Plans for the future

Tonight I sat down and had a long chat with my oldest daughter about school. She has been going to a preschool since the beginning of December mainly because I felt guilty not doing a lot with her due to our little boy who was born in December.

So…

Little Miss Pooh told me that she wanted to do school at home, but more of the stuff that they do at preschool. So, after some questions I realize I need to do more crafts and more games at home with her. She also requests that I read to her more than I have been doing.

I also asked Miss Pooh what she would like to learn about. And this is what we came up with

I will be back

I had thought about sending my kiddos to school, but in the end I am sticking with my original decision. My oldest will be 5 this August, and so this summer I will be gathering and collecting stuff for the school year with her. My middle child turns 3 next month. SO that means I will be doing learning time with both of them. Stay tuned.

I have a plan for the school year

2012 School Year Plans – I also made this a page on here.

I have decided to treat each new year as a new school year, so here are my plans for this school year.
Pooh
Math:  Horizons K - am on lesson 45 and will finish the rest by the end of the year.
             Math book "Up on top", first grade math book, complete half of it by the end of the year.


Science: mainly unit studies

•   space
•   ocean
•   weather
•   5 senses

Social studies: mainly literature unit studies with the majority of the learning will be from books.
                         Topics I want to cover are:

•   First Americans
• Christopher Columbus
• Community Helpers  - this one will mainly be lapbooks/notebooks
• national Anthem, Pledge Allegiance

Health:

• Human Body
• Safety Rules

Language Arts: this covers multiple areas

     Spelling:

• Spectrum First grade book

• practice new words from books and other subjects

     Language arts:

• Spectrum Kindergarten book                                                

     Handwriting: will be practice in all the subjects and won't be doing a separate curriculum


Piglet


My baby turns 2 years old in May. At that point I plan on working with her on a few things.

• sorting
• matching
• exploration with crayons, stickers, play-dough, etc

Well, that is the plan for this year. 

Getting back into it…again

Today has been a good day, so far. And I have come to the realization that I do not have to do all of Pooh’s school time in one big sitting. I am not sure why this has not occurred to me prior to this.
This morning, while I tried to put Piglet down for a nap, Pooh did a lesson in her Horizons K Math book, and a little over a lesson completed in our new Spectrum language Arts K book. After that, I read to her from a book about the first Americans. It took us all about 40 minutes.

New resource I wanted ya’ll to know about

I thought I would write a quick post about a new site that I was introduced to. It is called www.teachersyndicate.com and it is free to join. Even if you don’t join, there are tons of free e-books for free download. I recently downloaded a set of workbooks, textbooks and worksheets called Lesson: Primary School Handouts and workbooks mega pack, which can be seen here. They also have grade specific ones from first grade to 12th grade. The books that are included are from scholastic, Abeka, Bob Jones and other educational resources.
Okay, I guess I am on a bit of a soapbox, but I love finding free stuff and this site is great because I don’t have to worry about buying new curriculum. And I can download the things I want and just print off a few pages at a time. Much more cost effective than printing off an entire book.

Easing back into things

Well today was 2 weeks since any school happened. Pooh has been sick these past few weeks. Two days ago she threw up first thing in the morning and again a little later in the day. Today she threw up again. I am going to see if dairy is the culprit again.
Today Pooh did 2 lessons in the Horizons Math K Book. I need to work on coin recognition with her. She had a hard time with a penny being worth one cent and a dime being worth 10 cents. She thought 2 dimes equaled 2 cents. Other than that, we did not do anything for school since she is getting over being sick.
good night

New Curriculum!!

I have not done any school with Pooh since Sunday. On Sunday, we spent three hours working on the Giant Panda lap book.  It took three hours because I did not do any preparations prior to starting it with Pooh.  I cut all the many, many pieces out, helped Pooh fill all the mini books in and glued, taped and stapled it on there. She loved it!
I made all of these great plans this week, but of course Pooh comes down with a cold. Tonight she really wanted to start using the two new workbooks I got from Barnes and Noble, but I had to make a compromise with her. I told her that once we were done with the first math K Horizons book, we can start on the Spectrum K Language Arts book.  She was pleased with that.
So this is my plan…subject to change….
Mid-April

• Finish lesson 80 in Math K Horizons
• Complete Giant Panda study
• Complete moon phases study
• complete 1 more animal study using a lap book
• make an addition lap book

When all of this is completed, I would like to start the second half of the Horizons K Math and start using the Spectrum K Language Arts.
Of course, I will continue reading to her and have her practice sounding things out and writing new words out to practice new vocab and handwriting.
Speaking of handwriting, I had thought about spending money on a handwriting curriculum, but I don’t think it is necessary at this time.
I need to start thinking of simple ideas to start doing with Piglet. I think she will enjoy learning right alongside her sister.
I also thought about buying a science curriculum. But Hannah really loved the lap book on Giant Pandas so I think I will continue on doing mini units on various science topics for now. Some topics I hope to cover with her are

• animal units
• solar system
• human body
• 5 senses

These are the ones that I think are the most important for now. She is only three, so I am not pushing her to learn anything, really. When she wants to “do school” I do it. If she isn’t feeling well or is tired, I don’t do sit down work with her.
I always feel like I have to explain WHY I am teaching her at home and HOW I MADE her read. There are some people that think I MADE her read and I just laugh because no one can make a child read.