This month we are learning about the life cycle of a chick growing in her egg. We are on Day 4 of that, and it's very exciting for Bug every day to open the next egg and see what is happening in there. We also look online to read about what is happening on the microscopic level. A visit to the ostrich ranch (couldn't find a local farm with chickens that we could visit, so this will have to suffice!) is planned in a couple of weeks as well.
We started Hooked on Phonics, Kindergarten Level I, and last night Bug read her first book!! What a great program, and it makes me all verklempt to see her reading whole sentences on her own. We all enjoy it, even the Monkey. When we are doing the DVD portion of the lesson, she rolls over and just stares at the TV. Maybe she will be reading by the time she's 2. :)
We are also looking at our state and learning about neat things going on throughout. I think we will plan some visits to some state attractions this month.
Here is a picture of Bug working on her puzzle, with the workbox set up in the background. The puzzle was the last thing we did, so the bins have all been put into the big basket for the day. The way it works -- Bug takes her number from her strip (we are just doing 6 boxes, so she has 1-6) and velcroes it to the number of the bin she is going to do first. She takes out the "work" in the bin and does it, and then tosses everything into the basket.
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The Monkey likes to roll around on the ground and scoot (she has chosen to do a two-armed, one-leg body pull instead of crawling) to various toys and just hang out while we do school. Her favorite thing is to scoot over to the workbox shelves and pull it around on the tile, making a delightful noise. :) Here she is sitting at the little table with us:
I hope everyone had a fabulous New Year!! My new year's resolution is to update this blog more! I want to look back at the end of this school year and get a real picture of how everything went.
Hubby and I did a mid-year check-in with each other and we both agree that homeschooling has been wonderful. Bug is thriving - she isn't socially awkward or emotionally stunted. She makes friends easily and is quite the social butterfly. She soaks up new information so quickly, and has such a thirst for knowledge. She has been changing a lot over the past month - she now seems like a 5 year old. We still have 5 months to go until she truly is 5, but I can suddenly see this shift in her appearance and her behavior. She seems more and more grown-up every day.
And for me - I feel like I have gotten a handle on things more and have more realistic expectations for how my days will go. I have created a binder with pages for each section of the day, with an outline of how things should go ideally - a morning rhythm, afternoon, and evening. It helps me keep perspective. I also have dropped the mentality of "We will do homeschool when I get this house clean/work done/yada yada yada". Life is always going to be messy and in the way, so this week I have been focusing on doing homeschool during our "homeschool time" (as dictated by the aforementioned binder :) ), doing my work-work during work-work time, and housework during housework time, etc. AND RELAXING during relaxing time. :) That is one of the important components!!! It's very hard to sit and put my feet up while the house is still cluttered. But I'm getting there. I never thought that would be something I strive for, but there you have it.
I feel on top of things this week and like I have a healthy balance. I need to remember that feeling and bottle it up!! That's why this blog helps. I can look back and see what I was thinking/feeling that put me in that space at the time.
One last thing I have started doing - writing down what we do each day. This is partly for my husband so he can see what we are doing, but mainly so I can keep a record and on the days I feel like I didn't get anything done, I can see that I did. Even if it felt chaotic and cluttered and frenzied, I can see that we spent some quality time together. I'm just writing down the "school" stuff we do, including any park or dance/gymnastics time - that counts as PE right? :) Here is a picture of our week so far:
The binder says it's time for a walk, so a-walking we must go! :) Happy Thursday.
Great job! It's hard to keep up and I don't even have to come up with my own stuff. And yes, walking, dancing, park time is PE. Riley gets to mark all that on his PE time. And he can mark cooking with mom as reading or math depending on if he's helping follow the directions or measuring things. And if she helps you look at the prices and counts the quantity, the grocery store is math too!
ReplyDeleteThat's where I can see the value of "unschooling" - there are so many chances to learn organically through daily life. And we are also helping them be ready for the real world with those hands-on lessons - baking, grocery shopping, etc. :)
ReplyDeleteFantastic! Sounds like your sort of using the Contol Journal theory from the FlyLady?
ReplyDeleteYes very similar! But just with my own little tasks and notes. When the kids get bigger, I'll get more into the daily housekeeping and whatnot. For now, we have our wonderful cleaning lady, so I can skip a lot of the cleaning items.
ReplyDeleteI like the jotting down of what you did each day :)
ReplyDeleteMonkey is SO big! Oh my gosh. That is crazy.