Have you considered using a homeschool evaluator? Take a peek at some of the rich learning experiences that one homeschool evaluator has seen in her evaluations.
I am linking up with DeeDee and sharing a peek at my week... and year. It's been a little chaotic around here lately, so I created a weekl...
Homeschooling Down Syndrome: I'm excited to give you a peek into our journey of homeschooling my daughter, Aubrey, who has Down Syndrome.
See how we do clay modeling in our Charlotte Mason homeschool! From the supplies to the format of our lessons, see how we do this handicraft.
We love the Timeline Collection: A Collection of Historical Timeline Figures download from Home School in the Woods!
Take a peek inside our secular morning basket! A morning basket is a great way for you to gather together in the morning to start your day!
Apologia curriculum is more than just Science. It's resources for your whole homeschool family! Take a peek into the Apologia curriculum and learn what all Apologia has to offer you!
What do homeschooled kids do all day? We show you what our homeschool day looks like. An honest answer from experienced homeschoolers.
Here's a BJU Press Math Review from our 10+ years of using this math curriculum in our homeschool at every level from K to high school.
Sharing a sneak peek into notebooking with Apologia. Including why you should consider it, what notebooking has to offer your children, and how you can use notebooking journals from Apologia in your homeschool.
Take a peek at our September 2018 homeschool morning basket! We believe in discovering beauty, truth, and goodness during our homeschool morning time!
Disclosure: Tapestry of Grace sponsored this post. The content is based on my own experiences with Tapestry, and the opinions are 100% my own. For more information, please see my disclosure policy. My children and I are now in our 5th year of using Tapestry of Grace, so we are finishing up Year 1 for the second time. Through those 5 years, I've had a lot of trial and error experiences with figuring out how to make Tapestry work for us. If you're familiar with the Tapestry of Grace curriculum, you know that it provides an enormous buffet of
If you’re like most homeschool families, you’ve tried a few different writing programs. It’s one of those subjects that many homeschool moms struggle to teach. We’ve shared that struggle too...
my simple and FREE homeschool preschool lesson plan template will have you on your way to keeping your preschooler learning and entertained all day long!
Could a more relaxed homeschool for you? Take a peek behind the scenes of a minimalist, relaxed homeschool and see how this mom of five strikes a simple balance.
Ee is for Egg provides your 3-5 year old with structured learning time in homeschool. Oftentimes ages 3-5 are left out but time can be found for them too!
Here's a sneak peek into what our 6th grader will be studying this year in our homeschool in our eclectic approach to homeschooling.
Make practicing counting, shapes, alphabet letters, what comes next, and more fun with these super cute, FREE Apple Worksheets for Preschoolers!
Thinking about teaching a child to sew? My youngest daughter Yiscah first started sewing when she was three. I vividly remember how she used to peek into the room whenever I was teaching a class so she could watch the older girls sew. After every class she’d ask me why she couldn’t join in. Being
A preschool learning calendar for the month of May! Each day gives little ones a fun acitivity to do at home that encourages learning.
Take a peek at what our final four kids will be learning in our sixteenth year of homeschooling.
Kids will have fun learning about wedges and screws with this fun,hands on Wedges & Screws Simple Machines Lesson. Perfect for elementary age kids.
I'm sharing a typical homeschool day with my 6-, 11-, and 14-year-old, as well as some key resources we're loving this year.
Get a peek into my homeschool and see our sample homeschool daily schedules for 3 kids to see how they work each day. My kids all work at different levels and it can be a mess to juggle it all but with a little organization, you can get your kids working well on their own and use to a homeschool routine.
Wondering what it looks like to use the Sassafras Science Adventures Series for homeschool science? Go ahead and click "Read More" for a peek inside our homeschool and get your answer!
Two Points: This is MY method, and not necessarily right for you, your teaching or care philosophy, your set-up, or your students. Curriculum participation by my students is VOLUNTARY. I invite them to participate, but if they choose not to, then that is fine. I usually offer them a choice of a few of the activities and let them decide where we start and where we go. An engaged child learns, a dis-engaged child rebels. The 3-year rotating curriculum is theme based. Some times we stick to the plan, but usually I observe what they are interested in learning about, what they are asking questions about, and suggest up to three different themes they can choose from for us to study. I make my own 3-year rotating curriculum for many reasons: Packaged curriculum is often only one year. Since I teach for 3 years, this would be redundant. Most packaged curriculum focuses on skills my students master early. My 2s count to 20, know 11 colors, know most of their phonics, uppercase and lowercase letters, 10 shapes and some of their numbers and I still have 3 years of curriculum to teach them. They often are worksheet intensive. My students usually are cognitively advanced from their fine motor skills. I have 4 year olds that still can't write well. If I had relied on worksheets for the last 2 years, there is no way they would have the skill sets they have. Worksheets are also not considered Developmentally Appropriate Practice [DAP] for children under the age of 8. We use them here for writing practice starting at age 4. [Yes, worksheet-intensive public schools are not using DAP for kindy through 3rd grade!] They can be expensive. If you are purchasing worksheets, why would you spend even $1 a week/$52 a year when you can purchase a 400 page Scholastic preschool workbook from Sam's Club for $8 that covers probably more material, is most likely aligned with the public school expectations, and is colorful. Colored copies are NOT affordable to make from packaged curriculum. Most [ALL!] preschool learning should be interactive. Pinterest is a better source for ideas. My students change every time I do a theme. I have to be able to tweak it to the interests and capabilities of those currently in my care. Plus, I'll find more interesting activities on Pinterest, have an idea for a new game, etc. It's a constant evolution to keep my curriculum relevant to our current group, situation and resources. However, curriculum planning and creation is very time consuming. Even with older curriculum I spend several hours going over it prior to teaching - updating, creating new materials, purchasing and setting new classroom decorations. While I have had my 3 year curriculum, this year I found myself wanting a more specific schedule to focus on specific skill sets for this particular group of children. Most of these skills can be incorporated into our themed curriculum, or they take 5 minute sessions to pop into our day. I have two groups, the younger preschoolers are 2-3 years old and the older ones are 4-5 years old, all at the same developmental and skill set level within their group. This makes it easier, as I can tailor everything to just 2 groups. If I were to have additional levels of children, then it would be tailored to each level. Children here are taught at their developmental level, not age. Asychronastic development is normal, so I may be teaching a child at various levels depending upon the subject matter. For the younger preschoolers, I came up with this structure. For the older pre-k students, I came up with this one. For instance, both of them have Measurement & Comparison on Friday for Reasoning. However, for the younger students, this would be a more/less, longer/shorter, big/little, etc. activity, while the older students would be measuring with rulers, yardsticks, tape measures, measuring cups, unit blocks, foot steps or themed units, and graphing the measurements to compare. Same skill set, differentiated at vastly different levels. Even this needs conditional tweaking. All the pre-k's know how to spell their last names now, so that is no longer a relevant skill activity for music and will be changed out. In another post I'll get into the curriculum components and the importance of each. For instance, how counting on Friday teaches 1-to-1 correspondence and creating method processes for counting groups of objects. CLICK PICTURES TO VIEW LARGER I use this MS Word template, available for FREE on TPT, for curriculum planning. Often, the daily skill sets above are either already incorporated, or can easily be incorporated, into the theme planning. For an example of a completed curriculum unit, check out our Owls Theme. Each monthly theme is broken down into 4 sub-themes. For instance: SPACE Astronauts & Rockets The Universe Our Solar System Aliens & Robots We also have a musical component, often classical, and an art component, often a master, and Spanish vocabulary component that we incorporate. This planning form may not include all games, file folder games, manipulatives, room-set up, etc. that I utilize. For those of you trained in curriculum creation, I do NOT do a full curriculum development for each activity. With having these children usually from infant to school-age, I keep an internal evaluation of progression and plan out only weekly learning objectives. Since I am creating the activities for my personal use, I do not need to create written procedures and evaluations. My curriculum is stored currently in file folders in a large office bookcase unit. I would like to get it into boxes so that I could have EVERY theme-related item, including dress-up, room set-up, manipulatives, etc. together for an easy pull. File boxes will most likely be the easiest, but they do take up a lot of space. In each file some of the things I probably have: Completed planning sheets All the books I own for that theme Flannel board Sentence and word walls File folder games Samples of previous crafts DVDs CDs Coloring pages Mini-book(s) Build-a-[theme item] game Curriculum creation is one of my great joys. I love the research and compilation, the creativity and excitement of bringing something fun and educational to my students. Learning is rarely linear. Children take developmental leaps, sometimes in odd directions. As a teacher, it is important that I keep each one challenged without pushing or inhibiting their growth, and that takes constant evaluation and a good eye for when those leaps happen so that we can move on to a higher level of instruction. When we do an activity, I constantly question if they WANT to do another round, another activity, and I usually cut them off while they are still engaged. I want them wanting more, and they will usually ask if they can continue. One of the most important desires and abilities I can instill in them is that of self-directed learning. So as they choose to go off with their rulers after we've spent several minutes doing a measuring activity, conferring between themselves as to procedures and what to measure next, I step back and let them. They know I am here as a resource, rather than an intrusive director. It is my job to ensure that when I invite my students to learn, they glow with excitement and anticipation of a fun, interactive, playful time. The results, so far, have been astounding. A few of my complete curriculum units are available through my TPT store. Apples Dental Ice Cream Penguins Rainbows St. Patrick's Day Valentine's Follow Connie -'s board Classroom on Pinterest. Tags: preschool, child care, pre-k, curriculum, development, teaching, education, homeschooling, homeschool, home, school, preschool curriculum development, planning
This is our fifth time using BJU Press kindergarten math curriculum. Here's a peek inside the Student Worktext.
Get ready to learn about biomes with these engaging activities and lesson plans all about biomes. Discover the six biomes of the world with videos, projects, assessments, and hands-on activities.
How to homeschool the preschool years with just a library card! Ditch the curriculum and homeschool preschool the easy way!
What does a day at homeschool co-op look like? Here is a peek into how ours runs and answers to the most frequently asked questions.
I often tag my posts and photos with #childledlearning. Today, I thought I'd give you a glimpse of what that looks like in our home. It's been a very science-y week.
Keeping a homeschool bullet journal is a great way to not only track your school goals and plans but it also integrates all of your life tasks in one place.
Make practicing counting, shapes, alphabet letters, what comes next, and more fun with these super cute, FREE Apple Worksheets for Preschoolers!
All about Labor Day for kids: learn what is Labor Day and why is Labor Day celebrated. Get Labor Day lessons, activities and craft ideas for this important patriotic holiday to celebrate with your family or even use as lesson plans in the classroom.
Spielgaben educational toys are a fabulous hands-on resource for homeschool families - and parents everywhere!
Using these ten free nature study lessons, you'll learn just how wonderful nature study can be for your homeschool in any season.
Hello, My Friends! Have you started your new homeschool year for 2018-2019 yet? We just finished our 6th week of school and are in a (glorious) one week break. Our homeschool looks a little different this year with my curriculum choices, and the schedule of our school days. It's been a long 6 weeks of working out kinks with our new way of doing things, but I think we're finally sailing on smoother waters. Here's a quick peek into our school year and our new-to-us curriculum and schedule. Browse through all of the homeschool curriculum posts here at Mama’s Learning Corner.
Homeschooling preschool? Peek inside My Father's World Preschool curriculum and see how this could be a blessing to your little one this year.
