Weekly Update: Volcanoes and Snow Monkeys

Since Japan is made of many volcanoes and has snow monkeys, that was our theme for this week.



Art: This is a snow monkey drawn with help from Draw Write Now. This one was harder than the panda bear, I think because of the bent legs, so I helped him a bit with them. Govinda gave him bananas to eat because he felt bad that they were the only monkeys that don't have bananas! The house in the back is where their banana friend lives!

Science: We erupted the clay volcano we made last year. This time we used dish soap along with the baking soda and vinegar, which made the 'lava' flow more slowly like pahoehoe! We read many books about volcanoes and a few about snow monkeys (macaques). The Magic School Bus Blows It's Top and Inside The Earth were the favorite books this week. We also reviewed different kinds of rocks and minerals.

Phonics: We did lessons 146-150. The theme was the blend 'st' and the reader was Kate's Nest, which was another great hit. The 'st' blend was pretty easy and familiar, so it was a great way to review all the other phonics concepts we have recently learned, especially discriminating long and short vowels.

Math: We did lessons 109-115, catching up from our getting behind last week. Two of the lessons were games, so I was able to save those for other times instead of school time. This week was more practice with adding and subtracting and finding all the different ways to make a certain sum. We also reviewed greater than and less than and reading and writing time to the hour.

Weekly Update: Japan

Origami has become a new favorite activity! It's pretty amazing how a piece of paper can become an entertaining toy. The cranes were their favorites. We also made boxes, fish, frogs, airplanes, boats, and Samurai hats.

Geography: We rowed our origami boat to Japan, found and colored it on a world map, colored the flag, and read many books about Japanese culture.

Literature: Our favorite Japan stories are Turtle Bay, The Two Foolish Cats, and This Place Is Crowded! We also read Journey To Japan (nice pop-up book), The Paper Crane, The Bicycle Man, Taro and the Tofu, A Carp For Kimiko, How My Parents Learned To Eat, The Boy Of The Three Year Nap, The Butterfly's Dream, and Japanese Children's Favorite Stories.

Art: We made some Japanese-styled watercolor paintings of trees with cherry blossoms based on the art in The Two Foolish Cats.




I did this one:



Phonics: We did lessons 141-145. This week's focus was on the 'long u' sound, and words with 'u' and 'silent e'. The story was The Mule Ride, funny as always. Have I mentioned that we love the McRuffy readers? 'Long u' was a little harder than the previous long vowels because sometimes is sounds like 'u' as in 'mule', and sometimes is sounds like 'oo' as in 'tube'. By the end of the week, he became familiar with the two different 'long u' sounds. He's reading so well thanks to these readers!

Math: We did lessons 106-108. Beginning addition and subtraction were the focus, and we took it slow since it was a harder week for reading. Joining and breaking a certain number of counters and then making math sentences with number and sign cards to match was a fun way to learn and see how it all works. We also reviewed 'greater than/less than' and counting by 1's, 5's, and 10's.

Weekly Update: Pandas

Art: Govinda drew a beautiful panda bear with help from Draw Write Now. I look forward to doing more art in school from now on. He really has fun drawing.


Phonics: We did lessons 146-140. The focus was the 'qu' sound, with practice distinguishing 'qu' from 'pu'. The story was called 'Quack and Quill', a cute story about a duck and porcupine. Govinda is reading so much now, I'm always thankful and amazed.

Math: We did lessons 101-105. This was the first formal addition sentences, practicing counting, joining groups, and adding to find the sum. He did a great job with it. We took different numbers of counters and found all the different ways to add to that sum. Math is still a lot of fun for him.

Science/Geography/ Literature: We read more of the same books as last week and focused on Panda bears and how they are different than other bears. We also read some extra books about ducks to go along with Story About Ping. Ducks Don't Get Wet was a good one. We had fun making cone-shaped rice farmer hats, but they wouldn't let me take a picture of them, but they're really cute.

And now we're on our way to Japan! Yay!

Weekly Update: China

This week of 1/3-1//9, we started Galloping The Globe in China! I'm excited to be learning about other cultures. Being Chinese, it is special to learn more about our ancestors.

Geography: We found Asia, stamped the passport with the flag of China, located China on the world map, colored China and the flag of China and learned about what the flag symbolizes. We also made some fans:


Science: We learned about temperate zones and deciduous forests and how the tilt of the Earth causes the seasons and longer and shorter days for different places. We made a model of this, an idea I got from Science Around The World, and I think it really helped show how it works and why our days are getting longer now that we passed the winter solstice. The Earth is the blue circle, connected with a brad so that it can tilt. The sun's direct rays make the other side shadowed. The lines on the Earth show how some parts get a lot more or less sunshine because of the tilt. We will line it up on the axis when we get to the Spring Equinox to show how the days and nights are equal.


Literature: Our favorite stories about China were Miss Frizzle's Adventures in Imperial China, The Story About Ping (we discussed FIAR ideas about this one), Tikki Tikki Tembo (I remember this one from my childhood), Daisy Comes Home, and all of the Panda and Gander stories.

Phonics: This week we finished lessons 131-135. The focus was on the 'long o' sound, and words with 'o' and 'silent e'. The reader was Rose The Mole, a very funny stories once again. The week ended with the Unit 3 Test, making sure everything from the past few months is retained. Govinda got them all right! We are starting the last quarter of McRuffy Kindergarten, and I am very excited and pleased with how it is going. I'm amazed at how much he can read now!

Math: We did lessons 96-100. The focus was on counting by 5's and counting nickels, and distinguishing the difference between counting by 1's, 10's and 5's. We also reviewed reading time to the hour and simple word problems with toy counters for addition and subtraction preparation. Next week starts written addition practice, and I think he is ready for it now thank to all of the gentle introductions he has had with manipulatives.

Looking ahead, I plan on spending two weeks on every country we learn about. The first week will be focused on geography, maps, flags, culture, and history. The second week will be focused on the environment and animals of that country. So, next week will be all about Pandas, ducks (to go with Story About Ping), and other animals in China. I just got Draw Write Now, a drawing book for kids that looks great, so we will soon be adding art to our study of animals.

I'm so thankful to get to homeschool and I appreciate everyone who helps and supports us! God Bless!

Weekly Update 12/20 - 1/2

We took it easy for Christmas and New Years and to allow time to explore and play with the new toys.

Phonics: We finished lessons 121-130. The focus was on the 'long i' sound and the 'sh' sound. The readers were 'Ruff's Cab' and 'Sam the Shark'. As always, these readers were fun and entertaining, which really keep the interest to read alive.

Math: We did lessons 86-95.

Literature: We finished up our winter, arctic animals, and Christmas theme. The Little Polar Bear stories have made a place in our hearts.