This week has been great, school-wise and teacher creating-wise. Here are some of the highlights.
Five for Friday! with Doodle Bugs Teaching
Five for Friday: Frenzy, Freebie, Scoot in Homeschool, and More
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Three Ideas for How to Homeschool Kindergarten
When parents decide to homeschool their kindergarten-aged child, they may not know just where to begin! It is all new! They have made the decision but are easily discouraged as to how to implement it. Or they are overwhelmed with all that is “required” of them.
When I think back to my kindergarten days, I recall not the things we learned, although I’m sure plenty of learning happened. Instead, I remember the time I spent in the play house, the story time on the rug, and the crafts I did standing at my desk. I remember my teacher and the student teacher (who I adored). I remember walking to the bus and thinking I was the luckiest girl in the world because I had such a wonderful teacher.
That is what kindergarten is about. Kindergarten is about beginning a journey of learning and learning to love it. Continue reading
Learning to Write…Line upon Line + A Writing Prompt Freebie
Since November is NaNoWriMo, I figured that this was the perfect time of year to talk about how my writing class is going at my weekly homeschool co-op. Continue reading
Halloween: A Doctor and Annie
Dr. Reid is going to keep us healthy.
“Annie” is going to sing and dance into the sunset!
Homeschooling a Toddler: Watching a Child Learn Line upon Line
Baby Strawberry is already 20 months old. I don’t notice homeschooling a toddler as much as homeschooling an older child because the things the toddler learns appear so simple. But as I watch her progress from hour to hour, I am amazed at how her every moment provides learning opportunities that will build on each other.
When my son was that age, I was going through a rough time. My husband was traveling weekly, my son was completely unintelligible, and I faced long days alone with a screaming toddler. I had no intention of homeschooling him, and I lived for the days when I knew I’d have a break.
It wasn’t until Raisin started reading to me (at age 3) that I began to think of homeschooling. I had read to him by the hour some days, and I had nurtured his natural ability to learn, but I had never considered keeping him home, and I’d never considered myself as a teacher.
Now that I am actively homeschooling Raisin, I see toddler Strawberry in a completely new light. Of course, my situation is a little different (my husband is around every evening, for example). But as I teach my daughter sign language and then hear her begin to speak words, I see her development in the light of education. I see progress from day to day. I hear her learn a word one day and use it in conversation (one-year-old conversation, that is!) the next. Being able to watch her learn is a blessing. Continue reading
A Visit from the “Principal”
My husband has designated himself the “Principal” of our school, and delegated the majority of the teaching to me. Today we were starting our day when he came to visit. He’s working from home right now. School of course stopped while he played and teased my kids. I felt flustered: how will I get everything done?! We’re getting behind for the day!
But then I stop to think. What could be better than my kids seeing their father? They see that he works in his office the majority of the time, but they also get delightful breaks from studying to visit with him, show them what they’ve been doing, and generally get in a laugh in the midst of our studying.
When my son was 1 and 2 years old, the age my daughter is right now, my husband traveled weekly. He was gone from Monday morning to Thursday night. What a blessing that not only is he no longer travelling, but he’s also working from home right now!
Homeschooling can wait sometimes. Family is what it is all about.
- What role does your spouse play in your homeschooling?
- How do you regain focus in your school time when you’ve had a distraction such a visit from the “principal”?
I ask you school teachers too. Yes, those brain breaks are good, but there is a lot of lost time regrouping afterwards!
Train Birthday Party
As I mentioned, last week was my son’s birthday! I put on a birthday party that was all about trains. But let me tell you, it’s hard to find things train related for a birthday that does not have Thomas the Train all over it! Since he turned six, Thomas was not the key part of trains he was excited about. He just likes the trains themselves.
At any rate, I pulled together my own invitations and homemade gift bags. As I was thinking of a freebie to share with you this week, I thought maybe some of you would love these!
I made them editable so you can put your own child’s name in them! These use a lot of printer ink, but it looked lovely in the end.
Get the birthday party invite and gift bag for free when you sign up to become a Line upon Line Learning VIP.
My son thought the party was a lot of fun. First we painted wooden trains purchased from Etsy. The kids loved the fact that they got to take the train home at the end! Then it was run-around-and-play time. We played Red Light, Green Light, pretending we were trains. We played train tag (with two teams that were supposed to stay together in a train as they tagged the other team). Let’s just say Train Tag did not go as smoothly as it was supposed to, but the they kids sure loved running around! We played Duck, Duck, Goose — except it was Engine, Engine, Caboose.
Then we went to the “dining car” and had the kids’ favorite: Kraft Mac and Cheese, Go-Gurt, and apple slices. I had “menus” (otherwise known as activity pages) for the kids to color as they waited for their food, and one of my son’s remote controlled trains went around the table to entertain them as well. Then we made Rice Krispie treats cut out in the shape of a train with circle candies as the wheels.
It was a great time! If you want a train party, download the invite/gift bag page from above. Let me know how you’re party goes!
Figuring it Out
I’ve been absent from this site for a few weeks, and mostly that is because I’ve been getting the hang of school! I think I’ve figured out what works for us and what does not.
My main struggle was figuring out what to do with Strawberry, now 20 months old, while Raisin and I do school subjects together. I tried doing school down in the play room so Strawberry could run and play unobstructed. This did not work because Raisin was too distracted by the playing and the toys! He’d whine about everything I asked him to do and not respond well. I don’t blame him: seeing and hearing trains and cars all around him does not provide a good learning space.
We moved back upstairs to our school room. While Raisin does his math pages, I sit with Strawberry and direct her in an activity: drawing on the doodle pad, stickers, and so forth. Then, I try to distract her with a certain toy (rotating through them over the course of the week) so I can give Raisin direction. He has some subjects he can do independently, and others we must wait until Strawberry goes down for a nap or definitely gets distracted by a book or toy. It is not easy but it works.
Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays are days like this. We try to finish long before lunch so we can go to the library for a break. Other times we eat and then go to the library. On Tuesdays, we school in the morning, and then after lunch, we have a park district homeschool P.E. class (swim and gym). We return at dinner time. Wednesdays we leave by 9 a.m. to go to co-op. We won’t return until mid-afternoon.
On Fridays, I’ve been trying to make sure we’re finished in enough time to have a fun time at the end of the day. Last week, we had Raisin’s birthday party with friends! It was a blast to pull it together (it had a train theme) and it was lots of fun to see the kids enjoying themselves so much.
And that’s a week! I’m still constantly revamping our curriculum choices…but more about that another time!
How does your homeschooling week typically look? How do you one-on-one teach with little ones underfoot?
Procrastination
I stare at the basket for days. Each morning I dig through it, looking for what a need. I hate it. I don’t want to do the chore. I’ll put it off another hour. Another afternoon. Maybe tomorrow?
Finally, the time comes to do yet another load of laundry. I realize that I must fold those close and put them away. Either that, or I need to get another couple of laundry baskets.
I time myself.
Five minutes. It takes me five minutes to empty the basket. True, two days ago it was more full than it is now. But add two days of clothes to the basket and it may have taken seven minutes. Why did I stare at it for two days, hating it and dreading it, when in seven minutes it could have been gone from my mind?
And yet, I do it every week. Every day, really. I procrastinate dinner planning. procrastinate toilet scrubbing. I procrastinate scripture reading.
It’s not hard to do these things. It’s not even unenjoyable. I like reading scriptures! I like having a clean and not-nasty bathroom! It’s just hard to take that step and make that decision.
As we listened to general conference this weekend, I felt a bit chastised in some ways as I pondered my role as wife and mother. Of course, I’m not doing everything I need to be doing to relish this stage of my life. I will never be perfect in this life and I accept that and realize that, etc. That’s not what I realized.
The other day, I tried to define love to someone and I realized that love is a commitment. Loving this role of motherhood — and loving life! — requires commitment to every little annoying aspect of it. Folding that basket of laundry now, changing yet another poop-filled diaper, making dinner (again!) — these are the things that show my love of life. And procrastinating does not make me feel good. I hate it. I’ve got to stop it.
And I’ve got to read those scriptures.
Staring at the blank blog post screen has also been a procrastination method of mine. I’m going to reinstate this old blogging habit too so I can hold myself accountable.
Welcome to my journey.
And Paul is six years old today. How did that happen so fast? I can’t procrastinate or I’ll miss the enjoyment of this all as life gets swallowed up in my stupid annoyance at that unfolded basket of laundry…
Word Journal
I don’t really have a week in review for you today. I feel like if I don’t have anything nice to say I should not say anything at all. It was not a bad week, but I’ve been frustrated by Paul’s lack of focus this week. We’re trying a few new things to make our day go smoother. Maybe I’ll have more positive things to share next week in the wrap-up.
I read a book with my son a few months ago about a girl who likes words and wrote her favorite words in a journal. I thought it would be fun for my son to have his own word journal!
Students could use the word journal for writing down favorite words as the girl in the book did, and it also would work well for tracking tricky spelling words.