Curriculum Choices

There sure are a lot of choices in homeschool curriculum. Here is a nice list I found while searching.

Complete Curriculum (all subjects included):
A Beka
BJU
Calvert
Christopherus (traditional Waldorf)
Rod and Staff
Alpha Omega (Horizons, Lifepac, SOS, Weaver)
Moving Beyond the Page
Oak Meadow
Lapbooks (this was listed but I don’t think this is actually a curriculum, per se)
Living Books
Christian Liberty
CLE
Timberdoodle had complete packages now
CLP
ACE
MBtP

Math:
Applied Math Series
BJU
Chalkdust
Classical Math
CLE
Fanstastic Frogs math
Horizons
Jacob's
Japanese Math
Key to…
Liberty Math
Life of Fred
Living Math * (free online)
Making Math Meaningful
Math Mammoth
Math U See
McRuffy Color Math
MEP * (free online)
Miquon
Quarter-Mile Math
Rightstart
Rod and Staff
Russian Math (Perpendicular Press)
Saxon
Singapore
Teaching Textbooks
Video Text Interactive

Grammar
Abeka
Analytical Grammar/Junior Analytical Grammar
Applications of Grammar
BJU
Daily Grams
Easy Grammar
English for the Thoughtful Child
First Language Lessons
Grammar with a Giggle
Growing with Grammar
Intermediate language lessons
Jensen's Grammar
Jolly Grammar
LLATL
MCT
Primary language lessons
Queen's Language Lessons
Rod and Staff
Ruth Heller's Grammar Picture Books
Simply Grammar
Winston

Composition
writing program from Analytical Grammar
Ancient History Based Writing
Bravewriter/The Writer's Jungle
Charlotte Mason Style Writing Instruction
Classical Writing
Easy Writing
IEW
Ignite Your Writing
Intro to Composition Power Basics
Jensen's Format
Jump in Writing
Just Write
Meaningful Composition
Meaningful Writing
Rod and Staff
Lost Tools of Writing
Write Shop
Writing Strands
Writing Tales
WWE
Wordsmith
Writers Inc

Spelling
A Reason for Spelling
All About Spelling
Apples & Pears
ASCI Spelling
Building Spelling Skills
Calvert Spelling
How to Teach Spelling
McGuffey's Speller (combined spelling and phonics)
Megawords
Natural Speller
Phonetic Zoo
Phonics Road to Spelling
Pollard's Series (combined spelling and phonics)
Sequential Spelling
Soaring with Spelling & Vocabulary
Spell to Write and Read
Spellbound
Spelling Power
Spelling Plus, can add in companion Spelling Dictation
Spelling Workout
Spellography, Primary Spelling by Pattern, Spelling Workout
Spellwell
The Spell of Words
Tricks of the Trade spelling notebook
Webster's Speller (combined spelling and phonics)
Words by M.K. Henry
www.spellingcity.com (not really a curriculum but this is how ds learns his words)

Phonics
ABeCeDarian
Adventures In Phonics
Alpha-Phonics
Alphabet Island
Blend Phonics
Dancing Bears
Explode the Code
Happy Phonics
Investigating Phonics
Itchy’s Alphabet
Jolly Phonics,
McGuffey's Speller (combined spelling and phonics)
McRuffys Phonics
OPGTR
Phonics Museum
Phonics Pathways
Phonics Road to Spelling
Plaid Phonics
Pollard's Series (combined spelling and phonics)
Progressive Phonics
Reading Made Easy
Right Track Reading
Rocket Phonics
Saxon Phonics
Sing, Spell, Read, write
Spell to Write and Read
Starfall (www.starfall.com) * (free online)
Tanglewood Education * (free online)
Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
The Reading Lesson
The Writing Road to Reading and Spelling
Veritas Phonics
Webster's Speller (combined spelling and phonics)
Word Mastery

Germany Book List

ABOUT WISE MEN AND SIMPLETONS TWELVE TALES FROM GRIMM/ TRANSLATED BY ELIZABETH SHUB. ETCHINGS BY NONNY HOGROGIAN. WRITTEN IN COLLABORATION WITH W.K. GRIMM. TRANSLATED FROM KINDER UND HAUSMARCHEN by Grimm, Jacob

Bach's big adventure by Ketcham, Sallie

Beethoven : great composer by Carew-Miller, Anna

The Bourbon Street musicians by Price, Kathy (Kathy Z.)

The Bremen town musicians by Bremer Stadtmusikanten

Doctor All-Knowing : a folk tale from the Brothers Grimm by Orgel, Doris.

The duchess bakes a cake by Kahl, Virginia.

The falling stars by Grimm, Wilhelm, 1786-1859.

The fox and the cat : Kevin Crossley-Holland's Animal tales from Grimm ; illustrated by Susan Varley.

Germany by Reynolds, Jeff,

The gift by Brodmann-Menkes, Aliana

The golden goose by Hillert, Margaret.

Hansel and Gretel by Grimm, Jacob

Leopold, the liar of Leipzig by Prose, Francine

A new coat for Anna by Ziefert, Harriet.

The pied piper by Blair, Eric.

Popular folk tales by Grimm, Jacob

The Rhine by Allan, Tony

The seven ravens by Grimm, Jacob

The Shoemaker and the elves by Wichtelmanner.

Some friends to feed : the story of Stone Soup by Seeger, Pete

The elves and the shoemaker by Grimm, Jacob

The six swans : a fairy tale by Grimm, Jacob

The brave little tailor : a retelling of the Grimms' fairy tale by Blair, Eric

The cat and mouse who shared a house by Hurlimann, Ruth

DVD: Europe to the max. Fairy tale Europe Germany and Austria by Maxa, Rudy.

A mighty fortress : a new history of the German people by Ozment, Steven E.

The moon was the best by Zolotow, Charlotte

Netherlands, and Happy Birthday Teacher!

This week we took a break from academics as the baby is still cutting a molar and it was also my birthday. We enjoyed some quality family together time and made a homemade pizza with Dad's special sauce. Geography with literature continued as always.

Geography: We read more stories from the Netherlands/Holland book list, and we also made a windmill. We also drew a windmill and tulips to add to the world map. It's funny, G called it 'the tulip place'.

I've decided to drop CLE math, it's getting too hard and is forcing him to memorize instead of thoroughly understand the why's of math. I started feeling like I was filling a bucket instead of lighting a fire, so out it goes. Now, I'm searching for another math program.

Netherlands, Long A spelled 'ai', Human Body Intro

We will be taking it easy with the academic aspects of school for a bit since the baby is getting molars and needs me to be with him more. We skipped math this week and read lots of stories instead.

Geography: We colored the map and flag of the Netherlands and read many stories from the book list. Our favorites are Boxes For Katje, Father May I Come, The Hole In The Dike, and The First Tulips In Holland.

Science: We're starting off our human body study with a brief overview with The Magic School Bus Inside The Human Body and also Why I Sneeze, Shiver, Hiccup, & Yawn (Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science 2), which came early to the library and fit perfectly in with our phonics reader in which a snail that kept sneezing. I hope to get this science study going with lots of living books sprinkled with projects and experiments for fun, all for free, thanks to the library.

Language Arts: We did lessons 31-35. The focus was on the 'long a' sound spelled 'ai'. The reader was Snuff The Snail, another action packed funny story. Homophones were introduced (same sounding words with different spellings and meanings), which went along with the 'ai' spelling words, waist and waste, male and mail, tale and tail, pale and pail.

Netherlands/Holland Book List

Boxes for Katje by Fleming, Candace
Father, may I come by Spier, Peter
The great tulip trade by Brust, Beth Wagner
The hole in the dike by Green, Norma B
Hana in the time of the tulips by Noyes, Deborah
The cow who fell in the canal by Krasilovsky, Phyllis
A tale of tulips, a tale of onions by Birchman, David Francis
The first tulips in Holland by Krasilovsky, Phyllis
Journey from Peppermint Street by De Jong, Meindert
A new coat for Anna by Ziefert, Harriet
The Netherlands by Dahl, Michael S.

Van Gogh and his world by Measham, Terry
I am a stranger on the earth : the story of Vincent Van Gogh by Dobrin, Arnold

Korea Book List

Here's a few story books for Korea:

The Firekeeper's Son by Linda Sue Park
Good-bye, 382 Shin Dang Dong by Frances Park and Ginger Park
Peach heaven by Yangsook Choi
The royal bee by Frances Park and Ginger Park
Sori's harvest moon day : a story of Korea by Lee Uk-Bae
The trip back home by Janet S. Wong
Where on earth is my bagel? by Frances Park and Ginger Park
Yunmi and Halmoni's trip by Sook Nyul Choi
The zoo by Suzy Lee
The Green Frogs: A Korean Folktale By Yumi Heo

Japan Book List

Here's our Japan book list revisited for future reference:

Turtle Bay by Saviour Pirotta
The Two Foolish Cats by Yoshiko Uchida
This Place Is Crowded! by Vicki Cobb
Journey To Japan (nice pop-up book) by Joan Knight
Night of the Ninjas (Magic Tree House) by Mary Pope Osborne
Dragon of the Red Dawn (Magic Tree House) by Mary Pope Osborne
The Paper Crane by Molly Bang
The Bicycle Man by Allen Say
Taro and the Tofu by Masako Matsuno
A Carp For Kimiko by VIrginia Kroll
How My Parents Learned To Eat by Ina Friedman
The Butterfly's Dream by Ippo Keido
Japanese Children's Favorite Stories by FLorence Sakade
Old Man who Made the Trees Bloom by Jijii
Magic Fan by Baker
Crane Girl by Charles
Painter and the Wild Swans by Clement
Ten Oni Drummers by Gollub
Girl from the Snow Country by Hidaka
Kenji and the Magic Geese by Johnson
Yoshi’s Feast by Kajikawa
Carp for Kimiko by Kroll
Seven Gods of Luck by Kudler
Yoshiko and the Foreigner by Little
Moshi, Moshi by London
Dragon Kite by Luenn
Pair of Red Clogs by Matsuno
Cherry Tree by MacCaughrean
Emperor’s Plum Tree by Nikly
Tea with Milk by Say
Long Silk Strand by Williams

China Book List

Here's some of our favorite books about China, which we studied before I started compiling book lists. So here it is for future reference:

Miss Frizzle's Adventures in Imperial China by Joanna Cole
The Story About Ping by Marjorie Flack
Tikki Tikki Tembo by Arlene Mosel
Daisy Comes Home by Jan Brett
Day of the Dragon King (Magic Tree House) by Mary Pope Osborne
Ruby’s Wish, Bridges
Story of Kites, Compestine
Moon Festival, Russell
Panda & Gander Stories by Joyce Dunbar (funny stories with a silly panda bear):
Panda's New Toy
Gander's Pond
The Bowl Of Fruit

Great Britain, DInosaurs, 'Sp' and 'Sn' blends, Subtraction

Geography/Literature/Science: This was our second week on Great Britain, with an extra sidetrack on dinosaurs to compliment St. George and the Dragon (dragons and dinosaurs stole the show away from England's sheep). We checked out a few books on dinosaurs:

Dinosaurs by Gail Gibbons
The Magic School Bus In The Time Of The Dinosaurs by Joanna Cole
Dinosaurs Before Dark (The Magic Tree House) by Mary Pope Osborne
Did Dinosaurs Have Feathers? by Kathleen Zoehfeld

This last book explained how paleontologists found fossils of dinosaurs with feathers and wings, and some of them looked just like the typical dragon. We discussed how '-saur' means 'lizard', and 'asura' means 'demon' in Sanskrit. We discussed how the Srimad Bhagavatam tells of huge snakes during Krishna's time 5,000 years ago, and how the Bible describes a huge beast with a tail like a tree in the Book Of Job, and how this is different than the scientific theory of dinosaurs living millions of years before people and never together, as well as a comet killing the dinosaurs. Both the Srimad Bhagavatam and the Bible describe a worldwide flood in which 8 people and the animals survived in a boat. The Srimad Bhagavatam says that this flood happened 120.532 million years ago, which happens to be what scientists call the mid-Cretaceous period, which is said to have ended with dinosaur extinction. If the Srimad Bhagavatam is accurate, than the scientists are 55 million years off on their 'mysterious mass extinction' theory. The boys love dinosaurs, and I love researching this stuff, so we had a lot of fun with it.

Back to Great Britain, we reflected on how Gandhi helped India become free from Britain with nonviolent resistance, and how that approach was much more successful than the drawn out fighting of the 100 Years War between England and France. We also built a castle out of blocks and read more library books about and from Great Britain. We sang and played 'London Bridge Is Falling Down', which I remember loving as a kid.

Language Arts: We did lessons 26-30. The focus was on worlds with 'sp' and 'sn' blends. G finds consonant blends pretty easy, but the review and practice with long and short vowels is always helpful. The reader was Spice And Mice, a funny story about a mouse who outsmarts a snake, which gave some good review of when the 'c' makes the 's' sound. We also practiced more with suffixes, adding 'ed' and 'ing' to short and long vowel words, and also reviewed 'apostrophe s'. Handwriting has improved so much, I am so thankful. He writes like a pro now!

Math: We did lessons 26-30. Subtraction was taken to further levels with subtracting 1 and subtracting a number that is 1 less always equals 1. Adding and subtracting 0 is always his favorite. He did great with choosing addition or subtraction for a story problem, and he loves the speed drills (that's one of those surprises I didn't expect).

I've decided to start adding more science to our school, and luckily found a free curriculum made by a generous homeschool mom based on library books called Little Otter's Science. I plan to start it soon when the requested library books arrive. We're warming up for this 7 month study of the human body with a favorite book, The Magic School Bus Inside The Human Body. I think the boys will like this journey, and it will balance out all of the time we've spent on animals.

Take care and God Bless! Happy Mother's Day to all of the mother's out there.

United Kingdom, Sheep, Knights, Castles, Long Vowels, and Subtraction

Geography/Literature: This week was fun as we left Russia and sailed the Baltic Sea on over to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (that is the full name which includes England, Whales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland). We stamped the passports and colored the map and flag of the UK. Knights and castles pretend play was a lot of fun for the boys with a cardboard sword, shield, and helmet we made. I'm glad that the swords broke quickly, since I don't like fighting even for play. St. George and the dragon made a big impression on them as they joined forces to fight the big (green tree) dragon. Discussions on dragons lead to a side study of dinosaurs, dragons, and what scriptures say compared to what scientists say. We'll go into it more next week with some dinosaur books from the library. We read two Magic Tree House stories, one about knights and castles and one about Shakespeare. We love these books, even the 2 year old begs to hear them again and again. We also read about sheep, since there are lots of sheep in the UK. The stories Smudge The Little Lost Lamb and Ten Sleepy Sheep were the most read of all the story books this week, since they are so sweet.

Language Arts: We did lessons 21-25. The theme was 'long e', 'long i', and 'long u'. This was all review, but it was still a lot after having a week each for 'long a' and 'long o'. The reader was Beep, a very funny story about a sheep that beeps and bothers everyone until its beep saves the day. Many new sight words were introduced; put, that, this, and with, on top of reviewing previous sight words; all and said. It was definitely a harder reader compared to the ones before, but the humor of the story and pictures keeps it fun and encouraging. Handwriting is improving greatly, and most letters are perfected! (Thank God). The ten weekly spelling words are becoming normal now. This week I put them on the wall so he could see them often throughout the week. We reviewed 'apostrophe s' to show how something belongs to someone. We reviewed adding the suffixes 'ed' and 'ing' to long and short vowel words ending in vowels and consonants, and then introduced the suffix 'ly', which is easier because it doesn't start with a vowel, so no changes to think about (like dropping the 'silent e' or doubling the last consonant for 'ed' and 'ing').

Math: This week we started Light Unit 102, which introduced subtraction. We did lessons 21-25. We learned about subtraction and understanding subtraction story problems, counting by 5's, identifying a triangle, understanding expanded numbers (like 10+10+2=22), and counting coins with the greatest value first with dimes. Each lesson ends with a speed drill, and he loves these and wants to do them right away! He can answer all 15 math facts in one minute now, and got them all correct one day, and one wrong on the other four days (2+3=5 is now called 'the hard one'). He's so funny, he does all the +0 ones first and then goes back to do the +1 and +2 ones. Subtraction required much more thinking than last week's adding zero, which was a no brainer. We had to keep it very visual with legos and fingers, since it seems that subtraction is much more abstract to him than addition. I am curious to see how this progresses over the next month. If it gets too hard, we will spread lessons out over two days, since CLE is advanced and the end of 1st grade math is equivalent to 2nd grade math, plus he's only 5 and is starting 1st grade 6 months early. We'll see how subtraction goes next week.

We love homeschool! I'm looking into adding in some more science experiments and spanish soon! Thank you everyone for your love and support!

United Kingdom/Great Britain and Sheep Book List

UNITED KINGDOM/GREAT BRITAIN/CASTLES/KNIGHTS/FAMOUS PEOPLE:

Ms. Frizzle's Adventures: Medieval Castle by Joanna Cole
100 things you should know about knights & castles by Walker, Jane
A family in England by St. John, Jetty
Anno's Britain by Anno, Mitsumasa
Castles by Steele, Philip
Charles Dickens : the man who had great expectations by Stanley, Diane
England by Augustin, Byron
England-- in pictures by Lerner Publications Company. Geography Dept.
The glorious flight : across the Channel with Louis Bleriot, July 25, 1909 by Provensen, Alice.
Good Queen Bess : the story of Elizabeth I of England by Stanley, Diane
The hatmaker's sign : a story by Benjamin Franklin by Fleming, Candace.
Hallelujah Handel by Cowling, Douglas
Katie Morag and the two grandmothers by Hedderwick, Mairi.
**The knight at dawn by Osborne, Mary Pope
Knights & castles by Hindley, Judy
Knights & castles : 50 hands-on activities to experience the Middle Ages by Hart, Avery
Knights and castles by Osborne, Will
Knights in shining armor by Gibbons, Gail
Madeline in London by Bemelmans, Ludwig, 1898-1962
Mr. Gumpy's motor car by Burningham, John.
Mr. Gumpy's outing by Burningham, John.
A picture book of Florence Nightingale by Adler, David A.
Saint George and the dragon : a golden legend by Hodges, Margaret,
**Stage fright on a summer night by Osborne, Mary Pope
The story of a castle by Goodall, John S.
The story of an English village by Goodall, John S.
The sword in the tree by Bulla, Clyde Robert
Take a trip to England by Fairclough, Chris.
Tale of Peter Rabbit by Potter, Beatrix
They were strong and good by Lawson, Robert
The Tower of London by Fisher, Leonard Everett.
United Kingdom by Bean, Rachel.
The Usborne book of London by Butterfield, Moira,
Windsor Castle : England's royal fortress by Ball, Jacqueline A.
The young person's guide to Shakespeare : with performances on CD by the Royal Shakespeare Company by Ganeri, Anita,
DVD: Rick Steves' Europe. Great Britain by Steves, Rick


SHEEP

Sheep by Miller, Sara Swan.
**Smudge, the little lost lamb by Herriot, James
**Ten sleepy sheep by Root, Phyllis.


**= favorites

Russia, Grizzly Bears,' Long O', Adding Zero

Art: Here's G's beautiful grizzly bear. There's also an owl in the conifers (pine trees). He did the bear all on his own without my help (he usually asks for help), so this was a breakthrough with drawing animals!

Literature/Geography/Science: We read more stories from and about Russia and grizzly bears.

Language Arts: We did McRuffy 1 lessons 16-20. The focus was on the 'long o' sound spelled with 'silent e' and 'oa'. The reader was called No Toast, and this one was quite funny. I even laughed out loud to my self while pre-reading it. It had a lot of things that G loves...a fire engine, putting out a fire, a bulldozer, mud, oats, and more. What an adventure Ruff and Violet go on to get some toast! He is reading so well and fluently now, I am impressed! The ten spelling words were hard because memorization is the only way of knowing if a 'long o' word is spelled with a 'silent e' or 'oa'. After writing it wrong, he realized it and changed it, on three of the words on the spelling test. He's doing great with McRuffy 1 so far.

Math: We did CLE 1 lessons 16-20. We introduced identifying a point, practiced greater than and less than, and G's favorite...adding zero. We did the first speed drills, where he has 2 minutes to answer as many math facts as possible out of 15. (We started with 1 minute, but we decided 2 minutes is better for now.) On the first one, he got 9 out of 15 correct, and 10 out of 15 correct on the second one. The timing aspect kind of threw him off, but this will become a daily practice that will get easier with time, I think. He went back afterwards to correct the wrong ones and finish the ones he didn't get to, and he does much better when not timed. I might do it differently later where we time how long it takes to do them all, and then he tries to beat his own best time. We'll see how it goes. We also finished the first light unit (magazine-like workbooks that last one month, or 20 lessons), and finished with a light unit test, and he got all but one right. He really likes this math program and I'm glad we got it. Next week, we start light unit 102, which goes into subtraction!

Earth Day Fair

We joined our local homeschool group to go to the Earth Day Fair at the University of Hawaii. There were lots of kid activities and we had a lot of fun. Their favorite was coloring a sea turtle and having it made into a big badge/button. They woke up the next day ready to pick up all the trash and save all the sea turtles. We also got some really nice posters for the school/play room. Their favorite is the Marine Mammals of Hawaii, with pictures of whales, dolphins, and seals. Govinda drew a whale from looking at the poster. Happy Earth Day!

Russia, Long A, Adding With 0

Our magic carpet ride continued to Russia this week.

Geography: We colored the map and flag of Russia and checked out books about this biggest country in the world.

Literature: We read several Russian and Ukrainian folk tales and stories. I was surprised how much they liked The Nutcracker. The Mitten is a great story that we own that was revisited. Rechenka's Eggs and Clever Katya were some other favorites. More stories just came in for next week, too.

Language Arts: This week we did McRuffy LA lessons 11-15. The focus was reviewing the 'long a' sound, spelled with 'silent e' and 'ay'. The reader, Ruff and The Ape, was fun and amusing as usual. The ten spelling words made him have to think about whether to use a silent e or y, but he got them all down by the end of the week. Handwriting has greatly improved since our extra time focused on it, and he forms all of his letters correctly now. Everyday he is writing a sentence that reinforces the phonics lessons. The sight word 'are' was introduced and then some grammar practice followed, reinforcing 'is' for singular and 'are' for plural. Each story ends with five questions to read and answer about the reader and then a sentence hunt to fill in the missing word and find the page number it is on. After five times now, he's got the research abilities to do the sentence hunts without my help.

Math: We did CLE 1 lessons 10-15. All of the new facts were adding with 0, and 0 is very popular here because it is such a funny number because it 'adds nothing!' We practiced counting by 10s and with dimes, acknowledged the differences between circles and squares, and found the numbers before and after a number. We started doing place value with tens and ones and also acknowledged 'twin' math facts that have the same numbers in different order. The Just For Fun activities at the end of the lessons were connect the dots, and he really liked it. The flash cards are working well and he's memorizing his math facts well. These lessons will have up to 20 addition problems reviewing the math facts, and he's not having any problems with it being too much, which is a relief for me because it looks like a lot, but it's the same simple facts again and again.

Russia Book List

A Piece of Home, Levitin
Another celebrated dancing bear by Scheffrin-Falk, Gladys
Apple Pie and Onions, Caseley
Babushka Baba Yaga by Polacco, Patricia
Clever Katya : a fairy tale from old Russia by Hoffman, Mary
Dream Jar, Pryor
FAVORITE FAIRY TALES TOLD IN RUSSIA, RETOLD FROM RUSSIAN STORYTELLERS ILLUSTRATED BY HERBERT DANSKA. 1ST ED. by Haviland, Virginia
The fool of the world and the flying ship; a Russian tale, by Ransome, Arthur
The gossipy wife : adapted from a Russian folk tale by Hall, Amanda
How much land does a man need? by Tolstoy, Leo
Little Kim's doll by Yaroshevskaya, Kim
The littlest matryoshka by Demas, Corinne
The magic babushka : an original Russian tale by Tildes, Phyllis Limbacher
The Mitten by Brett, Jan
MY MOTHER IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WOMAN IN THE WORLD A RUSSIAN FOLKTALE RETOLD BY BECKY REYHER; PICTURES BY RUTH GANNETT. by REYHER, REBECCA.
Nikolai, the only bear by Joosse, Barbara M.
The Nutcracker doll by DePalma, Mary Newell
The nutcracker. by Chappell, Warren
The nutcracker by Dumas, Alexandre
Peter the Great by Stanley, Diane
Philipok, Tolstoy
Rechenka's eggs by Polacco, Patricia.
Russia by Murrell, Kathleen Berton
Russia by Russell, Henry
The Thanksgiving door by Atwell, Debby
Trees of the Dancing Goats, Polacco
Twenty-two Russian Tales for Young Children, Tolstoy
The Tzar's bird by Tompert, Ann
Uncle Vova's Tree, Polacco

DVD: Families of Russia by Finnegan, Jordan
DVD: Russia by Wright, Ian.

Grizzly bear : habitats, life cycles, food chains, threats by Leach, Michael.
Grizzly bears by Gibbons, Gail
Grizzly bear by Freschet, Berniece
Searching for grizzlies by Hirschi, Ron
Adventures of Little Bear by Minarik, Else Holmelund
Little Bear by Minarik, Else Holmelund.
Look to the north : a wolf pup diary by George, Jean Craighead, 1919-
Wolves by Gibbons, Gail.
The Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson

Palestine, Middle East and Asia Review

Geography: This week we colored the map and flag of Palestine. I was disappointed that my pack of passport flag stickers didn't have Palestine, our encyclopedia had only one sentence about it on the Israel page, and it was hard to even find a children's printable map. The only information I could find was not kid friendly, so we sent prayers for the people in Gaza and the West Bank, and now we are taking a carpet ride out of the middle east to the mountains in the north. Russia is in both Asia and Europe, and will be our transition into a new continent!

Literature: We read our favorite books from the list over and over again...Seasons of the Sandstorms, Little Humpty, Mrs. Katz and Tush, Twist and Ernest, and Ernest and the Big Itch.

Language Arts: We did lessons 9-12, splitting each lesson into two days as we were transitioning from a very busy weekend with family visiting. The reader was The Bug Bus, a cute story about bugs building a bus out of a jug. The focus was on the 'short u' sound. The Bug Bus Game was a big hit. Words with the 'ed' suffix were practiced more with this reader. I was surprised how quickly he caught on. The ten spelling words were pretty easy, many three letter words, so that so many words isn't too much. We started the next lessons on the 'long a' sound spelled with 'silent e' and 'ay', but we will wait to start the reader, Ruff and Ape, next week. We introduced nouns and verbs, and practiced finding them in simple sentences.

Math: We are really liking CLE 1. We did lessons 6-10. He has ten math facts memorized now! The flashcards are actually fun for his mathy mind, and the workbook pages are fun because they change concepts often. The topics this week were writing numbers, practicing math facts, ordinal numbers, longer and shorter, over and under, more and less, counting pennies, understanding zero, and place value with counting tens and ones. This new program is working well, and I am so pleased that he has memorized all of the simple addition problems like 1+1=2, up to a sum of 5.

Israel, Easter, and Jesus

We have family visiting, so we took it easy in school this week to make gifts for them. Here is a picture of our world map with pictures of animals that we have added as we learned about each place. From left to right, it's a camel, tiger, panda, duck, and an funny looking snow monkey.



Geography/Literature: We read more Bible stories and Israel stories this week, focusing on Jesus rising again. We listened to a few Christian songs about it, one favorite is 'Might To Save', which sings about Jesus conquering the grave. The grand finale was celebrating Easter with family.

Language Arts: We did lessons 5-8. We reread The Green Fig and answered questions about it and got all of the spelling words right on the test. We played the game that goes with The Green Fig, and it was a big hit because it's about a pig, and a wild pig has been visiting us lately and the kids love to watch him eat our compost. Then we read Jed and Bess, a cute story about a hen who rescues someone, then answered questions about the story and did the sentence hunt, to fill in the blank for sentences in the reader. These readers are always so action packed, funny, and entertaining. We love them!

Math: We started CLE Math 1, lessons 1-5. We really like it so far, and my concern about too many pages per lesson was no problem at all since they are spaced out, fun and entertaining, and they keep changing to keep attention. We started flashcards to drill the new facts learned everyday, this week it was 1+1=2, 1+2=3, 2+1=3, and 1+3=4, and he quickly memorized them after seeing it with legos. We learned about adding one more is the next number, ordinal numbers, and practiced drawing circles. We like this new math program and I think it is going to be a great fit for this year.

Israel, Palestine, Judaism, and Donkey Book List

Israel and Judaism:
42 Bible stories for little ones : from creation to Pentecost by Box, Su.
A historical atlas of Israel by Romano, Amy
All about Jewish holidays and customs by Epstein, Morris
Annushka's voyage by Tarbescu, Edith.
Asher and the capmakers : a Hanukkah story by Kimmel, Eric A
Behold the trees by Alexander, Sue
Brothers : a Hebrew legend by Freedman, Florence B.
Dance, sing, remember : a celebration of Jewish holidays by Kimmelman, Leslie
Hanukkah by Schaefer, Lola M.
Israel by Boraas, Tracey
Israel stories from the Holy Lands by Mortimer, Sandy
The Israelites by Odijk, Pamela
The Jesus storybook Bible : every story whispers his name by Lloyd-Jones, Sally
Jewish stories by Ganeri, Anita
The matzo ball boy by Shulman, Lisa
Matzah ball soup by Rothenberg, Joan
Matzo ball moon by Newman, Lesléa
The matzah man : a Passover story by Howland, Naomi
The matzah that Papa brought home by Manushkin, Fran
Mrs. Katz and Tush by Polacco, Patricia
The never-ending greenness : we made Israel bloom by Waldman, Neil
Old Noah's elephants : an Israeli folktale by Ludwig, Warren
On Sukkot and Simchat Torah by Fishman, Cathy Goldberg
One city, two brothers by Smith, Chris
Rosh Hashanah by Heinrichs, Ann
Take a trip to Israel by Rutland, Jonathan
Tomie dePaola's book of Bible stories : New International version by Bible

DVD: What is Judaism? by Schlessinger, Andrew
DVD: Families of Israel by Arden Films

The Holy Land (YouTube video showing cities and ruins in Israel with traditional music.)

Palestine:
Voices from the past by Mazar, Amihay
Palestine : a photographic journey by Azar, George Baramki

Donkeys:
Donkeys by Potter, Tessa.
Ernest and the big itch by Barnes, Laura T.
Teeny tiny Ernest by Barnes, Laura T
Twist and Ernest by Barnes, Laura T
Little Donkey learns to help by Jensen, Patricia
Coconut comes to school by Doherty, Berlie

Weekly Update: Israel and Donkeys

Geography/Literature: We colored the map and flag of Israel and read several Jewish stories and Torah/Old Testament stories. We will be celebrating Passover with our own homemade matzoh bread starting Sunday night. We just got a wheat grinder to make it fresh from wheat berries, so it will be an extra fun cooking experience. We talked with our neighbor who was born in Jerusalem and grew up in Nazareth before Israel was a state. He said that he was born in Palestine, not Israel. If American was invaded, we would not say we were born in another country, so that is why he said it that way. So, this reminded me to spend an extra week on Palestine next.

Language Arts: We started McRuffy 1st grade this week. Although it was the same format and style, it was definitely harder, requiring more thinking and handwriting. To make it a gentle transition, we split one long lesson into two days, so we did lessons 1-4 this week. The weekly spelling tests now have ten words instead of five, so that is a lot more writing. The reader was The Ham Dash, and we simply replaced the word 'ham' with 'coconut', since that's the only kind of meat we eat! He did well with it. Each story comes with a picture to color and write a short sentence at the bottom, and I was surprised how much he enjoyed this. We plan to keep them all to make a book. Looking ahead, I am very excited about this curriculum and by the end he will be reading so much. I will have to edit one character 'Super Pork' into 'Super Pig', but I don't mind.

Math: We finished McRuffy K Math this week. It's always a great feeling reaching the last page of a big workbook. It was mostly just reviewing and practicing adding and subtracting, plus a little review of coin values and greater than/less than. I was surprised that he chose to do all 15 math problems when I only required him to do 10. He really likes math and was kind of sad that we were done! We've been using legos for the math manipulative, which has made it even more fun.

Weekly Update: Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Islam, and Deserts

This week we continued the magic carpet ride from Iran to Iraq, with a quick stop at Mecca in Saudi Arabia. I want to spend more time on each country, but our world tour will take many years if I don't keep on moving!

Geography/Science/Literature: We colored the map and flag of Iraq. We read the chapter book, Seasons of the Sandstorms was really great, a fun and entertaining way to learn about the golden age of Baghdad. Some of the Gilgamesh stories were a little intense, but not too scary. We sent some prayers for the suffering people of Iraq and pray for peace to come to their country. I wasn't planning on going to Saudi Arabia, but it was briefly included as we learned about Islam, Mohammed, and Mecca. We read many books about deserts, camels, and also natural resources and how we get oil from the Middle East.

Reading: Govinda picked out a favorite McRuffy Kindergarten reader to read for review each day this week. The top picks were The Mule Ride, Greg's Grape Ride, Mop, Mop, Mop, Quack and Quill, and Goat and Toad.

Handwriting: We finished Handwriting Help For Kids this week. We will reference back to it when needed. Our favorite was the 'ice cream scoops family', the letter 'u' was 'take a big scoop of ice cream, then put down your spoon', the letter 'v' and 'w' were making ice cream cones. It will be very memorable and fun. I think this short program really helped differentiate between letters that start on the left, middle, and right side, which was our goal (because an 's' will end up sideways if you start it on the left).

Math: We did lessons 148-155. We practiced more adding and subtracting, skip counting, greater than/less than, pattern blocks, tangrams, number words, story problems, and measuring centimeters with a ruler. The week ended with a new game, The Half Of It Game. It was another fun one that we will play again. We have one more week left of McRuffy K math! It has been a fun introduction to math with lots of hands on play.

We are ready to start McRuffy 1st Grade Phonics/Reading/Language Arts next week! I was going to wait another week or two to review more, but he is eager to learn more, since easy reader library books have shown him that there is still much to learn in phonics. I'm so thankful that he is so eager to learn more and advance in his reading. This is such a reward for a homeschooling family!

Iraq Book List

Iraq Book List:

Season of the sandstorms by Osborne, Mary Pope
Gilgamesh the king by Zeman, Ludmila
Lugalbanda : the boy who got caught up in a war by Henderson, Kathy
The revenge of Ishtar by Zeman, Ludmila
DVD: Ancient Mesopotamia by JWM Productions
DVD: All about natural resources by Schlessinger Media

Islam/Saudi Arabia Book List:

Muhammad by Demi
DVD: What Is Islam?

Reading An Easy Reader From The Library

Pointing to words while reading is showing results here since many words in this book have not yet been taught.

Weekly Update: Iran and Camels

Art: Here's the Bactrian camel Govinda drew. Cappy The Camel was a well loved story about an orphaned, 2 humped Bactrian camel who helps out the 1 humped Dromedary/Arabian camels. So, he wanted to draw Cappy.

Reading: We're reviewing McRuffy K readers. He picked out Fuzz The Yak to read this week, one of his favorites. It was good to review the old days when all vowels were short and easy.

Handwriting: We're putting some extra time into practicing writing letters in more detail with a fun workbook called Handwriting Help For Kids. Although he knows how to write all the letters, he still makes some mistakes mixing up straight and angled lines. This book has a fun story for each letter how to write it. The letters are grouped by similarities, so we call them by their families. This week we practiced capital letters. We started with the 'Down and Bump' Family, which is D, B, P, and R. The R story was the favorite; 'draw down, hop to the top, small bump, kick out your leg!'. This book is helping make it easy and fun to remember how to write letters properly. I plan on starting with this book next time! We also tried out wide rule lined paper instead of kindergarten paper, and that seems to be much easier for him to write letters smaller.

Math: We did lessons 141-148. Since reading was just review this week, we did more than one math lesson per day. We practiced vertical addition and subtraction, representing numbers with shapes, skip counting, similarities and differences in attributes, and reviewed reading and writing time to the hour and the commutative property of addition with shapes ( 1+2=*+1, *=2). We learned about dividing in half in two equal parts.

We'll be starting 1st grade reading and math in April. I'm previewing everything right now and it looks like a very fun and action packed year of learning. Most kids his age would be starting 1st grade this fall or next fall depending on readiness, since he has a late birthday. So we are going ahead of the game! Thank you to everyone who is supporting us!

Iran Book List

Here's the list of books for Iran. I plan on doing this for each country we study so that I can easily request these books again when we re-gallop the globe in a few years.

Camels by Winner, Cherie.
Count your way through Iran /by Haskins, James, 1941-
Deserts /by Gray, Susan Heinrichs.
Forty fortunes : a tale of Iran /by Shepard, Aaron.
A gift for the king : a Persian tale /by Manson, Christopher.
Goha the wise fool /by Johnson-Davies, Denys.
The golden sandal : a Middle Eastern Cinderella story /by Hickox, Rebecca.
How the camel got his hump /by Kipling, Rudyard, 1865-1936
Iran by Rajendra, Vijeya, 1
Iran by Milivojevic, JoAnn.
Iran by Walsh, Kieran.
Iran : a question and answer book /by Bauer, Brandy.
The king and the three thieves : a Persian tale /by Balouch, Kristen.
The last straw /by Thury, Fredrick.
The legend of the Persian carpet /by DePaola, Tomie, 1934-
The magic apple : a Middle Eastern folktale /by Cleveland, Rob, 1955-
The magic grove : a Persian folktale /by Palecek, Libuse.
The magic school bus gets all dried up : a book about deserts /by Weyn, Suzanne.
The Persian Cinderella /by Climo, Shirley.
The rich man and the parrot /by Nadimi, Suzan.
Cappy The Lonely Camel by Rubinetti, Donald
The stone : a Persian legend of the Magi by Hofmeyr, Dianne.

Weekly Update: Iran and Kindergarten Phonics completed!

The disappearing tsunami miracle last Saturday postponed our library trip, so we will be spending another extra week on Iran when we have more books. Iran and Iraq are not included in the Galloping The Globe guide, but I could not pass by these countries that are so rich in ancient history and involved in current events. I'm also planning it so that we will finish two weeks on Israel with Passover and Easter.

Geography/Literature: We left India and took a magic carpet ride through Pakistan and Afghanistan and landed in Iran. We stamped the passport, colored the map and flag of Iran and read some Persian folktales. The flag for Iran has the Arabic symbol for God, and then an intricate design that says God is Great. Before the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the flag had a symbol of a lion with a sword and rising sun. I was surprised when Govinda said "Sri Lanka has a lion with a sword, too!" He remembered that from How To Make An Apple Pie And See The World which we read back in November! The flag coloring is certainly leaving impressions! The story books we read were Forty Fortunes, The King and The Three Thieves, The Legend Of The Persian Carpet, The Rich Man and The Parrot, Goha The Wise Fool, Cappy The Lonely Camel, and The Persian Cinderella. We noticed that many Persian legends are about righteous kings and thieves stealing their treasure.

Phonics: We finished McRuffy Kindergarten Phonics and Reading! The focus this week was on the blend 'gr', and the reader was Greg's Grape Ride. It was another funny story. The spelling words reviewed previous concepts with 'gr', the trickiest being 'grace'. The week ended with a Unit Test on everything learned in the last quarter. Govinda got them all right! We're very excited about completing such a great phonics journey, and we are looking forward to using the 1st grade curriculum coming soon.

Math: We did lessons 136-140. We practiced adding and subtracting in the vertical format, reviewed odd and even, reviewed counting coins, learned about numbers written in fonts that are different than how we write them, played with symmetry with pattern blocks, and ended with The Elephant Truck Game, which is a fun way to practice counting by 1's, 2's, 5's, and 10's. We still have 4 weeks left of McRuffy K Math.

Homeschool Group: We met with the local Aloha Homeschoolers group for an hour long tour of the fire station, led by the fire captain. It was a great treat and coincidental reward for finishing kindergarten phonics. This was the first time meeting with the group, and we recognized some of the other 5 year olds from soccer. We look forward to doing more fun group homeschool activities with this great group of families.

Weekly Update: India - Ganges River - Folktales and Legends

Geography/Literature/Science: This week we learned about the Ganges River and the legend of how it came to Earth. We spent the rest of the week reading the many Indian story books. Many of them have great moral lessons. Panchatantra and Jataka Tales are fun and entertaining, but also teach important lessons. We also reviewed the water cycle and how rivers and fresh water are so important to us.

Phonics: We did lessons 166-170. The focus was on the 'long a' sound spelled 'ay'. The story was Kay and The Ray Gun. This one is our favorite story now. It was so great to see him excited and laughing about the story, while self motivated to keep reading faster and more fluent. We love McRuffy readers! He took to reading 'ay' very quickly. We also reviewed punctuation, periods and question marks.

Math: This week we did lessons 131-135. We practiced finding out if a number is odd or even. We learned about reading addition problems vertically as the same as horizontally. We played with tangrams. We reviewed how to read and understand graphs. We reviewed moving up and down the 10's number line. We reviewed reading and writing time to the hour. We learned about reversing numbers in addition has the same sum, and writing equations like 3+4=4+3. We also played the Elephant Truck game, which is a fun game that reviews counting by 1's, 2's, 5's, and 10's.

Next week is our last week of McRuffy Reading! I'm thoroughly impressed with this curriculum and have ordered the 1st grade program to start soon. I plan on taking a few weeks in March to review all of the readers and phonics concepts and put a little extra time into mastering letter writing. Then, our 1st grade journey will begin! I'm so thankful that Govinda is loving learning to read. I'm especially thankful for my wonderful husband and family members who help and support our homeschool journey. Thanks!

India Book List

We read so many great story books for India! Here's a list of them all so we can revisit them later:

About India:
Elephant dance : memories of India by Heine, Theresa.
A family in India by Jacobsen, Peter Otto.
The Ganges by Cumming, David
In the heart of the village : the world of the Indian Banyan tree by Bash, Barbara.
India by Fontes, Justine.
Monsoon by Krishnaswami, Uma
Sacred river by Lewin, Ted.
Take a trip to India by Lye, Keith.
Trading up by Williams, Brenda,

Indian Folktales:
The blue jackal by Brown, Marcia.
The drum : a folktale from India by Cleveland, Rob
Fat Gopal by Singh, Jacquelin.
Hindu stories by Ganeri, Anita
The little brown Jay : a tale from India by Claire, Elizabeth.
The monkey and the crocodile; a Jataka tale from India by Galdone, Paul.
No dinner! : the story of the old woman and the pumpkin by Souhami, Jessica.
Once a mouse ... A fable cut in wood by Hitopadesa. English. Selections.
One grain of rice : a mathematical folktale by Demi.
The peacock's pride by Kajpust, Melissa.
The Prince who ran away : the story of Gautama Buddha by Rockwell, Anne F.
The Ramayana by Seeger, Elizabeth
The ringdoves : from the Fables of Bidpai by Kamen, Gloria.
Seasons of splendour : tales, myths & legends of India by Jaffrey, Madhur.
The sheep of the Lal Bagh. by Mark, David,
The stonecutter : an Indian folktale by Newton, Patricia Montgomery.
The story of Divaali by Verma, Jatinder Nath,
The talkative beasts; myths, fables, and poems of India by Reed, Gwendolyn E.
THE TIGER, THE BRAHMAN, AND THE JACKAL WITH PICTURES BY MAMORU FUNAI by Steel, Flora Annie Webster
Lakshui, the Water BUffalo Who Wouldn't, Gobhai
Cow For Jaya, Grant
Poombah of Badoombah, Lillegard
Baya, Baya, Lulla-by-a, McDonald
Golden Serpent, Myers
Nine Animals and the Well, Rumford

Tigers:
Tiger by Hoffman, Mary,
Tiger's story by Blackford, Harriet.
Tigers at twilight by Osborne, Mary Pope.
Bengal tiger by Spilsbury, Richard,
Heart of a Tiger, Arnold

Reading On Video!

I finally got Govinda to take a video of him reading!

Weekly Update: India and Tigers!

We had a fun tiger-filled week! The stories from India are great. I think we'll spend an extra week on India because we like it so much.

Art: Here's our white tiger, Namaste, the tiger at our local zoo, cooling off in the pond:


Literature/Geography/Science: We read many great books about and from India and tigers. I was able to finally read our first chapter book, and both of the boys listened attentively, without pictures! I've been trying to do this for a while with no success until now. The chapter book was The Magic Tree House: Tigers At Twilight. It was a fun adventure about the animals in India. Other great stories that we read were Tiger's Story, Once A Mouse, The Brahman, The Tiger, and The Jackal, A Grain Of Rice, The Stonecutter, The Ringdoves, and Hindu Stories.

Phonics: This week's focus was on the 'long o' vowel sound spelled 'oa'. The story was 'Goat and Toad'. We had fun with it and reading progress is going very well. I can't believe we have 2 more weeks left with McRuffy Kindergarten phonics! His reading is getting more advanced every week.

Math: This week we did lessons 125-130. We practiced adding and subtracting, counting by 2's, 5's, and 10's, counting pennies, nickels, and dimes.

Weekly Update: Buddha, Tibet, Nepal, and Yaks

Art: We drew a yak in the Himalayas with Draw Write Now. These books are fun and we like them!



Literature: We read a few books about Siddhartha Buddha and some Buddhist parables, Buddha by Demi, Buddhist Stories, and Seven Blind Mice. We also discussed how the Vishnu Avatar Buddha described in the Srimad Bhagavatam is different from the famous Siddharta Buddha, who came later, and the significant differences between them. We found Tibet and Nepal on the map.

Geography: We found Tibet and Nepal on the map. We discussed how Buddhism spread to China and Japan.

Phonics: We did lessons 156-160. The reader was called 'Ruff Camps' and the focus was on the ending consonant blend 'mp'. This was an easier week since all words that end with 'mp' have short vowels, and vowels are the most tricky letters to read because they make so many different sounds. I like how McRuffy breaks up the weeks on long vowels with easier weeks with consonant blends to review and reinforce previous concepts and not overwhelm the beginning reader.

Math: We did lessons 121-124. The main focus was counting by 2's and practicing adding and subtracting. We also introduced a graph and probability by picking different counters and counting how many of each color was picked on the color graph. Also, a short introduction to symmetry with the pattern blocks was fun and though provoking. The pattern blocks have been revived after months on the shelf with a new and fun appeal for both of the boys! Math is becoming a more independent subject now. He can use the animal counters to find the answer to math sentences on his own. Navin and I cheer him on while he does his workbook page.

Weekly Update: Himalayas and Snow Leopards

Geography/Literature: This week, we sailed away from Japan and landed in Korea and went back through China on our way to India. We read a nice story from Korea called The Firekeeper's Son. Then we came to the Himalayas and climbed Mount Everest with a story called To The Top about the first men to climb it. We read a few books about the Himalayas, snow leopards, and the Sherpas. I plan on spending at least a month on India, but this will include Tibet, Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Sri Lanka.

Art: We drew a snow leopard, adapted from the leopard from Draw Write Now. I helped him with some of it to keep it fun, and he really enjoyed making all the dots.



Phonics: We did lessons 151-155 this week. The focus was on 'long e', mostly words with 'ee'. The story was called Can A Deer Steer? We love these readers. They really reinforce the new concept while reviewing previously learned concepts and being really funny and entertaining.

Math: We did lessons 116-120. We practiced more addition and subtraction sentences, putting numbers in order from least to greatest, counting by 1's, 5's, and 10's, counting pennies, nickels, and dimes to find their cent value, introduced counting different kinds of coins together, and finished off with a new game called Addition and Subtraction Pool.

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.

Weekly Update: 12/13 - 12/19

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.

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.

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.

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

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.