Well, it turns out friends that we LOVE homeschool way more than we could have imagined. Our days are so peaceful and calm. The kids wake up whenever they are ready which somedays isn't until 9:30. We don't have to worry about their over-exhaustion if they stay out late the night before. If I can tell Kason is having trouble focusing, we take a quick break. House chores have been easy to complete since we are home all day. I never could figure out how I was so busy with kids in school, but I felt like I was always shuttling kids somewhere or volunteering. While homeschool has been a very positive experience for us, I will share that it is a lot of work on my end. I chose not to go with a curriculum {for various reasons}, but to create my own so I have a lot of preparation to do. I also recently started a small business, so balancing the two has been a challenge for me. The only other obstacle is that I don't ever have time to myself...I'm with my kids 24/7 again like when they were toddlers. It hasn't been a huge struggle, but I do miss the 3-4 hours a week last year that I had to myself. With that said, I'm still so thankful we chose to homeschool this year. I can tell this year is going to be a blessing to all three of us! So, I'm sure you are wondering what we have been up to?!
For English...I try to do a lot of hands on learning. For Zoe, we are still working on letter recognition and beginning sounds. I try to take pictures here and there so I can document all our learning!
She loves to pretend play with an old laptop we no longer use, so I have a leftover keyboard she practices her letters on. Kason is currently finishing up our noun unit before moving on to another part of speech...
He and Zoe have a writing prompt two days a week and then when Zoe is in school, he works on spelling. I do a combination of online spelling games and phonics...
We have slowly eased into a reading unit. Kason and I go to the library every Tuesday and load up with a stack of books. He has to pick one book to read and test on, then he can pick however many other books he wants to read for fun. I'm personally working on exposing them to as many genres as I can this year, so each week I pick out a biography for us to read. Little lady adores books, so we always pick up 2-3 just for her.
Our first reading unit is learning all about fairy tales, folk tales, and tall tales!
For Math...again, as much hands on learning as I can get in! Zoe is working on number recognition and counting...
She is really into building right now, so I do have stem bins set up for them. One day I had her create a bridge that cars had to drive over smoothly. It was fun to watch her work out the kinks and make adjustments.
For Kason, I do use Saxon Math as a guide. I always create my own lesson, then we use the book for practice. It has taken me a little bit to get adjusted to the structure of Saxon since there aren't worksheets for him, it's an old school model where he has to write the problems on paper. I do like that it spirals, so Kason is constantly reviewing what we've preciously worked on.
Kason loves online games {like all kids!}, so one or two days a week he gets to do a math game at the end of our lesson and practice.
I do love that we are able to get outside on cooler days for school! Here we were swatting our place value...
Zoe has also been working on her fine motor skill of cutting/pasting while Kason was working on place value. He would get a number using cards and would have to arrange the smallest number possible, then switch it to the largest number. When reviewing number lines, I introduced Kason to negative numbers. I could tell it was a bit confusing, so the next day in Math we went outside so he could review drawing one with sidewalk chalk.
I also have loved how easy it has been for me to apply real life into their learning. One day when working with adding and regrouping, I applied it to money where he had to add up items if he was to purchase lunch at Chick-fil-A. After we finished, we went to Chick-fil-A for lunch where he had to use cash to pay for his meal. I paid separately and we were then able to have a discussion about whose meal cost more.
I also applied the same idea to a Farmer's Market one day. After paying for the items we wanted, he had to determine if he had enough money left over to buy himself a treat!
I think one of his favorite activities so far has been using QR codes. I found this activity online where I taped sunglasses with addition problems around the room. He walked around and answered all the problems, then used my phone to scan the QR codes on the computer to see if his answers were correct! This was a huge incentive for him to finish.
We aren't starting Social Studies until next week, but we just finished a Solar System unit. My plan is to study the globe this year, encompassing cultures, maps, landforms, and habitats/biomes. So we started with the Solar System and are then zooming into Earth. From there we will zoom even closer to the US, Texas, and then Austin at the end of the year. We read a lot in Science, soaking in as many facts as we can! I also have several little videos we watch along with hands on learning and I also make flash cards to practice Science vocabulary words for each unit which is important for him when he reaches older grades. We made a sundial one day to track time with the sun like previous generations...
We stayed up late a few nights observing the moon after learning about moon phases....
I've been able to integrate several subjects like in Math when working on ordinal numbers, I had Kason line up the planets and label them with their ordinal numbers.
We made constellations...
and our own meteors! Then, we had them crash into a "moon/planet" and observed what happened.
I've been teaching Kason how to take notes which is new for him. For the planets, he created a flip book with a drawing and three facts for each planet. It was a really good exercise in learning how to return to our reading material for information.
We ended our unit by learning all about astronauts and rockets. We read about Neil Armstrong going to the moon and how the crew landed in the Pacific ocean...then read about how crews land in modern day. While rocket ships have wheels and no longer land in water, they both use parachutes to slow down. So, Kason had to create a parachute by determining the material {including weight}, type of string {including how thick}, and the weights used for his "rocket". We recorded the time it took to drop from a high point and were able to discuss how effective his parachute was.
I'm excited for our field trip coming up in two weeks...we are going to NASA! So, yes...we are loving all this real life, practical, hands on learning we get to do each week!
I'm especially loving the privilege of encouraging this guy right here. He has struggled with confidence the last few years, so it's my mission to reveal to him his strength, his smarts, and the gifting God has blessed him with.
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