Cousin Homeschool Day!

Monday was our first day of a week-long winter recess, and guess what we decided to do?  Homeschool!  Actually, my sweet niece (let's call her TS 4, shall we?), has been asking for me to homeschool her all year, so we chose Monday to do just that.  She slept over Sunday night and we had our Cousin Homeschool Day Monday.  Actually, it was just us girls.  The boys could not be convinced that it would be fun to pretend to do homeschool on our first day of break.  They promptly parked themselves in front of a variety of screens all day from TV to computer to iPod, until I called for a friend to come over and play.  

 TS 1 checking on spring training news on the iPad

TS 2 playing LEGO Harry Potter on the iPod

When we woke up Monday morning, my niece was so excited to get started.  She told me she was dreaming all night about homeschooling!  We started off with a pancake breakfast, complete with cookie cutters to make fun shapes.  

 TS 4 making a butterfly pancake

TS 3 with her flower pancake

After breakfast, TS 4 helped TS 3 with her morning chores while I got ready for the day.

We started with our usual morning activities: Bible, calendar, reading and writing.  My sister sent a list of CVC words and sight words that TS 4 is working on, and I used those for our reading and writing activities.  

Then it was time for audio book and center time.  The girls listened to Flat Stanley on CD in TS 3's room while I prepared a fun President's Day craft for center time.  I found this Log Cabin idea on Pinterest.

After center time, we had snack and a read aloud.  I read Abe Lincoln's Hat to the girls while they munched on goldfish.  They seemed to enjoy it and asked good questions during the story.

While they played together during break time, I pulled together some activities for math and science.  The girls did a simple addition with pictures worksheet I found online first.  Then I gave each of them a handful of coins to sort by president onto another President's Day sheet I found online.  They each got to keep their coins after, which they loved!  Finally, they practiced their addition facts with the Math Fact Master iPad app that we use daily.  TS 4 was even able to e-mail her results to her mom through the app.

For science, we read a few pages about the nervous system from the First Human Body Encyclopedia I have been working through with TS 3 all year.  We discussed the pages and then watched a couple of nervous system videos I had pinned on Pinterest during lunch.  The boys joined us for that.

We wrapped up our Cousin Homeschool Day with more reading.  The girls each took turns reading a story to me.  They were very proud of their accomplishment!

What better way to end a busy Cousin Homeschool Day than some Just Dance 3?

It was so much fun to bless my niece!  And she was a blessing to me.  About halfway through the day, she turned to me with a beaming smile and said, "Titi Natalie, I am having so much fun, I never want this day to end!"  Thanks for the wonderful endorsement, TS 4!