A day in the life of Kathrynne
I've been receiving more than a handful of requests recently from moms asking for me to sharing more about what books and other materials I'm using to teach Kathrynne. Instead of giving you a simple list, I thought it might be more self-explanatory if I instead just let you peek in on a typical day of learning at our home.
Before I share, though, I want to preface this with the usual disclaimer that this is just what we are doing right now--next year (or maybe even next month), it might be entirely different. I also am just learning as far as this whole homeschooling and mothering thing goes so I am not offering any of this up as seasoned advice. I only share this in the hopes it might be encouraging or inspirational to a few of you other young moms out there. Please do not feel like you need to do what we're doing--these are just some ideas of things which we're enjoying or things which are working for us in this season.
Speaking of this season, I also must remind you that we are in an easy season of life right now so I'm doing more with Kathrynne than I likely would be were I in a simple season. She's also extremely eager to learn and actually begs for me to "do school" with her everyday. If she weren't so anxious about it, I'd probably be slower in introducing some of this to her.
Disclaimers aside, here's what a somewhat-typical day would look like in our home...
Kathrynne and Kaitlynn get up around 8:45 a.m. (they go to bed around 9:30 p.m. which is one reason they sleep in) and I get them dressed and then we head downstairs for breakfast.
During breakfast, I read one story from The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes and we read through the ABC Memory book. We've very much enjoyed both of these and I would highly recommend them if you are looking for some simple ways to teach Scripture and Bible stories to young children. After reading those, we also read Genesis 1 complete with dramatization from mom.
After breakfast, we clean up the kitchen together while Kaitlynn occupies herself as our resident "human vacuum cleaner" under the table (what can I say?--we do sweep most everyday, if that makes any of you germa-phobics feel any better!).
Since Kathrynne turned three, we've been giving her more responsibilities around the home and encouraging her to look for opportunities to take initiative and have a servant's heart. One of the jobs I'm teaching her to do right now is to dry the dishes. I've been quite impressed with how quickly she's picked it up and how much she enjoys working with me!
What special memories we're making as we work alongside each other in the kitchen and I help her learn how to complete chores correctly and efficiently. I'm hoping to work myself out of a job one day soon!
Once the kitchen is cleaned up and the floor is swept, I switch the laundry from the washer to the dryer (I usually start a load every morning.) and then we carry up the load from the dryer and the girls help me fold laundry.
Then it's time for our morning chores. Kathrynne normally helps me some with these and she also helps by playing with Kaitlynn for part of the time. Kaitlynn often busies herself with trying to pull some books out of the bookshelf. She's already quite fascinated by books!
When our morning chores are completed, we head to the kitchen to get dinner preparations done and, if we have time, we do some extra baking. Kathrynne loves to help with baking and I often allow her to concoct some "recipes" of her own--which she thinks is about the best thing ever.
Lunchtime!
During lunch, we review her ABC cards (these are some my mom had from the Christ-Centered Curriculum). We have a little song we sing with these cards and it's one of her favorite school things to do.
Next we review her numbers chart (also from Christ-Centered Curriculum). We count from 1-20 while pointing to the corresponding number. We also usually read a few fun picture books, too. I let Kathrynne choose from her large stash--usually limiting it to two or three per day.
After lunch, we sit together on the sofa and do her Alpha-Phonics reading for the day. She's just learning letter recognition right now--though she is starting to understand the concept of letter sounds and putting them together and is anxious to read.
Here's what the section she is currently working through looks like. She normally reads one half-page of letters per day.
After our post-lunch school time, we have our 1:00-3:00 p.m. afternoon free time. If we have an errand we need to run, this is when we do it. Wednesday afternoons we are hosting a small book study at our home with a few other moms. Fridays we go to the library during this time. Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays we are normally home and the girls play with Legos, read picture books, color, or sometimes watch a movie while I work on projects close by.
From 3:00-3:30 we read together on the sofa again. Right now we're reading through the Little House series and loving it.
3:30-5:30 is Quiet Time. The girls are in separate rooms and usually nap during this time, though Kathrynne can play or read quietly in her room also.
From 5:30 on, it's family time so we don't have a set schedule, though we normally have a basic routine: Spend time with Daddy, eat dinner and have some quality family discussion, clean up the kitchen and give the girls baths, read together as a family (we just finished up Adventures in Missionary Heroism and have started 1776:The Illustrated Edition this week), sing and read the Bible together, and then we all go to bed.
And there you have an idea of what a typical day looks like from mostly Kathrynne's vantage point. By the way, this post was originally inspired by reading this encouraging post from Tammy.
Before I share, though, I want to preface this with the usual disclaimer that this is just what we are doing right now--next year (or maybe even next month), it might be entirely different. I also am just learning as far as this whole homeschooling and mothering thing goes so I am not offering any of this up as seasoned advice. I only share this in the hopes it might be encouraging or inspirational to a few of you other young moms out there. Please do not feel like you need to do what we're doing--these are just some ideas of things which we're enjoying or things which are working for us in this season.
Speaking of this season, I also must remind you that we are in an easy season of life right now so I'm doing more with Kathrynne than I likely would be were I in a simple season. She's also extremely eager to learn and actually begs for me to "do school" with her everyday. If she weren't so anxious about it, I'd probably be slower in introducing some of this to her.
Disclaimers aside, here's what a somewhat-typical day would look like in our home...
Kathrynne and Kaitlynn get up around 8:45 a.m. (they go to bed around 9:30 p.m. which is one reason they sleep in) and I get them dressed and then we head downstairs for breakfast.
During breakfast, I read one story from The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes and we read through the ABC Memory book. We've very much enjoyed both of these and I would highly recommend them if you are looking for some simple ways to teach Scripture and Bible stories to young children. After reading those, we also read Genesis 1 complete with dramatization from mom.
After breakfast, we clean up the kitchen together while Kaitlynn occupies herself as our resident "human vacuum cleaner" under the table (what can I say?--we do sweep most everyday, if that makes any of you germa-phobics feel any better!).
Since Kathrynne turned three, we've been giving her more responsibilities around the home and encouraging her to look for opportunities to take initiative and have a servant's heart. One of the jobs I'm teaching her to do right now is to dry the dishes. I've been quite impressed with how quickly she's picked it up and how much she enjoys working with me!
What special memories we're making as we work alongside each other in the kitchen and I help her learn how to complete chores correctly and efficiently. I'm hoping to work myself out of a job one day soon!Once the kitchen is cleaned up and the floor is swept, I switch the laundry from the washer to the dryer (I usually start a load every morning.) and then we carry up the load from the dryer and the girls help me fold laundry.
Then it's time for our morning chores. Kathrynne normally helps me some with these and she also helps by playing with Kaitlynn for part of the time. Kaitlynn often busies herself with trying to pull some books out of the bookshelf. She's already quite fascinated by books!
When our morning chores are completed, we head to the kitchen to get dinner preparations done and, if we have time, we do some extra baking. Kathrynne loves to help with baking and I often allow her to concoct some "recipes" of her own--which she thinks is about the best thing ever.
Lunchtime!
During lunch, we review her ABC cards (these are some my mom had from the Christ-Centered Curriculum). We have a little song we sing with these cards and it's one of her favorite school things to do.
Next we review her numbers chart (also from Christ-Centered Curriculum). We count from 1-20 while pointing to the corresponding number. We also usually read a few fun picture books, too. I let Kathrynne choose from her large stash--usually limiting it to two or three per day.
After lunch, we sit together on the sofa and do her Alpha-Phonics reading for the day. She's just learning letter recognition right now--though she is starting to understand the concept of letter sounds and putting them together and is anxious to read.
Here's what the section she is currently working through looks like. She normally reads one half-page of letters per day.After our post-lunch school time, we have our 1:00-3:00 p.m. afternoon free time. If we have an errand we need to run, this is when we do it. Wednesday afternoons we are hosting a small book study at our home with a few other moms. Fridays we go to the library during this time. Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays we are normally home and the girls play with Legos, read picture books, color, or sometimes watch a movie while I work on projects close by.
From 3:00-3:30 we read together on the sofa again. Right now we're reading through the Little House series and loving it.3:30-5:30 is Quiet Time. The girls are in separate rooms and usually nap during this time, though Kathrynne can play or read quietly in her room also.
From 5:30 on, it's family time so we don't have a set schedule, though we normally have a basic routine: Spend time with Daddy, eat dinner and have some quality family discussion, clean up the kitchen and give the girls baths, read together as a family (we just finished up Adventures in Missionary Heroism and have started 1776:The Illustrated Edition this week), sing and read the Bible together, and then we all go to bed.
And there you have an idea of what a typical day looks like from mostly Kathrynne's vantage point. By the way, this post was originally inspired by reading this encouraging post from Tammy.
posted by Crystal Paine at 7:00 AM
28 Comments:
Thank you for sharing your day. I think Kathrynne is doing great!
How do you use the ABC memory book? Do you read through the book in one setting or is she learning the memory verses, focusing on one verse?
Thank you so much for sharing this! I constantly suffer from "I don't do enough-itis" as far as my dd's "school" goes. She is also three. But I think we're doing a pretty good job now. The one thing I do need to work on is Scripture. How did you come to read Genesis 1 every morning?
Thanks for letting us have such a great peek into your day!
Enjoyed the glimpse into your day of nurturing your sweet girls!
Alpha-Phonics!! That certainly brings back memories of when I fell in love with that book as a 3-yr-old... :)
This was a lovely post - the girls sure are adorable!
I remember how my girls would beg for "school time" at that age too. Isn't it wonderful? I'm looking forward to it with my son as well. :-)
We (daughter and I) are reading through the Little House series as well - we are about halfway through Farmer Boy right now. We do a chapter or two as bedtime reading most nights. When the kids start into basic reading themselves, the My First Little House books are a wonderful picture book series with the bare basics of certain chapters, and the first chapter books are shortened versions - tho they don't give as much in-depth info (especially for those who want to learn more about the old ways of doing things), they are still a great way to get them started as pre-readers/early readers, saving the full length versions for family enjoyment.
Then comes the day when they read them themselves - I remember doing that and LOVING Little House ever since. :-P
Crystal, thanks for sharing. I was hoping you'd share more on your training of your girls (especially Kathrynne). I feel the need to work on this more with my older girls. I am so thankful for you--you've been a blessing in my life!
Phebe
I love it! It is such a blessing to see families learning and growing in the home.
Kayla
P.S. I also love Little House On The Praire
Wow your kids go to bed late! How do you have time to get anything done in the evening! I have to send mine to bed by no later than 8pm or huge tantrums result.
At what age did you start doing "school" with Kathrynne? My daughter will be two in a few weeks and loves her letter magnets, so we spend some time each day reviewing the ones she knows (about seven letters, currently), and about once a week I'll teach her a new letter. But I'm wondering when you started with the ABC memory book and reading Bible stories each day. I didn't grow up in a Christian home, so I don't have any experience with that part of child rearing, but know how important it is that I get the Word into her heart early on! Also do you know of any good books about homeschooling preschoolers? I was an elementary teacher in a Christian school prior to staying home with our daughter when she was born, but I know very little about preschool. Thank you so much.
Anonymous: I don't get anything done in the evening--I go to bed when they go to bed. :) I've found I'm much more productive in the morning hours and so we've been working to all go to bed as a family at the same time and then Jesse and I get up early in the morning--at least a few hours before the girls get up.
Weed: We started reading Scripture to her from birth--I normally would just read aloud what I was reading in Scripture that morning while I nursed her. We also read Scripture as a family in the evenings before bed. It's just been in the last year, that I've started reading Genesis 1 everyday and also a short Bible story and the ABC verse book. Young children normally love repetition so we try to explain things at Kathrynne's level and do the same thing over and over for many days (or weeks and months) in a row until she really knows it by heart. She loves this!
I was reading this post before the kids woke up and had it open on the computer when I went to get them, so Hannah (2) came out and saw the picture of Kathrynne clutching the Little House book (we are reading that one again as our read aloud book too). She pointed and said, "Hey, dat baby got Yeetle House! I read dat book, Baby, I read dat book too!" I was surprised she recognized it, and I thought it was funny that she described Kathrynne as "Baby". :)
Wow, Catherine, that's really observant of your daughter--especially since the book doesn't hardly show up in the picture at all! And that's funny about her calling her "baby"!
I am a HS mom also with 2 (5 and 6). I would add one bit of advice and, please, feel free to delete it. The idea of reading chapter books to kids is great - but don't overlook the importance of reading some of the brilliant more age-appropriate (socially, intellectually, humor-wise, etc.) books for little kids. Yes, even kids who are "ahead" and "mature" benefit from reading picture books. The Classical Christian 1000 Good Books list has a great list of morally enriching reads. You can also put together a list from reputed home school cirriculum suppliers, etc. Yes, Little House and others are classics that should not be missed, but with most home school curriculums you'll end up reading them again later. Please, take the time to load up on the picture books and not miss those treasures while your kids are little. Just like we can rush our kids development with movies and other form of media - we can do it with books. Slow down and enjoy the pictures books (even a HUGE stack of them) - they are wonderful and I will hate the day when we're passed them! LOVE your blogs - thanks for all the hard work!!
Anonymous: Thanks for reminding me that I failed to mention we also read some fun picture books everyday--usually in the middle of our school time. Kathrynne loves these, in addition to reading larger books, and I love to read a variety of books to her. I just went and added that in to the post--sorry I forgot the first time! We love the Rod and Staff books especially and then also usually check out a great big stack of books each week at the library.
Dear Crystal,
I know you are so very busy with your family, business, and blogging but I have two questions for you.
1. I just spent time scouring the net to try to find the Christ-Centered Curriculum ABC flash cards. Would you be able to send a link for where I could order them?
2. Do the Christ-Centered Curriculum ABC cards have any pictures of Christ?
Our first little one isn't even born yet (4 more weeks!!!) but I like to think/plan ahead :)
Thanks so much sister!
Blessings,
Vanessa
vanessavandermeer@gmail.com
Crystal...just wondering...I know you are just teaching Kathrynne the basic stuff right now...but I was wondering...
I know you said you homeschooled and it seems that you are planning on homeshooling your little ones as well...
What curriculum or homeschool program did your parents use with you...and what do you plan on using for your girls?
(I homeschooled as well from the age of 4 to graduation--with the exception of 2nd, 3rd, and 9th grades)
Wow, you get alot done with her already at age three! I have a little boy who is three, but I found than other than some basic things that he has picked up, I do not teach him "school" at this age. He knows all his letters though which amazes me and sounds they make.
Thanks for sharing your day.
just a curiousity question, do you plan on always having your children in separate bedrooms?
We grew up sharing rooms and I noticed how the sibling relationships were better compared to the ones who did not share.
ugh... Crystal... Please delete this comment after you read it! I know you moderate comments, otherwise I wouldn't tell you about this through comments...
You wrote: "especially since the book doesn't hardly show up".
I am only commenting about this because I consider you to be an EXCELLENT writer, and I'm sure you do not intend to make grammatical mistakes.
BUT... I have read similar "errors" fairly often here, and I'm sure you just don't realize that it is wrong.
When you write "doesn't hardly", you are saying "does not hardly", which is technically saying the opposite of what you mean to say.
I believe you mean that it "hardly shows up". By adding "does not" in front, you are negating it, and in effect saying that it really does show up a LOT.
Hope that makes sense. I wish I could remember offhand the other examples of things you have written where you negate what you mean to say, but they are slipping my mind, at the moment.
Anyway, I don't mean to offend, just inform. I would not normally tell a person about a grammatical error (it somehow feels rude), but I consider you to be a bit more of a "writer" than a casual blogger, and I'm sure you would prefer not to make grammatical errors.
thank you, and I hope I didn't offend.
Thanks for sharing Crystal. I'm a homeschooling mom of three boys, ages 3, 6 & 7 and I love hearing how other moms spend their day. You've given me some nice ideas to incorporate into our routine. Thanks!
Anonymous: Thanks for pointing out one of my very common grammar mistakes. My hat's off to any grammarian who has the courage to struggle through what I write. I am sure that I make you all wince every other sentence or more. :(
It goes without saying that grammar is not my forte--though I am working diligently to improve in this weak area of mine. Maybe someday I'll be confident enough in my grammar skills to consider myself a writer. In the mean time, I'm thankful for editors and grammarians to help me improve. :)
Oh and I *do* have "Eats, Shoots, and Leaves" on my reading list this year as well as "Strunk and White." I need some serious help so if any grammatically-gifted person wants to suggest other books I should read or common errors I constantly make in my writing, fire away. I really mean that...
Regarding reading "chapter books" that someone commented on. My theory is this...you read some books that may be below the level of your child (for example when you are reading to baby brother and older sibling is listening in), you read some books that are at their level (one on one time w/older sibling) and some books that are above your child's current level (chapter books).
I think kids receive benefit from all different types of books and levels. If you just read at their level - I think they are missing out.
My kids are about 2.5 yrs apart...when I'm reading something science-y or history-ish to my older dd for school - I have ds listen in. He's getting some benefit - even if it's only familiarizing him with names or basic facts.
A good portion of our school day I use for reading books to the kids...chapter books, "living books", books they choose and books I choose. Variety is wonderful - and it keeps me sane while I'm reading to them.
Both your girls are sooo adorable and growing up fast! Kathrynne is becoming quite a helper!
That information was great, Crystal. I love any information I can get on the very beginnings of homeschooling. (I can't believe I'm saying that! Homeschooling wasn't even in my vocabulary 5 years ago, but thanks to Christ's work through you, my husband and I are considering it.)
Also, we love the "Little House" series too! There is a "My First Little House" series for 3-8 year olds, in addition to the full texts. They "My First..." are wonderful and there are about 15 of them available. They are out of print now, but you can get used ones pretty easily used on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/104-6476489-4125557?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=my+first+little+house&x=0&y=0
I'm a big fan of your blogs (both of them). I wonder how do you find time to blog with such a great information and still have time to do such a great job with teaching your children.
The Q Family: Having a pretty good schedule is really the only way it happens. Getting up early, staying on track, not watching TV, etc.--those things help, too. As does the fact that we keep our lives very simple and I stay home a lot. I'm also really fast at this blogging thing so most days it takes up a very small part of my thought and time. Read my "Finding Time" series for more info, if you've not already as I go into these things more.
Oh and don't forget the fact that I only have two children! I've cut back a lot in the past year after having Kaitlynn because there was no way I could keep up with everything I was doing online and be a mom to two. As more children come along (Lord-willing) and we begin homeschooling, I see myself streamlining some more and am already putting things in place in preparation for that.
I also had parents who accomplished a lot each day, were very self-disciplined, and were excellent parents. Seeing this modeled day in and day out has given me a huge jump start that a lot of other people haven't had.
There's so much more I could say, but I need to head for bed (going to bed early is one of my "secrets"--I get so much more done in the morning than I ever do late at night!)...
That's great that you're reading the Little House series! I love those books. The first time I picked them up on my own I was seven or eight, and I read almost the whole first book on a long car trip.
I still love them, and often read through the entire series in the summer.
Sorry for the chatter, I just had to share! ;)
Where do you get the version you have of The Bible in Picture for little Eyes? I've seen the newer one, but I like the older pictures.
those adorable sweet smiles are making me smile :)
one looks just like mommy, the other just like daddy! to cute!
I use alpha phonics too with my 5...
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