Summer Discovery

Ok, this is pretty simple and you will laugh, probably.  I have made a discovery about homeschooling through the summer.

Drum roll please...

Lessons are best done in the afternoon.  It is scorching hot in the afternoon and no one wants to be outside. Mornings are best reserved for trips to the park - something we have been doing daily.

I told you it was simple.  I know you are just shaking your head at me right now, aren't you?

And the Lessons Go On...

Lessons are coming along smoothly with both kids.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that Bean is recognizing far more than I gave her credit for... Although in many areas it is just slow going.  But she is only four so I can't expect too much.

I am thrilled to share with you Bean's first written letter, the letter "I".

She has a lot to learn about writing, but I think she did great for her first try.  And she is also learning how to hold a pencil properly.  She has done it before, but it isn't consistent so I am working to make it a consistent habit with her.  She really loves her school time and I have found that for Bean her learning is done best when it is made into a game so we play A LOT of games.

Bug is doing really well with his cursive writing and today he wrote his very first full sentence in cursive.

He is so proud of himself and has been writing whenever he can, whatever he can, in cursive - I love it!

We also started official spelling lessons today.  Each week Bug will get a new set of words to learn to spell and I really love the spelling book we have - it just makes it all so fun.

Math is math... Bug seems slightly confused by subtraction right now so that is our main focus.  We have also been doing word problems (story problems) and he really enjoys that.

We are taking a week off to just enjoy the sun at the end of June (June 28-July 2) - after all, it is summer!

Bean's Doing Great!

The Pre-K curriculum I am using for Bean uses the letter a week approach to teaching the alphabet.  I really like this approach as it just continuously rams the letter and its sound down the child's throat until they memorize it.  Ok, so that was a bit of a graphic way to put it, but you know what I mean.

This first week we started with the letter "i".  We are only on Wednesday and I am proud to say that Bean can accurately pick out both an uppercase and lowercase "i" from a letter lineup.  She can also correctly tell you what sound it makes.  She is doing great!

Next week we begin learning how to write the letter "i" and that should be interesting.  We will also move on to learning the letter "u".

He's Doing It!

I'm always amazed at the spongey nature of kids - to just be able to absorb anything we throw at them!  Check it out - Bug is writing in cursive!

I know it doesn't seem like much at first glance, but it is HUGE!  He is catching on to cursive at a much faster rate than he did with manuscript and it seems to be easier for his hands to deal with, too.  I find it all so interesting and purely amazing.  Look, Mom, I taught him that!  Seriously, I am blown away!

Pre-K for Bean

On Monday I begin lessons with Bean.  We will be using the A Beka Pre-K program.  She is so excited!  She tells me, "Momma, I can't wait to do school and learn things like Bug!"  Well, she will not be doing quite what Bug is doing, but she will love what I have for her.  We begin with a review of colors to make sure that is still with her as strongly as it should be (Did you know that the kindergarten teacher at the public school told me that most kids starting there don't know there colors?  What the heck!!!).  It took over a year to get Bean to understand her colors, but I think she is good with it now.  We will just do a simple review throughout our first week.  We will also begin learning vowels - what they are and what they sound like.  She is most anxious to learn her letters and wants to be able to read on her own.  That motivation should carry her far.  I am excited!  She is a totally different style of learner than Bug so it will be all new for both of us.

Do the Hard Ones!

The concept of place value took about 5 minutes to sink in for Bug and once he got it, he got it!  So now when we have math I go to review problems with him as I normally do, with our flashcards, and I get yelled at: "No, Mommy!  Do the hard ones!"

The hard ones?  I know he means double digit addition.  So I give it to him.  And he does it with no problem.  So much for being hard!  He can even carry a one!  I guess now I have to make him start carrying twos and threes - I wonder how long that will be "hard" for...

Math is his gift.  His Uncle (my brother) is gifted in math as well.  Me, not so much.

Summer Break... Nah!

So I had a grand plan for a summer break, but then we started the break and it became very apparent very quickly that without our schedule in place life was going to be, well, frustrating.  So today we started lessons back up.  We began with a math review and the introduction of a new concept - place value.  Not difficult at all, but it was fun for all of us.

After math we went into a review of our phonics.  We just hit on where we left off to gear up for the new stuff.  After that we began our lessons is cursive writing.  I can tell that Bug really likes the idea of writing in cursive, but I can also tell it is going to be difficult for him.  My goodness though, he is so motivated!

I've gone ahead and prepared lessons for the entire week and it will be just a slow introduction to a few new concepts and a review of others to ease us back into our groove.  Just watching Bug I could tell within five minutes of beginning that he was much happier to be doing what he loves - learning.  And he was much happier to be on schedule.  It works for him.

I can tell that no matter what we do in life, home school or regular school, Bug will always need that structure and crave that learning during breaks.  It is just how he is.  Therefore it has become very apparent that two weeks is pretty much the max time for him to spend without that structure - after that he just sort of falls apart, gets very fussy, super agitated, and starts having way more meltdowns than normal.

Structure - a must!