All of these holidays in the month of November are throwing our routine off! We were off to a good start this week but Veteran's Day threw a wrench in the works. But that's ok - we're ahead in most subjects so it really doesn't bother me.
The Boy and The Girl were able to participate in the local Veteran's Day parade with The Boy's Cub Scout group. We discussed the difference between Veteran's Day and Memorial Day and the significance of each.
The 3 Rs continue to go pretty well. The Boy is about done with his spelling for the YEAR so we're going to pick up Wordly Wise and Explode the Code for him to start after the new year. I'm planning to add Wordly Wise in for The Girl as well. NOT that I think she needs ANY help in the vocabulary department...
Our time spent reading together/aloud has increased a bit which is good - we had been neglecting it. We are currently reading "The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane", which we had started reading this past summer. I backtracked a few chapters to reacquaint us with the story and the kids are really enjoying it. I either read to them while we're eating lunch or after we are done with history. They seem to prefer that I read to them after history (which usually follows lunch) as they are a bit sluggish from lunch and their friends are not yet home from school so they have downtime. The first day, I read just two short chapters and then stopped and they clammored for more. So I kept reading until something stopped me. At that rate, we will be able to complete at least a book per week. I told them that I wanted to read through the books we have on our own shelf (mainly books that have been given to us or that I loved as a child and bought for them to read as they grew older) before we start looking into other books to check out from the library.
In the meantime, we are creating a list of books we want to read. Our library has some great lists - Caldecott Award winners, Newberry Award winners, Theodore Seuss Geisel award winners, etc. In order to teach them how to navigate the internet, I have them each choose 2 books to research and report back on (right now, we are sticking to the lists that the library has to make things easy. Once we exhaust those, we'll move on to letting them choose books on their own to investigate). They have to share with us the title, author, and a brief summary of the book. For now, I let them copy down what they find on line (we use either Wikipedia or Amazon for now) as they have not read the book yet and cannot give me a summary in their own words. We then choose one of the two that they researched and add it to our list. They've enjoyed learning about the different awards given to children's books and they've enjoyed learning about different types of books. And just because a book doesn't make it to our "Read Aloud" list doesn't mean THEY can't check it out from the library and read it on their own! And they have, which I love!
The other thing that I'm finding I love is that, when they come across a passage (say, for example, a passage in their Writing With Ease workbook) that they have to listen to/read and summarize and they find that they are intrigued by what they've read, they LOVE to go and find the actual text at the library (or, even better, in our reading room)! The first time it happened, it was a book that we have here at home but that they had not yet read. The Girl was so excited to run into the reading room and find it on the shelf. She spent the rest of the day reading the entire book and, for the first time, was EXCITED to do her Writing work the next day (she's not a fan of summaries but is starting to enjoy them more). I love watching their faces light up when they read a passage from a book they've already read and I love watching their faces light up when they read a passage from a book they have NOT read but now WANT to read.
Math is moving along well. The Boy is just 2 lessons (and a "final exam") away from being done with 1st grade math. He is thrilled that he gets to take a "final exam" like I did last year in my college classes. I told him he could wait until after Christmas to get started on his next math level but he told me that he wants to get started right away. "Wouldn't it be COOL if I made it to THIRD GRADE MATH before I move into second grade?!?" I told him it would be great but not to pressure himself too much. The fact that he's done with 1st grade math is AMAZING in and of itself.
The Girl hit a challenge this week in math. We're working on double digit multiplication (i.e. 23x41). The thing I really like about Math U See is that she was given two different ways of working the problem - procedural (multiply the 3x1, then the 3x4; use a zero to hold the unit's place in the second line, multiply the 2x1, then 2x4; then add) or expanded (3x1 + 3x40, 20x1 + 20x40; add like terms and condense into a 3-digit number). SHE gets to choose what works best for HER. I would have thought that the expanded method would have worked better for her but she prefers the procedural. The fact that SHE gets to choose is what I like. The schools here are very strict about "doing it their way" - not just in the lower elementary grades but all the way up into Algebra and beyond. I don't care HOW you get the answer as long as you can explain to me how you came up with it and it's not just a wild guess. I make sure she understands both approaches and can perform them adequately (I have her complete at least 1 problem using each approach) but, after that, she's free to do them any way she chooses.
History took a backseat this week so we're a wee bit behind. We read and did the map work but that's about it. I'm currently trying to wrap my brain around this post that I found on making geography come alive and I"m trying to figure out where to put maps up like this and if there's even a point to doing so if we wind up having to leave the island before the end of the school year. I need to get down to the education store downtown and see what size maps they have. I have already scoped out bulletin boards - I just need to know if I can get my hands on maps (world and US) that fit. Then I need to figure out if they'll fit on the wall I'd like to use. I think the kids would really enjoy it!
But, for now, the weekend is upon us. As you can tell by my complete lack of photographic evidence, I have yet to pick up the slack in that area. We have BMX racing and the Awana Grand Prix coming up this weekend so hopefully we'll get some pictures in there somewhere!
Pau.
- hfs
Showing posts with label Week-in-review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Week-in-review. Show all posts
11.12.2010
10.31.2010
Treading water
I swear we're still here. And still homeschooling. And doing ok. I think we've found our groove for the most part. Now we're just treading water. I am a list-maker so here are my lists for this post:
THINGS THAT ARE GOING WELL:
- the three Rs
- the independent folders
- independent reading
- organization
THINGS THAT I NEED TO WORK ON:
- taking more pictures
- staying motivated THROUGH Thursday so that we can get to our special projects
- integrating music and art in to our day
- getting started no later than 9am
The three Rs are going pretty smoothly. Both The Boy and The Girl are on track to finish their current math levels by Christmas break. Maybe even sooner - their motivation and enthusiasm increases as we get closer to the end of the book! I've promised them that we will NOT start their new math levels until after Christmas break so that means that the sooner they get done with their current books, the sooner they have one less subject during the day.
Their independent folders are a part of the morning routine and I'm seeing the payoff in other areas of our lives. Their chores and morning tasks are incorporated into their folders so I have less reminding to do on a daily basis - the folder checklists do it for me! I do not like being a nag and prefer to let natural consequences teach the lesson (didn't do your chores? No money this week for you.) and the folder seems to help that.
Even though we've not been to the library for two weeks, both The Boy and The Girl have been good about reading independently during breaks from lessons. They both enjoy reading which really warms my heart and I love it when they find a book (either here at home or at the library) that ties in with their lessons and get excited. The local schools here "mandate" 20 minutes of independent reading per day and I'd say that The Boy and The Girl double that (The Girl probably quadruples it) on a daily basis.
While things are going well, I'm finding that I'm in the "treading water" mode right now. The newness of homeschooling has worn off and now we're down to the "what is the minimum we need to do to get through the day?" mode. Therefore things like taking pictures of day to day activities (and blogging!) have fallen by the wayside. Time to refocus on that. And, tied into that, I find our energy and enthusiasm fading by the time Thursday afternoon rolls around (our usual time to dive into whatever project we have planned for the week). It's easier to blow it off and go play outside.
And our art/music lessons were never fully integrated into our weekly routine so they, too, have fallen off. We're coming up on our fall break in two weeks and, during that time, I plan to have the kids do lots of art projects. And, as we get closer to the holidays, we need to decide on what to make for our neighbors and friend as gifts.
Lastly, because we have a tendency to finish our lessons pretty quickly, our start time has been pushed back a bit. MacGyver doesn't usually leave for work until 8:45am or so which is fine (we tend to wait until he heads to work to get started with school) but lately, I'm finding that it's 10am and we've not done a thing other than eat breakfast.
All in all, things are going well. I suppose this counts as our weekly update (times 4?) and hopefully I will be more consistent from here on out. Thanks for stopping by! Have a great week!
Pau.
- hfs
THINGS THAT ARE GOING WELL:
- the three Rs
- the independent folders
- independent reading
- organization
THINGS THAT I NEED TO WORK ON:
- taking more pictures
- staying motivated THROUGH Thursday so that we can get to our special projects
- integrating music and art in to our day
- getting started no later than 9am
The three Rs are going pretty smoothly. Both The Boy and The Girl are on track to finish their current math levels by Christmas break. Maybe even sooner - their motivation and enthusiasm increases as we get closer to the end of the book! I've promised them that we will NOT start their new math levels until after Christmas break so that means that the sooner they get done with their current books, the sooner they have one less subject during the day.
Their independent folders are a part of the morning routine and I'm seeing the payoff in other areas of our lives. Their chores and morning tasks are incorporated into their folders so I have less reminding to do on a daily basis - the folder checklists do it for me! I do not like being a nag and prefer to let natural consequences teach the lesson (didn't do your chores? No money this week for you.) and the folder seems to help that.
Even though we've not been to the library for two weeks, both The Boy and The Girl have been good about reading independently during breaks from lessons. They both enjoy reading which really warms my heart and I love it when they find a book (either here at home or at the library) that ties in with their lessons and get excited. The local schools here "mandate" 20 minutes of independent reading per day and I'd say that The Boy and The Girl double that (The Girl probably quadruples it) on a daily basis.
While things are going well, I'm finding that I'm in the "treading water" mode right now. The newness of homeschooling has worn off and now we're down to the "what is the minimum we need to do to get through the day?" mode. Therefore things like taking pictures of day to day activities (and blogging!) have fallen by the wayside. Time to refocus on that. And, tied into that, I find our energy and enthusiasm fading by the time Thursday afternoon rolls around (our usual time to dive into whatever project we have planned for the week). It's easier to blow it off and go play outside.
And our art/music lessons were never fully integrated into our weekly routine so they, too, have fallen off. We're coming up on our fall break in two weeks and, during that time, I plan to have the kids do lots of art projects. And, as we get closer to the holidays, we need to decide on what to make for our neighbors and friend as gifts.
Lastly, because we have a tendency to finish our lessons pretty quickly, our start time has been pushed back a bit. MacGyver doesn't usually leave for work until 8:45am or so which is fine (we tend to wait until he heads to work to get started with school) but lately, I'm finding that it's 10am and we've not done a thing other than eat breakfast.
All in all, things are going well. I suppose this counts as our weekly update (times 4?) and hopefully I will be more consistent from here on out. Thanks for stopping by! Have a great week!
Pau.
- hfs
9.18.2010
Trekking down the Nile - Our Week in Review
This week was all about the Nile. If you have not had a chance to read about our LEGO interpretation of "Mystery of the Nile", I'd encourage you to do so - it will give you a pretty good idea of what we were up to this week.
We studied the Nile: where it comes from, the countries it passes through, who has tried to navigate it from beginning to end (and failed), where it ends up...you name it and we've studied it. We watched the movie, we checked the book from the library, we've Googled it, we've looked at it on satellite imagery. We are continuing to "flood" our Nile models as well.
Lots of Nile Love going on here, in addition to the "Three Rs", that is!
I sat down and looked at where we stand with regard to math and it looks like both The Boy and The Girl are on track to wrap up their current math curricula right around Christmas break. PERFECT! So I'll be ordering the next level for each of them in the next few weeks. They are both excited to be moving so quickly. I am amazed.
One of my goals with regard to homeschooling is to foster as much independence within my children as possible when it comes to their educations. One way I am doing this is with their "Daily Folder" - a notebook with their chores, copywork, memory work, Daily Geography, and other small assignments that they are quite capable of accomplishing on their own, with little parental oversight. They are both enjoying the folder and have even taken to working ahead in them - doing all of their copywork and Daily Geography in one sitting or during their free time. It's great to see them take responsibility for their work rather than waiting for me to dish it out.
Chemistry this week wrapped up the first chapter and now we move into molecules and bonds. The Co-op that we are a part of will be taking a break this coming week so the kids and I are going to put together a few of our own experiments from a book we picked up at the library titled Fizz, Bubble, & Flash. They are excited and, if the experiments go as well as I think they will, I'll be running them again at Co-op in a few weeks!
It's hard to believe we are already 6 weeks into our homeschool year. I am enjoying it so far and I think the kids are as well. This week, we stopped by their former public school to say hi to some friends and their old teachers and, while they both enjoyed seeing everyone, neither of them expressed much in the way of sadness or longing to be back there. And now that soccer is over, they will be able to spend more time during the weekday afternoons and evenings playing with their friends in the neighborhood, which will be good for them!
This weekend is nuts - two final soccer games, two end-of-the-year soccer parties, a birthday sleepover with NINE (9!) nine-year-olds, church, BMX state finals, and Ohana group all mixed in. I might need the next week to recover from my weekend!
Pau.
- hfs
We studied the Nile: where it comes from, the countries it passes through, who has tried to navigate it from beginning to end (and failed), where it ends up...you name it and we've studied it. We watched the movie, we checked the book from the library, we've Googled it, we've looked at it on satellite imagery. We are continuing to "flood" our Nile models as well.
Lots of Nile Love going on here, in addition to the "Three Rs", that is!
I sat down and looked at where we stand with regard to math and it looks like both The Boy and The Girl are on track to wrap up their current math curricula right around Christmas break. PERFECT! So I'll be ordering the next level for each of them in the next few weeks. They are both excited to be moving so quickly. I am amazed.
One of my goals with regard to homeschooling is to foster as much independence within my children as possible when it comes to their educations. One way I am doing this is with their "Daily Folder" - a notebook with their chores, copywork, memory work, Daily Geography, and other small assignments that they are quite capable of accomplishing on their own, with little parental oversight. They are both enjoying the folder and have even taken to working ahead in them - doing all of their copywork and Daily Geography in one sitting or during their free time. It's great to see them take responsibility for their work rather than waiting for me to dish it out.
Chemistry this week wrapped up the first chapter and now we move into molecules and bonds. The Co-op that we are a part of will be taking a break this coming week so the kids and I are going to put together a few of our own experiments from a book we picked up at the library titled Fizz, Bubble, & Flash. They are excited and, if the experiments go as well as I think they will, I'll be running them again at Co-op in a few weeks!
It's hard to believe we are already 6 weeks into our homeschool year. I am enjoying it so far and I think the kids are as well. This week, we stopped by their former public school to say hi to some friends and their old teachers and, while they both enjoyed seeing everyone, neither of them expressed much in the way of sadness or longing to be back there. And now that soccer is over, they will be able to spend more time during the weekday afternoons and evenings playing with their friends in the neighborhood, which will be good for them!
This weekend is nuts - two final soccer games, two end-of-the-year soccer parties, a birthday sleepover with NINE (9!) nine-year-olds, church, BMX state finals, and Ohana group all mixed in. I might need the next week to recover from my weekend!
Pau.
- hfs
9.10.2010
Well, that was quick! Our Week-in-Review
I swear, I blinked and the week is over! How did that happen? Oh that's right...mix in a holiday, visiting grandparents, and a tummy bug and things tend to blur together.
This week was a "survival week". Just survive the week and it will all be good. Because we took Monday off, I decided to smush Monday's work into the rest of the week - not too difficult, given the fact that our days tend to end early. I cut out a few things - handwriting, primarily - but overall we hit everything we needed to hit. And the reward was sugar cubes and pyramids! More on that in a minute.
LANGUAGE ARTS:
Both The Boy and The Girl flew through their language arts work this week. Spelling continues to be pretty easy for both of them. So much so that I'm basically just giving them the pretests at the beginning of the week and that's about it. Though The Girl is in a higher level of spelling curriculum, she's still doing quite well. They both have review lessons coming up and we're going to do a bit of a Spelling Bee - with M&Ms for each word spelled correctly. They should love that!
Now that we have The Girl's language/grammar curriculum in hand, she's really taking off on it as well. She rips through 3-4 lessons per week and seems to be enjoying it which is good to see. And I see her making strides in her narration/summarizing abilities...something in which she lacks confidence. Dictation is coming along as well. I explained to her the point of dictation - to train her mind to be able to hold a picture of the sentence inside and then be able to transfer that picture (with correct grammar, spelling, etc.) on to paper. Once I explained that to her, she began to understand the point behind the dictation exercises. Having never done this before, she's only able to handle one sentence at a time (the exercises usually have 2 fairly long sentences in them) which is fine. I'll take accuracy over speed/completion with inaccuracy any day! The speed and ability to handle two long sentences will come with practice.
MATH:
The Girl panicked a bit this week as it dawned on her that multiplication is a third grade skill. She asked if she was "behind" and I answered her honestly - she is at this point. I chose to reteach her multiplication from beginning because she never really grasped it last year. With 30+ kids in a class and a district/state so focused on the end product ("Did we teach the third graders how to multiply?" "Yes. Check the box.") as opposed to mastery, many children do not properly grasp the subject. The Girl was one of them. And, because there is so much crammed into a day/week/month/semester/school year, there really isn't time for practice. And it's great to think that parents can have their children practice at home but the reality is that The Girl was bringing home, on average, 1-2 hours of homework per day. To add to that for an 8 year old is ridiculous.
So we backtracked. I took a look at the placement tests that Math-U-See has online in order for parents to assess their child's ability before ordering curriculum and it was very clear to me that The Girl would struggle with division unless her multiplication skills were solidified. I'm a math nerd and I know that math builds upon itself and if she does not have a firm foundation, the rest of her math experiences will be a struggle. I don't want that for her. Challenging is fine. Struggling is not. My goal is to be through this level (Gamma) and on to the 4th grade curriculum (Delta) after the holidays.
And it's working. The first day of our school year, she was in tears because, as she told me, "I'm not good at math." Yet, by the end of the day - after just one lesson and 3 relatively simple worksheets - she told her grandmother that she "loves math" and is "good at multiplication!". Perfect!
HISTORY:
This week, it was all about Egypt. We read about the Old Kingdom of Egypt. We read about mummies. We wrapped dolls and stuffed animals in linen cloths to make our own mummies. We read about Cheops, the Great Pyramid, The Sphinx, and the weighing of the heart by Osiris. Is your heart light or heavy? If it is heavy, the monster will eat it!
And then it was on to the pyramids! All week long, the goal was to complete our studies so that we could build our pyramids out of sugar cubes. And, of course, there had to be the ceremonial eating of a sugar cube in order to verify that it was, in fact, sugar (it was!).
We picked up some "stone" colored spray paint and got them to look like "real" pyramids. Though The Boy was disappointed that we didn't get to construct any of the rooms inside or bury treasure in them. I told him to construct one out of Legos instead. He's working on it.
ART & MUSIC:
Aside from listening to Beethoven's music during lunch and reading time, we didn't really get to much in the way of art or music due to the short week. Next week, we are going to dive into DaVinci's most famous work, the Mona Lisa. I have a few CDs on request from the local library that I need to pick up as well - specifically Beethoven Lives Upstairs (upon Carrie's recommendation over at Live, Learn, and Love Together). We are all looking forward to listening.
The local art class that we go to each week was off this week as well so it was a rather artless week. Hopefully next week will be more colorful!
I did get a shipment from Amazon (I LOVE Amazon!!!) this week that included a new typing program/game for The Girl - Typing Instructor for Kids - which she's having fun with. Any time she gets to get on the computer during the week (no video games during the week and no TV until the school day is done) so this is fun for her, which works for me. She gets to type her assignments for the writing workshop she's doing in Co-Op so this should help her typing abilities as well.
Speaking of Co-Op, Friday was a Co-Op day: PE, science, writing workshop for The Girl. It all went pretty smoothly and they are looking forward to next week. In science (Chemistry), they explored "Matterville" and learned about protons, neutrons, and electrons and their assignment for the week is to create what amounts to a Pokemon card for an element of their choosing. They are quite excited about this and have already set to work deciding which is the more interesting element and sketching out their rough drafts of their cards.
Lastly, I am looking into starting up a Junior First Lego League team with The Boy and several of his friends. It's a robotics program using Legos and the Junior FLL is aimed at children between the ages of 6 and 9. This is definitely something that The Boy could sink his teeth into and I'm wondering if it might be a good thing for some of the other boys in the neighborhood...some of which are a little rough around the edges. We will see. Right now, it's just The Boy and one of his friends...I'm not sure who else will join us. Looks interesting though!
And, now that it is MONDAY of the next week (where DID the weekend go?!?) I should get this up. Better late than never, right?
Pau.
- hfs
This week was a "survival week". Just survive the week and it will all be good. Because we took Monday off, I decided to smush Monday's work into the rest of the week - not too difficult, given the fact that our days tend to end early. I cut out a few things - handwriting, primarily - but overall we hit everything we needed to hit. And the reward was sugar cubes and pyramids! More on that in a minute.
LANGUAGE ARTS:
Both The Boy and The Girl flew through their language arts work this week. Spelling continues to be pretty easy for both of them. So much so that I'm basically just giving them the pretests at the beginning of the week and that's about it. Though The Girl is in a higher level of spelling curriculum, she's still doing quite well. They both have review lessons coming up and we're going to do a bit of a Spelling Bee - with M&Ms for each word spelled correctly. They should love that!
Now that we have The Girl's language/grammar curriculum in hand, she's really taking off on it as well. She rips through 3-4 lessons per week and seems to be enjoying it which is good to see. And I see her making strides in her narration/summarizing abilities...something in which she lacks confidence. Dictation is coming along as well. I explained to her the point of dictation - to train her mind to be able to hold a picture of the sentence inside and then be able to transfer that picture (with correct grammar, spelling, etc.) on to paper. Once I explained that to her, she began to understand the point behind the dictation exercises. Having never done this before, she's only able to handle one sentence at a time (the exercises usually have 2 fairly long sentences in them) which is fine. I'll take accuracy over speed/completion with inaccuracy any day! The speed and ability to handle two long sentences will come with practice.
MATH:
The Girl panicked a bit this week as it dawned on her that multiplication is a third grade skill. She asked if she was "behind" and I answered her honestly - she is at this point. I chose to reteach her multiplication from beginning because she never really grasped it last year. With 30+ kids in a class and a district/state so focused on the end product ("Did we teach the third graders how to multiply?" "Yes. Check the box.") as opposed to mastery, many children do not properly grasp the subject. The Girl was one of them. And, because there is so much crammed into a day/week/month/semester/school year, there really isn't time for practice. And it's great to think that parents can have their children practice at home but the reality is that The Girl was bringing home, on average, 1-2 hours of homework per day. To add to that for an 8 year old is ridiculous.
So we backtracked. I took a look at the placement tests that Math-U-See has online in order for parents to assess their child's ability before ordering curriculum and it was very clear to me that The Girl would struggle with division unless her multiplication skills were solidified. I'm a math nerd and I know that math builds upon itself and if she does not have a firm foundation, the rest of her math experiences will be a struggle. I don't want that for her. Challenging is fine. Struggling is not. My goal is to be through this level (Gamma) and on to the 4th grade curriculum (Delta) after the holidays.
And it's working. The first day of our school year, she was in tears because, as she told me, "I'm not good at math." Yet, by the end of the day - after just one lesson and 3 relatively simple worksheets - she told her grandmother that she "loves math" and is "good at multiplication!". Perfect!
HISTORY:
This week, it was all about Egypt. We read about the Old Kingdom of Egypt. We read about mummies. We wrapped dolls and stuffed animals in linen cloths to make our own mummies. We read about Cheops, the Great Pyramid, The Sphinx, and the weighing of the heart by Osiris. Is your heart light or heavy? If it is heavy, the monster will eat it!
And then it was on to the pyramids! All week long, the goal was to complete our studies so that we could build our pyramids out of sugar cubes. And, of course, there had to be the ceremonial eating of a sugar cube in order to verify that it was, in fact, sugar (it was!).
We picked up some "stone" colored spray paint and got them to look like "real" pyramids. Though The Boy was disappointed that we didn't get to construct any of the rooms inside or bury treasure in them. I told him to construct one out of Legos instead. He's working on it.
ART & MUSIC:
Aside from listening to Beethoven's music during lunch and reading time, we didn't really get to much in the way of art or music due to the short week. Next week, we are going to dive into DaVinci's most famous work, the Mona Lisa. I have a few CDs on request from the local library that I need to pick up as well - specifically Beethoven Lives Upstairs (upon Carrie's recommendation over at Live, Learn, and Love Together). We are all looking forward to listening.
The local art class that we go to each week was off this week as well so it was a rather artless week. Hopefully next week will be more colorful!
I did get a shipment from Amazon (I LOVE Amazon!!!) this week that included a new typing program/game for The Girl - Typing Instructor for Kids - which she's having fun with. Any time she gets to get on the computer during the week (no video games during the week and no TV until the school day is done) so this is fun for her, which works for me. She gets to type her assignments for the writing workshop she's doing in Co-Op so this should help her typing abilities as well.
Speaking of Co-Op, Friday was a Co-Op day: PE, science, writing workshop for The Girl. It all went pretty smoothly and they are looking forward to next week. In science (Chemistry), they explored "Matterville" and learned about protons, neutrons, and electrons and their assignment for the week is to create what amounts to a Pokemon card for an element of their choosing. They are quite excited about this and have already set to work deciding which is the more interesting element and sketching out their rough drafts of their cards.
Lastly, I am looking into starting up a Junior First Lego League team with The Boy and several of his friends. It's a robotics program using Legos and the Junior FLL is aimed at children between the ages of 6 and 9. This is definitely something that The Boy could sink his teeth into and I'm wondering if it might be a good thing for some of the other boys in the neighborhood...some of which are a little rough around the edges. We will see. Right now, it's just The Boy and one of his friends...I'm not sure who else will join us. Looks interesting though!
And, now that it is MONDAY of the next week (where DID the weekend go?!?) I should get this up. Better late than never, right?
Pau.
- hfs
9.05.2010
A low-key week
One of the message boards I visit has a thread for people to post their "Week in Review" posts so this is my first attempt, even though it was the end of week 3 for us. Baby steps!
We had a relatively low-key week. MacGyver's parents came to the island in the middle of the week which threw things out of kilter a bit and Friday was our first day of Co-Op so that added to the wonkiness (yes, that is a word!) of the week.
The "three Rs" moved along smoothly. The Girl's language curriculum finally arrived and (verbal thing that she is) she's ripping through the lessons. After previewing the curriculum, I find myself probably more excited than she is about what she'll be learning. I *finally* get to learn how to diagram sentences! She enjoys the curriculum because it's all about words - something she is quite good at. My only qualm with this curriculum is that there is nothing beyond the 4th grade so I'll have to figure out where to go from here.
Spelling is going well for both The Boy and The Girl. I give them a pre-test at the beginning of the week and, if they spell them all correctly, we are done with spelling for the week (or they can choose to move on to the next lesson). They are both ahead in this though The Girl is actually working on a 5th grade curriculum because the 4th grade level was too easy.
Their handwriting is coming along as well and I'm already seeing significant improvement in The Boy's handwriting - something his kindergarten teacher struggled with all year long. A lot of it is getting him to slow down and form his letters properly - he's quite adept at whipping out a sentence with sloppy, rushed writing so that he can move on to more interesting subjects and activities.
They are both enjoying math which is a blessing. The Boy is several lessons ahead in his math simply because some of the concepts covered in this curriculum were ones that he covered in Kindergarten. So we've been able to skip ahead. This week was the +9 lesson and, after completing 1/2 of the first worksheet, you could see the concept click (the 9 "steals" 1 from the units to make 10 and then you add the remaining units to the 10 to come up with the answer) and he just took off. No blocks or fingers necessary for him to come up with the answers. After completing that worksheet, he asked to take the lesson test and he aced it!
I had bumped The Girl back to the 3rd grade curriculum (multiplication) because her multiplication skills were weak, at best. Thankfully, with the program we're using (Math-U-See), she's really able to understand it and we're moving through it pretty quickly. Ideally I'd like to be done with this level by Christmas and ready to move up into the 4th grade curriculum (division) after the Christmas break. But, if she's not ready for that, we'll spend more time on multiplication until she gets it.
This week in history was all about the first forms of writing: hieroglyphics and cuneiform. They both had a great time writing their names and other phrases in both hieroglyphics and cuneiform! Because the grandparents were in town, we did not do any major projects this week other than hit the library and come home with a stack of books about the ancient Egyptians! Which reminds me, I need to add those to the sidebar.
We have added in a quarterly study on artists and composers. I compiled a list of 10 top artists and composers and let The Boy and The Girl each choose 2 from each list. This quarter, we are studying Ludwig van Beethoven and Leonardo da Vinci. My goal with this subject is simply that my children (and myself) would be able to identify Beethoven's music and da Vinci's art, that they would be able to discuss each of their histories, and point out a few interesting points of fact about their work. I am still compiling resources for this subject and cannot wait until we are somewhere with museums that have pieces for us to look at. For now, we're relying upon books (yay for public libraries!) and the Internet. Though I am somewhat disappointed in The Lourve's website when it comes to information for children.
And then finally, Co-Op began on Friday. This is a group I've been involved with for several years - teaching different classes for them and hanging out with them all so this wasn't anything too new. Our Co-Op covers PE (we're currently doing soccer), art/crafts, science (Chemistry), and a class through the Institute for Excellence in Writing for The Girl. The kids were each able to choose 3 different art/craft classes so they'll be participating in cupcake decorating, cooking, and glass painting. Surprisingly, they each chose the same classes even though I spoke with them at different times. The art/crafts will alternate with PE throughout the year with PE.
PE will cover soccer, track and field (one of the dads is a t&f coach for one of the local private schools here on island), training for the Presidential Physical Fitness Test, broom hockey, jump rope, self-defense (a Sensei that teaches a free karate class at our church will be teaching this unit), and we will also add days in to play Steal the Bacon, Dodgeball, and lawn games. It's nice to be able to do PE with a group (there are about 50 kids in the PE class for Co-Op). Otherwise, it would just be the three of us which would force us to do primarily fitness-related activities as opposed to learning any team sports.
Even though I've written a lot, we really didn't DO a lot this week. Next week promises to be busier, not only because Monday is a holiday! Have a great week!
Pau.
- hfs
We had a relatively low-key week. MacGyver's parents came to the island in the middle of the week which threw things out of kilter a bit and Friday was our first day of Co-Op so that added to the wonkiness (yes, that is a word!) of the week.
The "three Rs" moved along smoothly. The Girl's language curriculum finally arrived and (verbal thing that she is) she's ripping through the lessons. After previewing the curriculum, I find myself probably more excited than she is about what she'll be learning. I *finally* get to learn how to diagram sentences! She enjoys the curriculum because it's all about words - something she is quite good at. My only qualm with this curriculum is that there is nothing beyond the 4th grade so I'll have to figure out where to go from here.
Spelling is going well for both The Boy and The Girl. I give them a pre-test at the beginning of the week and, if they spell them all correctly, we are done with spelling for the week (or they can choose to move on to the next lesson). They are both ahead in this though The Girl is actually working on a 5th grade curriculum because the 4th grade level was too easy.
Their handwriting is coming along as well and I'm already seeing significant improvement in The Boy's handwriting - something his kindergarten teacher struggled with all year long. A lot of it is getting him to slow down and form his letters properly - he's quite adept at whipping out a sentence with sloppy, rushed writing so that he can move on to more interesting subjects and activities.
They are both enjoying math which is a blessing. The Boy is several lessons ahead in his math simply because some of the concepts covered in this curriculum were ones that he covered in Kindergarten. So we've been able to skip ahead. This week was the +9 lesson and, after completing 1/2 of the first worksheet, you could see the concept click (the 9 "steals" 1 from the units to make 10 and then you add the remaining units to the 10 to come up with the answer) and he just took off. No blocks or fingers necessary for him to come up with the answers. After completing that worksheet, he asked to take the lesson test and he aced it!
I had bumped The Girl back to the 3rd grade curriculum (multiplication) because her multiplication skills were weak, at best. Thankfully, with the program we're using (Math-U-See), she's really able to understand it and we're moving through it pretty quickly. Ideally I'd like to be done with this level by Christmas and ready to move up into the 4th grade curriculum (division) after the Christmas break. But, if she's not ready for that, we'll spend more time on multiplication until she gets it.
This week in history was all about the first forms of writing: hieroglyphics and cuneiform. They both had a great time writing their names and other phrases in both hieroglyphics and cuneiform! Because the grandparents were in town, we did not do any major projects this week other than hit the library and come home with a stack of books about the ancient Egyptians! Which reminds me, I need to add those to the sidebar.
We have added in a quarterly study on artists and composers. I compiled a list of 10 top artists and composers and let The Boy and The Girl each choose 2 from each list. This quarter, we are studying Ludwig van Beethoven and Leonardo da Vinci. My goal with this subject is simply that my children (and myself) would be able to identify Beethoven's music and da Vinci's art, that they would be able to discuss each of their histories, and point out a few interesting points of fact about their work. I am still compiling resources for this subject and cannot wait until we are somewhere with museums that have pieces for us to look at. For now, we're relying upon books (yay for public libraries!) and the Internet. Though I am somewhat disappointed in The Lourve's website when it comes to information for children.
And then finally, Co-Op began on Friday. This is a group I've been involved with for several years - teaching different classes for them and hanging out with them all so this wasn't anything too new. Our Co-Op covers PE (we're currently doing soccer), art/crafts, science (Chemistry), and a class through the Institute for Excellence in Writing for The Girl. The kids were each able to choose 3 different art/craft classes so they'll be participating in cupcake decorating, cooking, and glass painting. Surprisingly, they each chose the same classes even though I spoke with them at different times. The art/crafts will alternate with PE throughout the year with PE.
PE will cover soccer, track and field (one of the dads is a t&f coach for one of the local private schools here on island), training for the Presidential Physical Fitness Test, broom hockey, jump rope, self-defense (a Sensei that teaches a free karate class at our church will be teaching this unit), and we will also add days in to play Steal the Bacon, Dodgeball, and lawn games. It's nice to be able to do PE with a group (there are about 50 kids in the PE class for Co-Op). Otherwise, it would just be the three of us which would force us to do primarily fitness-related activities as opposed to learning any team sports.
Even though I've written a lot, we really didn't DO a lot this week. Next week promises to be busier, not only because Monday is a holiday! Have a great week!
Pau.
- hfs
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