First Day of School 2012 (And a Peek into Our Setup)

Today was the kids' first day of school. I'm not sure who was more excited; the kids or I. I feel much more prepared this year than I did last year. The day started with a small photo shoot:

Today went very well. I noted a couple of things to change around, like doing more planning for Maddy's lessons. Playing it mostly by ear worked really well with Sean but now that I'm teaching 2 kids at once, I think I need to change that. Mostly, I just need some activities set aside for her for when she gets done with her activity and is looking for more and I'm helping Sean with something. Today we had calender time, literature (Aesop's Fables - both), writing (journals - both), reading (word families - Sean), math (coins - Sean, number match 1-10 - Maddy), and geography (passport for our world traveling unit - Sean). Emily's sign says "no school for me" but today she did get introduced to baby sign language. She's starting to wave and trying to communicate so I figured it's the best time to start.

Pictures from today:

1 & 2: Journals ...Maddy just draws

3: Break to check out the newly emerged butterflies  4: Number match

And lastly, our set up:

Left is our calender. That and reading is done in the living room. We do most of everything else in the kitchen. The pictures at the bottom: 1: All set up for today. 2: A close up; the little cubby works great for things we need on hand. Next to it is our counting school days chart (to help Maddy with numbers). And next to that is my hand made filing chart (a lovely Pinterest find!) that holds papers for the week. 3: Our storage is a trophy case in the kitchen. The note cards on the side are a visual of the subjects we've covered during the day.  

How was everyone else's first day? 

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2012-2013 School Year Plans: Kindergarten and Pre-k3

Here it is mid August and Sean will be 5 this fall. The public schools say that he is just barely too young for kindergarten. Regardless of when his birthday is, he is very ready. That's the beauty of homeschooling; it's all based on what he's ready for. Even though we don't have to turn in our notice of intent this year, Sean will be a kindergartner. You know, that really feels weird to type. Anyway, I've been doing a lot of planning lately. Trying to get everything ready  for Sean's kindergarten year. There's a attachment parenting group for our area on facebook and recently we had a moms night out to get together and talk about homeschooling. It was wonderful to listen to some veteran homeschool moms. We then made a break off group for attachment parenting homeshoolers. Through this I found out about What Your Kindergartner Needs to Know (Core Knowledge Series) and decided that it will be the foundation of our lessons this year. Every curriculum we've tried has eventually failed so I'll make our own.

Maddy is still a young 3 but is showing a strong interest to learn...and doing whatever her big brother is doing. Therefore, I'm also planning her first pre-k year.

Here are my plans for this school year:

Literature: The literature in What Your Kindergartner Needs to Know will be our starting point. There are the typical nursery rhymes, Aesop's Fables and stories such as The Three Billy Goats Gruff. We'll supplement this with trips to the library, especially with short chapter books.

Pre-k: Maddy will follow along with us on this, minus the chapter books because she can't sit still that long.

Reading: We will start with phonics. Sean already has and loves the Tag reading system from Leap Frog. He also has the first set from the Tag learn to read phonics book series. The plan is to work through the whole series. From there, we'll find more beginner readers. Once Sean has a good foundation in phonics, then we'll bring in sight words.

Pre-k: Maddy will work on recognizing all the letters.

Writing: I'm really excited about writing and so is Sean. He loves to write. What he will mostly work on is bettering his handwriting and learning to sound out words. He will do this by writing in a journal, along with other writing that will be done as part of the other subjects.

Pre-k: Maddy will work on holding a pencil correctly, and drawing different kinds of lines (straight, curved, slanted).

Math: Sean can recognize numbers pretty well. Not long ago he surprised me by telling me that the speed limit sign said we could go 55. Sean's math lessons will include learning addition/subtraction, about money, about measurements, how to tell time, and more shapes (such as octagons and trapezoids).

Pre-k: Maddy will learn to recognize numbers 0-10. She will also learn basic shapes.

History: History was my least favorite subject in school. It is my hope that I can make it more interesting for Sean. We will start with geography. Our main tool for that will be the Tag world map. From there he will learn about Native Americans, the early settlers, and so forth with American history. One thing I'm looking forward to is working trips to Jamestown and Colonial Williamsburg into our schedule.

Pre-k: This is another topic that Maddy will just follow along with us.

Science: We have gone over many of the topics under science in What Your Kindergartner Needs to Know. A lot of it has just been through living our every day life. So, this is where we'll change things up. We have a membership to the local aquarium. I can't think of a better starting point than seeing and doing first hand! Marine and marsh biology and ecology will come from there. They even have programs geared to young children that we may take advantage of. In addition to that, we'll add some basic anatomy from First Human Body Encyclopedia (from the Dk Series) and then whatever else sparks his interest. We already have most of the Dk series and I hear Santa will be bringing the rest for Christmas. I would also like to find some science experiments to add.

Pre-k: Once again, Maddy will just follow along with us.

Art: I don't know much about art but I do believe I've found a great way to add it into the curriculum. Our local art museum is free and by the sounds of it, also family friendly. Just looking at their website I see they offer free activity sheets and treasure hunts for kids, and have sketching stations with supplies. We will make frequent trips.

Pre-k: Again, Maddy will just follow along with us. Though, I think that I will take Sean alone some of the time. Sean gets time alone with daddy on Mondays when I take Maddy to dance so this would be the perfect chance for Maddy to get that time with daddy.

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