One child to school today

So... Today was my very first day only homeschooling one of my kids. Emily started kindergarten.

I've decided one child is SOOOO much easier to school then two.. We just had so much fun.

It's going to be fun to see how each kid grows. Hannah and I had so much fun today. We get to do school just me and her 2 (sometimes 3) days alone. I think it's going to be good for her and me!

Emily really enjoyed her first day of school. I'm not sure which we'll do next year. But with the baby on the way and the problems I've been having with this pregnancy, it's going to work for this year.. We still will be homeschooling three days a week. So it's only 2 days less of  homeschooling..

New Plan

Right now in my life, I've decided that being the ONLY educator of my oldest is just to much... I'm kind of sad. But I've been feeling for a while that we should send her to Kindergarten...

Tonight we're going school shopping and on Monday we're re-enrolling her in school. It's only 2 and 3 days a week. So we'll still be able to homeschool 3 days a week.

I think this will be good for her.. and for me.. Sometimes I guess I need to be selfish.. And this is one of those times...

Cherry Tree

Stole picture (but not craft) from here.

So, my camera is broken, and my back up camera broke.. So. I'm stealing pictures.. and wishing I could take pictures of all the cute things we are doing during school.
Today Emily learned about George Washington during history. We also learned the story of the cherry tree. For craft I thought it would be really fun to make cherry trees. But instead of cutting out the leaves and the trunk, we tore and glued them. It was really fun. Then I used my circuit an made tons of little cherries. And we glued them on.
It was TONS of fun for all three kids. I've been trying to include Abby when doing the crafts. And it's pretty cute to watch her, and see what she interrupts how to do the craft.

  

Nature Hunt

(can you tell my camera is broken.. Stole this picture from here)

Keeping with our theme of "Trees" for the week. We went on a nature hunt in our back and front yard. It was fun. We found different color leaves and different shaped leaves. We added flowers also.

After we gathered our findings, we came inside and laminated them. We are going to use them as bookmarks! We then discussed leaves in more details and talked about Chlorophyll.

Fun and easy! Adding these fun things into our school day is making school so much more fun for the girls, and me!!

More Crafts Please!!!

School has official started again. Though, we only took a week and 1/2 off. I've changed a bunch of the things around in schooling. So I thought I'd give myself a break long enough to get some planning done. Since the schools here official started on Monday, we decided that was our official day too.

To start the school year off (and to celebrate my hubby's birthday) we went to the zoo.
Today, was our first academic day. It went great!

Each day we are going to do some basics. These include reading, math, calendar/weather, and Emily's daily language practice.

On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays Emily does her history book, then we all do a craft or fun activity around the history subject. This way Hannah gets a little bit of history in as well. Then we do science. We have a weekly theme that I have planned out. On Mondays and Fridays we'll learn about the subject. On Wednesday I have a cooking project to go with the subject. This week is trees/leave. On Wednesday we are going to make tree shaped cookies. We also do spelling on these days. We do the worksheet on Monday. Hannah does tracing the words on Wednesday while Emily writes sentences using the words. Then on Friday, Hannah plays memory with the words, and Emily is tested on the words. We are using sight words right now. However I did get a spelling book for Emily that we'll add to the sight words for her spelling list, when it comes in.

On Tuesday and Fridays we do geography, read from our anatomy book, and do a craft. I'm also going to add other daily living stuff into it. I'm hoping to do things like shoe tying and such (can't think of more examples, but I do have a list).

I also decided that it would be fun to add a sport theme each month. That way on Tuesday and Thursdays we can learn about that sport and play games about it. It'll be more about learning things like catching and throwing then facts about the sport. I think we're going to start with baseball. We'll play different catch games and we'll learn how to catch and throw better. This my hubby will be able to help a lot more with. Which will be good for all of us!

That's kind of how our year is outline. I'm excited with the idea of more crafts, because we all love them a ton. Today we learned about the statue of liberty for Emily's history. And we made the cute paper plate crowns shown in the picture at the top. Got the great idea from here.

Why I want to homeschool?

Yesterday we were at the doctor's office for Abigail. We were waiting for her to get her x-rays done (born with DDH, and needs x-rays once a year). Hannah was looking around and saw a sign and read "bone dens" She couldn't figure out the rest of it, it was "bone density." I wanted to scream, I was so happy! That's a hard word, and we're not to silent e's yet. It was one of the moments that made me thing "she's getting it!"

Then we were reading scriptures. We let each girl read one scripture with help. Emily normally does pretty well. Hannah struggles, because she isn't quite at reading scripture level. However she surprised me and read "brethren" herself. Another moment I just want to shout with joy!

Can you imagine having someone else getting to share these moments with your kids? I'm glad I get to be her teacher. Yes, it's hard sometimes. But the success moments are totally worth it!

Official

So, I'm starting to get nervous yet excited.

I officially withdrew the registration we had filled out in May. We are officially not putting Emily in kindergarten.

I don't know why making it official seems so scary to me. We know it's the right thing for our family.

So. Now that that is out of the way... I'm excited about the things I have planned. I have a good amount of schooling planned out. It's still going to be trial and error for a while but I have high hopes for the things were doing to turn out awesome. I have planned a ton of crafts to go along with Emily's history. Which makes me even more excited!

There are some stuff I still haven't planned out even. I really want to make sure to include a lot more fun stuff during our day. I just need to get everything set up in a routine better and get things going. There's just so many ideas I have, and I need to put them out on paper!!

Another Preschool

I'm so excited!

We've started up another preschool group. Not quite as big as our last one. We'll just be doing it one day a week. I'm excited for it!!!!

Home-schools are all so unique. I love seeing and hearing other people's opinions on how and what they teach!

History

Sorry.. I just randomly forgot to mention what history we're going to be doing.
We're going to start the A Beka "My America and My World" history book. I got the teacher addition that includes worksheets and such to go along with it. I just think it is at the right level my girls are at. I like how it starts broad and each year with the new book it gets more and more specific.

Curriculum

Okay. I'm such a nerd.

I'm starting to get everything together for school. We aren't starting in August. We're getting started and continuing as we do so.

We've gotten back to doing geography. I added some Daily Language Review for Emily to start each day. She is loving it. This is kind of an introduction to grammar. We'll be starting our actual language lessons once we finish the Ordinary Parent book.

For spelling we're using Spectrum Sight Words. I am excited. When we went to visit the Kindergarten class we were going to send her too, and these words were some of their spelling words and such. So I know that we're right on track. I think starting with learning how to spell sight words will really help Emily further her love for writing. She does love writing.

Hopefully our history book will be here sometime in the next week or so, and we'll add that to our schooling.

I still haven't decided on what we're going to do daily and what we're going to do every other day.

I just get so excited when things come together how I plan for them to!

I still haven't planned exactly when we are going to take breaks for schooling. Obviously some when the new baby is going to be born. I'm going to try the best not get overwhelmed or burnt out. I'm also trying to remember that Emily is only technically in kindergarten and Hannah is technically only in preschool.

FINALLY!

I think I finally picked out what I want to do for history next year with the girls!!!!


Now... on to figure out science!

***And by next year I mean, in like a week or so when it comes in! That's how we roll in this homeschooling house!

Math and Computer

We are currently using Math-U-See for math. And I love it!
(http://www.mathusee.com/) <<< Find it here

The kids do three pages (both sided) a day. Though, every other day Emily also does a test. It's fun one on one time. I keep getting surprised at how fast my kids are learning new math skills. It's simple, easy, and effective.



While I have one-on-one math time with the each girl the other girl gets to use the computer. We have 4 different computer games. All which are educational. They get to pick what they want to play and everything. This has really helped them learn to use the computer. Soon, I hope to also have typing lessons on it. We're grateful Grandpa restored the computer for us and gave it to us for christmas!!

ABC with Baby!

Abby has really been wanting to be involved in schooling. She loves when she wakes up early enough from her nap that she gets to finish the school day with us. We've also been lacking structure in the morning.
So, the solution was to start schooling her also. We only do it for about a half an hour in the morning.
All three girls get the same sheet. But I have different goals for each of them.
Emily's is to practice writting her letters better. She's really good already, but still it's good practice.
Hannah's is to start learning to color inside lines, and to practice her letter writting. I make the older two each write both upcase and lowercase the letter four times before they are able to color.
Abby's goal is to just learn the alphabet letters and sounds.

It's been really fun so far. Hopefully we can keep it up!!

Homeschooling is just sunshine and cookies...

Yeah right! he he eh.

We sure have our ups and downs. But that's just how life is. We are moving along nice and getting things accomplished.

I've decided that my favorite thing about homeschooling is being able to work with my kids, and when I see weakness help strengthen them.

Lately we've been trying to bake more. Because One, the kids really really enjoy it. But two, it teaches them important skills. Baking can incorporate so many different skills. There is reading, measuring, turn taking, direction following, and even some fine motor skills learned (frosting). So today we made some YUMMY YUMMY sugar cookies and they were fast to make. I got the recipe at this link http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/easy-sugar-cookies/detail.aspx

Here is our evidence of yummy-ness. And us using our mad frosting skills!

YAY! moments.....

Today Bryan was reading the girls their bedtime story. He opened the book, and Emily read the first sentence. And so we decided to let her read as much as she wanted. The book was Cinderella. Just the normal version, not an easy version. And she totally read a ton of the pages.

WHEN DID SHE LEARN TO READ?!?!? yes. We've been working on reading. And she's REALLY good at reading the sentences and such But these words were harder words for lessons we haven't gotten to.
It seems like somewhere along the way she really started reading. Like being able to figure out pretty hard words. No, it didn't start today. It started a while ago. It just amazes me how fast she picked up on it. She's been reading regular books for a while. I just never noticed how hard of words she was able to read.

I think I'm going to back off a little on the reading lessons for Hannah.. Give her a little break and let her start reading when she feels more ready. I think she likes it, but she's been having frustration lately. I don't want to kill her love for reading. So we'll just be having me read with her assisting me with some words for a little while.

Although she LOVES math. We've been doing Math-U-See.. And she's almost finished the first book. She asks to do math each day and always volunteers to go first. So we'll just enjoy that love for a little while. and bring back more intense reading lessons in a few weeks.

To homeschool or not.

This really has been a hard decision for us to make.

I'm having a baby in November, and it would be kind of a break not to have 4 kids at home everyday all day...

But we haven't found as many pros to public school as we were hoping for. In fact there aren't very many pros at all... so..

I think for now we are going to try to continue to home-school. It's still not completely decided. Though, I was suprised how my kids took it when I told them I think that's what we were going to do. I told them we would take other fun classes like cheer and swimming.. And I think that's all they want, just some out of the house fun time. So, I think that's what were going to try.

We'll see if it changes in the next few months.

Game Plan

So. I've been slacking this week with schooling. First trimester of pregnancy=me just wanting to sleep.

So instead of planning each night, I've been sleeping. Which makes for to much chaos at schooling time, so I've just skipped schooling. Problem is, I'm not planning on being un-pregnant anytime soon. So I need a plan.

So I've decided that once a week I'll do all my planning and copying and gathering stuff together for the week. I'm going to start tomorrow night and try and get everything ready for Friday and the following week. Then I'll get to chose anyway next week to plan for the following week. It sounds like a good plan to me..

How do you prepare your schooling? Do you have a day picked out or do you plan daily?

Exitement.

Okay. That's it. I love homeschooling. I really do. And I do take it this responsibility very serious. I am almost COMPLETELY responsible for my children's learning. That said, I've been having a lot of fun cooking up some ideas. I think I'm just going to start posting them. And like the actual files and such. So here I go.

We've been attempting to make reading more fun. I read (well, I'm still working on it) called "The Read-Aloud Handbook" and it has made me more serious about making my kids LOVE reading.

I've been making a lot of fun teaching aids to go with the book "Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading"

I've decided to add them, when I'm extra excited about the lesson we are doing. I figure sometimes I spend more then an hour coming up with the items for the lessons we're going to be learning, I might as well share!

Here is what I've come up with for Lesson 69. It is suppose to be a role play for the sentence portion of the lesson. I have decided to add pretend phones to make it just a little more interesting.

I got the cellphone graphic from this site.
I think it's fun, I made them bigger, cut out the shadow, laminated them, and then added Velcro to the back to make the reusable. Seeing how I have three kids, it will at least get three uses out of it.

I would love to know how to share my file for the whole lesson, please leave a message in the comment if you know how!

Science

So, I have a scientist on my hands.. Well, the more we learn, the more I learn I have two scientist on my hands.

We have been using this book for science right now. It's REALLY interesting. What I do is make up vocabulary cards with pictures for all these new science words. As we're reading the book, I will post the new words on our "Science Word Wall" as they come up. This book does a great job of introducing a word, and then in later pages explaining it more in depth.
I very much recommend it.

Good, Better, Best.

I'm not against public school.
I just have to state that, that's not why I want to home-school.

I'm not trying to be overprotective.
That's not why I want to home-school.

Good: We were always planning on sending our kids to public school. And then we were blessed with Emily. She was born after the cut of date for Kindergarten last year. She was ready, but because of 6 days she wasn't allowed to go. She was ready to move on from preschool. But couldn't move to kindergarten.

Better: Then we started looking into private schools. We even came up with a plan to pay for them (they are pretty expensive). We interviewed and toured a few schools. She could get in as a kindergartner. It was better then public school. Less people in her class. Yet something was missing. It just didn't feel right.

Best: All of a sudden the idea of Homeschooling came about. I had been against it forever. It wasn't even something I was going to consider. But.. Something felt right about it. It fit for all of us. It was more challenging, just like Emily needed. Yet, it's changed a lot in our entire family. Our home is becoming more of a place of learning. It became not just what was best for Emily. But what was best for Hannah. And what was best for the rest of our family. It just fits.
Right now it's the best choice for OUR kids. Maybe not everyone's, but OURS.

That's just a thought that's been going around in my head...

Fun Activiy, had to share!

So today we did something really fun.

I gave the girls a paper, one side had "Greater than" and the other side had "less than." I gave them an unsharpened pencil. They then went around the house drawing picture of things that were greater then the pencil, and less then the pencil.

I way recommend it. Of course I got it from the Mailbox!

Lots of school, little posting.

We've been having a LOT of fun at school these last weeks. And I have pictures of it!!!

We made Forkupines. We drew porcupines and painted them using forks. (got idea from The Mailbox)


We made graphs of the blocks we had. Sorting them into different colors. (The Mailbox again for the idea)


We played "Greater Alligator." We had the alligator eat the bigger fish. Then read the math sentence. Example "Five is greater then four." I made the alligator from a pattern I got on a website. But I forgot where..


I also made a Velcro word board. I got the letter print out from here. I laminated and put velcro on the bottom of them instead of putting them on wood. We use the for teaching new blends on such in reading.


We also remade weather wheels (Mailbox) but this time we made our own season wheels too. I was tired of the girls asking everytime the weather changed what season it was!


Heart matching. We first sorted the cards and put them in the right order. They were all tens (0, 10, 20) Hannah surprised me when she also knew how to count by tens. (thanks Leapfrog). So then we played memory with them.


We've done more. But that's all the pictures I have!

New Year, New fun!

This years I decided that I'm going to resolve to have more fun, in everything I do. It's kind of a challenge sometimes when I just want to get things done. But when it comes to schooling, the more fun the better! So, it's going to be a good year!

Today we learned about Ice. A great lesson I got from the Mailbox (Science Edition)
We predicted what will happen when we freeze the water. We described the ice after it was froze. Which was fun. I laminated a glass of water page, and I cut out little ice cubes to write on for each descriptive word. Then we wrote about where we find ice and what we use it for. Seriously it was fun!

The best part, sadly I didn't get a picture, was when the girls were eating their ice cube. We made them in little bowls since I don't have an ice tray and added blue food coloring. The girls were a little impatient and wanted to eat them. So they weren't all they way solid. Emily took a bit of hers and blue water gushed ALL OVER HER! We laughed soooo hard. I think I'll be making some of these in the summer when it's really hot!


We also started learning more colors. Each day we are going to chose a color from the crayon box (i bought 2 boxes of 64 crayons) and color in our crayon chart. It's fun, simple, enjoyable, and educational. I kind of love my little idea and chart!


Oh, and the picture of Hannah.. She wanted a picture by her angel she made for a christmas decoration. She calls it the tooth fairy.