I Love Homeschool - Weeks 2 & 3

Weeks 2 & 3  of School were so fun!
We studied many things including the numbers 2 and 3,
letters B and C, Kitchen Chemistry, and Friction...

Letter B Folder Game

Pattern Blocks!

We studied ingredients A and B under a microscope

after journaling, we tasted to find out they were salt and sugar!

We brewed our own sodas to study the way yeast works!

Peach, Ginger and Cream soda

Ginger was not a favorite, but the others went quickly!

Guess what we did?

We watched Bill Nye visit Mr. Rogers 

He showed him how to do this experiment!

These guys thought it was amazing!

We also made homemade lava lamps!

B is for Bubbles

So, we did bubble painting!

I think they turned out great!

B is also for Beans

and we made Bean Mosaics

We had a whole baseball day, playing it for gym,

reading Casey at the Bat and The Littlest Leaguer too

My Dad made the day especially fun for Caleb!

He mailed him some baseball cards with players whose names begin with B!

Thanks again, Dad!

We match our snacks to the letter of the week

we made Butterfly snacks for B.

We also ate Bagels, Blueberries, Brownies, and Biscuits.

For Letter C, we had cantaloupe, cheese, crackers, cereal, cheese-its.

While we were busy making our snacks,

Ashlynn was practicing her fine motor skills.

She figured this out all on her own - 

she's such a cutie!

C is for Caterpillar  

So, I made this hungry caterpillar game to play

Lay it out 

your child makes the hungry caterpillar "eat" the foods

as you read

When he has a tummy ache, he eats one nice green leaf...

I made magnets that attach to the pipe cleaner caterpillar

for when he's fat, in a cocoon

And when he becomes a beautiful butterfly!!

and it all fits in a sandwich bag!

^_^

C is for crayons

We did melted crayon art

it was really fun!

Letter C Folder game

Here's a fun friction experiment

The friction between the rice and pencil allows 

you to pick up the cup of rice with the pencil!

(We did many other friction experiments, no pics though)

Our bingo markers came in handy for caterpillar work!

I Love Homeschool - Week 1

Week one was a great start to our Homeschool year!

Here are the highlights of our week!

The first day of school!

Caleb's number of the week was 1

and the letter was A

Caleb loved stamping, but didn't want to get his fingers dirty,

so we used my pinky for the ant bodies

Letter A folder

Practice with colors and patterns

For History, we studied Ancient Crete, including the story of the Minotaur. 

We made marble mazes

Then we learned about the Mycenaeans 

We did a few art projects, including decorating a Greek Vase,

and making foil death masks

For Science, we studied sound.

We read The Magic School Bus in the Haunted Museum

and watched Bill Bye - Sound

We did many experiments, including making megaphones,

balloon amplifiers, a model eardrum.

We also played our sound matching game, and other sound games online.

(and we of course wrote in our science journals daily)

Every Year I have the kids make self portraits during the first week

Caleb made a collage of himself

SO CUTE!

Marigold Drew her other halves!

She is getting so good at details!

Marigold read The Happy Prince

for reading and comprehension.

The we watched an animation of the story here

Here's a *math game we played with bingo markers.

You roll two dice for a number,

then a die with color dots on it for your color

Instant artwork :)

*We only play math games after we complete our math curriculum for the day,

especially since most of the games are so far below Marigold's level

As one of her writing assignments, I've asked Marigold

to write a short story for Caleb once a week, 

using his Letter of the week as her jumping off point.

This week, she wrote A is for Ants

Our Reading Tree Has 138 Book leaves now!

Check Back next week to see what we've been up to!

I love homeschool! - How we do it

Having two kids to teach if definitely a challenge-

I think all the homeschoolers out there with multiple kids are heroes!

Everyone approaches homeschool differently
I'd like to give you a look at how we do homeschool.

Our "Classroom"

We do schoolwork wherever it's most convenient.

Mostly at the dining room table, kitchen bar area, or bedrooms.

We always read while snuggled up on the couch though :)

Teacher Organization

I use a great iPad app called Homeschool Helper

to keep my lesson plans, grades and reports organized.

It was cheap and replaces all of my paperwork. I love it!

If you're like me and hate having binders, calendars, and papers everywhere

I really suggest using this app.

Other Organization
I use file crates!  They are cute and easy to tuck away

Here's what I keep in them:

Caleb's
worksheets for letters A-Z and Numbers 1-20

file folder games

preschool workbooks

magnetic chalkboard

Science Journal

dry erase boards (lined and unlined)

geoboard

daily calendar notebook (here is where I got the idea for this)
 Alphabet book binder (an ongoing project)

Marigold's

story starters

3rd grade workbooks
math curriculum

magnetic chalkboard

dry erase boards (lined and unlined)

geoboard

daily calendar notebook

science journal

daily journal

Binders for history, math, english/writing

Notebook for Reading comprehension

Articles of faith 

Mad libs

Sign Language flashcards

We have a caddy which holds pencils and a sharpener,

tape, dry erase markers, weather board words, rulers, etc..

We use these everyday, and It's nice to have them easily gotten to, 

and easily put away daily.
I keep all of our other supplies locked away in a cabinet until needed.

(crayons included - we're renters, need I say more?)

Daily Schedule

Each morning we say the Pledge of Allegiance,
use our handy weather station (found here),

 and fill out our daily calendar notebook
We study Math, Reading, Writing, Science and History every day (not necessarily in that order)
Other subjects like Art, Music, Health and the like, I add in as needed.
We also go outside for physical activity daily, but the activity differs from day to day
(baseball, bike ride, walk, playground, swimming, etc...)

I use a laminated daily grid and magnetic subject tiles

to show our school plans for each day

(I got the basic idea here and made it our own)

School is over when we're done everything we have planned

I don't chisel out exact times. 

I just expect the kids to work hard until they are done.

Sometimes they are having so much FUN, we let that subject go longer!

Where does Ashlynn fit in to all this?
Oh yeah, we have a 17 month old too -

She draws when we do
She reads with us
She snacks and plays outside with us
She watches movies about science
She dances and sings at music time
Sometimes she wanders off to play in her room,
but she is happy as can be the whole time.

So, that's how we do homeschool at our house!
I hope you got a few good ideas - I'd love to hear any tips from other homeschooling Mommas!