Kindergarten Home School Day 2

March 17, 2020Leave a comment

After hitting the ground running yesterday, today felt a little more like a walk. Maybe because I only got 4 hours sleep, maybe because Tuesdays are only a half day in our town, so we didn’t pack in as much. But without further ado, here’s what we joyfully tackled!

6.30-8.30: Breakfast, get dressed, free play.

9-10: Circle time, ELA. After a quick moment to check in by our calendar, we jumped into ELA for the day. Travis’s class has been working on writing a story with two parts, and his centered around Anakin Skywalker of course.

We reviewed the sight words his class has learned (to the tune of “B-I-N-G-O”), then practiced writing them in shaving cream! Travis didn’t want to get his fingers messy, but a wooden skewer worked perfectly. Where was my toddler, meanwhile? Busy getting dressed.

10-10.30: Snack/recess. It was a snowy raw day, so we only briefly ventured outside before “indoor recess” and a quick bite.

10.30-11: Travis listened to two stories from Storyline Online (a great resource!), then we took some time to compare the two and discuss their differences and similarities. He finished off the half hour with about 15 minutes on Lexia.

11-11.30: Math. We played Go Fish using number cards, which is great for reading pips and numerals. To make it physical we turned it into Go Fitness Fish. Each match was assigned an activity, like yoga tree pose for matching 2s, or jumping jacks for matching 3s.

This had us laughing and super active! (It helped that my toddler was napping). We finished off with a page of How High Can a Dinosaur Count.

11.30-12.30: He was hungry early! We watched yesterday’s episode of Lunch Doodles with Mo Williams since we were too early for today’s 1 p.m. showing. Travis was so proud of his many -legged creature!

12.30-1: In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, we listened to Irish music provided by the school’s Music teacher. This had both kiddos doing reels and jigs!

1-1.30: We finished with a quick lesson on American Sign Language, and a quick “science” book about the human body, but then called it quits.

Normally, he has a Tuesday acting class. To ease his disappointment that the final performance is now cancelled, we staged it at home, obligatory costume for little sister included of course.

This had him laughing and so happy, and was the highlight of the day. A round of Kids Charades kept up the acting play to round out his afternoon.

See you for another full day tomorrow!

Sign Language

March 17, 2020Leave a comment

Sign Language (3)

Travis and I did a brief lesson on American Sign Language during homeschool today, a lesson plan provided by Raddish Kids (which, by the way, has dozens of homeschool units even if you don’t subscribe to their recipe kits).

The lesson was a great way to talk about embracing and accepting difference, starting by asking Travis if he knew what it meant to be deaf. Once I explained the concept to him, it immediately became familiar since he remembers some of the Sign he used as a baby, and we use it now with little sister Veronika. A video link had neat biology about the ear.

Raddish provided lots of links which could make this a very detailed homeschool unit for older kids. We kept things simple and jumped ahead to learning a few songs in ASL, including Itsy Bitsy Spider.

Sign Language (5)

Veronika was grinning when we checked out a video for 16 animals in ASL, since she already knows most of these. She looked thrilled we were speaking “her” language.

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It was fun to go through the alphabet and Sign the kids’ names, too!

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You can add to the lesson by cooking a love-ly recipe or curling up with books on the topic. We read I Have a Sister, My Sister is Deaf by Jeanne Whitehouse, Hands & Hearts by Donna Jo Napoli, which had us learning a few new Signs, and The Deaf Musicians, a great book for onomatopoeia by Pete Seeger.

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Extend the unit with older kids by doing a biography of a famous deaf person. Fun suggestions include Beethoven or Helen Keller.

Cream of Potato Soup

March 17, 2020March 17, 2020Leave a comment

Cream of Potato Soup

This soup cooks up in a slow-cooker, a life-saving device whether you’re working out of the home or suddenly busy homeschooling kids all day long. When dinnertime rolls around, it’s ready and waiting for you.

Ingredients:

6 peeled and chopped Yukon gold potatoes
2 peeled and chopped onions
1 chopped carrot
1 chopped celery stick
4 vegetable bouillon cubes
4 cups water
1/3 cup Earth Balance butter
1 cup plain soy milk

Combine all of the ingredients except the soy milk in a slow-cooker. Cook over high heat for 4 hours. (Alternatively, set to low heat and cook a full 10 hours).
Stir in the milk in the last hour of cooking.

Getting Dressed

March 17, 2020Leave a comment

Getting Dressed (5)

This cute activity is a hands-on way to build your toddler’s clothing vocabulary. Veronika’s earliest words were clothing items (“socks!”), and whenever we come in from outside, she runs through the litany of things to remove: “Coat, hat, mittens…” So I knew she would love this interactive version of getting dressed.

First, I laid her down on a big sheet of craft paper and traced her outline (which turned out a bit wiggly; she’s a toddler after all!).

Getting Dressed (1)

Then I filled in the basic outline of a person.

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I had brought down several articles of her clothing and took turns lying these near the person we’d drawn. “What are these called?” I asked. “Pants!” she responded. Then I positioned the item where they should go on the body.

Getting Dressed (3)