Caffeinated Homeschooler

One of the goals I am working on with my son is being able to count to 20 and recognize the written numbers. I made sure to focus on this goal this month especially when utilizing our More Math workbook from Mother Goose Time I noticed some improvement in these areas this month. I have also noticed his confidence has improved as well. I think that since he has been so well supported with this gentle workbook as well as my guidance he isn't as afraid to try. He really enjoyed the dot to dot page and was able to count all the way to 13 before he had a little trouble with the numbers and I had to help him. I think I might find some more dot to dots for him that have numbers to 20 because he really seemed to have fun with it and what a perfect way to practice counting.  I also noticed that he did a lot better with recognizing quantities and written numbers. When he did this workbook page he was able to do the whole thing by himself.  We have really been enjoying

We had so much fun with this weeks Invitation to Create from Mother Goose Time . We are working through our last week of the Weather and Changing Seasons theme by learning about different kinds of storms. We learned about Thunderstorms, Hail, Tornadoes, Hurricanes, and Floods. All are very scary storms to be involved in, but we read many books and did a lot of activities, as well as learned some safety tips if we ever get caught in one of these types of storms. All of this made it seem a little less scary, but I still think I would rather not be caught in any of them. I will stick to our constant gray and drizzle over major storms. During the Hail lesson we got to paint with bouncy balls as part of the invitation to create! the kids were so excited. We were given a little sheet about the project and we talked about how the bouncy balls were like hail, and we discussed how we could use the balls in our art work.  After the discussion they decided what colors they were g

This month as a  Mother Goose Time Blog Ambassador I am to write about assessment. I have already talked about a great assessment tool in a post a couple weeks ago about the More Math and More Literacy workbooks, you can see that post  here . I am planning to use that as my assessment tool for my son because I like the way it is formatted and gives me something easy to compare his work to. As a homeschooler my need for assessment tools is a little more unique. I live in a state that does not require much in the way of record keeping or lesson planning. I do these things for myself so that I am able to be better organized and if I ever needed to show anyone what we were working on I could. However in the area of assessment I find that daily observations and conversations with my kids serve me better. With this being said I know that some people have stricter laws regarding what is required for homeschooling, some people using this program might have day cares and preschools. So since I

We spent the week learning about the different seasons with Mother Goose Time . There was definitely a heavier focus on Autumn for us since that is what we are currently experiencing. We have done so much leaf crafts and baking. Last weekend we went apple picking and this weekend we are going to a pumpkin farm. It has been getting colder here and winter is definitely letting us know that it is just around the corner. It was also nice to take a day out of the week to focus on the warmer seasons and help us remember that spring and summer will be coming back. We read so many great books snuggled up under warm blankets, and we did some great art all while having the delicious smells of something we baked that day to comfort us. I think our favorite activity this week was another of the STEAM stations that are found in the beginning of the Teacher Guide. So far this month Mother Goose Time has really been bringing a lot of fun with their STEAM stations. This one was called Icy Artic Anim

We just finished our first week of the October box of Mother Goose Time . This Month is all about Weather and Changing Seasons. Lots of good science opportunities and discoveries are waiting for us this month. I made it a point to utilize the STEAM Stations section in the Teacher Guide this time. This is an added feature this year that I am really loving. In the pages before the actual lesson plans there is a 2 page spread with a STEAM Station idea on it for each day. It includes science, nature, dramatic play and sensory ideas to give a fun hands on aspect to the days activities. This week we used a fan to test what would happen to various materials when held up to the fan. We got to see what would happen with different weights of objects, did they fly far, float slowly to the ground, or flutter to the ground. Did they blow far away or just a short distance. We also tried different fan speeds and observed what would happen if the fan was at a higher speed. Another STEAM Station was