Week in Review 9/3 - 9/7

For those unfamiliar with Five in a Row, "rowing" a book means that we spent a week focused on one story. Majority of our studies were centered around The Story About Ping for the week. I love this way of learning and Monster remembered so many details from the story at the end of the week. Here are some of the highlights from the week.

We learned how to count by coloring Ping's family (sorry for the bright picture, you can't see the actual coloring page):

         

We learned about ducks and made one (I am not usually crafty, but I was so happy that these ducks turned out to be adorable!!) :

    

We learned about China (where the story takes place):

      

At the end of the week we visited the park close to us that has ducks, however I did not realize how aggressive the ducks were. They chased us on to the playground because we did not have any food to feed them. It was a great observation opportunity though!:

     

We also did a sink or float activity and learned how Ducks are waterproof.

What Monster also completed this week:

Math: My plan was to focus on Singapore this year and use Miquon when needed as a supplement, but Monster and I like Miquon much more so Singapore has been shelved and Miquon will be our main math. Monster finished 6 pages in Miquon Orange and Exercises 1-4 in Singapore 1A.

Reading: Monster completed Lessons 1-4 in All About Reading and continues to master Step 1 in All About Spelling. I am not pushing spelling too much right now as the focus is on getting Monster reading well this year.

Handwriting: Monster is finally starting his letters from the top!!!! This is such a big jump for him and I am sooo excited. This is still the biggest battle of the day. I decided to use his Explode the Code work as handwriting practice and use it with a dry erase marker for now. He doesn't mind handwriting with a purpose as much as he did handwriting worksheets.

Geography: I added in Beginning Geography this week and he finished two pages.

Developing the Early Learner: This is the one thing Monster flies through and doesn't complain about. He completed 20 pages! I am expecting him to slow down in Book 2 or 3.

The tank hasn't started any individual work, but participates in everything Monster does. She played with c-rods and practiced letter sounds, but very casually. Next week she will begin working in Explode the Code Primer A as she continues to beg for her very own school work. I'm considering purchasing Singapore Earlybird to give her some math work of her own too. I love the look of AAR pre-1, but it includes a lot more than letter sounds and I don't think she is quite ready for it. It is on my short list for January, though!

Overall, I'm really happy with the direction our homeschool is on. We have dropped Sonlight P4/5 daily work, but will include it into Five in a Row as much as possible. Thankfully I have my little girl to save it for and hope it works then!

Sonlight vs FIAR

I was torn between Sonlight P4/5 and FIAR this year. I love books and knew I wanted to create a love of books in my children so I wanted a curriculum that was literature based. However, I am not a strong planner. I over-analyze everything and constantly worry about making the right decision. I will get all the plans written down, but fall apart when it comes time to that plan into action. Sonlight would give me an easy schedule to follow and I could simply check off boxes as the year went by. Plus it had books that I thought Ethan would love and everything was included in one nice little box. Perfect! Until it got here and we started to read through the books. It has only been a few days, but Monster already dislikes jumping from one book to the other and the amount of reading in the same day is a bit much for him. The Berenstain Bear's book I thought he would love, has been a total flop so far. It begins at the beginning of the year, but Monster can't relate to a season that is months away. He wants something to focus on, something to dive into and really ask questions about. Sonlight isn't giving that to him. So I am now working on planning out the first few weeks of FIAR. I am starting with The Story About Ping because we live near a few duck ponds that we can easily visit as field trip and books are easily available about China and ducks. Wish us luck.

First Day of School Breakfast

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I finally sent the pictures of our morning breakfast from my phone to my computer. The kids loved this even though it was raining so I think we will keep it as a tradition.

Day Two

Yay!! Now this is what I expected from homeschool. We finished our Sonlight work after breakfast, but then took a break before math. By taking a break and giving Monster time to play before working on the next subject, he was much more willing to sit and listen. I am also trying to keep each lesson pretty short. Anything more than 15 minutes and his mind is wandering. I might even break up the reading a little bit more. I ordered a cart to make workboxes for Monster. I think I will include some boxes that have physical activities and some boxes that have tv time. This way he doesn't feel like he is just working all morning. The excitement is back!!!

P.S. I need to find  a way to get pictures of the kids during school times!

Day One

Well, it is called a journey for a reason. We started the day by going out to breakfast instead of heading to school like the public school kids in our area. Then we headed home to start school work. Monster has been asking to start for over a week, but I wanted to have everything ready for the first day. I was still a little frazzled though and had to stop to get supplies a couple times. I think I will try workboxes or some type of container to keep all supplies needed for the day. We finished our Sonlight and FIAR work I had planned today and we practiced our phonograms. Monster is already reading CVC words with ease and knows some of his multi-letter phongrams, but I want him to master all the sounds each letter makes before we move on. This will help in his reading and spelling work for the future. The Tank just listened in for our Sonlight and FIAR work, but I won't introduce work for her until I have found a groove with Monster. I introduced the salt boxes, but Monster just wants to draw circles rather than practice the letter I ask. We really have to work on following directions. I am thinking of dropping FIAR as the reading seems to be a bit much for him to follow. Monster doesn't want to discuss the book, he just wants to read or do a hands on activity, not intertwine the two. I think I will keep our schedule simple for now and slowly add in more as we find a groove that works. I am hoping to get some math in today after lunch. Wish me luck!

Why Homeschool?

This has been the burning question from majority of the people I first discussed homeschooling with. Why not just send my son off the public school? It was like I was breaking all logic by considering keeping my son home for another year. Technically he meets all the requirements to begin Kindergarten this year and he is a very smart boy, but I know that he is not ready to attend Kindergarten five days a week for 8hours a day. My son still takes a nap on most days and the days he doesn't, it is obvious that he is overly tired at night. This was one of the first reasons I looked in to keeping him home.

But all kids adjust, just send him and let him "grow up" and adjust to school.

This is another comment that really bothers me. I know that children adjust to new circumstances (usually) with ease and generally rise to a challenge, but why force that on a 5yr old? Why not give him another year to spend his days outside or fulfilling his curiosity or taking naps (I wish my daughter still did so I could nap too!)?

After being asked why to homeschool, the real answer I have is why not? Because it is different than the norm is not enough of a deterrent to give my children what I believe is best for them.

We will spend the next year learning to read, learning basic math (he loves learning about numbers), and practicing writing letters properly. I have planned some basic science and social studies, but mostly we will follow his interests.