Our Homeschool Room

Here is what my instructor’s guide from Sonlight look like. This is not the actual picture though ( got this one from google), but you can imagine that it’s huge and THICK!

The first time I saw this guide during our Box Day, I got a bit scared and was overwhelmed. Remember, I was a Reluctant Homeschooler? Even though my daughter was excited to started school the day after, I had to procrastinate a bit so, it could take some time for me to be ‘settled’ emotionally about the seriousness of homeschooling. That was also the time for me to browse through the IG ( instructor’s guide) and get a feel of the flow of our schedule.

And now, I could say that my IG is one valuable tool. Though there’s a ‘price tag’ attached to it, but I did save a lot of time and effort in lesson planning and all.

Plants number 1,2 and 3 before they were transported to their proper places

One of my daughter’s first science experiments was seeing how the bean sprouts. She did observed her beans for a week and was very excited to see the seedlings grow.

Then, during the second week, she moved the seedlings into 3 separate pots. Two pots will be near the window. One will be watered everyday while the other one wouldn’t. The third pot will be hidden inside the dark room but will be watered everyday.

During the first few days my daughter was very consistent in following the instructions but as days passed by she forgets to water the plants. There were also a few times that her little brother ‘helps’ her in watering the plant my ‘drowning’ the plants with the water. LOL! Oh, it was a disaster. But at the end of 2 weeks, we still saw some results on the way the plants grew, like which plant grew the healthiest and which plant is not. And from there, we were able to make a few conclusions from the experiment.

We had an activity today for my li’l girl’s Language Arts Subject in her homeschool. She was to tell a story using the illustration on her book. Then, I will have to write the story out and print it. This activity will develop the student’s creativity in storytelling.

Anyways, I was amused with my li’l girl’s story. She started out very well but the ending was quite abrupt. I guess it’s my fault since I kept on telling her not to make her story very long. You see, she has the tendency to get so drawn with her storytelling that she can tell a story non stop.

So, here’s her story. I just typed everything verbatim.

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The Toy of Wonders

Once upon a time in very far away land, there lived a boy named John. When John was in his room he was thinking about having a very nice toy- a robot.

There was robot in space that was looking around for an owner. He realized, he didn’t have enough gas. So, he dropped and fell from space.. down and down to the Earth. He went to the place where John lived. He dropped down to John’s window in his room. John was surprised to see a new toy there in his room. So, then John jumped around and said, “Hooray! I found a new toy! I love it so much!” Then he played with it every time. He made it clean and shiny. John loved the robot very much.

When John went to school, the robot and each toy talked to the robot. One toy that is a fish squeaky toy said, “ Oh, oh oh, can you make me to a gold fish? Are you a magician?” There was an airplane. The airplane said, “ Give me some batteries, I don’t have batteries.” One piggy bank said, “ Oh,oh oh. Are you a new piggy bank? Because you have a hole there!”. Everybody asked about the Robot. But the Robot did not understand what they were saying.

And then John came back from school and he said to his mother, “ Mother, I have a new robot! Can I please play with him outside?” His mother said, “ Okay! But please come back before dinner.”

John and the robot became bestfriends. The toys were looking down at John and the robot. They said, “Why did the new toy is not giving him money? Why the new toy is not a piggy bank?”

Then, John and the Robot were very happy and they lived happily ever after.

- story by Tricia ( 6 years old)

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This is my post from my other blog. I want to share it here since it’s homeschool related

I just love our homeschool Science book for our li’l girl. It’s the Usborne Internet -Linked Children’s Encylopedia. Each topic is only covered in 2 colorful pages complete with illustrations and descriptions that are very easy for the children to understand and remember. The book is also internet linked so every topic will have its corresponding links to websites that will be very helpful in supplementing the children’s knowledge and experience for the topic. Most of the links are videos, interactive games and activities that my daughter really enjoy.

I’m amazed by how my daughter learns and remembers things in her Science curriculum without even trying so hard. I believe that’s because those topics covered in her Science book are repeated and immediately applied in her interactive games and activities in the internet.