What's been going on

Hello everyone :) First I guess I should apologize to the followers for the time lapse since the last post. At the same time I'm really not super sorry lol. There has been a lot going on in the past few weeks and I've been too busy to post on the blog.

There were two major changes in our household. The first was the arrival of my mother in law. My mother in law recently moved in with us from out of state and it has been an adjustment for all of us. We're happy to have her here. It's amazing that instead of pictures and videos she can now see our tiny duck grow and explore with her. The second major event was my decision to stay home and no longer work out of town. While my job was enjoyable and I love my boss to death, it seemed like it was no longer an asset to the family, but was becoming a strain on our family unit, so we made the decision to no longer do shows that took me away from home for more then a week at a time, which in turned led to no more shows. While I will honestly miss parts of the incredible job with The Silver Coast (http://silvercoastjewelry.com) , I absolutely love being able to stay home with my ducks.

While out of town for the last show I made some awesome investments for our homeschool classroom. When we were thinking about starting this journey and I was pouring through essential homeschool items on websites a lot of the "helpful" list said we should have a printer and for that extra umph a laminator. When we started we decided to hold off on the purchases until we knew more about what we were doing and I spent countless hours writing and making our own activity sheets to "save money" and because it was simple enough. I recently bought the HP Envy 4502 Printer from Walmart. It has certainly made a difference. I no longer spend hours making work sheets and getting hand cramps. ;) There are so many amazing free printables online. You can find some awesome links for prek and kindergarten on my pinterest http://www.pinterest.com/duckylove610/homeschooling/ and there are plenty at no cost for all grade levels at www.TeachersPayTeachers.com . The sign up on that site is free and I have received minimal emails from them since signing up.  I would definitely recommend this printer to anyone looking for an all in one printing system. http://www.walmart.com/ip/HP-Envy-4502-Inkjet-e-All-in-One-Printer/28994574  I feel the need to add that the printer was $20 cheaper when I bought it, so if you're watching your budget feel free to look around for a better price on this awesome printer ;) I also bought my laminator there for $20 an amazing purchase. http://www.walmart.com/ip/Scotch-Thermal-Laminator-2-Roller/17208765 In addition to allowing us an easy way to preserve our tiny duck's art work the laminator also allows us to laminate various activities and work sheets so that they can easily be reused. All you need to do is laminate the sheet and get some dry or wet erase markers.

Now that was not a sales pitch for the items. If you have been making your own and like it or are just starting with homeschool and still exploring if it's right for you, there is no need to run out and by them. I just know that it has made an incredible difference in our process.

Okay on to lessons. Our little duckling has come a long way with her letters. If you follow the blog you know that was the thing she was having the hardest time with, but with the help of fun activities, repetition, and some awesome phonics games and videos she is able to identify the letters and can even remember the sounds they make. She has most recently started working on sight words and rhyming words.                                                                        

 

 

 

 

 

We have also been working on learning more about her numbers. We've been working on sequencing. While our little one can count in order and identify the numbers 1-15, telling what comes before or after another number was seeming like a bit of a challenge for her. We did several activities with her that she seemed to enjoy and she was able to successfully put the numbers in order. Our laminator came in handy with most of her math activities. We easily found free printable themed math, counting activities, and games for her online.

Our duckling has enjoyed working on learning the days of the week and lots of memory exercises. She loves My little Pony, so I found some awesome my little pony printables cut them out and laminated the ponies for memory games.

 

Here's a peak at most of what we covered this week.

 

 

So that's what she learned. What have I learned? This homeschooling process is harder then we thought. Don't get me wrong I still love it and we're going to keep homeschooling, but it is tougher then it looks. Having fun is important, but making sure our little one is learning and remembering everything can be a challenge at times. I don't know about all kids but our little ducking is a four year old ball of energy. She loves exploring and learning new things and her attention span is that of a four year old, so keeping her on track can sometimes be challenging. We've managed to keep her focused and keep it fun, by taking recess. :D I totally understand recess in public schools lol. Sometimes our homeschooler needs a little break and other times us teachers need one. We walk away and get our energy (or frustration) out and come back to try the lesson again. I have learned to notice the signs that tell me one of us needs to take a break and make it happen before the lessons become overwhelming.

So anyways that is what's been going on at the School of Ducks the past few weeks. :) Now we're getting ready for the weekend and looking forward to the next week of lessons.  

What's in a name?

When we did our research on homeschooling one of the tips I saw the most was not to be pressured or stuck on one lesson at a time. It was good tip to remember this past week. This week was super exciting for me and our little Duckling seemed to have fun too! It definitely had it's challenges though.

Another big accomplishment has been made by our little one. She learned how to spell her first name! If you've been following the blog you probably already know our duckling seems to do better with numbers colors, and shapes than with learning her letters, so this is just AWESOME! Sorry, I'm having a hard time controlling my pride lol. 




Together with her Daddy and I she worked on all of the individual letters in her first name and the sounds that they make. It wasn't as easy as our other learning experiences. We had to take several breaks for both her and our sakes. It was hard seeing her struggle and work so hard on it. At times, it was clear she wanted to be able to do it and was just having a difficult time with it. You could see it on her face. Then there were other times when she would just pretend she forgot which was frustrating for her Daddy and I. There were times when we found the best thing to do was put it aside for a while and come back to it either after she played for a bit or took a nap.  After our breaks we would come back refreshed and less frustrated and try another approach.

This weeks goal was accomplished with the use of letter flash cards, the phonics alphabet song (one of our ducklings favorite, see link below), tracing, letter recognition exercises, and lots of breaks with laughter and fun.

 

After hitting out first official bump in the road, where both her Daddy and I found ourselves frazzled and pushed to our limits, we are even more confident in our abilities to educated her with patience and love. We can't wait to see what is still to come in this journey.

Links to videos
Kaylin learning her first name
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlJgf9SXWiM&list=UUC45Of7rttxih0CllR03DjA

Kaylin spells first name with no help
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GKY-T4dKqk&list=UUC45Of7rttxih0CllR03DjA

Phonics Alphabet Song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36IBDpTRVNE

Daddy Duck takes the lead

So this past week was a work week for me. It was also the first week of me not being home after the official decision to start a preschool homeschooling curriculum. While most of the homeschooling sites, boards, and what not that I've seen have seemed to be mostly geared to homeschooling moms, I feel like it's important to acknowledge the dads that are contributing to their children's learning experiences.

Fortunately, My husband is able to be home even when I'm not and  though he's not as patient as I am, he is just as invested in making sure she is educated as I am. While other Dads may not be available all the time, fathers still have lots of knowledge to pass on to their little ones and should be acknowledged as a contributor in the homeschool  forums/pages.

This week my husband worked more with reviewing our tiny duck's numbers and shapes. It is a common mistake for preschoolers to confuse squares and rectangles, and our little duck is no different. Together they worked on learning the difference between similar shapes and identifying them in everyday life.  She did more tracing with shapes and numbers and she had fun when her daddy busted out the skittles and let her use them while counting and identifying colors.

 
I missed them like crazy while I was gone, but I was excited to see that she was still just as excited about learning as she was when I had left. My husband did a wonderful job keeping her interested and growing. He did much better then he thought he was able too, given the short attention span of a preschooler. ;) When I got home she was excited to do something fun with me so we made a fish tank.  She learned about fish tank environments and I loved being there to be a part of it.

 

Report Card : The First Week

We're ending our first official week of homeschool! We've managed to accomplish a lot this week.

This week has been a week of finding the best ways to introduce structured learning to our little one.  At this point in time a lot of the curriculum goals are things that can be learned in everyday living (finding colors, shapes, sizes, ect), but we also want our little duck to understand scheduling and the importance of having some structured assignments, so we've been working regularly out of the Success in Preschool workbook (by MEAD) as well as doing tracing and other fun activities.

This week our little Duck learned the capital and lowercase "A". She reviewed counting numbers 1-10, basic colors, shapes and sizes. We also introduced her to the process of writing both numbers and letters.  Our writing exercises involve a mixture of  tracing and coloring in the workbook and on worksheets (tracers) that we have made. If you prefer you can easily make your own "tracers" by using a highlighter to write the letter/number on the paper. We've found that our tiny duck loves the bright colors from the highlighters and that they hold her attention longer than if we just wrote in pen. Once you've written the letter/number and shown it to your little one, let them have the pencil (we are letting her use mechanical pencils but you can use whatever makes you and your little one comfortable) and help them to trace the item you've written. When our little one is working on a letter we have her tell us about the letter (is it a capital or lower case letter? what sound does it make?what are some words the letter is used for?). Once she was able to trace on the lines we provided her pages with dotted lines which allowed her to write the same item she had learned and traced by connecting the dots.  We also did exercises that involved grouping items by color, size, and shape. Grouping can be taught with almost anything, however this week we used candy and coins.

                   
As far as motor skills. This weeks big accomplishment is that our little duck mastered the correct way to hold her pencil and learned to use scissors. She really enjoyed learning how to do both but favored the activities involving the scissors. She seems to be a crafty one ;) Just like my husband when she's concentrating she sticks her little tongue out, which resulted in one of my favorite photos of the week. :)
 

 

My hubby and I have learned (and rather fast) that keeping the attention of a four year old on any given subject is difficult, especially if it is one they struggle with. Encouragement is key, especially with the subjects your little one seems to have problems with. What we are learning the most is to slow down and have a lot of patience. It's not a race and she doesn't need to learn everything today. 

My absolute favorite thing about homeschooling so far is the pure excitement and joy she gets when she masters something or the minute it clicks together in her mind. It's an absolutely amazing process to witness and be a part of and I thank God for it!

Okay to sum it up this week she learned:
The capital and lower case A
Writing numbers 1-3
How to cut on a straight line
How to hold her pencil correctly

She reviewed: 
Numbers 1-10
Basic Colors (Blue, yellow, black, white, grey, purple, pink, orange, and green)
Basic Shapes (Circle, square, rectangle, heart, diamond, and Triangle.
Sizes: Small, Large, Tall, Short, wide, and long

We (the parents) learned:
To slow down
Be more patient
Be encouraging

Homemade Laundry Soap: Learning Something New Everyday

While trying to find ways to save money you come across a lot of "fads". One of the trending things nowadays is homemade soaps. I had seen them and not really thought about it, then My aunt was telling me about her homemade laundry soap. I saw and smelled her clothes and thought why not I'll give it a try.

The process is fairly simple and the result is clean and fresh smelling clothing. For about $8.18 you can make enough laundry soap for 200+ loads of laundry.

What you need is:
for about 54 loads of laundry)

1 Cup of Broax  detergent booster (1 box was $3.97 at Walmart and can make at least 6 of this recipe)
 
1 Cup of Washing Soda (the most popular brand being Arm&Hammer which was $3.24 at Walmart and can make at least 6 of this recipe)
 
5oz bar soap (shredded or very thinly shaved, $0.97 at Walmart and can make about 3 of this recipie)

 
Really the above items are all you need to make it; however my hubby likes a little more kick
in the scent department so I sprung for the Downy Unstoppable in wash scent boosters. The scent booster was the most expensive item in the recipe and can easily be left out without changing the effectiveness of the soap. It came in at a whopping $5.97, bringing the total for all the ingredients to make 200+ loads of detergent with scent booster only $14.15. Again the Scent booster is totally optional and the detergent will still smell great with out it.  
 
To start mix the powder ingredients together in a sealable container.

 
For the 1 cup recipe use 1/3 of the 14oz soap bar (To use the whole bar just use 3 cups of both powder ingredients instead of 1) Use a grater or knife to thinly sliver the bar soap.

 

 

 
 Mix all 3 ingredients together in your container and if desired add about one capful of Downy scent booster for each cup made. (One cup recipe=one cap 3cup recipe=three caps)

 

You only need to use about one tablespoon of soap per load to these items can last you a while!

The 3 cup recipe uses the whole 14oz bar of soap, 3 cups of borax, and 3 cups washing soda and makes the following amount.

What we do

So starting homeschooling can be a very overwhelming experience. It's hard to know where to start. The first thing you have to do is find out what the laws are in your state. Each state may have different rules and it is important to know what they are in your state. That may sound hard all in itself but a quick internet search can give you the results for you state. I found the information on this site to be very helpful www.hslda.org to be very helpful. Just type (your) State law in the search bar at the top and it will provide you with the information you need.

After you know what the law for your state is you start to plan the curriculum. I'm a planner so this has been kind of fun for me, but knowing where to start can be a little stressful. The first thing we did was look into the general things that "should" be known or taught by the end of Preschool and Kindergarten. Our daughter is a preschooler, but we wanted to set long term goals. GOALS are important. You need to set reachable short term and long term goals. For example our daughter is not as familiar with letters so our short term goal is for her to recognize and know the sounds of her letters and our long term goal is for her to be able to read and recognize sight words easily.

Once you set the goals for your child it is fairly simple to put together a curriculum. You just figure out fun activities that can be used to help your child meet the goals you set. For example, for the long term goal activities Sight words are words that are easily recognizable by sight such as a, I, am, at, cat, this, and that. Flash cards and highlighters can easily make affordable sight cards. The sight card can be used in many ways one of which is showing her the word, telling her what it is and sounding out the letters. This helps us incoroporate her long term goal with the short term goal of learning and recognizing letters.  We have found that she enjoys tracing the letters in her workbook and doing the activities that are connected to each letter. There are also plenty of free youtube videos with alphabet songs and lessons on sounding out the letter sounds. She enjoys those along with some apps that allow her to use her fingers, rhymes, and, flashcards to learn letters, numbers, shapes, colors, ect.

For math we use actual coins to teach her the difference in the coins and their monetary value. Number songs and the MEAD Preschool workbook (lets just go ahead and say we use that for pretty much every subject) she enjoys the workbook and we're happy to do it with her. One of her favorite ways to learn numbers is playing with her Doc McStuffins UNO cards with her dad. :D She sorts them by number and color, she can put them in order from 0-9.

There are plenty of other brilliant ideas to help us reach our short term and long term goals and keep her entertained and learning. Which brings me to  Pinterest. I love Pinterest! You can easily find hundreds of activities and lesson ideas with a simple homeschool search (and by adding the grade level for a more precise search). If you're child is on the Preschool/Kindergarten level you may find the things on my pinterest Homeschool board  ( http://www.pinterest.com/duckylove610/homeschooling/ ) helpful, I know I did. ;)

We try to make learning fun for our little duckling :) She has a very energetic spirit and loves to be interactive. It's important to remember preschoolers are not easily focused. Sometimes we are able to get 2 activities done and then she wants to play outside or something which is okay :D Other times we get one activity done and then she's ready to eat (she loves to eat) and that's okay too. We're moving at her pace and even when we're not doing activities, life provides a million opportunities for us to teach her. When she's playing outside she's is learning how different things have different colors and textures. She learns he difference between plants and animals and even some of the different species. While in the car she is recognizing letters on signs one of my favorite times being when we passed the H sign for the hospital and she excitedly let us know  "It's one of my letters!!!!!". She also made us super proud when we were talking and said Victory to hear her tell us "V vvvv Victory!!!" 

Everyday life is a great way to teach her right now, so what we do is...We keep it light. We explore. We live. We grow. We learn.  We have fun!

Welcome to the School of Ducks :)

So I have been thinking about starting a blog for a while but couldn't think of anything that I would want to continue writing about that would keep anyone interested. We (my husband and I) recently decided to homeschool our daughter. This was a very difficult and then exciting decision. We started the process and I have been so over the moon with how much she loves it that I just want to share it with the world. So now the blog, School of Ducks has been born! I figure that this is a great way to keep family and friends who are interested in our progress informed with out boring all the ones who would rather not see long status messages. ;) Also, if there are other parents like us out there who are going through the same stages, emotions, and struggles as we are maybe sharing our adventure will be helpful. Anyways, I guess I should get this started.

The School of Ducks got it's name from a nickname I gave my husband when we were dating (Ducky) after that it kind of became a thing and everyone I know was buying and showing me ducks. <3  Ducks are so cute! So it stuck, ducks are my thing. Our daughter is my duckling and is also called my Tiny Duck from time to time. It only seemed a natural choice when they asked me to name my blog. ;)

One of the first question we got from people was "Why?"
The question wasn't asked with ill intentions. Both my husband and I were educated in the public school system and graduated. We're fairly intelligent and I guess people just get curious. It can be a tough question to answer sometimes with all the different preconceived notions out there, so here's the best we can do. We are choosing to homeschool during her early years for several reasons. One of the most important is that public schools do not provide a whole lot of one on one attention because of the teacher/student ratio. These years are the most formative and will lay the foundation for her education. We want to make sure that it is a strong one and that she has a firm grasp on all the basics before proceeding to other subject. There's also the fact that as her parents we spend a lot of time with her which allows us to know what she best responds to, as far different learning styles and are able to teach specifically in her learning style instead of trying to cater to several student's styles at once.
 
Another question we've gotten, "Do you think you can do it?"
This question can carry a bit of sting with it. If you're like us there was probably that doubt there anyway. There's no perfect way to be a parent and we're all pretty sure we're screwing it up from time to time, so making a big decision such as homeschooling can be scary to say the least. Here's the thing. We taught her how to walk, talk, eat, and go potty to name just a few things. She can already count to 10 (13 or 14 on a good day), knows basic shapes, and colors. I'd say we were pretty decent teachers. The work through out Kindergarten is pretty basic stuff and the can be taught in fun everyday activities by us easily.
 
The last big question we get is "What about socialization?"
This is from the people concerned that our (only) child won't know what to do around other kids. Well part of the glory of home school is the freedom you get from not being restricted to a classroom. There are plenty of other things we can do to keep our little social butterfly interactive. There are parks and museums where she can play and learn. There are also playgroups and groups for homeschoolers to get together. There are cousins to play with and also the kids from her church group, that she gets to see about twice a week. Have no fears out little one won't suffer from being a shut in. ;)

Okay that's it for our most frequent questions. I guess I should tell you about where we're at now. Our daughter is four years old and in our state you have to be five to start Kindergarten in the public schools. In some subjects, such as her colors and numbers she is closer to a Kindergarten level then Preschool, but with her letters she is still in the process of learning them on a Preschool level. She is not behind in writing, but is not as advanced as she is in the other subjects. One of the glorious things about home schooling is we are able to cater to her level in each subject so she is not stuck doing preschool colors while she's on a kindergarten level and not being forced into a subject level she's not ready for such as kindergarten letters.

We are using several online resources as well as homemade activities and activities out of the MEAD Preschool Workbook. The workbook is a great resource for us and if your child learns like ours I'd definitely recommend it. She is very excited about getting to "play" with her workbook everyday. She wakes up asking when she can learn and her fire for it lights me up. We haven't decided how far into the future we're going to continue homeschooling. I call it "Our journey/adventure/learning experience" because it's as much of a learning process for us as it is for her. We are constantly learning more about how she learns and how to be better parents through this process. We're excited to continue it until we feel as though it is no longer in her best interest.

Alright, if you made it all the way through this you're probably related to me lol if not congratulations hope you enjoyed this ramble :)