Monday 15 September 2014

Home Schooling Part 2

So we are now entering week 2 of Home schooling William so thought that it would be a good idea to update on how we are getting on.

Literacy is still going strong and i would say is Williams strongest subject. He is good at phonetically sounding words out when reading and writing. I've split his literacy in to different parts;  we start each week with learning 10 high frequency words,  in part, we start by just reading them, each day we choose 3 words to write out and practice our handwriting with these words, by the end of the week we attempt to spell these words. This is going well although in places he is still relying on his phonetic understanding which is completely normal for his age. As well as the high frequency words we choose a book from purchased levels of the Oxford reading tree. Again,  William has shown a capability of reading competently even if he does still have a tendency to guess the words according to the picture. This is built up upon his literacy planning based around Collins teaching plans and work.

His understanding of religious education is going well where he asks relevant questions and can recall bits whilst sorting them in order.

The two week topic of healthy living started brilliant. We exercised and spoke about why it was important. He discussed a balance diet with his mum as well as investigating different foods. We eventually made a healthy sandwich. This was done in a sandwich shop where he showed his picture and ven diagram, choosing his ingredients and then eating it. He loved this. This weeks part is making a healthy smoothie.

We started history of now and then by identifying different items and how they've changed.

In geography we are looking at the local area and community.  We explored, discussed and took pictures of different types of houses. Labelling these pictures after (this also coincides with his literacy work) We also explored the shopping precinct and identified the shops.

These last subjects have been great. I've followed the lesson plans on the year 1 curriculum (that im use to from class teaching) but what i have noticed is the one to one discussion as well as the hands on approach. With large classes we would never have time to truly explore like this, its creating a first hand experience that i would never have got with a whole class, however much i longed for it.

We are still struggling with numeracy though, engaging William in mathematics out side of games and creative learning is difficult. But the benefit of the home schooling is that i can counteract the plans and suìt the individual, something that could have been difficult in a class. I will and am trying to still put written numeracy in but in a less pressured way.

That's about it for now but I'll carry on updating the home schooling post each week. Highlighting the strong points and difficulties. If you guys have any suggestions I'd love to hear them.

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