Sunday, April 6, 2008 - Drum Roll, Please

Hannah is a fourth grader

with the Calvert curriculum. She is 75% finished fourth grade math. We use CD roms with grammar, history, and spelling. We added in Discoveries in Art and Spanish Ia from Calvert, Health from ABeka, Music from Rod & Staff, and PE.

For math, we are covering fractions, simplifying fractions, common denominators, comparing fractions, and converting mixed fractions to improper fractions and back. Hannah, like PJ, does much of this in her head.

For grammar, which seems like a review to her, covered the definition of a sentence and the four types thereof. We also remembered the terms subject and predicate with the help of the song from Schoolhouse Rock, Mr. Morton is the subject of my sentence, what the predicate says he does.

Hannah reluctantly began Robinson Crusoe, but is reading with gusto now. She really wants to find out what happened to him, and how it compares to the Disney version of Swiss Family Robinson.

Vocabulary Connections is very good for her. She is definitely learning new vocabulary, but also study techniques, i.e. the process of elimination.

Poetry remains one of her favorite subjects.

Saturday, April 5, 2008 - Another spring Baby

but no spring chicken:

Happy Birthday

 Auntie Di

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thursday, April 3, 2008 - Spring Baby

Happy Birthday PJ !!!!!

Monday, January 21, 2008 - It got lost

I made an entry, but it got lost.

Too bad I don't have time to write it again.

Happy new year.

Sunday, October 28, 2007 - Candy

Hannah has a loose tooth so she has trouble enjoying

Noun and Laters!

Sunday, October 21, 2007 - Happy Sunday

Today is Girl Scout cookie day. We are going to pick up almost 200 boxes. Thanks to people like Grandma Marcy,  Jennifer, PJ, Aunt Michele and Grandma Jane who not only bought cookies, but persuaded others to buy some, too.

As for school, we are finished Calvert third grade lesson 92, Calvert fourth grade math lesson 33, Reference Library lesson 19, Maryland State history (replaces geography that we finished) lesson 4. We just started Prima Latina, and so far we like it, it's not too time consuming. SpongeBob typing has Hannah up to about 11 words a minute, not too bad for a seven year old!

Last night was Campfire sing along for the Brownie troop. I have to say it was more boring than other years, with fewer of the familiar songs that make it so fun.

Hannah made her first Power Point presentation for Computer Skills class that she used her poem "Puppies" for.

She also wrote a book report on Junie B. Jones Smells Something Fishy by Barbara Park. She has improved her writing skills since the beginning of the year.

Monday, October 8, 2007 - Where we are

Today was our field trip to Pizza Hut. Hannah made her own personal pan pizza and served herself Pepsi. She knows better, but took advantage of the fact that I was supervising other kids making pizzas. I also made one of my own and it was a lot of fun!

Today we are on Calvert lesson 85. Fourth grade math lesson 25. Tomorrow we get our new latin program, Prima Latina. We also began Calvert's Maryland State history program this week. We are using Calvert's Reference Library lesson 16. It is hard to keep up with our half hour of free reading.

Last week we went to the B&O Railroad Museum. We enjoyed the train ride, and we ran into the kids from Hannah's former elementary school.

Hannah still enjoys Poetry and Mythology the best, and is less reluctant about spelling.

However, math is a chore! She finished 83% of fourth grade math with ALEKS, and now she is back to Calvert's fourth grade math, with subtraction of four or five digits, when she was doing algebra and geometry. Needless to say, math makes her a little sulky, with resulting careless mistakes.

Saturday, October 6, 2007 - First Loose Tooth

Hannah has her first loose tooth!

She has two grown-up teeth coming in behind her baby teeth, and now one of them is loose. She is already seven, so we were slightly concerned.

Monday, August 13, 2007 - Math

I am in love with Aleks!

Aleks is a subscription based math program that goes from third to twelfth grade.  Hannah had finished third grade math through Calvert and I wanted to review some before heading to fourth grade. After all, she was still six. She assessed at 58% finished third grade. Hmm...that's odd, she already finished a third grade math program. So I paid careful attention to what she was learning. Turns out, there were some things Calvert hadn't covered, so Hannah wasn't really deficient in math. New to her was place value to the millions, nets of solids, and some other cool stuff. It took a little more than two weeks to finish the Aleks version of third grade math and we're on to fourth. We just started today and Hannah is most excited about the purple slice of the pie chart that tracks her progress that says algebra!

Third grade covered 111 topics and fourth grade covers 176 BUT since math is built on itself, fourth grade is third grade plus 65, and she is already done 67% of fourth grade! I think this is partially due to reviewing material after summer break. I am sold on Aleks, but our one month free trial is almost done.

Today alone she covered measuring angles, plotting fractions on a line graph, negative numbers on the thermometer, divisibility rules for 3 and 9 with a review of 5 and 10, histograms, double bar graphs, and tree diagrams. And she only worked for an hour!

Monday, August 13, 2007 - Hannah at 7

Hannah is the blessing of my old age (I'm 40).

Hannah is all things girl. She loves pink and purple and blue, things that glitter, horses, makeup, being fashionable, shoes, more shoes, friends, tea parties, fairies, Barbie movies, and shoes with heels.

She loves watching television and movies, jumping rope, going shopping, painting, playing on the computer, taking pictures, changing her clothes, being in charge, doing science experiments, and eating at restaurants.

Her favorite subjects include poetry, math, science, Greek mythology, and phonics.

So for her birthday, first she got a manicure and pedicure. Then Friendly's for lunch, and off to the mall. First stop, Cartoon Cuts where she donated 10 inches of hair, then to Claire's for ear piercing. We shopped in several stores for an outfit without success, and went to Barnes and Noble to spend her gift certificate from Aunt Patty and Uncle Greg (and Elizabeth and Bobby and Doug) and get two free books from their summer reading program. She picked four Junie B. Jones books, Ratatouille, and High School Musical, and her free books were Toothpaste Millionaire and um, I forget the other one.

Her dear sister Jenn got her Heely's which are being returned for something more appropriate, and the movie Night at the Museum. Thanks to Grandma Marcy for summer clothes (at the beginning of summer) and the new Barbie movie Magic of the Rainbow. Aunt Cindy and Uncle Mike gave her a gift card to Old Navy which she hasn't spent yet. Mr. Jeff gave her four movies and some clothes and five computer games. So Hannah is rich in gifts and people who love her. What more could a girl want?