Park Picnic

School, Week of September 4-7

Reading-McGuffey's Primer Lesson 4
Bible-Read together the story of Adam and Eve from Kingfisher's Children's Bible and another fun version of the story.
Language/Lit-Started reading The Borrowers together
Math-Singapore KB 18.3,4, 1A pgs 75-82
Science-started Life Science Text biotic vs abiotic

Another short week with the holiday...

School, Week of August 27-31

Reading: More with the McGuffey's Reader, reviewing lessons 1-3 this week. Headsprout lesson 46 onlin
Math: Sheppard's software addition and subtraction drills

Yep. That was it....Dad had time off this week so we were super short in what we spent learning. We are always reading and doing impromptu research, so this is just what I documented :)

School Week of August 20-24

Reading: Pony Gal read more from McGuffey's Eclectic Primer ; read I Am Not Mat!
Math: addition and subtraction drills on Sheppard's Software; worked on numbers to 100; worked on story problems, which seem to really make sense with her
History: More from Pre-Columbian America, 6-12 of Our Cultural Heritage; made teepees, parched corn,  and wove paper mats

 

We used this recipe for the corn. The kids liked it! 

Bible: Finished our Creation Lapbooks
Science: Finished Dinos Before Dark and read a couple dino books from the library; plan on using a new science text
Pony Gal's birthday fell in this week, so we headed to the zoo for some fun one day with friends

School Week of August 13-17, 2012

Monday: We read pages 13-19 in our Pre-Columbian America book, about early Native American hunting. Pony Gal worked on addition and subtraction on the Sheppard's Software site, as well.

Tuesday: We started on our Creation unit for Bible studies. We read together the Creation story and colored the front of our Creation lapbooks, which portrayed and emphasized the fact that God created us all, no matter who we are, what we look like, or what we believe.
Pony Gal reviewed Lesson 2 and read Lesson 3 in the McGuffey's Eclectic Primer. Making a note to watch for a cheap copy on Amazon to add to our easy readers collection. The one we are using is from the library, as I didn't want to buy one until I knew whether I liked the way they progressed or not.
We went over story problems in math, using the Singapore books, and both addition and subtraction. She did super well with this, so we skipped some of the drills since she has a good handle on it. I actually think she better understands problems in these terms. Pony Gal also did some more general subtraction and addition practice on Sheppard's Software.
We read more of Dinos before Dark, and some extra library books.

Wednesday: It was super nice, so we did our school work after lunch-we usually try to get it in just after breakfast in the morning. The kids wanted to play, though, so switched things up a bit.
Pony Gal read Lesson 3about Ann and Nat in the McGuffey's Primer. We worked on memorizing "the" as it seems to trip her up, and the letter "n". She can read rather well, but those two things make her cringe. I had her run around chanting them to try to add some movement to the session. It didn't do much more than make her giggle, but she enjoyed herself, anyway :)
We read pages 19-23 about Native American farming in our Pre-Columbian America book.
We read another chapter in Magic Tree House Dinos Before Dark and made dinosaur fossils using plaster of paris.

We also worked more on the story of Creation, playing a matching game about what was made on which day. Pony Gal remembered pretty well, and enjoyed the game. Mom enjoyed coloring, cutting, laminating and trimming the parts to the game :)

Thurday: Is our day off, as we will have art starting in September.

Friday: We had some plans for history, reading, and math BUT got an awesome offer to pick bushels of grapes for FREE, and wasn't about to pass up the chance for grape juice all winter long, so we did that instead. Mondays are light days, for right now, so we will make it up then.
 

School, Week Number 1-August 6-10, 2012

We started school last week. No, really. I love the idea of taking the whole month of December off, and wanted plenty of sluff room as we needed to help out friends and family as it may appear necessary. I am working with Pony Gal on reading, arithmetic, US and World History, science, Bible, and etiquette/manners, plus she takes lessons in violin (we do work on that at home, as well, and will start to study music the second semester, I think), horse riding, and art. Superboy will be doing what he shows interest in, for now, plus I set him up with learning games and his guided reading program on my computer while I work with Pony Gal at the table on her work.
Our weeks should look like this:

Saturday and Sunday-off. Dad is home! In fact, anytime Dad is home, we do not do schoolwork. They only get to see him a few hours each evening, so it is important his time with them is not diminished.

Monday-Online reading program (Headsprout) and math (Khan Academy or Sheppard Software, just drills on what we covered the week before), because Monday is catch up from the weekend day, and we have EPH on certain Mondays, our weekly library visit, and violin lessons.

Tuesday-Reading (using the books we got with the Headsprout program, McGuffey's Eclectic Primer, and some random gathered little books from various reading programs), I read aloud from one of the books suggested on our assorted suggested reading lists, many Charlotte Mason based, math from the Singapore Math workbooks, History using various books we've purchased or borrow from the library, A chapter from a Magic Tree House book-which also influences our world history studies at the time, science-per a Charlotte Mason suggested curriculum guideline, and Bible using a couple different books to cover it both as as devotional and from a historical standpoint.

Wednesday-the same as Tuesday, but add in Etiquette.

Thursday-The kids will have art, soon, so this is our art class/field trip day and I plan on nothing else getting accomplished. It is a nice reprieve from working the previous two days rather intently.

Friday-Reading, Math, History, Bible and any run over/fun projects from earlier in the week. I can also stick lapbooks about subjects the kids want to learn about  which don't fit in elsewhere in here. Like Superboy's current fascination with cicadas after finding a few shed exoskeletons.

So, all that leads to what we did our first week:

Monday- Reading: Headsprout reading lesson 45
                 Math: Addition drills on Sheppard Software
                 EPH luncheon, Library time, Violin lesson.

Tuesday-Bible: still waiting on materials (and this and this) to show up, so skipping for now
               Reading: Lessons 1&2 McGuffey's Primer (review for her, but reviewing repeatedly works                  best for her)
              Math: Singapore Math: Addition and Subtraction practice, numbers through 10
              Science: Read together Monster Bones: The Story of A Dinosaur Fossil by Jacqui Bailey                    Matthew Lilly

Wednesday-Reading: McGuffey's 1 & 2 review
                    Math: Singapore subtraction and addition review
                   US History: Read together pages 6-11 of How?d They Do That? : Pre-Columbian                                 America by Marylou Morano Kjelle; Made Native American corn cakes (which the kids                      loved. May have to go in the regular rotation)
                    Science: Read Chap 5 of MTH Dinos Before Dark (we started this one a few weeks ago                      and left it hanging, so using it in our dino studies for now.)

Thursday-No art class yet, so picked elderberries with friends
                  Watched Busasaurus on Magic School Bus TV (youtube) to supplement our dino studies
Friday-Reading & Math-Sheppard's Software; McGuffey's Reader
             US History-Pg 13-19 Pre Columbian America

EPH Meet and Greet

Heather and I held a potluck luncheon for the coop we're starting up this last Monday. The food was good, the kids had fun, and we met some new families. Paperwork was handed out to get an idea of what talent lies among the masses, and soon Heather and I will start organizing what classes will be taught, by whom, and when. It should all be loads of fun, and a rather exciting new adventure for this school year!

 

The group is rich with babies, and as it turns out, baby lovers :)

 

And children who love melon. Especially when sticks to slide it on are involved.

First Hike of the Season

We headed to Grant's Nature Area, a very nearby park with some trails. Not a whole lot was up yet, but the kids got a taste of what we'll be doing a lot of this year, and learned about a couple wildflowers. They found some yellow feathers, too. I need to go through our bird guide to identify who they came from, but, despite some whining nearing the end, I think we all had fun. It will be even more so, I think, once they can forage a little and learn about wild edible plants. It was a beautiful day-perfect-not too hot or chilly.

Spring Beauty

Dutchman's Breeches

Mother's Day Tea

I think part of being a good mother is instilling in your children a desire to serve others, no matter what the situation is. It can be difficult to show the importance of this to them at times, especially since our very nature from birth is rather selfish. Especially as a Christian it is imperative that we learn to look to make others happy, as that is one of the most important attributes of Christ, and the one He most emphasized in his teaching to "Love God and love your neighbors".

 

I thought a fun way to start helping my girls learn this, along with my lovely sister in law and her girls, was to host a Mother's Day Low Tea for our mothers, sisters, and grandmothers. For these early years Auntie S and I will be doing a lot of helping, but the eventual goal is to have the girls take over as they get older.

 

 Now, you may be asking "Low tea?", as most folks think a high tea is a fancy gathering of English ladies in big hats. Since we are homeschoolers, we had to make sure we were going about things correctly, and found that, in fact, high tea is more of a commoners' tea. It is called such since it was served later in the evening after folks got off of work for the day, at high tables in pubs with a menu consisting of traditional British fare like bubble and squeak, sausages, meat pies, and ale. Low tea or afternoon tea, on the other hand, was started by the Duchess of Bedford when she found herself peckish around 4 in the afternoon. Her desire for a dainty meal and tea started a trend in high society, and thus you have your fancy ladies in pretty dresses and hats drinking tea with their pinkies in the air and snacking on strawberries with clotted cream and scones. 

 

This was so, so much fun! It took some work and coordination, and as the years progress will get a little fancier and better organized, but we managed to host one lovely tea party Mother's Day. The girls learned about entertaining, house keeping, cooking, and propriety all while working towards developing a servant's heart and sense of respect for those who have spent so much time raising us to who we have become.

 

 We aimed to try to make our tea authentic, yet manageable. I brought a selection of my most friendly teas (those even non-tea drinkers would enjoy, and they did!) as well as my linens, and we let the girls set up most of the scene. We used heirloom china and dishes, which made it all the more special, talking about whose piece was whose. There were fresh flowers Pony Gal had picked from our flower beds, cloth napkins, classical music playing-it was very pleasant.

 The gals learned a lot in the kitchen, as well, as they went about making 10 different varieties of tea sandwiches, two different kinds of scones, and whipping up fresh whipped cream to accompany the strawberries and peaches.

We had a great turnout and are excited to see what next year brings. The plan is to alternate houses so no one is left doing too much cleaning each year, as well as just a nice change of scenery. It was beautiful this year, and we can only hope for as nice weather next year, as we may have to host on the patio next time. So, so glad that Auntie S and I were able to start such a fun, new tradition!

Snow Day

Gray's Lake

School This Week

Due to a chaotic week we were only able to get a couple good days in, but that is the beauty of homeschooling, now isn't it?
This week was mostly spent reading together-our favorite way to learn these days. We are working on a chapter book about Martha of Martha Speaks, a long picture book about Abe Lincoln's childhood, we read more from our manners book, a book about Dolphins and Pony Gal read me a few different books from her HeadSprout reading program. We also went through two units in her math book and spent time working on her online math and reading programs.
Nothing fancy, but seeing definite improvement in all areas.

Chinese New Year Unit

Last year we started what is most likely going to be a yearly tradition of celebrating Chinese New Year with our dear friends, the Reids. This year, unlike last year, I worked it into our home school schedule, and so last week we studied and read about the origins and traditions surrounding the Lunar New Year. I wanted to be ready with the kids knowing why and what we were celebrating, as well as learning a bit about China, when we came to our crafty fun part of this unit, dinner with our friends. That dinner was had on the eve of the new year, as is Chinese tradition, and was plentiful is absolutely delicious food, both traditional and not-so-traditional (after last year's attempts at traditional dessert items, we decided brownies would be a better choice this year, lol.). The kids did a good job picking up some new information, like the stories behind the beginning of the celebration (the Nian monster and the beginning of the farming season) as well as many of the traditions like the use of the color red, lanterns, time with family, cleaning and so on. We used several books from the library and did a few little booklets in a simple lapbook, but otherwise this was more of listening unit.
This week I also started using some of the printable books from Pony Gal's online reading program and we have been reading at least one together each day. She is making improvements, but struggles with focusing on what she's doing, which seems fairly normal for age. When she really focuses, she can fly through the 4-5 page books. When she doesn't, it takes an hour. Her math is coming along nicely, as well. I just got the next Singapore math book (Early Essentials Kindergarten B) and am excited that it covers so many things that I was wanting to see accomplished this school year, including telling "big" time like days, weeks, months, and so on. I had lined up some lapbooks to work on that, too, so we should have a nice selection of activities once we get there.
This week we are doing some work on basics using some cute owl sheets I printed off and reading together a lot, just as a bit of a change of pace from the lapbooks. We'll pick back up with them and the study of raptors (which owls are-nice segue) next week.

Cheetah Unit

The kids are obsessed with animals right now. We will be taking a break from them for a little while to study Chinese New Year and some basics like letters, then will head back. This is our cheetah lapbook and craft we used in our cheetah studies last week.

Toilet paper roll cheetahs

Superboy's book

We worked more on writing skills for Superboy than anything else this time around.

He did glue and color Africa for the cheetah home section.

Pony Gal's book

A booklet on cheetahs as pets in history

Forgot to rotate this one...booklets on cheetah speed, the origin of the name cheetah, and communication

Booklets on the status of the cheetahs and cheetah family dynamics

New vocabulary words. She already knew most of these, with the exception of diurnal and vocalizations

Lovely G's spot while I briefly needed my hands