new system worked well

Today was day one of my modified workbox system. Until we have $$ to invest in actual boxes I'm using envelopes. I numbered the envelopes 1-12 and wrote a different assignment in each one.

Charry seemed to like knowing how much she had to finish. And She liked knowing when she finished she would be able to play on the American Girl web site.

I'm not going to try the envelopes with Merry but when we get boxes I will set up her workbox set also. Today she got to go thru the entire alphabet on Starfall while I was working with Charry.

Then we had a proud mother/daughter moment when she read by herself for the very first time. After going thru a beginning reader "Fat Cat" I got out my letter flash cards and she worked on "at" and "an" words. Since all she had to change was the beginning sounds she was able to read the words with confidence.

My favorite lesson with Charry was counting money. I had fun switching between how much the coins added to and how many coins there were. She had no problems but was eager to move from coins to dollar bills.

Happy New Years

This year has not been a good one, and school has been pushed to the back burner so to speak. But January seems like a good time to start anew. I'm excited about starting a new subject, Spelling. For me teaching spelling feels like the impossible task because I can not spell worth beans. But after reading through the first chapter in the teachers guide of "All about Spelling" I have confidence that this should be ok.

In addition to starting a new subject I also hope to try daily boxes, where you put each activity in a box or drawer and the student completes them one at a time. Then if I'm distracted Charry could still go on to the next subject. I don't quite know how to set those up though.

As the new year progresses I'll see want I can learn as I teach.

Advent

I just spent the last hour scouring the web for Christmas themed worksheets. We are going to put aside the regular books for the month and instead work on an unit study. This is my first attempt to teach completely with out workbooks. Of course we will still have addition and subtraction worksheets but the Christmas story problems ought to make things a little fun. Wish me luck!

simple science lesson

Charry was having trouble understanding why the tilt of the earth would cause the changing of seasons. And I was having trouble finding a way to explain it to her.

Until today! First I had her glue strips of yellow paper in a column along one side of her paper.

Then I had her color a paper plate to look like a globe, I added an equator and marked the north and south poles.

Then we put the "Earth" in the "sun light" and counted how many strips of light each half of the world would be getting.

Finally we tilted the "Earth" on its axis and saw how the amount of sun each half got changed. Having something concrete to count helped Charry to understand something that hadn't been making much sense.

New Years

I'm looking forward to another exciting year. My "New Years Resolution" is to blog more. Even if no one reads these it's a nice way to keep track of our ever changing lives :)

Even thought the school year starts in September I think January is when I finally get the kinks worked out. I've had all Christmas break to reflect on what has been working well and what hasn't. I'm making three big changes. One: Global Studies gets scaled down. Still one country a day but not reading as much about each country. Two: Science will take a break from the text book and focus on a unit study about the Amazon Rain Forest. While learning about South America it was obvious Charry was most interested in the animals there. Three: Literature, I realized I had focused so much on reading that now Charry is reading but I didn't know what she needed to read. Thanks to the internet I found discussion questions, activities and quizzes to go with age appropriate books.

Happy New Year

China

In honor of Chinese New Year we spent the month studying China. We found some great books at the library and a few sites online. The girls especially enjoyed getting dressed in red for Chinese New Year. We didn't make it to the Children's Museum because of colds, but we managed to have fun.

I also decided to let Charry make a report, orally since she doesn't write much yet (she's only five). So I got out my camera and the world map, called her over and started filming. "So where is China?" I ask. "I don't know," she answers looking at the map as though she had never seen it before. But in the end she did really learn a lot. (And I let her decide on the title and credit colors and words. I'm glad I got a mention)

Diorama

Before the winter break I had to spend a week working, which meant my husband got to spend the week teaching. While I was laying out worksheets and books I started thinking about when I was a student. Over the breaks we always had to take home some project for our parents to help us with. I thought how unfair this was on the parents.

They had no idea what the teacher actually wanted and besides they were busy. Home school parents rarely get to experience this. We always know what the teacher wants because we are the teacher. But for one week my husband got to be the confused parent.

I assigned a diorama. After explaining what that was I left them to it. We all learned something that we. My daughter learned how to make a model and use it to explain a story. My husband learned how much work it took to homeschool (before he just knew how much money). And I learned that having a substitute teacher is just as hard as teaching yourself. I think we all had fun too.Here is the finished diorama.

It's a space ship. They read a Star Wars book together and her favorite thing in it was the Millennium Falcon. And yes her daddy is very proud.

Charry and Daddy both very proud of their accomplishment.