learning how to grip a writing tool (and other homeschool-esque ramblings)
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We've started with some preschool stuff in these parts. It's nothing too formal, but our girl had been almost begging for a little something. Some days it's crafts and memory verses. Some days it's nothing more than reading the week's story from her AWANA book. Some days it's nothing. (Just keeping it real!)
The plan for a typical week involves:
I wasn't expecting much from the Hooked on Phonics stuff, to be honest. Someone had given us the toddler set, and it stunk. Then I realized that the pre-K one, while better, relied heavily on workbook pages. As a teacher, I hated workbook pages. Sure, students knew what to expect, but usually they were bored and I was more bored. Our sweet girl LOVES the workbook. She's all about it. She thinks it's the coolest school thing we do. Who knew?!?
One thing I noticed was that she held her crayons in a fist. That never bothered me when she was coloring, but I was thinking about how we could get a better writing grip when the natural order of things in our house helped me out.
What do I mean? Well, if you're like us, you probably live in the land of these, too.
Yep, the land of broken crayons. (With the occasional teeth marks, but that's irrelevant to writing grip.) When she had intact crayons, she held them in a fist. With broken ones, she does this:
Now she doesn't even hold full-sized crayons in a fist anymore. I know because I tried to get a picture of what I meant. When I handed her a big crayon, though, I got this.
So, to show you what I'm talking about, I demonstrated (with a Pepsi Max because my favorite homeschooling mommas have taught me, among other things, that homeschooling involves caffeine.)
Problem solved, somewhat accidentally. Good stuff.
And as an extra note...
Our homeschooliness is super flexible, and I have no idea when we'll opt for something else. We just knew, after lots of prayer, that it would be unwise for our family to do preschool this year. Between AWANA one night, the kids' teaching program during my Bible study one morning a week, and church on Sundays, we didn't want to add more on, especially because it would crowd out playdates and museum trips and other fun stuff we love. We know that we live in a culture that is perpetually busy and doesn't encourage white space in the calendar, so we didn't want to allow overcommitment to slip in this early!
(And, in case you're not from around here and are wondering why I'm explaining our choice not to be preschool for a three year old, let me clarify that most of our friends' kids are in preschool. My new hair stylist asked me the other day which preschool our daughter goes to, which is the typical question - it's rarely a "does she?" but more often "where does she?" I don't mind all that, but I wanted to clarify for friends of mine who don't live in heavily preschooled areas.)
So, quick question after this rambling post...is this helpful or interesting? Do you even care? I don't mind making occasional posts like this, but it's one of those more mundane parts of our lives that I'm not sure anyone else wants to know. If your answer is no, it won't hurt my feelings; it'll just spare me the time of writing posts like these. And if you answer is yes, it's not much more work for me because I'm writing down this type of stuff anyway to have a record of it. What do y'all think?
(And let me add here that I don't think you ought to be concerned if your three-year-old doesn't have an ideal pencil/crayon grip. It'll come in time as the small muscles it requires develop. I just stumbled across this - literally, as I stepped on crayons! - and it worked for us, so I wanted to share it!)
The plan for a typical week involves:
- memory verses from AWANA and from the kids' program for our church's weekly Bible study (and sometimes another one),
- a few letters from the Hooked on Phonics pre-K curriculum (which I got on major clearance last year when they were updating packaging, maybe $10 or so),
- activities centered around a book (often books from Before Five in a Row, which uses older classic storybooks and provided suggested activities and biblical connections - it isn't necessary, but I like having a starting place),
- some play with the Lauri Math Discovery Kit, and
- some nature- or kitchen-based science stuff.
I wasn't expecting much from the Hooked on Phonics stuff, to be honest. Someone had given us the toddler set, and it stunk. Then I realized that the pre-K one, while better, relied heavily on workbook pages. As a teacher, I hated workbook pages. Sure, students knew what to expect, but usually they were bored and I was more bored. Our sweet girl LOVES the workbook. She's all about it. She thinks it's the coolest school thing we do. Who knew?!?
One thing I noticed was that she held her crayons in a fist. That never bothered me when she was coloring, but I was thinking about how we could get a better writing grip when the natural order of things in our house helped me out.
What do I mean? Well, if you're like us, you probably live in the land of these, too.
Yep, the land of broken crayons. (With the occasional teeth marks, but that's irrelevant to writing grip.) When she had intact crayons, she held them in a fist. With broken ones, she does this:
Now she doesn't even hold full-sized crayons in a fist anymore. I know because I tried to get a picture of what I meant. When I handed her a big crayon, though, I got this.
So, to show you what I'm talking about, I demonstrated (with a Pepsi Max because my favorite homeschooling mommas have taught me, among other things, that homeschooling involves caffeine.)
Problem solved, somewhat accidentally. Good stuff.
And as an extra note...
Our homeschooliness is super flexible, and I have no idea when we'll opt for something else. We just knew, after lots of prayer, that it would be unwise for our family to do preschool this year. Between AWANA one night, the kids' teaching program during my Bible study one morning a week, and church on Sundays, we didn't want to add more on, especially because it would crowd out playdates and museum trips and other fun stuff we love. We know that we live in a culture that is perpetually busy and doesn't encourage white space in the calendar, so we didn't want to allow overcommitment to slip in this early!
(And, in case you're not from around here and are wondering why I'm explaining our choice not to be preschool for a three year old, let me clarify that most of our friends' kids are in preschool. My new hair stylist asked me the other day which preschool our daughter goes to, which is the typical question - it's rarely a "does she?" but more often "where does she?" I don't mind all that, but I wanted to clarify for friends of mine who don't live in heavily preschooled areas.)
So, quick question after this rambling post...is this helpful or interesting? Do you even care? I don't mind making occasional posts like this, but it's one of those more mundane parts of our lives that I'm not sure anyone else wants to know. If your answer is no, it won't hurt my feelings; it'll just spare me the time of writing posts like these. And if you answer is yes, it's not much more work for me because I'm writing down this type of stuff anyway to have a record of it. What do y'all think?
(And let me add here that I don't think you ought to be concerned if your three-year-old doesn't have an ideal pencil/crayon grip. It'll come in time as the small muscles it requires develop. I just stumbled across this - literally, as I stepped on crayons! - and it worked for us, so I wanted to share it!)