School Plans 2014-2015

We do a lot as a Family!

• Scriptures
• Life of Fred(only the older 2 will do the writing portion)
• Story of our World Volume 1, also the activity book but we don't do everything.
• Science Center pass with Planetarium add on
• Zoo membership
• Local homeschooling group for field trips and Play dates
• Gardening, yard work, and home projects. We try to involve all of the kids in these things as much as possible!
• Each of the children get a 30 minute kindle turn each day. They each have their own profile that has just their age level, educational games that I hand select and it automatically times them out!
• We also enjoy educational shows that I find on youtube, netflix and hulu. These are not planned but just as subjects come up and we want to learn more:)

Brandon is 2 years 8 months

He is just playing! Lots of outside time and hands on play!!! He loves to color, paint, drive cars, and act like a crazy boy!

Ally is 4 years old!

She participates in preschool that I teach from home. She is also drawing in her journal and has a few fun workbooks that she does whenever she likes:)

Jack is 5 years and 6 months

He has a kindergarten work book that he chooses whatever page he wants to do however, he does need to pick one each day(he loves it so he usually does several). He is also drawing and write in his journal and still participates in quite a bit of our preschool class. Jack already knows everything a kindergartner needs to know when they graduate so I won't be doing much with him this year. With the older 2 we pushed ahead because they were advanced. I feel like Jack needs time to mature a bit before we start more "formal" schooling. He is very active and has a really hard time sitting still if the activity isn't something he has chosen:)

Drake is 6 and 10 months

Drake is using Morning Work by teacher idea factory(my oldest used her 2nd and 1st grade sets and they were a huge blessing!!!). I love it! He does the reading and math. He also has a work book(Costco) that he chooses freely from. We are also working on All About Reading and All about spelling both level 2 about 2 times per week:) He also reads at least one book a day to a sibling and writes/draws in his journal daily.

Caden is 7 and 10 months

My oldest is very self motivated! He has taught himself cursive in just a few weeks, does math sheets for fun and learns about US and World geography on his own for fun! So since he is so self motivated, I really did not feel like he needed a full curriculum. I found the perfect work book for him at Costco that has reading, writing and Math(and some extra stuff) organized by week instead of by subject(Complete Year Gr. 3). I am excited to use it so that I can make sure he is working on those subjects and leave the rest to him!

We are also working on All About Reading and All about spelling both level 2 about 2 times per week:) He also reads at least one book a day to a sibling and writes/draws in his journal daily.

Treasure Box Party Favor

Gather some pirate goodies:) I tried to find chocolate coins but couldn't, so I did the ring pops. You could also do tattoos, necklaces, rings, gold nugget candy bars etc. I tried to keep it low candy:)

 Also some sort of filler. I snagged these for 10 cents each after last Easter:)

Fill each bag and roll it down.

Add 2 strips of masking tape.

Use glitter glue to make a key hole.

We used these for our treasure hunt that I will post tomorrow:)

Jake and The Neverland Pirates Cake

 I helped my sister make a cake for my sons 5th Birthday:) It was so simple to put together and he loved that he got to play with all of the toys after:)

My son loved it sooooooooo much! He was ecstatic when he saw it:)

Number Mats

I made these counting mats years ago and still use them all the time! I put out seasonal counters with them and the kids love to spread them out and fill them up:)

They have held up really well so I decided to add a new feature. On the back I used glitter glue to draw the number and the multiplication possibilities in arrays. It is a wonderful texture to trace with their little fingers.

In addition I made new larger mats for numbers 11-12.

I did the same thing on the back of them. These would be great to teach a variety of lessons. Prime numbers, counting multiplication, division greater and less then and many more;)

Drawing Insects(to learn the body parts)

This is the third year that I have done a "Draw an Insect" activity and I really think it helps them with the the concept of what makes an insect and insect! 3 body parts, 6 legs. 2 antennae, 2 eyes, 2 sets of wings! They retained the information better when they had to use it to complete their drawing:)

Practicing Letters Involving a Circle

My son Drake(6) has been struggling with writing. He is very creative and motivated but the way he writes his letters is very labor intensive and hindering his speed. When you can't write quickly it takes the fun out of it:( So I set to work helping him understand why we start in a certain position with letters involving a circle. To help him remember we used our reusable sensory mat so that the texture would help him retain it better.

I started by drawing a circle in the center of the paper and put it in the sensory mat.

We practiced each letter several times and talked about the ease of writing it when we start in the right spot. It really helped him and I think having him use the same circle in different ways over and over helped him understand the concept even better.

Light Table Free Play Set Up

This beautiful creation was made by one of my preschool students:)

Our light table is actually a donated tracing table from an art student:) It is on the bottom shelf and the kids sit on the floor in front of it. You can see on the shelf above it has discovery bottles with various combinations. I had the flash  on for this picture but it is actually in a dark corner under our loft.

The light table is an amazing tool in the class room. It is the perfect spot to get lost in the the light and have quiet focused time. For my son Jack(5) who is very energetic and has trouble controlling his body, loves this table, he cans sit for a long time, all alone, exploring:)

Here is what we have in our wooden box that sits on the floor beside them. All of these are dollar store finds. Little stones(transparent and solid), u shaped glass, plastic hearts, buttons, square gems, plastic flowers, plastic teddy bears, glow in the dark snakes, larger glass stones and translucent slinkies. When searching at dollar stores and spots, look for table scatter, vase fillers, party favors, and holiday sections.

In other baskets we have large buttons, letters, disks, color paddles, and little screw together pill containers also from the dollar store(huge favorite of all the kids!)