New Commitment to Teaching the Basics at Home

Image courtesy of Capture Queen with Creative Commons licensing.

Since my oldest child started kindergarten, I am reminded how much depends on a foundation of the basics. School teachers want children to be able to:

• Follow directions.
• Sit still.
• Color a picture.
• Write their names.
• Recognize their names.
• Button, unbutton, zip, open, and close clothing, backpacks, and containers when necessary.
• Tie their own shoes or use velcro.
• Listen to stories.
• Share objects. Or keep items separate when they belong to different people.
• Share their thoughts in an orderly way (e.g., raising their hands and waiting until called upon).

These are extremely basic skills! I highly recommend the Children's Learning Activities blog for basic activities that prepare children, bit by bit, for a structured learning environment.

Specific things "our" kindergarten teacher wants parents to ensure:

• That children get enough sleep each night.
• That children eat breakfast.
• That children use the restroom before school.
• That children can tie or fasten their own shoes.
• That children wear the appropriate shoes and clothing for playing and physical education.
• That any money children bring to school is for a specific school purpose.
• That children know how they are getting home at the end of the day.
• That children can pack their own backpacks.
• That children can open their own lunch containers.
• That children know their job is school. Learning is fun, but it can also be hard work. Children should be prepared to work at skills and at gaining knowledge.

She is expecting common sense and organization. These are tremendously important skills to instill in our children.

Arrangements

Dear Readers,

Please excuse the lack of new posts for about a week. There has been an accidental injury to a family member so we are all dealing with appointments and arrangements for the time being. Thank you, and see you back here soon!

Sincerely,

Feed Me Ideas Friday: Favorite Learning Activities This Week

This Friday, and many upcoming Fridays, I want to share some favorite children's activities from around the blogosphere.

First, Erin James has an informative post: Talking to Your Kids about September 11th. 

As she says, emotions about this 2001 event can still be raw, and it is helpful to see her ideas on talking with children about the events and the feelings. This post is written from a Christian perspective.

Are we there yet??? by Raegan at Children's Learning Activities

If you are ever going to travel anywhere with your children again, this post is worth reading. It is a simple but illuminating way to show children how much time is left in the trip. Requirements: Just a ribbon or string and clips like clothespins or barrettes.

Pipe Cleaner Bead Math: Another one from Children's Learning Activities, by Plowmanators

Sometimes it is hard to grasp a math concept until you can actually, um, grasp it. These pipe cleaner bead bracelets are made with different numbers of beads that children can count, move, and pull into groupings that show them just how many ways they can add up to the number.

6 (Delicious!) Ways to Serve Veggies at Breakfast, by Stacie Billis on Momtastic

What a great way to get veggies in before the children even think to protest them! Who is on their guard first thing in the morning? Not my little ones! This is the time of day I sneak in their "healthy" read-alouds, too.

My favorite on Stacie's list is roasted mashed sweet potato as a bread spread over cream cheese or butter, or just right on top of a nice muffin. Zucchini pancakes/waffles also made the list - I successfully served zucchini whole wheat waffles to my family last week.

Have a mindful and lovely Labor Day weekend!

Water Painting Again - Refreshing Play In the Hot Sun

How to Use Storybook Weeks

One way to use Storybook Weeks is to schedule about a half hour each weekday for learning activities and do one of the Storybook Week activities each day. There are generally five activities in each Storybook Week, including the Read-Aloud activity of reading the book together.

Each week is designed to include a variety of activities for different skill sets or academic subjects: gross motor skills, fine motor skills, language arts, social studies, math, science, fine arts, sensory activities such as cooking or working with weights or textures, and outdoor learning.

Monday could be spent reading the storybook. You may also want to watch the storybook video, or ask questions about the book and discuss it. Sometimes children may want to read it over and over again.

Tuesday could be spent on the next activity. If there is ever a time or an activity when a child doesn't want to do it, no problem. You can try it again the next day, or Saturday, or skip it entirely. Just like blind dates, sometimes a child and a learning activity do not have chemistry together.

Wednesday could be spent on the next activity. If the weather is bad for an outdoor activity, switch the order of the activities. These activities can be adapted and used as loosely as you want. Maybe one day of the week is much better for cooking, so you can save any cooking activities for that day.

And so on. They can be used all at once or on random days. Whatever fits your life.

If you are using the Five in a Row curriculum, there are differences such as the assigning of each of five subject areas to a day of the week (social studies, language arts, art, applied math, and science). Storybook Weeks are more along the lines of the flexible, book-based play activities supplied by Before Five in a Row.

 If you are using the Charlotte Mason philosophy, some of the Storybook Weeks books overlap with the Early Years Read-Alouds list at simplycharlottemason.com. The benefits of reading good literature (e.g., long-lasting and successful story books) to children are promoted in the Charlotte Mason method and believed in here at Afterschool Homeschool.

Deb at LivingMontessoriNow has a list of Montessori-Inspired unit studies that can be used in conjunction with Storybook Weeks. For example, this Montessori-Inspired Dinosaur Unit could be used during the How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? Storybook Week.

The way that helps our family the most is to hold pretty fast to a scheduled time for "learning activities" each day. Then we hold very loosely to the planned activities by changing, rushing, extending, skipping, or repeating them as dictated by the children's interest. Sometimes "learning activities time" turns into home haircut time or time to sit and listen to the children tell me something. Or free play when they are simply obsessed with a certain type of play at the time.

Make Me a Reader Monday: Baby's First Skills

 Afterschool Homeschool is starting a new feature!

Make Me a Reader Monday will highlight a great book each week. It will either be a book for children or a book for parents that helps them encourage reading and other developmental skills in their children.

For the first week, the book is Baby's First Skills, by Dr. Miriam Stoppard. This book, I feel, made a huge difference with my younger son. In his first year of life, he developed a love of music, books, clapping, and words which I mostly attribute to three things: the Baby's First Skills book, the Letter of the Week website, and our practice of independent playtime each day starting at four months old -- a staple of the Babywise philosophy.

As baby grows out of the newborn stage, there are more opportunities to interact and play...but what to do with a 4-month-old? Or a 7-month-old? Or a between-skills 11-month-old? I loved Baby's First Skills for making a plan to do activities from different areas of skills. Dr. Stoppard uses these areas: friendliness, talking, mind, hands, moving. The baby games included are fun, easy, and do not require money to do them.

Basically, this book is a map for organizing and doing activities with your baby that help your baby learn crucial skills. The only time I would NOT recommend that someone get this book is if your child is already 10 months old or older, because it only goes up to 12 months. If that is the case with your child, borrow it from the library! (Although the Amazon list price is quite high, there are copies available from other sellers for just over the cost of shipping.)

                                               

First Week of School Lunch Favorites

This week, I made my son this Orange You Glad... lunch from dayliciously bento and this Hook, line and sinker! lunch from Cookie Cutter Lunch and various sandwich/rice/macaroni and cheese/pretzels/animal crackers/peas/fruit combinations in his new yubo Pirates lunchbox.

I sent lunchbox notes in his lunch each day, some with messages, some with a smiling star image. After talking with him, I had to make sure to write "To: [his name]" at the beginning and "From: Mom" at the end or else he was convinced they were for him to bring home to me.

It is always revealing, and surprising, what we find out when we ask our children.

His favorite lunch items this week were: a turkey-cheese-lettuce sandwich with ranch dressing instead of mayo, the smiling star picture, animal crackers, and the pirate-decorated sandwich bags I found in the dollar section at Target this summer.

Maybe I can skip the pretty food next week? And reuse and stock up on those pirate sandwich bags!