Wednesday Work

Wednesday work! , Ariz got to test out the new apple sorting file folder game.

Alex's highlight for the day was shaving cream writing. I spread a small amount of cheap shaving foam onto a cheap shinny silver cookie sheet and spread it out to coat it, then demonstrated how to write and erase his work. He had fun with it :) .

Ariz WAS moving along great with her reading lessons but is now hung up on not being able to sound out the 'a' sound in a word and saying the word -a- by itself, she says 'uuuhhh' when she sees the 'a' in a word in stead of 'aaahhh' I moved her reading lesson to the first thing in the morning but Alex needs something totally self guided during this time because I think its the interruptions that is throwing Ariz off. If this doesn't improve by next week I'm gonna have to take her reading lessons out of her school work and do it later in the evening when Daddy is available to entertain the little man. Then, Ariz can have total one-on-one with me with no possible interruptions or to much noise to distract her. I really hope we can get it to work someplace in the school work day but teaching her to read is THE FOUNDATION to all her learning so if we cant make it work this way then I will have to put aside special time to dedicate to this.

This week we have been doing crafts about geese. We take the craft form the day before and and talk a bit about it. I want to make it into a lapbook and review it on Monday since Monday we don't have a review of the day before theme craft. So far we have done lacing a picture of a goose with yarn, made a goose with handprint tail feathers, made geese footprints with a sponge and paint, colored the letter G that was shaped like a goose and colored and completed a dot-to-dot of a goose.


Apple Sorting file folder game http://www.homeschoolshare.com/docs54478/apple_ff.pdf

Workbox's Work!!

This concludes day 2 of using the workbox system with our homeschooling and I cant imagine how we ever managed without. It takes a total of 10 min. to set up for the next day (and that is because I'm not completely organized as of yet) and making an entire week worth of curriculum took about 30-40 min. This has effected how all of us use up our days. The kids seem to go through the morning routine of washing up, dressing, eating and chore in 15 min. and that used to take at least 2 hours with all the goofing around they used to do. I have actually found a lot of free time TO MYSELF if you can believe that. They are doing so well and I'm adding new ideas daily and finding fine tuning to each of their needs extremely easy to do. There jealousy at seeing me work one-on-one with the other sibling seems to no longer bother them since I have learned how to schedule them so that I am bouncing back from one to the other during school time. We have so much free time and that’s what I was afraid of loosing once we fully committed to homeschooling. I cant wait till Ariz starts the local charter school here and I get to use the workboxes; have her finish assigned work and still have time for fun off beat or spontaneous crafts and outings :)

File Folder Games (Counting and Colors)

I made this by cutting the front flap of a file folder and about 2 inches off the back and taping it to the inside of another to create an inside page to be able to count up to 20.

Along with matching the number to the figure of equal ladybugs, I've also added the written word.

Today was our first day using the workbox system. I opted to only start out with 6 instead of 12 workbox (but plan to work my way up). From start to finish there was a little over an hour of school time, short enought for the first day and long enought to get them used to the new rules. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the 'help' cards. They only get 3 for the day and Ariz asked for help with a folder game that was matching colors to the written name (something easy for her) but challanging for Alex, when she asked for help I new it was just because I was doing a one-on-one project with her brother so I asked "are you sure you need help? you are going to have to give me one of your help cards and that will only leave you with 2" she thought for a minute, smiled and said she didnt need help after all :) . A lot of the workboxes I helped them with or watched them alternatly as the did them.

This is Ariz and Alex's set up after our school-day

Box of finished work!

Some special things I spent a little extra time making.

Schedule Strips I made of cardstock and scrapbook paper then laminated

Clock in and out cards (they loved the stickers)