Homeschooling April 2013 Part 4

Here is part 4 of our homeschooling in the month of April. We ended the month on a great note. I am not sure if I can post this much every month, but I can try. Let me know if you are reading my posts and if they are helpful. Also, give me some feedback. Ask questions on lessons, materials, or anything else you want. I started this blog because people were curious about how I homeschool my kids and were asking a lot for tips and advice. I figured I'd record the lessons/info and refer everyone to this. So, here it goes. Enjoy.

Montessori Culture (Geography): The Seven Continents.

1. Unroll mat on the floor/carpet.

2. Place puzzle map on mat.

3. Place labels on the mat.

4. Label the continents.

Extension 1

1. Take continent pieces out of the puzzle map.

2. Place them in order (as they'd appear on a map).

3. Recognize and label all seven continents.

Extension 2

1. Take continent pieces out of the puzzle map.

2. Place them out of order from how they'd appear on a map.

3. Recognize and label all seven continents.

Language Arts: spelling words

On the right, you can see the original Montessori bead stair. It is used in some of the Mathematics lessons. Even though the set is only about $8, I made my own (picture on left) using ribbon and beads because I forgot to order this when i placed my last Montessori materials order. If I order this separately, I'll have to pay about $6 in shipping alone. Not worth it and I can't foresee another Montessori order this year (we are covered materials-wise). Plus, they turned out ok and they cost me nothing (I already had all of the materials here at home). Perfect! I'll post pictures of lessons when we use these. :)

This is a picture of one of the two boxes I have for Desk Work. At an educational store in NC, I found these sturdy plastic folders that hold a lot. Inside each plastic folder, is a manila folder with each day of the week written on the tab. Inside, (see Part 1) each folder has:

1)  a Pre-school multi-subject activity book (paper and pencil activities)

2)  a list of Dolch sight words

3)  readers in 3 levels of difficulty (easy, medium, hard)

4) a surprise activity (number flash cards, fabric marker -I'll explain later-, a   

    pop-up book, a small musical instrument, etc).

In the box, I make sure to include a sheet of stickers to reward him when he completes an activity successfully.

I use two boxes (Monday-Wednesday and Thursday-Friday) because, after putting all of these materials in, I can't fit them all in one box. I found these boxes (very nice and sturdy) on Clearance at Lowe's. I think that each cost me $6.50 or so.

I love this poem! It is from the Christian Mother's Goose book. I have posted about it before. It was so hard to get and it was quite expensive (a $9 for $35 plus shipping) because it is out of print. It is worth every single penny!

I absolutely had to include this picture in this post! I love it! I grew up reading Calvin and Hobbes. I'd love for K's room to look like this! Maybe some day...

Homeschooling April 2013 Part 3

This is part 3 of our great month of April. Homeschooling is going great! 

I am so happy that things are advancing and that we are all loving it.

And I hope that these posts are helping you learn a little more about what it is like to homeschool a preschooler.

These are pictures of the new shapes he is learning. Some of them 
are a little complicated, but he will get more and more used to 
the names and eventually learn them.

(Montessori materials)

This is the number train that I have mentioned in several posts. I got it as part of the Accelerated Christian Education curriculum for Kindergarten.
It goes from zero to one hundred. The "tens" are the heads of each wagon (making it easier to learn to count by tens and also to find numbers, for example, if I ask K to find twenty-seven, he looks for the twenty and then it is easy to find the 27 in that wagon. It is a wonderful tool and we use it daily for different activities.
Underneath the number train, I posted pictures of animals and their names in 7 languages (English, Spanish, Chinese, French, Portuguese, German, and Italian). We do one or two animals a day, depending on time.

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. :)

And now, here are some of the lessons we did that week.

On the last post (Part 2, we made this caterpillar and, after waiting a few days, K drew eyes and wheels (he didn't want it to have legs).

K wrote his name! It was the first time
he wrote it this well. I know, it doesn't look like much,
but it is great for a 3-yr old.

        

This little guy is a fabric rotary cutter. It has ruffled edges , so it
doesn't hurt or damage fabric. I use it to trace letters or numbers
on K's back and he recognizes them. If he guesses wrong, his guess
is always pretty close. For example, I'll trace a number 4 and he'll guess
an A. Or I'll trace a number 7 and he'll guess an r. So then, I started to
ask "What NUMBER is this?" or "What LETTER is this?" and it makes it easier for him to coordinate his thoughts.

Here, K was circling rhyming words like dog and frog, tree and bee,
book and hook, etc. He did so well with this activity!

This desk activity, was about ordinal numbers.  Circle the second picture in each row.
He did ok with this (he had never been formally introduced to ordinal numbers before,
so I got a posted to put up on the wall and practice them daily. I also make sure and
point out ordinal numbers when they come up.

  

Tracing numbers. Obviously, the 0 and the 1 are the easiest. He does really well with the three, too.

I took out the hundred chart again and we went over those activities again (see Part 1 for details). The more we practice, the better he gets at it. (these are Montessori materials)

This activity is an extension of Part 1. We practiced the presentation and then
we used the wooden numbers to put them in order in reverse order (from 10 to 1).
He did amazing! These are Montessori materials.

(Montessori) Practical Life: Learning how to butter a piece of toast. We have a butter bell and a Pampered Chef bamboo knife. He has been practicing for a couple of weeks and now, he even butters his sister's toast as well. We alternated between butter and solidified coconut oil mixed in with ground cinnamon.

Desk work: I showed him cards with random numbers and he would recognize them. As an extension, I would show him 3 cards and he would order them correctly (smallest to biggest). 
The red cards are the Second Grade Dolch List sight words. He can read them all! He's only 3, but he can read 2nd grade words. Amazing kid!

This activity falls under "Desk Work," but it does require a mat on the floor because his table isn't big enough.  Each card has a dinosaur with a letter of the alphabet in upper case and a square where the matching letters go. I have little cards with upper case letters and a set of lower case letters. We chose to match the lower case letters with the upper case letters on the dinosaur cards. Fun activity.

Super Easy Personal Pizza Recipes

Greatest idea: I used the naan recipe (click here to see it) and placed them on pizza stones.
Then I added garlic, ghee, cheese, sliced tomatoes and red bell peppers, spinach, organic Italian seasoning and put them in the oven for 15 min at 450 (turned oven on when I put them in, so 15 min total). Voilá! Delicious homemade thin crust personal pizzas!

Homeschooling April 2013 Part 2

We went on a field trip to the farm! We had such fun picking produce and walking around and even eating lunch. It was also a wonderful learning experience for the kids. 

Here are some pictures. Great place!

We went on a field trip to the farm! The kids and I had a lot of fun looking at the flowers, picking artichokes, kale, and other goodies. We walked a lot, but thankfully, it wasn't cold or windy. 
The local produce is cheap and yummy!

Purple kale (delicious)

   

We had lunch there, too. Vegetarian quesadillas and fresh water. :)

This is some of the produce I bought
to juice for my one-day juice detox.

Kids' meal on the left. My meal on the right. Hmmm.
Not as tasty as the kids', but I felt oh so good!

Another mini field trip another day was
going for a bike ride. It was the perfect
day for it and they both were very
well-behaved.

K is teaching his sister the letters 
and the sounds that they make.

And now, on to our (home)school work.

Finding a correlation between shapes 
and objects that have those shapes.

 

Matching upper case with lower case.  These books are great! I ordered the workbook from Preschool Prep Co.

Circling the amount of objects that matches with the numbers on the left.

Differentiating between letters and numbers.

This was super cute. As soon as I started playing our 
Circle Time songs (on my phone), K ran to his room, got his guitar and started playing to the music.

These are some of the wall displays we have in our classroom/playroom.

Left and Right
North, South, East and West
Clock
Ordinal numbers chart (1st-12th, not shown)

World map with 7 continents & oceans
Map of US and Mexico

                 
 

The Child Training Bible: essential to
raising kids knowing God and His Word.

This is what it looks like on the inside.
I am super excited that they will soon come
out with The Child Virtues Bible.

Tawa Naan (flatbread) Recipe

This recipe is adapted from:
Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day
I am posting it step by step because I have made several changes to the recipe that works better for my family's needs.

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups lukewarm water
3/4 tbsp yeast
3 3/4 cups flour (I use unbleached, unbromated flour)
generous pinch of kosher or sea salt

1.  **If you have a bread maker, it'll be easier.
     Just put all ingredients in it and let it run until all ingredients are incorporated and the dough is sticky (about 10 min).
     -If you don't have one, no worries. Just use a big mixing bowl. Put in yeast and water. Wait a minute or two for the yeast to be activated. Then add salt and flour. Knead until all of the ingredients are incorporated and the dough is very sticky.
2.  **Unplug bread maker and let it rest for 20-30 min.
     -Cover the bowl for 20-30 minutes.
3.  Tear off rounds that are the size of your fist or a small orange and put it on a floured surface. I like my Pampered Chef baking mat (see in first picture).
4.  Use a rolling pin to make the naan. They are usually oblong in shape, but you can make them any shape you want (they'll taste just as delicious), as long as there are no holes on the dough and that they're not too thick.
5.  Heat a skillet or two or three (like me). Medium heat works very well.
6.  Brush some ghee, butter or oil.
7.  Place naan on it and flip after about 1-2 minutes (check that the bottom side is starting to get a few brown spots).
8.  Flip and cook for a minute or two.
9.  Enjoy. 

                    

We use this to eat with hummus and I even use this recipe as a pizza crust. For that, just preheat oven at 475 degrees, make your dough, assemble your pizza or personal pizzas and put in oven for 16-18 minutes (maybe 20 for a large pizza with a thick crust).