School is fun!

Working on their letters!  This week it was M for Madeline!!



Matching game with uppercase and lowercase letters...they LOVE it!





Another game we play is putting 1-20 in order...and not upsidedown either! 

White board markers are fun too.  Practice with numbers and letters.

So this year is the 3rd I've taught high school math classes at a homeschool coop.  The others years the girls would be in the nursery there.  But this year Elliana and Madeline have each been in a class.  It works out very well.  The same three hours they are at class in the morning I am teaching an Advanced Math class and then an Alebra 2 class.  I really enjoy teaching each week and of course the girls like going too.  So at home we work on what they have done that week in class and whatever else comes up.  Elliana is preschool age and Madeline is a year younger.  Whatever she catches on to is fine with me.  They are both at about the same level with identifying letters/numbers and sounding out letters. 

It seems Elliana is very task oriented and asks often when we are going to "do school."  We try to work on specific things two other mornings a week and then of course throughout our day things come up all the time.  I have found the dollar section at target to have some fun school booklets and other things that we aren't quite ready for yet. 

Games are fun...I like them!  This matching game was so simple to make and the girls absolutely love it.  I put lower case letters on one side of a notecard and uppercase on the other side and cut it in half.  Now I give the stack to Elliana and she divides them into the correct piles on the floor .  The goal is the find the match---uppercase and lowercase letters.  We've had to establish some rules, like not picking up three letters at a time and showing me the pair and telling me the letter before putting it into their pile and moving on to the next match.  MOVEMENT is good!

I have made the decision to homeschool Elliana and Madeline next year too.  I wanted to see how this year went and I am now really looking forward to next year.  I have done a fair amount of "research" to seek out my options for schooling.  There are so many choices here and that can make it harder!  I recently met with a very Godly mother of 8 homeschooled children (10-20 years old).  She has given me wise advice over the past 5 years and I look up to her and how she and her husband have raised their family for a variety of reasons.  I am thankful for her mentorship in my life.  She gave me more insight and things to think about.  Right now I am taking one year at a time.  At this point the only thing that overwhelms me is the curriculum....what do I get?  I'm sure most people feel like this at first.

To put it into focus...I know they are going to learn their letters, numbers, and so on.  But what I want to teach while we are doing "school" is Godly character.