Updated School Room

With my boys getting older it was time for an updated and new school room look! Took me most of the summer to gather everything I was really wanting and to achieve the look I was going for.

This is when you walk in to the room. The grid will be used to hang important papers from Units we will be doing and to show off work that my boys do.

I decided to get a couple of maps to use as learning material and decoration for the room. My goal was to keep the room very simple and clean. 

Our homemade white board made from marker board from Lowes. The sign to the left will be used to post encouraging quotes. Under the white board is our time line for History 1.

Our new book display that my husband built for us. I love being able to see what the boys are going to read this next school year and some of our read aloud books. 

My desk area

The shelf with drawers is filled with our school supplies. On top of it is my youngest boys Science theme that we are starting with. I also found some nature posters to hang above to go with the Science theme.

My kids desks and chairs from IKEA both look the same. They each have a set of drawers with their school books in them. And our most used supplies are in the middle of the table to share. 

I love that I achieved exactly what I was going for and was able to get rid of so much clutter. Now we all know as Homeschoolers that it might be clean at the beginning of the year but it never stays this way for long. 

I will be back with more posts on what curriculum we chose for 5th Grade and 7th Grade in the next couple of weeks!

We will officially be starting the 2018-2019 school year August 13th. 

When are you starting the school year or have you already started?

Curriculum Changes

Homeschooling has been going great and I really have been enjoying teaching the boys!! 

We have had a few changes in curriculum as I felt my boys needed something different than what I had chose. 

My first change was to the History Curriculum. We started the year off using America From the Beginning.



 For my boys it was just over their head and boring. They really hadn't had much History type learning in Public School. So I wanted to change this to find a better approach to create a curiosity into History. They did not like the amount of reading that they had to do and the activities just weren't for them.

I decided to look for either something I could put together with activities for them or something that was already out their with the types of activities they enjoyed. I stumbled across Easy Peasy All in One Curriculum and decided to give it a chance. We decided to do the Early American History. It covers the same subject as the first curriculum but it has less reading and more fun for them. It has been a really great change and helped with the bored and empty looks I would get when it was time for History. 

Another subject we have just decided to change is our Science. We had been using the Answers in Genesis- God's Design for Life and while I liked it, I could just tell my boys were not enjoying it. I feel Science is one of those areas that should be fun and experimental and this curriculum just doesn't have that. It is very basic with reading and little activities.

I have decided I will piece ideas together from Pinterest and my own creativity and make my own curriculum. I want to really key into my boys interests. So we are going to start by studying the Solar System. They are excited to learn about the planets, constellations, and just have fun with Science.

I plan to really let them get hands on with experiments in the future as well. I hope to share more of our Science journey as I find new and fun things for them to explore.

With these changes History and Science are no longer boring and there are no more attitude issues about getting the work done. Plus we get to see more smiles and have a little more fun in our learning. 

Alphabet Tree

I cleaned up our school area and realized how empty the wall was. So since our Calendar stuff for school is at one end of the wall the other side was way to empty for me. I decided it was time to look at school rooms on the internet to get some ideas for what I wanted to put up. I decided to go with a Alphabet Tree. I got the idea from Confessions of a Homeschooler but I went with doing a palm tree.

To the left of the tree Ive decided I will fill with info from our Unit Study of the week or whatever will go with our theme, Im still working on ideas for it!

To the right of the tree is our Weather Chart from Confessions of a Homeschooler, My Calendar that I got at Mardels Christian Bookstore, Our Bible verse is to the right of it from our Raising Rockstars Preschool Curriculum, There name tags are on the left and right of the Calendar.

What kind of items do you have in your homeschool room?

Our School Week 7/26 - 7/30

This week im running behind on my posts so please bare with that these arent seperated for what each boy did this week!



Our Theme was Letter H, Number 3, Sight Word "and", Color Blue, and Shape Triangles.


These were a few of the Tot School Trays this week for Dylan.
The left is a foam number puzzle, Then theres pom poms with a container and ice cube tray, Then our counting bear sorters, and Our Nesting Blocks.


This was the first time I gave him an ice cube tray with his pom poms and he loved it! He stayed busy with it for at least 30 to 40 minutes.

Austin made a Letter H house to go with our Letter of the Week.


Austin worked on his Preparing for Letter H tracing sheet.


Dylan worked wit his Nesting Blocks trying to build a tower.


Austin did a Do A Dot Letter H.


This week Dylan also wanted to do the Q-tips with the Parmesan Cheese Container!


We did a size sorting game with Hippos


We made Paper Hippos as well.






Austin worked on his tracing Letter H paper.


Then one day we had a little time left after our main school was done so Austin wanted to work on the Number Puzzle.


He cut and taped his bible verse together this week using our new Maped Scissors! ( Thanks Carisa for the Recommendation)


Did another Letter H tracing paper.


We had a great week! I just slacked on getting the post up!

Want to see what others did this week for school?

Tot School: http://1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com/2010/08/tot-school.html

Preschool Corner: http://homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com/2010/07/preschool-corner-lowercase-letter.html

Name Tag Reference Printable

I was wanting something that the boys could reference to with Letter writing, Shapes, Colors, Numbers, Right and Left Hands and also see there names daily. So I made these to put on our table or wall for them to refer too. Also it has the name of the shapes and Colors on it so that way they learn those from seeing them daily as well. So I figured id share them with you all. I made it so theres 2 on page as I have 2 kids and just made sense! Hope these will be handy for someone! Click here or on the image to download and print: http://www.4shared.com/document/db_X0opO/Name_Tag_Reference_Charts.html

Our School Week 7/16-7/23

Dylan is 26 Months

This week we did the Letter T.

He loves this puzzle and does it daily!


He colored some pictures of words that start with the Letter T.


He got a new puzzle this week of numbers and this was the toy he played with for hours! And daily!

We did lots more but I didn't get many pictures this week of his school time

Austin is 47 Months

This week we did the Letter T, Number 2, The sight word "the", the shape Square and the Color Green.

Every morning we did our Calendar/ Circle Time. We did our Bible Verse, Song of the Week, Our Easy Reader and the Vocabulary Words from the week.

Want the Printables for the RRSP Letter T? You can get them here: http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.com/RaisingRockStarsPreschoolT.html


This is Austin with his 10 Commandment prop for our Song of the Week.

We made a Tractor out of the Letter T. You can find it here: http://totallytots.blogspot.com/2010/04/now-i-know-my-abcs-t-is-for-tractor.html



We worked on Patterns. Hes having a hard time with them so im making sure I include them every week. http://confessionsofahomeschooler.blogspot.com/2009/10/letter-t-for-turtle.html


He worked on his Practice Handwriting papers. You can get them here: http://confessionsofahomeschooler.blogspot.com/2009/10/letter-t-for-turtle.html


These are our keyword cards from this week.


We got some new Dot Markers so he had to try them out! Here he is using the Blue one on his Do A Dot Letter T. http://confessionsofahomeschooler.blogspot.com/2009/10/letter-t-for-turtle.html



He did his Getting Ready for T tracing paper.


He practiced tracing his squares from his Mead Workbook.


He did a Do A Dot Turtle Paper this week. http://confessionsofahomeschooler.blogspot.com/2009/10/letter-t-for-turtle.html


We taped together our Bible Verse for the week! He is really liking all the hands on stuff in school now!


And he had to give Dylan's new number puzzle a try! Except before he could put it in he had to name it!


We had a great week with school!!! The boys are loving the more hands on approach that Im taking and I find they are picking up things more and more!

Want to see what others did for school this week?

Tot School: http://1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com/2010/07/tot-school_25.html

Preschool Corner: http://homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com/2010/07/preschool-corner-getting-buggy.html

Dylans 2 yr Old School Goals- 2010-2011

Dylan's Goals- 2 yr old. 2010-2011

Learning through play and fun.

Circle Time

• Opening Song
• Movement Activity
• Read a Book
• Daily Focus Learning Activity
• Days of the Week Song
• Calendar Time
• Weather

Alphabet

• Introduce A-Z and a-z
• One letter a week
• Reading Books daily
• Alphabet learning toys
• Do A Dot Art Pages

Number

• Introduce 1-10
• Counting in Order
• Number Puzzles

Shapes

• Introduce 8 Basic Shapes ( Square, Rectangle, Oval, Circle, Heart, Diamond, Star and Triangle)
• Shape Puzzles
• Shape Puppets
• Shape Viewers

Colors

• Introduce Colors ( Red, Blue, Purple, Yellow, Green, Brown, Black, Orange)
• Color Puzzles
• Color Sorting
• Color Bears
• Coloring with certain colors at one time

Sensory Table Fun

http://lovemylifex4.blogspot.com/search/label/Sensory%20Bin
Sensory tables provide hours of hands on fun while allowing children to develop many important developmental skills


Art Projects

• Various Art Projects

Gross Motor Skills

• Jump off the Ground with 2 feet
• Ride a tricycle
• Balance on one foot
• Undress himself

Fine Motor Skills

• Scribble and Draw Circles
• Painting
• Cutting /Tearing
• Gluing
• Opening and Closing Objects
• Puzzles
• Pinching Objects between fingers/ Clothespins
• Playdough

Themes

1. Insects
2. Plants
3. Jungle Animals
4. Space
5. Human Body
6. Ocean Life
7. Season and Weather
8. Magnets
9. Float or Sink
10. Food and Nutrition
11. Farm Animals
12. Safety- body and fire
13. Senses
14. Holidays

Austins Pre-K 2010-2011 Goals

Goals For Austin 2010-2011

Phonics

• Recognize 100 Sight Words
• Work on Letter Sounds
• Work on Letter Blends
• Recognize Color Words ( Red, Blue, White, Black, Purple, Brown, Green, Yellow)
• Rhymes

Handwriting

• Trace Uppercase and Lowercase Letters
• Write his Full name

Spelling

• Work on some 3 Letter Spelling Words
• Spelling Puzzles

Reading

• Start working on sounding out words
• Read some Easy Readers
• Read 10 books a month

Math

• Number Recognition 1-20
• 1 to 1 Correspondence
• Recognize Number Words 1- 10
• Matching
• Patterns
• Drawing and Recognizing Shapes
• Value of Coins
• Calendar (Days, Months, Weeks, Year)
• Sequencing
• Opposites
• Directions
• Graphs
• Tells Time by the Hour
• Divide sets of objects into equaly groups
• Measuring with non standard measurment
• Uses the terms shorter, longer, taller, heavier, warmer, coolor, holds more
• Identifies Half vs. Whole

Social Studies

• Holidays
• States
• Community Helpers
• Home: Self/ Friends/ Family

Science

• Themes

1. Insects
2. Plants
3. Jungle Animals
4. Space
5. Human Body
6. Ocean Life
7. Season and Weather
8. Magnets
9. Float or Sink
10. Food and Nutrition
11. Farm Animals
12. Safety- body and fire
13. Senses

Art & Crafts

• Various crafts

Critical Thinking

• Logic Puzzles and Games

PE

• Review Basic Skills
• Introduce new skills and games

Bible

• Weekly Bible Verse
• Weekly Bible Song
• Bible Crafts

Music

• Singing Songs
• Rhythm

Life Skills

• Recite address from memory
• Recite Telephone number with area code
• Recite Birthday with year
• Recite Full name of Mommy and Daddy
• Recite his full name
• Follows 1 and 2 step Directions
• Dresses himself

Fine Motor Skills

• Holds pencil correctly
• Holds scissors correctly
• Cuts on lines
• Outlines and colors neatly

Gross Motor Skills

• Hops on both feet together
• Hops on one foot (left and right)
• Marches
• Gallops
• Skips

Social and Work Habits

• Puts effort in his work
• Takes card of school materials
• Uses Self Control
• Works Independently
• Completes work in reasonable time
• Listens attentively

Color and Shape Lapbook

Im so excited to share my first lapbook with you all!! It covers shapes and colors! I split it up so you can download the parts you want to put in your lapbook!

Cover for the Lapbook



Color the Shapes


Counting


My Name is


I See Color and Shapes Book


Match The Shapes and Colors

These are in PDF format but a couple of them that have more then one page are in a zip file. To unzip you should be able to right click the file and choose Extract!!

Dont know what a lapbook is? Check out this post about lapbooks: http://www.squidoo.com/lapbooking

If you find anything wrong let me know!!! Hope you all enjoy these!!