Maryn and School Update

This post really is for my own reference, so sorry if it's so boring.  You won't hurt my feelings if you skip it.  ;-)

It's the way I think, and probably the way I always will.  Because I have always loved school (at least the idea of school), my mind works in semesters, holidays, common school themes and I will probably always have a list in my mind of developmental milestones because I had to take developmental psychology twice.  Not because I failed the first time, but my credits didn't transfer from the community college to Muskingum.  And you know what?  I was happy to take developmental psychology again.  That's what a nerd I am.

So when January rolled around, I started thinking about things to do with Maryn and Josiah.  Josiah, obviously, just plays while we do "school" stuff, and he reads with us, and plays our little games, is always the life of the dance party we usually have each school day, and loves any kind of hand rhymes or song.  

Maryn has been a lot tougher, because I have this notion that eventually I'll need to get a curriculum--either a comprehensive one like SonLight or a few different ones for individual subjects.  Since nearly all my friends home school, we talk about those curriculums a lot and I get to see them often.  But I just haven't seen anything I think will work for Maryn yet, at least not for reading.

I'm not sure why I worry about such things.  I never really used a reading curriculum as a teacher.  I much prefer doing my own thing, and I should be more confident in my abilities.  Early Childhood and Reading Specialist degrees aside, I am Maryn's mommy and therefore, I can do this.  Plus, it's Maryn.  I'm pretty sure she won't be illiterate.

Maryn keeps tricking me into thinking she's ready to read.  She asks what everything says, tries to sound out words, asks how things are spelled, and now even asks what "oo" says, or "sh," etc.  But when I try to sit with her and help her read a book, she's not interested.  

But this girl wants to know phonics.  She wants to know how words work.  I know, she's three, it's weird.  But I pulled this game out my Aunt Cathy sent us, and I was very surprised that Maryn could read every -op word, with just a little help.

I guess it makes sense why she would be a phonics girl right now and not a reading a book kind of girl because words like "you" and "the" certainly don't make sense to her.  She knows letter sounds, so she wants to be able to sound things out.  She's not ready to understand "the" or even "and."  So I guess we're stuck playing word games for a while, and reading lots and lots of books.

I've decided to forget about reading curriculums, and just use Spalding Phonics to teach her to read and spell.  That's a program I learned while teaching that requires no materials aside from notebook paper, some flashcards that cost about $11 and maybe a book to help me remember what I'm doing, especially after first grade.  It's a program that goes right up through 6th grade.  Can't beat that!

I'm pretty confident in teaching kids to read just by using trade books, as opposed to special phonics books.  Think "Sig the pig did a jig on the rig."  And there's plenty of fun little worksheets, songs, rhymes, poems, games, etc. online or to make that will provide extra practice.

The problem with a lot of Pre-K and Kindergarten reading curriculums is that they focus so much on the letters and letter sounds, which Maryn already knows.  Yes, she could still use practice, but it would be a waste of time to spend a whole week on the letter Aa, for example.  And I'm not convinced that sort of idea even works very well.  Some of the best phonics programs (and I am very picky, you can imagine) are $200-$300.  Ack!  

If we got a comprehensive program like Sonlight, I think the math and everything would be right on for her, whatever age she is.  But the reading (the phonics) would probably be way off.  I much prefer doing our own thing, and doing what is right for Maryn and catering it for what she needs.  Isn't that supposed to be the joy of home schooling?

So far, I love home schooling.  I can already see the benefits so clearly.  John and I are already learning so much along with her.  I'm even making John do the "Drawing with Children" stuff with us, and just as I suspected, he can draw splendidly.  It gets my creative juices flowing and is helping all of us think outside the box and look for learning opportunities and teachable moments all the time.  So fun.  ;-)