Homeschool Update: Will’s Year so Far

Yesterday I wrote about G’s homeschool year thus far, so today I thought I’d give you all a homeschool update on our sweet Will.

Follow the child: Last week William pulled out a book on landforms, so we read it and used play-doh to create what we were reading about.

William is only 3 1/2, so I’m going slow, not pushing him, and am trying to use his interests to spark learning (see my post on Iceberg Counting). Mostly, we read and snuggle and he plays with open ended toys like blocks. I’m happy to have him build and create and occupy himself productively. Even as I type he’s building some type of a track or structure for his cars out of a long cardboard tube, a piece of wood, and my kitchen broom.

Sounds

Working on his object box

In Montessori, children learn the sounds of the letters and not their names, because that make reading come more naturally later. William and I are slowly working our way through the sandpaper letters. We’ve covered 2 sets of four sounds so far. We’ve even started using our object boxes with four of the sounds (m,s,a,t). I have a box for each group of letters that is filled with tiny objects that start with those sounds. We pull an object, say it’s name, and William puts it on the corresponding sandpaper letter.

Matching the sound to the animal

I also vary the work by using letter puzzles with him- I only give him the pieces for the sounds we are working on-, as well as the magnet sounds from this book, and again only the sounds we are working with so he’s not overwhelmed. Variation has been key in holding Will’s attention long enough for him to really learn the sounds.

I try to do a sound activity once or twice a week with William, which is about as much as I can manage given his limited motivation for learning the sounds.

1-to-1 Counting

We spent the fall working on 1-to-1 counting, and I’m happy to say that William is consistently able to count to 10 and identify the numbers 1-10 independently. We still focus a lot of our classroom time on counting, and I try to get him to count with me every day. If I can’t get him to complete a counting work in the classroom, I find something for us to count at other points of the day (blocks while he’s building, trains on his track, pasta pieces on his plate) to keep the skill fresh.

Practical Life

A lot of what William is learning these days comes in this category. I know I’ve posted before on the subject of chores, so I’ll try not to repeat myself too much. William is less independent by nature than G, so while at age 3 she was chomping at the bit for tasks she could do by herself, he is more than happy to have everything done for him if I’ll allow it. So it’s been a bit of a struggle to get him to consistently complete tasks around the house without fussing. But we’re making progress.

William working with tongs and pom pom balls

I’ve also been trying to steer him towards practical life related works within the classroom- pouring, scooping, using tongs-, to improve his fine motor skills and confidence.

Religion

Like G, I’m working on creating a culture of faith in our family, but making sure that it sort of seeps into everything we do. So we pray and we read books on the saints, and we talk a lot about Jesus. There’s nothing formal.

Other Works Will Enjoys

Color Box 2 and it’s extensions are hugely helpful for learning colors
Craft projects like making these beaded snowflakes help with fine motor skills.

In the new year, we’ll continue working on sounds and counting and I’ll do my best to keep sparking that joy of learning in his little heart.