Family Night

I feel so blessed to have some of our family close by.  Every week we get together with my parents (Gama & Pop-Pop) and my sister and her hubby (Aunt Stacey & Uncle Matt) for family night.  We all have dinner together and then we take turns planning the activity for the night.  We've done everything from playing at the park, having a Wii tournament, playing board games, having a bon-fire with s'mores and sparklers, to a family swim night.  It's always a lot of fun and I'm so grateful for the memories we're making for the girls.

This past week it was the girls turn to plan our family night.  When I asked them what they wanted to do, they each immediately had an idea.  Avalyn wanted to start the evening with a tea party.  She REALLY didn't want the boys to be there, but when I said that wasn't an option she finally agreed.  She wanted to have mini shaped grilled cheese sandwiches, and drink lemonade in little tea cups (becuase only old people drink tea.)  Brinley decided that after the tea party we should all watch a movie.  We learned about penguins last week for science so they decided we should all watch March of the Penguins together. 

Gama agreed to the night and got to work with a surprise concession stand for the girls to work at.  We were all ordered to go outside after dinner while the girls helped Gama get setup and even I didn't know what they were doing.  When they finally opened the back door we were greeted by adorable little girls donning aprons and announcing free snacks.  There were drinks, popcorn, candy, and two kinds of rice crispy treats.  The girls said that everything was free, but tips were accepted which made us all laugh.  They made $3.31 each and excitedly added it to their piggy-bank.  We all got our snacks and snuggled up together to watch our movie while Brinley narrated and commentated, which was better than even Morgan Freeman in my opinion!   Overall, another great and successful family night!

Overcoming Frustrations

For the past two weeks we've been working on lines for art class.  We learned about diagonal, vertical, and horizontal lines.  We discussed what parallel and perpendicular were and pointed out all the different types of lines around the room.  We also practiced making patters with the different types of lines using markers and colored pencils.



For our big art project last week I *thought* I picked the perfect line art project to combine our cutting and pasting practice with our knowledge of different types of lines.  The idea was to cut lines of different thicknesses out of construction paper and then cut and paste them into three different sections to make diagonal, vertical, and horizontal patterns.  This would have been great, and was just fine for Av, but the inner perfectionist in Brin reared it's ugly head again.

Once we implemented our star chart last year we didn't have any more perfection frustration.  The girls really embraced the idea that they just had to try their best and worked hard to get that sticker.  I haven't printed up any new start charts yet this year and I think without that reminder Brin is starting to get frustrated again when she feels something isn't done as good as she wants it.



When I walked over to see how they were doing and saw tears dripping onto her art project becuase she couldn't cut straight enough... I decided to just shelve it and move on.  We came back to it the next day and I reminded her of our virtue of the week "Self-Control" and told her that it was her choice how to react, and this is just something for fun and to learn how to cut so it doesn't have to be perfect.  With a day's break, and a little help from mommy cutting some straight less uneven lines, Brin was able to finish her project without any tears.



I'm glad we went back to it and I had her finish it away from the stress and frustration of the first day. Instead of using our star charts moving forward for the rest of our subjects I've decided to let them get a stamp for good attitudes without frustration. We've only done it for a few days, but so far they are LOVING the stamps and a quick reminder gets them focused on where their attitude should be.

A Day in the Life of Our Kindergarten - Part 2

Yesterday was A Day in the Life of Our Kindergarten - Part 1 where I went through the overall schedule of our day.  Today I'll share the details and breakdown of a typical day of school...

For calendar time we talk about days/weeks/months/years.  The girls take turns marking our day and then counting how many days we are into the month.  They have to say the day correctly, "Today is Wednesday, August 15th 2012" and then they say what yesterday was and tomorrow will be.  We then sing our days of the week and months of the year songs.  The person who didn't mark the calendar gets to go outside and tell us what the weather is like.  Living in Southern California it's usually just hot and sunny so I plan to change our weather area a bit so it's more than just the actual weather, but seasons, etc.



After our calendar time we go into song and movement (one of the girls favorite times of the day.)  I choose an old Sunday School song that we sing and do the hand motions to, and then M/W/F we do a movement song as well where they get to follow directions and dance around the room.

We then sit down and have our Bible time (in my eyes the most important part of our day) where we go over our virtue of the week and then I read a passage from the Bible that covers that virtue and ask questions to the girls about what we've read.  Once AWANA starts we'll do their weekly Sparks lesson and memory verse Mon-Wed and focus more on our Bible lesson that teaches the virtue on Thurs-Fri, but we'll review the virtue and talk about it all week.

After Bible we do our handwriting worksheet and whatever activity I've planned to round out our day.  Sometimes it's an extra writing activity, shape & pattern builders, or even a game.  Sometimes it's more art related like lacing cards, drawing, and other times we work with numbers. I try to keep this fun and very hands on though.


First day of school: Dancing for song and movement time. Reviewing our lowercase alphabet recognition with Confessions of a Homeschooler's K5 alphabet tree.  Math-U-See worksheet. Virtue of the week. TYCTR phonics lesson. Handwriting alphabet review.

After our snack we do our Math-U-See lessons.  I started the girls in the primer book, and although they are way ahead of where it's starting I want to make sure they have the foundation they need to move on.  I'm doing 2 lessons a week for now until we get to point where it isn't so easy and then we'll move to a lesson per week.

We do art next and work on things like cutting, pasting, and basic art terminology.  We do projects about once a week using different mediums.  After art we do our language which happens to be ASL since my brother is deaf and we want the girls to be able to sign to him.  We review our alphabet and then each week we learn a variety of vocab words that correlate with the letter we're working on.

This ends the time in our schoolroom and we head to the family room to do our phonics and reading snuggled up on the sofa.  Now that the girls are advancing in their reading I'm doing their phonics lesson separately so I really know what they are individually learning and they can't help each other.  Whoever goes first comes with me to do their reading lesson and the other one stays and uses their leapfrog TAG reader or our Britannica science pen to read on their own.

After I've finished with both of their phonics lessons we read a few library books together.  We always start with the science one they picked out from the library and do a few pages of that and discuss it together before reading a few books for fun. 


First Day of School: Cutting practice. Name handwriting practice. ASL Alphabet flashcards. Snack time.

Linked up with "Day in the Life" Week at the Not Back to School Blog Hop over at iHomeschool Network.

 

A Day in the Life of Our Kindergarten - Part 1

Do you ever wonder what those of us who decide to homeschool do with our day?  I can tell you it's not all soap opera's and bon-bon's.  In fact, I didn't sit down for more than 20 minutes of "me time" all last week.  It's actually a lot of work, but the rewards of watching your kids learn make it more than worth it.  While I may not have much time to myself, we do have much more time as a family which I feel is one of the biggest perks!

Here's a schedule of what our typical day in Kindergarten looks like...

6:00am - Daddy is the morning person in our family, so he gets up with the girls and makes them breakfast. Sad for me (I'm SO not a morning person) they have always been up at 6am on the dot raring and ready to go. They spend a little daddy time helping him, reading with him, or just hanging out in the morning. 
8:00am - Daddy leaves for work and I get up and start my day.  The girls are allowed to play or watch some TV during this time while I shower, dress, and do my Bible study.
9:00am - The girls have to pickup the downstairs and then get dressed while I make myself breakfast and get everything together that we need for school.  The rule is, if it's not picked up and put away by school time, it gets taken away to the time out toy bin for a week.  Surprisingly they always get this done! :-)
10:00am - Pledge, Prayer, Calendar Time, Song & Movement, Bible, Handwriting, and Activity
11:00am - Snack
11:15am - Math, Language, Art, Phonics, Science, Reading
12:30pm - Lunch
1:00pm - After lunch the girls are free to play while I use this time to check email, blog, and do any lesson planning I need to for the next day.  I prep any crafts we have and figure out my schedule for the rest of the day. I then use this time to get some of the housework done, work on any of the photo sessions I have for clients, take the girls out to play, run errands, go to the farmers market, or get things together for us to leave if we have plans for the afternoon or evening. 
4:30pm - Our days where we don't have to be somewhere I usually get started with any pre-dinner prep I have to get done and then make dinner.
6:00pm - Daddy's home and it's dinner time!
7:00pm - The girls get to spend some time with daddy and then at 7:30 it's showers and getting ready for bed.
8:00pm - We try to get the girls in bed by 8:00 and then the evening is our down time to relax, watch TV, read and just spend time as a couple.  I often do my photography work during this time while we hang out together in the family room.
11:00pm - This is my goal bedtime, but it doesn't always happen.  I try to be good about it though becuase it definitely catches up to me if I don't.

Our afternoons and weeknights are pretty busy as well.
Monday - Library
Tuesday -  Bible Study, Family Dinner
Wednesday - Gymnastics, Farmers Market, AWANA
Thursday - Crafts and dinner with Nana - Date night for mommy and daddy every other week
Friday -  Family Movie Night

I firmly believe that our schooling takes place just as much out of the schoolroom as it does in it.  For this reason, we do lots of hands on learning as we go about our week.  We learn about science as we explore at the park, cook together, or just talk through things the girls are interested in.  We learn daily Bible lessons as I regularly bring up Bible stories and verses that support the behavior the girls should have.  We learn to read as we're out places and I ask girls to sound out words they see, and we learn math as the girls help me decide what the best deals are when we're grocery shopping or at the farmers market. Overall though, they learn how to behave and act respectful when out in public, and how we need to treat others with love.  I value our time in the schoolroom, but I value teaching them life lessons they wouldn't get anywhere else if they weren't with my husband and I learning them on a daily basis.

Check back tomorrow for the details and breakdown of our typical school day. A Day in the Life of Our Kindergarten - Part 2.

I love seeing what everyone else considers a day of homeschool, and this week is "Day in the Life" Week at the Not Back to School Blog Hop over at iHomeschool Network.

 

Ballerina

I don't know about you, but one of the perks to homeschooling... you can let your kids wear dress up over their PJ's to school.  We're really good about getting dressed in the morning and starting our day fresh and ready, but sometimes when the girls have been playing they ask to stay a princess or ballerina... and I say why not!

Balancing Act

Now that we're back in the full swing of things and school is back in session, I'm having to make sure I plan and schedule my time much better than I did over the summer.  Over the summer I sort of let the housework get behind, didn't keep on top of the girls picking up their toys throughout the day, and often left my meals unplanned so I was having to make quick dinners that were thrown together at the last minute.  We had great, fun, lazy days... but it lacked the structure which led to the motivation I needed to get tasks completed.

Maybe it's just becuase it's still rather new, but I'm really loving having more structure and what feels like set times to get things accomplished.  I'm doing well keeping on top of my bible study/quiet time, the girls clean up, our school day/lesson plans, lunches, our extra-curricular activities, and even my photography/work schedule.  I haven't yet found the place or time to keep on top of the household cleaning.  I deep cleaned the week before starting school and I've been great about keeping everything neat and picked up, but I have yet to work the continual weekly deep cleaning into my routine.  Partially becuase I hate cleaning, but partially becuase my day is so full of staying on top of everything else that I don't really know where to put it.  I'm thinking it's time to pay a little visit to Fly Lady and work to get my house cleaning schedule back in order.

My goal for this next week is to work on a regular cleaning schedule for my week as well as make myself get back to monthly or at least weekly planning our meals.  If I can get those two things under control (and keep up with what I'm already doing) I think we'll be in for a great and organized year!

What are your tips and tricks for keeping your house clean?  Are there areas that you feel you fall short trying to balance being a wife, mother, and teacher? 

Very Silly Sentences

Last year the girls got Very Silly Sentences for their 5th birthday. I didn't think they were ready for it last year, so it remained unopened.  Since the girls are now starting to read a bit I decided it might be a good idea to pull it out for our Friday Funday. 

The game has 2 sides and I decided we would play the shorter version of the game so they wouldn't need to get as many words.  The only problem was, without the prepositions the sentences weren't always structured correctly.  I think next time we'll do the other side so the sentences make more sense. 

The girls needed help reading some of the words, but they really enjoyed it and laughed at all the silly sentences we created.  The paper dice doesn't land on all the sides well since the sides aren't all that straight so we played where they got a card for every turn.  They got the color for the area of the board they were on and then when they only had a space or two left I just had them choose one they needed on their turn.  I wanted the focus to be more on building sentences and sounding out words as opposed to being frustrated that it was taking forever to finish.  It worked well and everyone was happy and got a little intro to proper sentence formation.

Our {Home} Schoolroom

This is the full view of our classroom.  Our schoolroom doubles as a playroom so it holds all the girls toys, crafts, books, games, etc. We decided when we moved in and the girls were just babies that it made more sense to make our front room a playroom instead of a formal living room.  It's the first room you see when you walk in the front door, but we had no other space to hold the girls "stuff" so we felt it would be best for our family.  It's naturally progressed into the schoolroom so it's been perfect!

The majority of our classroom furniture is from IKEA.  LOVE!!!  We have a Billy Bookcase on each side of the window with ab Expedit Bookshelf on it's side under the window.  The girls and I all have the Vika Amon Table Top (mine is larger) and I have the Vika Alex Drawers on one side.  The shelf organizers are either from IKEA or Target's $1 Spot.

Now let's go on a tour of the room...

On the back wall I have my cute vintage alphabet cards.  I still can't part with the girls toddler table and chairs, becuase they still use it for messy crafts and it's so marked up I don't care about it getting ruined.  The left wall has my whiteboard, their toy bin, and our calendar area as well as my desk, printers, and craft/toy/dress-up cabinet.  The right wall has the girls desks, barbies, and doll house. 



The left shelf holds our school supplies, manipulatives, curriculum, workbooks, and some of my craft and sewing supplies.



The right shelf holds all our games, books, and toys on the bottom.



The Expedit hold all our craft supplies, puzzles, leap pens, library books, play-doh, and misc toys.  On top we have our roll of paper from IKEA which is great for the girls love of art and drawing.

My desk holds 3 IKEA magazine holders which house our completed worksheets and daily curriculum.  It also holds my lovely sewing machine, color printer, and my laptop which has my lesson plans.

Our teaching/calendar wall is still in the works.  So far I have our whiteboard, a pocket chart with our ASL alphabet, our day's of the week cards, our calendar, weather and virtue of the week cards.  I plan to add more to our calendar area, but wanted to at least have this for the start of school to get us started.




The girls do the majority of work at their desks, and then we do our reading time in the Family Room snuggled up on the sofa. It's the perfect setup for us and where we are at this point in our education!

Linking up this week with iHomeschool Network!
Check it out for a ton of other amazing homeschool rooms!

First Day of Kindergarten

I'd have to say that today was a fabulous success!  After much grumbling from the girls for the past week in response to the fact that summer break was over and we'd be starting school today... they had forgotten how much they loved it and enjoyed it so much!  We started our day with school pictures and then went into a similar routine as last year.  The girls looked adorable in their new back to school outfit from Gama and had fun modeling for their pictures.  We got started on most of our new curriculum and I really think they are going to love it all.  I'll know more once we've really gotten into it all in a few weeks, but I'm excited to see how much they learn.  Here's some first day of school pics of my big Kindergarteners!

Avalyn

  

Brinley

  

Love my happy smiley girls!

 

Visit iHomeschool Network to see all the other "Not" Back to School Photos!

 

Twas the Night Before Kinder...

How did Kindergarten get here so quickly???  It seems that just yesterday we were enjoying our carefree summer days with school nowhere in sight and then suddenly the girls are school age and preparing for real school to start.  I can't believe my babies are 5 1/2 and starting Kindergarten tomorrow. 

I feel lucky that I don't have to have the big, sad sendoff moment that many mom's have.  I don't have to drive the girls to a strange new school and walk them to the gate where they'll stand and wave at me before walking into a new class full of strangers.  I don't have to turn away and hope and pray that they'll be okay and God will bless them with not only a great teacher, but nice kids to befriend them who will be good influences in their lives.  I instead get to serve them by being the example I should be and helping them to learn not only school subjects, but how to be the little people God wants them to be.  I don't have to be sad that I'll miss out on everything they are learning and experiencing and instead get to see it unfold first hand and I'll be the one rewarded when I watch it click.  I'm so very blessed to be able to homeschool these girls and I can't wait to watch this year unfold!

So tomorrow we'll wake up, have our breakfast, get dressed in our new first day of school clothes, take some back to school photos, and then start Kindergarten.  It's official... we're a homeschool family... and I couldn't be prouder!

Our 2012-2013 Kindergarten Curriculum

I've been doing non-stop research the last few weeks knowing I had to make some final decisions for our upcoming school year.  I wanted to keep it simple and only get what I thought we would need to get started.  I'm hoping everything I have planned works out for us, but in the event something isn't working I'm more than okay moving on and trying something else.

Here's my plan for our Kindergarten Curriculum...

• Bible: We Choose Virtues and AWANA Sparks
• Reading: Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
• Writing: A Reason for Handwriting - K
• Math: Math U See - Primer
• Art: How to Teach Art to Children, Kumon Cutting and Kumon Pasting
• Language: American Sign Language
• History & Science: - Library Books

Calendar Time & Bible: Like last year I plan to start our day with the pledge, calendar time and singing.  We'll then go into our virtue of the week and continue to rotate through these all year so they really get instilled in the girls.  We'll practice our verse for Sparks and do the lesson together over M-W and then Th/Fr we'll work on our virtue verse.

Reading/Writing/Math: These are the only set curriculum's I'm using.  We've already started our reading lessons over the summer and they seem to be going well.  As soon as the girls are reading a bit better we'll incorporate easy readers into this time as well.  Depending on how long it takes us, when we complete the 100 lessons I'll evaluate what to move to next.  We'll work on our handwriting and math each day and I'll also bring in some of our fun activities and manipulives that are more hands on from last year mixed in.

Art:  I'm hoping to do Art twice a week and it will mostly just be for fun, allowing them to try different things and techniques.  Nothing too structured here.  I already have all the books listed so we'll just use them here and there as needed along with all our other art supplies.

Language:  Since their Uncle Josh is deaf I had already decided that ASL would be a great language for them to learn.  I don't have any formal plans other than doing what we did last year and learning a few new vocab words each week that correlate with the letter of the alphabet we're working on.

History & Science:  Again, I have nothing specific planned here.  The girls are really interested in science and learning, so like last year each week we'll plan to pickup a book from the library on a topic of their choosing and we'll go through it.  Topics like: dinosaurs, insects, sharks, planets, animals, the US map, etc. will more than likely all be touched on over the year.

I'm hoping we can fit our school day into 2 hours using the last 30 minutes to read library books together for fun.  That will allow us to have lunch and then the afternoon free for playing, running errands, going to the library, park, cooking, etc.  I'm looking forward to a great year and I'll definitely keep you updated with how each subject is going and what's working for us.  The countdown begins!!!

Linking up with iHomeschool Network for the "Not" Back-to-School Blog Hop Curriculum Week!