A little bit o' learning

Hello faithful readers, 

My apologies for having not posted in a while. The year is rounding out and we are reviewing all of our materials for the comprehensive test that I will administer to our kiddos toward the very end of the year. It's more or less for me to gauge where they are and to determine what areas, if any, I need to focus on for the remainder of the year. 

But, today I wanted to talk to you about learning. There are a number of ways of learning. From visual to audio to kinesthetic learning, each person learns in one of- or a combination of these methods. Where our oldest was always an auditory learner. Our second born values both auditory and kinesthetic. Our two smaller boys have an appreciation for all three. Little bit (a.k.a. Shortcake) is so young, she is all about visual learning right now and that is excellent. This approach allows me to get down to her level - literally.

Today, I lowered one of our dry erase boards to be just her height. Then, with markers in hand, I drew a letter and she mimicked it. She did very well, but had difficulty with a couple -- to be expected: She is FOUR! But then we broke out our homemade felt board and went to work on numbers and counting. Ahead of time, I traced the numbers from 0 to 9 on a white piece of felt. Then, I cut up some yellow felt to make counting pieces (in the future, we will use them as one's blocks for base-10 counting). For now, they are excellent pieces to count!

She really enjoyed this and I cannot wait until tomorrow when we do it all over again.

Changes are also happening at Generation Homeschool. We have adopted a new approach to our spelling studies. Where lecture is a thing of the past when it comes to learning how to spell, there is nothing better than repetition. Each day of the week we do the following spelling assignments:

Monday:
1. All words three times each
2. Play a game on spelling city for that weeks words
Tuesday:
1. Word Wall Sentences (using the most difficult words from the list, up to 12 words)
2. A cursive writing worksheet of the spelling words
Wednesday:
1. All word definitions
2. Play a spelling city game for that weeks words
Thursday:
1. All words 3 times each
2. Play a game on spelling city for that weeks words
Friday:
1. Test on Spelling City

I love spelling city! It's free for the basic needs of most learners, includes games, spelling lists, worksheets, and an audio spelling test that gives the word and uses it in a sentence. Best of all - It grades the test for you and your child. You can print out the results or save it as a PDF file and store it in your digital portfolio. Second best thing - you can collect all of the most misspelled words to create a trouble-test or a test of troublesome words! 
If you would like to join our Spelling City page, click here. I have spelling units created based on Florida Treasures Reading and Language Arts Curricula. I will be updating it with 1st through 2nd over the summer. Yes, spelling can be difficult. But I've come to learn that if you make it fun, switch it up and include a variety of learning methods, they are sure to catch on. 

In addition, we are in a new part of the house. We've moved our classroom to the east side of the house to enjoy the early sunrises, the morning breezes and to get away from the noises and distractions of the living room area. It's a little small, but we are adjusting well. I've shared a walk-through of our classroom on our YouTube channel so be sure and check it out. 

Along with YouTube, we have started a Generation Homeschool Facebook Group. You can find us here. 

In other news, our oldest has ventured to Murfreesboro, TN. to explore and find herself in the big world out there. We wish her the best and hope that she continues her search safely, question everything she hears and sees, and to believe in herself and in her dreams. 

For now, I will continue to trudge through grad school - as long as "the good Lord is willing and if the creek don't rise!"

Until next time, 
​LaVonda