Here is peek into our classroom and a look at our basic daily schedule.
We always start the school day with our calendar and morning board time. This time usually takes 15 - 20 minutes, but is packed full of learning and fun.
Here is our calendar...
Here is our 'morning board'.... Most of the ideas are from 2 amazing homeschool blogs, http://homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com/ and http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.com/Calendar.html
Basic run-down of our morning board:
We write and say the date 2 different ways and usually sing some calendar songs. We also 'make the date' with change (ex. 26th would be 1 quarter and 1 penny) We record the temperature on our weekly chart. We then write and mark off how many days of school we've had, bringing in some math/place value. We have a Bible verse for each letter of the alphabet, and since Aden has his basic phonics down, we are switching letters everyday or every other (we are on K already this year). We learn the sign for each letter, as well as a verse and sight word with the verse. Then we use the 'Judy clock' to practice telling time (Aden has an identical clock that he matches to this clock each morning and tells me what time it is). Every couple weeks we practice different types of skip counting. The first 2 weeks of school was counting by 2's (Aden LOVES this one). Right now we are counting by 5's (we incorporate games to make this fun). We will sometimes use the hundred chart to count and we also practice our address and phone number frequently. We also practice 'left' and 'right' by moving the Cat in the Hat from one side of the board to the other. And once in awhile we practice ordinal numbers, using our ordinal number train.
When we switch to a new letter, we learn a new poem and talk about words that start with that letter. We also just started learning the States (there is the Michigan card on the right). We are also adding in historical facts, monuments, etc. each week (there is Stonehenge). And we will frequently add an animal or insect to the board (here is a grasshopper).
When we're done with this board, the kids check their picture schedules for what they will do next (they have different schedules).
Here is Aden, proudly pointing to his schedule. :)
During the day, after calendar time, and in addition to family Bible study, we usually have a math 'lesson' and reading 'lesson' with Aden.
He also has 'Workboxes' (thank you, http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.com/index.html)! He LOVES workboxes - SERIOUSLY. LOVES. THEM.
He goes through them in order. He looks at the picture to see if it is an 'independant', 'with mom', 'with dad', or 'with kendyl', box. I usually put mazes/small motor activity sheets in one or two boxes, a cut & paste activity to go with the letter of the day, playdough or other fine motor activity, matching/rhyming/counting and the like activities, other 'math' and 'science' games, etc. The final box is a 'star' box and contains a more open-ended/'fun' activity or game.
One of his favorite (and my favorite) reading activities, for the work boxes, is the sight word dice... Everytime we add new sight words to learn, I add them to a set of 4 blocks I purchased (I'll find the website and add it later). He rolls the dice, reads the word, traces the word, and writes it on his own.
When we introduce a sight word, it also goes on our Word Wall... the difficult words on here are the ones from the Bible verse, which I don't expect him to actually 'learn' this year--it's more of a memory trigger when learning the verses and working with alphabatizing. :)
Once he masters a sight word, we will add it to our sight word caterpillar... I am in the process of making this, as I just found this great idea! We will display the caterpillar on our classroom door and see how long it gets by the end of Kindergarten!
While Aden is doing his workboxes, I will do Kendyl's Math & English lessons with her. We usually do Bible and History, right after lunch, as a family. They always get some 'fun with daddy' time before he goes to work. In the afternoon we will either do science, social studies, art, or music together. We are still trying to get a 'regular' physical education time scheduled. Aden is in soccer right now, so that is good, we just need to get more scheduled in the 'regular' physical training with the kids... we'll get there :)
phew.... okay... I know I missed a lot of things in the schedule... and I don't have any cute pics of Kendyl's scheduled activities, but those will come.
So far, we're off to a great start this year, and I'm hoping and praying that God will give us strength and wisdom throughout the rest of the school year!
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