Our official box day was months ago, but I let the kids dive in today and take a peak at what the year has in store for them. We are trying Sonlight this year. We have the Core K program (Introduction to the World: Cultures) with First Grade Readers since Pumpkin is in Pre-K4 and the boys are in First grade.
I'm not usually a fan of a packaged curriculum. I prefer to piece together our own curriculum following our own scope & sequence. However, we have 4 children in our home, 3 in our homeschool, and are nearing the end of a 2+ year construction project that will culminate in a complicated move and move-in. In other words, Mommy needed a break this year. I needed something I could just open and follow without a lot of prep work on my part. Thank goodness homeschooling allows us some flexibility, both in our scheduling and curriculum choices.
I chose Sonlight because of their great reputation, wonderful literature, and because their curriculum is most compatible with my teaching style and personality. I'm looking forward to spending the year exploring Sonlight with my children. Everyone found several books in the box that they wanted to start reading right away---Mommy included!
I'm so glad that my children are so enthusiastic about starting school. They cannot wait until we finish each book so that it can come out of Mommy's school box and onto their personal bookshelves.
I will share our other curriculum choices in another post.
After just a week of piano lessons the boys had their recital today with their class.
Daddy was actually in town so he was able to attend the recital. We were so impressed with all that they've learned in just a single week. Not only did they learn to play 6 songs but they learned how to read music and about timing and rhythm.
I wanted to video tape them playing with my new Flip HD camera, but in my haste, I didn't realize there was a separate battery (unlike the other flip camera) that I needed to insert before charging. So, last night it appears I "charged" an empty battery.
Luckily, the boys have promised me a repeat performance and I promise to have a working video camera by then!
Smoke Jumpers One to Ten by Chris L. Demarest is a counting book about smoke jumping. Bear selected it recently from the library, and I have to admit it was actually clever and informative. You can learn more about the unusual profession of smoke jumping on the National Smoke Jumpers Association website.
Activity:
There is a smoke jumper outfit illustration in black and white in the front of the book and a Wildland Firefighter Outfit illustration in the back of the book. Both of these can be photo copied to make coloring pages! The kids thought it was great!
This week we are focusing on the life cycle of a bee. Since honey bees have been disappearing at an alarming rate since 2006, due to a phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), we are also incorporating this into our study.
First, we watched this informative video on the life cycle of a honey bee.
This video shows the honey bee dance, the waggle dance
In the video below, California researchers are developing ways to ensure that we always have bees to help pollinate our crops in this video.
QUEST on KQED Public Media.
Tonight we read, Sylvester & The Magic Pebble by William Steig. It is a Caldecott Medal book and a beloved classic about a donkey named Sylvester who finds a magic pebble that can make his wishes come true. Sylvester is so excited about his wondrous find, until a lion frightens him and he makes a wish that brings about unexpected results. The story unfolds with a happy ending as Sylvester is reunited with his family in another unexpected way.
Activity:
Tomorrow we are going to go pebble hunting and paint one of our pebbles RED, in honor of Sylvester.
Summer is usually a time for planning. It is a time to reflect on what worked and what didn't work in our most recent homeschooling efforts. It is also a time to fine tune organizational systems and consider curriculum & extra curricular activities.
In our state, our annual homeschool convention is in May, which I love. That means that right when you cross the finish line, often exhausted, you get an opportunity to go to convention (while you still have the school year fresh in your mind) and refuel. I always feel encouraged, inspired and even more committed to our homeschooling efforts following convention.
This year when I left convention I had a list of things I wanted to change or add to our homeschool. One of the things I wanted to implement was starting a homeschooling co-op. I think its important that my children are able to spend time with other homeschooled children, regularly. While we participate in our local support group's park day, camps, extra curricular activities and a PE co-op I wanted them to have a chance to develop deeper friendships with children they see on a more regular basis. I think we achieve this somewhat with their weekly PE co-op, but I didn't think once a week was enough. The group I've helped start will meet on Friday's for educational workshops, classes, and field trips. Additionally, the mothers will have: Mom's night out, homeschool book club, and a monthly meeting which will center around a homeschooling topic for discussion. I'm very excited that our group now has 12 members and we're offering 4 different classes, including a Lego League! I hope that more mothers will volunteer to teach or co-teach other co-op classes this coming year.
With 4 children in our household and 3 in our homeschool, my teaching schedule and routine will really be put to the test this year! Assembling your schedule can be frustrating at times as you try to fit everything into the puzzle (time slots) only to discover that you have to move the pieces around and start all over again! But I think I've finally found a schedule that I think will not only work for us, but will be a little more flexible too. I've found that teaching all three of my children together, as much as possible, makes our day run more smoothly. My younger daughter enjoys being part of the group and I'm not as stressed. Combining some lessons doesn't mean that I expect my daughter to do everything her older brothers do, but she is included in the bulk of the lesson, even if I give her a sheet to color instead of label or she works on playdough letters instead of copywork.
One of the advantages of homeschooling is tailoring your homeschool to your family's schedule, instead of the other way around. The schedule above allows me to have my "weekend" on Sunday and Friday. It works best for me, although we do some study each day. My children don't know any different and never complain about it. Truth be told, they love school and it was because of their asking for school each day that this schedule evolved. The schedule above reflects an average of, approximately 2 hours of instruction per day for the boys (not including extra curricular activities, field trips or co-op) and 1 hour per day for our preschool age daughter. One thing that most homeschoolers do not count in their day is recess, transitioning from one activity to another, meals, administrative tasks, drive time etc. It is another reason why homeschooling days are shorter than traditional school days.
In my next post I will share some of the tools & resources I am using to organize our homeschool as well as what I purchased at our homeschool convention.
I think teaching children how to write thank-you notes and show appreciation for the gifts they receive is an important quality. I like to write thank-you notes immediately upon receiving the gift and I intend to teach that trait to my children.
Of course it's easier to do when your child is able to write and spell without your assistance.
I think I've come up with a good solution though.
One thing we started doing last year was have each child draw a picture and simply write "Thank-you." I then photo copy the note to create our Thank-You stationery. 
Next, they dictate their note to me and I write it on the back.
This is a good time to talk to them about proper wording. I think the dictation method is better than the fill-in the blank style stationery because they don't learn about proper wording.
You could also do this for grandparents and have your children (or all of the grandchildren collectively) create stationery cards as a gift. Just have the children draw generic pictures for stationery or themed pictures for cards such as Birthday or your favorite holidays and color copy them onto card stock paper.
