School of Monkeys

Thankful Thursday

2011-11-03T19:12:00.001-05:00

For the month of November I will be posting Thankful Thursday instead of Wordless Wednesday.


Thankful Tree

Each day of November we will be adding a leaf to our tree with something we are thankful for on it. We will spend time in prayer over these items as well each day. In order from oldest to youngest child and then me.

Day 1-
God
Balloons
Colors
Shelby

Day 2-
Jesus
Christmas
Trees
Matthew

Day 3-
My family
God's Love
Potato Soup
Abigail

Serving Others- Nursing home Treating

2011-10-28T20:48:00.001-05:00

As part of our home school journey I like to do service projects. Today we did one close to my heart. Our home school group had a "Treating" at the nursing home my grandmother is in. All the kids dressed in costumes and brought treats to the residents.

To prepare for today we needed to create our "treats". My kids wanted to make flowers so we took it a step further and made vases out of old water bottles.

We raided my recycle art bin and started removing labels.

After the kids removed the labels they started putting paint inside the bottle. They added a little water to help it spread better since it was a thicker paint.

Then they added some glitter and the lid goes on.

It is time to SHAKE, SHAKE, SHAKE. Spread that paint all over the inside and completely cover the bottle on the inside.

After that we took all the lids off and let the bottles dry upside down in a box (with packing paper inside to catch excess drips).

The next night they took the bottles and glued (hot glue and tacky glue) buttons, sequins, feathers and tissue paper on the outside to decorate their vases. A few they left plain.

We also created flowers out of foam, felt, buttons, pretty paper, beads and pipe cleaners. The paper and foam flowers were pretty simple. I cut petal shapes out of the paper and foam. We then hole punched the center (if a double petal) or end and threaded it on our stem. The center of these flowers were silver beads the kids colored.

For the felt one's I found a flower template online and cut flowers out of the felt. The kids then layered their flowers and cut two tiny slits in the center of each one. They then threaded the pipe cleaner through one side of each flower. For the center they used buttons or beads. They threaded the pipe cleaner through the buttons (also layered). The kids then threaded the pipe cleaner back through the other side of the button and back down through all the layers of buttons flowers. Once back to the long stem they twisted at the top and laid it flat against the flower. This helps the flower stand up.

I printed out little cards that said "Bringing you a little sunshine!" on cardstock. My oldest cut these out with decorative scissors and I put two hole punches in them. We then threaded it onto our "stem" (pipe cleaner) of each flower. The finished product was a deorative vase with a pretty handmade flower and card.

The next project we made was rainbow cards. These were very simple. We used construction paper cut in half, glue and tissue paper.

The finished project was a tissue paper rainbow (this one is upside down). Each one of these was unique.

This morning the kids were so exited to go and pass out gifts to the residents at the nursing home. They really had the spirit of this project in their hearts.

At the nursing home we met at the front for our group and the activity director. My kids got ready to start passing out gifts. My oldest was going to hand out vases with flowers, son was handing the rainbows and youngest was giving candy.

The activity director then took us around to the area's we were going to pass out "treats". The first area we came too everyone was ready and waiting. They had buckets to collect their goodies. The kids did a great job going around to each person and passing things out. My youngest was confused with this and stood by me most of the time. You can see my oldest in the pink hoody and son in black passing out items.

The residents really enjoyed seeing the kids. The children did GREAT. They gave hugs, passed out goodies and even accepted the candy some of the residents handed them.

We then all started walking down the halls to the other side of the home where my grandmother is. That side was holding a Catholic Mass so we just went to the rooms.

Here is a photo of my grandmother greeting my son and daughter. She is unable to leave her room or bed. She cannot move the right side of her body, speak or talk. However she adores the children. She really enjoyed not only seeing my kids come in but our friends come in.

We continued to pass out goodies into the rooms and the residents were so grateful.

I saw first hand how much this service project touched those that live here. When I came back later in the day many of the staff and residents thanked us for coming that morning. The smiles on their faces was priceless. Many of these people are terminal or just forgotten. They are left here without people visiting them. Yes they have activities but that one on one contact with children is often no longer there.

I am so blessed to be a part of a Christ Centered group that wants to teach our children to put others before themselves. I love that we were able to turn Halloween it into something fun and exciting for not only our children but for the elderly.

Introductory lessons to the Solar System & the Sun

2011-10-18T17:46:00.001-05:00

This year for Science we are studying Apologia Astronomy. My kids really wanted to learn about the solar system this year and were so excited about outer space. I picked this curriculum because I wanted something that emphasized how incredible God is in everything he created. Apologia so far has not disappointed.

The first week we were introduced to our solar system and everything in it. The kids then sat down and drew the solar system using chalk pastels. They had a blast doing this. The Sun is so huge that it only is on the corner of the page with most of it off the page. We discussed how large the Sun is compared to the planets. We also discussed the size of each of the planets. I think the kids did a pretty good job trying to draw the Solar System to scale.

As the kids drew we discussed what would happen if the Earth was closer to the Sun or further away than we are now. I was told if we were closer the Earth would be hotter and if we were further we would be colder. We also talked about what would happen if one of the planets got off orbit. Matthew told me it would mess up all the other planets do to the gravitational pull! I was impressed he picked this up just from one reading.

We read "The Planets in our Solar System" to help reinforce what we learned.

After we got done drawing our Solar System we used balloons and pom poms to create our own Solar System on our school wall. This also gave the kids a visual for the difference in sizes. Especially planet Earth compared to the Sun.

The next week we discussed the Sun as a star and how powerful it is. We read "The Sun our Nearest Star" as part of our read out loud that week.

We then went outside and melted frozen chocolate with a magnify glass and burnt holes in leaves. We discussed how our eye has a lens like a magnify glass and if we look at the Sun it can hurt our retina just like it burns the leaf.

We also spent time discussing the difference in power with the magnify glass close to the leaf and far away from the leaf. The kids noticed they had more power the smaller the light on the leaf or chocolate. They really enjoyed making the leaf smoke. Ever since we did this project they discuss how we should not look at the Sun when we go outside.

I needed to add a picture of my baby girl and her Solar System that she was so proud of!

Spanish in the School of Monkeys

2011-10-11T22:15:00.001-05:00

In the School of Monkeys we use several tools in helping us learn Spanish.

La Clase Divertida
I can Learn Spanish and English
Vocab flash cards
English/Spanish books

La Clase Divertida Level 1 comes complete in a box with craft supplies, workbooks for 2 kids, teachers guide, DVD lessons and CD with pronunciation. My children love sitting down and watching each lesson. The fabulous part is the Mexico history lessons and crafts/cooking lessons that go along with it.

We use I can learn Spanish and English for vocabulary. Each page has 3-4 vocabulary words and this is a big spiral notebook. I have my children write down each word in English and Spanish in a Spanish vocab notebook. They review these words over the week until they know them. We learn about 9 new words a week. I also make flash cards with the Spanish word on one side and English word on the other. I laminate these cards and put them on a ring to keep them all together.

The last thing that I use in order to get Spanish in is English/Spanish story books. We get books at the bookstore, library and make some. I got a PDF book off of Scholastic.com that has 12 books to color and make. We do one book every week to every other week and learn new vocabulary through these. I try to pick books that go along with what we are learning in our DVD lessons.

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2011-10-07T22:00:00.001-05:00

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I did a google search and found ClickN KIDS. They offered a free trial so I signed up to try it. The game is set in outer space and really looked like it was up his ally. He did not want to go away from the computer! It was fabulous. No more fighting, tears or frustration. He would sit down do his lessons and actually was retaining the information. I bought a lifetime membership the first day. What I love is that ClickN READ keeps reports of what he is doing. At anytime I can log in and see exactly what he is doing good at and what he is struggling at. If I feel like he did not do well on a level I have him redo it. Reading is now fun for him and he no longer fights sitting down to read a book or play a phonics game. I highly recommend this program for kids that are struggling with reading and getting frustrated easily.

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Chicken Mummy - Living History Lessons

2011-10-07T09:00:00.000-05:00

Chicken Mummy

Ingredients:

Day 1:

Whole thawed chicken or hen
16 oz bottle Rubbing alcohol or any form of alcohol (used wine back in ancient times)
2 boxes of Baking Soda
2 containers of Baking powder
lots of Salt 4-6 cups is good to start with depending on size of chicken.
Freezer bag
Bowl
Gloves
Paper or something to cover your work space

For wrapping the mummy and scented oils:

Baby oil (unscented if possible or cooking oil)
cloves, Cinnamon, all spice, nutmeg, rosemary
mason jar with lid
white/off white, linen, gauze or old fabric to cut into 1" strips. Enough to cover mummy 3 times.
Elmer's school glue
If you choose craft stuff to make adornments, sarcophagus and other items to decorate.

We are in Chapter 4 of our Story of the World Ancients curriculum. We learned this week about mummies. The kids had a good time with this one. We learned that mummies are the body of a person that is preserved after death. We learned that in Ancient Egypt they believed that you had to mummify a body after death in order to get to the afterlife. This fact alone was silly to my kids. They realize that we do not take our bodies when we die.

So in order to teach the kids about mummies we decided to make a chicken mummy. They learned the process in order to preserve it.

We started with cleaning the hen (could not get a chicken). I made sure to empty the cavity before we started this. Make sure to wear gloves in order to not spread salmonella germs.

Once the hen was cleaned good with water we put it in a freezer bag and weighed it. Have your children write down observations at this step. What does the chicken feel like, smell like, color of skin and weight.

Make sure to put water in your bag first to check for holes. I skipped this step and we ended up having to double bag in a pinch. Pour in a full bottle of rubbing alcohol.

If you are going to let your children do this make sure an older one is holding the bag steady. Instruct your children to slowly pour in order to not spill. See even the toddler got into the project. She was ready to give the kids a bath.

Here is our double bagged hen and I had my oldest pour in the rest of the bottle with the two youngest holding the bag. At this point you want to push as much air out of the bag as possible and close it.

Be careful! Remember that pushing on a bag to fast or hard will push the liquid out. Apparently I was not thinking about that when I started. I got to rewrite my kids journal entry due to making this spill.

Now clean your bowl with hot water and soap to remove all germs. Put your bag in the bowl and let it sit for one hour. At the end of the hour turn the hen over and shake the bowl a few times to make sure everything is getting covered in alcohol. Let it sit for another hour. Repeat the process for a total of 4 hours.

While the chicken or hen is taking her bath have your kids mix together the dry ingredients. Make sure their hands are clean in order to not introduce bacteria. The baking soda and baking salt will increase the acidity of the salt mixture reducing the amount of bacteria that can grow. This mixture will also make the salt more similar to the natron salt used by the ancient Egyptians which consisted of three salts plus sodium sulfate. If you like, you can also mix spices anything sweet smelling will work like cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg or cloves.

Now this is a great time to introduce a little math. Let your children know how much of each ingredient you need. We have a 4 cup mixing cup and needed 6 cups of salt. My son calculated that they needed to fill 1 and 1/2 of our measuring cups.

Again everyone got to participate in this step.

Next we put a whole box of baking soda and powder into the mixture.

Now it is time to mix it all up so that it is an even mixture.

Careful slow stirring is important in order to not spill it over the edge.

Once your chicken/hen is done soaking remove it from the bag and let it drain. Wash hands well. We got a new freezer bag at this time and threw away the other one.

In the new bag put enough of our salt mixture in to cover the bottom of the bag. You want to make sure that the chicken/hen is covered completely so make sure it is deep enough.

Now get your gloves on and grab your hen/chicken. Make new observations in your journal. Our chicken is already feeling and looking dryer and was a little lighter in weight. My kids also liked the "hospital smell". Now start filling both cavities (neck and rump) with the mixture. I did not remove our neck because the kids liked seeing it. So I stuffed it right around the neck.

Turn the hen/chicken over and stuff the rump. Make sure to keep packing it down. You want to make sure all the bacteria is killed and to cover any smell.

One last smell and observation before putting our hen in the bag. Her big brother would not even get this close. He did not want to touch it or smell the chicken.

Now the hen sits in the bag on her back. The kids started filling it with the rest of the mixture. Slowly in order to not spill it everywhere.

Again you may need an older child to hold the bag to make sure it does not spill. Ours sat pretty well with the hen in it.

Yes even the young one's can do this part.

After you get it completely covered push all the air out again and seal it. I advise you to do this slowly in order to not have that huge spill like I did above.

We washed our hands and then put a second bag around our Mummy (again pushing out the air). Now it is time to name your new pet. This project will be with you for several months if not longer.

Nummy B Mummy now has a new home in our schoolroom. She is being guarded by our little bobble heads. For the next week check on your mummy daily. If you notice a smell or wetness in the bag you will need to empty it. Put on gloves and wash hands when you handle your mummy. Every time you empty your bag and put a new salt mixture in make sure to take the time to write down observations including weight.

Day 5: We changed our salt mixture for the first time on Day 5. The hen did not smell bad but the salt mixture was lumpy and a little damp. I dumped all the salt mixture out and tried to get most of it off the inside and outside. The hen smelled like alcohol and not like yucky meat. The kids weighed the hen before we took it out of the bag and then after. It had lost about half a pound in weight. The kids made observations and wrote them all down in their journal. They put down the weight, what it looked at and smelled like. The hen is getting more dry.

At this point the pictures stop. I will add them when we get further in our process.

If you have to empty it make sure to dust off all salt and put a new salt mixture into the bag. This includes the need to re-stuff it. Put the Mummy back in a bag and let it sit. After a week it should only need to be checked for moisture every week or so. Egyptians took two months to mummify. So we set a two month date on our calendar in order to check to see if it is completed.    When it is dry it should not smell.

If you would like to make your own scented oil start this process 3 weeks prior to the time your mummy will be done. Take a mason jar and fill it almost to the top with a combination of cloves, rosemary, all spice, Cinnamon and nutmeg. Then fill the jar to the top with baby oil (unscented if you can find it). You will then set it in a sunny spot and shake it a couple times a day for 3 weeks. At the end of this time drain the oil and you now have a scented oil/spice to pat on your mummy.

If you would like to create adornments to be burred inside your mummy's cavity and to be put on the outside make them during this wait and see time frame. You can also make a sarcophagus using boxes in order to hold your Mummy. Once we get to this step I will include more detail in this post.

Once your mummy is dried out you will need to get your gloves and dust it off completely. Dry it off and pat it with your scented oil mixture or baby oil (cooking oil is fine too) inside and out.

Now it is time to wrap your mummy. Cut up 1" strips of old white (or off white) linen, shirts or gauze. Dip each piece into glue (sticky tree sap was used by the Egyptians). If you created adornments wrap them up in the cloth. Once this is done set it gently inside the cavity.   Now it is time to wrap the mummy with the strips. Do this completely 3 times making sure to carefully go around the legs and wings of your mummy.   In order to make the Mummy more authentic decorate outside with Egyptian markings, jewels, adornments, amulets and medallions (all can be handmade).

If you created a Sarcophagus place your mummy inside the tomb. You can bury your tomb or place it in a place of honor for the rest of the year. You also have a nice decoration every year for Halloween!

For more online learning here is a cool Mummy site for kids.

Cuneiform Cookies - Living history lessons

2011-10-07T00:19:00.000-05:00

Honestly growing up I hated history. It was boring and about people who were dead. I hated remembering dates and names. Well as I got older I started getting more and more interested and was sad that I did not pay more attention when I was younger. One of my goals as a home school mother is to encourage my children to love history and want to know more about it.

This year we are learning about Ancient History and beginning American History. The main curriculum I am using is Story of the World the Ancients. I have the book, audio CD's and activity guide. Most of the time the kids listen to the CD's in the car. When we complete a lesson I have them review the lesson of the week. Usually they listen to the CD again with a map and color page in front of them. They circle things on the map that they hear and write down key information (dates and key people). I normally read along in the book as we listen and pause the CD from time to time to ask questions.

After we listen to the information we sit down to do an activity together. I try to pick activities that allow the kids to get a glimpse of what life was like long ago. So last week we learned about the first writings. Last year we created cave drawings and the kids loved that. This time we created Cuneiform with knifes on cookie dough. I was going to let them use sticks but they wanted to eat the cookies when we were done.

We took refrigerated cookie dough and I cut it into four balls. The kids then each rolled them out on wax paper (make sure you put flour down so it does not stick). After the kids rolled it out I helped them shape it into a rectangle so that we would have a "page of clay" to write on.

Each child then took the knife and started putting the symbols that spell their name in the clay. Mommy had to help Abigail some by putting her stick where it needed to be. Then Abigail would push it down. Even at 3 she had a great time and seemed to understand what we were doing.

We discussed how the Sumerians would have baked the clay for important information so that they could keep it. If it was something not important (a note or list) then they would leave the clay wet. We decided our names were important so we baked them in the oven.

The kids had a great time completing this project plus who does not love cookies?

After we put our bricks in the oven we talked about what we thought would happen to our symbols. Would the dough rise and hide them or would they stay?

Shelby's name with the chart she used.

They all decided it would rise like bread but they figured they would still be able to recognize the symbols.

My name in Cuneiform

Once the cookies were done they kids discovered that the dough did rise some. If you do this project at home make sure your impressions are deep in the dough. Almost all the way through. The marks that were more shallow we could not see once it was cooked.

The best part! Eating their creations. I have overheard them talking about Sumerians and cuneiform when playing. I have seen them pretend to be Egyptians hammering in stone and then Sumerians marking in clay. This was definitly a project that helped the kids reinforce what they learned.

Something Big is Coming and a $56,000 Homeschool Sweepstakes! | Home Educating Association

2011-10-06T14:50:00.000-05:00

Something Big is Coming and a $56,000 Homeschool Sweepstakes! | Home Educating Association

Teaching Place Value - Place Value Lane

2011-10-05T17:45:00.000-05:00

Place Value was a challenging subject for one of my children. They just did not comprehend that the number 35 had 3 sets of 10's and 5 ones. So one day I sat down and drew a street with houses (see pic above). There is an units/ones house on the right, tens house, hundreds house and thousands house (and on and on). These houses get bigger and bigger but all only have 9 rooms.

I then pulled out our cuisinare rods and some index cards. I wrote a number on the index card and told my kids to put the units and tens in their houses for the night. At first they looked at me strange and then they thought about it. Slowly they put the correct amount of units in the unit house and tens in the ten house.

Why we are called the School of Monkeys - Wordless Wednesday

2011-10-05T15:33:00.000-05:00

On dresser!

Paint Chip Phonics Learning Game

2011-10-04T21:37:00.000-05:00

How do you teach phonics to kids without it being boring? This was my question when I was teaching my oldest daughter. She had a hard time learning to read and I got really frustrated. Then I read a blog that had this game posted.

What you need:

13 Long cards with 4 colors on it
34 short cards with a hole cut out (or 12 if they have 3 colors)
Hole punch
Laminator
Laminating Pouches
Metal Binder Rings
Phonogram Page

I got my paint chips from when we painted three rooms in our house. They are in the paint section of any hardware or big box store. I was short some of the cards with the hole in them so I asked the manager if I could buy them. He told me to just take them.

Once I got home with my colorful paint chips I printed out the Phonogram Page and got to work. On the 12 long cards I wrote the following letters going down. Try to center the letters on all boxes in order to make word making easier.

Consonants:

Blends:

Diagraphs:

On the 34 cards with the hole cut out I put the word family letter combinations. If you cannot find the cards with the square cut out you can make them yourself. Get the cards and use an x acto knife to cut each square.

ag
ab
ail
ain
ack
ake
am
an
ank
ap
all
at
ay
eed
ell
est
ew
ick
ight
ill
ine
ing
ink
ip
ob
og
ore
ot
out
ow
uck
um
unk
y

You can skip any of these steps if you would like and just put them all in a baggie. I have three kids and I knew these cards would get lost and ripped unless I made them more durable. If you would like to make them more durable then laminate them, hole punch the corner and put a ring on it. I put all the long cards together and all the short cards together.

Now that your game is done it is time to play! To play have your child sit down and try to create words with the cards. They will place the card with the hole on it over the long card. My children sometimes play and go in a circle creating words. They get a point for correctly identifying a real word or fake word. Other times they play on their own and write down real words and fake words on a chart. My son (below) LOVES this game and asks to play daily.

Monkey Preschool

2011-10-04T03:21:00.000-05:00

Abigail is 3 and LOVES to do "school work" like big brother and sister. She has lots of workbooks, color books, sticker books and water color books to help keep her occupied. However her favorite thing to do is hands on work that I give her.

Here she is above working with little bugs and tongs (ours are all from old bed bug game). She is working on her hand/eye coordination, sorting skills and colors.

Next she works with pom poms of different sizes and bowls. She made us go and get more color bowls so that she could sort properly.

See her with all of her bowls!

She even cleans up her mess when she is done.

Above is a video of Abigail working with her tongs.

Next Abigail works on a file folder game that is a first grade level. It is a puzzle with letter/number combination on each piece. She looks at each card and finds the letter and then number. I took a video of her working on this with me. She impressed me with her skills at 3 years old.
w

The above video is a little shaky since I was trying to video her and help her. Sorry! She is adorable when she tells me ,"This one silly!"

Writing Skills

Last Abigail worked on her "writing" skills. As you see above I made these pattern cards myself. I had a Scholastic PDF book that I got a few weeks ago. It had patterns to use with cutting, clay or other activities. I printed them off and laminated them. After I laminated them I put a ring on them to hold it all together.

Things you need to make these yourself are:

Pictures/letter cards/number cards. You can buy a book with this in it or google for them online.
Laminator (or go somewhere to print them)
Laminating pockets
Metal binding rings
Hole punch

Laminate pictures (one on front and one on back) and cut it out. Then hole punch each card. Put the metal ring on it and PLAY!

My daughter used play-doh today to make her shapes. You can use a crayon, dry erase marker, wikki stix , pipe cleaners or any other thing that is bendable to move around and make the shape. This teaches that letters, numbers and shapes all have lines that are curvy or straight.

Making a 3 with yellow doh.

Making 3 blue dots and putting them on the paper.

CHEESE! Isn't she sweet?

Working on adding the dots to her five.

Entertaining the younger kids at home can be easy if you plan ahead of time. As you can see above most of these projects cost little money and are things we already have at home. I have a bin of file folder/hands on games for all the kids. I also have a list of preschool activities. When my little Angel decides she wants to be a Demon and get in our way ... I pull out an activity and let her go to town.

2011-2012 School Year is here!

2011-09-30T19:51:00.000-05:00

We had our first week back at school and everything is going great!

We made some changes from last year and I plan on highlighting them each day over the next week. So far all of our choices are working out great.

Check out my 2011-2012 Curriculum page to see what choices I have made. I will update as I tweak or change things.

This week we accomplished so much!

Matthew-

Play Paint Chip Phonics

The rules to this game are simple. To create you use free paint color samples that you get from your local big box store or paint supply store. We had painted three rooms in our house last year so I had a lot laying around. For the extra I needed I went and asked if I could buy the samples. The manager just told me to take what I needed. I got the idea of this game from The Snails Trail a few years ago. If you go to her site she has all the letters you need to put on the cards and the full instructions. Shelby used to love this game and I was excited to put it in our center bin for Matthew. He played three days this week. Basically he creates words with the phonic blends. He writes down the real words on one sheet and the silly words on another. He had a lot of fun playing this game and did not even realize he was both reading and learning. To him this was a fun puzzle.

-Reading and Phonics evaluation- He scored above grade level
-Wordly Wise lesson 1 Week 1
-Explode the Code 3 pg 1-10
-Handwriting without Tears pg 31-34 plus writing name each day
-Bob Jones Reading 1- day 1-5
-A Reason for Spelling A- day 1-3
-Horizons 1 Math: Lesson 1-5
-Algebra Readiness Grade 1: 3 lessons
-Critical Thinking Skills: 2 lessons
-2 Maze exercises

SHELBY

Shelby learned how to create sentences this week. She learned that it must have a subject and an action. I had subject and action cards that she put together each day. Some of them were telling sentences, some where commands and others were exclamations. As an example one white card said. "The car" and then the yellow car said, "roared down the street."

-Reading Evaluation- scored above grade level
-Read "Keep the Lights Burning Abbie" and answered comprehension questions
-Bob Jones Press Reading Grade 2 and English Grade 2: Lessons 1-5
-Daily Language Review Grade 2 - Week 1
-Wordly Wise 2: Lesson 1- Exercise 1 &2
-SWO Spelling: List A 100% test
-Horizons 2 Cursive: Lesson 1-5
-Memory Work: Psalm 24:1
-Horizons Math 2: Lesson 1-5
-Algebra Readiness grade 2: 3 Lessons
-Critical Thinking Skills: 2 lessons

Both-

Listen to 2 chapters in "Ginger Pye" and answer comprehension questions
Daily Geography Skills Grade 1- Week 1-3 (map skills)
Story of the World Ancients Chapter 3- Early Writing
Apologia Astronomy Chapter 1- What is Astronomy? What is in our Solar System?
United States Flag and Alabama for US Map work
Bob Jones Heritage Studies Grade 1 - Chapter 1 Oceans and Continents
Spanish Vocab (numbers 1-6), Book "Bigger/Mas Grande", Animal vocab
Art- create solar system with chalk pastels, create items out of circles, draw an animal (dinosaurs)

Music - Quarter Note, 4/4 time

I plan on posting individually about these in the next few days. We created a solar system through art and sculpture this week. We also wrote our name in cuneiform on cookie dough. The kids LOVED this project. In math we reviewed our Place Value Lane. I took lots of photo's and will be updating this blog daily with fun non writing activities.

Caterpillar to Butterfly

2011-04-12T23:39:00.000-05:00

We are learning about the Leap class family. We got caterpillars about 10 days ago in the mail. We did not find them as fascinating to watch as the ants but the kids did get grossed out at all the poop in the cup. After about 7 days the caterpillars crawled to the top of the cup and molted into a chrysalis. Shelby LOVED watching this process. She quickly grabbed her Encyclopedia to learn all about the Pupa stage of the Butterfly. She was excited to learn that moths spin into a cacoon and that butterfly's actually molt to get to the pupa stage. Once the chrysalis hardened I moved the paper they were on into our habitat. We can't wait to see them become butterfly's.

2011-04-04T13:27:00.000-05:00

"The Promises She Keeps" by Erin Healy is the first book of her's that I have read. This book had very interesting characters. We start with Promise a young girl with Cystic Fibrosis who sings. Then there is Chase a young man with Autism who is an incredible artist. Linking the two characters together is Zach and Portia. A mother/son team who do not like each other and each have their own agenda's in life.

This book started well and kept me longing to find out more about the characters and what will ultimately happen to them all. I felt connected to Promise and sad about her illness. I kept wanting to see one of Chases drawings for myself. My dislike of Portia was just as real as her son's dislike for her.

The books ending feels so rushed that it never felt like the salvation we were lead up to actually happened. There are parts of the story that seemed to never develop fully in the end. Overall it was a good read but left me longing for more completion to the story.

*This book was given to me free by BookSneeze in exchange for an unbiased review.

Ants!

2011-03-25T23:18:00.001-05:00

This week we got our ants in that we ordered. We have a gel ant farm and are amazed at these little creatures. We have watched them bury their dead, dig tunnels, make hills and even talk to each other with their antennas. I am amazed at their team work skills. Matthew is a little sad that they are all girls but still loves watching them. The first thing the kids do in the morning is run to see the farm. They write everything that has changed since the night before. Several times a day they check on the ants and write down observations. The ants are a bigger hit than even the ladybugs were.

Our gel house is like the one below. There are several types of these on Amazon.com. It is so neat to see it lit up from the bottom. We really love it and I may even buy a rainbow farm to do as a follow up.

Ladybug farm

2011-03-25T23:07:00.000-05:00

We have been learning about bugs in science this month. We have a cool ladybug land and got to go through the 4 stages in order to get them to adult status. I printed off worksheets from enchanted learning to go along with our daily observations. Abigail LOVES her "baby bugs" and even was able to tell me the 4 stages and put her cut out pictures in the right order.

We bought this Ladybug land off Amazon and loved it. We plan on cleaning it out and using it again in the future.

Catching you all up

2010-10-23T20:42:00.000-05:00

Well it has been awhile since I blogged. We have been so busy that I just keep forgetting to do it. My cousin has moved in with us so we now have a 19 year old pregnant woman living with us. She is due with her first baby in December.

What we are learning-

Shelby has come a long way with her reading and grammar skills. I gave her a word list to read to me last week and she was able to read every word to me. Half of them were sight words. She is able to sit and read books in a setting. She still struggles to find books that interest her enough to read but we are working on that.

Shelby has moved on to memorizing her subtraction facts and has been introduced to multiplying and "groups" of numbers. She wants to skip addition and subtraction completely and just do that.

Matthew is improving on his reading and phonic work. He does not like to "have" to read daily but he is able to do it. We are still working on handwriting before we move to sentence and grammar work.

In Math Matthew is now able to count by 2's to 20, 5's to 100, 10's to 100 and 3's to 12. He is able to figure out addition problems in his head up to 12.

We have gone on field trips to a pumpkin patch, park to play with friends, Six Flags and a few others.

Week 3 Report

2010-09-04T21:22:00.000-05:00

We have now ended our 15th day of school. Things are still going great. This week we added in more activities outside of the house and met lots of new friends!

This week we started AWANA on Wednesday nights and are now meeting weekly with a Meet Up group. The kids have never done AWANA and really had a great time. Shelby is in a class with two of her friends from Mothers Day Out. Matthew is in a class with a Male leader and 5 other little boys. He is in HEAVEN. They both have been working hard memorizing their bible verses for next week.

On Wednesday Shelby and I also went to her knitting class. We are working on making a hat before next weeks class.

In math Shelby worked on her number bonds and addition facts this week. She is starting to memorize several of the facts and is using her number line less.
In Language Arts she learned compound words and how to make words plural. She also completed another Spelling test and got every word correct.

Matthew learned about pennies in math and how to write the numbers 5, 6 and 7. He completed his letter "B" book. Abigail and Matthew made bee's out of recycled materials (cardboard, felt scraps and paint). Matthew completed another 5 lessons in his "Explode the Code" book and "Learn to read in 100 easy lessons". He is really picking up reading fast. He struggled a little bit this week reading the letters "R" and "J". He has a hard time making these letter sounds so he got frustrated quickly.

In bible the kids completed their "Creation" lapbook.

For science and history we learned more about Dinosaurs. We even made dino eggs that we will paint next week. They had fun choosing a baby dino to put in their balloon. Then mommy made paste out of flour and water. None of the kids wanted to actually cover the eggs with the "yucky" paste so mommy ended up doing that part mostly on her own.

We had a great time at our Meet Up group. It was the kick off for the new year and it rained. So we moved it indoors to a gym at a local church. It ended up working out perfect. We played lots of games and got to meet all our new friends. Next week we are going on a field trip to a Storehouse (food Pantry) and get to complete a Service project. We are very excited to learn about serving others.

(Feel free to click on slideshow and pictures to see them larger)

Neat Art Resources cheap on Amazon

2010-09-02T14:59:00.000-05:00

As most people know I love to find great deals. I will be posting deals that I find related to homeschooling once or twice a week.

This past week we got these two Art items with our free Amazon Prime Trial (if you order over $25 in items you will get free shipping as well).

This book is really colorful and has some HUGE prints in it. There are a few pictures that I may not show the children for a few years. They may be a little mature for them still. I think I am just going to tack those pages together on the corner until they are ready for them. Overall though it is really a great book and the kids have already pulled it out to look at and read.

The second item above is at an incredible deal! This kit is so much fun. It has tons of info about Leonardo DaVinci and it includes a model to build a flying machine. I am planning a month of DaVinci study just so we can play with this kit!

Creation

2010-09-02T14:08:00.000-05:00

The kids have been learning the 7 days of Creation both at Church and in Bible here at home. Their Bible verse the first week was Genesis 1:1 and the second week was Genesis 1:27 . We have done a lot of Creation activities and projects. We are also learning about the Dinosaurs and that God created the Dinosaurs the same time he created man. We will get more into Dino's and the bible at a later time, including the fact that there are a lot of theory's out there. We will have Dino lapbook coming soon!

The kids made a Creation Mobil, colored a sign for our wall and made a Creation lapbook. Here are video's of each child showing off their project. They learned that God made us in His image ...therefore we are special and unique just like Him.

Week 2 - We added Spanish and learned to Knit

2010-08-29T20:28:00.001-05:00

This week we got to add Spanish to our daily classes.

The kids are taking La Clase Divertida and I LOVE it. The instructor on the DVD is very good with the kids. We do a video lesson over two weeks and listen to a CD over those weeks for practice. There also is a workbook and crafts. I am very Texan and just cannot pronounce Spanish very well. I really would LOVE for my kids to become comfortable with speaking and understanding (where as I can only really understand). This week they learned their vowel sounds, colors, alphabet sounds to G (including CH). They also learned how to ask someone their name and answer when someone asks them. We practice everyday and the kids are getting very good at these things. Little Abigail even goes around singing our Vowel song. It really is helping me as well.

Shelby and I also started a knitting class with some other moms and daughters in our Meet up group. Shelby is having a hard time learning to knit with two needles but is able to finger knit with one and with her whole hand. I am HORRIBLE with craft stuff. However I have picked up a basic stitch and purl stitch. I made a pretty ugly bag to hold our yarn and needles in and am pretty proud of it. Shelby is still trying to knit with needles but we may try to get a hoop to let her try with. Matthew has learned to knit with his fingers and wants me to show him how to knit with needles so we may try it this week.

In class at home this week Shelby completed a unit in Horizons in Math, Spelling and Language Arts. She took 4 "tests" on Friday. She got everything right on her Math, Spelling and Memory Work (Genesis 1:1) and scored a 95 on Language Arts. Her LA was because she did not follow directions not because she did not know the info.

Matthew is still reading a Bob book a day and even picked up some easy readers at the library that I caught him reading on his own. He is really doing so much better than I thought he would do this year.

Shelby and Matthew have been competing with each other on Addition facts flash cards for a few minutes each day this week. Matthew SHOCKED me with how quickly he shouted out the correct answers. He beat his sister a few days in a row. Toward the end of the week Shelby started memorizing them and was able to beat her little brother. Baby Abigail even shouted out a few answers this week correctly.

In Music the kids learned that the Italian word "piano" means soft. They added a third note to what they know on the recorder and can read the music in front of them for all three notes. They still have a little problem switching between the notes but they are learning quickly.

I don't have any pictures from the week because someone hid my camera charger! Hopefully it will be found soon.

Kindergartner and first grader at last

2010-08-22T23:32:00.001-05:00

I now have a Kindergardner and First grader in the School of Monkeys.

Matthew was so excited to start school. On the first day we sat down and went over the rules, where everything was in the classroom and decorated there binders. Matthew has not been looking forward to school but he leaned over to his sister halfway through the day and stated "I think I am going to love school this year".

The kids have done a great job with their work this week and so far we have pretty much stayed on schedule. The only thing we are behind on is History. The reason for this is that Shelby asked a question about Dinosaurs and Day 6 of Creation. This lead me on a trail of teaching Dinosaurs and the bible instead of Ancient history.

Hopefully we will get back on track on week 3. We were going to study Pre-History and dinosaurs at the end of the year anyway so it really will not take us off schedule at the end of the year.

This is what was completed this week.

Shelby read 5 stories out of her bible. "Creation" to "The Tall Tower"
In our bible workbook the kids are on day 6 of Creation. The kids really have been doing a great job with their bible journals.

We do a LOT of reading out loud. Shelby helps with the books she can and Mommy reads the rest. So far this week we have read:
"Charlotte's Web" chap 1-6
"Red Sails to Capri" chap 1-5 (we also put this on our Timeline and marked Capri on our world map)
"The Great Dinosaur Mystery and the Bible" pg 1-23
Completed "Dinosaurs before Dark" plus these other Dino books in this picture

Shelby Completed 5 lessons in Horizons Math 1, 5 lessons in Horizons Phonics and Reading 1, Read 5 stories out of her Horizons reading Comp book and answered the questions, 5 lessons in Explode the Code 4, 5 lessons in Horizons Penmanship 1 and 3 in Singapore Math Standards 1

Matthew Completed 5 Lessons in Horizons Math K, 3 lessons in Explode the Code book 1, 5 lessons in Handwriting without tears, Read 5 Bob books, Read 5 lessons in Learn to read in 100 ez lessons.

For Science we learned about what is living and Not living. The kids collected living items outside including our new pet snail. We have learned that snails need to stay wet so we leave a little bit of water in it's cage. Shelby has left lettuce and canteloup for the snail to eat. There is also lots of wet dirt, leaves and grass in there.

We went swimming in our pool 3 times this week and they are learning how to tie their shoes.

The kids are also working on basic skills like cutting and grip for writing.

On our last day this week the kids created their own dinosaur. We learned that scientists only have the bones to go by when deciding what they look like. Nobody actually knows the color of a dinosaur or exactly what each one looks like since they have not seen it. They each made their own and put "tracks" in a clay ground.

We did not do any of our Spanish this week but will start next week.

Music this year is being done with the ebook "Poco a Poco". I LOVE this curriculum. It is fun and easy to teach. The kids learned what a quarter note is, musical staff, treble cleff and a measure. They also learned both a b and a note on their recorder and was able to read a piece of music to play these notes (all quarter notes and rests). It only had 4 measures but they did it. We have started learning the keys on the piano but the keyboard we were going to use broke. Now I have to either A) get a piano or B) get another keyboard so that they can learn. We are doing the best we can without anything for now.

In art we discussed Picasso and created our own Picasso picture. We put Picasso on our Time line as well.

Overall we had a great week and I believe we will have a really good school year.

2010-2011 plan

2010-08-21T16:22:00.000-05:00

I have completed my lesson plan for the WHOLE 2010-2011 year. I have a week by week plan with every day written out. I even have the materials I will need and books I will need to get at the library. I have pulled apart all workbooks and made copies (those that I am legally allowed to make) and put them in the weekly file folders. Shelby and Matthew have a file holder with all of their weeks in it.

Rules of our School

Example of our Activities on the September Schedule

Week 1 Schedule (pg 1 & 2 for both kids)

page 3 schedule

Shelby's file folder

Library/games/puzzles

Milk Crates that hold binders/supplies (blue Matthew and Pink Shelby)

Teacher books/guides for all subjects plus read out louds

WHAT WE WILL USE

Most of the books I bought used on ebay, through the Well Trained Mind Forums or got off of Paperback swap/Swap Tree. I also hit up Half Price Books with Coupons several times this year to collect the books I knew we would need. Some I scored for $1! Those that I bought new I bought on Amazon (love their 4 for 3 deal), Exodus Books and Rainbow Resources. There are a few listed below that I still need that I hope to find used soon.

We do go to the library but I love having the books I know I need for school on hand to use when needed. I can then resell them at the end of the school year or save them for the next child to use them.

History/Bible- Both kids
History
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style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

Bible

Still need to buy or will try to borrow

Geography
We are using a complete book of Map Skills. I got this at half price books and could not find it online.

Still need or will borrow
This one for end of year and next year

Weekly Read Out Louds

Read Out Louds

Still need to buy or will borrow

Readers (Shelby)
She is reading a story out of her bible every day plus the following.

Borrow or still need to buy

Readers (Matthew)

Language Arts- Shelby

Language Arts- Matthew

Science

Still need or will borrow

Math/Logic- Shelby

Math/Logic- Matthew

Spanish-

Music-
We also are learning the Recorder but I could not find the book we are using.

LOVE this Music program. It is so simple and easy to teach and the kids learn so much.

Art-

Activities
Awana starting September 1st (weekly)
Homegrown Learners Meet-up group (1x a week starting Sept 3)
Knitting class for 3 weeks (Shelby starting Aug 25)
Austin Sports arena Wed 1 -2 x a month (for skating, soccer, dodgeball, floorball)
Kickball 1x a week twice a month (hopefully) with another homeschool group.

We still are looking for a new keyboard or used piano. I have a keyboard they are using but it does not have all of the keys a piano has.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-08-18T14:14:00.001-05:00

Class Pet

Planning, planning and did I say Planning

2010-08-10T03:16:00.001-05:00

So I thought I would blog about how much planning is going into this school year. I (again) am putting all of the work in it's folder by week. So I have a file box for Shelby that has 36 weeks of files in it. Each week has all her work for the week in it. I have the files for Matthew but need to get another file box. His does not have as much work as hers. I then have a bookshelf with all of my teacher books for the year and our reference/reader books. Each child has a milk crate with their binders, folder, pencil box, dry erase board etc. We then have another book shelf full of future subjects, books and free reading books.

This file box is getting out of hand! Last year I had it but did not go this detailed since it was Kinder and only one child. I have been ripping apart books and making copies of worksheets, lab sheets (all reproducible material) and e-book worksheets for a week. I also have a planner on the computer that is done week by week to keep me on track and to help me not OVER PLAN (I like to do this). Right now I have 9 weeks completed on the computer (minus Spanish). I have the other weeks down but not all in one place on the computer. So I have been busy copying and pasting stuff together. I also have been making a list of books I will need to get at the library for each week, materials I will need to buy for each week and books I need to buy (because the library does not have them).

All this planning is making my back hurt and arms sore. I am SOOOO ready for school to just start. I hope it all pays off in the end. My plan is to keep us on track and going through the year. I have breaks scheduled in that we can take if we are on track. If not we will just stick with it and catch up.

Subjects by child (for now .... I have the right to change my mind before next week .... well actually at any point).

Shelby-
Horizons 1 Math and Singapore Math 1A & 1B Standards
Explode The Code 4-6
Horizons Penmanship 1
Horizons Ponics/grammer and Spelling 1
First Grade Grammer (workbook from teacher store)
Sonlight Intro to World History with a mix of 1 and 2 beginner Readers
5 Minute Logic Work 3 x a week (Critical Thinking Skills, Wake up Brain)
Geography - Map Skills (2 x a week)

BOTH- (History 3x a week, Science 2 x a week, Spanish 20 minutes a day, Art 3 x a week, Music class 2 x a week, Music lessons 15 minutes daily, PE daily)
Sonlight Intro to World History (Shelby reading 2 Beginning readers and Matthew 1 readers)
Story of the World Ancients
Horizons 1 Bible and Bible with Sonlight
Awanas (one night a week- memorization and bible)
La Clase Divertida Spanish I with Salsa Spanish
Real Science Odyssey Life
Poco a Poco Music
Learning the Recorder and Piano
Art - Mix of different texts ... we will be studying a type of art each week (painting, drawing, knitting, cooking, woodwork, sculpting etc)
PE/Life Skills/Health- Ride bike, tie shoes, swimming etc They will be playing Kickball one day a week with friends as well.
Field trip weekly with Homegrown Learners group
Library 1x every 2 weeks

Matthew
Horizons K and Early Bird Singapore Math
Learn to Read in 100 EZ lessons
Explode the Code 1-3
Handwriting without Tears Letters and Numbers with me - My Printing Book
Lollipop Logic, Mazes, dot to dot (5 minute logic work 3 x a week)
Geography (Map Skills 2 x a week)

Happy August

2010-08-06T22:20:00.000-05:00

Well I have not blogged recently but am getting ready for the new school year. This year I will have two students and have made several changes.

We will be doing Sonlight Core 1 +2 with both Matthew and Shelby. I have taken their schedule and books and combined them with other programs on our schedule. This should make is a literature rich school year.

We also are going to start going on field trips pretty often with the new Homeschool group we joined (Homegrown Learners). We are very excited about this group and can't wait to explore new places with our new friends.

Reading Fancy Nancy

2010-03-01T23:55:00.000-06:00

Shelby has been loving her Fancy Nancy books. She read three of them over the past two weeks plus two other books. Something has clicked in her head because her reading is taking off. Thank you FANCY NANCY!

Math has been going smoothly. We are chugging along in book 2 of Horizons K. She loves figuring out the Perimeter of objects and counting change.

We are going to take a three week break after this week in order for me to focus on my MamaCents job. I will post about that next. I plan on Shelby still reading daily while we are on break.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-02-17T01:14:00.000-06:00

Pink Eye, Strep, Double Ear infections x2 girls ... plus Shelby has a sinus infection

Using the Lungs

2010-02-12T20:44:00.000-06:00

This week we learned about our lungs in the Human body study. Shelby created three models to learn the parts and how they work. We also did a few experiments to show how our lungs move and air flows.

For fun at the beginning of the week we also made paper with our paper maker. The kids went and got flowers (aka weeds) from the yard to embed into the paper as well.

Shelby has started working out of her "Draw Write Now" books this week. We are using this to help her with her fine motor skills, artistic skills, handwriting, grammar (sentence structure), reading and a little science thrown in. We also have books that would go well with American History but we have not started them. She LOVES these books and does not complain at all about having to write and read.

Shelby picked out some Fancy Nancy books at the book store last weekend and read to me one this week (a few pages each night).

We have started working on solidifying her Math Facts. She does 5 minutes of practice a day on her Twist & Shout Addition "toy". She also has been working on counting by "2s" and several denominations of change together (except quarters).

Geography - was more city maps work and we located Canada! We are so excited for the Olympics to start. I look forward to pointing out several more countries over the next few weeks as we watch.

Bible-Discussing lying and obeying. Exodus 20:16 was her bible verse.

We had a good week overall.

Matthew and Abigail both had a Valentine Party on Thursday- there are a few pictures in the slide show of that. Abigail also enjoyed watching the kids do their experiments. I think she thought they were a little nutty breathing into a bag.

100th day of school

2010-02-06T16:20:00.000-06:00

Well our 100th day of school I "think" was last week but with Abigail sick we did not celebrate. Instead we held it this week. Pictures are of Shelby doing her projects. She made a headband with 100 cherrios, created her own 100 project and we read several 100 day of school books.

Her 100 project was made with model magic clay and she used lots of different craft items to decorate it with 100 items. She counted them out 5 items at a time and we made a list of what was used.

This week Shelby got all of her spelling words right! She also was able to read "Anansi the Spider" pretty much on her own. She really enjoyed the story and finding Ghana, Africa on the Globe. There were also a bunch of her past spelling words in the story. Every time she came to one she would point out that she knew how to spell that word.

Overall it was a good week.

WorDY Wednesday

2010-02-03T19:05:00.000-06:00

I know it should be a picture today but I have two quotes that really tickled me from Shelby.

1- Shelby told her Nana "I love you more than the Great Wall of China"
Of course she was meaning bigger than but still ....

2- Shelby yelled at Matthew and I "Matthew is lying, Truthful lips endure forever Proverbs 12:19" Of course she was the one lying but she still tried to cover it with scripture.

Counting by 5's and Reading!

2010-01-30T15:15:00.000-06:00

This week we have been working on counting by 5's in order for Shelby to count nickels. We spent three days working on 5's, playing games, doing worksheets and then introducing the nickel. We then spent two days counting nickels.

So far in Money we have studied the penny, dime and now nickel. In a couple weeks we will introduce the quarter and then start making change!

We also continued to review our place value work, addition and basic clock work. Shelby seems to have a clear understanding of all of the above. I am loving our Horizons Math books. They really are helping her review weekly concepts that we have learned. We also are continuing to use Singapore math for the mastery part. It is working well (FINALLY a math system that works) so I plan on continuing it next year.

Shelby also has exploded in reading this past week. She started struggling and seemed like she had hit a wall a month ago. This week though she has been picking out her own book to read each night. Some of them are much harder than what I would have given her but she has done well with them. I think now that she is further along in her phonics and spelling work that that is helping her.

We did not really do a science topic or history this past week but we did work on her geography and map work.

On a side note ... the kids need swimming lessons and I am struggling with where to take them and the amount it costs. We have tried the YMCA and community center in the past and it really set Shelby back more than helped her. There is a swim school that a lot of my friends are taking their kids to and they have had incredible results. My goal is for the kids to be able to swim, know how to hold their breath and not be scared. I think distance will come with practice. This swim school costs about $90 a month PER child!!! I just don't know if I can squeeze that out of anywhere right now ... so we are still trying to figure out what to do. Schiliterbahn is building a water park (will open in 2012) literally around the corner from us (not sure how I feel about that). I know they need to learn how to swim before then.

We also will probably start Awanas in the next two weeks. One of Matthews friends is in it and there are some kids Shelby knows in it as well. I think it would be great for them.

Matthew note- his speech is going well. He is getting his "s" and "k" sounds down. We are now starting on "l" sounds. I hope he progresses enough to be able to end it in July or August.

Abigail-poor sweet baby has been sick all week. We have gone to the doctor and have no answers. Just high fever, coughing and stuffed up head.

85 in January!

2010-01-26T18:55:00.000-06:00

This week we had several good days. So we took our learning outside. Shelby read books outside, we went on nature walks and checked out the ducks at the ponds. We also just got OUTSIDE to play. It felt so good to not be cooped up all week.

Shelby is getting much stronger at some physical skills that she has had trouble with in the past. She is swinging on her own now and can go pretty high. She also was able to push the petals on her Big Wheel bike. Now if I can just get her to ride her regular bike.

We are paying for it this week considering the "Cedar Fever" going on but we still had fun.

Shelby did great on her spelling list last week. She got one out of 16 wrong. After her list this week we will review 40 words for next week.

Our attitude last week was selfishness. Not sure how much sunk in but Shelby did read a few books to me about it and we discussed solutions when she is feeling selfish.

We also continued on our Math journey of Place Value and entered the thousands. Another topic we touched is measurement in inches. She really enjoyed measuring things with her ruler.

We have finished our Geography unit on directions (compass Rose) and started City/State and National Maps.

Haiti and Earthquakes

2010-01-18T21:05:00.000-06:00

Her Models so far in our Human Body study (above)

Skin Model (above)

Learning about Decimal Street and adding Hundreds (plus some spelling rule work)

Shelby's Decimal Street that she plays with her blocks on. (above)

This week for school we worked on our normal handwriting, spelling, phonics etc.

For Science we started off the week with Skin and the layers. Shelby informed me that I must have a lot of fat cells when we got to that part of our model. THANKS!

On Tuesday the Earthquake hit Haiti. We then shifted our attention to Earthquakes and where Haiti is on the globe. We have since been talking a lot about Haiti and natural disasters. Our skin unit is still going on but got pushed aside a little bit.

Math this past week we moved onto Hundreds in our Decimal Street. She really is starting to understand place value a lot more.

School is still going strong. I can't wait until after MDO ends in May though. At that point we really can focus more on school. I do not plan on returning next year to Mothers Day Out so that I can focus more on Matthew and Shelby's school work. Shelby asked me today when I will get to be with her everyday. She really enjoys sitting and learning about different things. On the days I do Mothers Day Out we do not have as much "class" time. Mainly she does work book pages or handwriting practice.

Staples are to hold the brain in

2010-01-13T16:42:00.000-06:00

I can't believe I forgot to post this educational experience.

Last Tuesday night Matthew was jumping around the house like he normally does. I swear they shaved him as a baby and handed him to me (he really is a monkey). He was trying to give Abigail a kiss goodnight and climbed on the arm chair by the fireplace. He slipped and hit his head right on the corner. I thought I had this fireplace blocked with Abigails play yard and the chair but Matthew still managed to get hurt.

Matthew passed out for about 2 minutes and was bleeding. I went to him and thought he was just stunned (like his breath got knocked out). I grabbed a towel for the blood and had Shelby get the phone. I dialed my parents to have them come over to watch Shelby and Abigail. By that time Matthew was awake and screaming. The blood freaked him out.

I carried him to the bathroom and we cleaned up his head and my hands. I finally saw that the wound was not that big but probably would need a staple or two. When my parents got there we got Matthew to walk (he was not wanting to up until then). My dad and I drove to the hospital and my mom stayed with the girls.

At the hospital they got him back pretty quickly. The doctor looked at him and said he would need a CAT scan and one staple. He came back and cleaned Matthew's wound with a "squirt gun" (what I called the syringe with water) and then quickly stapled the wound. Matthew just said "That Hurt" and had no tears. Then the guy took Matthew in a cool Wheelchair to the CAT scan. "Princess Sarah" took him and laid him in the "space ship" for his "ride" (again a story I told him to keep him calm). The results of the CAT scan came back quickly and all was clear. We then signed him out and got to go back in 5 days to remove the staple.

Matthew told Daddy when he got home that he had a staple in his head to hold in the brains. At least the staple had a good purpose.

Matthew LOVED the experience and bragged about his space ship ride and wheelchair.

What we learned ... head wounds bleed a LOT, the skull is the bone that holds the brain in, staples don't hurt coming out but do hurt going in, CAT scans are cool but cost a LOT of money, and most importantly ... NO MORE CLIMBING ON CHAIRS!

First week of January

2010-01-09T20:12:00.000-06:00

This week we started back to school after our Christmas Break.

Shelby got to start a new Explode the Code book and Handwriting without Tears.

We also started a Math Unit on Decimal Placement. We created Decimal Street with a "Units" house, "Tens" house and "Hundreds" house. We used our blocks and 10's sticks to understand what Place value is. Next week we will start with the Hundreds. Shelby really started to grasp the concept of Place Value. Before she would try to add the numbers together instead of seeing it as an individual number. Now she can show me with 10's sticks and units the number 38 (for example) and if I show her the number with blocks she can write the number 38 in an instant. We have finally broke through a wall she was having. Hopefully this will really help her with her addition and subtraction facts.

She also knows that there can only be 9 units before it turns into a "ten" and 9 "tens" before it turns into a hundred. WOO HOO. She did great on her test at the end of the week and was able to explain everything to me.

We also started back up our spelling words this week. As we work on them we review the rules that any of the words may be following. She got all of her spelling words correct and was even able to tell me that the words "but" & "and" are conjunctions. She also was able to explain to me that a conjunction connects two ideas.

We watched Linnea in Monet's Garden, Animal Planet video's "Growing up American Black Bear, Growing up Zebra, & Growing up Lion". We watched one Planet Earth video :Ice Worlds" as well.

We have started reading "The Borrowers" nightly.

10 years

2010-01-04T00:22:00.000-06:00

This post will not really be about school but about our family and the past 10 years.

In the past 10 years Mike and I have been through infertility, the loss of grandparents, the loss of great grandparents and the loss of a mother. We have survived my years of depression, years of unknown sickness and hospital visits. We have survived the loss of jobs, being jobless and losing a home.

We overcame infertility and have three children to show for it. 10 years ago I pictured myself giving birth HIGHLY medicated, yet gave birth without meds twice (recommend it highly). I would have never imagined myself homeschooling, yet that is what we now are doing.

I am very proud of who I am becoming and though I still struggle at times I am proud of the things I am doing today. I am very proud of Mike for working with the same company for 5 years (even though there are times he hates it) and doing what he needs to in order to provide for our family.

I look forward to the next 10 years and what it will bring to our lives. ... someone remind me I said this when we hit the hormonal teenage years.

Shelby map work

2009-12-21T01:52:00.001-06:00

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

2009-12-21T01:19:00.000-06:00

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

2009-12-21T01:08:00.000-06:00

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

2009-12-21T00:59:00.000-06:00

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!

2009-12-21T00:46:00.000-06:00

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

2009-12-21T00:37:00.000-06:00

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.

Matthew Performing Christmas concert

2009-12-17T22:57:00.001-06:00

Here is song 2 and 3! Enjoy!

Matthew performing at Christmas Concert MDO

2009-12-17T22:40:00.001-06:00

Matthew performing song one - 4 years old

Abigail performing at Christmas Concert

2009-12-17T22:33:00.001-06:00

Here is a Video of Abigail at her Christmas Concert. She is 18 months old here.

Abigail at Christmas Party

2009-12-17T21:53:00.001-06:00

This is Abigail at her Christmas Party- Just a quick clip of her listening to music.

Week 11 - The EYE

2009-11-07T20:51:00.000-06:00

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

2009-11-07T20:38:00.000-06:00

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.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-11-03T19:58:00.000-06:00

Wordless Wednesday (almost) post

Week 10 report

2009-10-29T23:15:00.000-05:00

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!

Keeping focused

2009-10-26T21:43:00.000-05:00

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???

2009-10-26T21:34:00.000-05:00

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)

Cursive Writing

2009-10-14T21:13:00.000-05:00

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.

We are BACK! Week 7

2009-10-05T20:51:00.000-05:00

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.

Weekly Report 5

2009-09-05T12:39:00.001-05:00

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
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.

Pioneer Farms

2009-09-04T22:42:00.001-05:00

This week we went to Pioneer Farms. The kids had a great time exploring this living History Museum. They got to see the early settlers houses, a Tonkowa Indian campground and a German homestead. They were amazed that 15 people lived in one tiny house.

Matthew LOVED looking at all the old vehicles and would ask me to take his picture with them. He also liked asking the "workers" questions. Some they could answer and some they just could not. We had lots of fun walking, exploring and learning about Texas History.

A few of our Favorite things

2009-08-31T13:52:00.001-05:00

Shelby was talking to me today about all of her favorite places to get stuff for school. I thought I would post them here.

1-Library- Almost free! We do not live in the city limits so it does cost us $40 a year but we get 45 books out at a time and during the summer 50 books due to Shelby getting an extra library card for being over 5. Next summer it should go up to 55 books since Matthew will turn 5. We go through a LOT of books, movies and CD's. Without the Library there is no way we could afford to homeschool.

2- Paperback swap! We love to put in our wish list workbooks, reference books and pretty much any book we can't get at the library. We have been averaging 2 books a week as far as what is granted. If you are not a part of Paperback swap click my link on the left and join today!

3.MamaCents Childrens Consignment Sale. Yes I have to brag about the sale I manage. I have gotten a LOT of our puzzles, games, books and even our microscope/science set at the MamaCents Sale. Shelby is already making a list of things she wants me to look for at this next one. It is a great perk to get to be in the first group of shoppers. If you live in the Austin Area you should definitely check out this sale. It is HUGE with so much to choose from.

4. The park .... yes apparently the park is a great place to spend the day and learn.

Weekly Report -4

2009-08-31T13:33:00.000-05:00

Better late than never ... right
This week was a busy week for me with all my jobs. I had meetings at the Palmer Event Center for MamaCents, a workday at church for Mothers Day Out and I had bookkeeping work to do ... plus keep up the house and homeschool. I will be glad when September is OVER.

Field Trips-
Monday we went to the Not Back to School Party
Friday- Shelby and I got some art supplies and went to the library. We now can get 45 books out at a time and we DID!

Living books -
From Head to Toe (mainly for Abigail)
Aesop's Fables
Could a Tyrannosaurus Play Table Tennis?
The Impressionists
What did you put in your pocket?
Mummies Made in Egypt (and watched reading Rainbow Video)
Bill and Pete go down the Nile
You can't see your bones with binoculars

Shelby read to me
I like Stars
Zip and Zoom
Run and Jump
First 1000 words - cast,cap, eggs, back, cut and chin
Did 4 lessons and one quiz on Reading Eggs online
Learn to Read in 100 Easy Lessons-Lessons 22-24

Matthew Read to me
1 Bob book
Learn to Read in 100 Easy Lessons Lesson 5
Reading Eggs online -Completed 1 quiz and 8 lessons

Explode the Code
Shelby book B pages 40-52
Phonic Card Game

Copywork-Memorization
Shelby- "I am Fearfully and wonderfully Made"

Handwriting without Tears
Shelby orange book pg 17-27

Journal work
Shelby- wrote a lot about tree's this week in her free writing and illustrated them
Matthew- practiced writing name, letters and numbers

Spelling-Shelby
short i words
test on both scored 6 out of 6

Math
Rightstart math lessons 14 odds and evens
Kumon Addition book lesson 11 and 12 writing numbers 1 to 100 - Shelby
Singapore Kinder book b- Shelby lesson 18 pgs 18 to 24 tens and one
Both helped me bake a cake. Shelby read what was needed and they both measured and mixed it together.

Math Centers
Dot to Dot book- Matthew numbers 1 to 20
Dot to Dot book - Shelby 1 to 40
Sticker Math-Shelby pg 16-22 odds and evens
Cuisenaire rods with cards
Games- domino war, bingo and RS math card games

History (mainly Shelby except for readings and activities)
Story of the World Lesson 2

Science (both)
Living books and reference books
went over Skeleton- we will cover this over three weeks
Games- Skeleton puzzle, Apron Organ game, Built machines with Lego's

Music
Only in Grace Harbor

Art
Impressionist - Read book and viewed artwork
Created our own painting based on Van Gogh's Starry Night

Shelby-
Also got Character Building, Spanish (working on letters), Music (hymns), Art (cutting and writing), Public Speaking (introducing yourself) and PE (endurance and running) at Grace Harbor

Abigail-
Is currently working on her colors.

How He Loves Us - Kim Walker / Jesus Culture

2009-08-26T14:48:00.001-05:00

This song was shared by a friend on Facebook. The kids and I have NOT stopped singing it since. Even baby Abigail is singing with us. GOD is good. HE LOVES US, SHARE IT WITH ALL ....

My Kindergarten girl

2009-08-26T10:21:00.000-05:00

My baby girl started her first day of school today at Grace Harbor Learning. Grace Harbor is a Christian one day a week program where she will get Spanish, Public Speaking, Character Building, Music, PE and Art. She was SO excited to go and was ready for me to just leave. There are 10 kids in her class, 4 girls and 6 boys.

Shelby with her homeroom/PE teacher Mrs. Turner

Not back to School party

2009-08-25T21:28:00.000-05:00

On Monday we went with a friend to a Not Back to School Party at one of the City pools. This party was for homeschool kids. Public school went back to school on Monday in Austin so we had the pool to ourselves (and the other homeschool kids). Shelby and Matthew really enjoyed seeing how many other kids homeschool too. We have another big group Homeschool trip planed next Friday and the kids can't wait.

They also took a group photo of all the kids that came. I put a few that I took up.

Sitting for the group picture

My little fish Matthew. He needs Swim lessons. I think he would do great.

Shelby with her vest. She still refuses to put her head under the water. Two times at lessons and two times wasted money.

Enjoying the water

Abigail showing us what she can do.

Two Hands!

Weekly Report -3

2009-08-21T20:19:00.000-05:00

This week we did better at staying on target. We had a great week filled with lots of fun activities and wonderful books.

Living books -
I know how my cells make me Grow
The Amazing Human Body
My Amazing Body
The Philharmonic gets Dressed
Lentil
Seeker of knowledge
First Painter
Aesop's Fables
Archaeologists dig for clues
Max's Math machine
Little Grunt and the Big Egg Prehistoric Fairytale
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom -plus they watched a movie with this on it
The Impressionists
An Expedition on this Spot back through time

Shelby read to me
2 stories out of her Early Reader book
First 1000 words - ax, jars, bus, net, fish, ship, shell, crab, pin and map
Did 4 lessons on Reading Eggs online
Learn to Read in 100 Easy Lessons-Lessons 16-21

Matthew Read to me
1 Bob book
Learn to Read in 100 Easy Lessons Lessons 1-4
Reading Eggs online -Completed 1 quiz and 12 lessons (He LOVES this online program and does not even know he is doing schoolwork)

Explode the Code
Matthew book A pages 23-36
Shelby book B pages 29-40
Phonic Card Game

Copywork-Memorization
Matthew- Complete name
Shelby- Complete name (still working on last name spelling) and phone number

Handwriting without Tears
Matthew green book - pg 44-53
Shelby orange book pg 7-17

Journal work
Shelby- wrote at least two sentences a day and illustrated them
Matthew- practiced writing name, letters and numbers

Spelling-Shelby
short e words and review of short a words
test on both scored 22 out of 24

Math
Rightstart math lessons 12 and 13 (both)
Kumon Addition book lesson 7, 8 and 9 writing numbers 1 to 100 - Shelby
Kumon Addition book Lesson 7 writing numbers 1 to 60- Matthew
Singapore Kinder book b- Shelby lesson 17 pgs 1 to 18
Singapore Kinder book b - Matthew lesson 17 pages 1 to 9

Math Centers
Dot to Dot book- Matthew numbers 1 to 20
Dot to Dot book - Shelby 1 to 40
Sticker Math-Shelby pg 10-16
Cuisenaire rods with cards
Games- domino war, bingo and RS math card games

History (mainly Shelby except for readings and activities)
Story of the World Ancients Intro and Lesson 1
Lots of living books (see above) and reference books
Completed an archaeological dig with map of findings and discussion of the people who would have lived there.
Made a Cave Drawing
Mapwork- Fertile Crescent, city of Jericho
"Shaduf" discussion and color page
Map-Floor plans
Completed Family book as project

Science (both)
Cells and My body
Living books and reference books
Experiment- skin cells
Experiment- Why do our fingers have ridges?
Started body book and filled in vital organs
Games- Skeleton puzzle, Apron Organ game, Built machines with Lego's

Music
Conductor
Carnival of Animals
Philharmonic Orchestra- discussion
Played with instruments to keep a beat

Art
Impressionist - Read book and viewed artwork
Created our own painting

Bible
Focused on lying this week and what a lie is.
The Serphants Lie (The First Home) Genises 2:8 to 3:24
Aesops Fable- Boy who cried wolf- Colored picture

Field Trips
Bowling - Both with friends from church
Library- Both
Open house for Grace Harbor Learning - Shelby
She met her teachers and has her first class next Wed. She is very excited to take Art, PE, Music, Spanish, Public Speaking and Character Building at this school. There will be 9 children in her class. This is just a one day a week program but I think she really is going to get a lot out of it.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-08-19T21:52:00.000-05:00

Bowling is PE right?

2009-08-17T17:34:00.001-05:00

Today we went bowling with some other families at church. This will count toward our PE for the week. We love homeschooling!

Here are some photos plus a few of them doing some school work today after we got back. The kids were excited to find their free lego packet in the mail. They started right away at the assignment of making a duck.

I "think" I have my lesson plan down better than before. I have a two page notebook. One page is for Matthew and the other is for Shelby. I have a column for subjects and each day of the week. Then I have a row for any appointments/activites and a row for each subject. It is so much easier to just glance and see who is doing what during each subject block. Matthew usually only does 2 short assignments per block and then has free time and Shelby has more. Today went a LOT faster than our lessons did the past two weeks and I think the planning has helped.

Weekly Report 2

2009-08-15T22:24:00.001-05:00

This week was a little harder on me. My grandma had her upper lobe removed in a lung(to remove cancer)so Monday was out for School. I had a headache almost all week and ended up resting most of Wed.

We did not get everything I had planned finished but we have extra weeks in our school year planned so I am sure we will get caught up.

Matthew also had a harder time and did not want to do school this week.

Books I read to the kids
Aesop's Fables
How my Cells Grow
My Amazing Body
Tubby the Tuba
First Painter
The Egyptian Cinderella

Shelby read to me
Dot and the Dog
A Hat for Hamm
Woody Drops
First 1000 words Usborne book When Shelby can read the word with no help she gets to put the sticker on the page. words this week (rug, bed, cups, bee, seeds, grass, tree and nuts)

Learn to Read in 100 Easy Lessons Shelby
Lesson 13, 14 and 15

Explode the Code (book B)Shelby
PG 1-28

Handwriting without Tears Shelby
Number pages and review of book Starts orange book this week

Copy work -Shelby
Worked on whole name First, Middle and last

Memorization -Shelby
Name, Phone number and address

Spelling -Shelby
Short e words scored 100% on test

Math -Shelby
Dot to Dot book page 1-3 numbers 1-50
Sticker Math Fun pg 2-9 Counting, patterns and counting by 10's
Kumon Addition book pg 8-13 Writing numbers 1 to 30

Music -Both
Orchestra instruments
Tubby the Tuba

History -Both
First Painter discuss cave drawings in ancient times
Egyptian Cinderella Discuss Rhodopis and how she was a real person
Aesop's Fables

Maps -Shelby
Floor Plan- Reading and understanding floor plans at events, on tickets and for escape routes.

Science - Both
How my cells Grow - What a cell is, how they split and make more, how many are in our body, when certain one's stop making new cells, etc. Drew Skin cells and Muscle cells
Worksheet- What I look like
Worksheet- Human Organs - identify and discuss stomach, brain, heart and lungs
My Amazing Body- What our bodies need to stay healthy
Played Apron Organ game- placed organs on the right spot of our apron.
Played Bone bingo

Field Trip -Shelby
Shelby and I got up at 3:00 am one morning and took our pillows and blankets outside. We laid down and watched the Meteor shower. We talked all about space, planets, stars (SUN) and moons.

Short e words

2009-08-11T21:42:00.000-05:00

This week our spelling list is made out of short e words.

Shelby did a great job reading them herself and dictating them to me so that I could write them on our blackboard.

They are as follows
let
jet
net
met
set
pet
get
men
pen
bed
yes
leg

We will be trying out a new spelling program online this week and next. I will give a review as soon as we have completed a couple of weeks!

Our Library adventure

2009-08-11T21:36:00.000-05:00

On Sunday we all went to the library to pick up our books for the next few weeks of school. Right now we have a 20 book max and I can't WAIT until the 24th when we can start getting 45. Going to the library with three kids is an ADVENTURE. I was trying to show Shelby how to find the books on our list by call number. Mike had Matthew and Abigail and was getting the CD's and movies on my list.

When we were about ready to leave I had to go grab one more classical music CD and took Matthew and Shelby with me. There was an older woman sitting in a chair at the end of the shelf. I asked the kids to stay at the end while I grabbed what I needed (to prevent hands from taking everything off the shelves).

Well what do I see out of the corner of my eye but Matthew dropping his pants and shaking his rear end at the poor older lady. I was MORTIFIED! I could not say MATTHEW JAMES GET OVER HERE NOW fast enough. He thought it was the funniest thing in the world. The older lady got up and went somewhere else. We quickly checked out our books and headed to the car. Needless to say we will be working on modesty even more this week.

Weekly Report - Week 1

2009-08-09T02:25:00.000-05:00

Here is our first Weekly Report

In our slide show you will find some of the books we read, games we played and some extra photo's of our anatomy games I never posted.

Read Out Loud (done by mommy) Both
Going to School
Off to Kindergarten
The Story of Ping
Peter and the Wolf
Mummies in the Morning
Zin, Zin, Zin a Violin
David and Goliath Out of our Bible Story Book
Bible Ephesians 6

Shelby reads
Ed Can Help (Ready Readers)
Teach your child to read in 100 Lessons Lessons 8-12
Phonic flashcards
Phonics Blends book page 4 and 5 "sc" and "sl"
Phonic blend game

Handwriting -Shelby
Completed Get Set for School
Copywork- Children, Obey your parents the Way the Lord wants. This is the right thing to do. Ephesians 6:1
Copywork-Love birds like to be in pairs
Journal Free write 3 days

Handwriting- Matthew
Get Set for School Handwriting without Tears- PG 34-44

Phonics -Shelby
Before the code Book A completed,
Before the code Book B through pg 1-14
Phonic blends "sl" and "sc"
games

Phonics -Matthew
Before the Code Book A -Letter "B" pages

Spelling -Shelby
Review "a" words - scored 100 on Test

Science -Both
Introduction to the body
games/puzzles

History -Both
The Story of the World Ancients Introduction about history

Timeline -Both
1120BC David defeats Goliath
April 15, 2003 Shelby Schmidt is born
June 4, 2005 Matthew Schmidt is born
April 7, 2008 Abigail Schmidt is born
1497-1543 Hans Holbein the Younger

Map work -
Where is China, capital, river (both)
What is a Floor Plan Worksheet (Shelby)

Right Start Math -Both
Lesson 9
Lesson 10
Lesson 11
card games and board games

Kumon Workbook Addition -Shelby
Lesson 1 Writing numbers 1-6
Lesson 2 Writing numbers 5-10
Lesson 3 Writing numbers 1-10

Art-Both
Come see with me- Hans Holbein the Younger- Portrait with water colors

Drawing water with pencil's

Music -Both
Peter and the Wolf - Orchesta introduction

PE -Both
Lots of outside play and swimming every day

Bible -Shelby
Discussed and worked on Obeying God, Parents and others
Memorized Ephesians 6:1
David and Goliath

Project -Shelby
Completed Story of Ping Lapbook and gave oral report

The Story of Ping Lapbook

2009-08-07T16:31:00.000-05:00

Today Shelby presented her report to Daddy. Here are some photo's of her lapbook and her explaining everything. I have a 10 minute video also but I won't subject you all to it.

We also received two books today that I have been wanting for awhile. I did not realize how incredible they are until I received them today though. They are a MUST for any school age child (in homeschool, public or private).

They are the Usborne Interenet linked Encyclopedia of History and the Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia of Science. I have added these to my "Learn through Play" widget on the side. The kids LOVE these books. They both grabbed one and sat down to start looking. They spent probably 30 minutes discussing them. They are so colorful and easy to understand. We got the paperbacks and they are perfect size for the kids to look at themself. What is cool about these books is that they have additional information online. These both will be a great addition to our History and Science curriculums. I can't wait to start incorporating them into our lessons next week.

THE WOLF

2009-08-06T22:39:00.001-05:00

See Matthew's Reaction to the "WOLF"

Drums

2009-08-06T22:33:00.001-05:00

Kids playing the drums to "Peter and the Wolf". Abigail does not understand why there is not any singing. So she added her own

Thursday Schedule

2009-08-06T22:07:00.000-05:00

Thursday Schedule- Shelby (what it will be when MDO starts)

Science - Magic School Bus

Explode the Code

Handwriting without Tears

Copywork- Bible VS

Music

Math Worksheet

Click n Kids

Journal and Reading practice

Matthew will go to Mothers Day Out

Today Shelby and Matthew did a Math Lesson together

So I ask them to make a rectangle and smarty pants Shelby does a Square. Yes, it is a rectangle.

Shelby then did her Click n Kids, Handwriting without Tears and Explode the Code. She did such a good job listening today and got stickers on her Obey chart! She ended up with an ice cream cone after dinner for a reward.

We all sat down and did some Music study together.

Our next Lap Book is going to be about the Orchestra. We are listening to "Peter and the Wolf" (have the book we used in our learn through play section to the left) and reading the book to learn about the different instruments. The kids all sat down tonight and listened. They LOVED it.

Shelby being Peter (Strings) and Matthew being the Grandfather (bassoon)

Abigail being the hunters by hitting herself (the drums)

Shelby and Matthew being the hunters as well!

More Hunting!

Ahhh THE WOLF

We also finished our Magic Tree House book "Mummies". Matthew requested that our book next week be a Magic Tree House book about Dinosaurs. Ummmm I don't have that one babe.

Wed Schedule - REAL Beauty Shop time

2009-08-05T22:28:00.000-05:00

One photo of Abigail playing with the headband

Today we had a laid back day. Normally on Wednesday Shelby will be attending Grace Harbor Learning for her Extra Curricular classes.

Her schedule will be (not in any particular order)

School from 8:45 until 2:30

Homeroom

Art

Music

Lunch

Spanish

Public Speaking

So all we did today is do one copy work exercise (bible verse) and one 15 minute reading lesson.

Shelby then sat down and put together her "Story of Ping" lap book. We finally have everything she wanted to put into it completed (except I need to get some photo's of her at the Duck pond printed). So I put together the blank folder pieces for her (so she would have a book) and she put everything together. It has turned out pretty good for her first lap book.

She will do an oral presentation to daddy on Friday. She was VERY proud of her work and has retained pretty much everything we learned over the summer while studying the "Story of Ping". She even did answered some reading comprehension questions orally yesterday and knew the answers to most without needing to read the story again. I am a believer in the "Five in a Row" way of learning. All of the hands on projects has really helped.

Matthew was not feeling well today and played a few board games. I hope it is just a summer cold or allergies.

We also went to Nana's tonight to see if she could fix both of the kids hair. We decided to just comb over the longer hair on him and use gel to cover the hole. Once it gets a little longer we can cut it shorter. I really just don't want to shave him bald and that is how short it is in that one spot.

See no bald spot (it is hiding)

Now Shelby is a different story. Her hair was so butchered in the front and underneath on the right hand side that it had to go short. My mom ended up layering it too because Shelby has really thick and wavy hair. It just looked too heavy without the layers. I think it turned out cute. She will probably wear a headband until her bangs grow out a little bit. What is bad is my mom did not really touch her bangs at all except to even out the longer pieces. Hopefully now Shelby will not play beauty shop with her brother anymore. Matthew told her she looked beautiful though and that daddy would love it. Shelby is not too sure what she thinks. She is a girly girl and likes her hair long.

Back from with her head turned to the side. It is cut at a angle with the back longer. She also has wave in her hair.

Front when wearing a headband

No headband

She looks so grown up to me

Tuesday Schedule

2009-08-04T21:47:00.000-05:00

Shelby will be doing independent work on Tuesdays and Thursdays once I start at Mothers Day Out and also taking Theater. PLEASE remember to ignore the kids hair. I have not had a chance to attempt to get it fixed since they played beauty shop. Hopefully tomorrow it will be somewhat better.

Shelby's schedule at that time will be much shorter on these days and probably only take about 2 hours total to do all the work (other than theater class)

Science- Magic School Bus
Breakfast-
Handwriting without Tears
Explode the code
Spelling practice sheets
Outside/snack time
Math worksheet
Map work
Art lesson

She will work on her journal, phonics and free reading on the way to Theater, during Matthew's class time and then on the way home. It just gives her something to do.
Bound for Broadway (90 minute theater class)

Today we actually pulled out some vocabulary and grammar when we had the opportunity.

Matthew will just do
Mothers day Out
Imagine that Theater
Explode the code (during Shelby's theater)
Handwriting without tears (during Shelby's theater)
Read out loud Story of the week (I read to them)
Bible- bedtime

Playing Buggy Bingo while waiting on Lunch

Two of the assignments she completed today- One was floor plans for her Map work and the other was quadrilaterals in math. OH and yes there are 5 rectangles not 4 on this page. A Square is a rectangle .... Shelby had to correct this later.

Matthew and Shelby's "MASTERPIECE" Art. This is what Matthew told me when he was done. He asked me if I loved his masterpiece. He was instructed to do a portrait of someone but got distracted. Shelby's is a very abstract portrait.

Abigail wanted to get in on the fun. I could not keep her fingers out of the paint

Shelby wanted me to take a picture of her bulletin board. This is our work so far this week. Phonic blends "sl" and "sc", date written out and in number form, perpendicular lines and planes, parallel lines and planes (review), quadrilaterals, triangle, and our vocab word we learned today was "cavort". "Cavort" was actually in a going to Kindergarten easy read book so we looked it up and wrote it in our "C" vocabulary page as an unknown word.

Working hard to study the portrait.

Matthew practicing letter formation in flour with finger.

Practicing letter formation with clay.

Today was a LONG day for me. Shelby just did NOT want to write anything. I had copy work assigned today and she just dawdled. She LOVES drawing, math, science, maps, history and her five in a row story books with lap books. I just need to figure out how to get her interested in writing and reading.

Monday Schedule

2009-08-03T22:47:00.001-05:00

Today we officially started the school year.

Here is the Monday Schedule for Shelby about 3-4 hours worth of work. Mondays and Fridays are her long days once she starts school on Wed's and I start working at Mothers Day Out in September. We are trying to get her used to this now.

Science - Magic School bus video and discuss plus science game if time
Breakfast
Circle time - Phonic games, calendar, days of week, months of the year etc
Story of the week - A living book to support our Science or History for the week or a Five in a Row book.
Handwriting without Tears
Explode the Code
Spelling
Outside/snack time
Math - Right start Math, math games and workbook (right now Kumon but will change to Singapore soon)
History- Story of the World Ancients
Lunch
Project- Each week we will use this time to work on subject projects. Right now we are doing a literature one and starting our Timeline
Bible - Obey this week!!
Journal
Free Read

Shelby did pretty well overall. She started getting restless at the end of the day BUT we did not start until 1:00 today due to a meeting I had this morning. This will not normally be the case.

Matthews Monday Schedule (he usually only spends 15 minutes at MOST on any subject) If he is not interested I set him up with puzzles, blocks, Gear toys, etc
Science - with Shelby
Breakfast
Circle Time- with Shelby
Story of the week- with Shelby
Handwriting without Tears
Explode the Code
Free play
Outside/snack
Math- Right start Math (with Shelby) does not do workbook work
History- listens to story with Shelby
Lunch
Project- Helps if interested in parts of projects
Bible-listens to story with Shelby and answers questions out loud
Play

Matthew did well at the beginning and then fizzled off during History. Our Story this week is a History story and he DID listen to that. He did nothing with the Project today. Overall I think he did well though. I was impressed with how much he DID do for his age.

Abigail .... ran around playing with the kitchen, coloring, playing with the Ark and LOVED every minute of it