Uncharted Heritage: Schooling

Showing posts with label Schooling. Show all posts

20171214

A Morning in My Life - vlog 009

Angel Buff December 14, 2017 0 Comments

A morning in my ordinary life. Homeschooling a 2nd grader while taking care of 2-month-old twins. Teaching my 6-year-old to cook. Sera makes her own breakfast (scrambled eggs and cinnamon toast)!

20170731

Second-Grade Curriculum

Angel Buff July 31, 2017 0 Comments

For our first couple of years homeschooling, Sonlight worked great for the most part. Everything we needed was already figured out and sent all together along with lesson plans. However, the History overall did not keep Sera's attention enough. I am now confident enough to change things up a bit and write my own lesson plans. It is now time to piece together a different curriculum based on what we have learned about Sera's interests and learning style.

Below you will find our choices listed and linked:

Customized Second-Grade Curriculum

God and Me! 2 Devotions for Girls (Ages 2-5)

Horizons Math 2

Spelling You See "Jack and Jill"

Using the Standards Building Grammar & Writing Skills Grade 2

Handwriting Without Tears Printing Power (includes Kick Start Cursive)

Our America Grade 2 History/Geography (A Beka Book)

America's 50 States: Maps, Flags, Dates, and Fun Facts

Enjoying God's World Science Reader (A Beka Book)

For her reading, we plan to utilize our library membership. We can also check out books to expand on subjects that are of special interest to her. 😊 Click HERE to see what we are reading currently, as well as a list of our "Favorite Kids' Books"

We found most of our curriculum at our annual local curriculum fair. It was a great opportunity to really look at our options, attend some workshops, and get some pretty good discounts.

Excited for Second Grade!!!

20161114

Our First Vlog

Angel Buff November 14, 2016 0 Comments

A Day in the Life. Our first vlog!

Just another day, home-schooling (a 5-year-old)! And trying to figure out what was exciting enough about our day to film. :)

20160728

First-Grade Curriculum

Angel Buff July 28, 2016 0 Comments

For our first year homeschooling [kindergarten] we tried out Sonlight's full-grade package. This worked well for us and was a great choice for our family as we are learning how to put together lesson plans, and as we figure out the learning style of our daughter. If you are interested to see what was included in our kindergarten curriculum, CLICK HERE

This year we are going to try Sonlight again, though next year we may begin to branch out a little and either modify Sonlight's suggestions, or we may just put together a different curriculum depending upon the evolution of our daughter's interests.

Below is a list of what is included this year in our First-Grade Curriculum:

Sonlight's First-Grade Complete-Grade Package

Sonlight Grade 1 All-Subjects Package Instructor Guide Set

Core B Tips

A Big Ball of String

A Child's History of the World

A Fly Went By

Archaeologists Dig For Clues

Around the World with Kate and Mack

BINGO Markers

Charlotte's Web

Detectives in Togas

Discover & Do Level 1 DVD

Eligible to Upgrade 1LG

Eligible to Upgrade BSG

Favorite Poems of Childhood

First Encyclopedia of the Human Body

George Muller

Go Blend!

Gooney Bird Greene

Greek Myths for Young Children

Green Eggs and Ham

Handwriting Without Tears: My Printing Book

Handwriting Without Tears: Print Alphabet Desk Strips

I Can Read It! Book 1

I Can Read It! Book 2

I Can Read It! Book 3

I Can Read It! Word Lists

It Could Always Be Worse

Leading Little Ones to God

Letter & Word BINGO

Lined Paper for approx. levels K-1

Little Bear

Little Pear

Manipulatives 'Filler' Kit for Horizons Math 1-3

Missionary Stories with the Millers

Mountain Born

Mr. Popper's Penguins

Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle

Night Animals

One Fish, Two Fish...

Owls in the Family

Pasteur's Fight Against Microbes

Peoples of the World

Put Me in the Zoo

Roman Diary

Science Activities, Vol. 1

Science Supplies Kit B

See How It's Made

Sing the Word: A New Commandment - CD

Space

The Best Trick

The Bravest Dog Ever

The Case of the Gasping Garbage

The Cat in the Hat

The Great Wall of China

The Greek News

The Magic School Bus at the Waterworks

The Usborne Book of World History

The Usborne Time Traveler

The Usborne World Of Animals

The Year of Miss Agnes

Timeline Figures B

Tut's Mummy Lost & Found

Understood Betsy

Welcome to Silver Street Farm

What Makes You Ill?

Why Do People Eat?

If you happen to be interested in trying Sonlight, Sonlight has a Rewards Program. If you decide to purchase from Sonlight, enter my Rewards ID ( AB20406964 ) when you register an account on their site and you'll get $5 off your first order ($50 or more). And I'll get points that I can redeem at another time. Thanks!!

20150728

Kindergarten Curriculum

Angel Buff July 28, 2015 0 Comments

I was excited to start officially homeschooling, but I will admit, I was a bit intimidated. I needed to pick out a curriculum. And I wasn't sure where to start with putting together an official, all-subject lesson plan.

After extensive research, I found Sonlight. They offer complete grade packages with lesson plans. This seemed like the perfect solution for our family, at least for now as we learn how to build our lesson plans. So this is what we are using for our first year homeschooling.

Sonlight's Kindergarten Complete Grade Package

Sonlight Grade K All-Subjects Package Instructor Guide Set

Core A Tips

A Grain of Rice

Alphabet Sounds BINGO Cards

BINGO Markers

Beezus and Ramona

Capital Letter Wood Pieces

Caterpillars and Butterflies

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Discover & Do Level K DVD

Dolphin Adventure

Dolphin Treasure

Egermeier's Bible Story Book

Eggs and Chicks

Eligible to Upgrade ASG

Eligible to Upgrade KLG

Five True Dog Stories

Fun Tales

Go A to Z!

Handwriting Without Tears: Letters & Numbers for Me

Here's a Penny

Horizons Kindergarten Math Manipulatives

Horizons Math K

How Flowers Grow

I Heard Good News Today

In Grandma's Attic

Isaac Newton and the Laws of Motion

James Herriot's Treasury for Children

Johnny Appleseed: The Story of a Legend

Language and Thinking for Young Children

Least of All

Lined Paper for approx. levels K-1

Little House in the Big Woods

Living Long Ago

Markable Map Only

Markers Only

Mary on Horseback

Mat for Wood Pieces

MathTacular

My Father's Dragon

My First Picture Dictionary

No Children, No Pets

Non-Consumable Science Supplies Kit

Richard Scarry's Please and Thank You Book

Science Activities, Vol. 2

Science Supplies Kit A

Sing the Word: From A to Z - CD

Slate Chalkboard with Chalk & Sponge

Sonlight's Create-A-Calendar

Tadpoles and Frogs

The Arnold Lobel Book of Mother Goose

The Boxcar Children

The Complete Adventures of Curious George

The House at Pooh Corner

The Hundred Dresses

The Light at Tern Rock

The Llama Who Had No Pajama

The Story About Ping

The Story of Dr. Dolittle

The Timeline Book

Timeline Figures A

Twenty and Ten

Under the Sea

Usborne Internet-Linked Children's Encyclopedia

Weather

Wild Places

20140215

The Letter F

Angel Buff February 15, 2014 0 Comments

Some weeks go better than others, and this week was a good week. We had a lot of fun and she was eager to learn this week. We did our finger painting project, making a Fish out of her hand print.

We colored her letter of the week, using a coloring page from Sesame Street, showing that "F" is for Flower.

I had written "F" on a piece of construction paper in preparation for our next activity and later found her tracing my "F." I was happy to find her practicing on her own.

We used that piece of paper, gluing Feathers on it to make the letter "F."

I also found a printable that she could color and cut out pieces, which we then stapled together to make a book.

We are still using the practice pages with the dry-erase markers.

I use every opportunity to work in repetition of our letter for the week. One of the books we found to read was "My Farm Friends."

And for her Bible lesson we talked about Jesus calling his disciples to Follow Him. We colored a picture and made Footprints.

20140208

The Letter E

Angel Buff February 08, 2014 0 Comments

Some weeks just go more smoothly than others. This week was not a smooth week with keeping her attention, but we still managed to get a lot done. We still did the typical activities with discussing our 'letter of the week' throughout our days and we read plenty of stories/books. She still played games at PBS.org and watched Sesame Street's "Letter E" clips.

We used the dry-erase board - she traced over my writing.

We did our finger painting, "E" is for Elephant.

We also made Elmo.

And colored a picture of Elmo and an Eagle.

For our Bible studies, this week we talked about prayer.

This week gave me new ideas on what I can do to change things up a bit to hopefully keep her interested. Just as she is learning things each week with her "studies," I am learning more about her and how to teach her in the future - so this has been a learning experience for the both of us.

20140201

The Letter D

Angel Buff February 01, 2014 0 Comments

Our week, as usual, has contained plenty of reading, Bible stories, games, and letter association for this week's letter and we are still using our practice sheets for learning to write our letters of the week. Here are some other highlights from our "D" week...

We made dinosaurs out of our hand prints...

and made dinosaur footprints.

We built "D" words using our magnet board.

And we made a duck out of the letter "D".

We colored a picture, and did some dancing.

And Daddy and Daughter had some time together painting with watercolors.

20140125

The Letter C

Angel Buff January 25, 2014 0 Comments

For "C" week we started out playing with some glue and made a Cotton "C" and some Clouds.

Finger painting is a hit. So we continued our theme and made a Caterpillar.

Also we had in introduction to Cutting with her brand-new scissors. We cut out basic shapes first.

Then we cut out shapes for our little bug puzzle, gluing the shapes into their proper place.

We also made a Cat mask, which turned out to look a little too much like "Grumpy Cat." LOL.

Of course as you are going through the week you are continually finding things that start with your 'Letter of the Week' and talking about it. We are still using the practice sheets inside the protective cover along with a dry-erase marker and we now have a white board that we use to practice with.

We also have changed our Bible lessons up a bit. The book we started with was not keeping her attention long enough, so we picked another one of her Bible story books and have been reading through it often and talk about the stories and I have been trying to find coloring pages that correspond to the lessons.

20140118

The Letter B

Angel Buff January 18, 2014 0 Comments

"B" week went well. We worked on writing, using the protective cover over the practice sheets. She is really starting to like this activity.

We also made a Bracelet using Beads.

And of course we had to do some finger painting, so "B" is for Butterfly this week.

PBS Kids.org has a lot of fun activities and printables. We found this connect-the-dot Bee, so that snuck in some counting also. She also colored a picture of the letter "B" and Big Bird from their site.

And we also introduced glue! Big hit! We made the letter "B" out of Buttons.

Our Bible story of the week was about Noah and his obedience to God. And also conveniently located during our "B" week was the Birthday of a family member. So far, so good. We are having lots and lots of fun together.

20140116

Magnetic Learning

Angel Buff January 16, 2014 0 Comments

For some more learning fun we added a magnet board, made simply from a piece of metal that we spray painted. We let our daughter pick out a color of paint and then added this board to her school room, along with some letters for a start.

20140111

The Letter A

Angel Buff January 11, 2014 0 Comments

For our first week of "formal" activities, we thought that the best place to start would be, of course, with the letter 'A'. Throughout the week we painted pictures of ants and alligators. I also printed out a capital and lowercase 'A' for her to paint by herself. We talked about things that start with the letter 'A' and also worked on 'A' in sign language.

I found some writing practice sheets for the letter 'A' also. I put those in a protective cover and we used a dry-erase marker to work on writing skills.

For our Bible lesson we simply started reading the "Jesus Said Bible Storybook." The first lesson was about creation. This book tells the story and then gives a memory verse. We read and/or talked about this first story daily and practiced our memory verse all week.

We did some counting activities and she also has some educational games on the computer and Kindle that she worked with as well.

I have to say that overall the first week went really well. She has been so excited about her school room and the activities. I also learned a lot this week about how to modify activities, and I know that there will be much evolution as we learn together how home schooling will work best for the two of us (and ultimately the three of us, as Daddy becomes more involved).

20140104

The Little School Room

Angel Buff January 04, 2014 0 Comments

In a few short months our daughter will be turning 3 years old! She is doing well with saying and recognizing her alphabet and counting, milestones, etc., so we decided it was time to start some more advanced activities. We are planning on home schooling when the time comes anyway. So over the last couple of weeks we worked on cleaning up our spare room, which we were just using for storage, and made us a little office/classroom. Nothing fancy, but our little girl is so excited! And so am I!

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