Home Base For Learning: May 2023

Sunday, May 21, 2023

Week 42

J and A Math- Parallelograms for J and combining shapes for A. Plus reviews. They both happened to need geometric shapes this week for lessons and had a lot of fun creating (and photographing) geometric pictures.

Fish

Turtle by K

Bat by A

A decided to add stars

K and A had fun too

Lion

All About K

We've been working on finger strength and proper grip.

He prefers to hold the pencil in a fist

We did get him to use proper grip for a little while during painting.

Skee-Ball.
K was surprisingly accurate and scored more points than A and J

Beads and tweezers

Stringing small bead on pipe cleaner to make a snake

He has also learned how to make peanut butter and...chocolate chip(?) sandwiches.

And some fun (last week) at the overflowing reservoir.

Saturday, May 13, 2023

Week 40-41...and some of 39

Although we are longer with My Tech High, we are still continuing with schooling and I enjoy sharing what they are learning.

Math- Week 1- J has been learning about averages and rates. A has been learning about time. Week 2- J learned about graphs and A did volume.

Reading- We started (and finished) On the Road Home- Laura Wilder's journal about a journey from DeSmet to Missouri. We are now reading Little Farm in the Ozarks about Rose.

Mostly about K and A2

While academically K is doing well, what he does need is help with is fine motor and social skills.

Here are some of the activities we have done recently:

Kinetic sand

A2 made a bowl of Ice-cream

Beads on pipe cleaner- counting and fine motor

Crayon and Watercolor- Because his grip needs correction, we first used broken crayons (so he couldn't hold them in a fist) and let him color. He then painted over it with water color to reveal where he had colored with white crayon.

The other kids did one too.

Boat "races"- winding them up is good for dexterity.
He built them from a kiwi crate my brother gave us, so peeling stickers and sliding things together was also good for fine motor and developing hand muscles.

Made cat cupcakes for the cat's birthday

A2 painted

K did a weaving craft at the library.

And a sewing project

Zipline

The farm really is awesome

Using tweezers to separate pompoms by color also helps with fine motor.

Tuesday, May 2, 2023

Week 39- Last Week!

We made it to the end of our My Tech High 2022-2023 school year. We are so grateful for MTH, as the funding allowed us to do thing such as the Kiwi Crates, Crunch Labs, exploring with Legos, board games for math, and so much more that we wouldn't have been able to do without those funds. We also explored new curriculum, some of which worked and others that didn't, but now we know. MTH definitely helped make our school year a bigger success.

Going forward from here, we plan to continue educational activities throughout the summer such as our STEAM Maker Lab books. Our math got off to a rough start as we explored curriculum so we will continue lessons through the summer in order for them to learn all their grade level material. We still have our poetry unit and some fun art projects coming up as well. I guess that's another benefit to homeschooling, you get to keep going. :)

There are pro and cons to both homeschool and public school. Every year we decided what is best for each child. After much thought, we've decided next year our kids will be back in public school.

No matter how much work I put into being a teacher, there are certain things I just can't teach them such as choir, group sports, or band. My oldest is looking forward to trying out for student government and both are excited to meet new friends.

My soon to be third grader hasn't had a full year of public school (besides kindergarten) and I feel it is important for children to experience learning from different teachers and teaching styles. Also, never underestimate the influence a teacher can have in a student's life. While I don't like the bureaucracy that has crept into public schools, I love the teachers and am so glad they are there doing what they do.

Speaking of teachers, my third child will be entering kindergarten, and if the kindergarten teacher doesn't retire this year, I am looking forward to him being in her class. She is amazing!

That will leave just my youngest at home, and, to be honest, I'm looking forward to only having one child at home for part of the day and giving her more focused attention.

Mostly likely there are years of homeschooling in our future, but a least for now, I'm looking forward to putting away the must-do curriculum to enjoy more spontaneous teaching moments with my children.

To concluded our official My Tech High year, here are the highlights of the year as chosen by our kids: