It snowed yesterday, so we took a walk in the mess. Yes, mess. Immediately after snow, it sleeted & rained. It was really rather yucky. Caleb agreed with me. So we walked to the end of the block then turned around back home. Still, it was a perfect day to discuss more about the muted colors Susan Jeffers used to illustrate Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. Jimmy volunteered that he would use his "little bit of color" to draw the nativity scene on our front lawn, leaving everything else brown & white. (And yes, our Christmas decorations are still up. I'm considering having an Easter tree.)
We skipped our math lessons today, so we finished up with LotW work. We reviewed the N verse (which Jimmy has memorized already), read the O verse & its explanatory story, and then practiced writing m, N, n, O, & o. Randy helped him with the handwriting part, and he reported that Jimmy's m, N, and n were doing very well, but that Jimmy had some trouble with his first attempts at writing O and o.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Test day!
We started our lessons with another reading of Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. Usually, I save our discussion for after reading it through once, but today's lesson was on the artwork. So before we started reading the book, we stopped on the first few pages (the title page & the first page with the words of the poem) to look closely at the illustrations. Susan Jeffers, the illustrator, uses only a touch of color in these drawings. In the beginning of the book, Jimmy insisted that more color was always better. But as we read through the book & observed the illustrations, Jimmy noticed that the little bit of color helped to highlight certain things in the pictures. Once we finished the book, he grudgingly admitted that some pictures look nice with only a little bit of color. He still said, though, that he would like using lots and lots and lots of color more than just a little bit of color.
As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I cut back on the calendar work. Jimmy noticed... and demanded that we fill in the calendar. So I did just the basics of our calendar work, ignoring the normal script from the teacher's manual. That worked. For the lesson portion of math today, we had a test. We used our 0-10 number cards. I spread them out randomly on the coffee table, pointed to each one, and asked Jimmy to tell me what they were. He passed that part with flying colors. The 2nd half of the test didn't go so well. I asked Jimmy to put the numbers in order, which he did... backwards. =( I explained what was wrong & told him that he didn't pass. The teacher's manual allows for re-testing later in the curriculum, so we'll go back to this (as well as a few other minor test errors) later in the school year.
We finished up with LotW work. Jimmy & I worked on his N memory verse, and then Jimmy practiced writing N, n, & m. I added the m because I noticed that he writes pretty funky m's when he writes his name. It's a line with three lines drawn underneath. So we reviewed how to write n & m: a straight half line (from the dotted line to the bottom line) with a hump (or two) from close to the dotted line, up, & straight down. Better, but they all still need some work. I think we'll keep N, n, & m practice while we add O & o. Perhaps a bunch of "no," "on," and "Mom" practice.
As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I cut back on the calendar work. Jimmy noticed... and demanded that we fill in the calendar. So I did just the basics of our calendar work, ignoring the normal script from the teacher's manual. That worked. For the lesson portion of math today, we had a test. We used our 0-10 number cards. I spread them out randomly on the coffee table, pointed to each one, and asked Jimmy to tell me what they were. He passed that part with flying colors. The 2nd half of the test didn't go so well. I asked Jimmy to put the numbers in order, which he did... backwards. =( I explained what was wrong & told him that he didn't pass. The teacher's manual allows for re-testing later in the curriculum, so we'll go back to this (as well as a few other minor test errors) later in the school year.
We finished up with LotW work. Jimmy & I worked on his N memory verse, and then Jimmy practiced writing N, n, & m. I added the m because I noticed that he writes pretty funky m's when he writes his name. It's a line with three lines drawn underneath. So we reviewed how to write n & m: a straight half line (from the dotted line to the bottom line) with a hump (or two) from close to the dotted line, up, & straight down. Better, but they all still need some work. I think we'll keep N, n, & m practice while we add O & o. Perhaps a bunch of "no," "on," and "Mom" practice.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Back to school
We took a bit of a break while we traveled around. First, Randy & I went on a youth retreat as chaperones (when did we become responsible adults???). The boys spent the weekend with my inlaws. Then, we went to Virginia to help move Randy's grandparents (they moved to nursing homes near my inlaws) & to help clean out their house before the sale. We spent a few days afterwards at home recovering, and then we headed back to the greater Philly area to celebrate Caleb's 3rd birthday with various parts of the family. Whew. It's good to be home.
Before we started The Whirlwind, Jimmy finished his school week on Katy and the Big Snow. Jimmy drew a picture of a city, just like Virginia Lee Burton did in the middle of Katy. However, Jimmy had been facinated by the firetrucks in the book, so his city was entirely on fire. Boys. On Friday, he practiced counting by 5's, just like VLB did with horses to explain Katy's 55 horsepower engine in the beginning of the book. Since I didn't have 55 horses with us, we used pennies. We did 2 math lessons, including one using a new math material - a geoboard with geobands (a pegged grid used with rubberbands). We finished up the LotW, M, with reviews of the Bible verse & handwriting.
During our travels, we occasionally read The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. We read it last year during B4FIAR, so it was an excellent light review week with a tie-in to our winter theme this January. I have to say, the weather has been very good to our winter unit study. Our house has has snow on the ground almost every day (by the time it finally melts, another storm steps up to pile on some more snow), and it was VERY cold in Virginia. Not so good for packing a moving truck, but very good to help re-enforce our winter lessons.
Now that we're back for a while now, it's time to jump back into school. This week's FIAR book is Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost. FIAR recommends using the edition illustrated by Susan Jeffers. Oh, is this a gorgeous book! Unlike most of the weekly lessons in FIAR, this book is focused on language & art (as opposed to also including social studies, science, & math). It was meant as a light lesson during a review week, but I'm using it instead to allow us time to rejuvenate our art time. I have to confess that art is my homeschooling weekness.
Today's FIAR lesson took an interesting turn today. It started as a simple observation exercise - listen to the rhyming to find the pattern. (Hint: it's an AABA pattern - the 3rd line of each stanza doesn't rhyme with the rest until the last stanza.) The book breaks the lines up for the illustrations, so we used a version I found online for this exercise. Jimmy was confused at first, but by the 2nd stanza, he knew exactly what to look for. I am hoping to continue this lesson into next week, when we read lots of various poetry. Anyway, after we "read" the rhyming pattern, I felt that Jimmy still didn't quite understand rhyming in poetry. He knows when words rhyme, but he didn't seem to understand the concept of a line rhyming with another rhyme. So we wrote our own poetry. Jimmy, Daddy, and I collaborated to write this, er, elegant verse... See if you can tell Jimmy's contribution.
Caleb
Caleb turned three,
Then he has to pee
On a tree.
Not on me!
After FIAR, we worked on math. This was a perfect lesson to follow a break - we reviewed the geoboard. Jimmy had to make 4 different shapes with a geoband on the geoboard. Jimmy made a triangle, a rectangle, a square, and then, because he was being silly, a shoe. LOL! He did very well on his calendar work, even with such a big gap. I think he's ready to stop reviewing the calendar every day. A few times a week should be just fine.
For LotW, we're double teaming this week. While traveling, Jimmy practiced writing N & n, but we didn't do any Bible verse work. Plus, his N & n's weren't very good with all of the distractiongs. So this week, we're splitting the week into N and O. Today, we read the story explaining the N Bible verse, practiced reciting the verse, and practiced writing N & n. Jimmy also asked to review writing M, m, L, l, B, and b. We'll start the letter O work on Wednesday (since he had a headstart on N, it will get the shorter "half" of the week).
Before we started The Whirlwind, Jimmy finished his school week on Katy and the Big Snow. Jimmy drew a picture of a city, just like Virginia Lee Burton did in the middle of Katy. However, Jimmy had been facinated by the firetrucks in the book, so his city was entirely on fire. Boys. On Friday, he practiced counting by 5's, just like VLB did with horses to explain Katy's 55 horsepower engine in the beginning of the book. Since I didn't have 55 horses with us, we used pennies. We did 2 math lessons, including one using a new math material - a geoboard with geobands (a pegged grid used with rubberbands). We finished up the LotW, M, with reviews of the Bible verse & handwriting.
During our travels, we occasionally read The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. We read it last year during B4FIAR, so it was an excellent light review week with a tie-in to our winter theme this January. I have to say, the weather has been very good to our winter unit study. Our house has has snow on the ground almost every day (by the time it finally melts, another storm steps up to pile on some more snow), and it was VERY cold in Virginia. Not so good for packing a moving truck, but very good to help re-enforce our winter lessons.
Now that we're back for a while now, it's time to jump back into school. This week's FIAR book is Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost. FIAR recommends using the edition illustrated by Susan Jeffers. Oh, is this a gorgeous book! Unlike most of the weekly lessons in FIAR, this book is focused on language & art (as opposed to also including social studies, science, & math). It was meant as a light lesson during a review week, but I'm using it instead to allow us time to rejuvenate our art time. I have to confess that art is my homeschooling weekness.
Today's FIAR lesson took an interesting turn today. It started as a simple observation exercise - listen to the rhyming to find the pattern. (Hint: it's an AABA pattern - the 3rd line of each stanza doesn't rhyme with the rest until the last stanza.) The book breaks the lines up for the illustrations, so we used a version I found online for this exercise. Jimmy was confused at first, but by the 2nd stanza, he knew exactly what to look for. I am hoping to continue this lesson into next week, when we read lots of various poetry. Anyway, after we "read" the rhyming pattern, I felt that Jimmy still didn't quite understand rhyming in poetry. He knows when words rhyme, but he didn't seem to understand the concept of a line rhyming with another rhyme. So we wrote our own poetry. Jimmy, Daddy, and I collaborated to write this, er, elegant verse... See if you can tell Jimmy's contribution.
Caleb
Caleb turned three,
Then he has to pee
On a tree.
Not on me!
After FIAR, we worked on math. This was a perfect lesson to follow a break - we reviewed the geoboard. Jimmy had to make 4 different shapes with a geoband on the geoboard. Jimmy made a triangle, a rectangle, a square, and then, because he was being silly, a shoe. LOL! He did very well on his calendar work, even with such a big gap. I think he's ready to stop reviewing the calendar every day. A few times a week should be just fine.
For LotW, we're double teaming this week. While traveling, Jimmy practiced writing N & n, but we didn't do any Bible verse work. Plus, his N & n's weren't very good with all of the distractiongs. So this week, we're splitting the week into N and O. Today, we read the story explaining the N Bible verse, practiced reciting the verse, and practiced writing N & n. Jimmy also asked to review writing M, m, L, l, B, and b. We'll start the letter O work on Wednesday (since he had a headstart on N, it will get the shorter "half" of the week).
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Making a picture-graph. Er, pictograph. Whatever that thing is.
We started today's lessons with math. Jimmy finished his calendar work quickly & easily. Then we moved on to making a pictograph (which Jimmy kept calling a picture graph). We brainstormed different winter activites that Jimmy likes to do. Jimmy drew pictures of 12 of those activites on squares of construction paper, which we then graphed according to inside & outside activities. He had 7 outside activities & 5 inside activities. He was a little disappointed that there were 2 squares left empty on the graph, so I had to explain the purpose of a graph to a 4 year old. Needless to say, I rather wasted my time. =)
We moved onto LotW. Jimmy requested that we read the story about the Bible verse again, so I did. Jimmy is really started to grasp the concept of doing things "through Christ who strengthens" us. (If only I could grasp that concept...) The story was very, very easy for him to understand, too - it was about fights between siblings. Man, I love this book! After reviewing the memory verse several times, Jimmy practiced his handwriting. In addition to this week's letter, M, Jimmy also reviewed writing B & D (upper & lower cases of all 3 letters).
We finished up with Katy. Jimmy added today's weather (cloudy at the time he checked) to our weather calendar. Then we read the book. Afterwards, we took a closer look at the illustrations around the border of page 1. Those illustrations give us more information about Katy (such as her bulldozer attachment & a 55 horsepower diesel engine). We read the captions of each little drawing, and then Jimmy recited them from memory. He needed a little help, but I was still impressed with how much he remembered, especially considering that I don't think he understood that I was going to quiz him on it afterward! I guess I just gave my first pop quiz. LOL!
We moved onto LotW. Jimmy requested that we read the story about the Bible verse again, so I did. Jimmy is really started to grasp the concept of doing things "through Christ who strengthens" us. (If only I could grasp that concept...) The story was very, very easy for him to understand, too - it was about fights between siblings. Man, I love this book! After reviewing the memory verse several times, Jimmy practiced his handwriting. In addition to this week's letter, M, Jimmy also reviewed writing B & D (upper & lower cases of all 3 letters).
We finished up with Katy. Jimmy added today's weather (cloudy at the time he checked) to our weather calendar. Then we read the book. Afterwards, we took a closer look at the illustrations around the border of page 1. Those illustrations give us more information about Katy (such as her bulldozer attachment & a 55 horsepower diesel engine). We read the captions of each little drawing, and then Jimmy recited them from memory. He needed a little help, but I was still impressed with how much he remembered, especially considering that I don't think he understood that I was going to quiz him on it afterward! I guess I just gave my first pop quiz. LOL!
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Katy and the Big Snow
We're reading Katy and the Big Snow by Virginia Lee Burton this week. Randy has braved some of the lessons, which the boys have loved. So let me catch you up.
Yesterday, we had school pretty late. The boys & I ran some errands in the morning, so school happened before bedtime. I led them in math (we repeated lesson #49 - introducing January & working with January's blue-blue-white-white color pattern in linking cubes) and Bible verse (just read the verse & accompanying story for the M verse). Then they went off to bed. Randy read Katy as their bedtime story & discussed responsibilities. In the book, Katy is a heavy duty snow plow who has to sit & wait until it is time for her to plow. When the big snowstorm comes, she digs out the city, not stopping until she is done, even when she gets a little tired. They also discussed the jobs of different people mentioned in the story (like the doctor & the fire fighters).
Today, we had school at our normal time - just before lunch. Jimmy went over his calendar work, then had a math evualation. He was given a pile of construction paper shapes & had to sort them 2 different ways. He chose to sort them by color (red, yellow, & purple) first, then by shape (circle, square, rectangle, and triangle). Then Jimmy wrote several big M's and little m's, which looked very nice. We reviewed the Bible verse 3 times. Then we read Katy. Today's FIAR activity was starting a weather chart. Jimmy looked out the window at the grey skies & proclaimed it "Sunny!" Sigh. We'll work on that. Meanwhile, we drew a big cloud in today's square for cloudy. It will be fun to record the weather throughout January.
Yesterday, we had school pretty late. The boys & I ran some errands in the morning, so school happened before bedtime. I led them in math (we repeated lesson #49 - introducing January & working with January's blue-blue-white-white color pattern in linking cubes) and Bible verse (just read the verse & accompanying story for the M verse). Then they went off to bed. Randy read Katy as their bedtime story & discussed responsibilities. In the book, Katy is a heavy duty snow plow who has to sit & wait until it is time for her to plow. When the big snowstorm comes, she digs out the city, not stopping until she is done, even when she gets a little tired. They also discussed the jobs of different people mentioned in the story (like the doctor & the fire fighters).
Today, we had school at our normal time - just before lunch. Jimmy went over his calendar work, then had a math evualation. He was given a pile of construction paper shapes & had to sort them 2 different ways. He chose to sort them by color (red, yellow, & purple) first, then by shape (circle, square, rectangle, and triangle). Then Jimmy wrote several big M's and little m's, which looked very nice. We reviewed the Bible verse 3 times. Then we read Katy. Today's FIAR activity was starting a weather chart. Jimmy looked out the window at the grey skies & proclaimed it "Sunny!" Sigh. We'll work on that. Meanwhile, we drew a big cloud in today's square for cloudy. It will be fun to record the weather throughout January.
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