Since our broken printer has turned into new laser printer which has lead us to networking problems, we're still without a printer, which means our curriculum is temporarily on hold. In the meantime, Elsie and I have been working on a few other things...she's learned to spell her name. She likes to say, "Listen to me write my name: E-L-S-I-E!" It's pretty darn cute if I do say so myself. We're also working on some very basic math...simple addition. It's something that keeps coming up and is easy to work into whatever we're playing or talking about. If we're cleaning up toys and I ask Elsie to pick up all of the blocks, she'll bring me some and say, "I have two blocks." I'll say, "I found one. How many is 2 blocks plus 1 block?" She's really caught on very easily. Of course, we're working with small numbers, but I'm still proud of her. I've been praying for a long time that she'd be a quick learner and able to pick up on concepts easily. I've definitely seen fruit from that already.
I've also been reading this book, and this little break has been the perfect opportunity to see how mine and Elsie's relationship works when I'm teaching her something...how I like to teach as well as how she likes to learn.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Free Calendar Templates
Visit Lakeshore Learning to download a FREE printable calendar !
I've been wanting to add days of the week and months of the year to our schoolwork. Last week, I found a wipe off board that only has one week of Monday through Friday on it. I think I'm going to print the calendars, and I'll let Elsie color the calendar page for the beginning of each month. Then, we can talk about special days that month and write down any plans we have together. On our weekly board, we're going to write what we'll be learning about each day.
I'll post pictures the first week of October when we get started on this.
I've been wanting to add days of the week and months of the year to our schoolwork. Last week, I found a wipe off board that only has one week of Monday through Friday on it. I think I'm going to print the calendars, and I'll let Elsie color the calendar page for the beginning of each month. Then, we can talk about special days that month and write down any plans we have together. On our weekly board, we're going to write what we'll be learning about each day.
I'll post pictures the first week of October when we get started on this.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Week 5: Monday
I've got drafts that I need to finish up for last week, but I want to try and get back on track with posting as well so I'm starting with today. Elsie woke up this morning acting like a kangaroo so I impulsively decided to make them our theme for the week. Since our printer has gone from printing blotchy to light to not at all, we're still improvising. Jason has been kind enough to print me out a few pages at work ahead of time but since the kangaroo thing is spur of the moment, we're getting creative.
I made her a kangaroo pouch out of a receiving blanket, and she dubbed her baby doll Riley Roo. She's been hopping around for a couple of hours now, and I've had to readjust her kangaroo pouch countless times, but she's having a ton of fun. Here's Elsie the Kangaroo.
I made our vocabulary word joey, a baby kangaroo. I also found some coloring pages I'll ask Jason to print out and bring home so we'll have to share those another day.
Our scripture for the week is 1John 1:5-God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.
I made her a kangaroo pouch out of a receiving blanket, and she dubbed her baby doll Riley Roo. She's been hopping around for a couple of hours now, and I've had to readjust her kangaroo pouch countless times, but she's having a ton of fun. Here's Elsie the Kangaroo.
I made our vocabulary word joey, a baby kangaroo. I also found some coloring pages I'll ask Jason to print out and bring home so we'll have to share those another day.
Our scripture for the week is 1John 1:5-God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Valuables
I know I NEED to update, and I'm determined to get that done today, but I wanted to take a few moments to post some links here that I'm finding value in.
First, I've posted this before, but Brightly Beaming Resources is the current plan we're using in homeschooling our 3 year old. So far, it's going great. When I pictured myself beginning to teach our daughter, the things in this plan are what I pictured...simple ideas, shapes, colors, letters, and numbers. This curriculum has simply given me ideas and ways to achieve what I'd already figured I'd be doing.
Here's a site, A Magical Childhood, that I bookmarked awhile ago and recently stumbled across again. It's full of fun crafts to do with children. I'm sure we'll be exploring some of these soon.
When I first started researching curriculums, I came across this list of grades and what the standards are for each of them. It's something I read over from time to time just to refresh myself on what things to stress when talking with Elsie. We don't necessarily focus on many of these things in our lessons, but we're learning and discovering them together while we play.
Another great learning resource is Starfall. The focus is on learning to read, but there are other activities there as well that you could easily incorporate into whatever you're studying. I'll probably be looking into this site more as I start thinking more about teaching Elsie to read. Am I brave or what?
In my neverending search for coloring book pages, I use the site, Enchanted Learning, often so I thought I'd share it with you. I've also used Preschool Express and the blog, No Time For Flashcards, to glean ideas from.
Two other sites I've spent some time on are homeschooling advocate sites, the HSLDA as well as NHEN. Both sites have a wealth of information and can probably answer a lot of questions for anyone.
First, I've posted this before, but Brightly Beaming Resources is the current plan we're using in homeschooling our 3 year old. So far, it's going great. When I pictured myself beginning to teach our daughter, the things in this plan are what I pictured...simple ideas, shapes, colors, letters, and numbers. This curriculum has simply given me ideas and ways to achieve what I'd already figured I'd be doing.
Here's a site, A Magical Childhood, that I bookmarked awhile ago and recently stumbled across again. It's full of fun crafts to do with children. I'm sure we'll be exploring some of these soon.
When I first started researching curriculums, I came across this list of grades and what the standards are for each of them. It's something I read over from time to time just to refresh myself on what things to stress when talking with Elsie. We don't necessarily focus on many of these things in our lessons, but we're learning and discovering them together while we play.
Another great learning resource is Starfall. The focus is on learning to read, but there are other activities there as well that you could easily incorporate into whatever you're studying. I'll probably be looking into this site more as I start thinking more about teaching Elsie to read. Am I brave or what?
In my neverending search for coloring book pages, I use the site, Enchanted Learning, often so I thought I'd share it with you. I've also used Preschool Express and the blog, No Time For Flashcards, to glean ideas from.
Two other sites I've spent some time on are homeschooling advocate sites, the HSLDA as well as NHEN. Both sites have a wealth of information and can probably answer a lot of questions for anyone.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Week 3: Wednesday
Today, our letter for the day is the letter C. We colored a letter, and then we practiced drawing some. The C is a lot easier to draw than A or B so Elsie did a great job, and we've got a whole wipe-off board full of the letter C to show Daddy when he gets home. In the last couple of weeks, she's really taken an interest in writing letters...practicing on her Doodle Pro during playtime...she's drawn the letters B, C, D, J, L, O, P, T, U, and V all on her own.
After that, we walked around the house and found things that start with the letter C like her Cat picture from Monday, Claira, a Care Bear, a Cup, and a Candle. Now, Elsie's having Cookies for a snack while she watches the Letter Factory.
After that, we walked around the house and found things that start with the letter C like her Cat picture from Monday, Claira, a Care Bear, a Cup, and a Candle. Now, Elsie's having Cookies for a snack while she watches the Letter Factory.
Week 3: Tuesday
Our shape of the day--Diamond!
We colored and drew diamonds and made some out of playdough...we did not find anything in our house that is shaped like a diamond...if you can think of something we might have, post it here and we'll find it for our Friday review!
We colored and drew diamonds and made some out of playdough...we did not find anything in our house that is shaped like a diamond...if you can think of something we might have, post it here and we'll find it for our Friday review!
Week 3: Monday
Our theme for the week: CATS!
We had a lot of fun pretending to be kittens...meowing, purring, and snuggling together.
We also introduced our new Bible scripture today, which I had meant to be doing on Friday's, but since I wanted one to practice the first week, I introduced it on Monday, and it seems to be stuck there. Oh well. Do what works for you, I say. Anyway, Elsie did not do nearly as well with her second scripture as she did the first. She still knows the first very well, but everytime I've wanted to practice Colossians 4:2, she reverts back to Genesis 1:1...which is okay with me for right now. Part of starting this so early is wanting to get a good grip on everything and figuring out what our strengths and weaknesses are without any pressure to just get it done and do it right (now).
On the other side of things, I had picked the scripture in Colossians specifically because I wanted to focus more on thankfulness. Elsie can often be found throwing a fit over having to leave...Chuck E. Cheese or some other fun outing we've done. I realize that those are times that she's probably tired so I don't want to place too much weight on them, but I'd like for it to be a short-lived phase anyway. I want our children to be thankful for what they've been given. When they've been blessed with a fun afternoon, I want to hear, "Thank you! I had so much fun" rather than their screams and the sound of their shoes hitting the pavement as we drag them to the car. Hopefully, someone out their can relate. Anyway, we talked a lot about thankfulness this week, and I was able to make Elsie aware of how blessed she is by explaining that not all children live in a home like we do. We were watching Sesame Street earlier this week, and there was a little segment with a little boy from another country...his house had dirt floors. Elsie told me that it was gross so we talked more about how blessed we are to live in a country where it's normal for us and all of our friends to have nice, soft, clean carpet on the floor. Last night, as we talked about getting ready for bathtime, she said, "Not all kids have towels? right Mommy." She was shocked when I told her that not all kids have bathtubs and some of them have to bathe outside in a lake or river. This is turning into a longer post than I intended, but my point is that she may not have memorized a scripture this week but she did seem to gain a bit of an understanding about thankfulness, which I'm grateful for.
We had a lot of fun pretending to be kittens...meowing, purring, and snuggling together.
We also introduced our new Bible scripture today, which I had meant to be doing on Friday's, but since I wanted one to practice the first week, I introduced it on Monday, and it seems to be stuck there. Oh well. Do what works for you, I say. Anyway, Elsie did not do nearly as well with her second scripture as she did the first. She still knows the first very well, but everytime I've wanted to practice Colossians 4:2, she reverts back to Genesis 1:1...which is okay with me for right now. Part of starting this so early is wanting to get a good grip on everything and figuring out what our strengths and weaknesses are without any pressure to just get it done and do it right (now).
On the other side of things, I had picked the scripture in Colossians specifically because I wanted to focus more on thankfulness. Elsie can often be found throwing a fit over having to leave...Chuck E. Cheese or some other fun outing we've done. I realize that those are times that she's probably tired so I don't want to place too much weight on them, but I'd like for it to be a short-lived phase anyway. I want our children to be thankful for what they've been given. When they've been blessed with a fun afternoon, I want to hear, "Thank you! I had so much fun" rather than their screams and the sound of their shoes hitting the pavement as we drag them to the car. Hopefully, someone out their can relate. Anyway, we talked a lot about thankfulness this week, and I was able to make Elsie aware of how blessed she is by explaining that not all children live in a home like we do. We were watching Sesame Street earlier this week, and there was a little segment with a little boy from another country...his house had dirt floors. Elsie told me that it was gross so we talked more about how blessed we are to live in a country where it's normal for us and all of our friends to have nice, soft, clean carpet on the floor. Last night, as we talked about getting ready for bathtime, she said, "Not all kids have towels? right Mommy." She was shocked when I told her that not all kids have bathtubs and some of them have to bathe outside in a lake or river. This is turning into a longer post than I intended, but my point is that she may not have memorized a scripture this week but she did seem to gain a bit of an understanding about thankfulness, which I'm grateful for.
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