New School Year

Well, it is official that I am homeschooling. I went down to the district office and signed Felipe out of school. It is kind of an exciting feeling. Public school starts on in less than 4 days here. I am glad I don't have to send him off to school. I had to sign a paper stating that I would teach him the required subjects (that they listed) for the required amount of time each day.

We officially began school last Monday. The only difference about officially beginning as opposed to what we were already doing is that we are trying to follow a more exact schedule and we are making sure that we have school everyday. Little Felipe and I went through the subjects listed and made a schedule up for school together. Of course everyday is a little different and some days school happens in the afternoon, but here is the schedule that we hope to follow most days.

8:00 am - Wake up, get dressed, make beds, breakfast, clean up
8:30-9:00 am - Go to school area of house - I exercise while the kids exercise and play. (I turn on energizing music to wake us up - usually Spanish music for children).
9:00-9:20 am - Devotional/Calendar/Scriptures - (I turn on soft music to play in the background while we work - usually classical or soft jazz.) We begin with a hymn or primary song, a prayer, recitation of 2 scriptures that we are memorizing, calendar, sometimes we recite poems, then the kids color in a book I put together with my binding machine of pictures to color that go along with scripture stories and gospel principles. I let the kids choose which story they want to color and then while they color I tell them the story (of Jonah, Jesus, Joseph Smith for example) or talk about the principle (if they color a picture of children saying their prayers for example). It usually takes them 2-3 days to finish a picture.

We don't have an exact scheduled time for the rest of the subjects because I give the kids breaks when we feel that they need them. Sometimes they need a break between each subject and some days they can get through everything without any breaks. Sometimes we all work together and sometimes I will work with Cassandra while Felipe plays and then Felipe while Cassandra plays.

We spend approximately 15 on each subject.

Here is what Felipe is working on everyday:

Phonics workbook and letter practice (writing letters, sounding out words, etc.)

Language Arts - (We work on a story for about 3-4 days. I read it to him, we repeat-after-me read, choral (simultaneous) read, then he reads it to me.) We talk about the stories and do various activities involving the story - comprehension, sequencing, art, etc.

Math - He is working on a first grade math book. We work on the lessons in the book and also work on math drills. I am making him a book of math drills for practice. I really believe that kids should memorize math facts and be fast and accurate in math drills. Felipe loves math the most, so he enjoys this part of the day a lot.

Spanish - He is working in a Kindergarten Spanish workbook. It goes through all of the letters and syllables. He can read most 2 syllable words in Spanish since it is such a phonetic language. I have a complete first grade Spanish Language Arts curriculum to start when we finish the Kindergarten workbook. He is speaking and understanding much more Spanish.

Science - Currently we are still working on animals. We are learning about birds and next week we will learn about mammals (which will take about 2 weeks). We have gone to some museums and we check out a lot of books from the library on our area of study. We also check out education movies for kids about the animals we learn about. We often do art projects and make lap-books based on what we are studying in science.

That sounds like a lot to do in one day but it actually goes by very fast since we only focus on each subject for 15 minutes. So everything I have listed takes about a little over an hour.

The kids also have access to various activities to play with in our school room such as white boards, chalk boards, flannel board with flannel pictures and shapes, magnetic board with magnetic letters, puppets and puppet show, paper, glue, scissors, markers, crayons, stencils, tangrams, various flashcards, magnadoodles, musical instruments (sticks, castanets, xylophones, maracas, etc.), play area next to the school room with slides, balls, play kitchen, legos, and lots of books.

Little Felipe made his weekly schedule to include the following activities as well:

Monday - Phonics Games
Tuesday - Journal and Leveled Reading Books
Wednesday - Computers - He has time to play educational games on the computer.
Thursday - Piano and Music
Friday - Art

We also go to various homeschool activities - Park Day, Math Club, Spanish Club, etc.

That sounds like a lot too, but these activities are very relaxed and more child-led.

Cassandra works alongside Felipe. If she wants to participate in his Language Arts Curriculum she can but she doesn't have to. She usually wants to though.

She is working on her letters and penmanship, a Kindergarten math curriculum (and the math facts drills as well), and she is just beginning the Kindergarten Spanish workbook. They do the rest of the subjects together.

Carolina is beginning a preschool workbook. She likes to sit at the table and color in her own workbook. I am going to work with her for about 10 min. a day on letters and numbers and try to have story time with her in which she can choose books she wants me to read to her.

We try to read books together throughout the day and at night I read to them from a chapter book. Right now we are reading "Winnie the Pooh." Before our nightly prayer we also try to share a scripture together as a family.

Some things I love about homeschooling is that the kids don't have to be in a certain grade to do certain work. Felipe is doing some first and second grade work and some Kindergarten work. He can work right where his levels and interests are. Cassandra also does a variety of work on different levels. When I taught fourth grade in public school I had a student who could not read at all. He didn't like school and was bored and lost. He was in resource for only one hour a day. For the rest of the day school was just wasting his time. He would have been happier and more excited about learning if he could have worked all day on his level. He would have progressed a lot faster as well. I also had a first grader that could read at a fourth grade level and he was often bored. School was wasting his learning time as well. I love to be able to see all of my kids working and progressing on their own levels.

I love that my kids have a little more time to pursue their own interests. They have more play time since we can get through school in about 2 hours or so and they don't have "homework."

To me homeschool is making the home a school of learning. We do try to keep on schedule but we can study anything that is of interest to any of us at any time and it doesn't have to be part of "school." We can go on field trips whenever we want. We can work as long as we want on any projects. Learning doesn't waste time (meaning that if the kids finish a workbook page in 2 minutes they don't have to just sit there for another 10 minutes waiting for everyone else to finish - That is one thing that I always hated about school).

Felipe (husband) has brought to my attention that I am a very task-oriented person. He is more of a big-picture type of person. He has suggested that I make goals for what I want the children to accomplish and learn yearly, monthly and weekly and then use the curriculum to accomplish those goals. So right now I am working on goals for them based on their abilities and interests and using the state standards as a guide.

I am also listening to the thunder and watching the lightning out of my window.