Ober Homeschool Academy

The Ober Homeschool Academy is officially IN SESSION!! :) My plan for this school year is to make it fun, yet structured. And to not fret when things don't go exactly as planned. We will do our schooling two days per week, September-November (3 full months), take a 3-month break from December-February to welcome our new baby (due in December), and then pick back up March-May (3 full months). And I have decided for my own sanity to send the kiddos to a faith-based montessori preschool two days a week as well. I will be using the Letter of the Week preschool curriculum and coordinating the letters with what their school will be doing.

So today was our first day, and it was FUN! The kiddos really seemed to enjoy the structured time and kept asking for more to do! I found myself getting frustrated at times, because they only seemed interested in what was in the others' workboxes! Naomi is not developmentally ready for hardly any of Isaac's activities and he is well beyond what she is working on (shapes and colors). Perhaps it was just the newness of it all? I had to remind myself half-way through Isaac's work that they are going to need to take some breaks. And THAT, my friends, is the beauty of homeschooling! :) So the first time he stuck his nose up at an activity and said, "I don't want to do this," I jumped in with, "Not right now? Okay...then we'll take a break!" And we promptly went outside for a fun play break. :)

Isaac tends to give up easily when working on new tasks that are challenging for him. He kept saying, "I can't do this." And we formed one of our first "rules" of school...the word "CAN'T" is not allowed! I told him he could say he didn't know something and he was welcome to ask for help, but he may NEVER say that he can't do something...because with the right amount of perseverance, help, work, etc...he CAN do it all! :) Oh...that and "We can do ALL things through Christ who gives us strength!" Philippians 4:13

I was impressed with how well he did with a few of the activities and a little surprised at his lack of interest in others. Here is what was in his workboxes today...the first day of "A" week...

1. ABC book - we just colored the letter A's as we talked about the difference between capital and lowercase letters

2. Counting Practice - he did well at counting, but struggled with recognizing a few of his numbers (this is when we had our "can't talk)

3. Do-A-Dot Page - this was BY FAR the favorite of the morning. It was a new thing for both kiddos, so after doing very well at finishing his worksheet, I got out some construction paper for them to both enjoy the new craft medium.

4. Hot Dots Jr. - he couldn't WAIT to get his hands on this one. He was to look at a picture on a card, and then correctly identify what letter the picture started with. He got about 90% of them correct, and was delighted when the doggy would light up and tell him his was correct! :)

5. Patterns & Rhyming - he had ZERO patience with the pattern work and was completely uninterested in it. He did well with the rhyming work, though, as he LOVES rhyming games. It was at this point that we took a break to play outside.

6. Puzzle (6-piece) - he normally does not like puzzles. Another one of those things that doesn't come easily, so he just gives up and moves on. With a little help, he did great with this one, though...and seemed to be proud of his work.

7. Pre-writing Practice - I was pretty confident that he'd enjoy these sheets, as he typically likes to use dry-erase markers. Some of the time, he was very focused and did well staying right on the line. Other times, he got careless and scribbled everywhere. We took another short break at this point, as he just kept asking to do Naomi's work.

8. Magnet Board - this one was quick, and he seemed to enjoy working with the magnets. Naomi also enjoyed working with them too!

9. Capital/lowercase Sorting - he whined about doing this activity, which was SUPER easy. So I decided to walk away and told him that he'd get a dinosaur sticker once he finished it and I checked his work. He got them all right and was happy with his perserverance.

10. Letter Discs - another one that I figured he'd enjoy. He had to hunt out the letters to spell the word "apple" in both capital and lowercase letters. He wanted to take the discs and play with them away from our table and got upset when I didn't allow him to do that.

Here are a few of the different things I had in Naomi's boxes...

1. Pokie Ball Color Sorting - she was encouraged to use the tweezers to sort the balls into different pockets in the tray.

2. Peg Board - this is one that they've been playing with for the past month or so, so it wasn't new, but she still enjoyed playing with it.

3. Cube Counting/Color Sorting - I just made this board late last night, and it is just a way for her to begin counting practice, as well as practice her colors.

4. Letter Tile Matching - this is another one that's been out for awhile. They just match the tile to the letter on the paper.

5. Button Sorting - I also made this one late last night as well. It's just a bowl of beans with buttons scattered throughout. She had to pick out the different colors and put them in the right category on the paper. She did very well at this, and it was her favorite activity this morning.

6. Lacing Buttons - I had her working on shapes - circles, squares, and triangles - with this activity. She is very patient in her work, but still a little shaky on her shapes.

7. Pom-Pom Color Sorting - again, more work with the tweezers (to develop fine-motor skills) and sorting. :)

Overall, it was a fun morning! Despite our few frustrations, they seemed to really enjoy the activities. His boxes will be filled with ten entirely different activities on Wednesday. Hers will be quite the same...with maybe one or two different things. I did allow him to do some of her work, but that was the incentive for finishing up his boxes first. :) So we survived day one of our homeschool academy! And we did it in our jammies, too! :) It was quick and easy and enjoyable! Honestly the most challenging part of this whole homeschooling thing for me is going to be all of the prep work. Once I get a system down, though, it should be fine! We'll see! And I think I could get away with A LOT fewer activities for each kid. I went all-out for this first week, but I'll definitely be scaling back in the weeks to come.

In addition to these workboxes, we begin our morning with "group time" in which we do our calendar/weather chart, sing songs, and do our Bible verse. Our verse for "A" week is: "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." Romans 3:23. I added some motions to it, and Isaac is well on his way to memorizing it! :) We also have some organized reading time with "A" themed library books this week. And one of our books has a recipe for a homemade apple pie, which we'll end our week with! :)

Hope everyone else has a GREAT school year!! :)