tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83833831105700565142024-03-13T11:02:02.927-07:00Our Life in Learningblondeviolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14777423468629595749noreply@blogger.comBlogger101125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383383110570056514.post-59595973472845887572014-10-18T13:45:00.003-07:002014-10-18T13:45:41.811-07:00First Quarter Down!I had goals to write here at least monthly, if not weekly. But somewhere between five kids and keeping house, this keeps getting pushed to the wayside. We are now down NINE WEEKS of school. WOOHOO! We are on break next week and everyone is feeling happy that we are off, even Mom!<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Preschool:</b></span><br />
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<b><span style="color: lime;">Hyrum</span></b> loves the What Your Preschooler Needs to Know books. And like my other kids that I've had this series with, he has periods of nothingness, and then binges where he works through pages at a time. Most notably, we did LOTS Goldilocks and the Three Bears and I'm a Little Teapot. <br />
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Every other Friday, we've done a letter craft. <b><span style="color: lime;">Hyrum</span></b> has known all of his letters for YEARS, but they're still fun, right? This quarter we did all of the letters in his name. H (house), Y (yarn), R (robot), U (umbrella), M (money).</div>
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He also regularly pulls out as many games as he can throughout the school day. He LOVES Operation.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Five in a Row:</b></span><br />
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We have only done this when we've been capable. If it's been a nice day, we've valued play above extra seatwork for the five-and-under crowd. As a result, we've only rowed two books: Peter Rabbit and Ferdinand. We did some lapbook Elements with Ferdinand, but Peter Rabbit was all oral. We'll have to do more lapbook elements, though, because <b><span style="color: magenta;">Ellie </span></b>loved it.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Grammar: </span></b><br />
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<b><span style="color: purple;">Abby </span></b>has completed lessons that discuss nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs as well as diagramming sentences with these parts of speech. She was SUPPOSED to memorize A Tragic Story by William Makepeace Thakeray, but she's resisting. In the past few years, she has loved memorizing the poems so I'm not sure why she's resisting.<br />
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<b><span style="color: red;">Emmett </span></b>is working in FLL 2. He's a bit ahead and I'm not in a rush for him to finish it any time soon, so he's been pretty lax with it. He's memorized his pronouns and state of being verbs. Most days his lessons are short and sweet. He does not find memorizing as easy as his sister.</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Spelling:</span></b><br />
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We picked up the Writing Road to Reading this year. We started with just working on memorizing all of the phonograms. <b><span style="color: purple;">Abby </span></b>whizzed through these. <span style="color: red;"><b>Emmett </b></span>has spells where he remembers the first 60 (out of 72) that he has learned, and other times (especially when applying to reading or writing) that he can't recall any phonograms and makes random guesses. I'm not sure how, but the spelling words I've given him have still stuck and he spells them correctly. I suppose he might be more a whole language reader/speller. <b><span style="color: purple;">Abby</span></b> detests spelling, but does not struggle with it at all. Once she marks the words, she remembers them.<br />
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Abby enters her word in her book in cursive and Emmett does manuscript. <br />
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<b><span style="color: magenta;">Ellie </span></b>is slowly learning the phonograms when SHE feels like it. We are also working through proper letter formation since she has a tendency to form the letters from the bottom up and clockwise.</div>
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<b><span style="color: lime;">Hyrum</span></b> is very often hanging around when we're drilling phonograms with any other kid. He loves to write his letters and is pretty decent with his capital letters. He often steals the iPad with the kids' spelling game (Spellosaur) and tries to play it as well. I set up his own account with simple words (no, yes, stop, play, go, etc) and he loves doing "spelling" too.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Reading:</span></b><br />
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<span style="color: purple;"><b>Abby </b></span>is zooming through the list of books I had made up based on the time period we're studying in history. A lot of them are abridged or edited versions of the books because she is a bit young for some of the more mature themes in early modern literature. I'm aiming for familiarity of the storyline so language isn't a struggle in later years. She has done <i>Robinson Crusoe</i>, <i>Gulliver's Travels</i>, <i>The Hunchback of Notre Dame</i>, <i>Les Miserables</i>, and the <i>Three Musketeers</i>. This last week the local Performing Art Centre was playing <i>Les Mis </i>and her and I enjoyed an evening together. She loved going and watched the whole play.<br />
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On her free time, Abby is zooming through Harry Potter. She totes her Kindle everywhere with her. Last year she read books one and two and wasn't motivated to start any more. Within the last six weeks, though, she's completed three, four and five and started on book six. She often pretends that she is a witch who will be attending Hogwarts. She'll be going as Hermione for Halloween.</div>
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<b><span style="color: red;">Emmett </span></b>took nearly six weeks to buddy read an abridged version of <i>Robinson Crusoe</i>. BUT, he finished it! He and I were both pleased it was done. We watched <i>Cast Away </i>as a celebration and all of the kids, even the three-year-old, watched the whole long film in rapt attention. After <i>Crusoe</i>, though, I decided to pick up something fun with him. He's working through <i>Wayside School </i>and the short chapters and funny stories are good motivators all on their own. I'd like to transition him to reading on his own, but he still sort of lazily skims through a book if I ask him to read something that wasn't his choice.<br />
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<b><span style="color: magenta;">Ellie </span></b>is working through her lessons beautifully. This is the ONLY schoolwork that I'm requiring of her right now. And even then, her fine motor skills are such that I do not require her to complete the accompanying worksheet. She has thirty lessons left and then we will move on to her reading us real books. She has done better than I had even hoped she would.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Writing:</b></span></div>
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I took <span style="color: purple;"><b>Abby </b></span>through the first section of Treasured Conversations. This section emphasizes strong word choice and grammatically correct sentence structure. She really enjoyed it. We took the last week off from writing and now I'm not sure what we'll move into. I'm not sure if she's ready for the second section. I may move into WWE 3 or CAP's Writing and Rhetoric program...it's a good thing I have a week to figure that out.<br />
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<b><span style="color: red;">Emmett</span></b> has completed the first nine weeks of WWE 1. He tried the first few weeks last year, but he was very resistant. It is a much better fit this year!<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Latin:</span></b></div>
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Abby is LOVING Getting Started With Latin. Just yesterday, she has just completed the lessons where she learned about conjugated her first action verb. I found <a href="http://youtu.be/ILGAtxl1pd0">this video on youTube</a>, which she thought was really funny.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Math:</span></b><br />
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I had hopes that we could still use Beast Academy for <b><span style="color: purple;">Abby </span></b>on Fridays, but she was very resistant. Teaching Textbooks has been a very good fit for her. Level four has yet to find anything that she's not learned yet and she hasn't struggled with any of the lessons or problems. She is halfway through Year Four. At this pace, she'll work through most of Year Five as well.<br />
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<span style="color: red;"><b>Emmett </b></span>is finishing up Singapore 2B. Most days, I point out the main point of the lesson, he directs me in working through a few problems from the textbook, and then works the workbook problems without issue. I should probably test him out of plenty of this, but he is working through all things reading and spelling related, so I want to let him have something easy. He is also greatly looking forward to beginning Beast Academy.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>History:</b></span><br />
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We have finished through chapter eleven discussing the Moghul emperors of India. I did have to sit down each kid at a point and explain to each that my goals for them were different with history. <span style="color: red;"><b>Emmett </b></span>is working on holding the picture in his head. <span style="color: purple;"><b>Abby </b></span>is working on having a bit more understanding of the details.<br />
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We have a local family that we are teaming with to do history projects. The kids enjoy it and it reminds me to DO all of the project ideas. For the chapter on slave trade, we built plantations out of Lego. For the chapter on Indian spices and the hunt for a better route to them, the kids explored how different foods tasted with different spices.<br />
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We also have been singing the timeline song from Veritas Press's Explorers to 1815. The kids have memorized up to event 17 (out of 32). When we can, we look up the extra information from the back of the card in Joy Hakim's the <i>Story of Us</i>.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Geography:</b></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: purple;">Abby </span></b>is working out of the <i>Big Book of Geography </i>and <span style="color: red;"><b>Emmett </b></span>is working through <i>Beginning Geography</i>. I don't teach out of these. The kids read and do two sheets every time we do history. <br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Science:</span></b><br />
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The kids LOVE the projects we've been doing (from Adventures with Atoms and Molecules), but they HATED writing about their projects. There's been lots of illustrating projects. Because of other extra-curricular activities, we are barely getting history-work done during the week so we have moved science projects to Saturdays. This has the added benefit that Daddy can be home to help out with the projects and with the Littles.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Extracurriculars:</span></b><br />
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<span style="color: purple;"><b>Abby </b></span>picked piano back up this year. She took it like she remembered everything. I regret having to pause it because she really does derive a lot of satisfaction doing it. Her current teacher is really expensive so I'm not sure she'll keep with her teacher after her recital in November. She is enjoying having lessons from someone other than Mom.<br />
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<b><span style="color: red;">Emmett's </span></b>swim is going okay. He still has focus issues or knowing-when-to-stop issues. HOWEVER, he has an awesome coach. When I asked him this week what he was working towards on each stroke, he could give me a technique for each one. He had a meet a couple of weeks ago and had great times. He placed first place in the 8 and under 25 back (25.33), third place in the 8 and under 25 free (20.43), fifth place in the 8 and under 25 breast (29.33), and disqualified on his 25 fly (swam the wrong stroke).<br />
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<b><span style="color: magenta;">Ellie </span></b>did swim for a bit, and even swam one practice with the pre-team. She's decided it's too much work. We'll wait a few more months at least before she tries again.blondeviolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14777423468629595749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383383110570056514.post-25974192611897596572014-08-18T00:46:00.000-07:002014-08-24T00:55:57.595-07:00Back to School 2014
<p>A lot has changed since I last blogged. We moved across the country from Oklahoma to Alaska. The kids are loving the new neighborhood as it's a cul-de-sac with lots of kids. Daily they are begging me to go to the park or hang out with their friends. In OKC, these opportunities were very rare. Moving has cracked their social life wide open!<br></p>
<p>In between managing kids, I've been working on getting our house set up, and that includes the school area. In the house, we have two living spaces, which means we don't have to do schoolwork at the kitchen table any more. Oh yeah! So, we bought some desks and small chairs and the kids are happy to have their own space. I would like to eventually like to buy bigger chairs for the older kids, but these will do for now.</p>
<p>The neighborhood kids ago back to school on Wednesday so we are starting this week too. We've had a very large break (nearly four months!), so it's definitely time.</p>
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<h1 style="text-align: center;"><font color="#ff6800">Enzo - Toddler</font></h1>
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<p>This boy is my shadow. He's always in the same room. He constantly is checking for me, grabbing my legs, climbing up me, and patting me. At the same time, he demands that he must play whatever the Bigs are playing. He's very determined. He also likes to undo. Any neat pile I've got doesn't stay neat for long. He's going to be the spice of our school year.</p>
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<h1 style="text-align: center;"><font color="#098000">Hyrum - Three School</font></h1>
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<p>This year he will be working on potty training. That's the big focus, he's ready, but I've got to be more consistent than I've been. We didn't even approach it since we knew we were moving.</p>
<p>Hyrum is also going to work on the Core Knowledge preschool books with Mom. He's also started independently writing small words, so he's going to be learning proper handwriting formation along with Ellie. He will probably tag along with her Five In A Row studies.</p>
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<h1 style="text-align: center;"><font color="#fe00ff">Ellie - Kindergarten</font></h1>
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<p>It's crazy to believe Ellie is in kindergarten! She has sort of been working through some reading lessons when we remember. She's really excelled with Funnix and is on lesson fifty-something. It's almost halfway through the lessons.</p>
<p>My main focus with Ellie is to get her reading and reading well. Once she finishes with Funnix, she will move on to other things more intensely. For now, she will be dabbling in math (Miquon), spelling (Writing Road to Reading), and Five in a Row. </p>
<p>My secondary focus is to get her properly forming her letters. Her mind does not seem to process things linearly and I wonder if she's a whole-to-parts, visual/spatial learner. It's hard to know at five. Regardless, her fine motor skills have been slower to develop and she's only just begun to write letters. She is inclined to write letters from the bottom up and use clockwise strokes (gah!), so we will be drilling proper formation a lot.</p>
<p>Ellie also hopes to join a swim team this year. She will either work on a pre-team or attend lessons for proper stroke formation. She has an evaluation soon.</p>
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<h1 style="text-align: center;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" color="#ff0f00">Emmett - First Grade</font></h1>
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<p>Emmett is my math/science kid. He is pretty advanced in his math and will finish up Singapore 2B before moving into Beast Academy. He seems to understand the mental calculation and crossing tens with ease. So well, in fact, that he argues about using the standard algorithm for regrouping. He doesn't see the point because he can do it in his head.</p>
<p>He is still not as confident in his reading as I would like. He reads fluently, but either guesses unfamiliar words or skips over them completely. For this purpose, this year he is going to really focus and solidify his reading. We are going to start him at the beginning of the Writing Road to Reading and I am hoping that analysis will help him become a stronger reader.</p>
<p>Emmett will also work through Writing With Ease 1, which is basic copywork and narration. We will focus on keeping his writing neat and focusing enough in stories to tell back what happens. We've been listening to a lot of audiobooks this summer (thank you, Audible!) and he's finally transitioned into listening and enjoying stories so I'm hoping he's matured enough that WWE won't be too difficult. He will do First Language Lessons 2 for his grammar.</p>
<p>Emmett's continuing swim this year. He is swimming with Knik Aquatics and loving it. His coaches are great. He had his first meet this past weekend and cut significant time off all of his events.</p>
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<h1 style="text-align: center;"><font color="#7f0085">Abigail - Third Grade</font></h1>
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<p>Abby is my reader. She loves to disappear inside stories and books. She's also a perfectionist, however, and allows some of her anxiety about being wrong to impede her own progress. This year I'm going to expect more out of her - more quality writing, more reading, more willingness to try.</p>
<p>For language arts, she will be working on writing strong sentences and working up to good paragraphs. I don't ascribe to the public school philosophy that writing a bunch will make a good writer. Rather, I want to teach her the importance of word selection, constructing complete thoughts with good descriptions. We are going to be using a mash-up of a few things for writing. For the first few weeks we'll be working from Treasured Conversations. The first part of this curriculum works on making strong and descriptive sentences. Afterwards, we'll move on to CAP's Writing and Rhetoric and Writing With Ease 3. She'll continue with First Language Lessons too.</p>
<p>Abby has no issue with writing besides spelling. She freezes and refuses to write anything if she doesn't know how to spell all of the words. She gets so worked up over the one word, everything else becomes a jumble and she can't even begin her task because she's already worked up over it. We are working on learning to take things one step at a time, but also increasing her spelling abilities. When I had her take the standardized test (CAT) last year she schored very high across the board on everything (8th and 9th stanines) but spelling. Her spelling was at grade level. Obviously this is frustrating for her. She's going to use WRTR as well in hopes that we can accelerate some of the easier stuff and increasing her spelling ability. Apparently All About Spelling moved too slowly and some of it didn't stick.</p>
<p>She is also going to pick up Latin with a book called Getting Started With Latin. Mom's going to be learning right along with her and she's actually excited to do the lessons with me.</p>
<p>We are also trying a new-ish approach with math. Once again, Abby's perfectionistic tendencies inhibit math to some degree. She won't try problems if they seem too hard. She's already ahead a year in math, so this year is going to be a coast year a bit. She's going to become a bit more self-directed, a bit more confident, and still learn a few new things. We are going to keep using Beast Academy on Fridays. She's moving in to 3D and she loves those monsters. For M-Th, though, she's going to be working from Teaching Textbooks 4. TT should be a bit a more self-directed. It will be confidence-building because the the curriculum is considered a year behind in a lot of teaching circles so it should be mostly review. She will work double time until she's reached a spot where she should be working.</p>
<p>Abby also wants to do 4H this year. The base has options, but nine is the minimum age. I'm still hunting for a group.</p>
<p>She also is going to restart piano lessons this year. And I won't be the teacher. Woohoo!</p>
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<h1 style="text-align: center;">Combined Content</h1>
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<p>Ellie and Hyrum will be working through Five in a Row this year. It might be a bit of a reach for Hyrum, but he constantly surprises me so we are going to include him and let the chips fall how they may.</p>
<p>Abby and Emmett will be using Story of the World 3 this year. I'm very excited to move into some US history. The kids will be reading in SOTW, using some Veritas Press history cards, and looking at the first few books of Joy Hakim's The Story of US. We are also going to be memorizing states and capitals and the presidents.</p>
<p>We will also begin chemistry. I think we are starting the year with Ellen McHenry's the Elements. I'm not sure if we'll move into Carbon Chemistry or RSO or just explore the rest of the time with books and projects. I guess we'll see!</p>
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blondeviolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14777423468629595749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383383110570056514.post-20612763010313349352014-03-27T15:07:00.001-07:002014-03-27T15:22:15.674-07:002013/2014 School Year - Curricula and KidsLife has gotten busy and I haven't gotten around to updating this blog all year. Here we are more than halfway through the school year and I have yet to get to typing what we're using!<br>
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<b><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;">Lorenzo - Age 11 months </span></b></div>
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Enzo mostly is in the background of schooling either nursing, crying, eating or crawling. Mostly crying. He is probably the biggest reason that the school blog kept getting put off this year. He's been a pretty fussy baby. Even our neighbors have said they've felt bad as they've heard him crying everyday... (And, no, we don't share any walls!) He's getting a bit more independent, however, and proves to be a quick kid. He says yum, Mom, all done, bye, and nose. <br>
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<b><span style="color: lime; font-size: x-large;">Hyrum - Age 2.5 </span></b></div>
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Hyrum has been working on speech this year. At 2.5 he still wasn't making sentences much, so I had him evaluated by the birth-to-three faction in our state. At the time of the evaluation, however, he had sprouted a ton of words and now talks up a storm in full sentences and paragraphs. He qualified for speech therapy due to articulation, though that was completely subjective and his speech therapist thinks he's totally age appropriate as far as articulation goes. So, we discontinued services after two months.<br>
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Hyrum's also been having his ears and hearing tested due to the speech issues. There is a slight chance that he has some hearing loss so the doctors and audiologists are following up on that.<br>
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Hyrum's funny because he loves much of our schoolork. He will sit at the table with crayons and paper pretending he is doing what the others are. He also loves to listen to the audio companion to First Language Lessons and regular walks around singing the prepositions or clapping his state of being verbs. <br>
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<span style="color: magenta; font-size: x-large;"><b>Ellie - Age 4.5 </b></span></div>
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Ellie is my first kid to finish the What Your Preschooler Needs to Know workbook. It was great for her and quick for me! She begged for more all of the time. <br>
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She has recently started reading lessons with Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. She has surprised me with being able to blend simple CVC words and rhyme with ease. She also is capable of doing simple addends-under-five addition.<br>
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<b><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;">Emmett - Age 6, Kindergarten </span></b></div>
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Emmett's birthday is in October, which makes him officially a kindergartener this year. He doesn't fit in a box that nicely, though.<br>
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<span style="font-size: large;">LA: </span><br>
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Emmett still is working on becoming an independent reader. He and I did a lot of buddy reading at the beginning of this year. He still reads to me quite frequently. Sometimes he insists that he's read whatever I've sent him to read in his head, but he "finishes' 80 page books in 5 minutes. Riiight. He can read when prompted, but still doesn't choose to do it on his own. I want him to love it. Because I'm swamped and I don't want to be beating a dead horse, I've decided that he will just continue working on his phonics via Explode the Code. He's just started book three, which starts with VCE words. It's a good fit for him because he still forgets to make those vowels long even though he's practiced this concept forwards, backwards and upside-down for the last year or so.<br>
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Despite not being 100% independent with his reading, he sailed through All About Spelling 1 for his spelling. He's just started AAS 2. <div><br></div><div> First Language Lessons 1 has been another success for grammar this year. He has enjoyed memorizing the poems in the book. He just memorized all of his pronouns. </div><div><br></div><div> After working through all of these things for LA, we gave writing a try. Unfortunately, Emmett had a hard time with narration and answering follow-up questions. So, we decided to give him some time to mature a year.<br>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Math: </span><br>
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Emmett really likes math. I wonder if he'll continue to like it like his mom did. I tried to slow him down a bit this year by doing half lessons and the like, but he still zoomed through. He just finished up the Singapore portion of 2A portion involving adding and subtracting three-digit numbers with regrouping, including the standard "stack-it-up" algorithm.<br>
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<span style="color: purple; font-size: x-large;"><b>Abby - Age 7.5, Second Grade</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">LA: </span><br>
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Abby is working on reading good books. This year she has read quite a few books, most notably the Tale of Despereaux, Door in the Wall, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (an indulgence), Black Beauty, Misty of Chincoteague, The Story of Dr. Doolittle, the Voyages of Dr. Doolittle, the Secret Garden, etc.<br>
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She finished up her grammar (First Language Lessons level 2) for the year. She enjoyed jumping to her prepositions as she memorized the list.<br>
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For writing, she is finishing up Writing With Ease 2. She's done great with her narrations and takes dictation well (even if she claims she hates it).<br>
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Spelling has sort of been up in the air. We took a bit off and then reviewed some to let her spelling sink in. She finished through the middle of AAS 3 and we have moved into R&S Spelling by Sound and Structure Level 3 because it's more independent and AAS (while phonetically awesome) is very teacher/parent intensive.<br>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Math:</span><br>
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This year Abby has taken Beast Academy for a whirl. It's a very challenging curriculum, but she has absolutely loved the little beasts. Some critique Singapore because it doesn't teach kids as incrementally as they would like. For Abby, however, I have realized it is still very incremental and she often gets caught up in the little things while completely understanding the big picture. The ability for her to tease out HOW to approach problems and to puzzle through difficult problems has been HUGE for her. She still flips out over math sometimes, but not because she doesn't get it. Most of her drama about it is because she has spells of forgetting her facts. She is about halfway through 3C and loving long division (which is HUGE for her).<br>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;">All Together:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">History: </span><br>
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Abby and Emmett are doing Middle Ages this year. Emmett sat in on history last year, but his participation was sketchy. This year, however, he is in there understanding more, figuring out the geography, and enjoying all of the battles. His narrations for history really feel like they've come a long way. In this way, we'll keep practicing narrations even though he's not doing a formal writing program.<br>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Science: </span><br>
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Last year, Emmett LOVED all things science. We are using RSO again this year, but it is not catching him as interesting as the human body section. Apparently earth and space science is not nearly as interesting as biology. We are in the middle of making a lapbook about the Solar System. I've been having Ellie sit in making the lapbook and have her begin to give small narrations. <br>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Extracurriculars:</span><br>
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Abby has remained in gymnastics all year long. Besides a mishap at a local play area the resulted in a broken clavicle, she has practiced handstands and cartwheels when she could.<br>
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Emmett joined swim team at the beginning of summer last year. He is loving swim and swam at the state swim mett this past February. His coaches even recognized him for how much his attitude, practice, strokes, and event times have improved in the last 10 months.<br>
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Ellie has continued in gymnastics as well. She enjoys gym but doesn't seem passionate about it either. It is good for her to keep active, however. <br>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">The Big News </span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">AKA </span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">The Whole Reason I Have Been Too Busy to Keep Up This Blog</span></b></div>
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Last September we learned that we will be PCSing. That's military-speak for moving. For the last six months, my husband and I have been as busy as we could getting the house fixed up and finally on the market. It's been quite a task with five kids and homeschooling! Hopefully the house will sell soon.<br>
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This summer we are going from Oklahoma to Alaska. We will be driving and camping along the way. We are so excited to see and explore half the continent! We told the kids they could switch extracurriculars if they wanted. Emmett will continue with swim, but Abby has decided she might like to try drama and Ellie wants to give figure skating a go.<br>
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Homeschooling in Alaska should be fairly straightforward, which will be nice. We are definitely lookingn forward to the next big adventure!<br>
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</div>blondeviolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14777423468629595749noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383383110570056514.post-89361731714658387192013-07-03T09:11:00.000-07:002013-07-03T09:11:18.694-07:00Weeks 33-36...a bit later. :)On April 10th, we were blessed with this little gentleman. We named him Lorenzo John. He was 8 pounds, 12 ounces and 21.5 inches long. <br />
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As you would imagine, his arrival upset our groove. </div>
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Luckily, Daddy took off work so we could finish up the last two or three weeks while Mom recovered and we all adjusted to life with a new baby. Anything that wasn't close to being finished was put on hold for the summer and we wrapped up what was close to being done.<br />
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Since Ellie and Hyrum don't really have a curriculum, they just enjoyed having Daddy around and loving on the new baby.</div>
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<span style="color: lime; font-size: x-large;"><b>Junior Kindergarten</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i><b>Language</b></i></span></div>
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<i>Reading</i></div>
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Emmett is basically through with most readers from the Sonlight readers. He still reads to me, though, and still needs a bit of helping sounding out some multi-syllabic words. He is definitely becoming a more and more confident reader, though!</div>
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Even though he can read stories, his favorite books are still non-fiction books. He was happy to get his own library card (after getting the required number of points on Book Adventure) and now happily checks out 3-5 books on various bugs, spiders, and snakes each week.</div>
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<i>Spelling</i><br />
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This was put on hold. He's continued to review, but will not move forward until the start of next year.<br />
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<i><b><span style="font-size: large;">Math</span></b></i><br />
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Because Emmett had just completed the section on adding past ten, it was a perfect spot to pause. I'm betting letting that "ferment" will be helpful at the start of next year.</div>
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<span style="color: purple; font-size: x-large;"><b>First Grade</b></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8639379750/" title="IMG_7796 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_7796" height="333" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8543/8639379750_5378d9a141.jpg" width="500" /></a>
</div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Language</i></b></span><br />
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<i>Grammar</i><br />
<br />
Abby wants to continue grammar through the summer, but it's just not happening. She still works on the things she has memorized through the audio companion.<br />
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<i>Writing</i><br />
<br />
We completed WWE1! Yeah!<br />
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<i>Reading</i><br />
<br />
Of course, Abby will still read throughout the summer. :)<br />
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<i>Spelling</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
Abby is smack in the middle of AAS level 3 so she'll pause where she is and continue to review until we start up again.<br />
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Math</span></i></b><br />
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Abby completed Singapore Year 2! So now it's review and fun math for the summer. :)<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">All Together</span></b></div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8642211174/" title="11 Apr by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="11 Apr" height="333" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8109/8642211174_21af3b92c8.jpg" width="500" /></a>
</div>
<b><i><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></b>
<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">History</span></i></b><br />
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This took us into our "summer break" to complete, but I wanted to complete it! Luckily, we got in there and got it done. The kids really learned and were exposed to a lot this year with Story of the World!<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Science</b></span><br />
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Even though I didn't blog it, we completed the plant unit in RSO: Life. I was very pleased with this course and we'll be using RSO again for Earth and Space science. For the summer, we've been fooling around with Sassafras Science. Unfortunately, it doesn't have the appeal for Emmett that RSO did.<br />
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<br /></div>
blondeviolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14777423468629595749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383383110570056514.post-64435869484377869932013-03-23T08:05:00.000-07:002013-04-06T08:07:48.013-07:00Week 32In case you're ever wondering what <span style="color: blue;">Hyrum </span>does during school time... Sometimes he's off making mischief with Ellie, sometimes he is playing with toys on his own. Other times, he steals the iPad or my phone and runs off. If he's got the iPad, he is usually watching Netflix or another video stored on there. But there are no shows or videos on my phone, so if he's got that, he's very often playing Starfall or Tozzle (because Mom's boring and doesn't put any more interesting apps on there).<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8623824187/" title="IMG_7395 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_7395" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8400/8623824187_786fdbd474_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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He's got Starfall going here.</div>
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<span style="color: magenta; font-size: x-large;"><b>Preschool</b></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Letter Craft</span></i></b></div>
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It's been rainy lately, so we did U is for Umbrella. <span style="color: magenta;">Ellie </span>did hers backwards...<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8623812981/" title="IMG_7401 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_7401" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8543/8623812981_1a2e3801ef_z.jpg" width="427" /></a></div>
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Like has been typical the last little bit, <span style="color: blue;">Hyrum </span>has enjoyed participating and decorating his own letter.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8624913204/" title="IMG_7402 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_7402" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8103/8624913204_4be90fc6a8_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: lime; font-size: x-large;"><b>Junior K</b></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Language</span></i></b><br />
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<i>Reading</i><br />
<br />
While <i>Owl at Home</i> was a bit more of a stretch last week, this week Emmett flew through it! He's been practicing on his own and decoding words is getting easier for him. He finished up <i>Owl at Home</i> and moved on to <i>Frog and Toad are Friends.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/JMfAj6WvBrw" width="560"></iframe></div>
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<br /></div>
<i>Spelling</i><br />
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<span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>learned the two ways we can spell the /k/ sound at the beginning of a word. We actually went to the white board and used blank tiles as he learned when to use the letter c and when to use k.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8623827163/" title="IMG_7390 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_7390" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8529/8623827163_9f52f21d61_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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This week, he spelled his first sentence from dictation! When he focuses, his handwriting can pretty nice for a 5-year-old boy!<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8623820091/" title="IMG_7397 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_7397" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8393/8623820091_3c4705e281_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i><b>Math</b></i></span><br />
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<span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>did some review of math facts. I am finding he needs to constantly figure sums. <span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>memorized her facts rather quickly. <span style="color: lime;">Emmett</span>, on the other hand, has a much better grasp of counting on and other methods of figuring out his facts that he is not focused on memorization at all. I prefer this, but would like for him to eventually become more fluent with his facts. Luckily, he thinks it's cool to race against the clock.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8624909290/" title="IMG_7404 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_7404" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8534/8624909290_f6dc2ca77f_z.jpg" width="427" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: purple; font-size: x-large;"><b>First Grade</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Language</i></b></span><br />
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<i>Grammar</i><br />
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<span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>learned about helping verbs this week. We are working on memorizing the whole list. Once again, I'm grateful that we bought the audio companion to FLL because the song and chant on there has been really helpful!<br />
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<i>Writing</i><br />
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<span style="color: purple;">Abby</span>'s writing selections came from "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" which is a story in <i>King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table</i>. I wasn't sure how she'd respond to the story, but she really enjoyed listening in. Her copywork focused on command sentences.<br />
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<i>Reading</i><br />
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<span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>finished up <i>Winn-Dixie</i> this week. She's excited to watch the movie on Sunday.<br />
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<i>Spelling</i><br />
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<span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>worked with vowel teams "oa" and "ow" this week.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8623816915/" title="IMG_7398 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_7398" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8114/8623816915_a1373ca81f_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>Handwriting</i><br />
<br />
Cursive was skipped this week. <br />
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Math</span></i></b><br />
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<span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>moved into clocks this week. She has been having an off-focus week, though. She can tell time to the five-minute mark now, though!<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>All Together</b></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">History</span></i></b><br />
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I should have looked ahead because we had a chapter on Confucius that only had one section that we could have easily completed last week when we talked mostly about China. Oh well.<br />
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After we finished up that, we moved back to Rome and began discussing Julius Caesar. We read books about pirates, the consuls of Rome, etc. We talked about how Romans made mosaics using tiles and then did our own mosaics!<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8624905732/" title="IMG_7408 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_7408" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8387/8624905732_885cfb2c15_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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I intentionally got ones geared towards younger kids. They came with the picture pre-planned out and we just added the foam stickers. <span style="color: magenta;">Ellie </span>loved this and sat quietly at the table for about an hour finishing up two different ones!<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8623797293/" title="IMG_7413 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_7413" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8102/8623797293_ae05cc42ef_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i><b><span style="font-size: large;">Science</span></b></i><br />
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Our strawberries are growing nicely! I think next week we'll use their leaves to observe what happens to their chloroplast when they are NOT exposed to light.<br />
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<br />blondeviolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14777423468629595749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383383110570056514.post-15412933013054257062013-03-16T07:50:00.000-07:002013-03-16T07:50:31.778-07:00Week 31<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: magenta; font-size: x-large;"><b>Preschool</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Letter Craft</i></b></span><br />
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We did letter Q this week. <span style="color: magenta;">Ellie </span>was very excited to make a girly figure for her queen. <span style="color: blue;">Hyrum </span>enjoyed tagging along with his q, and thought the googly eyes and glue stick were fantastic. (And of course, he was excited about just the idea of a big letter.)<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8561360713/" title="IMG_7320 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_7320" height="800" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8528/8561360713_9293d7b700_c.jpg" width="534" /></a></div>
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She drew her own nose and placed the additions on her own.</div>
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<span style="color: lime; font-size: x-large;"><b>Junior K</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Language</i></b></span><br />
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<i>Reading</i><br />
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<i>Owl at Home</i> is definitely more difficult for <span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>than the previous books he had been reading. It's not unattainable, but the there's a lot more sounding out going on. We've repeated a few stories for fluency which helps immensely. A couple of days we took a break and did <i>Little Bear's Friend</i>, which is definitely comfortably at his level. Yesterday we went to the park and he did his reading there.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/rhUDt0ybACI" width="420"></iframe><br /></div>
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<span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>also picked up a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Splat-Cat-Rain-Pain-Read/dp/0062090178">Splat the Cat</a> book that he read on his own at bedtime. I told him we could pick more up at the library, and he seemed pleased about that.<br />
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<i>Spelling</i><br />
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<span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>spelled words with beginning blends this week. AAS says that beginning blends are usually more difficult for students, but he seemed to do a lot better with the beginning blends over the ending blends. We repeated and reviewed a bunch of words from last week as well.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Math</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>worked on subtraction mostly this week. The curriculum also moved on to position and ordinal numbers, which he found very easy. He needs some solidification of his facts. He can figure them, but I'd prefer them a bit more automatic. We might play some games with it or maybe just have him do some extra Miquon sheets before his next few lessons. <br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: purple; font-size: x-large;"><b>First Grade</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Language</i></b></span><br />
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<i>Grammar</i><br />
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<span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>continued copying and illustrating her poem about the year. She also learned about commas separating words and numbers in a list.<br />
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<i>Writing</i><br />
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Writing this week came from some poetry selections. The copywork was longer, which was surprisingly not an issue. <span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>also narrated the poetry back really well, which was interesting because the language used is not colloquial.<br />
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<i>Reading</i><br />
<br />
<span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>finished up the <i>Whipping Boy</i> this week, but didn't care for the book AT ALL. She could tell me what happened in short snippets, but didn't understand some of the smaller nuances. Nor did she care about any of those nuances as she really didn't care for the book. <br />
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I bought <i>Because of Winn-Dixie</i> for her to begin on Thursday. When I handed her the book to read, she asked if Winn-Dixie was the dog. When I answered in the affirmative, she skipped off happily and devoured the beginning of the book. After only two days of reading, she is already a third of the way through the book and enjoying it greatly.<br />
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<i>Spelling</i><br />
<br />
<span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>learned another way to spell the sound of "ee" this week. Specifically, the curriculum taught that if the "ee" sound is at the end of a multisyllabic word, we usually use "y." She also learned that we typically double consonants to protect a short vowel (ie, the difference between happy and hapy).<br />
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<i>Handwriting</i><br />
<br />
We had a full week with Daddy flying and gone most of the week. As a result, I was a lot busier with the kids. Cursive is the first thing that got dropped. She only completed lowercase v this week. <br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Math</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>completed the rest of fractions. She will have a review on Monday, I think, but will move on to other concepts next week. I might pull out the Miquon fraction pages as she has enjoyed those in the past.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">All Together</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>History</i></b></span><br />
<br />
We finished up our chapter on China. The kids enjoyed talking about the Great Wall and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terracotta_Army">Terracotta Army</a>. I think it might be fun this weekend to make our own clay soldiers...but we might use Play Doh instead. :)<br />
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Science</span></i></b><br />
<br />
We observed our strawberry plants growing and read a few more books on photosynthesis. I was ready to move on in RSO, but we need a plant that has a few good leaves and we're still not there yet. I'm hoping to plant a bean plant this weekend so we might be able to use it... Of course, with the weather turning nicer, we also spent a lot of time outside. :)<br />
<br />blondeviolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14777423468629595749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383383110570056514.post-53869331450417720942013-03-09T08:00:00.000-08:002013-03-09T08:03:09.052-08:00Week 30We are nearing the end of the school year. With only 4 weeks left until my due date and 6 weeks until we are "done" with the school year, I'm feeling like the school plan has gone pretty well!
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: magenta; font-size: x-large;"><b>Preschool</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: magenta;">Ellie </span>did some Starfall, to the detriment of my computer mouse. She dropped it. And while it's been dropped several times, this time around it hit the edge of the chair on the way down whacked the mouse and wheel. She was just getting pretty good with it too. Next week, she'll be back to working with Starfall again, though, with the use of a new mouse (thank you, Amazon Prime!).<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Letter Craft</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="color: magenta;">Ellie </span>did letter R this week. She colored Rs red (or rainbow in Abby's case). Then she helped me dye some rice red<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8542381858/" title="IMG_7262 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_7262" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8226/8542381858_9d3050720c_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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And then she glued the rice on the R. Of course, playing in the rice after she glued it to the R was lots of fun too!<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8541279991/" title="IMG_7263 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_7263" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8365/8541279991_f3b413cc84_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: lime; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: lime; font-size: x-large;">Junior K</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i> Language</i></b></span><br />
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<i>Reading</i><br />
<br />
<span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>finished <i>A Big Ball of String</i>. The next (and last) book in the schedule is <i>The Bravest Dog Ever: The True Story of Balto</i>. I looked through it, though, and decided to skip it with him. So, he moved into Sonlight Grade 2 readers. The first big chunk, though, is the <i>Beginner's Bible</i>, which he also skipped. So he moved into <i>Owl at Home</i>.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/vih5dCtGt64" width="560"></iframe><br /></div>
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The last few books have been at his independent reading level. <i>Owl at Home</i> is more at his instructional level. He read the first story twice to solidify some words he had to decode.<br />
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<i>Spelling</i><br />
<br />
He didn't repeat last week's lesson, but I did have him heavily review last week's words. For whatever reason, he has a harder time remembering the "ch" phonogram. <br />
<br />
This week's words were full of ending blends. He skipped a few blends here and there, but mostly n-d blends. He'll review those words along with the consonant team words he struggled with a bit for the next week.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Math</i></b></span><br />
<br />
This week <span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>worked through subtraction problems. The big concept he worked on this week was what-used-to-be-called "fact families." It's basically the idea that with any given number bond, 4 sets of math sentences can be created. In <span style="color: lime;">Emmett</span>'s case, I expect him to be able to create two addition and two subtraction sentences.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: purple; font-size: x-large;">First Grade</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Language</i></b></span><br />
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<i>Grammar</i><br />
<br />
<span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>finished up talking about linking verbs, reviewed sentences, and began copywork of a poem about months of the year.<br />
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<i>Writing</i><br />
<br />
This week's selections focused on a story from the <a href="http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/jataka.html">Jataka Tales</a>. Since we have just read about the Buddha and the Indian time period around these tales, <span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>thought it was really neat to be hearing a rendition of one. Her answers to the review questions came easily and narrations were painless this week (which they mostly are...).<br />
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<i>Reading</i><br />
<br />
<span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>completed <i>Pippi Longstocking</i>. I offered the Cricket in Times Square, but she didn't want to read it for whatever reason. So, she's reading <i>The Whipping Boy</i>. Apparently she doesn't care for this book very much. Lucky for her, it's very short. I guess I need to figure out what to have her read next...<br />
<br />
<i>Spelling</i><br />
<br />
<span style="color: purple;">Abby</span>'s lesson this week dealt with the /ur/ phonogram. She also learned about Handyman E, which takes care of all other silent Es that the other jobs don't. <br />
<br />
<i>Handwriting</i><br />
<br />
She did mostly review this week and focused on connecting letters.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Math</i></b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>completed a review of previous concepts this week and moved into fractions. Apparently she really likes fractions. Her math lessons were typically quick and without any complaining. I might pull out some of Miquon's fraction books for review/enrichment as she's done them in the past and enjoyed them.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>All Together</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">History</span></i></b><br />
<br />
We moved back to China this week! We learned about the first unified state of China - the Qin dynasty. This week we talked about calligraphy and Chinese characters as well as introduced the kids to the Qin and its emporer, Qin Zheng. Next week we'll finish up the chapter.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Science</i></b></span><br />
<br />
We picked up a strawberry plant and planted it this week.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8541286279/" title="IMG_7237 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_7237" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8104/8541286279_222173f77e_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
It's getting warm enough to the point that we might be able to pick RSO back up this coming week!blondeviolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14777423468629595749noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383383110570056514.post-55298653241999332292013-03-02T08:27:00.000-08:002013-03-02T08:27:21.279-08:00Week 29<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: magenta; font-size: x-large;"><b>Preschool</b></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>PreK Activity Book</i></b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: magenta;">Ellie </span>worked through some of a new Kumon Sticker and Paste workbook. She liked the stickers, but didn't feel like it was really "schoolwork." <br />
<br />
I did also have her play on Starfall, which she seemed to enjoy, but didn't want to play it as long as the other kids used to. I think part of that, though, is that she's not as adept with the mouse/computer as the other kids were at her age. I think it's slightly frustrating for her. So, we'll keep doing Starfall (we have the "more" subscription) and hopefully she'll gain some more computer control.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8521766126/" title="IMG_7221 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_7221" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8106/8521766126_cc5a956aba_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Letter Craft</i></b></span><br />
<br />
We skipped a letter craft this week in favor of Mom cleaning the fridge. <br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: lime; font-size: x-large;"><b>Junior K</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Language</i></b></span><br />
<br />
<i>Reading</i><br />
<br />
<span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>finished up <i>A Fly Went By</i> and started <i>A Big Ball of String</i>. For not having ever even OPENED the book, he's doing really well with it.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/-drEfhAWlps" width="560"></iframe><br /></div>
<br />
<i>Spelling</i><br />
<br />
<span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>spelled words with "th," "sh," and "ch" this week. He had a hard time remembering what consonant team said "ch" and figuring out if the word I was dictating said "v," "f," or "th." I am sure the latter issue is related to his speech. He spent more time looking at mouths and watching the way words are formed. I'm unsure as to whether we'll repeat this week or not...he did get most of the words correct.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Math</i></b></span><br />
<br />
So far <span style="color: lime;">Emmett</span>'s lessons are super short and super easy. He finished up the unit on methods of addition. He surprised me with his ability to "count on." This was a concept that was lost on Abby at this age. <br />
<br />
<span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>began some mental math practice as well. <span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>was stressed if I suggested timing her mental math practice. <span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>thrived on trying to beat his time, however. Different kids and all that. His first go at Mental Math 1 was completed in 2:37. His second time around, however, he completed it in in 1:58. Mental Math 2 was a lot more difficult of problems and he took longer. The first go he completed them in 5:37; the second in 4 minutes even. He loved watching his times go down. :)<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8520662699/" title="IMG_7214 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_7214" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8532/8520662699_4596656ec4_z.jpg" width="427" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
Towards the end of this week, he moved on to talking about subtraction and what that actually means.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: purple; font-size: x-large;"><b>First Grade</b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Language</span></i></b><br />
<br />
<i>Grammar</i><br />
<br />
<span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>had lessons that discussed linking verbs. She was very amused that they are THE SAME as state of being verbs. We did an exercise where we used the verbs to link nouns and descriptive phrases. This was a favorite activity.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8521771236/" title="IMG_7216 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_7216" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8231/8521771236_a5578203ba_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<i>Writing</i><br />
<br />
This week our selections came from <i>All-of-a-Kind Family</i>. The selections focused around the part where Sarah loses her library book. Since <span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>recently got her new library card, she was very somber about the loss of a library book.<br />
<br />
<i>Reading</i><br />
<br />
<span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>finished up <i>Sarah, Plain and Tall</i> and began <i>Pippi Longstocking</i>. The kids heard this on audio book a few years ago and loved it. I asked her if she remembered the story and she said she didn't, though. She is really enjoying the book and says it feels familiar.<br />
<br />
Our library has <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Pippi-Longstocking-Astrid-Lindgren/dp/0670014044/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1362240419&sr=8-8&keywords=pippi+longstocking">this edition</a> and Abby really is appreciating the illustrations in it. I wonder if I can find other good quality literature with fun illustrations like this one has...<br />
<br />
<i>Spelling</i><br />
<br />
<span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>learned some more about consonant-l-e syllables this week. I taught her why we may double consonants in some consonant-l-e words (ie bubble, puzzle, fiddle). She also learned about homophones and watched a Veggie Tales song about homophones.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/K0J-T2lr0Ms" width="420"></iframe><br /></div>
<br />
<i>Handwriting</i><br />
<br />
Abby wrote "U"s this week.<br />
<br />
<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Math</span></i></b><br />
<br />
<span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>worked through subtracting money this week. This money unit has been a good way to review addition and subtraction with larger numbers. She practiced both the standard algorithm and mental math. She has a review/practice at the beginning of next week and then she'll move on to another unit.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>All Together</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Science</span></i></b><br />
<br />
We talked a bit briefly about photosynthesis this week. We also picked up a strawberry plant that we'll start this next coming week. Soon, we will be ready to pick up RSO again and actually observe real plants!<br />
<br />
<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">History</span></i></b><br />
<br />
We learned about the Mauryan Empire of India this week. One of the big themes we touched on was how cities are stronger when they are united into one empire rather than when they fought each other.<br />
<br />
<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Chess</span></i></b><br />
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<span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>and <span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>have both solidified in ways they can attack with the bishop. We talked about moving a piece out of danger and then we moved on to attacking with the rook.<br />
<br />blondeviolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14777423468629595749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383383110570056514.post-74843703445634817152013-02-23T08:47:00.000-08:002013-02-23T08:47:17.534-08:00Week 28<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: magenta; font-size: x-large;"><b>Preschool</b></span></div>
<br />
I ordered a Kumon sticker and paste book for <span style="color: magenta;">Ellie </span>for the next little bit. I think that might satisfy her want for "school work," but my want for her to do something other than the next Core Knowledge PreK book.<br />
<br />
In the meantime, she is enjoying more read-alouds. Even <span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>reads to her sometimes.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8499881359/" title="IMG_7201 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_7201" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8234/8499881359_947c1b1b58_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Letter Craft</span></i></b><br />
<br />
We stamped As with apples this week. I've mentioned <span style="color: blue;">Hyrum</span>'s fascination with letters on here. <span style="color: magenta;">Ellie </span>liked this letter craft, but <span style="color: blue;">Hyrum </span>loved it. He had been crying and whining at me all morning due to an ear infection. The instant I gave him his A, though, he grinned and started saying the short sound of A. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8500990196/" title="IMG_7198 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_7198" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8522/8500990196_5dbff87713_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: lime; font-size: x-large;"><b>Junior K</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Language</i></b></span><br />
<br />
<i>Reading</i><br />
<br />
Emmett finished up <i>One Fish, Two Fish</i>. He was excited to get his OWN Book Adventure account and take his first quiz! He now wants to earn HIS own library card. :)<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8500979950/" title="IMG_7204 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_7204" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8231/8500979950_f3a67d6ef6_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
He started <i>A Fly Went By</i> for the rest of the week.<br />
<br />
<i>Spelling</i><br />
<br />
<span style="color: lime;">Emmett</span>'s lesson this week focused on words that end in "x" and "s." The words in this list were still fairly simple for him, which makes for great time to reinforce his handwriting. Look at how nice it is!<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8499894419/" title="IMG_7179 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_7179" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8376/8499894419_bc126536b4_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Math</i></b></span><br />
<br />
All of that play with number bonds last week made this week's jump into reviewing number bonds to ten and beginning addition super easy. He won't probably won't have a huge challenge with his math until we get to the section on completing a ten to add over ten.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: purple; font-size: x-large;"><b>First Grade</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Language</span></i></b><br />
<br />
<i>Grammar</i><br />
<br />
We finished up talking about state of being verbs. We only did two lessons this week because the next lesson goes into linking verbs so it was a very natural breaking point.<br />
<br />
<i>Writing</i><br />
<br />
Our selections this week came from <i>Little House on the Prairie</i> and <i>On the Banks of Plum Creek</i>. <span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>found the selection on the grasshopper cloud particularly humorous. I asked her if she wanted me to pick up these books and she said maybe <i>On the Banks of Plum Creek</i> would be fun to read. I'm not sure how I feel about her reading the Little House books out of order, but at the same time, if she read and enjoyed one, she might go back and enjoy the rest of them...<br />
<br />
<i>Reading</i><br />
<br />
On the same day that <span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>was riding a high of taking his very own Book Adventure quiz, <span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>finished <i>Trumpet of the Swan</i>. They were both so excited, that we took up the excitement and cashed in their Book It coupons for lunch! It is so neat to be able to do that RIGHT THEN!<br />
<br />
After completing <i>Trumpet</i>, she started <i>Sarah, Plain and Tall</i>. I offered either that or <i>Gooney Bird Greene</i>. She grabbed the latter first, but brought it back in seconds telling me it was "ridiculously baby-ish." LOL<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8499750664/" title="22 Feb by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="22 Feb" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8109/8499750664_0b214497ee_z.jpg" width="427" /></a></div>
<br />
<i>Spelling</i><br />
<br />
<span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>learned the fourth job of Silent E this week: It adds a vowel to a consonant-l-e syllable. Her words all ended in consonant-l-e except the rule-breaker "said." She LOVES when there is a rule-breaker in her lesson!<br />
<br />
<i>Handwriting</i><br />
<br />
We focused on connecting letters and not having so much space from one letter to the next in a word. Her cursive is starting to really look nice! She will definitely be ready to take some copywork in cursive next year.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8500997162/" title="IMG_7181 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_7181" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8391/8500997162_ec65eca89d_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Math</span></i></b><br />
<br />
<span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>worked on adding money this week. <br />
<br />
There was one day where she was supposed to practice adding where the cents would go over a dollar with the standard addition algorithm. <span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>doesn't use the standard addition algorithm much because she finds mental addition so much easier and quicker. I was pleased to see that she had no problem applying the algorithm and solving it that way. <br />
<br />
She also had a lesson where she was adding money where one of the addends was very near to a whole dollar amount. She quickly and successfully reasoned that she could add the whole dollar and then subtract the missing amount without me even introducing the lesson.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">All Together</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Science</i></b></span><br />
<br />
We read some books on photosynthesis this week. Just a few more weeks and we should be able to get back to APPLYING and OBSERVING all of this talk about plants.<br />
<br />
<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">History</span></i></b><br />
<br />
We read about the Aryans of India. This included an introduction and discussion on Hinduism and Buddhism. Not surprisingly, our library didn't have many kids books discussing these topics. We did find a few, though.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8499888175/" title="IMG_7196 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_7196" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8531/8499888175_514a09b50d_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Yes, Ellie is asleep in this picture. LOL</div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Chess</i></b></span><br />
<br />
We skipped it this week. We usually do chess on Fridays and yesterday was a bit rough in the morning.blondeviolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14777423468629595749noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383383110570056514.post-42318247934839160392013-02-22T09:04:00.000-08:002013-02-23T09:05:17.282-08:00First Grade ReadingHere's a list of books that Abby read during her assigned reading time during her first grade year. She read a lot more on her own as well.<br />
<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>Lulu and the Brontosaurus</li>
<li>Magic Tree House: Mummies in the Morning</li>
<li>Magic Tree House: Pirates Past Noon</li>
<li>Ivy and Bean</li>
<li>Miss Nelson is Missing</li>
<li>Stuart Little</li>
<li>Charlie and the Chocolate Factory</li>
<li>Ramona, The Pest</li>
<li>Meet Molly</li>
<li>Beezus and Ramona</li>
<li>Ramona Quimby, Age 8</li>
<li>Charlotte's Web</li>
<li>The Courage of Sarah Noble</li>
<li>Ramona and Her Father</li>
<li>Poppy</li>
<li>Trumpet of the Swan</li>
<li>Sarah, Plain and Tall</li>
</ol>
<br />
<br />
<br />blondeviolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14777423468629595749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383383110570056514.post-77070522704326683942013-02-16T08:07:00.000-08:002013-02-23T08:35:12.222-08:00Week 27This past Thursday was Valentine's Day. We took some nice time in the morning to make paper valentines. Some went to neighbors, others went to Daddy. :)<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8499798463/" title="IMG_7166 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_7166" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8239/8499798463_9b9b61eb4c_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: magenta; font-size: x-large;">Preschool</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>PreK Activity Book</i></b></span><br />
<br />
We got <a href="http://www.amazon.com/What-Your-Preschooler-Needs-Know/dp/1933486236">Book 2 of the activity book</a>, but I want to have space between book 1 and 2. We're continuing with lots of picture books,, but <span style="color: magenta;">Ellie</span> still asks for "her schoolwork." I may have to find some other activity books that would be good middle ground.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Letter Craft</i></b></span><br />
<br />
We did the letter G this week. Of course, this was a favorite because it included GLUE and GLITTER. It was a girl's dream.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8499795093/" title="IMG_7169 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_7169" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8373/8499795093_4ac1892e58_z.jpg" width="427" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Her pajama shirt is so fitting. :)</div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: lime; font-size: x-large;"><b>Junior K</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Language</i></b></span><br />
<br />
<i>Reading</i><br />
<br />
<span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>read most of <i>One Fish, Two Fish</i> this week. He's still doing pretty well. This is a good non-frustrating level for him. :)<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/k7fauVDltFs" width="560"></iframe><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<i>Spelling</i><br />
<br />
<span style="color: lime;">Emmett</span>'s spelling words this week were all short e sounds. He has cruised through these lists of short vowel words. Spelling is also reinforcing proper letter formation and handwriting in a very natural way. This little guy has great handwriting for newly five!<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Math</i></b></span><br />
<br />
We paused a bit this week in any book work to play number bond games. <span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>loved being the "helper" here. :)<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8499801035/" title="IMG_7164 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_7164" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8385/8499801035_09bb102f2a_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
And, of course, games for math makes for fun math!<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: purple; font-size: x-large;"><b>First Grade</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Language</i></b></span><br />
<br />
<i>Grammar</i><br />
<br />
We reviewed pronouns and action verbs and moved into talking about state of being verbs. We now own the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/First-Language-Lessons-Well-Trained-Mind/dp/1933339497/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361634720&sr=8-1&keywords=audio+companion+first+language">FLL Audio Companion</a> and <span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>listened to and sang the chant for these verbs.<br />
<br />
<i>Writing</i><br />
<br />
We worked with material from <i>A Christmas Carol</i> this week. It helped that we had watched <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Muppet-Christmas-Carol-Michael-Caine/dp/B000ATQYT2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1361634838&sr=8-2&keywords=muppet+christmas+carol">the muppet version</a> a few weeks back, I think.<br />
<br />
<i>Reading</i><br />
<br />
<span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>is nearly done with <i>Trumpet of the Swan</i>. She's really loving it!<br />
<br />
<i>Spelling</i><br />
<br />
We made a Silent E book this week and reviewed the first three jobs of Silent E:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>Silent E helps the vowel before say its long sound.</li>
<li>Silent E makes c or g say its soft sound.</li>
<li>Silent E prevents a word from ending in u or v.</li>
</ol>
<div>
We'll learn a bit more about Silent E next week.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<i>Handwriting</i></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
We worked with letter T some this week.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Math</i></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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We began working a section on money. We reviewed coins and how much each were worth. She wrote amounts in dollars and cents and practiced making change for $1, $5, and $10.</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>All Together</b></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Science</span></i></b></div>
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We worked through a few pages of Evan Moor's Giant Science Resource books. It's been kind of nice to take a break through science, though I can tell the kids are itching to get back to doing experiments and projects.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i><b>History</b></i></span></div>
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We learned about the Punic Wars this week. The kids, especially <span style="color: lime;">Emmett</span>, were fascinated with how Hannibal used ELEPHANTS to fight. </div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Chess</span></i></b></div>
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We parked it a bit on attacking with the bishop since <span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>can only readily see one way to attack in any given situation.. After a bit of prompting, he can see the second. I want this to be fun, slow, and easy. It is a game, after all!</div>
blondeviolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14777423468629595749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383383110570056514.post-1335574589083796652013-02-08T20:56:00.000-08:002013-02-08T20:56:30.249-08:00Week 26This week was a scheduled off week...BUT when I made up the school schedule, I wasn't pregnant. I'm due in April and we are scheduled to be schooling the whole of April. So, since we have a good flow and routine going, we schooled through this week in order to prep for when the new baby comes. <br />
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<span style="color: magenta; font-size: x-large;"><b>Preschool</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>PreK Activity Book</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="color: magenta;">Ellie </span>is basically to the end of her PreK book. The book introduced opposites at the very end. It was a bit confusing to her at first, but if I pose the question as a fill-in-the-blank, she does really well with it. She was also asked to draw zig-zag lines, which is difficult for her. She needs some fine motor work, I think. I should look into getting her some Kumon tracing/cutting books... I also ordered the next level activity book.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Letter Craft</i></b></span><br />
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We didn't do a craft this week because we were active with other things... (Mostly she enjoyed playing and coloring in large boxes we have around the house.)<br />
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We did put up some missing letters on our coconut tree. Then <span style="color: magenta;">Ellie </span>points to every letter and tells me their names and sounds. This is too easy for her...and apparently <span style="color: blue;">Hyrum </span>too!<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/WqqcFf11UKg" width="560"></iframe><br /></div>
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<b><span style="color: lime; font-size: x-large;">Junior K</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Language</i></b></span><br />
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<i>Reading</i><br />
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After finishing up <i>Little Bear</i> early, we moved on to <i>Put Me in the Zoo</i>. I believe <i>Little Bear</i> is at a higher level. (According to <a href="http://www.scholastic.com/bookwizard/">Scholastic's Book Wizard</a>, <i>Little Bear</i>: grade level equivalency is 1.8, whereas <i>Put Me in the Zoo</i>: grade level 1.4.) Apparently <i>Put Me in the Zoo</i> was fascinating, though. Instead of reading it over a few days, we got to the appointed stopping place and <span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>said, "I want to read more!" I couldn't deny that! That is HUGE for this guy (who really doesn't care much for stories and would much rather read about ants, spiders, volcanoes, etc). So he read the whole book in one sitting!<br />
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He moved on to <i>The Cat in the Hat</i>, which must not be as engaging (probably because he's heard it and knows the story line). He's not in any rush to read beyond what I've planned, and that's fine. <br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/XgecbsnvMic" width="560"></iframe><br /></div>
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I will have to say that just last week I was calling my mom wondering about this boy and his progression in reading. It seems like it's come in fits and starts and some points have had me frustrated and scratching my head with what to do with him. Now, I've decided that's doing great! Moving to real books for readers has made a huge difference. He feels less like he's having a lesson and more like he's just reading to me, which is a big confidence booster for him.<br />
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At this point, <span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>was reading many simple readers on her own volition. <span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>is not. I have a feeling that he will need explicit instruction and reading help longer, but I don't think that's necessarily bad. She was willing to practice more because it allowed her to stay up late at night. On the other hand, <span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>doesn't care about staying up later to read. He gets in bed, may thumb through a book, but is typically sawing logs within ten minutes of laying down. It's also difficult to for him to read books he's interested in when he's really interested in non-fiction science books. It's hard to design phonics-controlled readers for a beginning reader who wants to read about bugs and spiders and volcanoes and what's inside the earth, you know?<br />
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<i>Spelling</i><br />
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<span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>spelled words with the short u sound this week. He breezed through those words. If I were in any rush, I'd have pushed him through most of these short-vowel words within a week or two. Instead, I don't feel the need to rush. It's easy for him and I don't have to be super intensive with it. He's still young. :)<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Math</i></b></span><br />
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I did start <span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>in Singapore Math year 1, though. We had the books and I really do wonder if doing some math would really strike his fancy. Like I've said previously, he can count well beyond 100, knows addition facts of his doubles and +1s. If I phrase a question in certain ways, he can figure other sums in his head easily. ("What's two bigger than six?" rather than "Two plus six is what?") He breezed through the beginning section on counting (of course) and began work with number bonds. Again, I'm not planning on breezing through the number bond section because I really would like him to remember a fair amount of bonds when we finish this section. He does already know his bonds to ten... I just want him to be a bit stronger or more sure about his bonds for sex, seven, eight and nine. That just means some game play next week...which he'll love.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8457185786/" title="IMG_7097 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_7097" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8095/8457185786_d17d02f6e5_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: purple; font-size: x-large;"><b>First Grade</b></span></div>
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Things are moving rather easily along for <span style="color: purple;">Abby</span>. Again, I'm sure we could accelerate a bit, but we are having a nice period of coasting. We might consider it towards the fall...or maybe not. :)<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Language</i></b></span><br />
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<i>Grammar</i><br />
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We began First Language Lessons 2! We only did two lessons this week, one that focused a bit on nouns and then the next one re-introduced the poem "The Goops." She's working on memorizing that one now.<br />
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<i>Writing</i><br />
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<span style="color: purple;">Abby</span>'s selections this week came from <i>The Tale of Benjamin Bunny</i>. <span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>loved <i>Peter Rabbit </i>last year and I don't think she's realized there are other stories by the same author. Time to pull down the compilation, I think!<br />
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<i>Reading</i><br />
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<span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>took the Book Adventure quiz for <i>Poppy</i>. Every once in a while I wonder what she really pulls from a book so far advanced (<i>Poppy</i> is at a late 5th grade reading level), but when she takes the quiz and completely aces it and can tell me the gist of the story and her favorite parts, I stop wondering. It still boggles my mind at times, though. The points from her <i>Poppy </i>quiz pushed her over 1,000 points. Come Saturday, she will be the proud owner of a library card. She is ecstatic about that.<br />
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For lack of anything better to read at the first of the week, <span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>took all of an hour to read a Magic Tree House book (<i>Hour of the Olympics</i>). Later in the week, we took the kids to the book store to pick some new reading books. When presented with a few choices, she immediately chose <i>The Trumpet of the Swan</i>, knowing it was by the same author who did <i>Stuart Little </i>and <i>Charlotte's Web</i>. She's already into chapter four and enjoying it.<br />
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<i>Spelling</i><br />
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No new words were introduced in this last step of spelling. She did a lot of dictation and sorting words with the long a sound. <br />
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<i>Handwriting</i><br />
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We focused on the letter s this week. She's nearing the end of her alphabet...I imagine when she finishes the book, we'll do some small sentences copied in cursive for a while to cement formation before I start having her write other school-y things in cursive as well...<br />
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Math</span></i></b><br />
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<span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>worked through some pages in Challenging Word Problems 2 as well as finishing up the section on multiplication and division. The next section is division with a remainder. At the end of 2A she seemed to be sort of frustrated with word problems and whether the problem was asking her to add, multiply, subtract, or divide. We worked on that a bit, but apparently letting it percolate in her brain was right because lately she's not struggled with that at all. In fact, her biggest complain about doing word problems this afternoon was that I would just not let her blurt the answer. She had to write the math sentence or number bond or show me with rods or a bar diagram how she arrived there. <br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>All Together</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Science</i></b></span><br />
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We have put RSO: Life on definite hold for the next few weeks. We worked through some more Evan-Moor's Giant Science Resource Book, but it is definitely pretty light compared to what we were doing. On top of that, there aren't many kids' books at our library on how flowers reproduce. There's a smattering of books on how plants get their energy, but nothing that goes into terms such as chloroplast and photosynthesis, etc. We've been watching a lot of YouTube and some Magic School Bus too...<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>History</i></b></span><br />
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We finished up a long chapter on Rome. We have more learning about Rome to do, but this week we learned about Roman gladiators. That really caught <span style="color: lime;">Emmett</span>'s attention. And, of course, the kids loved the book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/You-Wouldnt-Want-Roman-Gladiator/dp/0531162044">You Wouldn't Want to Be a Roman Gladiator</a>. (They love all of the books in that series!)<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Chess</i></b></span><br />
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We actually worked some on this this week! I was surprised when <span style="color: magenta;">Ellie </span>remembered all of the names of the pieces except pawn. And, of course queen and king, which I didn't teach her. <span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>has definitely mastered the concept of "attacking" the rook with a bishop from two different directions. <span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>struggled with it a bit more. I bet he'll get it by next week, though...blondeviolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14777423468629595749noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383383110570056514.post-75709783569690165672013-02-02T14:37:00.000-08:002013-02-05T14:44:55.993-08:00Week 25<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: magenta; font-size: x-large;"><b>Preschool</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>PreK Activity Book</i></b></span><br />
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Lately <span style="color: magenta;">Ellie </span>asks me, "Is it a school day?" If I answer in the affirmative, she says, "Yippee!" and grabs her activity book. She only has a few pages left so I'm trying to slow her down a bit. <br />
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She's also been drawing people! This is the first person she drew. It's actually a picture of <span style="color: lime;">Emmett</span>.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8449089966/" title="IMG_7045 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_7045" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8357/8449089966_ffb921f09c_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Letter Craft</span></i></b><br />
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We did H is for house this week. The kids had a good time constructing their own houses. <span style="color: magenta;">Ellie </span>even put her door up high and then asked me to make her a ladder for it. LOL<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8447999223/" title="IMG_7085 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_7085" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8493/8447999223_a27c145fb1_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: lime; font-size: x-large;"><b>Junior K</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Language</i></b></span><br />
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<i>Reading</i><br />
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I started <span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>on the first grade Sonlight Readers this week. We jumped in reading <i>Little Bear</i>. The first reading seemed rather frustrating, though I'm not quite sure why. By the end of the week, he was sailing through most of the reading. He loved that he could <a href="http://www.amazon.com/What-Will-Little-Bear-Wear/dp/B003EY62H4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1360102315&sr=8-2&keywords=little+bear">watch the same stories</a> after he finished them.<br />
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<i>Spelling</i><br />
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We took a break this week to review words <span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>has spelled in the past. His ability to segment CVC has improved drastically in the last few weeks.<br />
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Math</span></i></b><br />
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We played War and read a few math stories. I am beginning to think that we should start <span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>in Singapore Year 1. The EM K is too easy for him and I think he'd really thrive with math. He already has his addition facts to 5 and doubles facts memorized.<br />
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<span style="color: purple; font-size: x-large;"><b>First Grade</b></span></div>
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<i><b><span style="font-size: large;">Language</span></b></i><br />
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<i>Grammar</i><br />
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We zoomed through the last five lessons of FLL 1 this week. <span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>was too excited to wait any further. She finished up her sentence work and reviewed everything she learned within the first book.<br />
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<i>Writing</i><br />
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<span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>narrated and did copywork from <i>Pollyanna</i> this week. <span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>had a hard time keeping characters straight, but otherwise didn't mind the story.<br />
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<i>Reading</i><br />
<i><br /></i><span style="color: purple;">
Abby </span>finished <i>Poppy</i> this week! She even read some at the doctor's and in the evenings to finish it up!<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8430949559/" title="30 Jan by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="30 Jan" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8476/8430949559_d3649c432f_z.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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<i>Spelling</i><br />
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<span style="color: purple;">Abby</span>'s list this week worked with vowel teams "ai" and "ay." She probably will need to read through the list a few more times to gain some visual retention of these words verses a-e words.<br />
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<i>Handwriting</i><br />
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We moved on to writing capital letter R! She also did some review of letters in the past.<br />
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Math</span></i></b><br />
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These multiplication sections are fairly straightforward. I'm not requiring memorization of the facts because, well, she's only six. AND, we're planning on moving on to Beast Academy next year which will have a whole new section on skip counting and multiplication. To solve most problems now, she's skip counting or using rods, which I'm fine with.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">All Together</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>History</i></b></span><br />
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We began a long chapter on Rome. This week we learned about Gods and Roman builders. The kids were fascinated about constructions of roads so we drew a lot of roads and looked at a lot of pictures of famous roads such as the Appian Way. I told the kids their Uncle Joey served a mission in Rome. They thought that was really neat.<br />
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<i><b><span style="font-size: large;">Science</span></b></i><br />
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We did a bit of RSO on chloroplast and why leaves appear green. After that, though, we have basically stopped RSO: Life. It's going to take a month or so for spring to spring here so we can finish studying plants more extensively. Until that point, we are working some plant pages from the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Giant-Science-Resource-Book-Ellen/dp/1557996962/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1360103598&sr=8-1&keywords=giant+science+resource+book+by+evan+moor">Giant Science Resource Book</a>.<br />
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Chess</span></i></b><br />
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Skipped again this week!<br />
<br />blondeviolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14777423468629595749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383383110570056514.post-23563787402883489342013-01-26T13:28:00.000-08:002013-02-05T14:43:30.735-08:00Week 24<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: magenta; font-size: x-large;"><b>Preschool</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i><b>PreK Activity Book</b></i></span><br />
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<span style="color: magenta;">Ellie </span>was all about her workbook this week. She worked with some prewriting skills, and some story sequencing as well as a ton of extra read-alouds.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8444249027/" title="IMG_7034 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_7034" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8048/8444249027_926d95089e_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Letter Craft</span></i></b><br />
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We did Y is for yellow yarn this week.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8445344602/" title="IMG_7031 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_7031" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8222/8445344602_d4ed0e1b00_z.jpg" width="427" /></a></div>
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Even <span style="color: blue;">Hyrum </span>got into decorating his y!<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8444252329/" title="IMG_7033 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_7033" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8219/8444252329_5e9da42343_z.jpg" width="427" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="color: lime; font-size: x-large;">Junior K</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Language</i></b></span><br />
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<i>Reading</i><br />
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<span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>read some more in the Free and Treadwell Primer. I think next week we will move on to the last few Sonlight grade 1 readers. He will like reading from real books, I think.<br />
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<i>Spelling</i><br />
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Daddy was home most of this week, so we skipped spelling. :)<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Math</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>worked through some Miquon pages and we played some dice game for sums.<br />
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<span style="color: purple; font-size: x-large;"><b>First Grade</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Language</i></b></span><br />
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<i>Grammar</i><br />
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<span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>worked through lessons 92-94 this week. We began learning about sentences. She should finish up volume 1 next week!<br />
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<i>Writing</i><br />
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Writing focused on the <i>Happy Hollisters</i> this week. I love that we are doing WWE1 a bit behind work in FLL, so she gets a review of the concepts we went over in grammar.<br />
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<i>Reading</i><br />
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Abby is still working through <i>Poppy</i>. At night she's also read a few others at bedtime. She is very motivated by <a href="http://bookadventure.com/">Book Adventure</a> and points.<br />
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<i>Spelling</i><br />
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<span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>was excited to begin her level 3 book this week! The first week was all review so she wrote a bunch of review sentences.<br />
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<i>Handwriting</i><br />
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We worked on lowercase r this week. We didn't do capital R because apparently lowercase r is difficult in cursive.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Math</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>moved on to the multiplication unit in 2b. This week was working with multiplication facts for the fours times tables. Once again, I was surprised that she could skip count by fours without explicit instruction. Yay for <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Multiplication-Teacher-Rockbots/dp/B0007QOKJE">Teacher and the Rockbots: Multiplication</a>!<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>All Together</b></span></div>
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<i><b><span style="font-size: large;">History</span></b></i><br />
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We began learning about Ancient Rome this week. <span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>has a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/National-Geographic-Kids-Almanac-2013/dp/1426309244">Nat Geo Kids almanac</a> that she's looked at for the last nine months or so (and loved the thing to tatters). A few weeks ago, she found a page that discussed Greek, Egyptian, and Roman gods. She was fascinated that the names of the Roman Gods were PLANETS! So, naturally, it was really neat to read about the Roman gods this week. :)<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i><b>Science</b></i></span><br />
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We learned a bit about seeds. We colored a picture showing the parts of a seed, to include the cotyledon, coat, and embryo. Then, we dissected both a monocot and dicot seed. The kids thought this was fascinating! The next lab, however, is on traveling seeds. I'm beginning to think we might have to pause learning about the Plant Kingdom in RSO for a month or so until it becomes true spring here so we have good specimens to observe.<br />
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Chess</span></i></b><br />
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Skipped this week! The kids were bummed, but Daddy was off so we took time to go play!<br />
<br />blondeviolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14777423468629595749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383383110570056514.post-74164360875982206842013-01-19T08:30:00.000-08:002013-02-04T08:33:48.049-08:00Week 23<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: magenta; font-size: x-large;"><b>Preschool</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: magenta;">Ellie </span>wasn't pushing to do school much this week. I was fine with that because she spent it with constructive play and me time to clean the house. LOL<br />
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<span style="color: lime; font-size: x-large;"><b>Junior K</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Language</i></b></span></div>
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<i>Reading</i><br />
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He worked through the first two stories in the <a href="http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=treadwell&book=primer&story=_contents">Free and Treadwell Primer</a>. I love that these are common stories! <br />
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We've also kept up with decoding words in a list form so he can't guess based on context or picture.<br />
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<i>Spelling</i><br />
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He spelled CVC words with short i this week. He loves that his brother wants to do spelling time with him.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8424316428/" title="IMG_6904 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_6904" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8514/8424316428_9fd9a957e2_z.jpg" width="427" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i><b>Math</b></i></span><br />
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<span style="color: lime;">Emmett</span>'s focusing mainly on reading, so his math is somewhat self-directed. When he feels like it, he grabs his folder and does a few sheets. This week he worked on addition sheets from Miquon Orange.<br />
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<span style="color: purple; font-size: x-large;"><b>First Grade</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i><b>Language</b></i></span><br />
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<i>Grammar</i><br />
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We worked through lessons 90-92 this week. There was a poem narration and we moved into discussing sentences. I also grabbed video of <span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>reciting Mr. Nobody.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/bNpotVt4ra4" width="560"></iframe><br /></div>
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<i>Writing</i><br />
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This week's narration and copywork came from <i>How to Eat Fried Worms</i>. The kids have heard this book on audiobook, so Abby was pleased to revisit it.<br />
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<i>Reading</i><br />
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<i>Poppy</i> definitely is taking it's time to work through. She only reads it half an hour a day. The rest of this past week, she's been working on reading a bunch of books to earn points for <a href="http://bookadventure.com/Home.aspx">Book Adventure</a>. This past weekend she asked when she could get her own library card. She suggested when she got 1,000 points on Book Adventure and has been working toward that goal in the evenings at bedtime.<br />
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<i>Spelling</i><br />
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This was her last week with All About Spelling Level 2! The step this week worked with differentiating when to use "ou" and when to use "ow" for the sound of /ow/. Toward the end of the week, she even copied her words in cursive.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8423220127/" title="IMG_6951 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_6951" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8213/8423220127_d46cc069fb_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>Handwriting</i><br />
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We skipped any formal work this week, but worked with the white board connecting letters and reviewing some strokes. <br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Math</i></b></span><br />
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This week we moved into two- and three-digit mental subtraction. As I predicted, she struggled a bit with it more than the addition section. It's not because it was too hard, but because she throws up some kind of block or something when she sees it's *gasp* SUBTRACTION! So, instead of it being a cakewalk, we actually pulled out the rods here and there to work through some problems.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>All Together</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Science</i></b></span><br />
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We moved into the plant kingdom this week! I'm realizing we only have but a few weeks of science left. We will be finished with RSO: Life long before the school year is done.<br />
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We studied the reproductive parts of flowering plants this week. We made our own diagram, and then I bought a huge lily so we could see the petals, stamens, and pistil easily.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8413359908/" title="24 Jan by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="24 Jan" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8219/8413359908_2478be5b80_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i><b>History</b></i></span><br />
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We learned about ancient Americans this week. We attempted to close our eyes and maker our own version of the Nazca drawings. We learned about the Olmecs and their ancient heads, which <span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>thought was fascinating.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Chess</i></b></span><br />
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We are continuing to work on the strategy of attacking with the bishop. I don't want to have to move too quickly through chess since they are so young. They still love it, though. :)<br />
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<br />blondeviolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14777423468629595749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383383110570056514.post-65951170811828232692013-01-12T15:38:00.000-08:002013-01-17T15:40:33.224-08:00Week 22<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: purple; font-size: x-large;"><b>Preschool</b></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Craft</span></i></b></div>
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Ellie didn't want to do a letter craft this week. Instead, she wanted to color a bunch of pictures. She did a Lalaloopsy picture, and Angelina Ballerina, and even a unicorn.</div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8390971272/" title="IMG_6868 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_6868" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8474/8390971272_09ea9aa62d_z.jpg" width="427" /></a></div>
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She was rather excited that I found a coloring picture that matched HER Lalaloopsy doll!</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>PreK Activity Book</i></b></span><br />
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The book focused more on matching, one-to-one correspondence and beginning writing with lines, circles and dots. She consistently wants to form her circles clockwise, so I'm trying to redirect her as much as possible to do them counterclockwise. <br />
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<span style="color: lime; font-size: x-large;"><b>Junior K</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Language</i></b></span><br />
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<i>Reading</i><br />
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We have basically moved on to just reading out loud to Mom. It seems as though <span style="color: lime;">Emmett</span>'s made a conceptual leap because his reading has become a lot more fluid. He does seem to be able to read words based on context more than just in a straight list. In order to keep him working on his decoding skills, I've started giving him high frequency words to decode in a list. He doesn't care for straight decoding, but I find it valuable for him.<br />
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<i>Spelling</i><br />
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<span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>had difficulty with a few words from last week. Due to his pronunciation, he would often misspell am and an. They would typically be spelled "aum" because he does pronounce those words "a-yum" or "a-yun." We repeated his list this week and it seemed to really solidify these words. <br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8389895209/" title="IMG_6857 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_6857" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8043/8389895209_4f8cae9068_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Friday was a nice day, so I sent them outside to play. When I called him inside, he immediately sat up to do his spelling...and then I noticed his hands. This is exactly what boys' hands should look like sometimes!<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8390968102/" title="IMG_6870 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_6870" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8359/8390968102_213f1e2f73_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Math</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>completed the counting pages in Miquon. He'll move on to addition next week.<br />
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<b><span style="color: purple; font-size: x-large;">First Grade</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Language</i></b></span><br />
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<i>Grammar</i><br />
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<span style="color: purple;">Abby</span>'s got Mr. Nobody completely memorized. Next week I'll have to take video of her reciting it. She also worked through lesson 89 in FLL 1.<br />
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<i>Writing</i><br />
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This week's narration and copywork came from "The Velveteen Rabbit." Having heard the story and read it herself, she found these very enjoyable. She really does enjoy that story, probably because she's a stuffed animal lover herself.<br />
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<i>Reading</i><br />
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She's still working on <i>Poppy</i>, but rather enjoying it.<br />
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<i>Spelling</i><br />
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<span style="color: purple;">Abby</span> worked on step 24, which deals with the phonograms "au" and "aw". I thought we might have to repeat this week because some words don't always follow the generalization that "au" is in the middle and "aw" is at the end. This meant she had to basically memorize which words used which phonogram when the sound was in the middle. BUT, by the end of the week she had the words down. Next week is our last week in level 2.<br />
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<i>Handwriting</i><br />
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Abby's cursive is really coming along nicely! This week we worked on q.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8389892625/" title="IMG_6858 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_6858" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8237/8389892625_13f8dc503e_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
She was rather pleased with herself.<br />
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Math</span></i></b><br />
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<span style="color: magenta;">Abby </span>finished up the section on mental math dealing with addition of two- and three-digit numbers. She grasped the concepts rather easily. Next week won't be as easy, I'm sure, because it's all about subtraction. <br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>All Together</b></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Science</span></i></b><br />
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We finished up the animal kingdom this week! We learned about mammals, including an experiment which demonstrated how some arctic and antarctic animals keep warm in extremely cold temperatures.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8389889679/" title="IMG_6860 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_6860" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8509/8389889679_d3d5e310b1_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i><b>History</b></i></span><br />
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We discussed Alexander the Great this week. All of a sudden, <span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>has had much enthusiasm for history. I'm not sure where it's coming from, but I'll take it! We only did a coloring page, mapwork, and narrations, but they seemed to enjoy the content.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Chess</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="color: magenta;">Ellie </span>learned the names of the rest of the chess pieces.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8390962120/" title="IMG_6880 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_6880" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8471/8390962120_1b29eb2ecc_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>and <span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>learned about the bishop and how it moved. We are working on figuring out ways of "attacking" with a bishop.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8389880401/" title="IMG_6876 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_6876" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8364/8389880401_0ee8068cd3_z.jpg" width="427" /></a></div>
(Remember those DIRTY hands? This is post-bath. ;))</div>
blondeviolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14777423468629595749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383383110570056514.post-35070821906927025092013-01-05T17:39:00.000-08:002013-01-14T17:40:50.668-08:00Week 21We took last week off for winter break. The older two kids did a bit of reading and Abby did a bit of math each day, but nothing extensive at all.<br />
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<span style="color: magenta; font-size: x-large;"><b>Preschool</b></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Letter Craft</span></i></b><br />
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<span style="color: magenta;">Ellie </span>asked to do the letter O this week.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8381341287/" title="IMG_6825 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_6825" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8185/8381341287_10a1524bfc_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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We even put oatmeal on the Os!<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8381338925/" title="IMG_6826 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_6826" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8467/8381338925_4083f8ce2a_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Of course, this meant that everyone wanted to play in the oatmeal!<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8382419152/" title="IMG_6830 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_6830" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8085/8382419152_bc00a5e92f_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>PreK Activity Book</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="color: magenta;">Ellie </span>didn't want to do much of it this week, which was fine. She did work on one-to-one correspondence in other things, though. She does great with that, but she has a hard time remembering the sequence from one to ten. When I tell her to pick up five things in her room, she says, "How many is that?" If I show her how many on my hand, though, she will pick up the proper amount.<br />
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<span style="color: lime; font-size: x-large;"><b>Junior K</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Language</i></b></span><br />
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<i>Reading</i><br />
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<span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>has been zooming through the stories in 100 Easy Lessons. He's really making huge strides in fluency.<br />
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<i>Spelling</i><br />
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<span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>got his first spelling list this week! He did great with most of the words, but got caught up with "am." He wants to spell it "a-u-m." When he says it slowly, he does say, "Ay-u-m." I want to make sure these words are solid, so he'll repeat the list this next week. he's only five, so I'm taking a better-too-slow-than-too-fast approach.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8382435226/" title="IMG_6781 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_6781" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8369/8382435226_c40a49624a_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Math</i></b></span><br />
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We put up a new number line over the break. With it up, we did quite a few exercises where I covered up certain numbers (between one and thirty) and he had to tell me which I covered up. He also worked through some Miquon Orange pages that dealt with counting and number lines.<br />
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<span style="color: purple; font-size: x-large;"><b>First Grade</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Language</i></b></span><br />
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<i>Grammar</i><br />
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<span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>did lessons 86 and 87. She also really worked really hard on memorizing the third stanza of "Mr. Nobody." She did some copywork from another poem and did a narration from The Boy Who Cried Wolf as well.<br />
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<i>Writing</i><br />
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This week focused on Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer. <span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>didn't really care for it much...probably because it was a "boyly" story. LOL<br />
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<i>Reading</i><br />
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I picked up <i>Poppy</i> and <i>Little House in the Big Wood</i> from the library and gave her the choice. She started <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Poppy-Stories-Avi/dp/0780768493/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0">Poppy</a> this week.<br />
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<i>Spelling</i><br />
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<span style="color: purple;">Abby</span>'s getting close to finishing up level 2! She worked with words with the /oy/ sound this week. She learned the generalization that we use "oy" at the end of a word and "oi" in the middle.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8381329961/" title="IMG_6838 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_6838" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8072/8381329961_babfd1958f_z.jpg" width="427" /></a></div>
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<i>Handwriting</i><br />
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<span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>worked on the letter p this week. She did pretty well with it. It feels like cursive it starting to become a bit less of work. When she finishes her book, we'll work on doing some word writing for connecting letters a bit more.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8381346631/" title="IMG_6794 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_6794" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8373/8381346631_053c1dafd3_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Math</i></b></span><br />
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While we were on break <span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>worked some with random Math Mammoth addition and subtraction review sheets. We just got Singapore Math 2B and the first section reviews addition and subtraction with mental math. We jumped right in and started the mental addition section. She'll finish it next week, but the review was good. It feels "easy" to her and she works quickly through it. <br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>All Together</b></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Science</i></span></b><br />
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We moved on to talking about birds this week. The kids had fun bird watching outside. There was an experiment that demonstrated how birds stay warm with special oils. The kids thought it was fascinating.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8382432662/" title="IMG_6782 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_6782" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8376/8382432662_11a5fa7a2c_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">History</span></i></b><br />
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We talked about the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars this week. <span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>really seemed to enjoy when I pulled out the Lego blocks to show him how the Greeks from Sparta and Athens teamed up together to beat Persia.<br />
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Chess - NEW!</span></i></b><br />
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The kids got a chess set for Christmas. I thought we'd add this in with easy and quick lessons from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Chess-Childs-Play-Teaching-Techniques/dp/193627731X">Chess is Child's Play</a>. Friday was their first lesson, so they didn't do much this week. <span style="color: magenta;">Ellie </span>enjoyed learning the names for the rook and bishop. <span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>and <span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>learned about how the rook moves and how to capture a piece.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8382416060/" title="IMG_6837 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_6837" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8093/8382416060_af9a37dfe4_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
blondeviolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14777423468629595749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383383110570056514.post-67848378154469918922012-12-21T12:40:00.000-08:002012-12-28T12:42:21.226-08:00Week 20I was very busy this week with a lot of orchestra rehearsals and a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHY3KiblaLg">concert</a> on Saturday, so Daddy took the week off. We were out a lot because Daddy was home, but we made sure to get our schoolwork still done!<br />
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On Tuesday, we drove a bit of a ways to go to the <a href="http://www.jasminemoran.com/">Jasmine Moran Children's Museum</a>. Of course, the kids loved it.</div>
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While there, I found the perfect opportunity to take pictures of our little students.</div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8319041248/" title="IMG_6243 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_6243" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8496/8319041248_f13699fc42_z.jpg" width="427" /></a></div>
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The Tot</div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8317971325/" title="IMG_6247 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_6247" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8222/8317971325_c07a3276d3_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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The Silly One</div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8317977039/" title="IMG_6245 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_6245" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8499/8317977039_ef7286fbdc_z.jpg" width="427" /></a></div>
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The Reluctant One </div>
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(not just for schoolwork, just reluctant to do ANYTHING that isn't his idea)</div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8319046762/" title="IMG_6242 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_6242" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8080/8319046762_2d36368f08_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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The Studious One </div>
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Of course, there was a lot more to do!<br />
<br />
Fix a car...<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8319023536/" title="IMG_6255 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_6255" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8358/8319023536_288b633ff3_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Go grocery shopping...<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8317959899/" title="IMG_6258 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_6258" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8358/8317959899_e54ec777c0_z.jpg" width="427" /></a></div>
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Play with some bubbles...<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8317953529/" title="IMG_6286 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_6286" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8217/8317953529_a3bc468f93_z.jpg" width="427" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8319006012/" title="IMG_6288 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_6288" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8221/8319006012_de642f9b81_z.jpg" width="427" /></a></div>
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Learn a bit more about the human body...<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8319000798/" title="IMG_6305 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_6305" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8355/8319000798_b3867a223d_z.jpg" width="427" /></a></div>
<br />
...and a bunch more!<br />
<br />
Of course, we also completed our regular work as well. I just didn't take as many pictures of the boring stuff. LOL<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: magenta; font-size: x-large;">Preschool</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Craft</i></b></span><br />
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We made reindeer antlers! After we finished, we danced around to Rudolph!<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8318995344/" title="IMG_6329 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_6329" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8351/8318995344_3da8458d07_z.jpg" width="427" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8318989452/" title="IMG_6334 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_6334" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8211/8318989452_1f9a98b7c6_z.jpg" width="427" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>PreK Activity Book</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="color: magenta;">Ellie </span>did all of her bookwork with Daddy this week because he was home. She counted out music stickers (one-to-one correspondence), she listened to instructions about where to place farm animal stickers, she did some more or less work and she made a road with shapes. <br />
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<span style="color: lime; font-size: x-large;"><b>Junior K</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Language</i></b></span><br />
<br />
<i>Reading</i><br />
<br />
Emmett is still reviewing stories from 100 Easy Lessons. He is jumping to more fluid reading and a lot less sounding out. It took him a longer time to make the jump, but I'm pleased with his progress.<br />
<br />
<i>Spelling</i><br />
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<span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>worked through Step 5 this week. He changed CVC words by changing their vowels. He learned that every word has at least one vowel.<br />
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We hung the spelling whiteboard for him. <span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>got to a point where we weren't using it to teach the lessons. <span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>seems to thrive on the actual manipulation of the tiles. Instead of storing it under the bed, we hung it (and another one for the littles).<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8292579327/" title="20 Dec by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="20 Dec" height="480" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8356/8292579327_3e11a4f9bf_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Math</span></i></b><br />
<br />
We skipped anything that even looked like math this week. Besides living math, we just basically skipped it. :)<br />
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<span style="color: purple; font-size: x-large;"><b>First Grade</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Language</i></b></span><br />
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<i>Grammar</i><br />
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<span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>worked through lessons 83 through 85. She's now got the first two stanzas of Mr. Nobody memorized. We also discussed the proper time to use is/are.<br />
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<i>Writing</i><br />
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<span style="color: purple;">Abby</span>'s selections this week came from <i>A Child's Geography of the World</i> by V.M. Hillyer. Abby really enjoyed these selections. I also think Emmett would. I'll have to keep my eyes open for a used version of this book.<br />
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<i>Reading</i><br />
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We picked up <i>Ramona and Her Father</i> from the library. I could've gotten it a lot quicker on my kindle, but she wanted the book this time. She's working through that for her "school" reading and <i>Charlotte's Web</i> on her spare time.<br />
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<i>Spelling</i><br />
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<span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>completed step 22 this week. It taught about the third sound of a: the /ah/ sound. She learned that a will traditionally make that sound before and L and after a W. She is now capable of writing sentences such as "Put the water in the tall glass." I love that she's not memorizing a bunch of lists, but learning a rule and applying it!<br />
<br />
<i>Handwriting</i><br />
<br />
She focused on the letter P this week. Since the formation in manuscript is similar to the cursive formation, it was not a difficult letter for her. We also went back and reviewed Bs because those are really difficult.<br />
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Math</span></i></b><br />
<br />
<span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>has completed Singapore Math 2A! She worked through some end of semester review. I also added some addition review from Math Mammoth 2B. I've seen vast improvement between fluidity with multi-digit addition with this review.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>All Together</b></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Science</span></i></b><br />
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We learned about reptiles this week! We went to the zoo to get a good glimpse of some reptiles and amphibians in the herpetarium. We also saw GIANT reptiles at the Galapagos turtle exhibit. <br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8319053238/" title="IMG_6178 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_6178" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8356/8319053238_8de20886f6_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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We focused on how reptile bodies are specially designed to endure harsher conditions than amphibians and did an experiment to illustrate how have scales/thick skin can be an advantage.<br />
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">History</span></i></b><br />
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We moved back to Greece this week. We learned about two important ancient Greek cities: Sparta and Athens. <span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>told me he would have loved to live in Sparta, but Athens might have been a little bit boring. LOL<br />
<br />
We also began listening to <a href="http://www.amazon.com/DAulaires-Greek-Myths-Ingri-dAulaire/dp/0440406943/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1356726770&sr=8-1&keywords=d%27aulaire%27s+greek+myths">D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths</a> on audiobook. <span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>really enjoys these. She's stayed up late a few nights listening and following along in the book.<br />
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<br /></div>
blondeviolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14777423468629595749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383383110570056514.post-15220508909854136732012-12-15T09:13:00.000-08:002012-12-28T09:14:59.771-08:00Week 19It looks like I took all of one picture of schoolwork this week... <br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: magenta; font-size: x-large;">Preschool</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Craft</i></b></span><br />
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We cut out snowflakes this week! Scissors are a great exercise in fine motor skills and <span style="color: magenta;">Ellie</span> struggles with these as well. We have <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Faber-Castell-1646-First-Scissors/dp/B00354W1OG">these scissors</a> where she can grip the whole of the scissors with her hand. She LOVED them for this activity.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>PreK Activity Book</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="color: magenta;">Ellie </span>reviewed patterning and drawing dots and lines. The book also had her color in a boat. She is our first child to have any interest in coloring and staying in the lines at this age. The older two were just interested in drawing, no coloring please.<br />
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<b><span style="color: lime; font-size: x-large;">Junior K</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Language</i></b></span><br />
<br /><i>Reading</i><br />
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<span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>has made the jump to self-identifying as a reader! He climbs in bed and starts to sound out/read books. He usually reads Little Critter books on his own. <br />
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<i>Spelling</i><br />
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We introduced the letter tiles and sound cards this week. <span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>focused on identifying vowels and consonants.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Math</i></b></span><br />
<br />
We played some games as a family in the evening...but adding two dice together was about all he did this week.<br />
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<b><span style="color: purple; font-size: x-large;">First Grade</span></b></div>
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<i><b><span style="font-size: large;">Language</span></b></i><br />
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<i>Grammar</i><br />
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<span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>did lessons 82 and 83 this week, which focused on Mr. Nobody. This poem is longer than others that she's memorized, so we're taking it in chunks. She's already got the first stanza down (and so does <span style="color: lime;">Emmett</span>!).<br />
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<i>Writing</i><br />
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Her selections came from <i>The Light Princess</i> by George MacDonald. She was intrigued by this story and might be one we have to read together in the future.<br />
<br />
<i>Reading</i><br />
<br />
I was a bit slow in getting to the library, so she read a few picture books that were history and science related. She did begin <i>Charlotte's Web</i> on her own on Friday.<br />
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<i>Spelling</i><br />
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Here is where my only picture comes in! This week <span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>learned that words don't end in u or v. Now she knows that "English words don't end in i, j, u, or v." In order to save the words from ending in u or v, she learned that we typically add a silent e at the end of the word.<br />
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<i>Handwriting</i><br />
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<span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>did O this week. O has a harder connector in cursive so I thought it might be difficult for her, but with the simplicity of the letter shape, she did just fine.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Math</i></b></span><br />
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She did the section involving dividing by 3. This was frustrating for her because she doesn't have her 3 multiplication facts memorized. So, in order for her to figure it out, she had to either skip count or pull out her rods...which apparently made her feel dumb because she couldn't just KNOW the answer.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>All Together</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Science</i></b></span><br />
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This week we discussed amphibians. We compared the metamorphosis of frogs and butterflies or incomplete and complete metamorphosis. The kids made life cycle wheels for that. They also learned about how newts "hear" with their legs. We did a lab that displayed how sound travels and that really it's just movement. Part of the lab involved playing with a slinky, so of course that was fun!<br />
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">History</span></i></b><br />
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We learned about the Medes and the Persians this week. The kids learned about Cyrus the Great and how he became the leader in Persia and then moved over and conquered all the way to the Indus River and then back through and even conquered Babylon! (Apparently, Babylon is <span style="color: purple;">Abby</span>'s favorite.) We left off with the cliffhanger that there was one country that the Persians didn't conquer - Greece!<br />
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<br />blondeviolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14777423468629595749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383383110570056514.post-24896624955531954912012-12-08T08:36:00.000-08:002012-12-28T08:37:57.094-08:00Week 18<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: magenta; font-size: x-large;"><b>Preschool</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Letter Craft</i></b></span><br />
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We are forgoing letter crafts this month for Christmas activities! This week we strung Fruit Loops for the Christmas tree. <span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>and <span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>also strung, of course, but <span style="color: magenta;">Ellie </span>zoomed past them with her strand. She loves stringing things.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8318615692/" title="IMG_5974 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_5974" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8215/8318615692_3a647bf641_z.jpg" width="427" /></a></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">PreK Activity Book</span></i></b><br />
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<span style="color: magenta;">Ellie </span>worked some with one-to-one correspondence (with stickers!) and drawing some more lines and dots. We're working on proper pencil grip as well. It looks like she might adopt a quadropod grip.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: lime; font-size: x-large;">Junior K</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Language</i></b></span><br />
<br />
<i>Reading</i><br />
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<span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>is still working well with reading me the stories from the last half of 100 Easy Lessons. It's nice to have found a place where it's challenging, but not too challenging.<br />
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<i>Spelling</i><br />
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<span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>did Step 2 this week, which was segmenting words into their different sounds. When I did this step with <span style="color: purple;">Abby</span>, she looked at me as if I was joking her because it was so easy for her. She had been "spelling" her own words for a while. <span style="color: lime;">Emmett</span>, on the other hand, struggled for the first day with this exercise for the first day. After that, he sailed through it. <br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Math</i></b></span><br />
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We did some work with number bonds again. I'm not doing anything real formal with him because he's working fairly diligently with his reading.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8317534183/" title="IMG_6070 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_6070" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8353/8317534183_638fa6af88_z.jpg" width="427" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: purple; font-size: x-large;"><b>First Grade</b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Language</span></i></b><br />
<br />
<i>Grammar</i><br />
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We worked through lessons 79-81 which reviewed titles of respect and her memorized poems. We also introduced the poem Mr. Nobody, which will be her last bit of memory work for first grade grammar.<br />
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<i>Writing</i><br />
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This week's selections came from A.A. Milne's <i>Winnie-the-Pooh</i> and <i>The House at Pooh Corner</i>. Being very familiar with Pooh, this was rather exciting for her.<br />
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<i>Reading</i><br />
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Like I expected, <span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>finished up <i>Ramona Quimby, Age 8</i> this week. She took the test and passed with 100%. I think she's saving her points for a chocolate bar.<br />
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<i>Spelling</i><br />
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<span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>worked through step 20 this week, which talks about the soft sound of g. This wasn't hard after last week discussing the soft sound of c.<br />
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<i>Handwriting</i><br />
<br />
We just got through some review this week. <br />
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Math</span></i></b><br />
<br />
This was the last new section of Singapore Math 2A. It deals with multiplication and division with 3 facts. We just worked through the multiplication section this week.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8317547683/" title="IMG_6054 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_6054" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8494/8317547683_e1e291af9d_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>All Together</b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Science</i></b></span><br />
<br />
We peeked in on the world of fish this week. Of course, this meant that we had to go get our OWN fish for observation.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8317543113/" title="IMG_6060 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_6060" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8359/8317543113_86dc5d12bf_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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We did an experiment that demonstrated how fish can stay at a certain level of water without working hard. The kids thought this was almost magic. This is why they love science!<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8317538491/" title="IMG_6065 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_6065" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8219/8317538491_16ec3ab106_z.jpg" width="427" /></a></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">History</span></i></b><br />
<br />
In history this week, Greece got civilized again! We discussed the writings of Homer, which the kids were somewhat familiar with because we read Mary Pope Osborne's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Tales-Odyssey-One-Eyed-Giant-Book/dp/0786809280">Tales From the Odyssey</a>. <br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8318585968/" title="IMG_6077 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_6077" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8212/8318585968_6df0161113_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
We also learned about the Olympics. We had our own mini olympics outside with footraces and discus throwing.<br />
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<br />blondeviolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14777423468629595749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383383110570056514.post-64805104325555549372012-11-30T12:35:00.000-08:002012-11-30T12:35:06.747-08:00Week 17My parents were in town this week so we made our best effort to get schoolwork out of the way as quickly as possible each day. I'm pleased to say that we had skill subjects down and finished within 60-90 minutes most days. :) <br />
<br />
BUT, because we were trying to quickly finish lessons, I was not as focused at taking pictures. Therefore, this post will be picture-less. Oh well.<br />
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<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: magenta; font-size: x-large;"><b>Preschool</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Letter Craft</i></b></span><br />
<br />
Skipped this in favor of hanging out with Grandma!<br />
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">PreK Activity Book</span></i></b><br />
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I read the Little Red Hen to <span style="color: magenta;">Ellie </span>and she sequenced the story. She also worked some on drawing lines and dots.<br />
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<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: lime; font-size: x-large;"><b>Junior K</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Language</span></i></b><br />
<br />
<i>Reading</i><br />
<br />
We worked through some 100 Easy Lessons again. <span style="color: lime;">Emmett</span> is flying through these lessons that we've already done. BUT, I have seen some improvement with fluidity. He's now capable of looking at a word, thinking about the different parts, and blending it all together before speaking. He can now "say it fast" if he thinks about it, without sounding out. <br />
<br />
He has complained that the stories are long and there are no pictures, but he's not sounding nearly as many words, and if he is motivated, reading is done for him in ten minutes. Right now this feels like a sweet spot with him. I don't want to try and push him mostly because I know it will be pointless. When he is developmentally ready to make that jump to automaticity, he will spurt forward again.<br />
<br />
<i>Spelling</i><br />
<br />
He is still LOVING the idea of spelling. We continued to review the sounds all different letters can make. I am taking this slowly, but he is doing really well. I also am connecting spelling a bit with his handwriting practice so he is partly dictated by how well he can form the letters.<br />
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<span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>did spell his first word this week. Grandpa has always affectionately called him "Punk" and he even spelled it! He looked confused about which /k/ sound to use, but after I told him that we hardly end English words in "c" he correctly chose "k." He was pleased with himself.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Math</i></b></span><br />
<br />
We worked through some simple number bond games. I tried to keep him sums to ten, but at this age, he loves grabbing the bigger rods to see what it is. LOL<br />
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<b><span style="color: purple; font-size: x-large;">First Grade</span></b></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Language</span></i></b><br />
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<i>Grammar</i><br />
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We worked through Lessons 76-78 which focused on some review, abbreviations in an address and titles of respect.<br />
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Writing<br />
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This week's narrations and copywork were from <i>The Reluctant Dragon</i>. <span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>didn't love the story, but didn't struggle with any of it either.<br />
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<i>Reading</i><br />
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<span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>finished up <i>Beezus and Ramona</i> like I expected. She was pretty insistent that she wanted to read <i>Ramona, Age 8 </i>so that's what we checked out next. She's almost halfway through that. When she finshes, I think I might encourage her to try something else for school and let her read Ramona on her spare time if she wants. We'll see...<br />
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<i>Spelling</i><br />
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We focused on the soft sound of C this week. <span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>seemed confused about when to use s or c (followed by e) for some sounds. I'm sure part of that will resolve as she's exposed more to these words. Regardless, she'll have a bit more review of these words next week than normal.<br />
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<i>Handwriting</i><br />
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She worked on letter n and some review, I think.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Math</i></b></span><br />
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We are coming to the close of Singapore 2A. <span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>worked on the chapter that focuses on division by 2. I'd like to keep the momentum we've got going with Singapore rather than switch back to MEP quite yet. Today, though, we did work on some MEP puzzles. I'm wondering if maybe this next semester it would be ideal to drop the IP/CWP from Singapore (which we use a year behind, so there's no real challenge) and add in half a lesson of MEP puzzles prior to her Singapore lesson. We'll have to see what will work when we get the next Singapore set (sometime next week). Traditionally, the B set of books have a lot of easier topics (money, geography, time) so it might be fine to have some challenging problems by way of MEP...<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">All Together</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>History</i></b></span><br />
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This week we read about the Mycenaeans. I need to find some common household items made out of bronze and iron. The kids understood that the barbarians were able to conquer the Mycenaeans because they had stronger weapons. They have a hard time remembering that the barbarians had iron weapons and the Mycenaeans had bronze weapons. I'm hoping we can take them to home depot or something and see/feel the difference. <br />
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Science</span></i></b><br />
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We did studied crustaceans this week. The kids even enjoyed checking out our own crustaceans: roly polies! These are their favorite bugs ever, so it was really easy to encourage them to work on some science this week. LOLblondeviolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14777423468629595749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383383110570056514.post-71531558514295838952012-11-24T14:14:00.001-08:002013-02-23T09:00:02.537-08:00Week 16Even though this week was Thanksgiving week, we still did schoolwork...though a bit light/shorter than normal!<br />
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<span style="color: magenta; font-size: x-large;"><b>Preschool</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: magenta;">Ellie </span>has been having gastrointestinal issues of late. Mostly, it's involved vomiting and random times. I took her the doctor last week and then ran some tests. This week, though, she had an upper GI series. Between that and Thanksgiving prep, we took an "unschool" approach. In our house that equals A LOT of reading to her and a ton of playing with blocks (mostly Duplo).<br />
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<span style="color: lime; font-size: x-large;"><b>Junior K</b></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Reading</span></i></b><br />
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<span style="color: lime;">Emmett</span> skipped back and forth between I See Sam books he's already read and some Dr. Seuss (especially the Cat in the Hat's Learning Library). He really loves science-y books and has been carrying around a book from the library with HUGE spreads of insects and spiders. I wish they made beginning readers like that. He'd eat it up.<br />
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We also moved back to reading some stories from 100 Easy Lessons. He cruised through them. Now I wonder if we should go back and work on the again for fluency.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Spelling - New!</i></b></span><br />
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Since <span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>has had a good amount of phonics instruction, but still isn't fluent, I debated starting him in All About Spelling 1. I thought we'd take it slowly and learn the phonograms and see how it goes. He really enjoyed saying the sounds and writing them with me. We'll see how far he makes it.<br />
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Math</span></i></b><br />
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Skipped!<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: purple; font-size: x-large;"><b>First Grade</b></span></div>
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<i><b><span style="font-size: large;">Language</span></b></i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Grammar</i><br />
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We worked through lessons 72-75. We worked mostly with the poem <i>Three Little Kittens</i> and some review of nouns, verbs and pronouns within the poem.<br />
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<i>Writing</i><br />
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This week I read her <i>Master of all Masters</i>, which is a folktale. I only had to re-read one section of the story, which I thought was pretty good for all of those weird words it dealt with! The other story we worked with was an Aesop fable. It was kind of neat because next week for history we will be learning about Ancient Greece.<br />
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We also wrote letters to Santa. :)<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8215279128/" title="IMG_1975 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_1975" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8345/8215279128_68912af84b_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>Reading</i><br />
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<span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>got on Book Adventure and took the quiz for <i>Meet Molly</i>. She got all ten questions right, so apparently she did follow the story somewhat. I'm not sure she grasped some of the significance of the story, but it was a good introduction to some ideas for her. <br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8214205705/" title="IMG_1973 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_1973" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8203/8214205705_d72dc52cfd_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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This week she's worked through <i>Beezus and Ramona. </i>We checked it out from the library on my kindle. There are good things and bad things about that. I really like her using real books and turning real pages. BUT, at the same time, she thinks it's neat to use a device to read a book. I can also make the text larger if she needs it (though, she doesn't). Most of all, though, she can't freak out about how big a book or chapter is. She just gets on and reads it. She's already two-thirds of the way through <i>Beezus and Ramona</i>, so I anticipate we'll be picking another book fairly soon.<br />
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<i>Spelling</i><br />
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We worked through some commonly used words (to, do, you, your, of) and some words using the third sound of u. Even though it was a short week, there wasn't much issue with these words. It probably did help that half of the list was composed of very high frequency words.<br />
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<i>Handwriting</i><br />
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We moved on to learning the letter M this week.<br />
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Math</span></i></b><br />
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Because it was a short week, we worked through the given review of multiplication and then used a bit of Miquon to review multi-digit addition. I think next week, for her warm-up work (which we never really do), we'll review multi-digit subtraction.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>All Together</b></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Science</span></i></b><br />
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Our butterflies finally matured into adulthood! <span style="color: magenta;">Ellie </span>was so excited! We've been feeding them oranges and plan to release them this afternoon.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8214200405/" title="IMG_1974 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_1974" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8490/8214200405_f03835af31_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
We also moved on and studied arachnids this week. <span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>and <span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>loved the little ditty that came in their science books about spiders. <span style="color: lime;">Emmett</span> also caught a spider for us to observe. The favorite part was also putting an ant in with the spider and then observing how the ant went missing!</div>
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<i><b><span style="font-size: large;">History</span></b></i><br />
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This week we read about the Minoans. The kids were fascinated with the stories from this week. Who wouldn't love bull-jumping, the Minotaur and volcano exploding?! They did have a hard time remembering the name of the civilization that lived on Crete. We did a lot of "Who lived on Crete?" with the kids yelling, "THE MINOANS!" LOLblondeviolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14777423468629595749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383383110570056514.post-32978514637577477732012-11-17T13:34:00.000-08:002012-11-24T13:36:11.367-08:00Week 15Apparently I'm getting a little boring in my picture-taking. There are only four photos this week! <br />
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<span style="color: magenta; font-size: x-large;"><b>Preschool</b></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Craft</span></i></b><br />
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Because Thanksgiving's coming up next week, we chose to forego our letter and make a turkey instead. We finger painted feathers and then used tracings of each child's foot for the turkey's body. I forgot to take a picture of how well they came out, but they did come out like cute little abstract turkeys.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8215219572/" title="IMG_1967 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_1967" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8062/8215219572_73facae2be_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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This was <span style="color: blue;">Hyrum</span>'s first time actually painting and not eating the paint. After a bit, he wanted a wipe for his hands, and then he tried to clean his paper. LOL<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8214139581/" title="IMG_1964 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_1964" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8489/8214139581_84af68c543_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Preschool Activity Book</i></b></span><br />
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We did some story comprehension questions, some patterns with shapes and colors, and some line drawing. <span style="color: magenta;">Ellie </span>still needs crayon nubs because otherwise she wants to fist the writing utensil!<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: lime; font-size: x-large;"><b>Junior K</b></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Reading</span></i></b><br />
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<span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>did some Dr. Seuss reading. He picked <i>Green Eggs and Ham </i>again. He's memorized most of it, so I'm not sure how much reading he actually did. LOL<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Math</i></b></span><br />
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He moved into the number bonds section in his book. He really likes these papers, but does not like that he has to show me the answer with the rods. I'm trying to encourage him to check with the rods because he is prone to miscounting. <br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">First Grade</span></b></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Language</span></i></b><br />
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<i>Grammar</i><br />
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We did lessons 71 and 72 which focused on seasons and holidays as well as the proper use of sit/set and the pronoun I.<br />
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<i>Writing</i><br />
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This week focused on <i>The Railway Children. </i><span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>enjoyed the story, but had trouble remembering the kids' names. I think probably because they were unfamiliar to her.<br />
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<i>Reading</i><br />
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<span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>finished <i>Meet Molly</i>! I started her an account on <a href="http://www.bookadventure.com/Home.aspx">Book Adventure</a> so she is anxious to take the quiz for this book. I guess that will tell me how much of the story she actually comprehended. She can tell me what happened, but I'm always left wondering...<br />
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<i>Spelling</i><br />
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To close up this section of r-controlled syllables, <span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>worked through words with the /or/ sound.<br />
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<i>Handwriting</i><br />
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We have been working for the last little bit on connecting letters to form words. This week, she wrote her first sentence in cursive!<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8214130125/" title="IMG_1968 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_1968" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8485/8214130125_7007aa5484_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Math</span></i></b></div>
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This week we moved on to multiplication by three. <span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>surprised me by completely being able to skip count by 3s even though we've not practiced it! Though, if she didn't know a multiplication problem, she's very prone to think of the number doubled and then added again. I'm more than fine if she doesn't commit these problems to memory as my current plan is for her to move on to Beast Academy next year where they will work on multiplication again. She is just six, after all!</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">All Together</span></b></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Science</span></i></b><br />
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Our caterpillars have mostly all moved on to become chrysalises! We have one straggler, but he was so long past the other guys, that we moved the other guys and have the caterpillar still hanging out in the cup. <br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8215229440/" title="IMG_1936 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_1936" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8342/8215229440_d3a36bd647_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>History</i></b></span><br />
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This week we learned about Babylon taking over again! <span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>loved that Nebuchadnezzar was so nice to make his wife a garden that reminded her of home. <br />
<br />blondeviolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14777423468629595749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383383110570056514.post-46696988483692857922012-11-10T13:05:00.000-08:002012-11-24T13:20:36.005-08:00Week 14<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: magenta; font-size: x-large;">Preschool</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Letter Themes</i></b></span><br />
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This week we did t and made a tower. We read Rapunzel and put our own little Rapunzel in our tower. To my little girly-girl, this was the perfect craft.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8214033131/" title="IMG_1897 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_1897" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8062/8214033131_40428b5785_z.jpg" width="427" /></a>
</div>
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<i><b><span style="font-size: large;">PreK Activity Book</span></b></i><br />
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The book this week focused on the fine motor skill of coloring, some storytelling, and followed up on AB patterns. <br />
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There was a part where <span style="color: magenta;">Ellie </span>was supposed to put some cut outs of a story in order. It had three pictures: kids building a tower, the tower really tall, and the tower falling. If I had been placing it, I would have placed them in that order. <span style="color: magenta;">Ellie </span>placed them as the tower really tall, the tower falling over and then the kids building the tower. I had her tell me WHY she put them where she did and she said, "The tower was really tall, and then it fell over. The kids were sad, but wanted to rebuild their tower." Perfectly valid, so we left it like that.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8214040515/" title="IMG_1894 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_1894" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8209/8214040515_439368a7be_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: lime; font-size: x-large;"><b>Junior K</b></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Reading</span></i></b><br />
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<span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>read some stories in Frog and Toad and did a great job with them! He is still sounding out a lot of things, but really seemed to enjoy the different stories in Frog and Toad.<br />
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Math</span></i></b><br />
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We worked some on numbers above fifteen. He's funny because he can recognize and say the numbers in math names when given a group or rods, but when he counts them, he's constantly off in his counting. He understands one-to-one counting, but sometimes he is very confident in his counting that he misses things because he's moving so fast.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: purple; font-size: x-large;"><b>First Grade</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
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<i><b><span style="font-size: large;">Language</span></b></i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Grammar</i><br />
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We did lessons 68-70 which focused on writing the names of some months, was verses were, and reviewed action verbs.<br />
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<i>Writing</i><br />
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Same ol', same ol'. We worked with a Robert Louis Stevenson poem and a folk tale.<br />
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<i>Reading</i><br />
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<span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>started in on <i>Meet Molly</i>. It has a much higher interest level, so I'm wondering how much of the book she's understanding/retaining. I guess we'll see...<br />
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<i>Spelling</i><br />
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We continued our focus on r-controlled syllables. This week was focused on spelling /ar/.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8215129654/" title="IMG_1884 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_1884" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8061/8215129654_a25814e23f_z.jpg" width="427" /></a></div>
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<i>Handwriting</i><br />
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We worked some again on not holding our marker/pen/pencil so hard and forming words, not just independent cursive letters.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Math</i></b></span><br />
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We moved into the 2s times tables today. Since she knows her doubles in addition, this was not a hard math week. At all.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">All Together</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Science</i></b></span><br />
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We are learning about arthropods for the next chunk of time. First we are focusing on insects and raising butterflies! Just in time, we got our butterfly larvae on Monday. So, we swapped our science and history days this week and did our observations of them.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8215134466/" title="IMG_1875 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_1875" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8210/8215134466_f2fc049366_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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They grew quite a bit by the end of the week. The kids are excitedly anticipating their transformation into chrysalises. <br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8214036841/" title="IMG_1895 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_1895" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8490/8214036841_a0de2305a0_z.jpg" width="427" /></a>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">History</span></i></b><br />
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Our chapter this week was The Return of Assyria. The kids learned about Ashurbanipal and have been singing They Might Be Giants' <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAMRTGv82Zo">The Mesopotamians</a>.blondeviolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14777423468629595749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383383110570056514.post-5309736652799170532012-11-03T21:05:00.000-07:002012-11-05T21:06:54.065-08:00Week 13Last week was a scheduled break. It was also <span style="color: lime;">Emmett</span>'s birthday. He turned five years old!<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: magenta; font-size: x-large;"><b>Preschool</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Letter Themes</i></b></span><br />
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Seeing as this was the week of Halloween, we did some Halloween stuff instead! We read a ton of Halloween books. One of the favorites was <i>Go Away, Big Green Monster</i> by Ed Emberly. So, we made monster masks. <span style="color: magenta;">Ellie </span>enjoyed this, and even <span style="color: blue;">Hyrum </span>got a big kick out of putting the monster to his face and then letting out a pseudo scream.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8156213361/" title="IMG_1847 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_1847" height="427" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7279/8156213361_95f3ce8227_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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The older three constructed their own monster faces.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8156256252/" title="IMG_1844 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_1844" height="427" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7254/8156256252_175a6cd70e_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;"><i>PreK Activity Book</i></span></b><br />
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The book focused a lot on reviewing our senses and then patterns. I was surprised that <span style="color: magenta;">Ellie </span>could continue AB patterns with relative ease. Imagine that! She loved doing it with her Halloween candy even.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8160099879/" title="IMG_1808 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_1808" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8070/8160099879_a6dc90d5a1_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: lime; font-size: x-large;"><b>Junior K</b></span></div>
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I didn't get many pictures of <span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>doing schoolwork this week. He doesn't cooperate half the time to take a picture. BUT, the highlight of his week (besides Halloween) was his swim class. He's LOVING it! He just wishes there weren't as many kids in his class because they're all bigger and he gets bowled over occasionally. He is at least three years younger than any other kid in his class.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8156267684/" title="IMG_1830 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_1830" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8064/8156267684_d1e5fb2afb_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Reading</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="color: lime;">Emmett </span>is continuing to work on his fluency. This week he read books 22-26 in the I See Sam readers. He also worked on a few other books on his spare time.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Math</i></b></span><br />
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He moved into numbers above 10 and number bonds. He is a bit of a know-it-all when it comes to math. He, of course, doesn't know it all, but he likes to think he does. LOL<br />
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<span style="color: purple; font-size: x-large;"><b>First Grade</b></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Language</span></i></b><br />
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<i>Grammar</i><br />
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We continued on through and finished up some work with months of the year and seasons and abbreviations. I should accelerate <span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>through this stuff, but she loves that it's easy and she is only six.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8156250209/" title="IMG_1805 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_1805" height="427" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7121/8156250209_945e5095ff_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>Writing</i><br />
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Her selection this week came from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Saturdays-Melendy-Quartet-Elizabeth-Enright/dp/0312375980">The Saturdays</a>. <i>Abby </i>really enjoyed listening to the story selections from this book. It might be a good read-aloud in the near future.<br />
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<i>Reading</i><br />
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<span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>finished <i>Ramona, the Pest</i>! She loved it. To celebrate, we redeemed her next coupon for Book-It on Friday. She went to the library and picked out her next book: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Meet-Molly-American-Girl-Collection/dp/0937295078">Meet Molly, An American Girl</a>.<br />
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<i>Spelling</i><br />
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<span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>learned "/er/ as in her," and applied that sound to words. She that we call such a syllable an R-controlled syllable. Now she points them out in reading. LOL<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8156245665/" title="IMG_1807 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_1807" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8206/8156245665_36d37db59c_z.jpg" width="640" /></a>
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<i>Handwriting</i><br />
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We continued to work on marker/pen/pencil pressure and some cursive work. She worked through the letters K and L and their review parts.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Math</i></b></span><br />
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This week was a scheduled review week. She only missed one or two problems the entire week, which was pretty good. She did have to review the meaning of division a time or two on Monday, though. I guess taking a week off'll do that to you.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8156272898/" title="IMG_1813 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_1813" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8344/8156272898_7d5095f569_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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She's also started annotating her regrouping when she needs to hold a lot of it in her head. She even does it for problems in the horizontal representation. <br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8156258895/" title="IMG_1738 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_1738" height="427" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7106/8156258895_6dab53d251_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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(She's moving her hand up to erase the two and change it to a one, here.)</div>
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I knew that eventually she would adapt and change how she solves problems. That's fine with me. As long as what she's doing is mathematically correct, she can work it however she'd like.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>All Together</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Science</i></b></span><br />
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We learned about echinoderms this week. The kids thought it was a really interesting unit. They thought it was wicked that a sea cucumber can spit out its intestines and asked to watch video after video of it on youtube. LOL<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8156286608/" title="IMG_1740 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_1740" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8350/8156286608_a9827909e8_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>History</i></b></span><br />
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This week we moved back to Mesopotamia with the Phoenicians. The kids really retained the part about them making glass, especially since we watched videos of people today blowing glass. <br />
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We made our own purple dye and dyed some yarn. No stinky snails here, please! No way! Instead we used kool-aid and the crock pot to dye some yarn. When it is sufficiently dried and I have a second, I will knit it up for <span style="color: purple;">Abby </span>and she will have her own hat that is the color of the kings.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagazfamily/8160135963/" title="IMG_1851 by nagazwife, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_1851" height="427" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8202/8160135963_9fb211b19b_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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