Homeschooling Plans 2015

My homeschooling plans for the year are set, and I'm looking forward to what we have planned!
This year Benjamin will be in 1st grade and Joanna will be starting kindergarten.  We're continuing to keep things really simple and relaxed, although I'm adding just a bit more structure to what we did last year.

Here's my plan:

We'll be continuing with our "morning time", which consists of doing our calendar, reading stories, working on a bit of memorizing, songs, reading poems, and the like.  As we discovered last year, it works for us to do it right before lunch, after our morning clean-up.

We will also continue to read lots of books.  We read stories before bed, and I read chapter books at lunch time.

Both Benjamin and Joanna will be doing reading this year.  Last year I worked with Benjamin on reading for 5-10 minutes a day during rest time.  Since I'll have two reading this year, I've decided to do it after rest time, so that I can enjoy rest time, too!  Joanna will be learning to read, and we'll be using Alphaphonics again.  Benjamin knows how to read now, so his goal will just be to practice.  We'll be getting easy readers at the library and I'll spend 10 or so minutes a day with him, working on fluency and comprehension.

In addition, I'm adding what I'll be calling "project time" to the afternoons.  After snack time, we'll stay at the table for 20 or so minutes and work on different things each day.  This is really for Benjamin, but my plan is to have everyone there, and the younger kids can either participate in what we're doing, or they can color or do other table activities.  One or two days a week we'll be working on writing, either by writing in a journal, our learning notebooks, or writing letters.  Seth is going to do art with the kids one day each week.  We'll also do math one day and history one day.

I've chosen Life of Fred for our math curriculum this year.  I've heard nothing but good things about these books, so I purchased the first one.  We received it and I've looked through it a bit, and it seems perfect for us!  The whole point of the curriculum is to apply math to everyday life, and to teach it through story form, which fits my unschooling and learn-through-life tendencies perfectly, and I'm really excited about it!

For History, we're using Story of the World.  Again, I hear nothing but good things about this, so we're trying it out.  I purchased the audio version, so we're planning on listening during our history time each week, but we can also use it in the car, or I can play it during snack or lunch time if I need to move our schedule around.  I'm excited to see how I like this, and I'm hoping I'll learn some new things, too!

We'll be doing some Bible learning, too, going through our What's in the Bible dvds again.  This is an excellent series, and our whole family enjoys it.  We'll probably be watching one episode a week.  I plan on having us rewatch this series every year, for, I guess, forever.  =)

Since we have a zoo membership now, we're planning one going there frequently, we also go to our local kids museum often, and we usually go to the library once a week.  I'm hoping to plan a few other field trips this year, as well, such as the fire station, salmon hatchery, etc.

We're also planning on experimenting with "learning notebooks".  Our thought with these is to have the kids choose something they want to learn about each week, find a few books at the library about their chosen subject, and read them.  Then, during our writing time, they can write, draw a picture, or dictate something they learned.  We'll give it a try and see how it goes.

We recently discovered Magic School Bus DVDs at the library, and have been watching through those.  I never really watched these as a kid, but I've been enjoying them, too!  They are fantastic, and are great for learning science in a fun way!

This sounds like a lot when I write it all out, but most of it is just woven into life and becomes just "what we do", so hopefully it will continue to feel like that!  I've consciously chosen to not "do school" in the morning, which is really the kids' main play time, and my work time, so for us the afternoons are more open to other activities.

I'm excited to see how this year goes!

Three Fun Thanksgiving Learning Activities

I came upon a couple of super cute thanksgiving/fall activities that I knew I had to put together for the kids!

 

I absolutely loved this little felt turkey found here.  Amazingly, I was able to find five buttons that perfectly matched pieces from my felt stash!  Despite how adorable he is, the kids found him a little difficult, so he wasn't a huge favorite.  We'll bring him out again next year to try again!

This clothespin turkey, found here, is also super cute and was quick and easy to make.  I used cardboard for the body, though, because I wanted him to be a bit more sturdy (and because that's what I had!).  The kids liked this activity!

Since I have three kids and only two activities I decided I needed to make one more to give Ezra something to do, too!  I didn't find anything online that I liked, so I made up my own simple activity.  I just drew a bare tree on the inside of an empty file folder then cut out some felt leaves.  I didn't think it was that exciting, but I wanted something easy enough for Ezra to do.  To my surprise, this was the kids' favorite activity!   They enjoyed filling the branches with leaves, pretending that the wind blew them off, then doing it all over again!

Learning Activities

As a former preschool teacher, I am a huge advocate of learning through play. By doing what they enjoy, children naturally explore, discover, and learn about the world. I view the pre-school years as the time not to do school, but instead to develop the skills that will lead them to a lifetime of school success. Skills like large and small motor skills, thinking and problem solving skills, creativity, curiosity, and most importantly, a love of learning; all of which they can learn naturally through play and everyday experiences. However, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't provide specific "learning activities" that can direct their play towards learning some of those skills. I am currently trying to put together a collection of such activities, to pull out every day for Benjamin that he can do at the table while I am doing dishes or starting dinner (or just sitting with him!).

These are simple activities that I made to help develop fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and that can also be adapted to teach other skills, like sorting or counting, but in a fun, play-based way.

I found in my cupboard a couple of small cans of coffee beans that were past their expiration date. I tossed the beans but saved the cans and covered them with cute paper. I used a hole punch on one lid to make several holes, then cut pipe cleaners into small lengths that would easily fit in the can. I showed Benjamin how to put the pipe cleaners through the holes, which he happily continued doing. When he was done, we dumped them out and started over! Use what you have: you could just as easily use a small box, and use something like cotton swabs or toothpicks instead of pipe cleaners.



On the other one, I cut a slit for coins. Same sort of idea, but using a different object turns it into a new and exciting activity for a toddler! Try other objects, like buttons, beans, or almost any small item. Obviously, these activities need to be closely supervised as they could be choking hazards. You could adapt this for an even younger child by using a large coffee can with a larger hole for blocks, small balls, etc.


These can be further adapted to encourage skills like color recognition, sorting, etc. Use the following ideas or your own! For the pipe cleaner can, color around each hole with a different color. Encourage them to put each pipe cleaner through the matching color hole. If you have several cans, you could label each with a number and encourage your child to put that many objects in each can. Or, make two slits on a lid, a small one and a big one and give them different sized buttons to sort through the different holes.

A final note: with young children, the focus for these activities isn't necessarily for them to do it "the right way", but rather for them to explore and have fun - and they're bound to learn something during the process, even if they get creative and do the activity differently than you've planned! =)

A small tragedy...

I went in to work today to find one of my class' beloved fish had breathed his last over the weekend. I was hoping it wouldn't happen, but wasn't surprised, since he had been sick all last week. Toward the end of the week, when he wasn't getting better on his own, we had given him some medicine, hoping to save him, but unfortunately it didn't. I felt so bad for him.... The kids don't know yet. On Friday we told them that he was sick, just to prepare them a little bit in case this did happen....
Except for one fish that died right after we got them, this is the first one to die since I put the fish in our classroom about a year and a half ago, which really probably isn't bad since we have about 10 fish in our class, and most of them I received from someone who had them for a while before she gave them to me.
I still feel terrible for him, though...I probably shouldn't get so attached to these little critters that don't usually last very long...

A new way to make snowflakes...

I did these snowflakes with my class today. It's a fun twist to the classic paper snowflake. Just place the snowflake on a piece of blue or black construction paper (I use a little glue to hold it down). Sponge paint white over and around the snowflake. Remove the snowflake, and let the paper dry. The kids loved it!

I know that when we have kids, I am going to be very thankful for the last few years I have spent teaching. Not only do I now have lots of ideas of things for kids to do, but I also have experience dealing with different kids. Plus, I figure that if I can handle 20 four and five year olds, I can handle pretty much anything! =)

It's the most wonderful time of the year....

This is one of the best times of the year to be a teacher! It's one of those special times when all your students bring you gifts! So far I've gotten a tin of cookies, some candle holders, and an ornament. It's so fun!

The Day After...

This is one of the most dreaded days of the year for a teacher. The day with tired, cranky kids who are coming down off a sugar high. Fortunately, it wasn't as bad today as it could have been. The kids had their moments, but for the most part it seemed like they had slept most of the sugar off.

Now, since the holiday is over, I'm going to be on the watch for cheap candy that I can use to make one of the cool Christmas wreaths featured here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvaRCEwZTm4

Just copy and paste the address to check it out.

Yum!

You know it's fall when....

You get to go to the pumpkin farm! We took my preschool class on one of my favorite field trips of the year - the pumpkin farm! The farm is such a fun place for kids - their natural curiosity comes out with the plants, animals, and all there is to see on a farm. The farm we went to was perfect, small but had plenty to see, and our tour guide was great with the kids - she kept them interested and doing lots of different things. Then, of course, they got to pick out their favorite pumpkin from the field. I always find it interesting to see what kind of pumpkin each child picks. Some will go for the biggest they can find, while others choose a little tiny one. This year, several of the children didn't like the fact that all the pumpkins were dirty, so much in fact that they almost didn't want to get one. We had to convince them that they could clean it at school or at home, and then they chose one after all. Kids certainly keep life interesting!