FUNschooling

Quite a few people have asked me whether or not we are homeschooling during our time of transition with baby #3. The answer is no, and yes. ;>) I thought I'd share what we've been doing because I find it both fun & educational & if your kids go to public school, it might be a great way to keep their brains active during summer break. Instead of using our regular curriculum, I use a different "resource" for each of the subjects I want to cover:

Bible ~ One story out of The Bible for Mothers & Daughters. This is such a cute book! The kids love the colorful illustrations. The stories are short enough to hold their attention & their is a concept to glean from each one about Becoming a Woman of God. There is a time for the Parent to share at the end about their own personal experiences. They have these for Father & Daughters and for the Sons as well.

Phonics ~ I have a phonics set for the LeapPad. If someone I know wants to borrow it for their child for the summer, let me know. It has 12 books and goes through all the consonants, vowels, blends, etc. We do a couple of pages a day.

Reading ~ For comprehension, we are using Brainquest Reading for First Grade. I could go on and on about how much we *love* Brainquest, but I'll spare ya'll. On some cards are stories/poems, followed by comprehension questions based on the story. Other cards have reading based questions like things about punctuation, opposites, syllables, antonyms, fixing the sentence, and such. Great way to introduce new concepts too!

We are also reading a few pages a day from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I love doing funny voices for all the characters ;>)

Craft/Activity Time ~ I'm bustin' out all the stuff that I have stored or laying around. She gets to choose from coloring, water painting, sewing {great felt puppet kits for beginners with pre-punched holes & plastic needles}, blocks, puzzles, tangrams, play-do, etc. I allot about 15-30 minutes. I can do other things during this time if need be.

Science ~ My mom got her the book, The Everything Science Book for Kids, which I am going to do about 1-2 activities per week from. Seems really neat! It covers different areas of science, chemistry, physics, etc, and requires items that are either already around the house or easily procured.

Math ~ This is the one holdover from our normal curriculum. We do about 2 pages per day in our text/workbook.

I think the reason this works so well is because it involves different learning methods of stimulation, from workbooks, to hands-on, to auditory activities. I am trying not to sweat whether or not she is learning by leaps and bounds. As long as the brain is kept active, I am living by the motto, "Do your best and let God take care of the rest." Good motto for life in general, I believe.

She's also learning plenty about baby-care and all that's involved, but that's another post.....