Our Homeschool

Tadpoles

2012-01-17T17:42:00.000-08:00

As a responsible pet owner - before buying this tadpole kit, I did some research online and discovered that these frogs are called African Clawed Frogs, and that they can live up to 30 yrs in good conditions - I also learned that they CAN NOT just be released into our environment because they are not native here and so have no natural predators and can also be harmful - due to whatever possible bacteria they carry! SO before engaging in one of these kits be prepared for a life long pet!

A couple years ago, we purchased a tadpole from the Grow A Frog Company. It was a kit that provided a glass tadpole, which would grow into a frog and my dd could watch it's metamorphosis.

Anyway One thing lead to another and somehow we ended up with 2 Frogs. Just my luck they end up being male and female. The Frogs (Lily and Tad) are now about 3 yrs old. (Tad is the male and the littler one of the two.)

Despite reading literature on the Net - that these frogs are supposedly sterile - it turns out ours are quite fertile! LOL! Low and behold, this past December - we ended up with a pair of Tadpoles.

(the little line off center in the above picture is a newly hatched tadpole.)

Here are the twins Saguaro (big at front) and Barrel (smaller barely visible in the rear - seems to have growth issues) a month and a half later. Saguaro has visible back legs and is in the state that Tad was when he arrived. Barrel seems about 2 weeks behind in growth but also has showing back legs. (if size is any indication, we think they are also male and female - if they are - they will be separated.)

This was an excellent science lesson for my Frog-obsessed older dd way back when and even now. She beginning to assume the responsibility for cleaning the tank and caring for them.

I'm hoping that the 6 yr old will gain the same appreciation for this lesson! She has claimed responsibility for the twins and will eventually end up with the resulting frogs as her pets. So while we dabble with plants at the moment, we are also watching real life metamorphosis!

Science Experiment - What Plants Need

2012-01-17T15:01:00.000-08:00

Some time ago, I purchased a plants kit from Little Labs, to teach my 6 yr old a little bit about plants. The first experiment involves learning what plants need in order to grow and survive. A little over a week ago, we took 3 paper cups, some cotton balls and water. We planted some Cress seeds in the cotton. One we placed in a sort of sunny location, one we placed in a dark cupboard, and one we put blue food colouring in, just for the fun of it to see if colour would affect the plant.

#1#2

#1 - The Sun Plant - Sprouted the following day and grew very well producing fine green leaves. (this plant was healthy and as tall as the other 2 plants but got dropped just prior to the photo being taken.)

#2 - The Closet Case - Also sprouted the following day and grew well but produced sickly yellow leaves. (I would continue to grow this plant in the cupboard for a little while longer, but my 6 yr old feels very bad that the plant doesn't look good and she is afraid it will die - can't argue with that - so now we will see what effect placing it in the sun will do to it now! - I may put a secret plant in the cupboard and watch it for a few weeks.)

#3 - The Dyed Plant - Also Sprouted the following day - grew well, and had slightly blue tinged stems. (we're going to add more blue food colour when we water it next time and see if that will have an effect.)

So our experiment provided that in order to produce a healthy Cress plant with green leaves a plant needs water, sun and "soil".

Our next experiment, we picked up at Michael's this afternoon. Involves a little "Egg" Terrarium. I'm not sure yet how I'm going to present this to the girls, but I just wanted to grow a little terrarium of Herbs and Cacti and see what would happen.... I am the notorious assassin for Cacti - apparently I water them too much! LOL!

Grade 1 (2011/12) -Update

2011-11-04T19:41:00.000-07:00

Updated from the original post on May 2011

The school year is in progress and as suspected there are things I didn't like about our original plan and things that just don't work for S. So here are the current changes. :)

Again I will continue to update as we progress through 1st Grade! :)

LANGUAGE ARTS
- Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons - DONE (Oct 2011)
- Various reading level books - read alouds and reading together
~~- Explode the Code (1, 1.5, and 2)~~ (didn't work for us)

- Learning Language Arts Through Literature (looks like a better fit)
- Spectrum Reading (gr 1) - was a grasping at Straws move.
- (no spelling yet) - eventually Spelling Workout (probably start in Jan)
- writing practice - some cards to family and various workbooks (working on this)
- (no Grammar yet) - Growing with Grammar 1

MATH
- Singapore Math US Edition (1A and 1B) - (love this making great progress!)
- Various online computer games

HISTORY/GEOGRAPHY
-K12 Grade K and 1st History - not loving this thinking of doing my own material

SCIENCE/HEALTH
- K12 Grade K and 1st Science - not loving this seeking to do my own material

LANGUAGES
- Sign Language at home
- Possibly Rosetta Stone (French or Spanish)

ARTS/CRAFTS/MUSIC
- Artistic Pursuits
- Piano

EXTRACURRICULAR
- Swimming
- Soccer
- Possibly Dance Class
- Daisies (??)
- others as interests permit!

I will continue to update as we progress through this first year! :)

Computer Technology

2011-11-04T10:20:00.000-07:00

As always I browse the net when time permits. I look for ideas to embellish our materials, I look for ideas to provide more coverage in our schooling. I don't teach to test, and I don't teach because the schools require certain things. We cover a variety of subject material and I like it that way.

We follow the core materials of Language Arts (Reading/Phonics/Spelling-Vocab, Literature, Grammar, Creative Writing), Math, History/Geography/Social Studies, and Science.

I still haven't found an art program that makes me happy, or a music program that works - though both my girls have recently decided Piano is the way to go. This week, I'm searching for Computer Technology and general computer stuff. My oldest is more adventurous than my middle and I need to get them on similar pages or paths at least! LOL!

My oldest began exploring more of the computer when she was about 6 or 7 in Brownies. She created a blog, learned about word processing, and learned about searching the internet safely. So now I need to take her a little farther and see where we can go. Dh tells me to teach her to program spreadsheets. I feel she needs to start with basic computer languages. I'm torn so I search the internet and look for what others are doing.

My middlest has her favourite games and loves the idea of a membership renewal of some sort 1x a month. She haunts Jumpstart.com, toontown.com, webkinz.com and acouple others to name a few. She's not keen on wordprocessing, but that may have been because she was not reading yet and she hasn't had a word processing program on her computer (need to fix that!)

So ya that's where I'm at this Friday afternoon. Looking for a place to further the computer technologies part of their education!

Moving Right Along

2011-10-14T09:29:00.000-07:00

Apologies for the gaps in the posts here. I've been horribly side-tracked by FB lately and am just coming back into my own. The recent changes there did it for me, and I've come to realize that I liked being able to come here and check out our progress and easily review things from the past. So ya, I think I'm back to stay this time! LOL!

When we left off: my 5 yr old was just beginning 1st grade materials. She was not reading though we had begun 100 Easy Lessons. Today I am pleased to say that she has just completed the 100 Easy Lessons book.

YAY!! CONGRATS Miss S! :)

We have started working our way through the Explode the Code Books. And I'm just pleased as punch that we've made it this far. She is reading way more fluidly and fluently than I did at her age! LOL! So there in itself I consider our work so far a success! :)

She seems to love math.

Our first few weeks with 1st grade were a struggle. She is a high energy kid, who loves to move and is never still for long, unless something so occupies her mind that she is too distracted to move! LOL! I read a book over the summer "How to get your child off the refrigerator and on to learning" and OMG if S isn't that child! Our first day of school she was on the chair, on the table, and the floor, falling off the chair, under the table, on the floor, before we had even gotten past the first page of what we were doing. I spent far too much time wrangling her in the early days, trying to get her to sit and work with me, yelling and getting very mad. Finally, I plead with my dh and my sis and my mum for ideas... and the best advice I got was from dh. We decided to plan our school work in snippets of time, we started off with 15 minutes. And then she got to play for 45, ya I know a little excessive but well it worked. We are now down to 30 mins work and 30 mins of play! (which leaves time for the other 2 - 15 for littlest and 15 for the oldest if she needs it!) We do 3-4 subjects a day, depending on her attention span, and my ability to keep it together too! So things are working out slowly and we are making great progress. We do struggle some days.

We took all our school materials off to the beach for the month of September, where we had an awesome time. The girls spent some good time on the beach enjoying the sand and surf, and learning so much about marine life and the stars, and so much much more. I wish I could say I was glad to return home, but I was not. I have much work to do here to get thing organized and feel better about this place.

So there you have it. That is what we've been up to!

In the Jungle

2011-07-05T13:56:00.000-07:00

So this week we begin our 2nd week of tot/prek with my littlest who turned 2 this June. We're following the Letter of the Week Prep for week 2, which is Jungle. DD(2) loves books, so the real aim of at the moment is to move away from the same old books she always stuffs in my hand while I'm typing and into a wider variety with a bigger subject base. Sheer entertainment value, I'm not expecting her to learn or retain anything that I teach her at the moment. It is just time dedicated to her for the purposes of having fun, outside our normal interactions!

So a couple weeks ago (yes I've been slacking,) we picked up a stack of books at our local library, which included but was not limited to:
"Slowly, Slowly, Slowly, said the sloth", by Eric Carle
"Dandelions," by Eve Bunting
"Hug," by Jez Alborough
"Jazzy in the Jungle," by Lucy Cousins
"Rumble in the Jungle," Giles Andreae

RR/ LS (reading readiness /listening & sequencing): We have read a couple of them already but, this week I'm aiming to read 1 a day to her.

CS (Colours/Shapes): I also printed off a booklet from Enchanted Learning on the colour green (I think it is in the member section), I had to readjust it so it would fit our purposes! But she loves using descriptive words like red, blue (fav word), green and pink so I thought it might be fun to show her what green really means!

Number and Size: I borrowed some ideas for a combo file folder game / Lapbook for her which I will assemble over the next couple days. It includes a counting book to 2. And will include a Size pouch so she can stack the cards from small to large!

Motor Skills: will include the activities suggested at LOTWPrep, and will include a sensory box found here

GOOSE (nursery Rhymes): which probably falls under reading readiness but I'm giving it, it's own heading, will be "I Had a Little Nut Tree", which I will dress up with maybe stick puppets or some kind of printable thing which can be stored in the lapbook!

So there you have it. While the bigs have summer vacation, the poor little has to do school work! The aim really is to get into a routine with her, and then add the bigs to that routine one at a time, so that I don't feel so overwhelmed come the start of school in August/September!

Toddler School / Pre K

2011-05-28T19:44:00.000-07:00

Since I'm not sure when Tot School (Toddler School) ends and Pre-School begins, I figure as long as I'm working with the littlest things are good! So here is my plan

This is the 3rd and final time I race through age 2-5 materials with my kids, so you'd think by now it would be old hat! But no! Each time I re-invent the wheel having either discovered something new or trying a new method so of course this time is no different.

I'll be using Letter of the Week Prep to cover the basics
* Colours and Shapes
* Reading Readiness
* Listening and Sequencing
* Numbers
* Size
* Position and Direction
* Motor Skills
* Nursery Rhymes

I'm adding in sensory boxes like I have found on many Tot School blogs and other arts and crafts type things that suit dd's tastes. Hopefully I'll have more to share this year! :)

I will continue to update as we progress through this first year! :)

Grade 1 (2011/2012)

2011-05-28T07:37:00.000-07:00

This is our 2nd time through 1st grade and things have changed a ton. The first time I did this, I had no clue what I was doing. This time around, I'm still winging it, but have a better idea of what I want, and how to teach my budding learner!

Where we live school commences in mid August and if you are not 6 on or before September 1, you would not be permitted to start 1st grade til the following year. S has a December birthday but is ready to get started. Again I'm not a stickler for time at this point and won't be cracking any whips to get her going, these items are a reference and my goal is forward progress no matter how big or small! At this point, I'm still learning about her learning style and things that work best for her which means things are apt to change through the course of the year!

I will continue to update as we progress through 1st Grade! :)

LANGUAGE ARTS
- Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons - DONE (Oct 2011)
- Various reading level books - read alouds and reading together
- Explode the Code (1, 1.5, and 2)
- (no spelling yet) - eventually Spelling Workout
- writing practice - some cards to family and various workbooks
- lapbooking nursery rhymes, folk tales and fairy tales
- (no Grammar yet) - Growing with Grammar 1

MATH
- Singapore Math US Edition (1A and 1B)
- Various online computer games

HISTORY/GEOGRAPHY
-K12 Grade K and 1st History

SCIENCE/HEALTH
- K12 Grade K and 1st Science

LANGUAGES
- Sign Language at home
- Possibly Rosetta Stone (French or Spanish)

ARTS/CRAFTS/MUSIC
- various projects
- Baltimore Curriculum Art and Music

EXTRACURRICULAR
- Swimming
- Soccer
- Possibly Dance Class
- Daisies (??)
- others as interests permit!

I will continue to update as we progress through this first year! :)

Grade 5 (2011/2012) - Current Plan

2011-05-28T07:32:00.001-07:00

We're always fine tuning and making adjustments here and there.

LANGUAGE ARTS
- Growing with Grammer 4
- Various Reading materials.
- Creative Writing assignments from various topics
- Penmanship various letters and thank-yous to family

MATH
- Singapore Math (5A & 5B)
- Various online computer games
- Various Worksheets for practice

HISTORY/GEOGRAPHY
- K12 History (Grade 5)

SCIENCE
- K12 Science (Grade 5)
- various topics (including Junior Badges and other subjects of interest)

LANGUAGES
Considering either French or Spanish Rosetta Stone
Re-visiting ASL

ARTS/CRAFTS/MUSIC
- Extra Curricular Art Projects
- Junior Arts, Crafts and Music Projects
- extracurricular classes as appropriate

EXTRACURRICULAR
- Swimming
- Piano
- Junior Girl Scouts
- Soccer
- outside classes as interest deems necessary

*****************

If anyone out there reading has an absolute favourite program that they want to share, I'd love to check it out! :)

I will continue to update as we progress through this year! :)

K Science

2011-05-09T09:58:00.000-07:00

Yes, i have been a bad blogger. My excuse is 3 kids keep me busy and schooling at least 2 of them has posed gigantic challenges this year! LOL! Its May now, and we're slowly settling into a routine (gufaw, gufaw - that's a tongue in cheek giggle for those of you that aren't familiar!) :)

So today I present you with our learnings. The middlest has been slowly working through her Science and History materials. We're doing Kindergarten this year, and on no set schedule, just when I feel that we've been slacking too much or she has been playing far too much time on online games.

Anyway, now that the formalities and apologies are over! We've been learning about the 5 senses courtesy of Aliki's "My Five Senses" book. We've been studying the sense of smell, so this morning I had her sniff the spice cupboard with her eyes closed and a few random selections from the fridge. We compiled a list of things she liked the smell of, and thing she didn't like so much!

So her 5 fav smells are Oranges, cookies, flowers, perfume and lemons
Her 5 not so fav smells are rotting apples, rotting food, paint, poo, and we put skunk on there because he was cute to look at! :)

We then experimented with how smells travel through the air. So one bathroom smells of bath and Body works Twisted Peppermint body spray (which I dislike!) and the other of lavendar Aromatherapy mist! She sat on one side of the room while I squirted the scent into the room and when she got a wiff, of it she let me know. It travelled slow and she has a stuffy nose... but it worked! :)

After that we made a digital collage of her fave and not so fav smells, which we glued into her notebook.

Changing Gears

2011-03-12T17:29:00.000-08:00

So Middlest, would technically start kindergarten this fall, but she's smart as a whip already and highly distracted. I've known for a while that find a curriculum for her would be tough! we signed on with K12 for History and Science, and short of tying her to a chair, getting her motivated is tough! So I'm switching out again.

I've been looking out the Oak Meadow stuff that I had ordered, what now seems a century ago - for Oldest. I think it might be a good fit. It's definitely more open ended, short sitting times, and more hands on natural, which might work for her.

She hates reading (the process) but loves being read to, so this is a good opportunity for her. We're gonna run with it. I just need to get my hands on some beeswax and beeswax crayons. (the chick in the Blic, here looked at me like I had 5 heads when I asked for beeswax crayons, like what is wrong with the regular kind! and then wouldn't help any further.)

So that's where we're at. The oldest is gonna follow along with the art stuff, and keep on with her mixed bag of things, and if all goes well maybe we'll phase in what Middlest is doing for Oldest too. We'll see!

I'm actually excited again! :)

Curriculum & Passport

2011-02-13T09:38:00.001-08:00

So a while ago I had decided to go ahead and get some Kindergarten material for my rambunctious 5 yr old who wouldn't start Kindergarten in the 'schooling' world until this coming fall (December Birthday!) Not so much to "teach" her stuff but to drive her in a direction that doesn't involve spending vast amounts of time playing computer games - like ToonTown, or Webkinz & the like - or whining that she bored.

So our first adventure into the schooling world of History and Geography (in lower grades Social Science) we'll be touring the 7 continents. Our material has some good info, but I'm hoping to play it up a little with some additional craft activities and fun! We've gotten our passports together! We'll take a look at our Real passports and compare them to the fun one that I made up for dd. We also made some suitcases to pack up our continent appropriate clothes and any souvenirs we plan to bring back!

To help us out along the way, we'll be using a book I happened on, while searching for craft ideas. I mean really this should be fun more than anything so it will be memorable for her. At least as far as I'm concerned. I love this book. It is awesome! But then I love most of the books by this company and wouldn't be upset if someone gave them to me as gifts! LOL!

We're also getting started on some Science, which isn't quite as fun at the moment, but we'll get there. We've been doing reading for months and she gets it, but she doesn't "get" it just yet so we're pluggin away and havin some fun! :)

So there you have it! I'm hoping to post some pics and links as we go through our continents journey but as always I get called away and things get busy! So I'll try but make no promises on the whole follow through! :)

Inches and Stalactites

2011-01-11T09:41:00.000-08:00

We started the year of with a bang! In just over 2 weeks we've managed our 2nd snow storm. Totalling 6 inches of snow - which we measured with a tape measure! LOL! I could have sworn there was only 3 inches but alas I was wrong!

These 6 inches warranted an official snow day! I figured the school kids will get 2 or more days off as the roads are impassable, so why not! we were ahead of the game anyway!

At the same time, we looked at the icicles hanging from the roof our our house and determined that they were fast growing Stalactites that you would find in a cave. The drips down on the ground form the stalagmites but we aren't really interested in those! :)

At the same time DD#1 is progressing through History and Science, while DD#2 is learning to read and the basics of math!

on the Shelf

2010-11-11T19:23:00.000-08:00

Time keeps passing by much too quickly and before I know it, I've missed a bunch of posting. sorry! I'll try and be better, but make no promises! Needless to say much catch up has been happening here.

Our library run this week besides yielding us $0.90 in fines (for being one day late) also yielded us an arm load of books. I ended up renewing Fletcher's Poetry Matters, because I wanted a better look through it! Also renewed the Shark books one last time so we can get a really run on the work! New this week are Samantha, the Unschooling Handbook and Pony Pals

M: is reading Samantha's Collection of Short Stories along with another AG book which didn't make the photo cut. She has restarted Heidi, and we're working through Poetry Matters (though I need to be more diligent about that!)

S: is working through a Shark Lapbook for science so we're reading Shark books! She is also listening to The Runaway Pony (we couldn't find the start of the series! LOL!)

ET: is currently listening to whatever someone will read her... but I'm hoping to get a little more diligent about picking up entertaining books for her.

I: am working my way through the 39 Clues (starting book #5), trying to find a new approach to homeschooling (ie unschooling and more!) Working through Poetry Matters.

in other news : M is making her way through history and we are currently in Mexico and S. America, learning about the Maya, the Aztecs, and the Inca. She is also working through her Science though at a much slower pace. S is working on reading and remembering that you can't get to 20 if you miss 16, 17, and 18. M is faithfully fulfilling her obligations to the Book It challenge (of 4 books per month.) And S is just getting comfortable with reading and learning that she has to understand and listen to hear more. Its hard to sit and listen when you're 4 (almost 5.) ET, our youngest pupil, we'll she sits with us when we read and I'm working on getting M to read to her during school while I work with S. My goal is to get ET loving books too!

future hopefuls : M is making noise about wanting to learn to crochet (which is exciting to me!) I've been making swap squares for blankets and scarves for some friends and I guess this peaked her curiosity! She is super busy with sewing this month - for an upcoming GS meeting and also Christmas plans. She seems to really love sewing. S has decided also help me put together some Christmas gifts. She picked the fabric and will also sit and help sew it on the machine! Me, I'm dreaming about Roving and Drop spindles! LOL! but have so many crochet, knit and sewing projects on the go, that its almost impossible to get there.... after Christmas I guess!

Anyway happy thursday!

Dinosaur Lapbook

2010-10-03T17:41:00.001-07:00

I can't believe I never got around to posting S' pride and joy! Her first REAL lapbook!
We did Dinosaurs (sorry pic is sideways!)

All books and printables were found at HomeschoolShare under the Creation based Dinosaur Unit Study.

Because we weren't studying the religious aspects of dinosaurs and I personally don't share the same philosophy or views as the creators of this lapbook we left some things out. We do still have big blanks in our lapbook just because we never got around to putting the finishing touches on it before S proudly ran off with it! LOL!

She loves this book though it is lacking a bunch of info... She seems to be able to re-tell me the facts easily from this book, so its a really cool tool.

We might finish it up soon and play with it by adding things that are important to her. But it was good fun to do... and it was our first lapbook.

Current Kindergarten Plan

2010-09-20T20:08:00.000-07:00

We don't do a very structured kindergarten plan, just because I think much of their learning comes from play and interacting with us. This plan was drafted up when my 4.5 yr old demanded that she start school with her sister this year (2010-11). Many of these activities except for the reading and calendar time are done as she is interested. I think 20 minutes of learning to read (as she requested) and 5 minutes of math is more than enough for school at this age. (and that's cool if you disagree - different strokes for different folks!)

Calendar Time
- Counting to 31
- Learning the days of the week
- Months of the Year
- Weather
- Time (to the Hour)

LANGUAGE ARTS
- Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
- Various reading level books - read alouds and reading together
- (no spelling yet)
- writing practice - some cards to family and various workbooks
- lapbooking nursery rhymes, folk tales and fairy tales

MATH
- Spectrum Math (Grade K)
- Various online computer games

HISTORY/GEOGRAPHY
- making it up as we go!

SCIENCE/HEALTH
- making it up as we go!

LANGUAGES
- Signing time Baby and Signing time videos
- still searching for the right foreign language program

ARTS/CRAFTS/MUSIC
- various projects

EXTRACURRICULAR
- add swimming in the winter
- possibly ballet or dance class
- maybe some art classes

I will continue to update as we progress through this first year! :)

Grade 4 Plan

2010-09-20T19:53:00.000-07:00

We're always fine tuning and making adjustments here and there.

LANGUAGE ARTS
- Growing with Grammer 4
- Various Reading materials.
- Creative Writing assignments from various topics
- Penmanship various letters and thank-yous to family

MATH
- Singapore Math (4A & 4B)
- Various online computer games
- Various Worksheets for practice

HISTORY/GEOGRAPHY
- K12 History (Grade 3&4)

SCIENCE
- K12 Science (Grade 3&4)
- various topics (including Junior Badges and other subjects of interest)

LANGUAGES
Not in Practice yet - haven't found what we want!

ARTS/CRAFTS/MUSIC
- Extra Curricular Art Projects
- Junior Arts, Crafts and Music Projects
- extracurricular classes as appropriate

EXTRACURRICULAR
- Junior Girl Scouts
- Soccer
- swimming
- outside classes as interest deems necessary

*****************

If anyone out there reading has an absolute favourite program that they want to share, I'd love to check it out! :)

I will continue to update as we progress through this year! :)

Book It Program

2010-09-20T16:47:00.000-07:00

M signed up for the Book It program through Scholastic and Pizza Hut. This year she is INTO pizza, so she has agreed to read 4 books (about 300+ pages each) a month to earn her awards. It runs from October through March, but you have to sign up by June 30... they still accept enrollments while supplies last.

So keep an eye on her Shelfari on the right to keep up on her books!

They didn't have a program for S (kindergartener) but maybe next year, and I figure too if we have her pledge a certain number of books, she can earn a pizza - we just have to pay for it! LOL! I'll be putting up a Shelfari for her too, but it'll be further down the page.

An Now Back to Our Program

2010-09-20T16:09:00.000-07:00

Kindergartener
For the last little while we've been working on learning to read. Progress is going well. Its amazing what a few months makes, where at first she was reluctant and not really interested, now she is ready moving full steam ahead, its now her idea to do it. We're up to 6 word sentences with words 3-4 letters long!

We're still working on "Where We Live" for social studies. It was really nice last week at the beach having people ask her where she was from and her astounding them telling them where she lived. She's big for her age - often asked if she is 6 - when she's only 4. So when they get a load of what she knows they're pretty surprised!

For Science, we're working on Living and non-living things. I'm thinking I might just take S along with M (4th grader) for science and just making it a little easier. I think it would make it easier for everyone all around. I think that S would gain the advanced materials but to her level, and I think M would gain the patience of listening and helping her younger sister learn.

And Math, we found a Spectrum K mathbook that S is madly in love with - she's currently doing about 4-5 pages a day with great ease and at her request and leisure! LOL! It'll be neat to evaluate in December and see where she stands! But so far Math and reading are her fav subjects!

4th Grader
For a full year I've been putting off the whole Weather unit that my then 3rd grader, now 4th grader was supposed to get done. First I didn't have the supplies then I didn't understand the instructions. Then I understood the instructions and couldn't find the supplies, and life happened in the meantime ... hey things get lost over a year! LOL!

So today we sat down and built a hygrometer. 2.5 stinkin' hours to build the thing that should only have taken a few minutes. The kicker, is the thing probably won't even work. We had a devil of a time getting the pivot in the right spot and the papers fanned out right and ... well .... yadda yadda yadda. Its done.

After the cursed couple hours that it took to build the hygrometer, I wasn't hopeful that the Barometer would be easier, but that only took 10 minutes. I've at least built those before and they're really cool when they work. Dang I miss living close to my folks, as this is the kind of thing my dad loves to do! LOL!

Back to School - First Project

2010-09-06T21:26:00.000-07:00

It's labor day and school starts tomorrow for the oldest, the middlest has been doing stuff seriously for about a month now.

Anyway soccer for the oldest started last week and I realized that I had bought fabric for her to make a soccer bag, but we never got around to it. So today's project to get her away from the computer was to make a soccer bag - just a bag for her to keep her shinguards, soccer ball and anything else she needs in between games and during the game.

She did this all by herself!

And we're gonna make a shrinky dink tag tomorrow for art... so she can hang it on her bag, just in case it gets stolen!!

Hogwarts Summer Camp Cancelled - Back to "School"

2010-08-18T17:06:00.000-07:00

So the Hogwarts homeschool thing was a great idea, but things slipped by the wayside. M and S got their first assignments but neither really got into do them. So we'll try again next year... no sweat, no worries - Just hope they'll take them! LOL!

We spent a week making Pillowcases for ConKerr Cancer - as part of a Craft Hope project. We can't really get out and do stuff for actual service, so I figure if we do little craft projects that the girls will enjoy we're doing good. M is planning to make some Dolls for Haiti also - both counting towards Junior Girl Scout badges.

In the mean time I've been getting ready for the school year with a 4th grader and a preK/Kindy/1st Grader (S is kinda all three! LOL!) So over the past month we set up a Calendar Time Board. I love the idea of Workboxes but don't have the space for them so I went with a wall magazine holder to hold our books - one for each kid! I will eventually number them create a daily card for them to work off of. All S' notebooks are ready for the year and we have officially kicked off Kindergarten (we'll call it Kindy) for the year with her. She's off to a good start! :)

M is holding back a little, we'll be starting the official stuff with her shortly but for now she is doing little bits, focusing on Junior badges that count toward school stuff that we'll be working on.

Hogwarts Summer Camp

2010-07-01T11:26:00.001-07:00

So for a while the girls and I have been ~~listening on audio~~ reading the Harry Potter series, and sadly, we've just finished the last book! (Sadly because it was a good series and we didn't want it to end! LOL!) So anyway the girls have been talking about Hogwarts and wanting to go when they're old enough so I sent away asking if we could do a Hogwarts Summer Correspondence course for under age witches and wizards (Hogwarts as you know starts at age 11.)

I told the girls I had requested it and on Friday we got to work on making our wands. As under-age wizards they aren't allowed to perform magic so if they make their own wands... its good! :) While the girls painted their wands the littlest one was colouring pictures - actually first time she has ever been ALLOWED to hold a crayon - without someone taking it off her so she spent the time figuring out what to do with it. Ripping off the paper and colouring on the high chair table was the best! LOL! As I was digging through the pictures later ET looked like she was asking questions and making notes, so she became the official admissions clerk at Hogwarts! LOL!

The girls got their letter by Owl Saturday morning - the Owl left it in the petunia pot out front. The letter just asks if they would be interested in doing a summer correspondence course through Hogwarts - but not AT Hogwarts. They both got very excited at the idea.

Just before lunch M and I created the quills they'll use for the work. The Quills are feather with and gutted ballpoint pens stuck inside! I haven't come up with the ink-well yet (but I'm still thinking on it!) M needs to reply to Professor McGonagall - which she'll do by Owl this evening or this afternoon! :) (Pink is a flamingo Feather, Red is a Phoenix Feather, and Green is a One-can - not a Toucan feather!)

Muffin Tin Lunches

2010-06-22T12:07:00.000-07:00

So that lastest thing we're working on here is healthier food. Much to my chagrin we've been eating a lot of junk food lately, and I've been no better than a school cafeteria in terms of feeding my kids. With the little one on the loose these days and having dairy issues, its become apparent that we need to eat better! So here are our attempts for the last couple weeks.

I've got a laptop lunch box system that we will be using during the school year too - but for now we're getting used to the idea of eating at home, by using muffin tins. Its amazing how quick and easy it is to fill those little containers up with healthy foods.

Over the coming weeks we will work on implementing a muffin tin snack tray along with our lunches for munching all day. But I'm loving the idea of lunch boxes, and muffin trays, and just simple trays filled with fun Healthy foods.

If this is something that interests you go visit Muffin Tin Mom - on Mondays she hosts an event called Muffin Tin Monday. She has a Mr Linky that posts all the creative lunches people have made that day. And I think during the school year the moms work toward a theme of the week! :) This could be fun & Creative and best of all the 9 and 4.5 yr olds can help plan the meals.

Sketch Week #2

2010-02-17T13:24:00.001-08:00

Wow a post 2 weeks in a row... who knows maybe soon I'll be posting daily! (ha to think!)

This is a weekly sketch challenge from Harm ony Art Mom - the task was to sketch something you can recycle. M likes "Pop"/ Soda, so she chose to sketch a purple soda can.

She really seems to like the water colour pencils and so opted to "paint" her picture again this week!

So this is "Soda Can" by M.E.K.

Needing ideas for art?? Check out this week's challenge - you can find Here

Back to the Drawing Board with Weekly Sketches

2010-02-09T08:11:00.000-08:00

So Harmony Art Mom provides a weekly sketch challenge and this week we decided to try it out. I think we missed the cut off for submission for the slideshow, but we still did the sketch - well M did anyway... I did too but I'm not showing it to ya! (hee hee!) M's sketch was a pencil drawing coloured with watercolour pencils (we used drawing paper hence the wrinkling of the paper. So this is "Space Train" by M.E.K.

I'm working on getting participation from S, and I'm doing them too... I figure I could use some help with my drawing and art skills so what the heck. The challenge with S is she wants to draw - no question there - she just doesn't want to be told what to draw!

So this is one of our adventures of late.

Endangered Species - Enviro Friendly - Getting Started

2009-11-18T07:54:00.000-08:00

We bought a 1 yr Zoo membership this year instead of a membership to a neighbouring Aquarium. M(8) and I had been to the Zoo once before and S(almost 4) had never been. M's Brownie troop spent their cookie money from last year on a Zoo trip and got a behind the scenes tour this Saturday - seeing the food being prepared for the animals and then a brief tour of the exhibits.

So we were there on Saturday with the Troop and decided to go back on Monday because we missed more than Half of the exhibits.

I (the parent) have known about animals being endangered to the point of near extinction, and just came to realize that my daughters were unaware. While I don't expect S to 'get' that, M certainly does and actually has a few favourites that she wants to do something for.

So we embark on a journey of being more "consumer conscious" and environmentally friendly in our purchases. Example, one of the things we learned this past weekend is that a group of people decided to stop buying Girl Scout cookies because they were made with Palm Oil which is threatening the Orangutans in Indonesia.

So I'm thinking that the girls will do some on different animals.

For S that will mean learning about her favourite animals at the Zoo, maybe the Pink Cockatoo (which also happens to be a Webkinz,) the Hippo, the Tiger and likely the vulture. For M that will mean learning about the Animals she loves (Sumatran/Bengal/Siberian) Tigers, and the Grevy's Zebra. (for me that means the Tiger, the Orangutans and the Black Rhino.) We'll be learning about where they live, why they are endangered and what we can do to help!

I think this will go part of the way to helping us be more environmentally conscious with a purpose too! For example, being more vigilant with our cloth grocery bags to conserve on paper and polluting plastic products, etc. etc. I think with such a purpose in mind it makes it easier to be more mindful of the environment.

So there ya go. That's we're embarking on!

Grade 3 Plan

2009-08-13T20:02:00.000-07:00

We're always fine tuning and making adjustments here and there.

LANGUAGE ARTS
- Growing with Grammar 3
- Various Reading materials.
- Creative Writing assignments from various topics
- Penmanship various letters and thank-yous to family

MATH
- Singapore Math (3A & 3B)
- Various online computer games
- Various Worksheets for practice

HISTORY/GEOGRAPHY
- K12 History (Grade 2&3)

SCIENCE
- K12 Science (Grade 2&3)
- various topics (including Junior Badges and other subjects of interest)

LANGUAGES
Not in Practice yet - haven't found what we want!

ARTS/CRAFTS/MUSIC
- Extra Curricular Art Projects
- Brownie Crafts and Music Projects
- extracurricular classes as appropriate

EXTRACURRICULAR
- Brownie Girl Scouts
- Soccer
- swimming
- outside classes as interest deems necessary

*****************

If anyone out there reading has an absolute favourite program that they want to share, I'd love to check it out! :)

I will continue to update as we progress through this year! :)

Day 3 - of back to school

2009-08-12T11:48:00.000-07:00

Grade 3. The gusto and umph we started off with on day one has definitely worn off. It took over an hour to finish two lessons of math - and it wasn't particularly hard either. But she was distracted I guess. Its almost 3 pm and she's barely gotten hold of her grammar - but ET had an appointment at the doctor today so that was her excuse. Either way she has until 4 to get most of her stuff done or we can't do any sewing. ET gets grumpy later in the evening so that puts the a damper on further mummy assisted learning.

Pre-Kindergarten. Its always nice when you find out that your 3.5 yr old has been holding out on you. For months I've been trying to determine what S knows - how much of her alphabet, how far she can count. She's had no problems with colors or shapes since she was about 2 - but the rest she's been holding out on. So a few weeks ago, I sat down with her and found out that she knows 20/26 of the capital letters... and about 6 out of 26 lower case letters (ya we need to work on that.) But the shockers that I've gotten in the last few days are these.

she knows what her name looks like (she pretends to be oblivious!)
she can finger spell (ASL) her name
she can count to 10 without help
she can finger count (ASL) to 6

so last year's goals......Goals for S for 2008-2009

(DONE) - Identify shapes
( IP ) - Identify ABCs and the letter sounds
( IP ) - Develop a larger vocabulary
(DONE) - count 1-5
(DONE) - count 1-10
(DONE) - sing simple children's songs
(DONE) - Gross Motor Skills: run, jump, hop, march, roll, sommersault, tip toe, walk backwards

We've got them covered. The only thing left on the list is to identify letters and letter sounds which we're working on now. S is a funny little girl who will learn what she wants, when she wants and how she wants and there is no way of getting around that at the moment. So we've been working slowly on the letters and finding reasons that it might be useful. She's now interested in learning to read so the letters are becoming more important to her.

Newborn-garten!
Little ET has finally entered newborn-hood instead of preemie-hood! She is 6 days past her due date and currently 7 lbs 15 oz... at 2 months old. As far as preemies go, she's pretty uneventful. She's not engaging yet but she is waking up more. She definitely has the I want it "NOW" down pat. M has decided that she will be helping me make some toys and things for ET to look at. We're going to start of with some pompoms and black and white images to put around her bed/bassinet/playpen/change area.

So there you have it 3 grades ... and I've sorta got it under control at the moment.

Back in the Groove

2009-08-04T20:19:00.001-07:00

I'm trying to get back in the groove of blogging... but not yet ready to jump into the whole school thing just yet. I guess the class room is being set up so to speak.

We added a new student to our classroom this year. She arrived earlier than planned, and had a little delay in the office - a tiny problem with transfer papers I guess you could say.

Little ET (as she will be known here) arrived on Jun 7th, at 31 weeks due to me having severe Pre-E (you can read the story at my main blog!) Spent 35 days in the Intermediate Care ICU (step down from the NICU in layman's terms.) In the mean time life is not usual at our house. LOL!

Feeling guilty that most of the summer was blown away with me in hospital, or me laid up post c-sec or travelling to the hospital daily - you get the picture, I started on August first to play with some fun ideas. I found obscure and neat holidays that are celebrated almost every day of the year. We don't have to do much - just pay attention that they are there and if the girls are up for it, we celebrate it.

August 1 was Raspberry Cream Pie day - so we gathered the ingredients (life got away with us) and we made our pie on the 2nd of August.

August 2 was Ice Cream Sandwich (and Sister's Day) - so I rushed out to the store, got ice cream sandwiches - and we ate the Raspberry Cream pie for dessert this day and had the ice cream sandwiches the next day! LOL! (a day late!)

August 3 was National Picnic Day in Australia, so we got some lunch and picnicked in the middle of the living room floor while watching the Lion King (because it was much too hot outside.)

August 4 (1901-1971) - was Louis Armstrong's Birthday - so we celebrated by finding different video/sound clips on the internet and listening to them. M was able to identify a song sung by Mr. Armstrong - "What a Wonderful World" - which I believe was in Madagascar (though don't quote me on that!)

Tomorrow (August 5, 1930) ... - is the other Mr. Armstrong's birthday. It will be "One Small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" kind of day... (this is fun! and we're learning something too.

I Quit, I Think - little homeschool article

2009-05-12T19:25:00.000-07:00

A friend found this article that intrigued me. So I thought I'd share...

http://educationrevolution.stores.yahoo.net/iquit.html

It kind of echo's the sentiments of why many homeschool!

Still sidetracked.

2009-04-30T06:56:00.000-07:00

But its always nice to find in the media (online) that your county is suffering a nasty outbreak of "Whooping Cough!" and there are fears that people have been under vaccinated!

Bad Blogger

2009-04-11T07:35:00.001-07:00

I've been a really bad blogger here for a long time. Sorry diligent readers!
For the most part, we've been caught up in the Humdrum of getting it all done, and moving on to more exciting and fun things. We're about 2 weeks behind where we should be for the time of the year. M doesn't want to school on her birthday - so we're adding in a couple hours to our weekend and our week days here and there to get caught up.... slowly we're getting there.

I'm doing okay withM (7) and getting her stuff done, it's boring but we're getting there... I am trying to spruce up some of her lessons with different Brownie Badges or activities to fit it all together.... like this week we're working on a Sound unit and will tie it up by finishing her sounds of Music Brownie try it kit ... from making friends - mini Badge in a Bag program. Seemed a good fit. We also got to use the the tin can and string telephone that we made at Brownies to show how vibration makes sound travel through the string. Both the purpose the phone was made for and an added bonus we didn't have to wash and puncture another can to visually represent how the sound pushes the air to make noise that our ears hear... we just used our ready made kit! Bonus!

S (3) is another story. She's pretty good at keeping herself busy while I teach the older one or tidy up and then we try to do some fun stuff daily. But I feel really bad that I haven't truly been focusing on her needs like I did with M when she was little. Part of it is lack of energy, part is lack of imagination, and part is lack of patience. She often takes things to a new level and as such becomes hard to handle if I need to step away for a minute and do something else. Where M's attention was humungous at this age S' there and good for her age, but not near as long as M's. So I'm having a hard time. But I'm still looking for ideas!

School around here needs to be more fun, more creative... and I think that is where I'm struggling. I'm open to ideas... teaching grade 2 and then 3 ... and most definitely preschool (alphabet needs work, numbers need work - we're good on colors and shapes though so there is progress there!)

St. Patrick's Day is coming!

2009-03-12T12:47:00.000-07:00

When M was tiny I got really into doing crafts with her but they were all over her head and I got frustrated, life then happened and I got out of the habit of doing this fun stuff with them.

Today I decided it was time to get back in the flow of things. Now both M and S are of an age that we can actually have fun with them. M is capable of doing it alone, where S needs more one on one help. Our adventures today lead us to make a Shamrock crown in preparation for the Big March 17th. Here is what we made!

Catching Up

2009-03-01T07:59:00.000-08:00

I've been a slacker blogger lately. So sorry - life has a way of keeping me busy!

For Thanksgiving, we got a wonderful surprise and found out we are expecting again. I battled daily all-day nausea for a while and that came to an end with me promptly discovering I now have hypertension... fun fun, so we've been taking it easy and I've been staying away from my 'puter a little just because I think there are better ways for me to spend my time with the girls.

Excuses, excuses!

Well we've been busy with the basics of school, keeping things going and trying to add more fun stuff in. We stopped our Art classes for a while, so we could focus just on Ballet class once a week and Brownie Girl scouts.

For M we've started a 50 states lapbook which might turn into a notebook instead just because there was so much cutting and pasting to do that it became tedious. (did I forget to mention I hate cut and paste... and while m could do it, that would be all we'd do for days on end! LOL!) So far we're finishing up Delaware, which I think might take 2 weeks, because while we've covered the basics of the State, we still have a bunch to read and learn.

Well, while we were doing that S decided she wanted something too. So this past week we decided to get started on the Letter of the Week Program. We're doing the prep curriculum, because until now she hasn't really had any desire to know her alphabet or counting. Now for my part, I don't believe that she "needs" to be doing anything more than having fun and learning as she goes, but she is asking to do stuff, and this seems easy and fun for her, so we're running with it. No pushing, no pressure as long as it fun we'll keep doing it.

I'll be back in bit to post S's totbook! And links to M's also!

Water Everywhere

2009-02-03T09:45:00.000-08:00

We decided to do a Brownie Try It today, as Ballet seems to throw the regular routine off... and she had done all her work for today - yesterday. So why not. We chose the Water Everywhere Try it.

We found several foods and non-food items that are made with water, including, bread, ketchup, toothpaste, mouthwash and a few other things.

We turned a tap on to a regular drip - because none of our faucets drip (we fix them asap! LOL!) And we timed how long it took for a cup to fill with water. After 5 minutes we had 8 ozs of water. From that we did the math and discovered that if we left that tap running like that for an entire day, we would waste 18 GALLONS of water in one. We drew a comparison between the 8 Gallons in our Frog Tank, and how much water we (mummy) drinks in 1 day. The wasted water was astounding.

M has never washed dishes (call her spoilt!) But I explained to her at various points we have hand washed dishes and ran the water, verses filling the sink with water and washing that way. I will have her wash our hand wash only cups over a basin with the water running to see if it is more feasible to fill the basin or wash with running water. She has also announced that she will take only 5 minute showers, fill the tub only half way on the days she is having a tubby, and we will use the frog tank water to water the plants and garden.

She has also announced that she wants to do a water snooper, but we'll have to wait until we can go somewhere where we get some pond water... Probably the weekend.

She was also curious to see the water layers experiment. Which involved filling a cup with warm salty water, and adding cold water on top. You should see distinct layers. Doing the same in reverese, you pour plain cold water first, then add the salted water does the same thing happen. The results fascinated her... So though we have technically done the whole try it - she wants to wait til we can do the water snooper before she says she is done.

It was a fun way to spend a morning doing science-y school related work but with no pressure!

(will try and get pics of our water layers up in a bit.)

Struggling with Gr 2 Math

2009-01-09T09:47:00.000-08:00

M is not a regrouper... the chicken scratch proved to be confusing for her and was frustrating her more than helping her so since we're already out of the traditional box, I learned how to do it a different way and it showed her - it clicked and she's off and running with it... She is obviously not as excited by the new method as I am, but she is getting it where she was really struggling with regrouping.

Our Method??
My parents were taught in the UK in the 40's and 50's. Mum has forever remembered the method of "Borrowing and Paying Back." She tried to teach me once years after I had figured out the regrouping method and it just never stuck for me but apparently it did for my sis. Well I've learned it now... its cool... while I fall back on my old way of chicken scratch... this borrowing and paying back method makes faster work for M - so its a hit!

If you're curious or have a struggling math student who isn't 75% set on regrouping try this link (it will open up a word document on your computer which some people don't want.)

Happy New Year 2009

2009-01-01T07:58:00.000-08:00

I've been absent from here for a while... not really much on the homeschool front to post about. We've been lax... and we haven't really been doing much fun stuff - just focusing on getting through most of our work so we can do more fun and interesting stuff.

Hopefully with the new year we'll have more adventures and fun!

Stay Tuned... I'm hoping to get back in the saddle in a couple days!

Disney Education

2008-10-26T15:22:00.000-07:00

So who would have thought that a family vacation like Disney would be an educational experience? I certainly didn't! But hey we learn something new everyday right?? That's why we homeschool!

What we discovered!

Florida in October is beautiful bordering on really Warm but not HOT! It is very muggy though especially when the rain is moving in!
Disney near Halloween is still a ZOO - with European vacationers and plenty of Canadian and Americans to boot
We discovered the selfishness of adults as they made both young young (under 2 yr olds) and old stand even at 10 pm or later.....
Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween is pretty popular - and lots of people go all out! :)
We learned about the History of Consumer Technology ( on the Carousel of Progress)
We revisited our World History on Space Ship Earth
We learned about Different Cultures on its a small world
We learned more about Cultural Customs and Traditions at Epcot via Kidcot Funstops and just exploring the different countries via their food!
We learned of the importance of keeping an eye on our Money both literally(a woman lost a wad of money in Tomorrowland) and figuratively (by making sure we weren't spending too much on items that wouldn't be played with tomorrow!)
We studied Literature through rides like Snow-white, Peter Pan and Winnie the Pooh! and kind of discussed how this is one person's interpretation of the stories as they were written
We also kept a partial journal and discovered that M isn't really into journal keeping just yet (if she is like me she may never be! LOL! but I'm not placing my prejudices on her yet!)
We learned about Animals at the Animal Kingdom - where the showcase different info from expeditions and encounters with animals and insects alike. They also have a window to an operating theater or exam room depending on the circumstance (thank goodness there was no sick animals last week - so we didn't see any surgeries! I'm not quite ready for that! LOL!)

So all in all it was a good week for the big one.

We discovered that S is a go with the flow kind of kid for the most part, and would adventure onto any ride, as long as mummy was with her. We discovered that without any guidance she has learned to identify letters A, L, S and P - and she can still count to 5 repeatedly always missing #4! LOL!

Current - Grade 2 Plan

2008-10-26T14:00:00.000-07:00

Just like last year we're still slowly tailoring M's learning program - which is just as much learning about what fits her style and mine as following our interests ... here is an update of the post I originally back in April when I was just in the planning stage!

We're still fine tuning everything and making adjustments here and there.

LANGUAGE ARTS
- ~~K12 Language arts (Grade ?)~~
- Growing with Grammer 1 & 2
- Various Reading materials.
- Baltimore Curriculum Literature
- Creative Writing assignments from various topics and Prompt Plan Write (mostly typed!)
- Penmanship various letters and thank-yous to family

- Spectrum Reading (Grade 2) *Finishing*
- Spectrum Spelling (Grade 4)

MATH
- ~~K12 Math (Grade 2)~~
- Singapore Math (2A and B) - Oct 26
- Various online computer games

HISTORY/GEOGRAPHY
- K12 History (Grade 2)

SCIENCE
- K12 Science (Grade 2)
- various topics (including Brownie Try-Its and other subjects of interest)

LANGUAGES
- Sign Language (need to find better program - maybe Signing Times Videos + more)
- Spanish (is it the right time?? need to find a better program here too!)

I'm not really happy with what we're using here and need to find something better. I'm tempted to let the Spanish sit for a year or 2 and just focus on the sign since we have both an interest and a need for it. That way when S is ready to start "schooling" we can include her in the spoken Spanish lessons and go from there.

ARTS/CRAFTS/MUSIC
- Extra Curricular Art Projects
- Art Group through Kids Art
- various projects
- extracurricular classes as appropriate
- Baltimore Curriculum Art and Music

EXTRACURRICULAR
- Brownies
- Ballet
- Art Classes
- outside classes as interest deems necessary

*****************

If anyone out there reading has an absolute favourite program that they want to share, I'd love to check it out! :) I feel like I'm doing so much better this year in my planning than last year! (question is where will it lead me! LOL! Trouble no doubt!)

I will continue to update as we progress through this year! :)

A Day of Sewing

2008-10-03T15:33:00.000-07:00

We've been really lax on working on Brownie Try Its this year. M hasn't had an interest and I'm trying to stand back and let her take more of a lead! We're doing an award ceremony in December. As of today M had earned 5 Try-its.... when I told her this she promptly announced that she wanted to get 16 Try Its at the award Ceremony - so I told her to get working.

Today's work was around the Girl Scout - Virginia Skyline Council's "Sewing" Try it. We've been learning to sew periodically for months now. She keeps telling me ....

"Mum, I want to sew" (2 minutes to lunch time.)
"Mum, I want to sew" (5 minutes til we leave for class.)
"Mum, I want to sew" (15 minutes to bed time.)

So today I gathered up my stuff, including Sewing safety rules, pulled up the GSVSC's requirements (which we got approval for in July) and started to work. We worked on hand sewing... she learned whipstitch and running stitch and she is working on a little jacket for her webkinz poodle. She is very pleased.

Inevitably the little one decided that she too needed to learn to sew. I was dreading those words! LOL! Years ago I had bought M a box of lacing cards - M never really got into them, or we just didn't have time and she lacked the patience. Shockingly S, has the patience, coordination and skill to do it all at 2.5 yrs old. Is this the same kid who can't do anything without running around the house 1/2 a dozen times.

I ended up printing ghost image off the internet onto card stock, gluing to pieces of card stock together and using the laces from the box for S to play with.... and OMG she ran with it. M got into the actual lacing cards and perfected her whipstitch technique there, before continuing with her jacket project.

All in all it was a good Home Ec kind of day. M is pleased with her doings and completed her Sewing Try It and S has returned to running madly around the house.

A Snake !

2008-09-28T09:12:00.000-07:00

We try walk about 1-3 times in a weekend. Well in our typical weekend walk yesterday, in one of our local National Recreation Areas, dh was running ahead to catch up to little S, and M and I were walking enjoying the views. M was on my right, and out of the side of my eye I caught a glimpse of a long black stick...something in my strange brain triggered me to yank M to the left of me and I stepped weirdly to the left as well, in some strange fluid dance like motion! I paused and looked back and yelled "Hey did you see the dead snake?" To which dh and S came running back to look. Its body was all lumpy and bumpy which suggested to me it was newly dead.

M and I began to study it from a distance, using the things we had learned from other "Caged" snake encounters, and her Brownie Try it book. I looked for a rattle, and note-able danger markings, keeping far enough away from it ... M noted that it had a tiny "NON SPADE" like head which suggested it was non-venomous. We had no idea what kind of snake it was - it looked all black with no note-able markings. So I assumed it was a Black Rat Snake.

We stood looking at this funky looking snake that looked dead as its body had shriveled up and it was all lumpy - but again my brain said, 'wait a sec, its head is up... and there is no rock for it to rest on.... its not dead - its playing dead.' So I said that aloud and dh curiously agreed. We watched it for a sec, dh moved in for a closer look, camera in hand of course.... and we watched. Sure enough in a split second it flicked its tongue. Slowly the lumpy-bumpy -ness of the body smoothed out and it slowly slithered away into the underbrush of leaves and ground debris.

You can't really see in the above picture the details but we did get a close look at. Its body had large spots when it stretched out, a light underside. It was about 2-2.5 ft long, so it was still quite young. As M says a teen.

I discovered that it was likely a Black Rat Snake in its juvenile state as it still had the markings of a Gray Rat Snake.

It was an interesting life science lesson - that we hadn't even planned to have! LOL!

#5 Poison Ivy (100SpeciesofPlant Challenge)

2008-09-28T08:51:00.001-07:00

Continuing on with the 100 Species of Plant Challenge

Name: Poison Ivy

Things I already knew: We've been seeing this in our yard for the better part of a year. It grows throughout the United States and Canada, commonly found in the forest understory. It grows in clusters of 3 leaves, hence the saying "Leaves of three, leave it be!"

Things I recently learned: The toxin that it emits which causes the rash is called urushiol. I didn't know that it does not grow in Alaska, Hawaii, Newfoundland or California (according to Wiki.) Only 15% to 30% have no reaction to the plant but most if not all become sensitized to it with repeated exposure - this growing reaction can eventually lead to anaphylaxis. So far M & I have not gotten a reaction to this but Dh does and it has gotten worse with time!

That rubbing the sword fern frond - spore side down after a stinging nettle sting will removed the sting. (this would have been handy to know in May! LOL!)

Also WORTH NOTING: "If it is growing up the trunk of a tree, the presence of copious root-hairs will identify it, leading to the 'hairy vine, no friend of mine' warning."

For more info try wiki

#4 Fern (100SpeciesofPlantChallenge)

2008-09-27T21:42:00.001-07:00

Continuing on with the 100 Species of Plant Challenge

Name: Fern

Things I already knew: I was able to identify these pretty easily on sight. In the Maritimes (Canada), they eat fiddle heads as a delicacy in the spring! That several species of fern have been adapted to house plants like the Boston Fern.

Things I recently learned: There are more than 20,000 known species of fern. They were around during the early-Carboniferous period, and the first ferns related to the modern plants of today were around during the Triassic period.

That rubbing the sword fern frond - spore side down after a stinging nettle sting will removed the sting. (this would have been handy to know in May! LOL!)

For more info try wiki

#3 Goldenrod (100SpeciesofPlantChallenge)

2008-09-27T21:23:00.001-07:00

Continuing on with the 100 Species of Plant Challenge

Name: Goldenrod

Things I already knew: I knew that it flowers around the same time as ragweed, that many claim to be allergic to it. I could identify it from a distance but had never seen it truly up close.

Things I recently learned: I thought they were rods of individual flowers but they are puffy miniature dandelion like flowers - very pretty.

According to wiki "the goldenrod is often unfairly blamed for causing hay fever in humans. The pollen causing these allergy problems is mainly produced by Ragweed (Ambrosia sp.), blooming at the same time as the goldenrod, but is wind-pollinated. Goldenrod pollen is too heavy and sticky to be blown far from the flowers, and is thus mainly pollinated by insects."

Interestingly there were "Galls" all around the ground where the ragweed from a few weeks ago had been mowed down.... we were unaware of what they were until much later. (The wiki article explains the galls - under the wasp photo!)

I also didn't know "Goldenrods are, in some places, held as a sign of good luck or good fortune;" as where I am - our society seems to find them a noxious weed!

#2 Spindle Berry Plant (100SpeciesofPlantChallenge)

2008-09-27T18:08:00.000-07:00

Continuing on with the 100 Species of Plant Challenge

Name: Euonymus (Spindle Berry)

Things I already knew: Nothing other than it produced interesting berries - and it was my 7 yr old that discovered it.

Things I recently learned: "Euonymus (Spindle Berries) are large shrubs to small trees from open, slightly moist spots in woods throughout Europe to Japan. Very easy in cultivation, good to cut back. Spindle Berries have usually small, greenish flowers in spring, yet very decorative, bright pink to scarlet fruits which open to shed brilliant orange to rose covered seeds in autumn and early winter. Foliage turns bright yellow to burning red in autumn.

Note: All parts (especially the attractive fruits) are poisonous if eaten."

***********************
So one wonders how the 7 yr old identified this plant, when the rest of us had no clue? Apparently there is a Fairy by this name and there are plenty of pictures of the plant in her fairy books. *sigh* Fascinating where she picks up her info.

Ragweed

2008-09-03T21:18:00.000-07:00

100 Species of Plant Challenge

Since I apparently can't tolerate contact with this darling plant (currently suffering near bronchitis because of it!), I figured maybe I should consider borrowing a photo off the internet instead of trying to go back and photograph the thing! (so this image was borrowed from Wiki)

Name: Ragweed

Things I already knew: It's Perennial. Its pollen produces severe and widespread allergies. I am allergic.

Things I recently learned: It can be a annual, perennial or a shrub. It grows on a taproot, or a creeping Rhizome. It can grow over 5 feet tall. I'm very very Allergic! :(

I also learned that during Ragweed season those with severe allergies to this plant can often be sensitive to other members of it's family, including sunflower seeds, chamomile, cantaloupe and Bananas.

You might find this article interesting. Its definitely worth noting!

Since discovering what this plant was on our recent walk, I've been totally obsessed with it. It sad to me that I had NO IDEA what Ragweed looked like. But now I know what it looks like, feels like and does to my poor respiratory tract, I guess I shall never forget this lesson!

100 Species of Plant Challenge!

2008-09-03T08:48:00.000-07:00

One of the preschool homeschool group moms posted a link to this Challenge and since I'm hacking up a lung after a recent encounter with ragweed, I figure what a fun and educational Natural Science project!

So I guess I'll officially participate! :)

And will post as soon as we get our first photo! I think it would be awesome fun to identify 100 Plants within walking distance of our home. The info would be totally useful! :)

So if you want to participate too....here are the rules! :)

Here are the rules:

1. Participants should include a copy of these rules and a link to this entry in their initial blog post about the challenge. I will make a sidebar list of anyone who notifies me that they are participating in the Challenge.

2. Participants should keep a list of all plant species they can name, either by common or scientific name, that are living within walking distance of the participant’s home. The list should be numbered, and should appear in every blog entry about the challenge, or in a sidebar.

3. Participants are encouraged to give detailed information about the plants they can name in the first post in which that plant appears. My format will be as follows: the numbered list, with plants making their first appearance on the list in bold; each plant making its first appearance will then have a photograph taken by me, where possible, a list of information I already knew about the plant, and a list of information I learned subsequent to starting this challenge, and a list of information I’d like to know. (See below for an example.) This format is not obligatory, however, and participants can adapt this portion of the challenge to their needs and desires.

4. Participants are encouraged to make it possible for visitors to their blog to find easily all 100-Species-Challenge blog posts. This can be done either by tagging these posts, by ending every post on the challenge with a link to your previous post on the challenge, or by some method which surpasses my technological ability and creativity.

5. Participants may post pictures of plants they are unable to identify, or are unable to identify with precision. They should not include these plants in the numbered list until they are able to identify it with relative precision. Each participant shall determine the level of precision that is acceptable to her; however, being able to distinguish between plants that have different common names should be a bare minimum.

6. Different varieties of the same species shall not count as different entries (e.g., Celebrity Tomato and Roma Tomato should not be separate entries); however, different species which share a common name be separate if the participant is able to distinguish between them (e.g., camillia japonica and camillia sassanqua if the participant can distinguish the two–”camillia” if not).

7. Participants may take as long as they like to complete the challenge. You can make it as quick or as detailed a project as you like. I’m planning to blog a minimum of two plants per week, complete with pictures and descriptions as below, which could take me up to a year. But you can do it in whatever level of detail you like.

Shaving Cream

2008-08-20T08:59:00.000-07:00

M was busy doing her math yesterday morning. Dh was working from home on the laptop. S needed something to do so we dragged out the cookie plate. A few months ago I bought some shaving cream with the idea that the girls could use it to play with - you know sensory play! So S started and at first she didn't like it. She's really not a messy kid - doesn't like to get messy and if she does she wants it washed off right away. After the initial shock of messiness and the promise that we could wash it off when she was done, she got right into it. 1/2 hour later she was covered in shaving cream and having a great time while M looked on jealously, and dh looked on in absolute horror! (hee hee!)

She had a good time. (hopefully some pics to follow)

Preschool Begins.

2008-08-13T12:35:00.000-07:00

While I totally believe that unschooling is the way to go in the early years, I also know that with S I need to include a few different things to let her have a feel of the things the world has to offer. I'm a totally an ~~unorganized~~ unstructured person, and so we do things as they work for us.

Monday - we started with Name recognition! So S is learning what her name looks like in print, ALL CAPS right now and eventually when she starts to see it and know it we'll convert to Cap with lower case! We also worked on how to hold a pen, in a none-pressured way. She is a fist holder, so I'm trying to get her to look a little more comfortable with the pen - so we're working with FAT glitter markers from Laurentian

Tuesday - we began Calendar activities. Where I'm introducing the days of the Month, day (as in weekday name) and number. Because it was spur of the moment, my numbers are just squares of paper stuck on to a $5 calendar from Staples (a few years ago!) I'm hoping to get a pocket thingy so that we can have more fun with it, but we'll run with what we've got today!

Wednesday - I made both girls Finger painting bags, similar to the Crayola Mess free Easel thing -- both of them spent a couple hours with these little thingies and they were simple to make costing less than a couple dollars

S is also getting a kick out of the tepee (mentioned below!)

So things are underway and I'm introducing one or two new things each day and including a reasonable amount of reading time. Tomorrow I'm hoping to add shaving cream activities to our list but right now I need some good cookie trays in good shape to work with! LOL!

So there you have it - that's what we're up to this week!

Science and History Grade 2

2008-08-13T12:14:00.000-07:00

Well school began on Monday and after 3 days we're doing pretty good with our new time-table, I think it will work even if we aren't timely.

Science
So we opened up our science studies this year with a unit on plants. So far we're learning about seeds. We have dissected Great Northern Beans and Blackeyed Peas and our field trip was to the Moe's where we got beans on our burritos and we peeled the skin off to to see the cotyledon (kah-til-ee-don) and embryo inside! I also have the remnants of our science experiment all over my computer desk here...

We have soaked some seeds in a solution of bleach and water (1 tbsp of bleach to 2 cups water) so the seeds won't mildew or mold. We then placed them in a ziplock baggie with moistened paper towel to so we can watch the embryo emerge, the roots grow down and then the leaves shoot up! We have one set on top of the fridge (for heat) and one taped to the window to see which ones will grow faster (the warm ones or the sunny ones). I'm setting up a lapbook as well to go with this unit, just because our unit provides cut outs and papers that go with it and I need somewhere to store the stuff and she'd like to be able to go back and look at it again later.

Ancient History
Here we are finishing up a unit on Ancient Greece - we opened with the Trojan War and are learning about the Trojan Horse, Odysseus, and the Odyssey. And though we won't be quite in tune with the Olympics there is also a unit on the Original Olympics and we might just pause there for a few days and explore some of the Olympic footage and info that surrounds Beijing 2008.

American History
I've accidentally opened up another can of worms and decided that we need to learn a little about American history. We're starting in 1764 with American Girl story Kaya. Learning about the Native Indians (Nez Pierce) and eventually heading down to our neck of the woods where we'll learn a little about the Creek and Cherokee Indians of GA - which will help us toward a girl scout badge Georgia Native Peoples. With that in mind we have built our Tepee in the living room, and are working on a nice set of moccasins for M and I. I may have to buck up and get another kit for S as I'm sure she'll feel left out, though I think I be able to fashion my own and just have M sew them together! :) Today we'll be reading about the "Trail of Tears."

Odd Creative Adventure
As an offshoot of History, Creative Writing, Art and other subjects M will spend the year designing a notebook around her imaginary birth place. In it so far I have asked her to share their calendar - which is apparently different from our Calendar. Their Flag which apparently looks like the British flag but is actually differently coloured

Language - we've started our way through English for the Thoughtful Child.
Math - we've dug out our Grade 2 Math book.

So there you have it... Most of what we've done the past couple days. Next week we have a few different adventures as we begin classes outside of the house.

Our Initial Plan for 2008-09 School Year

2008-08-08T15:01:00.001-07:00

So school starts for most kids in our state on Monday. And in searching a typical day in Preschool just because I wanted ideas of what to do with S while M does her work. I made up a plan - an ambitious plan, but a plan just the same - everything starts with a plan in my book! :)

Before I say more, my goal with M is to make it to lunch - nothing rigorous, nothing strenuous. Dh's says try to accomplish at least 2/3 of the list and be happy! My thought, we'll do what we do and be happy as long as she learns and doesn't fall behind!

So without further adieu - this is M's Grade 2 plan - she has desires of getting up EARLY so school will start at 8:30 for her.

8:30 – 9:15 Math
9:30 – 9:45 Language Arts
9:45 – 10:00 Writing
10:00 – 10:30 Snack Time
10:30 – 10:45 Recess
10:45 – 11:30 Science
11:30 – 12:00 PE / Health
12:00 – 1:00 Lunch
1:00 – 2:00 Quiet Time
2:00 – 2:30 Art Computer Music or Home Ec
2:30 – 3:00 Reading
3:00 – 3:30 Snack

Realizing that my Littlest is 2.5 yrs old. Take this goals list with a HUMONGOUS pinch of salt. I'm not going to force, but will hopefully have plenty of stuff available for her to have fun with so she isn't feeling left out.

9:00 – 9:30 Circle Time
9:30 – 10:00 Center Time
10:00 – 10:30 Snack Time
10:30 – 10:45 Recess
10:45 – 11:30 Free Time - Centers or Art
11:30 – 12:00 PE
12:00 – 1:00 Lunch
1:00 – 2:00 Nap / Quiet
2:00 – 2:30 Art Computer Music or Home Ec
2:30 – 3:00 Reading

Nothing in our house is EVER forced. I'm terrible at adhering to a schedule so this will be really loosely applied, but it gives me a skeleton to work from - and with that - that means that I won't fritter away my day mindlessly (which I tend to do!) ... and if that is accomplished then we're doing well! :)

The Shocking Truth of a Homeschooling Dad

2008-08-06T15:54:00.000-07:00

Ya know its funny! Of late we've been predictable. Its summer so when dh gets home from work, we can be found lounging around the living room watching TV or maybe mum on the computer, older dd in her room reading and the little one running from end to end of the house! Its too hot to do that outside so the playground right now is indoors.

As the school year begins, I often wonder dh thinks when he gets home. I've never been the best house-keeper (I'm working on it!) Sometimes he finds books strewn from one end of the house to the other. The girls will pick up a book and read and you can usually trace the trail of them by following the books they've left in their wake! They get picked up later but still that trail is evidence of learning happening which is a sign I want to hang inside our front door! "Please Excuse the mess, we're busy learning!"

For the next little while though the girls and will embark on a journey to 1764 (with AG Kaya of the Nez Pierce or Nimiipuu) to learn about the Native American people and events that happened during that time. Kaya, the American Girl doll is a good catalyst for us to start with!

So with that in mind, the above layout shows 3 things... what the girls thought of our first activity, what our first activity looked like and dh's face when he saw our handiwork!

(papers from Outerbanks by Eva Kipler, layout inspired by the August 2008 Ad-spiration Challenge at Gottapixel, fonts Myriad Pro.)

Ruby Falls

2008-08-04T20:10:00.000-07:00

We visited Ruby Falls, in Chattanooga, TN on the weekend. The girls got to see first hand the effects of water on limestone - forming Stalactites and Stalagmites. It was pretty cool!

M's favourite was the Steak and Potatoes. S' favourite was the Dragon's foot and Elephants foot.

The falls were awesome.

Baking Secrets - and Brownie Try-Its

2008-07-18T14:05:00.000-07:00

Well, M came up with the idea that her 'kinz are having a party tonight, and she absolutely had to make "Wacky Cake."

And thus we began work on her VSC Confectionarily Yours Try It (which we got approval for, from the GSVSC, over a month ago! )

We have to do four Activities....

07/18/09 - #2 With your troop, or a friend and an adult, make a cake from scratch or from a mix. Help purchase the ingredients for your cake.

Well she decided she wanted muffins/cupcakes instead. She helped buy the ingredients, printed the instructions for the cake, and with very little help and a little guidance prepared the batter! (me I just took photos and offered suggestions! - it was hard to stand back and not dig in with her, but I'm getting better! Holding a camera helps! :)) (Image Blurred to protect the innocent.)

She's going to share her wares with a couple of the girls from the troop tomorrow when they go on another little try it adventure!

Potty Train

2008-07-16T20:51:00.000-07:00

Learning my lesson, the little one is more stubborn than her sister. Bribery will work.

When she gets all the stickers on her "Train" chart, she will get this cute little guy on the left. She is madly in love with dinosaurs, and Land Before Time's Chomper has hit the big one. He's just adorable!

We have had one success making it to the potty - well mostly - she kinda missed and hit the floor first but finished in the potty! But that's okay! That's what vinyl flooring is for right!? We seriously haven't focused much this week so back to it we will get on the weekend, in the mean time I need to get this wee lad ordered! Well, its not really bribery - its a reward for success!

Super Why and the Alphabet - Brag!

2008-07-10T14:16:00.000-07:00

And they say kids need taught!

My oldest likes to watch TV occasionally. The youngest developed a love of Super Why when she was little little (not Sesame Street or the like! LOL!) I've recently noted that she was interested in letters so we pulled out the fridge letters we had kicking around. I started singing and signing the Alphabet to her a while ago, but it wasn't sticking. This last week though M (my oldest) started sing in the Super Why tune, and dang-nabbit if the little one is getting about 90% of the alphabet song... not that - that means anything at the moment because she doesn't recognize the letters, but it is a start and means we might get some letter recognition going soon too! LOL! I love it. She's 2.5 for the record!

She actually sung the alphabet to my mum last night on the phone and missed maybe 3 letters - which is cool

Sung to the regular alphabet tune we get
ABCD XYK NNNO P - sign (not sing) with me!

To Super Why's Tune.....
ABCD EFG HIJK LNNOP cubeRS N TUP W becks XY and Z - sing with me!

I like the cube and becks! :) hee hee!

The funky thing in all this too is that she is wiggling her fingers around like she is trying to sign the alphabet too... I should look for a sign video of the alphabet complete with "sign with me" at the end!

And the Adventure Begins - Potty Training

2008-07-10T10:52:00.000-07:00

We are about to begin the adventure of potty training with S the 2.5 yr old. Not sure she is ready - not sure I'm ready but we're going to plow ahead as she is expressing a desire to wear panties like her sis.

Have read Potty Training in Less than a Day (years ago but read it - remember the basics)
Have read Making the Terrible Twos Terrific (read it a few years ago too!

Once Upon a Potty (girl)
The Potty Book - For Girls

Here are some charts for it. This is the Chart we'll use S likes Trains

We were going to try Training pants, but she just doesn't get them, so we'll just do panties. Easy on off.

Tads and Frogs

2008-06-18T12:51:00.000-07:00

So its been a while since I posted about the froglets.

Well Lily is HUGE, let me rephrase that - she's GIGANTIC, compared to what I expected. The girls have taken to calling her the piggy. With that said, Tad now called Lucy - but forever Tad in my book - is as big as Lily was when she arrived.

We put them together in the same tank for a bit, but poor Tad became quite skittish and freaks out when anyone comes near. Plus she didn't seem to be getting any of the food we put in the tank, so I separated her out so she could get as big as Lily and at least be able to hold her own in the food department.

So the girls are doing well. Caring for them is super easy. My girls feed them each morning and each night after dinner. I've been dealing with the water changes, though M will have to do it for a week in order to ear her Animals Try It.

All in all its been a good experience though M seems to address the worry of Lily or Tad dying soon... I told her whatever happens as long as we were good to her while she is with us we will have memories of her.

I truly think I might some day like to get another froggie - different kind this time (along with the doggie) but we'll need to do more research on their care and maintenance.

All Straightened Out - ha not

2008-06-14T07:11:00.000-07:00

Did I say we had most of next year's curriculum figured and that we were putting all our eggs in one big basket! Silly me... In the last couple days I've been skulking around the internet looking at ideas and places and things, and suddenly I find myself in an uproar over what we will really use! So get back to me around September if you want to see what we really end up doing.

For now I'm happy with our LA
Grammar

Creative Writing - writing process

Reading - comprehension, sequencing and literary response

Vocabulary through reading

Penmanship

LA- I'm testing out a sample Literature unit from Moving Beyond the Page.

SCI - We're gonna hang with the K-12 Science curriculum because I can work with it and add or take away stuff as I see fit. I like that everything is housed there including experiments and activities that make it seem more than just textbook work!

SOC ST. - I may yet end up with an embellished form of the Story of the World for History or I may slink back to K-12 for History - I'm just not sure what I want there.

MAT - Math - we're leaning to K-12, but I could if the right curriculum jumped up and bit me on the hand run with something else - ideally not terribly workbook related - but definitely on par with what is being taught in the schools.

MUS / ART - I'm at a loss, so I need to skulk around some more with my main focus on this! We've got ART covered in some of the classes that she takes, and its something she comes by naturally but MUS.... *sigh* MUSIC I suck at!

Ah well, all good plans need to be revised.... so we have some more leg-work to do!

Summer Brownie Badges

2008-06-08T22:46:00.001-07:00

We're going to work on some Brownie Badges over the summer. It'll be fun and it will keep her busy.

Here is what we're going to work on - with additions and changes of course.

WeatherWise (BDC - WV)
Colors and Shapes (pg 90)
All in the Family (pg 58)
Hobbies (pg 36)
Animals (pg 86)
Me and My Shadow pg 42 - along with our Science curric
WildFlower Finder (BLC - PA)
Art to Wear (pg 18)
Eco-Explorer (pg 102)
Friends are fun (pg 62)

Unsure where this will take us and how long it will take to get there. But we're on our way!

Focusing on Grade 2 Skills.

2008-06-08T14:53:00.000-07:00

I'm spending the next little while looking for websites that are specifically geared to acquiring or practicing Grade 2 skills, sites that might be of interest to me. I'd like to add to this page as I pick out more, but here is the current list

Math Grade 2
http://www.internet4classrooms.com/skills_2nd.htm
Lots of links here too different skills.

http://www.gsc.amdsb.ca/grade2/grade2_math.htm there are a number of different games focusing on skills related to grade two from counting change to matching times.

Social Studies Grade 2
http://www.internet4classrooms.com/skills_k_social.htm
Lots of links to different skills, also different lesson plans

Family, Family history
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/familytree/

http://bensguide.gpo.gov/k-2/neighborhood/index.html explains the roll of helpers in the community

Hopefully more to come

In Which Subway Apologizes

2008-05-29T11:15:00.000-07:00

The HSLDA posted an apology letter from Subway regarding their current contest.
http://www.hslda.org/docs/news/200805280.asp

I think they took some heat, and I think Scholastic took a some too but I think the brunt of the energy was directed at Subway as the giver of the contest.

Either way I still need to eat better... and that was the boot in the bottom to do so!

Tadfiles - Day 7

2008-05-28T19:00:00.000-07:00

Tad continues to grow. His feet are getting bigger, and he is using his legs more... his arms are growing, you can actually see them from the side now where you had to be head on to see them the last couple days.

The only thing that makes me sad is how quickly this time is passing. We've decided that as soon as Tad outgrows his current habitat we we will move him to the Stage 2 habitat and get another Tadpole friend to watch them grow too.

Its insanity I tell ya. I never thought I could be fond of a frog, but this little guy (gal) has worked its way into my heart!

Tadfiles - Day 5

2008-05-26T08:43:00.000-07:00

Well Little Tad is still with us!

As I mentioned before when Little Tad arrived s/he already had sprouted the tiniest set of back legs I ever did see. They have continued to grow and Little Tad has started using them. He has also grown somewhat, as his body from head to feet has elongated a fair bit as well! Yesterday we noticed two little nubbies at the back of his head where I guessed his little arms would appear. Our observations this morning yielded a tiny set of arms where those nubbies were. If you weren't looking for them you wouldn't see them, as you can only see them when he is head on looking at you! I wish I could get a decent pic of them. But I can't!

Anyway, that is today's update on the tad files! :)

Disappointed in SUBWAY and Scholastic Books

2008-05-25T21:19:00.000-07:00

So the latest buzz on the homeschool groups is how SUBWAY is snubbing homeschoolers.
Subway and Scholastic books are running a story writing contest. Details of which you can find

http://www.subwayfreshbuzz.com/kids/contest.aspx

Our communities are filled with homeschooled kids. Sadly, they have chosen to exclude our children from this contest! While I don't jump on the bandwagon of Boycotting, this is an outright shot at our children for the choice that isn't their own!

Disclaimer:
Contest is open only to legal US residents, over the age of 18 with children in either elementary, private or parochial schools that serve grades PreK-6. No home schools will be accepted.

I have sent my note to them already telling them how I feel. I'm beyond disappointed, M is very disappointed as well. As of today we will not be frequenting our local SUBWAY.... and frankly I think I may have to pull my purchases away from Scholastic books too!

Tadfiles Day 3 - Head Down Tail up - Good!

2008-05-23T08:04:00.000-07:00

Day 3 has begun of our Journey with Little Tad (who will be renamed to either Leap or Lilly when gender is detected! LOL! until then I will refer to it as a boy... just because that's my nature!) And good news good news.... he's swimming tail up head down just like the literature said it would.

I was pretty worried about it yesterday - little thing just stuck to the bottom of its container like glue, with a lot of unbalanced swimming to the surface only to sink to the bottom in a floppy side to side jerky motion, just like my dad's pig of a goldfish used to do when he was really sick. So at one point yesterday I dumped about 1/4 of the water off the top and put in some different spring water and maybe that helped a little. Like I said, I was paranoid we'd lose him in the first 72 hours, but it looks good now.

I've gone downstairs each morning for the past couple days before anyone wakes to make sure little Tad isn't floating at the top - just so I could be prepared to explain to the girls my findings. I'm not sure how M would take it, despite the fact that I had warned her that it still could happen.

None the less she is very pleased to FINALLY be a pet owner! I have photos of Tad, but they aren't very good... I have pictures of his welcome sign - which is cute.... and as soon as I get my brains and brawn together I will post them.

I'm even contemplating getting another Tadpole, when little Tad has grown... adding to the family so to speak... though dh is worried that they would be boy girl and we'd end up with a whack of spawn... and a crowded aquarium of the things! (ever the practical one! LOL!) But what a learning experience that would be. We'll order our Stage 2 aquarium as soon as we see arm buds... since Tad already has tiny cute little back legs.

Tadfiles - Officially Pet Owners!

2008-05-21T11:33:00.000-07:00

Officially Pet Owners! M is the proud parent of a real live Glass frog TADPOLE.

The Little Tad arrived today. It has its back legs already, they're tiny but distinguishable. I'm nervous about this as the mail-person left it in the mailbox despite the markings not to do so. Little Tad (I'm calling him/it - as M hasn't decided on a name yet) is kinda floating on its side. We'll give him 72 hours to adjust and then think of putting in a call to the help center if need be. Pics to follow of Proud Momma and her baby tad!

Grade 2 - The Mostly Final Plan

2008-05-13T09:11:00.001-07:00

LANGUAGE ARTS
- Baltimore Curriculum Project

MATH
- K12 Math (Grade 2)

HISTORY/GEOGRAPHY
- K12 History (Grade 2)

SCIENCE
- K12 Science (Grade 2)

LANGUAGES
- Sign Language (need to find better program - maybe Signing Times Videos + more)
- Spanish (is it the right time?? need to find a better program here too!)

I'm not really happy with what we're using here and need to find something better. I'm tempted to let the Spanish sit for a year or 2 and just focus on the sign since we have both an interest and a need for it. That way when S is ready to start "schooling" we can include her in the spoken Spanish lessons and go from there.

ARTS/CRAFTS/MUSIC
- K12 Art (Grade 2)
- K12 Music (Beginning 1)
- various projects
- extracurricular art classes as appropriate

I'm not sure if we will use the K12 Art and music but it seems to fit with everything else we're doing and I have no plan currently in place to cover these subjects. Our library doesn't seem to have the resources I want access to for the breadth of what I want to cover so I'm tossing my hands up here! I can teach crafts like Knitting, sewing, hand embroidery, crochet, etc.... she has expressed an interest and aptitude in sewing (hand and machine) and cross stitch, so we're good on crafts and will just follow interests!

EXTRACURRICULAR
- Brownies
- outside classes as interest deems necessary

You Tube Videos with a Startling Message

2008-05-13T09:08:00.001-07:00

One of my email groups passed this little gem along. Thought provoking.

Are we teaching our children the things they need to know to keep them on top of our changing industries?

Education Today and Tomorrow

A Student's Vision of the Future

Thinking Out Loud - Tired of Tests

2008-04-24T07:04:00.000-07:00

Poor M. In order to get the materials she needs for her 'school' year next year, she's had to do some extensive testing so we could place her in the right grade level. She did well with Math and has placed in Grade 2 first semester which is good because Math is our current struggle to find good material to work with that she likes, so after 6 - 25 question tests we're gonna set her up with Grade 2 Math, I'm good with that.

Roll on to the LA stuff and that's another story. She's ready to start test #10. Reading Placement Assessment 6A. The A's seem to focus on reading passages and answering questions so that's the comprehension part, where the B tests seem to be a short sentence and fill in the blanks. (This is not a brag or exaggeration its a genuine concern!) What worries me is that from what I'm getting from the material they're already testing her for Grade 6 Language Arts and I'm not sure how comfortable I am with that. This kid loves her books, she loves to read.... its a great excuse not to go to bed sometimes! LOL! We're going to follow out the testing and see what they suggest, but I can already guess that she won't be enrolling in the Language Arts program, because I think Gr 6 material just wouldn't be right for a 7 yr old.

So where to go from here? I haven't totally cast out the idea of the LA program we're looking at, but I'm not looking as favourably at it either. I'm leaning toward a hodge podge of things for this area, and thus my research begins for what to do now! Its not an insurmountable challenge, I'm actually quite pleased in that my gut has been right so far with this area! Woohoo....

The duck line up looks like this now.
LANGUAGE ARTS
~~Option 1:~~ ~~- K12 Language arts (Grade ?)~~

Option 2: - Light Hodge Podge mix. This would end up being:
READING: access to all the books in the library to read for pleasure focusing in the gr K-5 range. Introducing more non-fiction books into the repertoire and asking for her to summarize some of what she reads. Including more study of Poetry, and Sayings - maybe on level with Baltimore Curriculum Project as our backbone! mental note: We need a book journal so she can review the books and decide if she'd read them again! :) Loose Leaf Review Sheet
WRITING: This will concentrate on both handwriting and improving it so that she is writing in the right instance (Capital or small - I've learned that she knows how to do it just chooses not to unless forced!) We'll also focus on some creative writing - both by hand and on the computer. Prompted writing starts, daily journalling. She writes an awesome story, and we can also use this time to develop her imaginary world of "Greena." We just need to focus on paragraph writing. (maybe mine will improve too!)
SPELLING / VOCABULARY: Spelling is already above level, so we'll just focus on words that we don't know from stories... for this I've found a site that has vocabulary bookmarks. So maybe we'll use those and focus on just expanding the vocabulary!
GRAMMAR: English for a Thoughtful Child - which seems to encompass more than just Grammar. I think this will also be in the backbone of things we do as well... as I think there is a logical grammar component. I've had the book for years and just haven't managed to study it in detail yet.... (this month's to do list!)

Options 3: - ?? (hoping not to have to come up with something!) LOL!

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I think I'm actually ready to branch on in the LA area by myself and getting more into this plannng business!

Grade 2 Plan in the Making

2008-04-22T21:04:00.000-07:00

Getting into the swing of this planning in advance business which homeschoolers seem to do (I follow by example! LOL!) We're starting formulate our plans for next year's curriculum. At M's request we will try an all K12 curriculum for next year, despite the fact that I've been told its very time consuming. I think it will give her a good taste of how hard she'd work in day school if she went but hopefully we'll still have time play. I'm also hoping that this will give me a good foundation from which to work out my own curriculum for the following year. I've learned a lot through our History and Science dabblings this year - enough to know that I think I could actually do those on my own in the near future but will hang out for the year just so we have the basics covered!

LANGUAGE ARTS
- K12 Language arts (Grade ?)

I'm nervous about the Language program, just because I don't think they'll position her right. Not to brag or boast about her capabilities but she's an extremely AVID reader (reads faster and hence than me!) So I think this will be our challenge subject. I think she needs the guidance of a structured program, I'm just not sure what direction she needs at the moment.

MATH
- K12 Math (Grade 2)

HISTORY/GEOGRAPHY
- K12 History (Grade 2)

SCIENCE
- K12 Science (Grade 2)

LANGUAGES
- Sign Language (need to find better program - maybe Signing Times Videos + more)
- Spanish (is it the right time?? need to find a better program here too!)

I'm not really happy with what we're using here and need to find something better. I'm tempted to let the Spanish sit for a year or 2 and just focus on the sign since we have both an interest and a need for it. That way when S is ready to start "schooling" we can include her in the spoken Spanish lessons and go from there.

ARTS/CRAFTS/MUSIC
- K12 Art (Grade 2)
- K12 Music (Beginning 1)
- various projects
- extracurricular art classes as appropriate

I'm not sure if we will use the K12 Art and music but it seems to fit with everything else we're doing and I have no plan currently in place to cover these subjects. Our library doesn't seem to have the resources I want access to for the breadth of what I want to cover so I'm tossing my hands up here! I can teach crafts like Knitting, sewing, hand embroidery, crochet, etc.... she has expressed an interest and aptitude in sewing (hand and machine) and cross stitch, so we're good on crafts and will just follow interests!

EXTRACURRICULAR
- Brownies
- outside classes as interest deems necessary

*****************
I think we've got a good skeleton here to work with for the time being. It'll be a matter of finalizing things which we'll do before end of May.

If anyone out there reading has an absolute favourite program that they want to share, I'd love to check it out! :) I feel like I'm doing so much better this year in my planning than last year! (question is where will it lead me! LOL! Trouble no doubt!)

Life in the Fast Lane.

2008-04-22T20:29:00.001-07:00

One doesn't realize just how addicted they are to the "Net" until the "Net" is yanked out from beneath them. If you visit my other blog you'll note that there is a saga going on about ISPs. Our internet has been flakey for the last little while. The day after I signed up with EnchantedLearning I suddenly found myself with no internet (no correlation there just coincidental timing that I used as a marker.) No internet means no school as K12 is 'online' and S's coloring pages were also online! So we devoted our time to playing and technically doing not much. Baaaad if you're a rigid by the book person, not so bad if you can wing it in other ways. Which we do! A lot is learned in play!

Oh well, we're back now! And I'll try to be better about posting! (ya I've said that before haven't I?)

***************************************************
So in all that spare time I had I've been reading
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I've been feeling a little guilty that little S doesn't have any classes she can do but in her currrent state a class isn't quite what she needs. She's 2 - almost 2.5. She has major issues with mummy separation. I mean there are some nights if she can't be snuggled right up to me for a couple hours she ain't planning to sleep and I shouldn't either. So my only thought was a mommy and me type class offered by the good folks at the local "My Gym" or a mommy and me type art class through the parks and rec! Dh has offered to take time and work from home so M wouldn't have to be patient or left alone somewhere (like outside the class!) So I started doing some reading on things that would be good for 'almost' preschoolers (is she preschooler yet?) and ended up with a book by David Elkind called "Miseducation". Man talk about an eye opener! Though I don't subscribe to any of the schools of thought he mentioned, I do tend to watch what others do and felt an ounce of guilt that I wasn't doing enough with her socially - I've decided that I was feeling guilted into some kind of class, realizing that at this exact age M was spending hours by my side at the hospital ~~watching her little sister struggle for life, and her mummy melt into a pile of goo...~~ where she would play with a Leap pad (where her love for Frogs, Geography and science started) and coloring pictures while being introduced to *GASP* TV for short bursts of time. Basically she was right by my side where she wanted to be... and that's exactly where S wants to be right now too! SO I think we'll hold off on the classes for a while longer and maybe introduce them next year if she is ready - no rush. I just figured it would be a good experiment to see if she really is more physical than her sis.

Another Month Drifts By

2008-04-09T10:13:00.001-07:00

I'm sorry that I don't post here often. With a 2 yr old much of the girls day is filled with play. While the older one pulls away for an hour or 2 of school stuff every once in a while the younger one is fully engulfed in play. She does well playing alone, which allows us to get the basics done with the older one, but IMO preschoolers should play.

The younger one is now asking to sit down and do book work, so I've printed out a color book... ie Things that are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and violet, and giving her a crayon to go to town with... no force to colour in the lines, no force do it right... just a suggestion to do your best coloring job. She loves it. We're also starting to focus on singing the alphabet and a few other things.

Happily I paid $20 to EnchantedLearning site today - because I'm finding their printouts pretty cool... so I figure its worth a year's subscription to test out. I should re-evaluate at the end of the year's term.

Long Lost Update

2008-03-17T10:15:00.000-07:00

Wow, this year came in with a bang for us. First we got the flu, then we went on a trip and the littlest got that same flu, but she didn't take it quite as well as the older one. Its kinda funny how the little ones don't understand what being sick is! Oh well life lurches on!

M and I have been making progress on History. She enjoyed reading about Egypt, just in time for her Brownie troop to go to Thinking day celebrations at the local public school. Our Service Unit puts together a Thinking Day around the world kind of thing, where each troop learns about another WAGGGS (World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts) country and puts together a display, with a craft, food and SWAP. Our Troop chose Ghana and we learned a little about it. But we visited a another troop's set up and they had done Egypt, it was cool to see M (6.5) knowing more about the information they had displayed that those displaying it, we discuss it a little and she got it all. The thing that made me sad was the girls (11-15) didn't have a clue what they were presenting in terms of pictures and they had clearly put it together. But I digress.

We're now moving on Mesopotamia and learning about battles and religion there. M is finding it neat learning about the different "Gods."

For Science, we completed our Weather unit and are waiting on a tour at dh's office. (which reminds me we should bug him again! I doubt it will happen but it is worth a try!!) We are now marching on to Animals. Today we're doing insects and spiders and possibly fish! She excited about this unit because at the end we will be ordering our tadpole from the Grow a Frog Company! From what I've read they can live for a couple years, though it seems a few have had them for 17 yrs. This is a huge decision on our part as its been a long time since I've had to make arrangements for pets while vacationing! *sigh*

(was gonna post a pic but blogger is having photophobia today!) :(

In any event we made insects today. M made a bee, and S made a flying ant (as distinguished by the stinger and lack of stinger. We cardboard/styrofoam egg carton, 3 sections of it. 6 - 3" pipe cleaners, and 2 - 2" pipecleaners, and waxpaper wings. The 6 legs were inserted into the middle section the "Thorax," and the wings were also attached there. They enjoyed it. It was one of those things that a 6.5 yr old and 2 yr old could do together! :)

Now we're making an Animal group book! So this unit sounds like lots of hands on fun! :)

Herpetology after Dark

2008-02-17T20:36:00.001-08:00

Did ya know Spring Peeper Frogs live in the Southeast? From Florida to GA. Did ya know that a 6.5 yr old fascinated with frogs could identify one before her mother could google it??

We had a visitor tonight.

I found the frog peeking in the window tonight... M identified it. She truly loves frogs and knows almost everything about them.... I feel a grow a frog kit coming on!

Baad Blogger - Artistic Kid!

2008-02-13T14:29:00.000-08:00

Wow, apparently I'm a bad blogger these days. Sorry! Been ultra busy, doing what I don't know but each day happens so fast it is over before I get a chance to think. Guess that is good in some respects - but bad in others! Oh well! Here is the token post! :)

After the round of the flu, we signed up with the local homeschool group for a trial class - Art, with Ms. B., lemme tell ya, I think we'll do a few more classes with her though maybe not art, just because we have another equally good source for Art ... but we'll see! DD is doing her 2nd print of Vincent Van Gogh's - Starry Night. She did one this past Spring, at the local Park's and Rec Art class. The new one has a very different focus from the one on the left, it will be somewhat smaller, but is equally neat because they are both so very different. You can actually see a change in confidence in her painting abilities. Sadly it will be at least a week before I can display her 2nd masterpiece because it isn't done yet.

We're Back and Ramping Up

2008-01-22T11:58:00.000-08:00

Wow... a week with me sick, a week with the big kid sick and suddenly a week and a half later we've lost a whole lotta time... oh well, this is why we homeschool! I could spend a week recuperating and not feeling guilty about slacking and doing not much and then dd could afford the same, I remember years when I forced myself to go back to school even though I was still sick despite my mum telling to stay home just one more day! But I was anxious to get back not because I liked school but more because I was afraid of missing too much... invariably, I almost always got sick the day before some presentation and always had to take in a doctors note... But I digress... we're all better now and even though we were sick we still did do some learning ... why not visit kidshealth.org... and learn about those little germies that make you sick and what better field trip than the one to the doctor!

We also managed to fit in a art class. DD signed up for an art class an hour a week and we'll be attending another one later in the spring, which is good because she loves art, she loves to paint and draw, so this will be good.... its not my strong suit!

The schools here managed to get a half day school day last week as we got some snow, which is always fun!

So we are completely back to school this week focusing heavily on History, Science and Math. Next we'll bring back in some Language Arts (reading, writing and spelling) which we do by nature anyway.

I just got my compost bin, so beyond the science curriculum we're following we're about to do a family garden, complete with composting and making it edible. Our lot isn't the greatest for a garden (so we're looking for something better) but for the time being (since the housing market is ultra slow!), we're gonna try our hand at container gardening as we've had reasonable success with tomatoes in the past -- when Sir Deadmeat, the squirrel, wasn't pilfering our fruit. I'm looking more for herbs and veggies so will be spending a lot of time checking out the forums at the Gardenweb - learning about growing from seed, edible gardens and winter sowing!

I figure with a project like gardening with edible plants the little kid (age 2) can get involved too, what 2 yr old do you know doesn't like to dig in the mud or put little seeds into a pile of dirt.. or better yet play in the water.

The ideas are hoping around in there... I was reading about eco-friendly homes... and though we've got a LONG long LONG way to go to be remotely considered environmentally friendly I figure our lessons could be a good step in the right direction to lessening our global foot print. We can learn about energy conservation, organic growing, and all the funky swanky things that will go a long way to helping us make a smaller global foot print. For now I'll be happy with composting, energy efficient lights, mild recycling and better consumer choices.

I'd so totally love to get my hands on a rain barrel, and a microscope and see what cool things we can learn from the rainwater, but for now I'll just have to be happy getting the driveway repaired since it has a great big gaping hole in the middle of it!

Homeschooling - slow days

2008-01-07T16:04:00.001-08:00

So glad to homeschool.
So glad we started back early last week.

I hurt. I ache. The girls have been good about amusing themselves.... so if anyone out there has had a day when the other half has to go to work and you feel like poo... what do you have on hand for your kids. Share your tips...

History Melting Ice and Globe trotting!

2008-01-04T18:03:00.000-08:00

I love love our new History curriculum. Its a little simplistic for my dd as she already knows her Geography pretty well but its fun! We liked our first lesson today! I'm slowly selling myself on next year's curriculum, I think I have Science and History at least lined up but give me a few more lessons on the History before I commit! :)

Dh roached dd's computer the other day so she got a new one via courier today - he actually paid for same day shipping!! (he doesn't do that for me! he musta felt bad!!) So the computer arrived a few minutes before we walked out the door for lunch with my dear friend. When we got back I decided it was time to go back to school so we finished up yesterday's science lesson which discussed states of matter - specifically changing solids to liquids. Watching melting ice! It was a quick follow up but it was good to get back into the swing of things.

For history, which was actually Geography today, we pulled out our globe. We had to find various continents and then match animals from each continent with their home. Pretty simple really but just confirmed to me that dd knows what she is doing so far! LOL! She is getting used to the idea of narration and it was neat to see her excited about a new assignment!

When school was over (we only did 2 subjects today - full swing next week,) daddy came home and needed to upgrade his computer (I now have the slowest one in the house! but I digress! LOL!) Anyway, while he was upgrading I showed her how to work her knitting spool. She is thrilled with it. She has a full ball of purple (the only colour) Caron Simply Soft yarn to play with. I wonder what she will come up with. She has it down pat... now if she could remember to port her ball with her when she walks around the house knitting! (ah well made serious old daddy laugh! LOL!

Oh and in case you are wondering, yes she took it to bed with her to work on for an hour before coming down for her goldfish!

On an interesting note, she got a book today from our lunch date and good friend. It seems geared toward older girls (think tweens and teens) but there is a bunch of fun stuff in there and I think we'll have a lot of fun with it... There is one for boys too which I will order a little later just because it has more mechanical stuff in it... and we wouldn't want to be gender specific. But like I said a lot of fun! :) You'll probably see postings here eventually. She also got a Cranium game (with frogs on it - oh Frog Princess.) We haven't figured it out yet because the Littlest pitched a fit when we were learning.

During M's lessons today though Little S played with her peoples... we were doing animals so she insisted we had to gather up all the animals andput them in a bowl so she could play with them on the hearth... when we pulled out the globe she had to be right in there... thank goodness a second blow up globe is coming!

Weaving on a 20 year old Loom!

2008-01-03T20:43:00.000-08:00

My mum has been cleaning out her house for almost a year now... and last year in June she sent me this toy that I got for Christmas from Santa one year (I think I was 10!) Well anyway, by September we pulled it out and strung it up with the goal of making a go of it. We were missing a few vital tools. Mum sent them this year with my birthday stuff.
After a year on the loom she finished a small woven rug - which she will use as a blanket for her favourite stuffed Webkinz frog - Bertram. She was very proud of herself. (finished pic will follow soon!) I was just pleased I remember how to finish it off! LOL!

Adding History

2008-01-02T21:18:00.000-08:00

I'm not really good about getting the books we need from the library. Its time consuming to sit down and figure out all the stuff that we need pull out and then figure out what I need to know about the subjects... so we once again look to K-12 for our History. I hope it is as enjoyable as their Grade 1 Science.

Slowly but surely we make progress...

Happy New Year 2008

2008-01-02T05:40:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year

Dh and the oldest have been working on CAT5 Testing for our purposes.

I don't like testing but he wanted a baseline to work with before she does the mandated test when she hits grade 3... right now she's in grade 1. She is breezing right through it.

I think he also wants something to let his mom know that we're on the right track. Yes, with all things the grandparents and family are watching and keeping tabs on us - some support us others believe its a horrible mistake to homeschool - some question my abilities to teach. So there you have it, we test to prove ourselves worthy!

On a positive note the oldest has been begging for a test, so here ya go girl! :) Ask and you shall receive!

We're still on vacation for the restof the week though mummy here is itchin to get started again! LOL!

Literature - Gingerbread houses

2007-12-05T22:14:00.000-08:00

So yesterday we did a lesson in literature and ended up with:

Credits: Papers and Embellies: Fresh Air by Tracy Collins (Retrodiva at DigitalFreebies),
Template: Brenda Miller for May 07 - Gottapixel's BluePrint Challenge,
Fonts: Joyful Juliana (dafont.com) and Kristin ITC

Literature?? How you ask? Well we're starting fairy tales and we learned the characteristics of Fairy Tales, and though we skipped over the planned months of October and November (because we started late) and jumped right in to December.... we figured Hansel and Gretel would be the best way to kick off the month of December and build a Gingerbread house! Now everyone knows the story of Hansel and Gretel right?! LOL!

A little ingenuity. We didn't want to use a full gingerbread house kit (let me rephrase... I didn't want to!) so we picked up a few supplies... Graham crackers, icing, M&Ms and kissables,.... we should have had more variety but this was supposed to be a small 1/2 hr project... M's first time building her own Gingerbread house.... and this worked out great. A good learning and practice tool for her. At some point later this month we'll drag out the Gingerbread train and do that maybe when "Babi" gets here.

So this is older dd's house. Not bad for a first try! :) -------->

And thisis the mummy helped 2 yr old's house!
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All in all we had a good time making them and daddy arrived just as we were finishing up! We ate them guiltlessly for dessert after dinner! Yum!

Counting Change in Math (grade 2)

2007-12-03T21:27:00.001-08:00

To make it more real dd was using the actual money to match the pictures to count the total for the change... It was a fun exercise!

Sensory

2007-12-03T21:22:00.001-08:00

In the name of sensory play the fine ladies of the homeschool preschool group I've found had an awesome idea.... so despite the fact that it was 43F (6C) outside today here is the little one playing in the water.... yes that is a puddle on the seat behind her! LOL!

Science - is so easy!?

2007-11-29T16:02:00.001-08:00

I've been racking my brains trying to find ways to show my dd (6) Science. We've done really hard, we've done not so hard. We've done reading, we've tried hands on labs. I was completely lost, dd found it either too hard or too easy, I couldn't win.

Sign up for a pre-packaged science curriculum that takes us right down to the basics... Science at its simplest form - something I took for granted and we're reduced to looking through the eyes of a scientist.... measure, weigh, next up is temp .... why couldn't I do that?

We're loving our new science curriculum, it is on the computer but very hands on as we have instruments and tools that we use to carry out our measurements or activities... I love it! She loves it!

Grade 1 Plan (at Jan 3/08)

2007-11-27T13:07:00.000-08:00

Homeschooling is about learning what fits your family and your style... here is an update of the post I originally had on my other blog.

Well technically we started on August 13th but we're still fine tuning everything and making adjustments here and there for what we really want to do!

LANGUAGE ARTS
- Spectrum Reading (Grade 2)
- Spectrum Spelling (Grade 4)
- Creative Writing assignments from various topics at hand (mostly typed!)
- Penmanship various letters and thank-yous to family
- Baltimore Curriculum Literature

MATH
- Reader Rabbit Math (Grade 1) - completed Sept 26
- Spectrum Math (Grade 2) - started September 27 - almost complete
- McGrawHill Math (Grade 1&2) - started Jan 3 - *new*
- Various online computer games

HISTORY/GEOGRAPHY
- ~~Story of the World I - Ancient History (Egypt, Greece, Rome)~~
- ~~Baltimore Curriculum History and Geography Kindy/Grade 1 (online curriculum)~~
- K12 Grade 1 History *new*

SCIENCE/HEALTH
- various topics (including Brownie Try-Its and other subjects of interest)
- **K12 Grade 1 Science

LANGUAGES
- Sign Language at home
- Spanish at home

ARTS/CRAFTS/MUSIC
- various projects
- Baltimore Curriculum Art and Music

EXTRACURRICULAR
- Brownies
- will add more - maybe swimming

I will continue to update as we progress through this first year! :)

K12 Science

2007-11-27T11:53:00.000-08:00

Not confident in my abilities to pull stuff off the internet or out of books, we decided to try K12 but only one subject on a trial basis ... we opted to do science as that is the area I was having the most trouble teaching. My problem, dd is a very bookish kid, she reads a story or book and absorbs about 75-90 percent of what she reads over a couple days - you know takes it in processes it and then can regurgitate some of the info. While good it becomes hard for me to tailor assignments down to her level without pushing her too hard and then bring in the labs. For my addled brain at the moment it is easier to let someone else do the legwork and difficult stuff. Today I'm willing to admit defeat in that area.

I'm liking the setup of the K-12 stuff, granted we've done one lesson. I loved science as a kid but haven't the foggiest notion how to make it fun for her.

With that in mind one of our assignments later this week requires marbles... whodda thunk that marbles would be so hard to find. We ended up with some fancy ones from the Michaels.

Totally Unplanned!

2007-11-16T08:24:00.002-08:00

Its funny how the mind works... where some would take a walk, with a little thought we covered quite a few subjects in 2 hours outside.

How we covered many subjects with just a brown paper bag to get us started! LOL!

Here is our day!

I awoke this morning with grand plans formulated in my head! After reading another blog last night, we were going to put together a big map of South America (9 pages), since that is where our geography lessons are taking my 6 yr old this week. We were going to read some on the web about the Andes Mountain range, and the Amazon river, we would do the usual Math on Turkey Printouts, we would wait for our new Science curriculum to arrive so we could look it over before starting it in 10 days, we would compare Lon Po Po to Little Red Riding hood, we might read a poem The Swing, and she would write a letter to her cousin whom we met for the first time 2 weeks ago!.... you get the picture... grand plans.

I solemnly declare my house a disaster. 2 feet in the door, my dd children (6.5 and almost 2) have pulled all the pillows off the couch and made a big multicoloured bed...(using their blankets.) The kitchen a disaster because DH "forgot" to clean it - it was our deal last night! LOL! Who wants to deal with a disaster area??? Not me,
not today! 0:) (best angel look!) The table covered in yesterday's leaves after our shortened trip to our community park because older dd got cold... (she refused to put on the coat I told her to wear, she didn't believe it was cold! LOL!)

So here we start, "Mum, can we make a robotic hornet?" dd asked
"Sure give me one sec and I'll open it and help you...."
but she was off to the next brainwave, I should have just opened it and watched her do it then and there.
"Mum can we go to the park today?" she asked 1/2 hr later.
"Sure in a bit. Can you get some socks, and a jacket while I finish what I'm doing?"

My brain got working....
Brown paper bag - for collecting stuff.
Warm coats because it is chilly.
Mitts for the little one because she won't put her hands in her sleeves like the big one.
Off we go walking to the park, its about a mile / without stroller. Brave with a not quite 2 yr old but hey! I apparently left my brain in bed this morning! LOL!

At 11am we finally head out. On the doorstep I tell dds they are to find fall. Collect at least 5 things that remind you of fall... you can have more but 5 is the minimum. Off we go. Walking, talking, collecting. Totally not fall topics but hey. They find Southern Magnolia leaves which have intrigued my dh since we moved here 10 yrs ago. The little one finds one almost 2 feet long matching her 2.5 ft ... (easy) so it becomes a challenge for the older one to find one as tall as her, a bigger challenge than it seems... we start off with 3 leaves equaling her height (math, I like this!). We quickly cut it down to 2 as we find a particularly long leaf. We made it to 1 really long leaf and 1 really short leaf... (so we did fall Math!) But came
home with all the big ones! LOL! (call it community service! he he!)

We saw some purple leaves on a young maple sapling... Some leaves hadn't changed yet from green... there were no purple leaves around the tree but there were some red ones and some that had turned red but not fallen.... from this we deduced that the leaves on this maple tree go from green to purple to a brillant red before falling to the ground. (woohoo a fall science lesson.)

We climbed the stairs where dd came across a yellow jacket. Freaked her out - she's not keen on bugs! LOL! We talked about the yellow jackets as scavengers and cleaners! We got to the lake (its an earthen dam lake.) It was full of leaves (it was windy yesterday.) We discussed how the leaves fall into the water and decay there, feed the
fish and how nature cleans up her own (using the Mother Earth image) garbage, and could we find other examples of such! (More fall Science) We also discussed the leaves on the ground as fertilizer or enrichment for the soil.

We met a dog, and discussed its origins. It looked slightly like a coyote but it was black and rather plump for a coyote. (had tags and electronic fence collar thingy) In the right light it looked like a wolf (but again it was black! LOL!) Discussed why we don't pet strange dogs. Discussed why the dog would charge up in front and then run
behind us in circles... herding. So it must have been a shepherd type dog... discussed our neighbour's Australian Sheep dog... and how she does that too! LOL! (more science) and how their nature is to herd. (little one learned to distinguish between hurting and herding! LOL!)

Got to the park where the girls pretended they were on a boat.... older dd underneath became the spinning motor for the boat, while little one was up driving it! LOL! Pirate!

Decided to leave the park for lunch where we had a wonderful Southwest meal because Southwest food and decor reminds me of fall! LOL! Where dd got to practice the little bit of Spanish she is comfortable with! (mental note, need a spanish curriculum! - I learned French so this will be a new venture for us! LOL!) (Spanish and Social Studies covered!)

A quick trip to the Grocery store yields a home ec. class, and we'll be baking cookies in a bit - still in our fall colours theme courtesy of Pilsbury - but we will write up a receipt for fall colour chocochip cookies for next time. Dinner, homemade burritos... maybe dd can help cook that.

We read a poem "The Swing" by Stevenson, when we got home... (ha Literature - Poetry.) She is going to write her own poem or story (creative writing!) And she needs to write that letter to her cousin so we can get our packages in the mail tomorrow...

And we still have to figure out what to do with our collected goods... they did fill that bag... it almost didn't make it home... it tore - good job we stopped at the grocery store! LOL!

All in all a good day! LOL!
And I thought we just blew off a homeschool day!