Pre-K

Phoebe has begun Pre-K here at home.  She LOVES school time and begs to do it.  Everytime we stop in her workbooks she pleads "please just one more page."  I certainly hope it lasts.

I bought level 1 of Pre-K Hooked on Phonics for her.  She was so excited when she saw it.  She now has her own box up on the shelf like the big kids.  She actually knows the sounds for most of the letters already.



I picked up a workbook and letter bingo from the dollar section at Target.  Both have been big hits.



Her dog wanted to play bingo too.



I made the top of our small shelf (I think it's technically a coffee table) into a chalkboard over the weekend.  It's just behind the table so it's a great spot for the little ones to color during school.  I was hoping it would help keep Hazel out of trouble but it's actually just been another great way for her to make trouble while I'm busy.  The others have all loved it though, especially John.




I'm working on finding ways to teach Phoebe while doing school with the other kids.  It's not the easiest but I'm hoping to sort of find a routine that works this year before she starts kindergarten next fall.  Today she did several pages in her workbook while the older two did their math work.  Then we all had music time together and by the time we finished with that she was ready to be done.

Silly Boy

An update on school

So after a false start we finally got school started for real the end of last month.  We're about 3 weeks in now and have gotten down a routine that's working well for us.  Hazel is our biggest obstacle as she's turned into a terror that won't stay out of stuff.  And I can't make her nap anymore otherwise she stays up past midnight refusing to go to bed.  So we've been working on ways to keep her and Phoebe occupied.  I've unfortunately turned to the TV, which I hate to do.  But I'm at least making sure they're watching educational things (not cable) so hopefully Phoebe will pick up some phonics skill in the process.  They only watch about an hour right now so I'm trying not to feel bad about that.



Both kids are really getting into geography this year.  We got a geography songs CD with our curriculum that they love.  Phoebe loves to join in on that as well.  Here's two videos of them singing.




Math really seems to be clicking more with John finally.  We switched curriculums at the end of last year because Singapore Math was not working for them.  Math-U-See is going much much better.  And it's at a pace where they are really grasping the concept before we move on to something new.

This is them taking a math test last week



Both of them are horrible spellers.  We haven't really gotten into spelling yet as I'm waiting until they've really gotten reading down first.  So probably later this year or next.  Based on how bad Corey and I are at spelling they're pretty screwed.  Here's an example of Bella's



John's answer on his grammar test really made me laugh yesterday.  They had to complete the sentence.  He made it say "That large airplane is awesome."  He's such a boy.  Bella put "That large airplane flew around the state."



John is a day or two away from finishing Hooked on Phonics 2nd grade.  Which will mean he's done with Hooked on Phonics.  He's very excited about that.  I'm gonna have to get a bunch of books from the library for him.  Bella has just moved on to chapter books, which we have plenty of, but John's not quite ready for that yet.



And this is where I found Hazel yesterday morning while I was cleaning.  If only she always did this while I was busy.

Sisters

Hazel Colors (mostly on herself)