Better and better

Today we spent some time at the library and while we were there we talked to a group of ladies that were there doing some worksheets with their little ones. They gave me 2 sets of the worksheets for the kids to do at home. My kiddos are more interested in the light wall and looking at book then sitting still at the library. Well those worksheet were a huge hit with Avalynn. She actually sat and did all of them. She did them all right as well. So with that being said I believe I will be working on making some worksheets for my girl to do. I have also found a free online curriculum for us to use along with our other stuff. This new curriculum has many videos of each letter and stories to go with each letter too. We are still finding what exactly works for our family when it comes to when we do school time and how and what we are doing each day. The freedom that comes with homeschool is that what ever doesn't work we don't have to do. I love being able to change something to make it work for our learning and teaching styles. This journey just keeps getting better and better.

Intentionally Listening

At my house there isn't a lot of time that there is complete quite and I love it. Today I am intentionally listening to all of the wonderful noises that happen in my house. The movies that are constantly playing, the kids playing, yelling and yes sometimes fighting, the sound of a coffee grinder, the music Tony listens to as he cleans up the kitchen they are all the beautiful noises of my very happy home. I sometimes forget to just stop and listen to all of these sounds. They are what happen every day here and in that every day is where we are making our most precious memories. I am striving to become more intentional in appreciating every single beautiful noise and the wonderful moments that make up those sounds. Sometimes all these noises get drowned out by all the things I think need to happen in a day. I am making a conscious decision to stop and enjoy all of these noises because the days go by way to fast and I will eventually miss these every day sounds.

Pictures of our School Days

Just sharing a few picture of our school days.
Avalynn with her drawing journal.
Treyton at the library reading a book.
Putting pennies in the piggy bank.
Avalynn matching letters.
Treyton coloring on our letter cards.

Great Start

What a great first couple of days of our home education journey. One of the great things about teaching my kids at home is the flexibility. Avalynn went and spent some much needed time with her Nawnie and Papa so we only had a couple of days that we intentionally did school. She did have lots of fun with her cousins and grandparents. She has learned the letters we've been discussing very well. Both of the kids really loved the library so that will for sure be something we do all the time. I have also found a few museums that we will be go to check out in the near future.

Treyton has actually started to talk more. Of course he does this after I set up an appointment for a screening with early intervention. We are going to still keep the appointment just to make sure we are doing the best we can for him. He has also benefitted greatly in the few days that we have done our letter studies. Treyton thought the library was pretty awesome. He was going back and forth from one room to the other looking at everything taking it all in. I always love watching my kids in a new place that they can take in at their own pace with no pressure.

We are all enjoying learning through everyday things. My kids really love to watch movies. One of our favorites is the Toy Stories. Avalynn told me she wanted a pig like Pig the piggy bank. She has one so I got it out for her and Treyton to look at. We ended up emptying it and putting all of the coins back in. This little piggy bank has entertained my kiddos for a couple hours already and giving them lots of fine motor skills practice. We are also using the songs in our movies to have dancing time. Treyton is learning to jump and getting brave trying to jump from one thing to the other. Of course Avalynn loves to join in and show brother that the couch makes a very good trampoline.

I everyone's new year is treating them well and all of you going back to school have an amazing semester.

First Day of Homeschool

Monday finally came and we started preschool! I've decided that we are going to learn the vowels first so what better letter to start with then A. Of course the day I have to decided to start our homeschooling journey Avalynn is recovering from a cough which is causing major breathing issues for her. So with her not feeling her best I thought we would be very very laid back with school time. Doing this has allowed her to still rest when she needs and to learn pretty much all day. I showed her the letter A that we would be learning this week and told the sounds it makes. We then talked about se words that start with the letter A. She got distracted at this point so a little bit later I asked what letter we were learning and what sound it made. She told me so we went back to talking about the letter A again. We did this type of thing all day and its been great. I'm not forcing my very busy, short attention span children to sit for 3 hours working on school and I love it. Starting a new routine when kids don't feel 100% is not always the smartest way to do things but for us it has worked wonderfully. The 1st day was far less chaotic then I was thinking it would be. Treyton liked that we were playing with chalk on the kitchen table and dry erase markers on their play table. We've been writing on our magna doodles and playing with every letter learning toy we own it was a very nice day. We are all very excited about the rest of the week!

New Year New Routine

I have finally figured out how our weeks are going to look with homeschooling. Avalynn and I are both very excited to actually get started. We are going to be our own alphabet study. We will have a new letter every week, which will be introduced on Mondays. Tuesdays we will go to story time at the library and pick out books that start with our letter. Wednesdays we will learn about an animal that starts with our letter as well. Thursdays will be craft day with the craft involving the letter of the week. Fridays we will go back to the library for story time. We will also review what we have learned during the week. We may add in learning numbers at the same time but I haven't decided on that yet. We will be learning American Sign Language (ASL) for each letter and animal we learn about. Our school time will be for a short time each day. We will be using everyday experiences for learning as well. Our trips to the store will now be learning opportunities. I am making letter cards that we will take with us to play letter search and find. I'm hoping this will keep Avalynn happy and busy while shopping and help reinforce what we are learning at home.

Treyton will most likely be right in the middle of all of this too. I'm thinking that these letter studies each week will help him with his speech. I've done some research and asked a few speech therapist friends what I should be doing and hearing letter sounds is at the top of the list. We have been doing pretty much every thing else that is suppose to help. I am also looking into getting him evaluated by early intervention so that we can make sure that we are doing the best possible thing for him. I will also be talking to our pediatrician about if we may need to get his tongue clip because of the slight tongue tie that he has. I'm really hoping we don't have to do that but it is looking like that is part of our problem. The tongue tie could be restricting his tongue from making certain letter sounds and blends making it harder for him to form words.

We are all looking forward to what this next year has in store for us.