A couple of weeks ago, Simon pulled out a tub of K'nex blocks or rods or whatever you want to call those things, pulled out the instructions and built a merry-go-round. I honestly didn't think he could do it at first, but once he got started, the only help he asked for was with connecting a few of the pieces that wouldn't quite snap together, and the two horses. The rest he did all by himself which I thought was pretty darn cool. Here he is pictured with his final product.
Gwen continues her adventures as "super bunny!" which consists of her wearing one of her hooded towels tied around her neck running around shrieking, "I'm SUPER BUNNY!!!" Gwen still likes to hold 4 (yes, it must be 4) hooded towels all day. I don't know why one isn't enough, but it is her way.
Since Simon is 5 and fall is quickly approaching, more and more people are asking about kindergarten. We finally told the Grand Rapids crew that we are homeschooling, and it seemed to go fairly well. The usual list of questions, but no one reacted negatively to our plans (thank goodness).
At work the other day, a coworker mentioned Simon and kindergarten and I told him our plans, and he seemed very interested. He said had he had a chance to do it all over again, he would have liked to homeschool his kids (who are now in their 20's) but they didn't have the chance. This coworker did stress to me the importance of socializing my kids because, "Your son needs to be exposed to other kids being mean to him so he knows how to handle the situation if another kid is mean to him," which sounded kind of counterintuitive to me, so I assured him that we hit Simon all the time which I am happy to report got a big laugh, and not a disturbed stare :) or a call to social services.
Hawksbill ordered a bunch of math stuff online which is hopefully going to arrive in the next week or two. We are still trying to nail down our fall schedule when Hawksbill goes back to school and my work schedule, and then put together some unofficial school schedule for Simon and see how it works out. I don't want to be too structured, but at the same time, we do plan to loosely follow a curriculum at this point. I am feeling less nervous about the idea of winging it--less like I need to set up some set-in-stone daily routine, and more relaxed about taking it one day at a time.
2 comments:
It blows me away that people think kids being mean to each other is a worthwhile experience. To me, it is a wonderful benefit of homeschooling. I work hard to provide a protected environment for my kids to learn socialization.
Kids working out socialization entirely by themselves is not good. Have none of these people read Lord of the Flies?
I was at a party a couple of years ago where there was a woman and her teenage daughter. When the woman found out we were homeschooling she said something like:
"Oh, I'm so glad we sent our daughter to school. She's had some experiences with bullies this year that have really taught her a lot about how the world really works."
Her daughter was standing next to her when she said this and didn't seem to share her mother's enthusiasm.
In all, I agree with you... I think its odd that we often assume that other kids are better at "socializing" children than adults are.
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