Weird Science Night

One of the things I love about being part of a home school co-op is having the opportunity to do 'group' learning activities that we might not be able to do at home with only 3 students. In the co-op setting we can practice persentations, public speaking, team sports, and other activities. But just last month we were able to participate in a "Weird Science Night" at our co-op!  Each kid got to choose a scientist to learn about, dress up as, and do an experiment or research project about.

Of course, Jefferson choose to do something Myth*busters related!  He has been obsessively watching that show on net*flix every chance he gets. I love how it stretches his imagination as to what he can figure out if he wants to set his mind to it - those guys never give up on a hypothesis! It always amazes me how my kids can be so self motivated IF they are interested in their subject matter. For his science project, Jefferson basically took a MB kit (he got for his bday in Sept) and ran through the experiments (all related to AIR PRESSURE) himself. Then he used his mad glog*ster skills (taught to him by his wonderful Mrs. Third Grade Teacher a few years back) and started slapping out his "lab write-up" pages on MB designed pages (that HE put together - glog*ster is kinda like an online scrapbooking or blogging arena). He poured every minute of his school day into it for 4 days while I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to get display boards, display board decor, help the 3rd & kindergartener with their projects, and cater to Jefferson's demandingness (he hasn't quite adjusted yet to NOT being the only child - sheesh!).

I was really thrilled with his effort, his hard work, and his end product! He dressed up like Adam Savage to show it off at Weird Science Night (and I'm happy to say that although he's growing like a weed - I still had to draw his beard onto his face - lol!).

Reagan (3rd gr) took a different approach to her science project, choosing to build on the science that we were already studying this year. Since we have been focusing on ornithology for weeks, she choose to dress up as John James Audubon, a famous naturalist and artist known for his work with American birds. [We later visited his early American home in PA] She added her journaling pages to her display and added different 'habitat' scenes as a background for her display board. I took her to the library to do some more research on Audubon and she decided to try to copy one of his painted birds. The green parakeet at the top of her display (as well as the flamingo in the frame) is the beautiful result!

And as usual, Adam wanted to participate in all the science hooplah that was going on around the house.  So we turned him into Archimedes since that's what was fresh on my mind from Jefferson's history studies and we could make some of his concepts understandable to a kindergarden kid. We tried an experiment with aluminum foil to show how density affects how objects float. It didn't work well but he was super excited about his foil boat - lol! We tied a string onto his display board to show that the shortest distance between two points in a straight line. And he colored, traced, cut & paste bits & pieces to tell others about this ancient Greek. Although he wasn't too thrilled with wearing his adorable toga, he had a fun time & was so happy with all the work he did on his first science project!

What a fun & interesting time the kids had! They still pull out their display boards to enjoy their work and would love to do this all again!

Baby Chicks - Fun project!

I love the little things that God brings to our home school experience to make it more interesting and exciting for the kids (and me too)! At the end of our hs co-op, we got an email from a hs acquaintance asking if anyone wanted to try incubating some chicken eggs. Sounds interesting but I didn't think I had time to figure out how to make an incubator.

Thankfully someone at co-op offered to lend us one! Awesome! I mean - how hard could it be to turn some eggs a couple times every day, right?

So the kids helped me to label the eggs so that we could remember to turn them and then they learned that we needed to keep the incubator between 98 and 103 degrees while keeping water in it to maintain humidity. Someone also told us to keep the eggs slanted with the big end slightly upward - haven't figured out if that was needed but we did it.

The egg part was easy (although it has taken us a huge part of my kitchen counter space for 3 weeks) but I worried about them getting turned when Jefferson and I went to Phoenix for a week. But dh turned out to be a good egg turner - even with 3 kids, 2 hermit crabs, a garden/flowers, and a fish to take care of also!

Jefferson and I got back from Phoenix just in time for them to start hatching - 21 days exactly! They waited until evening to do it so I had to video much of it for the kids (and you!) to see. It took each chick about an hour to get itself our and start flopping around. I stayed up late to wait for them to dry before I moved them over to our brooder. We somehow managed to throw it together last minute (typical of me!) with one of our heated lamps, a box and aluminum foil.

Hatching Chickens from DNAC on Vimeo.

We hadn't been looking at the calender closely enough and weren't ready for them to hatch. So we had to wait until the next day to run to a friend's farm to get feed for them. It has been harder to keep the temp in the brooder steady for them since it is an open box but using aluminum foil on top helps.

The baby chicks are very cute and fluffy! They peep and peck and hop and then spontaneously sleep. The kids love to watch them in their box and keep asking me to keep them. It stresses them to be handled but it is hard to resist doing so. Unfortunately, we let some little friends hold them and one got dropped! I was hoping with would be okay but it seems not to be using it's right leg. :-( Future reference for anyone else - chicks ARE breakable!

Here are some cute pics! Glad to have been able to do this project but now that they are smelling up my kitchen, I'm ready to get them back to the farmer - lol! Don't think my neighborhood association would care for any livestock in our backyard (not that I wouldn't mind the healthy, soy-free eggs!)......

Our last couple of terms...

Holy guacamole, am I glad that we made it to break! I could tell in this last week especially that we all need some time out of the normal routine and into the sunshine (although the clouds aren't lettin' much of that through yet).


Every time we get to a break, I can't believe how much we accomplished and how much we learned! So I've got to break it down so I can have a reminder (and encouragement for the next time I need a break, huh?) but it won't be too interesting for anyone else - sorry.

Jefferson

Math - He is slowly but surely learning how to turn his skip counting into multiplication, enjoying working with shapes and symmetry, becoming quicker and quicker with his mental addition and subtraction. His favorite activity over the last terms, however, was learning to use his T-square and 30-60-90 triangle to draw interesting geometric shapes. He still loves the card games too, of course. I am trying to continue to strengthen his ability to put his thought process into words, however, so that I can tell whether he fully understands a concept or not. This also helps him to see math as more than just numbers, but something that is part of life. I can see that he still struggles with this, as word problems still slow him down.


Phonics - This year we have been slowly working through Christ Centered Curriculum, the program we used with him in Kindergarten and half of 1st grade. It's a very thorough and is doing a good job of broadening his vocabulary, strengthening his spelling and reviewing the grammar he's already learned from FLL. However, this is his least favorite subject since it almost always involves having to sit through 2 fussy younger brothers, 1 on-the-verge-of-tired mommy, and a grumbly tummy before lunch. Also, just as I did when we used this program in K, I still find the lessons to be too long and hard for me to shorten. I have to remind myself to keep them light so he doesn't hate them too much.


Grammar - Jefferson is finally getting the idea behind this subject and looks forward to showing me that he can diagram a sentence without my help. As always here - repetition and more repetition. But - he is enjoying it more now that he is more confident (and it helps that I'm working harder to keep the lessons shorter). We are on track to finish FLL but I am learning that I will not be using this book with Reagan.


Spelling - We cover this in our phonics lessons and review weekly.


Reading - What fun I am having this year to see Jefferson read, read and read! I can hardly keep up with the books for him. He always gets his required 45 minutes finished before breakfast. But in January, dh and I found something else vying for his attention - computer games. Since dh makes his living with computers, there's no outlawing them from the house - lol! So we decided that he could earn up to 2 hours of computer time (to be spent only on weekends) by reading 3 minutes for 1 minute of game time. This cut out all badgering and begging during the schooldays as well as any whining when game time was over. And the added benefit is the way he is constantly using addition and multiplication to figure out his minutes. All in all, he's reading at least 1.5 hours each day (minimum) and loving it. He tells me his favorites are the "Millers" series from Rod & Staff and our read alouds - the missionary stories of Nate Saint, Rachel Saint, and Amy Charmichael. He finished "The Tale of Desperaux" and "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh" each in one day (not that the motivation of a movie didn't help). He is writing one narration sheet each week, but I need to work on getting him to narrate to me more often than I currently do. This skill needs more polishing but often gets skipped in the chaos around here.


Spanish - Such inconsistency here! Half the time Jefferson goes to do his computer lesson, dh has done something to the computer that makes the headset not work. And this is the lesson that always gets skipped if we run out of time. So I've asked him to spend some extra time on the foundational lessons and review as he needs to. I need to spend some time catching up with his in the lessons so I can incorporate some of the language around the house.....


History - SOTW2 is dragging on for us this year. I just am not diggin' it and I don't really think it's holding Jefferson's attention either. I just think that we aren't using enough living books or activities to dig deeper - I just don't have enough time. We are only on chpater 27 of 42. But I'm trying not to get to perturbed about it since we are at least learning something each week.


Science - We are STILL not finished with our Astronomy book! Again, this is what gets skipped if we just can't fit it into the afternoon. Jefferson does enjoy learning about outer space and seems to retain the info very well because of this. He likes the little projects and has made some nice narration/illustration sheets for each planet. He was able to do a small lapbook at homeschool co-op as well. But just these past couple of weeks, astronomy has again been set aside for us to concentrate on learning about gardening and he and Reagan are REALLY enjoying it. Photos are posted in our last gardening posts..... Maybe we will get to geology and weather sometime this year?? :-/

Reagan

Phonics - We have finally gotten into a groove with the CCC program. Reagan is more than used to it and is confident that she is doing well. She is VERY perfectionistic about her penmanship and I often have to push her to keep moving instead of getting upset over minor mistakes. She was excited to complete her first copywork sheet and I often find her trying to write something on her own on her other papers. However, we have forgone these lessons for the last month as I started using Phonics Pathways to get her reading (I never felt like CCC got Jefferson reading when he was ready but slowed him down with other tedious work instead). She is able to read short sentences and has finally started her little readers. I can tell that she is getting excited about what she's learning since she is always trying to sound out words that she sees around her! I can't wait until she can start reading short books!


Math - Reagan really enjoys math but I'm finding that it's easier for me to fit in her phonics or reading lesson into our daily chaos. We are behind in this subject, but she is confident is what she's learning (partitioning 10, counting to 100, learning to group, looking for patterns, copying shapes, writing her numbers) and is enjoying it so I am happy.


So over this break, I hope to prepare for the coming homeschool convention as well as the next term. Don't know where there will be time to rest, but hopefully the sun will come out and we'll all get some much needed fresh air! The kids have been enjoying some nice pre-Easter activities at home church and are looking forward to heading to church next weekend for Easter.

Those blessed little moments...

One of my favorite things about homeschooling is being there to witness those blessed little moments when my kids show me that they really 'get' something. This morning I was starting a phonics lessons with Reagan and I reviewed the 1- and 2-vowel rules with her since she is just learning how to read long vowel words. But before I could say them for her to repeat, she beat me to the punch and spit them right out! This, after a week of break and only hearing the 2nd one once before. I'm telling you, she has such a great memory!

I am so thankful that this will be one of her strengths but also that I can witness it. Little things like these help me to realize that the Lord has given me the blessing of having a close relationship with my kids, which is helped further by the fact that I must work so closely with them each day in their education. I love to see her beam with the joy of knowing that she has learned something and the realization that she is doing well. I get to see her push through her frustrations as she remembers what I've told her about the goal being practice rather than perfection ... and then beam again as she earns a sticker for not getting frustrated. I love that she smiles at the prospect of sitting down to read... because she's learning bigger words now.

Of course, we all know that not every moment of this homeschooling journey is delightful. But oh how worth it is the work for these blessed little moments....

Normal frustrations, I'm sure...

So I'm sure I'm not the only one who deals with such things, but refuting a negative attitude during lessons is becoming more of a struggle as the kids get used to this homeschooling thing. I'm finding it hard to divide between the teacher-me and the mommy-me and I think this is showing up as more occasions for discipline occur during lessons.

*sigh*

I guess this is just one of the realities of being a home educator that is starting to set in. Or maybe it's just part of our personalities clashing as the kids get older and more independent? I mean, Jefferson and I are practically identical so when my tendency to be controlling or bossy comes out in me and in him at the same time -it's a recipe for arguing and tears. And then, why is it that a 7yo boy is so insistent that he already knows everything anyway? And when the slightest request for repetition or giving of direction on my part causes Reagan to whine and fuss so the lesson gets dragged out forever, I have to bite my lip and persevere in my own self-control. Her slowness in accepting my direction or her insistence on completing a sheet perfectly, makes me want to pull out my hair at times.

If I didn't have the Lord Jesus as my savior, I would be angry and sad and hopeless and frustrated (actually I likely wouldn't be homeschooling, as He is the one who called us to it). But I am so thankful that He helps me to remain calm, to be better than I was yesterday, to show patience in the face of 7yo attitude and 5yo whining, and to show love instead of barking my anger. I am never more aware of the difference the Lord makes in my relationship with the kids than during school lessons sometimes, since these can be such testing times. I am so very far from where I think I need to be, but I pray for His grace to cover my failures and I am thankful for each opportunity that I have to spend teaching them through my actions and responses.

3rd week of our 2nd term - excitement of the new year wearing off. Yeah... just normal frustrations, I'm sure...

Week 5 (T1) 2008

This was a tough one just due to my own lack of motivation. Don't really know why, but I didn't have the perseverance that I needed to push through this week's busyness and get school done as well. Don't get me wrong - we got a lot done. But I just don't feel like the week was complete.

First, Labor Day was a wash. I hadn't planned anything for this day but can't quite figure out how to tell my hs software that. So it thinks we just didn't get the lessons for Monday in! I'll have to find out how to adjust that since we will be adjusting things in the future as well. We read a little in the am and went to a great picnic in the afternoon. It was hosted by old friends. We thought is strange as we left as we realized that we feel soooo much more comfortable with the family of this friend (she has a large, large family who were all there) than we do amongst our own church family. Hmmm...

Tuesday was completely nuts! We were all dead-tired from the late picnic and slept in an hour. The cleaning lady woke me up and I spent the next hour just picking up (so SHE could clean up - you know how that goes! LOL!) and trying to get the kids awake and fed before the speech therapist arrived for Adam. By the time they both left, I had to get lunch ready and no one had gotten ANY lessons done! I think I managed to teach Jefferson grammar, math, and spelling and Reagan got her phonics lesson. Reading didn't happen since I had so many errands to run in prep for Jefferson's party.

Wednesday worked but only slowly. We did manage to get some very good reading time in for history and plan the mosaic that they were suppose to do on Friday. Jefferson is finished with his CCC phonics lessons and I have forgotten to order the next book! So we'll just skip that for a couple weeks, I guess. He's good at it, but I can tell that it's not his favorite. I think that we'll take the extra time (*hahahahehehe* Did I just say extra time? As if!) to start a few minutes of cursive practice each day since our Veritas Bible Primer Book 1 has arrived. I think that Reagan's math lesson got skipped! I had much food planning to do to get ready for our first day of homeschool co-op on Thursday.

Thursday was as tiring as I knew it would be with the co-op. It runs from 10:30am til 2:30 and I have to have everyone's lunches ready the night before if I'm going to get any lessons done in the morning. Even so, I was already tired (thanks to Sarah Palin's late speech Wednesday night) and we barely got out the door with all our stuff. Jefferson finished SWB. Reagan did get her phonics lesson this morning - we are working on short i and more penmanship. I know that she can blend and even sound out short words but need to continue emphasizing these basics for a while longer. Co-op was lots of fun for the kids and even I was as tired out by it as I can get. I will be assisting the teacher in the nursery/pre-k/K room, so I'll be with 3 of my 4 kids.

Friday I tried to get through the lessons that were planned but small details related to Jefferson's birthday kept getting in the way and I finally gave up. I was also very cranky. :-/ I think that days like these are why I have planned to school year round - I don't want to start yelling at the kids just because it HAS to get done. So we didn't - the mosaic will wait until next week. Jefferson played with his Legos (gift from his Nana), we read a bit and I worked on food lists/prep for the party. I also had the kids help me with some extra chores since we weren't doing lessons. The head cold that started Wedns for me is finally getting better....maybe that's what pulled me down this week?

Next week will be a better week I hope. I do feel like we are in a groove and I know that a break is coming soon. I can't actually believe that we have been at this for 5 weeks already - it's feels normal again! We will be skipping Tuesday so that Jefferson can go with dh to hear McCain/Palin speak at F&M University. Dave bought him a McCain booklet to give him some more info and we will be learning more about other presidents over the next couple of months. We just want him to have an awareness of this part of our country's democratic process as it happens!

Week 3 (T1) 2008

Don't have much time for a detailed weekly report this week. We are doing well in achieving our daily goals so far. However, I honestly don't know how this happens! It's only by the grace of God that I get to the end of the day and say, "It all got taught, learned, cleaned, fed, and loved today! Amazing!"

This past week, we had trouble sticking to our schedule. This is because I am getting use to homeschooling and to keeping things in my head as we get further into the year. I am getting a better sense for what needs to get done versus what I want to get done. This week was a "needs" week without any extra fun, crafty, or reading projects.

Tuesday was our "run all over the county" to get our farm food for the next 2 weeks, thus shoving lessons into the afternoon where I was tired and their minds weren't as sharp. But at least Adam was asleep! And somehow Jefferson got tons of time in on his Rosetta Stone Spanish. He loves to practice until he gets 100% and then show me that he has gotten farther and better than I have (I'm a slacker and choose not to shoot for 100's)! I like that he is motivated!

Wednesday was just plain gorgeous outside! Add to that the fact that I was miserable tired (doggone Olympics are causing me to miss my bedtime!) and wanted a 10am nap instead of my usual 3pm power nap, and we got nothing done in the morning. I was all kinds of behind on housework and thought we'd just do the school on Thurs. But we dug in as soon as Adam went for his afternoon nap and amazingly, it all got done again! Not the way I like to do it though, since Jefferson didn't get any breaks and dinner got pushed back. You just can't give up weather like that though - it keeps the kids growing and healthy!

Thursday we played a little catch up after a morning run to the grocery (I swear it takes me 3 or 4 trips to get our food for 2 weeks all bought and put away!). We read and read (Arthur but soon it will be Beowulf!) and walked and then did another item for our plant lapbook. Jefferson seems to be learning something from these but Reagan struggles to focus long enough to finish even these little parts. I know she's soaking something up though when she spits info back out at me when we're looking at plants in the yard. We used white carnations this week to show that colored water moves from the vase to the petals - they loved this!

Friday Reagan and I had our first interrupted lesson due to her behavior. Truthfully, she was so fussy this entire week that I'm surprised this didn't happen sooner! I was running through a listening exercise with her for phonics. When she missed one and I corrected her, she started fussing and whining. I tried to talk to her about how learning isn't where we get everything right, but where we practice and make mistakes. But she wouldn't listen and I could tell she was shutting down. I stood up and ended the lesson (with the mistake of slamming my pen down too hard) and a tantrum ensued. For some reason, however, she collected herself quickly and asked me to come finished the lesson! For those who know her, this borders on miraculous since it required her to calm herself AND humble herself. The Lord was good and we finished the lesson happily! Although I shouldn't have slammed my pen, I have decided that I will NOT even try to teach her when she is upset. I want her to associate our school time with happy learning and comfort - not stress or anger. And so far, she is pleased as punch to be "doing Kindergarten!" and I am thankful that God has given me the wisdom to be able to read her body language and keep her lessons enjoyable!

I STILL haven't completed my science plans and am starting to stress about it! I am ready to move into astronomy and I know Jefferson will love it. But the evenings and weekends keep slipping away! When I'm not catching up on the housework, I'm enjoying the kids and can't stick my back to them by sitting at my desk. And I get so tired in the evenings after dinner. I think I'm going to have to ask dh for some special time without the kids.....

But at least the Olympics are over and I can get some better sleep this week!! That will surely help. And for those who know her, please continue to be in prayer for Reagan and how we deal with her wisely and lovingly!

Week 2 (T1) 2008

This week I'm actually going to try to get this posted on time (without giving up sleep and while maintaining all other priorities, right? *snortchucklechuckle*).



Our 2nd week of school went as smoothly as the 1st and I must admit that I am excited to be back into the structure of school! I tried to plan activities and daily items for us all over the 7 weeks that we had for summer, but it still was just too long without school. I don't know about anyone else, but I tend to get less done, be less focused, and less organized when I don't have a well-defined structure in place. I'm assuming that the same goes for my kids since I could see their behavior slide as the weeks went on.



This week had no hiccups (or fishbones) and with no homeschool co-op yet started, we took Thursday off to visit the dr and then some friends at a campground (you'll note however, that even though said campground was 0.1 feet from my sil house, that we did NOT visit her. Apologies have already been made and relationships mended with future assurances that such a slight will never occur again! *snickersnicker*).

Jefferson - 2nd Grade

Bibletime is actually going quite well! I think that Explorer's Beginnings II is going just far enough in depth for Jefferson to make him think and also stretch him to remember. This week he worked through the 1st 3 days of creation in his lessons, colored one timeline sheet and colored 3 pages of his Creation booklet. Dh is a little further along at our lunchtime bibletime (since this is just reading and prayer)- they read about Cain and Abel here.



RightStart Math C - Jefferson is still reviewing a few things from last year. We went over 3 different method to add 1 and 2-digit numbers in his head (complete the 10, adding by 9, two 5's method). One lesson was just a practice sheet (as will every sixth lesson be) and games (Corners this week - his favorite). He also finished up his Addition Chart and learned to read an outdoor thermometer. Over the next month (actually this starts September because he cannot stand to start charting something mid-month! Oy - he is just like me...) he will check the outdoor temp each day and graph it. He loves tasks like this and wanted to know "What time of day will we do it?" I was surprised that he realized this on his own!



Language Arts

Grammar was a bit of a struggle as again I faced the fact that the definitions of a noun, pronoun, and verb were not at all sinking in. This is frustrating to me, having taught nothing but these all last year, but at the same time - understandable. I'm realizing that he just doesn't understand the concepts well enough - so it doesn't matter if he can spit the definitions back out at me. This is where only practice will help him at this point. So we started just copying sentences and labeling the N, P, and V so he could visualize and start strengthening what he learned about them last year. FLL is such a typical left-brained auditory book! He enjoys the LLFY much better and we may just move on over to that as the year goes -we'll see.

Phonics was all about the modified vowel this week. Another example of "I haven't a clue what that means, Mommy, even though we went over it plenty last year and last week!" Now... I know that he can read these just fine, so someone tell me why does he need to know the definition of a modified vowel? We are also working on the definition of a homonym and analogy right now. He seems to be fine with reading, spelling, and phonics but struggles when it comes to fishing words out of his brain (whether it be vocabulary or narrations). Hmmmm.....I seem to have always had the same problem myself. Don't quite know how to help him here - I just try to give him starting words, suggestions, verbal cues and encourage him to use more descriptive words.

Spelling covered some suffixes and the two /oo/ sounds (book, tool). This is all from SWB, which we completed last year, but are reviewing a bit to start this year. He is doing well here and it is showing in his dictation.

Reading - his reading is becoming more fluid although it is still common for him to run right through periods and commas only to stop at the end of a line of words instead. He does very well figuring out longer or difficult words phonetically or through context. He finished up "I Wonder" from the Reading to Learn series of Christian Light Publications (I love these books! Great for new readers and full of character lessons).
For our read aloud time we began "Arthur High King of Britain" by Michael Morpurgo. This is a FABULOUS book for read aloud! I was so into it the 1st day we read it, that I had to read ahead after he went to bed! The author presents this well-know myth in a wonderful manner that draws the reader in and holds us tightly. The illustrations are beautiful. I send a thanks out again to Jennefer at Smooth Stones Academy for her suggestion of this author! Jefferson "snuck" it up to his bedroom tonight and will most likely begin reading it on his own in the morning. He narrated it back to me without even realizing that he was narrating! Even Reagan was captivated with Arthur and Merlin today (and that's saying something since her attention span is so short). Next week we'll do a narration sheet with illustration.


Writing - Our Veritas Press Classically Cursive copybooks just arrived but we didn't use them this week. I dictated 4 sentences for Jefferson to put in his "Journal". This booklet has space at the top for illustrations so I ask him to draw something nice for one of the sentences each week. I have noticed that he is writing faster and more sloppily but does better with the 2nd grade lined paper (1/2 inch) than he was doing last year.


Memory Work - reviewed "God's Beautiful World" and started reviewing the Days of Creation. I forgot to start work on our house rules this week (each on has a scripture verse with it).....


History - we read the 1st chapter of SOTW2 on the end of the ancient Roman Empire. Jefferson worked on a map and coloring sheet after looking through our DK Eyewitness Ancient Rome book (I love these books - eyecandy and great info) and a couple library books. I'm not in project mode yet, so we didn't do anything further this week.

Science - Continued to work on our plant lapbook. Although Jefferson enjoys this, the information seems to be getting to him in a piece mealed way and I wonder how effective is this method. But then again, I'm not too focused on it and we've already exhausted the books I'd planned on reading for this topic. It'll look nice when they are finished!

Spanish - Goodness, does Jefferson love this! He is learning that he needs to speak more clearly in order to enunciate in this new language. He discovered this week that he could go back to parts of the lesson and repeat them until he did better (mostly he did this with the verbal lessons). Somehow he figured out that a 100% is the best thing to get and that practice is how he can get there! Ahhhh... the joys of self-motivation! I let him know how it pleased us that he wanted to do better. I also sat down this week and caught up with him in his lessons so that I know how the Rosetta Stone program works and so I can learn Spanish too. Of course, it was much easier for me, having had a couple years in high school but I expect it will get harder soon. At least my background can help him in pronunciation and with any grammar that he just isn't understanding.

Reagan - Kindergarten

Phonics
I am so excited about teaching her phonics! Again this week I was surprised by how much she already knows and how ready she is to read. I barely even had to explain to her how to blend a consonant with the vowels - these seemed easy to her. I did notice as she read, the directionality difficulties she tends toward (switching b/d, p/q etc). I will have to teach her some verbal or visual cues to fix these but I'm not concerned. We reviewed our vowel flashcards each day, read a blend chart (short a), and worked on her 1st Christ Centered Curriculum lesson (hadn't planned on using this but she seems ready!). She gets frustrated easily with her penmanship - seems to think that every letter must be perfect and holds her pencil very tightly, causing her hand to tire easily. I don't push her at all here since my focus is to get her reading, but she likes to have something to show her daddy!

RightStart Math A
Another good week for her. Lessons are still very simple as I get a feel for how long she can focus and where her strengths are. We finger painted 1, 2, 3's, reviewed dot cards, read 1 to 5 on the abacus, and worked on one tracing sheet. Below I've shown the "Mr. Thumbkin" sheet that we used last week to teach her a visual cue for writing her numbers in the correct direction. We start the 2 at his head, go around down to his feet, and then "Run away - they're stinky!" And we start he 3 at his head, go around to his "Smelly armpit" and down to his feet. She just eats this silliness up and it totally sticks in her head! The key with her is to keep it light and fun (not that Jefferson doesn't need the same thing, just that his behavior is more predictable so I never felt I had to work so hard to make it fun!)

I am thankful that we've hit the ground running this year! The Lord has blessed us and I am more than thankful! I need to tweak our schedule around a bit and be very diligent about my own sleep. I look forward to the week to come!

Weekly Report 1 (T1) 2008

So we made it through our first official week of 2nd grade/Kindergarten! I've had plenty to blog about prior to this but with all the prep to get here, I just couldn't do it. I know that I really only need to have the first 9 weeks planned, but I wanted to get as much done over the 6 week summer break that I could (anything to lighten my load for later). I managed to get almost everything planned except for history (don't have books and projects gathered yet), science (again - project materials), and memory work (I need a more focused system this year). Oh, and cursive copybooks aren't here yet.

(When things don't fit on my desk, I add a little wooden desk. Then I add another desk! I seem to need more space as I continue in this hs venture.)

Our only hitch this week was having to take Jefferson to the er for Friday afternoon. He decided to wolf his fish down for lunch (Haddock, I think it was) and got a bone stuck IN his throat! It hurt like crazy and kinda freaked me out. I mean, what do you do about a tiny little bone that you can't see and don't know if it's really there or not? Thankfully, with much prayer, we got an ENT that fished it right out (after much whaling and howling on Jefferson's part - he's not too keen on the numbing medicine in his nose/throat or the scope in his nose!) with a pair of MEGA tweezers. Now he carries it around with pride in a plastic cup! Bummer about the fish though - he was the only one of the kids that liked it to begin with....

So these weekly reports will be long since Jefferson has so many different subjects this year and since Reagan is starting Kindergarten. Boring for all of you, but good progress journaling for me.

Jefferson - 2nd grade

Bibletime is something new this year. I'm glad that I waited until he could read to try a program for him (last year we just spent time reading the Bible to him). He loves the workbook format ofr Explorer's Beginners II, although I am not yet sure about it. I like that he can do it on his own. But I want him to have more of a quiet time of reading the Word, reflection, and prayer rather than a 'lesson.' I guess this is a step in getting him used to spending time reading the Bible on his own. Although I have a Big Picture Bible Timeline (Carol Eides) to use with this, we didn't have any to work on this week.

RightStart Math C is going well, starting with review and easy warm-ups. He still loves this subject and always wants to play the card games that it offers which strengthen specifuc skill sets. This week it was "Go to the Dump" (aka 'Go Fish') where, instead of matching identical cards, we had to match parts of 10 (2&8, 3&7, etc.). Easy and fun review! However, in one of our warmups I noticed he couldn't count odd numbers by 2's very quickly. So I ended up writing then in color on the board so that we could give him a little right-brain help with them. I must remember to review these so that he doesn't revert to counting.

Language Arts this year consists of grammar, phonics, spelling, reading, and writing (penmanship/cursive through copywork, and this year, dictation).

Grammar was just a couple easy lessons from FLL and also from LLVY. Last year, he was barely remembering sentence parts and if given a sentence could only pull out the nouns (this - after all year!). So I've added a little color/hands-on stuff to the lessons and also 2 short LLVY lessons per week for him to do if he has the time.

Phonics is just very short lessons from CCC. These are a review of the sound/rule, a small bit of spelling, and then one sentence from dictation using the sound.

Spelling was easy for him since he's used to the Spelling Workout series. We are going back through half of SWB again just for review - this seems to be easy for him so I guess that means he really did learn it last year! But my favorite was finding some scra.bble squares and letting the kids go to town with them! They had a blast and didn't even know they were learning. Jefferson amazed me with his spelling skills and was challenged to see how many words he could spell and connect.

Reading is going well since Jefferson has started using the microwave timer to get his reading done. This way I don't have to keep asking him to sit down with a book and he gets a good amount read each and every day. Our read alouds are another story, however. This time seems to be what gets pushed off or ignored if we run out of time. Hmmmm... I've gotta make this work better and should probably place it in a better place in the day. Thankfully, dh is reading to him at bedtime too.

Writing this year will add something new for Jefferson -cursive. But right now we are just continuing with copywork until our Veritas Press Classically Cursive copybooks. I don't quite have all our copywork planned out yet either so this week was light on penmanship.

Memory Work
I don't have our memory work all printed out yet. But this week we continued our work on God's Beautiful World since we didn't get it memorized last May. I have the 6 days of creation ready for next week (with a.m. bible time). I hope our new system will work better for us this year.

History
I don't have history quite ready for this year either. But with SOTW, we can always be learning something anyway. We took this week to read the last 4 chpts of SOTW 1 before we start the next volume. Jefferson enjoyed just listening rather than feeling like he had to accomplish something this week. I had he and Reagan close their eyes to envision some of the events - this seems to peek their interest and hold the information in their memory better! I haven't gotten to the library for the extra books for next weeks SOTW2 chpt. yet so we'll have to push history to W/F instead of M/T. Jennefer at Smooth Stones Academy has done some good work on her book list for this - thanks!

Science
No science lessons ready yet - Astronomy is in the works as we finish up a plants lapbook. Just trying not to freak out about this and reminding myself that we have more time this year as well as a better plan than I had last year.

Spanish
Only got one lesson done this week due to not having the program installed in time for Monday and missing Friday (er visit). BUT - Jefferson loved the lesson he had and went for quite some extra time with it. Rosetta Stone seems nice but I need to figure out how I can repeat lessons when he doesn't do well (at first). I would also like to do the lessons myself so that we are learning them together. I also haven't figured out how/when there will be writing lessons.

Reagan - Kindergarten

Phonics
What a great start for Reagan this year! She was VERY excited to be part of school and have my undivided (well - as undivided as I could be with a 2.5yo screecher and 9mo crawler!) attention. She thrives on positive encouragement, so I laid it on as heavily as I could. We had 3 lessons this week (4 if you count the fun time on the floor Sat with the scra.bble cubes) and talked about the letter A. I know that she has learned this in pre-k, but I really want to focus on the short vowel sounds pretty hard so that she can hear them better when we start blending. We did some fun penmanship sheets with lots of finger tracing. We also named her left thumb "Mr. Thumbkin" to help her with directionality of letters and numbers (her right thumb is 'busy' holding the pencil so it can't be Mr. Thumbkin). This has been a great cue for her! When we are playing with any letter squares or cubes, all I have to due is mention him and she corrects any mistakes.
My favorite part of the week was realizing that she can already spell short vowel, 3-letter words! I only discovered this when we were playing with the scra.bble cubes on the floor. She just beamed at the praise and wanted to play all day! I think that she will be reading sooner than I thought!

Math
We started with very simple lessons for math. She knows how to count but I want to give her a good foundation in proper directionality (her mixed dominance causes easy switching - ie. 5's and 2's) and I don't want her to do mental math by counting (this is common in kids and will slow her down later). So this week we started with review of 1, 2, 3 using dots cards and fingers and objects, and the abacus. This was easy for her but gave her confidence as she started kindergarten. I also used some of the Semple Math program to teach her about "Mr. Thumbkin" when writing these numbers. She loves the tactile lessons and responds very, very well to added silliness (ie. "Start at Thunbkin's head and go down to his shoes. Then RUN AWAY from them!" for visual cue in writing a 2)

Auditory processing
Since we have Earobics scheduled in, it was easier for us to be consistent with it this week. This program was recommended by the psychologist who evaluated her last Feb to develop her ear and help her with sound awareness. This only takes 10 minutes each day and is fun since it's on the computer.

And there it is! An entire week late, but better late than never (hey, wait a minute - I think I've written that in more than one post this week! I guess my "No bloggin' after 10pm" rule is catching up to me.... *sigh*), right? Seriously though, I can't wait until the kids are headed off to college and they can read this post to see how far the Lord has brought them.

Week 23

I love it when a week comes together! We seem to all be healthy (even kept Adam out of church this past Sunday just so I could have a peaceful week) for once - is it too much to hope for more health? ;-)

Phonics:
We are just running through the Christ Centered Curriculum B:3 with Jefferson. I'm not really doing an entire lesson (which would take about 1/2 hour) since he's reading and we're using to review phonics rules he knows. This also is helping concrete some spelling rules for him. He still runs for his bible when we finish, so he can look up the lesson's verse.

I'm excited about Reagan's readiness to be 'doing school' (as she says)! We are still reviewing the CCC alphabet flashcards, which begin with short and then long vowels, and the Noah Vowel song. Waiting for the work book to get here so we can start actual lessons. Of course these will be kept as short as possible!

She also started using her new "Earobics Home: Sound Foundations for Reading and Spelling" Step 1 software by Cognitive Concepts. This was recommended for her to help improve phonological processing. Here's why: "One of the most compelling and well-established reading research finding is the important relationship between phonemic awareness and reading acquisition." (Kame'enui, et. al., 1997)

Phonemic awareness is not phonics - it is auditory and does not involve words in print (check out this site for more info). Now - maybe you all knew this, but again, I'm just figuring it out as Reagan is becoming kindergarten ready. I have seen recently, that although she can say the sounds of the vowels and consonants to which I point, she can't really 'hear' the sounds well enough to pick out a rhyme or vowel in a blend. So we will be spending 10-20 mins per day on her 'game' in order to improve this skill before stepping too heavily into basic phonics. And the best part is that she finaly has her own computer game - not one that Jefferson can hog!

Reading:
Jefferson is finaly starting to take off with his reading and it's exciting to watch! He has been interested in using his bible recently, since he can read and is learning the order of the books. We can tell he is happy to have his own bible. So when he read somewhere about a kid getting a nickel for each chapter he read, he thought it was a great idea. I thought that the small size and vast amount of words on each page might deter him. But no! He has not only jumped right into the Word, but he is reading at least 3 chapters each day. I am amazed at how he sounds out the longer words and usually only asks for help with the weird Hebrew names. Not only that, but he is counting the coins daily (actually, almost hourly due to the excitement of having his own money) and keeps telling me how many they would be if they were dimes or quarters. And how many chapters he'd need to read to earn a "whole dollar!" Yes folks - we are covering reading, math, finances, and bible all in one place! You gotta love real-life lessons!

Grammar:
We are moving steadily through First Language Lessons and are working on verbs and memory pieces. I hope that he is understanding the concepts of nouns, pronouns, and verbs but I guess he will get plenty more reinforcement later if not. Also, our memory work has been a little too lax, I think. I tend to forget to have him review the piece on which he's working. I need a better system - maybe I'll try using an index card file tabbed for the days of the weeks. I think this is what the Charlotte Mason site recommends in their Scripture Memory System (which we haven't yet implemented - oops) so I'll let you know when we get that going, if it improves our memory work.

Math:
Jefferson really likes math - and that makes me soooo happy! I always felt like I struggled with math (even though my grades were good I wasn't sure that I was really getting it) so I have been nervous that he might also. But this Right Start (by Activities for Learning) has been just what both of us needed this year. Fun for him and easier for me to teach. Heck - I'm even getting quicker at adding in my head as I equip him with different methods to add! Because I like this program so much, I'll be posting about it later for those looking around. This week he learned how to add two numbers by breaking them into two 5's or by 'completing' the 10 (i.e. giving 2 from one number to an 8 to make it ten). And we talked about congruent shapes and symmetry using our geogrids (and rubber bands). He was quite pleased when he realized that he can now skip count by 1's, 2's, 5's, 8's, 9's, and 10's (he's been asking when we would learn to skip count).

Reagan had a fun couple of math lessons. She discovered a dry-erase book I used to use with Jefferson and just dove in to tracing the numbers. I had to ask her to wait for my instruction so that she wouldn't be practicing them incorrectly. Today I pulled out the pizza tray and filled it with sand so that she could practice drawing numbers. Wow - was this a hit for her senses! She was just so excited! Thanks to my bloggy friend Jennifer at Doing the Next Thing for this simple and great idea!

Science:
Another fun lesson this week - Jefferson (and Reagan too) loves to learn about animals. He could sit with the Animal Encyclopedia for hours! This week we learned about Clown Fish. Check this post to see his awesome work!

History:
We're continuing through Story of the World (Vol 1) and learned more about Greece this week. Wanted to make a war helmet from a box but didn't have time. Maybe this weekend?


Kinda long! Haven't done a report in a couple weeks and I'm starting to add Reagan in a little at a time. Don't have enough time for photos this week either so the pretty little clown fish will have to do! Until next time!