peelosophy

Conversation between me and Kim…

Kim was talking about how she was going to homeschool Tyler for preschool.

Me: “Oh, I could never homeschool, I’d go crazy , I’m not organized enough, etc”

Kim: “Jill, you DO home school your boys.”

Me: “Oh, I guess I do.”

I never think of it as homeschooling.

I don’t send my boys to preschool for two reasons.  First, and foremost, is that I know they have the rest of their lives to be in school -so why rush it?  Second, I’m cheap and don’t want to pay for something I can teach them myself.

I’ve watched other children in my home since JJ (5yo) was 9 months old, so socialization isn’t an issue.  These days, I have a three extra kids other than my own three, three days a week…wow I guess three is the magic number!  I think coupled with my own Montessori education and the the interest I had in early childhood education in college, it was natural that our days have become a loosely structured day with focused time for learning.

For the past four years, I have made my own “curriculum”.  Usually it was gathered through lots of surfing on the web and trips to the library.  Sometimes, the themes (that’s what I called them) would work beautifully and other times I would get very overwhelmed with because I would make it more complicated.

Fast forward to the last several months, I discovered Tot School and Totally Tots.  Both of these sites are specific for moms who keep their toddlers home to prepare them for a homeschooling future.  This doesn’t fit me entirely – JJ will be attending half -day kindergarten in the fall – go Hudson Hawks!  BUT, the ideas and community I have found thorough these sites have provided me a great relief.  I don’t have to reinvent the wheel, they have a simple curriculum that I feel I can pick and choose what works for us.

We do Tot Trays once or twice a day.  First in the morning and sometimes again in the afternoon if the 4 o’clock hour is especially hard.  Here are some pictures from using our trays this week.  In later posts, I’ll actually explain the specifics on what the kids are doing.

We implement ideas from Totally Tots on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays – when I have other kids with us.

It looks like this:

Mondays: Now I know my ABCs – weekly ABC ideas with tots

Wednesdays: Bible Bites and sometimes Crafty Corner

Thursdays: Once a Upon a Book

I’ll be doing a post on Sundays about what we did the week before in Tot School.  This might help me own more what we’re doing, going back to my conversation with Kim.  I think it’s so funny when friends give me a totally different view of myself that I don’t see.  It’s funny that I see myself so differently, I’m thankful that I have friends that will sweetly tell me the good, bad and the ugly.