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!
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?
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.
That would be great! I would love to see what you have planned for your oldest!
Wow Sarahjean! I agree with kizudo, your list is both impressive and depressive :yes: …but it is kinda encouraging too- we all need a little push sometimes…I stopped making lists some time ago :closedeyes:
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 
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!
Okay, here are my goals for my oldest dd (3). I haven’t done this before, you inspired me! lol 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
- Count in sequence by 1s to 30 (done)
- Counting backwards from 10 to 0
- Identify numerals to 20
LANGUAGE ARTS
- Knowledge of all phonetic letter sounds
- Proficiency in first set of Flesch Cards
- Identify Upper and Lower Case letters
TECHNOLOGY
- Identify various input and output devices
- Learn to type name in ‘Pages’
PHYSICAL EDUCATION
- Use correct form while marching (done)
- Throw ball overhand and underhand
- Catch a ball before it bounces twice
SPANISH
- Learn 5 descriptive words
- Learn one set of directions
- Count to 12
JAPANESE
- Learn 2 descriptive words
- Learn one set of directions
- Count to 5
SOCIAL STUDIES
- Learn “long ago” as before “yesterday”
- Learn about families of the past
- Learn about Martin Luther King
SCIENCE
- Classify Solids and Liquids
- Identify the sun as earth’s light & heat, predict occurrence of shadows
- Identify properties of motion, including change of position and change of speed
HEALTH
- Name major health care professions (done)
- Identify ways to encourage a healthy environment (done)
- Recognize Environmental Hazards (oil spill, downed power line)
ART
- Understand primary and secondary colors, texture in art, and repetition (patterns)
- 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
- Identity body, mind, and voice as 3 tools of classroom drama
- Identify appropriate audience behavior (done)
- Pantomime animals
VIOLIN
- Continue to work on correct bowing, pizzicato, and rhythms.
- Have a lesson and learn something new!
- Identify quarter notes and eighth notes (done)
MUSIC
- Imitate a steady beat (done)
DANCE
- 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.
Maquenzie,
That all sounds so exciting - I’m sure you can do it!
I have a couple of questions for you:
- Do you speak Spanish and/or Japanese yourself?
- 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!
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 lol). 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.
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!
That’s interesting about video classes. I have no idea where we’ll go with Japanese. She’s so interested, I can just never answer her questions. 
Are Suzuki violin lessons boring? Definitely not! Though I imagine it cam depend on the teacher. She is learning games and songs, everything is fun right now! The fun factor has definitely not been an issue. The only thing I’ve worried about is lack of note reading, so I supplement. Right now, she has a rhythm (with words) that she plays almost exclusively. The notes are hanging in the fridge at her eye height with those notes. She’ll stop and point in rhythm to the notes. I figure I can slowly add more. I make sure to make note reading separate from violin practice though, as to not interfere with the sukuki plan. Hopefully it’ll all be ok. lol
As for teaching violin yourself or getting a teacher, I can see pros/cons either way. One major con to lessons we have (and yours will be worse with closer spaced siblings and one almost ready, right?) is keeping the ones not taking lessons occupied while you do the lesson with the older one(s). I love that dd2 is absorbing it all, but it can make lesson time fairly difficult and I can’t take notes as much as I’d like, but rather write everything down in the car once everyone is strapped in. I do like the fresh-ness that a teacher can bring to the relationship though. She reacts differently with her teacher than she does to me.
I don’t think there is really a “wrong” answer though. I’m jealous you can play violin!
Will you only teach violin young? Or do you plan to teach any other instruments?
We have at home: piano, acoustic guitar, electric bass guitars, drum set, clarinet, violins (rented), and a trombone. Right now we are only doing violin, but my husband and I play the other instruments and the kids fiddle with them (besides guitars, no one can play them, but we all fiddle :p)
Let me know if you might be interested in trying the video lessons and I can ask around for you!
I plan to start teaching violin in March (Lily will be 26m at the time). I know that she is ready because she already has a small guitar that I am teaching her to play. Right now she can hold it in proper position, strum with or without a pick, and identify the strings. I think this week she may be ready to start learning chords.
I also plan to make keyboard charts for the within the next few months he will be large musical scores with each note having it’s own colour and corresponding stickers on her keyboard. I will start with very simple songs like “Hot Crossed Buns” and “Mary Had a Little Lamb” and progress from there.
After that, I will let her choose whatever instrument(s) she would like.
Maquenzie,
I don’t have experience with these programs (except Little Pim) but you might like to try them out…?
http://www.multilingualbooks.com/japchild.html
Also a few clips here:
http://sclipo.com/academy/library/matsui
And tonnes on youtube!
This site also has some great looking resources:
http://www.worldlanguage.com/Products/Japanese/Kids/Page1.htm
Good luck!
Ah! Thank you thank you thank you!!
No problem! I’ll let you know if I come across anything else interesting! I hope those help!
Thanks Sarahjean!
I forgot to add a few things to our list- it slipped my mind because it has almost become a routine and I have never really classified these things before:
Other language: Marathi- will show him 5 words- I tried doing this about 8 months ago, but I wasn’t very consistent.
Music: will continue with Vivaldi.
I like the ‘sticker on the keyboard’ idea- will try that.
Art: Rembrandt. He can recognize works of Leonardo da vinci, Monet and Van Gogh.
Reading: We are doing couplets on LR. We have done Doman cards with him for a long time, but now I feel I should focus more on phonics and he is showing interest in it. I’ll still continue with couplets- can’t hurt.
We love reading the ‘Child’s book of poems’ together.
Physical education: we just jump around and run while saying our numbers forwards and backwards lol Do you have any good ideas? We will start swimming in 4 months.
Religion: I tell him stories related to Hinduism.
I feel better after writing all this- the situation is not bad as I thought Hopefully, we’ll stick to this plan. I anticipate fewer goals for the week after since I will be working.
That’s great, shaman!
We don’t really get much done in the way of phys. ed, unfortunately. My little lady likes to dance, so we do a lot of that! I would also suggest trying the Zippity or something like the Fisher-Price Smart Cycle. They are “screen time” but at least it gets the kids active!
You could also try some beginner yoga! Lily likes it a lots. I got the free printable cards that we use here - http://montessoribyhand.blogspot.com/2007/08/yoga-photos.html
Good luck with all of your learning - it sounds like you already do a lot!!
So many early education things I want to buy! How do you all stand it?
I found these and wanted to share for anyone else looking too-
Counting in Japanese 1-20
http://genkienglish.net/genkijapan/learnjapanesenumbers.htm
Really great spanish site, even has a monthly curriculum for years!
http://www.spanishtown.ca/spanishforkids/spanishforkids.htm
http://www.exploramania.com.asp1-16.dfw1-2.websitetestlink.com/ProductList.aspx?type=exploracise dvd collection
http://www.singnlearn.org/khxc/ccp0-prodshow/alphabetexercise.html
These are my two new “exercise” programs. Pop it in to the DVD player and presto! Phys.Ed. at it’s finest…or at least an attempt! lol
Maquenzie,
Thank you so much for the link to SpanishTown. It looks awesome! 