Days 4 and 5

As you will already notice, my days may get combined for my posts.  I am a busy busy mama and don't always have the time to sit down at my computer anymore. 

I've already seen progress in my kids basic skills that I'm working on.  Audrey is writing many more letters and recognizing them on sight.  Austin is reading more simple sight words and combining them into sentences!

I started using Laduate (free app on your smartphone/tablet) and am now reading the kids about the Saint of the Day and the Gospel of the day as well.  I'm doing this at breakfast so that they can really get a good start to the day!  I'm waiting on my Catholic curriculum to come in.  Okay... I haven't ordered it yet.  I'm still deciding which one I want to buy!!!  There are so many out there, but I've come across a great FB group called, Catholic Relaxed Homeschooling.  These ladies have been nothing but helpful, encouraging, and true to their faith so far!  We pray for one another and our needs for the day or week.  We are all mama's who just want the best for their kids!  Most of them use a mix and match type of curriculum and that's what I feel is working for us right now too.

Part of yesterday's homeschooling was writing our letters to Santa.  We went through the Toys R Us book online together and I wrote down the things my children wanted.  It was so interesting to see their reactions to things and what they wanted or didn't want.  Once I wrote their wants down, I had Austin and Audrey write their letters to Santa.  For Audrey, this meant copywork.  She would copy the words I wrote on a dry erase board on to her paper.  This is a great way to expose her to more than just one letter a week and a great way for her to learn her letters faster!  For Austin, he did some copywork, but some of his was also phonetic spelling.  This is a great way for him to translate what sounds a letter makes to a word on paper.

Do you know how many apps there are that are preschool/kindergarten related??  I truly don't know the number, but it's way up there.  I have Austin working at least 30 minutes as day on phonics and 30 minutes on math per day on the iPad.  He is enjoying these lessons in the forms of games, and I'm seeing it translate to his writing and his reading skills.  He already has read more this week than he probably had in the last month in the traditional school setting.  He's more willing to sound out words and pull out a book and look for words he knows!  This is wonderful!  This had been a 15-20 minute crying fest every evening when it was time to do his reading homework.  Now, he's reading more on his own and learning much more too!  He also is playing games such as Angry Birds Transformers and Minecraft.  And I"m okay with that.  He's learning how to budget his coins and gems on the Angry Birds Transformers game.  He knows when he levels up, he's going to need a bunch of coins for the next section and is saving for that now.  He's also learning to read numbers in the hundreds such as 297 and 724 and so forth.  He gets excited when his numbers are higher in some levels and that's great! 

Don't get me wrong, he doesn't spend all his time on the iPad.  He also is building with legos, playing outside, riding his bike, doing geo boards, and having free cut and color time too.  All of these things have led to a beautiful, relaxed and I would say, successful first week of homeschooling for us! 

Have a Blessed weekend!  See you on Monday!

Day 3

What was homeschooling like for us yesterday?  It was wonderful!  Cody had a Tiny Tots library day.  The librarian was very welcoming and all three big kids got to participate.  They colored Pilgrams.  They played and read books and they all sat for storytime!  It was simple yet fun and different for the kids!  We plan on going to the Wednesday preschool storytime every week if we can, and when, say Austin, grows too old and is reading on his own, we will still go and he can pick his own book to read and the younger ones can enjoy the time!

We came home and Austin and Audrey worked on geo boards again.... a new favorite.  Austin and I worked together on the iPad doing phonics and math while everyone else was napping.  He did 1.5 hours of math.  He LOVES math! 

Austin also built with Crystal Climbers.  These are so fun and provide a 3 dimensional building platform to make designs, patterns, and new shapes from the basics provided!  You can get them in many places, but I really like the quality of the Lakeshore ones.  Get them right here! And they are on sale right now! 

That's the pic from the Lakeshore site, but it gives you a good idea what you can do with them.

 I also got my geo boards there with extra rubber bands.  :)  I think one of my next purchases will be the geo board design center.  It will add another dimension to this activity!

Audrey also did more fine motor skills with me at dinner.  We wrapped little smokie hot dogs in homemade pretzel dough and she then rolled it to seal the dough and dipped it in the baking soda/water mix and then she placed them on the cookie sheet for baking!  Look how nice and neat her rows are!  Here's the recipe for the pretzel dough.  Simple, easy and so delicious!  Hint:  I don't use bread flour.  I just use regular white flour and let rise a bit longer.  Usually about an hour or so.

Audrey also used her fine motor skills to sprinkle and press grated cheese into the tops of 1/2 of them.  :)


Audrey and Cody also helped me make a special dessert last night.  Rice pudding.  I've never had success with it before.  This recipe from The Pioneer Woman was SO good!  I soaked dried blueberries in apple juice for mine.  Personally.  I won't use raisins or fruit in mine next time. And I didn't make the sauce for on top.   I really like it simple.  But it was DELICIOUS! 

In case you didn't realize it yet, cooking WILL be part of my homeschool curriculum.  It involves math, science, experimentation at times, fine motor skills and many other great areas of study.  It's a great way to have some 1:1 time with a child.  Audrey and Cody are the two who LOVE to be with me in the kitchen.  They both enjoy doing anything and everything I ask of them in there.  Stick around for more recipes and what not!  Please feel free to be added to my mailing list to get updates from us!

Day 2

I'm already seeing progress in Austin's phonics skills.  A simple activity of putting a letter in front of the rest of the word clicked for him.  He read simple sentences, "The bus is red." and then followed the direction to color the bus red.  There were 6 of these and they worked for him!  Look at the concentration he displayed in the pic above!  (note to self.... get more crayons... many colors have gone missing.  lol)

We did a 100 piece puzzle!  Austin did 2/3 of it by himself!!! 

Gymnastics was a  HIT for part of our physical education requirement!  Of the three kids who did it, who do you think was the best?  Austin (6), Audrey (5 next month), or Cody (3)?  Remember.  Audrey also has dance class once a week doing tap and ballet.  :)

We went to Chik-fil-A for dinner since it was Kid night!  The minute we walked in the door, the kids were whisked away to make turkey hand prints!  Then they all waited, very patiently I might add, for the balloon lady to make them special balloons.  After they ate their dinner they got to play in the place space there for a while.  I like the space there.  Only one way in/out and it's into the restaurant.  Sanitizing hand wipes at the door to clean hands before and/or after.  Chik-fil-A has a new regular customer family in us!

It's a simpler life.  Less stress.  Less hurry up and go.  Less struggles with 'homework' and more enjoyment with one another.  I know.  I"m only on day 3 today... but this feels so right for our family and I pray it continues!

Day 1

 The first day of homeschooling!  Yes.  You read that right.  We are homeschooling.  My children had been enrolled at a local Catholic school, and due to changes in curriculum and staffing, we felt this was a better choice for our family.  We filled out the forms required by California, and boom.  We are officially homeschooling.  We must teach, English, math, social sciences, science, fine arts, health and physical education.  But HOW we teach it, WHEN we introduce it, and WHAT methods we use are up to us.  There is no mandate that says I have to follow any specific curriculum.  I don't have to 'test' my children or have them take state testing or otherwise.  We do not have to follow Common Core and use the backwards methods they teach.  It's beautiful! 

You will see in the picture above our first day as we were taking Cody to Tiny Tots.  Yes.  He will still attend Tiny Tots.  It's inexpensive, close by and allows me more 1:1 time with the older two for more personalized study. 

 This picture above is homeschooling.  Working on dry erase boards with the handwriting lines on writing capital letters.  Funny.  Audrey was 'tested' at school to see what letters she recognized and could write.  She missed almost all except A, B, C, D, E and F.  The letters they had already covered in class.  Yet when I presented it to her individually and in a relaxed manner, she actually DID recognize most of them.  And could write most of them as well in a copycat format.  This will be a daily thing for us until she can do it by herself.... which I suspect won't be long!

This picture is also homeschooling.  My book in the front is my record book to keep track of what we are working on and what skills my children need help with or have mastered.  They are working on geo boards.  Great little plastic boards with small raised dots to put rubber bands on them.  This is math.  This is patterning.  This is spatial relations.  At school, a child may have 15-20 minutes in a center to work on an activity like this.  My 6 year old worked on it for 45 minutes non stop before asking to do something else.  My almost 5 year old?  1.5 hours!!!!!  No joke!  She wanted to keep doing it over and over and over and made many many patterns and we did addition with 2 + 3 = 5 over and over with the patterning she did. 

Long periods of uninterpreted play, exploration, and activity time are essential for kids to learn great skills.  I plan to provide those times for my children on a regular basis.  Some days it may not be possible.  I still have to go grocery shopping.  Do laundry.  Clean house.  Run other errands as necessary.  But if I can give them long time periods every day to work on these skills, I bet I will have faster readers, better math skills, and overall, better behaved children as well! 

Yesterday was my first day homeschooling, and I thoroughly enjoyed it with my kids!  On to day 2 today and we will see what it brings!