The Plan, Stan

Last week was a TOTAL success! I think it had a lot to do with planning -but not over scheduling. I really made sure I had things lined up in case we completed XYZ but I avoided writing down exactly how many lessons to go through. Turner only has one "proper" curriculum, anyway (Horizons Math). 

This week we'll be working on much of the same, but I'll be trying a little harder to learn to fit in house work and hang-out time with John without doing "school stuff" on the side.

In no particular order since we're working on just actually doing things daily I didn't want to force an order to it all:

Turner


Co-op on Tuesday

Horizons Math: Lessons 7-9 but Turner will probably make it through lesson 12 (this is all basic number identification, understanding directions, ect)

Other Math: greater than, less than from Pintrest; other manipulative games

Phonics: (Rocket Phonics) on-going (very short) oral lessons for phonemic awareness. I'll say something like: "What sound do you hear at the beginning of this word (cat, bat, rat, etc)." He'll respond with the sound. Later I'll ask "What sound do you here at the end of this word (rug)." At first, he'd say "-ug" but now he's listening better for the separate sounds. 

Other Phonics: On-going review of letter sounds and practicing to say them correctly (i.e. "ks" for x using his tongue in the front of his mouth instead of on the side; practicing "th" by gently biting his tongue because other wise he says "th" as "f."

Reading Skills: This week we'll begin two sight words a week. I started over the summer but we were just too busy and I hadn't read all I wanted to about beginning reading skills. Turner will do a color by number sight words (mom, dad) from 1+1+1=1 and, after he's colored them accordingly, he gets to decorate them with little candies (sprinkles, ect). He loves doing this because, inevitably, some candy "falls" and he gets to eat it! 

Science: talking about tools scientists use (last week we talked briefly about what a scientist does and what they might look like) and introducing them to their magnifying glasses to use for our projects and nature study. 

Turner also participates in some of the Letter of the Week activities, though not many since they're too easy (and he's not a crafter). He especially likes the sensory boxes that are used -this week it's bug themed and I'm sure it will be a hit! 

Eli

Letter of the Week: Bb 

I'll post everything he's doing on Tuesday! 

Week in Review

I'm going to be totally honest here. As this week approached, I decided to set my expectations llloooow. Standards high, but expectations way down there. I saw so many new homeschoolers say their first day was AWESOME and then it went downhill from there. Some were keeping rigorous schedules, waking children up to start a day by XX time, some were timing activities, some just doing too much (in my opinion) at the start. 

I completely believe in having a system, but the rhythm is more important to me. For example, after we wake up we eat breakfast, then the boys throw dishes in the sink, they play, Deacon lays down for a nap, we do school stuff, they play, and so on. 

It worked like a charm. I'm sure the novelty of activities had something to do with it, but I have a few tricks up my sleeve for when that gets old. 

Eli loved is Tot Trays! The pom-pom color sorting was his favorite! 

He also loved his letter Aa crafts and is so happy to see them on the wall.

Turner blew through six math lessons (it's only Thursday), and all sorts of oral phonemic awareness exercises. I printed off the Star Wars preschool pack from Homeschool Creations and, while he loved it, I realized that he can do so much more than just 3 months ago! 

Eli was really eager to try anything! 

Deaon tried out his first real walking shoes. I got them from See Kai Run on sale! I still can't believe he's finally walking! 

 I printed off more Dot-a-Dot activities from my Confessions of a Homeschooler Letter of the Week curriculum. 

For the "moon rock" sorting, Eli was more interested in using the mini grabber (from the Dollar Tree) than sorting the letters but he eventually wanted to look inside the papers.

 Mr. Deacon decided to get in to everything so I had to contain him for five minutes. He was feeling extra grabby and, since the big boys' work is at his level, it was game on. 

We were even able to start some artwork! I love Pink and Green Mama for ideas! Mary Lea is such a wonderful inspiration and we always look for reasons to get messy! 

Overall, we had a great week! Tomorrow is "Fun Food Friday" and I have a surprise I've been saving since our visit to DC a few weeks ago! They are going to be happy boys. 

Tot Tray Tuesday

To keep track of what we've done, I'm going to try to post Eli's tot trays in one post each week. Obviously, things change so he might not do some of the trays or we may even add to them. 

This might seem like a lot, but they are all totally up to him...and he ALWAYS asks "to do school wook." He will blow through a lot of these quickly, and when he's bored, everyone has to know about it! Whatever someone recommends for tot trays, I double it for Eli! 

A busy boy is a happy boy in this case! 

Here are the trays for our first week of school. 9.5.11-9.9.11

A is for Astronaut dot-a-dot page I found on Totally Tots.

 Capitol A letter craft a la No Time For Flashcards.

Apple cutting practice tray from The Princess and The Tot.

Counting Alligator Teeth from The Princess and the Tot.

Color sorting from The Princess and The Frog.

 Astronaut Tot Pack from Homeschool Creations. I'm hoping this keeps Eli's attention while we're at the homeschool co-op.

Lower case a craft from No Time For Flash Cards.

Letter sorting "moon rocks" using a mini grabber. The idea was from a post 

on Totally Tots.

I ran across this idea on Pintrest. Instead of making a big coconut tree, I made a tree from construction paper and taped it on a cookie sheet with magnetic letters! Shake the tray at the end of the story and all the letters fall down.

 Using dough to being number recognition.

ABC letter box from Spell Out Loud.

More letter sorting, this time from Confessions of a Homeschooler's Letter of the Week series. 

Shape matching from Confessions of a Homeschoolers LOTW pack. 

Gluing practice with the letter A, also from Confessions of a Homeschooler's LOTW pack. 

I think these should keep Eli entertained for a bit! 

Our First Day of School!

Today we started our first day of school! Homeschool, that is...

Well, I guess they've always been learning at home (minus a year at a Waldorf school) so 

we just started a different rhythm to our day...and a bit of traditional work. 

Turner is doing Kindergarten work, Eli is in Tot School and Deacon is in Teeny Tiny Tot School. 

Here's my big Kindergartener! He's been needing a  challenge since the beginning of May
but I held off switching to Kinder items since we were traveling almost the entire summer.
Boy, was he happy to do something more difficult!

My big Tot Schooler! He's a quick one so I'm sure he'll keep me on my toes.
I've got TONS of Tot School stuff planned for him! 

Last, but certainly not least, my Teeny Tiny Tot Schooler!
He wasn't too excited to sit for this picture and kept trying to throw the sign behind him!
He's walking now (finally!), so this should all be interesting.

Today was very hectic because we had guests leaving early in the morning. The baby was sleeping in our room and as I was going to bed, I kicked a box, woke up Deacon and it was downhill from there. He was up all night, and I felt all disheveled from the lack of sleep and my wreck of a house. 

Since it's a holiday, John was home all day. We told the kids it was the first day of school and that we'd have some things to do today so we could kick the year off right. We had breakfast together, then the kids decided it was a great day for making a tank. So, that's what they did. 

Eli in the tank. 

Turner buckling Eli in to his seat. 

 After about a hour and a half of outside play, they came in and were ready to do the 10 minutes of work I had planned (apparently, I did a good job planning because I only had one math lesson and two tot trays on the docket for the day!). Turner really likes his new Horizons Math book. I'm thankful that the first lessons are super easy and more of a chance to feel out what he really does know about numbers. 

Squeezing glue for Eli (note to self, but new glue). 

He really enjoyed the independent work! 

This shows the kids's personalities. Turner is patient and focused, Eli is, well, three. 

Turner is very uncomfortable writing, so I gave him the choice to do a handwriting page today.
I think he's just nervous about making mistakes so he doesn't want to give himself
enough credit (he can actually write many letters but they're not "perfect" to him).

Both boys were eager to do some "work" so it made the few things I had planned easier to do. Turner did two math lessons (very, incredibly simple), 3 or 4 pages from his Go For the Code series, and some handwriting practice. Eli completed two Tot Trays (I'll be posting more about those on Tuesday) and was rarin' to go! 

The rest of the afternoon was spent outside. Hours and hours outside... the way it should be. 

Almost There

School starts tomorrow and the school room looks like this. 

Thanks to Hurricane Irene, we had to move Turner's birthday party back a week. There were 5 adults in the house and people were sleeping everywhere. My house is an absolute train wreck and the kids haven't slept well (excitement) in four days. 

I have zero expectations for tomorrow! As long as we get one math lesson done and take pictures with the Kinder/Tot School signs, I'll be happy. 

Just keepin' it real. 

Our Homeschool Room

Formal dining room for a not-so-formal-family = school room! We just happen to have a space to contain our mess, but that doesn't doesn't mean everything happens in here! The kids go NUTS in their "FROG" (aka massive bedroom where we bounce in the bouncy house, play soccer when it's cold, etc), play for hours on end outside, bake in the kitchen, make a mess in the in-formal dining area. They're all over the place, but here's the room we try to contain ourselves in...

The corner holds most of our supplies (for now), the wires to hold art work are just made of
picture hanging wire, wrapped around screws. 

Table taken from the eat-in kitchen area, lights from IKEA, hanging pocket organizers from
Wal-Mart. The calendar is a replica of Counting Coconuts. I hope she finds this flattering
because I adore her site! 

The black shelves will be for Eli for Tot Trays, I made the circle rug, pillows, and a
friend made the flags while we were traveling. 

I enjoy art and creating so I try to share that with the kids. They made these signs
that I originally found on Pintrest

I had Eli do this one because, well, he's the one that finds the most enjoyment painting. 

The kids love maps! Since their dad is in the Navy and travels the world I thought
I'd put up all the continents, though it's a bit early. They're always asking where he's at
and where our US friends live so here's the place to track all that! 

...behind the curtain is the mess...

Progress

We have been traveling almost the entire summer! The Silver Bullet has driven from Virginia, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and aaaalll the way down to Florida (and countless miles around said states)! I am happy to report, I've been abel to be creative and teach the kids a few things along the way...kind of...

What I've been doing since we returned home two weeks ago is become "official!" I submitted a letter of intent to our school board and immediately began to work on our school room. Luckily, we have a room (the formal dining room) that was available for use and just collecting odds and ends. As soon as I finish it up today I'll take some pictures and I'm going to link up with a blog hop about the room. I'm always curious to know how other decorate/plan and do just about anything so I thought it'd be fun to share our room! 

Here's to a new year!