Weekly Review

Here are some "school" photos from our week. The 7yo is shown above, working on math.
The 5yo finished her phonics and is wrecking havoc while the 7yo finishes up her English. The guinea pig was begging for attention (making "weep weep weep" noises), so she had to sit at the desk, too.

Here's what we accomplished:

7yo: had a great time with money this week in math. We did a lot with real money - comparing amounts of money to see who has more, figuring out how much money we have and if we have enough to buy things, etc. Outside of school, the kids did chores and were paid 1c per minute of work. She has been doing 2 lessons of reading each day, so that we can start 3rd gr reading in January. In English, she learned about verbs (action words), present & past tense verbs, and past tense verbs that change (tell-told, sing-sang, give-gave).

5yo: learned about fractions (halves, thirds, fourths), and about sharing. Sharing is such a hard lesson to learn! She had to figure out if she had 12 cookies to divide between 4 kids, how many would each kid get? To help with this lesson, the 5yo was our "server" in the kitchen this week and was able to divide up chicken nuggets, fish sticks, and whatever else needed to be divided amongst the family. She started spelling this week, which also includes a dictation sentence. She did a great job! In phonics/reading/handwriting, she is adding to her letters daily and adding new sight words (which she already knows anyway). It's been very easy work for her, except that the writing portions have increased.

Science: we finished up plants and have moved on to animals. We learned about lifecycles of frogs & butterflies.

History: we continue to read through Myths and Civilization of the Celts for our own enjoyment. In SOTW 2 we read about early Christianity in Europe (monasteries and making books), and we learned about the beginning of the Byzantine Empire.

The 7yo played soccer this week, despite her sore tailbone from last Thurs' park day. The 5yo scored several goals in soccer, and has really taken off with the sport! The other team was scoring all the goals, but surprisingly, the tables turned this week.

Weekly Review

We had our last Homeschool Park Day for the summer. Here are some pictures:

Z at the park yesterday - "Look, Mom, a squirrel!"

........
On top of the caterpillarThe see-saws were a big hit!
The 7yo hurt her bum at the park by jumping off of the swing (and landed wrong!) At this point in her day at the park, her bum was getting quite sore and she wasn't wanting to sit anymore.

Whhhheeeee!!!!!!

What we did this week: Soccer, AWANA, Park Day, & (hopefully) piano.

7yo: Finished Spelling Workout B (2nd grade) this week!! We've decided to not continue spelling and handwriting until we start 3rd grade Reading. Now that we have 2 less subjects, we'll double up on our Reading, and hopefully finish 2nd grade Reading before January. In Reading, she learned about maps/globes, syllable divisions for compound words, and read stories about kangaroos & koalas. In English, she learned to write a How-To paper. In Math, she is finishing up the unit on hundreds/tens and rounding to the nearest ten, nearest hundred. On her own, she read 4 Rainbow Magic Fairy books (Moonstone, Garnet, Emerald, & Topaz).

5yo: Learned how to write several more letters using Precursive. As long as I remind her how to write her letters, her handwriting looks beautiful. If I turn away, the words start looking like kindergarten print. She has been reviewing short vowel word families (CVC) and CVCC words (-eck, uck, ick, etc.) In math, she learned about fractions 1/2, 1/3, 1/4. She took a math test on telling time & scored 100% (though so far I just grade everyone's test to see how they are doing and I don't tally up everything or keep track of it).

In science, we drew pictures of the lifecycle of a plant, and identified its parts. We also dissected a bean seed and drew a picture of what we saw.

In history, we're learning about the Celtic people (pre-Christian). We've been reading some of their myths and what their life was like.

I'm hoping to get to Art today, because I would like to incorporate Art once a week, but we'll see.

Wordless Wednesday

Really real egg rolls (really!)

Before children, when I had a brain and worked in the computer industry, I discovered that computer technicians eat Chinese food. It's as sure as saying that police officers eat doughnuts and construction workers drink coffee. It just is. And the really *good* computer technicians eat spicy thai food. I wasn't quite on the spicy thai level of computer expertise. Anyhow, one of the things I miss about my computer career is the egg rolls. I can't justify the expense of eggrolls as a one income housewife buying schoolbooks for her children. I've also discovered that there are 2 distinct species of eggrolls -

Pseudo eggrolls - served in lunch lines or at all you can eat Chinese buffet, these eggrolls consist of chopped up cabbage, carrots, and a little meat. If your eggroll has mostly cabbage, carrots, or appears pink inside, it is most likely a pseudo eggroll. I don't mean to knock all you can eat chinese buffets, because they are my favorite places to eat. But the fact is: go there for a huge variety of American deep fried "chinese" food, but don't go there solely for the eggrolls.

Real eggrolls - real eggrolls are expensive and can be ordered from a real sit down or take out chinese food restaurant. You can tell a real eggroll by the crunchy brown exterior, the steam that spirals upward when the roll is bit into, and the soft beansprouts and pieces of shrimp that fall out onto your plate. Mmmmm... Notice that you won't find large portions of finely chopped cabbage or carrots. In my computer days, real eggrolls could be purchased for $1.50 or more *per eggroll*, and if you're having a real eggroll, you want at least 2 of them. I've discovered a way to sort of make a real eggroll for far, far less, and to make enough of them to feed an army. In fact, I like having them cold for breakfast. Ok, here it is:

1 can of the chop suey stuff, minus the meat (I think the meat would make it too wet to put in eggrolls. Key thing here is: keep it dry! You can always add leftover chicken, pork, or splurge on some shrimp)

1 package of egg roll wraps

Oil & a pan (or deep fryer)

Open your can of chop suey (it should be mostly bean sprouts with some veggies included). Drain can. Heat in a pan on the stove. Open your egg roll wraps and lay a few out on a dry table. Put a tablespoon of heated chop suey in the center of each roll. Fold in the sides, wet the seams with a little bit of water on your finger, bring up the bottom, and roll to the top - seal with a dab of water (instructions for folding will be on your egg roll wrap package). Heat up a pan of oil (or heat up your deep fryer). Fry on each side in the pan, or put in the deep fryer until nicely brown and crunchy. Remove and drain on a paper towel. Wait until cool enough (it will be hot!) and enjoy. Eat this with your favorite sweet-sour sauce, or make your own sauce. We like to mix soy sauce with honey, or maple syrup, or brown sugar - and then dip our egg rolls in the sauce as we eat it.

Viola! Cheap! And almost like the real thing (at least closer than the all you can eat places serve).

Weekly Review

A few days late...our Weekly Report.

Me: plugging away at that 96-page web site. The rough draft is almost finished. Hope to finish that today this week.

Kids: The kids had soccer, AWANA, and the first day of our homeschool co-op. The 7yo was relieved to that T&T (AWANA for 3rd-6th gr) was not as hard as she imagined. She was surprised that it was just like Sparks (for K-2nd gr), and that most of the kids in her class were new to T&T, too! Co-op was a lot of fun! The 5yo brought home 4 worms in a bucket and created a little compost environment. We have to feed it gross stuff and keep watering it. And of course, we adopted Penny the Guinea Pig into our family.

In all the excitement, we did the bare minimum for Math and Language Arts (but still got a lot done!) The 7yo is on Week 35 in 2nd grade Spelling, with 1 week left to go! She learned about homonyms (to/too/two, write/right, etc.). She wrote a how-to paper called How to Make Birdnest Cookies for English. In Math, she's learning about tens and hundreds (384 - what's ten more? ten less? one hundred more? one hundred less? What is greater - 872 or 869? Skip counting by 100s to 1000). The 5yo is way ahead of her schoolwork in reading skills, but is learning a lot in handwriting. The 5yo learned about telling time (1hr, 30min increments), and calendars.

We did not use our textbook for science and our plant experiments were sadly ignored. But we did lots of science on our own, if you want to count - getting a guinea pig, setting up a home for it, reading guinea pig care books, taking a trip to the pet store and learning about fish, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals, and creating a compost environment for 4 worms.

History didn't happen either, but you could count the 7yo's American History class at co-op, the large assortment of dinosaur books that the kids brought home from the library (history or science?), and the wierd discussions we've been having lately about evolution (which is another science or history category). We also watched portions of a documentary on 9-11, which is an important part of OUR history, as Americans. And, last of all, the 7yo watched Anne of Green Gables several times through for her co-op class (Movie Night), and seems to really like it. So. there. Lots of history!

And now this weekly review is over and just in time for next week's weekly review!

Meet "Penny"

Name: Penny Cloud

Birthdate: August 1, 2008

Age now: 6 weeks tomorrow

Type: English Guinea Pig, brown and white

Penny is our pet project for Co-op. Penny left her home and left her tan/white Abyssinian guinea pig sister to come live with us. I am sure she will miss her sister! So far, she is thrilled to have her own hide-out. She did not have a hide-out at her last home. She makes cute little squeeky noises - loud squeals when she is upset, and adorable little hummy squeeks when she is happy. It has been very difficult for us to leave her alone in her hidey-hole, because she is so nice to hold and fun to play with. Good thing we have co-op, and she can have the whole day to settle in, without us poking at her. We're looking forward to learning more about her, taking care of her, and sharing what we learn with the co-op class.

Note: for guinea pig enthusiasts and animal rights activists - Penny has a nice spacious cage with pink fleece lining, and Aspen wood shavings. So, no warnings necessary about the evils of cedar - thanks!

Ahhhh!!!! Busy!

This week is going to be an exceptionally busy week. We have every hope of doing school, and fitting in everything else, too! Here's what I've got going:

• A large project for our home business - a 96-page web site!
• Our first homeschool monthly parent support group meeting (which I organized and need to attend, but it will be good for me, too...)
• An errand day, taking me in several directions.
• A mid-week soccer game
• 1st night of AWANA (and I promised my 7yo that I would spend the 1st 2-weeks with her in her T&T class)
• We need to go buy a guinea pig and make a home for him/her.
• Our first day of co-op (need to prepare for the class I'm teaching)
• A weekend soccer game

Weekly Review

One of these days, I'll start adding pics to make it a little more exciting. Text is sooo boring, don'tcha think?

Me: I'm currently reading Jane Austen's Mansfield Park, and I have to say...it's holding my attention in ways I've never known a Jane Austen novel to do. Maybe I'm just catching on to her manner of speech. So, if I describe my children as "hallooing" about, or inverting my sentences, or taking on a British accent, then you know its gone too far.

Kids:
In science, we put a plant in a shadowbox, put one in a paper bag, and of course, stuck one in the light. We'll see the results next week. We planted bean seeds, and I kept my patience while dirt was dropped all over the floor and the entire planting project overturned. ((gritting my teeth)) "yes, we love doing science projects!!"

In history, we read Chapter 1 in Story of the World 2, about the fall of Rome. I realized instantly that I was supposed to order books from the library in order to add to our studies. Oh well. So we read chapter 1, colored a map of Rome at its largest point, and I took narrations. This is the first time in 2 years since I've taken narrations, and I have to say - 1. my standards are much lower now, and 2. it went a lot better than last time. Later, we had a good laugh over the narrations, because it was rather comical.

Math: My dear, poor 7yo finished her unit on Subtraction with Renaming (ahem, borrowing). Yes, she is to be pitied, because subtraction with renaming is just...so...long, boring, and tedious. Today she did a math "puzzle" page (which implies "fun" but isn't), where she had problems like 37 - xx = 22 and she had to figure out what the number was. My plucky 5yo learned hours and half hours, and determining the passing of time (2:00 - 2:30; was it 30 mins or 1 hour?) She wasn't happy with my explanations and just wanted to dive into the bookwork. "I know this already", she says. She did catch on, but we'll probably do an extra day of review, because the whole idea that the hour hand sits there in the middle of two numbers, when the minute hand is at :30 is a little tricky.

LA: the 7yo learned about the prefix un- and re- for her spelling words. In Reading, she read a poem about sheep and a story about a lost sheep. In English, she had to write a How-to (how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich). Next week, she'll have to pick a topic to write a how-to about. The 5yo is learning correct handwriting (something I wasn't so diligent about last year), color words, and reviewing some sight words. Her 1st gr work is still very easy, and the teacher is still supposed to be administering reading level tests to her class. It must be a big class. My 1st gr class only has 1 student.

PE - we'll have a soccer practice this weekend.

Next week, we'll need to get a guinea pig and co-op classes will start. Lots to do!

First Day of School

It was the first day of school for our local school districts. Many of us homeschoolers were getting our school year started as well. We have already been doing school, adding in new things steadily, so as not to overwhelm (hopefully). Today was a very FULL day; for some reason, all of our school books seemed to have big things planned. Here's what we did:

We made fingerprint animals for English.
We made homemade ice cream for Reading.
We made origami dog puppets for Reading.
We did several plant experiments for Science.
The 1st grader and I wrote an "experience" story for English, which just happened to be about Plants.
We went on a walk with Dad.

We also did Math and Spelling, but those subjects weren't quite as exciting.

We'll also have our First Day of Soccer.
A very busy day, indeed.