Getting over the hump
Today has been a quiet day with videos and reading as our base for homeschooling. Dakota and I are both recovering from a nasty bout with the stomach flu and it's nice to have a pj day and keep things quiet. As I write this, however, Dakota must be feeling back to normal because he is thumping his chest and singing Cotton Eye Joe :-)
We started our next Magic Tree House book this morning - Thanksgiving on Thursday. Again, I print the word wall vocabulary strips from Edhelper.com and Dakota is so excited to find out that he is familiar with many of these words. I find that he stumbles over an easy one, though, and it opens the door to further explanation. We read three chapters and do the simple comprehension questions we find posted online at http://www.mce.k12tn.net/reading31/thanksgiving_on_thursday.htm. Next we watch the first episode of Liberty's Kids, The First Fourth of July. It's a little too old for him and we have to watch carefully and I point out the parts that I want him to take note of. We even rewind in a few spots and I think he got as much as he could out of it considering he is only seven. We then did our packet from SchoolExpress.com on George Washington and I was really pleased with what he now knows about him.
After lunch we snuggled up again and read books about young pochontas and young squanto and then some fun Thanksgiving reading books. We stopped and took some time for a foam art craft and then enjoyed singing along to some patriotic songs like Home On the Range and This Land is Your Land. I love teaching American History! Finally, with Dakota's attention surprisingly still strong and focused, we read a book about the heart and lungs and then did a cloze activity with a venn diagram. The best part of today was that even on "his" time there was no tv and no whining about video games. He spent his spare time writing an eleven page book of his own about superheroes using stickers to illustrate. I was very impressed! He wrote the story in his "Dakota's Creation" book and he is very proud!
Tomorrow is our first review for first grade with the county. It doesn't worry me. I have everything together, with a few papers needing to be filed into the binder and I know that I teach plenty and have done more than an adequate job of educating him. I know I get some flack from my unschooling friends about "schooling at home", which seems to be taboo in the homeschooling world, but it's what works for us and I never have to worry come review time that we won't make the grade.
We started our next Magic Tree House book this morning - Thanksgiving on Thursday. Again, I print the word wall vocabulary strips from Edhelper.com and Dakota is so excited to find out that he is familiar with many of these words. I find that he stumbles over an easy one, though, and it opens the door to further explanation. We read three chapters and do the simple comprehension questions we find posted online at http://www.mce.k12tn.net/reading31/thanksgiving_on_thursday.htm. Next we watch the first episode of Liberty's Kids, The First Fourth of July. It's a little too old for him and we have to watch carefully and I point out the parts that I want him to take note of. We even rewind in a few spots and I think he got as much as he could out of it considering he is only seven. We then did our packet from SchoolExpress.com on George Washington and I was really pleased with what he now knows about him.
After lunch we snuggled up again and read books about young pochontas and young squanto and then some fun Thanksgiving reading books. We stopped and took some time for a foam art craft and then enjoyed singing along to some patriotic songs like Home On the Range and This Land is Your Land. I love teaching American History! Finally, with Dakota's attention surprisingly still strong and focused, we read a book about the heart and lungs and then did a cloze activity with a venn diagram. The best part of today was that even on "his" time there was no tv and no whining about video games. He spent his spare time writing an eleven page book of his own about superheroes using stickers to illustrate. I was very impressed! He wrote the story in his "Dakota's Creation" book and he is very proud!
Tomorrow is our first review for first grade with the county. It doesn't worry me. I have everything together, with a few papers needing to be filed into the binder and I know that I teach plenty and have done more than an adequate job of educating him. I know I get some flack from my unschooling friends about "schooling at home", which seems to be taboo in the homeschooling world, but it's what works for us and I never have to worry come review time that we won't make the grade.
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