Lots of People Asking About the Early Childhood Years

My thoughts are gathered here:

The Not Really Kindergarten Post

Could it be a Storybook Year?

The Alphabet Path

It's a wonderful thing!

The Art Box

Language Arts for Little Ones

Number Fun

Leading Little Ones to the Good Shepherd

Practical Life

And the there's the whole preschool archives:-)

I'm excited about learning with my little ones this year. I admit it's more than a little poignant to know that we shall not walk this way again. My days of homeschooling early childhood are coming to a close. We're going to go at this for all its worth!

I'm planning to revive the The Alphabet Path and revise it, too. I'd like to leave a nice record of it for Sarah and Karoline. We will plan our days so that Catechesis of the Good Shepherd will be a cornerstone of our days. And we'll continue to love storybooks as noted above. I've got lots of thoughts bubbling in my brain, but I know some of you have pressing questions you want to toss around. So, click away and then let's start talking in the combox:-).

Moments Like These

On Thursday Night

Dear Karoline,

I sat in my studio this afternoon, catching up on paperwork and gridding a busy weekend into my planner. I could feel my shoulders rising to nearly touch my ears. I know my forehead creased with concern. Heavy thoughts. Creeping cold.

I heard the gathering storm downstairs. You, with all your creative ideas and grand plans for elaborate play. Your sister, with her own agenda. You kind of fell apart. You burst through my doors, earnest tears streaming down your face and big sobs sucking air from your lungs. Why did they not understand, you demanded. Why didn't they know that you saw this whole play scheme so clearly in your head? Whatever the reason, they didn't. 

I glanced at the flannel stacked neatly on the shelf and remembered that I'd promised to sew with you today. 

"Let's make something."

The clouds parted and your smile shone sunshine all over that room. You pinned intently. You sewed on the machine with utter glee. For the first time ever, you pressed the pedal all by yourself the whole time. And you filled your cozy with corn. 

Tonight, you are tucked up in my bed with the work of your hands, claiming that you want to share its warmth with me. 

We are both warmed.

Sweet dreams, sweet girl.

xo

mama

A Pleasant Way to Spend the Afternoon

 

Yarn Along: Hope Shining

There is something about these days of August that fill my heart with hope. The new school term nears and with it comes the promise of the fulfillment of all the lofty goals I can dream. I was definitely off my knitting rhythm for a few weeks, there. It just felt tedious and tense. Thankfully, I found a joyful rhythm again at Mint Springs Lake while my little girls, in sandy bathing suits, climbed the ladders and slid down the slide again and again and again. Back and forth I knitted across the body of this sweater, while up and down they played. Rhythm. It's a good thing.

And environment. A prepared environment sings hope to me as well. I know it's time to leave the sewing studio for a few hours a day or so and begin to put the right books in the baskets, spruce up the art supplies, re-think the spaces. I was delighted to receive Playful Learning:Develop Your Child's Sense of Joy and Wonder in the mail while I was away last weekend. I had forgotten that I'd pre-ordered it ages ago, when I ordered Amanda Soule's new book. I put The Rhythm of the Family aside for now and dug into Playful Learning yesterday as I forced myself to be still and rid my body of a nasty infection. 

I've been reading early childhood education books for thirty years or so. It takes a serious gust to qualify as a breath of fresh air. This is it. This book artfully, masterfully, and very clearly presents a lovely marriage of the theories of Maria Montessori, Loris Malaguzzi, and Howard Gardner. What you get is an accesible and immediately implementable roadmap to the best of Montessori, Reggio Emelia, and Harvard Project Zero. It's absolutely not a theory book though--it's all very practical. This a visually inspiring book full of hands-on reading, science, and social activities for children from three or four to about eight or nine. There is just enough child development background to give underlying  meaning to the activities. There are reproducibles to make it come to life easily. And there are very thoughtful, helpful, and beautiful pictures to inspire the viusal among us. This book has me happily reorganizing and purposefully planning to capture  the joyful moments of  my children's natural inquisitiveness and wonder right along with them. I'm sitting surrounded by a few beautiful things, drawing spaces and sketching simple plans. All good.

I can feel it coming. The next few days are going to be fifteen degrees cooler. The baskets of art supplies and books and science tools will be refreshed and replenished. The knitting needles will click merrily towards the completion of fall cardigans. Hope shines a sunny yellow in the learning space that is my sunroom.

Please visit Ginny for more reading and knitting inspiration. (Hey, I visited with Ginny in person last week. And neither of us knitted. Can you imagine? That baby sure is sweet, though.  Plans must be made for a knitting visit soon.)

Yarn Along: Slow Going

It's gray outside this morning as I write to you. I have half a dozen indoor things on my list, but I'm wrestling with the idea that the garden needs a good weeding and it's finally cool enough to do it. What to do?

My knitting has slowed to a snail's pace. I'm not sure why. I made a pretty major mistake and didn't discover it until 8 rows later. Knowing that with double strands and lots of increases and decreases between me and the error 8 rows back there was a good chance I'd irrevocably mess it all up, I called a knitting friend and we --ahem-- did the math. I've done more math in the last six months than in the last 26 years. The jury is still out on whether our rescue was successful, but I very much enjoyed the leisurely late evening conversation. I need to get past the sleeve divide and try it on Katie and see whether it's too bulky through the yoke. It's hard to tell on these cables.

It's been a lovely summer of slow stitching in both yarn and thread. I haven't minded the heat at all and rather embraced the opportunity it has granted to stay inside and feather my nest a bit. I have oh-so-many thoughts on hearth and home percolating around in my brain! I know that as the days cool the pace will quicken. There will be more knitting and less sewing because the knitting can go with me hither and yon to some of the most beautiful soccer parks in the country. It will be very pleasant company while I wait for games to begin and training sessions to finish. Right now, I'm happily humming at home, very much enjoying the slow.

In the comments section of this post, I mentioned one of my all-time favorite books, The Hurried Child. I read this book in college and, together with Miseducation, by the same author,  it probably had the greatest influence on my thoughts about childhood of any book at the time. And I read a whole lot of child development books! It was a new book then, in its first printing. The 25th Anniversary Edition brings it into a new century and really, when I stop to consider it, it is astonishing how much more the culture works to hurry children than it did just 25 years ago. (Incidentally, neither book is a homeschooling book.) Back then, I thought Dr. Elkind had a very solid argument and I set about to find educational philosophies that preserved the dew of childhood long enough to ensure that faithful souls and creative spirits were well watered. Now, the challenges are considerably more formidable. In a lovely twist of poetry, I re-read my cherished first edition paperback of  Miseducation last week, while I read the 25th Anniversary Edition of the Hurried Child on Kindle. The times are a-changing so very quickly. We simply must keep up--and slow down. Childhood itself is at stake.

Go visit Ginny for more knitting and reading yarns.