I learned how a preschooler's mind works, and how it learns. The best environment for young children is outdoors. They need to be outside in nature for hours a day. This is easy to implement. Both my children would live outside if they could. I am just to let them play, run, and have fun outdoors for as long as possible. The house will get clean and the laundry will get done another day. It is far more important to let the children naturally learn about the environment and how God has crated our world.
The two approaches I learned about is Classical Education and Charlotte Mason's philosophy. Charlotte Mason believed in letting children be outdoors as much as possible and not to do academic learning before age six in order for the children to learn the basics on their own. Classical education focuses on the trivium: grammar (or knowledge), logic (or understanding), and rhetoric (or wisdom). I want to focus on helping build my children's education using the classical principles.
We picked up the curriculum we will be using next year. We bought Math-U-See, Hooked on Phonics, and Handwriting without Tears. I am planning on doing unit studies by lapbooking. This will keep the academics as games and crafts instead of worksheets and desk work. I am using this year to try out the programs we purchased and see how I can incorporate the other subjects without a traditional curriculum.
Not only did this convention inspire me and motivate me, but I was given some tools necessary to work through this next year. It was amazing to see how well behaved the homeschool kids were at this convention. It was amazing to see them work together in a mock-election and get us adults to give them fake-money for the campaign as well as vote for their president. They sold me on homeschool even more than I was sold before!
My husband and I enjoyed this weekend and we are both excited for the school year. We are full of hope for this year and I know he is just as excited as I am.
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