Sunday
We spent the afternoon at the beach - lovely weather, a bit warmer than I expected, and the waves were huge for our part of the coastline! We stayed for about 4 hours, standing in the surf, climbing rocks, looking for shells and beach glass... a good renewal for the soul!
Monday
Business pretty much as usual. The kids both whizzed their way through their Math Mammoth lessons, with Bug continuing work in division, and Cricket working on some more multiplication. While Bug went off to practice piano, I sat Cricket down with a free trial of Reading Eggs. She took the placement test, and ended up in Map 5. I swear I couldn't get that girl back off the computer until she went through three lessons! She did well with her Bob Book too, and did four pages in Explode the Code.
While she was on the computer, and after Bug had finished piano practice, I took advantage of Cricket's preoccupation to sit down with Bug and teach him about brainstorming. We used that bubble model technique, and he came up with several good areas to explore for his essay.
After that, they watched an IMAX video on flight, which led to paper airplane testing. We finished up the evening with a heavy dose of reading: Magic By The Lake, The Magic of Reality, poetry, and the introduction to Voyages In Time: The Beginning.
Tuesday
Cricket started a unit on borrowing in subtraction (Math Mammoth), using our beloved set of base 10 blocks. Having her approach the problem with hands and eyes before pencil and paper seemed to be really helpful. Bug worked through another 2 pages on division with remainders.
While Cricket tackled another couple of Reading Eggs lessons, I taught Bug about outlining from his bubble chart. We worked on one paragraph outline together, and I assigned him the second one for Wednesday. When Cricket was done on the computer, she did a couple of pages in Explode the Code. And we had a breakthrough! I have always had a very difficult time getting Cricket to read any of the silly sentence sets they have in ETC - this time she did it with absolutely no complaints! Bug worked on spelling with plurals in No More Boring Spelling (same Scholastic book as last week), then they did handwriting; Bug copied part of Shel Silverstein's poem "Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me Too", and Cricket copied the Mother Goose rhyme "Lucy Locket". She tried italic script and it looked really nice. We use The Amazing Handwriting Worksheet generator.
We read through two chapters in The Early Human World (World in Ancient Times series by Oxford University Press), and we read three chapters in 11,000 Years Lost. The kids really liked the books, and begged for more, but I was getting hoarse at that point. They finished up their official homeschooling with a couple of episodes of How Its Made.
Wednesday
The kids worked on Valentines cards for our Park Day friends while at my mom's. They were simple white paper cards that the kids then decorated with stamps in many colors. Bug had piano shortly after I picked them up, so we headed off for that. Cricket played with our piano teacher's daughters, and I got in a few minutes of quiet reading--Love in A Time of Homeschooling, which is a good and honest look at the challenges of homeschooling short-term.
This book, with all the introspection the mother writing the book undergoes, gave me some fuel for introspection as well. All my deep thinking led to a serious talk with the entire family when we got home, and the general consensus was that the kids really miss unit studies. This discussion led to the formation of a giant list of possible unit studies, some historical, some scientific, some for personal enjoyment.
We completed the day with a page each of math, an independently done second supporting paragraph outline and some spelling by Bug, another Reading Eggs lesson and more handwriting (There Was An Old Woman Lived Under a Hill) by Cricket, and more of Magic By The Lake.
Thursday
The kids finished their Valentines cards at my mom's, and at home, we taped lollipops to them. We sat and discussed unit studies some more, and the kids chose a unit on mythical creatures. We also talked about this idea. I formulated a plan that I think will nicely bridge the ideas of my basics with their desires to explore other topics.
All of this planning took up a lot of time. We skated by on reading, piano practice, and chapter one from Voyages In Time: The Beginning.
Friday
Valentine's Party Day!!! It was raining off and on all day, so Park Day moved to the community room at a friend's co-housing complex. It was an awesome party - all the kids had decorated "mailboxes" and tons of cards to distribute.
Right now, we're feeling a bit worn out. The kids are watching Mr. Popper's Penguins (Jim Carrey). Tomorrow is library day, and I have three days off this weekend - one for Lincoln's birthday. I think on Monday we'll read about Lincoln for homeschooling if I can find something good at the library.
I'll leave you with this picture from my girl...
And drop by Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers for more weekly wrap-ups!
Have a good weekend!
Business pretty much as usual. The kids both whizzed their way through their Math Mammoth lessons, with Bug continuing work in division, and Cricket working on some more multiplication. While Bug went off to practice piano, I sat Cricket down with a free trial of Reading Eggs. She took the placement test, and ended up in Map 5. I swear I couldn't get that girl back off the computer until she went through three lessons! She did well with her Bob Book too, and did four pages in Explode the Code.
While she was on the computer, and after Bug had finished piano practice, I took advantage of Cricket's preoccupation to sit down with Bug and teach him about brainstorming. We used that bubble model technique, and he came up with several good areas to explore for his essay.
After that, they watched an IMAX video on flight, which led to paper airplane testing. We finished up the evening with a heavy dose of reading: Magic By The Lake, The Magic of Reality, poetry, and the introduction to Voyages In Time: The Beginning.
Tuesday
Cricket started a unit on borrowing in subtraction (Math Mammoth), using our beloved set of base 10 blocks. Having her approach the problem with hands and eyes before pencil and paper seemed to be really helpful. Bug worked through another 2 pages on division with remainders.
While Cricket tackled another couple of Reading Eggs lessons, I taught Bug about outlining from his bubble chart. We worked on one paragraph outline together, and I assigned him the second one for Wednesday. When Cricket was done on the computer, she did a couple of pages in Explode the Code. And we had a breakthrough! I have always had a very difficult time getting Cricket to read any of the silly sentence sets they have in ETC - this time she did it with absolutely no complaints! Bug worked on spelling with plurals in No More Boring Spelling (same Scholastic book as last week), then they did handwriting; Bug copied part of Shel Silverstein's poem "Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me Too", and Cricket copied the Mother Goose rhyme "Lucy Locket". She tried italic script and it looked really nice. We use The Amazing Handwriting Worksheet generator.
We read through two chapters in The Early Human World (World in Ancient Times series by Oxford University Press), and we read three chapters in 11,000 Years Lost. The kids really liked the books, and begged for more, but I was getting hoarse at that point. They finished up their official homeschooling with a couple of episodes of How Its Made.
Wednesday
The kids worked on Valentines cards for our Park Day friends while at my mom's. They were simple white paper cards that the kids then decorated with stamps in many colors. Bug had piano shortly after I picked them up, so we headed off for that. Cricket played with our piano teacher's daughters, and I got in a few minutes of quiet reading--Love in A Time of Homeschooling, which is a good and honest look at the challenges of homeschooling short-term.
This book, with all the introspection the mother writing the book undergoes, gave me some fuel for introspection as well. All my deep thinking led to a serious talk with the entire family when we got home, and the general consensus was that the kids really miss unit studies. This discussion led to the formation of a giant list of possible unit studies, some historical, some scientific, some for personal enjoyment.
We completed the day with a page each of math, an independently done second supporting paragraph outline and some spelling by Bug, another Reading Eggs lesson and more handwriting (There Was An Old Woman Lived Under a Hill) by Cricket, and more of Magic By The Lake.
Thursday
The kids finished their Valentines cards at my mom's, and at home, we taped lollipops to them. We sat and discussed unit studies some more, and the kids chose a unit on mythical creatures. We also talked about this idea. I formulated a plan that I think will nicely bridge the ideas of my basics with their desires to explore other topics.
All of this planning took up a lot of time. We skated by on reading, piano practice, and chapter one from Voyages In Time: The Beginning.
Friday
Valentine's Party Day!!! It was raining off and on all day, so Park Day moved to the community room at a friend's co-housing complex. It was an awesome party - all the kids had decorated "mailboxes" and tons of cards to distribute.
Right now, we're feeling a bit worn out. The kids are watching Mr. Popper's Penguins (Jim Carrey). Tomorrow is library day, and I have three days off this weekend - one for Lincoln's birthday. I think on Monday we'll read about Lincoln for homeschooling if I can find something good at the library.
I'll leave you with this picture from my girl...
And drop by Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers for more weekly wrap-ups!
Have a good weekend!
What lovely photos of the beach!
ReplyDeleteWe really need to get into having a "library day" here. I keep meaning to make it happen each Wednesday, when we run our errands, but it has been so cold that I didn't want to walk the extra 5 minutes. LOL
What a great week!
ReplyDeleteBlessings,
Dawn
Reading Eggs looks really interesting! Thanks for mentioning it.
ReplyDeleteI haven't pulled out Shel Silverstein or Dennis Lee's poetry with my youngest yet. I'll have to hunt them down on the bookshelves.
Looks like a great week, all-round!
I like the way you post your weekly review by day instead of by child! the reader can follow the flow of your days this way!
ReplyDeleteLooks like a great week. We are reviewing Reading Eggs right now - it's pretty cute!
ReplyDelete