Teaching Different Personalities and Learning Styles

     Whenever people find out that I homeschool triplets, they usually say, "Wow, you have your own mini classroom.  That would be so easy to teach.".  My answer to that is, "Yes" and "No".  Yes, I only have to buy one grade level for all three.  Yes, I teach all of our subjects to all three together.  But, within those subjects, their personalities can prove a little bit challenging.  
     Lego Man is an avid reader and is VERY inquisitive.  He gets bogged down with the details and would rather talk about something than do pencil and paper work.  He is EXTREMELY slow to complete his work so I have to save individual work for last.  Sometimes I have to set a timer to motivate him to complete his group work.
     Little Chef does not like to read for pleasure or write stories.  She is a great verbal story teller.  For writing assignments, I let her dictate the story to me and she then has to rewrite it.  She likes to do history and science experiments, and she loves anything that has to do with art.
     Maggie Moo is very quick to finish her work, but she does make careless errors.  She loves school and wants to finish as quickly as possible so she can go do gymnastics in the living room.  She loves to read but her oral reading is mumbled.  I'm working on having her slow down and focus on each word being read. 
     They are all 3 on different spelling levels.  Maggie Moo can remember how to spell most words after only seeing them once and she really gets phonics so spelling makes sense to her.  Lego Man is a good speller but he does need to study them several times before learning them.  Once he learns a word though, he hardly ever forgets how to spell it.  Little Chef, on the other hand, is not a good speller.  Phonics was difficult for her and she has a hard time hearing the individual sounds.  She tends to leave out a lot of vowels. I assign her more hands on spelling activities (like magnetic letters, chalk board, gel packs, hangman) to study her words.
     They are all on the same math level, learning multiplication.  Lego Man says that math is his favorite subject.  The girls enjoy it but not as much as him.  I always quiz them with math facts in the car or when we are waiting at the doctor's office or in line.
     They are all 3 on different reading levels.  Lego Man is on a 7th-8th grade reading level but can handle older stuff.  Maggie Moo is on a 6th-7th grade reading level and Little Chef is on a 5th grade reading level.  Like I said before, Lego Man and Maggie Moo will read for pleasure but Little Chef will not so this year, I am assigning a book report due every month.
     They all 3 despise language and looking up vocabulary words is even worse.  I can't, for the life of me, get them to remember to put punctuation at the end of their sentences.  It drives me crazy!!!!
     As for history, health, science, Bible, and handwriting, they are all on the same level and enjoy each subject.  Well, maybe not handwriting......but they think it is cool that they can write and read in cursive now.  
     So, with all of that said, just because they are triplets, it doesn't mean that they learn the same way, like the same subjects, or excel at the same things.  They are their own unique little shelves with their own unique little personalities.  I treat them as individuals and I know that as they get older, their interests and learning styles may change and I'm ready to adjust with them.

Our Crazy Schedule

Our schedule is CRAZY this year!!  We have a lot of extracurricular activities going on this year.  The only way I know to post is to post day by day b/c every day is different.

MONDAY:
7:30-8:00ish- Kids wake up
8:00-8:30ish- Kids eat breakfast while I shower
8:30-9:00ish- We get started with a read aloud and Bible/prayer
9:00ish-11:30- Our academic work begins.  We try and get math, language, and reading done during this time.
11:30-12:30- lunch break/laundry/kid's clean rooms
12:30-1:30- Lego Man has a private karate lesson in our basement while girls practice piano, put away laundry, and enjoy a little free time
1:45ish-3:15ish- Get back to work.  Complete science, history, handwriting, and IEW homework
3:30- feed chickens and gather eggs
3:45- kids are free to play

TUESDAY
7:30-8:00ish- Kids wake up

8:00-8:30ish- Kids eat breakfast while I shower
8:30-9:00- read aloud and Bible/prayer
9:00-10:00- math, language, and reading
10:00- leave house for IEW co-op class
10:30-11:20- IEW co-op class
11:45-1:00- lunch
1:00-3:00- health, history, handwriting,and any work uncompleted
3:15-leave house for gymnastics
3:45-4:45- gymnastics for Maggie Moo
5:15-start dinner
7:00-8:00- Boy Scouts for Lego Man

WEDNESDAY
7:30-8:00ish- Kids wake up
8:00-8:30ish- Kids eat breakfast while I shower
8:30-9:00ish- We get started with a read aloud and Bible/prayer
9:00ish-12:00- Math, Language, reading, handwriting, and IEW
12:00-1:00- lunch
1:00-2:30ish- science and history
2:30ish- free time/practice piano
6:30-8:00- Awanas

THURSDAY
7:30-8:00ish- Kids wake up
8:00-8:30ish- Kids eat breakfast while I shower
8:30-9:00ish- We get started with a read aloud and Bible/prayer
9:00ish-12:00- Math, language, reading, and handwriting
12:00-1:00- lunch
1:00-3:00- health, history, history and any work uncompleted
3:15- leave house for gymnastics
3:45-4:45- gymnastics for Maggie Moo
5:15- gather Lego Man's stuff for football practice
6:00-7:00- Upward flag football practice

FRIDAY
7:30-8:00ish- Kids wake up
8:00-8:30ish- kids eat breakfast while I shower
8:30-10:10- read aloud, Bible/prayer, tests
10:30-11:30- Little Chef has a homeschool gymnastics class
12:00-1:00- Lunch and free time
1:00-2:00- Finish up any tests and do an art DVD

Not Back to School Blog Hop....our classroom

Our school room is in a tiny, extra bedroom that we have upstairs.  It looks very junky, I know, but we like it and everything has its place.  We had to buy bedraisers to lift the wooden table higher so all of our legs would fit under it this year.  My dad found these used office chairs for us so we no longer have to sit in little wooden chairs.  The chair at the piano will turn around and face the table during class time.  We do all of our written work in here but all of our group reading on the couch!  Hope you enjoy the tour.  It is very quick!

This is standing in the doorway looking into our tiny classroom.

Our US map, Art DVD set, monthly Bible verse, and keyboard for piano lessons
(which are on DVD also!)

Their independent work stations.  A little messy right now, we haven't cleaned them out this summer.
 The gray metal file storage holds their SRA cards and different reading activity cards that I found at a flea market. Hanging on the right are Christmas card pictures from this past Christmas.  We love to leave them up all year long and pray for our family and friends.

This side of the room has our TV for watching our Math U See DVD and art DVDs.  It also has our calendar, featured books for the month, language helper charts, book shelf with readers for the kids, and my dry erase board.

Bookshelves full of games, puzzles, arts and craft supplies, books, binders and so much more.

I sit in this chair pictured and behind me is everything that I need within my reach......textbooks, lesson plan binder, daily lesson plans, pens, pencils, scissors, timer, and Germ-X (a mom and teacher's best friend)

Not Back to School Blog Hop...Curriculum Week (2012-2013))

I'm participating in the "Not" Back to School Blog Hop with Curriculum Week.  The kids will be going into 3rd grade this year and below is our curriculum for the upcoming school year.

"Who is God?" textbook and notebook
This is our 1st year to use this.
We will also be learning a Bible verse every month.

Shurley English 3rd grade
This is our 2nd year to use this.

Mystery of History Vol 2
Textbook, timeline figures, and reproducible CD
This will be our 2nd year to use M of H.

 Institute for Excellent in Writing student portfolio

All Things Fun & Fascinating by Institute for Excellent in Writing
We will attend a co-op once a week for this class.
This will be our 1st year to use IEW.

Math U See Gamma
This will be our 3rd year to use this.

Spelling Power
This will be our 1st year to use this.

Mike's Inspiration Station are DVD collection 1-12
This will be our 1st year to use this.

This is one of the books that I'll be using for cursive handwriting.
I've made a copy of each page and they will go in a page protector for the kids to write on with
dry erase markers.

This is a 2nd book that I will be using for cursive handwriting.

Horizons Health
Student book and teacher's book
This will be our 1st year to use this book.

Teacher Created Resources
Reading Comprehension
We will be using this along with some SRA stories that I found  at the thrift store.
They will also be assigned one book report per month.

Christian Liberty Press Nature Readers
We will be reading books 2-5

Apologia Science
Exploring Creation w/Zoology I textbook and notebook
This is our 2nd year to use this but our 3rd book to use.

 
Simply Music DVD program for piano at home.
We started this summer and LOVE it.  The kids are picking up piano playing fast.

That is it for our curriculum that requires books/DVDs.  We will attend a K-6 grade co-op once a month for P.E., snack, and  a lesson .  We will also attend the IEW  co-op once a week.  The girls are taking a homeschool gymnastics class and will attend their 1st year of Keepers of the Home.  Clay will be playing Upward flag football and will be working on his Bear badge in Boy Scouts.

I'm Back....with 3rd grade!

We are starting our 3rd year of homeschooling in just a few weeks and I realized what a slacker I have been with this blog.  I didn't make a single post during 2nd grade and we did some fun stuff.  One of my personal goals this year is to update this blog more with activities, experiments, projects, and field trips that we do.  Happy Homeschooling everyone!

Trip to Half Acre

Me, hubby, & the kids taking a walk with cousin Marc on his new land (during hunting seaon). We looked for animals tracks and studied habitats.

Family Photo

Moo all pooped out from so much walking. She was glad to hear that we were headed back to Aunt Wynell and Uncle Vern's trailer for some YUMMY lunch!!!

Thanksgiving food & crafts

The kids making mini cornucopia's They turned out really cute......waffle cone and Runts.....simple.

Pilgrim hats.....round chocolate striped cookies, mini Reese PB cups, white icing, & Reese Pieces.

They also used water colors to paint Pilgrims.