Week 6

ABCs:

We did "U is for Umbrella." Hyrum actually joined us at the table! :)

Then, it was time for Hyrum's morning nap...so I quickly left the kids to put Hyrum down. They had markers and do-a-dot type paints and I was hoping to be quick.

Of course, even just three minutes meant a big mess with Ellie there.

PreK:

This week we read the story of the Gingerbread Man. Emmett really enjoyed it. We read it. We acted it out. He loved being the Gingerbread Man. He'd say, "Run, run as fast as you can! You can't catch me; I'm Emmett man!" LOL

We made people chains and decorated them.

Of course, we made gingerbread cookies!

Abby and Emmett watched them bake while wondering if OUR cookies would pop up after baking and run away.

The cookies got this kid's seal of approval, though!

Emmett also completed a Mighty Math Mission by tallying all of the circles in our kitchen he could find.

Reading:

Well, we did get the first grade Pathway Readers and I had planned to start them this week, but we also got a Magic Tree House book that Abby and I have been reading aloud together. I'm not going to squash excitement over reading!

Spelling:

We reviewed when to use "c" or "k" at the beginning of a word and reviewed the double letter rule as well.

Of course, Emmett wanted to jump in and use the rice too.

We completed lesson 19 and learned when to use a "k" or "ck" at the end of a word. These spelling rules really do click with her. Mostly, she doesn't seem to need to see the words more than once or twice before she is spelling them all correctly.

Math:

We've been working through Miquon and Abby has been flying through it. I've been assuming all along that after K math, we'd jump into Singapore Primary Math. We've played a lot of games, we've covered addition and subtraction, she can solve problems with the rods.

I had felt like I was just sort of pulling what to teach through separate sections: Miquon being the primary, but I've also used ideas from Gattegno Mathematics, MEP Math, Math Mammoth, and Let's Play Math! as well as fellow homeschooler's blogs and my own head. I felt, however, that it was time to buy Singapore 1a to see really where I needed to be directing all of this work towards. We got it this Thursday and I opened it up and realized that all that spiraling back to numbers and addition and number bonds especially is really building a well-laid foundation. Abby has her number bonds up to 6 memorized and is very nearly solid on her number bonds of 10. I am absolutely sure that she understands the concept firmly. If I give her part-whole circles she can find all the number bonds to whatever number I've asked... And if I give her the numbers and ask her to pair up the bonds, she hardly ever needs the rods.

We will camp out here for however long it takes her to be really good with the bonds up for 7, 8, 9 and completely automatic with bonds of 10.

Memory Work:

We worked on the rhyme Once I Caught a Fish Alive. We made pop-up books of fish to go along with it, but I didn't take a picture. Abby colored hers as a rainbow fish. It was a perfect time to read her The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister.

We also started working on memorizing the months of the year. That came naturally from the discussion we had about this week being the last of September.

FIAR:

We rowed All Those Secrets of the World by Jane Yolen this week. I don't know why we haven't done this book before. It is a sweet book about a little four-year-old girl and what happens when her daddy goes off to war. She learns the "secret of the world' that things look smaller when they're far away. When her daddy gets back two years later, he comments that she was much bigger than he remembered. She whispers her secret in his ear, that she is bigger now because he is close to her.

I have a lot of feelings about this book. Probably because, while my husband hasn't been gone for two years straight, we have lived through our fair share of separations due to the military, including two deployments. At our house, we call it "long work" and we are very grateful that Daddy is now in a squadron that has a very, very low chance of deploying him for another 15ish months.

Our lessons were very simple and nothing strongly awe-inspiring, but sometimes, that's what learning is about.

Social Studies:

• We found the state of Virginia on our map. We talked about Daddy's brother who is in the Navy and lives in Virginia.
• Janie and her cousin take an impromptu walk in the Chesapeake Bay. We talked about what a bay is and I asked Abby to point out a few other bays. She found the Bay of Biscay, Bristol Bay and the Hudson Bay.
• We discussed what it means to be patriotic and counted all the American flags we could find in the book. We talked about our country's other symbols and listened to a song by the Teacher and the Rockabots called Symbols of America.

Language Arts:

• The children in the book wade in the bay even though they were told not to. Janie's cousin tells her that they were told not to swim in the bay, but nobody said they couldn't wade in it. I discussed with Abby why that was still wrong. It was interesting to discuss this with her because she is a very innocent child. She takes whatever someone tells her as a whole truth. When I read what Michael told Janie, I asked her if she thought that was still okay. She told me that Michael wouldn't say it if it wasn't, so it must be. Abby has dabbled a bit in lying, but she's not very good at it and is quick to tell me the truth. Developmentally, I know she's capable of lying, but I don't think it morally suits her. Of course, that's how I would prefer it. :)

Art:

• Because of the secret shared here--that when things are further away they appear smaller--we discussed how we make things look far away in art. We talked about viewpoint and size in creating the perspective of distance in art and found other pictures that had these same techniques.
• We plan to listen to the song mentioned in the book, Over There, this weekend.

Math:

• When Janie's dad leaves, she is 4. When he returns, she is 6. We found the difference between 6 and 4. I told Abby that time was about as long as the time we've had Ellie. Her eyes grew wide. Then, we did some skip counting by 2s, 5s, 10s, and even 3s and observed the patterns it made on our 100 chart.

Science:

• This was the exciting lesson of the week! We learned about oil and water and how they separate. We made our own bottles with colored water and oil (and glitter, of course!).

• Then I smeared some oil on a plate and asked Abby to try to clean it. She turned on the cold water and tried to wash it off. Of course, that didn't work. Then, we discussed the importance of using warm or hot water. Then I asked her what else do we use to wash. "Soap!" So, I placed some water and soap in our fourth bottle and asked her if she thought it would mix. She said no. Imagine her surprise when it did! We discussed how soap helps things mix with water and get it cleaner.

Life:

Our kids are so spoiled. I think we went to four parks or so this week. At one park, we saw a frog jump out of the sand and go enjoy some rocks.

We also found a grasshopper in our back yard and let the kids inspect them. Emmett was willing, Abby freaked. LOL

The kids have loved writing on our sliding glass door with dry erase markers for the last little bit. The other day, Abby wrote a note to Ms. Frizzle.

On our calendar spot, we record the date and how many days we've been in school. (I told the kids when we get to 100 we can have a party.) This whole week, our date and number of days in school have lined up. That was totally not planned, but the kids pointed it out and thought it was cool.

This weekend is Conference weekend. I had an assignment to go to some world fair today at the college, so I was thinking we would miss the first few sessions and have to read them later. Apparently, Heavenly Father really wanted me to hear these sessions, though, because the older two kids were throwing up all last night. My poor husband was up with them most of the night. It has hit Emmett worse than Abby and the poor boy is having difficulty keeping anything down. I guess it is a great day to cuddle up, and listen to the desires of God. Tomorrow they will probably be feeling better and will be listening for key words to earn a treat. Until then, we'll have a day of jammies and loafing.

Week 4

Daddy went back to work this week, which was a bummer, but also good for us to get back into our regular routine.

ABCs:

We reviewed the letter N this week. Lately, mostly reviewing our letters involves reading the sounds it makes, the shape and a lettaer craft. We used noodles for our N this time.

Ellie wanted to make a necklace afterwards. She loved it and made four and exclaimed, each time we finished one, "So pretty!"

PreK:

Emmett decided he wants to begin reading lessons this week. I'm indulging it, though we're going very slowly. So far he has completed 1.5 lessons. :) We also talked about body parts this week, including bones and muscles. We found parts of our body that aren't as common: elbows, wrist, ankles, hips, etc.

Reading:

Spelling:

We made it through three steps this week, which sets us at just past halfway through AAS Level 1. This week we learned whether to use "c" or "k" at the beginning of a word. Later, she was pleased to tell Daddy when a c is before e, i, or y it says /s/. We were in the middle of Chick-Fil-A and she bursted it out. LOL

Math:

My middle two love to watch Team Umizoomi. We have this math kit that came with cards that have "mighty math missions." This particular card had Emmett searching for numbers 1-10 throughout our house.

We headed back to Miqoun this week. Most of our time this week was directed around pairs that make five. We played a game we call "Yellow!" You need a deck with 0-5. If you're using face cards, you can use a Q for 0. Uno cards are PERFECT for this, though, just take out what you don't need. Then, the first player lays a card in the middle face up, and the next player follows. Each take turns laying a card. When you see a pair that makes five (or the yellow rod, hence the name), you exclaim, "Yellow!" and take the pair. Whoever has the most cards at the end of the game wins.

We also played a game that we call make a pair. With the same deck, each player is dealt five cards. The deck is placed in the center with two cards drawn and face up on either side of the deck. If a player can cover one card so the showing pair equals five, he does so. Otherwise he draws a card.

We've also played Old Maid with the same deck, just pulling out our "mystery card" before we begin play. We need more than two people for that one.

And of course, Go Fish or Go to the Dump with pairs that add to five.

Abby can now tell us all of the combinations of numbers that equal five.

She worked through the C-addition pages in Miquon and completed them. With the rods, single-digit addition is easy for her. Working these pages, she has committed to memory her +0, +1 addition tables as well as 2+2, 3+3, 4+4, 5+5, and 6+6. She's also fairly consistent with addition to 10, but only if she thinks about it in terms of rods. For being only 5 and only doing Miquon for the last 4 weeks, I'm fairly pleased with her understanding.

Memory Work:

This week we've worked on skip counting by ten. It will probably continue in to next week.

Unit Study Completion:

As a topper to our fire safety unit study last week, we visited the fire department! We visited the last firehouse in OKC that has fireman's poles. And it was a great tour! Besides just touring the firehouse and meeting the firemen, they also took us for a ride in a ladder truck.

The let the kids try on their equipment.

They let the kids spray the firehose!

FIAR:

This week we rowed a favorite, Madeline. My kids have never actually done any FIAR activities with it, but they are familiar with the books and the cartoon.

Social Studies:

• This isn't the first time we've rowed a book that is set in Paris. This time, we focused on the Seine River that runs through Paris. We got on Google Earth and looked at the river. Then, we found the picture in the book where it says that "nobody knew so well how to scare Miss Clavel." We supposed that the bridge was built to cross the Seine River and then practiced "scaring Miss Clavel" in our back yard.

Language Arts:

• We discussed rhyme this week. Abby can rhyme orally, so I assumed this would be a review type of lesson. Much to my surprise, she's never actually paid attention to written words that rhyme!

Art:

• We discussed impressions verses photographs.
• We noticed the differences in the pictures in the book: Some are full color and some are done with just black and yellow. We even compared the pictures where Miss Clavel says, "Something is not right."
• Finally, we drew a picture of a Tiger using Draw Write Now 7.

Applied Math:

• We arranged the "twelve little girls in two straight lines" into one, three, and four straight lines.

Science:

• Madeline has her appendix removed in the book. We found out where the appendix is and why someone might have to have theirs removed. This led us to an awesome discussion about the digestive tract. The kids enjoyed watching the BrainPOP Jr. episode on digestion.

• Because of Madeline's surgery, she has a scar which becomes the envy of the other little girls. We talked about our body's mechanisms to heal itself and how we get scars. Then, we found some on our bodies. I also took a picture of Abby raising her shirt so we could see her stomach. On it, she drew her own scar.

Other:

• We checked out a Madeline collection from the library and read other Madeline books.
• We watched a fair amount of Madeline cartoons via our Netflix instant play.
• For our movie tonight, we watched the live action Madeline, which is really a composite of all the original Madeline books.