Week in Review

Our week has been a good one.  We are trying some new things with our little homeschool/preschool endeavors.  You might remember that I posted this entry about the kind of tot school things we were doing last year.  As the kids get older, I have been working to adapt it just a bit.  I wanted to share what we are up to in order to encourage other moms who are "space challenged" and do not have a room to designate as their homeschool room.  Obviously, this is a work in progress. I will be tweeking things as I go.

Early in the morning, David has started doing a "God and me" time with Makayla.  I will write a whole other entry on this soon.

After David leaves for work, we go to the computer to http://www.starfall.com/ to do the calendar and to do the alphabet page for the letter of the week we are on.  Then we move to the fridge for our calendar time.  The kids sing the verse for the week. (http://www.totallytots.blogspot.com/)   The mark the day of the week, the date, and the weather.

Then we move to the living room where I keep a box of books that have our letter for the week.  This week's letter is "r". We take turns taking items out of the sound bucket where there are different items that start with the letter of the week. We read a bible study and about 2 other books.  We also read a Mother Goose poem. (ie. "Ring Around the Rosy").  Then the kids get 30 minutes of free time to play and get dressed if they are not dressed yet.
 
The next part of our morning is what I am very excited about!  I got the idea from http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.blogspot.com/.  I have been trying to figure out a way to have her workbox system for our kids.  BUT, we simply don't have the room.  I realized after cleaning a bunch of stuff out after Christmas that I could piecemeal some drawer organizers and keep them in my closet so that our home doesn't always look like a preschool.

Basically, different assignments or activities go in each drawer.  The kids have numbers that are color coordinated that velcro onto the drawer(box) with their work.


 They find the number, take the whole drawer out, and complete the task. 

Then they get to move their number from the box to their chart.  They decorated their charts with stickers and I laminated them.

Sometimes the boxes have worksheet type work, but most are more hands-on activities.  I will share ideas on this later...

I am letting them hang up their completed work by their beds in their "gallery".  I'm not sure what I am going to do when this gets full.  :)


I am really a fan of this system!  I like it because the kids can be pretty independent.  Makayla is no longer constantly asking me, "What's next, Mama?"  Also, it seems to be very engaging to them all.
 
Even Karissa got involved in at least one box a day. 

On a side note:  another fun part of our week is a date or "guy time" with Daddy on Tuesdays.  David takes one kid a week with him to the Senior Adult luncheon on Tuesdays. They love this special time with Daddy.  This week, it was Makayla's turn. She chose her outfit. :)

 While she was gone, Elijah got to skype with his 3 year old cousin, James, who lives in Colorado.  Very fun!  And 3 year old boys have interesting conversations!  They both like chocolate milk. :)

My goal this weekend is to get caught up on blogging!  Thanks for checking in and check in again soon.