Preschool Homeschool | July Lessons and Activities

Hi everyone! In my last post about our homeschooling journey, I have mentioned that we have learned about our son's learning style: auditory. This meant that he learns best when he hears the information.

Knowing our son's learning style made our July homeschool activities even MORE relaxed than in June. In fact I can actually call it a lazy month. Why lazy? Because we saw that Little V prefers watching videos (err.. more of listening actually, he doesn't look at the screen) and learn from them than us sitting together with a workbook. He also enjoys playing with his toys while we learn about phonics rather than me showing him flash cards. In short, we were studying through our daily conversations. I teach him phonics even if I was ironing the clothes!

Nevertheless, we still had to make time for visual learning at least once a week with each session lasting no more than 30 minutes. We are enjoying this approach because it works for the both of us. He learns while he listens, and I don't get rattled working on visuals and manipulatives. 


Phonics and Reading

We still use Sing Spell Read and Write (SSRW) as our guide in our lessons. In June, my son learned about the letters A to C and the sounds they make. In July, we were able to add the letters D to H. I also make sure that we review the sounds of the letters when we play with his toys. For example, I will ask him what is the beginning sound of car toy, he will giddily reply by spelling it phonetically! Interestingly, only the word 'car' is what he's interested in spelling. Now you know what his favorite toy is!

kindergarten
This is how my son reviews the sounds of the letters
When we use the workbook and identify which of the pictures have the beginning sounds of the letter we are focusing on, Little V would normally get his tray of magnetic alphabets and place the letter on top of the picture corresponding to that sound. 



preschool homeschool activity

To help him remember the lower case alphabet, we used this ice cream matching activity using a free printable I got from Homeschooling On a Dime


preschool homeschool

I made a DIY reading pointer so he can identify the words as I read from his books. At the moment, he can identify some sight words like - the, of, here, a, and I

Most of the time I stay at home but whenever I have the opportunity to go out and visit a bookstore, I try to get some books to add in our collection. For July, here are the books I got for my son.


activities books

His favorite at the moment is Corduroy.


Science

After watching the movie, Turbo, my son had an increased interest in garden snails. We were lucky to find some outside our building! Too bad though they were up the wall and we weren't able to examine them at a closer look. We checked videos instead from YouTube and learned about how garden snails look and how they eat. 

Snail on our building's wall. I had to rotate the image ;)


Art

Our monthly subscription from KaHone ended last June and I was unable to renew it due to budget issues. Little V still had his art activities which were mostly painting. 



Daily Chores/Activity

We started using a visual daily chore chart for our son. Lately it's been raining a lot and it has become a burden to ask him to take a bath. After looking up at inspirations from Pinterest, I created our DIY magnetic chore chart using Microsoft Word. Since he can't read yet, I had to look on the net for clip arts that would catch his attention. For the magnet strips, I purchased online some rubber magnetic sheets from Magnet Manila.

preschool magnetic

The trick worked! Now, Little V monitors what are the items on his list and removes them when he has completed them.



Math and Fine Motor

Counting is not his favorite activity. However his counting to 10 has improved this month. Yay! I let him listen more to his CD of nursery rhymes that included counting rhymes. Being aware of his learning style really helped!

He has also improved on his fine motor skills. He has started to grip his pen properly but still needs more practice in controlling. Have I told you he likes building blocks? This is his favorite activity aside from cars. And now that his collection has increased thanks to some purchases we did and gifts from friends, he has been building a lot these days. And of course, I am always included in the creation of those structures. Never thought I would enjoy playing with his toys! Ha! Ha!

The Avengers are eating pizza!


This coming September, a homeschooling conference will be held here in Manila. I'm excited to join my first ever homeschool conference! I am very much thrilled to learn from fellow homeschooling parents and experts. Fast forward to September, please! :)


Let me share again what we learned from a workshop we attended a couple of weeks back:

If they can't learn the way we teach,
we teach the way they learn."
- O. Ivar Lovaas, Child Development Expert


I feel so blessed that God has led me to understanding my son more and this has helped us in our homeschool. How about you, have you rediscovered your child's learning style? What activities work for them? I would love to learn from you.


Comments

  1. My parents doesn't like my son to do homeschooling for whatever reason I don't know. Anyways, good luck on your conference mommy :)

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    1. Thanks, Mommy Rona! My mom in the beginning was hesitant, too. But after showing them what we do at home and the benefits of homeschooling, they've become supportive.

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  2. I always like the way you homeschool your son. As much as I want to do freestyle education, I think I need a curriculum since I don't have much free time and much creativity to boot. What do you suggest?

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    1. Hi Mommy Maan! A lot of mommies would suggest Before Five in a Row and/or Sing Spell Read and Write. Right now I try to complete the books under BFIR but we don't have a curriculum for it - you can get it from The Learning Basket. :) My son just enjoys reading books with me and his Papa. SSRW is a great guide, too. I must admit though, we don't do all of the activities there. :D

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  3. Frustration ko talaga i-home school yung mga anak ko, read some reviews and find it helpful. Pero hopefully sa special child ko gusto ko tlaga i-push.. :) Good luck mommy :

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    1. I'm sure Mommy Heart, you have been homeschooling your child since birth ;) I hope you can also attend the homeschool conference tomorrow. We're very new to this din and I'd like to learn more sa conference

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  4. Love those little ice creams! Have fun with your little, sweet student!

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  5. It was interesting reading about your progess! I'm considering homeschooling my son too, but I'm not sure if my husband would agree to it.

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    1. Thanks, Nicole. Right now, we don't know yet until when we're going to homeschool our son, but it has to be decided as a family. For us, ako in-charge sa homeschooling ni little one. The husband helps out with the activities when he's available.

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  6. Hi mommy, san ka pala bumibili ng mga books mo? I want to buy sana for my daughter. Hopefully pag laki ni Rhian ma homeschooling ko rin sya like you. Good Job Mommy!

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    1. Thanks Mommy Rackell. :) We usually buy pre-loved books from Booksale, Books for Less, or The Learning Basket. Just last month, we were able to avail of the warehouse sale of Books for Less, we got our books for just Php10 each! :)

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  7. My kids' learning styles are combination of auditory, visual, and kinesthetic. Kuya loves Lego building, reading, drawing, painting, playing the drums while Bunso likes to watch movies and doing puzzles. Their learning approach is very much different. I am attending the homeschooling conference tomorrow because we are contemplating on trying it. After all, the home is the child's first school. :)

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    1. I can just imagine the doubled effort you'd be doing for your boys! See you tomorrow at the conference! :)

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  8. I'm so proud of you! You can do monthly recap of your studies. I'm so lazy to do the same thing. For this month, aside from his ever favorite that is reading, we are learning math. Ako ang napepressure sa batang eto! Hahaha.

    www.lifeofque.com

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    1. Thanks Que! This August, quite frankly, walang update! hahaha! Tinamad ako this month kasi we're still adjusting sa new sched because of my new work. So we just read and read and read.

      Ikaw ba napre pressure? Haha! Good problem yan! :)

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  9. hello Mommy! this blog really help me. My two sons are doing home schooling in an International school. Since we are waiting for our Visa and things to sort in London. So my husband and I decided my sons to home school so they will not miss school. They start last month and its quite double work and lots of lots of guidance since they are taught live online. There some things I need to adjust. I just wish I could attend the conference. Saturday is a busy day for me. Hope next time I could.

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    1. Hi Mommy Cheryl! I just got home from the conference. Sayang. For next year they have announced the date of the conference, sometime in September (sorry forgot ko the exact date!). For us, every day is an adjustment. Haha!

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  10. I've tried making teaching materials for my little ones before and it's so much fun. Also to be able to see them learn something due to your teaching is such a great achievement.

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    1. It's so rewarding mommy, right? All the hard work. And when they kiss and hug us? Awwww... I melt. :)

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  11. You are doing such a good job in homeschooling your baby! Good luck in attending the conference.

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  12. Grabe! Ang galing mo naman mummy! I hope I can do homeschooling too because I've been hearing ALOT of benefits and mas tutok ka sa education ng anak mo. But I'm a working mum. Sigh! But who knows diba?! 6months palang naman si baby. :)

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    1. Thank you, Mommy Celerhina. :) You can start exposing your baby to colored picture books. Sing and play with Skye! That's how we started with my son when he was less than a year old. :)

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  13. I love Sing, Spell, Read & Write. i heard it's available locally again. I used it for my eldest. He's visual first, auditory second so he sponged it all up. :)

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  14. Hi, Where can I purchase the Sing Spell Read and Write (SSRW) set? Thanks!

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    1. Hi Eunice! You can get it from C&E Publishing. Here's their website http://www.cebookshop.com/ :)

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  15. Way to go! As much as i would like to do this, i can't because i manage 2 businesses and my 3 boys are just so kulit! Good luck on your homeschooling! :)

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    1. I only have 1 boy and he's already a handful, I just can't imagine how crazy having 3 boys will be! :) Thank you for dropping by, Joy!

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