Friday, September 09, 2011

We're starting

Since Hazel is three and is ready/wants to start doing more "school" type activities, we're slowly starting to try and do "school time" every day. And since I do better at things when I keep a record of what I've done and make lists of things to do, I'm going to start blogging a bit about what we're doing for our little projects.

First of all though, it should be said that I am a person who does much better with outside-enforced organization than self-imposed organization. I figured let's start when she's young and then I can get in the swing of things within a year. That's the plan anyway....

We're doing a reading lesson every day from Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and so far she really likes the time we spend on that. She's probably a little young to do this, but so far she is getting the concepts, so we'll see where we are in a few months.

We're also working on general alphabet recognition and this week and part of next week, we'll be working on the letter A, with a new letter every week. We made this little apple on Wednesday and did a little letter search.
Of course we're also trying to point out "A"s wherever we see them in reading as well. Hazel is funny: she has favorite letters. H (of course), K (of course), W, and Q.
Next week we'll be doing some apple stamps on paper and a tote bag (for mama).

I've also started following the recommendations in Slow and Steady, Get Me Ready, which is a wonderful book with activities for every week from birth to age 5. This week we're talking about the differences between snakes, frogs, fish, and birds. So right now I'm printing out some coloring pages about snakes and frogs and later we'll look at some pictures of snakes shedding their skin.

Yesterday and today, Klaas and I were learning about "on" and "off" with lids. He's so cute and excited when he learns something new.

Of course we're reading, reading, reading. Some of the books from the library this week include:
Dr. De Soto by William Steig
Food for Thought by Saxton Freymann and Joost Elffers
Rip Van Winkle by Will Moses and Washington Irving
Give the Dog a Bone by Steven Kellogg
Ox-Cart Man by Donald Hall

And for Klaas, we got I Touch, which is similar to a book we already have, I Hear. We read a lot during lunch time, so both of the kids are happy eating while they listen. This is especially nice for Klaas, who does like lap time and reading, but can get a little wiggly.

So basically our plan right now is: working on letters (and then moving onto number recognition - she can already count, but doesn't know the number symbols) and letter-related activities, reading, and reading.

One book I would recommend is A Well-Trained Mind. I read it last year, and just purchased a copy to own. Super helpful with curriculum reviews (starting with kindergarten) and a general plan outline for schooling.

So that's where we are right now in September, 2011. Stay tuned for another update next week!

2 comments:

Mary and Jim said...

Good show, Liz! You may want to think about the order that you do the letters- I wish I could remember the series that both you and Phillip used w/ Mrs Chinn at McKinley. I do know it started with "C", and was not in alphabetical order, and made more sense. I'll see what I can find out. I do know that Julie (Chinn) insisted on using it even after the district wanted to change to another system.

Liz said...

Well the reading book we're using is actually starting with consonants, m and s, so that makes sense to me too. Her letter activities are merely getting her to remember their names...but I'll look that up!