Homeschool 2015

Happy fall, everybody! We are one month into our year of preschool-homeschool and I wanted to share what we've been doing so far. I know lots of people ask me, "What exactly do you do with Eva?" so here is our plan for the school year. And I am soooo excited to share because I LOVE what we have done and how I have planned out this year so far! I'm not saying this is what works for everybody, but it has been working GREAT for us!

We do school Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday mornings and I consider our school time from 9AM-2PM. This includes all the regular things that other kids are doing at school - learning time, play time, snack time, potty time, lunch time, and a quiet rest. Also on Thursdays we either to a Mom's program where Eva (and Jensen) have a couple of hours in a class with kids, or I try to plan a play date. I'm not worried about social time because we are around people all throughout the week, plus Eva has the best friend ever - her little brother! This year Eva is learning how to pick out her clothes and get dressed, make her bed, and get her hair and teeth brushed (with some help) before we do school time. I had originally planned to get up early each day to have time by myself before my kids would be up on school days and, no joke, one or both of my kids have been up before that time every single day we've done school. We start each school day off by being dressed and ready for calendar time. I feel like this helps give the day a defined kick-off. We work on days of the week, months of the year, counting, and number recognition as part of our calendar time.

Then we do our Bible time, usually as a family. We have a story each week and will read it from Eva's Bible, act it out, tell it using felt, and color pictures throughout the week. I got a free Betty Lukens Through the Bible in Felt set from a friend and I felt like a kid in a candy store! It may seem old fashioned but Eva and I love using them to tell Bible stories, along with other creative stories {umm, like the one above where the bears followed the rainbow to help the queen...}. I seriously ALWAYS wanted a felt set when I was a kid. The only downside is that you have to find ways to cut out and organize a million felt pieces. No suggestions here, ours are thrown in a big tub, slighly organized in plastic baggies.

After Bible time we have a memory verse/song that we do for the whole week and a missionary family that we pray for throughout the week. Eva loves using the giant map to find where our missionary friends live.

Matching uppercase and lowercase letters.

Last year we mainly used the FREE AbcJesusLovesMe curriculum and I thought it was great. This year I am mixing between the curriculum and ideas my Pinterest Board.The curriculum is good for getting ideas and knowing what she needs to learn and a good order to teach things in. All of our Bible ideas are from the curriculum, along with many other activities. The teacher in me really likes finding ideas that match exactly what I want Eva to be doing and learning. I have some activities already created from last year and my goal is to add one new activity for math and literacy each week that we can choose from. 

Writing letters with chalk on a canvas. 

Writing letters in a sandtray with "rainbow" paper behind it {paper that I colored using different colors}. 

I love teaching using anything sensory. Yes it can get messy. Give a kid sand/rice/playdough and it will inevitably end up making some sort of mess. There are days when the mess gets to me by the end of the school time but I'm trying to let it go.

Writing words using markers. 

 Eva does some tracing books but she prefers to write on blank paper. She is really wanting to learn to write more words, which is so exciting to see as a mama and a teacher.

Building uppercase letters with craft sticks. 

With all the things we do during school time there are a few things I have intentionally decided not to do. I don't do chores. I don't run errands. I don't turn on the TV. I try really hard not to be on my phone. I want my attention to really be focused on my kids during this time. It's hard because my brain just wants to "squeeze in one thing real quick" but then I get distracted. I have to really tell myself that it's like if I was teaching in a classroom, and remember that it's only a couple of mornings a week. 

 Making a letter of the week craft. "F" is for frog.

For math this year Eva is learning to count and recognize numbers up to 29 {the curriculum said 25 but I figured if she can do that she can make it to 29}, graph objects, sort objects, measure with nonstandard objects like legos, build patterns, recognize and build shapes, and compare more/less of objects. Most of it is hands on using things like counting bears, colored craft poms, legos, playdough, etc. but I am also not against flashcards. We mix it all up.

Using wiki-sticks to do a connect the dots page and work on number sequence.

Have you ever heard of wiki-sticks? They are awesome! We got a free sample at Grapefest last weekend and have found so many uses for them. 

Observing what will absorb water.

We rotate through days of doing science, music, and art. Eva's favorite days are science! It takes a bit of prep but it is so awesome to see her interested. 

Matching "mystery" balloons with buckets of rice, beans, salt, water, and syrup to learn about observing using her sense of touch. She also drew a picture so she could teach her dad what she learned!

One thing I am also trying to let go of is the idea of time restraints. I don't want to feel like I have to do an activity for a long time if she isn't interested or feel like I have to stop doing something if she is really engaged. Some days we go through the academic part of school in under an hour. Some days we stretch it out for a couple of hours. If she wants to take a break to play with Barbies, then we do that. She did the above science activity for a whole hour. 

Using her sense of taste to decide if a bag had sugar or salt, and her sense of smell to match baggies of spices with their containers.

Painting lots of pictures! 

Eva has told me before that she likes painting because it helps her to feel calm - paint away, sister! Don't let me stand in the way of potential calmness. I'm excited because we are getting an old easel from my parent's house this weekend. 

Every couple of weeks we go to the library and check out a giant stack of new books. I pick some, she picks some. Did I mention she dresses herself? 

Included in our school time is lots of play time! Kids need to play, play, play all they can. Nothing beats a kiddie pool filled with soil for digging.

We try to spend time outside every day, whether that is going on walks, doing learning activities outside, reading on the swing, or taking trips to the playground. 

And what about little buddy? He pretty much hangs out right beside us! He isn't crawling yet so that helps, although I know that's just around the corner. He also is usually content as long as he has his toys and is right beside us.

 I try to squeeze in the harder, more adult-directed activities while he is sleeping. Other than that we just go with the flow.

Finally I wanted to share how we keep things organized. In a dream house you have a whole room and closet dedicated to homeschool. In our very real, wonderful home I keep everything in plastic bins and one end table. I have it all organized by content and have labeled file folders along with buckets of materials. I got a set of coordinating tubs at Costco before school started to help organize everything. On Monday morning I pull everything out and on Wednesday afternoon I hide it all back in the out of reach places so that my house is more tidy when people are more likely to come over. 

Before the school year started I took several weeks to plan out and gather everything I needed for the first 6 weeks of school. Then since I'm a nut who needs everything spelled out, I created my own planning sheet and filled it in so that I would know what I wanted to do for each area over the first 6 weeks. Planning and organizing ahead of time has made things flow so much smoother. After the first 6 weeks I plan to take a break week to plan and prep all the things for the next 6 weeks. I might even bargain with the husband to have a day at a coffee shop so that I can focus solely on planning :)

* If you're reading all this and thinking, "Woah that seems complicated. That's too much planning," I assure you that you can absolutely do homeschooling in whatever way works for you. I just function best when I'm overly organized, which in turn leads to Eva learning better since I'm not running around looking for materials like a chicken with no brain. 

Lastly, here is our schedule pocket chart. We start with the activities on the left side, and as we finish something we slide it over to the right. This helps my busy, dizzy mama brain keep on track with what we've done and still need to do.

That's about it. I truly love doing homeschool. Yes there are days when it is HARD to teach your own four year old. You have to combine being a mom with being a teacher and juggling an extra baby isn't always easy. But for me, and for our family, it is so worth it. I enjoy being at home with my kids and I cry a little bit when I think about the day when they will go off and not be at home with me. I'm really committed to doing 100 days of preschool with her this year. That works out to about 33 weeks, which is pretty much what she would do if she went away to school. I am beyond pumped to see how she learns and grows this year. Just writing this has made me so giddy! And of course since it's fall, I am now ready to rock all the pumpkin activities!!!!