I originally started keeping track of all of my ideas, activities, and lesson plans in this blog post last year. I had planned to incorporate all different subjects (music/ reading/ math/ etc) into each weekly theme. And we had a lot of fun, especially over the summer with our weekly themes as they provided a nice cohesive element for me to work with. However, in October, we all got sick for a couple of weeks, and in that time, my energy and motivation were derailed. I was burnt out. We continued half-heartedly with themed learning here and there through the winter to varying degrees, and although there was less structure, I still feel that Laura gained a lot. I always try to capitalize on it when she shows interest in something, so she is now able to write her own name completely unassisted, is learning to read, can count to 30 (though needs some help through 14 & 15), has a good vocabulary, and people often comment on how well she speaks. She is strengthening her fine motor skills (and her patience!) learning to use the track pad on my laptop to play phonics games. We still work from her workbooks occasionally, and we try to read something every day. Sometimes that leads to more inquisition and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it provides us a jumping off point for new ideas, and I find it so much more memorable when the learning and inquisition happen organically. And so our afterschooling has more or less morphed into unschooling. I intend to continue providing opportunities for Laura (and Rachel) to expand their horizons on their own terms this coming year.
(For those interested, these were the themes that we have followed/ worked with:)
Teeth
Canada
Berries
Fairytales
Dinosaurs
Outdoors
Beach
Zoo
About Me!
Apples
Fall
Squirrels
Thanksgiving
Pumpkins
Remembrance Day
Frozen
Christmas
Willy Wonka
Valentines
Oceans
Olympics
Disney
St. Patrick's Day
Spring
Easter
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