Greetings,
Just taking a cue from Sis. Sa Mut Herr with her post, "What we did today in homeschool?". I wanted to expand and have homeschooling families tell what we did for the month. As September is drawing to a close, please highlight what your family has been doing. In sharing, we can inspire ideas and motivation in others.
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This month our homeschooling journey started out a bit rocky as Hurricane Gustav headed our way. We evacuated to Memphis and stayed with friends for a week. During our evacuation, the Princess and I sang songs from a childrens' CD I made for her. She made it a point to point out signs she could read along the highway. While staying with friends I took her workbooks with me and got a few lessons in most days.
After returning home to very little damage, Hurricane Ike was brewing in the Gulf and we made preparations again to evacuate. As the days went on we saw that Ike was headed more to our west. That caused my sister to come to our home to stay with her children for a week. During that week, I prepared lessons for my niece and nephew also along with various outdoor activities.
Now that my sister's family has returned home, we are back on our schedule of morning lessons with an afternoon story & nap and outdoor activities. We are studying Autumn for Science and will do a leaf hunt in the coming weeks. In Social Studies we are completing an "All About Me" unit. She reads a short story and completes phonics activity pages related to the story, practices her handwriting, plays educational computer games, completes art projects, plays her musical instruments and on Tuesdays she has an outdoor playgroup date while I sit and meet with my local mommy group.
It may sound like a lot for a five year old but all activities are done at a managable pace and while we have a schedule, we don't always stick to it. Our homeschooling style is definitely "Eclectic/Relaxed".
I'm eager to read what everyone else is doing to enriching our children's journey.
Peace!
Great update!
Nzinga and Sa it is always good to read your updates!
Nzinga, I am happy that all has settled positively for you.
<<....but all activities are done at a managable pace and while we have a schedule, we don't always stick to it. Our homeschooling style is definitely "Eclectic/Relaxed".>>
Exactly!
Although we emphasize "learning all the time", there are certain core lessons that are worked on.
Math is covered (Mon., Tues.,Thurs.), and on Wednesday we have critical thinking. For math we use several resources.
History is done through literature. At present the girls are finishing up Josephine Baker's biography. They have been reading through it for 5 mos., but who is counting. :O) I hear them discussing her life during their playtime. We are also reading about the Civil War.
Spelling is worked on using a great online source, www.spellingcity.com.
Geography is covered by workbooks or online sources.
Reading is done all the time. My girls love to read.
Foreign Language is worked on using a fun online source, www.byki.com.
For grammar, I will be purchasing Grace Abounding, so I will keep you updated in the coming months.
Fridays are set aside for science. My girls have also started a Homeschooling Science Series at one of the Nature Preserves. Fridays are also set aside for business planning.
Wednesday are piano and something I call When I Grow Up.
As we continue with history, we are building on a time line that reflects our people.
The girls are also progressing in theatre, martial arts, and their band (playing Boomwhackers).
It has been a busy month, but we love it! My husband gets so involved as well!
Everyone have a great October!
Learning all the time!
Itiel~wife, mother, teacher,entrepreneur, friend
www.smellgoodspa.com
www.smellgoodslady.blogspot.com
www.smellgoodspa.blogspot.com
"Mmmm, you smell good!"
It's never too late to be what you might have been!
Itiel, you have some
Itiel, you have some precious homeschool gems to share with us!
It's great and much support!
We have used bkyi.com too. It's a really good resource and easily usable for children.
Sorry for posting so many times, it's just so exciting to see all of the progression with homeschool families.I can't wait to see more and I promise not to post so much next time(=
Girl Please...
Post as much as you like! I enjoy it!
Itiel~wife, mother, teacher,entrepreneur, friend
www.smellgoodspa.com
www.smellgoodslady.blogspot.com
www.smellgoodspa.blogspot.com
"Mmmm, you smell good!"
It's never too late to be what you might have been!
Excellent!
I love it! It's great to read about a progressive homeschool such as yours Sis.Nzinga.It's good to know that your returned back safe and with minimal damage after the hurricane.
Our homeschool month was different. Since my partner is now living with us(it's been 2 weeks), he has also been homeschool them. The children have been mostly learning math and reading skills from him.
Other then the usual lessons, we had a homeschool trp and met up with another homeschool family at a black bookstore. The Sister and Brother have 5 children that they homeschool. It was great to see all the children play,grow and learn together. The owner of the book store(a different booklist) Ita read them a story about Matthiew De Costa. She's a great story teller and publisher. Anyone who can make a trip to Toronto should pop into her bookstore.
Peace & Blessings,
Sa Mut Herr
our journey
wow well i am new to the homeschool fulltime experience and i must say that it is alot harder to break the mindstate of the institutional way on the getting the work done in an stressful way, let me explain it a different i have always wanted to homeschool my son since he was little but working and trying to make ends meet and not projecting the right information to come my way. i didn't understand that ability but i did no that something had to happen and that there had to be a different way out. i truly love it when my son is home with me and we work together on some of his school work. my son is 10 and in the fifth grade and during his institution days in school i felt like if i don't anything i would lose him as. he was not happy and the teachers (i can understand in some ways) didnt understand him and would ignore him and would label him. he is in a charter school online and his confidence is through the roof he loves his freedom and he is so into his reseaching and technology man he teaches me alot. Now I make up is curriculum at times that balances out his interest in his studies. we go to the museums, we have a collection of insects: like earthworms, ant colony, crickets, and our goal before the winter is to catch a queen ant for the colony. he loves science which i actually didnt realize i would enjoy it as much as i do. he is in theater and in his third musical and loving it. looking foward to him doing some commercials,print, and more plays. i have been in theater for 10yrs and i am moving over allowing him to make that legacy happen. we do alot reading and then we incorporate some acting in it to make it more interesting. i teach drama for an afterschool program and he comes with me for the social and to get work his skills. he has math and spelling and history too. i have to put in attendance online. i do like the program very much, i love how they have trips so that other mothers can reach out and mingle and get some help. i love how theres picture day coming up soon for the year books, and they have taffy apple sales, u can have an online conference with his homeroom teacher which he sees on friday. they provide us with computers and sofeware and i have pulled up so many learning games for him. homeschooling him has become a schooling for me in so many ways. thank u for this i hope to share with u again. sorry this message is jumbled i am half sleep lol i couldn't pass up on this post. peace and love
Much Support Sis.Divine Lady!
Isn't it amazing how children can shine once they are giving the freedom to grow in their own way?
As you mentioned, that he teaches you, that's another amazing thing that parents that don't homeschool miss. Parents learn a lot and are challenged to keep up to par with their academic and life skills in order to teach their children effectively. I will always honour what I have learned as a parent, teacher and individual from homeschooling!