Our “Five in a Row” book this week was “Follow the Drinking Gourd,” a story about the Underground Railroad. I was somewhat hesitant to discuss slavery with a 5-year-old. But discuss it we did. I tried to emphasize the kindness and humanity of those who helped rather than talking all that much about what the slaves were escaping.
We ended up not doing many of the FIAR-suggested activities this week. Here’s what we did do:
Continue reading Her navigational skills already exceed her mother’s
When did the years start going by so quickly? When I was 13, the distance between me and 18 seemed epic and endless. Then yesterday I had a baby,* and in fewer than two weeks she’ll turn 5. The day after that, she’ll be a kindergartner. Gather ye rosebuds, I’m 
feeling old. But this isn’t meant to be about me and my feelings. I was going to tell you what my kindergartner is going to be doing this year, schoolwise.
Continue reading What kindergarten looks like at our house
We started homeschooling last year with the preschool curriculum from Horizons. It wasn’t a bad curriculum — in fact, Poppy really enjoyed it — but it was very structured and worksheet-driven, and I wanted to try out something a little different this year.
We started our second year of prehomeschool (homepreschool?) this week, and so far I really like the program. The general concept of “Five in a Row” is that you read the same storybook five days in a row, each day focusing on a different subject. This week, using “The Story About Ping,” we did a little bit of geography, we discussed and wrote a bit of fiction and — P’s favorite part — we did a couple of science experiments. For which she insisted on wearing safety glasses. She is her daddy’s girl.