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Thank you for stopping by here for the second day of my “How We After School” posts!
If you missed the First Post click the link and it will take you there.
Before I go any further, I wanted to talk about how long I’ve been teaching my son at home. Though not exclusively at home it’s been 4 years now. But he is only 7 and a half you say?
Early Childhood Development
PJ was enrolled in a daycare by the age of 2 followed by sometime without daycare. I was already noticing some things that just weren’t right in his early development. Shortly after the age of three he received a diagnosis of Autism.
A Mother Is A Childs First Teacher
Being an early childhood and title 1 educator both in daycare and public school I knew I had to help him as fast as possible. There is a learning slide after the age of 5. We didn’t have much time till his brain slowed in development.
That was the beginning of my wanting to connect with my son and still manage to help him learn. He was a nonverbal severely delayed toddler. Now PJ is a very inquisitive boy in a regular public school classroom.
Passion For Learning
PJ now likes to learn. At home he is confident and undistracted. He loves books. He loves science, building things, and taking them apart…he loves all living things. For the past 4 years his life has been about learning. He now has a passion for learning even though he may struggle a little.
PJ routinely asks to be homeschooled but its not possible yet being a single mom with fixed income. Im planning on it by growing this site-for starters. Until then, we afterschool to help him catchup and keep his passion for learning.
This post tells more about Our After School and PJ.
You Don’t Have To So Why DO After School With Your Child?
- After School at home is a wonderful way to connect. Build great memories, pass down traditions, and learn all the while the family has fun.
- It allows you to keep up do date with your child’s academic progress or regression….but let’s hope not on the last one. Each time you work one to one with him in Afterschool, you are giving him an assessment. You will know what he is able to accomplish without asking a teacher.
- Parents who are very involved in their child’s education are generally well thought of by teachers.
- Communication between, you, your child, and your child’s teacher tends to be more open.
- You can teach your child a love of learning.
- You can help your child fill in learning gaps by focusing on weak areas of school tests- AT HOME.
- Your child will gain confidence, build knowledge, and have fun with you because you know them better than anyone.
- After schooling on holidays and summer break helps prevent regression or learning slides.
- It can help a gifted student follow their interests or become self motivated.
- Can become an income if you open an After School- work with your child, build social/academic skills, and make a living at the same time. It can become a way of living.
How We After School Series
How We Plan : Implementing By Skill And Subject
Why DO After School ? -You are here
Related Posts
Arbor Day And Over Coming Autism
And now here’s the daily example of how we implement After School.
How We After School :Typical Tuesday
Tuesdays are typically a more productive day than Monday. I introduced the major vocabulary of the topics we would be covering Sunday. He comprehends better if he isn’t trying to process saying words in his head then trying to say the words out loud. Vocabulary words were parts of the plant and what plants need: air, water/rain, soil/dirt, and sunlight. We practiced those words several times Sunday. It sounded something like short articulation exercises. I find this pre-step really helps his focus while we are learning about new topics.
On Monday, we went through the skills check list and used the resources he chose with me. Today we used the same check list that we used from my post about Monday Implementing by Skill and Subject.
As promised I’ll take you through the new activities for Tuesday using the same check list. This time we added the fun awesome science and spring learning!
Reading/Writing/Sentence Practice/some Speech
We first headed out to the library to find and read Gail Gibbons “From Seed to Plant.” We also did his reading homework: 2 books for his reading log at school.
While at the library I printed off a few copies of first grade comprehension passages for the next days reading-Wednesday and Thursday. We also completed another writing worksheet from a great mommy website that I subscribe to. This is where PJ put his knowledge about What Plants Need down in writing. He remembered all 4 needs. Happy Dance!
Life Cycle of A Plant Pack – 3 Dinosaurs
He took a short brain break while I searched for more resources and talked with Lisa my favorite librarian.
After about an hour and a half of reading writing and building robots we headed home for dinner. My goto to fast at home dinner is some kind of salad creation which he devoured. He also had corned beef and cabbage leftovers:)
Science/Math/more Writing
By this time it was cloudy outside. PJ was dying to finally do the clock experiment. We used Kitchen Science by 4M that I gifted him for Christmas.
He did a great job of connecting the pieces: a lemon(s), 2 conductor rods, 2 forks, and the digital clock provided in the kit.
He used just one fork, lemon, and conductor rod the first test. The clock flashed on and off as he squeezed it but wouldn’t stay on.
I encouraged him to use a second lemon to add more charge-charging, this he understood well. I helped him add the extra lemon, fork, and connecting wire.
Eureka! The clock was powered long enough for us to set it. He journaled about the lemon powered clock and drew pictures by looking at the pictures I took of him performing the experiment. And the clock stayed powered the whole time he worked. It was sundown and too dark for pics of the journal.
Math was super fun thanks to the lemon clock – and a little sticky 🙂 We skipped a few pages to match analog to digital by the hour in his clock workbook from Monday.
I was able to search some arts and crafts earlier. We didn’t have the time to do anything PJ picked out but that’s up first chance we get.
Spelling
PJ picked out a great spelling activity. We did have time (and tons of fun) to do the giant keyboard activity however the pics were too dark again. We may try it again this week and I’ll have pics then. I’ve included the link below.
Sight Words 3 Fun Activities for Kids– Lessons Learnt Journal
That’s a wrap for Tuesday. I hope you will come back to see the awesome free weekly plan we’ve done in Afterschool for Thursday. I’ll be talking about inexpensive resources, weekend planning, and Afterschool for mommy bloggers in the series too. Don’t miss it.
Thank you for reading
Crystal 🙂
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