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
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.
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.
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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
