Next Week's Learning Goals

[kizudo]

Okay now, SarahJean, give it to me straight. 

Canadian to Canadian. 

Is this a WISH list or a "Yep Fershur" List?  Are these things you are going to bust your behind to get accomplished in a week or just be pleasantly surprised if it happens?  Are you going to be upset with yourself if it doesn't go as planned?  Do you do other things with your kids - story time, music class, gymnastics, play groups or are you at home 7 days a week?

Am I the only one out there that is both impressed and depressed by SarahJean's list?  ....because I'm feeling like a bad mommy right now.  I'm just not seeing it happening in my house...and you have TWO kids - and are pregnant!!!! - I've got ONE.  Tell me that biologically you have some superhuman genes....please...tell me that.  And if you do, grab a kleenex box, put on your cape and fly over right now for some tea and consoling - my little one will be asleep for another 30 minutes.  Come NOW!

[sarahjean]

LOL Kizudo! No super-human genes here!!

Now, let me answer your other questions:

1) Let's call it a "very likely to accomplish" list. And my aim is for two weeks, if we get some of them done in the first, I may add a few things to the next week. I feel like posting my list here and documenting our progress will make it all the more likely that things actually get accomplished.

2) I will definitely not be upset if it doesn't go as planned! When does anything EVER go as planned! LOL I do know that even if things don't go as planned, we will have tried very hard and still learned so much.

3) We do spend a lot of time at home. We used to do Salsa classes, but that ended and we sometimes go for play dates. We also go swimming once a week or so as a family and go to the library for new books. I would like to take them out more often, but it's difficult, as I have no support network where we live. We go out about 2-3 times a week as a family, often travelling on the weekends.

4) Don't feel like a bad Mommy!!! I'm sure your little one is brilliant! Really, if I showed you a photo of my floor and kitchen counter right now you would totally understand. With the kids, spending quality time with hubby, cooking, and my photography side-business, cleaning somehow always lands last on the priority list. I'm really working on achieving a balance there!

5) Although I have no cape I do have lots of tea and I wish I could come!! I can't seem to find any like-minded Mommies to play with in my area and it's a tad depressing!

I may start blogging about how we go about our activities in a day (if I can find the time), maybe having a model to follow will make it seem less overwhelming?

Keep watching this thread and my blog to see if we are successful! LOL

BIG HUGS!

[kizudo]

yes...blogging about it would be helpful - especially if you include a few "wow!  that did not go as planned" stories - good and bad...

I guess part of my anxiety right now is that we're out 3 mornings a week (gymnastics, library & music) - four if I'd take him to the FREE French play group...and that's not even including any play dates.  With the traveling to and from and maybe stopping for groceries or a quick hello at daddy's work, there is no "learning" time left in the mornings and after his nap is not exactly prime time.  I squeeze in what I can but I fear a list like yours would just make me feel like I'm always missing the mark....watching/reading a "blow by blow" of your day in a blog would be nice.

What I've done:
I have 3 binders - math, language, fine motor  In them I have mini-lessons planned - paperwork and manipulatives in plastic sleeves.  When I have a moment and he's eager to learn I grab a binder pull what's at the top out and go with it.  I never get through the entire binder every week, but what doesn't get done is just at the top of the binder for the next week.  Every weekend I put in new stuff - so it never gets too full but there's always something thought out to do.

[sarahjean]

Don't worry I have LOTS of "Wow...that did not go as planned!" moments!!

It sounds like you have the perfect plan for your family schedule!

We were out a LOT more in the last city we lived in. We went to a Mandarin play group, Salsa Baby classes, two different play dates, and church each week.

In my perfect world, I would have a little studio in my house where I could teach Kindermusic, baby signing classes, Salsa Babies, and baby aerobics. That way my children could get lots of activities in, but I wouldn't have to haul them all over the place without help from hubby! Maybe one day...

[Maquenzie]

Wow! Lots of neat ideas!

And I'm impressed and depressed too. :P

I didn't start early education with my children quite as early as most of you, but I've recently printed out the learning objectives for Kindergarten in my state. I'm hoping to frame some lesson plans for my 3 year old using those as a starting point.

[sarahjean]

Maquenzie,

That's a great idea! When I did my year-long broad list of learning goals I did much the same thing while adding in several things of my own.

Best of luck with your little one!

[sarahjean]

Okay, tomorrow it begins!! I really hoping we'll be able to get through everything on the list! As it so happens, we don't do formal school over the weekend, but that doesn't stop us from learning! We've already managed to get a big of a head start on this week's list. Lily...
...knows that blue and red when combined make purple
...can sing a full song in Chinese (SO CUTE!! Maybe a video to post later this week when the camera gets charged!)
...can recite most of "The Caterpillar" when prompted with the first word of each line
...can name two objects in Chinese and identify several others

I'm very excited to get started with our school week!

Does anyone else have projected learning goals for this week?

[Maquenzie]

I do! I wrote them out. I may get a chance to post them later. I did not start very early education with my oldest, so some of your babies may know some of the things I'm teaching her. For my 1 year old, I'm showing her power point presentations and I don't really have specific "goals" for that as I just get new ones when she starts getting bored. With her, every day, I've been trying to-

Read counting book and letter sound book
5 PowerPoint shows, 3 times each - 3 reading ones, 1 number dots, 1 addition

I think that's it. Lots of other stuff happens, just naturally.

If I get a chance, I'll post my goals for my oldest.

[sarahjean]

That would be great! I would love to see what you have planned for your oldest!

[shaman]

Wow Sarahjean! I agree with kizudo, your list is both impressive and depressive  ...but it is kinda encouraging too- we all need a little push sometimes....I stopped making lists some time ago 

so here's what I think we will do:

Math- Just got Jones Genius kit - will do numbers 0-4

Reading- phonics letters a,a,b,c,c and d

sight words- 5 or more

Geography- learn to recognize 5 countries and their flags

EK- can't plan this one, I choose this based on what my DS takes a liking to.

will also do a sanskrit shloka with him.

will keep you updated. Wish me luck

[sarahjean]

Wow shaman - That's sounds great! It's so awesome to see so many people on here taking an active role in their children's education!!

I look forward to hearing about your progress - good luck!

[Maquenzie]

Okay, here are my goals for my oldest dd (3).  I haven't done this before, you inspired me!     So I have no idea if this is realistic or not. 

*some of these I wasn't sure if she could *quite* do it or not, so they are more or less tests to see if she can, and some are just stretching her (such as counting to 12 in Spanish, she can count to 10 easily now).

MATHEMATICS
1. Count in sequence by 1s to 30 (done)
2. Counting backwards from 10 to 0
3. Identify numerals to 20

LANGUAGE ARTS
1. Knowledge of all phonetic letter sounds
2. Proficiency in first set of Flesch Cards
3. Identify Upper and Lower Case letters

TECHNOLOGY
1. Identify various input and output devices
2. Learn to type name in 'Pages'

PHYSICAL EDUCATION
1. Use correct form while marching (done)
2. Throw ball overhand and underhand
3. Catch a ball before it bounces twice

SPANISH
1. Learn 5 descriptive words
2. Learn one set of directions
3. Count to 12

JAPANESE
1. Learn 2 descriptive words
2. Learn one set of directions
3. Count to 5

SOCIAL STUDIES
1. Learn "long ago" as before "yesterday"
2. Learn about families of the past
3. Learn about Martin Luther King

SCIENCE
1. Classify Solids and Liquids
2. Identify the sun as earth's light & heat, predict occurrence of shadows
3. Identify properties of motion, including change of position and change of speed

HEALTH
1. Name major health care professions (done)
2. Identify ways to encourage a healthy environment (done)
3. Recognize Environmental Hazards (oil spill, downed power line)

ART
1. Understand primary and secondary colors, texture in art, and repetition (patterns)
2. Recognize and name 5 works of art by Van Gogh (may do next week, ordered Van Gogh Bits of Intelligence, but they may not arrive this week)

THEATRE ARTS
1. Identity body, mind, and voice as 3 tools of classroom drama
2. Identify appropriate audience behavior (done)
3. Pantomime animals

VIOLIN
1. Continue to work on correct bowing, pizzicato, and rhythms.
2. Have a lesson and learn something new!
3. Identify quarter notes and eighth notes (done)

MUSIC
1. Imitate a steady beat (done)

DANCE
1. Create movements depicting emotions





We actually did more today than I realized, but still a LOT to go if we are going to make a dent in this plan this week.

[sarahjean]

Maquenzie,

That all sounds so exciting - I'm sure you can do it!

I have a couple of questions for you:

1) Do you speak Spanish and/or Japanese yourself?
2) Do you teach your LO violin yourself, or do you take her to lessons?

Congrats on getting so much done so far!! I'm glad I could inspire you to make a list - I definitely love seeing what others have planned!

[Maquenzie]

I do not speak any other language, well at least. I can understand a lot of Spanish. I'm so sad about it though. I feel like it's the one area I can never really give my kids what I would like. DD1 is so very interested in languages too. She's been interested in Spanish for a long time and some words/phrases she will only say in Spanish (like De nada, she never chooses English if she knows how to say it in Spanish).

Japanese, she is just insesently asking for more Japanese words, or numbers. She learned 1, 2, and 3 in her violin lessons (Suzuki), and her interest has snowballed from there.

I just found out some Little Pim DVDs are available through Netflix, so we may exhaust those and then get some more. Until those show up, I just look online for words and audio pronunciations. I hope to find something better than we are doing now. I feel like I'm really failing her in this department.


Violin - no, I don't teach her. She takes Suzuki lessons. But then has daily practice with me as well. I also have a violin I am learning to play at the same time. Between my husband and I, we can play most band instruments...except anything with strings (though we own guitars and cannot play ). That was a long-winded answer. I'm not her "teacher", but I do daily practice with her. I also have a strong background in music, just not violin.

[sarahjean]

I can imagine that it would be really difficult to teach a second language with no understanding of it at all. I'm in the same boat as your Spanish boat when it comes to French, maybe even worse off. I can read and understand quite a bit of French, but learning Chinese has erased a lot of my French vocabulary and certain letter blends I can not remember how to pronounce for the life of me!  For now, I'm teaching the girls simple words that I already know, but I am, unfortunately, not very good at putting together French sentences anymore, so I will have to re-learn myself.

We're also learning Chinese (which is why I was so interested in your Japanese lessons) but lucky for me Lily was born in China while my husband was there for a year and a half teaching, so I can actually have a preschool level conversation with her. I can't imagine teaching such a difficult language with no prior understanding of it!

One thing you might consider doing is online lessons with a live Japanese teacher. I taught English this way while living in China. The teacher would prepare lessons on a given subject each week (shapes, colors, animals, etc.) and have an interactive online class with your child. If you're interested, I can ask around on some of the language sites I belong to and see if I can find someone interested in teaching at this level?

As for the violin lessons, how do you find the Suzuki method? I was concerned that it might be too boring. I have played the violin myself now for 15 years and intend to teach the girls myself but some people think it might be better to have a teacher who is not a parent...what do you think?

I have a strong music background too and am really hoping to pass some of that knowledge onto our children. I made it my goal but the time I left high school to be able to play every instrument in the school band at a high school level, so hopefully we'll be set no matter what they want to learn (please not the trombone - that was a tricky one!).

Anyways, good luck with your learning goals! They look great and I really look forward to hearing about your progress!

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