Week 1

So we just finished up week 1 of homeschooling. Overall it was fantastic!! My mind is starting to wrap around this whole concept and it's feeling pretty natural.


Some thoughts so far:

A definite item for the "pro" column: FLEXIBILITY!! Bug had a stomach virus this week and while she was sick, one day she wanted to still do school and one day she was really not doing so hot so we didn't do the lesson that day. So, we could do school in our PJs or just skip it and there was no one to care about germs (or the fact that we had bedhead and were in pajamas!) or to report an absence to. No muss, no fuss. Also, today we got started with our lesson and she was having a rough time, so we stopped and she took a nap. Then we finished later when she was in a better mood. You can't do that in a school environment!

I have decided to combine lessons and do 2 at a time. As I mentioned in my last post, the concepts are really quite simple and Bug knows most of them already. This way, I should be done with the Pre-K by January and maybe we'll go ahead and get the Kindergarten curriculum at that point. Or we can do a review or play around with something else, who knows. But she was getting a little bored, and adding more activities/concepts into each day has spiced things up for us. I have been playing around with how to combine lessons in the past few days and I think I have a system worked out. We actually combined about 4 of them today. I know we didn't have to "catch up", but Bug was really feeling like doing school so we just kept going (she wanted to do even more than that, but I finally said "No, school is done for today!" :) ). I think we spent about 3 hours total on it all today.

Normally, in each day's lesson plan there is any combo of the following: opening discussion, story, reading readiness activity, number readiness activity, "Thing to Do" (usually a craft-type activity), Music, Craft, and Game/Play. These aren't all on there every day, but normally I would just follow along that lesson plan and that's the schedule for the day. I've been adding things here and there, but just mainly sticking to that day's plan.

So - when combining lessons, this is how I plan to schedule the day:

Opening (go over theme if there is one, have our usual opening routine -- find a way to combine the two discussions into one)
Story #1
Number Readiness
Craft
Music
Snack/Break
Story #2
Reading Readiness
Things to Do
Game/Play
Close

I'm sure this will be tweaked as we continue easing our way into this and I'm more comfortable with the flow, but for now that's where we are at.

I really enjoyed watching her little mind work this week. We have been doing worksheets and learning exercises for awhile now, but it's not been this focused. Getting to sit there and work with her on different concepts and hear her insightful questions and witness the creativity that she is capable of -- it has been a treat. I'm learning more about her (and myself) through all of this, and that brings such joy to my day.

We played with clay, painted, colored, and cut/pasted various shapes. We read many classic stories and she re-enacted several of them (putting that dramatic flair to good use!). We talked about over/under/on, open/closed, in/out, red and yellow and how they combine to make orange (which led to Bug using all sorts of different colored paint to see what colors she could make), and sang some songs and nursery rhymes. We also had several stuffed animals join our school. Bug lines them up against the wall and they listen to the story, and even helped re-enact the Little Red Hen. :)

That's my summary of Week 1. Looking forward to seeing what adventures next week brings. :)

One thing I would like to incorporate in our daily opening discussions -- if anyone has a suggestion, please share -- are morning devotions. I have "10 Minute Time-Outs for You and Your Kids" but it's more for older children. I am looking for something with more basic concepts we can discuss each day; for example, just talking about God's love and what that means - God loves us even when we make mistakes, etc.