Preschool for Kayla and Science with Leah

A couple of weeks ago Kayla started preschool at a local coop two mornings a week. Now it may seem strange that a homeschooling family is sending their daughter to preschool! We wanted Kayla to experience a group school setting, as well as determine how she learns best. Although Kayla is showing many signs of being advanced like Leah, she has a completely different personality and learning style. It's important to us to determine the best school option for each of our children individually, each year.

So far, Kayla is having a blast. Separation anxiety? What is that? Leah and I get the opportunity to volunteer in the classroom a couple of times a month. It's been really neat to watch Kayla in action and Leah blossom as a little helper! It is quite obvious already that the experience is pretty much social for Kayla though (as opposed to academic) and she looks forward to "school with Mommy and Leah" every day, so we'll see. In the meantime, she gets ample time to sing silly preschool songs and play with playdough every week, two things Mommy does not do very well with at home! Here she is on her first day of preschool.



While Kayla is at preschool, Leah and I take advantage of the uninterrupted time to complete science experiments most days. This year, we are using a curriculum called R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey - Earth and Space. This program is really nicely organized, with readings, experiements and lab sheets for each topic. We supplement with living books about whatever we're studying.

We've been studying weather since the beginning of the year, including making a rain gauge, an anonometer (fancy term, huh? It measures the speed of the wind.), a weather vane and a re-creation of the earth revolving around the sun to show the change of seasons. We have identified types of clouds, predicted and logged the weather, wind speed and direction, and rainfall for the last several weeks and concluded with making graphs of everything. I'm sure I never learned this much about weather in school! Leah really enjoys the hands-on nature of this curriculum and I appreciate that it doesn't require obscure scientific materials that require significant searching out and funding. Here is Leah working on her rain gauge.




Until next time!


Marcia

A New School Year

We started up our new school year just after Labor Day, and we're really in the swing of things now! We've settled into a routine and are accomplishing so much each day. Here are the girls on the first day of school, after a special breakfast out with Daddy!



And when it was time for recess, we went to the park!


Here are a couple of pictures of our school room - keep in mind that it has never been this clean again since I took these photos!



Our main work area


Kayla's spot


Just part of the way too many resources I've collected


Our workbox set-up and calendar center

and the computer center

We really enjoy having a dedicated space for school, although we seem to end up all over the house! The basement playroom is right outside this room, so Kayla plays out there when she tires of her "school." She also started attending a co-op preschool two mornings a week and is loving it! Afer the first day, she came home a little concerned though, that she couldn't do school with Mommy and Leah anymore. I'm glad to know she likes learning at home with us! While the girl were waiting for me to fix lunch that day, Leah explained her science project to Kayla (which involved thermometers, water and lots of ice) and they played/learned contentedly for almost an hour, forgetting about lunch. That's what homeschooling is about for me!

More on the curriculm we're using this year later, but you can find the list and links on the right.

Marcia