Learning to Read Success!

Enough of the giveaway posts, it's time for a post on homeschooling. It's actually long overdue!

We've been working on the Pre-K learning in more of an unschooling way. We've just been teaching as we go, answering questions as they come up. Reading books, coloring, playing games, puzzles, playing a LOT of legos, some Brain Quest cards, having him read the BOB Books to me, etc.

He gets so excited being able to read to me! The BOB Books are great! He wasn't ready for them earlier in the school year but now he is and he loves them! He also loves the Brain Quest cards and is ready to move up to the next level. He rarely misses any question!

 

We also found a workbook that he enjoys called Kindergarten  FUNdamentals. although right now he's not nearly as interested in the workbooks as was earlier in the year. I'm not pushing it because I know that it will come around again.

That's where we are...and enjoying the rare sunny days when they show up!

This is the real deal!

I know that it's merely the fourth day of the year but so far it's going great! I have to agree with Eric Worre when he said recently that "2011 was just a dress rehearsal but 2012 is the real deal!" That truly sums up how I deeply feel about this year!

There are many reasons that I feel so excited and optimistic about this year!

For starters I've begun the year building a new habit. Not only that but I'm hosting a Habit Building Challenge on my other blog and others are joining me in building their own habits to start the year off right! It's not too late to join if you want to - it only takes about 28 days to build a new habit so you can jump right in today!

These are the topics so far:
What is it going to take? - A look at what you need to do to make sure you are preparing yourself for success in building the new habit!

The Compound Effect - A very inspirational post about how each day of building the habit is essential even if it feels completely insignificant!

Study Success - I share some books and other reads that will inspire you to achieve the success that you want!

Have a Can-Do Attitude - Another inspirational post, this time about having the right attitude and how you can get that attitude if you aren't there yet!

Are you curious what habit I am building? You'll have to read one of the posts above! ;)  I mention it specifically in the first one, I can't remember if I mention it specifically in the others or not. One thing that I will tell you that this habit is already inspiring me and motivating me to do greater things and get more accomplished each day! It's giving  me more energy and helping me feel significantly less stress in situations that normally stress me out. I couldn't have chosen a better habit to build to start my new year off right.

Other reasons that make this year great...

• My 5 year old is especially excited about learning! He got some great tools for learning for Christmas and he loves using them. He got some workbooks that he loves, in fact one morning I woke up and he was already up before me and he was busily working on one of the workbooks! I was so glad to see him so excited about learning. He already finished that one and is making good progress through another! He's also been playing learning games, educational toys, making arts and crafts, continuing to learn more and more numbers - he's determined to learn how to count to 100. He now loves search and find books like Where's Waldo? 
• My 1 year old is learning skills too! He's getting closer and closer to walking, he's using more words, he clearly understands a lot that is spoken to him. He's very social and loves meeting new people. He loves to get involved with what big brother is doing and he's showing signs of a love for learning too! Very exciting! Home educating these two boys is going to be such a joy - though believe me I know it will have it's challenges of course! That's what keeps things interesting!
• My home preschool is going strong. With this being my main source of income currently that is very good news! (On a side note, I was featured in the Savvy Mompreneur!)
• The other 2 businesses that my husband and I working on are picking up momentum. This is also good news because ideally those two businesses will be our main sources of income soon and we have goals for the income to far exceed our current income. To have the full home education experience that I aim for requires me to not be at home 11+ hours a day during the week, which the home preschool requires. I've written elsewhere about what I want to do with the "home" education starting in a couple of years: field trips, homeschool groups, sports, etc.

There is a lot going on and obviously a lot for us to be excited about! There are also some challenging situations as well, both of my grandmas are experiencing difficult health issues. That's the way that life goes, giving you both good and challenging. I am optimistic that both of my grandmas will recover, I wish that I could do more and feel bad that I can't. Though prayer is powerful and I need to remind myself more often of the power of encouragement through a phone call.

I wish you all the very best for this new year!

For the LOVE of learning!

One thing that I absolutely LOVE about home education is the fact that the love of learning can be cultivated and not squashed! I remember being a child and I loved learning, but I really did not like school.

I really love being able to cultivate my son's love for learning. He's so excited about learning new things (both of them are, but I don't quite consider myself homeschooling the baby yet - though I know that I'm teaching him a great deal!)

Right now my oldest is excited about learning to read and learning to count to one hundred. Not only do I get to be the one teaching him these things and watching him learn but I get to go with the flow and teach him as he has the interest.

Taking advantage of that is amazing! He doesn't have to feel pushed into learning something that he has no interest in yet, nor does he have to be held back and wait for something the school system is not ready to teach yet.

Isn't this the way learning is supposed to be?

It really is an adventure because I don't always know what is going to work when teaching him something. I was baffled at how to teach him to read because I was trying various "systems" and it just wasn't clicking.

Then I had the thought to sit down and write out the word AT. He sounded it out pretty quickly and then I added an "S" in front of the AT and he sounded out sat. He was so excited! We high-fived and I wrote out a bunch more AT's and started adding new letters in front of them.

In no time at all he had sounded out all of the three letter AT words in the English language! He was so excited and as soon as he could he started showing people his list and reading it to them.

We went through the same process with the IT words and he was equally excited!

Now he's focused on learning how to count to 100 so today I'll teach him 30, 40, 50 and so on. Now that he grasps the concept of 21, 22, 23... he can apply it to learning the bigger numbers. I think that he'll be able to count to 100 if not by today then by the end of the week for sure!

Favorite Educational Activities!

It has definitely been too long since I've posted! We've been very busy and making good progress, it's good that we're doing Pre-K for my oldest this year since there is so much going on and I have so many young kids in my daycare. It helps me to feel more relaxed about homeschooling Pre-K than if it was Kindergarten.

I want to share some of our favorite things!

This dry erase activity center was a birthday present and is now one of our staple homeschooling items! Just take one tracing sheet and it now has a lifetime of use! We use worksheets over and over with this! 

This is especially useful for things that require a lot of repetition. My 5yo is now able to write the whole alphabet and has used it to learn how to write his name as well as other things. I've also used it to write out words for him to learn to read. It's a great way to teach phonics!

This fun game teaches a lot of math skills! It teaches spacial reasoning, balance, counting, hand eye coordination and imaginative thinking. It also encourages fun time for family members!

This pattern block game is great for many reasons. The pieces are magnetic and so is the board, making it easier to keep the pieces where they are supposed to be (and less likely to get lost!) The cards have two levels making the life of the game even longer. So far this has provided many hours of fun learning! It's great for traveling too with the handy case that comes with it!

This fun spelling puzzle helps them to get excited about spelling words. The pieces only fit on the right word and the kids get so excited when they've spelled a word. This has been a big hit for not only my oldest but many of his friends who come visit!

The Leap Frog tag system is an excellent learning tool! There are countless books to choose from and even a couple of maps that I have my eye on. There are so many skills that it teaches, fun games, awards, and more. It's interactive, fun and teaches a lot!

The Leapster Explorer is a handheld game system that has a lot of educational games. It can be a little too much fun at times and I typically have to limit the time on this simply because it is a handheld game. 

What are your family's favorites?

There's an App for that

My 4 year old has a new favorite 'toy' - my ipod touch.

I have downloaded a bunch of preschool and pre-k apps for him to play. He loves them and he's learning a lot! I do prefer to keep the screen time to a minimum, especially during these warmer months.

One thing that I like to do is to reward good behavior with ipod time, so it's a double benefit. It's reinforcing good behavior and he's learning while he plays the games.

The great thing is that there are so many free apps for the kids and the ones that do cost money are typically $0.99-$1.99. A great gift idea is an ipod gift card. I'm really going to have to remember that for his birthday because the last thing that he needs is more toys...

Sensory Tables!

I have been going over all of my games, books, workbooks, flashcards, and wide array of learning supplies deciding on the focus of the summer. (If you recall, we took most of the school year off so we'll be working on Pre-K through the Summer.)

I also started going through some of my favorite preschool through kindergarten resources and was thrilled to discover that my favorite site has added a bunch of great resources and ideas!

I am so excited about the new Sensory Table list! There are so many different ideas for sensory tables, easily enough to last through the summer! You have got to check this out if you have kindergartners and younger! Sensory Tables

I hardly know where to start, but I do know that we are going to have some serious fun!

If a Child...

What a great poem this is!

• If a child lives with criticism, he learns to condemn
• If a child lives with hostility, he learns to fight
• If a child lives with ridicule, he learns to be shy
• If a child lives with shame, he learns to feel guilty
• If a child lives with tolerance, he learns to be patient
• If a child lives with encouragement, he learns to be confident
• If a child lives with praise, he learns to appreciate
• If a child lives with fairness, he learns justice
• If a child lives with security, he learns to have faith
• If a child lives with approval, he learns to like himself
• If a child lives with acceptance and friendship, he learns to find love in the world.

For the LOVE of Reading!

My four year old is expressing a strong interest in reading which is really exciting! I love reading and I'm glad that he is headed down that path too!

We have done several things that seems to have encouraged his love for reading.

• Reading books to him since he was an infant
• Using colorful flash cards to teach him the letters since he could talk
• Pointing out letters and numbers in real life
• Watching fun shows that teach letters and reading skills in a way that kids love, my son especially loves PBS's Super Why! show and the LeapFrog DVDs:

Now that he is really expressing an interest in reading and spelling - he points out letters and numbers all the time and asks how everything is spelled - I am excited to help him to the next level. Little does he know that when we start up the homeschool year next month he will begin with the beginning level of a couple of the phonics programs.

We now have the first boxed set of the BOB Books and we will also start with the first set of Hooked on Phonics. Since he is still so young my plan is to take it slowly and of course my main goal is for him to stay excited about reading. If a year from now he still can't read a word I'm not going to worry about it, we'll move on to find something else that will help him learn to read. What will concern me is if he has lost his enthusiasm for learning.

I'm excited to see where this will go!

By the way, if you are interested in other learning to read options check out my links for Preschool to Kindergarten Resources.

First Week

This was our first week, almost a year ago:
Our very first week of homeschooling was a great success! My son is newly three and we are working on a pre-reading curriculum using mostly The Letter of the Week and Prekinders, but also many others for printouts. You can check out the Preschool-K tab on the top of this page if you are interested in some of the sites that I've used.

The themes for this week were:

• A, a
• 1
• Square
• Red
• Farm

Most of our time was spent focusing on the farm because it is so much fun and there is so much to learn about the farm! We have toy farm animals to play with, they are perfect for learning the names of the animals and what sounds they make as well as how the farmer takes care of them. We also have puzzles with farm animals and we've been coloring farm pictures. We even made up a game that he adores. He pretends to be a farmer who is sleeping and then I pretend to be a rooster to wake up the farmer.


With the letter Aa, the number 1, the color red, and squares we have been doing a variety of activities. We have played detectives, looking around for the number 1, letter A, red and squares. Sqaures can be found all over, we have found them on a CD case, on posters, books, blocks and more! The letter Aa and number 1 can be found in books, on posters, games, puzzles, and much more. We sing songs, talk about the day of the week and the weather outside, we read stories, talk about our themes, and do some basic flashcards

This is our daily calendar, we learn what day of the week it is and discuss the weather in the morning and the afternoon. You can see that the weather has been keeping us on our toes!




The following are some of the projects and worksheets that we have done for the week:



These are some of the toys and books that we used to learn about the farm and our other themes for the week:



This is the farm set that we played with a LOT throughout the week!




Some of the songs that we have been singing:

The Animals on the Farm
The cows on the farm go moo moo moo
moo moo moo, moo moo moo
The cows on the farm go moo moo moo
All through the day
(Pigs, Ducks, Chickens, etc.)

Old McDonald's Farm
The Itsy Bitsy Spider
The ABC Song