age 2 a "trial run," with the hope that next year we will do it again and hopefully she will be able to glean even more from it. This "Montessori-meets-Reggio-Emilia-meets-Charlotte-Mason" approach focuses a great deal on exposing children to literature, intentional play and experiences, practical life skills, and phonics. I am uncertain about how Ryenne will respond to phonics as she has never really been exposed to that concept before, but I am very excited about the rest of what the curriculum has to offer.
It is so nice to have a week-by-week, day-by-day plan. It feels good to be able to look ahead in my calendar and know what we will be learning about in a couple of weeks, and plan field trips for Ryenne that will coincide with her learning.
In all honesty, I did wrestle a bit with purchasing a curriculum when I know that as a preschool teacher I could come up with my own sort of curriculum myself. But as my husband pointed out, this is going to save me so much time and effort, and I can still choose to add activities or change up things to meet Ryenne's needs. It is really a "no pressure" sort of thing. If Ryenne does not take to this whole "school" idea at 2 years of age, then we can revisit in 6 months or a year and see where she is at at that point. We are in no rush. But at the same time, if we see a need in our daughter where she seems to be needing more of a routine and challenge, then we are going to try to meet that need and this is one of the first ways that we are going to try to do that.
I hope to come back here and write about how our first day goes tomorrow. We are so thankful for this bright, smart little girl that God has given us and we pray that He continues to give us guidance in how best to train her up in the way that she should go.
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