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!

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.

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.

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