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Homeschool Year Review: What Worked in Pre K & K

Jessica Lynette — Tue, 21 May 2013 17:00:40 +0000

We haven’t technically stopped schooling – our approach, at least for these younger years, are much more just living real life than sit down with text books and work books. It’s working for us.

We are curriculum free for now, and most things are patched together with yard sale and thrift store finds which makes for an extremely affordable education and lots of room for trial and error.

I thought I would break down our year and share some of our favorite things that worked well for us – I am sure I am forgetting some important things, so will update if I remember something.

READING LOTS OF GOOD BOOKS

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I have done a rather poor job at sharing favorite books that we have enjoyed along the way – there is the favorite chapter books section that is regularly updated and the picture books from the library series that puttered away. But excellent books are at the very core of what we believe our children need for living and learning and I am constantly running into our local thrift stores and picking out ones that look excellent.

We read books throughout the day, and then always at bedtime. Bedtime reading consists of 1 picture book, a few chapters of our current read aloud, 1 or 2 fairy tales, 1 hymn biography and/or singing hymns and a Bible story. It’s a lot, but the time is carved out for it. And they give us back rubs while we read.

A few scattered thoughts on good books:

> Let people know you want books. I have some sweet friends who are stages ahead in their homeschooling journey and they have been so generous in passing books onto us.

> Visit your local thrift stores. We have three in the area that I consistently find good books at – one of them is extremely cheap (they mark hard backs down to .35 cents on occasion!) and I visit that store 1-2 times a week. It takes me a few minutes to run in, scan the shelves for new additions, and then leave.

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> Read fairy tales – the old, original ones – are brilliant, witty and thoroughly engaging. They have the bonus of inspiring the moral imagination.
Collections of fairy tales are available at the library, and I have seen many at the second hand stores too.

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> Good poetry, rhymes and hymns are easy to learn and contain virtues and truths that I want my boys thinking about.

Hymns for a Kid’s Heart is a series we have enjoyed. Each book in the series covers a dozen or so hymns – it gives the history of each writer and, if known, a bit about why the specific hymn was written. An accompanying cd includes all of the mentioned hymns.

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> I try to include biographies as a regular genre in our read aloud. There is so much to be learned from others – both to learn from their mistakes and to be inspired to greater good. We have enjoyed some from the Trailblazer Series as well as the Christian Heroes Series and several collections of short stories.

I discovered these Name Your LinkTorchlighters DVDS put out by Youth on a Mission and really enjoy them; we have read a few of the biographies as books, and the movies have really helped the boys connect to the stories.

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> We are gently entering into the world of narration – the art of telling in ones own words what was comprehended from a reading. While it is done casually at the end of (most) single reading sessions, we summarize each book we finish with an illustration (boys take turns doing the drawing) and a simple sentence or two from each boy telling something about the book.
I hope to stay on top of these book summaries and adding them to our binder to look back on in years to come.

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> Through friends, audible.com, the library and yard sales I have been able to build up our audiobook collection – they are generally listened to daily by the boys, usually while playing Lego or something similar.
Some favorites include:
– The Magic Treehouse series
- Story of the World, volume 1
– Jim Weiss stories (we have only heard a few, but have enjoyed them!)
– Classics such as The Secret Garden, The Wonderful World of Oz and Anne of Green Gables.

GIVING THEM THINGS TO BUILD WITH

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Building toys work really well with audiobooks – occupy their mind and their hands at the same time.
But regardless of whether there is anything playing in the background, there is something to be said for the skills that come from sitting for hours building. I have watched their level of detail and complex creations increase over time – and that is a neat thing to behold.

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These types of toys can easily take over a room so we have worked hard to find ways to manage them.

All building toys except Lego need to be tidied up when they are done playing with them. Lego creations can stay out, but need to be pushed to the side. Each toy has its own storage, and I try to store building type toys in different rooms from each other.

Some building toys we enjoy
> Lego
> Magnet construction set
> Marble Run
> Knex
> Pattern Blocks

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LETTING THEM SEE THE WORLD

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One day we will be exploring the world ourselves – feet in the dirt of the places we look at in pictures. But for now we just enjoy looking at a bigger world.
This laminated National Geographic map is one thing I did purchase brand new, and I have color coded the countries with stickers to show where friends and family that we know are living around the world, places we have been, animals we have studied and Bible places.

We talk about places around the world often and it is neat to see their excitement as they hear about places they have heard about previously (like when they listened to The Secret Garden on audio book they were thoroughly delighted that it starts in India – which is where my sister is currently living.)

We expose them to stories of people around the world through biographies and stories about different cultures, and every chance we get we have guests in our home – many of whom are living in other countries, or who have traveled to many countries.

WORKING ON READING SKILLS

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Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons has worked fabulously for us. {and prior to that it was the Leap Frog Learning DVDs – highly recommend them for your preschool age child!}

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These books by Nora Gaydos are excellent for building reading skills and confidence. For some reason they are ridiculously expensive on Amazon, but a quick search on ebay had a large selection and decent prices.
These are short stories, each story starts out very simple and builds throughout the book on words the child has previously read within the story.
There are 4 stickers per story and the child is to add a sticker to the book each time they read it, and then move on to the next book when they complete the current story 4 times.

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I thought I would slip the copywork in here – I have written about copywork extensively here in the past; the importance of copywork and how we make copywork work in our home.

A SMATTERING OF THINGS

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Good pencil crayons {found on clearance and a gift} have served us well – an assortment of flesh toned pencil crayons has truly opened up a new world of coloring for them. {And despite the Charlotte Mason style education we lean towards and her followers disdain for coloring books, my boys have a love for them and I am cool with that. Dover coloring books are my favorite – I bought a huge stack of them from someone off Craigslist and most are historical or educational in nature.}

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Dress up clothes and accessories have served to encourage their imagination and live out the heroic people we read about. Weapons are especially popular.

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Math skills are built mostly through every day living – fractions are introduced in a practical manner with recipes, addition or subtraction through verbal instructions for setting the table (“We will have two guests for dinner, please set the table accordingly.”)
And through helping around the house they are becoming useful people.

STUDYING THE BIBLE

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We worked through some of the Old Testament stories this year – reading the Biblical account and keeping a binder of coloring sheets and related activities. We followed the accounts on a map.
Printables were found via Google and came from a variety of places. There is a huge assortment of resources available for free online.

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We reenacted some of the stories for fun and to help build an excitement for the word of God. We have also enjoyed watching through the What’s in the Bible dvds, which have helped reinforce teaching about the Bible.

PLAYING LOTS OF GAMES

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Games are an excellent way to help learn skills; specifically math and concentration skills.

Uno and Spot it have both been wildly popular and useful at teaching skills. Printing off free Bingo sheets and free mazes have also been fun additions to our days. I have shared some other Math Games we have used to help re-enforce math skills over this past year.

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SPENDING TIME OUTDOORS

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A lot of time was spent outdoors – I am thankful for a large, fenced in backyard for the boys to explore in, but we also took every opportunity we had to go places and do things outside.

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And our nature hunt poem was a lot of fun and had several other variations.

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Whew! That concludes the highlights I can recall from our past year of homeschooling – we are going to continue on in this way throughout the summer and, for the most part, through grade 1 too.
Our habit building will become a more prominent part again – it will be connected to our school year rather than our calendar year. And we will be exploring specific time periods and scientific subjects through our reading – but the goal, as it was this year – will be to build a love for learning and a mastery of the task at hand.

Homeschool Year Review: What Worked in Pre K & K is a post from: JessicaLynette.com

2 comment(s) for this post:

Brandy:
21 May 2013 Thank you Jess for this. I loved reading it and have loads of ideas and bookmarks now :D
Jessica Lynette:
21 May 2013 You are so welcome Brandy :) haha, it helped to collect everything together and see that, despite the fact there are no workbooks filled with pencil markings, we are indeed moving forward :)

Duct Tape Bow Tie

Jessica Lynette — Mon, 20 May 2013 19:09:25 +0000

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Aren’t these duct tape bow ties fabulous? I took the boys with me to a youth group event last evening and the girls entertained themselves making duct tape crafts – which included these fantastic bow ties they sent my boys home with.

Two colors of duct tape per tie and a little bit of folding is all that’s involved. They go all the way around their neck and seal with a small piece of tape, though I am considering adding Velcro to it as that little piece of tape keeps catching in their hair.

So stylish.

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Sharing on Corner Stone Confessions

Duct Tape Bow Tie is a post from: JessicaLynette.com

2 comment(s) for this post:

mum:
20 May 2013 Love their eyes and smiles...oh yes the ties are great too!
Aunt Polly:
21 May 2013 I like them. Sure would fill a quick bill and still lok neat. Love me.

Somewhere

Jessica Lynette — Sat, 18 May 2013 20:48:42 +0000

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Could you tell me the way to Somewhere -
Somewhere, Somewhere,
I have heard of a place called Somewhere-
But I know not where it can be.

It makes no difference,
Whether or not
I go in dreams
Or trudge on foot:
Would you tell me the way to Somewhere,
The Somewhere meant for me.

… FOR

I want to be off to Somewhere,
To far, lone, lovely Somewhere,
No matter where Somewhere be.
It makes no difference
Whether or not
I go in dreams
Or trudge on foot,
Or this time to-morrow
How far I’ve got,
Summer or Winter,
Cold, or hot,
Where, or When,
Or Why, or What-
Please, tell me the way to Somewhere-
Somewhere, Somewhere;
Somewhere, Somewhere, Somewhere, SOMEWHERE-
The Somewhere meant for me!

-SOMEWHERE by Walter de la Mare

Somewhere is a post from: JessicaLynette.com

Dunk Tank

Jessica Lynette — Thu, 16 May 2013 10:05:58 +0000

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Last night ended the Awana year at church and they went all out to celebrate the kids accomplishments over the past year. It was so.much.fun!

All week my boys were discussing the upcoming evening – at one point they said that the last night of Awana was always better than Christmas. That’s some high praise right there!

It was a fun evening and I took way too many pictures. Here are a few of the fabulous people and the fun times ~

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Dunk Tank is a post from: JessicaLynette.com

yesterday

Jessica Lynette — Wed, 15 May 2013 14:04:32 +0000

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This happened yesterday.

Paul’s been gone for awhile with training stuff and he had to come back to town for something and was able to come see us. All of our hearts are happy and full now.

It’s not a great movie, but I did capture the moment Paul came running into the backyard and onto the trampoline to surprise them. They had no idea he would be home for a bit -

yesterday is a post from: JessicaLynette.com

2 comment(s) for this post:

tricia:
16 May 2013 OK, that just made me tear up. So sweet :)
Esther Leanne:
18 May 2013 I love it :) Paul is quite amazing!

Her Words

Jessica Lynette — Sun, 12 May 2013 02:56:35 +0000

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Excerpts from the poem Her Words by Anna Hempstead Branch
For mother’s everywhere – by birth or by heart – who inspire children the world over with beautiful words of Truth, of grace, of forgiveness – both the giving type and the seeking type.

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For those women who offer words of love, of heroic deeds, of thankfulness. Words of encouragement, words of caution, words of advice. Words that mold the children whom they are spoken to. The words matter.

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To the motherly women in my life who have breathed words of encouragement to me – thank you.

But especially to my own mom, who filled our childhood with delightful stories and continues to encourage us. Love you mom!
Happy Mother’s Day!

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Her Words is a post from: JessicaLynette.com

Garden Beauty

Jessica Lynette — Sat, 11 May 2013 02:15:35 +0000

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Great are the works of the Lord;
They are pondered by all who delight in them.

Glorious and majestic are His deeds,
and His righteousness endures forever.

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He has caused His wonders to be remembered;
the Lord is gracious and compassionate.

He provides food for those who fear Him;
He remembers His covenant forever.

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He has shown His people the power of His works,
giving them the lands of other nations.

The works of His hands are faithful and just;
all His precepts are trustworthy.

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They are established for ever and ever,
enacted in faithfulness and uprightness.

He provided redemption for His people;
He ordained his covenant forever—
holy and awesome is His name.

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The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;
all who follow His precepts have good understanding.

To Him belongs eternal praise.

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Garden Beauty is a post from: JessicaLynette.com

For the Love of a Beautiful Chair

Jessica Lynette — Thu, 09 May 2013 09:24:24 +0000

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As you know, I have been working through the process of crafting out our homeschool space for the years to come. I have been working with what we already own and grabbing pieces from other rooms to pull together our homeschool space in line with the vision I have for it and our needs.

I looked around the room the other day and realized it had a lot of chairs in it. 6 to be exact. And each one is unique.

I have always loved chairs and tend to gravitate towards them at thrift stores and yard sales – and if they are under $10 I snatch them up.

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Above you can see where five of the chairs came from. Wooden chairs are a favorite. If fabric is involved with second hand furniture I give it the sniff test – but as a general rule I stay away from upholstered chairs.

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A reading/chatting corner. That wooden chair holds two little boys quite comfortably for read alouds or flashcard reviews. The striped chair was given to us and has such delicate lines to it, that really aren’t captured in this picture. It’s beautiful. And to the left of it you can sort of see the curtains my mom made for me – painters cloth turned curtain with beautiful layers of lace across the lower two feet of it.

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Our cozy reading corner – it is in the closet (closet doors have been removed) and there is a small corner bookshelf back in the corner, with a light overhead. The three of us fit cozily in this chair and it is by far the most comfortable chair in the room!

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The boys writing chairs – we have had an assortment of child size chairs and these old looking ones are my favorite! And are a necessity - I have been convinced of the need for children to have their feet touching the floor while writing, and this table and chair combo allow for that.

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I adore this office desk chair - it’s old and squeaky and adorable. I found it at a yard sale of an elderly man who said it belonged to his father, and he was rather emotional when he parted with it. That’s why I love old furniture. It has a story, and I get to pretend to be a part of its history when I invite it into my house.

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And this chair (pictured a few times above.) I found it at the thrift store and picked it up right away. Three different people approached me and asked if they could buy it from me. Obviously I said no. One lady said “Honey, I hope you aren’t one of those youngin’s that goes and paints everything white. This is a beautiful piece. My advice to you is to overlook the white paint trend and leave it alone.” I didn’t tell her I had originally thought of painting it fuchsia, not white. But I took her counsel to heart and have been happy with the natural wood look for the past couple of years.

There is a tiny peek into my love for beautiful chairs – kinda sad that those aren’t even half of the beautiful ones I have collected over the years!

For the Love of a Beautiful Chair is a post from: JessicaLynette.com

Science Fun: Roly-Poly’s

Jessica Lynette — Wed, 08 May 2013 09:40:49 +0000

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Roly-Poly’s are plentiful – until you actually want to find one for science! I am reading the boys Backyard Wonders right now and we wanted to find one of these interesting crustaceans to get a closer look after we had learned a little bit more about them… it took us awhile and we could only find one!

These little guys go by the name Sow bug, Roly-polys and Pill bug and they help make the garden soil richer. They have seven joints and seven pairs of walking legs. {see! I learned lots too!}

Anyways, I would highly recommend checking out Backyard Wonders from the library (or even buying it) – it’s a great little book that has short little chapters (three – four pages each) on different bugs and critters you might find in your backyard and is really a very friendly book to read while also being very informative.

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Science Fun: Roly-Poly’s is a post from: JessicaLynette.com

1 comment(s) for this post:

Michelle:
10 May 2013 That sounds like a fabulous book! I love books that are fun to read and spark learning at the same time!

Spinach & Feta & Roasted Almond Salad

Jessica Lynette — Wed, 01 May 2013 17:44:51 +0000

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A friend brought this salad to a potluck and the bowl was scraped clean and several people requested the recipe. I have made it several times since then for company and each time it’s been remarked on – it’s a delicious blend of flavors and the oil and lemon dressing is perfection. It is easy to pull together and has been added to my regular roster of rotated company dishes.

{little side note … I adapted my friends recipe – I will share both below as they technically are two different salads all together.}

Spinach & Feta & Roasted Almond Salad

-2 cups roasted almonds (sliced or slivered)
-5 cups chopped spinach
-1 ¼ cup crumbled feta cheese
Dressing:
-zest of one lemon
-juice of one lemon
-1/3 cup olive oil
-1 tsp salt

Toss first three ingredients in salad bowl.

Mix dressing in a separate bowl, and toss with salad.

We really enjoy the above adaption of the recipe – I made it that way to keep the sugar and wheat out and it’s just so good! The original is amazing too and I will share it here:

Spinach & Feta & Orzo Salad

-2 cups spiced pecans
-2 cups cooked orzo pasta
-5 cups chopped spinach
-1 ¼ cup crumbled feta cheese
Dressing:
-zest of one lemon
-juice of one lemon
-1/3 cup olive oil
-1 tsp salt

Directions are same as above.

Enjoy!

Spinach & Feta & Roasted Almond Salad is a post from: JessicaLynette.com