Golden Acorn Homeschool

This is just me posting about my general excitement with homeschooling.  (Yes, I am still excited about it.)

It seems like we have really hit a stride where the kids just know what to expect from the day and I don’t deal with very much resistance anymore.  I love that we have finally sunk into a good routine for the year.  I have realized that I CAN homeschool three kids, still manage to bathe them, wash some laundry, and put a meal on the table (that I cooked myself) nearly every night.  Yes, sometimes we eat out, or I let people fend for themselves.  No shame in that!

Adding Zoey into the mix as an “official” preschooler took some juggling.  Also having Sydni working in Ambleside Year 1 and Cole in Year 3, meant a lot more work and reading (for me) overall.  At this point, I have stopped trying to work with them at the same time.  I was reading/working with one child while another did independent work, but no more!  It worked for the past two years, but this year I was finding that I was being constantly interrupted by the “independently” working child and that everyone was losing focus and getting frustrated, too distracted, or just slipping through the cracks.

Now, I am starting the day with all three kids and doing the things we do together: Bible, hymn, artist study, composer study, Spanish (not everything, every day!).  After we complete the “circle time” session (as I call it), I choose a child to work with one at a time.  Zoey takes about 15-20 minutes a day, so I usually begin with her since she has a much shorter attention span anyway.  Then Cole and Sydni take turns on a daily basis over who works with me first, and who takes a play break first.  I get through all of their work quickly and efficiently, and then move on to the next kid.  We are still finishing up our school work most days by lunchtime or shortly after.

This does mean that for those hours we are doing schoolwork that I get almost nothing else done because I am literally moving from kid to kid to kid.  I used to be able to do some dishes or start a load of laundry while they were working on their own – not so much anymore, but that’s ok.  Cole is working his way to being independent much of the time, as his reading fluency continues to increase, along with his ability to digest more complicated readings.

I am also SUPER excited about some good things happening with the kids and their development and learning.  Sydni has already finished her first Pathway Reader for this school year, and at the rate she is going, will be moving on to the 2nd grade readers by the Spring.  I am also happy about a VERY long and detailed narration that Cole gave on the “Pecos Bill” tall tale.  I think I will type it up and share it this weekend.  The chapter was quite long and I stopped five times during the story and had him narrate.  He did a great job and remembered some really interesting details.

It’s also nice to see additions to our “Staircase of Time.”

(This was taken right after I finished drawing it, I should take a new one!)

Having a huge visual tool for tracking historical events is really helping things stick in the kids’ minds.  Sydni even drew little crowns over the names of Phillip the II of Macedon and Alexander the Great to help her remember they were kings.  CUTE!  Tell me how many 1st graders you know who even have an idea of who those people are?  :-D

Yeah, I really love homeschooling.  WOOT!

I blog an awful lot about what is going on in our little homeschool with Cole, and often, Sydni as well.  I don’t talk about Zoey very much, but I am not a big fan of forcing early education.  I feel that in the long run, what matters in preschool is imitation, play, and exploration.  I know not everyone agrees with me!

Anyway, I took Zoey aside this morning to work on her letters in a new (and hopefully fun!) way: making letters in flour.  I poured some flour onto two plates, and then I drew the letter we would be working on as an example to her.  This way she learns any letters that are unfamiliar to her (which, I am pretty sure she knows them all) and she learns how to form those letters without being required to wield a pencil or crayon and form them.

She had a BLAST!

We practiced a few and she was very proud of herself.

After a few minutes, Sydni was wrapping up her computer lesson and wanted to join us.  I gave the girls a deck of “ABC” flashcards, and they took turns drawing cards from the deck and writing them in flour.  This allows Sydni an opportunity to teach her sister, which makes her more confident in what she knows, and solidifies that knowledge.

There are lots of fun ways to practice this technique, and it can be used for letters, numbers, phonics sounds/blends, addition/subtraction facts, etc.  You can use flour, sand, or shaving cream.  Another fun way to practice letters is to make dough (think pretzels) and have the children form the letters with the dough and bake them.  It’s tasty learning!

:-)

I don’t post very much about the work I do with Monkey. I do “teach” her, but she is three and I feel the majority of what she should be learning right now is simply imitative play. Her brain is working so hard to understand her world, I don’t need to bog her down with academics. She makes certain leaps and connections on her own, and I take her interests and expand them as far as she is comfortable with at this point.

However, she can feel left out of the “school” work, especially when we “do math.” Why is it all of a sudden you are “doing school” or “doing math” when you start to homeschool? Anyway, I digress.

There are certain math concepts that are good for a preschooler to have an understanding of. Basic counting and sorting are good places to start. I have found a nifty little resource for allowing her to work on these skills in a way she seems to enjoy – Zoo Pals Funtensils!

I picked up a box of these in the fall, and she has been using them all year long! She loves them. She started off just by counting them. But now she sorts them; by color, by use (fork, spoon, knife) and by animal. Then she counts how many are in those different groups.

Lately, she has been sorting them, and then selecting a numbered flash card to lay on top that matches the number of utensils in her group. It keeps her busy during math time, and she feels like she is an active part of our little homeschool. All for under $2. Plus, they work great for feeding various “babies” and doing double duty as part of her play kitchen. They are also dishwasher safe. What more can a busy mom ask for? ;-)