A few weeks ago, I decided to homeschool Lexi for the rest of her preschool year. I LOVE the preschool she attended {Secret Garden Preschool in Silverton}, and I highly recommend it. The reasons we left was strictly geographical and monetary.
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Once I made the decision, I then contemplated what kind of structure, if any, to provide. Should we wake up, get ready for the school day, sit down at the table and work on certain things for a certain amount of time each day? Should I created themes for each week or month? Or should I just scrap the whole idea of structure and just play? Should we go on hikes and talk about the plants and animals we see, go to the zoo and talk about the different countries they come from, or visit a museum and talk about art, then go home and recreate it?
Ultimately, I went for a "somewhat organized unstructured version". We've gone for hikes, bike rides, and walks; to museums, libraries, and farms; and worked on reading and art at home. She's an independent, inquisitive little girl, so she often directs the learning instead of me. It's been fun, and I think she's enjoying it.
In an attempt to get back on track with my blogging, I've decided to start posting about some of the things we do each day. Today was filled with some art and math....
We started by prepping some canvases for tomorrow's acrylic painting lesson. We used a mixture of gesso and acrylic texture builder to create a textured base for tomorrow's paintings. {On a side note, ALL of these art supplies, and more, were bought on sale at Craft Warehouse. The tub of Gesso was by far the most expensive item I bought. I think all of the tubes of acrylic paint, including the texture builder, were less than $1. Go get some!}
Then we laid them out to dry, so they'll be ready to paint tomorrow.
Next we worked with oil pastels. And talked a little bit about the color wheel.
First, I just had her pick some complimentary colors from the wheel, and just draw for a bit. Today she was interested in shapes; some literal, some abstract. Then we watched an online video that taught us both about using pastels and blending them, after which she focused on creating a little blended red flower on the corner of the page. We'll be working on full page oil pastel drawings next, as well as incorporating them into some of her abstract acrylic paintings.
After a quick snack break,
we moved onto math. I searched a couple of stores for these, and finally found them at The Learning Palace in Salem. They even came with a handy-dandy booklet of ideas on how to put them to use.
We created simple patterns, then moved onto more complex ones. I made her guess what was next, then pulled ones out of the middle to figure out what was missing {she was a pro, btw}. Then we moved onto addition equations; adding two sets of blocks, or picking a number {4 is illustrated in the picture}, and finding the different ways it can be broken down {4+0, 2+2, 1+3, 1+2+1, 1+1+1+1}. Sticking out your tongue ALWAYS helps, in case you didn't know.
A pretty good day, I'd say. "The best day ever," according to Lex, although she gives that rating out pretty liberally :)
