Summer Studies

I decided this summer I would focus on reading & writing since it's the foundation for all future learning AND just happens to be what Michael dislikes most. So just know that for June, July, and August we did lots of that :) Hope you enjoy your summer as much as we will!

Week 5/30 - 6/04 ART

I need to do more art throughout school, but I've been quite neglectful at times and haven't covered some of the basic concepts are art as of yet. So this week I make amends! We talked about how when we think of a color certain things come to mind. For example, when I think of red I think of an apple and a fire truck. So for fun we changed the natural color of our lunch. Our tuna fish we put purple food coloring in & our milk was blue. The kids loved it, but I have to say it totally grossed me out! Weird how the mind works :)

We talked about warm and cool colors and how those colors make us feel accordingly! With warm colors, Michael drew a sun & spewing lava rivers. With cool, he had wind, oceans, and ice chunks.

We also made collages. This is my 4 year old, Lizzie's. If you knew my daughter you'd smile when you see what she picked out for herself. Sums up her personality in a few, colorful pictures :)

We also worked on drawing shapes and making a picture from different cut out shapes. Michael made a rocket blasting off into space with a couple rectangles & a few triangles. Genius ;)

Week 5/23 - 5/28 Misc.

Thumbing through my Kindergarten books, I saw that I missed some things I still wanted to teach Michael before moving on to 1st grade material. One of those things was graphs. So we did a pie chart, tally chart, and number graph. Michael loved doing that.

I was determined to teach Michael how to read a clock before the summer, but counting by 5's still eludes him. So we made clocks & started with the basic 10 o'clock, 2 o'clock, etc. Another good lesson. There are other things in the book we discussed, but unfortunately I'm doing this entry a few weeks after the fact & can't remember what we worked on besides the usual reading, writing, spelling tests, etc. Oh well. That will teach me!

Week 5/16 - 5/21: READING

Since reading & writing are the core to all Kindergarten learning, I decided to dedicate one week to getting Michael pumped up about it again. The initial, "I know all my letters and sounds!" euphoria has wore off & reading & writing is becoming drudgery. So we painted some tote bags for each of the kids to have their own library bag. Adds more fun to going to check out books!

It's difficult to find books that are at the level Michael's at, using 50 or so sight words primarily. A couple we found that were great are: Ten Apples Up on Top, and Green Eggs and Ham, both by Dr. Seuss. We also added 20 more sight words for Michael to add to his vocab which is still a work in progress.

Week 5/02 - 5/07 THE ENVIRONMENT

We first discussed what the environment was. How without trees & other natural habitats, animals would have no where to live, we would not have beautiful places to hike & explore, and how plants produced oxygen for us to breath. We also talked about how these resources were given to us by God to use, but we needed to use them wisely & respectfully.

The kids were very fascinated with recycling. I got a pile of things out of the recycle bin & we identified them all & how these things came from the environment & how we take less from the environment when we reuse them. We got some neat books from the library about what happens to items once they are recycled. Michael especially loved the idea that paper we recycled became products like paper towels, kitty litter, and toilet paper. And I had no idea that fleece was made from recycled plastic bottles! And of course we made crafts from recycled materials like the above tp tube snake.

Planting trees & flowers is a great way to help the environment and so we tied that into our lesson by transplanting the flowers we planted from PLANT week into a bigger pot. Lizzie also planted a flower for mothers day at preschool and that was a nice surprise :)

This is a horrid pic of Michael, but what can ya do! While I went to Time Out For Women (a women's conference through my church) for the weekend, Daddy took the kids to a light house & old military fort. They had a great time riding the ferry and enjoying the environment & world around them.

Week 4/25 - 4/30 HUMANS

To start our human studies week off, we talked about the 5 senses. I've never had all 3 kids' attention so intensely before we explored this topic. They liked touching different textures of dry foods we had around the house. Above is sugar, oatmeal, & barley and I used chinese noodles as well. Sight allows us to see all the colors around us. We use hearing to detect danger or identify familiar things like moms voice, dogs barking, airplanes over head. We tried different spices & talked about taste buds, and the different sections of our tongue that identify sweet, sour, bitter, etc. And finally smell is wonderful to know when mom was baking cookies, if clothes were clean, and even when Alaina needed a diaper change.

Michael and I later talked about what it might be like to not have one of our senses. I remembered there were signs for the primary song "Love One Another" and we did that together, which was fun. We talked about deafness, blindness, and a story I heard about a little girl who did not feel pain.

We spent a day talking about what we can do to keep our bodies healthy. We did some exercises for fun (push ups, sit ups, jumping jacks, etc.) and talked about good foods to eat. Michael had just had a similar lesson at church & his teacher had cut out good & bad foods from magazines. So we used those props again and discussed each food (including an intro to drugs & alcohol) and how these effected our bodies.

We checked out a lot of books at the library about the heart, blood system, bones, and health. The kids favorite was the Magic School Bus "Inside The Human Body". After learning about these systems we traced our bodies on paper & drew in our inside workings. It was a lot of fun. First thing my 4 yr old daughter did after making her face, a few bones & heart, was to color her finger & toe nails pink. The things I would miss if my kids went to public school!

Week 4/18 - 4/23 ANIMALS

This week we moved on to animals. I had the kids each pick a few stuffed animals & then we talked about characteristics of each of them, their habitats, what they like to eat, etc. We also talked about how each would take care of their young.

We talked about pets & how they differ from "wild" animals and what they need to live & be happy & how people take care of those things for them.

It's also Easter week so we did some combining of Easter & animals w/ these bunny bags that we then later used for a shape Easter egg hunt for the preschool aged girls.

We colored eggs which is a first for me since childhood. But my kids all like boiled eggs so I figured why not! They had already eaten 3 before I remembered to take a pic of their creations. We talked about what kinds of animals come from eggs. What kind of animal would these eggs have been if they were kept warm under their momma?

And of course we ended the week with Easter at Grandma's where the kids hunted for jelly bean filled eggs w/ their cousins. It was another fun week :)

Week 4/11 - 4/16 PLANTS

I've been wanting to do potato stamps & found the perfect occasion for it! Shape flowers! Great for the girls too who are still working on shape identification. So the kids stamped paper with their paints... And once they dried we drew on stems & leaves to make flower gardens. Turned out cute. We also talked a lot about different vegetation & foods that come from plants.

The grand finale' was when the kids planted their own flowers which have just started to come up! The kids were thrilled :)

Week 4/04 - 4/09 MATH

1/2 & 1/3 were pretty fun to teach. Michael loved the idea of sharing a pie with his sisters. I think he was digging the 2/3 & 3/3 idea even more :) Money! We work several days on money. I put a pile of coins out & had Michael separate them, calling each by name & their value as he went. What kid doesn't like playing with money! Later I lined some out as shown above & had him write what it was and their value. Sorting & creating patterns. We also worked on: If Mom wanted 8 cents, what coins could you give her? Which combo would give her the most coins? And the least? Michael chuckled through most of that, which is his way of saying he gets it & loves it. Counting by 2's was a snap when we used shoes. Can count by 2's up to 20 now. Counting by 5's using fingers vs. hands concept. Still working on that one. Trying to come up with another way of teaching this. Michael's doing addition & subtraction, but I realized there were some basic concepts that I hadn't covered yet. Fun week for Michael cuz Math & Science are his favs! Gearing him up for telling time :)

Week 3/28 - 4/02 CALENDAR cont.

This week we finished creating our 2011 calendar, talking about each season as we went. We continued by focusing on the days of the week. Michael was already pretty confident in their order from our calendar making (repetition). I had him write out each day as shown above.

Then I tested his ability to identify the right order of the days by putting 3 rows of days and him picking the one in the right order. Then I took one set of days and mixed them up and had him put them in the right order. We did that a couple times. He even mixed them up himself and put them back in order for variety.

I also (tried) to teach him a couple songs to help him memorize the days of the week. Didn't work well with him cuz he's not a big singer guy, but could definitely work for others (like my girls). Here they are:

*(sung to tune of The Bear Goes Over the Mountain)

There are 7 days in a week

There are 7 days in a week

There are 7 days in a week

And I can name them all.

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday,

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,

Saturday is the last day,

And I just named them all!

*(sung to the theme of The Munsters)

Days of the week (snap, snap)

Days of the week (snap, snap)

Days of the week,

Days of the week,

Days of the week (snap, snap)

There's Sunday and there's Monday,

There's Tuesday and there's Wednesday,

There's Thursday and there's Friday,

And then there's Saturday.

Repeat

* (sung to tune of Clementine)

There are 7 days

There are 7 days

There are 7 days in a week

Sunday, Monday,

Tuesday, Wednesday,

Thursday, Friday, Saturday.

We had a low-key week. Reviewed months, days, and just had some fun. Even went to the beach in the middle of the week just cuz we could :)

Great Resources!

Great book I checked out at the library first & then bought on-line. There is no government approved curriculum, so each state, district, school just does their best in determining what to teach. This book was recommended to me by an experienced homeschool mom & is packed full of lesson ideas and info on what your child should know. ED Hirsch, Jr. has them through 6th grade.

Dollar stores typically have these great work books for preschoolers & kindergartens. I've also gotten flash cards & other fun teaching tools there.

Week 3/21 - 3/26 CALENDAR

This week we're beginning to learning about calendars. Our focus is months of the year & seasons this week & next week we'll talk about days of the week. Above is an exercise where Michael had to come up with what number each month was (ie March =3, December = 12). We didn't work on this till later in the week, but here it is anyway.

I usually begin our day with Michael writing his name & date & then writing out something to do with what we're working on or a scripture. He wrote the 12 months of the year here. This helps me identify what letters he needs help with and of course helps him get familiar with what we're going to be talking about.

I made him a calendar of his very own that he will hang in his room after it's done. We worked on 3 months each day by season (ie: Dec/Jan/Feb, Mar/Apr/May, Jun/Jul/Aug, Sep/Oct/Nov) and something special about that month.

I made the grid & wrote the month on top. Then we talked about the month & he glued some snowflakes on. I wrote the days of the week, saying them as I went for repetition, and after looking at our family calendar, he was able to figure out how many days there were in the month and which day it started & ended. Then he wrote in the dates. By the end of the week he was saying the days of the week before I wrote them.

Here's May. There are 11 core requirements for teaching homeschool: reading, writing, spelling, language, math, science, social studies, history, health, occupational education, and art & music appreciation. These skills can be taught separately or multiple in one lesson. So here, we worked on art, math, reading, and writing. We also talked about the earth rotating around the sun each year & that's why we have different seasons. Michael loves math & science so he liked learning that little tid-bit.

Week 3/14 - 3/19 SOLAR SYSTEM

After having Michael write out the names of the 9 planets, and a general study of each planet (internet pics, etc.), I made mini paper planets. One side had the name of the planet, the other a "site word" (words that all kids should know by site because they are used often & some are not phonics friendly ie: come/the). After correctly naming the site word he could flip over the planet to reveal it's name. Once all were flipped over we put the planets in order of closest to furthest from the sun.

Lizzie & Alaina who also wanted to join in the stars & planets lessons got each letter of their name on planet, moon, or star. I mixed them up & taped them to the wall & helped them piece together their names.

To review sequences & numbers 1-100, I put numbers on planets, moons & stars for Michael & he had to put them in the right order.

Once Michael was generally familiar with what each planet looked like, we drew each planet on a balloon & tacked them in order rotating around the sun (his ceiling light) in his room. Now he gets to stare up at the solar system when he goes to bed.

(View when you're laying on the floor). The day after we hung the balloons we added stars, but he had to earn them by reading all his sight words (he's working on 30 right now). As a bonus I found a paper rocket & astronaut which went up too.

Be Creative!

One of the many great perks about homeschooling is that you are teaching those you know best - your own kids! With that said, when my son Michael started whining & complaining about finishing his work, I got his transformers to put the pressure on. He laughed about that a little & it cheered him up enough to finish his assignment.

Michael's view...very scary ;)

DISCLAIMER

Before I mislead anyone - I have no real credentials, no teaching degree, or professional teaching experience. I have not written a book, done 3 year national studies, or been homeschooling for 20+ years.

I do however have an interest in my kids and the family I've helped to create. I desire for them to be educated in the world around them and wise enough to navigate through it with happiness and purpose. I would like them to be good & useful members of society, full of faith and desire to serve those around them. I have hope that they too someday will raise a family, centered in love and gratitude to our Father in Heaven & His Son, Jesus Christ.

With that in mind, please know that I'm very much the learner & my children the teachers. Like them, I'm trying to figure things out one day at a time & trying to also learn to love the journey.

New Blog

Although we started our homeschooling adventure in late February, I'm just realizing how cool a blog would be to document some of the things we're working on. To sum up what you've missed - penmanship & spelling practice, proper use of lower & upper case letters, words that end with ar/at/an, story sequences, counting/writing to 100, beginning addition & subtraction, the 7 continents, basic US history (Christopher Columbus, "Indians", May Flower Pilgrims, Independence, & George Washington - our first president), rhythm & patterns in music, lots of crafts, play groups, trips to the YMCA, church activities, & other social opportunities. Above all, reading, reading, reading! Phew.