When we kicked off our 2013/2014 year of homeschooling, we went with the kinder program for our 4 year old, and I'm really excited about it. Having the alphabet on the wall in the kitchen helped her to learn all the letters, so having the words we are working on up on the wall should help her to learn those, too. I have seen other, smaller alphabet tree activities like this one, this one, and this one. When I was a kid, I had a small collection of Leo Lionni books and The Alphabet Tree was my favorite. Clearly, I was inspired by this book! (read).
Alphabet and Number Matching Wheels
Right now, I'm excited about some of the supplemental activities I've pulled together for her. There are a lot of great finds over at Confessions of a Homeschooler, and these wheels are two of them. I find that after kids learn something new, it's important to make sure they practice it enough that it sticks but not so they are bored with it. These matching wheels are awesome for reaffirming what kids already know, but are not so boring that they're over them if they know the material already. (read).
There are so many different ways to ignite interest in science with small children. Looking at found objects under a microscope and watching the starts come out with a telescope are classics, but the very best one to hold their attention over a period of a time is sprouting seeds! Any kind of planting will do, I will post more of our planting projects in the coming weeks but this one, sprouting seeds to learn about germination is a great launching point. (read).
I'm going to attempt to outline how we homeschool, what our schedule is and the challenges we face while we do it - with the hopes that it will help others who are starting out on this journey with kids in multiple grade levels and one not yet school aged child. (read).
When Wee One #1 was still wee (he’s 12 now), I had big plans to homeschool him and any other children we’d have. I thought it was better than traditional school for so many reasons – I could tailor the lessons to make sure it sinks in, I could spend extra time on concepts that are harder than others, blah, blah, blah. (read).