We made it through the first week of homeschooling pretty smoothly!
Monday:
Martin and I both went back to work on Monday and the kids went to daycare. Maci was excited to go back to daycare; Davis was not!
After work that night, we all sat around the table and did some school work. I found some materials on TeachersPayTeachers.com for the science and history memory work and that makes it very easy for us to practice those facts. Once she's completed those worksheets, we cut and glue them into a notebook which will serve as a portfolio of some of her work. We also reviewed some of the timeline cards and counting by 2's to 30 in both English and ASL.
I have all the facts written on the dry erase board to help us all remember what we are supposed to be learning that week. I got a ticket holder like restaurants use to hold the timeline cards out for us to see while we are memorizing the sequence throughout the week.
Tuesday:
This is one of our "school days" since I'm home with the kids on Tuesdays. I didn't set an alarm and figured we would just start working once Maci and I were awake. We both slept in until 8:45 - and it felt great! I poured a cup and coffee and we got right to work at the dining table.
She started using the Handwriting Without Tears curriculum that I purchased to help with her formation of letters. She can write most of the letters of the alphabet already, but needs help with the lowercase letters and overall proportion, spacing, and positioning of the letters with respect to the line. She's very motivated to learn how to read and write so while she reminded me that she can already write the letters in the first lesson, she focused and finished up the work quickly.
Next we moved onto phonics which is another area that SHE told me she wants to learn. I'm using bits and pieces of materials that I have and her teacher let me borrow. Currently, she's got great letter-sound awareness and can read several sight words. I'm pretty impressed that she can read some very beginner books and is using some strategies such as looking at the pictures and sounding out words to figure out the words she doesn't know. We often need to prompt her to start reading on the left page first and to start at the top left of each page and work her way down. This is one area I feel like I may purchase some formal curriculum down the road if we hit a plateau as I have never taught a child how to read before. She's got a great foundation so we will just keep going with what we have for now and cross that bridge when we get there.
For some fun, we moved onto alphabet puzzles where she had to match a picture with the first letter of that word. Davis joined in and they proceeded to fight with each other over the puzzle pieces, of course! She was ready for a break so I had her find 15 matches then we put the puzzles away.
I put on some videos on YouTube (related to the timeline events) while they ate breakfast and colored. From there we went to my workout class that I'm going to try to get to every Tuesday. The class is at 11:30 and there is childcare available so it gives us a break in the middle of the day and Mommy gets her workout in - scheduled into the weekly calendar!
Next, we came home, ate some lunch then I got us all ready to leave. There is another homeschooling Mom that I know and we have agreed to get the kids together each week for some school work and play. As a bonus, she's offered to watch the kids while I see a client in her neighborhood each week just to give her kids a chance to play with some other kids. She and her husband are both Deaf and both of the children are the same age as Maci and Davis and are hearing. She will do a craft with them each week and I'll teach them about music when I return from my therapy session. She also has access to videos that go with the Bible activity I purchased (didn't realize I needed to get videos to go with the activities!) so they will do one worksheet each week. Seems like a pretty good deal to me!
Monday:
Martin and I both went back to work on Monday and the kids went to daycare. Maci was excited to go back to daycare; Davis was not!
After work that night, we all sat around the table and did some school work. I found some materials on TeachersPayTeachers.com for the science and history memory work and that makes it very easy for us to practice those facts. Once she's completed those worksheets, we cut and glue them into a notebook which will serve as a portfolio of some of her work. We also reviewed some of the timeline cards and counting by 2's to 30 in both English and ASL.
I have all the facts written on the dry erase board to help us all remember what we are supposed to be learning that week. I got a ticket holder like restaurants use to hold the timeline cards out for us to see while we are memorizing the sequence throughout the week.
Tuesday:
This is one of our "school days" since I'm home with the kids on Tuesdays. I didn't set an alarm and figured we would just start working once Maci and I were awake. We both slept in until 8:45 - and it felt great! I poured a cup and coffee and we got right to work at the dining table.
She started using the Handwriting Without Tears curriculum that I purchased to help with her formation of letters. She can write most of the letters of the alphabet already, but needs help with the lowercase letters and overall proportion, spacing, and positioning of the letters with respect to the line. She's very motivated to learn how to read and write so while she reminded me that she can already write the letters in the first lesson, she focused and finished up the work quickly.
Next we moved onto phonics which is another area that SHE told me she wants to learn. I'm using bits and pieces of materials that I have and her teacher let me borrow. Currently, she's got great letter-sound awareness and can read several sight words. I'm pretty impressed that she can read some very beginner books and is using some strategies such as looking at the pictures and sounding out words to figure out the words she doesn't know. We often need to prompt her to start reading on the left page first and to start at the top left of each page and work her way down. This is one area I feel like I may purchase some formal curriculum down the road if we hit a plateau as I have never taught a child how to read before. She's got a great foundation so we will just keep going with what we have for now and cross that bridge when we get there.
For some fun, we moved onto alphabet puzzles where she had to match a picture with the first letter of that word. Davis joined in and they proceeded to fight with each other over the puzzle pieces, of course! She was ready for a break so I had her find 15 matches then we put the puzzles away.
I put on some videos on YouTube (related to the timeline events) while they ate breakfast and colored. From there we went to my workout class that I'm going to try to get to every Tuesday. The class is at 11:30 and there is childcare available so it gives us a break in the middle of the day and Mommy gets her workout in - scheduled into the weekly calendar!
Next, we came home, ate some lunch then I got us all ready to leave. There is another homeschooling Mom that I know and we have agreed to get the kids together each week for some school work and play. As a bonus, she's offered to watch the kids while I see a client in her neighborhood each week just to give her kids a chance to play with some other kids. She and her husband are both Deaf and both of the children are the same age as Maci and Davis and are hearing. She will do a craft with them each week and I'll teach them about music when I return from my therapy session. She also has access to videos that go with the Bible activity I purchased (didn't realize I needed to get videos to go with the activities!) so they will do one worksheet each week. Seems like a pretty good deal to me!
After we got home, we had dinner and did a little more of the science and history memory work plus review of the timeline events and counting by 2's. Maci also enjoys playing with the computer/typing program that I purchased with Handwriting Without Tears. She's currently learning mouse control and they make it fun with games and puzzles.
She is also interested in learning to play piano and we found free lessons on YouTube! The goal is for her to do one lesson (about 8 minutes each) per week.
Wednesday:
The kids went back to daycare and it was a VERY busy day for me. I worked until I went to bed so we did no school work beyond what I sent with Maci to work on at daycare.
Thursday:
We attended our first community day with our CC group and it was a hit! There are 6 kids in Maci's class and the tutor has obviously taught this content before. She made it fun for the kids to practice all of the memory work. Each subject was reviewed for 4 minutes in different ways. For example, while reviewing the science topic (classification of living things), she had a dice with six different types of voices written on it. The kids rolled the dice and whatever voice they landed on, that's how they stated all the memory work for science. Some of the voices were T-Rex, prince/princess, English tea party, robot, etc. While practicing math, flashcards were placed on the floor and first they hopped along the 1's while counting. Then they used a gigantic fly swap to tap all the 2's while they counted by 2's. Each of the tasks were made to be fun yet still served the purpose to practice all the memory work.
Next, the kids were given a break for snacks and presentation. Maci brought one of the medals she earned at a gymnastics showcase. She spoke for about 2 minutes, but here is the first 30 seconds. She will learn more about appropriate posture, volume, delivery, answering questions, etc to become skilled at speaking in front of others. Such a great skill to learn starting from such a young age!
After snack and presentations, they went on to do a science experiment and art - and Maci was super excited about both of these activities!!
This week they dissected a kidney bean and discussed all the parts of the bean. Her favorite part was using a magnifying glass!
For art, they learned about the elements of shapes/drawing and drew a bird. Of course she loved this activity as she loves about anything with arts and crafts!
Next they moved onto reviewing the timeline events and practicing the timeline song which we have been practicing in the car. I bought CDs with all the memory work and timeline songs for this cycle so I try to get in more practice with her while we are in the car. Davis LOVES to join in on the fun too! He will know this content before he's even old enough to be in CC!
At the end of the day, they always review the memory work for the last six weeks. Because it was the first week, they reviewed the class rules and all the grammar that was practiced today. They played musical chairs and went outside to play duck-duck-goose all while reviewing the information. We had a little time left over at the end because there wasn't a lot to review, the kids got to practice drawing some more then we cleaned up and broke for lunch.
I picked up Davis from the nursery and we all ate in the gym. Maci asked to eat with the big girls (2nd/3rd/4th grade age) and then the kids ran around the gym playing with the other kids. At 1:00, we packed up and went home. We were all POOPED so we relaxed for the rest of the day which is pretty common for CC families after community day. No more school work that day.
Friday:
I got up and went to another workout class at 6:00. I never thought I'd sign up for something that early, but after going two weeks in a row, I have found that I enjoy getting up and getting it done with early in the morning so I have the rest of my day. Plus, this is another class that I can put into my schedule each week which means I'm more likely to go!
Most weeks I'll have to shower and hit the road to see a couple clients and do a home visit, but this week things were a bit different because Martin had to work (planning week). So, instead, we did something fun! Another local homeschooling mom gave us free tickets to Shipwreck Island at Adventure Landing in Jacksonville. It was a play day at the water park; not all the big slides were open, but the kids had a blast even with half the park open!
We stayed at the park until about 2:00 then made the drive home through construction and traffic in Jacksonville. After we got home, we got in some school work including science memory work and phonics. Love the flexibility that we aren't bound to complete school work during regular school hours!
Saturday:
Memaw came to visit this weekend so we started our day at the nail salon! Maci got her first mani/pedi at the salon and was in heaven with her glittery finger and toe nails!
Afterwards, we headed to the library to pick up some books I had placed on hold relating to next week's memory work and she went in with me while I did early voting. I want both the kids to see that this is an important responsibility that we have an citizens. Her favorite part was the sticker, of course!
When we got home, we got in a little history and science work in plus a little more phonics and called it a week!
I have the grammar/memory work up on the white board and the timeline cards out for next week. I'll be at work on Monday and Wednesday and Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday will be school days. We are still figuring things out as to what works best for us, but I know we can do this! We will find out rhythm and I will find balance between working and homeschooling.
Stay tuned for more updates as we go through our second week!!
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