Well, our family has relocated, settled in, and the holidays have come and gone. While we did all that we made sure kept busy and looked for everyday opportunities to learn with our little one.
She received several learning items this year for Christmas. Along with her leap pad2, she received several work books and coloring books, craft materials, and an easel. She had a ball opening them all and giving them a try. I've come to discover I love that LeapPad kind of tracks her and sends me a report about how she's doing. I do have to warn however that like an IPad the apps are separate and there really aren't any free apps for the leap pads except for Alphabet Stew (coupon code 5813-0790-4610-4973) and The Super Book of Awesome Stuff (coupon code 5813-1140-1518-1413). One of her favorite learning gifts was her easel and I have to admit, I love it too! It has come in really handy for different activities for us. I would recommend one or something similar for all Prek-Kindergarten homeschool rooms.
Which brings me to our next new development! I'm so excited. When we moved we gained a pretty decent sized dinning room that I easily turned into our official school room! It is still a functioning dinning room, but doubles as our school room and so far it has worked fantastic. It's a work in progress, but we love it. It seems to have made a difference in how our duckling approaches the lessons. It seems like having a specific space for her to learn and work has made her more excited about it. I guess like she has more of her own thing. We call it our school room or our learning center. The walls are being decorate with letters and activities as she learns. She loves seeing them displayed and it makes it a lot easier to review and move forward in lessons when she can see it all.
We also picked and put together her curriculum for this year. :D She will be 5 in June and we officially have to start reporting homeschooling this year. The hubby and I looked at different curriculums and picked one that she seems to do well with. We are using the Easy Peasy All in one Homeschool Getting Ready1, McGuffey Primer, and Getting Ready 2 learning plans right now which mixes both online and off line work while teaching the basics. We are also adding other activities and lessons along with the plan. She is currently working in Getting Ready 1 but it is mostly review so every now and then we throw in something new. The official year doesn't start until September, but we tend to believe learning is daily and year round. Our schedule right now is to have official lessons Monday-Friday and she doesn't have to have any official lessons on the weekends. If she ask for a lesson or we get bored and do an activity it is fine and encouraged. :D We do/will take small school breaks around the holidays. With the new curriculum she has done more on the computer then we let her before and she loves it. The online portion of lessons seems to make her happy. She loves the little videos so we try to include them more often.
Our Kitchen has become her mad chef lab lol. She loves helping in the kitchen and I've been using this as an opportunity to work on math/numbers and introduce science experiments. We recently did one involving the yeast in our biscuit dough and she was thrilled with the results. Her reaction to the risen dough was priceless and I'm so happy I get to be on this learning journey with her. There's lots to do today including Awana tonight (her first night back since the week before Christmas) so until next time, Enjoy the journey!
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