Math
- 3-5 Year Old, 6-8 Year Old, Book Clubs, Book Focus, Curricula, Elementary Level, English, History/Social Science, Interest Led Homeschool, Math, Science, Teaching, the Give Way, Theme
Learning Plan: Age 6
Well, the new year has started! This is our first official year, paperwork included, as a private school here in California. California doesn’t have homeschoolers. Those who are homeschooling without the support of a public school system (like a charter school), file paperwork just like any private school here in the state. So, we decided to have a name for our school. It took us awhile to decide, as we wanted something we could use until they’re out of school. We also wanted something meaningful to our mission as homeschoolers. It took us two days of lots of not so great ideas to come to one that, knowing us and…
- 3-5 Year Old, 6-8 Year Old, Curricula, English, History/Social Science, Interest Led Homeschool, Math, Science, Teaching, the Give Way
Learning Plan: Age 5
And so it begins! For reals! Well, kinda. My homeschooling, in a legal sense, will start for real next year, but I’m going to use this year as a sounding board for the best way to keep records for the state. You can find my own goals and ways of doing things on my mentoring page. This page is for my oldest. She’s a go getter and has a really great memory, so lots of academic type stuff sticks, even though we aren’t doing any forced academic program, she loves to play school and do lots and lots of activities (more than I’m willing to provide, actually!). As long as…
- 3-5 Year Old, Curricula, English, History/Social Science, Interest Led Homeschool, Math, Preschool, Science, Teaching, the Give Way
What A Four Year Old Can Learn
Last year I realized that it was a bit of a misnomer to call this list “goals,” as I wasn’t really focused on trying to get her to accomplish them. It was more just keeping track of what she was learning. Moving forward to get something done is a pretty inherent aspect of the word “goal.” So, instead, I’ve been focusing more on my own goals and learning more about how to facilitate a natural way of learning. The baby was six months when my daughter turned 4, so we were not structured much at all early on. Fortunately, I had put together the letter of the week activities before…
- 3-5 Year Old, 6-8 Year Old, 9-11 Year Old, English, Interest Led Homeschool, Letter of the Week, Math, Preschool, Science, Social Activities, Teaching, the Give Way
“T” Party
During our Letter T week, we had a “T” party…get it, T like tea. 🙂 We initially were going for Tuesday the twenty-first at ten. But, then decided to have it while we had some Chinese foreign exchange students over. So, it turned into a party for the kids followed with dinner for the adults on Tuesday the twenty-eighth at three thirty. So, we ended up with 8 children ages 2 1/2 to 12 and 10 adults. It was awesome! The day before, we set up the tables in T formations, of course. And, I used a highlighter to write all the labels for things, and my daughter traced over…
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Letter of the Week – Letter U
Mentoring Goals: Age 5
Letter of the Week – Letter Q
- 3-5 Year Old, 6-8 Year Old, English, Interest Led Homeschool, Letter of the Week, Math, Preschool, Teaching, the Give Way
Letter of the Week – Letter I
Day 1 Find “I” and “i” stickers and put on I Color and assemble letter I book (I only use three pages.) Look through our library and get I books Put out I words (instruments, iPad, iPod, iPhone…I highly recommend using masking or painting tape so nothing is ruined when you pull it off) Video: Olive and the Rhyme Rescue Crew In about 3 min, I made some ice cream scoops and cones from leftover felt. We don’t have any good scissors around, and I didn’t use a template, so the results could probably be on one of those Pinterest fail lists. 🙂 But she enjoyed playing with them quietly, which…
- 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, 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…
- 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…
- 3-5 Year Old, 6-8 Year Old, English, Interest Led Homeschool, Math, Preschool, Science, Teaching, the Give Way, Theme, Tot School
Tot School: Beach and Ocean Theme
The great thing about themes is that any academic subject fits into them. There’s no need for objectives at this age, because she has such a limited knowledge of most subjects, totally immersing ourselves in a theme results in her knowing a lot more than she did at the beginning. There are a ton of things out there to do for this theme, but I stuck to things that involve the least amount of prep and work on my part since 2 year old’s (and most kids) are notorious for not being interested in things we plan for them. 🙂 We did all this in about four weeks. Books (what…
- 3-5 Year Old, Interest Led Homeschool, Math, Preschool, Teaching, the Give Way, Tot School, Unit Study
Tot School: Intro to Shapes
Some find the idea of planning activities for two year olds crazy. But as a former teacher, I can rarely go a day without planning in my head. It used to be U.S. History that I saw everywhere (Pool noodles on sale? Those would make great bayonets for a Civil War battle! Controversial Dixie Chicks song? Perfect for our freedom of speech discussion!). Now that I’m a parent of a toddler, it’s a little different (Extra coffee beans? just the thing for the brown sensory bin! Worn out frying pan? Put it in the yard for the future mud kitchen!) It’s what we teachers do. I can’t not plan.…
- 3-5 Year Old, Curricula, English, Interest Led Homeschool, Math, Preschool, Science, Social Activities, Teaching, the Give Way, Theme, Tot School, Unit Study
Tot School
“Tot school” is a term someone coined for doing activities with a toddler. I’d never heard it before having a toddler, but it’s real. My favorite site — and inspiration for a lot of what I do — is 1+1+1=1. They have a fantastic amount of information about this kind of thing. Many parents will say that there’s no need for “tot school” since they never did it with their child. But really they did — they just never used the term. Every time a parent does something that helps their young child learn (talking to them, letting them help cook, etc.), that could be called “tot school.” The difference…
