Planning

    This was a busy week of doctors appointments, a meet and greet with our co-op friends, a trip to Monticello for home educators day, and a field trip to an apiary!   

    Then there was a LOT of planning and prepping for our co-op to start.  I purchased Experience Curriculum to use with the 5 kiddos that I'll be teaching in co-op.  I purchased it BEFORE I knew that we would be starting back virtual (sigh!) but, have spent a lot of time figuring out that this curriculum can work for both in person meet ups AND virtual classes.   I started by reading the teacher's guide cover to cover to find all of the activities that we could do virtually that were HANDS ON!   Then, activities that they can do on their own during the week since we will only be virtual 1 day a week.  I wanted to make sure to hit all of the starred activities especially and as many of the STEAM stations as possible.

    Next week will be our first class.  So, in order to prepare we had a packet pickup day where we gave each kid a box of goodies.  Here is a preview of some of the things in their boxes.  Then, the morning of class, I'll also be doing a drive by to bring each kiddo their cooked noodles for our STEAM hands on activity.  

    Here is a preview of my board that is ready for our first class.  Will post next week on how the first week went and what we covered :)  

All About Me!

     

    We are slooooowly beginning our school year!  This week we had a "soft start" - basically slowing adding in one subject/thing at a time.   We, of course, start with the fun stuff...duh!  Yes, we are working on Math and Grammar but, we love hands-on ALL TOGETHER LEARNING!   I mentioned that we are trying out Experience Curriculum (Mother Goose Time) for a few months to see if it works for us going forward.  The first kit that we received was September and the first week is All About Me!  

   Here are some of the ways that we incorporated this curriculum in to our "soft start" week.   I am a fan of Charlotte Mason who quotes “Picture study gives us a simple yet powerful tool to influence our children’s sense of beauty, to cultivate within them a taste for what is good”.   I love this!!!! And I was PUMPED to see the ‘Invitations to Create’ included in our new @experiencecurriculum and that we could do this ALL together!   We learned about Pablo Picasso and how he painted portraits of himself! We looked in the mirrors and they made their own self portraits!   Age 4, 7, 11 - can you guess which one they each did?

    Books!!!  We incorporate a ton of books throughout our day!  There is a great book list that comes with the curriculum.  Here are some of the books that we requested from the library. 

    Next, Let me fill you in on a little secret. shhhhh!   As a mom, I don't teach everything to every single one of my kids.  What?!?!  Did you catch that?  There, I said it!  I outsource!   Let me explain.  I have 3 kids and we do do a LOT of learning together but, there are also times where I need to work one-on-one with each child.  Hello, Reading!   So I am going to share how we do this in my house.....  BUDDY TIME! 

    I don't have many pictures b/c I was busy working one on one but, here's a picture of the trays with the Experience Curriculum activities that come out during Buddy Time.  

    Here's how it works and ways we are going to incorporate Experience Curriculum during BUDDY TIME!  

1. I always start with my youngest first.  He turned 5 this week!!!  I work with him on his reading lesson while my older 2 (Age 7 and 11) have buddy time!  They are playing a math game, reading, practicing spelling words, doing a craft, etc.  They work while the timer is set (you can get a LOT accomplished in a 20min timer)!   

• Use the fun manipulatives from the kit and practice skip counting and addition facts with my 11yr olds help.   Good refresher for my 11yr old too!
• Read out the vocabulary words for the theme and practice spelling!   
• Use the vocabulary words to come up with a wacky story and practice creative writing

2. Next, I work with my 7yr old (again, a 20min timer).  We do her reading & math lessons while my 11yr old works with the 5yr old.  

• They cuddle up and read through that stack of books that go with the theme.
• They practice math - he can work on his pattern strips & measure themselves with blocks
• He practiced his name pocket that I had prepped

3. Lastly, I work with my 11yr old on his Grammar while the 7yr old works with the 5yr old. 
        

• They worked on their Family Puppets
• They played with the Tangrams 
• Button Patterns with the guides, buttons, and string
• Journals    
• Labeled the Theme Poster

Just LOOK at how much can be accomplished in a 60 minute block of time each day!  BUDDY TIME is a special time of our school day!!

    We had fun and added a sensory bin with bones to practice handwriting, googly eyes, mirrors and skeletons!

    We love breakfast for dinner on Wednesday’s so we continued with our “All About Me” unit with and made pancake faces 🥞 

We had a GREAT first week! 

    

2020 - 2021

    Am I the ONLY one that gets excited for a new school year???  New curriculum, new supplies, new friends, can we say new situations?  Covid-19 has certainly changed a lot of situations, huh?!  And this year....  A New blog?!?  whaaaa?  :)    

    I am holding myself accountable to a blog in this season.  I want to pause and take time to capture the blessings of this year, capture the moments, capture the changes, and capture our homeschool.   I want to look back and remember this time!   Yes, this year will mean that some of our classes will be virtual.  Yes, we will be spending less time with friends or at activities.  But, YES we will be spending more time as a family and I'm determined to capture it.   

    This school year, I will have a 7th grader (HOW did that happen??), 2nd grader, and Pre-K/Kinder.   We are a Charlotte Mason/Unit Study/Eclectic/whatever else makes sense at the time family!  Haha!  We use a variety!   I'm a BIG fan of the One Room Schoolhouse idea of learning and that's how we are structuring our year. My goal for our family is to learn alongside each other.  I don't want my 7th grader off in his room doing his work, and my 2nd grader doing independent work, and my Pre-K/Kinder playing by himself.  We will learn together, they will teach each other, they will hear stories that are "above" their level, they will hear stories "below" their level,  we will explore nature together, we will do adventures together, we will be together.  Yes, we will have parts of our day where they are working independently or I am working one-on-one with each of them BUT, our learning will be grounded in connecting as a family and exploring together! The number 1 way that this will happen is through Jesus!  None of us can do this without Him so we will lean on Him to guide each and every day! 

Ways that we will learn, connect, & explore together:

• We will learn, connect, and explore using Gather Round Homeschool for unit studies.  These studies literally saved our homeschool last year. I L-O-V-E that we can ALL learn the same topic at the same time.   We are planning to do U.S. Government, North America, South America, and Human Body.   I'm sure we will get to more units but, these are the ones that are currently on the schedule.  I add in TONS of extras (videos, books, field trips, hands on activities, etc) and we always end up on rabbit trails so the units are stretched out and that's okay.

            Check it out --> Gather Round Homeschool

• We will learn, connect, and explore by trying out Experience Curriculum (Mother Goose Time).  Can I just say that I absolutely LOVE Preschool!!  I have taught the preschool/kinder group at our Co-op for 6 years and literally spend HOURS each week planning, prepping, pinterest-ing (yes, that's a verb), pouring out love and sweat to find HANDS on fun for these kiddos (and mine).  This age is my favorite - they are discovering and asking questions and their eyes light up when they learn something new.  I absolutely love finding fun hands on activities for them.  But, when I stumbled across Mother Goose Time and read "Spend less time on prep, more time on curious discovery with your children", I was convicted.  I was convicted that my time was being spent searching and piecing together activities from all over the place.  Could there really be a curriculum where the work was already done?  I'm IN!!    I decided to give it a 3 month try.   I will use this with my pre-k/kinder guy but, will pull in my older kids for some of the activities, will add extensions for them, AND gather some of his friends to Learn TOGETHER!  I am SO excited!!!!   I am hoping to share how I will use this across multiple ages, how I will use some to teach virtually (with co-op friends), and more about how the curriculum works for our family. 

            Check it out --> Experience Learning - Mother Goose Time

• We will learn, connect, and explore by continuing to explore together as a family.  We will do this through being outside and hiking, recess, serving as a family, and lots of field trips.  As my oldest keeps getting older (time... please stop) and his work load gets more demanding,  I panic.  I don't want our time together to be taken away.  Yes, he has harder classes and more assignments but, he is still a KID!   One reason that we homeschool year round is so that we can spread out our schoolwork.  We work on a hot day in July so that we can take a gorgeous fall day to be outside and pick apples.  We recently stumbled across a Wild + Free local group and when I read "we want our children to not only receive a quality education, but also to experience the adventure, freedom, and wonder of childhood.", it was my AH-HA moment!   THIS is a priority to continue to do this and not get overwhelmed with the box checking of book work

SO, there you have it!  These are the main ways that our family will learn, connect, and explore together this year!  I am excited to document our year :)