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! :)

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!

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.

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!

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!

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!

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

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.

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.

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!

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.

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//

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.

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.

B Is For Butterfly

Here's Haridas as a beautiful, big, blue butterfly!