School guided homeschool

Week One of ‘Real’ Home-school

       We are off to a great start! Ama and Merek are really enjoying our new way of school amidst this Coronavirus chaos. I already had a home-school environment set up and ready to go since I was homeschooling Merek this year anyways.  And the school provides the syllabus, so I just get to do the fun part and teach it!! Having a syllabus already set, really helps to give me focus and comfort that  Ama will stay on track to learn everything required for a first grader. 

    

    The only hurdle that would complicate this process is that Merek is technically in VPK, and Ama is in first grade, so on paper their schoolwork doesn't match up, but luckily, Merek is always up for a challenge.  With a few adjustments, we are easily finding ways to involve him in her lessons. For example, Ama will read the story, and then Merek answers questions with her.  Ama has to read the story with enough enthusiasm to keep Merek engaged, and Merek has to conceptualize the story well enough that he can answer questions. Sometimes with a little help from Ama. 😉 They earn M&M's for correct answers.  But really, the M&M’s are just to make it a little more fun, they actually both enjoy the challenge anyways. Or, for example, this week, we are working on economics.  After reading and discussing the passages about ‘Spending and Saving’, Ama writes a paragraph to summarize, while Merek picks out something he would spend money on, and something he would save money for...then sounds out the word and attempts to write down his answers.

      Also, there are cute ‘brain breaks’....2-3 minute singing and dancing videos that are usually used in the classroom to give the kids an opportunity to get up and stretch and get wiggles out....but it works great for us too!  When I can see they need a reset, it’s hard to say, “Ok, go take a break and play for 5min or jump in the pool for 10 minutes etc.", so these ‘brain breaks’ are cute for all of us.  I hope to video us doing a 'brain break' one of these days because it is quite entertaining.


    We start our day with Pledge if Allegiance, a fun ‘Good Morning’ Song, and a calendar update from Merek:

Then we 'take roll', which they find hilarious, and start our work day.

They each take turns participating at "the board"

There is a county teacher who provide a few recorded lessons for the day.  But we usually just click on the video to see what the lesson will be, and Ama does the reading while I expand on the teaching.  A 12 minute lesson can easily take us 45 minuntes since I allow A LOT of class participation and discussion time. 

Throughout the week, the lessons can get a little redundant as the county teacher tries to reinforce the skill for the week, each day.  We experiment with lots of different ways to keep learning fresh and fun each day.  Sometimes I have Ama "teach-back."  Ama and Merek both love it!

 

I personally have to admit that I'm learning a lot....its funny how my brain knows how to pronounce words, but I'm not really aware of 'The Rules'.  While I'm sure I was taught these rules when I was in school, I no longer remembered them.  So these lessons with Ama have been very enlightening. I now know what a blend is versus a diagram; how guardian consonants dictate the way a vowel sounds; when to double the consonant when adding an "ing"; and why 'ed' sometimes sounds like a "t" while other times it sounds like an "d", and even other times, like "id"!  Then there's all of those words that don't follow the rules, those are the hard ones to explain.  Its about the only time I use the term "Just because" with a bit of frustration.  I mean, show a kid the flash card with "to" on it, then follow it with the flashcard "no", and explain why its a long "o" for one and not the other.  Then add in the word "know"..... what's with the damn "k"???  Come on!!! 😂

Now, a moment to brag on my Ama girl. Ama insists that I 'grade' her work, she is also very excited to explain her work because she puts a lot of effort into completing her assignments and has a reason for why she does what she does.  If you're supposed to draw a picture to explain your work, her picture always has plenty of detail.  If you're supposed to write a sentence using a spelling word, the sentence has to describe something true in her life and have value.  For example, if the word is "play", she won't just write "I like to play"..... Her sentence will read more like this, "I like to play in the pool with my brother because it is fun to have races together.  Seriously.   During this particular assignment, she was very proud to explain to me how she engaged the reader in her writing paragraph, stating "Mom, see how I got the reader interested?" (Ama reading) "Brazil has the most coffee. Oh, the reason....they grow it well!" hahahaha. She was so proud of herself, and I was too! Love her!

An additional bonus of "home-school" is that recess is pretty awesome 😊 We took a little extra appreciation at the amount of American Flags blowing strong throughout our neighborhood on this beautiful day.  Such a strong representation of Unity. 

I am so lucky to get the opportunity to make these memories! Chores will have to wait, I have two little brains excited to learn!