Preschool - K - Homeschooling in the Car...

[Guest WannaHomeschool]

Ok - I work full-time and am due with my 3rd in 3 weeks.

My sitter is great and does school with her 3 and my 2.

My oldest is 4.5 and her oldest is 5, so they're in a "class" together.

 

However, when it got to be 5 girls all together and she was so busy juggling all the different schedules, we agreed that she would do phonics with her oldest and I would do it with mine in the evenings. (They do the Preschool-ABC series from KeepersOfTheFaith.com otherwise, but it's been going really slow - one workbook last year and basically, only 1 workbook this year.)

 

The idea of phonics at nighttime before bed quickly degraded to homeschooling in the car on the way to and on the way home from the sitter's. (We have a good 30 - 45 minutes in the car twice a day.)

 

I've been using the OPG to Teaching Reading, and putting the words on 3x5 index cards (I can print on the index cards at work.) and have my 4 yo DD read 10 review and 10 new words every day while driving. But we couldn't do the sentences because she found it too hard to concentrate. (Can't read a sentence while looking out the window!) So when we get home, then she has to read 5+ sentences and do one page of writing letters. I think we will get done with the short-U vowel words before baby is born in 3 weeks. (But she does it so easily, I really wonder how far ahead she'd be if I could homeschool her full-time!)

 

But my REAL question is MATH.

I bought flashcards and she knows all her numbers 0 - 100. She can count to 100 with a bit of help transitioning on the tens... She can count by 10s and count by 5s. What do I do next? (Remember, I'm limited to car-time.) Tried to introduce counting by 2s today, but she seemed really confused by it. Am I going in the right direction? Should I buy a "math-facts sing-along" CD so we can learn skip counting and addition facts in the car while driving?

 

I'm a very MATHY person and so want to make it fun and keep her interested.

 

Christie

[MeganW]

I made & printed a "counting card" for each kid. 0 to 9 on the first line, 10-19 on the second line, etc. It goes up to 109 (so the last line is 100 to 109). I shaded every other row to make it easier to follow left to right & then printed it - it takes up one whole 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of paper. I glued them to a piece of cardstock and home-laminated them (you can buy no-heat laminating sheets). We started by counting together, with each kid following along with his finger on his counting card.

 

This seems to have really helped my kids understand what digits go together to make a number (like 1 & a 5 is 15). It also helped them see the patterns - when you look down the left side, it has 0, 10, 20, 30, 40, etc., and that helped them figure out the number that comes next (though they still sometimes say "three-tee" and "five-tee").

 

Now, we are taking turns - I say one number, then all the kids say the next number together. I hope this will lead into skip counting.

[FO4UR]

You could do mathy stories. "Once upon a time..." and make up little stories that require her to do simple addition/subtraction.

 

You could play "I ask you a question, and then you ask one of me." You could ask simple math problems (How many cookies do you have if you have 2 in one hand and 3 in the other?) Let her ask whatever she wants...math or not.

 

My dc LOVE guessing what doesn't belong. "orange, banana, brocolli, apple" Not exactly math, but...

[Dawn E]

You might look into some Hap Palmer cds for your car time. He has some very fun educational songs for that age: Amazon's Hap Palmer Store.

Edited February 8, 2010 by Dawn E

[Guest WannaHomeschool]

Thanks for all the QUICK suggestions!! :) Didn't expect so many replies so quickly! :)

 

Please pray that I'll be able to stay home full-time after this baby is born. I SO want to homeschool and my heart just drops when hubby talks about putting them in a private classical school (but I shouldn't fear, we won't be able to afford it anyway unless I work, and he wants me home!)

 

Anyway - I like the counting card suggestion, and the BEFORE SCHOOL suggestion - though these days I'm honestly leaving an hour late every day, so that would be REALLY, really tough.

 

I do know of some skip counting CDs I could buy... but should we do skip counting, or addition facts first? That's my main dilemma right now...

 

And I didn't think about doing other subjects and audio books, but it makes sense. We just finished Pilgrim's Progress Part II. (We started PP Part 1 ONE YEAR AGO!) and she Loves it and has memorized huge portions of it. Makes for a great foundation to explain concepts in life that would otherwise be over her head (Giant Despair - Slough of Despond) :)

 

Thanks for the replies!

Christie

[MeganW]

I am not going to officially recommend this b/c it probably isn't the safest, but I'll tell you something else I do.

 

I copied at 200% the letters and stuff out of 100EZ lessons. Put each on a piece of cardstock (needed something longer than an index card, but similar to an index card). I also copied at 150% the words that you are supposed to say as you go through each letter, and put that on the back. So I can use those letters like flashcards in the car. Same with the "words".

 

My next plan is get a few more pages copied/enlarged so it is easy to go over them while driving. Em, I mean, while stopped at redlights.

 

PS - for those that are probably going to jump on me, I should add that due to physical & occupational therapy appts, plus two different schools in opposite directions from each other and from therapy, we spend HOURS in the car daily, so I HAVE to find ways to use that time productively or my kids will fall farther behind than they already are.

Edited February 9, 2010 by MeganW