Week 7

I toyed with the idea of doing a rotation of six weeks school and one week off, which would have put us off this week...but we were just feeling like we were going somewhere. So, instead of taking the week completely off, we did a lighter version of school and dropped FIAR this week. We just read lots of library books in the absence of a FIAR book.

Also: Abby got her first pair of footed pajamas for the winter this week. If she was at home, she was in them. So, even though she's in jammies, these pictures did occur on different days and different times. Another unspoken benefit of homeschooling.

ABCs:

We are running out of letters...after this week's letter (Z), we only have four left. We made zig zags for Z this week. I have specialty scissors that cut jagged edges. They're originally supposed to be used for scrapbooking and cardmaking...but let's be realistic: I'm not crafty like that.

PreK:

Mostly we just played around with classification this week. We sorted by big and small, short and small, shapes and colors. The favorites was colors, of course. Ellie also joined in on these activities as she is still learning her colors (or maybe it's just that's she's finally starting to care about colors).

Emmett also used the iPad to trace some letters and even attempt some Rocket Math. And, because Emmett did it, Ellie had to try it too.

There was one day, where I was teaching Abby a math lesson, Hyrum was asleep, Ellie was in the way (as usual!) and I realized I hadn't seen Emmett for a few minutes. When I went looking for him, he was up on Abby's bed, "reading" Little Critter.

Reading:

Abby is still working through Magic Tree House 5 with me. She also is constantly reading throughout the day too. Her favorite time to read is before bed, though. After reading for about an hour, she usually comes out and tells us she can't sleep. Of course not!

Math:

We took a week to just review and go over number bonds. From what I understand, number bonds are crucial to being able to succeed with Singapore Math. I had been led to believe that it might be a bit of a conceptual leap for Abby since she is still only 5 (and a young 5 at that). Mostly, though, it was a bit underwhelming, though. I showed her what the bonds were, how they were notated and then let her work on them. And she totally gets them in almost a "What's the big deal?" fashion. I attribute this really to the Cuisenaire rods and being able to see what I'm talking about.

One day we did number bonds on the sliding door with dry erase. (They love to write on the glass with dry erase markers.)

Abby caught me reading about a game, Math Rider, this week and asked me to play it. It went over okay, except Abby doesn't have the keyboard skills to be as quick as she'd like. So, I sat and typed the answers for her. In her zeal to be quick, she'd sort of freak out before sitting and remembering the answer. I think we'll put games like this on hold for a bit.

On Thursday, built sum towers. We basically used our rods and flats to build towers. Our pillars started as only 1cm high, then we progressed to 2cm, all the way to 10cm. This was awesome, though, because we only used an introductory set of rods which only have 4 rods each of the 5-10 rods. So then, because we ran out on the first level, we had to build the numbers in a different way. She really liked this lesson and I have a feeling it will be one we repeat to review our number bonds. While it was a lesson in building different numbers for Abby, it was a lesson in patience for me because the two-year-old wanted to help too!

This is our "seven" tower.

Spelling:

We reviewed our previous rules and completed lesson 20 which discussed the digraph /ng/.

Extra:

Because we had had a stomach bug run through our house all last weekend, we discussed germs and the importance of washing our hands. I demonstrated how our hands are dirty even if they appear clean by having them handle two peeled potatoes.

We also found some kind of seed pod after swim lesson on Thursday. I had the kids grab a few and told them we'd open them up for a science project. All I have to do is say "science experiment" and they are all running towards me with excitement in their eyes.

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 5

This week was a success for me not because of what we accomplished school-wise, but because I made great strides in my ability to keep the house somewhat put together and still get school done. We didn't really feel it start to deteriorate (thank you, entropy!) until Friday afternoon. And, because Saturday is our cleaning day, that's not too bad!

ABCs:

We made Ps with Popcorn! I did throw a little sugar and purple dye in there. I didn't add nearly enough sugar to coat the popcorn, though, so you can hardly see the purple in the pictures. Rest assured it is there! We did this craft before lunch, though, and I didn't want them all filled up on sugar popcorn before we ate.

PreK:

Emmett didn't want to do much of anything this week. He did listen in on what I did with Abby. We also read the Three Little Pigs and had him role play those with our storytime figures, but mostly he wanted to play outside.

Reading:

Abby did a fair amount of reading to me and her little sister.

On Friday, we got Magic Tree House books 5-8 in the mail. I picked up the package and handed it to her to open it. She tore into it and then excitedly ran to tell Emmett, "Emmett! We have more Magic Tree House!" She begged to read it right then, and so we did. She read half the first chapter to me and I read the other half. We alternated pages so she gets more comfortable with the longer pages. And she loved it.

I got another set of books on Friday: Grade 1 Pathway Readers. These look really fairly easy for her, which is good. They'll be easy to read, but I will also require her to complete the coordinating workbook. I think we'll toss those in the mix next week.

Spelling:

Abby continues to zoom through All About Spelling. Because she's moving so quickly through it, and I was aiming to have the curriculum last through December, we have moved it to twice weekly. She only has six lessons left to complete and those do have good rules to learn and go over. This week we reviewed when to use c or k at the beginning of a word and also learned that the letters f, l, and s are usually doubled after a short vowel in a single-syllable word.

Math:

This week we talked about other ways to add and subtract besides using the rods. We added on our number line...

...and on a non-traditional number line.

On Friday we discussed addition being when we want to know the whole of two parts and subtraction being when we have a whole and a part and want to know the other part. We did part-whole pictures and expanded them way down. Here's one she did for 10, though it looks like 100 because she added a face to the top circle and called the very bottom circle feet and it was a spider. LOL

She also continues to build with the rods independent of math lesson. This one's a table...

...and here she is measuring her candies.

Memory Work:

We memorized One, Two, Buckle My Shoe. The sayings that I wanted to get to...well, we didn't get to them. LOL We did memorize 2 Ne 2:25, though.

FIAR:

This week we rowed Three Names. In some ways, I wish we would have rowed this one during our first official week of school because it is about a boy and his dog who go to school in a one-room school house.

Social Studies:

• We talked about what a prairie is and located the Great Plains on our map. Emmett placed the book cover on our map and was excited that he could place it in Oklahoma.
• We also compared Three Names' school adventures to ours. We talked about how we use cars to get places instead of a wagon. Abby said they used a stove to heat their school room and we used something else..."By the way, Mom, what do we use?" I explained the idea of a furnace that is turned on by a thermostat. We discussed electricity and lightbulbs vs candles. She remembered back to a time where we were without power and compared that. I started to respond that we still didn't use candles as much then, but used something else. "Flashlights!"

Language Arts:

• There are a few examples of hyperbole in the book and we discussed how the author uses them to emphasize that even though it wasn't "a hundred years ago" we know that it was really a long time ago.

Art:

• In the book, Martha plays the fiddle for special occasions. I pulled out my violin and we discussed the difference between a violin and a fiddle (they are the same thing). I told them that even though they were the same instrument, violin music and fiddle music are very different from one another. I let them (very, very carefully) try my violin. Then, we got on YouTube and looked up some fiddlers. (We would have looked up violin music, but they're aware of how that sounds because I am a classically-trained violinst.)

Math:

• We talked about the correlation between inches, feet, yards, and miles. Then we measured how many inches in a foot and how many feet in a yard.

Science:

• We talked about wells and why things under the ground are colder than other areas on earth.
• We also discussed animal classification a bit and determined that dogs (and humans!) are mammals.

Other:

• On Wednesday, we went to the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. We looked at depictions of prairies in art. They have a great mini-town where you can see what a one-room schoolhouse might have looked like. Abby loved this part. They also had a pump for a well. It was neat for her to see to draw connections from the book to actually seeing some of it.

Life:

• We did entertain the idea of putting all the kids' beds in one room so we had a schoolroom, but I have reservations because I don't think it would be something that would last very long...a year max. So, I reorganized our school supplies. Now the older two each have their own crate that holds all of their supplies. When I say we're doing a lesson, they grab their crate and sit at the table. At the end of the lesson, they're responsible for putting things away and putting their crates back on the bookshelf. So far, that's working nicely. Maybe one day we'll have a schoolroom...

• We visited a park where the kids devised a game where two of them stay at the bottom of the slide and place sand on the bottom while the other slid down after the sand was all piled at the bottom of the slide. Then, the slider stayed down to place more sand and one of the sand-placers took his turn as a slider. They were the only ones at the park that day, but they still played together and had a great time. My kids may have their squabbles, but I love that they can play together and are friends. In this picture, Emmett was the slider and now Ellie is running off screaming, "My turn!"

• Ellie is also a little reader. She loves books and all things puzzles.

• I bought Monopoly Jr. this week and we played it for the first time last night. I'd much rather play this than Candyland, and this has the added benefit of Abby sometimes needing to come up with a sum with her money. I think the next time we play, we'll use two dice so as to require the addition of two numbers before they move.

• In my post about why we homeschool, I apparently forgot to add one. Because who would want to corral this one into getting changed from her jammie shirt, fix her underwear (it's actually on right, just way wedged in there!), put on some pants and do her hair all with a baby in tow? That's exhausting. LOL

• And, perhaps Abby's topper on the week: We took her training wheels off her bike! It's so interesting to watch her learn something like this. Emmett excels with physical activities. He swims well (across the pool) and has been riding his bike sans training wheels since we got it. Abby relied heavily on her training wheels. Then, Emmett went on a ride with Daddy while Daddy ran...and Abby decided that she wanted to do that too. We said she could when she had no training wheels on. So, this week, she has been working on it. She would go a few feet and then stop for what seemed like no reason. Her progress with the bike has been so incremental. Whereas, Emmett learned in leaps. Abby has no problem committing things to memory (so much that I really have to be cognizant of checking for understanding instead of her just spitting back the answer). Emmett does not memorize as quickly (it could be because he'll just be 4 next month, but I'm not sure), but he sure does excel when it comes to just observing, taking a leap of faith and doing it. It'll be interesting to see what Ellie's learning will be like.

Memory Monday!

Our memory work this week will consist of a couple of sayings: "A place for everything and everything in its place." As well as "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." We are also working on memorizing "One, Two, Buckle My Shoe" as well as counting to 100 by tens.

Already memorized:

First Article of Faith

Continents

Pledge of Allegiance

Personal information (address, phone number, full name, etc)

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.