Change of Purpose

To any dear soul. who may be reading this: :)


I am changing the purpose of this blog as it didn't really take off as a community collection of ideas and upcoming events.  I will probably list some events anyway in case anyone DOES look at this. :)  Mostly, I am re-starting this blog as a vent for myself concerning my children's learning.  I am super proud of them and love being their mother and their teacher of spiritual as well as academic things.


I have recently decided to change the main intent of the homeschooling in our home.  All of my children are little and I do believe that the most important thing at this time in their lives is to learn Gospel principles, i.e. to learn to live in a Christ-like way.  I feel that focusing primarily on a principle every week will help them AND me to behave more as Christ would have us behave.


I have too much to say, so this first entry might be a bit long!  


We have been focusing on learning one letter (and the sound it makes) per week.  I have decided to make the word we focus on for the week with that letter a gospel/principle focused word.  This week we are learning about Gg and the "golden rule."  Today I told them the story of the good samaritan and we discussed how Jesus wants us to treat other people as we want to be treated.  We don't have school every day in our house. We run kind of loosely around here.  My goal is to have school at our house around 3 days a week.


Last week I bought the LDS Nursery Manual, "Behold Your Little Ones," and I will be using this ideally one time a week to develop a lesson on our current topic.  There was no lesson specifically on the golden rule, so on Wed this week we will do parts of the lesson entitled, "Jesus Christ Showed us how to Love Others."  I am excited about this game plan and I think it will bring the spirit more into our home and it will make me keep myself in line with the principle I am teaching for the week.


The other resources we are currently using for our learning are: the library :)
        -  Superman's V-tec computer for additional letter games
         - Alphabet on the wall-we sing the song as the kids point to the letters
        - the calendar on the wall-we count and point to the #'s
        - www.IXL.com for Math for 4(Superman) and 3(Spiderman) year old (it only lets them work for about 10 minutes,      but that is perfect for them and they are always excited to do it because it's on the computer)
         -Teaching Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons (Joshua only)
         -the magnadoodle--they LOVE practicing their letters on it
         -Slow and Steady Get me Ready--occasionally to focus more on Avin (1) and Austin (3)
         -songs for learning (days of the week, Articles of Faith, and soon months)
         -Prophet pictures from the back of the Friend magazine
         -stories from the Friend magazine
         -UEN-K12 Core curriculum (Kindergarten) for ideas on other fun lesson plans and kids books that go along with the lessons
          -Article of Faith cards with pictures that are on the wall, so they point to each card as we sing through the songs we have learned.


Proud Mother Time

Superman and I are about to finish our first chapter book together, "My Father's Dragon."  Superman loves learning about maps and this book was listed under the K12 curriculum and maps.  It has been super fun to read together.  He is also doing SUPER well with his reading lessons since I decided to just do parts of each lesson so it is less time consuming.  I also surrendered the need to progress quickly and am not moving on from one lesson to the next until I really feel he is ready.  This approach has made it a much happier experience for he and I both and he is ENJOYING learning and feeling smart.  I am considering reading Charlotte's Web with him next, but I will need to scan through it first and see if I think it's too complicated.

Spiderman is loving being a part of school.  He loves learning letters and has a GREAT memory,  He also loves his preschool math on the computer.  He spontaneously asks me if he can do letters on the magnadoodle through out the week.  Right now I focus on giving him letters to trace that are in his name.

I love starting school with a song, prayer, and spiritual teaching on a principle.  It always brings the spirit it and that is so hugely a part of the reason to homeschool for me.  We need to learn and teach by the spirit right!? 

We have a fabulous homeschool group in our neighborhood and we have field trips, P.E. and sometimes science together.  The kids definitely get the socialization they need.  

THIS WEEK: We are going to the Lehi Post Office for a 10 minute tour at 10am Wednesday the 28th.  All are welcome!

(For our little family this will contribute to the learning we will do through out the whole year on geography, maps, cities, states, countries, etc.)

Tuesday-P.E.11am Westlake HS track-Run 1/2-1 mile depending on kid size

Soon I will post the alphabet along with my plan of potential principles to teach for each letter. :)