Ta-da!

I guess it's a good sign if Ada's first response upon finishing is, "Let's do it agaaaain!" and Paul's is, "Maybe we could start with numbers?"

There we have it, folks! A-Z in Catholic style. Some weeks were molto bene, others were outstanding, and still others were sort of ... meh. Most of the time that had to do with my level of planning, commitment, or readiness, and sometimes it had to do with kid-cooperation. All in all, I give this whole homeschool pre-school a big, fat A! With 26 letters but 2 combo-letter weeks, technically, this should have taken us 24 weeks. We started in October and finished in May. Some weeks had tons of activities, so we drew it out longer; some weeks, there were holidays; and still other weeks, life otherwise happened, and we just didn't get to it.

No one required this of me. I fully understand that any pressure I felt to do this or that was strictly intrinsic, and I must admit that both the pressure lifted and the schedule loosened once we decided to send Paul to school. It wasn't an immediate shift, but after a couple of weeks, I noticed that we weren't going about it with the same daily strictness - we'd clump a few days' activities into one sitting and go days without anything. I'm sure that was so because I entered into this as a sort of trial, really. I love the idea of homeschooling (the flexibility, the togetherness, the schedule, and free play time), and I wanted to see if I could do it. I think that I could. I also don't think that I should, however. It's in my personality to strive to be minimalist, and I could see my kids suffering the consequences of that because I don't want to get x amount of crafty supplies or tools to learn this or that; I'm much more likely to go completely without that whole activity or concept, even. I like the old chalkboard and crayons; that may serve me well with my learning style, but I think Paul needs a little more. And I doubt that I would want to actively supply him that. So. A school setting with lots of action in one day, moving from a writing lesson and cutting on to reading is what, we think, will serve him best this next year.

All that being said, I think Paul and Ada both learned a lot through this curriculum, as I had a framework of some kind that I otherwise hadn't had in our normal stay-at-home lives, and we breached topics that may or may not have naturally come up. It was lovely to see their curiosity peak when I'd ask something they hadn't thought about, like, "Do you think we can break up a dollar into smaller money?" as part of the lesson on quartering. Plus, we put bigger field-trip-like things on the calendar as part of that letter's learning, which was so wonderful. I loved going to the saint-of-the-week's church, and I loved putting the zoo, aquarium, and insectarium on the agenda for particular purposes - going to specifically watch the penguins longer or find the sloth, which we'd otherwise pass right by. I like structure. Duh. And this book, 26 Letters to Heaven, gave me just enough structure to have attainable activity goals for 5 & 3 year old Paul and Ada.

Now that we're finished for the summer, I will kind of miss having something in particular to do that day, but I think I will also relish these last 2 months of having only small, pre-school-aged children at home before sending Paul off in August. The thrill of hearing the questions in bed in the morning, "What are we doing today, Mama?" or "Where are we going today, Mama?" and then "What do you want to do today?" is something I'll miss dreadfully once we're slaves to the 8am drop-off schedule and one of the things that will always leave me wondering if homeschool might have been right for us.

Z z

Last Letter! Here we are with Z, and we had a bit of a knock-out last week! They loved glueing the sticks, for some reason, and then the addition of 2 yummy food things (ziti & zucchini bread) + the zoo, it was hard to have a bad week. And St. Zita is the patron of domestic servants, so there was lots of talk of servitude, esp around the house; it was great!

This little "chart" I made is part of the "Can you zip a zipper" activity. Each picture portrays a task that they can or will be able to do soon. So, as we run down the list to see if they can do it: sticker! A little visual for milestones.

This is baked ziti night; everyone inhaled it! Woo!

And the final (scant) collage:

X x & Y y

We had some gorgeous weather! That beautiful Spring feeling (continued! because this late in the year is hit or miss...) with an actual cooling breeze before the summer heat kicks in, and we tried to take advantage of it as much as possible. Paul and Ada both love rhymes - Dr. Seuss, anyone? - and they really enjoyed visually recognizing what rhymes look like. Ada hunted out the final "x", but Paul's activity was a little more intricate, looking at the whole word, sounding it out, spelling it, and all with no help from me; I grouped Ada's cards accordingly. All the while, Jack bounced himself on the trampoline or otherwise messed about in the back yard.

The gorgeous weather continued, so we did the yarn measurements outside, too!

 

Even though I can make yogurt and have made it on a regular basis before, it's been out of routine for some months now, and we didn't get to it. And the Treasure Hunt didn't happen because of crazy busy weekends with Papa. Both of those things are taking up mental "backburner" space, and I would still like to do them, even if they're out of the letters' week. 

W w

 Liquid water to solid water:

 Solid water to liquid water:

 Liquid to gas:

 Then we left Ww be for a few days until Good Friday, when we took a walk in the woods with Nana & Pappy in City Park. Beautiful!

 

U u + V v

I found this one really interesting because the difference in 3- & 5-yo skill level really stands out, from the fullness of coloring to the precision in cutting. I loved seeing (and being reminded of!) it!

pointing to La.

and the Great Lakes

and to Mn., where she was born

Then the V sticks, which are really just toys for making weird-style guns (sigh), but Papa made quite a few shapes after dinner one night, so ... way to go Papa! Good job in school ;)

We didn't think there'd be many examples to find in old Highlights magazines, but they did a great job!

T t

Ada fed the turtles and Paul held one!

We went to Texas for Tt week; we ended up saving the tea party til we got back, and we also drew a tree from the branches down to the ground and the roots under the ground, but ... it was a rough week with Paul, poor dear, whether because of DST or who knows what, so we didn't get pictures of the tree drawing or get to the tabernacle talk. We'll revisit that when the 1st Friday comes up, and we can visit Adoration for a (very) few minutes.

There may have also been some naked trampoline fun...