My Reader

This ends our second week of school. We've been relaxed, we've gone with the flow, and we are setting good routines.

It warmed my heart the other evening over dinner when Naomi, unprompted, announced to JR: "I read my Bible, Daddy! On the taoch wif Momma!" That was the most exciting part of her day! ...warmed my heart...

The other area that is going really well with our schooling is Gideon's reading. We borrowed the Bob Books from some friends and are working our way through them. But since Gideon memorizes things so fast, I wanted to make sure he was reading and not just memorizing the words.

So, I made flash cards of the words. (JR uses flashcards for Greek so Gideon feels "like Daddy" when I quiz him.) When G gets a word right, I hurl the card at him. He thinks this is hilarious, and... quite honestly, I like the catharsis. :) Sometimes I have him arrange his flash cards into sentences.

We also have at least one day were we go to our glass door and WRITE ON THE DOOR! I found crayons that are designed for glass. G LOVES them. I get to rearrange the words he knows into new sentences so he can't memorize the story. We make them as funny as we can.

Once he is consistently getting the flash cards, we move to the book. And we try to give him many opportunities to show off his reading skills.

He's doing a great job. Each lesson lasts 10-15 min. (15 min. is pushing it.) He's doing great with book 1 and 2. Next week... book 3.

(All these photos were taken today.)

First Day of Pre-K 2/4

Yesterday we began our school year here at home.  While everyone else was snapping pics of their children with new back-backs standing up against their front doors headed off to preschool or kindergarten, we were... still in our pajamas.

You see, life has been crazy busy the past few weeks.  JR and I were both in class this weekend, and all of us slept in till 9 Monday morning.  Needless to say, this did not set us off to a great beginning.

But we plunged a head as scheduled (just about an hour to an hour and a half off).

We followed our schedule with the additions of taking our own in-front-of-door-first-day-of-school pics:


As you can see... these didn't turn out so great. :)













But don't worry...


Since the shaded front porch was "too bright" we went under a tree:






After we did our "photo session" (which were not edited), we headed back in to read our "BFIAR" book.


We followed my lesson plans fairly well. We are getting into a new routine. (I'm really loving working in our Bible reading, exercising, and cleaning into routine.)

I'll leave you with a few more photos of the kids at work drawing what they would wear (in response to "Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?")

Preschool Plan

We will begin our preschool this coming Monday, Aug. 23.

When I finish with this post I will have a few crafty things to make in preparation, but we are all getting really excited about this, and I'm more ready than I was last spring.

Drawing from the Charlotte Mason ideas about early childhood education, we will be focusing on establishing good habits that will be with the kids throughout their lives.

Here is our basic schedule:
*Wake up
*Breakfast
*15 min. of independent Bible reading (I will read from my Bible... the kids will have their choice of their picture Bibles to look through on their own)
*15 min. of light exercise (dancing to music, push-ups, sit-ups, stretches)
*Get Ready-- get dressed, brush teeth, hair, make bed
*Morning Meeting (discuss the plan for the day as well as Bible verse for the week and work on calendar items, ie days of the week, months, ect. and weather)
*READ our Before Five in a Row ("BFIAR") and other books aloud
*Cleaning chore for the day (This summer I gave each day a specific chore and it's been helping me keep on top of all the chores better)
*Table Time (craft, coloring, cutting, writing)
*Game Time
*BFIAR activity
*FREE TIME (while I make lunch)
*Lunch
*Chapter Book Reading
*Naomi down for nap while Gideon gets a reading lesson



It sounds like a whole lot when I type it out, but each segment should only take about 15 min. There is a lot of play involved. A lot of reading... and my kids LOVE this kind of thing. In fact, today, Gideon wanted to "play preschool" and he was the teacher. He structured our lessons around Jesus. After our "circle time" he had us draw pictures of Jesus while we listened to Seeds Family worship. Then he put on a "show" for us. Then we went back to the "craft" area and he had us draw pictures of the cross. He was very complimentary of my drawings, and hung them on the fridge. :)

In addition to working on good habits, we will be working on obedience and our attitudes.

Also we will be changing our before-bed routine. During cuddle time we will be reading through the DK Illustrated Family Bible.


I have the first 3 weeks already marked out in my great planner. I'm on top of things this time, peeps!

I plan to give detailed reports each week to keep me accountable and organized, as well as documented. :)

Reading

This week we are reading

as a family.

"Stuart Little" is the only book JR remembers enjoying as a boy. :)

The entire family is enjoying the cuddle-time on the couch with this short, imaginative book. Gideon and Naomi like to giggle at the voices JR has for the different characters.

Today, as part of school, the kids and I drew pictures of "Stuart". This is the beginning process to get them to start processing the information they are learning. As their drawing skills improve, I'll expect more details from the story. Right now, their verbal responses indicate that they are engaged in the story and are remembering it from chapter to chapter.



These drawings are the beginning stages of what will one day be book reports. (It's nice to see it in the simple beginning stages, isn't it?)



What books have you enjoyed reading aloud as a family?

$3.48

Yesterday, while the kids and I were strolling around Target, we came across several "light oak" 3 shelf bookshelves and the price said "$3.48 marked down from $4.99". Really!?! (The "espresso" ones were marked down to $17.48.) Three and a half dollars for a bookcase?!

Jr and I had just been talking about our need for a new bookcase, but even on Craigslist, we couldn't find on we were willing to put money into.

So I got it. But, being me, and knowing that the "light oak" didn't go with my decor... I made an additional stop by Michaels to pick up some "Mod Podge".


The original bookcase (minus the back)

I almost finished it last night. I say "almost" because I actually ran out of Mod Podge. However, I have reworked my living room and set up the new bookcase as the "Homeschool Bookcase".

The kids have been so excited by this little change in the living room. G is in raptures about how everything looks. And both kids have been re-discovering all of our homeschool games that have always been on the larger bookcase that has since been moved to another corner. Go figure.




notice the inside sides?


I (with the kid's help) wrinkled up craft paper to get this cool finish.


Instead of putting the back that came with the bookcase on it, I took some of my spare fabric and now the back is a deep blue velvet.

So... $3.48 became a little DIY project for the day, but I am loving the way it turned out.
-Daisha

First day of HomePreschool

This morning began a new chapter in our family. HomePreschool (yes, I'm typing it this way on purpose). I thought about calling it "One-Day-at-a-Time" school... so, we'll see how it goes. But today was pretty good.

We started out talking about preschool at breakfast, where we spent half of our time making elephant noises.




(trying)


"I'll show you, Naomi!"


Give me a moment!


(Naomi's elephant noise face)

We went up stairs and got ready (including shoes, which stumped Gideon). Then we headed down stairs for our first-day-of-HomePreschool pics.





Gideon grabbed Naomi's hand while I was taking their pictures.


Class Picture:


After pictures we started out with circle time where I greeted them and told them how excited I was to begin preschool with them. Gideon asked if I was his teacher. When he found out I was, he started referring to me as "Teacher". I explained how the day was going to go, and then we kicked off our first activity.

SORTING BOXES:

I have put together 4 different sorting games. Each unit can be played in multiple ways. Gideon's first task was to separate his fluff-balls (for lack of a better term) by color.





Naomi's first task was to get the pipe-cleaners into the holes punched in the lid of the Pringles can. She loves this game.







Gideon's next task was to line up the fluff-balls from biggest to smallest.



Naomi's next game was to sort the glass pebbles into the right jar by color. She did an EXCELLENT job at this.



The kids, hard at work... (G is separating out all the blue fluff-balls)





She how she has put all of the pebbles in the right jar all by herself!?

For our transition times, we had "Book Time".


I let them read by themselves while I tidied up from our Sorting Boxes, and then they both picked out books that I read out loud to them.

Then, when our timer (which I was using to help me regulate our schedule) went off, it was off to our next "center": Color Hunt!

The color we are concentrating on this week is Blue. (Gideon's favorite color. And N even calls it "Didden's cudder".)


(during the hunt)



After we picked this up, we headed back down-stairs for book time. While the kids were reading, I fixed them a little snack.

Post snack-time, they had 20 min. of free play.

Our next "center" was supposed to be Alphabet Time. However, I wasn't quite as on top of my game as I wished to be. So we hooked the computer up to the tv to play some alphabet games on www.pbskids.org. Which turned out to be kind of frustrating since some of the games wouldn't load for us. Be we kept moving on. (hey, the kids didn't know that I had loftier goals)

Next we got bundled up to head outside for recess. (they were both so excited) Gideon is really good at riding his scooter. It is really cold here (below freezing), and there is a biting wind. So I bundled up my Florida babies well and we walked all over campus until JR got out of class.







And thus ended our first day of HomePreschool.

So far, it's do-able. I'm learning as I go, and we've got more academic-y things planned during the week. We will do preschool Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

Stay tuned for all the fun.