Test Results and a Change of Plans

As I've previously mentioned, I have been planning to begin the RVA with Amita this fall. My intention was to begin preschool and to get a feel for curricula options and the school system, and then move ahead to kindergarten when she turned 5. 

I spoke with the enrollment agent at the RVA and she asked a few questions about Amita's skill level and where she was at academically. I told her about a few of the things Amita had been doing, the agent recommended I give Amita a placement test to make sure the curriculum will match her current level. So Amita and I talked about what a test actually is and we prepared by working on the computer a little bit. There were two exams, one called the DORA (much to Amita's excitement) and once called the ADAM. One tested core reading and one tested math skills. They both took about 45 minutes and were given at home on our computer. They had little animated animals that would ask questions and talk to Amita, and she was really excited to see what they did for each question. I was able to stop and start the tests to get Amita's wiggles out and, of course, pause for a very important snack break. I controlled the mouse and clicked Amita's answers even when I knew she knew and answer and still picked the wrong one (that was very hard for me to do!). The tests are designed to progressively get easier or harder, depending on the student's answer, until they even out at a student's baseline level. Ridhwi took Ashima out of the house (she was very excited to spend one-on-one with daddy) and Amita and I went through the questions.

The next day the RVA called and Amita tested into first grade math and mid-kindergarten reading. After a lengthy discussion with the teachers at the school and a good friend who has a masters in early childhood gifted education about whether Amita was developmentally ready for this, we decided the best thing for her was to be challenged according to her abilities. So instead of starting preschool, we began kindergarten and first grade. I decided to do a whole year of kindergarten even though a lot of the early stuff is review so she feels great about doing the "new" school assignments and she will have a solid foundation for the following years. Luckily I had done some early research so I had an idea about what curriculum I wanted. I spoke with the agent, she ordered it, and we were off! I chose Calvert, a truly exceptional curriculum by all reports. Here is a bit about it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Y6moTIOwqs

At this point we are 7 lessons into both math and core subjects. I am amazed at how complete it is. For instance, PE and life skills are included. We are working on tying our shoes, balancing, and hopping on one foot, among the core reading, writing, and math. There are many stories to be read, things to think about, and fun things to color and put together. Yesterday she took an online computer course taught by a "Wise Owl" and learned how to drag a mouse, double click, and select something. This is the only computer work she has done so far, everything else is paper and pencil.

Amita is absolutely thrilled to be learning new things and to be academically challenged. She wakes me up in the morning asking what we are going to be doing in school today and can't wait to put all of her papers together for her teacher to see. It takes her 2-3 hours to go through her work depending on the lesson and we just take our time. Most days we have finished everything in the morning, and sometimes we do a few minutes here and there over the course of a day. 

I am really liking the RVA so far. I like that I am not the teacher, but I am still teaching my child from home. I like that she is being challenged at her exact level, even if it means being in two grades at once (my whole reason for homeschooling). I like that I am not grading and "in charge" of her education, but rather a facilitator who helps her with her work. I like that the teachers there have always been prompt in answering any and all questions (even on holidays and weekends!), and they truly want Amita to succeed and enjoy the learning process.

Another great thing about the RVA is that it is free for us through our school district. Technically Amita is enrolled in public school. She has enrollment dates and can be active in classes at our local public school. If we decide to continue through high school, she will be able to be active in sports, dances, and graduate with a diploma, all while schooling at home and being met academically at her own level. 

Since we will be traveling the month of October, I am working ahead. We are loving it! Here is what came in the box for this year:

Manilla paper, construction paper, music break CD's, string, newsprint paper, regular paper, tracing paper, modeling clay, and magnetic strips.

Index cards, pipe cleaners, watercolors, a ruler, thumbtacks, and the core kindergarten books.

Lots of books to read and sight word books

More core books

First grade math textbooks, manipulatives, and punch out resources (colored shapes, money punch outs, a punch out clock, etc.)

Here is everything on my shelf, ready to go!

Ashima will continue to the activities I've been doing with her. Working when she can and when she is interested, and doing activities by theme. Developing a love and interest for reading and school. Counting and singing songs, and most importantly: playing. She is following a lot of what Amita is doing so I think it is really positive for her too.

Ocean Unit - Day Three

Day three of our ocean unit was one of the girls' favorites! We rang the bell, read three books (I needed to make a run to the library), and then did calendar time. We spent some extra time with the Wish Fish book because we did an activity with it later in the morning. 

Next, I got some amazing growing sea animals at the Dollar Store and I prepared some warm water. Each girl took turns putting a capsule in the water and they both watched it grow and expand, making guesses about what it could be. The girls really liked this a lot. Eventually I had to put a towel under the water bucket because the girls were so into it that water got everywhere. 

After that Amita worked on an activity book from her newest Koala Crate. The theme of the kit this month was "cityscapes" and we spend the afternoon before painting and playing with blocks and making different cityscapes. The girls always look forward to their Koala crate. While Amita was finishing up the activity book, Ashima worked on a counting activity. Amita did this activity on day two and I liked it because I thought not only did it teach counting, but it also taught graphing. 

We then had a dance and giggle break ("Let it Go!!!"), a snack, and we went back to the school room.

Ashima then told me she really wanted to try a worksheet like Amita. I had my doubts about how it would work and my doubts were proven correct. She just colored over the whole thing, but that's okay. She felt happy that she was doing something like her big sister and being excited and happy about learning is important at this age. 

After she was finished coloring, I got her out a water color book and let her do a water coloring page. 

Amita read a sight word book to me and learned the new words "play" and "on". We then put the words on her word wall. 

After that, she did some math problems with her counting bears. She was very proud that she could write the numbers and problems all by herself!

While Amita was doing math, Ashima started a puzzle.

And then Amita got hungry again and had another snack. 

After that, we made Wish Fish (from the Wish Fish book we read during Story Time). I cut out some fish, put some eyes on them, and made little colorful scales in different sizes. The girls put glue and scales, and talked about what kind of wishes they would make if they ever met a Wish Fish. It was a fun activity that took us until nap time. 

Ocean Unit - Day Two

Day two of our ocean unit began much like day one (and every day for that matter). It was a bit shorter than usual because I had a dental appointment so we did just a few things. We rang the school bell and read four books. I grabbed the folder I had prepared for the day as well as Amita's sight word book and I was ready to roll.

After story time we did the calendar. Here are the girls also playing with the school bell. I mean, it's a bell sitting right there, so it has to be rung as much as possible, right? 

As I stated on day one, we go over the month, day, days of the week, and weather.

After that, I got Amita started on a sight word book. She learned two new sight words, "did" and "it". This book was cool because she was able to infer what unknown words were based on the picture and, when combined with the new words she learned, she was able to read the entire thing to me! We then put her new words on her word wall.

After that, she did a pre-writing worksheet and earned some stickers. She really likes these. 

Ashima decided she wanted to do the color sorting pom activity (again). Seriously, this girl loves it. 

Then, after that, Ridhwi's parents came over and I had to go to a dental appointment. I had my in-laws do a counting activity with Amita and a puzzle activity that taught opposites. I couldn't take a pictures, but those activities took them until nap time. 

For those of you who do not know me personally, my husband is from India. I always like it when my in-laws come over because they expose the girls to Indian culture, language, music, and literature. Since the girls are half-Indian, I definitely want them introduced to it. I am very thankful that they are spending some time near us!

That was the end of day two. A little brief, but fun. 

Ocean Unit- Day One

To start off the ocean unit, we began as we always begin school. First, we ring the school bell (a tip from Amita's Montessori school that I adopted). Next, we read four books. I pick two (pertaining to the subject), and the girls each get to pick one that makes them happy. At this age, I consider a large part of their learning to be learning how to learn, as well as learning to love reading. I picked up the folder I had prepared for the day with all our activities.

Note: Amita is expected to sit, listen, and interact with me (and she does so willingly, it is her favorite time of the day). Ashima is expected to sit quietly and answer questions when she is listening. Around the time of the second book, she begins to get fidgety. I allow her to quietly play with toys while Amita and I finish reading. Sometimes she comes back while other times she listens and interacts while playing with something else. She is still young and is not expected to sit for a long time. 

Next is our calendar time. The kids bring chairs over and stand on them to they are eye level with the calendar. We read the month and day as well as review the days of the week. Amita does some reading ("today is Wednesday, Wednesday starts with a "wa" sound. What letter makes a "wa" sound? Etc.) and Ashima does the colors on the card and preliminary letter identification. They both discuss the weather and usually fight over who gets to move the arrows, and then we are finished with calendar and take a little break to get all of the wiggles out.

Next, I started Amita on some prewriting worksheets. She gets stickers for each line she traces mostly on the line and this is a huge motivator. She also really likes tracing and coloring.

Ashima started working on a puzzle.

Next, Ashima started a project where she counted some ocean animals and then put letter manipulatives over the existing letters on the page to spell the number. I liked this activity a lot because it worked on both math and spelling. The girls liked it because they got to play with blocks and letters.

While Ashima was doing that project, Amita worked on math with her counting bears. We just started addition a couple of weeks ago.

Here she is using the counting bears.

Next, daddy woke up after a stressful week at work and we had a tickle break while daddy loved up on the the girls. 

Then, Ashima made castles with daddy for a while.

While Ashima did that, Amita read a sight word book. 

Her sight words included "ride" and "on" so when she was finished daddy thought it would be funny for the girls to "ride on" Alli. Indeed, it was pretty funny.

We put Amita's new sight words I her word wall and praised her reading skills like crazy. We are very proud of her!

Then, after we regrouped from all the giggles and silliness, we talked about the jellyfish book we read and then made our own jellyfish from paper plates, crepe paper, curling ribbon, and Mardi Gras beads.

Here are the completed jellyfish.

After that was over, we still had some time until nap time but my lessons were over. Amita received a wooden box to paint for her birthday and she decided that she wanted to paint and decorate it. 

And while Amita painted, Ashima asked to do a color sorting activity with little poms. This is one of her favorite activities and she asks to do it a lot.

When they were finished, it was nap time! It was a busy but very productive and silly morning. The girls loved having time with Ridhwi and all of the giggle breaks. One of my favorite aspects of homeschooling is that they are allowed to get up as much as they need and have multiple chances to get up and move. 

Ocean Unit-Planning and Preparation

In the last couple of weeks I have had about 10 emails from friends and family asking about certain aspects of homeschooling or what I am doing in terms of activities with the girls. A lot of questions seemed to revolve around specifically how I structure our time and what our day looks like. I thought one of the best things I could do was share an entire unit - from preparation to completion- and how I execute it. Hopefully this can help some of you who have asked questions and give you ideas. If you have anything to add, please let me know, I always love to hear ideas!

Day structure: One thing I want to say is that we are highly structured in terms of activities so that I can make sure we can fit all dance, play time, errands, etc. in with school too. I plan for school on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings from when I can get the girls ready (usually around 9:00 am) until nap time (noon). I don't plan any errands or appointments during this time so I can be sure that school happens. Because we have so many activities and 4 schedules to work around, I have found (for us) that I definitely must keep this on the calendar and make sure that it is a priority in terms of time.

Room structure: Another question I was asked was about how I am able to do so many activities during school time. The answer is that I have a space dedicated to school and all of the supplies are organized and easy to get out for activities. Before we moved part of the difficulty of homeschooling (for me) was that doing an activity just took so much time from start to finish. Most of that time was preparation and putting stuff away. Now that it is all out, I can easily move from one thing to another to make sure the kids are always doing something fun and interesting with little work on my part- leaving me open to work with them.

Planning stage: When I am first doing a unit, I start off by asking what the kids are interested in.  For this unit, I gave them three choices: dinosaurs, ocean, or rain forest. They chose the ocean.

The next thing I did was spend about an hour on Pinterest getting ideas and free printables. My search included "preschool ocean activities" and "free preschool ocean printables". I got a lot of activities and ideas, and I laid them all out on my table. 

Next, I sorted them by how long I thought each activity would take. I went through my Kitchen Table Play and Learn book and picked each activity I wanted to use as well as through Mudpies to Magnets and the Busy Book, all of which I have mentioned in more detail here.  With all my lessons in place, I divided up the lessons into approximate days so I could easily grab what I needed when I needed it.

Next I went to the dollar store to get additional supplies for the activities I planned. I LOVE the dollar store and get almost all our supplies there. I spent $13.00 and got things that weren't even for school. That is the extent of our cost, everything else was free on the Internet.

Next, I made a sensory ocean word wall while the girls were napping.  I didn't want to tape a lot of stuff my my walls, so I taped a dollar store tablecloth to the wall and then taped everything else to that. The girls love this wall! They like to touch all the curly ribbon, crepe paper, and beads (mardi gras beads from the dollar store cut to make a long string), as well as point to all the pictures and name the animals.

I also made a trip to the library for tons of books about the ocean and I was ready to roll! In total, it was a couple hours of work for a couple weeks worth of lessons.

This is all I do for planning, the rest I usually wing during the day. In following posts I will talk about how each day is structured as we go through it.  

A Fun Spring Morning

One of the things I am starting to fully appreciate about homeschooling is how I can adjust activities depending on my mood. The weather has been so nice the last few weeks that the kids and I both found ourselves having a hard time being indoors - so I decided to have school outside. At first, Amita was worried about physically moving all of the furniture outside (she is very type-A), but she became excited once I explained that we don't have to actually move everything to have school. We did compromise to an extent when I agreed with Amita that we simply could not begin without ringing the school bell, so I grabed that and we began! Our neighbors probably thought we were crazy standing outside ringing a bell but it was actually kind of fun.

This unit we have been learning all about water and the water cycle. I tied it in with our trip to Florida a few weeks ago and it is still going strong. So far we have read over 20 books about water, made a cloud in a jar, decorated clouds and water, learned about the ocean and ocean life, tides, and many other things. This has been one of our favorite units. I originally planned for it to be just a couple of days but it has gone over a month now. 

So, last week I decided to teach the girls about absorption. We gathered various a things from the house and outside, made predictions about the things that would absorb water, and, following the scientific method, did the experiments and recorded our results. Amita and I also verbally summarized our findings. It was an really great activity that kept both kids engaged all morning. We also got to be outside and enjoying the warm spring air.  It was such an enjoyable day I thought I would share. 

Amita ringing the school bell. It just wouldn't be school without the bell.

Arranging the books on the blanket

At one point Ashima got a little bored with the experiments. I looked over and she was quietly reading. My heart was happy!

I used a baby medicine dropper and Amita could drop the water on our objects to see if they absorbed the water.

Amita examining the crayon to see if it is absorbing water or not.

Amita recording her findings. I made the table, but she completely filled it in herself. At first she made Xs and then thought it was really funny to make other shapes too. 

Our results