Reading Eggs and Epic! Review...

For Easter my two daughters (5&4 yrs) got a year subscription to reading and math eggs.

 

 

For a 2 week trial, click here!

 

 

To be completely honest, this seems a tad bit difficult for my 4 year old. It teaches by repetition, my five year old however is flourishing on the program. I am really looking forward to adding this program into my every day once the hot days of summer is upon us, and in Sint Maarten that 98 degrees plus everyday. I will give another review once my daughter spend a solid month on the program.

 

 

Another recent purchase this month is the app EPIC! I saw the advertisement on Facebook. To be honest, a kids bookstore on the island is almost unheard of. Also the library is quite a drive and often the selection of children's books are slim and in horrible condition. (sidenote: the kids reading room is air conditioned and very fun for the kids). Flying books here is almost, out of the question since the luggage is usually stuffed with other necessities from home. So when I saw an app with a low monthly fee of only $10, and all the kids book I could ever read I jumped on.

 



Letters M and S

Before the craziness of Easter was upon us, our class was covering the letters "S" and "M".

The macaroni letters are always fun, listening for the letter sounds at the middle and end of the word proved to be a bit more tricky. However, once they got the hang of it, their listening skills greatly improved.


As for math, add a Disney Princess to the mix and the student's listening and attention skill greatly improve. Basic addition and subtraction with Legos (Cinderella's Muffins) gave insight to adding and subtraction with manipulatives.

French Friday and new letters.

Last Friday we had French Fridays, half of our beautiful island home is French and the other is Dutch. Lindsey one of our terrific homeschool parents introduced the colors to the children.

 

Wednesday we introduced the letter "S" to the students as a part of our starfall curriculum.

 

Also reviewed the sight words that we have covered, using Easter Eggs.

 (picture courtesy of Pinterest)

 

 

Monday we will be making number lines using beads and pipe cleaners, and introducing the concept of simple addition.

 

 

 

 

 

Educational time at home.

Trying to incorporate learning time at home is hard, especially when we live in a tablet era with our little ones navigating the i pad better than the adults. 

These are a few website that I don't mind the kids playing on.


1.)  ABC Mouse This is my four year old's favorite app on the I Pad. I have noticed her phonics and letter number recognition have improved greatly since we got this app. The children enjoy getting tickets for their accomplishments and I enjoy the fact that I don't have to feel guilty giving them the tablet to play "games" 

 
2.) Cake Decorating  When my children started out using a real computer, the mouse was the hardest thing for them to master. This website helps them gain more confidence on the mouse by dragging and clicking on decorations while they decorate cake.

3.) Bunny Math Race- My 5 year old is just starting addition and subtraction. This is a free app on Iphone and Ipad and also on the Andriod Marketplace .

Non- Technology learning.

Between all the moms on the island we have a good stock of education games and learning aids.

I have also printed out some learning pages from Beth at www.123homeschool4me.com, for them to work on during the day.

Class at the beach

Today the homeschool class went to Karackter's Beach with the spouses' org. We had fun in the sun, observed weather (it was clear and sunny) and played other educational games on the beach. As well as just having fun in the sun and enjoying a terrific view.

Just playing in the sand waiting for our smoothies..

 

My daughter Samara practicing writing her name in the sand

 

 

 





Size sorting with sandcastles because building them is half the fun..

 

 

Local wildlife.. iguana's are always a treat.

 

Looking forward to Friday, as we learn our colors en français.  French side Friday is this week and we will be a color scavenger hunt for our colors in French also a trip to La Sucriere, a French Patisserie (Bakery) in Marigot. Until then au revoir.

 

 

 



Let's talk about the weather.

This week we are introducing weather. Of course, we live in Sint Maarten so our weather is 95% sunny with 5 minute rain showers and always hot! The children enjoyed learning about different types of weather. This neat weather spinner from Beth from www.123homeschool4me.com helped a lot for our visual learners. The link for a homeschool print out can be found here.

Picture from Beth's site if you want the PDF use the link above per Beth's request.

 

Looking forward to learning more about weather, months and seasons. Also, French side Friday!!

Friday's Lesson.... Beginning Sounds, Size Sorting and Introduction to addition.

Today was mainly math focus although we began with review of the letter and their sounds that we have learned so far. The students went over objects that's name began with (A,B,P,T and S). This was in the Starfall Learning and Writing booklet page 8. A similar worksheets can be found on our pinterest site under the "Beginning Sounds" board or by clicking here.

All photos from the "Beginning Sounds" pinterest board

Size sorting was next in line, several objects were place on the table and the student were asked to arrange them according to size either from largest to smallest or smallest to largest.

Today we introduced simple addition. We had a brain break before the lesson by listening to Dr. Seuss', One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue, Fish.  If you don't have the book at home it can be found read aloud on YouTube. We then put a group of blue fish and a group of red fish in a fish bowl to determine the total amount of fish we had.

We look forward to next week when we introduce weather and seasons!

Need more teaching ideas?

WE ARE ON PINTEREST!!!

 

Check us out here!!

 

AUC Homeschool Pinterest

Who is Backpack Bear?

Who is backpack bear? AUC homeschool is currently using the Starfall curriculum for kindergarten with the Calvert Learning homeschool kindergarten curriculum for math. Backpack Bear is a major character is the Starfall curriculum.  He was welcomed into the classroom at the beginning of the year and the students learn with him and his other friends through out the school year.

During the course of homeschool if I or whom ever else is teaching doesn't put a link to the Pinterest or PDF file for the lesson it is because it is from the Starfall curriculum. We cannot put it on the internet because of copyright (blah blah) just contact AUC Homeschool to get your child's copy when you get settled on the island. Click here for more information on Starfall.

Just a little introduction...

Hi Guys!!!

The purpose of this blog is to keep everyone updated on AUC Homeschool. Although, AUC homeschool is not "officially" affiliated with the American University of the Caribbean but all the teachers and students have spouses/parents who either attend or work at AUC. The blog will keep everyone updated on the what the students are learning during the week at school and also how they are thriving on the island. Also a gmail address has been set up if any new or prospective students or parents have inquiries on coming to the island with children. The email is AUChomeschool@gmail.com

During the next following weeks links to the worksheet and basic lessons plans will be posted, however no pictures of our students.

Thanks,

Alecia