You know how it is when you have taken a break from school, whether it be public school or summer school, and then you have to go back to the regular routine. We had two weeks off for the holidays and today was our first day back. A lot of the schools around us are closed because of the weather but seeing as how we didn’t need to go anywhere to have school I decided that we wouldn’t procrastinate any longer. Below are a few of the activities that have been included in our first day back.
First Momma needed to get ready for the day and have a little bit of quiet time as I knew it was gonna be a bit chaotic as everyone got back into school routine. My verse for the day was Proverbs 14:30, and it was such a good verse to start today out with. As usual I got myself ready so I would be prepared for whatever the day may hold.
It is a Monday so that means the little boys need to do have their laundry washed. They brought it in and loaded it. They also switched it over the dryer and then unloaded the dryer. Jacob (3) loves to clean the lint filter. Then he offered to take care of pushing it to my room as Joey (4) was feeling a little under the weather today. I admire the empathy they show at such an early age.
The older kids took care of the morning chores like wiping the table, sweeping the floor, and cleaning up the playroom. Momma took out the trash and cleaned the bathrooms.
Jacob and Joey did their work on the Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool first. They were on Day 77 of the Getting Ready 1. (I use Ctrl F to find the day easier.) They loved painting the farm and adding animals. They made a mud pit for the pigs and a pond for the animals to drink from. Jacob also found that he could make the rooster ‘fly’ backwards by tapping on the screen.
Then they went to Discovery K12 and worked on Jacob’s account (Pre-K) On here they practiced some phonics. and learned the proper way to brush their teeth.
While the little boys were working on the computer William was at the island with the new touchscreen laptop. It took him a few minutes to get adjusted to it. He stands while doing this work or he will fidget with everything around him. He started off on the Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool site with the McGuffey Primer Day 189.
We work on each lesson for more than a day. Usually a week or two until he is comfortable with the words and can recognize them easily. I have also found that by highlighting the words as he reads them it helps him to focus on each individual word as we go along. He did start independently on his Discovery K12, he is using the K level like Joey, but he ended up joining the boys when Joey started his work. I have to set a timer when William is watching videos or playing games as he will click on something else, that he thinks is more fun than his assignments, and will not get his work done.
I also let him keep a ‘fidget’ beside him as he works to help him stay focused on what he is doing.
When all the boys were
caught up to the same assignments William joined the little boys. They worked on the Discovery K12 site at the K level. They watched some phonics videos, a counting to 100 video, and a video about reading maps which they really enjoyed.
Then they worked at the table on their workbooks. I had also printed out a peacock coloring page from the Discovery K12 site. I printed one for all of the kids as they all like to color.
Around 9:30 we had some snack. Today was Cinnamon Toast….yummy!
After snack it was time for some fun videos. They picked out some nursery rhymes, some counting videos, and some videos about daily routines.
William stayed at the table to color in his new dinosaur book. The little boys were tired of sitting and went to the playroom to play and draw for a little while. Jacob had lots of fun with the dinosaurs while Joey played in the floor.
The workbooks for the boys consist of a variety of things. They have a Daily Activity book that I put together. It has lots of activities with letters and numbers that I put together from free resources on the internet.
I also found a couple of work books at the Dollar Tree and put those in their boxes as well. At Dollar Tree I also found some dinosaur books which are also in the workboxes. We have to have a little fun mixed in and it motivates them to get the other activities completed.
While the boys were working on the computers and doing their school work the girls were also busy. They started out at the table working on spelling and reading.
The reading and math workbooks come from the Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool site. Isabella is on Level 2 while Caitlyn is on Level 3.
The spelling was something I found free on the internet a while back and I printed it off and made a book with it. I have their daily activities on the front page and they write it all down in a notebook. (We use one notebook for everything and just label the days.)
The copywork is also a random compilation of things I have found on the internet. The books include bible verses and famous quotes as well as occasional information related to social studies. I found the Disney math books at the Dollar Tree and threw them in the work boxes to give them a little something fun to do.
The girls then take turns on the laptops. Normally we would be using the Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool site for our group studies like science and social studies but I got a little sidetracked earlier in the year and decided to use the Discovery K12 site.
They were on Day 77 here and learned about the Constitution and Red Cloud for Social Studies. The site had a lot of reading so I used Youtube to find some videos related to the subjects that were on todays lesson plan.
For science they were learning about the life cycle of frogs and tide pools. Again I used Youtube to find some videos for them to watch.
I am pretty relaxed, at least a lot more than I once was, about the way they learn. I know the girls, especially Caitlyn, have some trouble with comprehension. I try my best to incorporate as many different teaching and learning styles as possible to help them learn and retain the information. We experiment, a lot, to find out what works best for each of them.
The girls use the Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool site for their Math and Reading. There are a few other activities that they do on there as well.They do a lot of math games as well as a lot of different grammar games.
I like the Xtramath site as it shows the progress that they are making. The girls really enjoy working on it as well.
After the computer work they go back to the table to finish whatever book work that they may have and then they do so
me fun stuff.
Usually about 11:00 or 11:30 we start to clean up. The kids put their finished work in their folders. The folders, notebooks, and a few other supplies are color coded. This help them to easily identify where their things belong. It also helps Momma know who left their ruler, notebook, or whatever out on the table or in the floor.
Today we had planned on eating leftovers but there was nothing left over! So we had some good ole PB&J with a banana. (Looks like we may be having banana muffins on Wednesday.)
After eating lunch the kids did a quick cleanup and headed to their rooms for naps. Momma did her ‘House Blessing‘ with big sister’s help. I then decided to upload all of these wonderful pics and write a post. I did not plan on publishing this post right away but sometimes technology gets a little ahead and is quicker than my fingers are. So I thank everyone, who may have seen the published but unfinished draft, for their patience.
This is just one day out of our crazy lives here. We did not do everything that we usually do but it was a day of adjustment as they haven’t been doing the normal school routine. The important thing is that they did learn and they had fun while doing it. I think they will be much more apt to remember these things than if I had sat them down and tried to force them to learn. As you can see, by the choice of ‘fun activities’ that the little boys made, kids have a natural tendency to seek out interesting things and a desire to learn. Everyday is a learning experience for them as well as for me.
I will slowly add in a few other things that we didn’t do today. I will try to post on them another day. But naptime is over and I hear the pitter patter of little feet coming to find me. Ok, who am I kidding? It’s more like the stomping of mini dinosaurs who are looking to devour the first thing in sight that I hear. So I better get off of here and head to the kitchen to find something for these little raptors to munch on.
You can also check our Facebook page for more current things we have been doing.
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