Home Preschool

Next year, I am going to start our oldest child in 4k. So, this will be the last year that I will have all of my little ones with me all day. In a way, I am looking forward to having a child in school. I like alot of the things that go along with school. I am okay with having a set schedule, I look forward to making new friends, and I like having alot of books around (I know... weird). With all the good things that come with school, it is a little hard to let go of my girls as they grow up. Even though I would not want them to be underfoot forever, the idea of me sending them into the big world without me is a little scary.

For now, I am doing some home preschool activities with our 3 and 2 year old. I have some fun "field trips", crafts, learning activities, and playdates in mind for this fall. My biggest tip for home preschool is to make learning fun! I'm going to enjoy my 3 daughters all day, everyday. Home preschool Works for Me.

-Robin

Reading Aloud Daily

The few hours we have between the end of the school day and bedtime are usually full. We have homework, chores, dinner, showers and various other things that need to be finished. However, I always make time to read aloud to each of the children.

Our daughter is a very advanced reader who is fully capable of reading any book on her own. Our son is a new reader who can handle most of the books on his shelf. I still feel it is SO important for them to hear a story from me. It is very personal time for us to reconnect and spend a little one on one time. We also often read stories together as a family. Those common stories are important to us and have become the foundation to many family jokes. The kids have both been reading books to each other now, too. I love to watch them working together, sharing their favorite excerpts from books and acting out stories.

We also keep a basket filled with holiday stories that we have brought out for the season. We take turns choosing the story we will read each night and also take turns reading aloud. It is a wonderful family tradition that we all look forward to each evening.

Reading aloud definitely Works For Me and my family benefits from it every day.

-Julie

Scholastic Book Orders

If you r kids are in public school, you are probably very familiar with Scholastic Book Orders. I have volunteered the last few years to handle the book orders for both of my children's classrooms, so I have learned a lot about the program.

Scholastic is a great resource for inexpensive reading material for your children. You can often find popular books up to 50% off retail price. The added bonus to ordering thru this program is that you earn reading materials for your child's classroom. I have seen the wonderful number of free books that come in and am constantly in awe at the generosity of this company.

I am also now the "Book Fair Lady" at my children's school and this is also a wonderful program. You don't receive the discounts you do thru the order forms, but the earnings by the school are even greater.

You should also check to see if there is a warehouse in your area. They have special sales a few times each year and you can go shop right from their warehouse and the savings there are astronomical.

Scholastic also has a wonderful website loaded with wonderful resources. I hope you take a moment to check it out.


-Julie

Box Tops for Education

Over the last year, I have been saving Box Tops for Education. My kids are not in school yet, but I think it is a good program to start saving for. Box Tops for Education is a program to help schools buy computers, books, or playground equipment that they need. As consumers, we buy many products that have a Box Top coupon on them. We should all be saving these coupons for our children’s schools. The labels come on diapers, food, Ziploc bags, and others. Click here to view a complete list of what products have a Box Top coupon.

As a parent, I am thrilled to do all that I can to make our children’s educations better. Please join me in cutting off these coupons. If you do not have children in school you can save the coupons and take them to a school near you. I’m sure they would appreciate it!

-Robin

Home Preschool

Welcome to Gratituesday! Today, I am thinking about how truly grateful I am that I can take a break from my career and raise my children. We have a 2 ½ year old, 16 month old, and a new baby on the way. Life can be a little busy these days, but my husband and I are soaking up all the fun that comes with raising a young family.

Last week, I started doing a home preschool program with my oldest child. I was a little nervous at first because I am not a trained teacher, but I soon realized that there is a lot of material on the internet to help. I also have the added bonus help of having two sister-in-laws that are teachers and available to give me tips.

My daughter knows how to say her abc’s, she can count to 30, and knows her colors. So, we started with learning how to recognize the upper case and lower case letters using fun coloring worksheets. She is having fun learning at home.

This Gratituedsay, I am thankful to be a stay-at-home mom and a home preschool mom! If you have any tips on what material to use for home preschool, I would love suggestions.

-Robin

Expanding Literature

I try to find every opportunity to expand our literature lessons and make the books come to life for my kids. Today, I thought I would tell you about what Works For Me.





We recently decided to work thru the Magic Tree House series. This is the second time thru for our oldest, but the youngest hasn't heard them yet. We began with the first and I chose to make it a unit. The first book is Dinosaurs Before Dark. I read it aloud while they worked with Legos and built their own house. When we were finished, we put together a large dinosaur floor puzzle together. I had also found some dinosaur poem prompts online and some cards that we could use for a Concentration type game. After we completed these, they wanted to build their own treehouse.



They put this together with zero guidance from me. I'm a proud mama, but I think its pretty fantastic! It became the centerpiece of the rest of the book series for us. A lot of imaginative play revolved around it and we have truly enjoyed making each book in the series come to life for us.

I hope this helps you look at the opportunity to expand your literature selections with your children. Look at the games you have, check online resources and think of imaginative play opportunities. Please let me know if this sparks some fun ideas for you and your children!

-Julie

We are currently hosting a wonderful giveaway that will make Back To School even easier! Enter for your chance to win an Easy Daysies magnet set here. They are a great visual reminder to help your kids organize their day!

Mother/Daughter Book Club

Today, I thought I would Talk About our Mother/Daughter Book Club. The summer following first grade, we joined four other mothers and daughters in forming a book club. We began reading children's versions of some classic tales and meeting once a month. Most of us read the books out loud to the girls and discussed the story as we read. We met once a month, rotating houses, and discussed the book as a group. We asked the girls to each come up with two questions or observations to share with the group. The questions began on a very basic level, but two years later, they are very thought provoking!

We have since added two more members, bringing out total to seven families. We have broadened our book selection as the girls have grown and tried to choose from multiple levels and genres. The girls truly look forward to these meetings and, even though they are not in the same class anymore, they have maintained a wonderful relationship. I have also found new friends in the other mothers. We have been able to share many concerns and celebrate many victories over these last two years.

If you have a reader in your life, or if you want to open the wonderful world of literature and create a life-long love of reading, I hope you consider starting a book club with your child!

-Julie

Remember to join us on Thursdays for Thrifty Thursdays! Link your blog posts sharing your great money saving ideas!

How To Handle Kids' Papers And Artwork

My kids come home with so many papers and so much artwork that it can quickly get out of control. I have devised a system that Works For Me and wanted to share.

I found this fabulous set of drawers at The Container Store, but you can use a rolling cart, some boxes or any system that works for you. As the kids bring things home from school, I go thru them that night. Things I think I might want to keep go into the drawer labeled with their name. I keep things like good test papers, award certificates, my favorite artwork. A lot of things are immediately recycled. The kids understand that I cannot keep everything they make. If there is a larger art project that is cumbersome to store, I take a photo of them with it and it goes into our picture album. We keep the memory without the clutter!

At the end of the school year, I purge back thru the drawer and pick the "best of the best" from what I saved. I look for good examples of their handwriting, what they worked on that year in different subjects, poems or stories they wrote and some of their best artwork. I put these items into an album for them that is divided by year and include their school photo, class picture, ribbons and other memorabilia from the year. I place their sports and extracurricular activity memorabilia in here as well within that school year. You can get a simple package of acid-free page protectors and a binder from the office store to duplicate my system.

I hope that my kids will have a wonderful book of memories to look thru with their own children someday!

-Julie

Summer Reading Programs

Reading is a huge part of our lives. We all have multiple books and magazines going at any given time. We head to our local library at least once a week and tend to bring home more than we can carry in our "library bag."

We have learned to take advantage of local Summer Reading Programs. Check with your local library and your local bookstores. Most will have a reading program for the children. They need to log the books they are reading and then turn in the forms when they are complete. They often receive a prize, a meal coupon to a local restaurant, a free book or a discount coupon.

Remember to find time to read with your children this summer. It is so important to practice those skills during their break from school!

-Julie

Our "Summer School" Outline

The time has come again for our "Summer School" and I thought I would share what Works For Me.

My children attend public school, but I see many gaps that need to be filled and skills that need to be reinforced. For the past several years, I have worked on those things during the summer. My children call it "Mommy School" and usually want to spend much more time on it than I had planned. I work hard to make the learning fun and it is time that I treasure with the kids.

I have mentioned before that my favorite resource is Home Learning Year By Year. I use that book, The Well-Trained Mind and many other sources to decide where I want to focus.

I break down their needs into the following categories:

- Language Arts

- Math

- History/Geography

- Science

- Art

- Read Aloud

I look at how to reinforce what they covered over the school year, attempt to give them a jump start on the next year and I ask them what they want to cover in each area. I use that and build some basic unit studies. There is so much information on the web and it is fun for all of us to search for information in our chosen subject areas.

I plan to work 2-3 hours per day with them most days, although we are very flexible. We will do many of our lessons out in the grass and lots of neighbors will drop by to join in the fun. For example, to reinforce math skills, we often use "hula hoop math." The kids spin the hoop as many times as they can and add their numbers down the driveway. There are always lots of extra kids joining in when we do this activity. They think we run a summer camp! No matter what we do, it will feel more like fun than work . . . just as it should.

-Julie

My Favorite Homeschool Resource

As I've mentioned on a previous post, I do send my children to public school, but I also consider myself to be a homeschooler. I like to supplement their school experience and fill in gaps I see in their curriculum and explore other areas of interest. As a former public school teacher, I recognize the importance of instilling a love of learning at an early age and the key is making learning fun. For Talk About It Tuesday, I thought I would share my favorite home learning resource.

This book, Home Learning Year by Year, is my most used guide. It is written by Rebecca Rupp and is filled with so many wonderful ideas, whether you are a full-time homeschooler, a supplementing homeschooler or are just looking for fun ideas for projects at home. Her subtitle is "how to design a homeschool curriculum from preschool through high school" and you can see that I have many bookmarks sticking out from my copy!

Each grade is separate and then is divided into subject matter: language arts, mathematics, history and geography, science, foreign language, art, music, health and physical education. Within each subject heading, there are the "norms" for that grade. Following that, there is more detail regarding what resources are available both in print and online. There is so much detail in this book, without becoming overwhelming, and I have honestly turned to it over and over. I have also found that most of the resources have been available thru my local library.

I cannot imagine the time that this resource has saved me in deciding our at home curriculum. I hope that you will take a look and that you find it useful as well!

-Julie

Retell Favorite Stories

An excellent way to reinforce sequencing and the parts of a story is to have your child retell their favorite tales. It is a fun activity that you can all work on together.

Choose a favorite story. Here, we used Goldilocks and the Three Bears. For younger children, find images you can print and let your children color. We have used coloring books and printed images from the internet. Have your child color in the characters (and get a good laugh when they choose to color Goldilocks skin purple) and mount the characters on popsicle or craft sticks. For older children, have them draw the characters on their own. If they are old enough to cut, this is also good scissor skill practice.

After you have your characters, you can create your setting. We made this house from several sheets of construction paper. We even added the chairs, beds and a kitchen table with bowls of porridge.

Gather everyone around and let your child retell the story! Help them put the parts of the story in the correct order. You can even point out that most stories contain a problem and solution. Discuss what these are for your story.

I hope that you can create some brilliant storytelling experiences with your children!

-Julie

Teaching Your Children At Home

As a trained teacher, I definitely value education. I send my children to public school, but I also consider myself to be a homeschooler. I have a schedule that I follow with them to fill in gaps that I see in their school's curriculum, and I work ahead with them and supplement in areas that interest them.

In future posts, I'll discuss in more detail things that have worked well for us and some of my favorite books and projects. We touch on all areas with our homeschooling and I think it has been such a benefit to my children and myself. My children actually look forward to our work together and it has led to some of our best memories and our favorite times together. Working on academics with your children can be so much fun!

I have already seen the benefits in my daughter's school career as she has excelled academically. I am also seeing those seeds take root in my son and know that he will do even better as we continue to build more on his core skills.

If there are any specific areas you would like to hear about, please let me know in the comments. I am looking forward to sharing our journey with you on future WFMW posts.

-Julie