Sorry that it has been so long since my last post. My Great Grandma did pass this past week and we had her funeral pretty quick. I am hoping to finish last weeks lessons this week starting tomorrow.
The kids did have a great time at Champs Camp. Daddy took them on Thursday while I was out of town and they could not wait to tell me about it.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Monday, June 8, 2009
Spelling Program
Shelby is working on her second spelling list this week, reading and phonics. Our spelling curriculum is a combination of 2 free spines I found online. One is Spell for Writing and the other is Spelling Conections. These programs go up to year 8! Right now we are working on short A sounds.
Our list this week is a combination of two lists.
bad
had
mad
sad
dad
and
am
has
an
man
ran
can
Each day we have an assigned spelling activity. Day one is read the words off the black board. Trace the words and write them by herself.
Day two is read the words off the blackboard and complete a crossword puzzle (I make these online at http://www.edhelper.com/crossword_free.htm).
Day three is create the words with our leapfrog word maker and do unscramble word puzzles.
Day four is create a story with our spelling words and draw a picture.
Day five is spelling test.
We also see how many of these words we can find in our books we read each day. We keep score and use these as "bonus" points.
Here are links to one of these programs you are interested in looking at it.
http://www.zaner-bloser.com/spellingconnections/practice-pages.html
Our list this week is a combination of two lists.
bad
had
mad
sad
dad
and
am
has
an
man
ran
can
Each day we have an assigned spelling activity. Day one is read the words off the black board. Trace the words and write them by herself.
Day two is read the words off the blackboard and complete a crossword puzzle (I make these online at http://www.edhelper.com/crossword_free.htm).
Day three is create the words with our leapfrog word maker and do unscramble word puzzles.
Day four is create a story with our spelling words and draw a picture.
Day five is spelling test.
We also see how many of these words we can find in our books we read each day. We keep score and use these as "bonus" points.
Here are links to one of these programs you are interested in looking at it.
http://www.zaner-bloser.com/spellingconnections/practice-pages.html
Champs Camp Day 1
Today was day one of Champs Camp. The kids spent time in little Champs while I was with my 5th grade group. They get to play in the water and enjoyed making it muddy. Here are a couple of pics I snapped during a break. Matthew is with his two girls ... Makenzie and Haylee.
They also talked about the "Prodigal Son" and apparently pigs and mud. It sounds like they had a great day.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
First Spelling Test
Today I gave Shelby her first Spelling test today and she made 100% . She got all 9 words correct and that includes the bonus words (mama does not give extra credit though).
She was so excited about her test and how well she did!
We were going to go to the lake today and come back tomorrow so that we can go to champs camp on Tuesday. However with Nanny being in the hospital and my mom being with her we decided to cancel. So we now are going to get to be at Champs Camp all week. The kids are very excited. We will not be doing much class time and will be focusing on our Bible this week.
Today we also started a new online Phonics and reading program called Reading Eggs.
http://readingeggs.com/
My impression is that the kids really enjoyed this program. They sat down and did three lessons each. I had to make them get OFF the computer and stop learning. Lesson three actually starts with reading the words "I" and "am". Matthew struggled a little with this level and hated doing the repetition on some of the games but it may have been that he had been sitting there for so long by that time.
We already were working with Click n Kids and through the homeschool coop and the kids have not been too impressed. Matthew in fact hates doing it. I think we will continue with the two week free trial with Reading Eggs and then try Click n Kids again. We have a lifetime membership to Click N Kids so I really would like the kids to continue with that program.
I like having the option of an online program for the kids to work on while I am doing individul reading work with each of them. I will post at the end of the trial with how well they did.
She was so excited about her test and how well she did!
We were going to go to the lake today and come back tomorrow so that we can go to champs camp on Tuesday. However with Nanny being in the hospital and my mom being with her we decided to cancel. So we now are going to get to be at Champs Camp all week. The kids are very excited. We will not be doing much class time and will be focusing on our Bible this week.
Today we also started a new online Phonics and reading program called Reading Eggs.
http://readingeggs.com/
My impression is that the kids really enjoyed this program. They sat down and did three lessons each. I had to make them get OFF the computer and stop learning. Lesson three actually starts with reading the words "I" and "am". Matthew struggled a little with this level and hated doing the repetition on some of the games but it may have been that he had been sitting there for so long by that time.
We already were working with Click n Kids and through the homeschool coop and the kids have not been too impressed. Matthew in fact hates doing it. I think we will continue with the two week free trial with Reading Eggs and then try Click n Kids again. We have a lifetime membership to Click N Kids so I really would like the kids to continue with that program.
I like having the option of an online program for the kids to work on while I am doing individul reading work with each of them. I will post at the end of the trial with how well they did.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Great Summer Reading Programs - Free stuff
I have found several Summer Reading programs around town that are offering free stuff to those that participate.
One is Half Price Books - Feed Your Brain Program
http://www.halfpricebooks.com/index.html
Read 15 minutes a day for 5 days in one week and receive a $3.00 gift card. You can complete this every week from June 1st to July 31st. This is for ages 12 and under. Both Matthew and Shelby are participating in this. It has motivated both of them to sit down and read each day.
They can't wait to go shopping for their own books.
Barnes and Noble- Summer reading program
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/summerreading/
Have your child read 8 books this summer and print off the reading journal. Print it off and take it into the store to trade it in for one of the books you can get for free in your age bracket.
This is for schoolage children from 1st grade to 6th grade. Shelby is reading for a Fancy Nancy book!
Borders Summer Reading program
http://media.bordersstores.com/pdf/summer_kidschallenge.pdf
If you are 12 and under, read any 8 books, complete the challenge paper and bring into the store. You can get any of the items on the list for $4.99 (a savings of 50% off or more).
The Scholastic Summer Challenge.
http://www.scholastic.com/summerreading/
The Scholastic Summer Challenge. This year Scholastic is hoping your kids can set a world record for the number of minutes spent reading during the summer. Kid team up with other kids from their local school to help their school set the summer reading record. The top 20 schools will be featured in the 2010 Scholastic Book of World Records! There are also plenty of drawings for prizes, such as books and SmartyCards.
Chuck E. Cheese
http://chuckecheese.com/promotions/rewards-calendars.php
Chuck E. Cheese has reward calendars year round for different things. You can use them for chores, reading etc.
You can never forget the local library. Ours is having another Summer Reading program for all ages.
One is Half Price Books - Feed Your Brain Program
http://www.halfpricebooks.com/index.html
Read 15 minutes a day for 5 days in one week and receive a $3.00 gift card. You can complete this every week from June 1st to July 31st. This is for ages 12 and under. Both Matthew and Shelby are participating in this. It has motivated both of them to sit down and read each day.
They can't wait to go shopping for their own books.
Barnes and Noble- Summer reading program
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/summerreading/
Have your child read 8 books this summer and print off the reading journal. Print it off and take it into the store to trade it in for one of the books you can get for free in your age bracket.
This is for schoolage children from 1st grade to 6th grade. Shelby is reading for a Fancy Nancy book!
Borders Summer Reading program
http://media.bordersstores.com/pdf/summer_kidschallenge.pdf
If you are 12 and under, read any 8 books, complete the challenge paper and bring into the store. You can get any of the items on the list for $4.99 (a savings of 50% off or more).
The Scholastic Summer Challenge.
http://www.scholastic.com/summerreading/
The Scholastic Summer Challenge. This year Scholastic is hoping your kids can set a world record for the number of minutes spent reading during the summer. Kid team up with other kids from their local school to help their school set the summer reading record. The top 20 schools will be featured in the 2010 Scholastic Book of World Records! There are also plenty of drawings for prizes, such as books and SmartyCards.
Chuck E. Cheese
http://chuckecheese.com/promotions/rewards-calendars.php
Chuck E. Cheese has reward calendars year round for different things. You can use them for chores, reading etc.
You can never forget the local library. Ours is having another Summer Reading program for all ages.
Creative writing
Today I went out of town to go see my 100 year old great grandma who is in the hospital after a heart attack. She is doing well and should be home by Monday (still lives on her own).
I left phonics, spelling and writing work with Shelby to complete with the substitute teacher (her daddy). LOL One of her assignments was to write a three sentence story using her spelling words this week (at, hat, cat, sat, pat, bat, rat ... etc). She has a hard time creating stories herself so this was a hard project for her. With some guidance from daddy she came up with a story and wrote ...
"A rat wor A hat. I Se cat Rat cat sig"
Translated to be
"A rat wore a hat. I see a cat. The rat and the cat sing."
With mommy she usually will attempt each word in the sentence but apparently had lost all patience by the time her last sentence came around. I still think for her first little story she did pretty well.
The point of the exercise is
a) to spell her "at" words correctly
b) to be creative
c) to practice sentence writing (punctuation, capitalize when needed etc)
I left phonics, spelling and writing work with Shelby to complete with the substitute teacher (her daddy). LOL One of her assignments was to write a three sentence story using her spelling words this week (at, hat, cat, sat, pat, bat, rat ... etc). She has a hard time creating stories herself so this was a hard project for her. With some guidance from daddy she came up with a story and wrote ...
"A rat wor A hat. I Se cat Rat cat sig"
Translated to be
"A rat wore a hat. I see a cat. The rat and the cat sing."
With mommy she usually will attempt each word in the sentence but apparently had lost all patience by the time her last sentence came around. I still think for her first little story she did pretty well.
The point of the exercise is
a) to spell her "at" words correctly
b) to be creative
c) to practice sentence writing (punctuation, capitalize when needed etc)
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Can you identify these ducks?
Matthew and Shelby can! They had a great time taking pictures of all the ducks at the park (well most of the pics). We plan on adding a little photo book to our Story of Ping lapbook. It will have each of these ducks identified in it.
This duck would eat right out of Shelby's hand and she let it.
This duck would eat right out of Shelby's hand and she let it.
Happy Birthday Matthew!
Today is Matthew's 4th birthday. I can't believe he is 4 years old. Where did my baby go? He decided he wanted to spend the day going to Gattiland, the bookstore and then the park to feed ducks. So that is what we did.
Exploring
Roller coaster ride
Air hockey- Matthew won!
Exploring
Roller coaster ride
Air hockey- Matthew won!Buoyancy and Chinese New Year
Today we learned about positive and negative buoyancy. In the Story of Ping, the boy floated in the water from being tied to a barell. The kids found this interesting. So off we went to do our own experiment.
First they talked about all the objects and predicted the outcome of each. Then they took turns testing each item and talked about their findings and why they were right or wrong with their predictions. Matthew was pretty good at predicting what would happen. The block threw them both off though.
After our experiment Shelby thought it would be a great idea to recycle the water and use it to water our garden. YES!!! So they took the water and watered the plants. They also had collected some water in their cans since it rained last night and used that water as well. I love that they are recognizing "green" opportunities on their own. They are much better at it than I am.
Shelby writing the findings next to the predictions.
Matthew testing the rubber band.
We then continued with our study of China and created Dancing Dragons (that they had me hang from the ceiling). These dragons are used to celebrate Chinese New Year.
Creating their Chinese Dancing Dragons
Shelby's
Matthew's
If time allows we will wrap up our Story of Ping unit tomorrow and create our lap book on Friday. I hope we can wrap up China on Friday so that we can move on to Japan after our week off next week. The kids can't wait for Champs Camp!
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Today we continued our study on Asia. We learned about houseboats on the Yangsee river and decided they must have had chinese lanterns to see at night. So we created a couple and hung them in our playroom. Matthew ran to turn off the lights to see if they would actually "light up". Since they did not have "light" in them he told me to buy glow sticks and hang them in each of them. So my job this week is to go get some glow sticks so that we can see our Lanterns working. Here are two of the resources we are using along with our Continent Unit (you can see them on the table in my picture).
Seven Continents: Jigsaw Book (Board book)by Jennifer Mappin
See' N Say Kids around the World double sided Learning Map by Fisher Price
Shelby has loved exploring these interactive maps. Matthew had a blast with the Music of Russia, China, Japan and India today. They love to just sit and listen to words, answer questions and learn facts.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Shelby learned about parallel lines and planes today. She cracked me up when she was playing with Abigail. She calls me into the playroom to show me that she had created parallel lines with the animals. Then she showed me what "non parallel" was . I am sure at some point these lines will intersect but at least she got the general idea!
Monday, June 1, 2009
Welcome to my Homeschooling blog
So I am new to this blogging thing but felt the need to start one about our homeschooling adventure. I get lots of questions from people what do we do each day.
Well I believe in schooling year round so for June we are continueing these curriculum's
Matthew and Shelby (different places)
Writing without Tears (handwriting)
Explode the Code A (phonics)
Click to Read (online)
Shelby-
Journalling one sentence a day (at least 4 words with proper capitalization and punctuation).
Spelling
Right Start Math
MUS Math
Five in a Row (Story of Ping this week)
History, Science and Geography are my own mixture for her level. Matthew does sit in on some of this as his attention is not as long.
We are doing a map study and learning about continents, oceans and compass rose. By the end of the study we will have a lapbook for every continent. Right now we are on Asia and are studying China and Japan. We are learning about some basic history, flags, inventors and inventions (science experements thrown in here). We also are learning about the animals, writing and language. We have lots of fun crafts planned out and should have a brightly decorated schoolroom at the end of the month.
Today Shelby did an Asia map puzzle - learned about the quantity of 8 (both addition to get there and subtraction from there) and worked on her "k's, p's and w's". She has a spelling list this week of "at" words and did copy work in order to learn how to write them properly. At the end of the week she should have 8 new words to her vocab and know how to read and write them properly. She had a blast working on her puzzle and reading the story of "Ping" the duck.
Well I believe in schooling year round so for June we are continueing these curriculum's
Matthew and Shelby (different places)
Writing without Tears (handwriting)
Explode the Code A (phonics)
Click to Read (online)
Shelby-
Journalling one sentence a day (at least 4 words with proper capitalization and punctuation).
Spelling
Right Start Math
MUS Math
Five in a Row (Story of Ping this week)
History, Science and Geography are my own mixture for her level. Matthew does sit in on some of this as his attention is not as long.
We are doing a map study and learning about continents, oceans and compass rose. By the end of the study we will have a lapbook for every continent. Right now we are on Asia and are studying China and Japan. We are learning about some basic history, flags, inventors and inventions (science experements thrown in here). We also are learning about the animals, writing and language. We have lots of fun crafts planned out and should have a brightly decorated schoolroom at the end of the month.
Today Shelby did an Asia map puzzle - learned about the quantity of 8 (both addition to get there and subtraction from there) and worked on her "k's, p's and w's". She has a spelling list this week of "at" words and did copy work in order to learn how to write them properly. At the end of the week she should have 8 new words to her vocab and know how to read and write them properly. She had a blast working on her puzzle and reading the story of "Ping" the duck.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)