Change......

"Change is good."

 I'm sure you've heard that a time or two in your life.  I wonder if you have fought the truth of it as often as I have?!

Here's another one for you...

"You have to learn to let go."

Hmmmm......have you guessed what's coming next?
It's not as drastic as you may be assuming.

I'm facing the fact that I have had good intentions with this blog, but to try to mend the fitful starts and go on from where things are now is a burden I can't bear.

So saying, I am moving Shepherding the Lambs from Blogger to a new host, leaving behind all the confussion I've created here, and starting fresh.

If you follow this blog from the ShepherdingtheLambs.com URL, you will still receive posts in your reader as I will transfer the domain name.  If you followed from the .blogspot URL, please update so you will be able to find me at the new site.

Just in case, by some chance, there is information here that some have linked to and/or would still like access to, I will leave what is here on Blogger.

Thanks for bearing with me.

See you soon!

Literature for Little Lambs: Introduction

Literacy: the ability to read and write.

How important is it to focus on literacy for preschoolers?   Is it even practical from an academic standpoint, since they are only beginning to make marks on paper and hardly even know the alphabet, let alone how those letters combine to make words?  Probably not.  And yet...you can study literature with preschoolers by simply reading to them.  And if you add a tiny bit of thought and structure to this time, you can ease them into early literacy quite naturally.

The easiest way to introduce little ones to literature is to read to them.  I know.  You are wondering why I state the obvious. 

Because I want you to start there, and then go a little beyond that point to see how really profound that can be.

Just taking five minutes a day to read a few books to your child can have far reaching benefits.  Not all of them will be academic...and yet, in the long run, they will.

Life!-The Best School of All

I had these fantastic, well organized, plans to concisely communicate how I've handled my pre-school aged children in the midst of our home learning environment, and how notebooking fits in so well with my teaching methods. Even for these younger children.
Guess what! Life got in the way.  And I've learned something.  If I just share this with you, our life with preschoolers, as well as all the other school aged children, I will be 'teaching' all of you the same way I 'teach' my children at home.

Okay.....it's time for me to say...in a very self deprecating way...."Duh! Elizabeth!"

Said.  Done.  Now for some 'real life communication' about how you can handle pre-schoolers in a homeschool environment.

I do have specific goals for the education of my offspring. They are....
1) Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind. And, Love your neighbor as yourself.
2) Aquire the academic education necessary to implement and communicate Number One!

Really, that is my simplistic approach to education. And it does begin in the very young years of a child's life. Children learn what they live with and you begin teaching life's principles to them as soon as they are born!

So the question then becomes, "When do you transfer from simple teaching of principle to the more (or less) regimented structure of academic learning?" When the child himself indicates he is 'ripe' for that.  Depending on the environment, your child may be ready and willing (read 'possibly demanding'- here) to 'do school' before many others believe he should be.  Don't fret.   It's okay!  This is your household, your child, your learning environment, and you will know - or learn - what is best for you.

So, what preciptated my now taking the same approach with this blog that I do in schooling my children? 
My two year old.  She is very literate. "Mommy, do you remember you said you would read to me earlier?"  Yes, earlier.  When did she begin using this word?   A few months ago.   And how did she learn it?  Well, I have children in the house that range in age from 24 to 6 months.   And my eldest daughter happens to be a fan of $1.50 words like 'anthropomorphic'.  And we have never believed in 'talking down' to children. Yes, it is necessary to simplify vocabulary in order to start verbally communicating with little ones.  But they really are capable of learning things quickly.  Note the fact that no one taught my little girl this word, or the definition.  She just learned it.
And ...when we started our regular schooling for the year she stood in front of me and told me she needed a paper to do, too.  Yep - TOLD - me this.  Definitely an indication that she is 'ripe' for the start of her structured education.  How did I handle this?  I scrolled through the files on my computer and printed off a very simple matching page from Kidzone.ws.  All she had to do was match the four objects on the one side of the page, to the same four objects on the other side of the page.  I told her she could color it when she was done with the matching.  She happily trotted off to the table to do her work.  The matching was easy for her and done well.  The coloring....well...she has a ways to go with this, but she is only two (and a half).

Thus was executed the first page for her first notebook.  "What!"  I can hear some people saying that.  "You plan to put these pages into a notebook?"  Yes, I do.  "WHY? I'd just throw them away."  Because putting them into a notebook will begin this child on the path to learning organization and responsibility.  She did 'school' and we will care for it just as we do all the other school work done here.  (Check out this post for more on this subject.)

Life!  The path of learning that really is the least resistant, and most fulfilling.  If we let it be.

A Foundation for Lifelong Learning: Early Learner

Young children are thirsty for 'education'.  Just think about it.  In the first 18 months of life, on average, this little person has gone from being totally helpless to rolling, crawling then walking, feeding themselves, and beginning to talk.  All of those achievements were accomplished through 'education'! Yes!  Education!  Those little tikes watched, attempted, copied and finally accomplished every one of those tasks..........and the teachers they had were the people they lived with.

In our culture, the path of education eventually takes a more formal, structured route.  Pre-School.........Early Childhood Education.......designated programs such as Head Start, or no name at all!!  It doesn't matter what the title is.  The main similarity to all of these is that they start a child on his/her way through the system of formal instruction.

If you  homeschool your older children while still having younger ones in the house, you very likely already know that the 'thirst' these Little Lambs experience is very easily continued in trying to copy the 'school' the older children do.  They will attempt writing, reading and telling their own stories, without any prompting from you! =)
If you do not have older children yet, or you don't homeschool them, this thirst is not absent from your young ones.  It may not be as apparent in their everyday activities, but it's still there, and you can nurture it as easily as the homeschooling family can.

At the end of this post I will include an outline of the scope I use for Early Learner academics, but first I want to touch on the foundation to all education that takes place in our home.

The Principle that governs all we do here at our house is:  "Children learn what they live with."
Our Objective in raising our children is to teach them to: "...love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." (Deut 6:5)
As parents, the Instruction to us is: "And these words which I command you this day, shall be in thine heart:  And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." (Deut 6:6-7)
And the Promise of reward: "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." (Prov 22:6)

Now it's time for an outline of the skills and academics I intigrate into the daily activities of my Early Learners.  These are simple foundational items that start them on the way to reading, writing, arithmatic and the lifelong practice of communication.  I am putting together a chart of all three levels of Pre-School skills and activities and will have this available on the 'Basic Materials' page of this blog in the near future.

Goals and Objectives for Early Learners

• Alphabet
• Saying the alphabet
• Recognizing the letters
• Numbers
• Recognizing the numbers
• Counting
• Writing
• Name
• Beginner tracing lines
• Other tracing activities
• Communication
• Listening to stories
• Dictating 'book reports'
• Telling original stories
• Basic Skills
• Colors
• Shapes
• Cutting
• Gluing
• Sizes
• Directions

Fresh Direction

This blog has been hit and miss so much for me that I've stepped back, regrouped and am taking a fresh look at all of it.  Over the next couple of weeks I'm  planning to post a basic outline of how I approach keeping busy minds and hands occupied, as well as giving them a solid foundation for their life's journey of learning.

For starters, lets look at the divisions, or grade levels I use for my pre-schoolers.

Early Learner:  Any child under the age of 4 (mine are usually 3)

Pre-4:  A child age 4 (comperable to Pre-K)

Pre-5: A child age 5 (comperable to Kindergarten)

As always, these are just suggestions, and you may find you have to make adjustments for your own children and/or program.

Next week I will begin posting basic outlines of the goals and objectives of each level.  When it comes to the material itself, I will create a separate page (with its own tab at the top of this blog), for each level.  That will make it easier to find all the materials and links, as well as make it easier for me to check links and update the information.