Our School Day

I thought I would do a post about our homeschool since it is what we spend most of the day doing. Right now, Benjamin is doing first grade work and Carter is just starting to learn to read. In the mornings, I do math, history, phonics, and reading with Benjamin. Carter does a few pages in a preschool workbook. Amita just gets to hang out with us and has fun. It takes 1-2 hours each morning depending on exactly what we are doing.

The math program I am using is rightstart. It is really fun and teaches math through lots of hands on activities and games. In the picture we are learning about congruent rectangles by making them on a geoboard.

The history program is called Mystery of History. We read a little story and then do an activity that goes with it. We also make figures for each lesson and put them on a timeline. Our last lesson was about Gideon in the bible and we made a clay pot. Here is a picture of our timeline.

After lunch, I have the kids do work folders. It is a system I learned about on another blog. Each kid has file folder with different activities in them. They do each folder and when it is done they move on to the next one. Benjamin has 11 folders and Carter has eight.

Benjamin's folders:

1) after lunch jobs (clear the counter & clean bathroom)

2)math drill (right now he is add 3 to other numbers)

3)Dragonfly lapbook

4)a writing exercise (this changes everyday, to day he copied a nursery rhythm)

5)Literature or History Pockets

6)math review (this changes everyday, today we reviewed the days of the week)

7)Science folder (watched magic school bus today)

8) some thing fun like a game, puzzle coloring sheet (today was a maze worksheet)

9)computer time

10)outside activity (today he rode his bike)

11) evening jobs (clean the playroom & feed animals)

I love using this system because every evening I just fill their folders and then the next day everything is ready for them. It usually takes Benjamin 2-3 hours to go through them depending on the exact activities in them.

We also do a nature walk once a week and then come back and journal about what we saw. This week we studied the pond. I am also reading The Tale of Desperoux at bed time.

Teaching the kids keeps me very busy, but I love every minute.