In the next month, I hope to release “How to Stay Sane As A Single Parent”, my (slightly) tongue in cheek account of my parenting experiences to date, complete with color photos of my gorgeous kids (they are gorgeous, seriously, and it has nothing to do with either of their parents!).
The release of the book (which can actually be preordered via my online store) almost coincides with another ‘new start’ for me…for a few reasons, my son (3 1/2) isn’t going to preschool this year. He could have started this September but we’ve decided (mostly me) that he can benefit from more time at home and a little constructive knowledge building in the comfort of his own livingroom.
As of yesterday (August 31st), and because it seemed as good a day as any, I started a little homeschooling program for Jason. It mainly consists of scheduled activities like art (painting and coloring) and play time, divided up by 20 t0 30 minutes here and there with a study of letters, numbers, shapes, colors, and basic concepts of the sort most three to four year olds are familiar. I haven’t decided to homeschool my kids and actually see a great deal of benefit in both of them attending school (we’ll see in a year or two whether the potential benefits are realized) but I do want to at least supplement their education with structured study at home. What better way to get started than with a year of structured homeschooling?
Yesterday, to kick start things, I drew up a basic schedule. I don’t imagine that we’ll spend hours working on literacy, language, and numbers at this stage but I’m going to try and start getting half an hour here and there onto these skills plus time spent working on other constructive activities that don’t require a TV.
Since Jason already knows his letters, number 1 to 10, and colors (red, blue, green, yellow, purple, black, white, brown, and orange) I thought the best place to start would be a review of numbers 11 to 20 and a look at shapes. We looked yesterday at squares, circles, diamonds, triangles, rectangles, and ovals, all of which Jason was very enthusiastic about. Hopefully the information will sink in.
After completing a couple of exercises in his workbook and playing a few educational games online, we ended the day with coloring (a giant sheet of paper with an image of Percy from Thomas the Tank) and reading from the last chapter of Harry Potter (yup, we’re reading Harry Potter and an abridged version of Wind in the Willows).
Update for Day 2 (September 1st) to follow soon.
