Weekly Homeschool Wrap up

I do have to say that our Week went awesome! EJ and Bubba both loved every bit of it. They both did well with all of their lessons. Bubba's "lessons" are a little more laid back seeing as he is quite young still. he comes and goes throughout the day pulling out one of his puzzles, worksheets, etc. I just have them readily available when he wants to do it. EJ is more scheduled. we usually do about 2 hours of work throughout the day. these 2 hours are sliced up between helping Bubba, Taking care of the baby, cooking, etc. Our Schedule goes in a certain order though.

• Opening (morning prayer,Pledge of Allegiance, and Calendar Time)
• Religion
• Phonics (book work)
• Math (book work)
• Art
• Phonics (Meet the sight words DVD's,Flashcards, and easy readers)
• Geography
• Math (remaining book work if there is any)
• Handwriting
• Piano

We always start our Day off with the Lord. My children know that he is the most important thing in our lives and that everything needs to be started by praising him.

Our Phonics is all Review right now as she already knew the beginning work for K Phonics. We are just going over it again to make sure she remembers.

Math starts with writing out numbers 1-12. Then we move on to worksheets. EJ actually loves worksheets. she loves the feeling she gets when she completes them and sees how wonderful her work is.

Then we have art where we either have an art project of some sort to work on or we do color pages or something fun.

Then we use Meet the Sight words. We will watch the DVD (if EJ still needs practice) then go over the flashcards and read a few easy readers.

Next is Geography. Each day changes to something else. Next week we will be learning about china. I am sure EJ will enjoy it tons!

Next we will finish up any math sheets we didn't get finished before. Since Emery is doing 1st grade Math I don't want her to get frustrated. If I see her starting to get frustrated we will stop and resume it later on in the day when she can start fresh.

Handwriting is also review right now. She can write all of her letters but I want to make sure she does them correctly. If she learns them incorrectly she will most likely have trouble when it comes time for cursive writing.

lastly is Piano. This is EJ's favorite time of the day. She loves the piano and has wonderful posture!

On Fridays we throw in Science at some point in the day. This week we did Sink or float. Daddy joined in and they all had a blast!

Little miss Priss Pot!

Calendar Time!

Geography working on our World Booklet ME ON THE MAP

EJ reviewing Money

Counting the money

Daddy explaining Sink or float

Did it Sink Bubba?

Two adorable children!!!

Week one in Art!

My Kids LOVE art! Anything that has to do with using their imagination they are all for. The past Post I pictured our big art project which was the Rock Turtles but figured I would also post some of the smaller things they did this week. Bubba did most of it because EJ has more bookwork seeing as she is in Kindergarten. She Loves the bookwork though! Very Proud of Bubba's Fine Motor Skills with his pictures. Didn't realize how far along he had come!

Our Do a Dot Letter T's. If you do not own Do a Dots you need to. These are the best thing ever! Both Bubba and EJ love to "Paint" with them. Since it is minimal mess I dont mind letting them! www.dotart.com

Bubba's Do a Dot Turtle. We learned a lot about turtles this week!

Bubba's Do a Dot Monster. Evertime he sees it he goes Rahrrrr!

EJ's Neighborhood. This Week we learned about where we live. She did a great job drawing a map of our little neighborhood. Our house is in the middle. The neighbor to the right is a wonderful older couple that my kids have adopted as grandparents. She drew their garage and backyard because that is where she likes to play. There actually is a little road in between our houses that is a dead end. the house to the left of ours is a family with a 5 year old and a 7 year old. She drew a book on top of their house because she said they have lots of books. Our house is orange and she grew our grass green because "daddy mows it all the time." we have a flag on top of our house because "we have a flag at our house."

First Days of School

We are underway and having a blast! The kids are loving all their new activities. We have a few art activities each week, along with bookwork, piano, and soccer. First up is little man!

Bubba attaching clothespins to the turtles. he had to attach the amount that was numbered.

Categorizing the turtles by size.

Do a Dots T and t

Circling the letter T's in the story

practicing tracing T's

more Clothespins

Next up the Big Princess!

Coloring her T is for Thanks

Practicing her numbers. Of course she had to draw a picture with it

Counting Pennies Review

One of our Art Projects were Rock Turtles

Of course we couldn't leave out the tag a long! This is what she did while we did school.

Not back to School Week: School Rooms

Finally the room is ready to go! I should of taken a before picture so you could see the mess! Our school room happens to be the eat in area of our kitchen. Since we live in a fairly small house with only two bedrooms we have to make do. I wanted a more formal area for school since it is our first year. I wanted it to kind of feel like school to my kids. Luckily the way I set it up we still have our table to eat dinner at. our kitchen is set up in the shape of a peninsula. We have bar stools on one side to eat at as well. That is where the kids eat breakfast and Lunch. I would of taken a picture but since I spent all my time cleaning and putting together the school area I didn't have time to do the dishes :D So no pics of that! The blue and pink containers on the left hand side of the pic are sitting on top of one of the bar stools so that should show you where the kitchen stops and the dining/school area starts.Ignore the Blinds our dog tore them up trying to look outside and we haven't replaced yet. On the wall we have our Calendar System which I will talk more about later and our World Map. We will be using that with Confessions of a homeschooler's Expedition Earth. I cant wait to start using this curriculum! Over the windows we are going to hang a line to put up all the crafts we do along the way.

The Doorway in the next pic takes you to our living room. We store all our Art supplies, puzzles, odds and ends, etc. in the china cabinet. All the workbooks, reading books, etc. are on the bookshelf. Luckily since we are just starting out we don't have too many books so one bookshelf is doable. I am sure as the years progress we will be adding more! Our desks were bought from Craigslist for $5 a piece including the Chairs. The dry erase board is attached to the front of the china cabinet with velcro dots. This way I can remove it to get into the cabinet and put it back when needed.

This Calendar System is made possible through Confessions of a Homeschooler. Can you tell I LOVE this women. She is amazing at her abilities. We have our Calendar up where the kids will put the day up each morning. they will also put up the weather for the day. they will put the day of the week up and also show what today, Yesterday and Tomorrow are. The Circle Shows the Seasons. The Square on the Top left is our Address, Phone number, and emergency Contacts for the kids to learn. I cant wait to start using this! The cork board is just something my grandmother had hanging around her house that has a sticky back. I just stuck it straight to the wall.

This is linked up www.heartsofthematteronline.com

"NOT" Back to School Curriculum Week

I will be joining in with fellow Homeschool bloggers this week over at heartsofthematteronline.com to talk about curriculum choices. This will be our first year homeschooling kindergarten. We have unofficially homeschooled for Pre-K but it is nothing fancy. EJ will be starting on August 15 for the start of the school year! She is extremely excited. Bubba will be starting a little something to keep him busy as well.

KINDERGARTEN

EJ is currently enrolled through Seton Home Study School for the school year. This means that we are doing all courses through them. Each nine weeks I send in certain pieces of work that they have asked for. I can either Scan it into the computer or Mail it in. I will be scanning. They will in turn keep it in her records and also provide her with a grade for each subject. The wonderful thing about Seton is once she gets in the higher grades they will do the grading and keep track of everything for me. Another wonderful thing is that Seton is Certified through the Department of Education so if she graduates from them she will receive a Diploma not just a GED. This will in turn look better on her College Applications. Most of our Subjects are Seton material with a little extras added in here and there.

Religion: Seton Kindergarten Catechism for Young Catholics We will also be using My Jesus and I, Catholic Coloring Books, Leading Little ones to Mary, and many Saint Joseph Picture Books.

Mathematics: Seton Math One for Young Catholics

Not sure where she got her Math Skills from (Seth and I both hate math) but she has moved on up into first Grade Math.

Phonics: Seton Kindergarten Phonics for Young Catholics Volumes 1 and 2.

We will also be supplementing with Preschool Prep meet the Site Words 1,2, &3. We have DVD's, Flash Cards, and Easy Readers. We also will be using BOB books and anything else I can come across.

Handwriting: Kindergarten Handwriting for Young Catholics

Not much extra to Supplement here except tons and tons of practice!

Science: Kindergarten Science for Young Catholics

P.E/Health: This is not provided through Seton so we are using our own Stuff. I have a book that I got for 50 cents when our local used bookstore went out of business. i am pulling health topics from it. I haven't started planning past the first week but for the first two weeks we will be learning about Posture. For P.E EJ plays Soccer and is in Gymnastics so this will pretty much take care of that.

Music: Each week we will be learning a new song and also learning to Sign it. Emery will also be using My First Piano Adventure for the Young Beginner. This is written by Faber Piano Adventures. I will be teaching her myself. http://pianoadventures.com/

Art: My preschooler will be doing a theme each week. Since it will be much easier for them both to do the same project she will be following his theme. First Week is Turtles. They will be making Rock Turtles.

K-3

Bubba will be following Confessions of a Homeschooler K-3 Curriculum. We are going to do the letters in order that EJ will be doing for Handwriting. Their First week will be the Letter T for Turtle. He will also be following along with her for things like Science, Music, PE/Health, ETC. He will want to "help" when we do activities so this will be a great way for him to learn. For Religion we are using Seton Religion for Young Catholics: Pre-Kindergarten. This goes in the same order as Kindergarten Catechism but a little easier to understand. He will also be doing many of the Same Coloring Books that EJ will be doing for Religion.