We had a great summer, which I am still wondering where it went, but we're glad to be back on a schedule and looking forward to this new school year.
Our curriculum this year has changed a little, but I am still keeping A Beka A Beka as our core curriculum. We changed our Bible to Grapevine studies Grapevine Studies this year and I'm so glad I did! I'll get into that later! :)
I know that with a First and Second Grader, the work load will increase, but today we took it slowly and played it by ear. I always feel like I pick up a different routine then how I started, so I am learning too!
 |
| Minnie (me) and some of her books for Second Grade |
 |
| Super Boy and some of his books for First Grade |
We always begin the day with the Pledge and then do songs to get us ready for the day! We do our calendar time, weather and seasons together as well. We basically do all our circle time activities together before getting into our subjects. Our schedule looks a little like this:
9:00- We start our day. We do the Pledge, circle time and Bible together.
Then we work on phonics. We do our review work and go over some work from the previous day. (homework) We will then learn the lesson for the day. While I am teaching one child, the other one is working on seatwork or doing a quiet activity. Something like reading or a learning file folder game.
We then break for snack and some recess. There is nothing like food and fresh air that makes the day go smoothly!
When we come back, we finish up any seatwork that we did not finish from before. This is also the time we do our reading and writing practice.
Then it's time for math. I usually do the same thing I do with phonics. I will do a lesson with one child while the other one is reading or finishing up some work.
After that, it's lunch! YUMMY Then we also do another recess break.
When we get back from our break, we will do the extra subjects like Science, Social Studies, Health, Art, Music and any extra fun things I added to the schedule. It makes for a long day at times, but it's a blessing to be able to see my children learning!
The kids also do a daily workbook together that goes over things like time, calendar information, days in school and other fun things that the kids enjoy doing. I use it as part of our circle time activity. It's a great way to help them with their reading and writing. A lot of reinforcements!
One the first day of school, I always have the kids do an "All About Me" worksheet. It just tells what their favorite things are. Movies, books, food. I like to go back and see what they said the year before! The kids love doing them and I really try to pick fun characters to do along with their sheets. I got these on Pinterest!
As I said before, I made some changed this year with our curriculum. For Bible, I am now using Grapevine Studies. Grapevine Studies I wanted to try something new because even though I love A Beka, I found out that this year (for second grade) they do not have a activity booklet to go along with the stories. Not a huge deal, but my kids are really hands on and I wanted more! So over the summer I began to research different Bible curriculum and I came across Grapevine Studies. I love how hands on they are and they really get into the Bible! You can use any version of the Bible you feel comfortable with. Everything is so easy to do and the kids got really into it. They keep telling me how much they love it!!
This is one of the things I love about them...... they do learning through stick figures and drawings. Since Minnie (me) is really good at drawing, her work sheets are blank. She can basically copy what I draw on the board (or any details she would like add.) Super Boy can draw, but he gets upset if it's not perfect, so they have a traceable versions of their lessons! LOVE!!! The kids have such a great time drawing and learning about God's word! They will also be learning Bible verses and memorizing timelines as well. Thank you Grapevine Studies!!!
 | ||||
| The kids working on their timeline! |
 | |||||
| This is the timeline the kids drew to know what's coming up this year! |
We also changed our Math for the year. Again, I am very hands-on and the kids love things that are hands on as well. So, we switched to Saxon Math. I used the First Grade math with Minnie (me) when she was in Kindergarten and she loved it, so I wanted to bring it back again for both kids! So far they are really liking it and looking forward to math time, which is nothing how I was when I was there age! (well, maybe I was a little older when numbers started to scared me! LOL) I am so glad they are loving it! I am trying to get them to enjoy it so that they don't grow up like me! (and fear numbers)
I know it's only the first day, but it went really well and the kids are really glad to be back in the groove! I pray that it will stay like that, since I have a feeling when the work load gets increased they will be wishing it were summer again! But then again, I will be too!!!
 |
| Minnie (me) in the Second Grade |
 |
| Super Boy in the First Grade |
No comments:
Post a Comment