looking ahead and Bible Story reading

I am really looking forward to September when I'll be starting pre-school with Little Miss and Little Mr. I haven't yet decided exactly how it will look. I do know that I'm interested in pursuing some of the ideas found on this WEBSITE, visiting the Botanical Gardens on a weekly basis, taking the kids on a field trip once or twice a month and reading, reading and reading some more!

As a family we having been reading the book, The Child's Story Bible by Catherine Vos in the evenings before bed. It has been fun to watch the lights go on in my children's mind as the stories of the Bible come to life for them. Chris and I have been enjoying reading it too ... it's one of the most well done story Bible's I have come across. I love that the stories are not watered down in any way ... just re-told so that young minds can comprehend them!

Charlottes Web

We finished reading Charlottes Web this past weekend. Elizabeth found a copy of the book on my shelf and asked if we could read it. Of course! We tried to read it with Josiah as well ... that didn't go over to well. He just wouldn't sit still long enough! So we read most of it after he would go down for his nap. It was great for her and I to have some mommy/daughter time.

After each chapter Elizabeth summarized what was read back to me as I wrote it down in her journal (as suggested by Carol Joy Seid). It was interesting to hear what she took from each chapter. More interesting to me was being able to see that she needed the pictures (few, though they were) to jog her memory of what had happened in the story. Only hearing the story was too abstract for her little mind! Below I will share a couple of the journal entries as dictated by her to myself ...

Chapter 1

About the pig. Her father tried to kill him. Her father gave her the pig that he was trying to kill. And then her brother, Avery, came down and then the little girl fed the pig.

Chapter 3

Wilbur ran away and escaped and he saw some people and he said to himself, "what should I do?". Then a man came with a bucket full of food for the pig and then he went back into the barn and then the duck followed the man into the barn. The duck said to the man, "he has to run out and do his tricks." Then the duck ran out of the barn.

Chapter 11

The little boy sometimes tries to kill spiders and his mom puts him to bed without any breakfast. (Did Charlotte do anything, I asked?). She made a web and the web had words on it.

Chapter 13

It was about making terrific words on the spider web. The pig woke up. the rat took a piece of paper and it had silly words on it with uppercase letters. The pig twisted and misted and turned and did a flip and blasted on the ground and went to sleep with a thump.* Then the spider told the pig a story about her cousin who caught a fish in her web and then ate it. then his favorite friend (Fern) tucked in herself and went to bed.

Chapter 19

The spider made an egg sac for her eggs. Then the rat had a big fat tummy. Everybody gave hugs because the pig was a famous pig!

Chapter 21

The spider - the big one - was going to die - but not the little ones. The rat was going to get the web that had eggs in it that was all covered, covered with strings from her web.

Chapter 22

The rat ate some of the pigs food and he grew fatter. The the spiders grew balloons and floated up into the air. One talked to the pig. Then 3 of them went on the door.

*That was my favorite sentence out of her whole narrative!

my experience

It's obvious that I'm super excited about this whole homeschooling adventure that we are embarking upon. However I want to be sensitive to those who have not chosen this way of life. Do not allow my excitement and fervor in this adventure cause you to feel you need to defend how you have chosen to school your children. I am not sharing my excitement to disuade anyone off the path they have chosen!

I liken it to my cloth-diapering experience. I LOVED cloth diapering. I talked about it a lot and shared a lot of knowledge w/ many friends and wished more people felt the same as I did. However I never wanted to "put it upon" anyone else or make them feel that they were doing their children or the environment a disservice by not "being like me". I feel the same way about homeschooling. I'm excited about it and so I'm going to talk about it a lot - honestly hoping to encourage others to look into it for themselves. BUT in the end a persons decision to homeschool or not is their own and I do not look down upon anyone because they have made a different decision than I have.

So if that is you my friend keep coming back to my blog and read about my experience remembering that it is what it is: my experience!

For additional reading on education (whether in a home atmosphere or classroom) check out For The Children's Sake (Foundations of Education For Home And School) by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay. I'm only on Chapter 2 but I am finding it a wonderful read so far - I believe it would benefit both the parent who wishes to homeschool, the parent who hasn't decided and the parent who has chosen a public or private education.