I have found that as you start to move up in the world of homeschooling, you tend to forget that the littlest people still need the basics.  So, while my mid-schoolers are enjoying Shakespeare, my youngest asked me how to make pur-pill (purple).  Suddenly, it occurred to me, my 5 yo knows about totem poles and the Indians of the Pacific Northwest, but, doesn’t know how to make purple, a basic kindergarten skill!  Eeeek!  So, we set to work making pur-pill.

Not to be left out in the cold, Malena joined in...you see, that happens in my house...paint.  When my kids see paint, it is better than Santa Claus, because I rarely get it out...the only thing better than paint in my house is glitter.  My kids know if the glitter comes out, oh my...it is a special day!

So, back to basics means Cade is also learning his numbers, counting, and adding.  He begs me to learn these things, even when he still will call ‘42’ ‘24’.  At this point we are going through them daily, counting by tens, fives, and using the counting animals to tell ‘some some more’ stories and ‘some, some went away stories.’  He really likes those. 

Finally, he has been begging me to teach him to read for a year now.  I know that he is not ready—I can tell that little synapse in the brain has not connected yet, but, we go through the motions.  He cannot do phonics, he just can’t.  I learn from teaching Spencer how to read (oh what torture that was for us both) that not all kids can actually sound out words.  Maybe it is a boy/girl thing, my girls never had an issue with it, or maybe it is just ‘my’ boys...but, we started out slow doing sight words using word families.  He can ‘read’ the words in order from top to bottom, he is now learning the ‘connection’ words like a, the, to and be.  This week I hope to write a book for him to ‘read’...but, he isn’t really reading.  But, he will feel success if I make a book and he can ‘read’ it to his siblings.  I told him soon there would be a language explosion and he would recognize all kinds of words, and words within words, and then, we’d have to write down so many words we’d probably have to start taping them on the ceiling!

He loved that idea—so, Stay Tuned!!