Holy cow - my posts are getting comments?!

Okay, maybe I'm living in a little world of my own, but somehow I've been missing comments posted on our posts. Whoops! I blame it on the fact that my notifications were being routed to some other email I don't check. I'll fix that. In the meantime, I LOVE getting comments (everyone loves encouragement, right?)...and now I'll know that I'm getting them. Once I remember where/how to adjust the account so the notifications go to an email I actually check.

I feel a little sheepish. LOL

Week of 17 Apr

Apparently I didn't take many photos documenting a whole lot of learning-ish photos this week....

Phonics/Reading:

Well, we were going to take breaks with the Funnix 2, but about the point where I had planned to take a break, Abby seems to be reading very smoothly and not complaining about reading lessons. In fact, she asks for more! So, I guess no break yet. Probably in the future, I'm sure.

ABCs:

We did the letter C this week. I'm very pleased with how Emmett is learning his letters. I've loaded the Letter Factory on our Leapster Explorer and when he gets bored with a game he's playing during quiet time, he chooses to watch that. This week, we went from thinking C made a "sss" sound to really remembering what it said. I'm sure our work on Cs helped, but I know the repeated watching of the Letter Factory is sinking ALL of the letters in. I am even sneaky enough to realize he's only halfway through the show and setting quiet time to last to the very end of it. LOL

Here he is doing our homemade fishing game.

And here he is doing a letter search from Confessions of a Homeschooler. He really likes these hunts and even finds the very tiny letters in the fine print (ie, he circled the copyright c on this page).

Five in a Row:

This week, we rowed Mrs. Katz and Tush by Patricia Polacco. To go along with it, we read a bit about Passover, especially the story as it is told in Exodus. We went over the ten plagues. Abby asked why we don't celebrate Passover so I explained about the laws of Moses being fulfilled and extended through the coming of Christ. We also talked about how the Jews/Israelites celebrate Passover to remember the firstborn being saved, and how we celebrate Easter and how we are all saved through the atonement.

We also looked at the map and talked about how Mrs. Katz came to New York all the way from Poland. Abby noticed she had to have crossed a lot of water and we discussed oceans, specifically the Atlantic Ocean.

We learned a little bit about the science of cats, which was most exciting for Abby who LOVES all thing cats (and has since she was very little). We learned about how cats claws work, how they purr, even that they walk differently than most four-legged animals.

For art, we talked about polka dots and found some clothes the kids had that were polka-dotted. We also included a bit of math and counted polka dots.

We finished up by watching the Prince of Egypt. Towards the end, Abby was completely enthralled watching the ten plagues roll out.

We read a lot of books on cats. This one was called Cat Secrets and asked the reader to demonstrate a few things how cats do. Here's the girls showing us how cats stretch.

Read-Aloud:

We started The Littles by John Peterson this week. This is a perfect chapter book for the kids because the chapters aren't long and there are quite a few pictures sprinkled through. Emmett doesn't listen as well as Abby, but that's to be expected.

Church:

We began the School of Abraham's Gospel Principle's for Young Children this week. It is perfect because we may have a picture to go along with it, the text isn't drawn out or confusing, and there is a scripture and Primary song to go with it. Daddy usually does this right before bed. :) Next week we are going to work on refreshing our memory of the First Article of Faith.

Life:

Of course, with Easter coming up, we died some eggs this week as well--six dozen to be exact! There was much color-mixing and referring to secondary and primary colors. We heard a lot of "Hey! Red and yellow make orange!" type comments. They had fun. :)

Week of 10 Apr

Phonics/Reading:

We are keeping going with Funnix 2. I keep looking at the library to see if they have a copy of The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. I was thinking I'd go over some sound combinations and find a few game ideas to play to keep things interesting... We are getting close to taking a break with Funnix 2 and I think OPGTR might be a different option to do during those breaks. If I had a ton of money, I could find other options, but seeing as it is supplementary, I'll just wait till I can get it from the library. She doesn't mind Funnix and it is building her fluency, confidence and speed, but a break is always nice too...

ABCs:

Emmett did the letter H this week. We watched some Leapfrog, wrote Hs in the carpet, did some wet-dry-try, pasted our H on our coconut tree, and then topped it all of with a worksheet. He still loves doing his letters.

Five in a Row:

Emmett was ecstatic when I pulled out Harold and the Purple Crayon on Monday. Once upon a time (probably sometime last year), Abby pulled a DVD off the shelf at the library that was based on this book. It's done by HBO Family and we now own a copy of it because they love it. So, there was much excitement that we were reading the book (again!) and doing a unit on it.

Here they are watching the DVD. The first episode actually stays fairly true to the book, which is neat.

For Family Home Evening we played what we called a "Harold Game" using our dry erase boards and purple markers. It was mostly just Pictionary, but the older kids really enjoyed it.

This is Abby's dog:

Emmett insisted that Daddy show him step-by-step how to draw each item.

We watched some YouTube videos on how crayons are made and then we tried our hands at melting down and mixing some of our own crayons. This turned into a bit of a talk about primary and secondary colors and experimenting with what colors we get when we mix certain ones.

Before:

After: (You can't really tell from the picture, but the crayons really did melt into orange, purple and green!)

We even did some fun swirly crayons:

We let the older kids draw with their newly-shaped/created crayons, but it didn't last long. Ellie loves them, though. She loves to take them out of the containers, place them in different spots, stack them, color with them, place them back in the container, repeat, etc.

We talked about the setting of this story and where it takes place. Abby was the first to pipe up, "In Harold's imagination!" So, of course, we drew our own imaginary story. Sadly, I don't have pictures of those, but they came out pretty cute.

We also observed how Harold gets around in the story and what other ways we get around. Emmett's favorite was the hot air balloon. Abby's favorite to remember was an AWACS (it's the jet Daddy flies on for work).

We have been loosely keeping things together in notebooks for the kids. I guess you could call it notebooking. I like the idea of keeping everything together in one central place. We've done one for each story, but apparently am only now getting around to type about it. If we write anything, or create anything, or what-have-you, we just stick it in their notebooks. We have since come to love double-sided tape (much better than glue sticks)!

This is Emmett's for Harold:

Handwriting:

I didn't think we'd do a specific handwriting for a while. I learned to write without one. My mom just showed me how to form the letters and I did a lot of copying her. Abby, however, is totally a workbook-loving kid and it's easier for me to give her a sheet to do...only because she doesn't complain at all. In fact, she asks to do more! So, she is currently doing the kindergarten-level book from Zaner-Bloser and she loves it.

Read-Aloud:

Because we finished up My Father's Dragon last week, we just did some picture books this week. Here's Daddy reading Purplicious to all three kids. The Pinkalicious books are favorites around here.

We did pick up The Littles for our next chapter book. My kids have seen the TV series thanks to Netflix. I hope they enjoy the book just as much!

Church:

I think I have found something for Church-related activities for the kids. I'm not sure exactly how it will go because we haven't implemented it yet, but I am thinking the School of Abraham's review of Gospel Principles will fit in nicely. Instead of bouncing around in their scriptures, like they are now, we will do each day's lesson right before bed. It's all very tentative, though, because Daddy heads up scripture-time with them. As long as I have it prepared, though, it shouldn't be too much...

Week of 03 April

Phonics/Reading:

My original plan after completing Funnix Beginning Reading was to wait and have Abby read us a couple of readers. However, she started guessing unknown words and not utilizing the decoding skills she had learned, so by the end of the week we picked up Funnix 2 and started it. It is a little different than Funnix Beginning Reading in that there isn't as much review of the story with the pictures afterwards, but Abby doesn't seem to care. We are going to take Funnix 2 much slower, though, and take breaks probably every 10-15 lessons.

Abby also has been reading aloud quite frequently. Some mornings she wants to do our read-alouds instead of me.

Here she is reading a board book to Emmett. Board books are perfect because there aren't a ton of words on the page for her to figure out.

ABCs:

Emmett loves doing his alphabet. It the morning task that he begs for. This week we went over the letter D. We made dots on a D which really cemented it into his head what the letter says as he would say "duh duh dot!" as he dotted it.

Five in a Row:

We rowed Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey this week. We've read this book before, but the kids loved delving in further.

This story takes place in Boston so we found Massachusetts on the map. We even talked about how their maternal grandma was born in Massachusetts! (The dagger is an optional accessory for pinpointing places...)

We discussed how when Mr. and Mrs. Mallard flew over the city, it looked sort of like a map would and that maps were drawings of places from above. This was the perfect time to introduce a bit of map work (that we will continue for the next year).

We talked about how the ducklings names (Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Ouack, Pack and Quack) all rhyme. We even mixed them up and replaced them in alphabetical order.

We learned a bit about the science of ducks. We talked about how ducks don't get wet, they dive for food at the bottom of ponds, why mama ducks look like they do (they're camouflage!), why boy ducks have all the bright colors on them, the life cycle of ducks, and even a fact Daddy and I didn't know: Ducks have no nerves in their feet!

We did a life cycle wheel.

We used our Draw Write Now books to draw a duck. This is Emmett's awesome rendition (remember, he's only 3!):

And, of course, we went and fed some ducks!

We even saw mallard ducks!

And then...we saw a duckling!

He was a very nice duckling and even came close enough that the kids could get up close and personal.

And then it was time to leave, and he followed us to the car!

He came all the way out to the parking lot. We were worried about him getting squished by a car or something and it was quite a ways for a little guy to be away from the creek, so Daddy picked him up and took him back.

Read-Aloud:

We finished up My Father's Dragon. The kids liked it okay. I don't think we'll go on with the series, though. While Emmett sat and listened, he really doesn't have it in him to get into a chapter book at this point (even a simple one like this). I think he will really enjoy it when he's a bit older, though. And Abby? I just don't think it was her top pick of book. She did enjoy it, but not enough to move on with the sequels.

Church:

We had General Conference this past weekend and the kids were pleased to listen to the prophet. I would love for the kids to start some kind of LDS-related curriculum. I just have to find something easy/quick and age-appropriate.

Weeks of 17 and 24 March

I'm just going to apologize in advance for the nearly no photos in this post. Apparently I was busy taking photos of other things than whatever we were focusing our academics on. And, apparently, whenever I did take photos, it was of Abby. I'll still recap, though.

Phonics:

Abby has basically finished Funnix. She has two lessons left. She's writing us notes and reading things unprompted. Her literacy has really taken off. My plan for the next week at least will be to just encourage her reading and sitting with her while she reads me a book.

Five In A Row:

We rowed Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney for the last two weeks. It was a nice segue after Peter Rabbit and our continued talk on seeds, gardens, etc.

Here is Abby placing it on the map. We were heading to swim lessons, hence the swimsuit.

And Abby making some fingerprint lupines.

We also discussed names to call people, including ones that give happy feelings and ones that make us sad. We talked about different nicknames they had. And, like you should with Miss Rumphius we talked about how they could make the world more beautiful.

ABCs:

We were really light with the ABCs this week. We went over the letter L, which Emmett apparently knew. So we concentrated on how to make the shape: rolling it out in play dough, building it with blocks, using our fingers to make the letter (and talking about left and right), wet-dry-try, and then eventually a worksheet of tracing Ls.

Even though he knew it all and it was light, Emmett still loved the lessons.

Routine/Chore Boards:

We've adjusted our chore/task/routines this past week. Now, before any TV or playing outside in the morning and afternoon, they must flip over all of their chore tasks.

Emmett's favorite task is to complete his alphabet. He is constantly asking to do that one. Abby, so far, seems to enjoy story time. And, yes, I did put story time on their task charts because it helps them to remind me to read to them. This way it does not fall to the wayside.

Speaking of reading to my children....

Read-Aloud:

We've restarted My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles. My kids have heard the beginning before because we got it with the intent of Daddy reading it to them at bedtime, but it wasn't happening. In all the upheaval of trying to get the kids in bed (especially considering it's a bit late on Tuesdays and Thursdays already due to swim), it always got pushed to the side. So now with extra reading happening around here, I'm reading it to them.