What about workbooks?

I find it beautifully ironic that when R goes off to play by herself she often chooses to "play school."  Some mornings she asks me to play with her.  There have been many mornings (when I had other plans and intended to let her and C just play on their own) when I just couldn't say no to that little face telling me, "You're the teacher," as if this weren't something we do all day every day anyway!

That's the thing: I don't think she realizes that what we do IS school.  There are some days that are more formal than others when I think she is aware that we're "doing school."  But other days she'll make comments to me about how sometimes we forget to do school, and I just have to laugh because she doesn't think that what we are doing counts.  I think that's a great thing, because that means it's natural and fun.  That's my goal.

Sometimes I think she craves the structure more though, and I'm happy to comply.  On those days I instruct her to get dressed, pack her backpack, and then have her sit in her little chair at her little table. C sits with her because she has to do everything big sister does.  I sit up front.  We stand and say the pledge of allegiance, recite our ABC's, and maybe read a book.

Then we break out the workbooks.  We don't do them very regularly because a four-year-old only has a limited attention span.  But when we start a page, I require her to at least finish what she began.  (It is very important to me that she learn to be a finisher.)  This requires me to get creative sometimes, to make it exciting even once the novelty has worn off.

The other day, we did our math workbook with Cheerios.  When R finished a pair of problems, (3+4 and 4+3 for example,) I would give her the number of Cheerios that were the answer, (in this example, 7.)  That was the extent of my idea; I figured she'd eat them and then move on to the next problem.  Instead, she decided she wanted to show me all the different ways she could make that number, (0+7, 1+6, 2+5, etc.) using the Cheerios I had given her.

So, what do I think of workbooks?  They're good occasionally.  They're a great tool in our bag of options, but never over-do it!  I may make R finish any page she begins, but I definitely don't require her to finish any workbook she begins.  We have a whole shelf of different workbooks that I let her choose from depending on her mood and our purposes.  They are great for practicing already learned concepts, but I try not to use them to learn things for the first time.  Mainly this is because I want to take full advantage of all that homeschooling has to offer, and one of the greatest things homeschooling offers is the ability to let your kids learn hands on.  When we first began learning addition, it was always using real objects or people.  (If there are two parents and two kids, how many are there in our family?)  When we were learning about trees, we went outside and felt them, smelled them, looked at them.  We like to get our hands dirty!

But some days I don't really mind "playing school."  :)