Well our October month is PRETTY busy. The first weekend, which is coming up in 2 days, we are going camping. My AmAzInG in-laws gave us their camping spots at Lake Lanier a couple of weeks ago. They just recently bought a house up north, about 30 mins from Chattanooga, and plan on spending the weekend moving stuff in. So we are lucky enough to go camping earlier than we intended. We had originally planned to go camping towards the end of the month, but luckily we were given a more closer date. My parents plan on coming to the campsite on Saturday to hang out with us. My dad plans on bringing his boat so HOPEFULLY I can talk him into taking Dawn and I fishing. It is supposed to be the coldest day of the week on Saturday, with the low in the 40's. But I am kinda looking forward to camping when it isn't 80-90 degrees out.
Then the next weekend we have the Atlanta Pride to attend to. We plan on leaving that Friday to go to Dawn's parents house in Atlanta and staying there to whole weekend so we are closer to the city and rail system(MARTA). We don't get into the city often because Dawn isn't a big fan of Atlanta but when we do go it is always GREAT!! Last year we took the girls to Pride and it was awesome!! They really loved the Parade and all the attention they got. People LOVED the girls. We marched in the Dyke March last year too. By the time that happened, though, the girls were CRANKY so we carried them the majority of the time(and also was in the VERY back).
We do sorta get a break one the 3rd weekend but I am sure by then we will find SOMETHING to do. And then the 4th weekend is prepping time for Halloween. I plan on making me(and hopefully Dawn) a homemade costume. Something funny that catches people's attention. Dawn doesn't really want to dress up but I'll be able to persuade her.
I know my readers are a little limited right now but if you have any suggestions about good make at home costumes we would love to hear them. :)
Well I think I am done. The girls are finishing up breakfast then it is off to the school room we go. Thanks for listening and until next time....
September 29, 2011
September 22, 2011
School has started!
Well today is day 9 of school. Things have been....good. I hesitate saying that because it has been short(usually done within 2 hours) and with a lil tension in the room afterwards.
The girls REALLY seemed interested in reading so we bought Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons by Dr. Phyllis Haddox. Though at the beginning things were fine by day 6 they were getting bored. I am not sure what to do. So I discussed it with Momma and we are taking a break from it until the 1st Monday in October. In the meantime we are using AlphaTales by Scholastic for reading. We do each letter for an entire week. By Wednesday the girls have the book memorized.
So here is our schedule(roughly):
10a.m.: Enter school room(which is spare bedroom...though without the bed part). Do day of the week, date, mention our letter & number of the week, do our weather for the day and also our morning "prayer".
10:20a.m.: Read LOTW book. Discuss words that start with that letter. Find all the letter words in the book and write on board(we do this EVERY day as well).
10:45a.m.: Usually do Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
11:10a.m.: Bring out math manipulatives and practice adding numbers to our number of the week.
11:30am: snack time. Usually a nice healthy snack along with 1 episode of Blues Clues, Sid the Science Kid or some other educational show from Netflix.
12p.m.: We talk about they learned, go sit outside and enjoy the fresh air.
1p.m.: Momma calls around this time and they have a quiet time in their room for an hour.
2p.m.: It is lunch time. Again something nice, yummy and healthy with an educational show to watch(or we might watch a movie such as Space Buddies.
3p.m.: Nap time!! For the 3 of us.
After nap I usually just let them go crazy!! Naw we usually watch tv or go outside or start cooking dinner.
Eventually school day will last longer because we will be doing science more and adding cooking to our day(though dinner DOES count as cooking I am meaning cooking 4 education!)
The girls REALLY seemed interested in reading so we bought Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons by Dr. Phyllis Haddox. Though at the beginning things were fine by day 6 they were getting bored. I am not sure what to do. So I discussed it with Momma and we are taking a break from it until the 1st Monday in October. In the meantime we are using AlphaTales by Scholastic for reading. We do each letter for an entire week. By Wednesday the girls have the book memorized.
So here is our schedule(roughly):
10a.m.: Enter school room(which is spare bedroom...though without the bed part). Do day of the week, date, mention our letter & number of the week, do our weather for the day and also our morning "prayer".
10:20a.m.: Read LOTW book. Discuss words that start with that letter. Find all the letter words in the book and write on board(we do this EVERY day as well).
10:45a.m.: Usually do Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
11:10a.m.: Bring out math manipulatives and practice adding numbers to our number of the week.
11:30am: snack time. Usually a nice healthy snack along with 1 episode of Blues Clues, Sid the Science Kid or some other educational show from Netflix.
12p.m.: We talk about they learned, go sit outside and enjoy the fresh air.
1p.m.: Momma calls around this time and they have a quiet time in their room for an hour.
2p.m.: It is lunch time. Again something nice, yummy and healthy with an educational show to watch(or we might watch a movie such as Space Buddies.
3p.m.: Nap time!! For the 3 of us.
After nap I usually just let them go crazy!! Naw we usually watch tv or go outside or start cooking dinner.
Eventually school day will last longer because we will be doing science more and adding cooking to our day(though dinner DOES count as cooking I am meaning cooking 4 education!)
September 1, 2011
Homeschooling....really?
Well as anyone in my life(in person or digital) would know, I am homeschooling the girls for what would be their "pre-k" year. I hear quite a lot on the net that homeschooling 4yr olds is just basic fun stuff. Learning about shapes, numbers, letters and playing around outside. But to me it is more than that. Our daughters already know shapes including hexagons and pentagons. Our girls can recognize numbers into the 50's and they can SAY their alphabet(no little song necessary). So they know their "pre-k" stuff.
So now I am going to teach them things they would learn in kindergarten. I am shooting for our school to start 2nd Monday of September. By then I should have all our materials here. So far we have Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, AlphaBuddies book set and odds & ends for hands on activities. We also recently bought us a book on easy science experiments along with Hooked on Handwriting. I am currently waiting for 2 spiral bound activity books to come in the mail any day now that we bought from Amazon. I had some input from the girls on things they would like to do and B suggested art. She LOVES art!! So we definitely have that planned too.
Our homeschool room is set up really nicely. I am very proud of it. We currently live in a 3 bedrm home and the 3rd bedroom is our official classrom. It used to be the girls playroom but since they couldn't keep it clean and we plan on officially homeschooling them, I decided to change it to our classroom(better than taking over the living room...LOL). the girls have had a sneak peek into our new classroom and LOVE it so far. Not a day goes by when B isn't asking when we are going to start school.
I still have so much to do before we start. We are doing popcorn words with the dolch pre-primer and primer list. I need to put the popcorn boxes on the wall soon. Then start drawing TONS of paper popcorns to prep us for the words. My darling partner came up with a great idea: have the girls color the "popcorn" pieces prior to writing the dolch words on them. So definitely going to take that advice. I am so ready to start writing our weekly schedule but without our other books it just isn't possible.
Once I get everything done, word wall up, schedule set and we make our rules chart then I'll take pictures and put them on here. The girls will be happy to know that other will get to see our school room.
Well it is about that time for my family to be waking up so I am going to hop off here and tend my partner and kids.
Hugs & Loves everyone!!
So now I am going to teach them things they would learn in kindergarten. I am shooting for our school to start 2nd Monday of September. By then I should have all our materials here. So far we have Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, AlphaBuddies book set and odds & ends for hands on activities. We also recently bought us a book on easy science experiments along with Hooked on Handwriting. I am currently waiting for 2 spiral bound activity books to come in the mail any day now that we bought from Amazon. I had some input from the girls on things they would like to do and B suggested art. She LOVES art!! So we definitely have that planned too.
Our homeschool room is set up really nicely. I am very proud of it. We currently live in a 3 bedrm home and the 3rd bedroom is our official classrom. It used to be the girls playroom but since they couldn't keep it clean and we plan on officially homeschooling them, I decided to change it to our classroom(better than taking over the living room...LOL). the girls have had a sneak peek into our new classroom and LOVE it so far. Not a day goes by when B isn't asking when we are going to start school.
I still have so much to do before we start. We are doing popcorn words with the dolch pre-primer and primer list. I need to put the popcorn boxes on the wall soon. Then start drawing TONS of paper popcorns to prep us for the words. My darling partner came up with a great idea: have the girls color the "popcorn" pieces prior to writing the dolch words on them. So definitely going to take that advice. I am so ready to start writing our weekly schedule but without our other books it just isn't possible.
Once I get everything done, word wall up, schedule set and we make our rules chart then I'll take pictures and put them on here. The girls will be happy to know that other will get to see our school room.
Well it is about that time for my family to be waking up so I am going to hop off here and tend my partner and kids.
Hugs & Loves everyone!!
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