(Home)schooling: Week 2

Things are going very well.  As much as I'd like to focus on academics, something else (but even more important at the moment) is stealing the spotlight: POTTY TRAINING! Yes, I am so happy that we are making a lot of progress and hopefully, he'll be out of diapers (during the day) in a few weeks or months.  I'm not holding my breath, just hoping, haha.

We have two potties, one in each of the rooms mostly used during the day. For some reason, whoever designed this house has never had a pregnant wife or has a kid because it was a pain being pregnant and having to run to the back of the house to pee every five minutes (almost) and this house isn't potty training-friendly either.  I wish we had a half bathroom by the laundry room at the front of the house. 

Anyway, to make a long story short, we had to put him on every 15 minutes and we'd have a pee here and there, but now, he is actually letting us know when he needs to go (most of the time, but not always). I don't feel confident enough to put him in briefs yet, maybe in a few weeks.  He'd be having numerous accidents still, so we won't push it.

He also started swimming lessons. He fought it for a few minutes during the first lesson, but after that, he absolutely loved it! He went every day last week for half an hour and we decided to enroll him for another week.

Going into the academics part of this blog, here are some of the activities we did. I can't take pictures or recount every single thing we did, but these descriptions and images will give you an idea about what we are studying.

Studying colors. He loves stickers!

Hot or Cold? He got every single on right! Impressive.

For part the Montessori training this week (Sensorial), he had the Pink Tower Presentation and a couple of Extensions.

First, we sorted the blocks from smallest to biggest (and vice versa).

Then we made a tower.

Then we went on to the Brown Stair Presentation and a couple of extensions.

First, we sorted the boards from smallest to biggest.

Then, we started building the tower.

 

He kept building it over and over! He loved these activities so much that
I left these in his room for him to play with them anytime he wants.

We also had Bible class every day (reviewed the Creation story, The Fall, and introduced the story of Noah and the Ark), Circle Time (including Calendar and other activities like singing), Snack Time, Outdoor Time, and Art (he played with play dough).  

In Math, we traced numbers in a sand tray. 
In Language Arts, we traced letters in the sand tray (upper case and lower case).  
In Science, I introduced magnetism. 
In Culture, we talked about globes and how the world is round like a ball. 
In Music, we explored vibration and used a tuning fork. He absolutely loved this lesson. 
In Chinese, we learned the numbers from 0-10 and in Spanish we reviewed 0-5 and introduced 6-10.
In Practical Life, we practiced how to walk in a circle, walk along a line, walk around a mat, walk around a vase, walk with a vase, walk with a tray, walk with a cup, walk with a book, and walk to music.  He also practiced how to carry, unroll, and roll up a mat (used a lot for Montessori activities).

All in all, we have this kind of fun for 2-2.5 hours daily.  He loves channeling his energy into purposeful activities and he loves the attention and he enjoys learning, too.

Please let me know if you are interested in knowing more about any of these activities.  As you can see, we do so much that it's hard to post every single detail, but I don't mind going in depth if someone asks. :)

Homemade Toothpaste & Mouthwash

Recipe #1

Baking soda
Coconut oil
5-10 drops of Peppermint essential oil (therapeutic grade, 100% pure)
2 drops of Clove essential oil (therapeutic grade, 100% pure)
Make a paste with all of the ingredients above until desired consistency. It will thicken up if it is cold and it will be more oily if it is warmer (properties of coconut oil).

Recipe #2
Baking soda
Grapeseed oil
5-10 drops of Wintergreen essential oil (therapeutic grade, 100% pure)
2 drops of Clove essential oil (therapeutic grade, 100% pure)
pulverized egg shell (1 egg shell) - I used a mortar and pestle
Same thing as above. Make a paste until desired consistency. I made this one last week and I am loving it.  The egg shell has calcium, which helps strengthen teeth, but the fact that it is a powder, it helps to remove plaque and other impurities on the surface of the teeth. I don't want to overdo it, so I will alternate between the two.

Oil Pulling: All I can say is whoa!
I had hear about it, but after talking about it with my neighbor, I became even more curious and decided to try it. I am in shock at how well it works.
Visit this Oil Pulling Website and learn all about it.
In my experience, I used sesame oil and have done it a couple of times. I have felt more energetic and I can see that my teeth are whiter (already, yes, already). It is so simple and so natural that I can see myself using this as a remedy to many ailments, not just to whiten and strengthen teeth. Check it out!

Recipe 3

3 Tablespoons Organic Coconut Oil
4 Tablespoons Baking Soda
10-20 drops grapefruit seed extract
10-20 Drops  therapeutic and food grade organic essential oil of your choice. I love to use spearmint.

Essential oils are safe to be used internally, as long as you essential oils are food grade like Young Living essential oils. 
Essential oils are anti-fungal, anti-viral , antimicrobial and antibiotic.  

I am a Young Living essential oils distributor. You can order from www.youngliving.com and use my distributor number to order if you'd like (1498096).

Mouthwash

Homemade Mouthwash

1/2 cup water (I like to use spring water)

1/2 cup hydrogen peroxide

2-3 tsp baking soda

5 drops essential oils of choice (I prefer a minty flavor like peppermint, spearmint, wintergreen, etc). I also add a few drops of clove because it keeps my mouth bacteria-free longer.
10 drops of grapefruit seed extract (for flavor and for whitening)

Store in air-tight container such as a mason jar with a plastic lid. 
Shake before using. 
It will be fizzy.

Homemade Makeup Remover Recipes

To see my post on Homemade Natural Face Wash Recipes, click here.

Wrapping Up the First Week! :D

It was fun learning today. Today was Science and Culture day! We had Circle Time (I know, I still have to list all of the stuff we do during this time. I'll do it another time because it is a lot of great stuff), we sang and danced, we had Bible class, did a little bit of handwriting, and we reviewed Chinese and Spanish, too.  

After that, we had a snack and then got ready for Culture (Geography) class.  Today, K learned about Land, Sea, and Air. We talked about these three concepts and then made a craft with the animals that live in each of these places.  He did really well.  Then we did the same, but instead of animals, it was modes of transportation.  It was really fun for him, since he loves cars, trains, airplanes, and boats.

I gave him a little break in between classes, so I let him practice his cutting skills.  I gave him a magazine.  He especially liked cutting the boys in superhero costumes.  He's getting better at holding the scissors and cutting.

    

In Science class, he learned about Living and Non-living Things.  We talked about how living things breathe (need air), get hungry (need food), get thirsty (need water), and need a home.  Then we made a craft that we will briefly revisit weekly until he grasps the concept completely.

Day 4: A Bit Iffy, but Good

First of all, baby girl ditched school in the morning and slept the whole 3 hours I had to spend one-on-one with her. So I made myself useful and did a bunch of stuff around the house as well as get a few things done for K's lessons.

K came home and he fell asleep while he was supposed to have Quiet Time in his room.  He hasn't been napping for a little while, so this was a bit surprising.  He must've been super tired because I went in a couple of times to check on him and he was knocked out.  I tried talking to him and he'd look at me and his eyes were obviously heavy with sleep and he'd fall asleep right away.  I did get a ton done around the house, so that's nice.

So, to make a long story short, our lessons today were extra short today because by the time he woke up and had his snack, it was almost time to start dinner.  He loved Circle Time, Bible, and Reading.  He got really fidgety when we started Language Arts and Spanish.  I guess he felt so rested that now he was a ball of energy.

For Language Arts, we focused on MATCHING! Matching everything from matching pictures, matching pictures to names, matching letters (upper case to upper case and upper case to lower case), and matching -at words (cat, mat, rat, etc), -en words (ten, pen, etc), -ip words (chip, rip, etc), and -an words (pan, ran, tan, etc).  He did well.  He was very fidgety.

We practiced our numbers in Chinese and he remembered them all except for five.  That's pretty good for just one lesson.
In Spanish, we learned the numbers from zero to five. He did well, but I could tell he liked Chinese more.
Dinner was delicious and our evening went smoothly. I can't ask for anything else, but to snuggle up with my hubby on the couch for a few minutes before retiring for the night.

Oh, forgot to say that he's getting better and better at cutting, too! He picked it up so quickly!

So the lessons I learned today are:

Be flexible.

Don't let him nap longer than an hour, unless he's had no sleep or he's sick.

Stay encouraged. :)