These past few months, we focused on understanding and memorizing measurements and money. I’m a fan of the lapbooks and foldables. I love the visual they provide for kids who need it. It’s also a fun way to organize information, and download facts into little minds.

Z put these two foldables together and hung them on the bulletin board.

Little Miss, dressed in poxy attire, managed a lesson in money.

I was just happy she wasn’t scratching.

Note: There are lots of great lapbook ideas out there. My favorite subject, specific books are from Dinah Zike. The above foldables came from  the Big Book of Elementary Math K-6.

J loves this kind of stuff.

He finds anything related to geology interesting. Every fourth science lesson, he seeks out an experiment or a concrete example to demonstrate and explain to the rest of us what he has been learning.

 A little like show and tell. 

A little like - we have no clue, fill us in.  

separating the isotopes

graphing the daughter isotopes 

a willing participant

"Do you think he'll let us eat the expirament when he's done?"

".... and this is why the number of decaying isotopes gets smaller as the number of radioactive isotopes gets smaller. "

And we all appreciate your patience, dear.

*The computer is being putzy, and it's been slow to navigate anywhere online. Being able to post here this morning, means things could be speeding up.

This morning for our nature studies,  we sketched and studied Dandelions. Our direction and ideas came from Barb over at Handbook of Nature Study.

Z & S are measuring the tallest and shortest flowers they found in the orchard. Grandpa had just mowed the week before so the tallest they found was only 6 inches high.

C Sketching

J's finished page.

Z, reading to me as I prepare lunch.

Little Miss and Z love doing this Sight Word Book from Creative Teaching Press. It’s for grades K-2,  and after Z finished it last year, his confidence in reading sky rocketed.

The puzzles are simple, fun and some are repetitive. I sit next to them to get them going on the page, but then they most often finish it on their own.

There is a page of sight word cards that you can photo copy, but I like to write the words out on these little stars I purchased at an office supply store. I use them like flash cards, review them everyday, and we store them in a mini file thing. Generally by the end of the week they have the words memorized. Some sight words are phonetic, some break all the rules and have to be memorized and some have to memorized now, but the kids will learn the rules for them later.

Learning the sight words has made reading the leveled books possible. I believe in the success of the phonetic process but getting a jump start with sight words while learning phonics, is such a boost for my students.

Learning to read has been a struggle for Z. We're not sure if it was his delayed speech when he was 2 ½ years old (from a 60 decibel hearing loss due to fluid in his ears) or just a hurdle he was going to need to jump. This year it seems he is climbing the mountain successfully and is making his way to the summit. I couldn’t be more proud. He knows it’s a lot of work for him, but he wants it. Bad. And that makes being this kids teacher so rewarding.

He and Little Miss are using the same approach to reading, which is a mix and match of 'programs'. In my research of various programs, I realized I needed to take a different direction to teaching Z phonics. We still use Phonics Pathways which they are reading from in the pictures below. It's systematic. I like that.

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Each day S & Z read a few pages and I dictate words and phrases for them to write out. It's a quick 15 minutes, but effective.

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I am using All About Spelling like a reverse approach to phonics. (Thanks Lis' for the tip on this program.) All About Spelling really made reading click for Z.  He is memorizing the spelling rules and all the possible consonant and vowel (English) sounds. Both he and Little Miss build words using the letter tiles and then at the end of the week I give a written spelling test to Z. The multi sensory approach is the key to this programs success for our family.

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Next, I’ll share why I love this sight word book. Or rather, why they love it. That's even better.

O is for Owl

and over. As in: This long, albeit productive week is over.

Holiday's are over.

Baseball season is looming on the horizon.

When spring hits, all bets are off.

Let's do this!

Cozy fires keep the mood.

Why put your shirt on when there's a fire to sit next to? ummm ......that is if you were an 8 year old boy.

Well, that was awkward.

*See that clothes drying rack. Betcha didn't know it doubles as a pecan dryer too.

You got your game face on, Mama's?

Here we go ..... Game On!

For Little Miss, Z and C we are using resource: Evan-Moor's Earth Science & Geology.

Boy did the light bulbs  come on when we made these layers of the earth out of Sculpy and then cut them in half.

Coloring a page for their notebooks.

J is doing science on his own this year and is loving it.

He is using The Geology Book and companion study guide for the spine and Earth Science for Every Kid for his expiraments.

Hi fans of Kendra!

She’s just the coolest, isn’t she?

Kenj, you’re too kind, really. I’m flattered.

So here’s where I found my favorite PE resource, at a reasonable price.

It is the Awesome-ist

Now get out there and move your kids!

And yourself.

Or grab a lawn chair, and a drink.

That should count too.

Our days are busy with school, chores and athletics. I'm not too good at forming complete sentences late at night, so posting hasn't been an option. (Some of my shotty attempts at up-dates have happened long past when my brain has long past shut down.)

Somehow I managed to get a few minutes this afternoon to say hi, before dinner and a baseball game to show you something I love doing with the kids and yes, they dig it too.

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Last year we started a poetry program from IEW, called Developing Linguistic Patterns Through Poetry Memorization. Click here to get the low down on it. (You can buy the book & cd's or just the book. I bought them both to help with pronunciation of not-your-everyday-words, and frankly my kids like hearing Andrew Pudewa recite the poems.)

The boys have memorized 12 + poems. Little Miss has about half by memory

Naturally, this led us to discuss different types of poems.

I pulled out the beautiful book, R is for Rhyme  which we use to learn more about the poems and the tools, terms and techniques to create them.

Of course, we then had to try our hand at writing something resembling a poem.  Armed with Evan-Moor's Writing Poetry with Childen , we have attempted to a .... well, write poetry.

If that's what you call it.

We crack ourselves up.

 It's a good time anyways.

 *The above picture of J coloring his poetry page, shows the old cover of Evan-Moors poetry book. The link will take you to the revised book.

*Also, I was asked how much time in my school day this takes. I'd say 5 minutes in the beginning and 15 minutes now that we have 12 poems to recite each morning, which we do during circle time.

We are easing back into the swing of things and getting serious about our studies.

Counting by fives

Out by the river, on a nature day field trip watching for wildlife.

Z & his buddy painting leaf art

Little Miss and friend doing the same.

It's pretty obvious who the homeschooled kid is in the crowd.

He’s the one,

who when asked to pass out waters

to the thirsty Giants fans in his family,

counts them out,

in Latin.

I'm almost there. The end is in sight.

But those Olympics are slowing me down. And then the Germans showed up.

Of course my list could be a little over ambitious.

C doing Zoology

I ran out of Tejava  and was feeling a bit desperate. My brain was overwhelmed with planning this next term of our new school year. I called upon J to please get me a new bottle from the mudroom fridge. He kindly retrieved it, and poured it into my glass, which I saw as going beyond the call of duty.

Me: You know, I'm going to step things up a bit for you this school year.

J: I know. That's why I'm pouring this out for you. I'm hoping you'll go easy on me.

He turned walked toward the piano, sat down and began playing one of my favorite songs.

Sweet. But no such luck. He, he, he .....

Here we were last Friday …..

At Lorina’s Edible Garden potting plants and talking herbs. Lorina grows some unique herbs which we picked up for our garden the likes of cinnamon basil, greek oregano and rosemary, as ours didn’t take this year. She walked us through her organic herb garden and the kids were given permission to freely pick, smell and taste her organically grown plants. The boys, especially C (9) plotted to plant and talked shop with Lorina, she even seriously offered him a job to help her in her garden. Ummm, no. He’s mine thank you.

For those in my area, Lorina is down at our local farms market selling her plants if you don't want to drive all the way out to Escalon.

As the farming world turns, Mike figured out that he sold walnut trees to Lorina, her father and her grandfather who has since passed away.

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From there we went to a lavender farm. The farm was planted 6 years ago and opened to the public 2 years later. We use a lot, and I mean a lot of lavender oil around here. So my kids were intrigued by the different varieties and their use-ability.

C again picked out 3 varities of lavender (pictured) that he wanted for the garden. I requested it be planted in the first row, out side my bedroom window so I could wake up to its beauty.

Not too much to ask, I think.

Who has used the Hymn’s for a Kid’s Heart before? Me (raising hand).

Who loves these books? Me (raising hand).

We are on our second book and I want to show you some of our work and how we have incorporated our Word for the Day into our hymn study.

Each week we read through the story behind the hymn written by Bobbie Wolgemuth and the “From my heart to yours” written by Joni Eareckson Tada. Then we sing the song (throughout the week) with the accompanying CD. In the back of the book there is a list of words that are in the hymns with a definition-that relates to the hymn.

We have been taking the word(s) and using it for the Word of the Day. I use the same sheet from our Evan-Moor e-book. The kids write the vocab word, the definition from the book and from the dictionary. We do the synonym and antonym and then we all attempt to use the word in a sentence and everyone else says if they think we used the word correctly. Then they write one of the sentences and illustrate it.

Our vocabulary words are sticking in their brains because they aren’t just random words but from hymns we listen to and often times sing in church. They are also gaining a better understanding of what they are singing.

The above picture has the Word for the Day paper on the left for the word ‘bestow’ which was chosen from the song Trust and Obey. Then on the right is an illustrated picture of the bible verse, found in the book under ‘A verse for my heart’ chosen for that hymn.

 I have the kids illustrate it to help them “hide it in their heart”.

I also put it up on our white board – and by the end of the week it is memorized just by seeing it daily.

Our Word for the Day study happens during our circle time and I make this the last thing we do before I read aloud, so I can be reading while they are illustrating.

What do you think? How have you been using Word for the Day?

A question though: With so many children, are each of them doing different unit studies/theme or same?

I only have 2, and I love to have both of them doing similar theme. But, the lesson planning zap me.

Cheers,
Delci
homeschooling mummy to 6yo and 4yo

Good Question:

We do as much together as we can. The circle/together time category at the right shows much of what we do together.

History and Science are easy to mold to different ages and levels.

For example: The spine (main book used for the study) is geared toward my older kids and then I try to find something for my younger 2 that fits with what we are studying. I usually end up at the Evan-Moor web site, buying a literature pocket. I also like the Hands and Hearts web site - they put together history kits that are fun and adaptable.

Ages 6 and 4 are super fun ages to do thematic units with. Last year, my two youngest were 3 and 6 and we did a study on butterflies while the older two did more of an insect study using Exploring Creation with Zoology - much more in-depth.

We painted butterflies, dot to dotted butterflies, 'grew' painted lady butterflies, read lots of books about butterflies, watched the Magic School bus video The Bog Beast (about butterflies), we hung butterflies decorated with tissue paper from the ceiling. I even found butterfly paper plates at the dollar store that we ate snacks on.

I do enjoy doing little theme units with my 4 soon to be 5 year old. We usually work on it 15-20 minutes a day. Recently, we did a farm unit togther. We made a lapbook from In the Hands of a Child, colored a book, read lots of books, made up plays using animal puppets.

Hope that helps.

Another late night, another good movie, another memory made.