My sweet girl will be done Sonlight Core A. Along with that she'll continue French, piano, and Latin. For math she'll be doing Saxon 1 and Life of Fred elementary books. For handwriting we will use Cursive First again.
And there is kindy.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Kindergarten redux
I've gotten some emails wondering what I will be doing for Little Bird for kindergarten. I finally have it nailed down and en route.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Must keep trying
OK, the formatting on those pictures is wacky, but I can't figure out how to fix it. Apple- I love your computer, why doesn't it love me back?
Anyway.
This last week we headed down to Denver as a small field trip. Denver is the "big city" for my kids and it's fun to watch them experience it.
I'm also getting really exicted about Christmas. The kids will have some really cool gifts. They also (well, the girls) are in the children's Christmas pageant at our church and they are really excited about learning their parts and the songs.
Sweet Pea doesn't know it yet, but she's learning Chess this spring. I can't wait!
This is one of those seasons where homeschooling just going going really well. Things WORK. Things are getting done. We're happy and productive and it's just... just what I wanted. Directly related to that is our large absence from the internet because I'm busy and doing this kinda all the time. So bear with me through this season.
I'll be back with more scintilating blogging. I will. Promise!
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Revolutionary war
I'm trying this from my new iPad, so you'll have to forgive me if the images aren't the best. It's gonna be a learning process, but I'm in love!
We're at the Revolutionary War and we're doing it with quite a few books. Quite a few are Sonlight and some we added in ourselves.
It's been great!
Monday, November 21, 2011
Advent plans
Every year I post about this. I've posted pics of the stuff before, so I don't know if I will this year.
We use an Advent wreath, calendar, and a nativity. We use this book: Celebrate Jesus! At Christmas.
We also read a lot of books on St. Nicolas and on Dec 6th the children leave a shoe out.
On top of this, we'll continue regular school. We'll also have all the Advent activities at church as well as preparation for the girls who will be in the children's Christmas program.
Busy!
We use an Advent wreath, calendar, and a nativity. We use this book: Celebrate Jesus! At Christmas.
We also read a lot of books on St. Nicolas and on Dec 6th the children leave a shoe out.
On top of this, we'll continue regular school. We'll also have all the Advent activities at church as well as preparation for the girls who will be in the children's Christmas program.
Busy!
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Two small brags
If I can't brag on here, where can I?
First, I had a lady approach me and tell me she's really amazed by how well we homeschool- that she can tell we're doing a great job and Sweet Pea is an incredible little girl.
She has grandkids Sweet Pea's age and older that she spends a lot of time with, so I take this as a massive compliment.
Brag number two- Little Bird is almost through her kindergarten reading book. She's four. :)
First, I had a lady approach me and tell me she's really amazed by how well we homeschool- that she can tell we're doing a great job and Sweet Pea is an incredible little girl.
She has grandkids Sweet Pea's age and older that she spends a lot of time with, so I take this as a massive compliment.
Brag number two- Little Bird is almost through her kindergarten reading book. She's four. :)
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Wherein preplanning comes in handy
Sweet Pea finished one math book and I had another one ready right away to give her, much to her joy. Strike when the iron is hot, and all.
Well done, Sweet Pea!
Well done, Sweet Pea!
Monday, November 7, 2011
How a day looks
For quick reference, I have a 7.5 year old girl, a 4.5 year old girl, and a 20 month old son.
My oldest is doing a sweep through American history this year. She's also studying Norse mythology. We're doing this with a lot of living books and reading time together.
My middle child is diligently working on reading and developing patience and listening skills.
My toddler is working on how many things he can possibly destroy in each moment.
Morning begins with breakfast and then free play time for the kids. I drink coffee and relax for a little while, then everyone gets dressed/teeth brushed, ect.
Then we sit together and I read to them. Sweet Pea needs to listen closely, the toddler doesn't listen at all unless it's a picture book, and Little Bird wavers between the two. Right now we are reading the Witch of Blackbird Pond. This book is about Puritans and has been a good look at the different way of life the Puritans followed. We've marked the time in Sweet Pea's timeline book. Today the places in the book that came up were Boston, and the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island. We brought out the map and found and marked the places.
After we did our reading together I made a snack for the kids. My kids love to snack. Sweet Pea took her snack and her reader- the Matchlock Gun- and went and read it by herself. Well, not totally alone- she snuggled with the cat who is always happy to keep her company.
While she was doing that the two littles and I read picture books while they ate. Once their food was gone Moose played with playdoh, then colored with crayons. Little Bird read me a short book. She colored me a picture then, too.
By the time they were done with that Sweet Pea was ready to come down and tell me about what she read. This is called narration when done a specific way and is part of our language arts approach. We alternate this with dictation. The dictation and copywork we do comes straight from the books Sweet Pea is reading. After she does her writing we dissect the sentences for their parts of speech and how they are put together. This is how we are doing grammar right now.
After that today Sweet Pea pulled out her math workbook and did four lessons.
I think she would have done more, but her father came home for lunch then and math can't compete with that!
After we have lunch together as a family, the girls went upstairs to play. They are making a play together and enjoy putting on costumes and coming up with songs.
The toddler practiced throwing a ball with my husband and I cleaned up lunch. We chatted about our mornings, and enjoyed coffee. Then he had to go back to work.
After lunch every day we have quiet time. The toddler usually sleeps for two hours. I will make a confession here- he often sleeps in my arms as I rock him. My 4 year old usually sleeps for 30 minutes or so and then she plays with her baby dolls or builds with her legos. I expect her to be quiet for 2 hours but I am pretty open to how she spends that time at this point. My 7 year old reads during this time. Sometimes she also works on a puzzle, does legos, or draws. She also uses this time sometimes to knit or make pot holders with a small loom.
When nap time is done I am planning on science. We are reading books about our planet and our solar system. We are also making a scale model of the solar system out of clay. So far we have made Mercury and Venus, so this afternoon we will be making Earth.
After that, it's more snack. During afternoon snack we do Bible and Catechism. The girls have piano practice to do, too, and then the rest of the afternoon is theirs to do whatever they want. At this time, too, we work on Latin and French.
And that's how our days go.
My oldest is doing a sweep through American history this year. She's also studying Norse mythology. We're doing this with a lot of living books and reading time together.
My middle child is diligently working on reading and developing patience and listening skills.
My toddler is working on how many things he can possibly destroy in each moment.
Morning begins with breakfast and then free play time for the kids. I drink coffee and relax for a little while, then everyone gets dressed/teeth brushed, ect.
Then we sit together and I read to them. Sweet Pea needs to listen closely, the toddler doesn't listen at all unless it's a picture book, and Little Bird wavers between the two. Right now we are reading the Witch of Blackbird Pond. This book is about Puritans and has been a good look at the different way of life the Puritans followed. We've marked the time in Sweet Pea's timeline book. Today the places in the book that came up were Boston, and the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island. We brought out the map and found and marked the places.
After we did our reading together I made a snack for the kids. My kids love to snack. Sweet Pea took her snack and her reader- the Matchlock Gun- and went and read it by herself. Well, not totally alone- she snuggled with the cat who is always happy to keep her company.
While she was doing that the two littles and I read picture books while they ate. Once their food was gone Moose played with playdoh, then colored with crayons. Little Bird read me a short book. She colored me a picture then, too.
By the time they were done with that Sweet Pea was ready to come down and tell me about what she read. This is called narration when done a specific way and is part of our language arts approach. We alternate this with dictation. The dictation and copywork we do comes straight from the books Sweet Pea is reading. After she does her writing we dissect the sentences for their parts of speech and how they are put together. This is how we are doing grammar right now.
After that today Sweet Pea pulled out her math workbook and did four lessons.
I think she would have done more, but her father came home for lunch then and math can't compete with that!
After we have lunch together as a family, the girls went upstairs to play. They are making a play together and enjoy putting on costumes and coming up with songs.
The toddler practiced throwing a ball with my husband and I cleaned up lunch. We chatted about our mornings, and enjoyed coffee. Then he had to go back to work.
After lunch every day we have quiet time. The toddler usually sleeps for two hours. I will make a confession here- he often sleeps in my arms as I rock him. My 4 year old usually sleeps for 30 minutes or so and then she plays with her baby dolls or builds with her legos. I expect her to be quiet for 2 hours but I am pretty open to how she spends that time at this point. My 7 year old reads during this time. Sometimes she also works on a puzzle, does legos, or draws. She also uses this time sometimes to knit or make pot holders with a small loom.
When nap time is done I am planning on science. We are reading books about our planet and our solar system. We are also making a scale model of the solar system out of clay. So far we have made Mercury and Venus, so this afternoon we will be making Earth.
After that, it's more snack. During afternoon snack we do Bible and Catechism. The girls have piano practice to do, too, and then the rest of the afternoon is theirs to do whatever they want. At this time, too, we work on Latin and French.
And that's how our days go.
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