This will be a two-fold blog: (but mostly about homeschooling!!)
First are pictures for those who don't really care or have time to see how we learn, and since Noah is home for 2-3 days because of weather and holiday, you'll get to see both kids!!! Second will be for anyone interested in how we are learning and organizing since I've come across something new (to me!) called workboxes. Plus writing it down, helps me know what the heck I'm about to start!! ;-) Oh, and since it snowed last night and we play in any amount of snow, there are some snow pictures at the end...plus (yep, there's more!) some bare belly pictures for those who have been asking!
Found a blog
http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com telling about how to make snowflakes using Borax cleaner....and seeing as how Noah's home from school due to SNOW...what better time?!?! Will get pictures of the snowflake whenever they form!!!
Working up in the homeschool room: (and bragging a little) Noah knows his numbers 1-100, shapes, how to cut, some of the alphabet (it's hard to know how much because he gets silly when saying the letters), and we are working on using 3 fingers to write...and more of course!! Hannah knows 1-100+, how to count by 2's, 5's, 10's, time, money, learning sight words and how to read, she's drawing clearer (you can usually tell what she drew!), and letter sounds. She has been really good knowing the different uppercase/lowercase alphabet for a while, how to cut and her shapes and more!!
Oh, and just wanted to share that one of the main reasons (out of several) I homeschool is me being a minister to my kids. I just finished reading "10 Days of Homeschooling Enrichment" (the same website as listed above) and the mom hits home with me talking about how we only have so much time with our kids and how precious that time is...so I want to make the biggest impact on my kids...especially now when they think Andy and I are the most important, the coolest, the most fun people in the world...for now!!! ;-)
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| being silly |
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| Noah doing Time |
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| Hannah doing Temperature and Date |
I printed off the alphabet and how to write each letter (the correct way!) for Hannah to see on her desk and she's using it for writing on her worksheet:
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| Tangrams (shape makers) |
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| Homeschool Board |
"In a nut-shell, workboxes are an organizational system that helps develop independent work habits and a well-structured school day." It was made up by one homeschool mom who wanted to help her autistic child achieve more and found it could help kids on all levels of learning. Basically I will be laying out the whole week for Hannah using little picture cards, so we both know what's going on. Then putting the day's little cards (think stamp-size) Velcro-ed on a box with the numbers 1-10. Hannah will go to box 1 and open the box to see what is her first task. The boxes can be anything, but I'm using a plastic organizer cart just like this:
What I'm putting in each box varies each day.
For example, she is on a five-day rotation in her curriculum where she learns about one letter each week. On day one, we introduce the letter and the animal that goes with it, like E and Elephant. So we'll look into where elephants live (geography), what types there are and more. This week we came down and got on the Wii because there is a globe and we looked up how far away Africa and Asia were from the US. And from there, I showed her more than she needed to know (like while we were near Africa, here's Jerusalem we talked about on Sunday!!). Also, she learns about the sounds of letters and putting together two and three letter words by sounding them out. There's more, but for time's sake, I'll stop there!!
Other things going into the boxes will be games, like "Letter sounds Go-Fish" and Memory: matching uppercase and lowercase alphabet letters (those are her favs!!). We have tangrams (shape games), puzzles, computer time (of course there will just be a picture!!), and coloring books. Even adding in time for a nature walk, painting and reading. I probably have about 20+ things written down that we'll rotate during the week, plus I'm always on the look out for fun learning activities.
Some of the pluses to this system:
Hannah will be able to see what's going on and how much is left and I will know how much she has done; she will be encouraged to work more independently ~ and work towards definite goals (will be very helpful when the baby is here and I have to feed/change him or whatever will come up!); I will be more accountable to keep things "fun" while learning and not just doing worksheets (she's not a big fan of plain old worksheets!!); being more consistent in our workday; my list could go on!!
Anyway, I'm really excited to be starting this system and implementing it into our days. The organizer cart is on it's way at the end of the month so I'll be taking pictures of Hannah getting into it and what we use...I know there will probably be princess stickers on some of the numbered pictures!!
