A Family Academy

study habits

2010-09-09T07:43:00.000-07:00

An interesting article about different aspects of learning and retention.

The Toast Factory

2010-09-03T17:09:00.000-07:00

Today when we arrived home from errands (and a yard sale or two) it was time for lunch. Since I was on the couch nursing Ellie Jay and Kay were on their own for making their PB&J sandwiches. I was happily reading a book for upcoming book club while feeding her when Jay came and asked if he could make toast. He recently had watched the toaster at work. I told him of course he could.

So Jay took every piece of bread out of the bag and toasted it. Then he buttered it (also a new skill today) and passed them out to everyone. He was so pleased with his new skill that he asked if he could make toast for everyone for our next 3 meals!

Did I "teach" him to butter bread or make toast? Nope. So he owned the experience. All the more reason for him to feel so great about himself and his accomplishment. He learned that he CAN do things; and do them well. On his own.

These type of experiences remind me that some of the best learning happens when I simply am too busy to do things for the kids and let them figure out how to do them on their own. I just need to get out of their way sometimes. They may not do the PB&J like I had anticipated, but instead they gain something so much more valuable!

I'm writing this down to remind myself ;)

March Tot School

2010-05-30T12:19:00.000-07:00

March was a busy month with the arrival of our little Ellie! Jay took this photo of her.

This makes my heart sing: my little ones LOVING their books!

Grandma came to visit and made Jay this quilt for his new bed!

Lots of time on the piano for Jay :) He loves to play for Ellie and is good at picking out tunes. He loves the sound of the Westminster chimes most!

St. Patrick's day rainbow colors activity with skittles

A penguin manipulative made from a cereal box. Jay puts together subtraction equations and then groups raisins to match the numbers; feeding the ones that are subtracted away. He loves this!

Gymnastics class for Jay and Kay

Little Ellie was born and loved much!

I made an plastic eggs alphabet matching game
They look like this when they are matched:

We made a maze with paper towel rolls and magnets and rolled mini plastic eggs down it. It was a great engineering/gravity/art activity.

A transferring activity with mini plastic eggs and a tiny basket.

I've been reading the book: Montessori Play and Learn. I was inspired by the ideas about what little people can learn to do and how they can take care of their space. I've been implementing that into our "education." Kay is sweeping up a mess she made :)
We've had a great time learning together!

February Tot School

2010-04-03T15:38:00.001-07:00

February was a busy month for us because we were getting ready for our new baby to be born, in addition to other activities.

We had fun separating candy hearts by color into the right "heart" and then counting to see how many there were of each color and which color had the most/least.

Jay and Kay made at least 30 valentines for friends and family. We made a variety, including these, and used them for art and writing practice for the first half of the month.

We LOVE to learn new things!

Jay and Kay had a great time string beads and pieces of cut straws onto these metal hearts (which I made by pulling a hanger apart for each of them).

We learned the months of the year song (to the tune of 3 blind mice) and talked more about seasons.

Jay continues to learn the violin and is able to play fingers on the strings now. He loves the rhythm "Mississippi Hot Dog."

Kay gives concerts like this regularly. She loves to sing and play the piano.

We did many snowman and gingerbread themed activities. Here is our snowman activity from rice krispies and marshmallows.

Jay is reading well enough that I made him a scripture tote so he can take them to church with him. He reads scriptures for his class.

Kay is trying out the baby's car seat.

Jay made a special baby rattle for our baby that started with his artwork.

These two sillies can climb into the crib and read and build forts for hours. Jay can think of 101 things to do with a slinky!
Kay continues to fine-tune her speaking skills. And loves to read books right now. They are both very excited to have a new little baby in our home next month!

January Family Academy

2010-02-23T12:49:00.000-08:00

I'm behind in recording our activities...here are some of the things we've been working on:

We focused a bunch of activities around gingerbread cookies. Here the kids are putting mini m&m's on their peanut butter-covered gingerbread sandwiches.

Jay learned to count by two's with gingerbread and I put them to the song of "Jack and Jill." We read Jan Brett's Gingerbread Baby books and they loved them.

I printed out a bunch of gingerbread printables from makinglearningfun.com. We did number recognition for Kay, number spelling for Jay, color-by-number addition with gingerbreadmen, shape matching with gingerbreadmen, etc.

We also started counting by fives to the song "Ten Little Indians."

Jay is getting really good at reading the calendar so we learned a song about the months of the year to "Three Blind Mice." They both sing the days of the week song (Clementine) ALL THE TIME!

Our green rice sensory box got a lot of use. I put gingerbread buttons in it along with other winter items and they scooped and played to their hearts content :)

Jay decided to write all the numbers from 1 to 100. He's gotten really good at counting and reading the time on the clock. This was something he did all on his own. I love self-learning! Since he loves clocks he did them circular.

We had a great time visiting with cousins and aunts and uncles. I found some fun manipulatives at a scrapbook outlet. Here they are sorting by size and object and making them stand in the carpet.

We went sledding and enjoyed snow and family when we visited Utah.

Jay was thrilled to see and get inside a real helicopter at the SLC children's museum. We went there to celebrate his birthday with their uncles and Grandma.

He also celebrated his birthday at home with lots of flying fun.

This is a photo Jay took of his beloved "chick."

Jay continues with his violin lessons and learned f# for his first finger-on-the-string note.

Here he is teaching Jumbo, who happens to also be a great student.

Jay can read several verses in the scriptures all by himself now. I made him a scripture carrier and he loves to take it to church and help in his class by reading them.

The numbers that Kay is playing with have been a lot of fun-a great manipulative treat!

I'm realizing I don't have many photos of Kay. She has been working on potty training, learning her shapes, and surprised me by knowing all of her uppercase alphabet! She also started speaking in complete sentences at the first of January-she sounds so grown up now!

She's loving her baby things from Christmas and is starting to realize what having a new baby at our house means (I think).

She likes to climb into the infant car seat. She is a little tease!

We also had fun doing snowman activities. Here we made rice krispie snowmen. It was great for Jay to touch something sticky!

Kay loves to sing and play the piano. She sets up concerts like this:

I often forget to take photos of the kids doing our everyday learning, but I love the record of them growing and learning!

Learning to Love knowledge from the Lord

2010-02-05T06:21:00.000-08:00

I love it when I come across something that focuses my efforts. Today I read an article from our church that is called, "Learning to Love Learning." I love the opening:

The overarching purpose of Heavenly Father’s great plan of happiness is to provide His spirit children with opportunities to learn. The Atonement of Jesus Christ and the agency afforded to all of the Father’s children through the Redeemer’s infinite and eternal sacrifice are divinely designed to facilitate our learning. The Savior said, “Learn of me, and listen to my words; walk in the meekness of my Spirit, and you shall have peace in me” (D&C 19:23).

We are assisted in learning of and listening to the words of Christ by the Holy Ghost, even the third member of the Godhead. The Holy Ghost reveals and witnesses the truth of all things and brings all things to our remembrance (see John 14:26, 16:13; Moroni 10:5; D&C 39:6). The Holy Ghost is the teacher who kindles within us an abiding love of and for learning.

In our journey to learn we can become distracted. This is a good reminder of what knowledge is for:

A hierarchy of importance exists among the things you and I can learn. Indeed, all learning is not equally important. The Apostle Paul taught this truth in his second epistle to Timothy as he warned that in the latter days many people would be “ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 3:7).

I know that I will return to this article again as I try to keep us on track:

You and I are here on the earth to prepare for eternity, to learn how to learn, to learn things that are temporally important and eternally essential, and to assist others in learning wisdom and truth (see D&C 97:1). Understanding who we are, where we came from, and why we are on the earth places upon each of us a great responsibility both to learn how to learn and to learn to love learning.

December Tot School

2009-12-24T06:31:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile since I updated our Tot School/homeschool activities. This is a run-down of some of our December activities:

Jay and Kay have really enjoyed our advents and Jay says, "twenty-first" instead of, "twenty-oneth" now since we say the date when we do each advent. The advents have centered around the nativity/

Jay is moving forward with violin and I found him giving his elephant a lesson too!

These were fun Christmas cookies that were kid-friendly

He enjoyed this puzzle

This nativity village of Bethlehem has been fun for learning.

We did a bunch of tangrams and a ton of other Christian Christmas activities. Some were from here.

Jay worked on putting the works on this house for about an hour.
Field trip to pick our Christmas tree.

First snow.

Scripture we are memorizing
We've been learning the planets, including the music by Holst.

songs we are learning
7th Article of Faith song

The First Noel (Their favorite this year)

Medical Advice

2009-09-29T04:20:00.000-07:00

It seems like everywhere I go mothers are talking about the medication their kids are on. For this or that. Or I'm reading about the latest with the swine flu. Or some other medical advice.

I came across this quote, which sounds very reasonable.

Bernarr Macfadden’s philosophy. This pioneer in health made an astute comment back in 1928—one that serves us well to follow today: “The reader should now be fully persuaded to accept the statement of our assurance that most disease is preventable. There is no physician of any school who will not agree to the proposition that if the body be healthy it has the power to resist the aggressions of any kind of disease. Even though one accept the germ theory to its fullest extent, we have shown that disease germs cannot grow and thrive in a healthy organism. No matter what contagion is, or how it works, it has no power over a healthy body.” (Macfadden’s Encyclopedia of Physical Culture, p. 66.)

So how does one keep healthy? Doing all the unmedicated things that I now have a new reason to fit into our schedule: eat well, take vitamins, exercise, less sugar, simplify and stress less, and get plenty of rest.

Those things are certainly cost effective compared to prescriptions and don't come with the risk of nasty side effects!

I'm grateful for modern medicine, but I often question the need to medicate everything as avidly as our society does. There is value for the mind and body in being outside for instance. Medically proven in medical journals that being outside prevents illness...sunshine and fresh air really are great medicine!

I really need to remember to make sure I take my own medical advice (not just send the kids out to play so I can get something done)!

3rd week of August

2009-08-06T17:20:00.000-07:00

Listening:

"Flight of the Bumble Bee" Rachmaninoff-Rimsky-Korsakoff

Mozart Sonata in G K283

Chopin Waltz in E minor

5th A of Faith

All Things Bright and Beautiful-next part

As I have Loved You

Tot School Aug 2nd week

2009-08-05T13:28:00.000-07:00

We have just one more week of summer before we head back "home." We've had a fun week with friends, learning, and fun eats too :)

Jay and Kay decided they wanted to do map time together. Kay identified the state and Jay named its capital city. It was a fun and cute way to practice :)

We made creature Krispies with this fun mix.

Kay has started doing headstands and summersaults everywhere.

Jay had his last Spanish lesson of the summer. His teacher loaned him this Spanish dictionary that he really enjoyed.

Kay's colors are finally more than just names to her. No longer abstract, she can match and name and collect them consistently. This was a fun sorting game.
We had a package of stickers that came in 4 colors. She sorted them all out.
This is Kay's favorite art book from the library. She gets it out nearly everyday. She looks at it and hums "The Baptism Song" that the kids have been learning this year. Somehow the two match to her :)

I was lucky enough to score a pair of adjustable size roller skates and roller blades at the thrift store. $4 for both pair of nearly new skates and lots of fun together!

We made a fun recycle lacing activity that Jay really enjoyed.

We made a family visit to some beautiful gardens nearby. Family time is so precious. We saw lots of wildlife too!

Jay learned how to hold his violin up under his chin this week!

We also learned how to make our own tap shoes and had a dance party!

Listening for the week:

Mozart Sonata in C K.330; 1st Movement

"Minute Waltz" op.64 no. 1 Chopin

La Campanella (listen for the bells :)

All Things Bright and Beautiful

4th A of Faith

Lift up Your Voice and Sing

Go see what others have done at tot school too :)

Tot School starting August

2009-07-31T13:11:00.000-07:00

"For a small child there is no division between playing and learning; between the things he or she does 'just for fun' and things that are 'educational.' " ~Penelope Leach

I have seen that to be true in our home. If Mom enjoys it and has fun with the kids doing it (be it math, science, reading, or cleaning the bathroom) the kids do too. At least when they are little. So live it up while you can: teach them early that cleaning and working together and practicing the violin is fun while you still can, right?

Oh the fun you can have with bubbles! We went to see "The Bubble Man" at the library this week and Jay loved it and now tries to make neat bubbles too :)

Jay playing with his little violin and comparing it's size to my violin.

We had a great time making doodle rubbings. Go here to make yours (easy!)

Our music listening includes some classical, church, and violin practice music. Here are a few we focused on this week:

Chopin Etude op. 10 no. 1 (my favorite!)

Bach Fugue BWV 891

Mozart Piano Sonata no. 8 (a minor) 1st mov.

A Happy Family

3rd Aof Faith

Thank you song

Jay is really improving with telling time. Now he can read times that are written out too, like "four thirty-five." He likes to set the clocks around the house too :)

Jay did a handwriting practice all on his own this week. I was amazed at how well he had done when he brought it into me to see it!

Kay and Jay have had a lot of fun pouring water into containers on the back porch this week for their toys to play in :)

Our store in the village helps us learn about foods and where they come from.

Messages from the sun were fun to make too. The sun fades the paper to leave a message behind.

Kay nurturing (aka washing its face) her little doll :)

Playing with friends at the splash park!

We also did lots of cutting and sorting and reading this week, as well as playdoh and blocks/duplos creations with imagination galore :) I love watching them in action!

Here is where you can find what others did this week for Tot School.

Tot School ending July

2009-07-30T13:01:00.000-07:00

The weather has been so great this week for our family. We spent a lot of time playing in the sunshine. The kids also had fun playing with bugs outside. I had to catch Kay with them too...some day she might not think she likes them so much :)
We had some reMARKABLE fun drawing letters.

This is a common scene this week. Jay loves that his trike doubles as a scooter. Kay can't get enough of pushing her favorite things around in the stroller.

I love how creative Jay gets with his "tools."

Self-portrait time at the mirror.

Jay finally got to use his violin bow this week. Here are some photos of us practicing the correct bow hold and then counting down for the "rocket" to take off!

working on that beautiful bow hold.

Kay loves reading books to herself.

Touching trees...not for long...they're sharp!

Jay worked on bouncing and catching the ball.

Everyday my couch ends up looking like this on the floor. It becomes a nest or fort of some kind. One day it became a book nook and they both took a bunch of library books in and read for a while...

Jay can read a lot of words on his own. I heard him reading this book to himself from the library books.

We found mushrooms in the backyard under ours and the neighbor's trees!

We had a fun week at tot school and even made it to visit a our first great lake to play in the sand and water :) Go see what others did for Tot School.

Do schools kill creativity?

2009-07-27T06:57:00.001-07:00

If you haven't had the chance to check out TED, you've been missing out. Here is a wonderful talk about how creativity is critical for our children. It's 20 minutes that is well worth your time. TED celebrates the gift of the human imagination. As a parent it is a wonderful reminder of the hope our children are and what our job really is.

Tot School July

2009-07-22T11:34:00.000-07:00

I haven't been as good with taking photos this week. We've enjoyed the library, splash park, and lots of imagination time too. I'm amazed at what the kids can come up with!

Jay learned to push Kay in the stroller:

Here he is taking a bow with his box violin, which he learned to do this week.

Kay is trying to potty train herself. She yells "potty!" or "poop!" and pulls everything off and dashes for the bathroom. Things look like this pretty often around here:

We got to see about 20 horses and their little colts! So cute and the kiddos loved it! I love it when a wrong turn on a trip turns into this:

We got out the letter cookie cutters and dipped them in paint to make names on the big pieces of paper. We're using these for history. There's lots of room to draw pictures of the things that remind us about what each person did.

They loved doing this puzzle TOGETHER! Which I loved too!

Kay started some geography with naming states.

That's about it for us. Go see what others did for Tot School this week.

Tot School

2009-07-16T12:07:00.000-07:00

I love taking pictures of my kids. They love to have their pictures taken too. Jay has decided that he loves to go around taking pictures also! I will be including a few of his photos each week because it is fun to see the world from his perspective :)

This is a project that started out different than Jay wanted to do. Here is what his idea of it was:

I love this photo of him reading to himself!

He loves playing learning games on the computer. This week we practiced states and their capitals, herbivores vs. carnivores, and did puzzles of national monuments all on the computer at this site.

Kay loves horses and animals in general. We did lots of stickers and talked about the different breeds of animals.

She did stamps on a paper plate and we turned it into a purse. This girl is a bag fan! We were inspired by this.

I picked up this Mother/baby puzzle this week at a thrift store. Kay loves it and is really good at it!

This is what the project from the first photo really was. We've been practicing memorizing letter combinations. Jay glued on the sticks.
Jay took this photo of Kay playing with our village.

We did transportation stickers and Jay and Kay both loved them. Jay made a story out of his. Yes, the airplanes are all making a crash landing! Stickers never get old!

More friends from the village. That is Jay with his birds. This week we made a farm.
Jay took this photo too. It's of his favorite book next to his bed :)
And he did this airplane puzzle in no time flat on his first try!

That is all I have photos of, we've also been having fun with music :)
To see what others did this week, go Here

Violins and Videos

2009-07-13T12:51:00.000-07:00

This past week was exciting for us. Jay got a little violin. He is thrilled! I love watching him love everything about it!

I was showing Jay some videos of violinists on You Tube. This one is really fun since I've been on both the dancing and the violin ends-but never together!

I wish You Tube had been around when I started the violin. It's so inspiring to hear and see so many great violinists!

These are the 2 books I am using to help us get started. I will do a little review of them in a bit.

I was lucky to be able to see my violin teacher for a lesson on how to teach tiny people to play the violin a few weeks ago when I visited Utah. I was 12 when I started. This is very different than being 12! We've been practicing with his box violin and just getting the real one out to look at :)

Tot School 7/09

2009-07-08T12:23:00.000-07:00

We've had a great week. Sometimes I think that I should have a "structured school time" like I know other families do. But, it seems that all of life is about learning so we happily go from one activity to the next and the kids never even know they are "at school." It works for us for now.

Kay is sorting some things from around the house by color. We have been working on colors and sorting this week.

Here she is grouping them in piles instead of rows :)
For kitchen time this week we had fun making edible sparklers and rockets for the 4th of July. To see how they turned out, go to our other blog

Tracing airplanes (obsession!)

Cutting out the airplanes he traced...

Next Jay read a book about season and we split this paper into 4 seasons and he glued airplanes into the sky of each season and drew pictures on the land and in the air of what happens in that season.
Kay had fun tracing airplanes too...that girl can be dangerous with a pen though!

We've been feeding the birds in the backyard and had some fun visitors!
Kay says, "Monk!" every time this guy comes around!

Another life skill at work. I added some height with some wood blocks to Jay's pedals so he can reach better=lots more fun! Kay is a natural at steering the stroller.

Jay is really into stop signs and road signs in general. He told me he had to stop here because there was a stop sign.

Jay likes to take pictures around the house. I gave him my camera for about 7 minutes and these are a few of his shots:

It's fun to see things from his perspective. These are some of the letters he's been writing each day. I guess I should explain why they are all hanging from the chandelier: we are only here for the summer and can't put any holes in the walls! Crazy feeling...one end of the ribbon tied to the window and one to the chandelier to display :)

some of his favorites from our village...I love how his knee is in the pic.
Can you tell what his favorite animal is from this photo of one of his puzzles?

Kay loves to put on and take off her shoes. Most of the time they are on the correct feet...sometimes not )

We were lucky to find some great duplos at the thrift store and Jay has been busy making "peacocks and birds on skates."

Hours of fun for everyone!

Thrift Store Thoughts

2009-07-02T06:35:00.000-07:00

I recently happened upon a little link-in fun called Thrift Store Thursday. Today is her last post and so I wanted to link in. She features her Thrift Store finds and lets others share theirs too.

I think thrift stores are great for a variety of reasons:

1-things cost less

2-they keep things out of the land fills

3-the treasure hunting aspect can be fun

4-there is more variety than the dollar store.

I have actually felt really fortunate to be able to find great educational tools at the thrift store every time I go. Here are some books I found this week. 5 of them are Usborne, which are quite expensive to purchase. But the four at the top were only 29 cents each and the hard back one at the bottom was $1. The Artemis Fowl was 35 cents.

I recently found a couple of Scrabble games at the thrift store (one for $2 and one for $3) and we've had fun using the letters in our village. I also made this personalized frame with them for my sister's wedding gift.

Holly said she is stopping her weekly link-in because she is spending too much money at the thrift store. It's true. While things are a lot less expensive there you really can nickel and dime yourself into debt if you aren't careful. While the treasures are wonderful, I need to be more careful too :) $1 can really add up when you spend a bunch of them!

Click on the Thrift Store Thursday photo above to see what others found.

Tot School #3

2009-07-02T05:43:00.000-07:00

We've had fun learning lots of new things this week. Both Jay and Kay have been having fun on these roller skates.

Kay loves to push EVERYTHING around. She is a pro at steering and getting this stroller on and off of the porch!

This drum set has been a lot of fun to play with and provides lots of sharing practice :)

Kay and Jay strung these noodle necklaces at the Library craft time.

This is a color puzzle. Kay loves that she can move the colors from place to place. Jay has been practicing reading the color labels and matching the colors to the right place.

Kay still loves to gather and collect things. That is the other thing she does with this puzzle.

We have been working on writing a new letter each day. Here are Jay's "K's". He figured out how to draw them himself and didn't want me to tell him differently :)

Geography has been more "enlightening" since we found this light up globe at the thrift store :) We've been reviewing this week.

The Leap Frog" Talking Word Factory" video is a good one.

Kay finds just the right amount of challenge in her train shape puzzle, and is getting to be really good at it.

We had fun making edible sparklers and edible rocket fireworks and EATING THEM :)

Play dough without a bird involved would not exist at our house right now :) We're feathered friends fans.
To see what others did, go HERE.

A Guide to a Classical Education

2009-07-02T05:15:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine was homeschooling her children because the school they were living near was having issues and she didn't want her children there. I asked her questions all the time (thanks Kendra!) about homeschooling. When I asked her what her favorite homeschooling books were, A Well-Trained Mind was at the top of her list.

She let me borrow the book for a couple of weeks to check it out. I read the first 7 chapters before she moved and I LOVED it. Susan Wise Bauer is the author and she begins by telling her homeschool story. She began homeschooling in the 1970's when it was unusual. She started because her kids could already read when they started school and that was unusual. She had never thought she would homeschool her children. But she did and her children are successful and happy adults.

A Well-Trained Mind is the result of years of combing through available materials and trying them out.

If you have ever been overwhelmed by all the options available for teaching your own children, this book is for you. All her research is available in this book. She narrows down the best teaching materials, gives descriptions according to age and ability and tells you where you can find them.

Not only that, but there is also the practical information about how to schedule your day, what to do to approach each subject, book lists that are age/level appropriate, etc.

I love the idea she suggests of combining history with geography and the rotation of history she suggests: the idea of repetition and building by taking the children through the history of the world 4 times in the course of their schooling, building on what they knew, and reviewing what they knew before.

In my humble opinion, this is a must-have even if you follow a different method of homeschooling. For instance, I've also been reading about Charlotte Mason and her ideas. It seems that The Well-Trained Mind has so many great resources that it would fit in with a variety of teaching/homeschooling styles and is an excellent resource for the homeschooling family. Take a look with the link above.

Tot School 2

2009-06-24T12:02:00.000-07:00

We have had a fun week around here. Jay is getting really good at cutting (ie making confetti) and he has loved the pattern scissors that I got out for him this week.
We made teddy bear finger puppets and sandwiches for our teddy bear picnic.
Kay and Jay have had a great time with our Village People and play for hours with them.
Water coloring was fun to do on a rainy day.
Kay fingerpainted with yogurt.
Writing with dry erase markers on the back door was also a fun indoor activity and a great way to practice writing letters.
Jay is getting good at telling time. They love to get all the pieces out!
Jay loves to take pictures. He goes around taking pictures of his favorite things. Thank goodness for digital cameras!
Kay loves this puzzle book and is really good now at matching the animal shapes.
This book has been a fun reading tool for Jay. It has stickers that go with the different suffixes for words so he writes the words out too.
We made an accordian book to display them all.
IKEA's building kit has been so much fun to build with!
Everything to do with flying is fun around here!

We also have had fun with riding bikes and playing soccer and baseball outside. Swimming and bird/animal watching has also been so fun!

To see what other tots are up to, go HERE.

A Big DAY!!!

2009-06-22T14:21:00.001-07:00

Jay has been reading for awhile. He will read on his own, but mostly likes to have me there to help him along. He's good at sounding things out, but sometimes that slows down his reading comprehension. Today is a big day because he sat down with all the BOB books and read them on his own (though I was in the same room) because HE WANTED TO! He was thrilled to finish each story and I could tell he was comprehending the stories because he would talk about and giggle in the right places :)

If you haven't seen or heard of the BOB books, they are great for first reader books. There is a good amount of word repetition between stories so they build on each other. Kids love that they can read them on their own!

They are a great resource to have and come in more than one level

About Glenn Doman Books:Teaching your Baby to Read, Math

2009-06-10T12:29:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading How to Teach Your Baby Math and How to Teach your Baby to Read by Glenn Doman. I think the thing I learned the most from reading them is that children have an amazing capacity to learn. This book has helped me to not underestimate what my kids can learn.

The background of the book is that Glenn Doman worked with brain-injured kids in the 1940's. They were looking for ways to help brain-injured children. What they discovered (and is old news now) is that neuropathways can be re-built after they have been injured. They also discovered that if they removed a portion of the brain that was injured, that the remaining part of the brain would take over and compensate for the loss. They found that these children that were missing part of their brain were often able to operate at "normal" levels, and some even went on to function on "genius" levels. They prepared a program that was successful in re-teaching the brain to function. But after solving that problem, they started to wonder about well-children. Why are children that are well not functioning at higher levels than they are if they have full-functioning brains? After all, kids who are missing significant portions of their brains are doing the same things that they are, or more.

Over the course of time Glenn Doman founded the Institutes for Human Potential where they teach parents of brain injured children and now parents of well children what they can do to enhance their child's capabilities.

What I read astounded me:

The research they did shows that a 1 year old child can learn math and to read FASTER than a 2 year old.

A 2 year old learns math and to read FASTER than a 3 year old.

A 3 year old learns math and to read FASTER than a 4 year old.

etc.

They also found that the ideal teacher is the child's Mother. The home is the ideal learning ground. Thank you.

So, regardless of how old your kids are, I would recommend reading both books. Regardless of whether you want your 1 year old to learn to read or do math, this research and the books will change how you see your child's potential.

There is some repeat in one after you have read the other because they build on the same foundation. This also isn't a "quick fix" method. You will invest time in doing it. But that is how the results come for real too. I'm not speaking from experience with teaching this method, just from my experience teaching in general :)

Jay started reading at 2.5 years old. I didn't yet know about this method, but did some of the same things by chance. I do believe that it is easy to teach your child. I also believe that the younger they are, the easier it is. When they are little all they want to do is be near you. You may as well give them the gift of reading while you spend time loving them. I am preparing some things to get Kay started now too.

I also picked up How to Multiply Your Baby's Intelligence by Glenn Doman so that is next on the list...I'll let you know how it goes...

Here is one quote from the book How to Teach your Baby to Read:

p. 110 "The cardinal rule is that both parent and child must joyously approach learning to read, as the superb game that it is. The parent must never forget that learning is life's most exciting game-it is not work. Learning is a reward, it is not a punishment. Learning is a pleasure, it is not a chore. Learning is a privilege, it is not a denial."

This quote made me ask the question, "Is the same true of teaching?" It certainly is a privilege to teach your own child. There is so much joy in discovering together and those moments of understanding are so precious. There are so many little people out there just waiting to be taught. This book will help you see.

Tot School 1

2009-06-09T05:50:00.001-07:00

It's been a while since we did a Tot School post. I decided to move them from This Little Project over to our Family Academy blog instead. Jay is probably approaching too old to be included as a tot I guess, but I also use Tot School as our record of the week...so even though he is approaching 3.5 years he is still included :) Kay is 20 months and has really been growing up this past week! She is talking so much more!

We've been making a village Post Office (more HERE) and after reading Bunny Mail by Rosemary Wells we wrote letters to lots of friends to mail.

Jay is really into birds right now! This is his favorite page in his bird book. He loves looking at all the different species.
We picked up a US placemat at the dollar store and made a matching game with the state flash cards. It was a fun way to review geography. Jay doesn't read the states yet. He can tell which state they are just by their shape!
Kay loves stacking and unstacking cups. We are working on colors.
We have a dance party every day with this little toy keyboard-so fun!
Jay loves his little bird.
Kay really loves the farm puzzle and is really good at doing puzzles. Her favorite animals are pigs and horses right now.
Both Jay and Kay have had a lot of fun with our village. They play with it and help me make a new piece for it each day! We made this swing for the park.
Here is Jay painting the roof of the Library. We have been reading quite a bit lately and Jay is really improving. He can sound out pretty much anything so we are working on sight words more.
For more ideas of what other tots have been up to, see where we link into Here.

A Classical Education

2009-05-27T18:36:00.000-07:00

A Thomas Jefferson Education (see link below) was the first book I read after becoming a mother that got me thinking about the possibilities that only are available through educating my children personally. It was a turning point for me.

The book gives an overview of the history of education specifically in the United States. Our founding fathers were all home schooled. Only the poorest families would send their children to public schools because it simply wasn't as good.

The argument of the book is that our current educational system doesn't produce leaders. To meet the challenges of our time we need leaders who are thinkers and public schools don't provide any leadership training. This book talks about how to incorporate that training.

The book also uses the theory that the best education can be attained by going right to the source by teaching directly from the best books and mentors. Educate your children with the classics that were created by the masters of the genre.
"Find a great leader in history, and you will nearly always find two central elements of their education - classics and mentors. From Lincoln, Jefferson and Washington to Ghandi, Newton and John Locke, to Abigail Adams, Mother Theresa and Joan of Arc - great men and women of history studied other great men and women." p. 37

One of the most refreshing ideas to me in this book is the idea of mentors. I don't have to be an expert on EVERYTHING. I can find opportunities and people who can also inspire and mentor along with me.

You can read more about the book, as well as other people's thoughts on it on Amazon-just click the link below.

The Real Revolutionaries-The Parents

2009-05-25T20:29:00.000-07:00

READ This Article

Deep down, doesn't it seems that we really knew this all along?

How it began at my home: about a book

2009-05-24T18:43:00.000-07:00

My parents were continually searching for the "right" education for their children. It was a bit of a trick because each child is unique. The book was a major turning point in the way they viewed education. I read it in jr. high as well, which is when they discovered it.

The book will persuade you that real learning comes from the desire within the individual, and that given the chance to pursue his course, the student will choose to learn.

It is a type of schooling that only the bravest of parents will take on. Because you truly have to trust your child and believe that the world really is a classroom. As a teenager I ached to have a school like this to go to.

this reviewer said : Many additional books are available through the school's website at sudval.org. There, one can subscribe to an active discussion list regarding this philosophy. Info about similar schools and startup groups is available at the SERN website, sudburynetwork.org.

You can get a larger sense of the philosophy of the book by reading more reviews at Amazon. Just click the link below:

This book is as good a place as any to begin the process of re-thinking what you assume education is.

"There can be no freedom without learning and learning without freedom is always in vain"-JFK

Learning Journey

2009-05-24T13:23:00.000-07:00

I feel truly inspired in my quest to learn how to teach my children. It is a marvel how one thing leads to the next. I never really intended to or considered myself a "home schooler."

Now, looking back, it seems like I have been learning about the art of education my whole life. I was not home schooled, at least not exactly. But I realize now that I had an unusual educational public school/home school experience. My Father taught high school from the time my parents met. He was an educator. It was his job. He pursued teaching for 10 years until he gradually switched to developing curricular software for the school district he worked in.

During this time my Mother was very involved with our public school experience. She was responsible for leading various committees of parents that even chased out a few teachers and principals to keep the education of her children at the level she expected. Then in sixth grade, when problems at the school we attended persisted despite her efforts to solve them she moved us to a different public school. Moving us meant that she would have to shuttle us across town every morning and afternoon. This is not a small thing for a young mother of 6 children. My Mother is a passionate person. When she feels something is right she pursues it regardless of the sacrifice involved. My siblings continued to attend that school even after our family moved further away from that elementary school.

When I entered junior high school my "radical" mother continued to strive for my educational experience. When she felt the school fell short she removed me and substituted extra-curricular and home learning. My friends thought I was so lucky to get to "leave" school early. They didn't understand that when I got home I was still LEARNING and that my mother often expected A LOT more than my school teachers.

I DID NOT ATTEND SCHOOL FULL-TIME from 7th grand in jr. high until I graduated from high school. My mother and councilors made arrangements for me to leave and take college classes or receive credit for what I was doing elsewhere to make up the difference.I received the education that was tailored to me because my mother was willing to fight for it and because others were willing to concede that there is more than one RIGHT way to educate a child. While in junior high my parents encouraged me to start my own business. I did and I owned it for 13 years (when I had my first child I decided he was more important than the business). While in high school I performed in China on a piano concert tour and participated in an international piano competition and was a member of multiple competitive dance teams. I repeat: I never went to school full-time in all that time.

I went on to be admitted into a competitive university (funded by the revenue from my business and some minor scholarships) and receive a four-year degree in Piano Performance and Pedagogy as well as 2 minors: one in Business Management and one in Folk Dance. While in college I received an "Entrepreneur of the Year" Award and even gave a few lectures about entrepreneurship and received a business-related scholarship. I continued to grow my dance studio and piano studio business that I had been running since I was 13 years old. I also performed in Europe representing the USA for weeks and took my own students to perform in Hawaii, Florida, the Jr. Olympics, California, as well as the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the 2002 Olympics.

In short, I believe I received a uniquely tailored education that would never have been possible were it not for my parents: parents that new the public educational experience can fall short of reaching the needs of every child. My parents took their stewardship seriously to make up the difference. I feel so very blessed to have been given this gift. I consider my educational story a success for this reason: I LEARNED TO LOVE LEARNING. Without that very important key I would never be where I am today.

And that is what my mission as a Mother is today: To teach my children to love to learn. Teaching your children is so rewarding. Hard work, yes. But so worth it. It is the thing I find myself so passionate about doing. LEARNING is how we GROW. Children innately WANT to learn. My job is to feed their fire.

But it is only possible to teach those things which you have taken the time to learn. This blog: "A Family Academy" is a chronicle of our learning journey. Right now my children are "too young to be in school." But you are never too old or too young to learn. So I teach. And they are learning. They are exceeding all of my expectations. And I am trying to learn all that I can so that I have the tools I need to feed their fire. That is my job, as I see it: To advocate for and provide the best educational experiences that will feed their fire of learning desire and keep it burning bright so that the light of learning lasts.

Next to life itself and faith in their Savior, a love for learning is the greatest gift I can give them. For me, it's a vital and meaningful learning journey!

Because Life is about Learning

2009-05-23T20:10:00.001-07:00