The Beginning of Our 2014-2015 School Year

Monday was the beginning of this year's school year. Even with doing a little school over the summer, the kids were excited to get back into the swing of things. I plan on getting back into the swing of blogging our schooling. However, I will not be blogging everything we do.

This year Sean and Maddy will be learning science and history together and will be doing math and language arts separately. For science, we're using R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey, Life level 1. For history, we're using Story of the World, Vol. 1 Ancient Times. I would have preferred to find a completely secular history curriculum but I really like everything else about SOTW. We will skip a few chapters and use other resources to expand on the other chapters. World Religions is just a resource book I wanted to get. We want the kids to be knowledgeable about all religions. The nursery rhyme cards will be used for copy work to improve handwriting. Both will be using Singapore Math this year. Sean will continue with Explode the Code and Maddy will be trying Recipe for Reading for language arts. Sean will be reading the Magic Tree House books and using the reading comprehension book: Reading With the Magic Tree House

Mondays are our light days. They work on their handwriting and do art. Tuesdays and Thursdays are science and language arts. Wednesdays and Fridays are history and math. Monday's copywork was a version of the rhyme "Rain, Rain, Go Away" They then illustrated the rhyme. Maddy says that "Hpe" spells happy. ...not bad for a kindergartener. :)

© Mama Dani's Musings

Other places to find me:
Facebook: Mama Dani's Musings ~ Twitter: Mama Dani Blog ~ Pinterest
Feedburner Or subscribe by email (on sidebar)
My Etsy Shop: Made By Mama Dani

Don't forget to leave a comment below. ;)

Homeschooling Update: Following His Lead

My little sponge has been doing a lot of learning since I posted the last homeschooling update! ...but not quite the way I thought things would go. I think I'm still stuck in the public school frame of mind. I had thought that after we had gotten back into a routine after Emily was born that we'd go back to our daily school time, working on curriculums I made based on themes Sean showed interest in. Not so much.. With two preschoolers, one little baby and a daycare of under two year olds, that just didn't seem to be working. Especially since school time was during nap time and Sean has gone back to taking naps!

We haven't had regular school time since the end of last year and the workbooks I put together for the kids are gathering dust. However, the one thing that sticks out in my mind is all that Sean has learned and how easily he learned it! He's excelling when it comes to his letters. He knows all their sounds and can write them without having to see them. He's even teaching Maddy. But lately, he seems to be taking a little break from letters and moving onto numbers. The calender has become a big part of our day because Sean is always asking what day it is and so on. He figured out the pattern numbers have just by looking at the calender everyday. The other day he surprised me by counting to 100 (with a little help) when before I didn't know he could get past 20. Then one night he asked me what 2 + 3 was and I started teaching him addition. Easter candy seems to be a great addition (and subtraction) tool. Now he's showing interest in wanting to be able to read a clock. I'm running with it!

Along with the math and literacy, he's been learning about local geography. How? By car rides. He wants to know what city we're in and what street we're on. He can tell you where daddy and Uncle Justin works, what city their works are in, what street and city  hubby's parents live on/in, almost our complete address (he doesn't know zip codes yet) and he's working on my parents address (they live on the same street as us so he's memorizing their house number). I credit our Me On the Map until for sparking this interest but he's learned a lot recently just by asking me questions during car rides. He's also learning about chickens thanks to the baby chicks we're raising. I'm anxious to find out what will be next.

I never thought we'd go more toward the unschooling path when we started homeschooling but it works. And if it's not broke, don't fix it!

Here's some learning tools I made for Sean. I got the ideas from pinterest...where else!?

Telling time tools: 

the sun rays around the clock and the little time posters for daily events.

Addition tool made from an Easter egg:

He can turn the halves to create more addition problems.

Note: Even Sharpie rubs off of Easter eggs but clear tape keeps it on.

For more ideas I've found on Pinterest, check out my Homeschooling, Math and Literacy pin boards.

Stay up to date by "liking" my Facebook page.
© Mama Dani's Musings

School Days: Chicka Chicka 123

This week was a continuation of the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom theme. We added in math this week! We still used the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom lap book but added the book Chicka Chicka 123

Here's what else we did:

Sean learned how to play Uno (a slightly simple downed version).


All the kids counted and colored apples on a tree. Check out the difference between the 2 year olds' and the 3 (almost 4) year old's coloring.


I also created this matching game for Sean to do. On the back there's 11-20 but he hasn't tried that yet.

Idea from this pin.

Here's a few pages from his math book:





Stay up to date by following me on twitter @MamaDaniBlog or "liking" my Facebook page. New followers: Welcome! Please leave a comment to let me know how you found my blog so that I can follow you back!
© Mama Dani's Musings

Kids Meal: 123s

This week were adding math into our curriculum so we had a numbers lunch.

Sandwiches and cheese cut out into numbers and baby carrots.

More Muffin Tin Monday ideas:


Stay up to date by following me on twitter @MamaDaniBlog or "liking" my Facebook page. New followers: Welcome! Please leave a comment to let me know how you found my blog so that I can follow you back!