Noah has turned three this fall. It may seem a little silly to talk about "homeschooling" a child of this age, but in our family there is no distinction between learning and life, and therefore no clear line between being a toddler and being a homeschooler.

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

Noah is his own fellow, full of enthusiasm and energy. His lust for life and taste for adventure lead him forth. He loves trying to keep up with his older sister, Erin, despite the nearly three-year age difference. He will try anything she tries, and is often surprisingly successful. Recently he's learned to ride a two-wheeler, something none of us thought was possible for a three-year-old. Noah loves music, and has been carrying a tune since he was sixteen months old. He has recently officially begun studying Suzuki violin and enthusiastically participates at group classes. He has a lovely violin hold and can mimic his Twinkle rhythms accurately on open strings. He enjoys singing and dancing and improvising on the piano or our lovely new rosewood xylophone. He also really enjoys art. He has a flair for colour and patterns, and likes painting with acrylic paints on cereal-box-board. He likes working with markers, crayons and pastels as well.

Noah is very interested in numbers these days. He counts objects with accuracy and loves the number three. He likes visual and numerical patterns. Recently while playing with blocks he laid out arrays and demonstrated for me that 1X1 is 1, 2X2 is 4 and 3X3 is 9. He was delighted by this discovery and spent some time dividing his arrays up based on different colour-combinations and patterns. You could practically see the synapses forming in his brain! Noah's vocabulary and grammar are maturing by leaps and bounds. Hard to believe that he was a late starter in the speaking department, barely speaking a handful of words on his second birthday. He still has difficulty with the articulation of several consonants, but his speech is complex, his vocabulary rich and his conversation is interesting. He recognizes most of the letters and knows the phonetic significance of many of them. He recognizes a handful of sight-words and can actually "read" a few words using consonants and context as clues. He loves being read to by his parents or his sister. He'll happily sit through twenty or thirty minutes of dense prose. Noah's social skills are for the most part excellent. He is a little shy in new situations, especially in large groups, but he's outgoing, cheerful and polite with the large variety of people he knows well. He plays well with children and adults of various ages. He's a doting older brother to Sophie and a great companion to his older sister Erin. He's a lovely, thoughtful guy who is frequently (though not always, of course!) a joy to be with.

Noah's marker drawing of faces April '99 Marker drawing of more faces February 2000

Visit the Abecedarian Academy Site for my article entitled
Seeing the Learning in Everyday Life: Meet Noah (age 2)