Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Year Three: Week One: We Are Back At It Again!

I’m trying to do the best I can. I’m not concerned with tomorrow, but with what goes on today.
-Mark Spitz

Hello there! After a few months off, I have been able to prepare myself for another year of homeschooling my sidekick. I was going to take the year off, honestly. We had him in a part-day preschool, but for the cost vs. what they were teaching him, it was more like glorified daycare. While he loved going to school, I knew I could progress his learning more at home. So we joined a gym with a great kids program and signed him up for soccer. He still gets interactions and play time with kids his own age, I get to work out (yes, I'm still trying to be a runner), and we get to learn in the comfort of our home (and pj's), together. 

Take a peek into our new year!



We don't have a working printer at the moment. Which forces me to be a little creative with some of the activities I have planned. Case and point, drawing lines for him to work on his handwriting. He wrote the whole alphabet on his own. The hardest part was letting him do it all on his own but, I want a base reference for how he progresses throughout our school year. Now that he's written them all out, I can help him become more confident in his writing and lend a helping hand until the motions become comfortable.


He's just about to outgrow this table! Ugh! I love this table and chair set. It's perfect for him to eat, play, and have some good independent time. When we aren't using it for school, I keep colors, paper, color books and stickers so he can play whenever he wants or when we need some quiet time. :)


We are adding geography this year! I signed him up for Little Passports, where he will get a box every month and learn about a different country. We just received our first box and he's already reciting all the countries. He's also insistent on our return to Europe, which breaks my heart because I would LOVE to go back too.
Anyway! I found a great pack of cards with the 50 states and a state map for him to color as we learn about the country that we currently live in.


Week one's theme is always "All About Me" and reviewing what he knows. Again, no printer so I am without an adorable "All About Me" worksheet like those I have pinned on my Homeschooling Pinterest board. Sigh. Luckily, he doesn't really care and I am happy enough to use his journal. 


My four year-old sidekick loves numbers. Which has turned into a love for math. I do hope this love sticks around because his dad and I are not math lovers. He solved all these problems (using my fingers) on his own. Some of which, did not require finger counting... he's a little scary sometimes with the information he knows and retains.


 Traveling. While it makes our schooling hard, it is always worth it. We got time with our best friends so I repeat: always worth it. We spent one morning at a science museum where the boys got to pan for jewels and dig for fossils. They even got to keep their finds! It was a good day.



Our reason for this particular adventure was for my first half marathon! 2 hours and 21 minutes later, I sure felt like I earned this medal. I was lucky enough to have had a great friend to run with and her wonderful mother to care for my sidekick. 
Those three boys above can cause some trouble, especially stuck spending a morning in a hotel room, but Nana handled them lovingly and it was one less thing to worry about as we ran for what felt like forever


Traveling with him is so much fun! He is the BEST travel buddy. Seriously, I would take him anywhere. Planes, trains, automobiles, any adventure!
I found a Goldfish card pack (same day as the States card pack. It was a good shopping day.) and taught him to play during our flights. While it was hard to not cheat (as you can tell from the picture above!), learning a new game and playing together made the flight even more enjoyable. 


So, there's our first week! Well, technically our first two weeks but, c'est la vie. I still have much to share so check back soon!