Noah is five now, and this year experienced his first official time as a homeschooler, as he would have been eligible this past fall to enroll in Kindergarten at our local school.

Noah rides his bike for hours on end, 'round and 'round the driveway circle

Noah loves learning by doing. He's full of energy and is a happy, busy kid. His current new interests are medieval history and the violin. His facility with math and written language continues to gradually evolve in a free-form way. He's comfortable with simple addition and subtraction, working problems out easily in his head, and understands basic multiplication a little bit about fractions and time. He can decode most phonetic words, but it is hard work for him and he's not yet ready for the jump to fluency. He plays Age of Empires 2 on the computer for ages and understands all sorts of tidbits of terminology, medieval history, battle strategy and seige weaponry. He converted our wagon into a trebuchet and has been building bombard towers and such out of Duplo for the past couple of months. He's gradually expanding his knowledge of things medieval by learning from a variety of sources: stories, videos, picture books and play. Noah took skating lessons this winter again, which were, as is usual for him, not so much a chance for instruction as a chance for ice time. The easy-going coaches were happy to just let him skate on his own, something he has an amazing natural facility for. This spring he eagerly enrolled in homeschool gymnastics classes. But the coaches of course couldn't let him ramble unguided on the equipment, so he had to learn to become part of a public, coach-led class. There were many tears and lots of cuddles and quiet time as he gradually built up the courage and fortitude to join the class, but by the end of the session he was in there, the eager, attentive, patient and physically adept darling of the coaches. What a transformation!

In December Noah finally accepted the idea of doing daily practising on the violin. By late spring he'd had a bit of an epiphany, finally seeing himself as a real violin student (rather than someone's little brother trying out the violin at home?) and became eager for the gentle structure and formality of "lessons with grandma". He'd more or less mastered his Twinkles by early May, and by July was playing "O Come Little Children". Quick progress, all of a sudden, but a lot of work went into the foundation!

Mouse Poem Sept. 2001 A little mouse who lived in a cheese, And he ate his house up, and he began to freeze.

Here are some of the novels Noah has listened to as readalouds this year. I know I've forgotten lots of them:

Babbitt, Natalie Search for Delicious
Dahl, Roald Danny, Champion of the World
Dahl, Roald George's Marvelous Medicine
Dahl, Roald Matilda
Eager, Edward, Half Magic
Enzenberger, Hans The Number Devil
Gannett, Ruth Stiles, The Dragons of Blueland
Gannett, Ruth Stiles, Elmer and the Dragon
Gannett, Ruth Stiles, My Father's Dragon
Greenwood, Barbara Gold Rush Fever
Greenwood, Barbara The Last Safe House
Greenwood, Barbara Pioneer Story
Ibbotson, Eva Not Just a Witch
Ibbotson, Eva The Secret of Platform 13
Jansson, Tove Tales from Moominvalley
Jansson, Tove Moominland Midwinter
Jansson, Tove Moominpappa at Sea
King Smith, Dick Harriet's Hare
Lewis, C.S. The Horse and His Boy
Lewis, C.S. The Last Battle
Lewis, C.S. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Lewis, C.S. The Magician's Nephew
Lewis, C.S. Prince Caspian
Lewis, C.S. The Silver Chair
Lewis, C.S. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
Pearce, Phillipa Tom's Midnight Garden
White, E.B. Stuart Little
Wilder, Laura Ingalls Farmer Boy