Friday, April 09, 2010

Mini Nutrition Unit Study


Here is another study that you can make long or short. All of the coloring and activity books contain different information. So you could pick just one or a few for a short study of nutrition. Or you could take a few weeks and go through all of the books with your children.


Activity Books

Coloring Books
Comic Books
Crafts
Online Games
VideosThis video teaches that it's fun to try new foods and can be applied to the lesson very easily.


Here's one on Nutrition and Nasa.



Websites

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Tuesday, April 06, 2010

Animal Unit Study


Our family will take a trip to the zoo soon. So we're going to spend a few days doing an animal unit study. All of the coloring books look great; but, we'll probably only get to a few.

Animal Unit Study Arts and Crafts

Animal Unit Study Coloring and Activity Books
Animal Unit Study Lapbooks
Animal Unit Study Reading Book
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Mini Unit Studies

I am not an expert in using unit studies. I just learned about the idea of studying one topic at a time and trying to incorporate all of the major subjects into the learning. So, that's what we do. The more that I do mini unit studies with the children, the more that I find that the three R's seem to get covered pretty naturally without having to force anything. For example, it's not unusual for activity books to have all three of those elements in them.

I'm convinced that there is enough free educational material online that I don't have to pay for unit studies for homeschooling my little ones. Now, I do use textbooks for middle and high school. But mainly just for science, math, and foreign languages. Everything else I find from searching on Google.

So below you'll find the topics that we have studied so far or will be studying in the near future. Some topics are only a day long. And some take up to a week to cover. It really depends on how many resources I find. I'll add to this list as we do more unit studies.

Mini Unit Studies
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Tuesday, March 02, 2010

Homeschool Preschool


Homeschooling preschool aged children is fun. If you can instill a love of learning in your children early then they will become self learners when they become older. Right now my three youngest are ages 2, 3, and 4. Since they are so close in age it easy to teach them all together. This is what I'm doing right now in our homeschool preschool class.

Letter of the Week

Each week we learn a new letter. I start with "A" and I go through the alphabet until everyone has mastered all 26 letters. Currently we are on our second time through. We learn our letter 4 days out of the week. (The other day we do our Bible curriculum.) Each day we do each of the following activities based on the letter of the week. For example, let's say this week's letter is "C". Below is listed the type of work that we do each day. Plus, you can click on the links to see examples of the worksheets that the children would work on.

I give the children different tracing and crafts each day but click on the same letter on Starfall all week and we also read the same Tumble Book all week. Preschoolers enjoy repetition and also it helps them learn.

When going over the letter I teach letter recognition and phonics at the same time. For example, when I hand out the crafts that start with "C" I might say something like, "here is a cat. Cat starts with "C." "C" says," and then I say the two sounds that "C" makes. Or I may ask the children to tell me what letter it is or what sound it makes. This method is highly effective. And the best part is that the children feel more like they are having fun than learning. Of course learning is fun. So I'm glad that they see it that way.

What about colors, shapes, and the like in homeschool preschool?


I'm glad you asked. We read a lot of library books. And I do mean a lot. I check out books on colors, shapes, and whatever else young children need to learn. We read the books several times during the six week period that we have them. (I have a teacher's library card.) We also learn those things just by going through our everyday lives. I point out objects and tell what color they are. I have the children count to 10 or to 20 when they wash their hands. I start teaching them their body parts in the tub when they are just a little over a year old.

It's all done very casually but the children learn what they need to know. Homeschooling is just a way of life to us. We are constantly learning or teaching throughout the day. You could probably teach a child everything they need to know through Kindergarten without ever actually having to sit them down at a desk and chair and formally "teach" them.
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Homeschool Resources We Use

There are so many great resources on the internet that it is possible to spend very little money and still provide your children with a great homeschool education. Below are some of the resources that I use frequently.

Bible Curriculum
Little Blessings is not a free curriculum but it is well worth the price. I have used the program for a few years and it has paid for itself many times over, in my opinion. The creators of the curriculum also provide excellent customer service.

Free Printables

There are probably hundreds if not thousands of sites that offer free homeschool printables. Below are the ones that I go back to over and over again.

DLTK-Teach
Donna Young
Learning Page

Free Phonics Program

All I can say is that Starfall is a fantastic site to use to teach your children phonics. Children could navigate this site and practically teach themselves.
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Completely Free Phonics Programs I Use to Homeschool My Preschoolers

Different Approaches to Teaching Phonics
I have been using Starfall.com for a couple of years now. The children really like it and that program helped my second son learn phonics pretty quickly. I still use it but my daughter (who is almost 4) is actually learning her letters and phonics better with flashcards.

My 4 year old (who will be 5 in a few days) is a beginner reader; so we have been reading a lot of beginner reader books from the library along with working our way through the McGuffey Primer. I have also printed some easy books off of Ed Helper for him. But I have to say that I am extremely disappointed with Ed Helper and I will not renew my subscription when it expires.


Anyway, a lot of times we read through all of the beginner books a week or more before it's time for us to return to the library. And we only do about 3 lessons in the primer a week to prevent boredom.

Free Printable Phonics Books
So, today I did a search online to see if there are any free printable phonics books online. And I'm glad I did. I found Progressive Phonics. This site almost seems too good to be true. But it really is completely free and it offers a comprehensive phonics program complete with free printable phonics books.

Today I printed out the first book which covers the short "a" sound. It is 45 pages long so I didn't think we'd get very far. But my son and I read the book for about 15 minutes until I had to start dinner. And after dinner he asked if we could read some more. We read for almost an hour. The book really held his attention because it is full of silly stories. And since I do most of the reading and he reads a few words here and there, he didn't tire of it like he does with McGuffey after about 10 minutes.

I am so excited about this program that I am going to print out all of the books over the next couple of days. Starfall used to have free phonics books as well. I printed out the first one and after my son had completed that one I went back to print the next one only to find out that the free books were gone and are now only available for purchase. So, I won't make that mistake twice.

Worksheets to Go Along with Phonics Lessons
On Progressive Phonics there are also worksheets that you can print to go along with the books. I'll check those out as well. So with the following resources you can teach your child phonics for just the price of your internet connection (which you're paying for regardless), printer ink, printer paper, and gas (for traveling to and from the library).

Free Ways to Teach Children Phonics
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