Busy, Busy, Busy!

Wow!  We have had a great first 6 weeks.  We finished our unit of study "The Community" and Bridget had her first real math test.  She made a 100!  She was so excited.  It was on the 1st chapter in Math Mammoth and included sums to 10 and comparisons.

She has also learned to spell 60 words.  She receives 10 new words on Mondays and takes a spelling test on Friday.

One of our topics included farming.  We took a virtual tour of a dairy farm and egg farm.  Quite interesing.  We also made our own butter, whipped cream, and cheese.  That was fun!!  I'll post pictures soon.  My dad is a crop farmer.  One of his main crops is cotton.  Last year, we took a field trip out to one of the farms and watched the tractors in action.

This is a picture of some of the cotton.

We will be interrupting our little school to go on a Disney Cruise.  Bridget made a paper chain with numbers on it to help us count down.  Every morning she removes one of the paper links.  We will be participating in a Fish Extender Gift Exchange.  This is where a group of people meet on the DISboards and create a list of cabins that want to exchange small gifts.  It sounded like a cool idea.  The FE is suppose to be 8" wide and should have a pocket for each family member.  Here is a picture of ours:

Hopefully, I'll have more time when we return from our trip to give more details on some of the fun activities we have done.

Until then...Ahoy maties!

1st Day of School

Well, we did it!  Bridget started 1st grade yesterday.  We both did great!  She loves our little "school" area that I set up in the family room.  She is using an old school desk that my grandfather gave to me when I was her age.

Our Little School

After spending the summer talking to other homeschooling moms, I realized that sometimes less is more.  I spent more time browsing free curriculum sites than I did playing Bubble Safari on Facebook.  However, it paid off because I believe I found some really good curriculum.

We are using Math Mammoth for math.  It was fairly inexpensive and I like the author's approach.  She not only tells you how to do it, but why you do it.  I'll post more about it later once we have used it a bit, but Bridget likes it so far.

http://www.mathmammoth.com

I found a free phonics curriculum http://www.progressivephonics.com/~suzettew/ and although she is reading very well (I suspect she is at a 2nd grade level), I want her to have a better grasp of advanced phonics.  She has difficulty with annunciation sometimes and I am thinking this will help.  And it never hurts to read more...right?

1st day of 1st Grade.  Spelling



All the other subjects she is learning such as reading comprehension, social studies, science, grammar, spelling, and fine arts...well, I'm pulling from different areas to suit our needs.  We are following the Texas guidelines although we actually go beyond most of them because she is ready.

Time wise, we are spending about half an hour per subject with some topics only twice a week.  No school on Friday!  As per my homeschooling sister-in-law Aimee.  She is my go-to person whenever I have a question.

I would love to hear about your first day of school so leave me a comment if you stop by.

Being Impulsive

Yesterday was such a beautiful day!  We skipped school and stopped off at Starbucks before meeting some friends at the park yesterday morning.  It was chilly enough for a sweatshirt, which is unusual for mid-April in Corpus Christi.  The girls played and played.  We heard little girl laughter and saw sweet smiles on their faces.  And I got some grownup conversation, always a bonus.

Taking advantage of some lovely weather is one of the reasons I want to homeschool.  I like schedules.  Lists satisfy me.  I thrive on organization.  However, there are times when I simply must step outside my routine and just do something impulsive, although I can't say that this play date was really impulsive since I planned it last week.  What can I say?  I am not an impulsive person.  But it was different and it did require Bridget to miss school.

I am counting down the weeks until the end of her regular classroom school.  Our homeschooling will officially start August 13, that will give us two months off.  The decision to begin early was due to a discussion with my sister-in-law, Aimee who made a really good point about it being too hot to do anything else.  We plan to have a relaxing summer with lots of playtime.

And maybe, just maybe I'll work on my impulsive side.

A Lesson In Manners

Yesterday began as any other day in our household.  My husband left for work and I got my daughter ready for Pre-K.  After I dropped her off, I came home and did some housework and at 10:30 I went back to the school to pick her up.  All was good until we stopped at Starbucks.  I was getting a tall brewed coffee and I asked Bridget if she wanted something.  She responded with, "A vanilla bean scone."  So I ordered one.  Well, she decided that she wanted three of them and I told her that I thought one was plenty.  She pulled the "Hmmp!" attitude, which I ignored.

By the time we got home, all was well again.  We sat down to work on our handwriting lesson.  It is our second one since she had swimming lessons on Tuesday and a play date.  We reviewed the 'Jump Frog' capital letters and moved onto the next exercise.  She had trouble with the U, M, and W.  This was mostly due to trying to write them too quickly, which made them sloppy.  I erased them and she did them again.  It took about three tries, but she finally did it.

The lesson ended with an unhappy Bridget because she wanted to continue in the workbook and I told her no.  I explained we would work on the next lesson tomorrow.  I suggested she get a blank notebook and practice the letters we had already learned, but that wasn't what she wanted to do.  I ignored her when she started pouting and I went into the kitchen to fix lunch.

About five minutes later, I said "Lunch is ready." and put her plate on the table.

She came over to the table and sat down with arms crossed and a frown still on her face.  I decided that 'that' was that.  It was time we reviewed good manners because rude manners are not tolerated.  I proceeded to remind her of the proper way to respond when I bring her lunch is to say "Thank you Mommy."  I picked up the plate and told her we would try it again.  She didn't like that.  She stood up and moved away from the table.  So, I picked up her plate and cup and said, "Hmmm, let me know when you are ready for lunch."

Of course taking the plate away led to her crying and walking out of the room.  I called after her, "I'll be in the family room if you need me and I'll leave you alone because I know that's what you prefer."  I added that I understood that the mumbling to herself was her way of working through things.

Ha! That did it.  She turned around and came back into the room and sat down at the table.  I offered her a tissue and she grabbed it out of my hand.  I said, "That is bad manners.  Hand me the Kleenex please and let's try again."  She refused and I made a quick decision that this was a battle I was going to win.  I pulled the tissue until it shredded, but I got it all.  Victory!!  Next, she started coughing.  Coughing is a tactic she has used to get sympathy and a drink. 

I responded with, "Oh dear, you are coughing.  Your drink is on the table."

"Thank you Mommy." she said softly as she reached for her drink and took a sip.  "I'm sorry."

I smiled and simply asked, "Are you ready for lunch."

"Yes."

I placed the plate on the table.  She sat down, looked up at me and said, "Thank you Mommy."

Kissing her forehead, I said, "You're welcome.  I love you Bridget."  We ate our lunch and the afternoon was better. 

It won't be our last quarrel I'm sure and I really do try to carefully pick my battles, but this one had been brewing for some time.  Don't get me wrong, she is a darling little girl who is well behaved most of the time; especially in public.  I have noticed that when she is struggling for independence, she becomes a bit...well...rude.  I suppose she thinks that is the way to voice her opinion.  We usually give her options and encourage her to discuss the situation; however, this must be done politely.  And when it's not and we have reminded her about being polite and she still insists on  rude behavior then we have a lesson in manners.

Handwriting

Today was our first handwriting lesson.  I decided to go with the Handwriting Without Tears curriculum for 1st grade.  Bridget has been looking over the 'My Printing Book' ever since it came in the mail.  I told her we would have to wait until April to start our lessons and that we will have handwriting everyday when she gets home and then lunch.

If you read my previous post, you will know that she is attending a public Pre-K class this year and I mistakenly thought they were teaching her handwriting.  I soon discovered that she had no idea how to correctly write the letters.  This is why we are starting the handwriting lessons early instead of waiting until we begin homeschooling in the Fall.  I want her to feel comfortable and knowledgeable about her letters before we start.

I picked her up from Pre-K this morning and when we got home I told her we would start our lessons.  "Yes, Teacher!" was her response.  She loves to pretend and I go with it because I can accomplish most anything if we pretend; not sure what that will do to her future.  I can just see her in a college class saying, "Excuse me Professor, could we pretend we are kittens today?  I think it will maximise the lesson."

But seriously, our first lesson went rather well.  I can see that she needs to slow down and concentrate on her work.  Unfortunately at Pre-K, they get to go to centers as soon as they finish their work.  All that does for Bridget is teach her to do it as fast as she can without regard to quality.  I guess I'll actually be teaching two different lessons at the same time.  Handwriting and quality of work.

She did slow down and really enjoyed the lesson.  This is the first time we practiced writing without tears.  I'm hoping this will be a common occurrence.  We are both excited about homeschooling and after having a good time with it over Spring Break and today's lesson plan, I can see this will be an excellent choice for us.

Deciding to Homeschool

Well, I'm new to this and decided to start a blog to document our decision to homeschool.  My sister-in-law Aimee has been blogging and homeschooling for a long time and she has inspired me to start.  You can find her blog at aimeesland.blogspot.com.

My husband and I decided to homeschool our five-year-old daughter, Bridget because she doesn't really fit the regular school model.  She reads at a second grade level, math at first grade, and writing at kindergarten.  She loves to learn and is always asking questions.  Sitting still is not her strong suit and she seems to learn best by doing.

I never thought I would homeschool and our decision was not made lightly.  When we started thinking about this new venture, I began doing a lot of research and talking with Aimee.  Bridget and I even spent a week last year with Aimee and her kids to observe how they homeschooled.  I was quite impressed and somewhat relieved at how doable it appeared to be.  So we decided to take the plunge and I began working on curriculum and lesson plans.

By the time August 2011 arrived, my mother was not doing well.  She had been diagnosed with Parkinson's two years prior, but had been managing okay.  This was one of the reasons we had moved back to Texas, but that's another story.  Needless to say, I began to feel overwhelmed dealing with my mother's decline and trying to figure out how I was going to homeschool when I needed to be on call for my Mom.  I began looking for a Mother's Day Out program to give me a little break when I discovered our public school was offering Pre-K in the mornings.  A bit disappointed, I enrolled Bridget.  She loved it and it gave me a chance to have a few hours to get some things accomplished such as grocery shopping, checking on Mom, and trying to figure out how to balance everything so my brothers wouldn't have to carry the burden alone.

It's been almost eight months since Bridget started attending Pre-K and we both feel like homeschooling is going to be the best choice for us next year.  We decided to start off in first grade.  I have almost finished the curriculum and we are very excited for the school year to begin.  I used the TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Grade 1) as a guideline and found quite a few websites and blogs that provided some good resources to help develop lesson plans.  I was surprised at how much free stuff there is out there.  Our local educational store, The Learning Zone has a lot of great products.  I did buy a phonics book and some math workbooks that we will include in the curriculum.

Beginning in April, we will start the Handwriting Without Tears lessons.  I had noticed that she wasn't writing her letters correctly and she would become frustrated and not want to write at all.  I'm hoping this curriculum will provide a fun way to learn handwriting.  I'll post about it once we get started.

In the meantime, I will finish our 2012/13 curriculum, continue with her dance and swimming lessons, and find the time to clean the house.  That's what I really want to know.  How do you find time to keep the house clean and cook meals?  Please leave me a comment if you have any tips.

Thanks for visiting.
Peggy