Learning to Teach.

When I started homeschooling my oldest daughter, she had already completed Kindergarten and Grade One in a private school. She knew how to read, write, understood simple math skills (add, subtract, skip counting) and was conditioned in those two short years of her life, to be a student. 

This made teaching her easy. She followed directions, could work independently and her style of learning worked well with the basic curriculum that I chose. I knew nothing about what I was doing, so I chose books that I had seen being used in her school, used techniques that I saw in my own schooling experience and so forth. Sultana's style of learning worked well, and still does with the basic system that you find most commonly in a school setting. This year she even opted to attend an Innovations Class, which runs two full days a week, and covers the majority of her courses in a classroom setting. As per the name, it is innovative, but more on that in a later post.

My second born daughter, Sanaa, would start Kindergarten the following year, when Sultana was entering Grade 3. The decision to stick with homeschool after my first year with Sultana was solidified in my mind, but it took some convincing for my husband. He worried that Sanaa might "miss out" on the KG experience. My plea was directed at the fact that I wanted the girls to stick together and he could see that Sultana was thriving, so he agreed and we went ahead into our second year.

This year was a little bit different than the first, as I was schooling two instead of one, but the Primary Grades are pretty simple to get through. Kindergarten is filled with a lot of activities and much of it is learning through play.

The leap for me, as a "teacher", with no teaching degree, was teaching Sanaa how to read. Once she entered Grade One, the pressure was on to get her reading at the level that the curriculum suggests. It was a much different process, teaching Sanaa how to read, than it was teaching Sultana anything. It really taught me the value of reading skills, and I became so thankful that I have them. 

One Day as Sanaa and I were going over her reading, she was making mistakes and getting visibly frustrated. I would correct her and remind her to sound the words out, but honestly, I was getting frustrated too. Not because she was struggling, but because I didn't know how to help her. Anyway she felt my frustration and ended up throwing the book across the floor and crying. "I can't do it!", she screamed. Well I cried too, tears of guilt for not being able to give her what she needed. That was a sad day, but it sparked something in me that has made me a better mother and teacher since.

We took the rest of the day off, went to the park, got slurpees and found our happy place. 

Frustration is a natural part of life, there will be times your child feels it and there will be times when you feel it. Understand that this feeling is your brain telling you to take a break, and then come back to tackle the problem once you've rejuvenated.

 When Frustration sets it, walk away and find your happy place! 

This rule should be for both teacher and student. Nobody teaches, learns, or works well, when they are frustrated. Deep Breaths, a walk outside, a craft, a snack - do anything to clear the air of negative energy. You want your child to associate learning with joy, fulfillment and success. Frustration will happen, its a part of life. By teaching your child to do this with their school work you are giving them a valuable lesson for life, as well.

That experience with Sanaa, drove me to learn more about how I could teach her in better ways when it came to reading. I reached out to our teacher and asked for new curriculum, and I took new approaches to learning. I also addressed that moment of frustration with my daughter. I told her that she was a brilliant child and that it was normal to feel frustrated sometimes. I explained to her that frustration means we take a break and come back ready to tackle the problem with a fresh mind. One thing we don't do is give up.

That was the first half of the conversation, the second half was about my frustration. I made sure she knew that I was only frustrated with myself, for now knowing how to help her better, but also that I was going to find a way. And then, something very liberating came out of my mouth- 

"I don't know everything, I'm learning too. I'm learning how to teach you!"

It's good for your children to know that you know you don't know everything. because trust me, they already know that you don't! It's quite a relief to not have to have the answers for everything the minute someone asks, and I'm especially happy that I learned this in the beginning because this year my oldest is taking Algebra! Ha. But, some thing beautiful happens when your child watches you learn. When they ask you a question, or you come across something in a textbook that you don't know, they watch how you deal with that, their eyes transmit to their brain as they watch you, just what you are going to do about it. That is a lesson in itself, so make it a good one! There is a bonus though, and that is that if you have learned something in the past, it'll come back to you a lot faster and then you can look quite smart and earn some points for being a fast learner. 

All brains are not the same, equal but different.

If you are homeschooling, or planning to homeschool, more than one child, just remember that what you do with one, may not work for the other. As a matter of fact, your child may have a completely different learning style than you do (or thought you did?) 

I now have four children at schooling age. The oldest in grade 8, the youngest in KG. They all have similarities, yet all have striking differences as well. Personality definitely plays a role in how a child learns, I will say that. Its a matter of investing the time to see what works for them. The human being is so complex, and each of us unique. What i can say is that teaching your children is an investment that you will love, stress over, cry over, and really just love some more. Its adding a whole new relationship, one that you build as teacher/student. I'm still mom, but I'm also more. Its important they remember that too.

When you're in teacher mode- stay there.

This became more necessary for me this year than it ever has been. Perhaps it's the chaos of having one child reading shakespear, one learning fractions, another one learning cursive writing and another one learning to read and write; not to mention a crazy toddler who pretends he's The Hulk (or Spiderman, Batman, Power Ranger....) in the mix. When you are teaching, don't let your soft mommy-ness get in the way. I find that having my children understand that teaching them is a job, and an important one, helps them to respect what I ask of them and to take it seriously. The older they get the more this makes sense to them, so start conditioning this idea now.

Life is Learning, that never ends.

Perhaps the very most important thing to me, is this. This is what homeschool has awarded me over the years. The understanding that school is not a place, that education is not something separate from life experiences. I aim to make the things we learn have meaning, for the knowledge we seek to consume make change within ourselves. So when your child says they like something, or if they ask a question at the most inopportune time, find the time and go with it. There is a spark in every child to learn, don't let that spark get away without creating a flame, and then fan it, fan it, fan it. You wont be sorry.

If you would like to read about the curriculum that my children have had reading/writing success with then click here: Primary language Arts Curriculum

Primary Language Arts Curriculum

My Favourite Curriculum for Reading and Writing

{Primary Grades}

If you read my post "learning to teach", you will know that teaching my second daughter how to read was a wake up call to me that curriculum matters.

Here is a list of my favorite curriculum that I have used with all of my children.

Explode The Code Series

This is a set of books that teaches the sound of letters, combination of sound, words and eventually sentences. It also teaches printing in proper formation. Two in One! My kids love these books, because they go at a nice pace and have a fun format that incorporates the use of pictures as a means of finding the right answers.

They start at levels, A, B and C, which teach the alphabet and its sounds. My youngest daughter, now in KG, finished all three of these last year as she was very keen. They are meant for Kindergarten but I think having a keen pre-schooler use them is just fine. 

After A,B,and C, they are divided into numbers as half books. So a student in grade One student would do Book 1 and also 1 1/2. They go all the way up to level 6.

Here is an example of what you will find in the first set of three (A,B,C)

Things to look for:

1. The use of the three lines, with the middle being dotted. This helps the student to properly disperse the letter and get an idea of its shape and size in comparison to other letters.

2. In the example above, they are showing the steps in writing the letter "b". We don't think about it, but we were taught these same things in school. There is a system in how to write the alphabet, and it has value because it, quite simply, makes writing easier. Little thing like, only lifting the pencil off the paper when necessary, smooth writing and eventually transferring this skill into handwriting.

3. Pictures to reinforce the sound.

Once your student has made it through the first and second books, (A and B), they will know the sounds of the Alphabet, and have a pretty good chance of remembering how to write them all. With the exception of an occasional "b" and "d" mixed up! So now the book will introduce pictures and ask the student to write the letter that it starts with. When learning to read, "Start with the starting sound", naturally. You can see in my daughters example below that she wrote the ending sound for "box". They do get into ending sounds as well.

Make your own!

There is a system to learning how to write letters properly, but once you know it (and you do, its just become so second nature you don't think about it), you can easily make your own practice booklets. The dollar store usually has the dotted lined notebooks as well.

This is a booklet I made for my daughter last year. She loved it, and especially that I made it for her.

Watch: Alphabet Booklet

Handwriting Without Tears

This book was recommended to me by our DL teacher this year. Its a good printing practice book as the examples are simple. Its important to have simple examples, nothing fancy. Once your little printer gets the basics, they can, and will, add their own flair.

The Reading Lessons

This is the second version of this book. The first one had "learn to read in 100 lessons". So if you plan on using it then know there are two different ones. The one above is 20 lessons, however that's not to say that it should be one lesson a day.

They start off with teaching the sound of the letters, in a format so that the child can practice getting faster and faster. Think of the technique of flashcards, except these are all on one page. Same idea.

Once the letters are memorized, the student can move on to combinations of letters, and then eventually words. 

You can see that there is a pattern in the way they are introducing new concepts. As the child becomes accustomed to reading words, the book starts to incorporate mini sentences and paragraphs. 

Using rhyming words with similar spelling helps build vocabulary.

Here is a page about 3/4 way through this textbook. you can see the amount of progress that's being made throughout, and also why it takes longer than 20 days to do the 20 lessons. A great resource!

Bob Books

Bob books are very reminiscent of the books that I first began reading in school. Just think "Jane goes here, Tim goes there." This kind of reading may seem mundane, but, in my opinion, its worked for a lot of years in aiding children to learn to read so it must be worth it. The point is to get your child to develop a joy in reading and have them feeling happy and successful whilst doing so. These books provide that experience for new readers.  The books come in box sets (I've even seen them at Chapters),each at their own level, with graduating levels in the books themselves. They are physically small, short and simple, with pictures to help with content.  You want your new reader to feel accomplished after they read. So being able to read a whole book from start to finish, is encouraging. Simple and useful.

Journals

Journals are an excellent way to support reading and writing learning. The give practice with lettering and encourage the use of new words. they teach sentencing, punctuation and spacing, all important aspects of neat writing. I buy the notebooks with blank space at the top so that my kids can draw a picture of what they are writing about!

My daughter, Sahira, is not only a hockey fan, but also plays hockey! Shes very enthusiastic and has a whole journal dedicated to only hockey entries! It will make for an awesome keepsake when shes older.  

Read, Read, Read!

When my daughters reading really took off, was when she found books that she enjoyed. Reading should be like brushing your teeth - done at least twice a day! read to your kids, let them read to you, have family reading time where everyone grabs their own book and reads quietly. Reading one of the most important aspects of learning, and will become one of your child's greatest assets in life!