Why do I teach?
Because I see the growth in my child as I teach and because I love doing it. I makes me feel accomplished as a mother and a teacher. It gives me more direction and motivates me to keep trying. Today was not the easiest day of teaching, but thats ok. Whats important is never. giving, up. So far, we have established a "rough" schedule for the way we teach. We follow it some days and other days we do not. As time goes on, I will need to change it. And that's ok. Here is our "rough schedule" so far: 1.singing, Scripture study and reading time (after breakfast) 2.Learning time- we focus on numbers, ABC's, colors, shapes, and today we added days of the week to our learning. This part is not always done in the same order. It changes and some days we only focus on a few of the main subjects so far. This takes up the entire morning and leads us through snacktime and into lunchtime. Today I incorporated an activity at the end of learning time right before lunchtime. 3. Lunchtime-sometimes I play a learning show during this time as well. Today we did not play a show during lunch. surprise! This changes as well. That is our "rough schedule" so far and I'm guessing it will change and get more and more organized as time goes on and especially once we start with a curriculum. But hey, i've still got some time-my baby girl is only 2. I encourage you to just. START TEACHING. If this is what you want to do, then just go for it. make a "rough schedule", and change it up/add to it as you go. It's just a simple start. I hope my ideas for teaching will inspire you to begin your own methods (maybe even use some of the same ones I use) to teach your kids creatively.
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The holidays were a little crazy and not much learning was done but we got right back into it this week. Here is our learning for today: 1. We started off a little backwards this time. Scripture-study and reading time was pushed until later. This morning Emma wanted to play with play-doh so that is how we started. I incorporated counting into this activity as we cut out "cookies" and counted them. 2.We reviewed numbers 1-10, ABC letters and their sounds. Then we went right into the spelling of words. I used flashcards and put them together as we sounded out words. Simple words were sounded out, such as "Cat" and "Dog". I used our mini-blackboard to sound out a few words as well. 3. We used an online spelling App for the Android called , "Kids Learn to Read Lite" to emphasize sounding out letters to make words. **Look at my "Teaching tools" up above for more direct links to learning resources I use or have used. 4. We played online apps on our tablet to help with counting and numbers. **All can be found in my "Teaching Tools" page link up above. I added numbers 1-20 on our number wall because I felt Emma needed to learn past the number 10 now that she pretty much has got that down. Emma colored as I added numbers to our number wall( look at previous blog post for a picture of our # wall) 5. We sang some songs,"Head, shoulders, Knees and Toes" and others. this led us into our scripture study. We looked at a few scripture stories and read a few books. Lunchtime! Emma watched Leapfrog's "The Letter Factory show" while she ate. This link can also be found in my "Teaching Tools" page up above. ...And that's it for our "Learning time" today!
Our learning time takes up the entire morning after breakfast. It's flexible and enjoyable for both Emma and I. In the afternoon, I'd like to incorporate more engaging activities for Emma to do, such as baking, play-doh....or any other creative craft and activity she can do. Remember, she's only 2! Any Ideas? Today we focused mainly on ABC sounds and numbers. After starting off with our song and scripture reading, we read a few books and then we continued learning our ABC's.
I had Emma review each of the ABC sounds and then we used flash cards to review the sounds. Again. I believe its all about repetition. At this point, Emma understands the sounds of letters. I want to introduce new letter combinations, such as "CH", "SH" and "WH" so that when we start reading, she recognizes those sounds. I have flash cards with those new sounds and will put those up alongside my laminated "ABC" wall in Emma's room. Eventually, we continued with our number learning. We reviewed numbers on our # wall. Then I began to draw objects on a piece of paper. Emma had a crayon and would count those objects one at a time, as she crossed them off with her crayon. She enjoys looking at my drawings and then we count as she crosses them off with the crayon- one at a time. An example is posted on the picture slideshow up above. We also played around with number games on our tablet, both links are included above in the "Teaching Tools" page link on my blog. So, what have I been doing to teach Emma so far? I've been creative with my teaching WITHOUT a curriculum so far! I've tried to establish a "learning" schedule that usually consists of the mornings all the way up until lunch time and then naptime. Some days, we may go out and it messes up this schedule but at least we have something started. As for teaching, i've been focusing on numbers, letters, shapes and colors. I use my resources to help Emma understand these concepts a little better. We use online sources, and learning resources(such as shape-toys, crayons, coloring books, laminated letters, flashcards, links to a show on the internet, etc) to help us out with our learning. I include online sources I use in my "Teaching Tools" page category of my blog. I've also been researching and looking into curriculum's so I can start using one of those sometime in the future. Emma is only 2, and just turned 2 in October 2015. Although I teach without a curriculum right now, I feel it is better to start learning now, then regret postponing until later! It is important to follow rules for homeschooling in the state you reside. We live in Texas and luckily, it seems to be pretty flexible. I've been researching options since I would like to pick a curriculum and begin homeschooling with a curriculum for my child. As of now, I'm teaching simply and trying to instill successful learning habits for my child and a "rough" schedule for the both of us. And yes, i'm expecting baby #2 in April 2016 so ill have to adjust accordingly. This is my personal homeschooling experience. Thankfully, after talking with someone who homeschools, they referred me to this website. Look at hslda.org for specifics on your own state's laws. According to what I found, tests are not required with Texas homeschooling, and you only need to make sure you teach reading, spelling, grammar, math, and good citizenship (civics) with a curriculum that is in written or online form and is "not a sham". From what I got, homeschooling is all about what the best fit is for you and your family. I am currently looking into time4learning and will look more into the robinson curriculum. I would like to be able to pick a curriculum I can use throughout all of my child's schooling, I will also be looking more into how to prepare transcripts. Although my daughter is only 2, I want to be prepared and know what I need to be documenting and how to create a transcript so i'm not stressed out when that time finally comes. Refer to this link for the little information I found about creating a transcript, and of course I still need to do a lot more research on this topic: **If you live in Texas and are thinking about homeschooling look at the following as a guide(these are the sources I got my information from):
What was my day like today? Let's see, we woke up, ate, and eventually got around to some learning time. Here's what we did today: 1. Coloring in a coloring book. We talked about different colors as we colored. Emma enjoyed that. We drew a rainbow and talked about the different colors of the rainbow. 2. I had forgotten to do our "spiritual" learning time before starting learning time so we focused on this after coloring. We started with a song and a prayer. We talked about some children's stories from the Book of Mormon as we looked at pictures. We sang a few other primary/church songs as we read. We love music! We are also members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints so I love sharing stories with her that we learn about in the scriptures and in church. 3. This led us to reading some of our books. Any type of reading and learning of stories is important because they learn so much! 4.Then we focused on numbers. We looked at a number book, which displays numbers and objects. I drew some objects on a paper, had Emma count them and she marked an "X" or a line on each object as she counted. We then used online apps on our tablet to help us count objects displayed and trace numbers. I highly recommend using the, "Toddler Counting 1,2,3" app to help your young child start learning how to count just by touching the objects one-by-one. I will also include that in the "Teaching Tools" page up above. Emma has difficulty with counting how many objects are on a page. She knows a lot of numbers but counting the right amount of objects correctly is the hard part. We are getting there. 5. We looked at shapes. We reviewed with shape-toys we have (picture in a previous post) and Emma learned what a "cylinder" is. 6. We ate some apples for our snack and I played leapfrog's The letter factory show (look above in "Teaching Tools" page for more learning links) This show is amazing for letter-learning and sounds. Eventually, once the show was done, we used our "ABC letter-learning wall" to review some letters and their sounds. She is getting good at knowing her letters and their sounds!
7. We danced. Ok, so dancing together may not exactly be "learning time" but it got her tired enough for her nap. Dancing together for a little bit also helps our relationship to grow. We have fun dancing together and she learns to love music and feel the beat! ...And that was our learning time for the day. Today was a typical (mostly) schedule sort of day.
We woke up, we ate breakfast, and eventually we did some learning AGAIN. Isn't this learning thing so much fun?! It is for me. Hopefully some of my own experiences and ideas will spark your own ideas for your own needs in your own families. Here is what we did today: 1. We played with some colors:We used a coloring book and drew a rainbow on one of the pages. I explained the colors of the rainbow to Emma as we drew our rainbow. 2. We reviewed the ABC's and some of their sounds. For this, we used flashcards, as well as our "letter wall"(laminated copies of the ABC's which I stuck on a wall in Emma's bedroom). We also watched the letter factory ABC show, Look at my "Teaching Tools" page for the link to the show we use. 3. We looked at numbers: We haven't focused much on numbers so I realized that I needed to put up a "number wall" in Emma's room, along with our "ABC wall". I just wrote the numbers on some laminated sheets of paper that I had and sticky-tacked those on the wall. This way, she can look at the numbers on her wall at anytime and it'll make it easier to review numbers with her. We also played a few number games online. Look at the "Teaching Tools" page for those APPS. Again, no curriculum usage...yet. And most, if not all tools i'm using to teach Emma have been given to me at some time so I have not been spending a lot of money to teach Emma simple concepts. I just have to get creative! These simple concepts she is learning, will hopefully lead smoothly into a curriculum I decide on and hopefully will prepare her. How did you teach your little one today? I'm not a professional teacher and. i'm definitely not the smartest person in the entire world. But I can say this:
I LOVE MY CHILD. I want what's best for my 2 year old. And I want what's best for my future kids. Every family is different, every situation is different. For us, I believe spending a little more quality time together as we learn will make a difference in our home. Now, let's see if I can prove this statement as I begin my homeschooling experience. For now, i've only been teaching simply without a curriculum(still in the process of deciding which curriculum to pick). Here are some Suggestions for Home-"Learning"-Activities that will benefit your family + kids: 1. Take time to teach your kids- This can be as simple as sitting down and reading books, helping them learn how to tie a shoe, teaching them an instrument or a special hobby you have, etc. The possibilities are endless! 2. Talk with your kids and show them you care- Even though I only have a 2 year old, she loves it when we give her attention and TALK with her.Talk about things she likes and is interested in, as well as new things she can learn. 3. Sing and use clean, fun music in the home-We love this one in our family. We sing nursery rhymes, primary songs( from church), Disney songs, Taylor Swift, etc. We dance to fun upbeat music, we sing karaoke and we play classical music in the home to create a peaceful environment. We love music and Emma knows and loves to sing-and yes, music has helped Emma to learn her ABC's and numbers. 4. Simplify- We have fun here at home. We don't need to go out to a million places to have a good time and learn together. Learning is simple right now. I hope in the future I can keep it simple enough that it is not overwhelming, rather enjoyable. 5. Have fun together- When you take time to teach, talk, sing, listen to music, and simplify your life, you will certainly grow in your relationships together and you will have fun together. And there you have it, some personal advice from a mommy/teacher in training! Let me tell you, teaching a 2 year old can be harder some days than others. Some days, like today, they may not be as focused as other days, but that's ok! I believe the effort we put into it counts and they learn so much more than we give them credit for. It's just about being consistent and establishing habits that will help them to like learning and in a fun way! I've been teaching my 1 year old, now 2 year old (Turned 2 October 22) for a while now, but only recently started blogging about it. The nice thing about blogging is it kind of forces you to develop more of a schedule and become more consistent with teaching because you want to be able to write about it afterwards. Before, I would teach Emma(my 2 year old) some things but maybe I wasn't as consistent about it. consistency is important, especially if you're heading in the direction of homeschooling where the home pretty much becomes the school environment for your kids. So i'm happy to blog and i'm grateful for the consistency it forces me to establish when teaching my babe. As mentioned in a previous post, i'm still deciding which curriculum(s) to use. Right now, i'm simply "homeskooling" my 2 year old in a fun way and helping her to like learning as she learns. That being said, I really like the routine we have established so far. This will probably change in the future, especially when I incorporate curriculum's I decide to use. Nevertheless, for now, simply homeskooling is going swell! 1. We wake up whenever I decide to wake up 2. We eat breakfast together 3. Scripture study in Emma's Bedroom 4. "Learning time" in Emma's Bedroom 5. Leap-Frog's Letter-Factory show It's a simple schedule, and doesn't take the whole day(although i've noticed its been taking all the way up to lunchtime and then shortly afterwards, naptime). Again, I will probably adjust and tweak this schedule as time goes on, with the addition of a curriculum and as I homeschool more and more children(i'm hoping), but for now, this will do. Our "rough" outline of our Learning Day TODAY: 1.We incorporated a scripture study time before learning time, which I really like. I read Emma scripture stories at night in the past but doing it during the day gives me something more to add to the schedule and there are most definitely learning moments in there as well. We also read a few books. One before scriptures and the rest after scripture study. 2.We started our learning time with shapes. I have some shape-toys I use for my shape teaching. These can be obtained at Walmart or maybe even found at a "Once upon a Child" used/thrift store. 3. We played with a dinosaur puzzle to help us match two things together and focus on memorizing colors. Emma colored in a coloring book for a bit as well. I received this as a gift but the price tag says "homegoods" on there, so head over there and find something worth learning for your little ones! 4. We quickly reviewed a few ABC letters and then watched the letter-factory show to re-emphasize letter sounds that Emma is learning. Snack included. That about wraps up our day today.
Teaching is so fun and I love that i'm spending quality time with my little one! I hope you can find ways to spend quality learning time with your little one as well! I'm still in the process of researching which curriculum to use. In the meantime, that doesn't mean I can't teach my little one creatively, right NOW. Let me share a few things we did today to teach my 2 year old a little. bit. more. We call it "Learning time". I say, Emma we are going to do some learning. We head into her bedroom and go from there. The first thing we did today was review the ABC's. I've been teaching her names of letters and how to associate the way they look with the sound they make. Now I know you can get more technical with how some letters make 2 sounds and such, but we are starting out simple, remember? Then we played with a dinosaur puzzle to review a few colors. I like this puzzle because you match together the same dinosaur of the same color and can group together similar colored dinosaurs in columns or categories. If you find anything similar to this, you can teach colors too(and maybe even about different kinds of dinosaurs along the way) I think that you can find simple and fun ways to teach your kids, you don't have to go out and spend a ton of cash to do it. It's all up to you and YOUR CREATIVITY. Emma kept thinking blue was pink, so I gave her a pink crayon to draw with and told her that was pink. We wrapped up our ABC and color learning with the ABC leapfrog learning show to re-emphasize letter-learning. If you haven't used it, DO IT! It's s great for learning basic letter sounds! That was our learning for the day. Keeping it simple!
I live in Texas and there are quite a few homeschooling moms out here, as well as others, who have inspired me to want to give-homeschooling-a-go.
Why? Why not? I feel that homeschooling will benefit my family and my kids. We will be able to grow closer together, learn together and grow together. And yes. That means me too. I CAN LEARN TOO. I studied in the public schools near my home growing up, so I have zero experience running a home-school. I also received my bachelors in recreation management. Not a masters. Not a doctorate. A Bachelors. Yea. I got married at age 21 while still in college, had my baby girl at age 22 and am currently expecting baby #2 in April 2016. I would like tohave more kids and be able to home-school all of them. That's a step-by-step process which I will have to work on, I have so much to learn, and for all those moms out there that feel they don't qualify or think, "how am I going to know everything i'm supposed to teach my kids"? Well, that's me. I have my doubts and worries about starting out with homeschooling. I want to make sure my kids are able to make it to college, maybe even get college credits early, if possible. Am i prepared to do it? Have I studied enough? Probably not. That's why all it takes is some MOTIVATION, EFFORT, and some CREATIVITY. Again, I CAN LEARN TOO. My baby girl is 2 years old, just turned 2 in October and i'm already feeling pressure to get her learning. You might be able to find preschools that accept your child at age 2 1/2, which means I could start teaching my daughter things anytime now. or before. or later. I think it depends on YOU , your family, your needs and what your goals are.I don't think there's one right way to home-school, rather many right ways to do it. I've started out simply homeschooling. Which means i've started out by teaching basics to my little girl( ABC's, colors, numbers) and I haven't spent much $ doing that, Blog posts on my simply "homeskool" methods to follow. I've also started researching which curriculum to use(it's overwhelming). As time goes on, I will change up my schedule, add curriculums, improve the way I teach, figure out how my kids learn best, and stick with it. This blog will show my improvements and how i've started my own teaching without a curriculum and then with a curriculum. oh boy. I CAN DO THIS. Luckily, Texas laws are pretty flexible. As taken directly from a Texas website, "When choosing a curriculum, keep in mind that by law it must be in visual form, such as workbooks or a video monitor, and it must include Reading, Spelling, Grammar, Mathematics, and Good Citizenship." https://www.thsc.org/home-school-resources/curriculum/choosing-a-curriculum/ **Look up your state requirements before you begin!!** So, let's get to it. Let's Simply Homeschool! |
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