A typical homeschool week

The start of this new semester seems busier than last year. Our weekday routine remains pretty much the same except that school is slightly longer from 10am to 11.30am. In the afternoon, Zech does some extra work including his daily reading time for another hour.

First day of homeschool

On the 2nd of Jan, we celebrated the first day of school at a nearby park. Beginning our first day of school at the park nearby is going to stay as our homeschool tradition I think.

This photo below was taken last year in July 2014 during the first week of homeschool. Zech was 3 plus and Nathanael was 14 months old.

6 months later on 2nd Jan 2015, we went back to the same spot to review the alphabets, words and memory verses Zech had learned last year.

Outdoor is great for my boys. They were especially cooperative and attentive.

Goats galore!

The new unit on the goat brought us to Hay Dairies the next day, which happened to be a Sat.

Zech enjoyed looking at the goats' milking process and more than that, he savoured his bottle of goat milk as much as he could after that.

The following week, we started the unit on the goat. Here are some stuff we have done beyond the teacher's manual.

Bought this from Ikea last year. Some of the plastic animals you see in the picture are from a supermarket in Bali. A novelty for the boys who spent much time playing.

These felt animals and flannel board were resources I bought when I was a teacher. Can be bought from Growing Fun at United Square. There's a storewide discount every Dec.

Zech was given a box of craft for Christmas last year. So glad to see a few farm animal cut outs in the box. Easy to assemble. Just roll the dough and insert the cut outs.

Besides the usual worksheets and activities, in this new year, I've decided to make a book pack for a storybook related to the unit. On day 6, the curriculum recommended a time set aside for some books. So I focus on just one and plan more follow-up activities. For this unit, I chose the story 'The Three Billy Goats Gruff'.

Inside the pack, there are word cards, props for dramatization and other activities.

The boys love dramatizing so much I decided to get them to act as goats while I was the troll. The bench served as the bridge. We had lots of fun!

Some activities I printed out from http://3dinosaurs.com/printables/printablepacks.php
include reordering in size,  rearranging the story sequence and finding the pattern.

In the afternoon while Nathanael takes his nap, Zech learns to read aloud. Bought the scholastic readers from the Popular Bookfest last year. Simple storyline and interesting topics. The readers can be purchased online on http://teacherexpress.scholastic.com/. The dollar deals sale is on now and a set of the readers in eBook format is going at USD $1. Worth browsing through. Printed out many extra activities and worksheets from the ebooks I bought over the last few years from scholastic.com.

Also started on sight words (words that cannot be decoded using phonics) with Zech. Sight words such as the Dolch list are easily found online. These words are common and frequently used in books, which is why it's so important to teach young kids.

The Bible

The Biblical aspect is still of utmost importance to us. As recommended by the teacher's manual, Bible verses related to the memory verse are read every day. This unit on the goat emphasizes on our sinful nature and how we need to turn to Jesus our saviour. Referring back to the old testament on how the Israelites sacrificed sin offerings to God using goats and relating that to the new testament where Jesus Himself took the sins upon Himself so that we are saved can be difficult for Zech to understand. However, at the end of the unit, I realised he seems to understand and recognise himself as a sinner much better than before. This unit is in fact a rather heavy and solemn one and stands as a stark contrast to the Christmas season which has just gone by. Zech may not understand fully but I'm thankful I'm able to teach him all these using the the MFW teacher's manual as a close guide.

After completing the unit on the goat, I find the time spent on homeschool more fulfilling than ever. More challenging content and concepts are taught this semester. It's truly God's grace that sustains and led me through my journey of homeschooling with Zech.  I'll share more on the daily tasks and worksheets specified in the MFW teacher's manual in my next blog, which will focus on the cow. Moo...