Many of you lovely people have been asking me how our homeschooling is going. I am sorry I haven't answered that question very well yet. Sooo, what we have been focussing on is alphabet and early reading, counting and basic sums and then I just try to make our "lessons" as varied as possible. I love to do themed units; I find it helps me to think up fun ideas and I do think the children retain information and experiences better when they are linked in to a theme. A unit lasts between a few days (letter "g", for example) or a few weeks, like this "Horses" unit. The units are based on topics that the children choose or that I think they will find interesting, or that fit into seasonal celebrations. I write up a mind-map of all my ideas then organise them into activities. I collect all the materials we will need and timetable the activities into whatever slots we have available; it might just be ten minutes here or half an hour there, or it might be something more extended.
We actually completed this "Horses" unit ages ago - but you know how it can be hard to get a blog post done sometimes! So, here's the "Horses" wrap-up!
I always begin a major unit with a trip to that wonderful, free resource: the library. Next, I like to start the unit off with something fun, so off we went to visit one of our local horses, with a bag of carrots and a picnic.
Doing this theme gave me a good excuse to sew these little felt horses. I was lucky enough to find the playmat at an op shop. Jimmy loved his golden palomino and enjoyed playing "Mummy Horse and Baby Horse".
Kees found an effective way to keep the carrots in the horses' mouths. Scary. Eat your carrots! Or else!
We attempted some Eric Carle-inspired collage:
We sang "Giddy Up Horsey", "Ride a Cock Horse" and "Horsey, Horsey, Don't You Stop".
There must have been lots of other activities but I've forgotten them now. We visited lots of horses, we did the letter "h" and I know there was a nice meditation about a magical horse that Kees enjoyed.
Anyway, at the end of a unit, I try to do some sort of culminating activity - this time it was a camping trip to our local horseriding property.
I always begin a major unit with a trip to that wonderful, free resource: the library. Next, I like to start the unit off with something fun, so off we went to visit one of our local horses, with a bag of carrots and a picnic.
Doing this theme gave me a good excuse to sew these little felt horses. I was lucky enough to find the playmat at an op shop. Jimmy loved his golden palomino and enjoyed playing "Mummy Horse and Baby Horse".
Kees found an effective way to keep the carrots in the horses' mouths. Scary. Eat your carrots! Or else!
We attempted some Eric Carle-inspired collage:
We sang "Giddy Up Horsey", "Ride a Cock Horse" and "Horsey, Horsey, Don't You Stop".
There must have been lots of other activities but I've forgotten them now. We visited lots of horses, we did the letter "h" and I know there was a nice meditation about a magical horse that Kees enjoyed.
And that, my friends, was the "Horses" wrap-up! Stay tuned for "Halloween" and "Pirates".
and now he's like part of the family.
