School 2013

At the very end of January we got back into a school habit after having a baby.  Harmon (4) started Saxon Math Level K.  Sammy (3) is also more or less doing it, but we will see when it gets more advanced.  I have picked a weekly theme, and we do most of our art/crafts/science/social studies/music/etc. based around it.  It is sometimes grouped in a normal order/sequence and sometimes not.  Oh well.  Here is the proposed theme schedule for the next many months (although they may change):

January

1: Winter (Dec 31)

2: Spring (7th)

3: Summer (14th)

4: Fall (21^st)

5: Weather (28th)

February

1: Feelings (4th)

2: Valentine's Day (11^th)

3: My Family, My home(18^th)

4: My Body(25^th)

March

1: On the Farm (4th)

2: St. Patrick's Day (11th)

3: Grocer, Mailman, Garbage Man (18^th)

4: Easter (25^th)

April:

1: The Desert (1st)

2: The Forest (8th)

3: The Ocean (15th)

4: Polar Lands (22nd

5: Pond & Rivers (29th)

May:

1: Cinco de Mayo/Mexico (6th)

2: Flowers (13th)

3: Space (20th)

4: Camping (27th)

June

1: Butterflies (3rd)

2: Newspapers (10^th)

3: Fireman (17^th)

4: Horses (24^th)

July

1: America (1^st)

2: Bugs (8^th)

3: Beach (15^th)

4: Fish(22^nd)

5: People who keep us safe (29^th)

August

1: Dinosaurs (5th)

2: Rain Forest (12th)

3: Maps (19th)

4: Harvest (26th)

Letter Dice Game

Today at the store I picked up a cheap set of foam letter puzzles like this one.

I turned them into cubes and the kids rolled them like dice and would tell me what letter it said. Fun and good practice. Yay!

Re-Start

So, although we got to letter G before, I obviously stopped blogging about it. Since moving to Ecuador in January we have re-started, using the lessons I had done before. We are only a few weeks in and already I feel like this curriculum is not as good of a fit as it could be. Probably because Harmon is older, but I feel like I want to add some more/different activities to the "school time". So, I will be doing a letter, color, and a something else (weather, season, etc.) each week to see if that fits a little bit better.

Letter C Summary

Monday:
-Introduce letter
-Coloring page
-Theme words: cookie, caboose, cat, clock, caterpillar (with drawings)
-Poem/Rhyme: Clippity Clippity Clop by Sue Brown
Clippity, clippity, clop
The horses go clip, clop.
They gallop and gallop,
They start and they stop.
Clippity, clippity, clop.
(note: both kids love this, as they love horses and banging their hands on the table to the beat)
-Book: The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
-Song: C is for Cookie (by Cookie Monster)
-Scripture story: The Creation

Tuesday:
-Flash cards
-Poem/Rhyme
-Book: The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss
-Song: C is for Cookie
-Math: calendar (planned) but we ended up counting something else instead (?)
-Scripture story: review and coloring page

Wednesday:
-Flash cards
-Poem
-Book: The Great Cookie Thief by Emily Perl Kingsley
-Song: C is for Cookie
-Science: Crab (parts & coloring)
-Scripture story: Act out Creation.
(note: Harmon loved being the water, growing like the flowers, and being different animals)

We skipped out on the rest of the week, oops!

Letter B Summary

Monday:
-Introduce letter
-Coloring page
-Theme words flash cards: banana, balloon, butterfly, book, bear
-Poem/Rhyme: The Baker by Diane Thom
Who makes the rolls and bread and cake?
Who likes to stir and knead and bake?
Who mixes up the dough a lot
And puts it in the oven hot?
Who is the very best muffin maker?
Yes, you guessed, it's our friend the baker!
(note: the kids really liked doing the hand motions on this one)
-Book: Bee-Wigged by Cece Bell
(note: This book made me laugh pretty hard, because a bee wearing a wig? Funny.)
-Music: Baby Bumblebee
(note: we used a "nice" version which included bringing it home, squishing it, and wiping it off.)
-Scripture story: Tower of Babel

Tuesday:
-Flash cards
-Poem (use same all week)
-Book: Big, Bigger, Biggest by Nancy Coffelt
(note: not the best book for B, nor for a 2 year old. Just grabbed it from the library, would not use again.)
-Music: Baby Bumblebee
-Math: Counting balls
-Scripture story: review & color

Wednesday:
-Flash cards
-Poem
-Book: Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown
(Note: Harmon loved it, which is fair because it is an awesome book.)
-Song: Baby Bumblebee
-Science: Beaver (explain all the parts and then color)
-Scripture story: review & act out
(Note: fun to build a tower, and now Harmon says "Everyone obey The God!" because you can't get to heaven by building a tower, only obeying God.)

Thursday:
-Flash cards
-Poem
-Book: Bluberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey
(Note: Harmon seemed to get pretty bored, could have been due to time of day-did school in the afternoon)
-Song: Baby Bumblebee
-Social Studies: Brazil, learned about exports/products, language, capital, size, soccer, flag, and colored map
-Art: B stamps (letter B, butterfly, balloon, bug, etc.)

Friday:
-Flash cards
-Poem
-Book: Runaway Bunny (again!)
-Song: Baby Bumblebee
-Sports/Games: blowing bubbles
-Review: color sesame street B with Big Bird

B week went pretty well, Harmon asks to do school this week, Sammy (15 months old) sits through most of it, or gets down and goes to play quietly.

Letter A Summary

On Tuesday we did:
Theme word cards
Poem/Rhyme: Ten Red Apples
Story: Are You My Mother by P.D. Eastman
Song: The Ants Go Marching
Math: Counting apple erasers
Scripture Story: Adam and Eve review & coloring page

The rest of the week we did nothing! Harmon is not even 2 1/2 so I didn't really feel too bad about not going full force the first week.

ABC Preschool

I decided today that I would spend a bit of time each day teaching Harmon the letters (sounds and visual recognition). I figure if nothing else it would give us a fun activity to do. I came across some curiculum here: http://www.letteroftheweek.com/preschool_age_3.html and will see how I like it. I decided to skip the ABC introduction week and start with A this week.

Here is what we did today after naptime:

Monday 3/21/11
-Introduce letter
-Coloring page-Theme words cards
Apple, ambulance, alligator, astronaut, ant
-Poetry/Rhyme
Ten Red Apples
Ten red apples growing on a tree,
Five for you and five for me.
Help me shake the tree just so,
And ten red apples fall down below.
One, two , three, four, five,
Six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
Author Unknown
(this was really fun, to pretend our arms were trees and our fingers the apples, and to eat the apples at the end)
-Book
Alexander Anteater’s Amazing Act by Barbara deRubertis
-Music
The Ants Go Marching
-Bible story
Adam and Eve
(this would have worked better with some pictures)

It was a good first day, I am excited to see if Harmon is excited for "school" tomorrow. Also, instead of posting a daily of what we did, maybe I will just do a week review.