Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
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.
Monday, August 29, 2011
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.)
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.)
Saturday, August 27, 2011
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!
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!
Friday, August 26, 2011
Inspired by Cookie Cutter Lunch
This is my attempt at copying Cookie Cutter Lunch's Hook, Line and Sinker! lunch. Her stuff is adorable and fabulous...and in my case, to be attempted only occasionally.
Do you see the line in the fish's mouth? He's been caught! :)
Please go check out Cookie Cutter Lunch; the ideas are gorgeous. I don't know the author, I just like looking at her pictures. The only reason to forgo visiting her blog is if you will feel the need to do each and every one of her lunches yourself. This could be crazy-making.
Do you see the line in the fish's mouth? He's been caught! :)
Please go check out Cookie Cutter Lunch; the ideas are gorgeous. I don't know the author, I just like looking at her pictures. The only reason to forgo visiting her blog is if you will feel the need to do each and every one of her lunches yourself. This could be crazy-making.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
How I Learned a Foreign Language
Along with my recent posts about teaching a foreign language, I thought I would post how I learned Spanish. I am proficient in Spanish, but more so in reading and writing the language than in speaking it. Fast conversation with native speakers is my weak point, although I have been to Spanish-speaking countries and, to some extent, navigated us through the trips speaking Spanish.
(Note: Spanish speakers are often very considerate of foreign speakers without us necessarily even knowing it. Especially, my sister and I noticed, in Ecuador, people speak clear and slow Spanish to foreigners.)
My first exposure to Spanish was a weekly elective in first grade. After first grade, my family moved to another state and I don't think I was taught much Spanish until I chose it as an elective in high school. I remember learning colors and numbers and the letters of the Spanish alphabet.
However, I had a high confidence level that I knew some Spanish and could learn more due to that early first experience. See my discussion of that point in my first post about teaching foreign languages to children.
I chose Spanish as an elective for at least two years. I'm afraid I can't remember if I took more than two years of elective Spanish. Two years was basically a requirement for getting into a liberal arts college or university. On top of using it as a requirement, I was also excited to learn more of the language that I had started learning as a young child.
I knew I wanted to take more Spanish in college. After earning lots of credits and slowly becoming able to use the language in more sophisticated ways, I decided to turn it into an official concentration along with my major in Psychology. I was able to write short stories, essays, and academic papers in Spanish through the Spanish Composition courses I took, and able to converse a little bit and improve my pronunciation and vocabulary through Spanish Speaking courses.
This education made me competent to travel in Spanish-speaking countries, especially because I could ask for things and answer some questions without knowing a whole lot of idiomatic language and without being all that fast. My greatest test came when I had to try to speak to the police about a stolen purse! I can't say I was completely successful in that specialized situation, but they were able to use a little bit of English with us as well.
This brings me to where I am now. I am able to read and write Spanish better than speak it conversationally. If I pass people having a normal-paced conversation in Spanish, I only catch about half of it. I would have to brush up in order to speak it in a conversation.
Because of my academic and traveling background, my weaknesses could be dealt with pretty easily through traveling to a Spanish-speaking country again for a period of time or challenging myself to speak only Spanish in conversation with Spanish speakers on a regular basis.
What were your experiences with learning a foreign language?
(Note: Spanish speakers are often very considerate of foreign speakers without us necessarily even knowing it. Especially, my sister and I noticed, in Ecuador, people speak clear and slow Spanish to foreigners.)
Elementary School
My first exposure to Spanish was a weekly elective in first grade. After first grade, my family moved to another state and I don't think I was taught much Spanish until I chose it as an elective in high school. I remember learning colors and numbers and the letters of the Spanish alphabet.
However, I had a high confidence level that I knew some Spanish and could learn more due to that early first experience. See my discussion of that point in my first post about teaching foreign languages to children.
High School
I chose Spanish as an elective for at least two years. I'm afraid I can't remember if I took more than two years of elective Spanish. Two years was basically a requirement for getting into a liberal arts college or university. On top of using it as a requirement, I was also excited to learn more of the language that I had started learning as a young child.
College
I knew I wanted to take more Spanish in college. After earning lots of credits and slowly becoming able to use the language in more sophisticated ways, I decided to turn it into an official concentration along with my major in Psychology. I was able to write short stories, essays, and academic papers in Spanish through the Spanish Composition courses I took, and able to converse a little bit and improve my pronunciation and vocabulary through Spanish Speaking courses.
This education made me competent to travel in Spanish-speaking countries, especially because I could ask for things and answer some questions without knowing a whole lot of idiomatic language and without being all that fast. My greatest test came when I had to try to speak to the police about a stolen purse! I can't say I was completely successful in that specialized situation, but they were able to use a little bit of English with us as well.
This brings me to where I am now. I am able to read and write Spanish better than speak it conversationally. If I pass people having a normal-paced conversation in Spanish, I only catch about half of it. I would have to brush up in order to speak it in a conversation.
Because of my academic and traveling background, my weaknesses could be dealt with pretty easily through traveling to a Spanish-speaking country again for a period of time or challenging myself to speak only Spanish in conversation with Spanish speakers on a regular basis.
What were your experiences with learning a foreign language?
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Six Favorite Educational Toys
1. Busy Bugs
Busy Bugs are all about math, including patterning, colors, addition, and subtraction. Both of my children have adored playing with them for years. Owning these darling and brightly-colored bugs means I sit back and wait for my children to ask me for math - er, busy bugs.
These don't sound like toys, but the First Steps workbooks (for ages 2 and up) may as well be. There are Kumon workbooks for older ages, too. We have an ages 3-4-5 workbook which has been received with good grace but not the happiness with which the smaller workbooks were greeted. For ages 2 and up, we have tried Let's Cut Paper!, More Let's Cut Paper!, and Let's Sticker and Paste!
My son went from not knowing how to correctly use scissors to becoming a cutting expert! I have to stop him from finishing these books in one sitting.
Any type of stringing beads is a great educational toy, useful for fine motor skills and patterning. The Melissa & Doug set pictured below in the carousel has good reviews.
Fun & Engaging Activities for Toddlers, a fantastic toddler learning activity blog, has some great ideas for making your own stringing beads.
My children never got obsessed with these like they did with other toys, but they always liked drawing on them even when they didn't want to draw or write on paper. I have a hunch it's easier in terms of fine muscle strength, but that's just a guess. It also seems a little bit more like magic to them when the marks appear on the Magnadoodle board. My older son wrote his first letters on a large Magnadoodle.
A chalkboard, dry erase board, or yogurt on a baking sheet can all serve the same purpose, if your child likes those surfaces. They are interesting, somewhat unusual, and often easier than writing or drawing on paper.
Puzzles are simply classic. There are so many different types of puzzles out there, and levels of difficulty for any ability.
Something like the Melissa & Doug Jumbo Fishbowl Puzzle pictured below is great for babies, to get them used to the idea of puzzles and to increase their fine motor skills using the knobs on the pieces (manufacturer recommended age 1-3 years).
Other than the pick-up of 26 small pieces, we like the Melissa & Doug See-Inside Alphabet Peg Puzzle for toddlers and preschoolers (about age 22 months and up at our house, but the manufacturer says 3 years and up due to choking hazard).
The Crocodile Creek Jungle 123 7 Foot Floor Puzzle was a fantastic first jigsaw puzzle for our preschooler. It was an easier jigsaw, but just challenging enough to keep him interested for years:
I also highly recommend the Melissa & Doug Dinosaurs 48 Pcs Floor Puzzle for this level.
A high quality puzzle that was perfect for the next step was Ravensburger's 35-piece Dinosaur Playground (manufacturer recommended ages 4-15 years):
Busy Bugs are all about math, including patterning, colors, addition, and subtraction. Both of my children have adored playing with them for years. Owning these darling and brightly-colored bugs means I sit back and wait for my children to ask me for math - er, busy bugs.
2. Rainbow Fish Lotto
I posted a short review of this game here! My three favorite things about it are: 1) It's based on a storybook, 2) the pictures are bright and beautiful, and 3) even a just-turned-two-year-old can play it.3. Kumon First Steps Workbooks
These don't sound like toys, but the First Steps workbooks (for ages 2 and up) may as well be. There are Kumon workbooks for older ages, too. We have an ages 3-4-5 workbook which has been received with good grace but not the happiness with which the smaller workbooks were greeted. For ages 2 and up, we have tried Let's Cut Paper!, More Let's Cut Paper!, and Let's Sticker and Paste!
My son went from not knowing how to correctly use scissors to becoming a cutting expert! I have to stop him from finishing these books in one sitting.
4. Stringing Beads
Any type of stringing beads is a great educational toy, useful for fine motor skills and patterning. The Melissa & Doug set pictured below in the carousel has good reviews.
Fun & Engaging Activities for Toddlers, a fantastic toddler learning activity blog, has some great ideas for making your own stringing beads.
5. Magnadoodles
My children never got obsessed with these like they did with other toys, but they always liked drawing on them even when they didn't want to draw or write on paper. I have a hunch it's easier in terms of fine muscle strength, but that's just a guess. It also seems a little bit more like magic to them when the marks appear on the Magnadoodle board. My older son wrote his first letters on a large Magnadoodle.
A chalkboard, dry erase board, or yogurt on a baking sheet can all serve the same purpose, if your child likes those surfaces. They are interesting, somewhat unusual, and often easier than writing or drawing on paper.
6. Puzzles
Puzzles are simply classic. There are so many different types of puzzles out there, and levels of difficulty for any ability.
Something like the Melissa & Doug Jumbo Fishbowl Puzzle pictured below is great for babies, to get them used to the idea of puzzles and to increase their fine motor skills using the knobs on the pieces (manufacturer recommended age 1-3 years).
Other than the pick-up of 26 small pieces, we like the Melissa & Doug See-Inside Alphabet Peg Puzzle for toddlers and preschoolers (about age 22 months and up at our house, but the manufacturer says 3 years and up due to choking hazard).
The Crocodile Creek Jungle 123 7 Foot Floor Puzzle was a fantastic first jigsaw puzzle for our preschooler. It was an easier jigsaw, but just challenging enough to keep him interested for years:
I also highly recommend the Melissa & Doug Dinosaurs 48 Pcs Floor Puzzle for this level.
A high quality puzzle that was perfect for the next step was Ravensburger's 35-piece Dinosaur Playground (manufacturer recommended ages 4-15 years):
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