Blog Failure

Obviously I am not capable of maintaining more than one blog and the goal is for education to be just a part of who we are and what we do, not a totally separate boxed off part of our lives. As you can tell this idea of "unschooling" is growing on me. I love the ideas and I think I agree with the philosophy, but.... We'll see where we go after we get the reading and basics down pat.
But I digress, but to the lack of blogging issue.

I'm going to leave this blog up, because I think it might just have a word or two of useful information on it. I will also try to occasionally post any change in curriculum or lack there of, but as a whole I don't expect that I will be posting very often on this blog.

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I have just signed up my oldest up for time4learning. She loves computer games and this seems like a good fit.
I do not think it is a full curriculum as it boast, but it seems to be pretty good. I do like that you can print reports, etc. In the event that we need to show any proof of our schooling, it would prove a useful resource, and I don't have to do the record keeping.

This is how it works.
You pay a monthly service fee and then you log in to have access to the site.
You can log in in the lower level or the upper level. The upper level stretches her abilities now and it is helpful for me to guide her through those lessons. The lower level is exactly where she is currently and she is able to do those lessons on her own. I like that we have a choice so we can mix it up. I want to keep it fun and not discouraging.

After completing 15min of "lesson" games, then the "playground" unlocks and she can play there for 15 minutes. The playground is full of educational games she can play. It also links to kid friendly web pages such as PBSkids, which my kids love.

I have not signed up my youngest yet, but he likes to watch and "help" his big sister.

As I said, I am not using this our sole educational experience. We are finishing up the kindergarten book for Heart of Dakota. It's such a sweet, simple program that we usually enjoy it. Though not this time of year. It happened the same way last year. Just before the holidays we, no I, I get bored with the curriculum. The kids still enjoy it, I'm the one who needs a change. The plan this year is to finish off a few more weeks of lessons and then take Thanksgiving through New Years off to study Christmas related items and just enjoy the holidays.

Thanks for you patience with my lack of posting.
Hope you enjoy our family blog and find these few posts to be helpful.

New post

I just spent 30 minutes writing a new posting detailing our latest home schooling endeavors, only to hit publish and the post is then deleted. Swell.

Since it's 11pm and we are starting our day at 5:30a tomorrow, I'll have to fill you in on the convention, reading, and My Father's World on another night.

I know the suspense is just killing you.....

Week off

We have completed Unit 1 of our new curriculum. We plan to continue school through out the summer with a week off here or there.

Last week we had a death in the family, so we took a week off of school to help out.
I am looking forward to starting Unit two tomorrow. Here it is 9:00 on Sunday night and I have not even look at the material for tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be able to look at it tonight before going to bed. If not I'll have to do it in the morning before I wake up the kiddos.
Another reason I love the Heart of Dakota material......very little prep work is required. Nice for the busy mama.

After next week we will be taking yet another week off for VBS.
I just love that we can be so flexible with our schooling, but I am looking forward getting into a "normal" schedule.

Kindengarten Unit 1 Day 1

Started new kindergarten program today.
I do love Heart of Dakota.

While looking over everything last night, I was a little overwhelmed with the amount of things we were going to cover in one day. In Hands to Heaven, the material was for 30 minutes. This time around there is material for 90 minutes. It really seemed like a lot. But my sweet husband reminded me that we can't do preschool forever. "Hi I'm 10 and I know my ABCs..."
Yeah, that just isn't going to cut it.

It is now 3:00pm and we have completed all tasks except our Children's devotion, and we'll do that tonight before bed. So we did it with out a problem.
Today was even dance class day (9-1) plus I spent two hours at the gym.I am feeling very accomplished today.

Home schooling different ages....
My son is two, so I will be using parts of the Little Hands to Heaven while I cover Little Heart for his Glory with my 5 year old. My son, participated in all of the activities today except for the written/workbook portions which my oldest child completed during his nap.

The material from the two books seem to go easily together with very little effort.

I am looking forward to this "school year." Soon my little Cora will be reading and my little man will know his ABCs.I purchased a sketch book for Cora to use to journal about the things she learns and does each day. I did not get one for my son, but now I wish I had. nEven though now, all he does is eat and break the crayons, I'm sure that soon enough he'll be able to control himself a little more. Guess I'll be making another trip to the store.

Unit One Day One, complete.
A good day, and a nice start.

New Material

On Thursday, we finished up our review week (unit 30).

It worked out that this unit covered the events leading up to the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. Rather fitting for the week leading up to Easter Sunday, don't you think?
I didn't plan it, but it worked out perfectly!
We combined two days of material on Thursday and took Good Friday off.

(Here our reenactment of the Last Supper, plus some cheese)

This week we are learning about the letter "Y" and reading about more events surrounding the Resurrection.

Tonight, I finally managed to order my next set of material from Heart of Dakota.
This new material will take some more planning on my part. The daily lesson plans are designed to take about 90 minutes, in contrast to the 30 min lessons we are using right now.

I honestly don't see us bust'n it all out in 90 minutes. We'll most likely spread it out through the day. This has seemed to work well for us so far.

In the next book, will cover the following areas:

- Bible Memory Work
-Devotional Topics
-Science Discovery
-Art Projects
-Dramatic Play
-Thinking Games
-Rhymes
-Gross Motor Skills
-Music
-Handwriting Choice
-Fine Motor Skills
-Phonics Choice
-Story time
-Language Activities
-Math Exploration

I am uncertain if I will be able to use the same material for both my children. I'd like to be able to include my youngest in the same activities with changes as necessary.

We'll just have to wait and see on that one....

Here's the link to the book, Little Hearts for His Glory:
http://www.heartofdakota.com/little-hearts.php

Spring Break

My sweet little Cora is enrolled in a dance class here in Austin and they are on Spring break this week.
This would be a great week to get in some good school time....
but instead we are taking the week off to enjoy some of the many activities Austin has to offer.

Plus, we are getting close to the end of Little Hands to Heaven material and I have yet to place an order for the next book. Yikes. I really need to get on that.

As we are wrapping up Little Hands to Heaven, I can't decide if Cora is getting bored with the material or if it's just me. A little of both maybe, but more on my end than on hers.

Never thought teachers would be the ones with the boredom issues.

I believe this may be due to the "off weeks." I get out of our groove and don't want to get back into it. Maybe when I "plan" out our next book from Heart of Dakota, I will schedule it differently.

Not so many little breaks? We'll see.

I think Mama just needs to put on her big girl pants and get back to work.

Less time with Facebook and blogging and more time planning out our day.

I am very glad to have started this home school adventure with my young children.

Preschool, is, well it's preschool.

It has been a nice look into my teaching style/weaknesses and into Cora's learning style.

I am looking forward to beginning our next book, perhaps too much, since we haven't even finished this one yet (we are on letter X). I am curious to see if I will reuse Little Hands to Heaven with my youngest, or just use the second book with both of the kids. Guess we'll see after I actually order and receive the material.

All in all still enjoying our home school time together. We are finding ways to add learning into our daily life and spend less time "doing school."

Fun stuff.

Review Week

This week we are on Unit 25.
Reviewing letters Q, R, S, T.

For our bible study, we are learning some of the parables. The children are enjoying these stories. Plus, many of these stories can be found in their various bible story books. So, we have been able to find some really nice illustrations.

Every week there is a color activity where the kids glue colored items onto the color page. Instead of coping the page from the Heart of Dakota book, I have been using colored construction paper.

I collect adds and junk mail (reduce, reuse, recycle) which the kids then use to find the color of the week.

This week's color just happened to be red. Which worked out perfectly for the week leading up to St. Valentine's day.

My younger son, needed help cutting out the red apples, strawberries, and tomatoes. Yet, he is very good at gluing them to the paper. I also provided him with red crayons to use. He likes to trace his hand, and then either chew on or throws the crayons.
Hummmm...
He's a two year old boy, what do you expect? At least he's stinking adorable.

My daughter had the JCpenny's add today. She cut out red dresses and ruby earrings, necklaces, and bracelets. Instead of just gluing them randomly on the page, as I suggested, she used them to make a "Stylish Lady." Complete with earrings and a bracelet for a crown. Then she used a smaller red dress to make the women's daughter.

When her masterpiece was complete she added a pepperoni pizza for the mom and a plate of spaghetti for the daughter, because "she's allergic to pepperoni."

Her creativity never ceases to amaze me.
Such a clever girl.