Pre-Homeschool Summer Chat - Page 2

[Dar]

I merged the Pre-homeschool Summer/Winter chat thread into this one, so we could keep all the summer chatting in one place.

Dar

[greenmamapagan]

Thanks Dar

[inkslinger]

Can I join you all? My kids do go to public school, but I also school them at home, especially in the summer. I have a 3-year old and a 6-year old

[Momma Aimee]

Theo is 4.5 (and CAP following along is 2.5)

this summer he will go to 4 days of summer school / summer camp. Him 2 adult nd 3 or 4 other kids (no more than 5 total) it is for his Speech IEP.

He goes next week to VBS -- 3 hours a day, 5 days -- first time for ANYTHING like that and momma is a wreck.

uh

more later the natives are not settled like i thought

[SundayCrepes]

Originally Posted by Momma Aimee

more later the natives are not settled like i thought

Made me laugh. I can really relate.

[MonkeysMama78]

Preschool age?

Originally Posted by SundayCrepes

Stephenie, check out www.thehappyscientist.com

Does this have good experiments for preschool age? My daughter's are 3.5 and almost 2 years. Thanks soo much! Before I spend $20 I thought I would ask. Thanks for sharing!

[kgianforti]

My big girl is old enough to attend "Little Recreation" this summer! I think it starts early July for two months.

I think this has been covered but anyone saying "goodbye" to the pre-homeschool chat and saying hello to the K chat??

[Mom2Camryn397]

I'm still here. I am starting to do tons of waldorf research and i just bought several good books and craft supplies. We are also going to revamp our play (future school) room over the next week or so and get rid of lots of our "junky" toys and senseless books. I'll post pics when it's done. We have an amazing space in our basesment and ive invested in some really great items to fill that space over the past few years. Essentially i am in a big organization mode right now. I feel like we have too much stuff, what we have is disorganized, and it drives me nuts so i want to fix this before the fall so i am not feeling claustrophobic when we are shut in for the cold months. Other than that we aren't doing much school. Camryn started farm camp today and it was a lot of fun. She is also in swim lessons and she loves it, doesn't even care that we arent with her. I guess that's a testament to attachment theory and debunks all the relatives that told me i need to force her away from me when she was in her clingy phase... She won't spread her wings if i don't giver her the roots she needs to borrow a popular phrase. We also do lots of nature walks, gardening, park time, and anything outdoors. Our library time has been cut back lately as we are preferring to spend time outside but we still read a lot. From a waldorf perspective, i am specifically working on our rhythm, adding more reverence to our day and learning some new songs/verses to use in our daily life. I also got rid of the cleaning lady who became my crutch after i had Nathan (she was amazing when i was pregnant and shortly thereafter while i recovered but the time has come for me to clean the house myself again kwim) and camryn happily cleans the house with me while her brother sleeps. I'm surprised to say that it's actually fun to get on our knees and scrub the floors while singing songs together.

Kristy

[SundayCrepes]

Originally Posted by MonkeysMama78

Does this have good experiments for preschool age? My daughter's are 3.5 and almost 2 years. Thanks soo much! Before I spend $20 I thought I would ask. Thanks for sharing!

I signed up for the free once a week email experiment, but so far I've only gotten 1 emailed to me. It was good--making crystals out of epsom salt. We did another I found on the site, you use ice cream and soda. Since I didn't want to use those, I used frozen yogurt and carbonated juice. In one cup you put the juice then add the yogurt. It's fairly unremarkable. Then in another cup you add the yogurt then the juice and it really fizzes. I'd look for it on the site for you, but I'm about ready to make the 2 hour trip home.

[MonkeysMama78]

Originally Posted by SundayCrepes

I signed up for the free once a week email experiment, but so far I've only gotten 1 emailed to me. It was good--making crystals out of epsom salt. We did another I found on the site, you use ice cream and soda. Since I didn't want to use those, I used frozen yogurt and carbonated juice. In one cup you put the juice then add the yogurt. It's fairly unremarkable. Then in another cup you add the yogurt then the juice and it really fizzes. I'd look for it on the site for you, but I'm about ready to make the 2 hour trip home.

Wow! Thanks soo much! I signed up for the weekly email and will let you know how it goes - thanks again! And happy driving!

[kittie313]

Does anyone's pre-homeschooler beg to do lessons like her big sisters are, meaning actual bookwork and such? I feel guilty now because she wants to do schoolwork just like her two older sisters do every day with me, and its just going to get worse when we start up again in the fall. I'm planning on filling her request by getting some workbooks for K math skills, and I have 100 Easy Lessons and will do some of k12 phonics K with her also, but I really don't want to add her into the mix yet. She's just forcing me to do it gosh dang it.

Am I the only one with older kids hsing and a pre-hser (or two in my case)? Can anyone help me figure out how to handle this best? I don't want to push her and squash her desire to learn, but I don't want to hold her back at the same time.

[greenmamapagan]

Originally Posted by kgianforti

I think this has been covered but anyone saying "goodbye" to the pre-homeschool chat and saying hello to the K chat??

Well if DD was going to school she would most likely start in the next school year (early Jan) so I'll try to hang around here until at least then

[SundayCrepes]

Originally Posted by SundayCrepes

I signed up for the free once a week email experiment, but so far I've only gotten 1 emailed to me.

I should clarify. I was busy earlier so forgot to mention this. I signed up for the weekly science experiment a LONG time ago and have only gotten one email. I even emailed to tell him and haven't gotten more. So...if he'd send more of the free stuff out it would be great. I may sign up in time for a membership, I'm just not there yet.

[chelsmm]

http://www.amazon.com/Science-Simple...6647082&sr=8-1

If that link doesn't work, the book is "Science is Simple Over 250 Activities for Preschoolers". I borrowed it from the library, but I'm not home, so I can't give any examples of what's in it. I did like it enough that I may buy it. I also liked "Magnets and Mudpies". My library had quiet a few science books for little kids. I went to the section on magnets and energy and found a few on matter as well. If you have a good librarian, perhaps he or she can help find some books too.

This summer we are taking it easy. Lots of outdoor time. This week we are visiting family- hiking, swimming in the pond, gardening. No classes all summer. One playgroup. Otherwise we are free to do what we want. I'm hoping to plan another trip to visit more family later in the summer. The kids have been asking to "do math". I kind of want to buy Right Start math, but I might need to wait until the fall to save up the money. I really like the idea of it. They would love it. We are doing phonics only when my dd asks for it. We are reading a ton.

We just found the Thornton Burgess books- Old Mother West Wind was the first that we read. The kids loved it. We will continue with those until the kids get tired of them. So that's about it.

[Momma Aimee]

Originally Posted by kittie313

Does anyone's pre-homeschooler beg to do lessons like her big sisters are, meaning actual bookwork and such? I feel guilty now because she wants to do schoolwork just like her two older sisters do every day with me, and its just going to get worse when we start up again in the fall. I'm planning on filling her request by getting some workbooks for K math skills, and I have 100 Easy Lessons and will do some of k12 phonics K with her also, but I really don't want to add her into the mix yet. She's just forcing me to do it gosh dang it.

Am I the only one with older kids hsing and a pre-hser (or two in my case)? Can anyone help me figure out how to handle this best? I don't want to push her and squash her desire to learn, but I don't want to hold her back at the same time.

I would let her do what she wants ... give her coloring books, little work books, opr file folder games or cut / glue activites or whatever.

I am jsut starting this path, but a deaf freind is on child 7 (starting kindy in the fall) .. and i have vatched the kids ..some are ready sooner and want to join in and do well -- (her just turned 5 year old who is starting kindy int the fall can write tons of words and read already) and other's will continue to wait. I think it is faily common for the younger to want to do what the older's do -- i would not discourage it.

[Casha'sMommy]

Originally Posted by Momma Aimee

I am jsut starting this path, but a deaf freind is on child 7 (starting kindy in the fall) .. and i have vatched the kids ..some are ready sooner and want to join in and do well -- (her just turned 5 year old who is starting kindy int the fall can write tons of words and read already) and other's will continue to wait. I think it is faily common for the younger to want to do what the older's do -- i would not discourage it.

just curious, did you mean dear or deaf??? DD is deaf and I'm curious and wondering if I missed one of your pp's regarding hearing loss and hs.

[meetoo]

Originally Posted by kittie313

Am I the only one with older kids hsing and a pre-hser (or two in my case)? Can anyone help me figure out how to handle this best? I don't want to push her and squash her desire to learn, but I don't want to hold her back at the same time.

My son wanted to do work like big sissy all year. I bought him the ETC primers, maze books, and dot to dots. He also ended up doing HOP K. He dabbled when he wanted and this filled his need. Now what I am going to do with my almost 2 yr old next year is a whole different story.

Originally Posted by kgianforti

I think this has been covered but anyone saying "goodbye" to the pre-homeschool chat and saying hello to the K chat??

Me, J is Kindy age this fall.

[zebaby]

Speaking of the different rates that kids develop, what is normal/typical in terms of writing skills at this age? DS is 3.5 and likes to draw "maps" - basically spirals or paths for his drawings. Sometimes he'll draw faces with a circle, two dots for eyes, a dot for a nose and a line or curve for a mouth, but he's not into writing letters yet. His good buddy, however, same age, has already learned to spell his 6 letter name, pretty legibly! (I will add, that his friend does have an older brother - by a few years.) I know I shouldn't worry, he'll eventually get to it, but I can't help comparing/worrying about his keeping up. It's times like these when I start to question my decision to HS (don't worry, I'm not changing my mind, just get nervous about it once in a while!).

[meetoo]

Re: writing

Try not to worry, the biggest thing you can do to help his writing is work on motor skills. You want activities that work not only on the small hand/finger muscles but also upper body strenth. Things like monkeybars, crab walking, throwing balls, swimming are good for the upper body strength. Then do a lot of cutting, coloring, clay/playdough, tearing paper, picking up small items with tweezers, stringing beads, tracing, etc. My personal opinion is in the preschool years you should be trying to do at least one large motor and one small motor activity a day.

[greenemami]

Hi everyone-I check in here every so often, but haven't posted yet (I think!) Dd turned 3 in April and ds is only 3 months, so we haven't been doing much of anything lately

However, I am thinking of starting some of the Letter of the Week activities next week, since I think she needs a little more structure (as opposed to basically none, lol!) in her day to keep her more even-keeled. Also, we had been watching way too much TV for my taste and I just cut it out completely the last couple of days, so we need some fun activities to take up that time.

I am leaning towards doing Peak with Books in the fall or spring and really like the literature based approach to learning. I LOVE to read, so it works well for both of us.

Yesterday we did a cute activity based on "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" where we cute out a face from construction paper and taped on some yarn hair and she got to give it a trim just like the mouse-then she got her broom and dustpan and swept up just like the mouse too-she really enjoyed it. I got the idea while reading curriculum samples on-line, but can't remember where, so I apologize for not giving the proper credit.

I really enjoy reading what you all are up to and will be trying to follow more closely and participate more!