Showing posts with label Homeschooling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Homeschooling. Show all posts

05 November 2013

How DO You Homeschool?!?!

That seems to be the question I've gotten the most, especially after posting my Hooray for Homeschooling entry. 
While everyone has their own system (the beauty of homeschooling in general, right?), I've broken down ours so that those who are curious can see the process behind schooling the monsters every week!


Since we only school Monday - Thursday, Friday tends to be our review day.  Any lessons the monsters didn't quite understand we'll talk about & maybe do an extra worksheet or two for.  Also gives me time to record weekly grades in my binder, sort last week's assignments into each of the monsters' binders, & as well as get their planners ready for the week!

As far as assignments are concerned, we're still using Time4Learning as our main/core curriculum.  However, the Activity Planner function & I disagree on how many assignments per week to give the monsters in each subject & where they fall (seriously, Chapter Tests on Tuesdays were NOT a good thing here!), so I've since nixed following the dates.  Instead I follow the assignments in order, but divide the units to better suit our 4 day/week time frame.  Hence the big red line.  For some subjects we're still on track for, while others we're way ahead.  Especially in Science & Social Studies were there aren't as many lessons for 1st & 2nd Graders, although I'm pleased to say x1 is now taking on Grade 3 Science like a champ & both he & x2 start on Grade 3 Social Studies next week! 

As you may have noticed by now, we do daily journals & spelling here as well, which are both in addition to the T4L work. 
For Journals I have an awesome workbook filled with daily 1st-3rd grade prompts as well as a list I've come up with myself, which can be found here if you're interested!



As far as Spelling is concerned I'll look over the Language Arts & Extensions assignments for each child for the upcoming week & go from there.  This week x2 happens to be starting a reading unit on Native Americans, so I borrowed the 10 most frequently used words on her worksheets & made a word search & crossword puzzle with them from Discovery Education's PuzzleMaker.  Same for x1, only his are 10 words dealing with "fl" this week.
Every day is also a new spelling assignment.  Mondays are 3x each, Tuesdays are ABC order, Wednesdays are sentences, & Thursdays are Review/Quiz days!



After the grades are recorded & weekly assignments in place, I print off the coordinating worksheets from T4L as well as hunt on Education.com for any supplemental work, which especially comes in handy for Science & Social Studies!  They literally have just about everything you need, any subject, any grade level.  It's probably my favorite schooling resource thus far.  I highly recommend getting a membership, as the 10 freebie sheets per month aren't nearly enough!



When printing is done, it's time to sort.  I cut out/laminated days of the week for each monster & paper clip stacks by the days the coordinating assignments are supposed to be done & stick them in their folders for the upcoming week!



& that's pretty much it in a nutshell.  Collect grades, sort papers, print assignments, & how we lesson plan around here.

I've also gotten the question several times about "how many hours do you spend per week getting classwork together?"  Honestly, at least 2-3.  & that's solid, without interruptions.  & by interruptions I mean mainly x3, who likes to look all sweet & innocent as she rearranges my already sorted paperwork. >.<



Just another reason why I start on Fridays! lol

If you all have any other questions, please feel free to ask!  I'd also love to hear about how you all go through your lesson plans every week!

Happy schooling. :)

Writing Prompts


Well, it's official!  The monsters are definitely being home-schooled come August 2013.  DH & I just aren't impressed with the education they are receiving through public schooling and we feel that so much more of their budding potential can be unlocked through lessons at home.

A month or so has gone by since we've made the "big" decision and I've been eagerly taking notes via Pinterest and setting up each of their curriculums. We'll be doing Grade 2, Grade 1, & 2-3yr "Pre-K" here come fall, so if you have any tips/tricks for those years, please don't hesitate to share! :)

I did notice though, at least in my searches, that there is a lack of free writing prompts for elementary level. Sure, you get one or two suggestions here & there, but as far as actual lists go, you need to pay. So this weekends chore, in addition to printing off some "Grade Sheets" (basic 4 column tables via Word!) was to come up with some prompts for the older Monsters, who I plan on doing daily writing journals with.

With a little help from Google (one idea here, one idea there) & expanding on my own ideas I ended up with a list of 80 prompts in less than 20 minutes!

Here they all are, listed by category, for all that wish to use them! All I ask is that you take the time to link back to me, please & thanks! 

What Is... (All About Me!)
What is your favorite color?  Why?
What is your favorite animal?  Why?
What do you want to do when you grow up?  Why?
What is your favorite game?  Why?
What is your favorite book?  Why?
What is your favorite movie?  Why?
What is your favorite sport?  Why?
What is your favorite food?  Why?
What is your favorite thing about your home?
What is your favorite song?  Why?
What is your favorite toy?  Why?
What is something that makes you laugh?  Why?
What is something that makes you feel sad?  Why?
What is something that makes you feel scared?  Why?
What are some foods you don’t like?  Why?
What is your favorite household chore?  Why?
What is your least favorite household chore?  Why?
What is your favorite month? Why?
What is your favorite season?  Why?
What is your favorite number?  Why?
What is your favorite thing about yourself?  Why?

What Ifs?
If you had 3 wishes, what would you wish for?  Why?
If you had $100 to keep, how would you spend it?
If you had $100 to give away, who would you give it to?
If you could pick out any animal to be your next pet, which would you choose?  Why?
1If you could grow anything in your garden, what would you choose?  Why?
If you could have any super power, what would it be?  Why?
If you could meet any famous person, who would that be?  Why?
If your dogs could talk, what do you think they would say
If your toys could talk, what do you think they would say?
If trees could talk, what do you think they would say?
  If you could buy anything in the world, what would it be?  Why?
If you could choose your own name, what would it be?  Why?
If you could be any animal, what would it be?  Why?
 If you could live anywhere, where would that be?  Why?
If you could visit any 1 place in the world, where would you go?

Remember when?
    Remember a time when you helped make a pizza.  How did you make it? What toppings would you use?
    Remember a time when you helped bake something.  What did you make?  How did you bake it?
   Remember a time when you took a bath.  What steps did you take to get clean?
   Remember a time when you cleaned up your room.  What steps did you take to pick everything up?
   Write about yesterday.  Was it a good day?  Where did you go?  What did you do?
    Write about tomorrow.  What do you have planned?  Where are you going to go?
 Write about a time you got in trouble.  What did you do?  What happened?  What did you learn?
   Write about a time you got an award.  What was it for?
    How old were you 3 years ago?  Where were you living?  What were some of your favorite things?

What I Know
  Things I know about the stars are…
    Things I know about the ocean are…
    Things I know about plants are…

This or That?
    Which do you like better, cats or dogs?  Why?
  Which do you like better, fish or frogs?  Why?
  Which do you like better, apples or bananas?  Why?
    Which do you like better, snow or rain?  Why?
    Which do you like better, pools or the beach?  Why?
Which do you like better, winter or summer?  Why?
Which do you like better, spring or fall?  Why?

Invent & Imagine
 Invent a new kind of sandwich.  How would you make it?  What ingredients would you use?
    Invent a new game.  How would you play it?  What kind of characters/pieces do you use?
   Imagine you lived on the moon!  What would it look like?  What would you do?
  Imagine you lived in the jungle!  What would it look like?  What would you do?
 Imagine you lived on Antarctica!  What would it look like?  What would you do?
 Imagine you were on a pirate ship!  Where would you go?  What adventures would you have?
 Imagine you found a baby dragon!  What would you do?
  Imagine you were a raindrop!  Where would you go?  What would you do?
Imagine you could fly!  Where would you go?  What would you do?
 Imagine you were invisible!  Where would you go?  What would you do?
Imagine you found a secret door!  Where would it lead to?  What would you do?
Imagine you saw a dinosaur walking down the road!  What kind of dinosaur would it be?  Where do you think it would go?  What would you do?

Imagine you were tiny, like a bug!  How would the world around you look?  What would you do?
Imagine you were big, like a house!  How would the world around you look?  What would you do?
Imagine you traveled to the future!  What year is it?  What do you see?
Imagine you opened up your own restaurant!  What would you call it?  What kind of food would you serve?

Describe...
Describe the oldest person you know.
Describe the youngest person you know.
Pick a person in your family & write about them.

Describe something you're good at.
Describe something you're not so good at.
Describe your favorite book or movie character.

Short Stories
Write a short story titled, “Today I discovered a new planet.”
Write a short story titled, “Today I discovered a new animal.”
Write a short story titled, “My favorite thing about Wyoming/Florida/Georgia.”*
(*All places we've lived, switch the states/places out as they apply to you & your family!)



Enjoy!