October 10, 2011

Max, the preschooler?









No, I am not implying my kid is smart. In fact, Mike and I keep complaining that Max needs to talk already. But I can't believe how much he is picking up just by tagging along with Avila and I on our schooling adventures!


The first couple days that we started school for the year, it seemed like Max was always in the way. He wanted to color and be at the table with us. He wanted to snuggle in close while we were reading. He wanted to play with the math manipulatives. And it was so annoying. In my mind I must have pictured that school would be Avila and I and Max would figure something out - like play with blocks or his trucks or whatever. But a couple days into our adventures something in my mind clicked and I had a change of heart - part of the reason we are choosing to homeschool these early years is to foster a deep sense of family. Of course this can be done no matter the method of schooling, but through personal prayer and discernment we felt called to offer our children the chance to develop close relationships with their siblings through the schooling process. For, in the end and no matter the subject, lessons in school are more powerful when they are lessons in life.


Going back to brother, I realized that I had to tweak things a bit. Lessons that had to do with handwriting and such (and other things I wanted to do one-on-one with Avila) would be done after her rest, and while Max is still napping. Everything else would be done with brother.


Sometimes I give him his own little "project" and a lot of the time I throw a few blocks on his high chair or scoop him on my lap to help. And he is loving it. But more than that, Avila sees that Max is just as important and deserving of my time as she is. He isn't "annoying little brother" (as I was calling him those first couple days of school) but rather he is our buddy who makes us laugh when he eats the crayons or makes a mess with the chalk.


Case in point:

ME: Avila what's your favorite show?

HER: Watching Max be funny.

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