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Thursday, September 10, 2009

Learning About Teaching

I know I'm not the first homeschooling mom to question her decision. There have been times over the last few weeks when I have asked myself "what was I thinking?" It would be so much easier if I didn't have to work outside the home. I have to stress that because I feel like I'm always working! Hubby has been sooo good about helping to clean. Thank God, because otherwise we'd be living in a pigsty! I've been managing to keep up with washing clothes. Folding & putting away...well, that's another story.

I have pics to post, but my PC is at the doctor's. Hubby has threatened to ban me from it since it's not the first time I've jacked a PC up. It appears that I'm downloading infected files....

So school is going well overall. Ava asks for lessons even in the evening, and I do not say no. Part of my stress is from GVA. There are deadlines to meet! I have mixed feelings about it, since the curriculum is pretty good, so far. We're testing out of a lot of the early math & science units, but I'm hoping it'll get a little more challenging down the road. Ava has her good days and her bad ones. I think she's a little envious of her sister's freedom. I keep telling her that she's a big girl and has to do big girl things. This usually works, at least for a little while. We are loosely using the Workbox System. it does appear to help keep the day moving and to accomplish more. I put fun things in there to break up the day a little. I'm learning that Ava is quite squirmy and I try very hard to let her move all she wants, as long as it's not distracting her. I'm not sure if she's an official Kinesthetic Learner or just wriggly.

My latest brainchild has been to use movies as a fun part of our geography studies (called history by GVA). Below is a list of movies that can be used to teach about the continents (feel free to add to it):

AUSTRALIA
Finding Nemo
EUROPE
Beauty & the Beast
The Secret Garden
Anastasia
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The Three Musketeers
Don Quixote
Hercules
Ratatouille
Nanny McPhee
ASIA
Mulan
The Jungle Book
AFRICA
The Lion King
Madagascar 1 & 2
The Prince of Egypt
NORTH AMERICA
Pocahontas
An American Tail
The Incredible Journey
American Legends Series
SOUTH AMERICA
Ferngully
ANTARCTICA
Happy Feet
Penguin March
I don't plan to show every movie, but I think any of them will give a Kindergartner a sense of the continent being studied. My plan is for the kids to watch the movies over the weekend when I'm at work. Hopefully, they'll want to watch it again with me later in the week, but if not, that's OK.

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