We read Night of the Moonjellies again today. Today, we discussed New England. We looked at a map of New England, guessed where Mark & his Gram might live (close to the ocean, since Mark walked to the hot dog stand), and colored in the different stated in New England. We'll put this map into our lapbook on Thursday.
Math today was calendar review, then counting using teddy bear counters, pattern blocks, and work mats. The work mats are just sheets of construction paper. The bears are lined up on one side of the mat. To count, we slide the bears to the other side. Then we have to get pattern blocks for each teddy bear (remembering how many we counted, then counting the same number of pattern blocks). The teddy bears "sit" on the pattern blocks, and we count them all over again. As always, this was Caleb's favorite part of the lessons.
For Letter of the Week, Jimmy reviewed his memory verse. He almost has is down - he's just struggling with "Blessed are the peacemakers for..." I'm still impressed! Then we wrote 4 big B's and 4 little b's. His big B's are very nice, but we'll need to work a little on the little b's.
We finished up with our sight word flash cards. He hasn't memorized them yet, but I think that's a good thing. We're getting plenty of opportunity to practice phonics.
The boys were a little distracted with Grandmom here (she noticed that Jimmy didn't sit still very well), but we still managed to do everything on the lesson plan without me struggling to keep their attention. This is a HUGE improvement over last year, where we wouldn't have been able to do squat if our routine varied in the slightest. Caleb really enjoyed having someone to talk with while I worked one-on-one with Jimmy.
Now it's time to head out to Raptor Trust. Raptor Trust is a sanctuary/medical aid facility for birds, particularly raptors (like eagles & hawks). I've been there once before, and I'm excited to see how the boys react. We might still head over to the zoo afterward. It all depends on how things go today. The word of the day is "flexible!"
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Monday, September 29, 2008
Night of the Moonjellies
That's the name of the FIAR book we're reading this week. It's a really cute story about a little boy who finds a moon jellyfish on his way to the family hot dog stand, where he helps. After a long, busy day, his grandmother takes him out to sea so they can release the moonjelly & see all of the glittery jellyfish. After we read the book, we looked up moon jellyfish online to learn a little more about them. Jimmy remembered that we saw them at the Pittsburgh Zoo earlier this month. Jimmy & Caleb both loved the short video of a moonjelly pulsating the best of all of internet research this morning.
For math, we again reviewed the calendar. Then we brought out the pictogram we did last Friday. Today, we added several more family members, sorted them by boy/girl, and glued them on the big graph. It's now hanging on the wall. We finished math by playing with teddy bear counters and pattern blocks - together! Caleb really liked this part, and he was sad when it was time to put them away.
The letter of this week is B. We read our Bible verse - "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God." Matthew 5:9. It's a little longer than last week's verse, but I'm sure Jimmy will have it memorized in no time. We'll start handwritting the big & little B's tomorrow.
I dug out some sight word flash cards. I had Jimmy read the 1 & 2 letter words, plus a handful of related 3 letter words (like "yes" along with "no" and some key ones like "the" and "and"). Jimmy remembers a lot of the phonics work we did last year, which impresses me since we had so much trouble with that curriculum. It makes me feel better knowing that he'll still be learning even when I mess things up for a little while. =) I think he might do better in an unstructured phonics program for now, even though he's doing well in structured math.
Tomorrow we'll have a guest at school - Grandmom!
For math, we again reviewed the calendar. Then we brought out the pictogram we did last Friday. Today, we added several more family members, sorted them by boy/girl, and glued them on the big graph. It's now hanging on the wall. We finished math by playing with teddy bear counters and pattern blocks - together! Caleb really liked this part, and he was sad when it was time to put them away.
The letter of this week is B. We read our Bible verse - "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God." Matthew 5:9. It's a little longer than last week's verse, but I'm sure Jimmy will have it memorized in no time. We'll start handwritting the big & little B's tomorrow.
I dug out some sight word flash cards. I had Jimmy read the 1 & 2 letter words, plus a handful of related 3 letter words (like "yes" along with "no" and some key ones like "the" and "and"). Jimmy remembers a lot of the phonics work we did last year, which impresses me since we had so much trouble with that curriculum. It makes me feel better knowing that he'll still be learning even when I mess things up for a little while. =) I think he might do better in an unstructured phonics program for now, even though he's doing well in structured math.
Tomorrow we'll have a guest at school - Grandmom!
Friday, September 26, 2008
First week - CHECK!
All done! This week went very well. Today, Jimmy finally noticed that we've read the same book all week. LOL!
I forgot to post yesterday, so I'll give that update first.
We started by doing math. We reviewed the calendar & played with our new teddy bear counters. Jimmy is really coming along with the calendar stuff. The only problem he's still having is with the dates, & that's because we started so late in the month. Counting in the 20's is still problematic. But we're getting there! Reading the days of the week is helping him learn to read in general, too, so that's a bonus. After math, we read the book of the week (HtMaAP&StW) & reviewed the Bible memory verse. (Jimmy is really good at the memory verse.) Then we settled into the big project of the day - making lapbooks! We used tabbed file folders as the base & glued on different things. We made one for the book, with a map (marking where the apple pie maker went to get her ingredients), a hand-drawn street scene (Jimmy drew our street; it represents one of the pages in the book where she's getting a chicken from Paris to lay eggs for her pie), and apples (well, that's obvious, isn't it?). We made another one for the Letter of the Week - A. This also had an apple (same as the book's lapbook) & a picture of an ant. I wrote "apple" and "ant" under the pictures, then Jimmy wrote them. It will be cool to see how his handwriting improves during the year. I had intended them to be simply lap books, but Jimmy wants to store his paperwork in them. This week, we only had handwritting practice for "A" and "a" but I can see us storing all kinds of other things in both folders in future weeks.
Today's lessons were much more laid back. We started with the book. Today's book activity was introducing kitchen measuring devices. The book has an apple pie recipe at the end. We read the recipe's ingredients & found what we'd need to use to measure them. Cup, 1/2 cup, teaspoon, 1/4 teaspoon, and tablespoon. I think Jimmy was rather unimpressed, tho. =) Then we did math. Jimmy did well with the calendar, as usual. Then we introduced pictograms. Jimmy drew faces on round pieces of paper to represent him, me, Daddy, & Caleb. Then he sorted them onto a table by boys & girls. He learned that we could easily tell how many people in our family were boys & how many were girls by using this chart. I think we're going to expand on this by adding members of our extended family. Caleb didn't like this math lesson as much, tho - no toys! LOL! We finished by quickly reviewing our Bible verse (Jimmy has it completely memorized) & practicing writing A and a.
This was an amazing week. I hope it continues! We all had a fabulous time. (Even Caleb, who got cranky at parts - he still cheers when I announce "It's schooltime!!!")
I forgot to post yesterday, so I'll give that update first.
We started by doing math. We reviewed the calendar & played with our new teddy bear counters. Jimmy is really coming along with the calendar stuff. The only problem he's still having is with the dates, & that's because we started so late in the month. Counting in the 20's is still problematic. But we're getting there! Reading the days of the week is helping him learn to read in general, too, so that's a bonus. After math, we read the book of the week (HtMaAP&StW) & reviewed the Bible memory verse. (Jimmy is really good at the memory verse.) Then we settled into the big project of the day - making lapbooks! We used tabbed file folders as the base & glued on different things. We made one for the book, with a map (marking where the apple pie maker went to get her ingredients), a hand-drawn street scene (Jimmy drew our street; it represents one of the pages in the book where she's getting a chicken from Paris to lay eggs for her pie), and apples (well, that's obvious, isn't it?). We made another one for the Letter of the Week - A. This also had an apple (same as the book's lapbook) & a picture of an ant. I wrote "apple" and "ant" under the pictures, then Jimmy wrote them. It will be cool to see how his handwriting improves during the year. I had intended them to be simply lap books, but Jimmy wants to store his paperwork in them. This week, we only had handwritting practice for "A" and "a" but I can see us storing all kinds of other things in both folders in future weeks.
Today's lessons were much more laid back. We started with the book. Today's book activity was introducing kitchen measuring devices. The book has an apple pie recipe at the end. We read the recipe's ingredients & found what we'd need to use to measure them. Cup, 1/2 cup, teaspoon, 1/4 teaspoon, and tablespoon. I think Jimmy was rather unimpressed, tho. =) Then we did math. Jimmy did well with the calendar, as usual. Then we introduced pictograms. Jimmy drew faces on round pieces of paper to represent him, me, Daddy, & Caleb. Then he sorted them onto a table by boys & girls. He learned that we could easily tell how many people in our family were boys & how many were girls by using this chart. I think we're going to expand on this by adding members of our extended family. Caleb didn't like this math lesson as much, tho - no toys! LOL! We finished by quickly reviewing our Bible verse (Jimmy has it completely memorized) & practicing writing A and a.
This was an amazing week. I hope it continues! We all had a fabulous time. (Even Caleb, who got cranky at parts - he still cheers when I announce "It's schooltime!!!")
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Sneaky mommy
Tonight, I snuck carrot puree (from our own garden) into the pancake mix. The boys ate them all up! Definitely going to do that again!
*sneak* *sneak* *sneak*
*sneak* *sneak* *sneak*
School tantrum
Caleb was NOT happy that we had school today. He ended up with a timeout. After the timeout, tho, he was a much happier camper. He colored during much of the rest of school.
Jimmy was a champ thru the whole thing. He was very patient & waited on the couch (aka school room) until I got back from dealing with Caleb.
School today was pretty light. We read the book, this time showing each place on the map. The girl in the book gathers ingredients for her pie from Italy (wheat for flour), Paris (chicken for eggs), Sri Lanka (kurundu bark for cinnamon), England (cow for milk for butter), Jamaica (for sugar cane for sugar, with a dip in the Atlantic Ocean for sea water for salt). Oh yeah, and Vermont for apples, which she almost forgot. Jimmy enjoyed our tour of the world.
Math was also pretty light. We did our calendar stuff, then introduced counting bears. I had orginally planned on using milk jug caps, but we didn't gather enough for today's lesson. I also read ahead & discovered that the counters being bears might actually be important. (They "get tired" in one lesson & need to "sit" on pattern blocks.) So I think we're going to the Educational Warehouse after naps today. Oh well, it was worth a shot. For today, tho, I found some Care Bear stickers that I put onto pieces of cardstock. Jimmy matched them (two of each Care Bear), & I had him group them by color groups. He counted the bears in each group & found out how to tell how many more there were in the larger group.
Finally, we did our Bible memory verse (Jimmy's already got it down pat) & wrote 4 more big A's and 4 more little a's. His handwriting is definitely better than yesterday's. By the end of the week, he'll be making rather decent A's. I think we'll review past letters in the weeks to come to keep his handwriting fresh. I'll have to find words that start with the Letter of the Week that contain our previous letters. (Like Bat, Cab, etc.)
Jimmy was a champ thru the whole thing. He was very patient & waited on the couch (aka school room) until I got back from dealing with Caleb.
School today was pretty light. We read the book, this time showing each place on the map. The girl in the book gathers ingredients for her pie from Italy (wheat for flour), Paris (chicken for eggs), Sri Lanka (kurundu bark for cinnamon), England (cow for milk for butter), Jamaica (for sugar cane for sugar, with a dip in the Atlantic Ocean for sea water for salt). Oh yeah, and Vermont for apples, which she almost forgot. Jimmy enjoyed our tour of the world.
Math was also pretty light. We did our calendar stuff, then introduced counting bears. I had orginally planned on using milk jug caps, but we didn't gather enough for today's lesson. I also read ahead & discovered that the counters being bears might actually be important. (They "get tired" in one lesson & need to "sit" on pattern blocks.) So I think we're going to the Educational Warehouse after naps today. Oh well, it was worth a shot. For today, tho, I found some Care Bear stickers that I put onto pieces of cardstock. Jimmy matched them (two of each Care Bear), & I had him group them by color groups. He counted the bears in each group & found out how to tell how many more there were in the larger group.
Finally, we did our Bible memory verse (Jimmy's already got it down pat) & wrote 4 more big A's and 4 more little a's. His handwriting is definitely better than yesterday's. By the end of the week, he'll be making rather decent A's. I think we'll review past letters in the weeks to come to keep his handwriting fresh. I'll have to find words that start with the Letter of the Week that contain our previous letters. (Like Bat, Cab, etc.)
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Day 2
We had another great day of school. (I'll have re-read these when the days get tough.) We started by reading How to Make an Apple Pie & See the World- and I am really loving that book. We did some vocab words (ingredients, superb, locate, elegant, coax, native, plantation). Then we had our math lesson - more calendar & pattern blocks. Caleb again loved this part the most. I also learned that Caleb would probably do well coloring while Jimmy & me do the other parts of our lessons. Could have used that info during vocab, LOL!
We reviewed our Bible memory verse (A soft answer turns away wrath. Proverbs 15:1). The plan was then to just introduce the letter A, but the boys both wanted to write it. So Jimmy wrote 4 big A's and 4 little a's. Caleb colored over the A I drew on his notepad. =)
Then we had some music time. We have a CD from Randy's mom. The last track is Ancient Words, one of Randy's favorite praise songs. We sang that, clapping along. Then we sang Amazing Grace (going with the A theme). Finally, we tapped some rhythms on the floor. I tapped some for Jimmy to repeat, then Jimmy tapped some for me to repeat. Very basic stuff that still needs a lot of work, but I'm sure we'll make a lot of progress if I stick to it.
We reviewed our Bible memory verse (A soft answer turns away wrath. Proverbs 15:1). The plan was then to just introduce the letter A, but the boys both wanted to write it. So Jimmy wrote 4 big A's and 4 little a's. Caleb colored over the A I drew on his notepad. =)
Then we had some music time. We have a CD from Randy's mom. The last track is Ancient Words, one of Randy's favorite praise songs. We sang that, clapping along. Then we sang Amazing Grace (going with the A theme). Finally, we tapped some rhythms on the floor. I tapped some for Jimmy to repeat, then Jimmy tapped some for me to repeat. Very basic stuff that still needs a lot of work, but I'm sure we'll make a lot of progress if I stick to it.
Monday, September 22, 2008
First day of school
We had a great morning. ('Cause that's when we're doing school... at least until I change my mind again. LOL!) I took a picture, being slightly jealous of my friends' kids with their adorable first-day-of-school pictures. Not quite the same, since there are no backpacks or nice clothes, but it works. =)
We started by reading How to Make an Apple Pie & See the World. Very cute book - a girl wants to make an apple pie, but the market is closed. Instead, she goes around the world to get the ingredients. One of the ingredients that she needs is salt, so she collects sea water & evaporates the water. Our activity today was to make sea water (the boys agreed that it tasted nasty). We put it into a shallow pan. Now we wait for it to evaporate.
Then we had a math lesson. I'm using Saxon Math for homeschoolers, the kindergarten edition. We filled in our calendar & discussed the day of the week (Monday), the day of the month (the 22nd), the month (September), and the year (2008). We'll be working on the calendar all year, so I am expecting it to take a while to sink into Jimmy's head. It's a pretty complex thing to learn. But so far, so good! Saxon makes it fun with alternating colors for each day (which means we'll also be working on patterns). After the calendar, we played with pattern blocks. Caleb got to join in. They made boats, flowers, houses, trains, and a few unidentifiable objects, LOL!
The last part of our school lessons was Letter of the Week. We're doing the alphabet in order, so this week is the letter A. We have a great book that goes through Bible memory verses by the alphabet. The verse for A is "A soft answer turns away wrath. Proverbs 15:1" So we read the verse & the story that explains it today. We'll work on writing the letter A & memorizing the Bible verse during the rest of the week.
After school, we took a walk around the neighborhood. It's a gorgeous day! I'm considering that part of school, too - PE!
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