First Week was a success!

I think I can call this first week of homeschooling a success!  Like I mentioned before we were planning on focusing on bugs.  It's not my favorite topic, so it is my way of showing my love for my son.

One book that we used were Caterpillars and Butterflies.  It's packed full of unique facts, and I even learned something!.

The next book we  used was 1001 Bugs to Spot.  This is a great search and find book.  It helps him identify different bugs, but also helps with his counting skills.  I love this book because it is an activity that he can do without me.

The next book is the one that gives me the heebie jeebies!  Big Book of Big Bugs is a great book even though it's on something I hate.  It features lots of big bugs to scale.  The pages fold out to be huge bugs.  My son loves it!  Me...not so much.  But, I love my son so I put up with reading it.  

We also used Usborne's Wipe Clean books.  They are fantastic!!!!  We used Wipe Clean 1,2,3 and
Wipe Clean ABC.  This is another activity my son can do himself.  He can do it over and over.  It works on his fine motor skills because there are tons of things to trace to work on his pen control.

This week Isaac's rec center classes started too.  He is doing Gym on Thursday, Art on Fridays, Soccer on Tuesday for practice and Saturday for games.  On the way to the rec center we counted as many butterflies and dragon flies that we could find.

My son is really enjoying himself.  He is a sponge.  Yesterday we had a conversation about how we life in North America (he started it).

I am hoping to start a kids exercise club and a kids book club with other homeschool families in the area.  We will see what I can put together.

Never Stop Learning

I was encouraged to read this book by my upline for jamberry.  It is geared towards the direct sales/multilevel marketing industry, but a lot of it can be applicable to every day life.  (Full review here:  http://melodysreview.blogspot.com/2015/09/book-review-go-pro-by-eric-worre.html)  The theme that I really liked was that we should never stop learning.

"There are no bad experiences and no good experiences, only learning experiences."  This is something that I want to make sure that my children understand.

Eric Worre talked about this one school that had a plan-do, review philosophy.
"In the plan-do review process children make plans, carry them out, and reflect on what they have done.  In doing so, children learn to take initiative, solve problems, work with others, and accomplish their goals-their play becomes purposeful and focused.  By making plan-do review a successful and integral part of your classroom's daily routine, you'll learn how you can promote learning and build on children's interests and intrinsic motivation."

I really wonder why the public school arena doesn't incorporate this philosophy more.  I guess it is because they wouldn't be able to create lesson plans, and totally have to revamp the system which costs money.  This is why I am grateful for the chance to homeschool!  I can use this philosophy in my children's education!

First Day of Preschool at Home

Today is the first day of Isaac's official preschool at home.  The books that I am waiting for still haven't arrived to start our bug unit, but that's ok.

We started with the traditional first day of school pictures that parents take of their students going off to school.

 We played, and had fun making funny faces.

 Isaac is ADDICTED to Shine A Light books!  We have read this book at least 2 times a day since we got it.  If you haven't heard of the shine a light books you need to click on that link.  They are awesome!

We had music time.  Sang songs and danced.  He did some ABC Mouse time too.

All in all it was pretty fun and laid back.  Just what this frazzled momma needs!

School Starts Up.

Well, after a very long hiatus I am once again going to attempt my homeschooling effort on my son.  I don't have high expectations at all because I am still suffering with postpartum psychosis.  I plan to start his preschool tomorrow.  We went to a butterfly conservatory last week, and wanted books on bugs and butterflies.  So I ordered a bunch of books from Usborne Books on bugs and butterflies.  So our first month is going to be focusing on all things bugs.  (don't ask me how I feel about that).  Plus working on pen control and letters.