I usually cover something in a more complete way with Esme when we find something she is semi-interested in. This is far from what most people would call 'schooling' because it is based on what she wants and I'm not going to make her sit still at a desk etc or insist if she refuses a request to look/do etc. If she's not interested, that is fine - but if she is we explore the idea a bit more. I'm very 'visual' and I think she is, too - so I show her pictures whenever I am talking about something.
The 'new phase' is I'm going to keep track of what we do together a little better here on the blog under the blog tag 'homeschool'. I think what we do already is close to what they consider preschool and sometimes she is asking about things they cover in the local kindergarten (time, numbers, shapes etc.) I recently took a look at what school she would be going to someday - and when... I didn't actually go there in person yet - but I've seen some of what they are supposed to do throughout the kindergarten year - and it doesn't seem like very much more than what she already knows. I know school is a lot more about socializing with others your own age... *have to sit down and think that one over as I never got along with the kids my own age myself!*
She won't be 'eligible' for Kindergarten until she is nearly six, and would go to the same school Mark did in Bruceton. We could send her to a preschool now, if she was potty-trained... but I don't think _we're_ ready for that yet and we are trying not to lose what progress we're getting with the PT by pushing it any faster. If we are homeschooling preschool then we don't need to worry about the speed on that - she can go at her own pace. Besides the PT, I worry where she'll be by age six - what will she be doing then, if she is doing this now? But Mark said: 'Don't worry - don't care where she'll be then.... just care where she is now and what she WANTS to do.' He says we'll end up mostly homeschooling her in what she wants to learn anyway. That is true.. but I will still worry a little!
So, when I post homeschool from now on it is something we(I) sat down intentionally to show to her - based usually on things she said or did during the day (so she'll be interested) and not lasting very long, but 'fun' and 'visual' and try to mix in new things.
homeschool : black and brown bears. Esme told me 'uh uh' no bears - no black bears, big brown bears! We often say 'big brown bears going to come!' as a synonym for anything scary ... silly I know :) I told her in the bathtub that 'uh huh - there are black bears - and I'll show you some.' I showed her lots of pictures of black bears and described what they were doing, and showed her the words 'black bear' in a few places. We saw baby bears and bears eating and fighting and swimming and climbing trees. Then we saw a video of a 'mumum bear and baby bears' etc etc... and then she lost interest because the second video had no sound to it. That's still nice - she went through that much with interest :) She also found a cricket downstairs and I told her how they jump and are 'good bugs' and she said 'good bug' the same way she says 'cute kitty' and pretended to pat it on the head. 'jump bug - good job bug!' She said 'cricket' pretty well. We saw flutterbugs on the kitchen door and I showed her a big pretty moth with black stripes on his wings and all the little guys around him. We found a picture of a cricket online and she told him to jump. She also saw a flutterbug picture there (great coloring pages site: 1 and 2)
I printed out some coloring book pages from that site of a duck, an elephant with a baby and a cow - and wrote those names on them - she told me the cow pooped, and the cow needed a baby, too. I colored the duck for her and then he ate an orange from her fruit set. Her grandma and little girl playmobil jumped in and talked to and about all of the different animals - and had fun. She drew all over the three sheets and had a very very fun time with it :) Daddy and her are watching some more cartoon shows now and talking about them.
The other day I posted that we had went through 'dragon bones' of different types looking at dinosaur skeletons. We also sometimes will watch videos from the forum I belong to - like Abby playing her violin or Piper writing her name. Esme loves videos of other little kids, and of animals :)
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