Thursday, September 20, 2012

The other side of the table.






Gemma in an elephant suit, coloring an excavator.

Art in the morning.


Aiden worked on his Usborne drawing, doodling, and coloring book today. He worked on it first thing this morning for probably an hour. I am going to do this again, since he had lots of energy to develop the page and was very interested in the task. Pics.....

 
Immersed. 

 
The instructions were to color the rest of the robots (the orange one is the print) and to create new ones. Aiden proudly showed me his created robot eyes and to the small one he added a TV.

My biking boy.

Aiden is always riding his bike. He got a new one this year, handed down from his cousin :)


 
In action!!

Fort Building Day

Aiden and Gemma helped mom build this fort for hours one afternoon. Aiden helped hold up the boards and Gemma gave mom some screws. Aiden named it Imagination Fort, which mom painted on the sign. Keiran was up from his nap by then so all the kids painted the sign. Mom hung some flags and a sheet and then the fort was done.

 
All smiles.

Flag wall. 

 
The sign.

 
Come on in!

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

A real note.

We are enjoying homeschool so much. It leaves more time for family and this mom loves the joy of watching her kids learn. Just so you know, it is not all butterflies, we have a few things that we need to work on. Not all is perfect, that is why it's called learning, not knowing. Aiden needs to learn to focus more- this is nothing new. If he gets in a mood, he needs reminders. The other thing is neatness, and I think that this is coming along. I found a poem about small, tall, and falling letters, and these kind of notes help Aiden. Gentle reminders beforehand make life more easy, as too much correction leads to discouragement and that comes out as ornery.  
Aiden is seeming to like Math, Science, and English the best. He has loved to write since he could form letters and it is interesting to watch him develop a love for other subjects.
We are at the beginning of week four already! We are in a groove now. I love watching all three kids run down the stairs, to the school room, when it is time to start. Oh, and on that note, I am appreciating having a room set aside, with a lock on it so that no kiddos get into the work. We don't always work there but I prefer it, as Aiden seems to focus more easily. I do however need to get some activities to keep Keiran busy so that he is not distracting.
I am so glad that my plans did not work out. There are so many things that I appreciate about learning at home. 

Little bird.

My sweet Gemma. I can't help but think that she is becoming an artist. It amazes me because before we started school, three weeks ago, she had no interest in coloring or anything. Here is her depiction of the thrush- mom outlined a tree for her....




A few pics of our week :)

A little of week three: 

  Social studies- Learning about the Arctic, Atlantic, and Pacific Oceans.

 
My Aunt had given us this Canadian puzzle map and I thought it was a great activity to start our lesson.

 
 Aiden read about this thrush in his english book. I love that Aiden blended the colors of the thrush, which is just like it was depicted in the story. He used tissue paper for the leaves. 

 
"Mom, look at my perfect six!" 

 
His numbers are becoming more defined. I wrote out the numbers 1-9 for him and stuck them on the front of his desk, as he was having a little trouble remembering in which direction to write them. I think this is because he is left handed so when he copies the teacher, it leaves him backwards. This reminder has been working perfectly, as you can see :)

 
A little health and career to nourish your body. Aiden making stuffing.

 
A smile. The meal is done. He helped to make the chicken, stuffing, beans, corn, and pasta (we usually make potatoes with this meal but we were out).

 
Yum, yum, the stuffing is done. 

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Highlight of week 2.

This was my favorite homeschool moment so far. The social studies lesson was about the compass rose. Daddy took on the lesson and taught Aiden about his compass, exceeding the lesson without even looking. We pasted each wall of the school room with N, E, S, or W. Then Aiden worked on a treasure hunt worksheet.

Socials/love. A lesson on how a compass works.

Now to use that compass rose to find the treasure on the map.

Meanwhile in little town..... :)

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

What Mamma learned.

I am glad that we started a week early, on a whim, and tried out all of our subjects. It was nice to feel no pressure when easing in to a new schedule. A friend of mine even suggested taking one subject a day and adding on to that. A test week is a good idea. There are also some things that I need to think about for next year....
Tip: Try out a lesson or two from your books (if possible before you buy) to make sure that it fits your child. We had one book that was great in content and stated that it was for six-fourteen, but seems like it may be at a grade four level because of the vocabulary. I will keep this book for another year. Our science has this same multi-age format, but in contrast it works great because it has been clearly sectioned out according to age.
Instead of this book, which was a character building book to teach my kids about faith and servanthood, I pulled a kids bible off the shelf for now and may continue just reading from this. I am amazed at what I get out of this too. I am seeing grace in the simple old bible stories that we learned as kids. It hit me that sometimes we learn in part and there is value in learning things in stages. This may be obvious maybe in education, but this is ringing true for me in faith too right now. The story of Cain and Abel is an example. It hit me that the story in which Cain is kicked out of Eden, is still a story of grace, and not just of bad behavior as I remember. God answered Cain's cry, even as he was receiving consequences, and God marked him so that no one could harm him. It was great to be able to teach this story in whole and talk about it in the van. This is what I am trying to impart in my kids lives.... Learning with grace.
Anyways, we are in. We are homeschooling. And as the days come in waves, hard and easy, we will be glad that we have this opportunity. The more that I seek out what I want to teach my kids, the more I want that impact to come from home.

Week One! Trying it all out.

We are done the first week and starting to get a groove going. We usually start school at around 9am, after we are done breakfast, getting dressed, brushing teeth, and making our beds. I won't always do this, but here is a sample of our week:

ENGLISH
English review.

An alphabet museum of magazine pics.

 Recognizing sounds and matching.

The books that we read as part of our English this week. Ella sings Jazz is about singer Ella Fitzgerald. We had fun looking up her old songs on the internet and listening to her jazz and bepop songs. This English program is great. Mom loves that it incorporates art and music in the language learning. Aiden is loving it too!
 
A Robert Munsch book that Aiden read to us all for fun (and practice).
 
BIBLE (Health and Career)
Our picked faith/character book didn't work out, so for now I just grabbed a kids bible off of the shelf and Aiden is journaling along with it. (He is not used to using single lined paper yet so it is a little all over the place.)
 
ART
This week Aiden learned about lines, strokes, smushes, and really just to play with your paint brush and colors in order to get a feel for it. This turned out great.
 
SOCIAL STUDIES
A map of our home and places Aiden likes to go. I think he was thinking of the bank because he received some allowance from doing all his chores. :)
 

His worksheet. We also rapped C-A-N-A-D-A to learn the letters in Canada. This was the fave subject for the week.
 
SCIENCE
The creation of man. Aiden drew a self portrait to go along with this lesson. (He was in a mood this morning and so I threw in this older activity that was meant for the next level and it seemed to get him back on track a bit.)
 
MATH
Review.

Counting.
 
 
AND SOME EXTRAS
The days.

The weather.
 
PRE-K AND KB (Which stands for Keiry Baby... or as dad calls him, Killer Bee).
And this is where my littles have been. Gemma has been glued to this chair with the smelly markers, and has been so focused on her coloring- something new for her.
Keiran is a little wild still, as he is only two years old, but the both of them have been listening in on the books we read. Altogether, our "test week" went well. Mom has now worked out her planner and we are in homeschool!