I come up with such exciting titles for my blog posts, don't I? This is in contrast to some of the lovely and fun titles of books we've read for homeschool this fall and winter. Titles like "All Those Secrets of the World," "Snowflake Bentley," and coming up this week, "Truman's Aunt Farm."
Charlotte is in kindergarten, so I haven't been spending hours and hours planning. I did realize over Christmas, however, that I needed to plan *a bit more* than I had been in order to get more out of the experience. (In other words, if you think you are reading the blog of someone who has it all together, and has some great wisdom to impart, you are not... I'm just sort of stumbling through this!) We use "Five in a Row" which is somewhat "open and go" but since I request the books from the library, I do need to do some advanced planning in order to get the book from the library and any "go along" books that look fun.
I decided I needed a planner that is online, since I invariably lose bits of paper, plus I wanted to be able to have a place to save links and such. I ended up deciding to use Google Calendar, to put each book as an "event" for the week, and then save the info I wanted to refer to in the "event details." Works great, and better yet, it is free!
We are also working through "Reading Made Easy" by Valerie Bendt. We took over a month off from formal lessons, and I think that both Charlotte and I were surprised when I opened the book and she was reading words before I introduced the new word sounds. It has been SO much fun to see her reading skills develop, though she is still definitely an early reader (and lacks confidence a bit, I think.) Still, I get a kick out of asking her to read signs when we are out and about and that she can do it! What an exciting world is about to open up for her.
For handwriting, we are using "Handwriting without Tears." My dilemma with that has been that she has been writing since she was 3 years old, and had picked up her own "approach" along the way. But mostly she uses uppercase letters only. After looking ahead to the next books (We are in "Letters and Numbers for Me" I decided to let her quickly finish out the uppercase letters, and then we will slow down and work through the lowercase letters, since forming them are new for her. She recognizes them all by sight of course. Then we can work in the "Printing Power" workbooks and do copy work, fun things like copying a short poem and illustrating it. (I will be looking to Charlotte Mason resources for ideas for that!)
At this point in time, we don't have a math curriculum. I'm leaning toward a curriculum called "Math on the Level" that is very flexible, but covers everything you need to teach grades K-8. It has a wonderful support group online, and I like that it really does integrate applied learning. Also, the review is basically what the child needs, and reinforces concepts on an as-needed basis. (I am probably not explaining that well, there is a system to it, the parent can gauge where the child is and determine how much review they need, etc.) It would be a big purchase, though, so I am waiting a bit on that. For now, we are doing applied math lessons from Five in a Row and playing math games, plus talking about math in every day contexts.
Gwendolyn is learning her alphabet right now, and just loves to read books and play at this point. She is going to be four in April, so that is just fine with me! When FIAR books are appropriate for her (not too long) she listens into those.
Both girls spend a LOT of time doing art projects, usually painting or coloring with markers. Pretty much every single day! Also they love the usual things like playdough, Crayola "Wonder" coloring books, regular coloring books, coloring on our chalk board. It's so fun to watch the changes in their artwork. Gwen's drawings of people are getting more detailed, and Charlotte's are quite detailed now. And Charlotte has also taken to painting "landscapes" which are fun- yesterday she painted a sunset over the ocean! (Okay, a bit cliched, but hey I'm tempted to frame it and hang it in her bathroom, it would actually match!)
We are VERY on the go, which can be a challenge for me to stay on top of homeschool AND house related stuff. I think at some point... perhaps soon... we need to start sticking close to home more. But we are blessed with some great friends, and it's always fun to do outings with them. And they are usually educational, like heading to a local museum or park. (I think a park is educational!) We are fortunate to have a huge variety of different groups to chose from, and really my challenge is to make the hard decisions about which ones we should be involved with. I know there is a very real risk of getting over committed.
The girls have also been enjoying ice skating lessons! The first week was a disaster (one instructor! too many kids!) but the last two weeks have gone better. Gwendolyn is still not thrilled to be on the ice, but Charlotte really clicked with it last week and is actually skating! I was also glad to have a chance to chat with other moms while she was skating, since they are offering lessons specifically for homeschooling families.
I wrote this in hopes that I can start posting here about different homeschool things we do in the future. I wanted to provide some context, I guess! We'll see if I follow through with that, I have been so busy it is really hard to find the time/motivation to blog. But I do think that doing Project 365 has helped with that, I do have it on my mind to blog more often. (But no guilt for not doing it... I'm at peace with my lack of regular blogging, finally!)
