School started back on August 1. We have a 10th grader, a 7th grader, 1st grader and twin tot schoolers ( we are starting tot school at home). Everybody but the teenager was excited. No surprise there. I was partly ready. I was more ready to get back into some type of a routine with the twins. The summer puts them off because everyone is at home and busy, which means not much down time.
Over the summer we've continued to add little learning activities and "homeschool" lessons every now and then. It is just my nature. I can't help it. However, I am often asked by the first and seventh grader for activities to do. Of course, I'm happy to do that. Since school has started back, I've really started back with the mini lessons. They are mostly for Caleb because middle and high school kids already have enough to do. However, if I have something that I think will help them, I'll pull it out.
I like to look at what Caleb is learning for the week and plan activities to reinforce and build on what they are learning at school. I also go ahead on my own with some things, especially if he seems ready to move on.
We took this pic the week before school. We were reviewing all of the site words we had when Cameron started to throw them on the floor. We decided to make the most of it.
They didn't have homework the first week of school. You know they are busy learning all the rules and routines, but we did a few activities. Caleb is always looking for something to do anyway. We are trying to get his books of the Bible down so I pulled out our popsicle stick books to sort.
We've been doing math facts on and off for about half the summer. We just put three sums at the top here and had him fill in the facts that created the sum. I put out a box of random counters if he needed some help. These are just old game pieces and dominoes that I've saved to use as manipulatives.
We had a little STEM activity set up and Cate decided to join in on this one. Marshmallows are a good motivator. Caleb did get a little frustrated with this because the toothpicks and the marshmallows kept falling over before he could finish anything. I helped him out a bit after escaping the twins. I think we'll use gumdrops next time. We've using them before and they work well because they are more sturdier.
This week was the first week of homework. They receive a homework packet that is due on Fridays and usually a phonics sheet. Well, he had finished all but one page of his packet by the time he had gotten off the bus. He finished the rest when he got home and was bored. He operated like this last year too. Amazon prime boxes to the rescue! I asked him if he wanted to make a rocket and he agreed to that.
He could already spell his spelling words too, but we needed to practice writing and forming letters correctly. I dug out an old laminated writing sheet to use just because it makes it more interesting. That red and yellow thingy there is an electronic math fact thingy. Yes, thingy. You can rotate the numbers in each row. You can listen to it recite the math facts and answers or you can listen to it ask one. You bop the end when it says the correct answer. I found this little gem at the Goodwill. Reading practice for the day was "Go Away, Dog."
More writing practice made more fun with shaving cream. The twins got in on this action too.
Nerf bullets and site words
Our class has a site word folder where they are tested weekly on the site words. We read through them and he kept reading through each page until he got to ones he didn't know. So since he knew a good bit of his site words, we opted to start on week 12 vs week 1. That way he is still learning, but not stagnant. We also practice using the site words and spelling words in sentences. If you don't have spelling words yet and want to start, the Dollar Tree has some good little spelling books in there. We practiced with those over the summer.
Math facts.
These are a few things we did leading up to the new school year.
We had to build a bridge to get the people safely across from the bears. I love how he decided to just use the slide at the end to slide in the car. This was also another "I'm bored" day. Well, here you go little dude.
Nature study with trees and leaves. We are supposed to be making leaf journals, but haven't made them yet.
The book "Mouse Paint" with mixing colors and trying to spell the color words.
We used old 75% off gingerbread houses to go along with the video story of Hansel and Gretal. We talked about shady people (strangers).
So this pretty much wraps up the first weeks. I'll be getting last week's after school homeschooling activities up and also our tot school toddlertivities this week.
Thanks for reading.
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