I have a lot of people ask me how homeschool is going. I’m working on a post about my Probably Irrational Homeschool Fears, but all in all, it’s going well. I can’t stress enough the positive difference in schooling with a 5 and a half year old versus a nearly 5 year old. For the most part our school days go smoothly…as smoothly as anything goes around here…. I had a friend ask me how I keep the “babies” (almost 4 and 4 years old) out of the way, quiet, and not attention-hogging. I had a really easy answer for her: I don’t. We just work around, through, or with them as needed.
Backwards: What we did last week
This was a light week. It was our first week back from after our vacation and we had co-op and MOPS this week both of which are new activities to combine with schooling. We’re also working on some character issues, which will keep taking precedence for the next week or so, if I’m not mistaken. So we’ve had more interruptions than normal.
Bible Story & Memory Work: Bible stories we did every day and we did the memory work three times.
History: Twice, including co-op. This is a lot less than we usually do and we both missed it this week.
Read Alouds: We finished Dr. Doolittle which Peanut LOVED and we highly recommend! I meant to finish the lapbook we started about it, but we didn’t get around to that. We are terrible at lapbooks. We also read selections from two poetry books and have been working through a collection of Beatrix Potter which all the kids have loved.
Science: Once at co-op (WHOOPS, lol)
Readers: I’ve changed what I’ve required Peanut to do in regards to reading aloud several times. Skill-wise he’s probably somewhere on the second grade level although he does need more “white space” on his pages, but for awhile I was pushing too hard with the reading and having him read two assigned stories a day. He was capable and I liked the amount of time that it amounted to in reading minutes, but he started resisting. I know he has the skill to read, but I want him to have the desire to read. Now we only do one assigned story a day and we alternate those with “Peanut’s Choice” reading days. Now we’re ‘behind’ the curriculum, but he’s enjoying reading more again.
Spelling: We’ve been putting spelling off a lot because it is a subject that we need to be undisturbed for and that’s hard to come by. Again, lucky for us, he is a good speller (for a five year old, lol) and so I haven’t worried too much about this. We probably have about two months left in our spelling program and the end is significantly more challenging than the beginning so we’ll probably need to start being a little more steady with this. We did official spelling once this week and then co-op using a lot of writing as well.
Math: Three times this week (usually 4) and a day of playing games on the computer for math. I have a few ipad apps that are okay, but we haven’t found one that hits it out of the park for us yet.
Additionally: Peanut is taking French in co-op, we did some “home-ec” where I let him help me chop vegetable with an actual knife. There was lots of wincing (from me) but no blood! We played board games this week, he did lots of drawing, played soccer with Andrew, and made and painted a treasure chest from clay.
Homeschool Forward: We’re looking forward to starting to learn how to draw maps, starting a new read aloud, and finishing one of his readers. We make a mini-big-deal any time we finish a book. We’re going to do last week’s and this week’s science experiments and if I’m really brave we’re going to paint macaroni necklaces.
How about you? What did you get done last week and what are you looking forward to this week?
I love this. And I love when you said, "We’re also working on some character issues, which will keep taking precedence for the next week or so, if I’m not mistaken."
ReplyDeleteLOL. That is the most diplomatic sentence ever, and I LOVE it. That is where we are at too. And homeschooling one 14 year old bears very little resemblance to homeschooling a 5 year old with 2 4 year olds around. Our focus is on reading and writing. I don't care what he is reading or what he writes about, but he HAS to do both every single day. He has trouble focusing, so he follows along with an audiobook. This week he picked White Fang. We are working through an Algebra textbook when we have time, and he is studying weather for science. We don't do any formal history because he does that on his own.
That sounds like good stuff for a "big kid". :) I look forward to when they can do more independently!
DeleteI love the part about reading- I totally agree. The love of reading and the desire to read is the most important.
ReplyDeleteAs for our homeschooling last week? We, um, sort of worked mostly on what Dew Drop wanted to work on. I was lazy, but she wasn't. We're not nearly as structured as you are- though we're technically doing Pre-K (but really doing kindergarten and some first grade)
I had big plans for Pre-K all of which turned out to nothing but more of what we'd done for the past all of their lives...playing and reading. :)
DeleteIt's funny you called us structured because I feel very unstructured, but it's working for us so far! Now, I have to add another kindergartner the next two years in a row so we'll see how that goes! lol
So last week, due to some Jewish holiday, the girls had no school Monday, then James had his classes Thursday (which kills the day), and Friday we went out of town! So this week, we were travelling Monday, had a field trip today that killed the entire day, girls have Wed off for another Jewish holiday, James has classes Thursday, and Friday he has art in the morning and then girls come home from school at 1pm (prob. for another Jewish holiday!). So for two weeks of school, we will have a whopping 4 days of school total! Woohoo!!! I want to be DONE with the units we are working on right now and move on, but they just keeeeeppppp draaaaggggiiiinnnggg..... and this afternoon when I gave James his to-do list (VERY manageable) he says "Mom, I didn't take my chill pill today!" haha! He never refers to his adhd meds that way, but maybe I have... :) I said "I gave it to you w/ your water and everything!" My mistake was walking away instead of staring at him while he takes it and making sure he's not hiding it.... I thought we might be over that, but oh well. I have hopes that ONE DAY he will not require constant one on one to get things done. I'm hoping that is the role of keeping him home so I can ride his butt and keep him honest while also helping his independence. Doesn't seem like those two things will go together though..... We'll see how this works out.....
ReplyDeleteSo there ya go. You had an amazing week, afa I'm concerned!
Emily