Today was our first day of actual "school". We started off with an early wakeup call for L, but J was the first one up. Thankfully little sister decided to sleep a bit later, so I could have a few minutes to sort my thoughts without her distractions (digging, climbing, whining...the like). We lost our reading book to start things off (it had been lost for about a week, and I have been keeping my eye open for it). We are using the Sonlight curriculum for learning to read, as my cousin kindly gave me her old one. It's a first grade curriculum, and the other material is too advanced for L, so we're just using the reading and Bible out of it.
We then proceeded to math, which is addition at this point. We found a Spider-Man learning coloring book at the Dollar Store the other day, so L wanted to use that. We also have a variety of other things which I hope to use, as math gets rather boring, and lots of drills are necessary for memorization.
After that we did a few minutes of penmanship, since L is rather sloppy at his writing. I've never taught him proper pencil placement, so doing that improved the quality greatly. We then practiced his Bible verse a few times (with little brother J helping) and called it a day. Later in the day I found the missing reading book under a rug I was vacuuming under, so we did our reading lesson then.
We also hung a white board up in the dining room, to help recall whatever we happen to be learning. This week it has the -at words, which is lesson 1 in the reading book. Also the Bible verse. We also made a days-of-the-week train to hang on the wall, so they can keep better track of what day it is. L also wanted to read out of his "science question and answer" book from Grandma, so we did that as well as a variety of other books. The one from Grandma has provided much information, as well as many more questions as it just skims the surface on many different topics. We then look up more in the encyclopedias (or YouTube) for more information.
Although I have my goals set out in advance for what I want to teach this year, I'm just recording day by day what we actually do. Hopefully this will prove sufficient, to see whether we're staying on track or not. I don't want something too set in stone so that we can't budge, as I don't see any sense in spending time on things the kids already know, and we may need more time for areas of interest or areas where they're weak. Little brother wants to be right in on the action, so he's has his own learning colouring books that he's been using too. The kids uncle and aunt gave them a kid sized table for Christmas, so the boys thought that would be great for doing their work. They sat there happily for the duration (maybe 1/2 hour). Then it was breakfast, chores and playing for the rest of the day~
So, first day: success!
We then proceeded to math, which is addition at this point. We found a Spider-Man learning coloring book at the Dollar Store the other day, so L wanted to use that. We also have a variety of other things which I hope to use, as math gets rather boring, and lots of drills are necessary for memorization.
After that we did a few minutes of penmanship, since L is rather sloppy at his writing. I've never taught him proper pencil placement, so doing that improved the quality greatly. We then practiced his Bible verse a few times (with little brother J helping) and called it a day. Later in the day I found the missing reading book under a rug I was vacuuming under, so we did our reading lesson then.
We also hung a white board up in the dining room, to help recall whatever we happen to be learning. This week it has the -at words, which is lesson 1 in the reading book. Also the Bible verse. We also made a days-of-the-week train to hang on the wall, so they can keep better track of what day it is. L also wanted to read out of his "science question and answer" book from Grandma, so we did that as well as a variety of other books. The one from Grandma has provided much information, as well as many more questions as it just skims the surface on many different topics. We then look up more in the encyclopedias (or YouTube) for more information.
Although I have my goals set out in advance for what I want to teach this year, I'm just recording day by day what we actually do. Hopefully this will prove sufficient, to see whether we're staying on track or not. I don't want something too set in stone so that we can't budge, as I don't see any sense in spending time on things the kids already know, and we may need more time for areas of interest or areas where they're weak. Little brother wants to be right in on the action, so he's has his own learning colouring books that he's been using too. The kids uncle and aunt gave them a kid sized table for Christmas, so the boys thought that would be great for doing their work. They sat there happily for the duration (maybe 1/2 hour). Then it was breakfast, chores and playing for the rest of the day~
So, first day: success!
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