Saturday, March 8, 2008

MARCH 9, 2008

We officially pulled Nina out of preschool last week. So we're homeschooling 3 kids! wow....busy. I'm just trying to keep Nina really busy with activities and trips. She was used to doing alot in school and I know she really enjoyed it. With the activities that gets us out of the house 3 times a week I felt limited by some trips because it would end later in the day and I couldn't stay out as long because Nina needed to be picked up from school. I just wanted everyone to be together. I've been at this homeschooling thing for about 5 months now so although I don't consider myself a pro I am comfortable with attempting to school everyone. So Natasha isn't doing much, I'll read to her and pretty much let her watch some dvds while I'm working with the other two. I just haven't figured out a way to get her involved. She only sits still for a few minutes. I did pull out some of the Leap Frog learning dvds so now at least I can feel like she's really doing something. She does know how to count to 10 and 1-5 in spanish (Thanks Dora!)

I got Nina a kindergarten workbook that has reading, writing and math concepts and she really is enjoying it. We set up a space in the basement usually and I tell Nina to go through the book and pick out what she wants to do. Honestly she knows her letters, numbers and colors and shapes. The only next step right now is reading. We usually practice for about 10-15 minutes a day. I have these really simple books that present site words all thoughout the book. She even knows about 5 site words: I, go, no, like, cat...I think that's it for now. I try to assist her with writing her numbers since that's about the only other thing she can work on without me standing over her.

While Nina's doing her workbook Nala and I will do something....today we did some work, yes on a Saturday! We have been on trips the past 2 days and I wanted to be sure she knew the spelling words we've been doing all week (she does) as well as review time and the circulatory system. She's been interested in learning about Bill Cosby so for the past month (slowly but surely) we've been reading a book I have. After we take turns reading a couple of paragraphs (it's really a long book and we just highlight some important parts) Nala will write a few sentences about what we read. Today I pulled up some comedy, interviews from Bill Cosby on you tube as well as shorts from the Cosby show with Olivia (Raven Symone) Of course they loved this! They were laughing and making comments. I wish I thought of that sooner....you tube isn't so bad! We've been using it as a learning tool from time to time, even finding out how to play a german game we were researching.

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