When my four-year-old began to express a sincere interest in completing home-school activities of his own, I figured it was time to order him his own curriculum from the same cyber school that my older son attends. At first , he was very excited to being learning like his big brother, but now I feel like we are just trying to get through it.
The curriculum I chose has activities to do on the computer, including short videos and educational games. These online activities are mixed in with offline activities that include experiments, stories, and yes, some worksheets. (The worksheets are how the teachers at the cyber school are able to evaluate his progress.)
Unlike other home-school curriculums, this online curriculum must be completed in order. We are able to skip activities that teach or reinforce skills he already knows, but it does not have the flexibility I am used to. My son has also begun to resist completing the activities, and, at four-years-old, I don’t want him to have his first home-schooling experiences to be negative.
I know he is learning with this curriculum, and the mix of online and offline activities is a good fit for him. I just wish it didn’t feel like we were going through a checklist of activities so that we could get to the end. I wish there were a way to tailor it more to his personal needs, but I haven’t yet figured out how to do that. I don’t want to drop the curriculum completely, but I have to find a way to make this one work better for our family before my son and I both get frustrated.
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Written by Laura on December 30, 2011
I can remember my own mother telling me that she was about to “hit the end of her rope”. I never really understood the analogy. But now, as a mother as well, I have found myself using the same words, and I am pretty sure it has something to do with the unravelling of nerves.
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Written by Laura on December 5, 2011
It drives my husband crazy when someone says that my younger son is shy. He is quite an actor, and he can put on quite a show whenever he thinks he can get the attention. Personally, I believe this is why he will frequently pull out his “shy” act. This little skit stole the hearts of the ladies of our local ice cream shop one humid evening in July.
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Written by Laura on October 10, 2011
My son slowly entered the room. His head was aimed at the floor, yet his eyes were peering up at me. It was a look with which I am familiar. This posture always gives away the fact that my darling child has done something he was not supposed to do. He was hiding his hands behind his back which led me to believe something was broken, and he was about to reveal a precious item that was now in pi
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Written by Laura on September 30, 2011
My four-year-old attends a preschool program two mornings each week. Last May, when the program ended for the previous year, my son was still whining and fussing about going to his classroom each and every day I dropped him off at school. And although he is quite the clown once he warms up to a person, he has never been one for performing in front of groups. So it was no surprise to learn that
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Written by Laura on September 21, 2011
We are very fortunate in our small town to have such a wonderful pediatric physicians’ office at our hospital. They are a group of three physicians who are all very caring, compassionate and eager to help even in situations that are not entirely medical. It is actually one of the factors I listed when my husband and I were trying to decide whether to stay in our small town or move to a bigge
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Written by Laura on August 22, 2011
Last night, my two little boys finished their season of “Summer Soccer”. Both children made great improvements throughout the eight weeks of practices and games, and my older son, especially, was a bit sad that it was ending. However, I have to admit that I was glad to see the season come to a close only because it meant an end to the drama that developed on my older son’s team
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Written by Laura on August 4, 2011
My younger son always seems to be the odd man out. Whenever we have friends over, the older kids play together, and Elliot is left either begging to be part of the group or giving up and playing by himself. I don’t know if it is the age, since he is usually the youngest child, or simply a result of having an odd number of children in the house. No matter what the reason, I always feel sor
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Written by Laura on June 24, 2011
While on an eight-hour drive back home from Connecticut, my oldest child was entertained for hours (literally “four” hours) with nothing but a laminated card, a dry-erase marker, and the scenery around him. He was playing a game where he was supposed to find as many red trucks, yellow cars, horses, tractors, air planes, and motorcycles ...
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Written by Laura on May 18, 2011
On a recent trip to Connecticut, my family was able to take advantage of a state park facility that was new to us. In Rocky Hill, just outside of Hartford, Connecticut, is a dome-shaped building with lots of prehistoric surprises inside.
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Written by Laura on April 29, 2011
Our goal is to give you the tools and confidence to teach your preschooler the joy of reading and writing.
Sponsored by Bridges Reading & Writing Institute -- teaching the JOY of reading and writing to students in preschool through 12th grade.
