Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Why I love them home part 1 of 1,200,000

There are so many thousands of reason I love that our children are home and that we are able to homeschool them. I love our time together. I love seeing and hearing everything. I love their play. I love teaching and watching them learn and grow. Teaching our children to read and understand Math is way up there on the list of the "Most fulfilling things I've ever done with my children."

Homeschooling is a massive responsibility. At times, I get very anxious about it in fact. I ponder often if I am covering all my bases with each child. We begin our homeschooling year on Monday. We started later this year due to the birth of Clairvaux. I wanted her to be a bit older before we began so I could get a little more consistency out of our day. I am glad we've done that. My Aunt Ange is a veteran homeschooler and gave me that great advice. She also advised not to expect much this year because of having a new baby. So, that is attitude this school year. We are going to focus on the three R's...Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic.

Vianney has somewhat ditched reading only to take up piano. She now practices most of the day.
Early morning reading.

Last week at the library, we checked out 127 books. I asked the lady (jokingly) if most check out this many. She said, "Uh, nope, you are definately in the top 10 for the most checked out books."
Oh, how I LOVE to be themey. Really. I LOVE making our whole day coordinate together. Yesterday, was a blueberry blue day. We read these great books. The Blueberry Pie Elf is my favorite book we have although Peter in Blueberry Land is lovely. The girls wore blue dresses and we made Starbuck's Blueberry Oat Bars.

Dominic's main interest are Science and History so these subjects come quite easily. Along with reading and keeping a journal, I found this great book and plan to let him conduct experiments whenever he wants. He literally spent all day yesterday doing different experiments. He kept a journal about each one. He made a list of supplies he needed from the store. One item he wrote was, "Eggs-the cheap kind."

The book covers Chemistry, Physics, Astronomy, Geography and much more. His favorite was Chemistry. I tried to explain to him that baking is Chemistry. He got it.

This weather screams all things pumpkin. So for today, that was our focus. You can adapt each theme to each age of child. What color is a pumpkin? What shape is a pumpkin or blueberry? I gave them three pumpkins and had them put them in size order. I love that they don't know they are learning.

We made Pumpkin muffins for snack. They were fabulous.






Up next, Hi Hats. Can't wait.

3 comments :

  1. Oh, Peter in Blueberry Land is darling, as is The Orange Shoes. I wish I could just constantly have a list of what you're checking out for your kids so I could get them right after you. Good stuff.

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  2. I'm planning Hi Hats for H week....I could hardly wait to make them once I saw those puppies!!! Let me know how your turn out :)

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  3. Please do let us know what book list you're using! Mine is "Honey For a Child's Heart" by Gladys Hunt. Thanks to your close up pictures, I was able to find many of the books at our library. It is hard to keep enough great books around, my big kids can read through 30 a day, easily.

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