Wed, Jan 30, 2008

Inspired by our history lesson earlier this week, the kids dug out the Lincoln Logs and built a log cabin. Other than the zebra inside the house, dinosaur, monsters, starfish, and Playmobile people, it is historically accurate;) The 7yo promptly knocked it all down, the 5yo began to argue about it, and then the 2 troublemakers were sentenced to cleaning up all toys.

The 7yo and I finished jointly reading Pompeii...Buried Alive! The kids wondered how hot rock could break through the earth. So we built our own model volcano. Yes, it is a beer bottle. Its for me to drink when we do our hands-on lessons. Just kidding. We can't stand the taste of beer around here (bleck!) but it does make for awesome fish batter...and after dinner, the bottle makes for a great model of a volcano.

7yo:
Math: 2 pages, including some really great mental exercises such as this: how much money is 1 fifty dollar bill and 2 twenty dollar bills?
Reading: Pompeii...Buried Alive (see above)
Spelling: 1 page of Spelling Workout that included a little creative writing assignment about the dentist. It was like pulling teeth (pun intended), but we got through it with a little help from Mom.
Grammar: putting nouns into categories (person, places, and things). Then there was a mad-libs type of assignment with fill in the blanks. It ended up being a story about My Little Ponies.
Composition: We had enough writing with Spelling & Grammar, so I decided to shelf this book this week. I may bury it for good. Oddly enough, the 5yo really wants her own Write About Me, so she may get her own at some point.
Handwriting: We played Freeze Tag with our cursive words. Its an activity native to Handwriting Without Tears.

5yo:
Math: more shapes. Ball shape, Can shape, and Box shape.
Handwriting: reviewing capital letters
Reading: Good Night, 3rd reading
Phonics: Explode the Code 2 pages, the sentences were much easier today & the 5yo did a great job on these.

Both:
Science: Why do birds fly?
History: housing 50-60 years ago
Bible: David fights Goliath
Literature: we read chapter 2 of Mary on Horseback last night.

Wordless Wednesday - sort of

Laundry: clean (left), dirty (right)

My laundry has gone over to join the dark side. The balance between the forces of good and evil is at stake.

Tues, January 29, 2008

Me: physical therapy "workout" #4, this one was a full 1 1/2 hours of pure focus on my left arm. Ugh.

Kids:
Bible - Samuel anoints David (kids have been eagerly waiting for David stories)
History - factory worker housing during the industrial revolution.
Science - how birds fly
Literature - we read at bedtime; last night we read chapter 1 of Mary on Horseback. 7yo's reaction: "this story is boooorrring. It's just about a nurse." Of course that is her reaction to everything I read these days, but usually by the end of the book I do detect an interest in the story, even though she won't admit it!

5yo:
Math: shapes - ball shapes and can shapes. (Shapes always make for an easy math topic!)
Reading: "Good Night" (2nd reading)
Phonics: Explode the Code, 2 pages. We hit page 55 and the sentences are getting hard! Dd became a little frustrated half way through. I helped her through it and focused on getting the right vowel sounds (she was getting consonant sounds right but guessing on the vowel sounds)
Handwriting: capital letter review from HWT

7yo:
Math: adding tens, 2 pages
Reading: we alternated reading chapter 2 of Pompeii: Buried Alive.
Writing: she created another riddle on the computer, "what's hard & has teeth & lives @ Texas?" (and yes, she did use the & and @ symbols in her riddle). Answer: crocodile. The accuracy of this riddle has not been determined, but it was creative:)
Spelling: 1 page of Spelling Workout B
Handwriting: finished the cursive "j" page
Grammar: we'll do grammar tomorrow (there are only 3 lessons per week on these)

Images from yesterday

Monday, January 28, 2008

Me: I had physical therapy bright & early this morning.
Normally we'd have library storytime today, however, I don't think we will be going for awhile. It is too difficult to try to get kids dressed, fed, & to the library at 10am, when I don't get home until after 9am.

I learned today from my 7yo about "where babies come from". Basically, it works like this - when a mommy and daddy want to have a baby, they pray to God and He gives them one. This was followed by the request that I start praying for a baby, lol.

I still have photos to put up, but apparently Blogger is having some technical difficulties. Will post those later...

The girls made mermaid "friends" (www.makingfriends.com). I found these while looking for princess & prince puppets for my co-op class to make this week. You can get a sneak peak at what our puppets will look like at the site above.

In history, we studied houses during the pioneer days in America. The girls made Native American teepees (photo to follow). In science we started the unit on birds. In Bible, we are reading about King Saul and the mistake he made in doing the job of the priest (which is why his lineage did not continue as kings).

Kindergartener:
Math: chapter review - addition and number chart 1-39
Reading: read BJU K Book 7 "Good Night" about a cat named Tip. reviewed ch, th, sh. New sight word is "his".
Phonics: Explode the Code 2 pages, short vowel u
Handwriting: reviewed some uppercase letters

2nd grader:
Math: adding tens - 2 pages (1 drill page).
Spelling: Day 1 of Week 2 in Spelling Workout B
Handwriting: learned cursive letter j. Handwriting looks very nice.
Grammar: identified nouns
Reading: we took turns reading together from Pompeii: Buried Alive. She did rather well. She didn't want to read it and thought it was too hard, but she was able to read most of the words - it is well within her reading level.
Composition: Instead of doing Write About Me, I gave her the option of writing a description of her fish on the computer. The assignment morphed into writing a riddle, instead. I read her riddle, but I don't think the answer is fish, LOL. Here is her riddle:

Its lovey and soft and playful
And cuddly can you guess
What it is?

Weekly Report

We took a 1 week break from the 3r's. Even so, it was an eventful week!

I had hoped to read some of our Sonlight read-alouds, but developed a sore throat and a voice that disappeared every night, so it didn't happen. Daddy had to read the Bible devotionals with the kids and work through AWANA verses - my voice was gone and my throat raw.

We spent this week getting caught up on doctor's appointments. Well, one is never really caught up. And I actually have plenty more visits to schedule for future school vacations (dental cleanings, fillings, and a trip to the vet still needs to be done). I focused mostly on getting a diagnosis and treatment for my shoulder, and began physical therapy. My 5yo saw the allergist to get to the root of the nightly hives - the good news is that it is not food or allergy related, and should be grown out of in a few years. The other good news is that Zyrtec (the medicine that works wonders on the hives) is now over-the-counter, and we no longer need a prescription for it.

I had physical therapy yesterday (thurs) and today (friday), and have exercises to do at home. We have piano lessons today. I am beginning to feel better (throat is no longer sore, and I'm just left with a real annoying cough and stuffy/running nose). I'm hoping to add in read-alouds soon.

Next week we start back to school, I have 3 very early morning therapy sessions (way before my late rising family will ever miss me), awana, and co-op classes.

And yet another mermaid princess

I promised that neither rain nor sleet nor snow could keep me from drawing my 5yo her requested Mermaid Princess before she went to bed, and here she is. I dub her "Valentine's Mermaid Princess". Click on the picture or click here to get the full printable size. Her eyes aren't perfect (the ink didn't quite trace the left eye as nice as I wanted) and I am never sure what to do with hands...but the girls like it, so maybe some one else will, too.

I had my first day of physical therapy. And I'm also sick and coughing so much I have a headache. So I wasn't my happiest today. The big philosophical discussion amongst the girls today was "what my little pony would you be?" and my answer is "grumpy pony". Which reminds me, pre-homeschooling years I imagined we'd have lengthy discussions about Shakespeare, or Renaissance painting, or Mesopotamian culture. No...its all about the ponies (and mermaid princesses).

Diamond Princess Fairy Mermaid

Here is the Diamond Princess Fairy Mermaid that I drew for my 7yo. We've printed off every fairy, mermaid, princess (and every combination thereof) known on the Internet. Now I am resorting to making my own.

If you want to print this off for your daughter, who gave you explicit directions to find a "fairy mermaid princess" then click on this picture or on this link to get the full size picture. Happy Mermaid Fairy Princess Coloring!!

A Hive Anniversary

It has been about 1 year since my 5yo developed a daily dose of hives. We give her an anti-histamine daily and this has done the trick - we only know hives are a problem if we accidentally forget to give her the medicine. Today we took our "field trip" to the allergist. We also took the blood test results from the pediatrician that discerned a teeny tiny allergy to wheat, chocolate, and fish. The allergist believed that these hives have nothing to do with a food or environmental allergy, and are probably not "allergy" related at all. Dd's diagnosis is "hives of unknown origin" - working off of what we have seen, we know she gets hives induced by a virus, and she gets hives induced by certain skin irritations (pressure hives). Since the hives have lasted longer than 6 weeks, this means that our current stretch of hives are not virus-hives. Therefore, these particular hives probably have something to do with her own quirky sensitivities, and are most likely something she needs to grow out of. Our best course of action right now is to "watch and see what happens", and also to give the anti-histamine simply for the sake of comfort until something new develops. Most likely, 2-3 years from now she'll out-grow that particular sensitivity and the hives will go away. There is always the possibility, however, that she begins to react to other things with hives (such as developing an allergy to something over time). Hence, the instructions to "watch and see what happens". The really really great news is that the allergist did not feel the blood test results from the pediatrician were indicative of a food allergy - so long as she has no visible reaction to wheat, chocolate, and fish, then these foods do not need to be limited in her diet. Hooray!!

Wordless Wednesday - Steak n Shake hats

Vacation

Greetings from our homeschool vacation!!!

Kids are bouncing off walls and Daddy thinks they're ready to start back to school.

We've had blanket forts in the livingroom, pillow fights, wrestling matches, several red juice spills, and countless other aimless activities. I have no idea why Daddy thinks they need some structure in their day;)

I saw the Orthopedic Specialist today...I have "Frozen Shoulder" and possible torn rotator cuff tendon. The solution: 6 weeks of Agonizing, Painfilled Physical Therapy 3 Times Per Week. Eek!!! But hopefully, at the end of those 6 weeks, Co-op will no longer have a one-armed Karate teacher.

Must end this now...kids are spinning around (and around and around) in a chair.

Mon, Jan 21, 2008

We're on school break, but thought I'd post anyway...
Last night I pulled a blanket over my children at bedtime and hurt my shoulder. This morning I vowed to get this shoulder fixed once and for all. I visited the doctor's office, got a referral for an orthopedic specialist, and then visited them in person to set up an appointment. Tomorrow I go see the orthopedic specialist, and boy am I excited!

The kids spent an hour or two at Grandpa's while I was at the docs. They watched Nick Jr, played Polly Pockets, and asked G'pa for a 101 different foods to try. They had a nice time and kept G'pa busy.

The 7yo is enjoying her fish so much! She feeds it 2x per day, and loves just sitting there watching it. We hosted church at our house on Sunday and she couldn't wait to show everyone her pet fish.

Weekly Review

Let's see if I can remember everything we did for the weekly report...

My 7yo learned how to write acrostic poems. I didn't think she was interested in this until I found a piece of paper lying around where she had started an acrostic using her sister's name. She has been making a To-Do list on a computer everyday. She completed her first "formal" spelling test and scored 100%. She just started learning to add tens in Math (30 + 40 = 70) - she technically already knows how to do this but now she has a whole book to practice in.

My 5yo finished the subtraction chapter in math. We began Handwriting Without Tears Gr. 1, and we'll just see how it goes. Her pencil grip has been getting very peculiar, so we purchased pencil grips and just started learning to how use them. She is almost finished with short vowel u in Explode the Code (we've done a, i, and u so far - guess we have e and o left!) She has practiced reading the book "My Pet" (BJU K) - which, prophetically enough, has a little girl that gets a pet fish.

This week had a Fish theme. If I could plan a Unit Study, I couldn't have planned a better study than what happened by pure coincidence this week. I am pretty awful at pulling off unit studies (though I really imagined that's what we would be doing). So it was an accidental unit study and it was a beautiful thing.

We studied Fish all week in Science.

We started Spelling Workout B, which has a big goldfish on the cover.

We read "My Pet", about a little girl that buys a goldfish and takes care of it.
The 7yo went to Creatures, Creatures class at homeschool co-op. They studied fish, made fish crafts, and brought home a real goldfish for a pet! My dd learned so much in the class, and she told me all about fish, and had lots of fishy questions. (see the picture of our new fish; its name is Shell). And that was our very Fishy week. Next week is vacation.

Homeschool Co-op Classes

Our homeschool co-op started up classes again this Friday. We had a great day! Here is our schedule:
Kindergartener:

• Westward Ho! (early American history)
• Puppet Theatre (I teach this one and we use fairy tales and puppets to retell stories. Then we make our own puppets)
• P.E. (Gym) for 4-5yos
• Krafty Kids (crafts using themes from holidays. Friday was Martin Luther King Jr day)
• Phonemic Fun (alphabet sounds and combining sounds into words, i.e. phonics)

2nd grader:

• Karate (I teach this one)
• Piano lessons / and then she helps me in Puppets
• Choir
• Making Wooden Toys
• Creatures Creatures (they learn about fish, snails, frogs, etc. Yesterday the kids brought a real goldfish home to take care of!)

Thurs, Jan 16, 2008

I'm falling behind in my reports! Thursday was a day full of preparation for our homeschool co-op classes, which are starting up again after the Christmas break. I also somehow injured my shoulder last spring and it has gradually been feeling worse. When I'm not busy teaching kids, going places, or feeding the family, I'm on the couch. I'm ready for surgery now, where do I sign up?

We're going to take our 1-week break next week. After the 7yo finishes her 80-page Math book, we take a 1-week break (its called "motivation"). She finished Developmental Math book 3, but waited a week before taking our break.

On Thurs, the kindergartener practiced reading "My Pet". She completed 2 pages of Explode the Code. She did a great job with subtraction in math, and applied subtraction to money (pennies). We've also been working on counting by 5s to 50 - she is able to do this as long as she has the number chart to look at.

The 7yo did 3 pages of Developmental Math 4, which involved adding ones (3 + 4) and then applying that to adding tens (30 + 40). One page was a drill page. She did 1 page of Write About Me; she had to write about the city and the country. We finished our Grammar lesson on Wed, so we won't start a new rule until we come back to school. She finished the cursive i page in Handwriting Without Tears. She did a great job in spelling - she took her test and got all the words right! This was our first week of real, "formal" spelling. She has been reading Bible Devotionals for AWANA and doing wonderful with these. She also reads the prayer and the question and writes her own answers.

Wed, Jan 16, 2008

Our day:

Kindergartener:

• We re-did our math worksheet from 2 days ago and did much better. She understands it now.
• Homemade handwriting worksheet. Need to work on pencil grip. Normally I don't worry too much about pencil grip, but this one is warping into something unusual. We made a pencil-grip bracelet and the 5yo had fun trying it out.
• Explode the Code - 2 pages, included reading sentences.
• Book 6 BJU K "My Pet", word cards and consonant digraphs (th, ch, sh)
• Counting by 5s to 50 on the number chart. I think she's got the hang of it!

2nd grader:

• Math 2 page Unit A Test - scored 100%
• Reading - read our devotional for AWANA & wrote an answer to their question.
• Spelling - 1 page of Spelling Workout B, took a pre-test
• Grammar - 1 page, capitalizing weekdays, months, & holidays
• Composition - 1 page Write About Me, "something you see at school". She wrote about her sister.
• Handwriting - finished the cursive y page, started the cursive i page
• Computers / Word Processing / Writing - she has been making a To-Do list on the computer every day, using a word processing program to change fonts and using bullet points.

Other:

• AWANA night - they did an "Injury" theme, the kids decorated themselves with bandaids.
• History - Townhouse in N.Europe, Dutch Merchant Houses
• Science - read about fish from the Children's Encyclopedia
• Literature - chapter 2 of Twenty and Ten
• Bible - Samuel, the Israelites want a king. Also our devotional for AWANA

Wordless Wednesday

Tues, Jan 15, 2008

The kids got to see the voting process. There has been much discussion lately about voting and those running in the primaries.

Kindergartener:

• We skipped the workbook and made subtraction problems on paper and with manipulatives. We skip-counted by 5s and learned about nickels.
• Big sis worked with her on BJU K book 6 "My Pet", and they worked on two new sight words (orange, love), and consonant digraphs "th, ch, sh".
• Explode the Code - 2 pages, short vowel u words
• Handwriting: homemade handwriting page of magic c letters

2nd grader:

• Developmental Math Book 4 - this book, so far, is extremely easy, so we did most of Unit A orally. She completed the last 2 pages of Unit A on her own.
• Handwriting: finished the cursive y page
• Grammar: 1 page of capitalizing proper nouns - weekdays, months, & holidays.
• Spelling: 1 page of Spelling Workout B
• Reading: Bible Devotional
• Composition: 2 pages of Write About Me - word banks of descriptive words

Other:
Science: several pages about where fish live (fresh water, coral, deep water)
History: Viking Long House, Medieval Castles
Bible: Samuel
Literature: at bedtime we'll start Twenty and Ten

Mon, Jan 14, 2007

Today was Homeschool P.E. Day! We went bowling with other homeschoolers in the area.

Kindergartener:

• Math: 2 pages of subtraction, using pictures and crossing them out. She didn't "get" it, so we dusted off ye olde teacher's manual and did some hands on activities from the book.
• Explode the Code: 2 pages, short vowel "u".
• Handwriting: wrote some words in her Handwriting Without Tears workbook. She finished the Kindergarten book today!

2nd grader:

• Math: started Developmental Math Book 4 (Tens), did 4 extremely easy pages.
• Grammar: 1 page, learning to capitalize Days of the Week, Months of the Year, & Holidays. Asked the very difficult question to answer, "What is Kwanza?" I have no idea...I've read about this and I still don't know what it is.
• Composition: We learned how to write about our five senses. She got a piece of chocolate so that she could write about something she tasted.
• Handwriting: 1/2 page of cursive letter "y".
• Spelling: began week 1 of Spelling Workout B. I'm hoping this is easier than making up my own spelling, like I was doing before.

And of course:
P.E.: bowling

Weekly Report

Both girls worked on subtraction in math. The 7yo just has the Unit C test to complete and then she will be finished with Developmental Math Book 3. The 5yo is also learning to count by 5s.


The 5yo has finished short vowels a and i in Explode the Code, and just started short vowel u words. She is 1 page away from finishing Handwriting Without Tears K. She has learned to read 2 BJU K easy readers. The 7yo has been reading and answering her own Bible devotionals for AWANA. She completed the Grammar lessons on capitalizing first letters in the names of specific places. She is wrote about her favorite things to do in Write About Me. Write About Me has been her least favorite book - she enjoyed it when I let her fill it in late at night in bed. Once it became "schoolwork", it lost its luster, and no amount of late nights spent with the book can bring back that initial love for the book.


We are almost finished with Week 12 of our Sonlight Core C books.
In History, we finished reading about the dress and fashions throughout history (this was both girls' favorite topic!) We began Houses and Homes of Living Long Ago, and learned how first man, Egyptians, and Romans lived. In science, we are learning about Fish. For Literature, we finished reading The Family Under the Bridge, which had a happy ending.

Photos: (top) the 5yo doing math with her fuzzy puppy toy on her lap. (bottom) The 7yo laughing at her sister being goofy while doing her math.

Friday, Jan 11, 2008

Kindergartener:

• 1 page in math (subtraction)
• 3 pages in Explode the Code - short vowel "u"
• BJU K Book 5 "Colors", th, ch, the, mother, a

2nd grader:

• 2 pages in math: multiple answer word problems
• 1 page in Grammar (capitalizing first word in specific places)
• 1 page in Write About Me, "My Favorite Place"
• 1/2 page of handwriting, cursive "u"
• piano lessons

Other:

• Timeline - added Samson & Ruth
• Bible: finished story of Ruth
• History: Roman houses
• Science: Fish eggs & babies

Deer were here.

Here are some very poorly focused photos of deer in our yard. They were closer, but our very fierce guard dog scared them away. Poodles can be intimidating. Or not...these deer stared her down for awhile and then kept on munching on the grass.

Here are deer prints in our driveway.

Thurs, Jan 10, 2008

The 7yo found this rather large leaf outside when we went for a walk. The 5yo fell and skinned her knees, so that was the extent of our "Charlotte Mason" experience. We measured our leaf & took photos.

The girls learned a new (uh, I mean old) game called Senet. It is a replica of an Ancient Egyptian board game. We finished off our study of Ancient Egyptian homes with the board game.

This month in AWANA, the kids are having quiet Bible devotional time, which of course, requires my involvement. The 7yo has already read the first 2 devotionals by herself and filled in her answers. Both girls have had very insightful answers about who God is.

Kindergartener:
Math: 1 page of math & counting by 5s
Reading: read BJU K book 5 "colors". New sight words this week are "the, mother, a".
Explode the Code: 2 pages, which ends our lesson on short vowel i words.

2nd grader:
Math: 4 pages involving adding/subtracting zero.
Grammar: 1 page - capitalizing specific names of places
Composition: Write about your favorite place
Reading: the AWANA devotionals, she already found & read Psalm 19:1 from the 3rd grader Bible.
Piano: Finger Power, practiced We Three Kings, did Theory workbook

Other:
History: Homes in Ancient Egypt, game of Senet
Science: How fish find mates, make nests, and lay eggs. Nature walk.
Bible: started the story of Ruth & Bible devotional

Wed, Jan 9, 2008

We took "field trips" to the chiropractor, grocery store, and post office. I keep trying to teach the kids that .99 cents is closer to $1, but it isn't sinking in. Hence, our grocery store visits are filled with, "but Mom, its only $4!" to which I say, "Its $4 and 99cents. 99 cents is closer to a dollar, so its closer to $5." And then there was this comment today, "Let's buy shrimp! It's only $10!" Everything seems cheap when you're a kid.

My 7yo, upon arriving home, wanted the experience of making her own peanut butter. So she shelled a handful of peanuts and we stuck it in the blender with some oil. It worked, but no one was real interested in eating peanut butter. So that was our science experiment for the day.

The kindergartener had a minor case of tourette's syndrome, or obsessive compulsive behavior (not sure which), and we just couldn't get through the lesson without her repeating "ail, ail, ail". Finally, she went into another room, closed the door, and said "ail" to her heart's content. Fortunately, that is out of her system now. Even so, I kept our day short.

So here's the run-down (I almost wrote "fun-down". I'm not sure if it was really fun enough to be called a "fun-down"):

Kindergartener:
Math: 1 page of math (subtraction and counting by 5s)
Reading: re-read BJU book 3, sight words mother, the, here, is, a.
Explode the Code: Here is where our "ail"-ment began, inspired by some mispronounced word on the page. We muddled through 1 page and that's enough for today.

2nd grader:
Math: 1 drill page of subtraction. We're almost done with this book. (chanting: I think I can, I think I can...)
Reading: she read thru the next BJU K book in the series, including the teacher's part.
Handwriting: 8 words in cursive
Composition: My favorite season
Grammar: capitalizing the first letter in specific names of places

Other:
science: colors of fish, home-made peanut butter
history: Living Long Ago, first man's home
Bible: Samson (the 7yo was fascinated and had many questions)

Wordless Wednesday

Tues, Jan 8, 2008

Kindergartener:
Math: oh, I think she whipped through about 5 pages of subtraction and I said, "slow down!" but she wanted to keep going.
Reading: read through BJU K book#4 (Blue or Green), sight words "here, is, the, mother". She likes making sentences out of her sight words. Review of "th" sound.
Explode the Code: 2 pages, short vowel i and a words
Handwriting: 2 pages, n and m.

2nd grader:
Math: 3 pages - 2 pages about subtracting 0, 1 drill page.
Grammar: 1 page, capitalizing names
Handwriting: 1 page - change 8 print words into cursive words.
Composition: 1 page of Write About Me, she had to write about the weather. I let her do this on computer and then I printed off her answer and pasted it in the workbook.

Other:
Literature: finished The Family Under the Bridge
History: Living Long Ago - what people wear around the world
Science: How fish eat
Bible: Abimelech makes himself king of the Israelites, birth of Samson

Romped around outside in the mud, while trying not to get muddy!

Mon, Jan 7, 2008

I had dr appts & errands this morning. The kids worked independently on schoolwork while Daddy worked from home. The 7yo taught the 5yo, and they both did a great job!

Kindergartener:
Math: 2 pages - just started subtraction (which we already know informally, but now its official)
Explode the Code: 2 pages - matching vowel sounds to words and matching same words to each other.
Handwriting: several pages. She accidentally skipped 5 pages in the middle and then zoomed ahead and finished the rest of the book. So now we only have 5 pages left to do!
Reading: BJU K book 4 (Blue or Green), learned "th" sound, learned sight words "mother, the"

2nd grader:
Math: 2 pages - finished up the Unit B test - 100% yay!
Grammar: 1 page - Capitalization of Proper Names.
Composition: Write About Me, My Favorite Animal. Her favorite animal was a cat because..."its cute and soft."
Handwriting: 1 full page of words in cursive.
Reading: haven't done "official" reading, but she read the teacher's parts in the BJU K reader, read instructions on her schoolwork and her sister's schoolwork, and the other day she attempted 1 1/2 pages of our novel The Family Under the Bridge.

Other:
History: finished up the fashion section of Living Long Ago - concluded with the changing fashions of 1900-1970.
Science: Book of Nature - How Fish Breath, and Fish senses (sight, sound, smell, touch, taste)
Bible: Gideon (Judges)
Literature: We've finished chapter 8 of The Family Under the Bridge.
Bible/History/Church: kids sat with me and listened to me read lots of big words as I researched the book of Jude for church - they heard a lot of stuff by the early church fathers, and my sorry attempts at reading NT Greek. The 7yo helped pick out songs for church. We cleaned the house thoroughly and hosted church at our house.

The Weekly Report - Jan 1-4

We had lots of fun in our 12" or more of snow!! Lots of sledding and snow adventures...

We drank a lot of hot cocoa, and did a lot of reading (listening) by the warm fireplace. We read Five True Dog Stories, and 4 chapters of The Family Under the Bridge. We've had a few snuggly nappy days - after reading our stories, we took an afternoon nap!

We're learning about Fish in science, and Fashion in history. We're reading stories about the judges in the Bible, and seeing history repeat itself as the Israelites cycle through forgetting about God, living through tribulation, remembering the Lord, and worshipping Him once again.

The kindergartener is nearing the end of Handwriting Without Tears K. She has learned 2/3rds of the lowercase letters, but will continue to need practice in these. She has learned short vowel a and i words in Explode the Code. She is learning sight words and working to identify these words in stories and everyday life. In Math, she has completed a study of numbers through 100. She practiced counting by 10s and 1s.

The 2nd grader continued practicing subtraction. 1-2 more weeks and she will have finished Book 3 of Developmental Math. We began adding in 1 larger math problem per day. She has been applying her adding and subtraction skills to very practical situations (storyproblems). She continues to make beautiful progress in learning cursive handwriting. In Grammar, she applied punctuation and capitalization rules to sentences. She has been writing about her favorite things in Write About Me (Composition). She has also done some personal journalling by writing about her day, and making To Do Lists.

Fri, Jan 4, 2008

Kindergartener:
Math: Cheddar's Checkup - review of counting large numbers of objects & writing them, measurement, and addition.
Reading: reviewed sight words here, is. Re-read BJU K book #3.
Explode the Code: 2 pages, short i vowel words
Handwriting: learned lowercase letter r

2nd grader:
Math: 2 pages (2 of 4 pages) of the Unit B Test on subtraction.
Grammar: 1 page - capitalization of names
Handwriting: finished the cursive words page
Composition: Write About Me 1 page, a writer's tools, and word bank

Other:
History: Living Long Ago - fashions from 1800s. The girls loved the dresses!
Science: Book of Nature - How fish move - learned how the average fish moves using its tail & fin, how seahorses, mudskippers, eels, and flying fish move
Literature: Chapter 4 of Family Under the Bridge (read Chapter 3 last night before bed), read 4 chapters of Five True Dog Stories and finished that book.
Bible: Gideon (judges)
Health: kids saw Mom get a chiropractic adjustment & saw lots of spine replicas, pictures.

Thurs, Jan 3, 2008

We had a fun & productive (& exhausting) day.

For fun, we went sledding down our big sledding hill, and pulled 2 garbage cans back down the long, winding driveway. After that, we warmed up inside with hot cocoa, while I read science. Then we snuggled on the couch, reading 2 chapters of The Family Under the Bridge. Then we took a half hour nap (except the 7yo is still sleeping & should probably wake up soon!) The 5yo cut snowflakes beside me and left them as surprises on my pillow for me to find when I woke up.

Here's the academics...
Kindergartener:
Math: 2 pages - fill in the missing numbers, counting by 1s and 10s. Counting large groups of items and putting them together (a group of 90 blocks and a group of 7 blocks is 97 blocks altogether).
Reading: Explode the Code 2 pages - short vowel i words. Reviewed sight words here, is, and re-read BJU K book #3 ("Grandpa's Bible")
Handwriting: letter p

2nd grader:
Math: 2 pages of storyproblems without my help. I think it took me longer to check her work than for her to come up with the right answers! Remind me to order the solutions guide when we get the workbook...
Grammar: 1 page in Evan-Moor; ending punctuation.
Composition: 1 page in Write About Me. Last night she did some late night journaling in bed, and then woke up and did some more journaling. She wrote her To-Do list for today and also a To-Do list for her sister.
Reading: hope to get some reading in tonight (that's what bedtime is for!)
Handwriting: practice writing some words on smaller lines in cursive
Spelling: waiting for Spelling Workout workbook to arrive in the mail - so spelling break this week.

Other:
History: Living Long Ago - what the French wore 200-300 years ago, the French Revolution (and how it affected fashion)
Science: the 3 kinds of fish (bony fish, sharks & rays, lamphreys), and sea creatures that are NOT fish (whales, dolphins. starfish, cuttlefish, jellyfish, crayfish)
Literature: 2 chapters of The Family Under the Bridge
Home ec: working on cleaning our house for church on Sunday (we're hosting it here)

Wed, Jan 2, 2008

Yesterday, the kids went sledding with Daddy. Today, Daddy and the kids cut snowflakes out of paper, went sledding, and made a snow fort. We'll miss Daddy when vacation is over!

We also got some schoolwork accomplished:
Kindergartener:
Math: filled in the missing numbers on a number chart to 100.
Reading: Explode the Code 2 pages (today she wanted to surprise Mama by working alone and then showing off how much she did by herself). We also pulled out the old BJU K materials gathering dust and read storybook 3, and learned 2 sight words: here, is.
Handwriting: copied 2 sentences (again surprising Mama) - "I like tacos. We see you."

2nd grader:
Math: 4 pages of storyproblems; she did a great job! Here is a sample problem that she was able to solve:
Pat has 7 dolls.
Pat has 3 dolls more than Mary.
Pat has 2 dolls less than Jane.
How many dolls does Mary have? How many dolls does Jane have?
Handwriting: finished the cursive f page.
Composition: 2 pages of Write About Me

Other:
History: Living Long Ago - What the Europeans Wore 400-500 years ago, what Native Americans, Puritans, & Europeans wore 300 years ago.
Literature: Dox (chapter 1) from Five True Dog Stories
Bible: Judges

Wordless Wednesday (#2)

Wordless Wednesday - UPDATE - project finished!!

Original post: WW Dec 12

The New Year List of "Probably Shoulds"...

I've fallen out of the whole "New Years Resolutions" thing. Instead, I have a half-hearted list of "Probably Shoulds". Here is my list for the New Year...

• Probably should...loose a few pounds. (Probably shouldn't gain it back!)
• Probably should...get outdoors more often.
• Probably should...assign more writing.
• Probably should...have the kids read aloud more often.
• Probably should...have regular practice times for piano and Awana verses, daily.
• Probably should...work with the 5yo on sight words.

I usually have something about housekeeping on my list of resolutions (i.e., keep up with laundry, or never go to bed with a dirty dish on the counter), but these always end up being completely unreasonable and unattainable (well, for me, anyway). So...probably should keep the house a little cleaner, but...probably won't.

Happy New Year!

Tues, Jan 1, 2008

First day of the New Year!

Kindergartener:
Math: 4 pages of math; 90-99, 100, counting dimes to 100, ways to make 100 with money.
Reading: Explode the Code 3 pages (short vowel i words). Read "Gum" from Happy Phonics that I have lying around the house.
Handwriting: we didn't do HWT K today, but practiced i's and a's in Explode the Code.

2nd grader:
Math: 1 drill page ( ___ - 3 = 5 type problems. Had to add to get the answer.)
Grammar: 2 pages about the 3 types of sentences and ending punctuation.
Reading: read 3 poems from a poetry book called "Surprises". She has also been reading a lot of Bible stories from her Beginner's Bible lately.
Handwriting: learned cursive letter "f".
Composition: choose to do 2 pages of Grammar instead of Write About Me. Writing is NOT her favorite subject:-)

Other:
Literature: Last two chapters of Light on Tern Rock.
History: Living Long Ago - what Vikings wore and what people wore in Medieval times.
Bible: Joshua dies, Israelites forget about the Lord