End of our first week

Can't believe how fast our first week went. It was a good one, that's for sure.

Jenna had her first spelling test today and she got all of them right. Her words were, a, am, an and, at and the. She also did very well with her math. I like the spiral approach in the horizon math workbooks. We also worked on her phonics and she is close to mastering all her short vowel cvc words. So far she knows about 45 of her sight words and we are working on about 10 more right now. I like to pull the sight words from the books she is reading to me and make a memory match out of them. I read alot to her, I am trying to show her the love of reading. She does pick up a book here and there to read without me asking, but not often enough. She would rather write and draw in her free time. Oh and she does read me the stories that she writes, so I guess that would count for her reading on her own. Writing went good today. She told me that she will try to start at the top when forming her letters. Then she said to me, now if you need to remind me to start at the top, remember to say please, lol. I love this age because everything she says is so innocent and exactly how she's feeling at that moment. So another day of homeschooling done and I can't imagine any other way I would of wanted to spend my day. I am so thankful that I am able to stay home and teach my daughter.

Day four

Wow, it's almost the end of the week. We are slowly figuring out what works and what doesn't. I let Jenna take the lead when it comes to this.

Math works best first thing after circle time, spelling is going great, but the worksheets they include are just busy work(so those will be no longer). I am thinking of just using the dry erase board and making games out of her spelling words each week. When it comes to writing and practicing in her workbook, she moans( she knows I am going to want her to form her letters the correct way by starting at the top). But the funny thing is that 1 minute into working in her book, she is eager to do more and forming them correctly. Then when we are finished, she goes right back to starting from the bottom again, so I try to gently remind her to start from the top(then I get the I know with an eye roll, lol). Everything else seems to working and it doesn't seem to matter what time of day we do it.

If we are up in time in the morning, we start our day with Sid the science kid on PBS before we begin school. And we break for lunch at the same time, so she can catch Arthur on PBS.

Hours after schooling was done for the day, Jenna came up to me and asked with we could do some more school work. It's moments like this that make homeschooling her so worth it.

Third day

Another good day of homeschooling. We got a little bit of a late start, but no big deal. We did our usual circle time, some math, played a spelling game at her request and did her daily spelling worksheet, read Harold and the purple crayon, then she went on an adventure with her purple crayon and some very long paper (I know have it hanging up over the couch), We read about the four seasons and made a four season spinner, Jenna read some of her books that was written by her), made some fun phonics pull strips for her to practice on her own and she read some phonics words from them to me, we read the head to toe book and then had our own fun acting out what they did in the book and made up some fun things too, she practice in her handwriting without tears book and earned herself some stars and a sticker(she was so proud of herself),.

Oh I forgot to add that she came to school dressed in her mermiad dress up clothes ( too cute).

Day two

Today was even better than yesterday. After circle time, we started off with math this morning, some addition and coin recognition(pennies and dimes). Then we read about reponsibility from her grumpy bunny book. I had her draw a picture of one of her responsibilities she did this morning which was to feed her fish. Danced and sang while listening to some of her kids songs. Worked on her spelling work sheet and played a game with her spelling words. Did a little science about the four seasons, teaching her what months are in which season. Jenna read some phonic books to me, with her toy glasses on(too funny need to get a pic of that). She made an all about me book, which had a pic she drew of herself, her pet, her house and her friend. I also had her make a cover with her name and age. After lunch, she worked in her printing book, not her favorite thing to do. Then we read Olivia, which is one of her favorite books. We decided to try to make a masterpiece like the one in the book. With some paint and some splatter, a masterpiece was created. I had her sign it and it's hanging on my fridge.

Even after a day of schooling, Jenna was still busy she wrote me a story and made up some tea party invitations. And we did some more dancing and singing to her kids songs. It was a good day and hopefully we will have many more.

First day of homeschool 2010-2011

First Day of K4

So far our day has consist of circle time, some math, read about responsibility and discuss about it. She marked off some her reponsibilities that she did this morning and we talked about how she should always try her best, played bowling, read poem about seasons and made a book, played memory for phonics, read Amelia bedelia's first day of school, worked on spelling, played simon said, played tic tac toe.
I am going to clean while she is eating lunch and watching Arthur. Then some all about me, and a little writing practice(even though she is writing all the time , I want her to start learning to make her letters the correct way and use lined paper. After that playing and just having fun.

K4

This is our plan for K4 this year.

Horizon K math (starting with some reveiwing and then we will begin with lesson 40)

HWT k - some letter review using this and working on writing on lines.

Spelling- Evan Moor grade one (she loves to spell)

ETC. and OPGTR(need to pick this up, we will be starting after the CVC short vowel words).Lots of read alouds, star fall, biscuit phonic books and easy readers.

Character building

All about me and family, neighborhood and community, some geography and holidays.
Some fun science throughout the year, starting with Seasons.

Arts and crafts which we love to do.

Playing outside, story hour and indoor playing.

A little more about some of what we will be doing for Character building and Social Studies

Character building is mostly coming from books(some I printed off and others). And then just discussing and implementing in our dauly lives. Today we start with respnsibility I will read and discuss what it means. I then have a chart that I made up for her to keep track of her daily responsibilities.

All about me and family, made up by me. I will read books, have her doing all about me and family activities. Like an all about me book, decorating her name using whatever she wants, all about me time line (with pics from her birth until now) and cooking some of her favorite foods.

Neighboorhood and Community, made up by me. Again lots of reading and discussing. We will be taking a walk around our little town, we live right smack in the middle of town. I am going to set up times when we can come and visit some of the places. We have the post office (which she will mail off her pen pal letter and hopefully get a tour), pizza shop (hopefully she can come in at prep time and see the crust made and such), we will visit the man next door(that will be for neighbor) and he has a small business, Bank (she will open up her savings account), the store (which I hope she knows the rest of her coins by then, I will let her pickout and pay for it herself), the library, the ice cream place, the hardware store and more.

Geography will be making maps of her room, the house, the playground, and our town. Also learning N,S,W,E and using our globe. Taking a look at the world map and the US. I printed some things from Evan Moor and then some is just made up by me.

Holidays, talking and reading about them. And lots of hands on activities.