One Month Down

Jocelyn started her preschool at "POWERful Beginnings Academy" over a month ago now.
          (We started school early -- we're overachievers -- I know! hahaha That's one of MANY beautiful things about homeschooling! It actually never ends once you are in the mindset)

Best part about it all so far?
          She is LOVING it.
          I'm LOVING being Jocie's teacher.
          And by God, she's really doing well.


{This would now include me.
I already know that Jocie can FEEL that I SEE HER
... that I EXPECT her to succeed!}

I'm not sure what it is, but this homeschooling thing is really working well for us.

Really anyone can homeschool. Often times most parents are already teaching -- "schooling" their kids -- but it really comes down to intentions. When you do things intentionally, for me, has changed everything. Not sure if I'm explaining this very well, but most of these things we have been doing all along, but now I have more direction, vision, motivation, purpose if you will ... and it changes everything for the both of us!

I feel like I've worked hard to plan, prepare and implement this new program for us and it feels amazing that we are already reaping the rewards. Before I talk about all the good stuff, let me just be clear, the first week of school was rough, rough, ROUGH!!!

It seems like every time you try something new (ie a new workout routine, a new diet, a new sleeping schedule, new job ...) anything and everything is against you, stresses you to the max, seems impossible ...
          It was a struggle of love.

That is how the first week went for us. Not the entire week, but a big chunk of it. We had many appointments we had to go too which took nearly all day, Jocelyn couldn't seem to keep nastiness from coming out of both ends, she wasn't sleeping a wink, Justin was gone, I had a million things that needed to be done ... the list was LONG!

I often found myself taking hour by hour ... even minute by minute with keeping my eye on the prize.

Needless to say, we prevailed!

With a month of school under our belts, Jocie has already shown me that although things may take us longer, that she is gradually learning and able to demonstrate that she understands. Learning how to tap into her expressive communication is such a challenge for us both (her finding ways to tell/show me, and me finding ways to help her do that) and its an areas we are really starting to make progress with.

For the month of August we focused on the following:

• Color: red
• Shape: simple line (ie attempting to make a line with a marker ... right now, I'm happy with her simply HOLDING the marker and if she makes a scribble, then AWESOME.)
• Letters: A-D
• Number: 1
• Personal Name: identifying first name
• Manners: please & thank you
• Song: Itsy-Bitsy Spider & Patty Cake
• Memory Verse: 1 Corinthians 10:31 & Psalm 139:14
• We change our manners, song & memory verse bi-weekly
• Book of the Month: "Designed by God: So I must be special" (EXCELLENT book for kids!)
• Fine Motor: color on vertical surface, sorting toys, peg puzzles and wooden blocks
• Gross Motor: crawling, pushing-up on all-fours, transitioning from all-fours to sitting & standing next to bench

For this first month, I planned for 5 days a week and its worked well. I might switch things up to actually planning 4 days a week because of appointments, bad days, etc. Its SO EASY to over-plan and its important NOT to do that. But what people often do not understand, is that if we aren't doing something with Jocelyn, she often is doing just that ... nothing. So in theory, we really are helping her learn, teaching her, all the time unless she's watching a show or something because we have to help her even with simple play.

Here were the themes for each week:

• First Week - Letter A - Ants, Apples, Alligators, Alphabet and Airplanes.
• Second Week - Letter B - Bears, Bugs, Balls, Bubbles and Birds
• Third Week - Letter C - Color, Cookies, Cats, Car and Clouds
• Fourth Week - Letter D - Dots, Dad, Dogs, Dentist and Ducks
• We will spend this next week reviewing everything and then start on new colors, letters, themes, etc.

We would read 1-2 new books about each of the subject matters (thank the Lord for the library!), the book of the month and of course we couldn't forget her favorite books throughout the day. The girl LOOOOVES to have books read to her! Just this past month alone, not including her favorite everyday books, she's read/heard 43 NEW books! :)

We've really done a good job of juggling things like her energy levels or mood to maximum our learning. If she needs a break, we take it. If she needs her paci to focus, she can have it. If we need a repetitive noise to help pattern things like the metronome, we use it. These kinds of things simply are not possible in a traditional school setting.

We did a great job intermixing therapy, hands-on activities, field trips, socialization and playing with toys.

A bit of our fun.

{Swinging at the park, looking for different colored flowers at the Gage Park rose garden, shopping at the store for theme related things like apples, cookies, etc. These are also "therapy" activities and she doesn't even know it ... double whammy! :)}

{Having fun with friends is the best!}

{Incorporating therapy}

At the beginning of each week, we design a letter page using the theme for the day. Sometimes its fun for Jocie, and other times, its plain hard to do. Its a good way to intermix learning, fine motor and communication all in one. Unfortunately, all those things are difficult for Jocie but we still have to try.

{A for Ant, B for Bear, C for Color & D for Dots}

A snap-shot of the first week.


{I can't believe she spent 15 mins taking tiny bites -- then spitting it out -- of the apple. She did NOT like the alligator craft, and in hindsight, I should've picked a different color to paint the airplane  because it looks like we all crashed and died haha But hey, it was another way to incorporate the color red.}

Snap-shot of our second week.

{Jocie enjoyed finger painting the brown bear with cool whip -- so tasty haha! When we did our "B is for Bugs," we went hunting for bugs. It worked out perfectly that we found butterflies because hey, "B" is also for butterflies. She thought that was pretty cool.}

Its hard to see, but Jocie LOVED the glow in the dark bubbles! :) We got a little crazy with it and started flinging it everywhere. We're messy. That's the best part! Everything cleans up -- that's my motto! :)

Snap-shot of our third week.

Snap-shot of our fourth week.

So far this week has been pretty low-key and its been nice for both of us.

We will be ready to start new stuff next week! Pretty exciting! :)