I'm taking a moment to look back at the past home school year. When I look back I really have no regrets for what we do as a home schooling family. I would of never have thought in a million years that I would be teaching my children. After all ...ever since they were born I have taught them everything they know in life. How to eat, go potty on the toilet, walk, talk and more. You all know what I am talking about. I am now going on my THIRD year of home schooling. I am still considered a "Rooky Home Schooler" and proud of it! Here is a sneek peak of what we accomplished this past school year.First, we are enrolled in a "virtual" school that we do at home ( ConnectionsAcademy.com ). We submit assignments and tests and have a assigned teacher who calls us once every 2 weeks. I like the curriculum and they send us all that we need to get educated. Tee,hee,hee!
This past year Kayla and Shae have done wonderful!
Reading/ Writing - We use Zaner Bloser for writing and Calvert for reading for Kayla and although she was in the first grade she is doing second grade reading and has mastered and completed her assignments with no problem. She even wrote and illustrated her first book "Green Aliens in Space". She was very excited to see it in print and the local library has it in their circulation for check out. She is currently selling her book on lulu.com and Amazon.com and earning a little money to put away for the future. She got to experience a book signing and real live interviews for the local newspaper and news channel 3 TV. She handled it all like a pro! We are proud of you Kayla!
Shae is writing and she can write beautiful. For Shae I use 100 easy lessons to teach your child to read. And she is doing great! I have made her own personal books with the words she has learned and can read. This increases her self esteem and likes to know that she too has books that she can read like her big sissy. We even made her a reading word caterpillar and put it on her wall above her bed. We also used the Leap Frog Letter Factory dvd's and Starfall.com for sound recognition. Keep it going Shae! We are very proud of you!
Math- I use Calvert on Kayla and she is 2 years ahead in math and feels very little pressure. We covered whole numbers, place value, money and time, geometry, measurements and explored multiplication. We completed 73% of the book last year and will continue where we left off this year. Her favorite part of math right now is "multiplication". Just crazy!
I use early-bird kindergarten / Singapore Math with Shae and she breezes thru it much like Kayla did. They are both different little people but I am finding out that they have much in common with their reading and math abilities. Of course the one-on-one helps. Unlike a bricks and morter public school.... I know when they are paying attention and I know if they are understanding what I am teaching. Therefore, we don't just "move on" to the next topic ....... I wait until they are ready.
Social Studies- Calvert is used for this as well with Kayla and Shae likes to join us at times. We covered - What is geography, the environment, maps and map keys, physical features of the world, early america, family history, the first English Settlement in North America, Spanish Exploration, Slavery, Clara Barton from the American Red Cross and money and banking. Two people that we studied and extended our study on were Rosa Parks and Helen Keller. The girls were very intrigued by their stories and lives that we read about them several times from an assortment of books from the library. It even sparked me to teach them more ASL (American Sign Language).
Water and Land Mass Project
Science- We use McGraw Hill for science and Shae did most of the projects with us. Kayla likes science very much. We covered - Life of an ocean explorer, how plants get water, how plants grow from seed to flower (and we are still growing lettuce, tomatoes, carrots and green beans from this), the weather and water cycle, floods and droughts, water conservation, animals of long ago, fossils, dinosaurs (we made a book for this * see below), needs of living things, heat, light and sound, forces - machines and magnets, canyon habitat and heart and lungs.
Educational Technology- Since we do "virtual" schooling it makes sense that we learn computers and it is part of our curriculum. Kayla worked with Word, Excel, paint, basic key boarding and even did a powerpoint slide show.
Hands on projects and Art- I love to emphasize anything we are doing to make it more interesting and fun. We did a lot of arts and crafts, cooking, sewing ( Kayla actually made p.j's for her grammy), gardening, book creating, scrapbooking, drawing, water color and using fabric in their art projects. For our last art project we decided to do a abstract/recycled piece of art. We were inspired by a lady at the library who did a story on snakes and had made a snake out of bottle caps. So, we collected bottle caps and had family, friends and a local burrito place save them for us as well. We finally had enough to make a couple of snakes.
Community Classes- Yes, the word "community" is in the sub title. To all of you who might think that we may never see or be around other kids or people who don't home school. Trust me ... we see them all and more than we want to see on occassion.
This past year the girls have taken gymnastics at the local YMCA, ballet, attended AWANA each Sunday night, The Nature Detective Club monthly at the local library, swimming at the college, Irish Step Dancing and Kayla and I continue to learn guitar.
Community Service- I feel community service is very important and we have a commitment to reach out to others. Our home school group reaches out monthly to the elders at a local adult day center in Prescott Valley. We are a monthly afternoon event for them and they love when we all come. About 30 participants sit around their large activity room in a "U" shape and are the audience for the children. The children stand in front and introduce themselves on the microphone and do a variety of acts. They will sing, dance, tell a joke, recite a poem, share a school project or play their musical instrument. It is really a joy to watch them. Afterwards they all meet and greet the elders by shaking their hands and having a little conversation with them. On St. Patty's Day we do several volunteer performances around the town at various nursing homes, the VA hospital, and low income living centers. It is a rush of a day but the kids just love it!
Field Trips- This past year we went of a few field trips with our virtual school and others with our home school group. These are the field trips we did this past year.
Llama Ranch in Strawberry, AZ
Arizona's oldest standing school house in Strawberry
Wildlife World Zoo
Sharlott Hall Museum
Local Fire Station
Native American Indian Pow Wow
Ice Skating
Freedom Station
Phoenix Fair
Circus
Performances at the college : The Lowe Family, Dragon Acrobats, Frogbride, Peter Pan, If you give a pig a party and more.
Overall, we have had a great time doing what we love to do. We are building a strong family and community life. I hope you all have enjoyed a sneek peek into our past year. We are awaiting the arrival of this years curriculum and we can't wait. Until next time.... take care!
SCHOOLS OUT FOR SUMMER!
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