Homeschooling Blitz!

Okay Heather here we go! We are on it!!!

What do I mean?

Well, I am (we are) blogging our homeschooling lives for the month of January. Heather's family will have amazing and wonderfully creative ideas and we will have our own moments here too! From schoolwork to outings. We will do it!

My plan is to account for what we are doing as a way to recall later in life just what we did in a little more detail than the normal month!
So, what this means...I will blog Monday to Friday and invite you into our world here. IF I get beyond the five days and into the weekend I will be thrilled. My goal is set, five days a week.

As I sit here and plan for my first week I am thankful that I am enjoying this time organizing and creating a unique week. Planning makes for a healthy week!!!
I am listening to Steven Curtis Chapman sing out Do Everything. What a song to remind me to do everything to the glory of the one who made me! So here I go, homeschooling/teaching/parenting to His Glory!

Sara: SK

I have a challenge box for Sara that we open together in the morning. Sometimes there are new crafts, new words for the week, review words, letters, (jolly phonics based) numbers/math related material or books to read. I also have wipe-off sentence strips she practices her name, sentences, copy work and cursive.

This week I will have a different mini book to colour and put together each day. Monday she will be making a mini-book on the senses. We will play math/alphabet bingo and a winter craft- painting a winter scene on a dollar store canvas. She adores painting. I may have her dictate a story to go with her winter scene. I always love how a five year old creates stories to treasure!

I have set up a schedule (Katie took it and destroyed it, need another!) that details time with siblings. So when I am with Sara for example someone is with Katie (busy 2 yr old) doing something fun or special! That way I am able to focus on the child I am with for a good portion of time. Admittedly, I must be better at following this. Accountablity...isn't this what we are aiming for H!!??


The rest of her SK day will be from Sonlight including math from Horizons, computer programs/Ipad games. Not to mention and other crafts she will attempt and the imaginative play that occurs constantly! Really, play is her school! 

In all of this, interruptions or scheduled distractions (ha!) will occur and I am prepared to cut this in half or make do with the timing that happens!

Samantha: Grade Four

Included with her Sonlight this week, I am adding the theme of poetry. She loves creative writing/poetry and adding painting will add a sense of wonder for her morning! I may have her paint right outside!

She will be reading the poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost. The first thing she will do before her regular day will be simply reading the poem and starting a painting that reflects what she reads. We will do this for Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday we have our homeschool group, Thursday we will begin a stanza that she creates of her own and learning more about R. Frost.

 

The Boys

 

Along with the regular Sonlight for grade 6 and 8 the boys will also be starting with poetry. I found a poem by Edward Lear called The DAddy Long-Legs and the Fly. A funny poem they can read and talk about together. I have no plan for them other than researching some cool facts on spiders on national geographic kids and maybe sketching some while I read in the morning.

 

More to come....this is only Sunday night!