So, I think there's maybe one person following this blog -- hello, Mandy. But for you, I just wanted to let you know that I realized it doesn't make sense for me to maintain two blogs. Homeschooling is part of our family life for now and I already have a family blog. I also realized I get bored writing primarily about organization on the blog -- it doesn't work for me as well as I pictured it would or as well as it seems to for others. And when it's not pure organization then I usually feel like it belongs on my family blog. So if you want to do know what's up with us -- homeschooling and all -- you're welcome to visit us on our family blog at whatinthehootenanny.blogspot.com.
Thanks!
Keegan
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Thursday, January 23, 2014
Week 3 Reflections
We're on our third week of homeschooling, and I'm noticing that the novelty is beginning to wear off. The kids are more rambunctious, and there is a little more power play going on between me and Mario (5) again. It's soured the last few days a little. But these moments of irritation and butting heads aren't the whole of our school experience. They are also interspersed with the kids enthusiastically asking for a new goal chart to set their second goal of the year after completing their first; or they are interspersed with Mario surprising me by finishing a sheet of math when some friends came over to play and I told him he was free to go (after which he went exploring through a maze with them, dodging bad guys and smiling from ear to ear); and they are interspersed with us browsing a book about the body and reading most of a book about germs. So does every day, every moment go perfectly? No. Still, overall I'm glad we're doing it and, despite the frustrations of this week, I think we can still call it a success.
On Tuesday evening, I was reading The Well-Trained Mind now that I have my own copy, and I was highlighting/taking notes, etc as I read. Wise and Bauer's philosophy is that you spend the first five years of your child's life surrounding them with language and making them familiar with numbers. During that time, she also believes you should teach them to read. She does not promote formal preschool or even kindergarten. It was comforting to remind myself of that this week. Right now, my goals are to help Mario to read, for me to read to my kids a lot, to familiarize them with math, and to encourage curiosity. If I'm doing those things right now at the 4k preschool level, then my kids are going to be just fine. I also remind myself that playing is learning at this age, so if I get out blocks to talk about shapes and my kids only listen to my explanations and only do what I suggest for a minute, and then start building with them, then they are still learning about shapes.
On Tuesday evening, I was reading The Well-Trained Mind now that I have my own copy, and I was highlighting/taking notes, etc as I read. Wise and Bauer's philosophy is that you spend the first five years of your child's life surrounding them with language and making them familiar with numbers. During that time, she also believes you should teach them to read. She does not promote formal preschool or even kindergarten. It was comforting to remind myself of that this week. Right now, my goals are to help Mario to read, for me to read to my kids a lot, to familiarize them with math, and to encourage curiosity. If I'm doing those things right now at the 4k preschool level, then my kids are going to be just fine. I also remind myself that playing is learning at this age, so if I get out blocks to talk about shapes and my kids only listen to my explanations and only do what I suggest for a minute, and then start building with them, then they are still learning about shapes.
Thursday, January 9, 2014
Introducing the World
This week, I started introducing the concept of continents. Mario (5) learned a song last semester about seven days in the week, so remembering that there are seven continents seems to be simple for him. Just by chance, it happened that one of the books we got from the library was a book with maps from around the world. The first section just had lots of discussion about maps and a view of different maps. Then the rest of the sections were divided into continents -- perfect! So our social studies this unit is going like this.
Day 1 -- Introducing the World
-- look at a large world map (we have one up in our play room); discuss how the earth is divided into seven continents
-- look at different kinds of maps; talk about the different things a map can show (political divisions, population, geographic markings, etc.)
Day 2 -- Introducing Asia
-- Look at the section on Asia in National Geographic's Student Atlas of the World (checked out from the library)
-- Look at the section on Asia in What Every Kindergartener Needs to Know
-- Read a story that originates in Asia either from WEKNTK or from the library
Day 3 -- Introducing Europe
(Follow pattern from Day 2 and continue that through Day 7.)
Day 4 -- Introducing Africa
Day 5 -- Introducing Australia
Day 6 -- Introducing South America
Day 7 -- Introducing North America
(I purposefully ended with North America. In The Well-Trained Mind, the authors suggest that early focus on the familiar, the local, the present encourages ethnocentrism. My taking this approach was a simple way to start with the unfamiliar to make it more familiar and then end with the local.)
Day 8 -- Review the World
-- Look at a globe and try to find the different continents. Talk about where they are in relation to each other and some things that are unique about them.
Day 1 -- Introducing the World
-- look at a large world map (we have one up in our play room); discuss how the earth is divided into seven continents
-- look at different kinds of maps; talk about the different things a map can show (political divisions, population, geographic markings, etc.)
Day 2 -- Introducing Asia
-- Look at the section on Asia in National Geographic's Student Atlas of the World (checked out from the library)
-- Look at the section on Asia in What Every Kindergartener Needs to Know
-- Read a story that originates in Asia either from WEKNTK or from the library
Day 3 -- Introducing Europe
(Follow pattern from Day 2 and continue that through Day 7.)
Day 4 -- Introducing Africa
Day 5 -- Introducing Australia
Day 6 -- Introducing South America
Day 7 -- Introducing North America
(I purposefully ended with North America. In The Well-Trained Mind, the authors suggest that early focus on the familiar, the local, the present encourages ethnocentrism. My taking this approach was a simple way to start with the unfamiliar to make it more familiar and then end with the local.)
Day 8 -- Review the World
-- Look at a globe and try to find the different continents. Talk about where they are in relation to each other and some things that are unique about them.
Language Arts
Since we have the reading, writing, spelling, vocabulary etc. all mixed together, I'm just including them all in one post. So far, this is what we're doing.
a. Doing one lesson out of Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.
b. Writing a daily "note" to Dad in a kindergarten notebook with lines and dashes. Patrick reads them every evening and writes a sentence back for Mario (5) to read. I bought a book for Sprecher (3) because he didn't want to be left out. He dictates a sentence to me and I write it for him. There was some debate about whether or not to have Mario spell correctly, but we decided not to stress about it. I help him sound out the word and if he uses a 'c' in place of a 'k' all the better to see his improvement in a year or two. This way he's practicing sounding out words and he's getting fine motor practice.
c. Have Mario read some out of a book daily. We've liked Elephant & Piggie books for this purpose as well as Pete the Cat books.
d. Read several to the kids. Based on a suggestion in What Every Kindergartener Needs to Know, I've been focusing on nursery rhymes, poems, and fairy tales especially. The fairy tales have been tied in with social studies because I tried to choose a story from the continent we're learning about. For the second time I checked out Poems to Learn by Heart by Caroline Kennedy from the library. I really like it. The kids have seemed to enjoy "The Cremation of Sam McGee" and "Casey at the Bat" as well as "Casey's Revenge." We don't stress about reading every poem. We just pick out ones here and there. And we don't read poetry every day.
a. Doing one lesson out of Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.
b. Writing a daily "note" to Dad in a kindergarten notebook with lines and dashes. Patrick reads them every evening and writes a sentence back for Mario (5) to read. I bought a book for Sprecher (3) because he didn't want to be left out. He dictates a sentence to me and I write it for him. There was some debate about whether or not to have Mario spell correctly, but we decided not to stress about it. I help him sound out the word and if he uses a 'c' in place of a 'k' all the better to see his improvement in a year or two. This way he's practicing sounding out words and he's getting fine motor practice.
c. Have Mario read some out of a book daily. We've liked Elephant & Piggie books for this purpose as well as Pete the Cat books.
d. Read several to the kids. Based on a suggestion in What Every Kindergartener Needs to Know, I've been focusing on nursery rhymes, poems, and fairy tales especially. The fairy tales have been tied in with social studies because I tried to choose a story from the continent we're learning about. For the second time I checked out Poems to Learn by Heart by Caroline Kennedy from the library. I really like it. The kids have seemed to enjoy "The Cremation of Sam McGee" and "Casey at the Bat" as well as "Casey's Revenge." We don't stress about reading every poem. We just pick out ones here and there. And we don't read poetry every day.
Fine Arts: Music
I've decided Tuesday and Thursday will be our music days. I will be using Lives of the Great Musicians by Kathleen Krull with illustrations by Kathryn Hewitt. My mom got this for me when I was a kid taking music lessons.
Tuesday
a. Read a biography.
b. Listen to a piece by the musician.
(First we tried to sit quietly and listen. Then we listened again moving. I've been trying to play Vivaldi around the house throughout the day, but I doubt the kids would ever recognize it while we were out and about if they suddenly heard it. Nor would I for that matter. This sort of thing isn't really my strong suit. In any case, it's a start.)
Thursdays
a. Talk about a music concept.
(I'm not sure I have enough knowledge or material on my own to keep this up at my kids' level. Today we didn't have a discussion actually. We just skipped to b. However, adding in an a sometimes would be good.)
b. Sing fun kid songs.
(Today we sang the "Hoky Poky" and "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes," and we did the little finger play song Five Little Monkeys Swinging in a Tree.)
Tuesday
a. Read a biography.
b. Listen to a piece by the musician.
(First we tried to sit quietly and listen. Then we listened again moving. I've been trying to play Vivaldi around the house throughout the day, but I doubt the kids would ever recognize it while we were out and about if they suddenly heard it. Nor would I for that matter. This sort of thing isn't really my strong suit. In any case, it's a start.)
Thursdays
a. Talk about a music concept.
(I'm not sure I have enough knowledge or material on my own to keep this up at my kids' level. Today we didn't have a discussion actually. We just skipped to b. However, adding in an a sometimes would be good.)
b. Sing fun kid songs.
(Today we sang the "Hoky Poky" and "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes," and we did the little finger play song Five Little Monkeys Swinging in a Tree.)
Fine Arts: Art
I've decided Monday and Wednesday will be our art days. I will be using Lives of the Great Artists by Kathleen Krull with illustrations by Kathryn Hewitt. Conveniently, we already had this because we picked it up years ago at a sale to match the musician book I already had from my childhood.
Mondays
a. Read a biography.
b. Look at works by the artist.
(We browsed the works of Da vinci on the computer because the book I have talks about his life and works, but it doesn't have examples of his work. I would prefer to find a book with examples.)
c. Do something hands-on.
(This week it was play-doh.)
Wednesdays
a. Talk about an art concept.
(I'm not sure I have enough knowledge or material on my own to keep this up at my kids' level. I used What Every Kindergartener Needs to Know to talk about warm and cool colors this week.)
b. Do something hands-on.
(This week it was painting on the easel.)
a. Read a biography.
b. Look at works by the artist.
(We browsed the works of Da vinci on the computer because the book I have talks about his life and works, but it doesn't have examples of his work. I would prefer to find a book with examples.)
c. Do something hands-on.
(This week it was play-doh.)
Wednesdays
a. Talk about an art concept.
(I'm not sure I have enough knowledge or material on my own to keep this up at my kids' level. I used What Every Kindergartener Needs to Know to talk about warm and cool colors this week.)
b. Do something hands-on.
(This week it was painting on the easel.)
Shapes Activities
I was pretty pleased with the varying shape activities we came up with for this theme this week. I thought it would be helpful next time I work on shapes with my kids. It was nice because I could do things for the different levels the boys are at.
1. Color the shapes.
a. Cut out shapes and glue them on paper so that there can be different examples of rectangles and triangles especially.
b. Cut out free-standing shapes to accentuate the lines even more. Then the child is holding just a circle, etc. That way it's tactile as well as visual. I did this with card stock, but it would have been good with cardboard to make the shape stand out even more.
2. Create shape pictures.
Notes: We have a game for this, but with different-shaped blocks, this could be done even without the pictures.
3. Reach in a paper sack for shapes.
a. For my three-year-old, he could look in and pull it out and try to identify it.
b. For my five-year-old, I told him a shape to search for and had him try to find it by touch. He already knows the shapes, but it helped him be involved and have fun with it.
Notes: Items I gathered: a ball, some blocks, some foam shapes from the game mentioned in #1, a quarter, a note card, a puzzle piece.
4. Race for shapes.
Notes: Start in one spot. In one direction (for the three-year-old) have the physical shapes. In the other direction (for the five-year-old) have the written words. Send them for a shape and have them "race" back. However, I did emphasize that they weren't racing each other. They were just trying to be as fast as they could be.
5. Hunt for shapes.
Notes: I made my hands into binoculars, but it could be cute to glue toilet paper rolls together for the purpose. Anyway, we called ourselves explorers and we went looking for shapes. We did one at a time. First, we hunted for circles. Then squares, etc. "Do you see any interesting examples of that specimen? Oh, look a triangle!"
Other ideas we didn't end up trying, but might be good:
-- trying to make the shapes with our bodies
-- using some dice that have shapes on them (either the shapes or the words) --> the kids roll the dice and identify which shape it is
1. Color the shapes.
a. Cut out shapes and glue them on paper so that there can be different examples of rectangles and triangles especially.
b. Cut out free-standing shapes to accentuate the lines even more. Then the child is holding just a circle, etc. That way it's tactile as well as visual. I did this with card stock, but it would have been good with cardboard to make the shape stand out even more.
2. Create shape pictures.
Notes: We have a game for this, but with different-shaped blocks, this could be done even without the pictures.
3. Reach in a paper sack for shapes.
a. For my three-year-old, he could look in and pull it out and try to identify it.
b. For my five-year-old, I told him a shape to search for and had him try to find it by touch. He already knows the shapes, but it helped him be involved and have fun with it.
Notes: Items I gathered: a ball, some blocks, some foam shapes from the game mentioned in #1, a quarter, a note card, a puzzle piece.
4. Race for shapes.
Notes: Start in one spot. In one direction (for the three-year-old) have the physical shapes. In the other direction (for the five-year-old) have the written words. Send them for a shape and have them "race" back. However, I did emphasize that they weren't racing each other. They were just trying to be as fast as they could be.
5. Hunt for shapes.
Notes: I made my hands into binoculars, but it could be cute to glue toilet paper rolls together for the purpose. Anyway, we called ourselves explorers and we went looking for shapes. We did one at a time. First, we hunted for circles. Then squares, etc. "Do you see any interesting examples of that specimen? Oh, look a triangle!"
Other ideas we didn't end up trying, but might be good:
-- trying to make the shapes with our bodies
-- using some dice that have shapes on them (either the shapes or the words) --> the kids roll the dice and identify which shape it is
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)