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First day of homeschooling :) Also would love more advice!
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Started a little homeschooling today and was encouraged by the response my son and my nephew had! We only did nature study and worked on sight words- and initially they complained about it. So I did have to say- “yes we are doing this now”. But once we started the kids got into it. I asked them to find one thing outside they wanted to learn more about and they caught a “roly-poly”. Lol. Kid favorite of course. All I did was have them draw a picture of a roly-poly (from watching the live one they put in a jar) and then googled “roly-poly facts” and found a page with interesting facts such as the fact that they breathe with gills, and can eat their own feces. (Great reaction on that one, ha.) So that was fun, and then during the baby’s nap I went over some sight words with my son and nephew and they then voluntarily read through “Green Eggs and Ham” and “Hop on Pop” together. I don’t have any materials yet so I’m just using whatever I have around the house. My nephew is having reading struggles (he is a rising public school second grader) so it was good to have him reading every other page of the entire (long and repetitive!) Green Eggs and Ham book. Unfortunately my niece who is 5 was completely left out and didn’t want to do activities I offered or listen to the story but just sort of moped around until we were done. She wanted the boys to play with her instead. :/
Anyway, regarding the advice I need. Long story short, I will be watching some other children this summer and getting paid for it but this means that 3 days a week I will have a 7yob, 6yob, 5yog, 3yog, 3yog, and a crawling baby in my house!! (including my own kids) I am planning to HS my 6 year old son in the Fall but my husband wants me to “try” it over the summer before we make that commitment. Like I said- today went well but we only did a couple of things and I don’t have much in the way of materials and will not have money to buy anything until mid to late July. I did order a phonics program so we’ll be doing that. And we can do nature journals. And library books. I wanted to start math too but I really feel lost without a packaged curriculum. I guess because I’m new at this. There are lots of free resources on the web but I would have no idea what to teach him or how! I guess maybe for routine’s sake I could have DS (and probably the 7 and 5 year old) do some math games online, work on free worksheets, etc??
I want to make this introduction positive and fun for them. They DID complain today when I said it was time to do sight words, but then they enjoyed it. I hope that this does not become a chore to them especially my DS because then he will start saying he wants to go back to school in the Fall and NOT do homeschool. (He totally loved kindergarten at public school) I feel alot of pressure to show my husband that we can do this, and get my son to like it also.
Thanks in advance for any tips, advice, etc!!
Quick tip for sight word encouragement: make it a game of any sort. My dd enjoys jumping to each flashcard word she gets right. Her 2 year old sister even joins in. Sometimes we do a bingo style game, or “follow the flashcards trail” and say the words. These are quick ( maybe 5 minutes ) but effective ways to keep the kids interested.
Keep it light and enjoy this age. It goes way too fast! 🙂
For math, use living math for the ages you have.
Cook with them. Count objects with them. Skip count. Work puzzles.
Go on shape hunts (like a scavenger hunt) for shapes around the house (if they find a cup and say “circle” you can even prime them that yes the bottom and top are circles and the cup is a cylinder b/c it is 3-dimensional). They WILL ask you to further explain. I promise! Then you can read living math books about geometry.
http://www.livingmath.net/Home/tabid/250/language/en-US/Default.aspx
The site above will give you more ideas than you can ever implement!
This past year, we schooled our 7YO DS (this month) and 6YO DD in kindergarten. I taught them a new math lesson each week on Monday. The rest of the week we did activities and games that allowed them to practice that concept. All very hands-on.
I also gave each of them a 70-sheet spiral notebook. This was for math copywork, which in the beginning was writing our numbers 1-20. By Christmas, both of them had this down. They are both speech-delayed, so it has taken time but repitition is key for them.
They are adding and subracting using manipulatives (and their fingers some).
I also let them drill on ixl.com b/c we already had it for our older three. You could use it for FREE if you do just 20 questions in a sitting. Or you can sign up on homeschoolbuyerscoop.com for a deep discount if interested.
I use the Math on the Level curriculum and this is where I find the basis of our lessons. They sell a MAth Adventures book separately that has tons of great living math ideas. It comes with the complete set as well.
I hope this helps! Have fun!!! (oh and have a busy box for the younger children with learning items–sorting, counting bears, lacing cards, blocks, dot painters, blank paper, etc.)
If you don’t have a math program yet, you could start with some ‘living math’ books from the library. This website has many booklists to start with.
http://www.livingmath.net/Home/tabid/250/language/en-US/Default.aspx
You can also play games involving math: Monopoly, Yahtzee, Battleship, Dominos (do a search for rules for different versions). There are also lots of math games with cards. Here is one site to get you started. http://letsplaymath.net/2006/12/29/the-game-that-is-worth-1000-worksheets/
There are lots of things you can do to get started without any formal curriculum or plan. Add things in gradually if you need to, but here are some ideas.
Definitely continue with the nature study. This is the core of your science for the early grades.
Add in some good literature to read aloud (the SCM literature list has great ideas) to get them used to listening to living books. Choose a historical novel as well (such as the “Little House on the Prairie” books) and you’ve got some history to start peaking the children’s interests. I find that picture books of fairy tales are great choices, too. I can read the whole tale to my 6yo, or just give a brief overview while looking at the pictures with my 2yo.
Find a poetry anthology at the library and start reading a short poem or two each day (just read and enjoy, no need to analyze).
Start playing a classical radio station or find a CD of a composer you enjoy and just start playing it. Mention the composer’s name and something you know about him. We started music study with “Peter and the Wolf”, which is great for kids. My library also had a ballet version of the piece on DVD.
Find a book with the works of a familiar artist at the library and start looking at one picture every week or two.
I also care for other people’s children, so I understand the challenge of dealing with many young children at once. I’m in between kids right now, but by September, I’ll have DD(7), DS(5), girl(4), DD(3) and twin 17 month old girls. We have to spread “school” out throughout the day, as there is just no time I can focus purely on school for an extended time. My life takes coordination, but it can be done.
Eventually you can set up a ‘plan’ and get more organized materials. For now, I’d just work on developing routines that your more formal plans can fit into later.
Have fun!
Joanne
I had very little money this past year and I started the year using First Lessons in Arithmetic – an old math book in the public domain. It’s here:
http://www.donpotter.net/math.htm
It is very solid and could be used all the way through for a very thorough curriculum for grades 1-4
Is is also. Ery basic and could become tedious so we Mixed it up with living math from the site someone gave you above. We had Greg Tang books at our library and those were a hit.
We read a LOT of books. We went to the library every week. I read to them, they read to me, and they read to themselves. Another great idea is to have them read to the younger girl. She gets attention and they get reading practice.
Copywork is a super cheap and easy addition and is essential. Just go to donnayoung.com and print out some free lined paper. Write a line from a book on it and have them copy underneath. Very easy!
When they read a book have them narrate or tell it back to you so you can gauge their understanding and they get practice doing oral composition.
These are all things that can be done in 15 minute spurts.
Have fun 🙂
Tara
Thank you for your input, it is really appreciated. I think we will try to do a weekly library trip (on the days I don’t have extra kids here). I will TRY to stay relaxed and remember that this is summer, they are young, I have alot on my plate right now watching the other kids, etc. And I’ll implement some of your tips. 🙂
I just got the Primary Arts of Language stuff in the mail and will start using it next week probably. (I wanted more phonics than Delightful Reading sounded like it has)
SO we shall see! Thanks again.
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