Toot's homeschool update

Well, we have had 3 weeks of homeschool with Toot. I am enjoying my time with him very much. Although, I am struggling in feeling a little like I am suffocating. I don't want to paint the picture of Mary Poppins around here. I usually do not get one minute alone until everyone is in bed. The baby is very needy, naturally. During her morning nap I homeschool Toot, and her afternoon nap is spent with #1 and sometimes Toot as well. Many leftover chores that did not get done are being attended to after the kids go to bed. Some days that is perfectly fine, and some days (like today), I struggle in many ways. Having said that, here's what our homeschool has looked like so far.
The first week, we eased in to each subject. Beginning week 2 we studied math, reading, writing, phonics and our unit study. (We do our devotion and memory at breakfast with #1.) I am about to post a ton of pictures, but we honestly did not spend over 1 hour, 15 minutes on 3 days a week doing school work. It's amazing what can be accomplished one-on-one! Here is what we are using for the main subjects:

This is the School Rite writing exercise. It is basically tracing, but helps them to follow the correct pattern and direction as they print. It is great for Toot as he is left-handed and wants to make strokes backwards.

A cheap easy way to practice writing. He loves it and always does more pages than asked.

We are doing kindergarten Horizons math, even though he will not be in kindergarten until next year. I am only hoping to do half of the lessons.
We are reviewing phonics with Phonics Pathways. I always add in games, I get easily bored with most reading/phonics curriculums. And I didn't use a really creative one like Veritas Press' Phonics Museum, which is incredible, because I only wanted to have a 20 minute dose a day. The letters in the bag we used this week for an alphabet soup game.

We used this poster and bookworm game to review reading three letter words. We have also read many of the Abeka "I Can Read" readers and Bob books.

To practice fine motor skills, he has around 20 minutes at the beginning of our lessons to play with things like this:

Our first unit was on the farm. I bought these five books for our home library from Amazon. They are paper back and I paid $5-$6 a piece for them, including shipping. Books are always worth the investment for me. My favorite was Have You Seen My Duckling?. By the end of the book we had to run down to Daddy's office and ask him for his bird guide to determine two of the birds in the book. This book has very few words, you and your little ones can basically create the story as you go along. I LOVE books like this! I tried to stick to one book each day that covered a specific farm animal, and then follow up with a craft. Here is what we read:

Here are our art projects: Toot built a barn out of blocks
I printed the pig from the internet. He cut, colored and painted mud.
He drew a duck, lilly pad and nest and added a feather.

He did a chalk drawing of a pig and clouds.


For the cows, we looked on the computer at these websites: http://www.kidsfarm.com/whatcowssay.htm
http://www.moomilk.com/tour.htm


We also, did a drawing each day. He drew himself, a flower, and an elephant. He narrated a three sentence story for each one. He is learning the beginning stages of creative writing: to identify the beginning, middle and end of a story.


Tomorrow we are wrapping up our farm study with a trip to a real dairy farm. We will get to see the farmers and machines milk cows, watch the sheep dogs herd the cows, see their stalls, and see the process of the milk being pasturized and sent to the dairy. I think the book Milk Makers pictured above was a perfect preparation. We will also see many other farm animals. And the baby will be home, so it will be a rare day of giving Toot my undivided attention. I am very excited! I would highly recommend this unit to you if you are homeschooling 4-7 year olds. Think you know all their is to know about the farm? I learned a lot! It was fun!