A glimpse at our day (lots of links)

This is a glimpse of our day when we have nothing in the morning...(prepare yourself, this is really long.)

After breakfast, we usually listen to a story (lately it has always been an Enki 1st grade fairy tale while other times we read books in Chinese or library books). Today it was "Old Man Winter"- a science story from Enki education. These stories are good to repeat on a yearly basis. Then we often gather for Enki movement at the kids' request. They are usually filled with seasonal songs/verses. We also do some copper rod/jump rope/bean bag exercises. Ideas for all these come from Enki education (Learning through Movement). Our circle usually last around 30-35minutes. They also normally go outside to play after our circle.

Then it is time to start our lessons for our day. I think we normally are done in about 2 hours.

1. Math
J and I start on our math. For both children, we mainly use MEP but do supplement with Enki stories. MEP was first recommended to us by Lisa. For J, math usually takes anywhere between 25-45minutes. I like how MEP is very deep and look at a math problem from many angles. They also have a lot of mental math practice which is sometimes a challenge for J. Prime usually plays while J is doing math. He also does MEP math but he is usually done with his math in about 5-10 minutes.

2. Grammar
I teach both children grammar at the same time. We use First Language Lesson. I like that the lessons are very short and has a lot of variety (poetry, story, etc) but at the same time, much needed repetition. At the end of the lesson, there is usually a 1-3 sentence of copy work depending on how much your child can write. They are both doing 2nd grade but I don't think it is too hard for Prime. This usually takes about 5-10 minutes. Some other days, we copy bible verses.



3. Spelling
This is another super short/easy task. Today, I tested J on her spelling bee words for about 10 minutes as she is participating in the Spelling Bee this Saturday. Sometimes, she works 1 page off of Word Ladder (which is vocabulary/spelling/ puzzle ladder) while Prime does 1 page from Spelling workout. This also takes about 5-10 minutes. I'm lucky that spelling comes easy for my kids. I should mention Word Ladder was also recommended by Lisa.

4. Science or history
We alternate between science/history.

For science, we use this lovely book called "Christian Liberty Nature Reader". I like how the stories are short but opens the children to see the wonder of God's creations. We usually read 2 stories which takes us about 20 minutes since we have a little discussion about what we read and we usually go look up on the computer for an actual picture of the animal we learned. Then both children writes and draws about it.
J did this today. Sometimes, she'll color it in.
*I recently got Exploring Creation: Zoology I and its science kit. So hopefully, we'll incorporate more science experiments later.

For history, we just started using "The Mystery of history". This is also written by a Christian author and she incorporates many Bible events in it as well. The best thing I like about this book is that the crafts associated with each lesson is simple and even I can do it! For creation, Prime and J both made a little simple book and for Adam/Eve, they both made Adam/Eve with play-dough. Now for Eve, they had to take play-dough from Adam. For every 3 lessons, we make time line cards. This provides opportunity for the children to also write about what they have learned about each lesson.
Play dough of Adam/Eve by Prime/J.
5. Phonics
Even though Prime pretty much picked up reading on his own, I'm still going through a phonics book with him. We also went through Enki 1st grade readers but needed more. So I got a book called "Ordinary Parent's Guide to Phonics" to work with Prime. It is pretty much all review for him but I don't want to leave any holes. This also works on his reading fluency. It takes us about 5- 10 minutes to do 2- 3 lessons.

6. Memory Work
While I'm preparing for lunch, the kids play while listening to CC memory work for the week. We also play the CD often when we are in the car. Each week at CC, they memorize 8 time line cards which has American Sign Language movement to go along with it to facilitate memorization, history sentence (to the tune of songs), science facts, math facts (to the tune of songs) and geography. They also do an art project/science experiment/make a presentation while they are at CC. One thing that the kids are amazingly good at (much better than me) is retention. J even says she wants to try to be "memory master". Sometimes, we also do some interest based/seasonal learning from Enchanted Learning and expand a little on the memory work from CC.

And that's pretty much about it for our school work. We are usually done at noon.

After we eat lunch, the kids choose to do whatever they like. I don't have set days for certain activities since I find that too constricting. Most of the the time, my kids are perfectly happy just playing. Other times, they'll choose to paint, or make stuff. They have access to all the paints, craft materials and such so it's just whatever strikes their fancy. Other times, I take them to swim, library, introduce them to a project or have play dates, etc. I like that our afternoons are free.

Oh, one thing they do normally choose to do in the afternoon is watch some Chinese cartoon for about 1/2 hour. I consider that as part of learning Chinese, getting their ears used to hearing the language. I speak Chinese to them periodically throughout the day. One thing the kids do know that if they have a request, they'll need to say it in Chinese. J also takes Chinese class once a week. The class puts a heavy emphasis on writing Chinese characters which I'm not crazy about but J likes it so we decided to let her continue while Prime chose not to continue his Kindy Chinese class. I'm also considering adding Spanish to the mix. J also normally practices piano just before daddy comes back. She loves her piano class. She has also been really into experimenting and making her own music.
Sometimes the kids will ask for a led drawing after they listen to Enki stories. This is an example of J and Prime's drawing they did one recent afternoon. Do you see the mystery letter "F" for fire bird there? The kids love to guess at the letters. J has often been requesting to hear the fairy tales recently.

I also find them doing a lot of art all throughout the day. Prime is always coloring, doodling while J works on completing her own book. One book I have been loving and highly recommend is The Child of Wonder. Lots and lots of resources and ideas for developing creativity for the whole family. A favorite book of mine on Waldorf education is Understanding Waldorf education Teaching from the inside out by Petrash. This book is easy to read and gives many great examples and really helped me to understand the heart of Waldorf education better.

Since they are learning geography at CC, J loves to practice this map game. Normally, I do try to limit their computer time.

In the evening, they usually play with daddy and have a lot of fun. One game they are loving right now is while holding to daddy with their back to his chest, the children tells daddy which directions to go: forward, backward, left, right. Oh, they do have lots of fun with daddy!

The kids finally got a chance to see daddy's work place one day. They were super happy. All those big smiles. :)

We also do our reading and reading aloud in the evening. One place I like to go for book recommendation is at Classical Scholars. I also go to Christopherous (Waldorf) for book recommendations. Soul Mama also have wonderful book/game recommendations. One of my children's favorite game Rat-a-Tat-Tat came from her recommendation. We read our bible stories and I try to pray with them right before they go to bed. I think that is very soothing for them and they really enjoy it. We also share our prayer requests for each other at this time.