Off to a rough start...

Hello!

First off, thank you all for reading last week!  The post has 80 views!  Awesome! Thanks! 

This was actually a very unproductive as far as schooling goes :(  Last Sunday Konner busted his head open and we had to go to the ER. He earned himself a staple in his head and we ALL earned a wonderful stomach virus.  Konner had it the worst. It hit him Tuesday (in the middle of Walmart :( ) and lasted through Wednesday night. Ashlynn was sick all day Wednesday but fine on Thursday and I was sick on Thursday. Luckily, Emilynn never got sick and by Friday morning we were all 100%.  So we rewarded ourselves for a week survived with a trip to the science museum.

We did do a little schooling when we were feeling up to it. We watched several of our German DVDs.  I was so impressed with Konner's ability to repeat and use a little bit of an accent.  I was expecting him to struggle (which makes me kinda feel like a bad momma.) Ashlynn did much better at retaining the info (she has all the colors memorized!)  I bought some workbooks and flashcards but we haven't started using them yet.  

I did some evaluating on Konner's math and reading as well. Oh man, was I I-M-P-R-E-S-S-E-D!  He doesn't have much in the form of sight words but he is GREAT at sounding out words.  He can read several step 1 readers with minimal help!  He recognizes, can pronounce and can write ALL the letters (upper and lowercase).  He picked up on addition VERY quickly. I don't think they did any formal math in his early childhood special ed. but they did teach it in informal ways (i.e.- here are 5 crackers, here are 2 more, how many do you have?)  He was a little confused by subtraction though. He was confused by the phrase "take away" if I used it without a physical manipulative.  He also knew greater than/less than, bigger/smaller, longer/shorter and taller/shorter.  I'd say he has a very good foundation and he is going to fly through the first half of kindergarten.  

Ashlynn did a few math worksheets this week. All reviews on some of the stuff that we learned last year.  We did some light work this summer but I am impressed that she remembered almost all of it! A little rusty on her math facts but I don't think it will only take but a week or two to jog that memory.  She did a lot of reading as well. We got some great clearance books from the science museum (all eco conscious stories about animal rescues and habitat repairs) and she blew through all 8 of them and then some. We watched several documentaries about sea life as well.

Overall, it wasn't a super productive week but I am glad we got as much in as we did! We did the first day of our formal one room school house type curriculum but with everyone taking turns being able to participate I just put that on hold until next week and stuck with the basics.  

I hope that you all enjoy watching us live, LEARN and love through homeschooling! 

Welcome to Lee Learning Academy!

 Welcome to Lee Learning Academy!

We will be beginning classes on Aug. 31st and I wanted to take this time to introduce you to the curriculums we will be using.

Our main curriculum is an LDS based program called "The Family School".  This program takes a one-room schoolhouse approach to science, history, geography, literature, music and art.  We will do one core subject each day and alternate music/art on Fridays. 

Monday- Science

Tuesday- History

Wednesday- Literature

Thursday- Geography

Friday- Music for 3 weeks/Art for 3 weeks (they are taught in 3 lesson blocks)

Here is a little information on "The Family School"-

http://latterdaylearning.org/the-family-school-lds-homeschool-curriculum/

Ashlynn will do spelling every day, grammar 3X a week, writing 1X a week.  

Sequential spelling- http://www.sequentialspelling.com/Sequential_Spelling.html

We started with this program last year and Ashlynn has THRIVED!  Spelling was her worst subject in public school. She hated it and had started having panic attacks over the tests.  She LOVED this program and now will tell you that spelling is her FAVORITE subject! How's that for success????

Growing with Grammar and Winning with writing are both new this year but I have spent some times in the books and I think that they will work great for Ashlynn. They are both offered through the same company.

http://www.growingwithgrammar.com/

Both kids will do reading, math, handwriting and vocabulary every day.  Handwriting and vocabulary will go along with the lesson of the day from "The Family School". 

Konner will be using a program called "Teach you child to read in 100 easy lessons".  "Easy" may not be the best description but it is working well and he enjoys it.  

Ashlynn isn't going to have a formal reading curriculum this year. I have several sight word workbooks she will be using but mostly we will just be reading, reading, reading.  We will be starting with "The Little house on the Prairie".  I have the whole series, so we will see how she likes the first one.  There will also be several stories/books that we will read in Literature.

For Math, Konner will be using a few different workbooks and I will be supplementing with worksheets from online.

Ashlynn will be using an online program called Easy Peasy (www.allinonehomeschool.com) for math.  We will also supplement with an online program called Xtra math.  It has timed drills for addition, subtraction and multiplication.

We will also be having scripture study and working on memorizing the Articles of Faith.  For those of you who are not LDS, here is some info on what the Articles of Faith are!

"The Articles of Faith outline 13 basic points of belief among members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Prophet Joseph Smith first wrote them in a letter to John Wentworth, a newspaper editor, in response to Mr. Wentworth’s request to know what members of the Church believed." 

Here is the scriptural reference that lists them:

https://www.lds.org/scriptures/pgp/a-of-f/1.1-13?lang=eng&#1

We will be doing P.E. 2X a week and German on Fridays.  For the first few weeks we will be learning yoga! 

The thing the children are most excited about is monthly homeschool classes at the science museum.

Each kid will be playing a sport but they haven't settled on one yet.  Ashlynn will be in Girl Scouts again this year, as well.  Konner isn't old enough for Cub Scouts yet.

Well, that covers everything I can think of!  I will post again tomorrow with our plans for next week!  

 I hope that you all enjoy watching us live, learn and love, through our journey in homeschooling!