Homeschooling with a Three Year Old

Well, it was bound to happen. My baby isn't quite a baby anymore. She turned three this week and has expressed an extreme interest in EVERYTHING homeschooling. My room is rather topsy turvy today and so there aren't a lot of pics here, but I am really enjoying her desire to "do school" or "do work" every day. I made these little busy body things for her to do and she is really enjoying them.

 

 

Here she is working on the beads. I bought pony beads and chenille stems at the dollar store and using my handy dandy glue gun created a great little fun activity for her. I cut the chenille stems in half (since when are they not "pipe cleaners"? When did that become anti-p/c?) and set half of each one aside. Then I took the other halves and glued one end of each. I just put a blob of glue on the end and let it dry. Then I created patterns with the pony beads. Each stem has a different pattern. Then I glued the other end of the stems so the beads wouldn't fall off.

 

 

While the glue was drying, I duplicated all of the beads I had used and put them in a snack size zip-seal bag. Then I put my completed "bead sticks" in a larger bag with the other halves of the stems. I curled one end of each of my empty stems so that she can "string" beads on them. She can copy the pattern I created or create her own. More often than not, she creates her own, but my first grader really enjoys working with the patterns. It's a great way for her to develop her manual dexterity too.

 

A friend with LOTS of homeschool experience suggested something for her called "blanket time." While the entire concept didn't work for us, the idea of the blanket being "her" space DID work very well. She is sitting at a floor desk that my husband made. It is basically a mini-podium and was originally intended for his laptop. But he set it on the floor making it fair game in her eyes and it is now hers!

 

I also have to thank a friend for sending me to www.1plus1plus1equals1.net and the amazing resources found there. Her Tot School has been a lifesaver! I didn't think my 3 yr old would want to do this, but I see that she is really enjoying it. I've added her AWANA Cubbies verse and her Sunday School verse to our work each week (A is for Apple and "Taste and see that the Lord is good" went together very nicely! She is loving the ability to work on her own and all of the matching games have been very good for her. All of the printables from Tot School are free and THAT is also a blessing. This will transition her very nicely into pre-k next year and we will definitely be using the Raising Rockstars PreSchool from 1+ also!

 

Here are some other things that keep my pretty girl busy during the day...

 

A baggy filled with small cars and farm animals

 

A baggy filled with pom poms in different sizes and colors along with a pair of science tweezers and an ice cube tray. Who knew sorting was so much fun?!

 

A baggy filled with a variety of foam butterflies, different sizes and colors. She sorts, she creates, she plays, she makes up characters and stories for them.

 

Several baggies filled with letters, shapes, and fall leaves for her to sort however her heart desires.

 

These are cars from a bulletin board set I had when I was teaching (teachers never throw anything away!). She loves to sort them by color and then color family and make up stories for them as well. 

 

 

 

These lacing cards have been amazing. I looked at several different stores for lacing cards and they were anywhere from $9.00 to $20.00 and I just didn't want to pay that much in case she didn't like them. I paid $6.99 for these at our local School Box and have been SUPER happy with them and so has Nayners!

 

 

 

You can never go wrong with the dollar stop at Target or the Back to School section for teachers at WalMart. I think I paid $0.88 for these flashcards. They have the same shape on both sides but different colors, so she can sort them however she chooses.

 

 

And this is where they all live. I got these cute baskets at the dollar stop at Target. I have another one with the big girls' art supplies in them. Super great way to keep things organized and I LOVE anything organized (although you can't tell by looking at my house right now).

 

 

If you have a toddler, pre-schooler or kindergartener, you MUST check out Raising Rockstars! These printables are from their Tot School that I mentioned above.

http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.com/TotSchool.html 

These are a great resource and my girl loves them so much! Can't wait to see what she knows at the end of the year!!!

 

 

 

 

 

So this is how we are staying busy. I bought another desk from a homeschool mom who is slowly getting out of this business as I am getting into it. Now I have three desks in my dining room. The girls love having their little sister in the room with them and love even more that she is at her own desk in her own space. And I love that she is busy while I am trying to work with the other two AND she is having fun and learning at the same time.

 

By the way, for anyone wondering after seeing the pics of her...No, we do not have a dress code at our "school." This child must be wearing a dress at all times. Believe it or not, SHE is the one who most often arrives at school in high heels proclaiming to all of us that she is fabulous and ready to start her day. As she would say, "Ooh La La!"

 

 

 

I am a Handwriting Fool!

I have a confession to make. When in college I was required to take Handwriting for Elementary Education. I think that may have been part of what led me to switch my major to secondary ed. See, I withdrew failing from Handwriting. Now, before you call the Homeschool Police and tell them I am not qualified to teach my children to write, let me say something in my defense. I have BEAUTIFUL handwriting. I know, toot toot goes the sound of my own horn, but I really do. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't born that way. I have worked VERY hard to have pretty penmanship. I have practiced loops and swirls and dots and swoops until my hands cramped. I am very fond of the Zaner Bloser Handwriting and that is pretty much what A Beka teaches, so I thought I'd give it a shot. We are in our third week of school and I am just now starting, so you can tell I have been procrastinating a little.

I was aghast to discover that my 4th grader was not taught handwriting last year. This is NOT her teacher's fault. She had an AMAZING teacher last year and I consider her a friend still today (and at least she tried by giving them a handwriting workbook and encouraging them to use it in their spare time). It IS the fault of our education system. Because Handwriting cannot be measured on standardized tests, it is no longer part of our standard curriculum. But it IS a part of mine. So it was with much trepidation that I have pushed into the fray to teach my near-9-yr-old how to write cursive (I'm starting Kadoodle today too). We have been working on printing with my first grader and I found some great ideas at http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.net/. A friend recently sent me to her blog and I am HOOKED. Not only does she teach with the same biblical principals that I do, but she was also a brick and mortar teacher and "never thought she'd homeschool", she has three kids almost the exact same ages as mine and I have already learned so much. Anyway, she posted on her blog some downloadable pages from "Draw Write NOW" and they are AWESOME for printing copywork. I will be buying those for my littlest and maybe even my middle child. (http://www.barkercreek.com/products/category/Draw+Write+Now/183.0.1.1.32421.0.0.0.0)


BUT my 4th grader is learning cursive.

So, I found some great resources for copywork for her. I was in love with two because one had options for the KJV version of scripture copywork and since that is the version we memorize, that was very helpful. I have been teaching scripture memory to first graders with the KJV for about 12 years now and have found that it's rhyme and meter is THE ABSOLUTE BEST for little people who love to sing, dance, snap fingers, and clap hands. No other version can make that claim. You may not like the thee's and thou's and ye's and shalt's but try to dance to any other version and you will be hard-pressed to do so. Which I find hilarious considering my own conservative Independent Baptist upbringing and the stand on dancing, but when it comes to the Psalms, it's got a beat and I can dance to it. Hey, David did. At least I'm not naked around a fire, just silly in my own living room!

So, here's the copybook that I found online...http://www.copycatbooks.com/free_c_printables.htm and you can buy more from their store for VERY reasonable prices.

THEN, I found something that is very helpful to us in our own home. It is still in the beta stages, meaning that the site has quirks and clicks, so be patient with them, BUT it gave us the great ability to use our own Bible verses we are learning for Sunday School and TNT (A.W.A.N.A.).

http://www.worksheetworks.com/ is my new favorite place for making my OWN stuff. I haven't even scratched the surface of what is available, but I am excited to get there. For now, it is time to delve into 1st grade for a little while.

And no, I still haven't been able to get those high heels on yet, BUT I only have about three more weeks till I can start trying!

Lapbooking. Yeah, I'd never heard of it either...

They say you learn something new every day. I firmly believe this is true. For me, my latest revelation is something called "lapbooking." Depending on what kind of homeschool parent you are, you may have already heard of this or be familiar with the concept. If you are new and haven't read a gazillion books you may not have. It was totally new to me. When I was in college learning to teach, apparently this wasn't one of the things they taught at my school. But I discovered that I am not alone. I have found several "brick and mortar" teachers that have never heard of this.

So, now after talking to a few friends and watching 17 videos on Youtube, I am now a self proclaimed expert on making lapbooks. What? I made one. AND it was double sided. So there! I watched all these tutorials on youtube and to be quite honest, they were a little hard to understand or kinda lacking in information. I mean, it's really not rocket science or anything, but hey, I didn't know how to do it at first either. So, anyway, I have decided to share my vast wisdom with you. Mind you, my vast wisdom will be this tutorial in its entirety at this point, but that's the lay of it.

First, you take a file folder and cut the tab thingies off. Yes, thingie is the appropriate term (I looked it up).

Next you take each side of the folder and fold it in toward the middle (you know, where the crease of the original folder is).

To do a double sided lapbook, you do this to two folders.

Then I used spray adhesive to attach the folders to each other, center to center.

Next you staple each of the corners together on the center of the folder. Don't worry about the staples scratching little hands. We are going to cover them up in a sec.

I was told to add a piece of card stock to the center part. This gives the lapbook stability and keeps it from bending at the middle. However, since this was a double sided book, I decided to trim a piece of construction paper and use it instead.

Finally I added my insides. The accordion folds I did myself and these are now filled with pictures of things that make the short "a" sound. The center has handwriting paper on it so that she can create her own word list and the right side has a fun little foldable that when finished spells sixteen different words with the short "a" sound. The center contains a flower where we will be pasting a photo of something we find in our home with the short "a" sound and each petal of the flower will contain more "a" words. The foldables were downloaded from www.flapjackbooks.com and they have several different types of foldables and lapbooks on there to assist you.

You don't have to be crafty to make a lapbook. You don't need a lot of time or money either. I have a box full of hanging files in bright colors that we are going to be using this year. I'm going to cut the metal bars off and use them for our science lapbooks. We will be purchasing our lapbooking materials for that from www.rainbowresources.com as they have pretty much anything we need in that respect.

If you have a "hand on" learner that needs constant stimulation and needs to be busy all the time, lapbooks are a great way to keep them engaged. I went from spending the summer trying to teach my hands on learner the short "a" sound to watching her grasp it fully in just a few short days using her lapbook.

Kinda makes me frustrated that I never knew about this when I had a classroom.

Day Five...Crash and Burn

Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later. I was just hoping for later than our first week. We had our first major crash and burn day today.

First, we started 15 minutes late. I know, I know, we homeschool. Who is looking at the clock? Well, actually I am. I made a commitment to be my children's teacher and I take that pretty seriously (the commitment, not the teaching. if you can't have a crazy sense of humor while teaching, you are in trouble). Apparently, that set our dial to disaster.

First, nothing I attempted to occupy the Naynster with would do. She insisted on sitting at our table in the middle of our room where we do one on one instruction. No big deal, I'm thinking. We are doing seatwork right now anyway. Forever. And ever. And ever. World without end. Amen.

No, really. It was awful. I set Kylie down with her handwriting practice. She had to practice writing the letters A, B, and C. Then she had to write the names of three princesses whose names began with those letters (Ariel, Belle and Cinderella). This should have been a quick and easy task for someone so obsessed with her Disney princesses. Not so. She wrote the capital A. "Mommy, I'm done." I look at her paper. "What about the lower case a?" Big sigh. "Oh." She finished the lower case a. "Mommy, I'm done." I think you get the idea here. In two hours, she managed to finish these three letters and three pages in her bridge book. THREE PAGES AND THREE LETTERS IN TWO HOURS????? Really? Surely, Boo had fared better.

Not so. She managed to read ONE chapter in Ella Enchanted and ONE story in her reading book and do ONE page of Grammar. Really? IN TWO HOURS???????

At my wit's end, we attempted some online storybook reading. Kadoodle cried because she couldn't read "the cat did not get the rat." I know she can read that. I know she is capable. I sat down and told her AGAIN that "it is ok to not know, but it is not okay to not try." She dried her tears and sat at the computer for a few seconds. Then out of the blue, she looks up and reads it perfectly. I am so angry at whoever told her she wasn't smart last year that I want to go to that school and wring someone's neck!

Finally after three hours of getting nothing accomplished and fighting with Nayney to get her to stop scribbling in HER book, I gave up. It was time to be done. I told them enough was enough for one day. So, I guess we have to do five hours on Monday or something, but I was just NOT going any further today. It wouldn't do for Mommy to lose it the first week of school. That has to wait till at LEAST week five!!!

Another appropriate note from www.technologyrocksseriously.com

***I feel the need to add a little note to the end of this. Some of my homeschool friends were concerned at what a rough time I had. Never fear. I will be back on Monday and I am armed to the TEETH with things to keep Nayney occupied (including a cherished friend to come and play with her if worst comes to worse!).

Day Four -- New Crayons and the Library

A friend of mine recently posted on Facebook a story of school supplies. While gathering school supplies for her children this year, she came upon a small box full of crayons she had purchased last year while they were $0.25 a box. She opened the box and said, "Mmmm. Don't you love that smell?" Her kids (who are teenagers, except one) looked at her like she was crazy, but I believe she has a point. I love the smell of a fresh box of crayons. So, finally, today, my girls got their first box of fresh crayons. I have to admit something. I am somewhat of a school supply junkie. We have tax free weekend the first weekend of August here and I love to go and stock up on school supplies. It was considerably less expensive this year. I spent less than $80 on both girls for school supplies and didn't have to pay additional school supply fees at school (another $130 for two girls). While I did spend that and a little more on textbooks for the year, I will at least be able to reuse most of them in the future, so I consider that a little more of an investment.

In light of those great colors, I wanted to share a few more bits I found on www.technologyrocksseriously.com

Since I was talking about crayons, I thought this was completely appropriate. I love bright colors. I love them in my classroom. I am off on Friday after school to pick up some color ink for my printer because some of these signs seriously need to be in my room. Here's another one I love. And if you love them too, just head on over to her site and print them. They are free, she just asks that you remember to give her credit for them. She does great work and will most likely do a custom for you if you ask. I am thinking of asking her to play with my sign from my room...

"Let's eat Grandpa.

Let's eat, Grandpa.

Correct grammar...it could save a life."

This is one of my favorite sayings and I use it all the time with my Kadoodle because she has a tendency to give up when she doesn't get something right the first time.

Great words of wisdom that every teacher, whether homeschooling or brick and mortar, should remind their students every now and then. (something about that sentence is grammatically horrific, but I can't quite put my finger on the fix.)

So, I have crayon rolls that my girls use in our classroom. They are available at my site if you can't make your own, www.facebook.com/OneDivaThreeDolls and eventually there will be a tutorial on my other blog, www.divamommydiaries.blogspot.com so if you are interested, you can check them out. Today they got their fresh crayons. The joy in our room was palpable (okay not really, but they were happy).

Kylie is working on a little back to school math fun. I scanned the worksheet she is using and I am adding the jpeg below. If you right click it, you should be able to use it as well if you like.

The idea is to color the trees and add the amount of apples listed below to each tree. With a little photoshop creativity, you could change the numbers and create new worksheets too.

Oh, and the title of my blog for this day is "New Crayons and the Library" because we decided to hit the library as part of our day today. Our public library isn't free anymore, but our church has a very large library so we decided to head there. The girls enjoyed getting books and I enjoyed being reminded of what is available there. We don't have a lot of Dr. Seuss books in our house because our book buyer (who is not me) doesn't buy them so I was very happy to find a large selection at the library. While we were there our former pastor who is also the father of our current pastor stopped into the library. All of the girls' ears perked up and I said, "Hey, I hear Brother Bob out there." To which my youngest replied, "Brother Bob! I haven't seen him in weeks! I need to go say hi!" And so, much to his delighted surprise, they did. I am so grateful for godly men and women in our church family that always have time for a smile and a hug for three little girls.

Day Three -- Finding a Groove

So I wasn't able to actually blog on Day Three because that evening my computer decided to take a nose dive and for some reason attempting a blog on my tablet just didn't seem to be a good idea. BUT I did take some pictures and we are finding our groove. We did very well today sailing on through our day and completing all of the tasks I had hoped as well as catching up on some day one and two tasks.

Nayney sat at a table for a full 30 minutes and colored in a coloring book. I also got out the blocks today (something different from Play-Doh) and the girls took breaks from school work to play with her. We started at 8:15 (we are getting later each day!) and went straight till 12:15 without any stops. The girls are also enjoying one thing I did NOT expect...teaching each other!

So, I have discovered in these three short days that Kadoodle is a very hands-on learner and needs a little more stimulation than her sister. For science today we talked about our sense of sight. To help them with that, I went around the house with a small bucket and gathered items from their rooms. I placed ten items on a tray and let them look at the tray. Then I had them each close their eyes and I would remove an item from the tray. They had a great time trying to figure out which item I had removed. Of course, each one of them had to have a turn at it! Here is a photo of Bailey working out what I took.

Working away on math...in our pj's!

And now I have a confession to make. Hubby looked at my blog today and said, "People know you don't actually wear high heels while you are teaching, right?" To which I indignantly replied, "If I wear them cleaning the house, what makes you think I don't wear them teaching?" He looked pointedly at my poor feet. I am not, sadly, wearing high heels ANYWHERE at present. The week before school started I broke my baby toe on my left foot. This wouldn't be a big deal if it were not 21 days shy of the one year anniversary of me breaking said toe while getting Kadoodle ready for the first week at Kindergarten. I thought homeschooling would be less dangerous, but alas, someone left a tennis racket where it should not be and my toe is broken...again...for the third time in less than a year.

But do not dismay, homeschool friends, there WILL come a day when I will be able to wear my high heels again and there WILL come a day when I will wear them in my classroom. I just have to find the right pair for teaching the same as I found the right pair for cleaning house. Maybe I need to go shopping...

Day Two: Survive and Thrive

I don't have any cute pics of my girls barefoot at their desks today, but I did get some great ideas to keep our 3 yr old busy today and I thought I would share them. A friend online recommended this site: http://www.artfulhomemaking.com/2012/07/keeping-little-ones-busy.html
It had tons of great ideas on how to keep our littlest princess occupied. Some of them I already knew and some I will be implementing in the coming weeks. I'll let you know how they work out.

And I found this little bit of wisdom on timing for our class...

In light of this wisdom, we decided to make an adjustment today. Instead of starting at 7:30 (which I thought was WAY too early) we decided to start at 8. Then when Nayney woke up at 9, I fed her breakfast and she watched cartoons till 10. Then from 10-10:30 and 10:30-11, each of the girls took a break to play with her and the Play-Doh for 30 minutes. From 11-11:15, I did PreSchool workbooks with her.

We broke at 11:15 for lunch and didn't finish "school" until after she went down for her nap at 1:45. We finished at 2:30, getting all of our work done and without any tears!!!

Tomorrow we will move on to castle blocks!


p.s. I found my awesome bit of wisdom here:
http://www.swtblessings.com/p/faith-signs.html

Day One: Survival vs. Success

Was Day One a raging success? I don't know. Does survival count as success? Because if so, yes. It was a huge success!

We started at 7:30 (their idea, not mine) and by 8:15 my middle child wanted to know if we were done for the day yet. At 9:30 she asked again and at 10, 10:15, 10:30, 10:45...I think you get the idea here. I asked her if she was bored and her answer was no. But she also told me that she didn't expect there to be this much work involved. Hmm...maybe we need to have a conversation about expectations. My oldest opted to pay more attention to her sister's work than her own and ended up with quite a bit of homework (mean old mom is making her finish her math, all two sheets of it and actually write her spelling words because that is how she learns them really well. ugh.)

At first, things were great. Kylie and I did a lot of phonics work and they had some time on their own for independent work. They seemed to enjoy it alright.

But then the "baby" woke up. Naynay isn't exactly a baby, she will be three in a few weeks, but she is our baby and she is not used to the girls being home during "school" and it was very difficult for her to leave them alone. Especially Kadoodle who is closest to her in age. She kept coming in and asking me if she could hug her. How could I say no?? I do have things to occupy her but I am not sure if I have the time to take away from the other two to get her on track and keep her on track. I think I will be cleaning the living room today so that tomorrow I can avail myself of my secret weapon...PlayDoh!!!

All in all we had some fun, did some hard work and of course they also shared with me one of the many reasons they already like homeschooling...

No shoes!!!

And I must admit that I am guilty of the same. I didn't wear shoes either. BUT that isn't to say that you will not, at some point, see me teaching in my high heels.

After all, I DO clean the house in them.