L.G. Academy "The world is our classroom"
Sharing our homeschooling adventures, recommendations for curriculum and other resources and many fun learning ideas. I am homeschooling my elementary level children. Our homeschooling style would probably be considered “eclectic”. We like to draw ideas from all styles such as structured learning, Charlotte Mason, unit studies, lap books and child led learning. We enjoy being part of a couple local support groups with which we enjoy regular group field trips, outings and social events.
Friday, October 17, 2014
Easy Peasy
Planning our homeschool lessons is easy peasy with easy peasy all in one homeschool, lol. We have been using easy peasy since we started this school year last month and although it is early in the year we are really liking it. We are using it as a base and adding on based on each child's interests. It is freeing up a lot of the planning time I would normally put into our core work. Now I can use that time to find fun stuff for us to do or work on diving deeper into any topics that strike our fancy. I was unsure about all the work being on the computer and all of us staring at the screen all day but we get through the work rather quickly and then can move on to our library books, games, etc. that are not on the computer. I especially like it for the history lessons as that is not my area of expertise and honestly I do not enjoy planning lessons for that subject. This site is worth it just for that in my opinion.
Saturday, August 2, 2014
Planning for the next school year
During summer we have a very light school schedule. We enjoy all of our libraries summer reading activities. They tend to be all science based. We are reading like crazy to earn prizes during summer reading. As long as I squeeze some math in there we have a pretty easy going summer plan. This allows us a lot of free time to play and enjoy the summer but not completely break from school, lose our routine and forget everything from last year. With some of our free time and our constant library trips I spend a chunk of summer planning for our next school year. While the kids are enjoying the libraries summer events like the science days or the Friday movies I get my stack of school books and some free printable calendars and get to work. Nothing is set in stone but I like a rough idea mapped out of what I'd like to introduce to them this year along with core subjects they'll need and of course incorporating things they love into the plan as well. We use a few books and workbooks throughout the year so I can break those down to see where we should be each month throughout the school year in order to hopefully finish our books and reach our goals for the year. I normally use online sources for my planning and core subjects/topics to include in our year but this year I am trying out The Core Knowledge Series: What Your ___ Grader Needs To Know by E.D. Hirsch jr. I have been flipping through them at the library. I love how organized they are but easy to take what you need and make it your own to fit your family. We like flexible plans not rigid curriculum. In these early years and hopefully throughout life learning should be enjoyable and not dreaded. For us flexible lesson planning works great to keep learning enjoyable.
Our plan so far looks something like this...
4th Grade:
What your fourth grader needs to know
1st Grade:
What your first grader needs to know
Both grade levels:
math and grammar workbooks or printed worksheets from free online sources
Easy peasy all in one homeschool (trying this online curriculum this year, it looks fun)
Kahn Academy online math
Xtra Math online math
Field trips and group activities with our homeschool group
Art club and Lego club at the library
Dance classes
Our plan so far looks something like this...
4th Grade:
What your fourth grader needs to know
1st Grade:
What your first grader needs to know
Both grade levels:
math and grammar workbooks or printed worksheets from free online sources
Easy peasy all in one homeschool (trying this online curriculum this year, it looks fun)
Kahn Academy online math
Xtra Math online math
Field trips and group activities with our homeschool group
Art club and Lego club at the library
Dance classes
Friday, February 21, 2014
Enjoying the library
We love our public library. We visit
the library weekly and always leave with a good size stack of books
for each of us. We especially enjoy all the programs during summer
reading that they offer for school aged children. Throughout the
school year we attend the monthly Lego club and bi-weekly story hour.
The story hour we attend is for preschool age (4-5 yrs old), so this
will be Gabi's last year for that program. There are occasional
events for school age children during the school year in addition to
Lego club but they are not on a regular basis and seem to be more
patterned along with holidays. I would love if our library would
offer more for the K-5th crowd. I've brought it up with
our local branch and recently emailed the main branch to see if they
would be interested in starting a monthly daytime program for K-5th
geared toward homeschooling families. Let's hope I get a good reply
back. I have a list of interested families and ideas from other
counties who's library offer programs for homeschoolers ready to go
should the library be willing to work with us.
“When the atmosphere encourages learning, the learning is inevitable.”
― Elizabeth Foss
― Elizabeth Foss
Sunday, January 5, 2014
Weekly Nature Journals
A quick stop at the clearance bins at Joann Fabrics turned up 2 hard back journals with a pretty sunflower print on the cover for 98 cents each. What a great find for some nature journals. We started nature journals last year and I'd love to do it again.
As soon as our current below zero temps pass I hope to get the kids out at least once a week for inspiration for their nature journals. Once spring hits we can go on walks with our journals and a pack of colored pencils. We can search for some fascinating things to draw and write about in our own backyard or on a trip.
Here is a link to another blog with great info to help get started with a nature journal for kids.
http://simplehomemade.net/nature-journaling-with-kids/
I think I should get a nature journal for me too. What better way to spark interest of journaling in your kids than to let me see you doing it too. To bad Joann Fabrics only had 2 of those cute sunflower journals left. I'll be hitting the dollar store soon for a basic small notebook for myself.
"In every walk in nature one receives far more than he seeks." - John Muir
As soon as our current below zero temps pass I hope to get the kids out at least once a week for inspiration for their nature journals. Once spring hits we can go on walks with our journals and a pack of colored pencils. We can search for some fascinating things to draw and write about in our own backyard or on a trip.
Here is a link to another blog with great info to help get started with a nature journal for kids.
http://simplehomemade.net/nature-journaling-with-kids/
I think I should get a nature journal for me too. What better way to spark interest of journaling in your kids than to let me see you doing it too. To bad Joann Fabrics only had 2 of those cute sunflower journals left. I'll be hitting the dollar store soon for a basic small notebook for myself.
"In every walk in nature one receives far more than he seeks." - John Muir
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Leave the kids in charge?!
It's only October but the kids are getting burnt out on our curriculum for school so I said okay then, you plan a school day for yourself. They thought that was a great idea. But then I included some guidelines. They must cover all school subjects (Lang. Arts/reading, math, science, history, art, music and some kind of physical activity). One last thing, it needs to be at grade level. It's not a day full of super easy work. They were still up for it. They both made their list of school plans for today. There was no moaning and groaning about getting to work this morning. If all goes well maybe we will throw more days like this into our schedule.
We also changed it from a "school day" to a "learning day" after a discussion on Tuesday about how learning doesn't stop at the end of a "school day". Learning doesn't stop during summer break. Learning doesn't stop once you finish "school". Learning happens every day of your whole life. So instead of a school day we are enjoying some planned learning time.
Here is Lili's learning plan for the day...
*math with cereal (addition/subtraction/multiplication/division with the use of cereal as our hands on manipulative)
*art- watercolor painting (Art is by far her favorite subject)
*reading- reading a couple library books.
*math/measurement/fractions- baking muffins (measuring ingredients and reading a recipe)
*history - with my help she went through old family photos. Family history sounds like it may be a good topic for our history detour. I am looking for an online program for making a family tree.
*science - snoop through the kitchen for experiments. Lili asked what she could use to make something explode. Since I am not up for explosions indoors I went for a slightly smaller scale of an explosion and gave her baking soda and a bottle of vinegar. Her and Gabi decided to add food coloring and I slipped a large plate under their experimentation cups to catch the "explosion". Although we have done this kind of thing before with baking soda and vinegar they were still excited and impressed with their colorful foaming results. After a couple colorful rounds we cleaned up.
*Physical Ed. - jumping on the couch, playing freeze dance and chase the cats around.
*Building with geometric foam blocks - last minute this was changed to building with Legos
Here is Gabi's learning plan for the day...
*math with cereal (addition/subtraction/and we threw in a little intro to multiplication and division, she can handle it). She was quite proud that she could divide with her cereal. She grasped the concept once she saw it done with the cereal.
*art - painting (art is her favorite also)
*creating and building with play-doh
*math/measurements/fractions - baking cupcakes (Gabi LOVES cupcakes and is always talking about the bakery she will open when she is older.)
*math mat floor game - We have numbers 1-20 written on large pieces of paper and cardboard. We spread them out on the floor and I call out math problems while they jump to the correct answer. Lili's math problems are a little tougher but they take turns so playing with both at once works well.
*science - snooping for experiment ingredients with Lili. Her science for the day was the same, written above.
*physical ed - jumping on the couch and playing freeze dance
*building with foam blocks - she also changed this to Legos and from there set up a whole town of Littlest Pet Shop and continued with her imaginative play for the rest of the afternoon.
Our day went really well. Gabi even cleaned up after herself without complaining which is a big deal for her. I think we're on to something. :)
Here are Lili's banana muffins dusted with confectioners sugar. Yes we are missing two muffins. We had to do a little taste test.
These are Gabi's vanilla cupcakes with her favorite cream cheese frosting. Lili and I helped decorate a few of them.
We also changed it from a "school day" to a "learning day" after a discussion on Tuesday about how learning doesn't stop at the end of a "school day". Learning doesn't stop during summer break. Learning doesn't stop once you finish "school". Learning happens every day of your whole life. So instead of a school day we are enjoying some planned learning time.
Here is Lili's learning plan for the day...
*math with cereal (addition/subtraction/multiplication/division with the use of cereal as our hands on manipulative)
*art- watercolor painting (Art is by far her favorite subject)
*reading- reading a couple library books.
*math/measurement/fractions- baking muffins (measuring ingredients and reading a recipe)
*history - with my help she went through old family photos. Family history sounds like it may be a good topic for our history detour. I am looking for an online program for making a family tree.
*science - snoop through the kitchen for experiments. Lili asked what she could use to make something explode. Since I am not up for explosions indoors I went for a slightly smaller scale of an explosion and gave her baking soda and a bottle of vinegar. Her and Gabi decided to add food coloring and I slipped a large plate under their experimentation cups to catch the "explosion". Although we have done this kind of thing before with baking soda and vinegar they were still excited and impressed with their colorful foaming results. After a couple colorful rounds we cleaned up.
*Physical Ed. - jumping on the couch, playing freeze dance and chase the cats around.
*Building with geometric foam blocks - last minute this was changed to building with Legos
Here is Gabi's learning plan for the day...
*math with cereal (addition/subtraction/and we threw in a little intro to multiplication and division, she can handle it). She was quite proud that she could divide with her cereal. She grasped the concept once she saw it done with the cereal.
*art - painting (art is her favorite also)
*creating and building with play-doh
*math/measurements/fractions - baking cupcakes (Gabi LOVES cupcakes and is always talking about the bakery she will open when she is older.)
*math mat floor game - We have numbers 1-20 written on large pieces of paper and cardboard. We spread them out on the floor and I call out math problems while they jump to the correct answer. Lili's math problems are a little tougher but they take turns so playing with both at once works well.
*science - snooping for experiment ingredients with Lili. Her science for the day was the same, written above.
*physical ed - jumping on the couch and playing freeze dance
*building with foam blocks - she also changed this to Legos and from there set up a whole town of Littlest Pet Shop and continued with her imaginative play for the rest of the afternoon.
Our day went really well. Gabi even cleaned up after herself without complaining which is a big deal for her. I think we're on to something. :)
Here are Lili's banana muffins dusted with confectioners sugar. Yes we are missing two muffins. We had to do a little taste test.
These are Gabi's vanilla cupcakes with her favorite cream cheese frosting. Lili and I helped decorate a few of them.
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Youtube?
Lili loves all things in the arts... music, singing, dance, movies, theater, drawing, painting, etc.... The list could keep on going. She has been learning to play the recorder, piano and ukalele. She can not choose just one instrument. We have done well with beginning to read music. She can play a few songs on both the recorder and the piano. We have also learned a few chords on the ukalele. We needed to move on from the small book of songs for the recorder. She wants to learn to play songs she knows. While searching for help online to find new sheet music that is still on a beginner level we kept finding all these Youtube videos of children and adults playing the recorder. Lili enjoyed watching them. Then we found some videos that include the notes to play and you play along with. This was wonderful. Lili has never sat and played for that long before. It seemed to really help that she was playing along with someone and could hear how her notes sounded compared to theirs. She has learned a couple new songs from using these Youtube videos. I never would have thought to use Youtube in our school day. Here is a link to one of the Youtube videos she liked. We have subscribed to her and hope to find more videos as we go.
Youtube Recorder
Lili really like playing Rain Rain Go Away :D
Youtube Recorder
Lili really like playing Rain Rain Go Away :D
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Let's just play today
This article is long but worth the read. I makes me want to tweak our days a little to free up even more time for play. I think we already get in more play time than the average. But no where as much as what is described in this article. But times have changed and I can't just open the door and let my kids run off unattended. What I can do is find the balance between learning what is needed for school work, encouragement to explore their own interests, extra curricular activities and last but definitely not least, as much playing as we can. They're only young for a short time. Here is the article...
http://www.aeonmagazine.com/being-human/children-today-are-suffering-a-severe-deficit-of-play/
http://www.aeonmagazine.com/being-human/children-today-are-suffering-a-severe-deficit-of-play/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)