The Nursery Years

I’ve been reflecting on what I’m going do or even call this year for my middle little. I keep getting the question if we are starting a kindergarten year or what our plans are so I’ll lay them out below! My eldest two kids have summer birthdays so I always err on the side of holding them back in a sense of “traditional schooling” language. With an August birthday, I just wouldn’t want him to be the youngest of his class, or thinking long term not want him to turn 18 and then go to college two weeks later (if that ends up being his path).

However, I feel like next year he will be fully ready to participate in Year 1 of The Children’s Tradition (our curriculum) since it’s just been his way of life and by then having lived out two full years of these rhythms of our home. We will see how I feel next year, but until then here’s my plan for him below and will make a more concrete plan/blog post with what we will do according to our knowledge streams. For us we will stick to TCT terms with:

1. Knowledge of God

2. Knowledge of Man

3. Knowledge of the Universe

First, he’s known his letters and sounds so he’s been trying to read on his own, unprompted from me, for a while. We’ve done gentle reading lessons and just taken pause when I see comprehension lacking. I’ve done so through just reading books or early reader style books with him. I haven’t followed any sort of “reading curriculum” to a T with either kiddo, just once they know their letter sounds I track reading any story I’m reading aloud with them with my finger and they’ve picked up. He remembers my eldest doing things like 100 Easy Lessons and Dash into Learning (before I embraced a more poetic mode of learning) and occasionally asks to use them or look through them and I don’t ever say no, so we will piddle a bit in whatever he’s interested in with no pressure. I don’t want this to come off as being child-led learning because it’s not my view, but it’s just having materials available to him and in the years before formal schooling it’s more of a leisure/choice approach vs. an expectation.

He’s started becoming more interested to read stories himself before bedtime and I’ve allowed the transition to him being allowed to be tucked into bed and having the responsibility of turning off his lamp after looking at stories independently for a few minutes. Surprisingly he hasn’t needed a timer or prompting for lights out, usually it’s only an additional 10-15 minutes before I see his light click off and with that independent time I feel like he will want to start reading to know what’s happening in stories sooner than later. Natural curiosity, if you will! So, when he’s ready to dive in deeper I’ll be there to guide him.

Bible stories are always a given at our house, but he’s loved Little Pilgrims Big Journey so much and I’ve held off reading it again for a little while so I’ll probably add that in! He loves the illustrations and characters I think he will be excited about that.

Next up, we will be working through some of the 1,000 Good Books in the Nursery Years listed through TCT. A lot of them have been in our library for years, but I’ll slowly add in more of the picture books or ones I’m not as familiar with, and make sure we are reading together through a rotation of them each week. Books from authors like Beatrix Potter, Kate Greenaway, lots of Mother Goose, poetry, etc. lots of tried and true classics. He also loves stories about Knights and Dragons and fighting the good fight essentially, so I’ll add those, too! Along with this, he usually likes sitting in listening to whatever my Year 2 student is doing, so he may hear some of those, there just won’t be the expectation for narration my eldest will have.

For a gentle approach to math, a fellow TCT mom, Arielle, mentioned these Number Stories books and we’ve already started and loving Book 1! I’ll make sure to snag the next one as we go along. Out of the other math curriculum I’ve done, I can tell he likes Simply Charlotte Mason’s layout best and will let him join in when asking math questions either from the book or just by doing life things together like counting the eggs, setting the table, things of that nature.

Lastly, and maybe my main focus is just rooting him (and all the other kids) in a gymnastic and musical education. Amanda of TCT gives an amazing breakdown throughout the curriculum, but also in her podcast, The Wonder Years. Essentially, you’re rooting them in reality, getting them to experience life through their senses. Developing those senses through self discipline, habits, and biggest of all — making sure I’m putting opportunity in front of them. What that tangibly will look like are family hikes, swimming, getting outside daily for as long as possible, poetry, cooking together, helping out around the house and learning what it’s like to be in a family.

Below is a quote from Poetic Knowledge on why protecting this time is so important.

“All of the educational experiences detailed in The Republic for the child- songs, poetry, music, and gymnastic- are meant to awaken and refine a sympathetic knowledge of the reality of the True, Good, and Beautiful, by placing placing the child inside the experience of those transcendentals as they are contained in these arts and sensory experiences. Of course, this way of education for the beginner is based on the child’s natural disposition to learn by imitation; that is, not only to attempt to duplicate what they hear and see but to become the thing that is imitated, as the child becomes the galloping horse, by snorting and whinnying; the snake or alligator by sliding across the floor; the pirate; the cowboy; and so on.” (James Taylor, Poetic Knowledge)

So, it’s just a lot of normal family rhythms at this point that I have faith we will continue to be blessed by and thankful for!

XO McKenzie