"home-schooling"

One of the things I was looking forward to about staying home was the opportunity to teach Nathan. At the same time, the idea completely overwhelmed me, because I'm not "teacher-y" or crafty, and I didn't really know what kinds of things I should be teaching him. After a month or so of taking stock of my supplies, researching, and adding to my collection, I think we're finally in a good place. Luckily, I also found a few great websites that has printable modules for different topics, so a lot of the lesson planning is done for me. My favorites are:
http://www.2teachingmommies.com/ and
http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.com/

They both have lots of searchable and downloadable content, and though they are faith-based I have found it easy enough to just skip over or reframe those parts. A lot of people (especially my still-working friends) have asked what a "typical day" looks like for us, so here goes. Keep in mind that even though it sounds structured, it really isn't. There's no real order to this list, and many of the items only take a few minutes. The spaces are filled in by free play, naps (ha, on rare occasions), or snacks/meals. Also, many activities that we do cover more than one topic area (or maybe I have just not sorted them correctly in the list below).

- ADLs/hygiene: we're working on getting dressed independently, brushing teeth, washing hands, and potty
- Science: this is my area of expertise, so this one is easy. We learn about an animal, cut open a fruit or veggie to learn its parts, or talk about life cycles. I tend to focus more on life sciences because that's my comfort zone, but Jason does more of the non-life science/math with him.
- Gross and fine motor: we do lacing, stacking, drawing, mosaic stickers, gluing
- Pre-writing, mazes
- Cognitive: basic patterning, sorting, opposites, puzzles
- Counting, learning numbers and letters
- Cooking projects
- Outdoor play: bubbles, sidewalk chalk, checking on our garden, just running around
- Singing: some of the lesson plans come with songs that can be sung to a well known melody (lucky for me, lol)

One key I have figured out is "pre-staging." So if there are any projects I might want to do, or things that require setup like brushes and paper towels, I set those up in a bin underneath our "project table." If/When we get to that project, everything is right there so I don't have to ask a two year old to be patient while I run around trying to find all the parts I need. Generally, each Sunday I pick out a few educational toys that haven't been played with for a while and place them underneath our table. I rotate these out regularly, because a) then I don't feel guilty that we have toys just sitting around, and b) Nathan responds better when it's something he hasn't seen in a while. I also pre-print all of our "worksheets" and keep them filed so I can easily pull out a theme/module (Cars, Nemo, dinosaurs).

Under the table, there's also one bin that stays there. Contents include crayons, safe scissors, glue stick, wipes, paper towels, clothespins, and a pen.

I now have a new "station" that's set up on the side of our refrigerator. I wanted to get a large pocket chart to place all of our stuff for the week, but instead I ended up with four magnetic pockets. They're big enough to hold small craft items or a book. I have it split out into subjects (which you probably can't read, but they are science & math, art/music/movement, reading & writing, and values & the world) so that I can offer a variety and give Nathan choices. I don't know if my subject areas are "right" but it made sense to me. You can see that values and the world is a little empty- I'm struggling to find age-appropriate stuff for that one.














Aside from "school, we also try to get out of the house at least once a day- just a trip to Target or Publix can present learning opportunities, break up the monotony, and possibly even give Nathan a chance to fall asleep on the ride home.

Surprisingly, I have not felt stir-crazy, deprived of adult contact, etc. The two things I can attribute this two are Jason's schedule, which affords me a break in the afternoon when he arrives home (plus he handles Nathan's bath and bed routine each night) and the fact that I get to see my friends and have "me" (gym) time much more than I did while I was working.