Before I talk about what this post is about, I just have to address the fact that I pretty much quit this blog for way too long. I had every intention of catching and keeping it up, but I failed. I do want to go back and try to catch up as much as I can. I have fallen in love with the YouTube community and prefer to video our day, instead of capturing a picture. I hope to find a good balance between the two because I really want my blog to be up to date, but I also want the memories of our life on camera. Now that I've gotten that out of the way, let's talk homeschool!
I want to create several posts about homeschool, with one talking about the reasons I chose to homeschool. This post is jumping straight into how our first weeks have gone so far. Maddy started Kindergarten on August 3, 2015. Our first day did not go at all like I had hoped. I quickly realized that I did not have a good schedule and her day started just like any day would prior to school. She woke up, had breakfast, and started playing with her toys. During my lunch break I did a mini photo shoot with her outside to remember her first day.
The rest of her day while I worked included lunch, play, and nap. She has not had a nap time in two years. She really wanted to have nap time for school, so I of coarse said okay. Once I was done with work we played outside for about 30 minutes, and then came in and had dinner. I wish I could remember what was for dinner on her first day of school, but I forgot. After dinner her school time began. I don't have any pictures of her during school because I am busy teaching. We start off every day with the calandar, weather, days of the month, days of the week, and then 100 chart. It took me a week or two to realize we were forgetting to say the pledge of allegiance...oops! The first unit was about the days of creation. Each day we talked about what God created and then she illustrated it. Once we went through all seven days, we turned her illustrations into a book. I am so proud of our first class book. She did a wonderful job with her drawings. The creation unit was 10 days long. Our first real unit was on the sun and the letter s. Maddy already knows her alphabet and sounds, but the curriculum we are using goes over them for Kindergarten. She has not been bored reviewing what she already knows thank goodness. We talked about how the sun gives us light, the sun is used for measuring time and days, and the sun gives us heat. We made a sundial and I wish I had taken some pictures of it, but I didn't.
The number of the week was 1. Each unit we will add another number. We put the numbers in a box and she will reach in and pick one out. Once she picks a number she will have to count that number using manipulative's, and then write the number on a piece of paper.
Our second unit was on the moon and letter Mm. Once I got to this unit I had already figured out some good ideas. I purchased a Kindergarten workbook and while I work she works on her workbook. I check her sheets to make sure they are correct. She is beyond excited to sit at her desk and do worksheets. My lunch break we spend doing our morning meeting which consists of: the pledge of allegiance, prayer, days of the month, calandar, weather, 100's chart. On my break we start our first lesson whether it be introducing the letter of the next 6 days or theme of the week. We finish up once I am off work. I also purchased the pre-k Handwriting Without Tears program because I thought it might help her write a little better. Maybe I should have ordered the Kindergarten version because so far it's been a waste of money. I think if she had not been taught to write prior to being homeschooled the program would definitely have helped, but it's not helpful to us at this stage of her learning. We did a lot more activities with this unit. I purchased a Melissa and Doug floor puzzle that looks like this:
She thoroughly enjoyed putting this huge puzzle together. We are going to put it together one last time before we move on to our next theme. We talked about the different moon phases and why the moon changes shapes. We also talked about how the moon does not have light of it's own, but is actually the reflection of the sun's light. Our final activity was making a moon cake. There are times I wish I had a photographer follow us around to capture these special moments. I did snap a picture or two in the process of making it, but it doesn't tell the whole story. I also forgot to snap a picture of the "full moon" once it was done. We ended up having to go to the store twice for ingredients. The recipe called for vinegar...I have never seen a cake recipe that calls for vinegar. I was really doubting how it was going to taste and tried my best to prepare Maddy that she probably wouldn't like the cake. Much to my surprise it turned out pretty good. The whole cake was the full moon. We then cut the cake in half to make a half moon, and finally we made a crescent moon to the best of my ability. To make the evening even more fun we had a picnic under the moon. It was supposed to have been a full moon so we spread out an old sheet and ate our cake and admired the moon. Maddy ended up really liking the cake...whew! We then pretended we were walking on the moon. There is no gravity on the moon so we had to do out best no gravity walk. Maddy did not want to go back inside. I ended up letting her sleep in her "spaceship" we had made. I spread her comforter over the end of her bed over to her toy buckets to make a fort. Earlier in the week we had talked about what we might need if we were going to go on a rocket to the moon. She was so happy to get to sleep in her fort. We made a bed out of blankets and all her stuffed animals are nearby. She has a night light she sleeps with, which helped for this unit because it's in the shape of a moon.
I am still learning how to do this homeschool thing. I want to make it as fun for her as possible. Pinterest has definitely been my best friend :) My goal is to make a post at the end of each week to talk about what we did for school and eventually add pictures.
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