Tag: homeschooling

September homeschool retrospective

by Ariana Peters, posted in homeschooling

Thursday September 7th

I woke up at 6:30am, the baby was just staying to stir in her crib. I got Ella up at 6:50 and made coffee.

Put Roberts and Ella’s entamology pen pal clubhouse letters in the mail. (We just started this from an Instagram account called Mornings together, we get a new little packet each week emailed to us, I print it out and the kids color it then we mail it to a family member. As they get older it has a few questions and some facts along with the coloring).

Robert woke up at about 7:15, I fed ella and snuggled with the kids for a bit. We had breakfast burritos just after 8:00. While we are I read the kids ‘How to Make Apple Pie and See the World’.

Then I unloaded the dishwasher while they played and colored. After that we worked on Robert’s good and beautiful math lesson number six. After that we went outside around 10:20am Robert fed chickens while I started laundry. We swung on our swing set and at popsicles. I watered the yard while they swung.

At 11 we walked to the corner market to get chips for lunch. The kids had tomato soup with grilled cheese and chips, I had a ham sandwich, soup and chips.
After lunch they played with daddy while he was on lunch, then we got ready for a nap run. I ran 3 miles while they napped.

When we got back I set them in front of the TV with some ice cream so I could take a quick shower. Daddy came out and sat with them for a couple minutes.

After I showered we did our tea time where I read to them and we have snacks. We read a few passages from what your preschooler needs to know and the book ‘H is for honey’. Then we completed all about reading pre-reading for the letter f. Then Robert did some practice with scissors while cutting papers and then they both did some dexterity work by threading animals.

After we finished our school work, my husband told us Starbucks having a deal on their foul drinks. So I loaded the kids in the car and we drove through Starbucks and then since we were out and it was close to dinner we drove through Taco Bell haha.

We ate dinner as a family. Then the kids took a bath then played with their daddy while we watched sea shanties and other songs on YouTube. My son is currently obsessed with the shanties.

My daughter was asleep by 7:25pm, and my son was asleep by 9. We have been having some big bedtime battles with our toddler. But I think it’s slowly going back to normal knock on wood.

Then my daughter was up from 10:30pm- 12am. I couldn’t get her back to sleep in her crib so she came into our room and took another 2+ hours to fall asleep…..it was horrible.

And that was our day.

Pre-school homeschooling curriculum

by Ariana Peters, posted in homeschooling, kids, life, school/studying

Our first year of homeschooling is coming to an end. I loved almost every minute of it lol. Overall, my toddler did amazing with the curriculum. With a year under my belt now I kind of know how he learns and how he does things. So I will review the curriculum that we used for preschool and in a couple weeks I’ll post what we’re going to do for Pre-K.

Language Arts

Part of timberdoodle curriculum

These were fantastic much more like playing games and doing fun little projects then worksheets

The Good and the Beautiful language arts curriculum

We started this about 2/3rds of the way through the year and will be continuing it through pre-K. These are much more lesson like so we tend to break them up into smaller sections but I have become a big fan of the Good and the Beautiful.

Math

Mathematical reasoning

I didn’t like this at all and neither did my toddler. We found it to be very dry and boring. I wasn’t going to make either of us suffer through it after I decided we didn’t like it. We got about halfway through it then I chucked it in the recycling bin.

Farm land math from Timberdoodle

My son loved this in the beginning and even asked for it regularly to play it. However once his new little sister was big enough to start taking pieces it started turning into a battle so we set this aside as well. But, it did lay a great foundation for us.

Also from Timberdoodle

This was fantastic. Timberdoodle actually added this in their 2023-2024 preschool curriculum kit so I only ordered it about 2 months ago but we are almost done with it. If you do it weekly it is not a full year’s worth of curriculum but it has added a little bit of math back into our study.

Thinking skills

Super sticker

My toddler loved this!!!!!

Bought the trio off Timberdoodle

These were fantastic just like the alphabet books by the same company. They were fun and engaging and quick.

Thinking skills

Another one that my toddler and I thought was really boring and dry. Just like the math we got about halfway through the book and I chucked it.

History and social studies

Love this puzzle, it is super adorable. For a long time my toddler had little to no interest in doing anything except jumping on the pieces to get them together when I set them in the correct place. But in the last 6 weeks that has started to change, with me helping him identify which pieces go where he is assembling it entirely himself.
I thought this book was super cool and interesting, my toddler generally just tolerated it lol. We did not finish it. I might throw it in here and there in our pre-K unit and see if he likes it better.

Nature and science

Love, love, love this. This curriculum is meant to be used year after year after year layering in more information and learning each year. Right now we keep it very basic but I look forward to using it for years to come with the kids.
This is really great for kids that aren’t ready for a full curriculum. We started with this entire program which is made of units. Now we use it mainly for it’s great book lists as well as a science project here and there.

Art

Eh, super cute idea but my toddler was just kind of meh about it. Maybe he’ll become more artistic in the future (though I’m not sooooo….I wish I was but was not blessed in that area)

Skills

This was great in the beginning of the year to get my son interested in learning to use scissors but we didn’t finish it because once he semi knew what he was doing he wanted to do his own cutting lol.

Overall, it was a great year. I loved watching my son grow in leaps and bounds. Which is exactly how it came. He would not get something and suddenly it would click. He was really did go in leaps and bounds and stops and starts.

The great thing about homeschooling his preschool is I was really able to follow his rhythm and our rhythm as a family. There were weeks where we didn’t do anything. We kind of fell out of our rhythm and then we’d pick it back up and have a couple of great weeks, couple great months and then kind of fall off again which worked out great for us. We’re still finishing on time and I just love the entire experience.

We started a little before he returned 2 years old. So it was by no means always easy sunshine but it was rewarding and wonderful. Occasionally I did resort to a little bit of bribery or coercion sort of to get him to come over and start. Once he started. He usually loved everything. But it would occasionally be oh. Can you help Mommy do this? Or do you want to come eat a chip with me while we look at this picture and talk about it? Lol.

Book review- The Brave Learner

by Ariana Peters, posted in books, homeschooling, kids, life
Spoiler! I loved it!!!!

This book was so fantastic. It gave so many options and ideas to add creativity to your homeschooling. Take away some of the pressure and add confidence in yourself.

It talks about a lot of different versions of homeschooling, a lot of different options. It gives lots of encouragement and really just is an amazing resource. I checked this out of the library but I fully intend to buy it. Actually. I asked my best friend to give it to me for Christmas lol.

But it’s not just for homeschooling parents. In my opinion. I think it’s really just any family or parents who want to enhance their child’s learning and life. This book will really give you ideas and ways to embrace the spontaneous love of learning kids have.

August 2023 homeschooling reflective

by Ariana Peters, posted in homeschooling, kids, life, school/studying

I put on some Nat Geo in the morning while we all relaxed and woke up

I read them a book from the construction unit we are doing from playing preschool

We talked about the date, weather, season, the months of the year and the days of the week

We did some stickers in our math sticker book

And of course we couldn’t leave my 15 month old out of it lol.
They played a little in the sink
Daddy came out for lunch to play
Then he had a meltdown and rage colored lol
I actually did my hair (don’t look at the post partum flyaways lol) and put some mascara on
We hit the library and I got way too many books for me hahaha
Nap walk. This is how I get them both to take a nap currently
Did some worksheet pages
Attempted our first teatime……..ummmmm id call it a half success. He had a huge tantrum (he had a hard toddler day) but we did get 3 short sections and 1 longer section read in the preschooler book
Got a Good and the Beautiful lesson done.

Then we played outside until daddy got off work

Overall I’d call it a pretty good day.

A week of homeschooling

by Ariana Peters, posted in homeschooling, kids, life, school/studying

Wednesday –

AM – 3 worksheets done and 1 book read

Then gymnastics and the library

Thursday – AM

Two worksheets and 1 spread in ‘things to spot’ as he ran around the house hahaha

Then into the stroller the kids went for a 2 mile run. Then some time to run around the backyard.

Back inside we ‘worked’ on a puzzle, which means I put the pieces in place and he stomped them down hahaha. But I do try and get him to point out 1 or 2 things to me each time and I name the continents and oceans.

We also played with the bunny boo game. It works on spacial awareness and directionality

PM – I read to them for 15 min

Friday AM – 3 worksheets

Saturday – OFF

Sunday – OFF some Sundays we will do a little bit but today we went to visit the grandparents

Monday AM

4 worksheets and 1 spread in our ocean math workbook

After this he had a lovely toddler meltdown compete with ear splitting screaming.

After he calmed down I loaded the kids in the stroller and went for a 3 mile run then we did some exploring and gardening in the backyard.

Tuesday – AM

Got 2 worksheets done, and even that was like pulling teeth lol.

And that is a wrap! That is a week of homeschooling with us. Some weeks we get more done and some less. This month we are really busy with swim lessons so each week we have 1 gymnastics class and 2 swim lessons. Since we are so busy I am pushing school a little less.

Because it is preschool level and he is only 2.5 I try and keep it light and not make him do things he isn’t feeling that day or time, I want to foster a love for learning not destroy it.

Thanks for joining us!!!

Homeschooling

by Ariana Peters, posted in kids, life, school/studying

Homeschooling a 2.5 yr old can be challenging, very trying on my patience, frustrating and so very rewarding. Watching him progress and take leaps and bounds forward is wonderful.

Butterfly grow kit
This was a good introduction to life cycles

The nice thing about homeschooling is that I can tailor our days to the kids. On days he is having a hard time we can do no schooling or just 1 or 2 things. On days he is doing well we can bust the work out.

This morning was sort of a good morning. The baby woke up early (not the good part hahahaha) and my husband got up with her after I fed her. I stayed in bed but realized I wasn’t going to fall back asleep easily and figured 30 extra min of sleep would probably end up making me more tired so I got up and went for a run.

We then had a slow morning of watching some cartoons and relaxing. After breakfast we busted the work out cause he was focused.

Baby colored while we worked.

I also read aloud to them for 10min from a magic treehouse book.

Every day is different, what we do and what we get done is different.

The next day was a good morning and we busted it out again. He had some excess energy to burn so he would run a lap around the house and I’d stop him to answer a school question then he’d take another lap. We got through 4 workbook pages and a spread in our things to spot book this way and he laughed the whole time.

Our first week homeschooling

by Ariana Peters, posted in Uncategorized

This week we are focusing on the Ocean

Monday

We started off with this documentary while we did his bottle and played a little.
Then we read one BOB book (we have already been doing this for a few weeks) and we read this book about ocean animals
On our walk we (and by we I mean I talked and pointed things out to him hahahah) talked about seeds (each of those brown things are the seed from a tree) and how they grt knocked off the tree and can fly away and make new trees

I also pointed our blackberries and talked about how they also have seeds that help them grow after they drop to the ground. 

Lastly, we read a poem from a book called Songs of the seasons which has about 60 poems going through the seasons of the year.

Tuesday

We had the same basic morning. Finished the oceans documentary and read the ocean life book and the next in our BOB book set.

In the afternoon I tried a simple sensory bin with things around the house……he hated it hahahahahahaha. He was angry that I wouldn’t let him eat the beads.

We also looked at this weeks suggested painting from our exploring nature course.

Wednesday

We started drain the seas on national geographic and read the next BOB book. In the afternoon we practiced our ABCs

Thursday

Same morning routine. Then in the afternoon we went to a new park for a playdate.

We were also supposed to read a Magic Treehouse book about Pirates but Amazon had delayed it indefinitely.

Friday

We watched drain the seas and took 2 walks and practiced counting from 1-10.

Our public library was closed for renovations and was supposed to reopen on Tuesday but due to the increase in the delta varient they did not. They just announced that they will be starting curbside pickup again so i am going to try and get that set up for us to do.

Saturday

We are finishing the week by reading the poem from our exploring nature course.

On a side note i started the movie Finding Nemo and turned it off within 15 min. I HATED it. First the mom and all the siblings die then Nemo gets kidnapped!!! Sorry if that was a spoiler. I know I watched this movie years ago but clearly that was before I was a mother.

So that was our very basic first week. We haven’t perfected this by any means. I’ll bring you along for another week next month.

Home school prep

by Ariana Peters, posted in baby, kids, school/studying

Ok first off, yes, my baby is only 8.5 months old. I fully understand I am not REALLY starting homeschooling him. However, I am lucky enough to be a stay at home mom right now so I want to make the most of it. I simply want to make sure that I am giving him opportunities to learn as much as possible. Most of it will all be through play and exploration.

I have done a very rough layout of the next 3 years. Basically I picked a theme each week of the year, with a few no theme more relaxed ‘off weeks’ thrown in. I had a weekly calendar page that i spilt each day into 3 parts. The first section is year 1, its a lot of reading (me to him hahahaha) ABCs, sensory bins, fun on topic movie nights, learning to color things like that. Year 2 builds on that by adding in tracing and more emphasis on counting and matching small adjustments like that. And year 3 we add in more counting/math a few fun basic age appropriate science experiments etc. Here is a basic example

I also purchased ‘Exploring Nature with Children‘ which I am very excited about. Again the first year or two will just be me pointing things out and talking a little more and each year we can build on it. There is also a weekly poem and art piece to look at and study.

I love the BrainQuest workbooks and other items so as he advances we will add some of that in.

I am also looking at The Good and Beautiful curriculum and will slowly order some of that and as he advances ncorporate that. I also want to slowly incorporate lots of farm study material. Those kind of things will be very relevant as he is feeding our chickens and gathering eggs one day. And asking how plants make a lot of the food we eat and things like that.

Tomorrow we start our first week of ‘official’ not official homeschooling hahahah. Our theme is the ocean as well as totally different theme of seeds from the exploring nature curriculum. I am going to document this week and I will update you next weekend with how it went!!