Home Education at Our House: Week 1
Since there are around 26 weeks left in the year (give or take a few) and 26 letters in the alphabet, I've decided to dedicate one week per letter for the rest of the year using Teach Them To Your Children as our guide. This book offers a poem, story, and verse for each letter of the alphabet so I'm choosing our memory work and character focus based upon this.As I know some of you are looking for ideas for your little ones, I thought I'd share each week some of what we are doing for home education at our house. I'm attempting to only use resources we already have on hand, resources I can find on the internet, and resources from our library. While you won't necessarily readily have all of these resources available, perhaps some of what I share will be an inspiration to your family as you seek to train your children up in the ways of the Lord.
Here's this week's lesson plan:
Week #1: The Letter "A"
Memory Verse: "And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily as to the Lord."
Character Theme: Diligence using first story/poem from Teach Them To Your Children
Song: "And Whatsoever Ye Do"
Tracing Sheets: A is For Apple
Letter Review: ABC letter-readings from Alpha-Phonics (at the back of the book for those who have this book--I just have her read half a page per day and plan to review these at least a few times per week while we're studying A, B, and C. We'll continue on like this with each letter so that in 26 weeks, she should be very familiar with all the letters and their sounds).
Science Study: Ants (we checked out books from the library on ants)
Books to Read (1-2 per day, all somehow related to diligence/working/helping):
God Gives Us Work*
Helping Mother*
Baking Day*
Molly Helps Mother*
The Hole in the Dike
Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie!
*These are all Little Jewel books (highly recommended!) available from Rod and Staff Publishers.
Lengthier Book to Finish (read a chapter or so per day): The Courage of Sarah Noble
We usually do our Bible/character time in the mornings during or after breakfast. We just stay at the table and I read one story out of Kathrynne's Bible (The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes), we review the ABC Memory Book verses, and then we review our memory verse of the week, talk about diligence, and sing our song of the week.
While I'm doing my morning chores, I usually sit Kathrynne down for a few minutes and have her work on the tracing sheet in at the kitchen table. I have a few more Rod and Staff workbooks that I want to do with her during this time as well, but I'm trying to start out slowly and not be an over-achiever!
After or during lunch, we read one or two short story books and review the letters from Alpha-Phonics. Before naptime/quiet time, we read some more--usually a chapter or so from the lengthier book we're working through that week or some library books.
If you all have any great ideas to add, please do so! I welcome your suggestions as I'm just barely getting my feet wet with this whole homeschooling thing. We're having a blast, though, so I think that's what's most important!
Labels: Home Education at Our House, Homeschooling
posted by Crystal Paine at 6:05 PM
39 Comments:
I don't have any really creative ideas for the letter A, but if you still have any uncooked hot dogs left that you wrote about having this week, save one for "C" and if you cut half way through the hot dog at 1/4 inch intervals starting one inch away from the top, when you boil it, it will turn into a "C". I got this from M. Jean Soyke's Early Education at Home and my daughter loved it!
Hi, Crystal!
I'm a veteran homeschooler (something like 14 years, I think; I've graduated one from home high school already!) and, in addition to having your daughter trace the letters on paper, you might consider having her "write" the letters with her finger in shaving cream, sand, rice, pudding, etc. This type of learning is especially good for tactile and kinesthetic learners. When she is familiar with several letters (and numbers), you can write the letter/number on a full sheet of paper, spread the sheets of paper around on the floor, and have her step or jump onto the correct letter/number as you call it out. And don't forget matching games in which she matches like letters or capital letters with their lowercase companions! There are so many ways to learn outside of workbooks (not that there is anything inherently with workbooks!) so please don't pressure yourself into too much "seat work" at this early stage!
Susan
Kaitlyn is getting soooo big. She still looks at cute as ever.
Sounds like fun. I love my preschool time each day with my little ones (so much more fun than trudging through Pre-Algebra and diagramming sentences with the older ones).
I have a book called Alphabet Cooking (from Angel-in-a-cloud cookies to Zebra Pudding Cups, Fun recipes for Children, from A to Z) by Elaine Magee that I picked up on clearance at Borders a few years ago. I like to pull it out when we do specific letters. Even if you can't find the book at the library, food is fun to incorporate into letters (A-avacado, apricots, asiago cheese, etc.)
I look forward to reading more of what you come up with.
Thanks for sharing,
Erin
Okay, another comment on the same post . . .
I just pulled out my favorite character book put out by Character First (not overtly Christian, but a helpful resource). I love their succinct information on character.
For diligence they say it is the opposite of slothfulness. It is "investing my time and energy to complete each task assigned to me." It requires planning, vision, focus, and clarity. This sounds so key for raising future keepers at home, and helping encourage each of us in our roles as well. I know I run out of diligence around 12:30 pm most days . . .
I may just follow your lead here, we are in between character traits right now, and I think diligence would hit the spot at the moment.
~Erin
We did the one letter a week thing this year with Hannah and I was surprised how well it worked. We're planning to go through again another time before the end of the year (convenient how the year is two alphabets long!). We just did the simple phoneme this time, and I'm trying to decide if I should add more the second time around. Good idea to match your Bible verse to the letter - I had grand plans of doing that but got sidetracked. You're such a good planner-in-advancer (or however you say that!) :)
Great plan. Since, you and I have two children the same age. Hannah(3in half) and Kyle (1 year on June 26th, o8) It was a huge help to read your plan. Although, Hannah is no where in the reading stages as your little one. But kids all do different things. Anyway, would you please share with me how you organize you lesson plans. I mean I plan what I want to do but getting eveything planned out and books picked out and such is confusing. So, I get overwhelmed at planning what to do with her.
This is similar to what we are doing in our home. I am atill perfecting it though. I think you have a great plan.Thanks for sharing.
www.letteroftheweek.com
Its AMAZING!!
The #1 thing that has helped our kids with pre-reading is Leap Frog's "Letter Factory" dvd. Not only is it a wonderfully entertaining way to teach the little one's their letters and sounds, it's reasonably priced. Usually around $5-6 at WM. I highly recomend the entire series, but "Letter Factory" is by far the best of them all.
If you do buy it Crystal, don't blame me if you are humming and singing the song all the time.
I used to sing it while I was sleeping. My husband still laughs at that one!
Go here and see tips on how to make a cute Apple Tree fingerpaint style.
Are you still reading the Little House series, or did you stop on those? :) We had so much fun with those last winter -- perfect for the long cold days!! :)
Right now we're taking a break from most book work -- I've been letting the boys play outside a ton. I have to be out there with them the whole time, so our inside time is very full with trying to do meals and other basics. :) I figure we'll do this for the summer. :)
One thing my son had a great time doing is we made an alphabet book together. A was for airplane and we glued down bits of airplance scrapbook paper, C was car and he dipped the wheels of his hotwheels into paint and traced the C. Then he would think up other words that started with that and I would write it for him. That was three years ago and he still likes to look at it and I have fond memories of the time we spent together and that he learned the alphabet effortlessly!
Hi Crystal,
I am a veteran homeschoooler(just finished our 7th year). I did the preschool thru 2nd grade years using the resources and ideas that I found on the internet. I just finished the preschool years with my 4th child so I when I started my blog I took the time to write down all the websites that I used thier resources or gleaned information from to use with her. You will find my list here.
When I did the alphabet, I would take them to the grocery store and find things that started with the letter we were working on. I also got some old magazines and made up our own flashcards with pictures of each letter.
Enjoy these years! Make them fun for both of you because this is when their joy for learning can be zapped. Find ways to do things out away from the "seatwork".
I have homeschooled 3 children through preschool and kindergarten (wow does time fly!) so I have a little experience you could say :)
The only thing I would add are things that improve fine motor skills such as cutting, picking up small things with fingers, or cutting, pasting and gluing items to a piece of paper. For my children, I would simply draw out shapes and curved lines on a piece of paper and have them cut it out with scissors. Then I would have them glue things onto a large letter of the week, ie for the letter B, glue buttons, C glue cotton etc. I also purchased some lacing cards so they could sew with me. For math at this age it is all manipulatives, like counting bears, tangrams etc.
I think Rod & Staff carries a workbook called Do It Carefully that will cover most of the fine motor skills. I also like Little Hands To Heaven although I find I liked choosing my own books but the website shows a good overview of what to do in a day. http://www.heartofdakota.com/little-hands.php
You are doing great!
For preschool we've really enjoyed Before Five in a Row. You can check it out at fiveinarow.com. You sound like you're doing a great job.
I taught Young Five's for four years (now staying home with my two little girls). A fun activity that I had the class make was a Messy Art Book. I had a fun art activity for each letter of the alphabet, and then at the end of the school year each child would have a book to take home. If you would like the activities we did, you can email me.
Crystal,
We are just beginning our third year of homeschooling with two young ones. I am inspired by all of your ideas and book suggestions. I too get in the over-achiever mode and then seem to hit a burn-out point. Thank you for the reminder to not over do it.
It looks like you're starting off really well. This is similar to what I do with my three-year-old. I've the website http://www.hubbardscupboard.org/index.html to be extremely helpful.
Also, my friend just put up a website that is also a great resource. I plan on following the curriculum for 4s starting in August.
But, the main thing I do is make sure my children get plenty of books to read and time to play and explore outside.
I'll look forward to reading more in this series.
I really like your idea of including character training into your home education. It is something I have thought about a lot, but haven't come up with a solid plan of action yet. I'll do some more thinking on it over the summer and see what I can come up with for this fall I guess.
We use learningpage.com tracing sheets: http://www.learningpage.com/pages/menu_basics/alpha_zaner.html , number sheets: http://www.learningpage.com/pages/menu_basics/numbers_zaner.html , and monthly fun sheets:
http://www.learningpage.com/pages/monthly_sets.html ,
For my daughter (starting kindergarten in Sept.) these work great, and have a ton of activities! My two year old joins in the fun, pretending to be in school, too! It helps to keep a schedule during the summer months to keep the continuity of learning.
For the alphabet, we take a blank page for each letter and go through old magazines and find pictures of items/things that start with that letter. We cut them out and paste them on our page. (Of course Mommy needs to help sound out each thing and emphasize the first letter...) After we're done with each letter, we compile them all together into an alphabet book!
I'm starting to think about this type of homeschooling for my 2 year old in the fall. Thanks for sharing this info with us!!!
Crystal,
I have been reading your blog for a few years now and really enjoy it!
We have three children ages 7,4, and 1. Just this week I have decided to get a lot more structured in the little ones activities. Doing more with purpose instead of just being all over the place.
Thanks for recommending that sweet book, we are going to use it!
It would be helpful if I gave you the other website I referred to...
abcjesuslovesme.com
Hope you like it!
I highly recommend the Leap frog dvds as well. I used them for my 4 year old last year and my middle daughter would watch with him and knew all her letter sounds shortly after just turning two. I couldn't believe it! We also have the leap frog talking words factory which is the next dvd in the series and that one helps them put letters together to make simple words once they've mastered all their letter sounds. These dvds were great and fun way to reinforce what I was teaching during school time. I got mine on Amazon marketplace for pennies really. Have fun!
Heather in PA
You should go check out one of my favorite blogger's, Elizabeth Foss, homeschooling blog "Serendipity." The link is here:
http://ebeth.typepad.com/serendipity/
She has been following an "alphabet path" (see link in the left hand column of her blog) for a while now and you might get some great ideas. She is the homeschooling mom (and author) of 8 (almost 9 - she is currently pregnant) children and is awesome. A number of homeschooling moms follow along with her as well, I think that they have an online board as well to discuss lesson ideas for all ages - just checking out her website will give you a wealth of ideas and great books.
Frankly, if you are planning on doing alphabet lesson plans, you HAVE to go see her site. You'll be floored. I'm keeping a lot of her ideas for about a year from now when I can use them with my little guy!:)
Good luck!
Best,
Sarah
I have never homeschooled so this is a question asked purely out of home education ignorance, but I have to say that I winced a bit when I read that schedule. My first thought: she's so little--let her be little! There will be plenty of time for learning letters later!! I never did any "structured" learning with my four before they went to kindergarten and they all knew their letters, numbers, etc. I guess I feel strongly that we need to guard against pushing our children to do soo much soo soon that we don't leave them time to just "be". I know many moms will say "But he's/she's interested. He/she WANTS to learn." Always makes me wonder if it's the child's desire or mom's desire??
I hope I don't come across as mean-spirited or judgmental, as that is certainly not my intent. This is just something that I feel strongly about--in the other direction, I guess! :-) You have a beautiful family and I know you only want God's best for your children.
Jen: I appreciate your concern and I've been hesitant to do much educational things with the girls because I don't want to be an over-achiever. However, (you knew that word was coming, didn't you?!) she is literally *begging* me to do school with her. She is *begging* to learn her letters, to write, to read, etc.
She just eats this stuff up. She would seriously want to do about ten times more than I'm doing with her so with my husband's blessing and my mom's encouragement, I'm seeking to be more intentional and purposeful in providing learning opportunities throughout the day.
Most of all, I want to instill in her--from an early age--a love for the Lord. Nothing else really matters in life, does it? And that's why our Bible time and character training is the first priority in our day. I've found if I don't purposefully plan for this to happen, the day can quickly pass by without me taking time to teach her and instruct her and instill in her the ways of the Lord.
It's an exciting adventure and I'm learning right along with her!
Hi Crystal, I was curious for your opinion on something under Home Education At Our House on your sidebar. I noticed you used Your Baby Can Read and wondered if the series was useful. I found the videos at our library. My two and a half year old little boy seems ready to start learning phonics. He loves teaching times and doing projects and has been asking me to teach him to read. Does anybody else have a good suggestion for teaching phonics to this age.
Sounds like a lot of fun! Actually, fairly similar to what we are doing, but we are going through "Teach them to your children" without focusing on the ABC aspect, and we've stopped working on letter printing for a little while. I think the only other main thing that we are doing differently is that we are teaching Japanese, and we just don't do many songs (hmmm, maybe because I don't like to sing? :)
Instead, we are using "A Home Start in Reading" by Ruth Beechick, which I really love. We have chosen 10 letters to focus on learning the sounds of (but we don't even talk about the letter name) and practice putting together simple words with those sounds. Just today we added two new sounds, and every day we make between 3-8 words, depending on her attention level.
I like how you're doing everything themed. I think it helps to pull it all together. I tend to be pretty eclectic, which I think works as well (for me, and my daughter likes the variety), but I also like the way that you're doing it.
Where did you get all of those books you are reading (God gives us work, etc.)? They sound wonderful, and I would love to have some books with topics like that to assist us in character training! I know you said Rod and Staff, but were they used? Online? Frugal minds want to know!
Thanks for sharing what you're doing! It's helpful to see what another Mom in the same season of life is doing with their little one!
Stephanie: I pretty much get all of our children's books from the library, PaperBackSwap (love it!), or as birthday/Christmas presents. We also borrow some from my mom's "lending library" while we're still building our own library.
My best advice is to keep a list of books, etc. that you'd like to buy for your children and then request them for their birthdays and Christmas. I like almost all of the Rod Staff books and would highly recommend those. Kathrynne loves them, too. :)
When I was teaching my little ones their ABC's, I had them search for items in magazines that started with whatever letter sound we were working on. They cut them out and glued them to construction paper and we compiled all of the pages into a little book.
Ooh, we LOVE those Little Jewel books! I have to hold myself back from buying them all at once. Aren't they sweet?
Great ideas, Crystal. Thank you so much for sharing!
Hi Crystal,
I might be a bit premature here, but would like to share that I am developing a 'curriculum' for preschoolers.
Being a former preschool teacher, I'm familiar with what 2,3, and 4 year olds should know.
But even more than that, I'm familiar with what they DON'T know, and that's the Lord and His ways. (From the public school system standpoint)
I began 'school' with my oldest last summer when he turned three. He BEGGED me as well.
We had no strict schedule, kept it light and fun. NO KIDDING - he's almost four and can read 1st grade level and is trying addition and subtraction.
Seeing there's not many affordable curriculums out there, the Lord prompted me to put "Sonbeams" together. "Raising Up Sunbeams For Him". (Will be found a sonbeams.com when I'm finished)
Each week, we cover a letter, number, color, Bible verse that goes along with the letter of the week, and we'll even have a cd of songs written based on the Scripture verses, music and crafts.
I'd love to let you sample it/ review it - and be one of the first "guinea pigs", just shoot me an email if you're interested.
candace@heaveninourhomes.com.
Seeing this is the first year, I'd like to keep it small - working out the kinks and adding new info. (This means low introductory prices for the 1st year signups)
I've had lots of interest, and what motivates me more is hearing someone in my head that once told me "Do you always think about God in everything!?!"
YES I do, and that's exactly what I intend to do with this program. God is related to everything!
Candace
www.heaveninourhomes.com
www.sonbeams.com
What a sweet photo of your girls!
I hope you do this every week...I want to do it with you!
Crystal,
I absolutely love what you're doing! If there's anything that I wish that I had done when my daughter was little, it is the loving and creative inclusion of the Bible and our Father in our day. (I was a seriously sidetracked Christian at the time...)
I also had a daughter who loved to be challenged and lit up at every opportunity to learn, so I think you're doing just the right thing to respond to her interest the way that you are.
My daughter didn't have a ton of toys, but we included several forms of the alphabet around the house. She had one of those foam alphabet floor puzzles where the letters fit into the squares that are notched so that the squares can then be fitted together. (Incidentally, this was purchased at Goodwill for 1.69 - even the tightest budget is blessed by God when a need presents itself.) They were everywhere at the time, in smaller (say 6" squares) or in larger (approx 10" - 12" squares). They are probably still available online. She ended up hooking the letter-squares together in a line, building circular walls of the squares - you name it, she created with those squares. All through her play she would either be telling me what the letters were or asking me, and I would be asking her as I pointed to some of the letters. (For those thinking that I pushed her, I was simply responding to her interest. If I sensed her attention shifting, I stopped immediately.)
We also had a set of magnetic letters for the refrigerator and she would play with those while I was in the kitchen. And another set of foam letters that were made to float in the tub or stick to the surrounding tile/fiberglass wall. She LOVED bathtime with those!
One of my fondest memories (and cutest pictures) is of her smiling delightedly, sitting next to a long train of her alphabet letters, with the foam puzzle letter topped by the bathtub foam letter topped by the magnetic letter, all in order from A to Z and done so that the sizes of the letters graduated from big on the bottom to small on the top. It's amazing what children will do with the simplest of playthings when allowed to use their intelligence.
Of course, we read to her all the time as well. We would read alphabet board books at first and ask her gently to find the "A", the "P", etc. and she would be totally engaged as she studied the pages. We also had a Sesame Street video (I'm dating myself here, LOL!) that taught a different upbeat version of the alphabet song, along with other visual alphabet gems. It's probably still available on DVD.
A great internet resource for younger children, for wonderful coloring pages and other printable resources that you can incorporate into learning can be found at www.janbrett.com. If you're familiar with her wonderfully illustrated stories (check out the borders on the pages of her books!), you'll recognize some of the characters there. I'm fairly certain that she has alphabet resources on her site.
When my daughter was a toddler (responsible with items in her hands at this point and wonderful at following directions, so know that I used awareness when giving her items to play with), we were driving, nearing home when I gave the restless girl three wrapped straws from lunch to play with. I heard a delighted cry from the back - "I made a "A"!". When I was able to glance back, she had placed two straws into a tent shape on the padded guard of her carseat and crossed it with the third straw. So even everyday items such as craft sticks and plastic straws can reinforce this early learning!
Finally, use that time in the car for singing, repeating learning in fun ways and playing with your children verbally while you drive. When she's ready, Kathrynne can learn how to connect number streams after twenty (up to one hundred) if you make a sing-song game of it with her during road time. (This is pretty basic, once they learn twenty, thirty, etc. because they're repeating the numbers they use the most - one thru nine.) My daughter learned this at about four, because she was so used to us doing something in rhyme or song form while we drove.
Scrabble letters are another usable form, once your youngest is past the "tasting" stage.
It sounds like you're having such fun with this, and most importantly, that Kathrynne is loving it!
So many blessings,
Michelle
This is so helpful! Thanks! Do you buy all of those books or are you able to find them at the library? Sounds kind of expensive to purchase them all, but then again it would be nice to own them.
Oops, sorry, I just realized you already answered my question in the comments. :-)
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