Botanical Garden Field Trip

We took our first homeschooling field trip yesterday with some other homeschooler's in the community. It definitely made me feel more at home to be with other Mom's who homeschool!

Our local Botanical Garden (which is beautiful, btw, and you should go check it out if you live in the area) just opened up their new big bug tour and we were the first to see it. Our guide was really great with the kids and taught them all about different bug classifications, their body parts, habitats, what they eat, and how they affect our environment.

Praying Mantis

It was great to see their proportions on such a hug scale.

Dragon Fly

Did you know that as Dragon Fly babies, they can live underwater for up to 5 years?

And, one eye looks up for predators and the other down for food?

Spider

Um.... I can't remember this guy as I've never heard of him before, he has a crazy name, and I didn't write it down because I was trying to corral my youngest with keeping her shoes on her feet :-)

Lady Beetle

Ant

We learned a lot more than these pictures or blog post does justice at the moment, but a helpful song we brought home for learning about insects was (to the tune of head, shoulders, knees, and toes):

Head, Thorax, Abdomen

Abdomen

Head, Thorax, Abdomen

Abdomen

Two Antenna and an Exoskeleton

Head, Thorax, Abdomen

Abdomen

... and sometimes wings!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Sandpaper Letters, Safety, and Pre-Reading

My eldest has been using sandpaper letters for about a year now. I cannot recommend them enough. They taught her how to write the entire alphabet with accuracy in no time with little help from me. Today we focused on upper and lowercase letters at the same time. We practiced sorting them, putting them in order, tracing them, and writing them.

September is safety month and we've been talking about various safety things such as what to do if there were a fire, a suspicious person, or medical emergency in our home. I've described the difference between the fire, police, and ambulance departments. We've practiced pretend calls to 9-1-1 and have been memorizing phone numbers and our address. This weekend is Fall Safety Day with the local police and fire departments in which we will be attending to learn some more real-life scenarios of what to do in emergencies. We've also discussed road signs and left and right in order to identify public signs and what they mean. I have matching cards with words for further reinforcement.

We are also finishing up our pre-reading sets in order to begin with Montessori's pink reading series! Very excited to begin reading. Again, my eldest has been ready to begin reading for about 6 months or so now, but with moving and getting settled, this is the first time we've been able to sit down and methodically begin the phonics work. This activity above is identifying vowels. BTW, it has been very helpful to introduce the sounds of letters rather than the names of the letters in the alphabet from the start. It makes sense because when you begin reading words, you do it by sounding out the letters rather than stating their name. It saves an extra step of going back and re-teaching what could have been done from the beginning.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Commissions

We listen to a lot of Dave Ramsey around here as both my husband and I completed Financial Peach University 9 months ago. Last year, we started (and stopped when we moved) Commissions from Financial Peach Jr that we found on sale.

There are chores we do around the house that are expected as a part of the family and there are things we do to earn "commissions", which is different from both a chore and an allowance.

We give 3 pennies per each responsibility achieved with 4 (the number of her age) being the expectation. The ones at the bottom are character traits that are rewarded as bonus when we see great attitudes shining through. The bottom portion came as inspiration from The Blessing Chart. You can reward with whatever, but it seemed fitting to just keep it simple with adding it to the Commission Chart. Tangibly rewarding both kinds of behavior helps keep me accountable as a Mom to remember to praise my girls when I see them doing great things and not just correcting behavior I want them to stop.

The Commissions worksheet is simply a goal of what you are saving toward.

Three packs of gum are on this list! Since so may pennies will have to be earned to purchase something, we've agreed to match half with whatever is earned.

One penny goes in each bank. On Sunday's, we tithe to our church what was earned that week, continue to save for long term, and spend what was made... just like in the real world. I'm praying this instills all three attributes in our children as I'm a firm believer that all three are important.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Calendar and Observations

We started talking about days of the week, months of the year, how many days are in a week/month/year, covered seasons, and observed the weather.

My laminator machine (one of my favorite toys) is in repair and I was so bummed because I wanted to have velcro on the back to make the calendar reusable.

So, as shown above, we talked about each component and....

...hammered each object up on the board. That was the fun part!

I heart consignment sales. I get the best books for so cheap there. I got this book at a consignment sale last year that discusses the 4 seasons in depth which was very helpful.

Explained why we have seasons...

Went outside to observe summer and color what she saw to record a memory.

She is drawing a house with some flowers. What little girl DOESN'T draw houses with flowers?!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Color Wheel: 3rd Period Lesson

We didn't do any homeschooling last week due to the holiday and going out of town on Friday to pick up our local CSA delivery. This art lesson is picking up from the last two lessons we did two weeks ago...

We reviewed our color wheel components and set up outside to do our first experimentation with acrylic paints. Nice shadow, huh?

Next, we filled in our color chart using primary and secondary colors she mixed together.

She did very well painting on an easel. Both of my girls love art and being creative. I love it, too. Little known fact: my maternal Grandmother was an artist and I LOVED going to her house to use her plethora of paints!

Final experimentation.

(I painted that flower per her request.)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Dance Classes

We started dance classes today at a local academy. She already learned a lot of coordination with ballet, tap, and tumbling. We were both super excited and I'm so thankful she gets to go for two days a week for this next year. What a great outlet for my girl who LOVES to dance and sing!






- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Awana Cubbies!

Awana Cubbies began at our church tonight! Yay! Our daughter loves going to Awana, memorizing Scripture verses, singing songs with other Cubbies, and being loved on by other people who love the Lord.

It's important to hide God's Word in our hearts and Cubbies is a great way to hold us a parents accountable to helping our child memorize Scripture as well as giving our type A child a tangible reward for her hard work throughout the week with patches and stickers.

Since we aren't in a formal educational setting, it's my goal to provide as many opportunities as I can to provide good places for our children to make friends, learn new skills, and be exposed to people with whom they can learn new things. I feel that if my children aren't "socialized" (such a relative term anyway) it's my failure to incorporate that into the structure of our day. There are so many ways for children to be exposed to other people! We are blessed to be apart of a Mother's Morning Out, a MOPS group, Awana, a homeschool group, 2 dance classes a week, and other playgroups with our fabulous new friends here in our new home. Actually, we are out and about with things to do 6 out of 7 days a week and it feels like such a good balance to have things to do both here at home and out in the community. I haven't been apart of the MOMS Club, but I hear they do fun things together, too. Just last night, I saw on Craigslist a Mom/educator who was wanting to form a Montessori play group for those who do Montessori homeschooling. There is stuff to be a part of everywhere, just look around.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Color Wheel: Second Period Lesson

Continuing from yesterday, we filled in the color wheel in order of primary, secondary, and tertiary colors. She felt a lot more confident today.







We arranged these laminated cards in order of the color wheel. The cards were mixed in a stack so she had to compare and contrast colors and put them in correct order.








We then categorized them this way. She definitely feels more comfortable with the vocabulary and all three categories after doing these last two exercises.

Next, we will do watercolor, play dough, and paint mixing experiments so she can visually see how they all connect together.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

What Should I Teach My Child?

Ever wonder what kinds of skills your child should know/learn and at what age? After scouring the internet, it seems to me that most lists are really vague. I'm sure there are tons of lists out there, but I really find Montessori For Everyone's Comprehensive Lists really helpful. There are lists for Toddlers all they way through 12th grade. I like to use them as a detailed skilled outline and add extra things to the list like character and spiritual development. That's the beauty of homeschooling, you can tailor the curriculum to how you wish according to what fits best for your family and the needs of your child.

Also, M4E has free downloads every month and month-by-month Teacher Workplans for grades 1-4 that are FREE.

Getting organized

This year I'm determined to make the most use of our time and get organized. What did I ever do without my iPhone, seriously?! This is how I've organized my schedule. How have you other Mom's planned your day when you incorporate daily activities? For me, I feel freedom in a calendar as it allows me to rest knowing everything will get done in it's own time and not freak when things do not go according to plan. It's easy to make adjustments. I like it to be flexible and not rigid. You?


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Color Wheel

Today we introduced the color wheel and it's terms- primary, secondary and tertiary colors and their corresponding names. Crayola crayons have all of their colors labeled correctly with the color chart so we were able to read the colors on the chart and double check the color on the crayon label. We will continue to work on names and colors and add food coloring experiments and watercolor paints to the mix to see how primary colors make secondary colors and so on in the future.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone