Monday, December 21, 2009

Shelby map work

This is a video of Shelby doing her Map work at the end of a day. We have moved from the schoolroom into the living room at this point. Matthew had come into watch TV and Abigail was trying to get my attention. Mommy was tired and trying to not get frustrated. Shelby got nervous with the camera and loss her place but you do get to see her read, know her North, South, East and West.

Week 17- completing school work

Here are some pictures of Shelby doing her schoolwork and finishing up some of her books. Abigail is sitting in her high chair "working" too. Abigail loves to do puzzles, play with stickers, color, work with beads and all sorts of fun things while Shelby does school. Abigail likes to feel like a big girl.

We will do one more day of school work before we go on Christmas Break next week. This is to catch up on some work we got behind on. Then we take a break for a week or two (depends on our mood).


Week 17 - Mothers Day Out Performance

This week the kids had their Mothers Day Out Performance. The video's are already posted for Matthew and Abigail. In the slide show are some pictures of the kids decorating cookies at home this week. We made several different kids for Shelby to take to her one day a week school.

We also FINALLY got up our Christmas tree. Mike again is working 12 hour days this week but I found time to get it done.

On Thursday this week Abigail and Matthew had their Christmas party at school. There are a few shots of them in the slide show. Abigail is next to her friend Natalie and Matthew is posing with his best friend Colton.

I will put Shelby's school day and work on another post!

Week 16- Theater

This week was the kids Theater performance. Once I get the videos I will upload them for all to see. Shelby played Violet the shy flower from "Alice and Wonderland" and Matthew was a mouse from the "Lion and the Mouse" fable. They also had other songs they performed.

The kids did a great job but the sound system was horrible. I am not sure if we will use this school again in the future. Shelby and Matthew had a great time though and learned a lot. That is what is important.

Daddy is now working 12 hour days 6 days a week so mommy honestly can't remember what we did for school. Her math got done, her writing got done, her map work got done, her reading got done but I don't remember any of it.

Week 15- Our first Snow day!

Sorry not much detail but still catching up! This week Shelby and Matthew did a bunch of crafts for Christmas presents. There are not many pictures of those since they are gifts! I will say we did mix colors, oil and water (to see what will happen) and had lots of fun. They also put up their bulletin board for December and wrote out their Christmas list.

We had our first SNOW DAY of the winter (very rare to even have a snow day) this week on Friday. It blew for about 30 minutes before the sun came out. Nothing stuck but we did have fun running outside to play in it. In the slide show you will see some pictures of the kids playing.

Matthew spent Wednesday cooking with Mommy. We made homemade honey wheat bread and potato soup. He had a blast making the bread and was very impressed with how it turned out. He says Mommy is the best baker in the world!

Shelby worked on subtraction this week, reading and decoding letter blends and finishing up her handwriting book.

We will start new books after the Christmas break and a new Handwriting/Science/Art book. The kids are very excited.

Weeks 12-14 Thanksgiving

Here I am playing catch up. Over weeks 12-14 Shelby focused more on math, writing and reading. We did cover science and history in living books. We also made lots of crafts and redid the playroom. We made leafs to hang on Thanksgiving, puppets to play with and even baked.

Shelby helped me with the Thanksgiving meal and loved cooking. She was able to read the recipes and do most of it herself. She LOVES cracking eggs and measuring out the ingredients.

Poor Abigail got sick with a double ear infection the week of Thanksgiving and just wanted to sleep all day (first day the pain had gone away). The pictures show her sleeping in her high chair instead of eating. Shelby ate everything and Matthew only ate his usual staples. He loved the decorations but wanted nothing to do with the food.

The slideshow below shows Abigail playing at school, our new schoolroom/playroom. Craft making time and Thanksgiving.

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Week 11 - The EYE

A few of the books Shelby helped me read this week!

I am not going to bore you with all the details of our school week but we had a nice full week.

In our Human Body study we learned all about the Eye. I think we read four or five books dealing with the eye! We learned why our eyes look red in some photo's. We also did a few neat experiments having to do with the eye.

Shelby also learned all about consonants and vowels in language arts and will have her first Spelling Test next week with our new Spell to Write and Read program. I am so glad that we are finally at the spelling lists and can move on in our phonic work. Shelby is doing very well with her cursive as well. We are switching over to writing cursive all the time. She is having some problems with her name since the Upper case "S" is a little bit of a challenge.

In Math we discussed the base 10 Triangle, Rhombus, Equilateral triangles and sets of 10. Shelby is still working on addition facts using the Abacus and number line. We played several card games this week to reinforce addition facts.

In History/Geography we discussed more about Asia. This week we learned where South Korea is and Japan. We also learned some basic facts about both and read two stories that were placed there. Shelby's reading is improving more and more each week. We now are alternating reading pages to our History Living books together.

In Theater Shelby is doing incredible. She has all of her lines memorized and is now will be a part of 6 songs. We are learning a song from the "Sound of Music" this week. I also heard that in her Public Speaking class her projection was going well.

Matthew is doing really good in his theater class as well. He was given more lines this past week since he already had his other one's memorized. I can't wait until December 8 when we get to see the finished project.

First Sleep Over

Shelby had her first sleepover this weekend! Her friend E. came over and stayed with us. Shelby and E. went to school together at Mothers Day Out for a few years and became good friends. We still try to get them together from time to time to play now that they are in separate schools.

The night started with going to eat. Then we came home to play ponies and dolls. Then the girls watched the New Tinkerbell Movie and had popcorn. Daddy let them stay up and play Wii Bowling before bed.

Bedtime came and E. read a story to Shelby in bed. It was so sweet.

In the morning the girls drew, played with American Girl dolls and played cards (reminds me of when I was little).

It was a great experience and one we hope to do again soon. Shelby behaved so well having a playmate here. She is a little bossy but that is nothing new.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Week 10 report

Abigail playing IN her Lego bin and stacking!

This week I was back! We got so much accomplished and it felt good. Sorry this is long, feel free to just see the slide show. It helps to see it all in one spot. We also went to the Fall Festival at Church. Mommy worked two booths and daddy is not good at taking pics. There are a couple in the slide show though of them in their costumes.

Shelby-6 years

Shelby read one book each day on her own but I did not keep track of all the titles. I will see if I can locate them all and mark them sometime this weekend. We are in need for a trip to the library, so she used books that were on hand. She also took turns reading with me out of our History reading.

We also did a reading test to see what level she is on. Her reading level measured at 2ND grade. She is really picking it up fast now that we have started using Spell to Write and Read. The rules really make sense to her.

Math-
Singapore Unit 21Additon and number bonds
Dot to Dot- up to 100 did 2x this week
Right Start lesson 17 and lesson 23 (to go over the number bonds)
Addition facts drill on the computer 2 minutes 3x this week
Games

Just a note on her math- She is really struggling for some reason with recognizing numbers by looking, the concept of adding and number bonds. I am going to stick with Right start but am going to look at Horizons for a more gentle and slower approach until she catches on.

Science
Define and understand classification and classes
Understand living and non living things and learn the properties of both.
Created a living and non living chart
Human body -Study of the Mouth- Built a model and did a taste experiment to learn about taste buds

History
Daily reading of The Magic Tree House Dragon King - Learned about and discussed Ancient China

Geography/Maps
Asia, China, Great Wall, Yangtzee River (Review)
Map Keys and Routes - 2 pages 3x a week (Shelby loves this book)

Spell to Read and Write along with Cursive First
Say and write (in cursive) a, c, d, g, o, qu (knows that q and u are married), f, s, e, l, b, h, k, i, j, p, r
Knows all the phonogram sounds to each of the above letters and can tell you by order of most commonly used in the English Language.
one page of practice a day with Cursive letters and connecting them to form words.

Explode the Code Book 1 (finally graduated from kinder books)
Pretest to verify knowledge of sounds.
Lesson 1

Handwriting without Tears 4x a week with Cursive only on Friday
Completed Letters and Numbers book
Started Printing Book

Reading Comprehension
Completes 2-3 paragraph short stories and answers 4-6 questions about each story 3x a week.
We just started this since her reading level is higher and she is doing really good. She normally gets all the questions right after one reading.

Bible/Copywork (Cursive)/Memory
Memorized bible verse Matthew 5:7 "Happy are the kind and merciful"

Spanish
numbers to 12
colors
lessons 1 and 2 of Spanish in the car tape 3x (greetings, family members)

Theater/ Music/Memory work
one day of class
memorization of lines for her role as "Violet"
3 x a week rehearsal of songs plus received a new song to memorize and work on

One Day School
Art, Music (learning beats and syllables), Spanish, PE (kicking and drills for soccer), Public Speaking (Recite Twinkle Twinkle Little Star)


Matthew- 4 years

Handwriting without Tears
Completed first book (had 6 pages left)

Explode the Code
Completed 6 pages

Singapore Math
3 pages completed

History
listened to the story

Spell to Read and Write
working on memorizing sounds for a, c, d, g, o, qu (knows that q and u are married), f, s, e, l, b, h, k, i, j, p, r
writing in print the letters (refusing to do cursive right now).

Reading
played phonics games, read 2 Bob books

Mothers Day Out 2 days

Theater/Music/Memory
Memorized lines for his role as "son 1"
Working on song -rehearsed 3 times this week and had one class

Speech
1 hour- working on the blend "sp"

Abigail-1

Working on Colors and Shapes through play
Mothers Day out 2x
She also has started saying more words this week!

Monday, October 26, 2009

Keeping focused

Since I am not home to work with Shelby during the day on Tuesday and Thursday we have started a new system. I have read on other blogs about work boxes and just formed our own version.

I bought this drawer set at Target and made cards for both Shelby and Matthew here at home.

I set it up every night and then Shelby knows to look at her "assignment book" to see where to start in the morning. Sometimes I have "circle time"on the first spot so that her and Matthew already know to come to me. Then I put anything they need to do in the drawers with their number cards on the item in the drawer and the number is Velcroed on the outside. Once they finish a task they put the number card into their basket and the Velcro dot on their little assignment book I made them. She works the drawers. If it is a subject I need to help her on or Teach I put a "help" card in and she comes to me for instruction.

I put her "snack", "recess", "art", "music" etc cards on her assignment book where I want them. So she may have three blank spots and then "read for 15 minutes", then 2 blank spots and "snack". She gets to see what she has to look forward too.

Matthew has gotten much better at doing his school work now that he can see what he has to do at the beginning. At most I have four assignments for him and usually 2 of them are joint with Shelby.

There are days I have to take her to Mothers Day Out with me and I just pack up the assignments into her schoolbag along with her "assignment book" and any supplies she may need. It has worked pretty well and last week she even completed all of her work during Mothers Day Out.
Drawer System filled and ready for school day

Shelby's assignment book set with her extras

Matthews assignment book set.


Samples of what I put in the drawer.Matthews book completed (except for one joint project)

Week 9 Or is it 10???




My step grandmother died suddenly a week and half ago. I have loss track of our school weeks. We are back at it again though hopefully more than 3 days a week.

Here are some photo's of some of our classwork. We got a new Human Body book and Shelby has been working on making models of each subject as we talk about them. Last week was the five senses. We also played five senses bingo with Matthew a few times.

She also is entertaining Daddy with her Alice in Wonderland lines for Theater (she plays Violet the shy flower) and her singing to "Tomorrow".







Picasso work (I think this is Matthew's with Shelby's behind it)

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Cursive Writing

We have moved to cursive writing with Shelby. I have been reading a lot about teaching Cursive first and I myself really never learned how to write cursive. So we are using "Cursive First" and "Spell to Write and Read" for spelling, phonics and writing. I spent a week getting all my binders, books, cards etc together and reading everything so that I feel comfortable teaching it.

Shelby is doing a great job writing her lowercase letters in cursive. So far we have only done a few along with learning all the sounds to each phonic. Today I quized her on a few phonics and she new exactly the sound I asked for. For instance I would ask for the third sound with the phonic "a". She said "ah". I have already noticed when she is reading that she will automatically switch to the sound that makes an actual word for her vowels.

We also are working on addition facts. She is being quized on adding "1" all the way up to 100 on Friday.

Today her art work was a Picasso piece that she made out of construction paper scissors and glue. I will take a picture for Fridays post.

Shelby has been reading a book a day and is starting to really enjoy reading.

Monday, October 5, 2009

We are BACK! Week 7


Playing Leap Frog Math
Threading shapes

Bronco Phonics (file folder game)


Lacing shapes

We had a fall break for three weeks (roughly). Since I manage the MamaCents Childrens Consignment Sale I needed the time off for work. It worked out perfect because we all have been sick as well during these three weeks. We are mostly all better (I still have fluid in one ear and have had vertigo issues) and have started week 7.

We are now throwing in Salsa Spanish and the kids LOVED their first lesson today. They watched "Ricitos de Oro y Los Tres Osos" (Goldilocks and the three bears) completely in Spanish. We will be working on vocabulary words that go along with this story for one to two weeks.

Shelby seems to be reading better this week than she was three weeks ago. I was worried the break would hurt her but she still is thriving.

We are learning the songs : Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, Tomorrow and The Bare Necessities for their theater program. Shelby has been rehearsing about 30 minutes a day just to get the words down to Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. I hope her teacher notices the hard work she is putting into it tomorrow night.



Saturday, September 5, 2009

Weekly Report 5

WOO HOO One more week until end of Term 1 (out of 6). Then the kids get a break while I focus on the MamaCents Childrens Consignment sale.

This week we had lots of fun in nature. In fact we did not do much of our Ancients or Human body study because there was so much to learn and explore outdoors.


Field Trips-
Pioneer Farms (see post on this)
Library
Shelby, Matthew and I went on a three mile walk/jog from our house down the Brushy Creek Trail. We had to have Daddy come rescue us (meaning ME) because the kids were tired of walking and kept stopping every two feet on the way back home.

Theater-
Shelby took one 1 1/2 hour class -Bound for Broadway
Matthew took an hour class - Imagine that

Living books -
Speak Spanish with Dora and Diego- My Family
The Search for the Missing Bones- Magic School Bus
Fiddle-i-fee
How Much is a Million
Night Lights
Winnie Flies again
A Blue Butterfly - Claude Monet
Sunshine and Waterlilies- Claude Monet
Monet

Shelby read to me
Old Hat, New Hat
I do Not Want To

Did 4 lessons
Learn to Read in 100 Easy Lessons-Lessons 24-26

Matthew Read to me
Learn to Read in 100 Easy Lessons Lesson 6& 7
Reading Eggs online -Completed 5 lessons

Spanish
My Family- lesson with Addition book

Explode the Code
Shelby book B pages 53-66
Matthew book A pages 35-43

Handwriting without Tears
Shelby orange book pg 28-39
Matthew pg 56-71

Spelling-Shelby
short i words
test scored 11 out of 11

Math
Rightstart math lessons 15 and 16 odds and evens and ZERO
Kumon Addition book lesson 13 &14 writing numbers 1 to 120 and lesson 15 adding 1+1 to 10+1 - Shelby
Singapore Kinder book b- Shelby lesson 19 pgs 25-30 up to 20
Singapore Kinder book B- Matthew page 6-8
Read two living books about counting to higher numbers

Math Centers
Dot to Dot book- Matthew numbers 1 to 20
Dot to Dot book - Shelby 1 to 50
Sticker Math-Shelby pg 26-29 Addition
Cuisenaire rods with cards
Games- domino war, bingo and RS math card games

History
Texas History in the 1800's Pioneer Farm

Maps and Geography
Map Keys- learning to read maps 4 pages


Science (both)
Skeleton Puzzle
Read Magic School Bus book

Music
Italic Fiddle-i-fee living book intro to other instruments

Art
Claude Monet- Read three living books
Watched a watercolor video
Painted a painting based on Monet's art


Shelby-
Also got Character Building (respecting others), Spanish (working on letters), Music (hymns), Art (floor plans), Public Speaking (talking on the phone) and PE (endurance and running) at Grace Harbor

Abigail-
Is currently working on her colors.