Wow, have things changed! Tamarin is reading on her own daily without prompting. Every homeschooler's dream come true! Yes!!
Everyday we do a few math and handwriting sheets.
Tamarin's handwriting went from improving to deplorable over the last few months. Ugh, I don't encourage sibling competition, but part of me hopes when she noticed Lemur's handwriting is better than hers that she might put forth a little more effort. I don't know what else to do for her. She may just keep her daddy's awful writing!
I try to get Lemur to read a simple reader to me everyday (either bob or some lakeshore books), but I have to admit her attention span as well as my patience tend to run out about half way through... a couple of times a week she will play on Teach Your Monster to Read or Starfall.
2-3 times a week we do a science lesson.
At the moment the science lesson ties into our history timeline of evolution, but once we get to humans science will decrease to once a week and history will take over 2-3 times a week.
2-3 times a week we practice piano.
Right now pregnancy exhaustion has taken over and I've resorted to audiobooks. I read no where near the amount of time I used to. By bedtime I'm out and daddy is in charge. Tamarin and Lemur will go through 3-5 audiobooks a week, ranging from elementary chapter books to young adult (carefully screened) novels.
I have this spelling curriculum, but I've yet to use it. Tamarin seems to be a natural, but I'll have to start it up soon for Lemur.
When we aren't doing school chances are they are crafting or drawing. I spend more time cleaning up the crafting mess than lesson planning! AGH! I think it's important to allow them the free time to create whatever they want without dictation. The supplies are there and they come up with some very interesting and unique creations :)
Update April 2013: I decided I am going to leave previous plans at the bottom so I can watch how my approach evolves over time. Here is what is working for us right now.
We're digging into Five in a Row and the girls are enjoying it so we will stick with it till it doesn't work anymore. These are the books we started with. There are quite a few more, but these are the ones I'm working toward.
I discovered over the last three months of haphazard learning that my kids actually enjoy workbooks. *shrug* go figure.
Tamarin cannot stand Explode the Code, but I can see a difference in her reading. She slows down to notice what vowel it is now instead of throwing words at me till she gets it right. Lemur on the other hand LOVES her Get Ready to EtC book.
Saxon math was fun for them both in the beginning. The newness has worn off, but we are going to stick with it. As long as I add enough of the more colorful sheets from the other problem solving books the Saxon ones slip past them :p
We just started using the geography book, so far I like it and the girls do to.
Tamarin has to read me at least one early reader a day. We've set up a reward system at the end of the month if she has a sticker on every week day for reading then she gets to go to the store and pick out something.
I try to take time to read to each of them individually every night. It's not easy and it kills about an hour and a half of the night, but it's worth it.
Tamarin and I are wrapping up Harry Potter 3 and are moving on to Sisters Grimm. Chris started reading How to Train Your Dragon with her, but I don't think they've gotten very far into it.
Lemur and I are working through the Magic Tree House books.
Life of Fred is a silly math book. It's the story of a five year old math professor at KITTENS University. Tamarin thinks it's hilarious. Lemur is not entertained.
Yes, this counts as school work because it is expanding her vocabulary. They stop me constantly to ask what words mean. Most mornings I ask them to draw or tell me what happened in our book the night before.
Howler is my girl's girl and she insists on these two princess books every night. I add other less pink books whenever possible, but these are her favorites.
Update January 2013: In an ideal world, this is how every week would go, but right now with a newborn in the house we are winging it. We read A LOT. I encourage Tamarin to write whenever I can. Tamarin reads to me every day until she gets bored of it. I pick out an animal, a country, a holiday, a letter, something, anything each week and we explore it in any way we can. That's life right now.
The whole reason I started this blog is I had a lot of friends ask me what we "do" during our school time. It's sort of redundant including this stuff in a post every week so I'm going to put the bulk of things here and then I can focus on the things that change week to week in my plan post.
Lemur- encourage her to draw an animal in her journal that starts with the letter of the week and incorporate the number of the week as well.
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