Recent homeschooling

Anya has become interested in "playing school" lately (her term). She wants to get out the letter blocks and make up sentences together. She wants to play a game where we spread out some word cards and I say "Where is 'fox'?" and she finds the word, until all the cards are gone. This one is a good game because she doesn't have to sound it out entirely, she can use process of elimination based on the first or last letter only, and yet she still learns the words by sight. I'm going to pick a short early reader book, identify all the words in it, write them on cards, and play the "Where?" game until she knows them by sight. This way, she should hopefully get excited about reading the book, as opposed to having it drive her nuts because sounding it out goes so slowly.

On impulse, while at the grocery store, I bought a little math workbook. I was almost sheepish about it, since first of all I think of myself as an unschooler, secondly many of the homeschoolers in my area follow Waldorf curricula and don't feel academics need to be emphasized at age 5, and lastly, aren't worksheets dull as dust and repetitive?

Well, Anya loves the workbook. She brings me pages and asks me to read the instructions. I bought three more at Target today, along with a package of sparkly pencils and some neon colored cap erasers. I am already eyeing a silly pencil sharpener that looks like a nose (guess where you stick the pencil) as a stocking item. I was surprised how geeked I got about the pencils. I guess one never outgrows the excitement of new school supplies-- even if they are nominally unschooling supplies.

I've also been reading her Little House in the Big Woods. A couple days into it, I went over to a corner of the room where she'd built a fort, and had been playing mother dog to four little stuffed puppies. Alongside the puppies was a pile of food: applesauce cups, Goldfish, juice boxes, Cheerios, etc. Apparently, since it's autumn, it was necessary to lay in a store of food for the puppies. I also keep hearing her telling the puppies things like "Hurry up! There are panthers in the forest!" During times when she is Anya, as opposed to "Woofy," her dog identity, she occasionally thinks of another item to ask me about, as in: "Did they have gum when Laura was living in that house in the woods?" Which of course is followed by "NO GUM?" and a look of horror.

Tristan, the World's Most Irate Toddler, is doing very well but has a tendency to yell "Bah! Bah!" while scowling and throwing objects to the ground. He also prefers that I never stand or walk without carrying him, which is a bit tough, but oh well, he'll outgrow it.

Hope my readers are all doing well!