The First Two Weeks: Transitioning to Homeschooling

Theme: Animals in the Zoo
Letter: O
Number: 1
Color: Green & Brown

3/Mon - Labor Day: No school today but we went to Marshall Farm so that Sweetpea can see actual apples on the trees and different animals as well. Unfortunately, the animal park is only open during the weekends; but Sweetpea still enjoyed watching the different funrides in the park.

4/Tue - First day of Homeschool: We went to Providence, Rhode Island for a trip to Roger Williams Zoo Park. Sweetpea enjoyed the trip and learned the different names of animals.

5/Wed - First day of Formal Class routine: It was Sweetpea’s first time to do the class prayer and weather report. It took awhile for her to finally settle down on her seat. I integrated PE with Science & Health because they have very similar lesson content. I planned to give her Art lessons on Friday during her PE time. In the afternoon, the handwriting lesson did fine.

6/Thu: I tried to introduce Adam, Eve and Noah to Sweetpea but she was more interested in getting to know the name of animals found in the storybook.

7/Fri: Sweetpea showed interest in knowing the different members of the family but after awhile, she threw away all the worksheets we were supposed to use for the lesson. For artwork, we just spent time doing two pages of her coloring book. The activity seemed to help her relax though.

10/Mon: Sweetpea was more engrossed playing with the animal flashcards instead of paying attention to our lesson about about “big” and “little”. Because she didn’t cooperate in doing animal sounds, I decided to play some music and danced with her. In the afternoon, Sweetpea overslept so we didn’t have “O” reading as planned. But we made circles in the air like play.

11/Tue: As of now, Sweetpea can recognize and say the following names of animals: dog, cat, duck, cow, rabbit, bird, goat, fish, bat, pig, horsie (instead of horse), turtle, frog, bug, chicken, bear. She recognizes the following animals but cannot pronounce their names yet: tiger, lion, elephant, giraffe, crocodile, flamingo, monkey, kangaroo.

12/Wed: Science & Health was more on mastering Sweetpea’s knowledge about animals and the sounds they make. Sweetpea readily imitates the sound as I say it and she remembers them as well. Art time was more interesting because this time, I allowed her to use watercolor instead of her usual crayons and markers. She just enjoyed painting that she wouldn’t want to stop. She cried when I finally took away the art materials. In the afternoon, Sweetpea was able to write ”I” after tracing several lines.

13/Thu: I was really happy because Sweetpea was attentive as I was telling her stories about Adam & Eve, and Noah’s Ark. I even had to tell it again because she was still very attentive. In the end, I asked her to point the pictures of Adam, Eve and Noah and she did. I was really happy that she could identify Noah from a group of other people in the picture.

14/Fri: During Social Studies, Sweetpea was very attentive and was able to identify the following: Daddy, Mommy, brother, sister, baby, Grammy. She still couldn’t figure out the rest. But that was more than I originally expected. PE was wonderful, as usual. She was very focused and was able to do all the activities with so much enthusiasm for 30 minutes straight! In the afternoon, as I was telling her the story about Noah, she pointed out to a picture of the giraffe and said, “Giraffe!”