I wanted to write a post about where we are starting in homeschooling and what we are planning on doing. Currently Sissy is 2 1/2, she will be 3 in April, she's not quite ready to give me all of her attention unless it's for listening to music and we are in the process of moving so things are very laid back when it comes to learning, as it should be for this age.
Currently we start our mornings with breakfast and Caillou time as I call it. Caillou is Sissy and Baby guy's favorite cartoon and it's on for an hour every morning on Sprout. Once Caillou is over the TV is turned off.
Usually Baby guy goes down for nap around this time and Sissy and I start learning time. Learning time consists of calendar time and sitting on the floor on a blanket reading books, singing songs, prayer, weekly bible verse. Most of the time Sissy is not still for this but either way I know she's soaking things in.
The books that we are reading come from the library and are books recommended by Charlotte Mason. Charlotte Mason is an education expert/philosopher, if you are interested there is a ton of info about her philosophy on Google. I don't plan on following her method very strictly, I like her ideas but I don't think it fits me to a "T" but I do love the books she recommends. They are all classics. I found the list for Sissy's age group at Amblesideonline.org.
At this age, I didn't want to start a lesson plan per say so that's why I focus on just reading her books and having fun. Sometimes she's interested and sometimes she's not, but I've actually enjoyed reading most of the books myself, they are classics for a reason. If she is paying attention I try ti discuss the characters with her and show her the pictures and then ask questions like, can she find a certain object in the picture and what the character is (like a certain animal), and maybe why they did something specific in the book or how. Just to have discussion and talk about different things we wouldn't normally talk about.
Prayer time consists of a simple prayer for the day to get Sissy more acquainted and comfortable with prayer and the weekly bible verse is to help with memorization and familiarize Sissy with the bible. She still cannot pronounce alot of the words but she does memorize what she can. The verses I'm currently using are from icanteachmychild.com.
Then we wrap up floor time with music and dancing. This is Sissy's favorite time, the girl loves music. She has a playlist on youtube that I've compiled full of Christian children's songs and learning songs. Her favorite is Children of God by GodRocks! She would dance to this over and over all day long if I let her.
After learning time we just go about the rest of our day. She plays, colors, works with playdoh and playdoh mats, pretty much does what she does best, make a big mess. =)
We only do learning time Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Wednesday morning we go to Women's Bible Study at church and she does fun activities in her Toddler Class. This will continue through May and this summer will probably be even more flexible with more play dates scheduled.
I plan on doing this simple routine with her through the summer, we might start to incorporate some different things, but right now I want to keep it light and flexible. Next September I plan on starting a more structured Tot School/Preschool plan with her. I've spent many hours compiling curriculum for that and once we're moved and settled I will write another post on what I plan on using and how I plan to use it.
No comments :
Post a Comment