Homeschool

After trying to keep Izzy in school and with no teaching jobs in sight (shame on California), we have decided to pull Izzy from school and Paul will homeschool Izzy and take care of baby Rees when she arrives and I will work. I have a ton more opportunities to work because of the credential I hold and with my district laying off 95 teachers and the 35 that were laid off last year, the possibilities of getting a sub job is highly unlikely. So we will hunker down and get through this until maybe we get a new Governor who wants to get us out of this budget mess and return elementary schools to a mandatory 20:1 class size which would force teachers back into the profession. Anyways, off my soap box and back to homeschooling.

We have created educational goals for Izzy based on the Developmental Profile II and the Brigance Early Development. We will revisit whether she has met or not met her goals in about 4 months to continue her growth.

Fine Motor

• Cut a printed circle the size of a silver dollar

Gross Motor

• Hop on one foot for at least 5 feet

Academic

• Draw a cross, one vertical and intersecting horizontal line (+) after an adult has made one

• Draw a person (head and one body part)

• Names circle, square, triangle, rectangle, and diamond

• Names colors red, blue, green, yellow, orange, purple, brown, black, pink, gray, and white

• Counts to 20, reads to 5

• ID penny

Communication

• Knows whether a person is a boy or a girl

• Communicates how old she is

Self-Help

• Can the child fix a bowl of dry cereal. This includes getting the bowl, cereal, and milk and pouring the milk and cereal.

I also found a great curriculum from a mom who has home-schooled 4 kids called Letter of the Week. The best part about the curriculum is, is that it takes about an hour a day and hits language arts, math, science, social studies, music, art, and Bible Study. Each day they will reinforce the language arts, but then there is two or three of the other activities to do. http://www.letteroftheweek.com/preschool_age_3.html

I have then correlated it to the Get Ready for the Code program which is the younger program to the Explode the Code phonics program that I use in school. So she will learn the first 6 letters of the Get Ready for the Code program with her Letter of the Week curriculum and then we will do the workbook. I love this program and have seen kids go from non-readers to readers. I am hoping to see Izzy read by about 4, 4 and a half.

Going on Walks

It has been a few weeks now that I have been able to go on walks again. It is something I have completely missed, but I was rewarded with one of my favorite activities to watch, Izzy throwing rocks with her Daddy in the pond. There is nothing like bundling up, Izzy getting on her big wheel with her bucket, finding rocks on the way to the end of the street, parking her bike, and then trekking through the weeds to throw rocks in the temporary pond. She has so much fun and we have so much to talk about: animals, birds, insects, frogs, snakes, and lizards we see.

Easter

We had an unusual Easter this year. Paul and I had planned to have our taxes done the Saturday before Easter (a year in advanced) so Lynn watched Izzy that day and night. Little did we know that our appointment would be canceled. So we took advantage of the time away from child and went to a few stores, had a nice dinner, and watched a movie. Better get that in before the baby comes. Anyways, I don't have pictures of her Easter morning, but we picked up Izzy after Paul and I went to church and we went to Wine and Roses in Lodi and had a wonderful brunch. Paul's whole family was there. Too bad my child was in rare form. She was exhausted from sleeping over so she wasn't exactly on her best behavior. Here are a few pictures from the event.