Hanson's Ridge
We're off!
We started school on July 10 this year for our first year of year-round schooling. We will have six week terms, with one or two weeks off in between. It gives us flexibility to take days off here and there. I also have a little boy who thrives on consistent routines. AW will be five in September, so she could enter kindergarten if she were going to brick and mortar school. However, we would defer kindergarten for a year in that case. So we are calling this year Junior Kindergarten (I got the idea from a friend's preschool that has a special class just for these "gap year" kiddos). So what have we been up to for the first few weeks of school? During the summer, we are keeping things simple. Our minimum daily lessons are just reading and math. For reading, we've been using Logic of English. AW asked to learn to read a year ago, and we tried out How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. In Homeschool World, it's one of the top three literacy programs I see recommended, and it's the cheapest because all you buy is the book. However, the lessons were not very engaging and it bored both of us to the point of frustration. We tried twice before I decided it wasn't a good fit for our family. I spent some time comparing All About Reading and Logic of English, the other two common recommendations. I ended up choosing Logic of English because it deals with all the unusual rules of English phonetics and spelling. The price points are similar (both pricey because they come with many supplemental materials). We have really been enjoying the lessons, which are engaging and multi-sensory with lots of opportunities for movement. I also like that the handwriting option is flexible. Writing with a pencil is optional, for example. Since AW is a perfectionist when writing on paper, sometimes to the point of shutting down, some days we just practice writing with cornmeal, shaving cream, or in the air. One favorite activity so far was "Phonogram Hopscotch." (Phonograms are the basic units of the sounds that make up words. A letter can be a phonogram, or a phonogram can be made of multiple letters. T is a phonogram. TH is also a phonogram). I drew a hopscotch board, and AW wrote in the phonograms. Then we played hopscotch, naming each phonogram as we hopped on it. DC got to play too, but of course I didn't expect him to name phonograms. We are 13 lessons in (with two assessments under our belt). I'm thrilled with the program and highly recommend it. For math this year, I'm making things up as I go. Once we get into September, I'll be picking up activities from A Year of Playing Skillfully again. I'm using a couple of books: Family Math: Comparing and Preschool Math at Home. There are age-appropriate math activities in each month's Ivy Box. I'm also relying heavily on Pinterest and the library. I took a look at the kindergarten math standards to decide what to focus on for the year. In some cases, it might be just working on the building blocks of a kindergarten concept, and in other cases, we might be working on mastery. For the most part, she's on grade level for kindergarten math. It's not because we spent a lot of time working on math explicitly in the kindergarten years. It's because of what I mentioned earlier: we just noticed math and incorporated it into daily life. Now things are getting a bit more explicit. We spent most of July working on telling time. Public school kindergarteners are expected to tell time on the hour and half hour. We did a few lessons about how reading a clock works, and now I just pull a little practice into daily life. There are now clocks, digital and/or analog, in every room she uses regularly. She already knew how to read the hour on a digital clock. We talk about time because certain things have a scheduled time each day. We checked out books from the library about telling time, several of which had built-in clocks to manipulate and played tic-tac-toe with clocks. I do a calendar math time, even though I hated it in public school. We don't do a full session everyday. Instead I focus on something specific. Right now we are working on using the calendar itself, making tallies, and telling time. Once we've mastered reading the calendar, I'll do something different. The Ivy Box theme for the month was ladybugs, and we began working on even/odd numbers and addition concepts using lady bug dots. I'm not expecting mastery at this point, as we will return to these concepts throughout the year. We've also started doing Poetry Teatime. It's a basic concept: read and enjoy poetry while eating/drinking something special. On fancier days, I put out a table cloth and a china doll tea seat with home baked goodies. Other weeks, we do our heavier duty mugs and store bought cookies. For my pre-reading kiddos, I put out poetry anthologies with pictures and they choose based on the illustrations. Each kid gets a little pad of mini sticky notes to mark the pages they want me to read to them. Some of the anthologies are from our personal library, but I also try to check out poetry books from the public library so we have a fresh book of selections. I aim to have Poetry Teatime once a week. Sometimes we do it more than once a week because the kids love it so much (the snacks definitely help!) We did a bit of a focus on patriotism as well. We read about American symbols and sang some patriotic songs. I introduced the Pledge of Allegiance, but it didn't get fully memorized. To be perfectly honest, I didn't like saying the Pledge of Allegiance in public school either. I think these are important for cultural knowledge, but they aren't central themes in our home school. Community service, activism, and kindness are more important elements of patriotism than a scripted religious pledge for our family. I plan on coming back to the songs, symbols, and words each July. We listened to patriotic CDs, colored pictures of American symbols, and read a few library books. We learned about the lady bug life cycle from our Ivy Box. I learned a few things as well. I didn't know newly emerged adult ladybugs are yellow and lack spots. We kept active too. We had playground trips, library trips, family walks and hikes with friends, and the kids had plenty of opportunities to play outside. They also took swim lessons. So what's next? I made a last minute change to my list of topics for the school year, because home educators have that flexibility. I decided we would study space instead of the human body in August, to prepare for the solar eclipse. It also worked out well because one of our backlogged Ivy Boxes had a space theme. I also kept coming across solar system activities when I looked up ideas for teaching ordinal numbers (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc). We're a few days in, and having a blast (har har). Our American history lessons will start soon. I don't expect the kids to absorb too much but I'm hoping they will enjoy the activities. It's a bit of a selfish plan on my part: I want to see my own work in action and test things out. If they learn anything, great! If not, we'll be coming back to it later in a four-year history cycle.
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Not a day goes by in a homeschool Facebook group of any decent size without a question along the following lines:
"What curriculum should I use for my 3/4/5 year old?" Also: "What does my preschooler need to learn right now?" The response generally runs along the following lines: "Let them play! Playing is learning at this age." It's true. And yet it's such hard advice to follow at times. We live in a culture where everyone wants to get their kids ahead. On the other end of the spectrum, you have kids interviewing for the right preschool so they can get in the right kindergarten so they can get into the right high school to get into the right college. Those aren't bad parents. They just have different goals. Or, a different way of achieving the same goals. In preschools and kindergartens across the country, the basic learning goals are similar (even without Common Core). Kids learn shapes, colors, letters, numbers, and basic number sense (counting and what it means, for example). They start building pre-reading and early-reading skills, including concepts of print (which way you hold a book, how to turn pages, the difference between letters, words, and sentences). Do you need to teach these at home? Yes and no. You do not need a formal preschool curriculum. The only specialized knowledge you really need is that kids need to learn letter sounds more than they need to learn letter names. Knowing how to teach letter sounds is as simple as learning the letter sounds for each letter. You can get into complicated rules later. Stick with the basics. How do you teach these concepts then? You read. You talk to your child. You make observations as you move through your life. Count the blocks in their tower. Sing silly alphabet songs. Read rhyming books and try to get your kiddo to guess the missing words at the end of lines. Play games together. Play I spy with colors. Read more books. You'd be amazed how much preschoolers can learn just through reading books together. Do I use a preschool curriculum? Yes. I've used a Year of Playing Skillfully for one year and we will be using it again this year. It has great, developmentally appropriate, play-based activities. Kids this age don't need worksheets (although sometimes my kids love them so I print them off occasionally). What about teaching your kid to read? There is no long-term advantage for children to learn to read before age 7. Some kids are ready and motivated before then, and some aren't. Follow their lead. So what about public school? Why do they have to spend all day teaching little kids these things? Because of family life. Many families, like the ones in the schools I taught in, are unable to provide the rich quality time that children thrive in. It's not their fault. I knew so many parents that worked incredibly hard, often at multiple jobs. They worked long shifts just to make ends meet. Many of them were immigrant families where English was the second language. Perhaps students knew many of these concepts in their home language, but school was where they learned academic skills in English. It also takes a great deal of time to explicitly teach (and assess) 20+ students, where the same concepts can be woven throughout the day in a family. I know that at the schools I taught at, the kindergarten teachers worked harder than any other teachers in the school. When I student taught, I was never more exhausted than when I spent my time in a kindergarten classroom. At home, preschool and kindergarten should be about play, not remediation. Follow your child's lead. Some kids are ready for academics sooner. Some are ready later. There's no rush. We recently read a lovely picture book called This is My Home, This is My School by Jonathan Bean. It's a little boy giving a tour of his "school" at home, introducing the teacher and lunch lady (Mom) and the substitute and PE teacher (dad). It inspired me to do a little tour of our school.
There's an awful lot going on in this photo! The black bookshelves are home to most of our grownup books. The brown shelves hold all the kids books, with some overflow to the bottom of two of the black shelves. It's also where I keep most of the school supplies. You'll notice the overflowing school supplies on top. Working more on organization. From left to right: paper crafts/school supplies; empty weekly work boxes; a box of books to be rehomed; subscription boxes; AYOPS monthly boxes. On the bottom right, you can see a basket of poetry books. The doors open up to the living room, but we decided to keep the sofa against these doors to keep the living room more open. The white bookshelf is our new bookshelf! It's holding my antique books, which have been pared down slightly. I did discover a set of My Bookhouse books and a GA Henty novel in the book boxes (both beloved by homeschoolers). There are also quite a few classics and histories, which are interesting to study for changing perspectives. I'm rehoming a fair number of old books as well. You can also see my loom, and on the wall besides the loom there are more crates of supplies that I use for AYOPS. Photobombing AW! To be honest, I thought about cleaning up before taking this photo. But that wouldn't be real! The kids spent the afternoon playing playdough and DC worked on the lacing cards. So the area around their work table usually looks like this. The cube shelves hold activities they can work on independently, like coloring, puzzles, and easy games. This is the "teacher" table where I keep basic supplies. The boxes in the left are going to a good home! The kitchen table is where most of the actual school takes place. Since we didn't school today, it's still set up from lunch. The kids are now drinking from monogrammed pewter cups, which sounds really fancy but is actually extremely practical. They are harder to knock over and because they are initialed, no one fights over cups or complains about the color. You can also see a small pitcher. We are working on pouring as a life skill, so there is always a pitcher of water on the table for them to help themselves. The placemats, with place settings printed on them, are from IKEA and easily wipe clean. I love them! This is our big time school wall in our living room. On the left is our school crate with notebooks and materials for morning time. The clear plastic bin holds all of Logic of English (our reading program). The right black crate holds library books that I'm doling out with guidance. The blue basket is full of books for Poetry Teatime (more on that soon hopefully) and the cardboard boxes are the Ivy Boxes we are currently working on. Above, you see artwork. I hang things up all month and then take it down for storage or trash at the end of the month. This is my favorite part. It's the kids' reading corner. The colorful pocket bookshelf is for library books. I rotate out the books on the brown bookshelf and in the baskets. This is the nature wall for the kids' treasures. Right now you see rocks, a lump of coral, the shell that was home to one of our chicks, feathers, pretty leaves, and shells gathered on a recent hike to a freshwater pond. The painted rock is from the local rock club (we've been painting and hiding rocks too). This is the "teacher's desk" AKA our kitchen counter. I have my planner, a basket of basic supplies for the kids, and a supply caddy for myself as well as the computer.
Well that's it for the tour! I can guarantee it won't be as tidy in the middle of the school week, but I'm determined to bring it back close to this point each weekend. It's not perfect, but it's pretty good for me. And as the decluttering purge continues, it should get better. This post is slightly delayed...she turned two months old yesterday. I wrote up her whole birth story over on my professional blog, so you can go read about if you are interested. She was born at 42 weeks 5 days, weighed 8 pounds, 4 ounces, and was 19.25 inches long. Now that the stats are out of the way, I thought I'd focus more on whole family update.
Both AW and DC were thrilled to get the sister they wished for...Himself and I were thrilled to have a baby, but surprised that it wasn't the boy we'd been convinced to expect. AW can't get enough "sister time" in a day, and the kids fight about who gets to be in her line of sight. Today, I had a good lesson. I was at the chiropractor and BB3 (now known as CE) was screaming in her carseat while I was being adjusted. AW was doing her best to soothe the baby by rocking the carseat, but it wasn't working. DC, seemingly out of the blue, threw a book at the baby and hit her in the face. I comforted the baby, and told DC that he had hurt her. The chiropractor bent down and asked him if the crying baby had scared him. It suddenly clicked that his unusual behavior (he's never hurt her before) was a sensory overload reaction to the endless crying. It's something to keep an eye on in the future. But overall, he's adjusted so beautifully to being a big brother. He absolutely adores her and is quite gentle with her. We have been having a lovely lazy summer with lots of outside time as we get ready to head back to school next week. Here are some highlights:
Ok. I had a business blog. But it's been unpublished and I realized I still wanted to be able to share my three birth stories with folks. This post has been backdated. " It's a long story, so I'm posting in a slightly different format. On the left, you can read about my previous births, which provide back story about what made this birth different (and so much better!). In the middle, you can read about how I prepared for both a VBAC attempt and possible scheduled CS, both physically and mentally. On the right, you will find the story of my gentle cesarean. Below, you'll find photographs from the gentle cesarean (which the hospital calls a family centered cesarean and is also sometimes called a natural cesarean). "
I'm six days postpartum now, and I haven't stopped smiling. I love holding and snuggling my little girl, and I feel only happiness when I think about her birth. It's a story I'm excited to share to help others, but it's also a story I'm excited to share because I feel like I'm getting the baby moon that I missed out on the last time. Both births were scheduled c-sections, but one felt like a surgery and one felt like a birth. In this most recent birth, there was acknowledgement that birth is both a separation and a meeting. There was joy in the room, rather than it feeling like the last task of a shift before going home. I was equally as exhausted afterwards, because it's still major surgery, but felt proud and happy rather than numb. Because I had a good birth, I've had more resiliency in the days afterwards. There were some concerns about her getting enough breastmilk in the hospital, and I had to pump and use a combination of a supplemental nursing system and syringe feeding for a couple of feedings (she's doing great now!). I had the emotional energy to take on that challenge and feel flexible about whatever needed to happen to get my baby fed. When I came home and saw myself in the full length mirror in the bathroom, I felt pride and happiness in the sagging skin and fresh scar. Last time, my body image hit an all time low because I felt like my body had failed me and my son. My daughter will have a better mother during the first year of her life because I felt respected and in control of my birth experience, even though she came through my belly instead of my vagina.
Important Note I was able to have every single thing I asked for in my c-section birth plan for four reasons: 1. Supportive OB. You have control over this part. Interview OBs, even before you are pregnant. Ask them about your options from the beginning. Even if you are planning a vaginal birth, have a c-section birth plan and discuss it with your OB ahead of time. 2. Supportive hospital. This hospital has made it a priority to offer these types of cesareans. It happened because of a lot of advocacy before I even got there. 3. Supportive anesthesiologist. In the OR, the anesthesiologist is actually the top boss. They get to decide who is allowed. They may limit support people because of space or worries that a support person will get in the way or even faint. There were two anesthesiologists at the hospital that day. The other one said he would not have allowed more than one person into the OR, and no one at all during prep. You probably don't have control over who you will have as an anesthesiologist. 4. Everything went smoothly. This is the area of least control. I had a scheduled c-section, but complications can always happen. Because it wasn't an emergency, we were able to take time. That being said, I feel strongly that every birth should involve respect, informed consent, and an acknowledgment that birth is a big deal for the family. Delayed cord clamping or immediate skin to skin can't happen if mom or baby is in distress, but the medical team can still keep the attention in the room on the people who are central to the experience. If you have a positive experience at a hospital, especially if they are breaking norms, write thank you notes. Write positive reviews. Write letters. Share your experience widely. Our anesthesiologist let our doula into the room because a previous anesthesiologist had allowed her in the OR. Precedent matters. We are in full countdown mode at our house: within approximately the next three weeks, our new baby will be born. The eviction date is set. The room is ready. Plans are made. A wonderful friend recently gave me the gift of a maternity photo shoot. I'm 38/39 weeks right now, depending on how you count. Given that I've given birth at 42 weeks twice before, that means I'll probably go right up to the eviction date. I'm expecting to give birth most likely sometime during the first week of May. Please please please don't ask me if I've had the baby yet/when I'm going to have the baby. It makes me cranky!
Long update ahead about pregnancy. Feel free to stop reading here if that isn't your thing! We've slowed way down around here. One of the reasons I've stopped formal schooling for the year is the uncertainty of when I'll actually have the baby and I didn't want to be in the middle of anything. The other reason is prodromal labor. With AW, I didn't even really notice Braxton Hicks contractions until I was around 41 weeks pregnant. I had one labor false alarm, but looking back, it was nothing more than Braxton Hicks. With DC, it was very different. We'd moved out here but we were all still commuting into Fairfax County. We'd leave the house around 5:45am. I dropped AW off at daycare and Himself off at the closest train station. I picked up AW around 4:00pm and reversed the process. We spent 3.5-4 hours in the car every day from March through May. At some point during that process, I started having regular, timeable contractions in the car. By the end of May, they were consistently five minutes apart every time I got in the car, all the way home. Some of them were strong enough that I had to breathe through them, and they were extremely distracting. I'd planned on working up until my due date, which was right around the last day of school, but I just couldn't do it anymore. I stopped working at 38 weeks, and spent the month of June resting and nesting. Later, I found out about prodromal labor but thought it only applied in the several days leading up to active labor. I was surprised to learn that it can last for weeks. I did some reading this morning and found that it can happen over a much longer time period, and everything clicked into place. Almost every night, starting around 5 or 6pm, contractions start. Some of them are just your run of the mill Braxton Hicks: tightening but no pain. There are steps to relieve Braxton Hicks: taking baths, drinking water, changing position. Conventional advice is that if these steps don't stop the contractions, or if the contractions fall into a regular pattern, then it's the real thing. I've often been told that Braxton Hicks don't hurt. Sometimes, these contractions follow the "rules" of Braxton Hicks. Often, they don't. Himself has asked me on multiple nights if I think I'm starting the real thing. He's watching me breathe through contractions, and to be honest, they feel a whole lot like the contractions I had between my water breaking and being induced with AW. They are often very crampy and accompanied by back pain. Taking a bath provides some relief but doesn't make them stop. By 11pm, they usually start winding down and I'm able to fall asleep for awhile, although they continue to some extent through the night. I actually had a dream that I woke up actively pushing because I'd had so many contractions while I was sleeping. I'm emotionally exhausted from managing the pain and from wondering if things were going to progress at all. When I had a scheduled c-section with DC after all this, I was not even a centimeter dilated. I'm not even a centimeter dilated now. I kind of wondered if I was just really sensitive to Braxton Hicks and needed to get my act together--then I read a few blog posts this morning and wanted to cry with relief that other women out there have gone through the same thing. It's why I'm writing about this, even though it's pretty personal. Here are some parts of the blog post that really resonated with me: "The physical toll of these early contractions is exhausting, but I found that the real struggle was emotional, mainly due to a lack of sleep." "So basically, it is real labor in terms of pain, contractions, and regularity but it comes and goes." "After weeks of this, I was on the verge of tears every night, doubting my ability to tell if I was in real labor or not and telling my husband “I can’t keep doing this every night… I’m so exhausted!” I'm feeling a little stronger this morning because I understand what's happening with my body a little bit better. It's likely the baby's position causing all this trouble so I'm encouraged to keep doing exercises to get into a good position. Anyway, that's a long story. Like I said, part of the reason I posted this is because if someone I know is going through/has gone through this, I want them to know they are not alone. The other reason: I'm kind of disappearing from a lot of things right now and not able to accomplish very much. I'm exhausted beyond the normal third trimester level of exhaustion. I still have a lot to be thankful for: I'm thankful that I was able to conceive and carry this child. I'm thankful that the baby is doing well. I'm thankful for my supportive husband who is helping pick up the slack. I'm thankful that I have a fantastic doula who is giving me tips to survive these weeks, and thankful that I have some knowledge of pain management techniques. Here's my final PSA for those who are pregnant or may become pregnant in the future: Get educated about your body. Take an out of hospital birthing class, and learn about pain management techniques even if you plan on getting an epidural immediately upon arriving at the hospital (spoiler: not always possible anyway). You don't know what you're going to need in the days and hours leading up to a hospital arrival. And if it's at all possible, get a professional doula. I hired mine planning on a scheduled c-section this time around, and she has been an extremely valuable resource even during my pregnancy. I've learned so much from her (and if anyone is looking for a class, a doula, or both, I can't recommend her enough). She is seriously saving my sanity right now. TL;DR: Pregnancy is hard. I'm tired. See you on the other side. And doulas are awesome. Nine years ago this March, Himself and I settled on our first home, a townhouse. (Yes, I had a blog there too). Three years ago this March, we settled on our country house and officially moved in. AW sure was a lot smaller! She wasn't even two years old, and DC was a bun in the oven, meaning I did a lot of supervising that day and not a whole lot of carrying heavy boxes. It snowed right after we moved in, proving that this year's March snowstorm wasn't a complete anomaly in the past couple of years. (Although I'm really hoping to avoid an anniversary snow this year). The first year was really a year of discovery. We discovered that the tree next to the garage was a teacup magnolia, the same kind of tree that blossomed every spring outside my childhood bedroom window. It felt like a sign from my dad. We found white dogwoods on the property, my dad's favorite kind of tree. And later in the summer, we found blackberry and wineberry bushes along the wood line. In July, we brought DC home to the Ridge. It was definitely a big year for changes: new house, me leaving work, and growing our family. In 2015, we started working on our homestead dreams. We built a garden and got chickens. 2016 brought further changes to the homestead. We bought a breeding pair of rabbits and started raising meat birds in addition to our layers. We had another busy year in the garden. This year brings a new chicken coop, a new baby, and our second year of raising animals for meat. The rest remains to be seen!
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AuthorHi! I'm Stephanie Hanson. I live with my husband, Himself, on Hanson's Ridge in Virginia. Archives
September 2017
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