I have had so many friends ask me how home schooling Camden is going. So I figured the best way would be to blog about our day!We don't do school work everyday. I "try" to get 2 hours, 3 times a week in. Those two hours can be split up throughout the day or all at once. It depends on the lessons. Camden's attention span is VERY short. If he doesn't know or understand something he shuts down and walks away. I try to make activities fun. We do have several workbooks to practice writing letters and numbers but I like doing hands on lessons best.
I have about 15 home school blogs that I follow. After Camden goes to bed, I sit and read to get ideas for the school week. I "try" to print out all our work on Sunday nights. I don't have a daily planner. I tried it but found it didn't work for us. So each week I choose a math, science,geography (we are learning about children in other countries right now),reading and an art project. I am working on finding a way to be organized. I have had some very late nights working on this! With Ailyn eating every 3 hours and needing constant attention, it's hard to follow a schedule. She takes small cat naps...and I mean small!! 15 minutes small!! This week we are working on Goodnight Moon. We have the board game and Camden LOVES to play. I was up late one night reading my blogs and came across a Goodnight Moon Lapbook. Lap books are AMAZING! So fun to make and such an easy way for Camden to learn math, reading,patterns,ect. Above is a Lapbook in progress. I can't take any credit for the Lap books.....I print them out and we make them.
We use our playroom as our classroom. It's a work in progress. It's been fun making the room somewhere they can play and learn. We already had an easel, table and chairs, puzzles, games, art supplies (Camden LOVES to paint). Once I have it "finished" I will post pictures. And, since it's a bright red room, Ailyn loves to be in there. She is always happy to lay on the rug with her toys. I use this time for her belly time. Santa is bringing her some fun toys for the playroom ;)
Each week I put site words on the easel. Camden is nowhere near reading. He knows all his letters and some sounds. He loves to write letters. He has many Christmas lists going! Lately he has been really into rhyming words. So this weeks lesson has been so fun! I have plans to make site words flashcards and put the word on the objects around the house. For example.....the word OVEN on the oven :) 
Camden loves to bake. I am trying to be more creative in the kitchen. He wants to make Christmas cookies for our Santa cookie jar. The store bought cookies were not good enough I guess! We make our own playdoh. This week we are going to make glitter playdoh and make snowmen. We are working on the letter S. Have you ever taught a child to write the letter S?? Very frustrating. Every other letter he has caught on quick...not S. We make letters out of the playdoh. I print off various letter worksheets. From reading the blogs, I found neat ways to teach Camden his letters.
Today we made a Cat and Fiddle book. I read the poem to him and then we colored pictures I found online. We put them in order and we glued the book together. He loved being able to read Ailyn a book!We chose not to sign Camden up for a class until springtime. The main reason being all the germs. This winter we all have to make small sacrifices for Ailyn. It's a small chunk out of our life. No worries, Camden has many friends. I am very fortunate to have great friends who offer to take Camden with them to the places we can't take Ailyn. Thank you for that :) Believe it or not Camden's favorite line every morning is "Mommy, do we have to go anywhere today" When I say "No" he will say "O good, I like to stay home with my toys" This makes me feel less guilty about being stuck at home!!
I can't tell you what these are or I will ruin the surprise :) I love making Christmas decorations. I have many planned! Thursday we are making a gumdrop tree! We will make patterns with the gum drops and do simple math problems before we decorate the tree. Again, I can't take credit for this one....
Overall it's going great!! It took me a long time to get the hang of it. I didn't have a plan when we chose to keep him home. I knew nothing about home schooling. I am the one who never thought I would home school. Now, I am finding I love it and even thought about doing it again next year! After looking at the tuition of local schools, home schooling almost sounds like the way to go! If I do, I plan to join a group and be better prepared ;)
