Okay, I'll admit it. We haven't really had much school the last few weeks. It wouldn't be a big problem, except I had intended to have school. We don't have a set schedule. We school year round and just take breaks when we feel like it.
I'll be honest when I tell you that these are the days that I start to question the whole, are we doing the right thing by homeschooling? I mean, are they missing things they should know because they aren't 'having school' right now. Or because they don't have a set amount of school days each year?
But, we have just been too busy for school lately!
We have been taking field trips to local landmarks.
We have been celebrating holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, and family.
We have been spending many afternoons at the library and many evenings reading library books.
We have been working in the garden, weeding (kinda), harvesting, watering, and exploring.
We have been riding bikes, playing kickball, playing hide and go seek.
We have been trying out the new telescope to find constellations.
We have been playing with friends, cousins, and our family.
In addition, we have been trying to work on keeping the house a bit cleaner and get some big projects done-like the kitchen painting project that starts tomorrow, and the list all the clothes we aren't wearing to clear out space project, and the relax a little more on Sunday's project (aka naps).
I have to remind myself sometimes that not all free days should be school days. I also have to remind myself that our culture has created the idea of 'learning' confined to a textbook, a schedule, a lesson plan, and a 'subject.'
When I look at this list, I realize that my children are too busy to sit in a desk and fill out a worksheet, but they are learning so much about the world around them. I have not failed them. This homeschooling thing is going to work out after all.
How about you? Is your summer going the way you planned? How do you fit 'school' into your summer?
Thanks for stopping by & God Bless,
Lisa
Showing posts with label Homeschool. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Homeschool. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Self Directed Learning REALLY Works!
Today we woke up to terrible stories of destruction and loss in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. We live a loooong way from any coast and have, thankfully, never had to endure more then the remnants of any hurricane. Understandably so, Mustang was full of questions!
What IS a hurricane? How can it cause so much trouble? Do we need to worry about a hurricane?
After our regular lessons were over, I pulled up a super short (just under 5 minute) YouTube video on hurricanes.
Because I didn't think that the 5 minute clip could possibly teach enough about hurricanes for her to take anything away from it, I started looking for another video. I found a few long and dull ones, but nothing really great.
While I was on my search for the video that would REALLY help, Mustang was drawing on her chalkboard.
I almost missed it.
What IS a hurricane? How can it cause so much trouble? Do we need to worry about a hurricane?
After our regular lessons were over, I pulled up a super short (just under 5 minute) YouTube video on hurricanes.
Because I didn't think that the 5 minute clip could possibly teach enough about hurricanes for her to take anything away from it, I started looking for another video. I found a few long and dull ones, but nothing really great.
While I was on my search for the video that would REALLY help, Mustang was drawing on her chalkboard.
I almost missed it.
Her hurricane. She even named it!
And when I asked her to identify the parts she quickly pointed out the wind, rain, and eye of the storm.
I was a bit amazed.
When she doesn't care to know something, it will take her ALL.DAY.LONG. to complete an assignment. When she WANTS to learn it-5 minutes.
Hoping she has something she wants to learn about tomorrow. That was so much easier then lesson planning!
I hope your schooling is going well and that you were not harmed by Sandy. Praying for the recovery.
Thanks for stopping by and God Bless!
Monday, September 6, 2010
What to Look For When Buying a Workbook
Workbooks can be so helpful when teaching your child at home, whether you homeschool or not. They help reinforce learned concepts and teach new ones. They can save on the costs of printer paper and printer ink {or copy paper and copies}, and are often fun and colorful to keep your child's attention. But, let me tell you not all workbooks are the same.
Workbooks can be purchased at nearly every retail outlet around. Walmart and the Dollar Tree are a given, but they are sold at my local grocery store and even Hobby Lobby. And, of course at the local educational stores and school supply stores, and we havent even begun to discuss the online outlets. They come as part of curriculum sets, or as stand alone supplements. Some are nothing more then glorified coloring books with a famous cartoon character on the front to catch your child's eye, and suck you in with the word LEARN on the front.
I like to buy my workbooks at the Dollar Tree. Yep I'm cheap-I prefer that word to poor ha ha, but whatever word you use the bottom line is my driving factor. But, even though it only costs me 1.00, I prefer to spend that dollar wisely. I have been know (as recently as last night in fact) to sit on the floor in front of the workbook section digging through the boxes of workbooks available for sale.
And this is why:
One trip to the Dollar Tree, Mustang chose her own prize. She chose to bring home a workbook that caught her eye with pretty pictures on the front. The workbook was classified as Pre-K.
The first exercise was to trace words. This was a fun task and seemed very age-and level appropriate.
Following a crossword puzzle, we jump to beginning and ending sounds-complete with writing your own letters. The page following this activity has the child to draw a line to {rather then write} the ending sound to a word-does this seem backwards to anyone else?
After a page of missing words and then a rhyming match game, we come to page 22 & 23. Now remember, beginning and ending sounds were just ten pages back and now the child is being asked to figure out which word is missing from the sentence and write that word on the correct blank. On page 23, the task is to rearrange words to write a sentence! Nothing like a bit of 1st or 2nd grade grammar in Preschool!
And if you are not cracking up enough, yet, check out pages 24 & 25...circle the items that starts with the letter c, f, etc. TOTALLY out of order lol!! But, hey, it includes stickers.
This is not an isolated workbook. I pass up so many workbooks that are just a mish mash of random worksheets thrown together without thought. Math workbooks tend to be the worst. I love the ones that claim to be teaching shapes and then want the student to count all 12 of the circles and then write on a line that there are 12 circles-um they dont know what a circle is, I doubt they know how to count to 12 and write that on the line mmmmk?
I did recently find a set that I am loving. I found a handful of these Beaver Books and brought them home for Mustang. Last night I went back and bought enough for both Charger and Mini Cooper. I plan to use the same books for them, they are that good.
This Phonics book is for Prek-Kindergarten.
It offers practice of the uppercase letter, then the lowercase letter. Below, it lists 6 words that start with the letter. So, Mustang fills in the missing letter and then traces the remaining letters in the word. She also learns vocabulary and words that start with the letter of the day.
At the bottom of the page, it lists the above items and says to color each one a different color. I color the the color word so she knows what the color word says and then she matches the word in the sentence with the word above. She learns both her phonics sounds and some sight words at the same time. Excellent book. They offer a line of workbooks up through 3rd grade. I cant get all the books at the Dollar Tree but I will be looking for them, I was able to get the next 2 books and a math book.
This is just a couple examples of both the great and the not so great on the market. Look for workbooks that make sense. Ones that are geared toward the age of your child, and activities that incorporate a good balance of skills they have mastered with new concepts. Try not to overwhelm your child with too many new things at once. And look at the order of concepts taught. Just because they are a each good individual worksheets does not mean that they make a cohesive workbook.
The website education.com offers sneak peaks at various workbooks that are available online, and some great worksheets if you just want one or two. I use their products a lot!
What about you? Do you have a workbook suggestion or pet peeve? Am I the only one who digs through all 200 workbooks to find the best one? I'd love to hear your thoughts!
God Bless!
Workbooks can be purchased at nearly every retail outlet around. Walmart and the Dollar Tree are a given, but they are sold at my local grocery store and even Hobby Lobby. And, of course at the local educational stores and school supply stores, and we havent even begun to discuss the online outlets. They come as part of curriculum sets, or as stand alone supplements. Some are nothing more then glorified coloring books with a famous cartoon character on the front to catch your child's eye, and suck you in with the word LEARN on the front.
I like to buy my workbooks at the Dollar Tree. Yep I'm cheap-I prefer that word to poor ha ha, but whatever word you use the bottom line is my driving factor. But, even though it only costs me 1.00, I prefer to spend that dollar wisely. I have been know (as recently as last night in fact) to sit on the floor in front of the workbook section digging through the boxes of workbooks available for sale.
And this is why:
One trip to the Dollar Tree, Mustang chose her own prize. She chose to bring home a workbook that caught her eye with pretty pictures on the front. The workbook was classified as Pre-K.
The first exercise was to trace words. This was a fun task and seemed very age-and level appropriate.
Following a crossword puzzle, we jump to beginning and ending sounds-complete with writing your own letters. The page following this activity has the child to draw a line to {rather then write} the ending sound to a word-does this seem backwards to anyone else?
After a page of missing words and then a rhyming match game, we come to page 22 & 23. Now remember, beginning and ending sounds were just ten pages back and now the child is being asked to figure out which word is missing from the sentence and write that word on the correct blank. On page 23, the task is to rearrange words to write a sentence! Nothing like a bit of 1st or 2nd grade grammar in Preschool!
And if you are not cracking up enough, yet, check out pages 24 & 25...circle the items that starts with the letter c, f, etc. TOTALLY out of order lol!! But, hey, it includes stickers.
This is not an isolated workbook. I pass up so many workbooks that are just a mish mash of random worksheets thrown together without thought. Math workbooks tend to be the worst. I love the ones that claim to be teaching shapes and then want the student to count all 12 of the circles and then write on a line that there are 12 circles-um they dont know what a circle is, I doubt they know how to count to 12 and write that on the line mmmmk?
I did recently find a set that I am loving. I found a handful of these Beaver Books and brought them home for Mustang. Last night I went back and bought enough for both Charger and Mini Cooper. I plan to use the same books for them, they are that good.
This Phonics book is for Prek-Kindergarten.
It offers practice of the uppercase letter, then the lowercase letter. Below, it lists 6 words that start with the letter. So, Mustang fills in the missing letter and then traces the remaining letters in the word. She also learns vocabulary and words that start with the letter of the day.
At the bottom of the page, it lists the above items and says to color each one a different color. I color the the color word so she knows what the color word says and then she matches the word in the sentence with the word above. She learns both her phonics sounds and some sight words at the same time. Excellent book. They offer a line of workbooks up through 3rd grade. I cant get all the books at the Dollar Tree but I will be looking for them, I was able to get the next 2 books and a math book.
This is just a couple examples of both the great and the not so great on the market. Look for workbooks that make sense. Ones that are geared toward the age of your child, and activities that incorporate a good balance of skills they have mastered with new concepts. Try not to overwhelm your child with too many new things at once. And look at the order of concepts taught. Just because they are a each good individual worksheets does not mean that they make a cohesive workbook.
The website education.com offers sneak peaks at various workbooks that are available online, and some great worksheets if you just want one or two. I use their products a lot!
What about you? Do you have a workbook suggestion or pet peeve? Am I the only one who digs through all 200 workbooks to find the best one? I'd love to hear your thoughts!
God Bless!
Saturday, May 8, 2010
What Do You Do With Infants and Toddlers While Homeschooling?
Waiting for school to begin on Thursday. This is the question of the day over at The Homeschool Classroom. I know this has a a question of my own from time to time, so I thought I'd share what is currently working for us.
In addition to many other things, I see home schooling as an opportunity to create a close bond between my children. Learning time is something that we all look forward to. All three of my children, age 4, 2 and 8 months, come to 'school' together. We read stories together, sing our songs together, count together, go on our Nature Walks together, etc.
The children each have their own activites that I set out in their bins, but they do their work side by side. This allows for Mustang and Charger to see what the other is doing and learn by observation. Mustang, especially, loves to teach what she knows, and I let her help me with Mini Cooper's activites. Yep, even Mini has a few bins. I have also noticed that Mini Cooper lights up when we sing the Alphabet song or our Days of the Week song. Having them all together does bring oportunities to learn to wait your turn as I cant help everyone at once, but this is an important skill to learn.
To be fair, I am not trying to teach Chemistry or Algebra or even long division to any of my students. I can imagine that would be a bit difficult to learn as a group, and we may need to make adjustments when my children get older. But, for now, this is what works for us.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
R is for Regroup
Our letter this week is R. Only, does it count to have a letter of the week if you have had zero days of school? I have a long list of excuses-we went out of town, I didnt feel good yesterday, I am still not unpacked from moving, etc, etc.
I spend so much time online and in the dollar store coming up with the perfect school trays and crafts. For every project that we do, there are at least 2 more that I have the stuff for and dont know if or when we will ever get it done.
I spend an hour or two cutting, pasting, printing, laminating, drawing, or what ever is needed to be done for a project or tray. Then, I give the materials to my children and 10 minutes later they are done, bored, and ready to move on to the next activity.
I have been spending my free time for the last 3 weeks working on school plans. When I say free time, I just mean time that I am not sleeping, changing clothes, diapers, or cooking. The house is on the edge of disaster. Just doing the bare minimums for 3 weeks starts to add up.
I am really not trying to complain, I just feel so swamped. I want to have a nice clean, organized house. I also want to have hours of fun, stimulating, educational activities for my kids to do. I need a better system. Er really a system of any sort would help a lot!
Those of you that homeschool, or simply do projects with your LO at home, when do you work on your school planning? When do you make your materials? Any other tips would be greatly appreciated!
I spend so much time online and in the dollar store coming up with the perfect school trays and crafts. For every project that we do, there are at least 2 more that I have the stuff for and dont know if or when we will ever get it done.
I spend an hour or two cutting, pasting, printing, laminating, drawing, or what ever is needed to be done for a project or tray. Then, I give the materials to my children and 10 minutes later they are done, bored, and ready to move on to the next activity.
I have been spending my free time for the last 3 weeks working on school plans. When I say free time, I just mean time that I am not sleeping, changing clothes, diapers, or cooking. The house is on the edge of disaster. Just doing the bare minimums for 3 weeks starts to add up.
I am really not trying to complain, I just feel so swamped. I want to have a nice clean, organized house. I also want to have hours of fun, stimulating, educational activities for my kids to do. I need a better system. Er really a system of any sort would help a lot!
Those of you that homeschool, or simply do projects with your LO at home, when do you work on your school planning? When do you make your materials? Any other tips would be greatly appreciated!
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Unschool Lesson
We have been taking a loong break from Tot School and Preschool lessons. First with Fall break, which ran into our move, which ran into the holiday/December break. But that doesnt mean we arent learning.
This morning at breakfast, we ate Cheerios. The box was out on the table while we ate, so I turned it into a learning opportunity. I asked Mustang the letters in Cheerios, then had Charger tell me the letters, too. We discussed the sound that each letter or group of letters make and then sounded out the word.
Mustang and Charger both loved 'reading' the word. The kids have been bringing me our foam letters and trying to make words ever since. Just because you cant have formal 'school' doesnt mean you can not teach your kids at home.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Very Cool Freebie!
I signed up for a fun site called Homeschool Freebies Each day they have an E-Book that you can download for your personal use-for free! I thought today's freebie was super cool. It is called Everyday Number Stories, geared for 2-5th grades. It is a math book from 1915 and I really enjoy the way it is layed out. I think even Mustang (who is 4) will be able to do the first few pages. Check it out, it is only for one day.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Trying Tot School
Charger is almost 22 months old and is amazing me each day with the new things he is doing and saying. He enjoys learning new things and gets very interested when I tell Mustang it's time for school. He often comes and sits at the table with us, and stays between two and twenty minutes depending on his mood that day. When I came across this awesome blog: 1+1+1=1 I knew I had found something perfect for our family.
'Tot School' in my thoughts is a planned Unschooling/Montessori session for your tot each day. There are million and one ideas on there I want to try for Charger and Mustang both in addition to the million and one ideas I already had for them, so we should be pretty busy :)
I am not the best blogger-I tend to blog a whole bunch one day and nothing the next, so if we do something Tot Schoolish, I'll let you know. Maybe I will get better at this and do a weekly or daily recap each day. But dont hold your breath.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Jesse Bear Lapbook
I will be adding to this post daily until we get our lapbook done.
We are reading "Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?" by Nancy White Carlstrom, and each day we are doing parts of our lapbook as time, energy, and interest allow. See the previous post for our paper bear.
We are taking our lapbook idea from Homeschool Share: http://www.homeschoolshare.com/b4_resources_jesse_bear.php
Friday we made our 'B' Book. The book has pictures of things that start with B. Mustang colored them and identified them. She also traced the letters of each word and I helped her glue the words to the pictures.
With Charger's B, I glued his Jesse Bear inside. He can say B and bear, so he has fun opening his B and saying bear.
We are reading "Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?" by Nancy White Carlstrom, and each day we are doing parts of our lapbook as time, energy, and interest allow. See the previous post for our paper bear.
We are taking our lapbook idea from Homeschool Share: http://www.homeschoolshare.com/b4_resources_jesse_bear.php
Friday we made our 'B' Book. The book has pictures of things that start with B. Mustang colored them and identified them. She also traced the letters of each word and I helped her glue the words to the pictures.
With Charger's B, I glued his Jesse Bear inside. He can say B and bear, so he has fun opening his B and saying bear.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?
Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? Is a fun, classic book, all about what little Jesse Bear will wear all day. There are tons of resources to go with it on the internet and we took advantage of one today.
I love the website homeschoolshare.com and they have some great resources for Jesse Bear here: http://www.homeschoolshare.com/b4_resources_jesse_bear.php
We made Jesse Bear paper dolls. Mustang colored hers and I cut them out. I added little pieces of velcro to them to help them stick together, and put them in a gallon zip lock bag for storage.
We have more coming the next couple days-if all goes as planned.
The bear pattern is here: http://www.daniellesplace.com/images/weatherbear.gif
And the clothes are here:
Cold Weather: http://www.daniellesplace.com/images/weathercold.gif
Warm Weather: http://www.daniellesplace.com/images/weatherhot.gif
Rainy Weather: http://www.daniellesplace.com/images/weatherrain.gif
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash
I loved this book as a child and was thrilled to find it on the for sale table at our local library. 25 cents for the hardback edition :) I know we will be doing a lesson on this soon.
We also picked up
Who's Counting, by Nancy Tafuri
and Spots Feathers & Curly Tails, also by Nancy Tafuri
75 cents well spent. Make sure to check out your library's sale table, or go to their used book sales. Its a wonderful way to fill your library whether you homeschool or just love to read.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
They came they came!!
About 3 weeks ago we ordered some homeschooling books from Scholastic. They were on clearance for 1.00 a book and shipping was 2.25!! So for 12.25 (all the money in my Paypal account) we ordered everything in the picture. It took forever to get them, but I now feel like a kid in a candy store. And, of course I had to share lol!
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
A bit MIA
Sorry that I havent posted as much the last few days. I have been reading on another site. Its a really cool homeschool site!! It is all free and has tons of unit studies and Lapbooks! I have been staying up late nights reading all of its awesome content.
I found a lapbook for the book Corduroy. We are just on the first part of it, making a little rhyming book. Mustang was happy to play with her scissors today. She also got to play with glue-until she glued one of the pages to the wall when I was busy with Charger.
We own the book Corduroy and I raided my scrap book stash to come up with materials to make the book. I will take pictures of it when we are finished-which should be tomorrow.
The website is HERE (click on here) and the Corduroy unit is HERE
I found a lapbook for the book Corduroy. We are just on the first part of it, making a little rhyming book. Mustang was happy to play with her scissors today. She also got to play with glue-until she glued one of the pages to the wall when I was busy with Charger.
We own the book Corduroy and I raided my scrap book stash to come up with materials to make the book. I will take pictures of it when we are finished-which should be tomorrow.
The website is HERE (click on here) and the Corduroy unit is HERE
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Going Bananas!
As many of you know, we have chosen to Homeschool Mustang and eventually the rest of our children. This week we learned about the letter B and Bananas! We have a seperate blog all about our learning. This is a sneek peek about what is going on over there! Come check it out here. Or follow the link on the sidebar.
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