Posted in School Daze

We are post-Super Bowl bliss here in Pittsburgh!  J was up far too late, so we had a pretty light day today, as even I am having a little trouble concentrating.

We read 2 books today about music:  Zin Zin Zin a Violin (one of my all-time favorites) and How We Make Music.  This is in anticipation of a trip to the orchestra next week to see Peter and the Wolf.  We have a few other titles to read.  They are about what an orchestra looks like, how it is laid out, etc. and we will talk about proper behavior.  Cross your fingers!

Today we talked briefly about cave art.  We looked at the picture from the cave of Lascaux  in France.  Then the kids drew pictures of horses, like they saw in the cave painting.

We watched disc 2 of Dinosaurs, Genesis and the Gospels from Answers in Genesis.  Again, the kids loved it!

We also read a book on ancient India.  We talked about how the ancient Indian civilization, like all the others we have studied, grew up around a river.  We discussed what that would mean (fertile soil, farming, settlements).  K and J noticed that ancient India had a lot in common with ancient China.  They thought that had to do with their close proximity to one another.

A good school day!  Now it's time for dance class!

Posted in School Daze

We had a lovely day today learning more about dinosaurs.  Yes, it is the science unit that never ends, but who cares!?  Not me.  I love dinosaurs.  Especially since I grew up in public school, and was taught, and believed, lies of evolution and millions of years.  So it's like I am learning it all over again, and I'm fascinated!

Today we watched the first disc in Ken Ham's Dinosaurs, Genesis & the Gospel.  I wasn't sure how it would go over, as it's largely lecture with a few songs thrown in.  My kids loved it!  There is a built-in quiz and they actually paid attention enough to answer all of the questions.  So hooray!  I was afraid they were too little for it, but they weren't.

After we watch part 2 of the DVD, we are moving onto learning about individual dinosaurs.  That could take forever!  I guess I'll have to pick out a few.  And by a few, I probably mean, say, 10.  Is it bad that I'm 32 and love dinosaurs?  It can't be....  Anyway, for this part of the unit we are using Dinosaurs by Design.

And I was thrilled to learn today that the local natural history museum has 1/2 price days for kids through the end of February.  So I think we'll finally go look at some bones.  I feel like they have a good foundation now for what is truth, and what isn't!

Posted in School Daze

I spent a while fiddling with the new camera and it still won't work right for me, so I have to ask Hub about it.  Until then, we must suffer on without pictures.

Today J and K read through all of their LLATL words that they've learned so far.  J and K each picked out 10 words for the other to act out, which was quite funny.  They each took assessment 1 for LLATL, and both did well.  So yay, we are moving on.

J did one page of MUS.  In his defense, he had to write the numbers 0-100 so it took him quite a while, poor thing.  I know he knows them, but he does need some practice.  But we will not be doing every page of that lesson; his hand will fall off.  K did 2 pages of MUS.  Her lesson was on tally marks.  She finally had a eureka moment and now really understands counting by 5s.  Thank goodness!!!  There was no crying from anyone during school today, not even mommy!  Ha!

S did one lesson in Singapore Math, on the numbers 1-5.

All we have left today is a little science (dinosaurs) and AWANA verses.

Right now the kids are watching Word Girl and all is right with the world.

Posted in School Daze

I really am not using the blog to its potential, so I am going to try to write more often about what we are doing since I am horrible at other forms of record-keeping.

January 20

We started our day by looking online at a bit about what happens on inauguration day.  Then we completed a worksheet about it and watched the inauguration.

J took a test on MUS lesson 5 and got everything right, but could not complete test 6 in anything resembling a reasonable time, so we are going to lesson 6.  He also did 2 timed drills; the first took 4:05 and the second 1:55.  What an improvement!  He then did about 10 minutes of drill on the MUS page while waiting for K.

K took a torturous hour to do 2 pages of her MUS.  It is so frustrating because I know she knows the answers; she is just soooooooo distracted.  Some days I can deal with it and other days I want to bang my head on the table!  At any rate, she did finish and did a good job.

We finished nearly a whole week's worth of LLATL.  We will do a little bit more tomorrow to finish it up.  We are really behind on the LLATL.  I don't know how, I just keep doing other things, just reading whatever with them.  Which is fine.  I am not too worried about it.  But I did spend the money, and I do like the program, and so do they!  So I want to do it.  Really, I want to finish school around the beginning of May, and we are on track for that.

We read 1/2 of Growing Up in Ancient China by Ken Teague (thanks for the suggestion).  It's at just the right level for the kids!  I wish I could find more that is age-appropriate for ancient China, as we are all quite fascinated!  I have done some online reading and will share that with the little darlings.  All the kids made paper lanterns today as well.  J & K learned a bit about the lantern festival celebrating the births of babies in the past year, and S did it just for some cutting practice.

I want to post a picture of the kids with their lanterns but we are having technical difficulties.  Grrr.

Posted in School Daze

I am finally preparing for an actual school day tomorrow!  We've had school a few days here and there since Christmas, but now we are finally going to get back into the swing of things (or else)!

I just requested about 50 books from the library.  They love homeschoolers, I bet.  We are job security.

So, tomorrow we are going to be doing a whole week's worth of LLATL (well, I am going to pick and choose from one week of lessons), some MUS, a bit of Ancient China (we are making paper lanterns as well), and we will watch some of the inauguration and talk about it.  I am actually so excited thinking that my life might be returning to normal after holidays, company, and about 2 weeks of assorted illnesses!

Posted in School Daze

As you may recall, we're studying ancient history this year in our homeschool.  So far we've covered Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome.  Now we are starting on ancient China and I don't know anything about it.  Well, I've been reading about it.  It's actually very fascinating!  But anyway, has anyone ever studied ancient China, and if so, can you share some resources?  It seems to be hard to find information.  The kids were pretty excited about it today, so I want to tap into it!!

Posted in School Daze

Guess what?  Every year I say (and you probably do too) that this is the year that I will not freak out about Christmas.  But then I freak out anyway.  But this year, so far, I am in a happy place!  I am just so glad!  We scaled back with decorating, mostly just using poinsettias which I found at Lowe's for 99 cents apiece.  So after Christmas, I can just chuck them!  Nothing to put away.  Anyway, I have all the shopping done already.  It really pays to shop all year.  I don't have the financial crunch now that I normally do.  As well as the time crunch!  My Christmas cards are actually nearly finished!  They are going out tomorrow.  It just amazes me.  Somehow, this year, we have remembered to keep our focus on Christ!  Although, I admit, we haven't done every Advent thing every night, but it's okay...

This week the kids will be working on an Advent packet of fun!  It has coloring and games in it, as well as tells about the story of the birth of Jesus.  We have been doing a dinosaur dig (out of a box, not a real one!) for the last week.  He's about half uncovered now.  For Social Studies, we've been studying ancient Rome, which plays in nicely to the birth of Christ, as well as a brief talk about the spread of the gospel.  Must thank those Romans and their roads for helping get the word out!  It's amazing how history all comes together to make the dissemination of Christianity possible.

Anyway, I doubt I'll post again before Christmas, so have a wonderful Christmas!  And relax!

Posted in School Daze

Okay, not really.  Not even pregnant.
A friend has a grammar question:
How can she teach contractions, other than through repetition?  Any advice, books, websites, songs, etc. appreciated.
Thanks!

Posted in School Daze

Yesterday we talked about voting and presidents.  Somehow (who knows!) J already knew the names "John McCain" and "Barack Obama."  Could be the TV I guess, but I don't know that they have watched anything when their commercials would've been on.  At any rate, they were quite interested.  I am excited for the next election when they understand it a bit more.

We also finished another LLATL lesson.  J and K have read 3 readers so far.  I was thinking last night about how I am not making the quickest progress in that book, but eh.  It is getting to where we can do the whole week's lesson in about 2 days (picking and choosing what we do, not doing all of it!!!).  We did 1/2 of Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons last year, so they already know their phonics, and some punctuation.  But it is something I want to be a little more consistent about.  Only because the kids love doing it!  There's coloring, playing games, making puppets, etc.

It is supposed to be nice again today and tomorrow as well.  I think tomorrow we'll work outside and get everything put away for winter.  We did most of it last month, but as is the case for me, I never finished it.  I am easily distracted.

I have to get ready for the gym now.  I've lost 20 lbs!!!

Posted in School Daze

I am being stared at by a 2 year old wearing only a shirt, pull-up, shoes on the wrong feet, and jelly on her face.  Does life get better than that!?

It is a gorgeous day here so it is a "P.E." day!  Which means the lovelies are running around outside enjoying this last bit of nice weather before the cold comes and stays!

This year of HSing is really rather random, I have just realized.  I had some plans, and bought my goodies according to the plans.  Alas, I am not really following them!  I mean, I kind of follow them.  Loosely.  And I am so much LESS stressed out this year because of it.  If I don't get to it when I am supposed to, we'll get to it later!

As for math, no progress has been made there with K.  We haven't done math for about a week.  We've really just been doing ancient Greece, playing outside, reading Clifford readers, and eating Halloween candy (not that candy is educational, but I like it).

Today I requested about 15 Thanksgiving books from the library.  I am so excited to read them to the kids.  I love Thanksgiving!  It is my favorite holiday.  I especially love how the big box stores can't figure out how to commercialize it!  (At least, I think so; I haven't been to one for a few days.)