quote

True Love: The feeling when you first look in your child's eyes, the tiny little hand gripping your finger, and you can't imagine your life without him or her.

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Xandra Hearts Butterflies {Sunday Snapshot}

Milo consoling his big sister
-taken with my Nikon D90
100 mm,  f5.6,  ISO 400
processed with Florabella Clean B&W (Retouch)
& Blush (Luxe II)
I was briefly entertaining the idea of homeschooling my girl this summer. I haven't been thrilled with her Kindergarten class/teacher/structure this year. So I thought about dipping my toe into the homeschooling world with a light (very light) lesson plan. Unfortunately, she hates when Matt or I try to teach her things. Her weekly homework assignments through the school year have been absolute torture for everyone involved. I'm still not sure what I want to do with her, but I don't want her to sit around being lazy all summer, so we'll come up with something. 

Anyway, back a couple weeks when I was totally absorbed in my mission to homeschool, I bought the very-popular-butterfly kit. Xandra loved it. A lot.


Unfortunately, when it came time to let the butterflies go a few days ago....


Xandra took it a little hard.


She didn't want to see them fly off, never to return.
We had quite a few tears.
The last butterfly (we had 4 all together) hung around for a while, soaking up as much free food as he could.
But he eventually felt the call of the wind, and finally flew off.

Thank goodness for little brother's hugs to help his big sister dry up her tears & make her feel better.

I'm so happy she liked the butterflies so much. I think we'll get some more before the summer is over. And I'm still debating what to do about schooling for her. My biggest hope at this moment is to get her to read one (just one!) book all by herself. I desperately want to see her succeed in this.

So, any homeschooling mamas (or dads) out there who have any advice??? I'm all ears!!!


Ni Hao Yall

7 comments:

  1. we just completed our butterflies as well - so sad for the kidddos!

    I homeschool and have a Kinder. If you are looking for a fun reading/spelling program - I used All about Spelling this year with my 5 year old and she is reading splendidly now! It's pretty engaging and fast paced. I didn't follow is exactly, but tailored it to my DD.

    http://www.allaboutlearningpress.com/all-about-spelling-level-1-materials/

    I also used the Extra Word Building Tiles Set of 48 color-coded letter tiles includes 35 consonants and 13 vowels.
    JJ111 • from Lakeshore learning instead of the letters that came with this packet.

    Keep trying with your little one, she may just be already reading and not letting on to you. Or doesn't want to fail at all, my son was/is that way. If he can't do something perfectly, he doesn't want to do it at all.

    If she really enjoyed the butterfly kit, she may really enjoy some science. You can always get Science into most days and make it fun and they don't even know they are learning!

    I used REAL Science Odyssey this year (life) for my Kinder and my 2nd grader (taught together) and they loved it!
    http://www.pandiapress.com/?page_id=82#level1

    sorry this is so long! Best to you!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you SO SO much!! I will definitely be looking into everything you suggested!! I was so disappointed with our school this year- half day Kindergarten, and I just recently found out that they spend at least a couple days a week watching PBS shows! Granted, they're educational, but it's also something I can (& do!) have her do at home! I feel like a lot of potential learning time was really wasted, and a lot was pushed onto the parents. If I'm going to be teaching here anyway while she's in school, I might as well just take it on!! Thank you again!! It is very appreciated!! ~Amy

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  2. OMG there are so adorable, sucha beautiful moment captured x x

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am not a homeschooler, but my daughter has dyslexia and many years ago when I was looking to for ways to supplement her schooling without overwhelming her with "school work" a teacher recommend the books Games for Reading and Games for Writing by Peggy Kaye. It used simple games...that really are kinda fun to re-inforce their learning. There can be lots of ways to incorporate learning into a fun activities. Baking cookings can be reinforce math skills and reading skills. Look for fun ways to learn in the summer. Also... does your local library have a summer reading program? Ours has a reading program with weekly prizes and reading goal prizes and fun family activities that can be a great resource to get a kid excited by reading.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love the first picture! SO sweet!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Such a precious brother-sister moment you captured :)
    Happy Sunday!

    ReplyDelete

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