Phonics: We did lessons 116-120 this week. The reader was funny as always, Jane's Jet, which reviewed the 'long a' sound, 'silent e', and introduced the 'letter J'. I'm impressed with how well he's reading, and the pace and review are just right.
Math: We did lessons 81-85, which was more review of tens and ones, and dimes and pennies.
Literature: We're reading many library books about Jesus, Christmas traditions around the world, winter, snow, and arctic animals. We finished reading about all of the arctic animals in The Complete Book Of Animals. We made an igloo out of play-doh. I'm busy getting everything ready for Christmas. Govinda especially likes making paper snowflakes and is decorating the house with them. We also made paper chains and a paper tree to decorate. I will get some pictures up soon.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Weekly Update: 12/6 - 12/12
Phonics: This week we did lessons 111-115. The focus was on the 'long a' sound and silent e, as well as the 'soft c' and 'soft g' sounds. I thought it would be hard for Govinda, but he caught on very quickly, and the second time he read the reader, The Ape and Cake, he read the 'long a'/'silent e' words without any hesitation. I'm excited about how well he is reading now. McRuffy is working really well for us. We got to play a new game, Reading Baseball. Wiggle Worm is still his favorite, but it was fun to learn the rules of baseball with 'long a' words being pitched.
Math: We did lessons 76-80. It was mostly just review and practice of everything learned recently; counting tens and ones with rods and cubes and dimes and pennies, reading time to the hour, moving forward and back on the number line. The numbers 71-80 were added to our number line that keeps getting longer and longer.
Math: We did lessons 76-80. It was mostly just review and practice of everything learned recently; counting tens and ones with rods and cubes and dimes and pennies, reading time to the hour, moving forward and back on the number line. The numbers 71-80 were added to our number line that keeps getting longer and longer.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Weekly Update: 11/29 - 12/5
Phonics: We did 2 weeks of lessons in 1 week, lessons 101-110. The reader had hot dogs in it again, and despite my dovetailing to tofu dogs attempts, my very insistent vegetarian son refused to read it again. So, we moved on quickly. The focus was on the 'short e' sound, and the letters 'w' and 'z'. The two readers were entertaining as always, Red and Bess and then Fuzz the Yak. Besides the hot dog part, he loved these stories and laughs about them throughout the day. He did great on all the tests and handled the extra lessons very well. I like how the workbook has simple questions for him to read and answer about the story. We reviewed periods and question marks, and learned the new sight words, 'to'. I'm really excited about next week, we will be learning about long vowels and silent e. We are basically over the reading review parts of this K program and will be getting into new, harder stuff now.
Math: We did lessons 71-75. The numbers 50-60 were introduced and added to the ongoing number line. We reviewed ordinal numbers (first, second, third, etc.) and labeling patterns of shapes with letters, reading and writing times to the hour, and spatial awareness (above, below, left, right, etc.). We worked more with place value, writing numbers as tens and ones, and did hands on number line play which is preparing him for addition and subtraction. I say "put the bear on number 7, now if he jumps two spaces to the left, what number is he on now?" Govinda is doing well with this hands on approach to math. It's still more like play that work for him, which is nice because practicing handwriting and reading a lot is work for him.
Literature/Geography: We're starting off December with winter/snow stories and Arctic animal stories. We got several books about The Little Polar Bear and they are well loved. Other favorites are The Biggest Snowstorm Ever and Katy and The Big Snow. We have also read some books about walruses and seals. We'll be moving on to Caribou and then on to Christmas. I hope to get the motivation to make an igloo soon and make some more icebergs in the freezer. Homeschooling with a 2 year old in tow has made me less craft these days, but that will all change soon once he's done teething and is joining in with school more.
Once again I give thanks to the Lord and my wonderful husband and caring family members who love and support us to keep raising children in the truth and love for God.
Math: We did lessons 71-75. The numbers 50-60 were introduced and added to the ongoing number line. We reviewed ordinal numbers (first, second, third, etc.) and labeling patterns of shapes with letters, reading and writing times to the hour, and spatial awareness (above, below, left, right, etc.). We worked more with place value, writing numbers as tens and ones, and did hands on number line play which is preparing him for addition and subtraction. I say "put the bear on number 7, now if he jumps two spaces to the left, what number is he on now?" Govinda is doing well with this hands on approach to math. It's still more like play that work for him, which is nice because practicing handwriting and reading a lot is work for him.
Literature/Geography: We're starting off December with winter/snow stories and Arctic animal stories. We got several books about The Little Polar Bear and they are well loved. Other favorites are The Biggest Snowstorm Ever and Katy and The Big Snow. We have also read some books about walruses and seals. We'll be moving on to Caribou and then on to Christmas. I hope to get the motivation to make an igloo soon and make some more icebergs in the freezer. Homeschooling with a 2 year old in tow has made me less craft these days, but that will all change soon once he's done teething and is joining in with school more.
Once again I give thanks to the Lord and my wonderful husband and caring family members who love and support us to keep raising children in the truth and love for God.
Friday, November 27, 2009
Weekly Update: 11/22 - 11/28
This was a fun week. We did extra lessons on a few days so that 'school' on Thanksgiving was making a homemade pumpkin pie with Hawaiian grown pumpkins! We had a lot of fun together as a family and we kept reminding each other what we're thankful for. I sang Bob Marley's song, "Thank You, Lord" all day. I'm especially thankful for my wonderful husband who works so hard so that I can stay at home and homeschool our kids.
Phonics: We finished lessons 96-100. The reader was fun as always, Vic's Van. The writer of McRuffy is a genius. We're looking forward to what funny story comes next, as they just keep getting better and better. The focus this week was on the letters 'v' and 'w'. The spelling words were mostly easy except for 'won'. We say it more like 'wun', but I guess some people say it in a way that rhymes with gone. After a week of reviewing it, he got it write on the final spelling test. Color words were also reviewed, and he has got them down solid.
Math: We did lessons 66-70. The focus was on counting by tens, place value with the rods and cubes, and matching them up with dimes and pennies. There was a card game to connect pictures of dimes and pennies with the numbers of cents. The last day of the week introduced counting backwards from 10 to 1 and then finished the week with a really fun, new game called Number Countdown. We really like this one and will play it more for sure. The McRuffy games for review are working well for us, it's fun to review!
Literature: We read Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel and several other library books. I'm not finding the motivation to do FIAR activities other than just having discussions and observations about the stories, but that is nice for us right now.
Next week, we'll be moving onto stories about Jesus, winter, snow, Christmas around the world with Galloping The Globe, and Arctic animals like reindeer and polar bears. Katy and The Big Snow will hopefully motivate me to do some FIAR geography mapping activities.
Praise God for the blessings in life!
Phonics: We finished lessons 96-100. The reader was fun as always, Vic's Van. The writer of McRuffy is a genius. We're looking forward to what funny story comes next, as they just keep getting better and better. The focus this week was on the letters 'v' and 'w'. The spelling words were mostly easy except for 'won'. We say it more like 'wun', but I guess some people say it in a way that rhymes with gone. After a week of reviewing it, he got it write on the final spelling test. Color words were also reviewed, and he has got them down solid.
Math: We did lessons 66-70. The focus was on counting by tens, place value with the rods and cubes, and matching them up with dimes and pennies. There was a card game to connect pictures of dimes and pennies with the numbers of cents. The last day of the week introduced counting backwards from 10 to 1 and then finished the week with a really fun, new game called Number Countdown. We really like this one and will play it more for sure. The McRuffy games for review are working well for us, it's fun to review!
Literature: We read Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel and several other library books. I'm not finding the motivation to do FIAR activities other than just having discussions and observations about the stories, but that is nice for us right now.
Next week, we'll be moving onto stories about Jesus, winter, snow, Christmas around the world with Galloping The Globe, and Arctic animals like reindeer and polar bears. Katy and The Big Snow will hopefully motivate me to do some FIAR geography mapping activities.
Praise God for the blessings in life!
Friday, November 20, 2009
Weekly Update: 11/15 - 11/21
Phonics: We finished lessons 91-95. The focus was on reviewing color words and the letter 'x'. was surprised at how easily he read the color words in the reader, Mop, Mop, Mop. The spelling words were all easy 3 letter words ending in x. I had him do more handwriting practice, everyday tracing one sentence and one line of color words we're learning, then writing the sentence without tracing. The whiteboard helps motivate him to write independently...there's something more fun about being able to erase it all. We also do the spelling tests on the whiteboard. We really love McRuffy and plan on sticking with it for a while. It's just so much fun with funny readers and games for review, just one workbook page per lesson, some color, but not too distracting, lightly scripted and easy to teach instruction.
Math: We did lessons 61-65, focusing on counting by 10s. I put it to a nice melody and he's got it memorized now. Dimes were introduced, and reading time to the hour was reviewed. We also really like McRuffy math. One workbook page per lesson is good for Govinda, and more time spent with manipulatives. Math lessons still seem like fun toy play time than school. It's a nice balance with reading lessons.
Literature: We read many Thanksgiving stories. The favorites are Cranberry Thanksgiving and Mousekin's Thanksgiving, which we especially appreciated as vegetarians because it's about a living turkey. I really liked Squanto's Journey, but he wouldn't let me read it more than once. We got a library dvd, Plymouth Plantation, which he really liked. I can tell that my boy is not going to be a big history fan because of the sad stories involved. This is why we'll be keeping it gentle with FIAR and not any history program. We're going to row Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel next week for fun! I'm preparing for Christmas Around The World with Galloping The Globe.
Math: We did lessons 61-65, focusing on counting by 10s. I put it to a nice melody and he's got it memorized now. Dimes were introduced, and reading time to the hour was reviewed. We also really like McRuffy math. One workbook page per lesson is good for Govinda, and more time spent with manipulatives. Math lessons still seem like fun toy play time than school. It's a nice balance with reading lessons.
Literature: We read many Thanksgiving stories. The favorites are Cranberry Thanksgiving and Mousekin's Thanksgiving, which we especially appreciated as vegetarians because it's about a living turkey. I really liked Squanto's Journey, but he wouldn't let me read it more than once. We got a library dvd, Plymouth Plantation, which he really liked. I can tell that my boy is not going to be a big history fan because of the sad stories involved. This is why we'll be keeping it gentle with FIAR and not any history program. We're going to row Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel next week for fun! I'm preparing for Christmas Around The World with Galloping The Globe.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Weekly Update: 11/8 - 11/14
Phonics: We did lessons 86-90 this week, which means we are half way through! The reader, Pup In Mud, was another big hit. Govinda read all 12 pages in one sitting because he didn't want to stop! These readers are really helping improve his fluency in reading, and they gently and gradually get more and more challenging. The spelling test was easier this week than in the past two weeks because they all had the short u sound, so no tricky vowel sounds. We discussed how the word 'bus' only has one 's' and still makes the 's' sound and not the 'z' sound.
We took a test on this whole unit, the last 45 lessons, which covered short vowels, color sight words, periods and question marks, and filling in the missing letters of words. Govinda knew all of the correct answers, but wrote some letters backwards. The test was helpful to show me that avoiding all of the handwriting practice is taking it's toll. The handwriting workbook pages each have three lines of tracing and two blank lines for writing, and I was only having him do one line of tracing a sentence everyday, since he is not a big fan of practicing writing. I realized today that only tracing helps practice the hand, but not the mind. Starting next week, I plan on focusing more on writing letters properly.
Math: We did lessons 56- 60. This was a fun week because we got to play with the clock face, which was a big hit. We learned how to read a clock at the hour and how to read and write it digitally. Tens and ones were reviewed along with writing numbers too 50. Math is fun for us these days.
We took a test on this whole unit, the last 45 lessons, which covered short vowels, color sight words, periods and question marks, and filling in the missing letters of words. Govinda knew all of the correct answers, but wrote some letters backwards. The test was helpful to show me that avoiding all of the handwriting practice is taking it's toll. The handwriting workbook pages each have three lines of tracing and two blank lines for writing, and I was only having him do one line of tracing a sentence everyday, since he is not a big fan of practicing writing. I realized today that only tracing helps practice the hand, but not the mind. Starting next week, I plan on focusing more on writing letters properly.
Math: We did lessons 56- 60. This was a fun week because we got to play with the clock face, which was a big hit. We learned how to read a clock at the hour and how to read and write it digitally. Tens and ones were reviewed along with writing numbers too 50. Math is fun for us these days.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Weekly Update: 11/1 - 11/7 and Thanksgiving Book List
Phonics: We did lesson 81-85 this week. We are both really enjoying McRuffy. The focus was on the letter 'k' and workds ending in 'ck'. The new sight words were 'black', 'yellow', and 'orange'. The reader was once again funny and entertaining. The slider makes word drilling more fun as well. Govinda really likes the game Wiggle Worm, I think because there is no way to loose.
Math: We did lessons 51-55. The focus this week was on the numbers 40-50 and place value. Govinda's understanding of tens and ones is a lot better now compared to our attempt at MathUSee Primer a few months ago.
Literature/Science/Geography: We really liked Miss Rumphias. It gave us many great topics of discussion inspired by FIAR. It tied in perfectly with our introduction to geography and apple study of seeds and Johnny Appleseed. Miss Rumphias throws flower seeds everywhere to make the world a more beautiful place, so we did the same with pumpkin seeds in the empty lots in our neighborhood. Govinda was inspired to draw and paint lots of pictures to put all over the walls in our house to make it more beautiful. We also re-read the Magic School Bus Plants Seeds and Gets Planted. We found all the places Miss Rumphias went on the world map.
History: We read more Thanksgiving stories. I was happy to find a beautiful picture book about Squanto, from his perspective, called Squanto's journey: the story of the first Thanksgiving by Bruchac, Joseph.
Here's the rest of the many library books we got about Thanksgiving:
Mousekin's Thanksgiving by Miller, Edna
An Outlaw Thanksgiving by Emily Arnold McCully
An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving by Louisa May Alcott
Thanksgiving in the White House by Gary Hines
Pilgrims of Plymouth by Susan E. Goodman
1621: a new look at Thanksgiving by Grace, Catherine O'Neill
Cranberry Thanksgiving by Devlin, Wende
Cranberries by Jaspersohn, William
Squanto's journey: the story of the first Thanksgiving by Bruchac, Joseph
Thanksgiving with me by Willey, Margaret
The Thanksgiving door by Atwell, Debby.
The Thanksgiving story by Dalgliesh, Alice
Squanto and the first Thanksgiving by Kessel, Joyce K
The Pilgrims' first Thanksgiving by McGovern, Ann
Daily life in the Pilgrim colony, 1636 by Erickson, Paul
Harvest song by Hirschi, Ron
Thanks for Thanksgiving by Markes, Julie
Thanksgiving is for giving thanks by Sutherland, Margaret
This first Thanksgiving Day : a counting story by Melmed, Laura Krauss
Happy Thanksgiving! : things to make and do by Conaway, Judith
Molly's pilgrim by Cohen, Barbara
The night before Thanksgiving by Wing, Natasha
Thanksgiving by Fabian-Baber
Math: We did lessons 51-55. The focus this week was on the numbers 40-50 and place value. Govinda's understanding of tens and ones is a lot better now compared to our attempt at MathUSee Primer a few months ago.
Literature/Science/Geography: We really liked Miss Rumphias. It gave us many great topics of discussion inspired by FIAR. It tied in perfectly with our introduction to geography and apple study of seeds and Johnny Appleseed. Miss Rumphias throws flower seeds everywhere to make the world a more beautiful place, so we did the same with pumpkin seeds in the empty lots in our neighborhood. Govinda was inspired to draw and paint lots of pictures to put all over the walls in our house to make it more beautiful. We also re-read the Magic School Bus Plants Seeds and Gets Planted. We found all the places Miss Rumphias went on the world map.
History: We read more Thanksgiving stories. I was happy to find a beautiful picture book about Squanto, from his perspective, called Squanto's journey: the story of the first Thanksgiving by Bruchac, Joseph.
Here's the rest of the many library books we got about Thanksgiving:
Mousekin's Thanksgiving by Miller, Edna
An Outlaw Thanksgiving by Emily Arnold McCully
An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving by Louisa May Alcott
Thanksgiving in the White House by Gary Hines
Pilgrims of Plymouth by Susan E. Goodman
1621: a new look at Thanksgiving by Grace, Catherine O'Neill
Cranberry Thanksgiving by Devlin, Wende
Cranberries by Jaspersohn, William
Squanto's journey: the story of the first Thanksgiving by Bruchac, Joseph
Thanksgiving with me by Willey, Margaret
The Thanksgiving door by Atwell, Debby.
The Thanksgiving story by Dalgliesh, Alice
Squanto and the first Thanksgiving by Kessel, Joyce K
The Pilgrims' first Thanksgiving by McGovern, Ann
Daily life in the Pilgrim colony, 1636 by Erickson, Paul
Harvest song by Hirschi, Ron
Thanks for Thanksgiving by Markes, Julie
Thanksgiving is for giving thanks by Sutherland, Margaret
This first Thanksgiving Day : a counting story by Melmed, Laura Krauss
Happy Thanksgiving! : things to make and do by Conaway, Judith
Molly's pilgrim by Cohen, Barbara
The night before Thanksgiving by Wing, Natasha
Thanksgiving by Fabian-Baber
Friday, October 30, 2009
Weekly Update: 10/25 - 10/31
Phonics: We did lessons 76-80 this week. This was our first reader that's not as easy...it's 12 pages. Govinda read it and liked it a lot, more than the 4 page easy readers. He learned some more sight words, 'green' and 'blue'. The new white board and also turning 5 have both contributed to him actually enjoying handwriting now! The spelling words were a little tricky again, 'fall' and 'fog' made him have to remember if it's an 'a' or 'o' that makes the 'short o' sound. Sometimes I feel bad for how difficult of a language English is, especially when knowing Spanish and Hawaiian, languages where the vowels always make the same sound.
Math: We did lessons 46-50. It was good to get back to math after a week off. We practiced counting and writing 30-40, and introduced the cents sign and counting pennies. It was fun to play with pennies.
History: We read several stories about the first Thanksgiving.
Literature/Geography: We read some story books recommended in Galloping The Globe for an introduction to geography. Henry's World Tour was a big hit, and we all love it so much, I am considering buying it, which says a lot because I usually refuse to buy anything I can borrow for free from the library. Amelia's Fantastic Flight was short and sweet. These, along with How To Make An Apple Pie And See The World, have given a nice overview of the many different countries and cultures in the world.
Next week, we will be rowing Miss Rumphius, and she also travels around the world. I'm anxious to start galloping the globe now, but will wait until December. I'm thinking starting with the Arctic as well as Christmas around the world. Then off to Asia! :)
Math: We did lessons 46-50. It was good to get back to math after a week off. We practiced counting and writing 30-40, and introduced the cents sign and counting pennies. It was fun to play with pennies.
History: We read several stories about the first Thanksgiving.
Literature/Geography: We read some story books recommended in Galloping The Globe for an introduction to geography. Henry's World Tour was a big hit, and we all love it so much, I am considering buying it, which says a lot because I usually refuse to buy anything I can borrow for free from the library. Amelia's Fantastic Flight was short and sweet. These, along with How To Make An Apple Pie And See The World, have given a nice overview of the many different countries and cultures in the world.
Next week, we will be rowing Miss Rumphius, and she also travels around the world. I'm anxious to start galloping the globe now, but will wait until December. I'm thinking starting with the Arctic as well as Christmas around the world. Then off to Asia! :)
Friday, October 23, 2009
Weekly Update: 10/18 - 10/24
This week was special because we got a big 2' X 3' magnetic dry erase board! I also got the letter tiles from All About Spelling. My intention behind this was to help progress with reading and spelling without so much handwriting involved. The funniest part is that the white board has totally motivated him to write more! When we first put it on the wall, he took a pen and wrote "GOD". Then he added another 'o' in the middle and said "God is good!" What a great moment it was.
Phonics: We finished lessons 71-75 which was based on the letter 'L' and the easy reader, Lill. The spelling started to get tricky this week with the words 'doll' and 'ball'. We spent the week practicing words that end with 'all' that make the sound like 'oll'. We're excited to start the more advanced readers next week!
Math: We decided to skip math this week because the baby was going through some major teething and needing more from me. It's amazing how much he missed doing math, when doing the phonics workbook pages, he would write the numbers next to each one. He seems to like writing numbers more than letters.
Social Studies: We checked out a bunch of books from the library about Thanksgiving that we will be reading from now until the end of November. We're waiting for Cranberry Thanksgiving to arrive with the interlibrary loan so we can FIAR it!
Phonics: We finished lessons 71-75 which was based on the letter 'L' and the easy reader, Lill. The spelling started to get tricky this week with the words 'doll' and 'ball'. We spent the week practicing words that end with 'all' that make the sound like 'oll'. We're excited to start the more advanced readers next week!
Math: We decided to skip math this week because the baby was going through some major teething and needing more from me. It's amazing how much he missed doing math, when doing the phonics workbook pages, he would write the numbers next to each one. He seems to like writing numbers more than letters.
Social Studies: We checked out a bunch of books from the library about Thanksgiving that we will be reading from now until the end of November. We're waiting for Cranberry Thanksgiving to arrive with the interlibrary loan so we can FIAR it!
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Weekly Update: 10/11 - 10/17
It's a good thing that birthdays only happen once a year, because taking a week off from school has taken a toll. Just by not practicing our reading and math concepts, he's forgotten stuff that was easy and has lost some attention span for school. Thankfully, we're back to normal by the end of the week, now.
Phonics: We did lessons 61-70. We completely skipped the 'short o' reader, Hot Dog. I know that he could have easily read it. He even refused to fill in the workbook activities about hot dogs, lol. We've got one more easy reader left and then we get into the more advanced readers, which I'm excited about. Thankfully, there's no more stories about meat eating.
Math: We did lessons 41-45. The equals sign was introduced and added to the greater than less than concept. Writing, counting, and recognizing numbers 1-30 were practiced, which was needed after a week off from math.
FIAR: We did more activities for How To Make An Apple Pie And See The World with apples and world geography. We colored in the flags of the places in the story, labeled the parts of an apple, colored in the seasons of an apple tree, and some apple mazes for fun.
Phonics: We did lessons 61-70. We completely skipped the 'short o' reader, Hot Dog. I know that he could have easily read it. He even refused to fill in the workbook activities about hot dogs, lol. We've got one more easy reader left and then we get into the more advanced readers, which I'm excited about. Thankfully, there's no more stories about meat eating.
Math: We did lessons 41-45. The equals sign was introduced and added to the greater than less than concept. Writing, counting, and recognizing numbers 1-30 were practiced, which was needed after a week off from math.
FIAR: We did more activities for How To Make An Apple Pie And See The World with apples and world geography. We colored in the flags of the places in the story, labeled the parts of an apple, colored in the seasons of an apple tree, and some apple mazes for fun.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Weekly Update: 10/4 - 10/10
We took most of this week off from academics to celebrate Govinda's birthday. We loved reading How To Make An Apple Pie And See The World. We located the places in the story on the world map, and made a birthday apple pie!
Friday, October 2, 2009
Weekly Update: 9/27 - 10/3
Busy is the word to describe this time for us now. Grampa is here and the big birthday is coming soon. The FIAR volumes I have been waiting for finally arrived after a month of waiting (my last time settling with media mail to Hawaii). How To Make An Apple Pie And See The World arrived and we're getting ready for the big apple pie birthday fest! I'm glad that the boys like the story, and I'm glad it was silly and educational...just the kind of books we like!
Phonics: We did lessons 51-60 and enjoyed the easy reader The Ram, and we quickly moved past Map & Ham. Being vegetarian made this one not so appealing, although we went into discussions about how ham comes from dead pigs and hamburger comes from dead cows. After seeing his reactions, we'll probably skip the upcoming reader Hot Dog.
Math: We finished lessons 36-40, which ended with playing Number Trail again. This one is hard because it has strategies involved.
No pictures this week due to a very busy week. Next week looks like a lot of fun, which also means that I will have less computer time. Happy Homeschooling!
Phonics: We did lessons 51-60 and enjoyed the easy reader The Ram, and we quickly moved past Map & Ham. Being vegetarian made this one not so appealing, although we went into discussions about how ham comes from dead pigs and hamburger comes from dead cows. After seeing his reactions, we'll probably skip the upcoming reader Hot Dog.
Math: We finished lessons 36-40, which ended with playing Number Trail again. This one is hard because it has strategies involved.
No pictures this week due to a very busy week. Next week looks like a lot of fun, which also means that I will have less computer time. Happy Homeschooling!
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
2009 Plans
Just thinking out loud here. Here's my plans for the future besides McRuffy K phonics and math. The rest of 2009 will be focused on holidays and fall and winter seasons as well as an introduction to geography to get ready for our 'world trip' starting in January. I'm so excited to start Five In A Rowing around the world and Galloping The Globe, but I want to take time to plan it all out well so that it's the best it can be
October:
The theme is Autumn and apples along with an introduction to world geography while we row How To Make An Apple Pie And See The World and US geography with Johnny Appleseed stories. We will have Macintosh apples sent from Maine for Haridas's 5th birthday apple pie.
Booklist:
Apples:
How to make an apple pie and see the world by Priceman, Marjorie
Apples, apples, apples by Wallace, Nancy Elizabeth
How do apples grow by Maestro, Betsy
The seasons of Arnold's apple tree by Gibbons, Gail
An apple festival : orchards in autumn by Gabbert, Lisa
Amazing apples by Powell, Consie
Apple trees by Patent, Dorothy Hinshaw
Apple Valley year by Turner, Ann Warren
Apple picking time by Slawson by Michele Benoit
The apple pie tree by Hall, Zoe
The president and mom's apple pie by Garland, Michael
Grasshopper on the road by Lobel, Arnold
Ten apples up on top! by Seuss, Dr.
Pancakes, pancakes! by Carle, Eric
The Magic School Bus Gets Planted and Goes To Seed by Notkin, Lenore
Apples and pumpkins by Anne Rockwell
Apples, how they grow by Bruce McMillan
Apples, bubbles, and crystals : your science ABCs by Andrea T. Bennett, James H. Kessler
Johnny Appleseed:
Who was Johnny Appleseed? by Holub, Joan
The story of Johnny Appleseed by Aliki
Johnny Appleseed : a poem by Lindbergh, Reeve
Johnny Appleseed by Holland, Gini
Johnny Appleseed by Reiner, Rob
Geography:
Henry's world tour by Quackenbush, Robert M
Apples from heaven : multicultural folk tales about stories and storytellers by Naomi Baltuck
Around the world in 80 tales by Saviour Pirotta
A drop around the world by Barbara Shaw McKinney
November:
The theme will be Thanksgiving, pumpkins and Autumn foods, and an introduction to the Pilgrims and Native Americans.
December:
The theme will be Christmas around the world and Winter. I plan on rowing Katy And The Big Snow because it's about snow for winter and also an introduction to maps.
For 2010, I plan to start Five In A Rowing and Galloping The Globe with our passports, spending 2-4 weeks on a country. I'll be planning all of that now while we focus on holidays and seasons for the rest of this year. I love homeschooling!
October:
The theme is Autumn and apples along with an introduction to world geography while we row How To Make An Apple Pie And See The World and US geography with Johnny Appleseed stories. We will have Macintosh apples sent from Maine for Haridas's 5th birthday apple pie.
Booklist:
Apples:
How to make an apple pie and see the world by Priceman, Marjorie
Apples, apples, apples by Wallace, Nancy Elizabeth
How do apples grow by Maestro, Betsy
The seasons of Arnold's apple tree by Gibbons, Gail
An apple festival : orchards in autumn by Gabbert, Lisa
Amazing apples by Powell, Consie
Apple trees by Patent, Dorothy Hinshaw
Apple Valley year by Turner, Ann Warren
Apple picking time by Slawson by Michele Benoit
The apple pie tree by Hall, Zoe
The president and mom's apple pie by Garland, Michael
Grasshopper on the road by Lobel, Arnold
Ten apples up on top! by Seuss, Dr.
Pancakes, pancakes! by Carle, Eric
The Magic School Bus Gets Planted and Goes To Seed by Notkin, Lenore
Apples and pumpkins by Anne Rockwell
Apples, how they grow by Bruce McMillan
Apples, bubbles, and crystals : your science ABCs by Andrea T. Bennett, James H. Kessler
Johnny Appleseed:
Who was Johnny Appleseed? by Holub, Joan
The story of Johnny Appleseed by Aliki
Johnny Appleseed : a poem by Lindbergh, Reeve
Johnny Appleseed by Holland, Gini
Johnny Appleseed by Reiner, Rob
Geography:
Henry's world tour by Quackenbush, Robert M
Apples from heaven : multicultural folk tales about stories and storytellers by Naomi Baltuck
Around the world in 80 tales by Saviour Pirotta
A drop around the world by Barbara Shaw McKinney
November:
The theme will be Thanksgiving, pumpkins and Autumn foods, and an introduction to the Pilgrims and Native Americans.
December:
The theme will be Christmas around the world and Winter. I plan on rowing Katy And The Big Snow because it's about snow for winter and also an introduction to maps.
For 2010, I plan to start Five In A Rowing and Galloping The Globe with our passports, spending 2-4 weeks on a country. I'll be planning all of that now while we focus on holidays and seasons for the rest of this year. I love homeschooling!
Friday, September 25, 2009
Successful Homeschooling Review Contest
This wonderful site is offering great prizes for reviewing homeschool curriculums! Check it out and enter to win!
http://www.successful-homeschooling.com/homeschool-reviews.html
http://www.successful-homeschooling.com/homeschool-reviews.html
Weekly Update: 9/20 - 9/26
We took it easy again this week and am now starting to do only 1 phonics lesson per day because it is starting to introduce new things. The Hawaii unit study is ending earlier than planned because Grampa will be visiting for two weeks.
Phonics: We did lessons 46-50 this week, which was based on the easy reader Cat In A Bin. We learned a new game called "Wiggle Worm", which is our new favorite next to "Fish Pond". We had found a book at the library called "Wiggle And Waggle", which is a Frog And Toad like book about two worms, so it fit well with our new game as we sang the wiggle and waggle song. He asked to play it again the next day and I'm happy he is enjoying sounding out words.
Math: We did lessons 31-35 this week. We're really enjoying McRuffy K Math. Haridas asks to do math first every day now. To him, it's like getting a new toy to play with everyday, or a new way to play with a toy. He's really getting a good understand of addition and subtraction with the number line. Before with MUS primer, he didn't get it at all other than just lots of counting. Now he's really understanding 'one more than' and 'one less than', and doesn't have to think about it much anymore. Even though McRuffy is spiral and mixes in new things everyday, it still reviews the same concepts. This is working really well with us because it isn't boring at all, it's always new and exciting, yet still reinforcing the same thing again and again. This week, we started using the geoboards, and although it was challenging, it was a new fun thing to do and he like it.
Geology: We put together the five volcanoes that make up the Big Island and read lots of library books about volcanoes how the Hawaiian Islands were formed. Haridas is a big fan of The Magic School Bus, so we read The Magic School Bus Blows It's Top and Inside The Earth several times. On his own free time, he made the Big Island out of play-doh:
Overall, it was a good week and Haridas is totally used to our new curriculum choices. Soon, Galloping the Globe and Five In A Row will add some more extra fun stuff to keep us learning more besides the 3 R's. We've officially changed our school room to be in the living room instead of the porch. The bugs were distracting, and he can not sit still in a chair. Using floor tables and sitting on the ground is working so much better now. I love the flexibility of homeschool! Once again I give thanks to my husband who works so hard and supports us to have simple lives at home, and of course, our Good Lord who continues to bless us with His causeless mercy.
Phonics: We did lessons 46-50 this week, which was based on the easy reader Cat In A Bin. We learned a new game called "Wiggle Worm", which is our new favorite next to "Fish Pond". We had found a book at the library called "Wiggle And Waggle", which is a Frog And Toad like book about two worms, so it fit well with our new game as we sang the wiggle and waggle song. He asked to play it again the next day and I'm happy he is enjoying sounding out words.
Math: We did lessons 31-35 this week. We're really enjoying McRuffy K Math. Haridas asks to do math first every day now. To him, it's like getting a new toy to play with everyday, or a new way to play with a toy. He's really getting a good understand of addition and subtraction with the number line. Before with MUS primer, he didn't get it at all other than just lots of counting. Now he's really understanding 'one more than' and 'one less than', and doesn't have to think about it much anymore. Even though McRuffy is spiral and mixes in new things everyday, it still reviews the same concepts. This is working really well with us because it isn't boring at all, it's always new and exciting, yet still reinforcing the same thing again and again. This week, we started using the geoboards, and although it was challenging, it was a new fun thing to do and he like it.
Geology: We put together the five volcanoes that make up the Big Island and read lots of library books about volcanoes how the Hawaiian Islands were formed. Haridas is a big fan of The Magic School Bus, so we read The Magic School Bus Blows It's Top and Inside The Earth several times. On his own free time, he made the Big Island out of play-doh:
Overall, it was a good week and Haridas is totally used to our new curriculum choices. Soon, Galloping the Globe and Five In A Row will add some more extra fun stuff to keep us learning more besides the 3 R's. We've officially changed our school room to be in the living room instead of the porch. The bugs were distracting, and he can not sit still in a chair. Using floor tables and sitting on the ground is working so much better now. I love the flexibility of homeschool! Once again I give thanks to my husband who works so hard and supports us to have simple lives at home, and of course, our Good Lord who continues to bless us with His causeless mercy.
Looking Ahead
I'm excited that I just ordered Galloping The Globe, a passport with country and state stickers, and a picture atlas. I plan to use these along with Five In A Row, so we will be rowing around the world and galloping the globe. I plan on doing 1-2 years for K and 1st to cover world and US geography before beginning history.
Grampa is visiting from Maine next week and is bringing some Macintosh apples. So, I plan on starting this October with How To Make An Apple Pie And See The World, which is a FIAR and GTG book for an introduction to geography and apples science for an autumn theme. We may make Haridas's birthday cake an apple pie! I'm excited!
I'm thinking about going into pumpkins after apples, then focusing on Thanksgiving for November and Christmas around the world for December, and then continue our trip around the world.
Grampa is visiting from Maine next week and is bringing some Macintosh apples. So, I plan on starting this October with How To Make An Apple Pie And See The World, which is a FIAR and GTG book for an introduction to geography and apples science for an autumn theme. We may make Haridas's birthday cake an apple pie! I'm excited!
I'm thinking about going into pumpkins after apples, then focusing on Thanksgiving for November and Christmas around the world for December, and then continue our trip around the world.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Weekly Update: 9/13-9/19
This was a pretty mellow week because we had extra family together time. :)
Phonics: Haridas finished Unit 1, which was lessons 1-45! We flew threw this unit quickly because the reading part was all review. The handwriting, spelling, and careful listening skills were new for him, though. The unit ended with a three page test of eight questions to find the answer to on each page. I would say "fill in the circle with the ending sound in 'sat' and other sounds and words. He got them all right! I'm glad that he's getting easy testing practice because our state requires standardized testing in 3rd grade. I'm looking forward to the next unit, which will have new concepts like the sight words for the colors.
The Unit Test:
Coloring in 'is', 'in', and 'on' to make a flower picture:
When I was laying down and resting for some quiet time with the teething baby who has been waking up a lot at night lately, Haridas got some paper, folded it in half, and stapled together a little book. (We've been doing this together with McRuffy's creative writing suggestions.) I was surprised to see that he had drawn a picture and attempted to write the sentence "A ragged tooth shark is dangerous." What really surprised me is that I haven't taught him 'oo' or 'th', so he must have learned to write the word 'tooth' from me reading to him or starfall. I'm happy that he's trying to write sentences, that's exciting, even if misspelled. He also wrote "The End" in lower case letters, which he has been so resistant to in handwriting practice. Our first month of McRuffy is starting to show some results! Kids are full of wonderful surprises!
Math: We finished lessons 25-30, which ended in a new game, the Number Trail, which is like bingo with a game board. You roll the dice to land on a number in a shape, which you mark on your game card. This week focused a lot on left and right, greater than and less than, and some fun shapes to make with pattern blocks. Some beginning addition and subtraction was introduced with the greater than less than concept by placing the counter bear on the number line, and then making it jump to 3 more than and less than, etc.
He cut up different length strips of paper and then glued them in order from shortest to tallest, left to right:
Geography: We just did connect the dots Hawaii and read lots of Hawaiiana library books. Our favorites this week were Discover Hawaii's Birth By Fire Volcanoes and The Volcano Is A Girl. The Volcano Is A Girl brought about some interesting conversations about science and religion and mythology as well as personification. We came to the conclusion that Pele, the goddess of fire and the Hawaiian volcanoes, is the personification of what scientists call the 'hot spots' that cause our volcanoes.
Science: One of the wild hens that roams in our yard now has twelve baby chicks! We checked out a few library books about chickens and spend much of our outside time watching them. Many interesting conversations have come about while watching our cute little friends. We discussed how babies need help from their mom, babies need to eat often, and mothers are very protective of their babies. We also tied into our Hawaiian study by acknowledging that the Polynesians brought the chickens here on their long journeys across the Pacific ocean. We talked a lot about why we are vegetarians and why we don't eat animals, and how we are glad we don't support factory farming or the suffering of other living beings. We prayed for the safety of this sweet little family of fluffy chickens and hope they are blessed with a peaceful life. (Some of our neighbors have killed the wild chickens just for 'fun' or because they don't like the rooster's crowing.)
Mama Hen and her dozen baby chicks:
P.E.: Haridas is playing his second soccer game this week! Socialization with strangers is a whole new thing for him that I hope gets less and less strange as the season goes on.
Baby brother trying out a new hat I made for another homeschooling mom's 2 year old. Homeschooling with a 2 year old isn't easy, but babyhood is just so cute and precious, I am cherishing every second of it!
Phonics: Haridas finished Unit 1, which was lessons 1-45! We flew threw this unit quickly because the reading part was all review. The handwriting, spelling, and careful listening skills were new for him, though. The unit ended with a three page test of eight questions to find the answer to on each page. I would say "fill in the circle with the ending sound in 'sat' and other sounds and words. He got them all right! I'm glad that he's getting easy testing practice because our state requires standardized testing in 3rd grade. I'm looking forward to the next unit, which will have new concepts like the sight words for the colors.
The Unit Test:
Coloring in 'is', 'in', and 'on' to make a flower picture:
When I was laying down and resting for some quiet time with the teething baby who has been waking up a lot at night lately, Haridas got some paper, folded it in half, and stapled together a little book. (We've been doing this together with McRuffy's creative writing suggestions.) I was surprised to see that he had drawn a picture and attempted to write the sentence "A ragged tooth shark is dangerous." What really surprised me is that I haven't taught him 'oo' or 'th', so he must have learned to write the word 'tooth' from me reading to him or starfall. I'm happy that he's trying to write sentences, that's exciting, even if misspelled. He also wrote "The End" in lower case letters, which he has been so resistant to in handwriting practice. Our first month of McRuffy is starting to show some results! Kids are full of wonderful surprises!
Math: We finished lessons 25-30, which ended in a new game, the Number Trail, which is like bingo with a game board. You roll the dice to land on a number in a shape, which you mark on your game card. This week focused a lot on left and right, greater than and less than, and some fun shapes to make with pattern blocks. Some beginning addition and subtraction was introduced with the greater than less than concept by placing the counter bear on the number line, and then making it jump to 3 more than and less than, etc.
He cut up different length strips of paper and then glued them in order from shortest to tallest, left to right:
Geography: We just did connect the dots Hawaii and read lots of Hawaiiana library books. Our favorites this week were Discover Hawaii's Birth By Fire Volcanoes and The Volcano Is A Girl. The Volcano Is A Girl brought about some interesting conversations about science and religion and mythology as well as personification. We came to the conclusion that Pele, the goddess of fire and the Hawaiian volcanoes, is the personification of what scientists call the 'hot spots' that cause our volcanoes.
Science: One of the wild hens that roams in our yard now has twelve baby chicks! We checked out a few library books about chickens and spend much of our outside time watching them. Many interesting conversations have come about while watching our cute little friends. We discussed how babies need help from their mom, babies need to eat often, and mothers are very protective of their babies. We also tied into our Hawaiian study by acknowledging that the Polynesians brought the chickens here on their long journeys across the Pacific ocean. We talked a lot about why we are vegetarians and why we don't eat animals, and how we are glad we don't support factory farming or the suffering of other living beings. We prayed for the safety of this sweet little family of fluffy chickens and hope they are blessed with a peaceful life. (Some of our neighbors have killed the wild chickens just for 'fun' or because they don't like the rooster's crowing.)
Mama Hen and her dozen baby chicks:
P.E.: Haridas is playing his second soccer game this week! Socialization with strangers is a whole new thing for him that I hope gets less and less strange as the season goes on.
Baby brother trying out a new hat I made for another homeschooling mom's 2 year old. Homeschooling with a 2 year old isn't easy, but babyhood is just so cute and precious, I am cherishing every second of it!
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Weekly Update: 9/6-9/12
We're back on track now after Grampa's visit and family together time on Labor Day. I'm surprised how much we still got done!
Geography/Art: We colored and cut out the Hawaiian Islands and glued them onto the Pacific Ocean, painted with watercolors. We read these library books about Hawaii: Hawaii The Aloha State, Hawaii Rookie-Read-About-Geography, All Around The Islands, and Island Below The Star.
Painting the ocean blue:
Cutting out the islands:
The islands glued onto the ocean:
Phonics/Reading/Writing: We completed lessons 26-35. The readers are still all review, so we are going quickly, doing 2-3 lessons per day. We read the readers Sat and A Can. They were really easy to read, but still fun because they are humorous, and Haridas loves silly, funny stories. Even though the reading is review, McRuffy includes so much critical thinking and really makes him listen carefully and comprehend instead of rushing into finding the answer. The handwriting is a lot for him because it is mostly lower case and he much prefers capital letters. I'm not pushing him because he is only 5 and I want to keep school fun and enjoyable. Simple spelling tests started with lesson 30, and although he wasn't thrilled about the idea, he ended up doing it perfectly as long as I let him write in all capitals. His spelling words were: the, is, cat, hat, and sat.
Math: We did lessons 20-25. Haridas now really likes math because the lessons are short and move onto playing with the manipulatives. He also likes how it changes everyday, but still reviews the same from before, so it doesn't get boring at all! We also started playing the Number Raceway game this week, which we will surely be playing more of because it was a lot of fun.
Pre-algebra practice by representing patterns with letters (like ABAB, ABC, ABCC, ABBA, etc.)
Putting the mixed-up number cards in numerical order:
Picking a number card (1-20) and counting that many counter bears (they started huddling into hearts):
Matching colored centimeter squares with the designs:
The Number Raceway game has been helpful for identifying numbers and their names. Although he can count beyond to 100 pretty well by himself, when shown a number card as asked what number it is, he would mix up 13 and 30, 14 and 40, etc. The Number Raceway game has fixed this mix up pretty well while having fun racing around the track. I'm happy about this because my attempts to explain that 13 is 10+3 and 30 is 3 10's or 3 X 10 were way over his head. But playing the game helped him get familiar with 13-20 and their symbols.
Geography/Art: We colored and cut out the Hawaiian Islands and glued them onto the Pacific Ocean, painted with watercolors. We read these library books about Hawaii: Hawaii The Aloha State, Hawaii Rookie-Read-About-Geography, All Around The Islands, and Island Below The Star.
Painting the ocean blue:
Cutting out the islands:
The islands glued onto the ocean:
Phonics/Reading/Writing: We completed lessons 26-35. The readers are still all review, so we are going quickly, doing 2-3 lessons per day. We read the readers Sat and A Can. They were really easy to read, but still fun because they are humorous, and Haridas loves silly, funny stories. Even though the reading is review, McRuffy includes so much critical thinking and really makes him listen carefully and comprehend instead of rushing into finding the answer. The handwriting is a lot for him because it is mostly lower case and he much prefers capital letters. I'm not pushing him because he is only 5 and I want to keep school fun and enjoyable. Simple spelling tests started with lesson 30, and although he wasn't thrilled about the idea, he ended up doing it perfectly as long as I let him write in all capitals. His spelling words were: the, is, cat, hat, and sat.
Math: We did lessons 20-25. Haridas now really likes math because the lessons are short and move onto playing with the manipulatives. He also likes how it changes everyday, but still reviews the same from before, so it doesn't get boring at all! We also started playing the Number Raceway game this week, which we will surely be playing more of because it was a lot of fun.
Pre-algebra practice by representing patterns with letters (like ABAB, ABC, ABCC, ABBA, etc.)
Putting the mixed-up number cards in numerical order:
Picking a number card (1-20) and counting that many counter bears (they started huddling into hearts):
Matching colored centimeter squares with the designs:
The Number Raceway game has been helpful for identifying numbers and their names. Although he can count beyond to 100 pretty well by himself, when shown a number card as asked what number it is, he would mix up 13 and 30, 14 and 40, etc. The Number Raceway game has fixed this mix up pretty well while having fun racing around the track. I'm happy about this because my attempts to explain that 13 is 10+3 and 30 is 3 10's or 3 X 10 were way over his head. But playing the game helped him get familiar with 13-20 and their symbols.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Hawaii Unit Study
I'm casually arranging a unit study on Hawaii for our science, geography, history, and art lessons. Hawaii is a special state to be living in because we have so many unique things here...volcanoes, tropical plants, rare animals, and lots of cultural history. Our library has a big Hawaiiana section, so we have many wonderful books to choose from. We are keeping this fun and casual, especially because our main focus is on learning to read and write and math.
Topics:
1. Geography
~Color, paint, cut and paste, connect the dots maps of Hawaii
~Make a 3-D Hawaii model out of clay
~Overview of all of the main islands
2. Geology
~Volcano activities, hot spots formed the islands
~Evolution of an island from volcano to atoll
~Kinds of rocks
3. Ocean
~Oceans of the world, Pacific Ocean
~Coral Reefs
4. Animals
~Ocean animals
~Land Animals
~Birds
5. Plants
~History and use of plants in Hawaii
~How plants grow in tropics
6. History
~Navagators: Menehune, Polynesians, Captain Cook, Chinese, Japanese, King Kamehameha, Portaguese, Philipinos,
American missionaries, US navy
~Hawaiian monarchy, Queen Liliokalani
~Hawaii becomes US territory, Pearl Harbor
~Hilo tsunami
~Hawaii becomes 50th state
~Kilauea erupts on Big Island
~Hurricane Iniki on Kauai
~Hawaii sovereignty movement
Thanks to these wonderful sites, I've found many free print-outs and lesson plans:
http://www.atozkidsstuff.com/hawaii.html
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/usa/states/hawaii//
Topics:
1. Geography
~Color, paint, cut and paste, connect the dots maps of Hawaii
~Make a 3-D Hawaii model out of clay
~Overview of all of the main islands
2. Geology
~Volcano activities, hot spots formed the islands
~Evolution of an island from volcano to atoll
~Kinds of rocks
3. Ocean
~Oceans of the world, Pacific Ocean
~Coral Reefs
4. Animals
~Ocean animals
~Land Animals
~Birds
5. Plants
~History and use of plants in Hawaii
~How plants grow in tropics
6. History
~Navagators: Menehune, Polynesians, Captain Cook, Chinese, Japanese, King Kamehameha, Portaguese, Philipinos,
American missionaries, US navy
~Hawaiian monarchy, Queen Liliokalani
~Hawaii becomes US territory, Pearl Harbor
~Hilo tsunami
~Hawaii becomes 50th state
~Kilauea erupts on Big Island
~Hurricane Iniki on Kauai
~Hawaii sovereignty movement
Thanks to these wonderful sites, I've found many free print-outs and lesson plans:
http://www.atozkidsstuff.com/hawaii.html
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/usa/states/hawaii//
Moving Right Along
So, we finished MFW K in August. We really enjoyed it as our introduction to homeschool. I planned on taking a break from school and starting again in September after family visits. But when our McRuffy reading and math curriculum box arrived, neither of us could wait to start! So, although it has been a busy few weeks for us with guests, we somehow finished the first 20 lessons of reading and math. We really like McRuffy. The lessons are short and sweet with lots of hands on learning activities. It is colorful, but not distracting. Haridas likes how silly the characters are, and the games are a great change from bingo and go fish. I am also happy about how much critical thinking is incorporated, the importance of listening to instructions carefully, the creative writing ideas, and the practice discriminating between similar looking letters like b and d and p. I hope to get some pictures soon.
We're also doing a unit study on Hawaii, incorporating science, geography, art, and some history and culture. Our library has a huge Hawaiiana section, so we're reading a lot.
I just bought Five In A Row, which will cover geography, history, science, and art in a unit study based on a picture/story book. I think he's going to love it, since story books have always made great impressions on him. I plan on starting FIAR in October, since media mail can take up to a month to get to Hawaii.
We're also doing a unit study on Hawaii, incorporating science, geography, art, and some history and culture. Our library has a huge Hawaiiana section, so we're reading a lot.
I just bought Five In A Row, which will cover geography, history, science, and art in a unit study based on a picture/story book. I think he's going to love it, since story books have always made great impressions on him. I plan on starting FIAR in October, since media mail can take up to a month to get to Hawaii.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Leafy...the BUTTERFLY!
Six days after going inside the chrysalis, our little Leafy the caterpillar came out as a beautiful butterfly. It was quite exciting. We let his wings dry in the sun, and as I was taking pictures, he flapped his wings a few times and then took to the sky. We're so thankful that we were blessed with the experience!
Leafy the Caterpillar
It is illegal to mail those fun butterfly kits to Hawaii, so I thought that we wouldn't be able to watch a caterpillar turn into a butterfly. But then Dad found a beautiful caterpillar, just a few weeks after we studied butterflies. Haridas named him Leafy, since we saw him eat through leaves so fast. After 2 days, Leafy climbed on the stick, hung upside down for a while, and then began to make a chrysalis. We didn't know until now that the caterpillar withdraws its head and the outside skin actually falls off! (It looks like its head falls off!) We look forward to seeing what kind of butterfly Leafy will become. I could not find any information to identify what kind Leafy is, so it will be a fun surprise!
Homemade Crystals
When we were learning about rocks and jewels, we started making sugar crystals (rock candy) by letting some cooked sugar water sit in a jar with a string hanging in it. After 3 weeks, we had some beautiful crystals! We fed it to the ants outside afterwards. The camera doesn't quite capture all the beauty of our homemade crystal. Haridas wouldn't stop making silly faces, sticking out his tongue and such, so this was the best not-silly face I could get, lol.
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