The Homeschool Mother's Journal #4

• IN MY LIFE THIS WEEK... I had another "Lord, I can't do this on my own" break down the other night. I must say that I stress out sooner, anger builds oh too quickly and my focus switches to myself when I don't pray and read God's Word on a daily basis. Not that I am any more "spiritual" when I pray and read the Bible, but I am strengthened and can LOVINGLY guide my children when I commit myself to these particular activities. 
• IN OUR HOMESCHOOL THIS WEEK... We've had sickness this week, so we read books, put puzzles together and watched a few educational shows on PBS for a couple of days. 
• PROGRESS REPORT... Adelle was able to read several single-vowel words this week!  
• WHAT'S WORKING/NOT WORKING FOR US...We're using A Beka for K5 lessons with Adelle (well, for everyone b/c everyone sits in on her lessons). We're using the very basic phonics, writing and numbers. I like the way phonics is going. I can't decide if I like the numbers part or not and we're taking the handwriting slower. I had originally planned to do lessons year round, however, I'm finding that I need to rethink this. I am thinking that I will tweak my plan that will allow us to charge on with phonics and numbers with handwriting being the majority of "lessons" throughout the summer (along with fun summer activities!). 
• I'M COOKING... Nothing to speak of. I'm in a rut. I need some inspiration!
• MY FAVORITE THING THIS WEEK WAS... All the cuddle time Adelle and I shared this week while she was under the weather.
• I AM THANKFUL FOR... our homeschool support group! 
• SCRIPTURE OF THE WEEK... "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." Philippians 4:13

Blend Sounds and Bible Lesson

Our phonics and numbers lessons are so short that we combine 2 lessons into 1 pretty well. Even though we are going to be a little behind this week (due to multiple doctor/dentist appointments), I didn't feel too bad about making today a review and art day. 

          

Adelle has begun to learn blend sounds in her lessons. For a review, I made a simple bingo game. I traced a small hexagon pattern onto construction paper, wrote in all the vowels, t & l and then all of those blend sounds. 

Adelle and Jonathan played this together. I said a blend or letter sound and they had to find the letters on the page. Jonathan (being only 3 and not ready for blends yet) listened for the single sounds and Adelle listened for the blend sounds. Both children are doing very very well. 

          

         

We've picked up our Bible lessons again with Day 4 of the Creation story. I've kinda put the Bible lessons to the back burner for a short time simply b/c I had a hard time figuring out how to get it in with everything else.  (So so bad of me!) 

We played 'Egg Carton Shake', a number recognition game that I talked about in a previous post. Today's game had numbers up to 4 and a cat and a dog. This game is mostly for Jonathan, but Adelle gets a kick out of shaking the egg carton too.  :-)

Adelle has also been working on her handwriting. She's learning how to write in cursive (different, right?). The curriculum has been moving a little quick (in my humble opinion) with those lessons, so I've slowed it down a bit and giving her lots of tracing practice. So far she's learned how to write all the vowels, letter t & letter l (all lower case). Letter l giving her trouble, so she's really practicing those before we move on to the letter b, which will be tomorrow. 

And we just can't leave out all the life skills that they're learning along the way.  :-D

It's been a CrAzY Monday with a crazy rest-of-the-week in store. Nonetheless, I LOVE homeschooling my children!

The Homeschool Mother's Journal #3

• In my life this week... I feel like I have failed at everything this week. However, God is good. His grace is sufficient and I will get back up and keep going. 
• In our homeschool this week... In my previous post, I wrote about finally figuring out a routine to keep us on track. This new routine will go in effect Monday. We can do it!
• I am inspired by... the Charlotte Mason (teaching) Method. While this isn't our main curriculum right now, I do like what I am reading about this teaching method. We certainly are going to implement CM's scripture memory method. 
• My favorite thing this week was... the extra day of family time together we had due to the holiday. :-)
• I am reading... I started Love Takes Wing, the 6th book of the Love Comes Softly series by Janette Oke
• A quote to share... "Put a helmet on!" ~ says comedian, Brad Stine, when things are so obvious that it's stupid to even go there.  I like to holler this line a lot.   :-)
• Scripture for the week... Galatians 6:7-9 "Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary." 

Our Daily Routine

We started school about 4 weeks ago (right?). Adelle started piano lessons and Jonathan will start Kinder TOT this week. Now that we are in a groove, I think I finally have a schedule routine figured out for each day.... and every day looks different.

THE DAILY PLAN:

ADELLE (MON-THURS)

Get up and dress

Breakfast - Scripture reading/prayer/eat

School lessons and activities - includes Bible, story, phonics, math 

Library Story TIme (Wednesdays)

Lunch - Scripture reading/prayer/eat

Free Play (Usually outside)

Reading/Books with Mama

Writing practice/Seat work

Piano Lesson (Tuesdays)

Chores

Help with Laundry

Practice the piano (Wed -Sat, Mon)

Play learning games on Leapster Explorer (only 30 minutes)

Free Play (usually outside)

Dinner at the table with the entire family (includes Grandpa and Grandma)

Bath

Reward Chart

Bedtime Bible story/Prayers

 

Jonathan (MON-THURS)

Get up and dress

Breakfast - Scripture reading/prayer/eat

School lessons and activities - includes Bible, story, phonics, math 

Library Story TIme (Wednesdays)

Lunch - Scripture reading/prayer/eat

Kinder TOT (Thursdays)

Free Play (Usually outside)

Nap Time (anywhere from 1.5 to 2.5 hours)

Reading/Books with Mama

Help with chores

Help with Laundry

Play learning games on Vtech computer (only 30  minutes)

Free Play (usually outside)

Dinner at the table with the entire family (includes Grandpa and Grandma)

Bath

Reward Chart

Bedtime Bible story/Prayers

FRIDAYS

Friday is usually a fun day - free play most of the day, or field trips, play dates. We'll do school "work"  if we need to review some things or if we get a little behind (or need to get ahead).

Being a visual person, I have all this recorded on paper, I drew out each day individually(i am that visual) and put these activities in time slots, however, I made this schedule as a guideline to help keep us (me) on track. We may not follow the planned schedule at the exact time listed on the paper, but we are doing everything in the same order.  

Whew! These are some pretty eventful days!