While the cat's away...

Yes, we have been homeschooling, honest.  I just haven't been updating on this blog as much as my other blog.  Sorry to those 4 of you reading!  We are still plucking away each day for 1-2 hours depending on what we have planned, leaving lots of time for play.  I've spoken to several homeschoolers of DS age group to confirm that this is about all they can handle now.  DS has also got himself a trip to see if he has ADHD or some other issues so that may greatly change how we homeschool as well.

On a brighter note, DS has FINALLY started to show confidence in his reading.  We tried to use this book last year without much success.

But this year is shaping up to be a better year.  He's been reading daily (albeit only a page, but reading) from it, slowly building up his courage to read.  This is an EXCELLENT program to try with reluctant readers.

We also went on our first apple picking trip.  The place was great (except they charged WAY too much for the children's activities).  We drove forever to take about 10 minutes filling a bag with apples. 

And to top it all off, they got to spend time with their cousins from Virginia.  What more can they ask for?

Monkey Business

I discovered a great idea from another mommy blog that I follow.  "Monkey Trays"  These are trays of assorted healthy snacks to have available during 'school' time.  It has made a world of difference to the 'grumpies' that tend to follow during school time.  The other blog site had WAY better looking money trays than mine, but it's something!

During the 'too hot to do anything' days of school, the kiddos stayed inside all day, which isn't ideal when the sun is out.  But not to fear!  There are things we can do indoors too!  Like creating a car city.  This is usually an activity saved for rainy days, but the heat caused us to bring it out today.  This is a big hit with my kids.  They love when I do this and it's REALLY easy.  All you need is some masking tape and your imagination.

Car city!

This was a treat I saved for after school was over.  And it got me to thinking...how long do other's homeschool their children for?  I'm just schooling my DS who is 6 so I limit school time to only a couple of hours because that just seems to be his limit.  We cover math, reading, writing, science and social studies this year.  But yesterday DS finished his work after only an hour!  But he was really focused and seemed to grasp all of the concepts I had laid out for him.  I felt guilty that it was so little time, but should I?  He did everything the curricula asked of him...Can a public school day really boil down to an hour of homeschool time?

I can yell louder than you can

Just to assure you that homeschooling is not all smiley faces and gold stars, today we had a whole house- wide scream fest.  The fact that it happened 'after' school, does not make me any happier.  DD found quite a voice in her 4 year old body and was making it very clear that the big purple ball was HERS and NOT her brothers.

MINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not to be out done, her brother stole the ball and one upped her.

He may be a boy, but his scream is more ear-splitting than his sisters... And of course, in order to be heard, I had to scream louder than both of them.  Something I am not proud of.   I now have a headache and they have worked past their differences and are now playing nicely with each other...and the ball.

Now before scream fest of September began, we had a productive, if a little stressful school day.  In math, I learned a lot more than DS did.  WARNING:  Do NOT assume your child understands a concept and 'skip ahead.'  It lead to massive frustration from both of us. 

It started innocently enough, as these things always do, with using our abacus.  I thought he was understanding the concept so well, that I veared from the lesson plan.  BIG MISTAKE.  We were supposed to only do up to 7 on the abacus, but DS had been using the abacus for a few weeks counting by tens, so surely he'd be able to understand 13, 23, 44? No?  No.  Instead of learning the patter of what 5 looks like, he was counting each single bead...not the point of an abacus.

In happier times, before mommy got her bright ideas to skip ahead.

After mom realised the error of her ways and we both cooled off, the rest of the school day went smoothly.  Learning to pick up on his moods and frustrations is a lesson I will continue to try and perfect.

Now, I'm off to play 'sorry' with DS while DD is in her room after spitting at her brother.  Good times.

Let the fun begin!

Today was day 3 of our homeshooling journey.  So far...so good.  As some of you know this is our second year homeschooling (although my son went to school for 3 days last year and HATED it).  He still doesn't LOVE homeschooling, but it's the lesser of two evils for him.

I'm hoping this blog will keep me honest about the daily struggles and joys I have with homeschooling and the fears I have.

For lack of something more creative, I'll tell you what we did (or didn't do) each day.

Today we started at 10:40 (later than my goal of 10:00, but who's checking?)  We start each morning with 'Right Start' math.  A VERY cool math program.  It's pretty basic for DS right now, but I'm not going to go out of order hoping it will build his confidence for when the harder stuff comes!  Today's math session was learning about the numbers 1-6 and how to show the numbers with our hands, with objects and with tally stick.  Then we made triangles and quadrilaterals with those sticks.  For Reading, I did 'Letter Shout Out! (something I made up)  I shout out a letter and they have to write on their white board the upper and lower case for that letter. (The least amount of worksheets I can get away with, the better for my son!)  Then we picked a book to read aloud (Thank you Scooby Doo!)  He did some handwriting practice with his last name from a great site www.handwritingworksheets.com You can make hollow letters, traced letters, even cursive!  It's the best handwriting worksheet site I've found.  Check them out!  We  then did a beginning sounds worksheet and worked on our "All About Me" folder (Social Studies) where he listed his favorite things.  I don't want to brag, but the word MOM appears on the page!  For Art we'll bring out the paints and make sunflowers in homage to the HUGE sunflowers we've got outside!

Our inspiration...

Our project...the outline is of DD's body because the flowers were bigger than they were!!

Until tomorrow, keep cool!!