Homeschooling Highlights

We are more than two-thirds of the way through our school year now!   Our second year of homeschooling so far has had some unique challenges with teaching two children on different levels at the same time.  I am getting better at figuring out the best way to teach a 1st grader and a preschooler simultaneously.  But there are plenty of days where I feel like I am constantly bouncing back and forth between them!

It does help that Colton is becoming more independent, so he can do some of his work completely on his own while I work with Rory one on one.  We start out the morning with our Bible reading and devotional together in the living room.  Then we move on to the school room where I have the kids take turns changing dates and weather on the wall calendar, and I have Colton begin his phonics workbook while I get Rory started on her letter of the week “assignment”.

After a snack and play break, they’ll each do Math, and this is something Colton can usually do with little help from me unless he’s being introduced to a new concept.  When Rory is done, she can play with play-doh or color while I teach Colton his Science and History lessons.  Sometimes she decides to join us for one or both of these, and even though the material is way over her head, she does get a little bit out of it.

Wow, typing all of that out now makes it all sound so seamless!  Our days usually do not flow this well, mainly because of a certain four-year-old’s attitude (and sometimes a seven-year-old’s) that needs correcting, sibling arguments that need intervening, and well, life in general.  But really, if I can homeschool, anybody can!   Anyway, here are some highlights of the last few months…

Rory pointing to the numbers she wrote in the boxes for each item, in her Schoolies Wipe Clean book.  She can almost count to 20 now (skipping over #’s 15 & 18), and write most of her numbers with little help.

Colton reading Little Bear outside in the backyard.  With 12 weeks still left to go, he finished all of his assigned readers for the year!

Playing a game to match pictures with their letter sounds.  This was a free printable I found on Pinterest.  The maps on the wall in the background were part of Colton’s science unit on animals- he colored and labeled each continent where certain creatures are found.

Making an Ancient China lapbook.  This has been an amazing learning tool; he really engaged with the material through it.  Seriously, I can’t believe we didn’t try lapbooks before!  A lapbook is simply a file folder that contains a variety of “mini books,” foldables, and other things that cover details about a central topic.  One morning after breakfast, completely on his own, Colton got out the book on Ancient Civilizations we’ve been reading and began drawing pictures for his lapbook from the pages he remembered seeing.  We used this as a guide, but Colton added a lot of his own information.  He couldn’t wait to show it to my husband when he was done!

Since we are currently doing a Science unit on the human body, we’re learning how to take better care of ourselves.  Using what we learned about eating the right kinds of food, they made their own food pyramid out of play food!

Proudly displaying his completed Ancient China Lapbook.  He loved doing this so much that he is now making one for our study on Ancient Greece.  Not to be outdone, Rory wanted to get in the picture to show off the giraffes she made out of play-doh.  🙂

Well, that’s it!  I hope you enjoyed my hodge podge of crafts and activities from our recent homeschool studies.  I’ll be putting another one together at the end of the school year, in only 10 more weeks!

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Social Butterfly Sunday on Raising Samuels Homeschool

Bloggers Spotlight on Raising Fairies and Knights

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