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Homeschool in January

So ... two big changes this month that have rocked our little homeschooling world.

Firstly, Carl started going to public preschool.

Wild, I know.  I'm as surprised as you are.  Totally flummoxed, actually.

Here's what happened: A friend in our ward has a son about two months older than Carl.  In some ways, he is really developmentally delayed but in others, he's a normal 5-year-old boy.  His name is Owen; I used to do daycare for him a few years back so he and Carl are good friends.  Anyways, Owen's mom asked me if I would consider putting Carl in Owen's preschool class.  She said that there were only eight kids in the class and that they didn't really play together well.  Owen was often left out.  She thought that Carl could "fix" the class, seeing as how he was such a team player.

Well now, as flattered as I was to have another mom telling me she thought my son could "fix" the class's social problems, I didn't want Carl to go.  I like having him home and I really believe in homeschooling.  Plus I think that there is a lot of hassle involved in public education.

But Owen's mom offered to pay the tuition and handle transportation.  She asked us to just try it for a month.  I didn't say "no" right off the bat and, after talking to Scott and God about it a lot, we enrolled Carl.  After all, it's only 12 hours a week.

Preschool has really changed our home dynamic.  In some ways, it's a relief.  Like, having one less person making noise in our very small, echo-y apartment.  Other changes are not so pleasant.  Like the callous attitude Carl has adopted towards Soren.  I'm glad that this arrangement is only short-term.  Our family will be moving soon and then Carl will come back home full time.

The other big change ... well, I had a baby.  And that slowed me down a lot.  At first, my mom was around.  She helped me some and also motivated me to keep up appearances.  I still didn't get a lot done but it was something.  But then she left and I did less and less each progressive day.  Because I was spending all my time enjoying my new little person.

But nothing can stop Soren from learning.  Even with a bare bones homeschool, he has been thriving.

In Kindergarten

Babouscka - I did get in one unit before Baby Leif was born.  It was my traditional end-of-Christmas unit with a story about the three wise men.  I chose this one from mainlesson.com.  It is one of those stories with a more melancholy tone; I love to watch how the kids respond to a bittersweet ending.  They are pensive for a brief moment when a story like that ends, almost like they can't believe its over.  And sometimes they request that we rewrite the ending.  Just like last year, I accompanied the story with nursery rhymes featuring the number three and sung "We Three Kings".  

Little Red Riding Hood - Megan did two units after the birth of Leif.  The first one, I don't even know what it was!  For the second, she told the kids the story of Little Red Riding Hood.

In First Grade

One of the things we did do this month in homeschool was our Composer Study.  And the Composer Study this term is so awesome!  Rather than focusing on one composer, we are experiencing classics written specifically for children this term.  

We started with Benjamin Britten's A Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, which Soren really loved.  He watched this youtube video of it almost every day for a week.  It was followed by a week on the ballet Peter and the Wolf.  Those two together gave him a good idea of the sounds different instruments could make.  He was excited about learning to identify different instruments and spent a few weeks telling me what instrument different characters in his own made-up stories were represented by.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice, by Paul Dukas, was another fun one.  Of course, we watched Disney's Fantasia for it.  I remember showing that particular part to Soren a couple of years ago but it really stressed him out.  He didn't like to see Mickey being so naughty.  But now that he is older, he didn't run from the room but trusted that Mickey would get his comeuppance.  

Also this month, we watched Humperdinck's children's opera, Hansel and Gretel.  This one did cause Soren to run from the room repeatedly; he didn't want to watch any part with the wicked witch on stage.  Scott complained mightily about this piece; we watched it the week he was home for paternity leave and he hates opera.  

You can tell why we were able to fit this portion of our homeschool into the baby craziness; it mostly involved watching youtube videos!

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