Spanish Lessons: My Favorite Things "Mis Cosas Favoritas"

Homeschooling a Toddler: What 3 Learning Sessions Look Like

Have you ever attempted to homeschool a toddler? If you have, you have probably realized how they are extremely tactile, how they love to explore new and exciting things and how they have a short attention span. To maximize this precious one-on-one time with them, it is important to focus on one thing and one thing only: flexibility.

With toddlers, as with infants and newborns, it doesn't matter how prepared you are or how much you have planned for this time. It will happen in their time and in their way. As stressful as that may sound, in the end, it is best to follow the child because that is how she learns best.

Here, I present to you three easy review lessons to keep things short, fun and moving along. This is not to tell you what to teach or how to teach it, but rather how it works for our family in hopes that this will inspire you to get ideas and come up with your own fun and easy activities that your toddler will simply love and enjoy revisiting when you invite her again to join in. 

These lessons are geared for toddlers that are 2-3 years old, but you can start some of these activities sooner and make them more complex as they get older and/or master the skills. 
The amount of time each session takes varies. I follow her and keep an eye on her attention span for that day. I usually have more material than what we use, just to be ready. Usually, our lessons are about 30 minutes long, but sometimes as little as 15 minutes, so we break up our lesson into two parts and come back later for the other half.

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Homeschooling Journal: April 2014 Part 7

Homeschooling a Toddler

We practiced the numbers 0-10 and then read a really great book with lots of vocabulary words.

It included body parts, clothing, mealtime words, food, at home, toys, going out, playground, bathtime, bedtime, transportation, numbers, colors, shapes, etc.

Homeschooling Journal: April 2014 Part 6

French: Action Verbs

We practiced the motions as we learned the action words in French.

Marche: Walk             Assis: Sit

Debout: Stand Up      Danse: Dance

Tourne: Turn Around  Saute: Jump/Hop

Court: Run                 Dorme: Sleep

Read on

Homeschooling Journal: March 2014 Part 1

What a great weekend we had! First, it rained on Saturday (which we don't get very often) and second, we had a fun Mardi Gras party on Sunday.

God made All Colors and Rainbows

Here it is! Our fun craft on a windy day! Here is our story.

French Lessons for Preschoolers and Kindergartners (Basics: Greetings, Colors, Numbers)

This is our window. I made it into functional space, where I

have a high bulletin board and a low bulletin board. The middle

part has a mesh (sun screen) fabric that lets good light in. We

used up the two walls we had and this was a good way of making

good use of the third wall. On the top, I put the colors in 7

languages (English, Spanish, Chinese, French, Portuguese,

German, and Italian) and on the bottom, I posted the

numbers (0-10) in 7 languages as well. We read these about 3

times a week and yes, we do them all. I tried to do one language

a day (colors and numbers), but K always wanted to keep going,

so ok, we keep going. :)

Here, you will see lessons on Greetings, Colors, and Numbers (1-10)

I am currently teaching Spanish and French in our homeschool co-op (ages 1-5) and additionally Mandarin Chinese to my children.
The only thing I stress is that I make sure they notice and know which language we are working on at the time. They switch gears rather easily and do very well. Even those who do both French and Spanish with me (on different days) haven't had a problem. I haven't thought of a strategy on how to teach languages to youngsters because I haven't really encountered the need to have one. 

My 2 year old was mixing letters. She knew all the letters in the alphabet in both English and Spanish, but she'd say some in English and some in Spanish. She is now getting better at differentiating them a bit more.  I hope this helps.

Homeschooling Journal: January 2014 Part 1

Our new header! This is such a beautiful design! I had a beautiful new friend help me with this. She is such a kind and gentle spirit and feel so blessed that she took the time to help me (without even knowing me!).

Spanish Fall Preschool Activities with FREE PRINTABLE!

Spanish: Vocabulario de Otoño (Fall Vocabulary)

In Spanish, we started with a bilingual rap. We would tap our laps and go, "one, two, three, four, uno, dos, tres, cuatro." Then we'd stand up, dance and go, "dance, baila, dance, baila, etc." Then we went, "clap, aplaude," "turn around, da vueltas." Everyone had fun, especially with the free dance part.
Then we reviewed everything that we have been learning.

Afterwards, we did our Fall activity, reviewing the colors and introducing Fall vocabulary.

Homeschooling October 2013 Part 3

Inspiration... 

Play Time: Bike Ride and Playground

               

Montessori Practical Life: Rinsing off Produce after Soaking

As most of you know, it is important to soak and rinse off produce after purchasing because many of the chemicals in the pesticides are still on it. Every Saturday when we get our produce for the week, we soak them and rinse them very well. One hour for conventional with a cup of white vinegar or half hour for organic with a cup of white vinegar.

This time, since we had already gotten the helper stool for the kids, K decided that he wanted to help me rinse the produce. It took me maybe 3 times longer to get it done and the sink area was a wet mess, but he felt great to be doing it and to be helping. Alright, he wins.

          

Must love Fall! I ordered a harvest pack at our Bountiful Baskets co-op and this is what arrived. These aren't only decorating my house, but they are making it feel more like Fall and the kids are having a blast playing with them!

              

              

Classical Conversations: Foundations Cycle 1 Week 1

We have finally started on our classical education portion of our homeschooling day! It is so exciting! You can see what we are learning specifically this week (which will take us 2 weeks, since we are starting slow), but the core subjects are the same every week: Timeline (for the next 24 weeks or so, we will be learning about the Age of Ancient Empires), History, Geography, English Grammar, Latin, Math and Science. Right now, I am leaving out the Fine Arts part  as well as the Science Experiments part because we are already covering Science Experiments, Music and Art in our Monday co-op and I really don't feel the need to double up on these. The moms that teach these subjects are doing a fantabulous job.

I am keeping the materials for these subjects for whenever we move or aren't doing the co-op anymore because it is great stuff to learn someday.

This is how I display our weekly memory work for each subject. It is a giant post-it note. Yes, it is sticky on the top part in the back. I bought this from amazon.com and it is a brilliant concept. It is very good quality paper and the sticky part really sticks. I love it that I can move it around as I need to.

For more information on what Classical Education is or what is taught, click here.

                  

What is a preposition?
A preposition relates a noun or a pronoun to another word.

I wrote "noun" and "pronoun" on his right arm and wrote "another word" on his left arm. As he says the above answer, he starts putting both of his hands together to show how the noun or pronoun relates to another word.

                            

                            

                            

Here, you see how I display K & A's artwork in their play room. I decided to add a line above it for our Classical Conversations Timeline Cards (Classical Conversations brand).
They are so beautiful, but their content on the back is more elegant and at a higher comprehension level (high school). So I use the Veritas Press Timeline Cards to read and for on-the-go because they are easier for little ones to read and understand.
The Classical Conversations cards are gorgeous, though, and it would be a shame to not display them somehow. This is what I came up with and I am pretty happy with the result. I can scoot them to the left and add more and even use the line below to continue with the cards if I run out of room.

For our Classical Conversations Timeline Cards (Veritas Press stack), I decided to use this travel wipe and diaper bag that was handmade by a girl I know and given to me when I was pregnant with K. It is beautiful and it fits the cards perfectly. It even has a mother of pearl button!

Free Choice Activity in the School Room

We had a few minutes to spare, but not enough to have a whole lesson, plus, I had both kids (I usually do the bulk of our homeschooling with K while A is napping). So I gave them the choice to pick an activity to do on their own in the school room. K chose the wooden beads to make a giant necklace (from the Montessori Practical Life material) and A chose her Matrushka doll (Russian nesting doll) from the Montessori Sensorial material.

Montessori Culture (Geography): Columbus Day

K and I talked about Columbus Day on the day it is observed. The globe was a great visual to teach him what happened when America was discovered. The lesson was short and I didn't go too much into detail, but he grasped the gist of it. He found Spain on the globe on his own and even said, "Christopher Columbus lives in Spain? Sarah (his aunt) lives in Spain!" Smart kid.

                             

Reward Day: Chuck E. Chesse's

K has been doing very well with his morning and afternoon chore charts (see August posts for details on chore charts). Every week that he completes all of his morning chore chart, he get 3 tokens and every time he completes 10 checks (activities) in his afternoon chore charts he gets one token. Several weeks have gone by and he had collected about 15 tokens in his little wallet. It was now time to go to Chuck E. Cheese's. Both kids had a wonderful time. This will motivate him to keep completing the charts without a problem, although I must say, he completes them readily and mostly independently.

          

A.C.E. Coordination Developmental Tests (Part 2)

A.C.E. stands for Accelerated Christian Education. It is the curriculum I grew up with and I love it, not only because it is Christian, but because it really fosters a sense of independence in learning (like Montessori does). Below, you can see pictures of some of the tests he did. You can read about the first tests he did in an earlier post. If you are interested in more details, feel free to contact me via private message/email or contact A.C.E. directly here. These assessments were great at giving us an idea on where he is at in certain things and how I can help him reach certain goals.

Montessori Practical Life: Baking Pumpkin Muffins

I love Fall! We had planned to go on a field trip to the park, so I grabbed a couple of organic almond milk boxes (dark chocolate for K and vanilla for A) and decided to make pumpkin muffins to take with us. Perfect decision! And K helped make them, of course, by brushing coconut oil on the pan and by mixing the batter. He did great and the muffins were delicious.

     

Field Trip: Castle Park

This park is awesome! Not only does it have a castle to play in, but it has a toddler play area, a big playground, a pond, and beautiful green grass. It almost felt like I was somewhere else and not in the desert.

          

          

          

          

          

Ballet

In ballet, I read this story from the library to the girls. We all loved it. Then we warmed up and did ballet routines to the music, which is absolutely awesome.
Homework:
1) Plié in 1st position (bending of knees while heels are together).
2) Sauté while pointing toes to touch or nearly touch (a small vertical jump with extended legs).
3) Land in plié (with soft knees).
Arms are in 1st position (rounded arms out at bellybutton level or lower closer to the body, as if holding a giant ball between arms).

                      

French: Les Couleurs (The Colors)

In French, we briefly went over vocabulary on: parts of the body, colors, familiar objects, food, family members and fruit. It not only exposes them to new words, but they also train their ears and tongues on new sounds and pronunciations. 
Then we reviewed the colors and did the front of the worksheet you see. I kept them because we will complete it next week. We have French only once a week for 30 minutes and yet they retain so much! I am amazed! Gotta love these little sponges! 

              

        

                   

Science Experiments: Why are bird beaks different?

Today's experiment was based on this link (click here). The kids had a blast. We also read about beaks from our bird book and had fun coloring our birds. We had different stations and went in order from tallest to shortest, they did great following directions and helping each other. 

Free Download that I made! Click on the link below. Find where it says "view document" towards the bottom. You will be able to see the document to download, save or print.

Click here to download Classical Conversations LATIN Memory Work Cycle 1 Weeks 1 & 2

Music: Developing Listening Skills

It might seem a little backwards, but today we focused on listening. I intend to start on composers next week, and I wanted to make sure that we established how important quiet was in order to truly hear the music as a whole and in its pieces and parts. 
So, we sang some songs to start with and a few of the kids were the conductor. We had to pay attention to know if we were singing soft or loud, fast or slow. Then we moved on to Simon Says. 
From there we made a thunderstorm. We started with quiet movements and worked our way to louder and louder, then back down again. Next, we listened to different sounds with our eyes closed then drew what we thought we heard (ocean, birds, thunderstorm, cars. Finally, we watched a video of planes breaking the sound barrier. The kids thought that was pretty awesome. I'm not going to lie, so did I!