Four Languages and an Admission

So here's a picture of the board I use for a lot of my teaching. I just recently wrote out the days of the week and the months in the four main languages I'm focusing on. In order and color-coded:

Black: English
Blue: Greek
Red: Latin
Green: Spanish

My main focus, besides English, is on Greek and Latin. Spanish is only a few minutes a day using some flash cards for household objects. However, I am intending to use our local library for some Spanish resources like books, DVDs, and books on tape.

I am not having Sean write in anything except English and Greek, since they have distinct alphabets. He is doing so well, and he could easily read all of the words in the picture. His reading ability in Greek has improved dramatically faster than I imagined. And as we daily read books in English (like Frog and Toad and such), he always surprises me by knowing words I've never officially taught him.

So we've been doing well in our homeschooling (besides the swine flu this past week---EEEEK!!), but I have an admission to make, and hopefully it will make other moms out there feel better. Remember the post I did about Sean's schedule? Well I do have to admit that the schedule is more like an idealized goal. I don't follow it exactly, but most days I do manage to hit the main subjects: Reading, Math, Bible, Greek, Latin, Spanish. The other things, especially the categories like art and music and science, have unfortunately been pushed out of our schedule. However, I do intend to get more focused next semester, so hopefully we can incorporate these other subjects too. The most important of all, I believe, is to make sure I read to Sean and that he reads to me daily. If we have a bad day, and everything else gets pushed aside, at least I'm sure to do reading. So, when you read this blog, please don't think of me as a supermom or a time-oriented task-master for my children. The schedule is our goal (and, admittedly, it hasn't even been followed exactly for ONE day!!) but we always remain flexible, because flexibility is half the fun of homeschooling. :)

Great Lain Resource

We, like this mom, are beginning Latin in Kingergarten for Sean and Pre-School for Katie.

I'm convinced that, because the natural time for acquiring languages is between birth and six years of age, there is no such thing as "too early" for language learning. The rapidity of brain growth during those first years is significantly more than for the rest of one's life, making the first six years the ideal time to learn languages, reading, writing, and basic arithmetic.

So, I picked up Prima Latina and have begun with a few prayers and songs. We are also learning Greek with some songs and prayers. And Spanish as well with songs, vocabulary, and dialog (since I know a bit).

Since Sean and Katie are both learning to master the English alphabet, I decided that for Spanish and Latin, they won't be working with the letters or words, just learning orally, lest different pronunciations for the same letters confuse them. I am, however, teaching the Greek alphabet and letters because they are significantly different so as not to promote confusion (hopefully!).

Here is a great resources for Latin prayers with English translations:

Everyday Catholic Prayers in Latin and English

Enjoy!

In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen

Breakthrough!

As most of you know, I began teaching Sean letters, words, and phonetic sounds very early on (I think as soon as he could walk--though with hindsight I could have started much earlier). I used a combination of many methods, much of them tactile and hands-on (such as tracing letters in rice/sand). Now Sean has progressed to reading short chapter books on his own (such as Frog and Toad).

I don't really know why, but I didn't begin so early with Katie (maybe it was something to do with having less one-on-one time with her and feeling more exhausted and overwhelmed with two kids than with one!). However, I have been working consistently with her for a while now by reading aloud to her, using flash cards, and doing lots of pre-reading activities that are made to train her brain to process things from left to right (see Barabara Curtis' book Mommy Teach Me! for more info). She is now able to, with a few exceptions and some mistakes, say the phonetic sound that each letter in the alphabet makes. So, I decided to have her try to mash together three phonetic sounds into a word today. I tried this about two weeks ago and she didn't get it then, but today she did!! I used alphabet cookies from Trader Joe's:

Then I chose three letters and spaced them out considerably. The first letters were C-A-T (the cookies only come in capitals). Immediately she called out the letters, and after being asked, she said each of their sounds. We then spent a couple minutes saying each sound as we pointed to the corresponding cookie, gradually moving the sounds (and the cookies) closer together. And, as she and I said the word slowly (c-a-a-a-a-a-t) she got it. Her face lit up and she turned to me and said: cat! I then tried it again just to make sure that it wasn't some fluke, and the same thing happened with the word dog.


It was great! If I remember correctly, this is the same way that Sean learned to read his first word--with cookies. (You see, there is great incentive because they get to eat them at the end--far better than magnetic letters!)

Field Trip: Tall Ships Festival!

We took a field trip (though on a Saturday) with some friends to see the Tall Ships Festival in Dana Point Harbor yesterday. I think the kids had a blast. We toured boats, got some hands-on learning in the aquarium, played in the ocean, and met some pirates!! I blogged more about it (with pictures) here and here. Enjoy!

Car Fire!! -- Everyone is okay!!

Homeschooling was interrupted Friday because of the events of Thursday night. My husband's car caught of fire and is now totaled. He is fine, though. You can read of the whole thing here on my family blog (with all the photos too!). Praise God who protected us!

~ Heather