It's only week one into her kindergarten year and already I am doubting myself and whether or not I can really do this. I'm always tired, never have any energy, seem to have lost my ability to organize and plan, and I don't know why? I'm on new medication that has been taking me for a loop, I'm not eating right, I'm not exercising, I'm not getting out of the house, and I'm feeling very overwhelmed. How can I be a good teacher if I'm so tired to even do it? Plus it's not helping that I teach her something and literally 2 seconds later she has no idea what I'm talking about, doesn't matter how many times we go over it, she can't or won't concentrate nor remember what I teach. Maybe I'm just having a bad week and it will get better; plus everyone always says it takes around a year to get used to homeschooling. I am not a quitter by any means but I don't want to sacrifice her education for me not being able to get my shit together. I don't know what to do, mainly cause I don't know why I am feeling bad all the time? Guess I'll just press on and try and pull myself together.
BTW Aurora drew a VERY good picture of a peacock today! So proud of her!
Showing posts with label homeschooled. Show all posts
Showing posts with label homeschooled. Show all posts
Friday, June 4, 2010
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
First Day of Kindergarten
Well we had our first day of kindergarten today, something I've been waiting to do for a very long time now. It feels really good knowing that I only have one thing to worry about in my life...and that is my daughters education.
Today we did history, science, reading, and writing. For history/social studies we looked at what it means to be a family and the different types of families and she worked on learning her address. For science we discussed the difference between living and non-living things; we watched a video and played a game all online on the subject. For reading I read another chapter in Charlotte's Web to her, she read one of her books using the TAG system and then we briefly reviewed letters A-E just to make sure she still remembered upper and lower case forms, sounds, and a word or two that started with the letter. And finally for writing I just had her write out the letters A-E in both upper and lower case form just to refresh her. We were going to make homemade donuts today for "National Donut Day" but we just didn't have time and we were both very tired. My husband Chad started night shift tonight so we wanted to spend a little time with him before he went to work.
Today we did history, science, reading, and writing. For history/social studies we looked at what it means to be a family and the different types of families and she worked on learning her address. For science we discussed the difference between living and non-living things; we watched a video and played a game all online on the subject. For reading I read another chapter in Charlotte's Web to her, she read one of her books using the TAG system and then we briefly reviewed letters A-E just to make sure she still remembered upper and lower case forms, sounds, and a word or two that started with the letter. And finally for writing I just had her write out the letters A-E in both upper and lower case form just to refresh her. We were going to make homemade donuts today for "National Donut Day" but we just didn't have time and we were both very tired. My husband Chad started night shift tonight so we wanted to spend a little time with him before he went to work.
Saturday, May 22, 2010
I am finally a college graduate!!
As of May 14th I became the proud owner of an associates degree in applied science in Emergency Preparedness Technology!! Yes I am officially done with school..... now its time to focus on my daughter in full!
Ever since school ended I have been in plan mode for all her lessons. We will begin on June 1st with kindergarten material. I actually thought that we would just take the summer and do pre-school review and start kindergarten in the Fall but when I researched all of what is usually taught and learned in pre-school I found that Aurora all ready knew all of it........so I graduated her too! I made up a really cute pre-school certificate and put my graduation cap and gown on her and took a picture of her holding her certificate.
I planned on using Saxon homeschool math K but I just received it today and I don't like it at all. It moves WAY to slow and Aurora already knows half of what is covered. So I will be making all of her lessons from scratch for every subject, which is fine cause I feel like I have more control over what she learns from where and how. And I'm almost done planning all lessons for the first 2 weeks.
She is so excited to start homeschooling; she practically begs me to do it everyday and it really hurts to say no (cause I'm not ready) but I usually give her something small to work on to satisfy her appetite. I'm so lucky to have a daughter that loves to learn......and learn from mommy at that!
Ever since school ended I have been in plan mode for all her lessons. We will begin on June 1st with kindergarten material. I actually thought that we would just take the summer and do pre-school review and start kindergarten in the Fall but when I researched all of what is usually taught and learned in pre-school I found that Aurora all ready knew all of it........so I graduated her too! I made up a really cute pre-school certificate and put my graduation cap and gown on her and took a picture of her holding her certificate.
I planned on using Saxon homeschool math K but I just received it today and I don't like it at all. It moves WAY to slow and Aurora already knows half of what is covered. So I will be making all of her lessons from scratch for every subject, which is fine cause I feel like I have more control over what she learns from where and how. And I'm almost done planning all lessons for the first 2 weeks.
She is so excited to start homeschooling; she practically begs me to do it everyday and it really hurts to say no (cause I'm not ready) but I usually give her something small to work on to satisfy her appetite. I'm so lucky to have a daughter that loves to learn......and learn from mommy at that!
Monday, November 16, 2009
But mom, I want to do art!
So I have heard that now for about 4 days straight and it is getting on my nerves. But yeah, I get it, she is really getting into coloring (and getting very good at it BTW), finger painting, and using her new talent......scissors!
Ever since we started the letter books she loves to cut paper, and she colors something at least once a day (fridge is FULL!). But I'm also trying to get her to understand that school is not always about art and that we have to learn about our letters and numbers and lots of other really great stuff.
So I have been trying to combine the two; we learn numbers and letters and add art to the mix. When she is learning her letters we do the books and color pictures that start with that particular letter. With numbers........well I'm still working on that one! And for right now that is all we are really concentrating on because due to my schooling she is a little behind on those things and I want to get her caught up before I go back in the Spring and she gets put on pause once more.
Today we learned the letter H and she came up with 4 words all on her own that started with that letter...(Horse, Helicopter, Heat, and Hug). She also did really well on the letter's F and G last week. She came up with 10 words for the letter F all by herself!
We also read two chapters of Charlotte's web again and a book on Thanksgiving. We went over numbers 11 through 20 (I'm trying to get her to recognize them). Tomorrow we are going to the library for story time!
Ever since we started the letter books she loves to cut paper, and she colors something at least once a day (fridge is FULL!). But I'm also trying to get her to understand that school is not always about art and that we have to learn about our letters and numbers and lots of other really great stuff.
So I have been trying to combine the two; we learn numbers and letters and add art to the mix. When she is learning her letters we do the books and color pictures that start with that particular letter. With numbers........well I'm still working on that one! And for right now that is all we are really concentrating on because due to my schooling she is a little behind on those things and I want to get her caught up before I go back in the Spring and she gets put on pause once more.
Today we learned the letter H and she came up with 4 words all on her own that started with that letter...(Horse, Helicopter, Heat, and Hug). She also did really well on the letter's F and G last week. She came up with 10 words for the letter F all by herself!
We also read two chapters of Charlotte's web again and a book on Thanksgiving. We went over numbers 11 through 20 (I'm trying to get her to recognize them). Tomorrow we are going to the library for story time!
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Sooo Tired
Just to make this real quick we did art and history today. With art we talked about painting, looked at some painting and talked about them and then we painted little wooden pieces. She did a wonderful job on her tiny bird house.
And for history I taught her what a globe and a map means. Also, I taught her that there are 7 continents and 4 oceans plus the names of all. We also pointed out what country we live in and the state. She was really antsy during this lesson so I'm not 100% of the amount learned but we'll be reviewing on Thursday too, so we will see.
I also read to her alittle and went over again the days of the week.
And for history I taught her what a globe and a map means. Also, I taught her that there are 7 continents and 4 oceans plus the names of all. We also pointed out what country we live in and the state. She was really antsy during this lesson so I'm not 100% of the amount learned but we'll be reviewing on Thursday too, so we will see.
I also read to her alittle and went over again the days of the week.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Ohio and Today's Lessons
Well I guess it's a big my bad for not writing for so long but life unfortunately gets in the way sometimes. And today is not really any different, it's already 10pm and I have to get up early for my internship so this is going to be brief...
Aurora and I spend 3 weeks in Ohio visiting friends and family while daddy stayed home =( cause he couldn't get the time off work. I planned ABC and 123 lessons for her while we were up there, and it was enough to last the entire time there. Those were the only lessons I brought due to not wanting to "over pack".
Well after about day 3 of these lessons I realize that no matter how I come at her with the information (games, worksheets, hands on, verbal, etc) she just wasn't getting it, it just wasn't clicking for her. She was getting frustrated and frankly so was I (and I was actually being very patient). So I took to a couple of homeschooling groups I'm on and asked what I should do about it. Now I guess I should also tell you that this is not the first, second, or even third time I have attempted to teach her to recognize the alphabet and her numbers. The wonderful women gave me all real good advice but one stuck out.... just quit and come back to it! It may sound drastic or along the lines of giving up instead of trying harder or sticking to it but it really made the most sense to me. So I made the drastic move and stopped all the lessons all together! I know my child just as every other homeschooling mom or dad knows theirs and I felt that she was still not quite ready for this material yet; even at the age of 4 1/2! But to me this is all the beauty of homeschooling, you can stop something and come back to it at a later time for better comprehension; you can basically take your time on what you need time on.
So long story short since all I brought to Ohio were lessons of ABC's and 123's (and my mothers Internet was running at dial up speed, and the printer was out of ink) I was unable to proceed with homeschooling till I got back to NC. Now I did read to her a lot, play with her and teach her things here and there but nothing major. I did feel bad and sad though that yet again her education basically had to be put on hold.
But now we are back home and have been for a little over a week and we officially (again) started school today. I planned a math, science, and writing lesson today and then daddy read to her before she went to bed.
For math she was working on more or less and while doing that she actually did addition all by herself. When i was holding up a #3 and #2 flashcard, she pointed and said "mommy if you put 3 and 2 together they make 1,2,3,4,5.... they make 5"! OMG, I couldn't believe it, I was soooo proud of her for figuring that out all by herself. We did a couple of worksheets on the subject and played with Lego's trying to figure out which group of Lego's had more or less in it.
For science I reviewed her five senses with her. I read her a short story on them, and drew pictures of an eye, nose, mouth/tongue, ear, and a hand on our large white board and asked her which body part belonged with which sense and she did wonderful, although for some reason instead of saying taste she often says lick or eat, but she'll get it.
For writing/English we started a letter of the week thing and since this is the first week (again) we are doing the letter A (duh). So she traced the capital/uppercase A and the lower case a. She also got writing in by putting her name on her worksheets and writing numbers for math on those worksheets (see, I'm slippin those ABC's and 123's in a little at a time).
And then to round it out I started to teach her the days of the week. All in all I think she got a 92 out of 100 today on being good and learning!!! I can't wait for tomorrow!!!!
Aurora and I spend 3 weeks in Ohio visiting friends and family while daddy stayed home =( cause he couldn't get the time off work. I planned ABC and 123 lessons for her while we were up there, and it was enough to last the entire time there. Those were the only lessons I brought due to not wanting to "over pack".
Well after about day 3 of these lessons I realize that no matter how I come at her with the information (games, worksheets, hands on, verbal, etc) she just wasn't getting it, it just wasn't clicking for her. She was getting frustrated and frankly so was I (and I was actually being very patient). So I took to a couple of homeschooling groups I'm on and asked what I should do about it. Now I guess I should also tell you that this is not the first, second, or even third time I have attempted to teach her to recognize the alphabet and her numbers. The wonderful women gave me all real good advice but one stuck out.... just quit and come back to it! It may sound drastic or along the lines of giving up instead of trying harder or sticking to it but it really made the most sense to me. So I made the drastic move and stopped all the lessons all together! I know my child just as every other homeschooling mom or dad knows theirs and I felt that she was still not quite ready for this material yet; even at the age of 4 1/2! But to me this is all the beauty of homeschooling, you can stop something and come back to it at a later time for better comprehension; you can basically take your time on what you need time on.
So long story short since all I brought to Ohio were lessons of ABC's and 123's (and my mothers Internet was running at dial up speed, and the printer was out of ink) I was unable to proceed with homeschooling till I got back to NC. Now I did read to her a lot, play with her and teach her things here and there but nothing major. I did feel bad and sad though that yet again her education basically had to be put on hold.
But now we are back home and have been for a little over a week and we officially (again) started school today. I planned a math, science, and writing lesson today and then daddy read to her before she went to bed.
For math she was working on more or less and while doing that she actually did addition all by herself. When i was holding up a #3 and #2 flashcard, she pointed and said "mommy if you put 3 and 2 together they make 1,2,3,4,5.... they make 5"! OMG, I couldn't believe it, I was soooo proud of her for figuring that out all by herself. We did a couple of worksheets on the subject and played with Lego's trying to figure out which group of Lego's had more or less in it.
For science I reviewed her five senses with her. I read her a short story on them, and drew pictures of an eye, nose, mouth/tongue, ear, and a hand on our large white board and asked her which body part belonged with which sense and she did wonderful, although for some reason instead of saying taste she often says lick or eat, but she'll get it.
For writing/English we started a letter of the week thing and since this is the first week (again) we are doing the letter A (duh). So she traced the capital/uppercase A and the lower case a. She also got writing in by putting her name on her worksheets and writing numbers for math on those worksheets (see, I'm slippin those ABC's and 123's in a little at a time).
And then to round it out I started to teach her the days of the week. All in all I think she got a 92 out of 100 today on being good and learning!!! I can't wait for tomorrow!!!!
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
New Homeschool Group
So, I am part of this networking site just for mothers called CafeMom.com and I love this place! NO men NO kids, just moms! They have tons of groups on there you can join for just about any and everything your interested in; including homeschool. Now they do have tons of homeschool groups in general but when I was looking to see if there was one that just had various homeschooling resources tested by homeschooling moms.........nope didn't have one..........so I created one.
Homeschooling Resources is the new group on CafeMom.com that all homeschoolers and those thinking about homeschooling can go to look up reviews on books, curriculum, and websites. It also allows moms to put their ideas and organization techniques up on the board. There is a place for lesson plans, unit studies, and websites. I just started in this past Sunday and we already have 61 members!!!! My hope is that it turns into a valuable resource within itself that thousands of homeschooling moms around the world can turn to when they need fresh ideas! If you would like to join you must be a cafemom.com member first (and it's free to sign up) and then you just go to this link and sign up
http://www.cafemom.com/group/homeschoolingresources
Also, I found out that I will be traveling up to Ohio for about 2 1/2 weeks from the 3rd of August till about the 20th to visit with family before my Fall internship for my degree starts. I was looking forward to just getting on a decent schedule with homeschooling Aurora at home but it looks like i'll be doing it for a few weeks up there; but hey that's ok, that is the beauty of homeschool.... you can do it anywhere.
I'll post when I get up there and let you all know how I am doing with it.
Homeschooling Resources is the new group on CafeMom.com that all homeschoolers and those thinking about homeschooling can go to look up reviews on books, curriculum, and websites. It also allows moms to put their ideas and organization techniques up on the board. There is a place for lesson plans, unit studies, and websites. I just started in this past Sunday and we already have 61 members!!!! My hope is that it turns into a valuable resource within itself that thousands of homeschooling moms around the world can turn to when they need fresh ideas! If you would like to join you must be a cafemom.com member first (and it's free to sign up) and then you just go to this link and sign up
http://www.cafemom.com/group/homeschoolingresources
Also, I found out that I will be traveling up to Ohio for about 2 1/2 weeks from the 3rd of August till about the 20th to visit with family before my Fall internship for my degree starts. I was looking forward to just getting on a decent schedule with homeschooling Aurora at home but it looks like i'll be doing it for a few weeks up there; but hey that's ok, that is the beauty of homeschool.... you can do it anywhere.
I'll post when I get up there and let you all know how I am doing with it.
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