A Little Out of My Element

In my former life, I was a successful middle school teacher.  Need someone to break down pre-algebra?  I'm your gal.   Not my area of expertise?  Early childhood education.  There is a reason I do not teach preschool or even early elementary.  When I substitute taught, I tried to never sub below third grade.  I like hanging out with little kids, but my mind does not necessarily function in a way that easily thinks of learning activities for young minds.  I hate doing craft projects and developing learning centers always seemed like so much work.

Excuse the humble brag -- but my kids are really smart and it is almost a little problematic.  I'm glad I am at home so I can help nurture their young minds.  Teaching enthusiastic little sponges is very different from sullen pre-teens.   My educational goal for my kids is to help them each reach their potential as well as foster a love of learning.  I really like teaching my kids, but I do not want to homeschool.  Sometimes on those days where everything seems almost idyllic,  I start to think that maybe I could do it and then I come to my senses.  Linus is an extrovert and needs an audience.  He and I would also kill each other.  Nor do I feel confident in my abilities to provide the social outlets necessary to create a well rounded child.

However, I do enjoy supplementing their learning. My kids each do learning activities each day as a part of earning their screen time.  Linus sometimes gets annoyed about earning screen time.  The other day I found myself saying to him,  "You know you are lucky.  Other people pay me to teach their kids.  You get me for free!"  Linus was not impressed.

The benefit to marrying someone who is the youngest of five kids is that you have access to in-laws who have been there.  I consider my sister-in-laws, Sarah and Jenna, to be two of my mom mentors.  So much of what I do when it comes to parenting comes from the advice and experience of these two.  My cousin, Casey, is another mom mentor.  These days I find myself needing to look outside my realm of expertise.    I do not think these women realize just how much I look to them.

Both Casey and Jenna homeschool and have been a great source for ideas, since like I said, preschool is not my forte.  I've really had to fall back some on my teacher training (I technically can teach as low as Kindergarten).  Since sometime after Christmas I have been teaching Linus to read.  I have never taught anyone to read before, but I'm really enjoying it.  I tried to use BOB books, but Linus would "cheat" and just look at the pictures to guess words.  After about two times through, he had the book memorized so the whole thing was a bust.  Instead I decided to try Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.  It totally clicked.  Linus is very excited to be a reader.  Jenna recommended the Usborne Very First Reading Set.  I was able to get it for cheap on Ebay.  I like that the series incorporates paired reading and different comprehension strategies.  Besides having Linus read to us, Dave and I read chapter books to Linus.  We just started Prince Caspian by CS Lewis.

Teaching Linus to read in combination with daily workbook time has made Linus take off academically.  This is good and bad.  Good because a mind is a terrible thing to waste.  Bad because it makes me worry about finding the right school program for him.

Eileen is wasting no time trying to catch up to her big brother.  She loves doing workbooks and other learning activities.  Thank God for Pinterest! I'm not very active on Pinterest, but I am discovering it to a great source for activities.  From listening to me teach Linus to read and help him with his phonics workbook, she is picking up a surprising amount.  Yesterday I found Eileen sitting alone under a pile of books, quietly reading to herself.  She looked at me and announced, "I'm a reader. Just like Linus," and promptly went back to her books.

One of the things that I did not expect would be so hard to teach is how to hold a pencil.  Watching my kids learn and absorb information is fascinating.  Even though I do not want to homeschool, I definitely want to step it up a little and be more creative.  Maybe I will try to come up with a nature unit for this summer.

I'd love to hear fun ideas for preschool/kindergarten or any recommendations for books for early readers.  Like I said, teaching little people puts me a little out of my element.