Toddler Discovery Time: Starting Homeschool...Kind Of

             Hey folks! Now that we are settled into our new place, Myka and I have started up our “school” stuff again. We are getting a little more...I don't want to say “serious”, but “involved”, perhaps, this year. I'm hoping this will help us get into the swing of things and get a routine somewhat established before baby sister gets here in January. I'm also using this “school year” as a trial run to get myself better organized and see what works and doesn't for Myka. When we start homeschooling for real, I think I'm more worried about me staying organized than anything. :/ Is that normal?

             This year we are continuing our alphabet learning with crafts, coloring, and do-a-dot pages. Since Myka was only two, we were pretty lax about the whole thing. It was more something fun for us to do than “learn this now!” We are on letter “K” this week, if that tells you anything. Lol But, she does recognize some letters, mostly the ones near the beginning of the alphabet, so it's nice to know some of our activities are sinking in.

             Right now this is our art/learning table, which is why there are paintings and crayons here too. Someone brought watercolor paints to a park playdate we went to recently, so that is Myka's new obsession. (Not that I'm complaining. I'd have to disown her if she didn't like arts and crafts.) Anyways, we're pretty much done with all of our letter “K” projects, other than finishing the coloring page, which probably won't happen. Sometimes she goes to town on coloring pages, other times she'll do a few quick scribbles and say she's done. Ah, toddlers.

             For letter “K” we had the usual coloring and do-a-dot pages. Myka loves masks, so I was excited when I also came across this (somewhat frightening) color-it-yourself kangaroo mask. As you can see in the first picture, I tried to incorporate colors and numbers in the key banner thing, but honestly, she's pretty good with her colors already and numbers...Well, we need to work on those. She knows 1-10 for the most part...just not in the right order. Lol It'll click eventually, so I'm told, so I'm not too worried about it. Last, but not least, she really enjoyed making the kite. Can you tell she's proud of it? Ha ha

             We are also incorporating the preschool curriculum we had a giveaway for on here a few months ago. It's all about nature and hands-on activities, so it's right up our alley! I can't give too much away about it because I don't want to get in trouble, but you can find out more about it and purchase it yourself if you like HERE. If you scroll down far enough, you can get a free sample theme to check out first too!

             Anyways, the curriculum inspired our little seed picture that's really a do-a-dot page above and got us motivated to plant our herbs indoors as well. (below) We just planted them a week ago and already have sage sprouting! I thought there would have been more since our outdoor garden is taking off like a rocket, buuuuttt....I'm hoping I just needed to move the pots to a sunnier area (which I did) and that the seeds didn't just get drowned out by a certain someone. :/

             Next week we should be wrapping up our garden theme and possibly starting a new one. I have no clue which one I want to do next. I'm really trying to hold off on the fall stuff until it's actually fall later this month and apples until it's closer to Myka's birthday in October as we are planning on going to an orchard to celebrate. What are your kids learning at school (whether it be outside of the home or in) right now?

             Stay tuned for my next homeschooling post about schedule/routine struggles!