"So you're homeschooling this year?"

I have been asked that question more times than I can count in the past few months. People who know we are interested in homeschooling expect that because we have a four year old, and it's September, it must be time. Those who don't know, but see me traipsing around with a school-aged child during normal school hours assume we are, otherwise we're a truant family.

The answer is 'yes, we're homeschooling', sort of.

In my overly zealous state last summer, I was determined we were going to begin 'preschool' with Noah. We bought him, two, count em, two entire preschool curriculums because that's what one ought to do with their three year old, right? I was hell-bent on proving something to... someone. Not Patrick, not our extended families. But someone. He was going to learn, by cracky!

Imagine my surprise when I opened the 'lesson plan' for Sonlight and it said something like "read 'The Bee Tree' and discuss where honey comes from. Consider making toast with honey." I thought, oh, but we already live like that. How is homeschooling any different than simply being at home with mom?

Well, in the early years, at least for us, it won't be.

I have the wisdom and insight of a number of women who live around us who have homeschooled for many years and all seem to advocate for a relaxed approach for these beginning years. After beating my head against a wall and worrying way too much this past year, being more laid back seems to fit more with our family and particularly my boys' interests and attention spans.

So what will our year look like?

We'll read -- a lot -- together. One of my greatest joys as a mother is reading to my children. I see how much they learn from it, but mostly it's just so satisfying to sit and cuddle with them and a good book. I like Sarah's idea of being intentional about Read-alouds but like her, I can't commit to scheduling it in at certain times of the day as we're about to embark on New Baby life. I intend to do it in the afternoon while enjoying a snack and some tea and again at bedtime.

{The boys have this new, adorable habit of taking a little espresso cup and ladling it into my cup of tea so we can all have tea together as we read. It. is. so. cute.}

We'll do some journalling. Noah loves writing and I am a sucker for those Hilroy scribblers that are blank on the top and ruled on the bottom. Remember those?! He can write (or dictate to me) about whatever he would like, and perhaps, if he's anything like me, he'll delight to re-discover them when he's older.

Combining the two above ideas, we'll do some Bible stories and dictations. This comes from Laura Berquist. I'll read him a Bible story and later (the next day or so) I'll ask him to tell what happened it the story and write down his explanation. He can go ahead and draw a picture of it if he wishes in his notebook.

This one is very low-pressure, in part because the idea is for a Kindergarten child, that is, five or six. If Noah doesn't take to it, we can go ahead and just read Bible stories and move on.

We'll do art. Lots of it. I set up a bookshelf in our dining room with lots of different craft supplies that Noah can use. While I will plan some particular crafts for him to do, the majority of his creations will be spurred on by him. He's forever making little robots, collages, paintings, drawings and whatever his imagination concocts so I want him to have his supplies ready and accessible for when the mood strikes (that being said, 'messy' supplies like paint are kept up high so only I can bring them down for him).

We'll go outside. I know, brilliant right? But fresh air is so good for children and free play in the outdoors leads to all sorts of learning. My eager little gardeners will soon morph into leaf collectors and then into snow fort builders, all the while asking sweet questions about what they see and taking it all in.

We'll go to Mass and observe the feast days. I can't imagine doing formal catechetics with my children at their young age. What they take in from Patrick and I simply living our faith and sharing it with them is of much more value.

Also, by 'observe the feast days' for the most part, it means looking at our saint calendar together, telling the kids who's feast it is, and asking that saint to pray for us when we say grace. If it's a BIG feast day we might have a special dessert or do a craft. But that's definitely reserved for more special occasions.

Old photo of saint calendar from our previous house. 

It's completely dishevelled because it's from June 2011 (even though it says May). 

I was two weeks post-partem when I started to assemble it and thus more lethargical than liturgical then.

We'll work a bit on numbers mostly by playing card games that help to enforce number concepts. We'll continue with printing/pre-reading through his great love for writing letters to Nana. Phonetic sounds will come up as we remind him how to write out a word he's working on, but that won't be formally 'taught' in a flashcard-ish way.

The rest of our learning will really be following his lead. He's enthusiastic about raising chickens so we're taking him soon to our friends' to watch some be slaughtered (!) and he's loving learning about the solar system so we'll continue to read him from the books we got from the library on the subject. 

Number practice with chocolate chips

There is no real pressure -- no deadlines, no schedules. Just home life among the four-soon-to-be-five of us, getting him and Isaiah involved in the running of the home and the looking after their soon-to-be born sibling. I want to relish these early years of education because it's just so delightful learning and discovering in this way.

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For further thoughts on taking a relaxed approach to preschool, read this clever post (I could almost write this myself by now, most especially when she says,

DON’T
-buy that $45 Pre-K lesson book. You‘ll use it for three weeks before you realize you don’t need a book to tell you to read stories to your daughter, hand her coloring pages, crayons and counters.

And for some truly moving thoughts on family-and-home centred early education, read this.

There is a healing, a growing, a creating that happens in a child's play and in meaningful work done with his hands alongside a nurturing adult. They can catch up if they fall behind in math. I'm not sure you can ever restore to a child what is lost if they are not allowed the innocence of non-competitive, wholehearted play.