Weekly Review

Here is a sampler of the 5yo's work this week. She read Baby Moses, made a dragon face mask, finished Explode the Code Book 1 (Woohoo!!), learned about measurement and estimation in math, and practiced writing lowercase "a".

Here is a sampler of the 7yo's work this week. She learned about pronouns in grammar, read a variety of books from her bookshelf, learned to write cursive o and w, passed her spelling test on long i words, and finished unit C of her math book.

In addition to bookwork, we explored solids and liquids (from the 5yo's question, "what is a solid?"), created a storymap with characters, cleaned and organized the kids bedroom, read 7 chapters aloud from Dr. Dolittle, learned about travel in ancient Egypt, Rome, and China, and read about the division between Judah and Israel in the Bible. Right now, we're learning about sharing legos - but its a hard lesson to learn, and I think we may need more practice. So far, there is much crying and arguing. Sometimes I think math is easier to teach (of course, we have our days when math isn't so easy, either).

We have a homeschool co-op day coming up. I think we have had a full week!

Wed, Feb 27, 2008

Here is a mermaid fairy princess for my 5yo. It's not my personal taste for mermaids, but thought I'd share it anyway. The 5yo wanted the tail to be one fin (instead of the typical 2 fins), with a dress over top of the tail, and long sleeves. And wings. I think wings on a mermaid are rather silly, but she likes the best of everything combined (hey, if mermaids and fairies are neat, then mermaid fairies are even better!) Click on the pic or click here to get a full size for printing (if you happen to like mermaid fairies, and don't think its too silly).

5yo:
math: 2 pages, using centimeters to measure, guessing before measuring (estimating)
reading: Baby Moses
phonics: 2 pages of Explode the Code. Almost finished!
handwriting: a few words that have the letter a

7yo:
math: finished unit C test
reading: Just A Nap (by Mercer Mayer)
grammar: pronouns
spelling: 1 pg long vowel i words
handwriting: learned cursive w

both:
history: Travel in ancient China
AWANA
Dragon face masks

Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

Guess I can't post a photo like that and leave out the recipe!

The pizza stone came from Meijer for < $10.
The recipe came from the back of a box of Blue Bonnet and is simple, but one of the best choco-chip cookie recipes I've ever baked.

2 1/2 c. all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 c butter, melted & cooled
1 1/2 c brown sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 c semi-sweet choco chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine flour & baking soda, set aside.
Combine butter & brown sugar, mix well. Add in egg & vanilla extract, and mix well. Add in flour/baking soda (I like to use a sifter to make the flour fine, but it isn't necessary). Add in chocolate chips.
Drop a heaping tablespoon of dough onto cookie sheet (or pizza stone)
Bake at 350 degrees for 9-11 mins (I like to bake for 9 mins, until cookie is still mushy on the inside, but slightly firm on the outside, at the point just before browning. Yummy & gooey!)

Wordless Wednesday a la Chocolate Chip!

Tues, Feb 26, 2008

I've been trying to get rid of my perfectionistic hang-ups:) What that means is, I let the 5yo have a go at updating our timeline, which she is very eager to do. I didn't let the 7yo touch the book last year...no wonder she has some writing fears! So here it is, our timeline page. We have King David (ci'ING bavib), King Solomon (ci'ING Sulumin), and Judah and Israel Divided (joob biviz).

5yo:
Math, started new unit on measurement - today was temperature
Phonics, 2 pages Explode the Code - had fun answering yes or no to the silly questions.
Reading, BJU K book 11 "Baby Moses"
Handwriting, letter "a".

7yo:
Math, 2 pages of the Unit C test
Reading: she picked The Blueberry Bears from her bookshelf.
Grammar: 1 pg of pronouns
Spelling: 1 pg (long vowel i words)
Handwriting: finished the cursive o words page

Both:
Bible: disputes between Judah & Israel.
History: How the Romans traveled (Roman roads, etc.)
Updated our timeline.

Monday, Feb 25, 2008

Today we made a Story Map. This was a writing game from Peggy Kaye's book, Games for Writing. You draw out a map of places and then make characters to go in the places. Here we have a fairy tale kingdom, complete with castle, forest, lake, path, witch's tower, place to find fairies, bad guy lair, and houses. Our characters include princesses, queens, flying unicorns, mer-horses, a witch, fairy, and a baby. The 5yo instantly saw this as a great place to develop her stories (aka, play!) while the 7yo saw this as a game board and started developing rules. The only real downside to the assignment is getting all sides to get along and develop their ideas peaceably. But isn't that the downside to pretty much anything when you have more than 1 kid?

I began my day with therapy, therapy, therapy. More exercises, more repetitions, tougher resistance. Then, me and the kids cleaned their room. It took us from 10am-12pm to get everything cleaned up, organized, sorted, and everything in their places. The Dad came up with a plan that each kid can have their own bucket and they can pick any toy they want to go into the buckets. The rest goes in storage for the next few months. All toys will get put away into the bucket by bedtime. I think this is going to work...dads are pretty good for ideas like this.

Then we did school.

The 5yo did 2 pages of Explode the Code - words with double consonant endings (well, duck, kick, doll) and this was a little difficult because this girl is all about phonics. When she writes, it is all by sound and she doesn't copy words. I love her creative spellings and sense of writing freedom. But the end result in ETC is purely phonetic spelling. I had mixed feelings about teaching her correct "spelling" (I was so tempted to leave "kick" as "cic"). She did 2 pages in math, reviewing calendars and patterns. She wrote 4 words in handwriting.

The 7yo did 2 pages in math, with number sentences like "Ann had 3 twenty dollar bills. Ron had 1 fifty dollar bill and 3 ten dollar bills. Who had less money? How much less?" She is really good at these, but it was hard at first figuring out who had what. At one point, she was trying to figure out how much "bill" had. But we both read it over several times and got it all straightened out, and once she understood who had what, she came up with the answer easily. She started on spelling lesson 8 (long i words), and finished up contractions in grammar. She did half of a page on cursive o in handwriting.

We are taking 2 weeks to read Sonlight's week 17 material, due to 2 short weeks of school (2 co-op weeks in a row, and another day we missed last week). We are ahead in science because the 7yo read all of the assignments aloud. Today in Bible, we read about Jeroboam and Rehoboam (talk about confusing!!). In History (living long ago) we read about travel in Ancient Egypt.

Weekly Review

Today we had homeschool co-op classes - FINALLY!! After having 2 cancellations in a row due to snow days and unexpected events, our co-op was back in the swing of things today. I haven't heard the everything from the kids yet (details will slowly come out over the next few days), but here a few things we learned:

• the choir girls don't like "boy" songs (a boy song is any song sung by a boy).
• the 5yo really likes to jumprope and didn't want to give it up at the end of class
• the 5yo also likes to make big elaborate crafts and wants to finish her projects.
• 7yos get embarrassed by doing karate in front of other people (they're afraid they'll do it "wrong") but somehow its much better when you can share that embarrassment with a friend or two:)
• the Moms are reading & studying a book called Lies Homeschooling Moms Believe by Todd Wilson - and I think we are all learning and soaking in those wonderful, encouraging words!

This week I've been learning...

There's more to life than school books. In fact, that's a teeny tiny minute little speck of our lives.

My own kids' learning struggles seem to be really common (and normal!), but you won't find that out by looking at the school books:) And the school books probably aren't going to fix it, either.

My 7yo seems to know how to multiply (on the way to co-op this morning, she asked - "how many days until we buy sandals?" and I said, "3 months, so what's 30 times 3?" and she said "90". Cool!!)

What we focused on this week:

7yo - Reading Amelia Bedelia and our science books, Subtracting tens in math, compound words and contractions in grammar, long vowel A (a_e, ai) words in spelling, and tow truck letter o in cursive.

5yo - Reading "The Three Cats" with different voices, money in math, short vowel review in Phonics, and letters v, w, and t in handwriting.

Both: mammals in science (had a great day learning about Sugar Gliders, and now we want one as a pet! LOL), travel in history, Solomon in the Bible, reading Dr. Dolittle for our read-aloud.

I found this GREAT BOOK that I'm using with the kids for Writing called Games for Writing by Peggy Kaye. We did two games this week: 1.) the game where you draw a road and they have a race to trace the road the fastest, and 2.) the maze game where you draw little lines all over the page and they make different paths from start to finish. So far, I love this book - the games are easy and short.

Developmental Math - Part 2 - Good news!!

Yesterday, I wrote about Developmental Math and how it is getting difficult to find certain levels. It seemed DM was going out of existence. My friend E. and I called and emailed various places trying to get more information. Afterall, I have levels 5 & 6 on order, but if we finish these two books before fall next year, we'll be out of a math program! So I needed to know my options (yes, several months in advanced, because I'm a typical worrying homeschool mom).

I received a phone call from someone at GPA Smart Store, and he gave me the good news...DM is not disappearing. Levels 7, 9, & 10 are being revised. The draft version is available for purchase from GPA Smart Store until the final books are ready.

For anyone interested in purchasing Developmental Math workbooks, you can purchase them directly from the source: http://www.gpasmartstore.com/

Developmental Math has received positive reviews from Cathy Duffy, the Well Trained Mind (not in the earlier editions), and I think it was reviewed in one of Mary Pride's books (the one that describes different curriculum for elementary? LOL). DM also seems to have a large unschooler following as well (yeah, I know... some unschoolers wouldn't call these unschoolers, "unschoolers", but I'll let you guys duke it out, OK?). It seems to work well for the independent types, the learning disabled types, and the quirky lot that nothing else seems to work for. What else can I say? So I'm glad to see it isn't disappearing from the face of the earth, and I know I'm not alone...

So when are they going to come out with Developmental Reading? Or Developmental Writing? LOL.

Developmental Math

We have been using Developmental Math this year, and the plan was to continue with it. After completing the levels through 16, the student is ready for pre-algebra. DM has recently come out with levels 17-20, which includes pre-algebra, algebra and geometry. I have liked the simplicity of the series and the constant reinforcement of place value and mental math methods. The books include practical applications with money and story problems. Each workbook is 80 pages long and focuses on one topic; it stresses mastery. It is an independent, visual, self-teaching series. I have also found it easily adaptable for my social learner. Each workbook takes us about 2 months to complete (though I expect higher levels to take longer). The expectation is that the student will complete between 2-4 workbooks per year (the advice I've read on this varies...)

The problem, now, is that sellers of the DM series do not currently have higher levels in stock. We are finishing book 4, and will need book 5 in another 2-3 weeks. I just ordered books 5 & 6, which are fortunately in stock. I am not sure how available levels 7 & 8 are. I do know that levels 9 and up are nowhere to be found. One distributor said some levels have been on backorder for over a year!! The publisher is apparently having some problem, but no one seems to know what it is.

So...my current math plan: go through levels 5 (adding/subt'ing tens & ones) and 6 (adding with regrouping) until we finish them. This may take us through the summer, and into fall (not sure yet - it is very much an "at your own pace" sort of program). Whenever we finish book 6, I'll be calling around to find out if levels 7 & 8 are readily available. If not, I'll have to find a new math program. The trouble is that DM has its own unique progression, and we may not be so easily compartmentalized into a "grade level". At that point, I'd probably have to pick a program I like and give a placement test.

Wordless Wednesday

One word: Coracles!
(even though it looks like trash bags floating on water)

Tues, Feb 19, 2008

Today we read about primitive forms of traveling in Living Long Ago. We made coracles out of pipe cleaners and plastic bags. Then we floated them in the bathroom sink. The 7yo read to everyone from Usborne's First Book of Nature. We're studying Mammals. The girls instantly fell in love with the "Sugar Glider" which led us on an Internet pursuit. We watched a Sugar Glider video, saw photos, read about the care of Sugar Gliders, and made a Sugar Glider kite. I also made a Sugar Glider Coloring Page (do you know how hard it is to find Sugar Glider coloring pages online?) The 5yo wanted to name it "Zoey", named after someone's sugarglider on their web site.
Here's what we accomplished today:

5yo

Math: 2 pages, money (1 nickel = 5 pennies, 1 dime = 2 nickels, or 10 pennies, etc.)

Reading: The Three Cats, this time we used different voices for each of the characters.

Phonics: 2 1/2 pages of Explode the Code (finishing up on short vowel o, starting on review)

Handwriting: upper & lowercase T

7yo

Math: finished up our drill pages, finished a number sentence page, 1 story problem page

Reading: she read our Science lesson for today, also has been reading all the Amelia Bedelia books we could find at the library.

Handwriting: cursive review

Grammar: started Contractions

Spelling: 1 page of Lesson 7

Other:

Bible: Solomon

History: primitive travel

Science: Mammals (& our off-shoot study of Sugar Gliders)

Monday, Feb 18, 2008

Follow the Cheerio Trail...
Today I put our sight word flashcards out in a path for the 5yo. The goal is to be a frog and hop down the flashcard path until you get to the "Splash" card at the end. The 5yo liked this so much that she insisted on doing the path again, but with a chocolate at the end. Realizing she couldn't keep getting chocolate, she wanted to do the path again, but with Cheerios. So here she is, making her own trail of Cheerios on the floor and then "hopping" to each one and eating it:) This is not something I would typically encourage.

As for me: started the day with a nice long grueling physical therapy session. The therapist measures my progress every 2 weeks, and today my measurements did show progress. However, it is pretty clear that I won't be 100% in the next 2 weeks, and will probably need another 6 weeks of therapy. Looks like I'm in it for the long haul.

We managed a library trip today, but haven't finished our science/history/Bible (and piano) for the day. Its 5:30pm, so not sure how much more we'll fit into the day!

5yo

Math: introduced to Quintley Quarter, and practiced recognizing coins. Also practiced listening to story problems and drawing them on paper.

Reading: BJU book 10 "The Three Cats" (its a silly version of The Three Bears). Practiced flashcards by hopping down the path.

Phonics: 2 pages of Explode the Code (short vowel o)

Handwriting: lowercase letter t

7yo

Math: practiced solving for unknown and writing number sentences

Handwriting: review of cursive letters

Grammar: last page of compound words

Spelling: lesson 7 (long vowel a words), 1 pg & created our page in the spelling notebook

Weekly Report Part 2

Here are some photos from our Friday (left out of our weekly reviews).
Compound words cut/pasted onto hearts for Valentines Day
Spelling words - 100%
Alteration to our Freeze Tag Explode the Code: on the word "freeze!" I put a heart around the one we were working on.
Probability in math
We made Valentines cards for eachother. This one was made by my 7yo.

Stumped by math

Today, in the midst of our Developmental Math 4 drill pages, I stopped and called my friend, E. It was a simple, solve for unknown type of problem, but the more we did them, the more confused I was getting. First, the problem was set up like this -

50=40 - __ and 50 = ___ - 40.

And I'm used to horizontal math problems being set up like this -

40 - __ = 50 and ___ - 40 = 50

And so, I was stumped faster than you can say "dyslexic". Especially since I noticed some problems could have 2 right answers (90-40=50 and 50 - 10 = 40) but since the numbers were turned around, I couldn't figure out which way was up:) Fortunately for me, E. had already been thru DM 4 and could tell me that the largest number had to always be in the middle, otherwise, you'd have a negative number situation. Where the biggest confusion came for me is that on one page, where 50 = 40 - ___, you had to subtract 40 from 50 to get 10 (50 = 40 - 10). But on the other page, where 50 = ___ - 40, you had to add 50 and 40 together to get 90 (50 = 90 - 40). I decided to assign a small chunk of both drill pages for each day next week, so that Mom and Daughter can both get the hang of it before the unit test. I began to remember the quirky math methods we learned in 7th grade:
50 = x - 40

50 = x - 40
+40 = +40

90 = x

I'm amazed that we (in the general sense) are teaching our young kids the same concepts we learned as pre-teens. I'm also amazed that a 7yo can catch on to the concept much faster without all the "procedure" that I was taught.

Weekly Report

Photo descriptions:
The 7yo & I built "Snow Granny".
The kids worked on their projects that they bought from the AWANA store (a butterfly canopy to go over the bed, and a wooden planter that you build and paint).
For Valentines Day, we used a heart theme - the girls worked together to make an Opposites (Antonyms) poster.
We made cupcakes for Valentines Day.
The 7yo put her spelling words on hearts and then we taped them together to make a crown.

Non-photo accomplishments:

• I made it through 3 physical therapy sessions this week
• We studied birds in science
• We studied food in America and Europe for history (Living Long Ago)
• We're reading about David in the Bible
• We finished reading Dolphin Treasure & the 7yo read the last chapter
• made a Valentine for the contest at AWANA, my 7yo won a prize.
• We brought a friend to AWANA
• We made cookies, cleaned the house, and limited our commitments outside the house this week.

5yo:

• practiced writing c, o, s, and v this week (w tomorrow)
• read "In the Tub" (BJU K book 9)
• finished short vowel e words and started short vowel o words in Explode the Code
• learned how to count nickels, dimes, and pennies in math

7yo:

• learned r and s in cursive handwriting
• read Fire Cat, a portion of Owl at Home (didn't like), and Amelia Bedelia (and enjoyed it)
• will finish Lesson 4's spelling words tomorrow with a final quiz
• practiced subtracting tens drill and writing number sentences
• learned about verbs and compound words in grammar

Wed, Feb 13, 2008

I need a break! So I'm taking one. There was a great speaker at one of our homeschool support meetings that took the occasional "Mental Health Day" from school and cleaned her house. That is our day in a nutshell. I'm exhausted. I went to bed at 2am (due to computer technical difficulties), got up at 6:30am, went through physical therapy until 9am, then came home and hauled wood to heat our home. I felt a good deal of pain in my shoulder (no surprise there), took a short nap, got up and cleaned.

Today at our local public schools was Count Our Kids day. Despite several inches of snow and slippery road conditions, the buses were out carting kids to school. I understand. The kids MUST be counted, and the schools must get money for their number of children. I will count my kids today, too. Give me a minute...1, 2. Ok, 2. I have 2 kids at my school. There, they've been counted.

Last night the kids made a special Valentine to take to AWANA tonight. The 7yo's friend is going to AWANA with her so she can earn her green jewel. I think they will have a lot of fun. All two of my students are excited and keep bugging, I mean "asking", when the friend will get here.

There is no Wordless Wednesday today. Because I don't feel like it. Its my Mental Health Day.

Tues, Feb 12, 2008

Last night, the 5yo fell asleep during our read-aloud, "Dolphin Treasure". I finished reading chapter 5, and said I would finish reading tomorrow, when lil' sis was awake to enjoy it. The 7yo wasn't too pleased with this idea, but nonetheless went to sleep anyway with a minimal amount of complaining:) This morning, when the 7yo came downstairs, she handed me the book and said, "I just finished reading it, but can you read it again?" What?!!!??? So I said, "you read chapter 6?" and she said, "yes". Well, I'm rather doubtful at this, because the 7yo is just sort of getting her toes wet on this reading adventure, and she's not so sure she wants to dive in. She told me how it ended (but of course, I'm thinking, "well that was predictable" and still having doubts). I did read it, and she did know some of the details before I read them, so it is possible that she actually read chapter 6 by herself. Hmmm...wow...

In a desperate attempt to get outside and bring in some wood for burning, I let the kids start a project. The bad thing about this is - if you give a kid a project, he'll want you to help him...It turns into one of those "if you give a mouse a cookie" sort of things, and before you know it, you are the one doing the project. So that was my afternoon - bringing in wood, putting sparkles on the 5yo's butterfly project, and hammering nails into the 7yo's planter project. And we also made oatmeal no bake cookies.

5yo (taught by the 7yo today):
Math: 2 pages of BJU, nickels & dimes cut & paste
Explode the Code: finished short vowel e, started short vowel o. Guess we're almost done with book 1. Yikes. Need to place an order soon.
Reading: 2nd reading of "In the Tub".

7yo:
uh, finished reading chapter 6 of Dolphin Treasure?
Math: groaned through 1 page of drill. Ugh. Subtracting tens.
Reading: we never finished The Fire Cat because it was very easy for her and we ran out of time. She insisted on finishing this today.
Grammar: started compound words
Spelling: 1 page of spelling workout, had to write a sentence. Instead I made up the sentence and dictated it to her (she really struggles with coming up with sentences and then writing them).
Handwriting: finished cursive letter s page. She thinks s's are pretty weird.

Monday, Feb 11, 2008

Me: early morning physical therapy. Added some new exercises.

5yo:
Math: I made stickers with different prices on it, and she figured out the change in nickels and dimes.
Phonics: 2 pages of Explode the Code
Handwriting: lowercase "o" (magic c letter)
Reading: new book - BJU K book 9 "In the Tub", new word: "come"

7yo:
Math: finished the other half of the drill page, 1 page of number sentences.
Handwriting: learned cursive "s", tried to figure out how to write her full name in cursive
Spelling: we made a spelling notebook today
Grammar: finished Verbs - she wrote 3 verbs & drew pictures, then wrote 3 sentences
Reading: Owl at Home by Arnold Lobel. This is a Sonlight Core 2 reader. She HATES Arnold Lobel books. Arnold Lobel writes the popular Frog & Toad books. She hates these too. Oh dear - probably 1/4th of our SL Core 2 readers are Arnold Lobel books! We took turns reading; not because the text was hard for her, but because she really did not want to read these. Hopefully later this week we can get to the library and find some books that fit her level/interests a little better. On the other hand, sometimes its just a good thing to broaden your horizons - go outside your interest zone a little bit:) We had a good conversation about personification from the Owl at Home book.

Both:
Science: birds nests and eggs
History: Food in the New World
Bible: King David
Literature: we've been reading through Dolphin Treasure at bedtime

Weekly Report

Freeze Tag game: got this from Handwriting Without Tears Cursive. Don't laugh, its really rather dumb, but the kids love it. We use it with Explode the Code. I was actually going to skip over this activity and just do handwriting, but the 7yo saw the directions and said, "hey Mom, we're supposed to play Freeze Tag", so then we had to do it! Basically, your child swings their pencil in a circle around the page. Then you say "Freeze!" and they stop their pencil over top of the page. Wherever their pencil lands, that's the one they do. You do this until every one on the page has been completed. For ETC, my 5yo moves her pencil up and down (instead of around and around). She loves it. I have to remind her to go slow at the end so that I can time my "freeze!" over top of the few remaining.
This week in science, we learned about birds - colors, songs, mating rituals. Our read-aloud was Dolphin Adventure, which the kids were thrilled with (it involved a dolphin family, and the baby was hurt. The dolphins approached a diver and "asked" for his help). It was a true story! Next week we'll read a sequel called Dolphin Treasure - this one isn't true, but is based upon the author's experiences with diving and dolphins. The kids can't wait! In history, we learned about the foods different cultures ate: Egypt, Rome, Vikings, and Medieval times. In Bible, we are continuing the story of King Saul and David, which the kids have really enjoyed.

The 5yo has learned all about shapes in math: 3-D shapes and finding them in every day life and patterns with shapes. We began nickels today, and reviewed place value (hundred, tens, and ones). In Explode the Code, she has been working with short vowel e words. In Reading, she read the BJU K Beginnings book called "Numbers" and got very good at this one. In Handwriting, she reviewed uppercase letters and began lowercase "c" today. We are using a pencil grip and working on using the correct pinch grip.

The 7yo has learned subtracting with tens (60-40=20). She has begun using the numberline again - she just seems more comfortable with finding the answer, rather than remembering the answer (like her mother). I've come to the realization that we could spend the next 10 years on math facts, but she just isn't going to be a "math fact" gal. But she is learning the concepts of tens and applying it well. She read through "The Fire Cat" this week for Reading and it was very easy for her. In handwriting, she learned cursive k and r. In grammar, she learned about Adjectives and started on Verbs.

Today we have piano lessons.

Thurs, Feb 7, 2008

5yo:
Math: chapter review - counting pennies, counting dimes, fill in the missing number
Phonics: Explode the Code 2 pages. We've adapted the Handwriting Without Tears "Freeze Tag" game to our ETC pages.
Handwriting: finished uppercase letter review
Reading: 4th reading of "Numbers", which I think she has memorized by now!

7yo:
Math: 1 drill page of math while pretending to be in middle school and addressing me as "Mrs". The next 4 pages are all drill...this is going to take forever! LOL.
Reading: Chapter 2 of The Fire Cat. Very easy reading for her. Now the 5yo keeps wearing a fireman's hat and pretending to be a cat.
Grammar: 1 page "Verbs"
Write About Me: thought we'd try this one again. The question was, what things do you see during your favorite holiday? She wrote "candy" and drew a picture of trick or treating.
Spelling: she decided her new words were really easy, so we just went ahead and took the test (scored 100%), and moved on to the next set of words.

Both:
History: What they ate during Medieval times
Science: Bird songs
Bible: Saul & his 3 sons die

Mini Offices

What, pray tell, is a mini office? Well, let me tell you...
I'm all about cool homeschool tricks today, so here is another one (and don't forget to peek at the post below: BJU Math Manipulatives, another cool trick).

A mini office is much like a lapbook, but where a lapbook is a way to present information learned (sort of like an interactive report), a mini office is a way to present information NOT learned, LOL. A lapbook is a finished project, but a mini office is a reference tool (like a dictionary, thesaurus, or encyclopedia, but displayed in front of your eyes).

Here are some things you might want in a mini office:

Math: addition/subtraction chart, numberline, ruler, clock with tips about how to tell time, a money chart (a penny is 1 cent, a dime is 10 cents, etc.)

Writing: a word wall with commonly used words, a reminder to start each sentence with a capital letter and end with punctuation, a punctuation guide (period, question mark, exclamation, comma, quotations - and how each is used). Story organizer. Components of a good story. Story, journal, or report ideas.

Reading: alphabet letter guide (a with a picture of an apple, etc.), digraph guide, often missed words with a picture as a clue.

History: maps, timelines, famous people

Science: measurements & conversions chart, chart of whatever you are studying at the moment.

Here are some web sites with lots of great downloads and photos about mini offices:
K-2 Printables
Mrs. Meacham's
Reagan All Star Kinderbears
Busy Teacher Cafe
Fairfield Corner Academy Blog (lots of links)
Teaching Heart

How to Store BJU Math Manipulatives

I didn't figure this out until the 2nd time around, and it has made life much easier! When you buy BJU's Math package, you get all these wonderful cardstock manipulatives.
The manipulatives go along with their stories and help the student work through math concepts in a concrete (hands-on) way. That's nice and all, but how do you store the little devils? Here's the solution! A fish tackle or tool dividing storage container. Head over to your local everything-store, or Home Depot, and pick up one of these empty storage containers. Put each little manipulative type in its own divider. Then when BJU says, "give each student 6 lady bugs and a workmat", you can easily pull forth 6 little lady bugs.

Wednesday, Feb 6, 2008

Me: Physical therapy this morning. Due to my "overdoing it", my shoulder was getting very sore. We're increasing some of the weights and resistance, but dropping some of the exercises that were causing pain (anything going across my body is out at this point, since it pinches a nerve). I also have to try hard not to take things to the point of pain (which seems so easy to do!)
5yo:
Explode the Code was going so well until a pencil accident. Somehow, the 5yo pulled a sharpened pencil out of her left hand quickly and caused a wound. Screams ensued. The end results were a cleaned wound, a band-aid, and lots of rocking in the rocking chair. The 7yo took this as a "woohoo!" moment, bounded out of her chair and had non-school related fun. Actually, this was a re-occuring theme (lots of "woohoo!" moments and seats not in chairs).

Math: 3-D shape review, pattern review (end of chapter review). I wrote for her, after the pencil accident. We kept it short.
Reading: 3rd reading of "Numbers"

7yo:
Spent a lot of time searching for things in the Children's Atlas. She used the table of contents to find what she was looking for. We read through some of the things found in South America. By the way, this was one of those rare child-led learning moments that other homeschoolers talk about:)

Math: New topic - subtracting tens. "This is easy" she says. 3 pages.
Reading: Chapter 1 of the Fire Cat. This was one of her Sonlight readers - this is definitely her "read for fun" level and not her instructional level.
Spelling: its only 3 days into our week but I felt these words were easy, so we went ahead and tested. She scored 100%. She almost got "will" wrong, and started to ask me how to spell it, but I told her to write both ways down and pick what looked right. She got it right away, without hesitation.
Grammar: Adjectives. Adjectives are hard. Especially if you only know nouns and adjectives. If *I* wrote the book, I'd have taught verbs next. But I opted for a workbook, so there you go... But she did great anyway. There were a few questions I wasn't sure of (is "lots" of something an adjective, since it denotes an amount?) I don't think I ever "got it" in school. I'm of the opinion that a person can go through life without grammar and do just fine. The only reason I actually teach grammar is so I can say we did it (you know, "checkmark, did that one on the list") I'm not really a box checking personality:) Or am I?

One more thing: the 7yo had a writing related meltdown yesterday. She wants to write but she can't spell, and she doesn't want to spell words wrong, and she doesn't want to ask Mom for every single word. So I made this Mini Office. Its not a very nice mini office (its really just a trial run mini office). I used to think Mini Offices were too "schooly". But now I think it might be just what we need. The 7yo was thrilled with her new Mini Office.

Other: In history we learned about Viking food. In science we learned about bird colors. In Bible, we're reading about David. At nighttime, we've been reading Dolphin Adventure (we finished Mary on Horseback last week).

Wordless Wednesday

Tuesday, Feb 5, 2008

5yo:
Woke up at 11am and did school dressed in her pegasus-unicorn costume.
Math: we cut symmetrical shapes out of paper. we did subtraction with ladybugs. 2 workbook pages practicing symmetrical shapes & counting by 5s.
Reading: Book 8 "Numbers" 2nd reading. Introduced the "ng" sound.
Explode the Code: 2 pages, short vowel e words
Handwriting: uppercase review

7yo:
Math: Unit B test 100%
Reading: Finished our joint reading of Pompeii...Buried Alive
Handwriting: finished cursive letter k page
Spelling: 1 page
Grammar: adjectives. Dd had to fill in the blanks with descriptive words. She had a hard time with this because she can't spell the words she wants, and this frustrates her.

She also wrote a letter to her sister this morning, addressed the envelope correctly, and gave it to her sister:)

Monday, Monday...

It's Monday, the day after Super-bowl Sunday. Need I say more?

Me: I had physical therapy this morning - I get an assessment every 6 visits. They measured my range, and there was a small increase in all directions. Pain has not decreased and strength has not increased, but we are just working on range right now. The rest will come later. I left at 7am and didn't get home until 10am. It was a rough morning and I was very tired.

The kids: One kid started the day crying and lamenting for an hour. Another ended up rolling on the floor for an hour complaining about her leg and a minor cold. It was obvious that 1 child was getting disciplined, another child was getting a dose of Ibuprofen, and all involved were getting a nap!

We are reading about Food in Living Long Ago. Today we learned about Ancient Egyptian food. We are continuing bird studies in Science; today we focused on birds' feet! In the Bible, we read about David fleeing from King Saul, fleeing from the Philistines (who wanted to capture him), and just overall having a rough time of it. My kids love David.

5yo:
Math: we practiced subtraction with pennies. We made patterns with different shapes and alphabet letters. Easy!
Reading: read through BJU Book 8 "numbers", which intimidated the 5yo at first. We pointed out the same words wherever they appeared and she did a great job for her first time through this book. The reader focused on "ck" making the /k/ sound. She also learned the sight word "has". The book used a lot of color words (but printed the color words in color, so it was easy to figure out).
Explode the Code: 2 pages, short vowel e sound. I noticed an improvement in the writing of certain letters - e and g are very well formed. We talked about the difference between b and d, and how when they face the right way, they form a "bed". So now the 5yo draws a bed on top of her bs and ds:) Of course, this "trick" has never worked for my 7yo, who can always come up with a reason why something isn't true (sooo like her mother!), but the 5yo caught on. At least for today! Tomorrow is another story, I'm sure.
Handwriting: we didn't work on handwriting since this is the point that she got up, ran around the house at top speed for awhile, and then crashed on a blanket and didn't get up for an hour. It was not conducive to good handwriting practice, so I let it slide. Even so, I think we covered handwriting in Explode the Code, so no complaints here.

7yo:
Math: 4 pages of math - simple addition with tens, and applying this to money and storyproblems. It was a simple day for math, no drill pages.
Reading: We are now working through Pompeii...Buried Alive a 2nd time through - we take turns reading, and we have switched which passages we read.
Grammar: adjectives. Oh adjectives. It was tricky, but I think she was catching on by the end.
Handwriting: learning cursive letter k. She thought this was easy.
Spelling: introduced our new words - short vowel a and i words. Lesson 3 of Spelling Workout B.

That's about all we could handle today. Then we took a nap...or rather, tried to take a nap.

Weekly Report

My accomplishments: I did 3 days of physical therapy for my shoulder this week, and have done my exercises faithfully twice a day. After therapy is over, I plan to continue my 7:30am time slot with exercise at home 3 times per week. I also have a mental list of all the things I want to do when my shoulder is better (can't wait to sleep on my left side, or have my children lean against me while we read our books - I miss these things!) My laundry is still out of control (see wordless wednesday), but I am washing 1 load per day and giving myself lots and lots of grace while I focus on getting my shoulder to work. In case your wondering, I have frozen shoulder, impingment, and possible torn rotator cuff.

Everyone: We did a lot of fun things in school this week. We made paper replicas of teepees and built a log cabin from pioneer days for history. We broadened the 7yo's reading assignment (Pompeii...Buried Alive) by creating an erupting volcano. We read about birds in science, housing from 400 years ago until today in history, and Israel's first king in Bible.

5yo: started learning about 3-D shapes in math, and we will continue this next week. She read "Good Night" 4 times this week and has it mastered. She learned 1 new sight word (his) and reviewed letter digraphs (th, ch, sh). She finished her review of capital letters in handwriting and will begin lowercase letters next week. She earned her last red jewel at AWANA and got to "buy" items at their store for completing her devotionals. She also got a new pet fish to add to our fish tank, and named it "Sea" to go with her sister's fish "Shell". She takes turns with her sister feeding the fish.

7yo: took turns reading Pompeii...Buried Alive by alternating pages with Mom. In Grammar, she learned that a noun is a person, place, or thing, and created sentences from nouns. Her sentences were all an on-going My Little Pony theme. She scored 100% on her spelling test - we will start Lesson 3's words next week. Instead of working in Write About Me, she chose to write her own riddles using descriptions. She learned cursive letter "j" in handwriting and worked through the handwriting review, which included a game of Freeze Tag. In math, she learned how to add tens (20 + 30), how to apply this to money ($50 + $20), and word/money problems (1 fifty dollar bill and 2 twenty dollar bills). She also had to solve for unknown using tens (90= 10 + __). She learned 5 verses for AWANA, completed her Bible Devotionals, and got to "buy" things at the AWANA store for her hard work.

Our homeschool co-op classes were cancelled for today due to heavy snow fall and the closing of local schools. The kids are working on putting together puzzles, running around the house, and (hopefully) will get a half day of school in, despite Mom's headache and sore shoulder.