Homeschool, Week #1.....We ALL Survived!

Well, we did it! We made it through the first week of homeschool. We had our ups and our downs, but overall it was a great experience. Lily complained the first two days, but did AWESOME the rest of the week. Drew was about 50-50, some good days and some bad. We're still adjusting and I'm still working out some of the scheduling, but we're getting there.
 For the first week this was our schedule:
       8:30-9:30      Reading
       9:30-9:45      Break with physical activity
       9:45-10:45     Math
       10:45-11:00     Another break with physical activity
       11:00-11:30      Social Studies
       11:30-1:00       Lunch and free time
       1:00-1:45        Science
       1:45-2:00       Free time/break
       2:00-2:30       Exploratory

This gave us just over 4 hours of school time during the day. This week I am changing the schedule a bit. We will only do social studies OR science for the week, and rotate the weeks. We will do science this week and finish up our solar system unit, hopefully, and then we will do social studies next week. Also, I am moving the exploratory time to 11-11:30. This will give us 60-90 minutes after lunch to work on social studies/science. We will have more time to do projects, experiments, etc. We will try this schedule for a week and see how it goes. This week I am also starting the individualized reading for each of them. I am using Open Court text for this because I used it when I was teaching and had great success. It's also an entire Language Arts curriculum, so the writing and grammar/vocab/spelling pieces are included. It's been awhile since I used this text though, so I think it's going to take me a week or two....or more, to get the feel of it again. I am also still winging Drew's math for the week because the manipulative set and workbook that goes with his curriculum isn't in yet. I was hoping to have it today, but it didn't get ordered soon enough. So, I'm now hoping it comes next week.

SCIENCE

This was our introduction to the solar system: drawing it with chalk on the driveway. It was there most of the day, but I snapped a picture right as it started raining.

We also made an astronomy vocabulary book. They wrote the word, definition, and drew a picture to illustrate. (I still have to help Drew if there is a lot of writing because his hand gets tired easily.)

This week we are working on research and finding information about the different planets and we will use this to write a report and give a presentation about a planet. We are also working on making a 2D scale model of the solar system using relative sizes and distances from the sun. Lily used a compass and scale measurements about diameters to draw the planets, then they both painted the planets according to their appearances to us. They used a few different sources to determine how to paint their planets. 

SOCIAL STUDIES

 Some of our social studies activities: making a compass rose, using a map key, following direction, and measuring distance using a scale.

For this activity they had to choose a room in the house, or Drew used the front yard, and then write something they saw in each different direction. This one was fun. I also had them follow my oral directions to see where they ended up.....which was just in the bathroom washing their hands for lunch. :) They enjoyed it though. 

MATH
Drew made a coin chart because he has trouble looking at a picture and knowing how much money is shown. He can no refer to this for help.

 Lily is doing her math on the computer. She listens to a lecture, does a few practice problems during the lesson, then completes about 20 problems as an assignment. She puts the answers into the computer and gets immediate feedback about whether or not her answer is correct. If she misses, she can try again and can also watch a short tutorial about how to solve the problem. It then shows her a score for that assignment, or gives a percent for quizzes. I can also look at the grade book to see how she has done on the lessons and quizzes. She really likes this, and usually completes two lessons a day. Today is the 6th day she's used this, and she did lessons 12 and 13. She's done really well so far.

READING

 We read a book called Mr. Brown's Fantastic Hat. After reading, the kids had to make their own fantastic hats. The tall one is Lily's, and the other is Rose's. Alex also made two hats, and Drew colored his on paper.

 We also read a book called Bad Frogs and came up with more ideas about bad behavior the frogs could have. We read a book about a dog that goes for a ride in a hot air balloon and made a list of things they would want to see if they were in a balloon. Lily decided she'd want to see the Great Wall of China, so she did a little extra research to learn more about it. We did the same thing with a book called Falcon and the kids had to pretend they were a falcon and list, and draw a picture, of things they would want to see as they flew around the country.

EXPLORATORY CLASSES
Art: We incorporated art into reading and science the first week.
Music: We talked about different kinds/genres of music and we listened to them on the radio. Then we talked about where we might hear the specific type of music and how it makes us feel.
PE: We did some exercise videos, dance videos, riding bikes/scooters, and even went for a walk and played at the park. Soon we will start learning skills for different sports and different games.
Library: We went to the library and found non-fiction books about the planets to use for our research.
Computers: They use computers for math activities, but they also did some keyboarding lessons and games to practice typing with their fingers on the correct keys in home row.

This week I introduced their language arts curriculum and next week we will start using their reading book.....hopefully. We are working on phonics and reading strategies this week. I'm hoping to finish up planets this week, and maybe even the moon and its phases. Next week we will continue learning about maps and charts in social studies and take a break from science.

Lily seems to really enjoy home schooling. She has her moments when she will complain and throw a fit, but they don't usually last too long. I think she's realizing that not having homework,  working at her own pace, and being able to have a bit more freedom and choice in what she studies is pretty cool. Drew is still adjusting to thinking of this as school sometimes....especially when he has to complete a project. He doesn't always want to take his time and do his best work, so he might have to redo something. He doesn't like that too much, but I think he's starting to realize it's easier to just do it right the first time.

 Afternoon, when we do social studies or science, is the hardest. They've just had an hour and a half of free time, so they don't always want to go back to school mode. There are still a few kids on the street that aren't in school yet, so that doesn't help either. They all go back to school Thursday, so after that it should be easier to finish up our day.

 So far I'm really enjoying this adventure. I'm exhausted by the end of the day, just like when I was teaching elementary school. House work and meals aren't up to par right now, but as our schedule settles down and we get in a rhythm I should be able to get back on track with that too. I will try to post each week about this adventure and some of the things we've been doing. Hopefully I still feel this way at Christmas and things are still going well.