Before summer even began, my mind was getting into gear for our home academy 2012/2013 year. My goal right now is to NOT let their brains atrophy for summer break. I purchased workbooks to keep them busy and to also see how many concepts they understand for the upcoming year.
In March, I spent a day or so looking around at the multi-subject workbooks and landed on this brand:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1609963326/ref=oh_details_o06_s00_i05
I purchased the pre-K, Grade 3, and 6. This keeps them a bit busy and covers the three "R's" so to speak.
Generally speaking, our little home academy is going to cover these other areas each day:
The arts
Imaginative play
Physical fitness
Relationship building
Organization/Time management
General chore upkeep (geared for ability and age)
We've also got some weekly stuff set up. Sis has piano lessons, and I am going to try to keep encouraging her to work in drama. She is not yet open to the idea of being on stage, but she is no doubt very much "into" performance, directing, producing, etc. She loves to entertain and make people laugh. She produces little short films and podcasts on her own. The podcasts are hilarious and modeled after NPR's Cartalk. I laugh so hard I cry.
Little Y is amazing and smart and I love to teach that guy. He listens and asks appropriate questions...it's unique for boys that age and I'm eating every minute of it up. Last week we learned the skill of cutting with scissors - he had so much fun cutting out the numbers and matching them with the corresponding domino dots. We are starting on letters as well, and he can identify most if not all. We are working on sounding them out, and so for him, I am thinking he will be an "early" reader but no pressure.
Big brother is of course going to be a joy because he wants to learn and understand. Last Friday something was eating him. Really eating him and we didn't know what it was. I wondered if it was because school was over and he was worried about home school, or missing his best buds, or something like that. At bedtime I asked him again what was wrong and he finally had a little break down and told me. He said he felt stupid because, "everyone in my class knows multiplication but me!!"...I loved his class and the idea of high ability placement...but there was a negative aspect...he was comparing himself (a true second grader)...to a ten year old!! AGH! The class had a bit of a mixture, including one of his best friends who was actually held back a year. So of course I told him, yes, third graders learn their multiplication facts and he is not technically in third grade, had an A in math, and is doing fabulously!! Poor little dude! To have that eating at him is so sad and somehow endearing at the same time. I love him.
I'm toying around with how all of this goes down during the day. I handed out checklists for this week, but I'm thinking that I will have to start announcing times for each thing...I was hoping they could or would want to be more independent but yesterday some of the stuff didn't get done.
I think I'll be starting another blog maybe just for myself and adding tags of "goals", and specific subjects and activities that we do each day and week. Probably a LOT less wordy than this just to keep myself from feeling like I do "nothing" (yes, wahms and sahms feel that way, even though we never sit down for more than three minutes)...and to be keeping accountable that we are organizing enough to cover each subject.
In March, I spent a day or so looking around at the multi-subject workbooks and landed on this brand:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1609963326/ref=oh_details_o06_s00_i05
I purchased the pre-K, Grade 3, and 6. This keeps them a bit busy and covers the three "R's" so to speak.
Generally speaking, our little home academy is going to cover these other areas each day:
The arts
Imaginative play
Physical fitness
Relationship building
Organization/Time management
General chore upkeep (geared for ability and age)
We've also got some weekly stuff set up. Sis has piano lessons, and I am going to try to keep encouraging her to work in drama. She is not yet open to the idea of being on stage, but she is no doubt very much "into" performance, directing, producing, etc. She loves to entertain and make people laugh. She produces little short films and podcasts on her own. The podcasts are hilarious and modeled after NPR's Cartalk. I laugh so hard I cry.
Little Y is amazing and smart and I love to teach that guy. He listens and asks appropriate questions...it's unique for boys that age and I'm eating every minute of it up. Last week we learned the skill of cutting with scissors - he had so much fun cutting out the numbers and matching them with the corresponding domino dots. We are starting on letters as well, and he can identify most if not all. We are working on sounding them out, and so for him, I am thinking he will be an "early" reader but no pressure.
Big brother is of course going to be a joy because he wants to learn and understand. Last Friday something was eating him. Really eating him and we didn't know what it was. I wondered if it was because school was over and he was worried about home school, or missing his best buds, or something like that. At bedtime I asked him again what was wrong and he finally had a little break down and told me. He said he felt stupid because, "everyone in my class knows multiplication but me!!"...I loved his class and the idea of high ability placement...but there was a negative aspect...he was comparing himself (a true second grader)...to a ten year old!! AGH! The class had a bit of a mixture, including one of his best friends who was actually held back a year. So of course I told him, yes, third graders learn their multiplication facts and he is not technically in third grade, had an A in math, and is doing fabulously!! Poor little dude! To have that eating at him is so sad and somehow endearing at the same time. I love him.
I'm toying around with how all of this goes down during the day. I handed out checklists for this week, but I'm thinking that I will have to start announcing times for each thing...I was hoping they could or would want to be more independent but yesterday some of the stuff didn't get done.
I think I'll be starting another blog maybe just for myself and adding tags of "goals", and specific subjects and activities that we do each day and week. Probably a LOT less wordy than this just to keep myself from feeling like I do "nothing" (yes, wahms and sahms feel that way, even though we never sit down for more than three minutes)...and to be keeping accountable that we are organizing enough to cover each subject.
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