Early Years Homeschool Personal Blog

Early Years Homeschool is a site that I build to provide information for those interested in homeschooling. The early years means both early years children and early years of homeschooling. This blog will be about our daily homeschooling activities, so you'd be able to see how a homeschooling family really is. Hopefully this will help out those who wants to homeschool but is still confused and not sure of what to do. Additionally, we're bilingual so there'll also be some information on raising bilingual children through homeschooling.

May 14, 2006 08:44 - I started homeschooling !!

After reading Jessie Wise's "The Well Trained Mind", I feel like homeschooling is the right choice for Don. We made a mistake by enrolling him in preschool when he was only 2.5 years old. He was terrified !! It wasn't a very good preschool (another mistake). It was a montessori style that has mixed age group (which is actually good) but there were only 3 teachers handling 26 children !!! And some of the older children just couldn't get their hands off Don !! They kept saying he's so cute, touched him by his cheeks, wanted him to play with them. So Don was just terrified. He cried for the first 2 weeks and he never really liked it. He cried whenever we turned the car to the direction of the school. He cried terribly. It just made me so sad and guilty. He was there for 4 months only and never wanted to return.

After reading Jessie's book, especially about how well educated homeschooler could be, I felt like I should give homeschooling a try. So I looked online for a local homeschooling support group. I found one and just emailed them. I got a reply a couple of days later, telling me about newsletter and a yahoogroup. I joined the mailing list and subscribe to the newsletter.

Today was baseball day. We went to the park and saw a lady and her son playing baseball. We chat a little and then more people came. It was great ! It was fun ! At least I know I'm not alone. Don was not involved a lot, though. He was just watching from the side. But that's just him. He's always like that anyway. I'm just going to let him be. The main thing is that I have contacted the group and I'm in. I've started homeschooling !!

May 16, 2006 07:35 - Bilingual and Homeschooling

I never thought of this before. Would I be able to homeschool my children ? English is not my first language, how would I do the homeschooling ? Would it be in English or in my native language ?

Corey from my homeschool group has just mentioned about this. We have initiated a subgroup within our group, it's now called the bilingual homeschooling group. We haven't done a lot but knowing that I'm not alone is a big help already.

Most of the people in the group are mixed couple. so one would be native English speaker and the other would be another language native speaker (and it's not just Spanish, there's Russian, Japanese, German, Indonesian, Phillipines etc... oh yes we are a very diverse group here, I don't know but I'm proud about this, although it's not really my group, I mean I didn't initiate the group).

Anyway. I don't see any difficulty if the parents are the native speaker of both languages since it'll be easier (at least that's what I think). The problem with us is that none of us is native English speaker. So we both speak our native language at home. English is only through TV (which we don't let our kids watch a lot) and outside home.

So I don't know how this will turn out, I just know that homeschooling is best for my situation. My kids are bilingual. However, Don is still very shy to express himself in English. Just last week when we were in the library, Don, out of the blue, said to the storyteller lady "I'm almost 4!". That was the first time he communicate in English. Usually it was just a nod or a yes/no. And usually it was only a response. This time he initiated the conversation, with confidence. Although that was his only sentence, what comes after was the lady telling us about her son. But that's okay. it takes time. I just feel so relieved that Don is finally 'talking' in English.

I don't want Don to feel pressured, to feel that he has to speak English in order to fit in. I don't want him to not respect me because of my English. I know some kids who do not respect their parents because the parent's English is just terrible. Oh well.. we'll see how this goes. I think all of us in the bilingual homeschooling group still don't really know how we're doing this, we're just doing it as we go along. So we'll learn.

For now, here is a comparison of english only and bilingual education by dr Mora from San Diego State University

May 17, 2006 07:19 - Raising Raisin

We did a science project today, woohooo... I'm so proud of myself ! It wasn't big at all, it was just that I've proven to myself that I can do this homeschooling, and I'm all set to do it. Today was the first science project. It was the first homeschooling thing that we do on our own.

The project was from Mudpies to Magnet. I love this book since it doesn't contain tons of activities that usually just confuses me. It contains just enough that you'd feel like you can do them all. And they are all easy to do.

I've been trying to do the raising raisin since yesterday but something else always came up. But today we did it ? It took sometimes for me the get the quantities of baking soda and vinegar right, but once I got it, Don was really really excited. He kept asking questions after questions. Why is it 'flying' ? What's all the fizzy stuff ?

Oh how fun !!! The look on his eyes just made my day. I wouldn't trade this for anything, I would try to teach him as much as I can just so I can enjoy moments like this. Moments when he finds out about new things.

May 19, 2006 08:22 - How do you teach reading ?

Don now knows all his alphabet. He loves his alphabet puzzles. He could do it when he was not even 2 but I don't think he knew his alphabet then. He knows them now. We've also used The Great ABC Treasure Hunt from TimeLife and all sorts of different alphabet books from the library.

However, I haven't started teaching him reading. To be honest, I don't know how to. English is my second language and I only learned English after I can read. I find it difficult to teach reading in English.

As an example, how am I suppose to teach Don to read 'cat' ? This is 'c' but it's pronounced 'k'. That's one problem. The other is if there's a picture of a cat (which is supposed to help kid with reading the word cat), Don would say it's not cat, it's kucing (Indonesian for cat).

I still haven't figured out whether I should teach him to read Indonesian first or English first. I know I should expose him to both languages if I want him to stay bilingual. But how about literacy ? Should he be biliterate, too ?

May 23, 2006 06:18 - Working mom vs homeschooling mom

This article from WebMD comes at a very 'peculiar' time, just because I'm seriously thinking of quitting my job. It says that stay-at-home moms tend to be obese after 50 while working mom are thinner and healthier. Well, I can say that even as I'm thinking of quitting, I'm already planning, if I do leave my job, I'll have more time to COOK. I do plan to cook more, healthier and more variety, but MORE cooking. Maybe it's right afterall, stay-at-home moms are obese.

However, homeschooling mom would be another different story. Homeschooling takes a lot of work, believe me. You have to do everything that stay-at-home moms do, plus the 'school' work. You need to plan (and boy, this is NOT as easy as it sounds), you need to do the teaching, you go out for their 'classes' (sports, art, other community involvement), you go out finding resources to quench their thirst of knowledge. Basically, you do a lot more of other things than just cook and clean.

So I don't know, maybe if somebody does a research comparing working mom, stay-at-home mom, homeschool mom, the last would be the healthiest. They have their 'job', able to participate in society, enjoy their children, and still be able to cook and clean. At least that's how I see it. Homeschooling mom have the best of all, jobs, kids and home.
(Go to URL)

May 24, 2006 06:28 - Math for the day

We did math yesterday. We've done it before but Don wasn't really interested then. Yesterday he was asking for more and more, I want to do math, he kept saying.

He has become really good in recognizing the quantities, up to 4. I'd like to say he can 'see' 5 also but he's still a little confused about 5, sometimes he gets it sometimes he doesn't.

I especially like using the abacus. RightStart Math uses the abacus extensively and I bought the curriculum because a lot of people say it really works and it teaches understanding and visualization more than just memorization. And Don gets it everytime we use the abacus. He can give me 4 on the abacus, and sometimes even 5. I haven't bought the card games from Right Start but I'd really like to.

We also did the first 4 or 5 lessons in the book. It was fun and I like it since it doesn't require kids to recognize written numbers (like some curriculum does) but focus more on understanding what numbers mean. Then we supplement with other math books like "How Many Hippo" from TimeLife. I didn't plan on this one but when we're finished, Don was asking for more books, so I remember that we have this book and we read it. Then we play more 'math games'. It was simple and I just created it my self (very proud of that). Actually Right Start inspired me.

We took some of Don's lego and started sorting them. The yellow, the blues and the reds. Then we made stacks of legos with either 2 legos, or 3 or 4 or sometimes 5. Don did all the counting.

May 24, 2006 07:00 - Curriculum Show and Tell

Our homeschool support group had a curriculum show and tell yesterday. Basically people come with any curriculum/books they want to show to other people. It was just great. Lots of homeschool materials are online and sometimes I like to see first before I buy. Yesterday was a big help. I got to see Miquon, SRA, Handwriting without Tears, Kumon, Explode the Code and some other books that are just great for reading (but too advanced for my kids, my... they're only 4 and 1).

As for the Math Curriculum, RightStart is still the best for me. I mean I took a look at the Miquon book (I think it was the orange book and I think it was the lowest level they had). It seems very 'school' like. On the first pages kids are required to recognize the numbers, instead of what the numbers mean. At least that's the impression I get.

Then there's Singapore Math. I think the book I saw yesterday was an old book since it is completely different than what I saw in a bookstore last year. Singapore Math looks okay, although the problem with 'workbook' style is that Don might not want to do it.

I tried it with another book that is similar to Singapore, can't remember exactly but I think it sounds something like MacMilllan math. It's okay, it's got picture of things grouped in 4 or 5, and kids are to circle the ones corresponding to a certain number. Then there's comparison, and sorting, etc. The problem with Don is he likes it more and he gets it when we do it with 'real' objects instead of from books. It does requires me to be more creative and it's just more work, but Don likes it that way and he really learns, so I don't mind at all.

Then there's the reading/phonics curriculum. I don't know. I mean the curriculum I saw yesterday was okay. I'm just not sure if I should try it or not, due to our bilingual situation. I think for now I'm going to do what Charlotte Mason says, word recognition. Instead of trying to spell I'm just going to have Don read a lot and hope he'll start to recognize some words. Maybe then I'll try teach him to read in our 1st language first before I try it in English. It's so confusing to me, I'm still trying to find the best way for this.

Although I really like Handwriting Without Tears. Don seems to like it, too. It's basically for writing, though, not reading. The manipulatives are interesting. They're only wood curves and lines but Don really wanted to 'play' with them yesterday. The lady who owns it says it's really fun to learn the letter with those and the book has so many fun activities that will lead kids to write better. So I might look more into that one.

May 31, 2006 08:48 - Homeschoolers' love affair with the library

I love our library !
Since I decide to homeschool my kids, I love the library even more. I work full time so my 'dates' with the library are limited to weekends, and only to the children's section. My interaction with the library and its collection are mostly through the internet, their online catalog.

However, even the children's section has so much to offer. Aside from picture books and fiction, the library has tons of non-fiction books that are just GREAT. Books about cars and how they operate, planes and how to make them, fire trucks and what they do. Just about everything Don loves ! There's also biographies, histories, math related and science books.

I essentially do not need to buy anything at all unless I want to own it. And at the rate we're doing now, I don't think I want to buy any book just yet. We bring home piles of books everytime we go there and I can't imagine buying piles of books every week (well I can actually, just not financially).

And I'm only talking about our city library. Yesterday I found out that one of the University libraries has a section for Curriculum material. I went crazy ! Had it not been for my baby who's waiting in the car, I could be there the whole night. It was just tons and tons of curriculum, preschool, early education, homeschooling, primary and upper grades, math, reading, science, etc. Books and teaching kits in huge boxes.

I haven't checked out our county's library. Rumors has it that Rosetta Stone foreign language program is available for free for library members ! Plus, it has special section for homeschoolers ! I think I'll wait before I explore that since I'm already overwhelmed with our city and university libraries (and this is only the online catalogs ! I haven't actually browse their collection, wouldn't know what I'd do when I have the time). Oh I just love the libraries.

My tips :
- when you go to the online library catalog, don't just put the keyword 'homeschool'. This will only gives you books on homeschooling details. If you want homeschool materials and curriculum, type in what you're looking for (math books or science, biography or reading, curriculum etc)
- it's always better to browse the library yourself (not the online catalog) since you'll find more materials and you can see it. However, it tends to make you forget what you're there for since you're constantly attracted to another subject/title just next to it. At least that's what happens to me.
- okay, okay.. that's not a very good tip. I'll post more when I settle down, right now I'm just in a state of euphoria (I guess, just so happy to have a library around)