Peterson Academy-Day 3!

Here we go....day 3 of homeschooling is under our belts. Let me tell you, it was a roller coaster of a day...plenty of highs AND lows!

So one thing that I love about homeschooling (which I know I've mentioned before) is the flexibility. We are still trying to navigate how to manage our time doing school work as well as other things. Below I will show you our day so you can see how we fit in homeschooling. This is what is working for us, so far.

OUR DAY AT A GLANCE

-We all wake up! Kids watch a little tv, I have some coffee, and get some housework done.

-Breakfast!

-Around 9:00 we worked on letters

-After that Ellie and I did some reading and an experiment

-My husband was home in the morning so got some errands done. Kids played!

-Lunch!

-Ellie got some iPad time while I cleaned up from lunch.

-Layla got iPad time while Ellie and I worked on Math (that was a struggle)

-Ellie tantrum over school work

- Ellie and I worked on phonics (rhyming)

-More house work

-I attempted to do a Camp Gladiator workout in the garage while the kids played outside (that was a disaster and had to stop)

-Went over to my parents for dinner!

So, as you can see, I didn't include times. I don't really pay attention to when we do things, as long as things get done before dinner. I feel like if I focus on times and when we are doing things I get stressed, especially if things don't go as planned. I just prefer to leave it open.

Read below to see what the girls and I worked on today! I will include links to the resources I used too!

WRITING/LETTERS

We started our school day out with working on matching capital and lowercase letters. This engaging activity was great because it was something both girls could do. I found this awesome activity online and they had a blast! I went to Dollar Tree (I LOVE LOVE LOVE Dollar Tree) and bought plain white spoons and clear pink spoons. I wrote a letter of the alphabet in uppercase on the top of the white spoon and the corresponding letter in lowercase on the bottom of the clear pink spoon. Then the girls had to match the uppercase and lowercase letters! It was interesting to see which ones they confused, but it gave me insight as to which ones to work on. They loved it so much they did it twice!

Ellie was so excited by this activity, a spontaneous lesson happened. She was trying to put spoons together to spell words. So I told her three letters to pick. For example, I told her to find "h", "a", and "t". Then I told her to spell "hat". We did this a few times to build more CVC (consonant vowel consonant) words. These are great words to start with!

We loved this activity so much! We will definitely be using it multiple times throughout our homeschool year.

Lastly, we used this activity to transition to Ellie's writing notebook. She simply took a few minutes to practice writing uppercase and lowercase letters correctly in her journal.

READING

This was a fun lesson! I am following the curriculum I bought (Blossom & Root) for Reading. This week we are reading stories from Aesop's Fables. We read the story "The Crow and the Pitcher" and then completed the corresponding activity. The story was about a crow who could not get the water out of the narrow necked pitcher, so he decided to drop stones in the picture to make the water rise to where he could drink it. For the corresponding activity Ellie did the same thing as the crow. I had her gather rocks from our backyard and she dropped them in the container of water. We marked where the water was after each stone. She had a blast.

I followed up with some questions.

-What happened to the water when you dropped a small stone in?

-What happened to the water when you dropped a large stone in?

-The water kept rising. Does that mean there was more water?

Lastly, we completed the journal entry for the activity. Ellie drew what she did for the activity and then she dictated what she did while I wrote it down. Super fun and simple lesson!

MATH

Ok, so math did NOT go well today. I don't think it was the lesson. Ellie was really not in the mood to do any school stuff at that time. I am trying to find the right balance between them being in the mood to work and me saying "this is work time" because it can't be on their terms the whole day. We got through the activity, but it wasn't pretty.

Anyways, since Ellie got her hands on some coins the other day, I decided to work on coins the rest of the week. Today I had her categorize the coins on a work mat. Her goal was to be able to identify and name what each coin was. This can be difficult for little ones. Then Ellie completed a coin sort in her math journal. That was like pulling teeth....lots of fussing and whining, but we got through it!

Click below to download the coin sorting worksheet.

coin sorting worksheet

.pdf

Download PDF • 562KB

Click below to download the coins to sort on the worksheet.

coins

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Download PDF • 242KB

After the meltdown was over (which was about wanting to more school stuff after I told her we'll take a break), we completed another coin sort and created and analyzed a graph. She chose a coin, identified it, and recorded it in her chart. I found that it was helpful for her to use the sorting mat as a reference. Afterwards, we analyzed our data.

PHONEMIC AWARENESS

Aside from the letter spoon activity, this activity was a favorite with Ellie. We have been working on rhyming this week. To start off, we listened to "Down by the Bay" which is great for rhyming and Ellie thinks it's hilarious. I have her tell me the words that rhyme as she hears them.

We like this version.....

After the song Ellie completed the following rhyming activity.

I printed out the picture cards and laminated them with the little Scotch laminating pouches. I mentioned these in my first homeschool post. I simply slip the cards into the pocket and use my iron to fuse the lamination. I then taped the cards to large Lego blocks (Duplo blocks). Ellie's task was to find the matching rhyming card and attach the blocks. Oh man, did she love this activity. She did it twice! To make it a little less overwhelming for her, I color coded them so she knew the reds go togethser and then greens went together. Obviously when there were only two greens left she knew they went together, but I had her say the rhyme to confirm. Eventually I will mix all the colors and cards so that she has to really each for them. I highly recommend this activity!

Download the rhyming cards here.

If you are looking for Duplo blocks, here is a great set on Amazon (affiliate link).

Check out our first and second day of homeschool too!

Alright guys, that was about it from today! I hope you found this blog post to be useful!

Until next time!

Peterson Academy-Day 2!

We have two days of homeschool under out belt! Read on to find out how it went and what we did!

I promised that I would write the reality of our days and not just make it all sound wonderful and Smoot (unless we do have one of those amazing days--hey, it happens!).Today went quite well, although it is a lot of work and exhausting trying to fit all aspects of my life in one day! My husband worked second shift today, so I ran out to do errands right away in the morning. When I got back Ellie and I did two lessons. After that we packed up and got some Chick-Fil-A to take the park for lunch. We had a picnic, watched some geese, and played. While at the park Ellie and I worked on a math lesson about money. When we got home the kids watched a little bit of tv to relax, after all, they spent three hours running around at a park! Dinner and baths followed before bedtime. I must admit, by the end of the day I was wiped out and DONE! I was so ready for them to get to bed so I could relax. Some days it is exhausting being ON all day... you know what I mean right?!

WHAT WE LEARNED TODAY

READING-Read Aloud and Short A/Long A

We read another version of the fable "The Ants and the Grasshopper". For this I am following the curriculum I bought, Blossom & Root. We read another version yesterday, so today we focused on comparing the two. How were they the same? How were they different? Then we completed the corresponding activity, the two sounds of A. We decided to make a list.

SIGHT WORDS

We have been informally working on sight words for a few months now, so we started off by reading off the list of sight words that Ellie already knows.

We then worked on sight words booklets. I found this books of sight word mini books at Dollar Tree. It's perfect because each booklet is short and simple. Each booklet focuses on 2-4 sight words in simple sentences.

Ellie highlighted the sight words listed on the cover and then she went through the pages and highlighted the same sight words in the sentences. Then we went through and she read each sentence (with some help with the words that were not learned yet). She was so excited to read! Then she colored the pictures.

Layla even got in on the action. I accidentally bought it twice so I pulled a few booklets for Layla to color and circle words and letters as she wanted. I didn't really do too much instruction with her, as I was busy working with Ellie, but I figured she was getting exposure to letters and words and creating a book.... all good things for a three year old!

MATH-Identifying Coins

So... one of the beauties of homeschooling is flexibility! For math this week I had planned to do activities regarding ten frames and numbers lines, however, Ellie came across some coins and was so excited about them. She gathered them all up, washed them in the bathroom sink, laid them out to dry, and placed them safely in one of the zipper pouches I had made her a while ago. She was all about this money. I thought, let's jump on this! So the rest of the week we are working on identifying coins, sorting them, and counting pennies and nickels instead of what I had planned. The ability to have the flexibility to move lessons around due to your kid's interests is AMAZING.

We took Ellies pouch of coins and the coin sorting mat with us to the park! First I had Ellie pull out a quarter, a nickel, a dime, and a penny. We analyzed each coin's characteristics (color, texture of edges, images, etc.). Ellie then sorted some of the coins on the mat I created for her (printed on cardstock and slipped in a page protector). I will post the printable PDF below. Our main goal today was to identify each coin and their name. It was short, effective, and fun! It's so awesome to be able to take our lessons and activities anywhere!

Click below to download the coin sorting mat.

coin sorting mat

.pdf

Download PDF • 538KB

SCIENCE-Animals and Nature

Today's science lesson was completely impromptu. As we were eating our lunch on our blanket at the park the girls spotted a bunch of geese. They were so entertained. We discussed what kind of animals they were and how we know (birds because they have wings and feathers). We discussed what they ate and how they know (bugs since they were pecking the ground constantly).

Lastly, the girls found some bugs in the sand box and collected them in a bucket and examined them. We decided they were little millipedes (gross!) rather than centipedes. We then discussed the difference between the two and decided we needed to do some research on the two sometime.

I absolutely love how lessons and be on a whim based on their interests and based on opportunities that arise.

CONCLUSION

Overall a good day with fun and learning sprinkled in throughout. To be honest, I find myself feeling a bit guilty because I worry about the amount of learning that we are doing during the day. I keep comparing homeschool to public school (which I know very well being an elementary school teacher). I know that a homeschool day is not structured like day in public school, but it's hard! I just keep thinking that if she was at school, she would be there for 8 hours doing school things as opposed to homeschool where it is simply short bursts of lessons throughout the day. I honestly do believe that, for kindergarten, short bursts of learning is preferable to 8 hours of constant work. That's a lot of a 5 year old!

I also have to remember that she is getting one on one instruction.

She's getting immediate feedback from me. S

he's getting complete individualized instruction.

She's getting to learn based on her interests.

I just have to stop comparing the two ways of learning and just do us!

Thanks again for visiting my blog and for checking out our day! Stay tuned for more!

In case you missed it, here is my blog post about our first day of homeschool.

Peterson Academy--Day 1!

Welcome to a glimpse of our first year homeschooling with a kindergartner and a preschooler!

So for those of you who don't know me or my story, I'll give you a quick run down!

Hello! I am Laura and these are my two sweet little girls, Ellie and Layla. Ellie was supposed to go to kindergarten this year and we were all excited! She was so looking forward to it and has been ready for so long. Then Covid19 hit and obviously changed everything. After much consideration and debate, we decided that I would homeschool Ellie this year. I am an elementary school teacher, but have been staying home with my girls for the past 5 years. Wow! Has it been five years already!? Considering my teaching background I figured I could incorporate my skills into our homeschool.

Does this mean less time for me time? Yes.

Does this mean more work for me? Absolutely.

Does this mean I have to rearrange my time and days differently? Yes.

Does this mean my days will be busier? For sure!

Does this mean I get to see my kids grow academically before my eyes? YES!

IT IS SO WORTH IT!

My goal on here is to update you all a few times a week on how our days are going in our first year of homeschooling. I want to show you the ups and the downs, the successes and the struggles, and lots of good activities and lessons.

So let's see how our first day went!

Day One of Homeschooling

We started our day off by taking our first day school pictures. I was so looking forward to doing this with Ellie as we sent her off to kindergarten and I refused to let the change in plans spoil that for me! I created some signs in the app Procreate. Printed them and put them in Dollar Tree frames. I loved how they turned out.

I had been debating on how I wanted our days to go. How do I schedule our days? How do I set up a routine? I didn't want it to be rigid and binding, but I also didn't want it to be too loose where we didn't accomplish all our tasks. While I am going to take the week to feel it out, I think we'll be going with a daily checklist. This way we can make sure we get all our tasks done, but also be super flexible. I can let Ellie kind of take the lead as to when we do our lessons. At the kindergarten age moods and motivation can be touchy so the checklist allows flexibility. Her and I can see how many tasks we have to complete and we can space them out.

I wrote our subjects on a piece of cardstock and slipped it in a page protector so we can use a dry erase marker to check off our tasks. At the end of the day we erase it and will start over!

I LOVE using page protector for teaching. I used them all the time in my classroom. It is a cheap alternative to laminating!

This pack of 50 sheet protectors is only $4.99 on Amazon! Here is my affiliate link.

Math--Ten Frames

For math today we warmed up by working on writing numbers the correct way. I simply modeled how to write the numbers and Ellie wrote them on her whiteboard.

Our main lesson today was working with numbers on ten frames to work on her number sense. We talked about what the ten frame looks like.

How many boxes altogether?

How many boxes in each row?

If one row is filled how many is that?

I made a ten frame mat by drawing the ten frame on a piece of cardstock (love cardstock for its sturdines). Then, again, I placed it in a sheet protector. We used dominos to choose numbers to use. She chose a domino and then chose one side of the domino to get her number. She then placed manipulatives on the mat to show the number. She also drew the numbers on the mat with a dry erase marker. Then she recored her mat in her math journal. Lastly, she showed me what she learned by completing a small worksheet. We also glued that in her math journal. I really love gluing work in a notebook for three main reasons. One, loose papers aren't all over the house and second, it's fun to flip through the notebook to see all that she has done. Lastly, it's a great way to review what she has done and is a good reference.

We also played a ten frame game! Ellie LOVED it!

I got it from the following website.

https://www.mathkidsandchaos.com/ten-frame-game/

Phonics- Rhyming

After a break we came back and worked on phonemic awareness, which was a rhyming activity. We started by discussing what rhyming is (two words that have the same sound). A misconception that I noticed was that Ellie thought that two words rhymed if they started with the same sound (like cake and cookie rather than cake and bake). After our short discussion, we listened to "Down by the bay" song and stopped at the rhyming words to identify them.

Next, we completed a rhyming matching card activity. I found this on the following site.

https://www.totschooling.net/2014/07/rhyming-sorting-game-with-free-printable.html#_a5y_p=2127236

I laminated these cards, and lots of other little cutouts, with these amazing laminating pockets. I just place the cards inside, place a piece of cloth or fabric on top, and use my iron! These are great for making cards because they end up being super thick and sturdy.

(Amazon affiliate link)

Writing- Labeling

After another break, and lunch, we moved on to writing. We started by working on writing a few uppercase and lowercase letters on a whiteboard. Then we worked on labeling a pictures. We discussed what labels are for and how to read a picture with labels. Labels help tell us the parts of a picture and what they are. Ellie competed a cut and past labeling activity and then we wrote a sentence about the picture. This allowed for a very brief discussion on sentence structure and what a sentence is. A sentence is a complete thought and has a capital letter at the begging and the rest are lowercase (didn't discuss times when there's a capital in the middle of sentence) and ends with a period (again, just discussed period to keep it simple at first).

Get your copy here:

https://www.keepingmykiddobusy.com/blog/2018/10/30/labeling-writing-at-the-beginning-of-the-year-in-kindergarten

Reading

Our last lesson of the day was a read aloud from a curriculum I purchased (Blossom & Root). Before reading we took a few seconds to talk about concepts of print (parts of the book, how to hold the book, how to read the pages-left to right, etc.) We read a story from Aesop's fables and then completed the corresponding worksheet (writing Aa and listing other words that started with "A"). Then, of course, Ellie had to check out the rest of the book.

My younger daughter, Layla, completed a few informal activities such as, number work in a workbook, drawing, and sorting toys by color.

Conclusion

Overall, it was a successful and productive first day of homeschool for all of us. Short bursts of work worked well for us and the checklist helped us complete all our tasks for the day. I'm curious to see if this will continue to work for us!

Thank you for checking out our day! I hope it was useful and inspirational! I will continue to share our days and activities that we have done, as well as resources that I create and find.

Until next time!!!!!

Check out my blog post about setting up our homeschool room!