Our Super Simple System for Making Sight Words Easy and Fun!

April 2, 2019June 21, 2019 | Riss

I don’t know about other homeschooling / unschooling families out there but I’ve always been overwhelmed with the idea of trying to teach reading. Letter recognition, letter sounds, those seem easy but piecing that together into reading just seems hard! Especially because the English language has so many weird exceptions, silent letters, words that sound the same but are spelled different, etc.

Luckily for me, my daughter is a SPONGE and soaks up all knowledge. She WANTS to learn and has been starting to ask how things are spelled.

Being an unschooler, I haven’t wanted to push reading before she is ready – but since she’s showing interest in the subject, I’ve taken the opportunity to introduce sight words and work reading into our everyday lives.

I personally think that memorizing sight words can be really really really boring and is a bit too much like public school learning for my liking. Here’s how we use the concept of sight words, but make it fun, and easy too!

First, I looked up a list of sight words that are typically learned at ages 5 – 6. I copied words from the Dolch Sight Words Kindergarten and 1st grade lists (you can also download these as pdfs) onto colored index cards.

Overachiever Confession: I really wanted to color code the parts of speech (noun, verb, adjective, etc.) but didn’t have enough index cards / colors to do this. I figured I’ll update our system once we’re actually ready to cover those concepts. She’s only 5 after all!

I found and purchased a photo album and organized the index cards alphabetically into the pockets. This helps me be able to easily see what words we have to work with and find specific words as needed.

Our Super Simple System for Making Sight Words Easy & FUN! #unschooling #homeschool #kindergarten #myunschoollife

I also bought a few colored magnets at the dollar tree and voila! our sight word system was complete!

We choose 8 words to work with at a time. K likes to be involved and pick out her words, so I let her choose 4 words and I choose the other 4. Typically I choose words that can be used to make multiple short sentences or phrases.

Using sight words with actual context seems to really help K learn them! Plus she likes to rearrange the words to see what sentences she can come up with. This provides us with opportunities to discuss sentence structure and verb tense too!

While the concept of “sight words” is generally to know the word “on sight”, we initially work on sounding out the words, rather than straight memorization. The “on sight” part comes when I ask her to point to specific words – which I don’t really do daily… it’s pretty random, because well…unschooling. 😉

I plan to start writing the date next to each sight word as we learn/ review them so I can see and remember the last time we worked with a specific word. I’ll likely do this in pencil so I can erase / re-write as we add new words in.

So there you have it! Our super simple system for making sight words easy and fun! How do you approach reading / sight words at home? Tell me in a comment!

xo,
Marissa

Our Unschool Life Update

March 19, 2019March 19, 2019 | Riss

It’s been a good while since I’ve written anything – we’ve been really busy! I personally can’t wait for the homeschool co-op year to be over so we can gain back two of our weekdays! It’s been a great experience for both of us, to get out of the house, for socialization, and for K to learn important values like listening, independence, sharing, taking turns, etc along with the weekly explorations in science, art, reading, etc that they do. But it’s also been a drain on our time and has impeded the flexible lifestyle we are used to.

Since it’s been a while, here’s what we’ve been working on / up to!

1) Music

K got a keyboard for her 5th birthday and we’ve been using this color coded system to help her learn the basics. This book teaches two handed method from the beginning, with correct finger-key placement. It uses color to identify notes and longer/shorter boxes to identify longer/shorter note duration. Each song gets a little harder, introducing more notes, more movement, and more variation. K loves it. It’s a little challenging for her since she doesn’t have good fine motor skills – but that’s just another reason I love it and she needs it!

2) Geography

Our local dollar tree has a small section of educational books and teaching resources. On our last trip for craft supplies, I found a US map and a globe ball. We started out just talking about the hierarchy of country, state, city/town, which the maps really helped visually enforce. K wanted to know where we live, so we located our state on the US map. We’ve also since identified some of her “favorite” states – like Florida and Missouri – that we visit often.

We’ve used the globe ball to discuss continents but identifying them is still a hard task for her. We’ve gotten Antarctica down, so 6 more to go! We like to toss the globe ball and try to figure out what continent we see when we catch it. We’ve also watched a few youtube videos and tried to match the continent shown to us with the correct one on the ball.

3) Science

Also at the dollar tree was a Solar System mobile project, which my husband and K worked on one Saturday together. I’m pretty sure A did most of it, but K was at least seeing the planets and colored a couple herself. They didn’t finish it all, and she actually asked me the other day if we could finish it, so hopefully when we put it all together she’ll get a little more interested. She knows several of the planets names at least, so I think that’s a good start for being only 5!

4) Reading

K has been expressing more interest in spelling/reading so I looked up a big list of sight words that kids would normally learn in Kindergarten/1st grade, there’s about 70-100 words, I don’t remember exactly. I wrote each word on an index card and then organized them alphabetically into a photo album. Every week or two we pick 8 words out and put them on the fridge with their own special magnet, so that each word can be moved around independent of the other words. I usually try to pick words that can be interchanged to make up several short sentences. For example, this week we have “I” “have” “a” blue” “bird” “he” “is” and “good” hanging up. From these words we get the sentences:

I have a blue bird
He is good.
I have a good bird.
He is blue.
He is a blue bird.
He is a good bird.
etc.

K is learning really well using this method! She loves pointing out words she knows in books and other places!

5) Writing

K has begun to ask to trace letters and numbers. I have a big activity book I got from Walgreen’s and a couple we got from the dollar tree. She picks pages at random and traces the letters, words, and numbers. She’s done a few color by number pages and dot to dot’s too. Other activities we work together on, when she can’t easily figure out the instructions/goal.

With this, she’s independently begun to write her own name! She still asks what letter comes next, because her name isn’t the easiest to spell, but given the letters she can correctly write her own name now, which seems like a huge win to me!

6) Math

K still enjoys playing math games on the tablet and is working with numbers up to 20 now, for both addition and subtraction. Some pages in the activity books require counting and filling in the missing numbers in a sequence and she does great with these – math is probably the area in which I supervise her the LEAST. She’s a numbers natural!

7) Character Building

We’ve been working on practicing thankfulness each night before bed. As part of our night time ritual, we each say three things we’re thankful for that day. We use these small tumbled stones to represent each thankful and collect them all in a glass jar so we can see how it all adds up! This is one of my most treasured moments of each day and I think it’s helped all of us be a bit more mindful of how blessed we are.

We also take a couple rocks to symbolize anything we need help with – like getting good sleep, making good choices, etc. We combine our “thankfuls” and “helpfuls” together in place of a common bedtime prayer – and I think it MEANS more than just reciting some words that happen to rhyme.

8) Faith

Speaking of prayer, faith IS an important part of our lives, but we take a very non-traditional approach to it. We do not attend a church as a family, but rather we take time to talk about spiritual matters/morals whenever it comes up. We take a more earth-centered, nature based, approach to spirituality so we talk a lot about taking care of the creation (not wasting water, not littering, recycling, etc.). We don’t like using myths or stories to explain things that science explains (like where rain comes from), but we will use them to explain holidays and why they are celebrated/how different people celebrate different holidays. We honor several seasonal observations, as well as several of the mainstream holidays.

Currently we are preparing for Ostara, or the Spring Equinox! Modern Easter borrowed a lot of the Ostara traditions so we will still color eggs and do an egg hunt, but we will also take time to notice the signs of Spring, to celebrate the changing of the seasons, and to give thanks to the Creator for this season of new life. We will celebrate Ostara as a family with a few symbolic activities such as planning/preparing our herb garden, making birdfeeders, etc.

I didn’t cover EVERYTHING, but that’s basically what we’ve been up to! Of course K still has free art time (and has been covering every surface of our walls with her drawings), and play time. We’ve had days where we’ve visited with family and friends and also days where we’ve stayed home and done nothing. That’s the beauty of unschool life, you just see where it takes you from one day to the next!

Til next time!

–M

Kids Visual Scheduling Tools

January 23, 2019June 22, 2019 | Riss

Visual schedulers can be a wonderful tool to use with kids to help them learn daily routines and life skills. But they can be especially useful for kids with ADHD, ASD, SPD, or any behavioral/learning disorder that affects attention span or executive planning. Using a visual scheduler for kiddos that need a little extra help focusing can tremendously reduce stress levels on both parents and children, and can even reduce the occurrence of meltdowns!

Here are 3 AWESOME resources to get you started:

1) Timo – Kid’s Routine & Scheduler (App)

Not to be confused with TiMo (a banking app), THIS is a fabulous app that is FREE to download and use, from the Google Play store. Though it says there are some in-app purchases, I have yet to find any that need to bought for app functionality. In fact I haven’t seen any in-app purchase options at all. Maybe they are for avatar appearance items, as I haven’t really investigated that area of the app too much.

This app allows parents to select from various common activities, for morning, afternoon, and nighttime, in order to create a visual sequence of tasks/activities for the child to follow. Each task gets assigned a “time limit” between 5 and 60 minutes, and you can edit the amount of time you’d like to assign to each task. If a child completes the task within the allotted time, they get a star! You can allow the entire sequence to play automatically, but I recommend setting it to manual so that “IF” a child needs more time than you have set for a task, they don’t get behind on the next task(s) in the sequence – which could end up causing MORE frustration/meltdown behavior.

2) OKID Visual Schedule Magnetic Cards

This product is perfect for your kitchen command center! Each card is colorfully illustrated and magnetic, so you and your kiddo can plan out the day by re-arranging/adding/removing cards as needed from your chosen metal surface (fridge, dishwasher, magnetic board). You could set up one side of your surface for “To Do” and one side for “Done”, or simply follow the sequence you’ve laid out.

I like this product because, sometimes routines change. For instance in our house, we don’t always have the same morning routine because two days a week we go to a co-op and those mornings look dramatically different from mornings we don’t go to co-op. There’s lunches and backpacks to grab, coffee to make, and the whole time-table of our morning is more regimented in order to get out the door on time! So being able to customize the daily order of events is a plus!

3) OK to Wake Clock

While this isn’t exactly a “scheduler”, it is a very useful tool for mornings and helps your little one understand the concept of “morning”. Mornings can be dark or super bright, depending on where you live, what season it is, etc. and the changing seasonings/times/level of brightness can be confusing for our littles. This OK to Wake clock helps them understand that “wake up time” is constant, even when the sun is not.

Of course, “constant” is subjective to your individual schedules, but you get the idea. Regardless, this clock changes color when it’s OK for your child to get out of bed – giving you a few more minutes of sleep/quiet!

Disclaimer: Our model also has a physical alarm. So, pro tip, you might want to turn the volume down or turn that feature off, otherwise if your kiddo isn’t awake yet, they certainly will be once the alarm goes off!

Unschooling Kindergarten: Our typical week

September 15, 2018June 22, 2019 | Riss

Since K is only 4, and since we’re following a pretty unstructured homeschool ideal, our routines look different each week.

The whole idea of “unschooling” is that kids learn by default. LIFE is an excellent teacher and there are plenty of ways to learn spelling, reading, writing, and math BESIDES sitting at a desk and toiling over worksheets or other busy work. For instance, cooking can be a great way to learn fractions and addition. Simply slicing an apple and having a discussion on the number of pieces as they are eaten covers basic counting and simple subtraction concepts. Reading together promotes letter recognition, phonics, spelling, and –whoa– reading skills.

Life provides plenty of opportunities to learn and as a skill or concept is needed, kids tend to be more ready and willing to learn it. When learning happens all the time, there is no separation of “this is schooltime” and “this is free time” – which, by the way, tends to promote the idea that learning stops outside the classroom and equates learning with work, which can make some kids dislike learning!

When learning is done spontaneously, when the child is interested and ready, it really flows much more smoothly!

I know, I know, K is ONLY 4 (5 in a few months) – so I can’t say for 100% certain that these ideals and what I believe will hold up in 5 to 9 years. BUT I’ve done plenty of research into unschooling and so far, I’m really not seeing anything I don’t like or that scares me.

AND let me just say, there is a HUGE HUGE difference between unschooling (life based, interest led, learning) and EDUCATIONAL NEGLECT (not taking an active role in your child’s education, not teaching or guiding them to learn anything). Unschooling parents are often incredibly involved. It takes actively observing your child to be able to identify where their interests are leading them at any given time in their life, and to help foster those interests and provide educational resources for them to learn from. Unschooling is NOT passive by any means!

So all that said, here’s what a week might look like for us:

Mondays:
K is currently taking gymnastics. She loves the class and it is helping her learn to follow instructions (listening skills), interact with other kids her age (social skills), work her body (exercise), do things on her own (independence). It’s also building confidence, and helping support her SPD/vestibular input needs.

I am a believer in natural wake times and slow starts to the day/week. Thus, we typically don’t plan much else for Mondays because as a sensory avoider, gymnastics actually takes a lot out of her system. I don’t like to make the mornings super busy so that she isn’t drained by the time gymnastics rolls around in the afternoon. But sometimes we might run an errand or visit a friend/have a short playdate.

Tuesdays:
I started teaching at a local homeschool cottage program this fall. Two days a week, 7 hours total. K is enrolled in the kindergarten program and only goes 1 day a week (4 hours). I love our cottage school, and I chose to be involved with this one in particular, because her grade level is interest-led. There is a routine to the day, but what they explore/study over a given period of time is determined by what the kids show interest in. Right now they are exploring building, and deconstructing, with various materials. They also do things like circle time, writing their names, and open play.

While radical unschoolers might say this isn’t unschooling, because she is indeed in a class setting, I say I make my own rules and K was interested in going to a class so she is. She loves it and it makes her happy, so we’re doing it. She’s learning independence, practicing her social skills, and getting to do other fun educational activities – WITHOUT the pressure to perform, pass a test, or meet any specific educational standard or milestone.

After cottage school, we go home to unwind and rest our bodies. Again, we don’t like to pack our days to the max. So cottage school is all that’s ever on the agenda for Tuesdays.

Wednesdays:
Since I do work from home, I’ve got to sit at my desk at least every once in a while. The good news is, I run my own business so my hours are flexible. I’m in the middle of re-working my office hours since my husband just started to work from home full time for his company. In the future, I’ll probably start working more in the evenings, but I have been setting aside a full day on Wednesdays to get stuff done.

Since K is an only child, this has been leaving her to her own devices for much of the day. This is the one day we usually let her watch more of her favorite shows or play on the tablet longer. I hate it, because I don’t agree with letting electronics be babysitters, but at least I know she is watching educational shows on PBS or playing educational games on the tablet (see my post about our current favorites here).

As far as what she is learning on Wednesdays: patience is a big one and something she struggles with (as any kid does). Being self-sufficient. Self-entertaining and self-soothing. Math and Spelling concepts via her game apps. And PBS kid shows cover a whole gamut of topics from daily routines, to friendship and kindness, to math, science, reading, and more!

Thursdays:
On Thursdays I have to teach at the cottage school, but K isn’t enrolled for Thursdays. She goes to my parents’ house for the day, and honestly, this is probably one of the most educational days for her. At their house she gets to pretend play all day. They have chickens and she’s learned to feed them and collect eggs. She’s helped them plant a garden. She explores nature and goes on hikes and other adventures. She has a slew of toys and books, dress up items, her own bouncy house, and basically anything she could ever want. Like honestly, her days there are what I wish I could give her. But I’m not in the life stage my parents are, I’m content with our lives, and I’m just grateful that she gets to experience having grandparents in a way I never really did.

What’s she learning? Socialization with adults and family bonding. Since I know her time there is spent doing what she is interested in doing, I’m confident in saying that Thursdays are unschooling at it’s finest. She’s learning. I might not be there to see it, but she’s learning.

Fridays:
Fridays are our adventure days. We have a few places we like to rotate through, such as the library, the science museum, the gymnastics sportsplex, the art studio, etc. Sometimes we arrange play dates. Sometimes it’s just me and her. Sometimes we grab lunch at Panera or IHOP. We go with the flow on Fridays. It’s a nice way to wrap up the week, reconnect, and get ready for a family weekend.

What’s she learning? Spontaneity, flexibility, transitions, and whatever else we talk about during the course of the day. Depending on where we go, she’s also likely learning something related to reading, spelling, math, engineering, art, science, music, etc.

And that’s it. I don’t sit down and plan lessons. I don’t write out learning objectives or goals. I’ve consulted a “kindergarten readiness checklist” and a few other educational milestone charts and she’s on par, if not ahead, of where she would need to be in a public school setting. I mean, the girl does addition/subtraction with digits up to 10! She’s beginning to show more of an interest in spelling and is catching onto some sight words. She can write her name (with some guidance on the letters) and she even knows some Spanish.

So I’m not worried about being more structured or having formal lessons. The best thing about homeschooling/unschooling is that it’s flexible. We’ll do what works for us, for as long as it works for us. If it stops working, we can change it! We can explore any subject for as long as we want to and we can skip any subject that we don’t feel particularly inclined to explore. We can integrate fundamentals into nearly any situation.

Some people hear unschooling and ask, “But how will they learn math?” or “How will they learn to read?”

To them I say that I highly doubt she’ll be 18 and unable to do any math or reading. It’s nearly IMPOSSIBLE in this day and age to go your entire life and NOT learn anything. I understand there are exceptions and I am privileged, so sure, this method might not work for everyone. But for us, it makes sense.

If you’re interested in learning more about unschooling, I highly recommend looking up Sandra Dodd. She’s written quite extensively on the subject. Warning, she does talk about RADICAL unschooling, which is applied to other areas of life outside of education. I do not subscribe wholly to those ideas, but here and there we take a little and apply it as appropriate for our family.

If you’re unschooling, leave a comment below! Always happy to connect with other unschoolers!

xo,

Marissa

Our Favorite Free Educational Apps for PreK/Kindergarten

September 15, 2018June 22, 2019 | Riss

How much screen time your kiddo gets is a hot topic in today’s society. Personally, I feel that electronic devices are neither good nor bad – they are a tool, and tools are neutral. In my opinion, what makes screens bad is how you use them. If you’re using them as an all day long babysitter so you don’t have to interact with your kids – I consider that a bad use. If you’re using them interactively with your kids, and they help bring you closer together, I consider that a good use.

In our house, we use screens as a tool for pure entertainment at times, but the majority of the time we are using them for educational fun.

I have an old tablet that I’ve set up specifically for my daughter. She doesn’t have free access to it, but it’s essentially hers. I’ve loaded it up with several games that are learning based and age appropriate for her. We get the tablet out every few days or so. It’s kind of a special treat to her to get to play on it! And I’m happy because she’s having fun learning! Unschooling win!

If you’re like me, then you’re probably constantly on the hunt for good apps. These are our favorite FREE educational apps (for preK/Kindergarten) – in no particular order.

ABC Spelling by RV AppStudios

This app is completely AD FREE, which as a parent I LOVE! I don’t have to worry about my little one accidentally purchasing anything. This app has 3 different games which help teach simple spelling of common sight words. There is a LOT of positive feedback during the game, including a character that routinely says “I believe in you!” which I just think is so powerful for little kids. Stickers and toys are awarded as your child completes levels.

Math Kids by RV AppStudios

Also by RV AppStudios is this an AD FREE math gem! There are 8 different game modes in this app, which covers addition and subtraction using numbers up to 20. (There is a setting to restrict math problems to use only numbers up to 5 or up to 10.) The UI is colorful and fun! My daughter spent an entire HOUR playing with this app and was SO EXCITED to come tell me about the addition equations she was learning. “1 plus 9 equals 10 Mommy!” will never NOT be adorable.

Khan Academy Kids by Khan Academy

This app is also completely free and ad free! It covers several educational topics such as letters & spelling, numbers & counting, reading, and logic. It also has a collection of books, videos, and coloring pages. I love this app for the variety. It has an automatic “learning track” which you can just resume each time you use the app, or you can handpick activities from the library. Highly recommend this app as an “all around” for meeting preK/K learning goals.

The Cat in the Hat Builds That

I love all things PBS, but this stand alone app is one of my favorites! It’s a STEM based application that allows kids to explore things like friction, velocity, bridge building, and other science and engineering concepts. It’s a little on the more advanced side for a 4 year old, but with a little help my daughter really enjoys this app.

Highlights Monster Day

This is a cute app that has kids guiding adorable “monsters” through daily habits and activities. From waking up to an alarm clock, eating breakfast, getting dressed, and brushing teeth to school day activities and bedtime routines, this app is tons of fun! There are 4 monsters to start with, and each has a different routine. Additional monsters are unlocked as you play! This is an AD FREE app, but occasionally there is a pop up to subscribe to emails. It only pops up like once in an hour, so it’s not interrupting play time too much.

There are a TON of good apps out there, and I’m sure we’ll discover more as K gets older, but these are the ones we are loving on right now. Go check them out!

Got a favorite to share? Comment below!

xo,