ᴅᴏᴜɢʟᴀs ᴇᴠᴇʀʏᴅᴀʏ.

Welcome to Douglas Everyday, a blog dedicated to documenting the homeschool journey of the Douglas Family, made complete by Mom (Bobbie), Dad (Colby), Elijah (7), Brilynn (4), and Eleanor (>1). Here you can find information on our daily routines, lesson plans, unit studies, curricula picks, and more! For the 2020-2021 school year, Elijah will be in 1st grade and Brilynn will be in Pre-K.

[douglaseveryday]

Week 7: Summary 

We got back into the swing of things this week, after taking our week off last week. Both of the kids were excited to “do school” again, and honestly, so was I. I think there’s a certain rhythm with our days that we both seem to enjoy when we’re doing school. 

We’re fast approaching our first set of tests, so this week was spent preparing for them. Eli is reading WAY better than he was when we started, and I’m amazed at the difference 20-something lessons has made. Maybe it’s the one-on-one approach, or the new curriculum, but it’s made a world of difference. His confidence in reading has improved so much. 

We also learned about rain forests and the animals that live there this week as we read Afternoon on the Amazon. The kids were most excited about this!

A FEW OF THIS WEEK’S HIGHLIGHTS:

We watched Wild Kratts: Under the Canopy

We had Poetry Teatime on Wednesday. We had cupcakes and tea while we read the Flower Fairies: Autumn poems. 

Brilynn participated in the library’s preshcool program where she learned about germs. 

Eli participated in the library’s STEAM program where we did a few experiments, including watching sugar dissolve in water (using Skittles), and performing a chemical reaction with baking soda and vinegar to fill a balloon. 

We also used our five senses to describe mangoes after learning that mangoes grew in the rain forest. None of us had tried them before and they’re a new favorite fruit in our house! 

[douglaseveryday]

Week 07: Introduction

Getting read to to kick off Week 07 of our 2020-2021 homeschool year! This week we’ll be focusing on “Time to the Hour” & "Adding to 5" in Math, preparing for our first test in Language Arts, working on the letter G (for Briley), and learning all about the Amazon Rain Forest. Eli is especially excited to learn about anacondas. 

Another important aspect we’re introducing to our homeschool this week is a morning basket! We’ll cover subjects such as a daily devotional, emotional intelligence, educational games, read alouds, picture books, and a loop of geography (US), culture study, science (animal kingdom), and history. To get a better idea of our morning basket/group time, I’ll post a full breakdown later this week. 

[douglaseveryday]

— 1st 6 Weeks Recap

Our first six weeks of homeschool has come and gone. Can you believe it? I’m still not sure exactly where the days went, but I’ve been extra grateful for this week, and I’m more confident in our homeschool calendar now more than ever. This week off has given me time to reflect on what worked well in our school and what didn’t. One of the most obvious areas in which I lacked was record-keeping. I’m hoping that with this blog I’ll do a better job of documenting our journey through homeschool, especially as this is our first year. If you’re interested in catching up on our first six weeks recap, click the Read More below!

— Week One

Our first week of homeschool! We used this time to talk about our expectations and goals for the year. Eli wants to learn more about animals and Brilynn wants to learn to read (a pretty ambitious goal for a 3.5 year old!). 

In Math, Eli learned about The Months of the Year, Equal and Not Equal, Greater Than/Less Than, and Counting Down. 

In Language Arts, Eli covered One-Letter and Two-Letter Words, Sight Words, and Phonics.

Brilynn worked on the Letter A this week and counting to 10!

We originally began our school year using the Level K Torchlight Curriculum, kicking off the week with a study on European Russia.

— Week Two

Week one down, ready for week two. We were slowly getting into the swing of things, figuring out what did and didn’t work for us! For the first time in his life, Eli wanted to read more. That is a huge accomplishment for my struggling reader. 

In Math, Eli worked on One More, One Less, Down the Number Line, and Growing Patterns. 

In Language Arts, Eli worked on Two-Letter Words, Three-Letter Works, Independent Reading, Phonics, and Sight Words.

Brilynn learned all about the Letter B and Butterflies

We continued with Torchlight. This week we learned about North Africa. It was at this point that I realized a lot of the material was going over their heads and maybe they weren’t quite ready for this curriculum. It held absolutely zero interest for them beyond learning what animals came from what region. We decided to switch things up a bit. 

— Week Three

This we worked on our morning basket. The topic of the month was Dinosaurs. Eli is obsessed with dinos and has been since he was two. He can tell you things about dinosaurs I have no clue about. 

In Math, Eli review previous lessons, learned about Evens and Odds to 2, and Two More.

in Language Arts, Eli covered Short and Long Vowel Sounds, Three-Letter Words, CK, Phonics, and Sight Words. 

Brilynn worked on Letter C, and we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar as a family. 

We spent a lot of time in nature this week, going on Nature Walks and looking for minibeasts. 

— Week Four

We were excited for this week! We started a new curriculum called Passport to Adventure, created by a homeschooling mom using The Magic Tree House book series as a spine. Over the summer we had read the first two Magic Tree House book, Dinosaurs Before Dark and The Knight at Dawn. They loved them, so I thought this would be a huge hit. 

In Math, Eli learned about The Octagon, Two Less, and Fact Families this week. 

In Language Arts Elijah covered, Short and Long Vowels, SS, FF, LL, CVC Words, Phonics, and Sight Words. 

Brilynn worked on Letter D and learned about shapes

In Passport to Adventures, we read Mummies in the Morning. We had a lot of fun with this unit and learned about Ancient Egypt, Pyramids, and Mummies. Some of the highlights of the week were learning about King Tutankhamen and watching the Who Was show on Netflix, playing Top Trumps Ancient Egypt, and writing our names with hieroglyphs. But, our absolute favorite thing was our Apple Mummification experiment (see Photo 8 above). We learned which agent (salt, sugar, or baking powder) worked best to mummify our apple slices. 

— Week Five

This week we read Pirates Past Noon and learned all about Pirates, Blackbeard, and studied some geography in relation to the pirates. We watched Who Was Blackbeard on Netflix, made Pirate-related snacks, made up our own pirate names, learned to talk like a pirate, and so much more! To end the week, I drew up a treasure map (complete with instruction the kids had to follow) and sent them into the yard to hunt for gold (chocolate coins). They had a blast! 

In Math, Eli worked on Making Ten, One Day, and Pennies and Dimes. 

In Language Arts, Eli worked on Short and Long Vowels, Reading Comprehension, Dictation, Phonics, and Sight Words. 

Brilynn worked on Letter E and learned all about Elephants.

—  Week Six

Finally, week six! I’m starting to feel like we got the hang of this homeschool thing and feel more absolute in my decision to withdraw Eli from public school. We read Night of the Ninjas this week and learned about Ancient Japan, Ninjas, and Samurais. We played Pirates vs. Ninjas (a dice game), dressed up like Ninjas and practiced our stealth skills outside, talked about Ancient Japan, and made candy sushi. The kids really enjoyed our ninjas obstacle course made out of pool noodles and streamers. 

In Math Eli reviewed previous lessons and learned Subtracting From Ten. 

In Language Arts, Eli worked on reviewing the concepts we’d learned thus far and Reading Comprehension. 

Brilynn worked on the Letter F and learned about Flower this week! We also talked about how much pennies and nickels are worth. 

Another important (unrelated to homeschool) event... Eli turned 7! We surprised him with a small birthday party, a PS4, and Minecraft! He was so excited.