Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Homeschool, Take.... 3?

We usually unschool, but I have discoverd structure is very helpful for dd2, and dd1 loves to learn new things all the time, so I'm starting a more official homeschool schedule. I have some curricula, and I am also making a conscious effort to do our own schooling every day. I found a wonderful website called EnchantedLearning.com, and it has tons of printouts. Not just coloring pages and letter tracing, but mini books in French-English, lined paper to print out for our own use, worksheets like "label the parts of this airplane in Spanish" with answers, the detailed scientific parts of flowers, a short essay the history of aviation with related printouts, etc. Tons of resources. So while we wait for the official curricula, we are doing my stuff. Hopefully we'll stick with it! I think the packaged curriculum (Hearts of Dakota "Little Hearts For His Glory" will be really fun for dd2 to participate in, as well as being both fun and educational for dd1. Lots of songs and dramatic play that tie in with the reading and such. I *want* to update here a little of what we did every day, for some extra accountability, lol. 

So, before we start her phonics program, and as HOD hasn't arrived, I started us on a basic alphabet review--26 days. Today was A, obviously. We had pages to write out the letter A/a, color A words, color letter A/a, match the picture with the word, a little French-English page, and learning a new A sign. Dd1 loves capital A and can already draw it, but gets frustrated with little a. So we did a picture match, wrote one a. Did another picture match, wrote one a, etc. In the reading for the picture/word matches, dd1 was again foiled by the Engish language--she noted that "apple" had a silent E so the "aah" should be "A." But it's not. Ack! They both colored, and dd1 did write several decent a's but also several that were really a d or just messy. But not bad at all. Then she traced A/a/B/b (she likes B better than a too, apparently), and colored some more. Friends came over and we stopped, only learning an A sign while they were here--"awake." But then I decided we should learn the same sign & French word, so we learned both after our friends left--"avion," for airplane, and the sign for it. Then dd1 colored her avion, wrote out avion (had me help her with the a, but was quite happy to write "v i o n" on her own, and then wrote a capital A afterwards. It seems to make her happier to show that she can write one of the A's well on her own. She does not stay in the little lines yet, but seriously. She's how old again, lol? Not even going to worry about that. Then she cut out two pictures of airplanes (and cut them into tiny pieces), and is supposed to be drawing an airplane/avion but I hear scissors so I think avion #3 is being shredded too. She loves to cut. Dd2 colored a picture, learned "awake" before her nap. and transferred blocks from a bread pan into a bowl and back (using her hand and then her hand inside an oven mitt), and she liked the latter the most.

ETA: Then we cleaned up the cut paper shreds and made cupcakes. We traced letters in the batter with the whisk as we stirred, plus reading the ingredients and doing addition/subtraction with the eggs!

1 comment:

GoddessofBirth said...

All I got from that was "Blah, blah, blah, CUPCAKES, blah, blah, blah..."

Just kidding! Sounds like you guys are doing great!