Interest Led Homeschool
- 3-5 Year Old, 6-8 Year Old, English, Interest Led Homeschool, Letter of the Week, Preschool, Teaching, the Give Way
Letter of the Week – Letter E
One of my goals is to work on not controlling everything…it took a lot of will power not to unstaple and turn the one sheet around and not redo the stapling of the book for her. (Note to self: be around when she’s stapling. 😉 ) Day 1 Put uppercase letter and lowercase letter (cursive and manuscript) on 12 circle stickers. Hide them around a room. Once she finds them, she puts them on a letter outline. Color and assemble letter E book (I only chose the three pages I thought she would like most.) Gather books from our bookshelves that relate to the letter E. Song: E Eats Everything Song: Everybody…
- 3-5 Year Old, 6-8 Year Old, English, Interest Led Homeschool, Letter of the Week, Preschool, Science, Teaching, the Give Way
Letter of the Week – Letter D
Day 1 Put letter D and d (cursive and manuscript) on 12 circle stickers. Hide them in a room. Once she finds them, she puts them on letter D outline. (see example in picture above) Letter D book (I only chose three of the pages I thought she would like most.) Gathered up D books from around the house. Video: D Is for Dragons and Donuts! Song: D Song Play dominoes (and play with dominoes…and even dance with dominoes. 🙂 ) Day 2 Visit the Natural History Museum to see some dinosaur bones. We went to the LA Natural History Museum. It’s free the first Tuesday of every month, except in July…
- 3-5 Year Old, 6-8 Year Old, English, Interest Led Homeschool, Letter of the Week, Preschool, Teaching, the Give Way
Letter of the Week – Letter C
This week we were dog sitting, so not many pictures, and not a ton of activities. This will be a very basic letter of the week. 🙂 Day 1 Put letter C and c (cursive and manuscript) on 12 circle stickers. Hide them in a room. Once she finds them, she puts them on letter C outline. (I used printed ones for this, but they were too big. By the letter D, I just made small handwritten letters on card stock to put the stickers on). Letter C book (I only chose three of the pages I thought she would like most.) Starfall Computer Activity Day 2 Bake Cookies Activity Sheet…
- 3-5 Year Old, 6-8 Year Old, English, Interest Led Homeschool, Letter of the Week, Preschool, Teaching, the Give Way
Letter of the Week – Letter B
Day 1 Put letter B and b (cursive and manuscript) on 12 circle stickers. Hide them in a room. Once she finds them, she puts them on letter B outline. (I used printed ones for this, but they were too big. By the letter D, I just made small handwritten letters on card stock to put the stickers on). Letter B book (I only chose three of the pages I thought she would like most.) Starfall Computer Activity Have a BBQ Day 2 Make a bird out of a paper plate and glue feathers on it. (regular paper plate folded in half, put a beak and feet on it.) Make a…
- 3-5 Year Old, 6-8 Year Old, English, Interest Led Homeschool, Letter of the Week, Preschool, Teaching, the Give Way
Letter of the Week – Letter A
Day 1 Put letter A and a (cursive and manuscript) on 12 circle stickers. Hide them in a room. Once she finds them, she puts them on letter A outline. (I used printed ones for this, but they were too big. By the letter D, I just made small handwritten letters on card stock to put the stickers on). (See picture above.) Letter A book (I only chose three of the pages I thought she would like most.) Cut up red pieces of construction paper and glue onto small plate for apple (see picture above) Olive and the Rhyme Rescue Crew Video Day 2 Paint cardboard apple and alligator plate (see…
- 3-5 Year Old, 6-8 Year Old, Curricula, English, Interest Led Homeschool, Letter of the Week, Math, Preschool, Science, Teaching, the Give Way
Letter of the Week
So, there is a lot of controversy over whether to do letter of the week or not. Really, there is. I can see the validity of both sides and have tried to take out the repetitiveness and implement more meaningful activities. But, ultimately those who oppose the letter of the week idea, would rather the learning is part of something bigger, and has the whole alphabet being learned on a continuous basis, not as separate parts. This is basically what we’ve been “doing” for the last year, which is evidenced by her knowledge of the alphabet already. But, it really came down to our family situation this year. With being…
- 3-5 Year Old, Curricula, English, History/Social Science, Interest Led Homeschool, Math, Parenting, the Give Way, Preschool, Science, Teaching, the Give Way
What a Three Year Old Can Learn
I really liked having goals for my two-year-old and myself last year. So, I figured I’d try and do it every year. Then as I wrote this article and titled it “Plans and Goals,” I realized that there are goals for me, but most of what I called “goals” are really just what I see her learning. I’ve always had a hard time explaining why I really didn’t care if I met the goals. I mean, why make goals if you don’t want to meet them, right? So, I’m changing my terminology as part of my attempt to grasp this natural learning process. So what follows are goals for me and just…
- 3-5 Year Old, History/Social Science, Interest Led Homeschool, Preschool, Social Activities, Teaching, the Give Way, Tot School
Tot School: Airplane Dramatic Play Party
This was such a fun activity! In preparation for a flight we were planning on taking in a few weeks, I thought it might be good to show my daughter what it meant to go to the airport and fly on a plane beforehand. So we did an airplane unit (coming soon), that culminated in a fun party with some friends. The activity the kids were to do first when everyone was arriving was squeezing lemons. Great motor skill work and great fun for them. I knew it would’ve required a lot of time on my part to get all the water and sugar portions right for a large amount, but…
- 3-5 Year Old, Curricula, English, History/Social Science, Interest Led Homeschool, Math, Parenting, the Give Way, Preschool, Science, Teaching, the Give Way, Tot School
Learning: Ages 3-4
Cutting basil she picked for pasta I’m still dipping my feet into this whole “homeschooling” thing. I really don’t like the term “homeschooling,” since I don’t like what comes to mind when I think of “school.” As a ten year veteran elementary and middle school teacher, I have seen lots of flaws and learned a lot about how we all naturally learn. I like the idea of “unschooling,” “delight-driven learning”, and “child-led learning.” All fancy ways of just explaining how everyone from a baby to a senior citizen learns. So, for the last couple years, I’ve been studying and trying to implement what I’ve learned. Finding what my daughter is…
- 3-5 Year Old, 6-8 Year Old, English, History/Social Science, Interest Led Homeschool, Preschool, Science, Social Activities, Teaching, the Give Way, Tot School
Tot School: Community Worker Dramatic Play Party
At the end of our community worker theme, we had a little get together. It was a great party. It would have been a lot better if I’d had a few more older kids to show the little ones how to do things, but they did a great job on their own. There was one area that they didn’t even attempt. We moms could’ve helped more, but these are as much for us to enjoy talking with other adults as it is for the kids. 🙂 The kids had fun. We had fun. And this is part of my journey of letting go of my controlling tendencies…I will not force…
- 3-5 Year Old, 6-8 Year Old, English, Interest Led Homeschool, Preschool, Social Activities, Teaching, the Give Way, Tot School
Tot School: Nursery Rhyme Party
My daughter loves nursery rhymes. Once she learned them, she would say them non-stop. So, of course, since I’m working on interest led/child directed activities, we had to do a theme for nursery rhymes. In searching for activities, I came across a ton of really fun activities that she and her friends would enjoy, so we had to a have a party. 🙂 I typed up nursery rhymes for each station — the goal being to say them as we did them. I left that up to the parents, since none of the kids can read. I also put directions for the stations, so the parents could do whatever the…
- Curricula, English, History/Social Science, Interest Led Homeschool, Math, Parenting, the Give Way, Preschool, Science, Teaching, the Give Way, Tot School
Plans and Goals for My Two Year Old
I like to plan. But, I also like to lay in bed. I figured if I tried to have at least a simple list of things I need to keep in mind each day, then I would not spend all day finding ways to keep my 2 year old busy at home, just so I don’t have to go anywhere or do anything. 🙂 I started doing this when she was an early toddler with the hopes that each year I’d reevaluate, but always have something to focus on. Each Day Go somewhere (unless we’ve been doing too much, then stay home and relax 🙂 ) Read for 30 minutes…
