Where shall I start! I have had it stored in my head to tell you that Julian started getting on and off the potty all by himself last July. That would have been when he was three years and two months old. It is so much easier when your baby can get on and off the pot by himself and you no longer have to do all the lifting and cajoling! I wrote this tidbit down and have carried it in my head for nearly a year. lol! Incidentally, at the time he became potty independent he also developed a fear of going down the hall alone. So even though he could get onto the potty by himself it turned out I still had to get off my duff or stop whatever I was doing to go to the bathroom with him! Well there's an upside and a downside to everything, eh?
On a personal note, December 27th, 2000 we moved. My husband is quite the older dad (turned 60 this month) and wanted to spend more time with Julian during these young years while we are the center of his universe, so he quit his six figure a year job and here we are. I feel sure in saying, I don't think you will find another man in the world who would make such a life altering decision. Many people don't understand how he could do this. Some people at my husband's last job were so sure that he had another job lined up and they thought he just wasn't telling. But no, really, he took early retirement. There are things more important than money. One must have enough money to be well, but in many cases people have more than they need. It's an endless circle. You work to make money, you buy things, you work to pay for the things you've acquired; then you need more things, bigger things, more money. We wanted out. No more stuff. It all makes me feel so heavy. So now we live a Feng-shui lifestyle. lol! We got rid of so much stuff that our house looks rather empty. Yes, yes, but our hearts are full.
These past three months our homeschooling has not been scheduled. It's by the seat of my pants what with having so much to do to fix up this house. Luckily at this age it's no problem because no matter what lessons I do or don't do, we do character education all the time. Our neighbors are quite fond of Julian and I feel that it's a sign that we're doing something right. He can strike up a conversation with any of the neighbors and they listen to him intently. It's really cute! He's so inquisitive, has pretty good manners for his age, and is interested in all the goings on in the neighborhood. I think he may be an auditory learner because he understands the nuances of language, uses phrases in the correct context such as "it occurred to me," and often catches humor that you wouldn't think a little kid would get. He retains information amazingly well and has excellent recall. Better recall than I have, no doubt.
Since last year my interests have been geared to the Sonlight Pre-K program, the Charlotte Mason method of teaching, and also the importance of playtime - free play that is; not directed play. I often refer to my Hands On Homeschooling lessons when my collection of ideas from the Web runs out. Love those lesson plans. We have especially enjoyed the ideas in HOH that are designed to develop imagination.
Last December I dedicated the entire month to only learning about Christmas. We did Advent for the first time. I made a Jesse Tree. Everything we did was related to Christmas, and I do mean Christmas and not Santa. Santa came to our house but he is not the meaning of the season and I don't want him to be the focus of Christmas in our home.
Read an excellent outline about what Charlotte Mason is about at Charlotte Mason in a Nutshell. It's an excellent article that gets right to the point. Some of the CM method is beyond us at the moment - dictation, copy work, etc. But what I find most appealing about CM is how she focuses on a love and appreciation of nature, reading no twaddle books to children, and developing good habits. I do try hard to spend the time necessary with Julian to help him develop good habits. Better to start out with good habits than to have to break bad ones. Here is a CM email list for preschoolers and kindergarteners at Yahoo.
Julian hasn't demonstrated an interest in writing so I'm not pursuing it at this time. Somehow, it just doesn't look right to me to see an almost four year old boy sitting at the table practicing writing letters. He is interested in what writing does, for example he reminds me to write grape juice or bubbles on my shopping list when he thinks of it. But I tried having him trace letters and I could see he didn't enjoy it. We'll wait on that. He's catching on to addition well though. I've been telling him and showing him one plus one equals two and suddenly one night he began counting all the chairs in the living room. Not just one plus one, but he was saying one plus one plus one plus one plus one equals four. I had never told him that, so he's definitely got the concept.
We've been fortunate with our move in that our new home has a very active homeschooling group in the area. The Park Days have been good and Julian has hit it off with one very sweet boy who is just two months younger than he. I like the boy's mom too and we've decided to get together during the summer so our boys may spend more time playing together. The homeschool group had a little art contest for the preschoolers and Julian won a book. I was thrilled; he was nonplussed. lol!
In an effort to get Julian out and about with children his age I've also joined the local M.O.M.S. Club. It's a very cool club for at-home mothers. You can check out their International Web Site for more info. The one in our area has grown so fast that it has "sistered" into two groups. I'm in the new group and everyone has volunteered for a job, so I volunteered to do their newsletter. I've redesigned it and am rather looking forward to to seeing their reaction to the new layout.
Lastly, I finally got Julian into an AWANA program. It's a Christian program for children; the littlest ones are age three and four and they're called Cubbies. They meet once a week for two hours and they do crafts, songs, listen to Bible stories, play Simon Says and other games, and have a snack. Each child is given a handbook and learns one verse per week which they recite to a teacher and they get a sticker for their book and eventually patches for their vest for reciting well. He loves it. He runs in to the meeting each week and has a ball! (Hey, I'm talking like my mom!) In fact, I see lots of the kids of all ages running to their classes. There's an Thank you to all who visit these pages. I considered taking them down because I felt bad about not keeping up with it, but I noticed there was a steady flow of visitors so I left it. I think it was a good decision. I hope your homeschooling venture is going well. It's great having little kids, isn't it? It's hard to see them grow up so fast. I noticed the dimples in Julian's hands are all gone. How did our little toddler get to be nearly four so fast?
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