Welcome Back to Homeschool - Or Not

We began our homeschool year early. Like, Indiana early. Which is to say that I welcomed my kids "back to school" in the month of July, acting as though the tail end of summer is the perfect time to dive into a year of rigorous, focused study. A friend of mine, who is infinitely more sensible than I, told me she wouldn't be starting until after Labor Day.

Fortunately, part of the beauty of homeschooling is that it gives me the opportunity to realize when I'm being ridiculous and simply scrub the plan and start over as needed. We've done a lot of that these last couple months. And I mean a lot. 

My personality is extremely Type A. I like things organized and neat. I love lists and charts, and my neat little agenda book is one of my most valued possessions. So the beginning of our school year included a carefully organized set of drawers with flashcards, games, and craft supplies carefully divided by subject. I meticulously planned out our first few months of schooling day by day with a handy little checklist for what we would do. These crisp agenda pages were tucked into my homeschooling binder, complete with brand new tabbed dividers in bright colors that matched the whimsical cover I put together with some of my favorite inspirational quotes from my page-a-day calendar. Supplies were purchased, lists were made, what could go wrong?

It only took a few days to realize that this neat and pretty plan was great for my learning style, but terrible for the boys'. They gamely played along on day one, but as the week wore on Peyton made it abundantly clear that he had no real interest in learning this way. His hand would "mysteriously" rebel and scribble out his letters when I was encouraging him to write, though he could draw a train or a monster truck in great detail and with perfect ease.

My carefully laid plans were basically public school at the kitchen table. Once I caught myself snapping curtly about how we had to finish our worksheet on coins before we could go play, I realized how disconnected this path was from all the reasons we decided to homeschool.

Having graduated from public school myself, there's only one kind of education I'm intimately familiar with, and without realizing it, that's exactly the kind of learning I tried to shape our homeschool around. Fortunately, I caught myself early on, slapped the binder closed, and began looking for a different path.

This isn't to say that worksheets at the kitchen table should be eradicated from all homeschooling. In fact, last year pouring over those workbooks was one of Peyton's favorite activities, and something he would do on a self-directed basis. But I think the key is in the self-direction. 

It's almost painfully difficult for me to let go of the lists and agendas and explore a more relaxed approach to homeschooling, but when I do loosen my grip and let the boys lead, it's overwhelmingly clear that they're learning far more than they would with my rigid direction at this age.

As I started to ease up on plowing through our daily checklist, I got a chance to see which activities really appealed to the boys, and which ones we just needed to discard. We didn't follow a set schedule every day, and the binder became a tool for ideas rather than a must-do. Rather, we read when the boys came running to me with a pile of books (which always happens several times a day), looked up answers when they initiated a discussion (What kind of caterpillar is that on the playgroud? How does a windmill work? Where's China on the map?), and pulled out craft supplies when Peyton asked to create something.

At the beginning of the year, my goal was to create a curriculum that would take us on a journey around the world. We would cook our way through different countries, studying a new one every month. Fortunately, the one thing Peyton did dive into with gusto was his geography workbook, and he's fascinated with the world map we put up in his room. So while the idea is still solid, we're learning to approach it from a different angle than I originally planned. We didn't get through all the worksheets I had on my checklists, and my lessons on the United States flag fell pretty flat. But here's what we did accomplish:

• Made a collage of the state bird, tree, animal, and flower of Florida
• Colored and laminated the Florida flag
• Made a paper compass
• Powered through our geography workbook
• Drew a map of our neighborhood and made it into a 3-D model with blocks

• Organized our play food into food groups
• Made and laminated a food plate
• Spent lots of time in the kitchen cooking, baking, measuring, talking about ingredients, and learning about the different ways food transforms as you heat, cool, mix, and cook it

• Painted our little hearts out
• Made our names from modeling dough
• Decorated and built a magic trolley

• Played...
• ...and played...
• ...and played!

The listmaking bug still bites sometimes, and I'm happiest when our schedule is filled with fun outings to look forward to with friends, but I have definitely learned as much as anyone about the best way to organize our learning, which has turned out to be not very much at all.

Weather and Rainbows: Preschool and Tot School Study

We worked on calendars and telling time last week, which led really well into working on weather this week. We put extra emphasis on looking at the weather each day as well as the date and day of the week.

Our first activity was to look at the weather forecast. I wrote out what was expected and Peyton drew pictures to go along with it. We taped them to the door and checked every day to see how accurate the forecast was.

There are tons of fun weather experiments to try and both boys really started to look forward to our science time every day. This one makes it rain in a jar. You just put hot water in the bottom and ice on top. The steam rises and even looks like a little cloud near the lid. After a few minutes the water condenses on the bottom of the lid and "rains" down into the jar.

Peyton wanted to sit and just watch this one all day.

Our next project helped us transition into learning about the rainbow. All you need is water and food coloring. Peyton was able to pour the water into the cups and stir in the food coloring to make red, yellow, and blue water.

Next, we rolled up paper towels and arranged them with one end dipped into each cup. The water instantly climbs up the paper towel and you can watch it mix in the middle. In similar projects, I've seen people add extra cups to catch the water that drips down from the middle, mixing the two. Our cups were pretty shallow so we just watched it mix on the towels and looked at where the water dripped onto the tray.

When we were done we also poured the colors together in different cups to make orange, green, and purple.

Jack's favorite part was the pouring, so when we were done I gave him a new cup of water and several different containers to dump and pour with.

Since we were talking about rainbows, our craft time involved making one. I cut strips of paper and asked Peyton to put them in the correct order. When you understand how colors mix together, it's easy to figure out what order the colors go in. Just remember red on the top and purple on the bottom and you can problem solve from there. A couple leading questions helped when he got stuck.

"What mixes with red to make orange?"

"Yellow. So yellow is next?"

"That's right! Now what else can you make using yellow?"

"Green! And it mixes with blue."

It was Peyton's idea that the rainbow lead to a pot of gold so we hunted down some gold Mardi Gras beads and cut up an old box for the cardboard to mount the little display on. It's been the centerpiece of our dining room table ever since.

Peyton loves building and spends hours with his blocks every day. To keep the theme going, I asked him is he could make a rainbow with his blocks.

Throughout the week during his building time I also found that weather began working its way into his projects. His Lincoln Log houses were hit by tornadoes, it would storm over his train tracks, and people would play in his cities on sunny days.

The boys just can't get enough of our science experiments! We mixed up colored water again for this one and added a little vinegar to each. Then Peyton dumped baking soda on top to watch them fizz up and overflow. They happily spent almost an hour adding vinegar and baking soda to the cups. After they overflowed all over the tray, we got a really pretty tie-dye looking mix that Jack especially loved swirling and splashing in.

Peyton spends hours coloring every day lately. He likes to stick with one color a lot while he's drawing but I challenged him to make a rainbow over his city and he happily did it.

For this experiment we layered different liquids. You can see a much better example of it at Sweet and Simple Things. I just did it with ingredients I had in the house so it didn't make an accurate rainbow. The fun part was watching how the liquids make different layers, though.

To change things up from coloring a little bit, we made "magic pictures" one day. You just draw in white crayon on white paper, then paint on top of it to reveal your picture. This is a favorite activity we've repeated several times since. Peyton asks to make magic pictures every few days now.

Peyton brought a bunch of crayons over to me one day and asked me to read all the colors. We talked about why they have the different names they do and what some of the words on the crayons mean. Then We put them together in the order of the rainbow to reinforce what we'd been working on.

Our last weather experiment (for now) was making it rain through shaving cream clouds. This is really easy. You just put a thin layer of shaving cream on top of a jar of water and put a few drops of food coloring on top. On our first try the shaving cream cloud was too thick so it didn't rain, but this worked out because we got to talk about how sometimes it's cloudy out but it doesn't rain.

Once we got them raining, Peyton had a great time putting different colored drops in. At the end the experiment just turned into sensory play. Jack had a great time playing in the shaving cream and painting with it on the table. It was messy, but actually made the dining room smell great!

Looking for more rainbow themed ideas? Check out my Pinterest board, where I got most of the inspiration for this week.
Follow Mandi Rogier's board Rainbow Preschool Lessons on Pinterest.

Getting Ready for New Years and Telling Time

Leading up to New Years we started working on telling time, which worked with New Years activities and printables pretty perfectly.

Size sorting with party hats. Link to this printable pack from 3 Dinosaurs is at the bottom. 

Peyton loves his dot markers and they were perfect for this worksheet on selecting the beginning letter for each object.

I used my new laminator for a couple puzzles. They have numbers at the bottom so they work for counting practice too. Jack and Peyton actually enjoyed doing this together a lot and the fireworks can come out again for lots of other themes. 

Peyton is really interested in learning to tell time, so I've been incorporating a lot of clocks into our lessons. We're still working on skip counting so telling time is a bit of a challenge, but he has so much interest in it, it's impossible to put him off. 

This was super fun to make. There's a link to the printable below. The 12 is on the clock and we pasted the other numbers on, then attached the hands. 

Peyton got this clock book for Christmas and the DVD came from the library. He loved both and they provided a nice foundation for what we're learning. The Thomas the Tank Engine: Right on Time book is especially fun. It's interactive so we can move the hands and push the button to hear what time it's set at. It also includes questions on each page and tells you if you set the clock correctly or not for the next part of Thomas's day.

This is another fun resource from the library, Telling Time: How to Tell Time on Digital and Analog Clocks. This doubled as something to work on at reading time, and he was able to read a lot of the words himself. 

I was anxious for something else to use my laminator for so we made this schedule. Peyton loves it. It's been a couple weeks and he still compares it to the clock and uses it to remind me when things are coming up. 

This was a gift from Grandma for Christmas, the All About Today Board. We love it and it works for time telling, following a calendar, and learning about the weather (coming up next!)

Peyton initiates this craft all by himself. He immediately realized that Hickory Dickory Dock is about a clock and telling time and then asked me for the supplies to make a clock. He drew the pendulum on the front and gears on the back. I made lines on the plate for him to write numbers on and cut out the mouse at his request. The whole project was directed by him.


Resources:
Printable Clock from Harcourt School
New Years Pack from 3 Dinosaurs