Beginning a Journey

Today was our 1st official day of homeschooling. I feel silly because I was (and still kind of am) anxious and nervous.  I'm not sure why, it's preschool, and just over two years ago part of my job of was overseeing four preschool rooms. I should feel like I have a handle on this, but the task weighs heavy. Lucky for me Josiah was very easy to please.  He's been asking to start school for awhile and his only complaint at the end of the day was that he still doesn't know how read.

Several of my friends have asked if I was going to blog about homeschooling. Honestly I'm a little trepidacious - I haven't completely found my grove yet - but I like the idea of sharing what we are doing and being able to hear others' feedback.  So without further ado, here is what homeschooling is going to look like for us. Three days a week (MWF) we'll do about two hours of homeschooling in the morning and about an hour in the afternoon. We'll start the morning with a "circle time" where will read picture books, sing songs, and do some Bible memorization. The remainder of the time Josiah will be able to choose his activity from five/six learning trays/bins I have prepared. We might also do a special activity like baking or a craft. In the afternoon we will read from a classic (currently we are finishing The Hobbit) and then have more activity time.

For the next couple weeks our theme is The Shape of Josiah and Other Things.  We are going to spend a lot of time talking about Josiah (favorites, stats, etc) and reviewing shapes.

Picture books

I'll only link my favorites for you: It Looked Like Spilt Milk,
Slide and Seek Shapes, The Shape of Me and Other Stuff, The Important Book,
First Shapes in Buildings (a must if you are married to an architect),
and any book by Tana Hoban

Writing Center Additions

Shape cards with words on the back, shape hole punchers, & shape foam stickers
Skills Practiced: fine motor, shape recognition, creativity,
communication through print 

 Learning Trays

I checked this game out from the library and added the tin and tweezers.
Josiah will roll the dice and then use the tweezers to retrieve the corresponding
shape from the tin.
Skills Practiced: shape recognition, fine motor skills, sorting, counting 

Shape Lacing
Skills Practiced: Fine motor, shape recognition

Shape Spatter Painting: Josiah will squeeze paint into egg cartons, coloring
mixing if desired. and then use the screens to paint shapes
Skills Practiced: fine motor, creativity, cause and effect

Another library game that can be played several ways.
Skills Practiced: shape recognition, sorting & classifying, counting

Orange is Josiah's favorite color so I dyed different shape noodles
and added other fun shaped orange objects to make a sensory bin
Skills Practiced: shape recognition, exploration, comparing,
sorting & classifying, using measuring tools, etc. 

Puzzle from library, they are a little below Josiah's skill level
but I like all the real life examples of shapes
Skills Practiced: fine motor, shape recognition

Letter sorting game, Josiah will place the pictures beginning with the
letter M on one side of the folder pictures beginning with J on the other
Skills Practiced: letter recognition, sorting, phonetic awareness

Shape sorting game
Skills Practiced: sorting & classifying, recognizing shapes in the environment  

We will also be doing a few special activities: baking shape cookies, shape of Josiah collage, circle prints, etc. Excited to be starting this journey with him, it's fun watching him develop a passion for learning.