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I didn't really mean to give up on this record- we just took the same change we did last year, when I started out the year with organized "school time" and then got more and more relaxed, to the point of almost unschooling. The amazing thing is how much the kids learn anyway. I read this great article recently about how young brains are just wired to learn, learn, learn. It is so amazingly true. Today, for example, we have had no "school time" at all, and yet Nathan has planned two inventions he wants to make; he, Alexandra, and Juliana on their own spent a lot of time using tangram blocks and cards, Alexandra has written on her own website, doing all the typing herself; Nathan asked for cleaner to clean his bedroom door, Alexandra read the instructions to make a box of macaroni and cheese, Alexandra fed Valentina a jar of baby food, everyone has put away their own laundry; they have all played outside; and they spent a couple of hours making their own Valentine cards. Right now Alexandra has gone on a Bobcat job with Dave down near South Point, Juliana is playing with the baby, and Nathan and Kalia are making up their own game. Later tonight they will work with Dave to make their wooden cars for the Awana Grand Prix. Saturday night the kids stayed overnight with Dan and Sue. Alexandra rode along with Dan to go turn on the irrigation at Mac Farms, and he said he was amazed both at the things she knew (how to figure out how much farther they had to go based on the mile marker signs, etc.) and the curiosity she had/questions she asked about why he had to irrigate and how it worked. That is real learning! Alexandra also took along to their house a spelling workbook she has been doing on her own because she thinks it is fun and wants to learn to spell better for all the writing that she likes to do. She also has a "math riddles" one and a math word problems one. We gave Juliana a Leapster for Christmas, and the kids hardly see it as "school" but are learning a lot playing Word Chasers (Alexandra and Nathan) and Letterpillar (Juliana.) Kalia has been watching the Leapfrog Letter Factory DVD and is learning her letters really well. We have also been going to the library and it is fun to see what books they choose. We are still continuing to learn some about ancient Egypt some- we got an "art treasure chest" of activities and games, several related books at the library, and watched a TV documentary about King Tut's tomb on the National Geographic channel. Alexandra and Nathan are taking an Ocean Literacy class through the homeschool group, and all of the kids are involved in Awanas and doing quite well with the Bible memory. Alexandra is reading very well- recent reads were Charlotte's Web and Ramona's World. It is fun for me to see her discover books. And some of our best conversations about so many subjects still tend to occur in the car on the ong rides into town. Yesterday we went to see "Night at the Museum"- loved it. I started out homeschooling due to lack of school options we liked in our area, but the journey is turning into such an adventure. |
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I've decided to give up on this ever being an interesting blog- I have my other one for that. I'm just going to try to remember to get here every day and at least write down what schoolwork we do so that I will have some record. Since I last wrote:
we read King Tut's Mummy: Lost and Found. The kids were very interested in this and we went online again looking at more Egyptian sites- Alexandra was very interested in cat mummies!
they did a mini recitation for Dave, "performing" all of the poems they have learned so far, saying their Bible verses, and also answering questions about ancient Egypt.
we picked Pippi Longstocking back up. We had started reading it a long time ago but the kids kind of lost interest and we dropped it. The other day Alexandra started rereading it on her own and then asked if I would finish reading it aloud, so we are.
played some semi educational games at funschool.com Nathan and Juliana enjoyed "painting" Thanksgiving pictures and playing a match the animals to their habitat game, and Nathan and Alexandra played Soccer Smash.
Nathan found an old half finished "Summer Bridge" workbook of Alexandra's and finished it on his own- practicing handwriting, math, phonics, etc.
We worked on memorizing the Sparks Code for Awanas, and Nathan did the first Green Jewel activity, drawing an American flag and learning the rule about never letting the flag touch the ground. I decided to expand this by reading them a little book I had called "The American Flag" and also "The Pledge of Allegiance," and we talked about the meaning of liberty and justice.
Cooking- we made peanut butter bears out of Alexandra's Better Homes and Gardens Junior Cookbook, and homemade cinnamon sugar biscuits out of our Sonlight cookbook.
The kids also got some extra writing practice making thank you cards for some books they received from an old friend, and, for Alexandra, writing a birthday card for their cousin and a baby shower card for a friend of mine.
PE activities- two soccer practices, one soccer game, and the usual bike riding, trampoline jumping, and active Awana games. |
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I have gotten so bad about the recordkeeping. I hope I can remember everything we have done.
Language- We've learned about pronouns and the definition that they are words to replace nouns- I, me, my, mine, you, your, yours, he, she, it, her, him, his, hers, its. The kids made up grammatically correct sentences using all of them. Talked about the rules for using "I" and "me" when talking about yourself and someone else ("Kalia and I went to the playground; Mommy gave treats to Kalia and me.")
Picture narration for Juliana from First Language Lessons- "Leaf Pile."
Alexandra and Nathan made up motions to "Hearts Are Like Doors" and gave it a tune- very cute. Kalia can recite the whole thing and do some of the motions! We also memorized "30 Days Hath September." Now we are working on "Mr. Nobody," and the kids have already made up motions for it.
We've read several more of Aesop's fables- "The Bundle of Sticks" (and we tried it ourselves with coffee sticks) and "The Crow and the Pitcher." We read "The Magic Thread" from The Book of Virtues.
History- We reviewed nomads and farmers and started learning about ancient Egypt, doing reading in both Story of the World and Usborne Encyclopedia of World History, looking at maps and pictures in both, and then going to quite a few websites to look at pictures of mummies, the mummification process, pyramids, the Sphinx ,etc. and also a site which "translated" the kids' names into hieroglyphics.
Math- found some great online games- I was even playing some timed ones! Mostly they were practicing getting addition and subtraction problems FAST- "popping" the balloons with sums on them as they popped up, a version of Space Invaders where you had to solve problems to shoot the right invader, and a couple of others. They've also done money counting/sorting- Alexandra on her own figured out how much money we needed to fill four five gallon water containers at $1.25/each and then counted it out using nickels, dimes, and quarters from the change jar. She also counted her own money and went shopping, paying for her own purchases of a watch and pack of gum at Walmart and an I Dog at Costco,
Other computer- the kids really enjoyed some games on the Nick Jr site, and I will admit to enjoying the Wonder Pets game myself- they are too cute! |
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Nathan got up this morning and on his own decided to do addition problems in his math workbook. Go figure :)
School time was delayed as Dave was around most of the morning. I was helping him with some things and we all worked together to finish the cleaning of the covered area from the party.
The kids wanted to take turns reciting all three poems. I knew Alexandra and Nathan could say them but we were all surprised to hear Juliana say them on her own, and Kalia say them with help! I never would have thought to have the other kids memorize poetry at ages 2 and 4, but it seems they can do it, and were so proud of themselves :)
Alexandra asked for a new poem, but I have to find a good one, so she worked on her Awanas verses instead.
We read from the self discipline section of The Book of Virtues- the story "Please," the poem "The Lovable Child," the poem "Our Lips and Ears," Aesop's fables "The Boy and the Nuts" and "The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs," and the story of "The Fisherman and His Wife." I wasn't planning to read so much, but the kids kept asking me to keep reading, so I did.
I figured they'd need a break from sitting after that but Nathan wanted to read a new Hooked on Phonics book. Then *I* needed a break. The kids have enjoyed starfall so much that I did an online search for free math games, and found some to try.
We first found a BBC site. Alexandra and Nathan played "Snakes and Ladders" online together and a game called Test the Toad where you solved addition and subtraction problems and a toad hopped along the number line. We then stopped for lunch and outdoor play, then to clean the living room. Nathan is actually standing over my shoulder waiting for more math games to play before they go to soccer practice, so I will stop writing and let him get started! |
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I'm not sure how to count school days- we haven't actually had "school time" since I last wrote, but the kids have done a lot. And I had the realization that a lot of the things we did for party prep that didn't seem like "school"- making sugar cookies from scratch and orange pumpkin shaped rice krispy treats (measuring! math!) making construction paper jack o lanterns for the party, coloring pumpkin pictures, painting pumpkins- are all things young kids do at school this time of year.
Language- We reviewed "Hearts Are Like Doors" since we never did anything with it after introducing it the first day. The kids also remembered the two other poems with no prompting. Since both the poem and the Sparks Talking Rules they had to learn for Awanas were about saying please, thank you, and I'm sorry, I also read aloud some of Richard Scarry's Please and Thank You Book.
Bible- We reviewed Awanas Bible verses. Alexandra and Nathan both know everything for their first Sparks patch. They actually knew it all last week but their leader didn't have time to listen to all of the verses, so they only said three of them. We reviewed the other two today, as well as Juliana and Kalia's Cubbies verses. Alexandra also read the stories of the boy Jesus in the temple and of Jesus' baptism from her Read and Learn Bible.
PE break- active game of "Simon Says" involving lots of physical activity
History- we reviewed "what is history?" and read a couple of pages on that topic from History Pockets: Ancient Civilizations. I asked some questions as I read to get the kids thinking, "Why would people settle near the ocean or a river? What basic needs do people have? Where could they get food? How could they make clothes?" etc. They really understood a lot.
History/Science- we read Archaeologists Dig For Clues. They really liked this book- I found Nathan looking at it on his own later in the day.
Reading- Nathan and I worked on his Hooked on Phonics, first grade level. "Ch" combination, words using it, and a little HOP book to practice. He did not want to do this, but did well. He and Alexandra also played reading games on Starfall.
Writing- my mom requested their Christmas lists so they worked on final drafts of those.
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I'm not going to count any of the days from last week as "school days." We did do some math work in their workbooks, but we needed to catch that up anyway as we had skipped it too many days. We also read a lot of books, the kids played Putt Putt Travels Through Time on the computer, and played the board game Sorry, as well as lots of outdoor adventure, and several deep conversations (they're asking me big questions lately.) They also learned their Sparks theme song for Awanas and both Alexandra and Nathan passed the "Sparks gate" on Friday night. Juliana and Kalia learned their second Bible verse for Cubbies, too. So there was learning going on but no formal school time other than the math as we worked on the house.
I meant to start back up with school time on Monday in our new school room downstairs, but Dave had some unexpected free time in the morning (after loading up the latest macadamia nut harvest, which all of the kids were outside watching) and decided on a spontaneous trip to Hookena Beach. Good fun.
Yesterday then was "Day 28." We did our usual songs and I found out Kalia can sing the days of the week and months of the year. For memory work we introduced a new poem from First Language Lessons "Hearts Are Like Doors" (both Alexandra and Nathan recited the other two poems with no help) and also their new Bible verse for Awanas "These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God."
We read about nomads from Story of the World and I introduced a timeline using The Book of Time from Sonlight. It is a timeline in book form and just has the years so kids can fill in the events. Alexandra drew Adam and Eve on the first page (unmarked for year) and then wrote "nomads" at 5000 BC (the first marking in the book) and drew a little girl looking for lizards as was described in Story of the World. We then turned to the recent years in the back of the timeline book and filled in when each family member, including grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and even dogs were born, the years of marriages, of big moves, of Mommy and Daddy meeting. We also put Jesus' birth right in the middle between the BC and AD years. The kids really enjoyed this.
That was enough for that sitting. We had soccer practice in the afternoon and also a "farm kid nature experience" that I'll have to write about on diaryland- it is a whole story in itself. Later at bedtime we did more reading aloud from The Book of Virtues. The kids were actually really interested in the stories in the Honesty section and we read several- The Boy Who Cried Wolf, The Emperor's New Clothes, and one by Hans Christian Andersen that I can't remember the name of about honesty being rewarded (poor woodcutter loses his ax in the river but is honest that gold and silver axes were not the one he lost, even though it would benefit him to take them, and the "river fairy" gives him all three axes.)
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Hey, Katy's here too! Hi, Katy! We actually got a lot done on the house today (put those kids to work!) so it looks like we will be back to school tomorrow while Bonnie cleans my kitchen and bathrooms- yay for Bonnie. |
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Ha ha, maybe it's just me and you, Grace, since Kimberly's Internet has been out :) I could start putting in jokes or Hawaii facts or something for you!
Anyway, we're taking a break from school for just a few days in order to do major house cleaning and reorganizing. We're still reading books, of course, and the kids always have some project or another going on. When Brianna was over Sunday she and Alexandra filled the wading pool with lizards they caught and made a sign that said "Brianna and Alexandra's touchable lizards." Kalia is sitting right next to me playing with her Little People car and singing Jesus Loves Me. And the Christmas list Alexandra put on the bulletin board keeps growing!
OK, must get back to work- all the girls' bedroom things are piled in the playroom and they must move downstairs before soccer practice! |
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Let me just say that until Grace mentioned it today I didn't think *anyone* reads this blog except for Kimberly, who is homeschooling using some of the same resources (are you going to actually mummify a chicken, Kimberly???) and Liz every once in awhile since she's student teaching. I have not been writing this for an audience AT ALL- just keeping records for myself. So if you are reading this, please put a comment below (you don't have to be registered or anything) just so I know you're out there, or can confirm my suspicion that it's Kimberly, Liz, and occasionally Grace :)
Anyway, here's my boring list of what we did today :)
1. We read "The Little Girl Who Liked to Be Dirty" from First Language Lessons. The idea of these stories is to introduce the kids to summarizing the story in a few sentences and then narrating it, but I have been doing that kind of thing with my kids for a long time, and they can do it naturally. We also did the picture narration activity for "After a Bath," but again it just seems too simple. And the book is still reviewing nouns- over and over and over. I like the idea of the book, but in practice it just seems too easy for my kids. For now I'm just adapting, combining lessons, and asking the easier questions of the younger kids.
2. Read the introduction to history in Story of the World. It was well written- I really like this book a lot. It talked about "what is history?" using questions like "where were you born? what did you eat at your first birthday party?" and then asking the kids how they would find the answers to those questions; then moving on to the same questions about their parents and grandparents. Then the question was raised, how about people who lived thousands of years ago? How do we know their history? The book taught two methods: written documentation and archaeology, and had a brief description of what archaeology is. It was kind of funny- I was trying to think of a way to explain it and reminded the kids of when we first moved here and there was such a mess from the squatters (D calls them "the slobs") We would clean up the trash outside, but whenever it rained a new round of trash would wash up. Why did it wash up? Where did it come from? What could we tell from that garbage? Could we tell what kinds of things they ate?
3. Sang our usual songs including 7 Days of the Week and 12 Months of the Year. Counted to help Kalia and Juliana get 1-20 down. Recited our poems and names of the continents and went over memory work for Awanas. Kalia officially knows her first Bible verse- 1 John 4:10 (God loved us and sent his son.)
4. Writing- the kids are still working on those Christmas lists! I caught Nathan trying to use my copier to make copies of it. I asked him why he needed them; he said for the relatives. I said there is no way we are sending out Christmas lists in October :)
5. Jumping jacks as a break, and lots of trampoline jumping and bike riding after school time.
They also helped me wash walls, and Alexandra gave Valentina a bath with very little help. Tonight.. Awanas. Tomorrow morning.. soccer games.
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We finished up our introduction to the continents with Australia and Antartica, using the globe and What Your First Grader Needs to Know.
Nathan read Tubb the Cub, which is about a lion cub. He's beginning to get a little more confident in his reading and actually sound the words out instead of making a guess based on context and the first letter. He still doesn't show the interest in reading like Alexandra did, but we're slowly getting there.
Alexandra and I read The Best Book of Big Cats together. She was doing the reading at first but then asked me if I would read. I did, and we talked about the content. It was a cool tie-in to learning about the continents since it talked about what continent each cat comes from.
Alexandra also read aloud two more stories in her Read and Learn Bible, the ones about King Herod and the visit of the magi as well as the flight to Egypt.
We went over the memory work (poems and Bible verses) but the older two kids have them down cold. Alexandra and Nathan have both learned their Awanas pledge also, so they just need to learn the song (their teachers didn't know the tune last week) to pass the "Sparks Gate."
As for writing, the kids have been making Christmas lists. It seems a little early to me, but they're enjoying it and practicing writing/spelling skills, so it works for me :)
The kids spent a lot of time jumping on the trampoline, Nathan rode his bike for a long time, and now we are off to soccer practice, so plenty of "PE" today.
We also cleaned our school room thoroughly- it needed it!! |
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1. Poetry- We recited both poems again. Alexandra can say "Work" on her own now (I think Nathan can, too, but he won't try until he knows he has it perfectly;) and Kalia (two years old!) is saying parts of "Let Dogs Delight."
2. Language/life skills- I taught Alexandra how to write our street address. I hadn't focused on it much before because we get mail at the P.O. Box, and because the city name of our street address is really quite a bit north of where we live (addresses are handled oddly out here) but it came up in First Language Lessons and I figured she should know it. I taught the other kids to say it but didn't make them write it, although Juliana chose on her own to write part of it in her notebook. We also worked on teaching Kalia the alphabet song.
3. Geography- talked about North and South America today using What Your First Grader Needs to Know, our globe, and the U.S. map we have on the wall (which shows the areas of Mexico and Canada though no details about them.) We found the Amazon and Mississippi Rivers and the Andes mountains, and identified the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.
4. PE- jumping jacks, toe touches, pushups, and some stretches to break up all the "seatwork." Plenty of trampoline jumping and trail exploring during their freetime.
5. Music- the kids got Juliana's keyboard working (it has been missing batteries for a LONG time) and have been experimenting with it for a long, long time.
6. Writing/art- postcards to cousins Audrey and Avary, and to Papa. Nathan and Juliana are also cutting out pictures from magazines with plans to make something for Papa and Gramma.
7. Bible- reviewed memory verses.
8. Math- The bigger kids helped the little ones practice counting. Kalia can count up to ten perfectly but skips several numbers in the teens, and Juliana was skipping a couple in the teens as well. I am working on getting them both counting to 20 perfectly and will go from there. I also worked on shape names with Kalia- she knows heart, star, and circle, but we are working on oval, square, rectangle, and triangle. No formal work with the older kids but Dave did some mental addition and subtraction with Alexandra figuring out how much money he needed to pay her- two lost teeth, payment for picking half a bag of macadamia nuts, and repayment of some money that was hers, minus money I had already given her. We actually do math like that almost every day, but have been really negligent on the written math work lately and I need to be better about that. I think I'm going to get a math computer game for them to play- Nathan really hates working in a math workbook although he needs to do it some or he backslides and starts writing his numerals backwards. |
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1. Poetry- Both Alexandra and Nathan said "Let Dogs Delight" from memory again. First Language Lessons continues to work on the same poem, but since they both know it well, we're adding a new one. We went with Lesson 15 in FLL, the poem "Work," but changed the wording to the version used in The Book of Virtues. Work while you work, Play while you play, One thing each time, That is the way. All that you do, Do with your might, Things done by halves Are not done right.
2. Grammar- Reviewed proper nouns and common nouns.
3. Narration- picture narration from FLL; a picture of a family baking cookies. This seemed too simple for A & N, but Juliana and Kalia enjoyed it.
4. Geography- Compass directions (N,E, S,W) using What Your First Grader Needs to Know. Introduction to world geography from the same book and also using our globe. We looked at the equator and talked about how it is hot there; then at the North and South Poles. We did an overview of the seven continents (and talked about why Hawaii and Alaska are shown as little squares on the bottom of many US maps although Alaska is nowhere near Hawaii- the kids pronounced those maps "dumb." Then they wanted to find the states where various family members live on the map, so we did that too.) To get a little more specific information on each continent, I introduced Asia and Europe yesterday and Africa today. We looked at how the Ural Mountains divide Asia and Europe, at the Mediterranean Sea, the Sahara Desert, and the Nile River (and heard a long synopsis from Alexandra of an episode of the Backyardigans that involved the Nile!) We talked some about what animals come from these continents.
5. Art- yesterday's geography lesson mentioned that reindeer are found in northern Europe. Alexandra did a lesson from Draw Write Now on drawing a reindeer, but was a little frustrated with her results.
6. Reading- Nathan and I read several of his Hooked on Phonics HOP books. The kids also played more games on starfall.com. Alexandra read What Moms Can't Do and The Three Billy Goats Gruff aloud to Nathan. She wanted me to read Lyle's Birthday Party and Best of All to her, which I did, and Nathan wanted me to read Blueberries for Sal. Kalia asked me to read her a Winnie the Pooh book, and Juliana requested The A Book and Clifford's First Easter.
7. Reading/science- We received Eyewitness:Cats and The Best Book of Big Cats in the mail, and the three older kids spent some time looking at these on their own. I guess I could also count for science the toad Alexandra and Brianna found Sunday, and spent quite some time observing, and making three different "homes" for before releasing him.
8. Bible- reviewing Awanas memory verses. John 3:16 for Alexandra and Nathan, which they can both now say on their own, and "God loved us and sent his son" for Juliana and Kalia. The kids also attended children's church on Sunday, where they are still learning about Moses. |
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1. We made the thank you cards we didn't get to last night. The kids really got into making these and spent a long time on them, so we didn't do any other written work. Alexandra also made one on Valentina's behalf. It was so cute- here's my description copied from my diaryland site:
This morning the kids were making thank you cards for their grandparents, who sent them some "just because" money to buy something. I was putting all of the cards in a big envelope, but Alexandra insisted she needed a separate envelope as well. She brought it to me, and when I looked inside, she had put $1 with her letter. She wanted to send money back to her grandparents! I thought that was sweet. Then she asked if she could also make a thank you card on behalf of Valentina. I said yes, and she wrote a little note- thank you for the money. But then under the note she drew a border of flowers. Underneath the border is a little note *about* Valentina. What it says verbatim:
2. We finished reading Sammy, the Runaway Mastiff (last three chapters) While I was reading the little girls continued coloring the Hooked on Phonics HOP books.
3. Alexandra read aloud to me the poem "The Owl and the Pussycat" as well as several Mother Goose rhymes (this was at her request)
4. The older kids taught Juliana and Kalia their Cubbies song for Awanas.
5. Alexandra found a Jackson chameleon outside and the kids spent a lot of time observing him and "playing with" him. He was living in the dollhouse for a little while, but has since been released back into the wild.
6. We had our first Awanas meeting (the meeting was from 6-8, but as "leaders' kids" my kids had an activity starting at 5:30.) Alexandra and Nathan are in Sparks this year, and Juliana and Kalia in Cubbies, which I am teaching. A & N learned their Bible memory verse, John 3:16, and Sparks motto (My friend for Christ) and are still working on their Awanas pledge and song. They also have to say the Pledge of Allegiance to pass the "Sparks Gate," but they both already knew that. Juliana and Kalia have a simple memory verse, "God loved us and sent his son." Our Cubbies time included introducing the Cubbies puppets, singing, working on our verse, drawing, eating a Teddy Grahams snack, putting stickers on helium balloons to make Cubbies face, playing with playdough, and joining the older kids to watch part of their game time and for "council" time (singing, skit, awards, and releasing four helium balloons, with a smaller amount of helium so they don't go to the ocean!) A, N & J were all on the "red team," which won "medals" at the end of the night for having the most points of any of the four color teams, so they were pretty excited about that.
Tomorrow... soccer game. |
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I am tired and writing this as I watch Survivor :), so I'm just going for a list- 1. Alexandra recited "Let Dogs Delight" from memory, and the rest of us said it all together; even Kalia was chiming in on parts! 2. Alexandra and Nathan narrated back "The King and the Hawk" from yesterday. 3. Lesson five in First Language Lessons was a reading and narration of The Tortoise and the Hare, so we did that- I read the story, asked some comprehension questions, and then the kids narrated it back. 4.As I mentioned yesterday, the kids wanted to know about John Henry. I had an old "American Tastes and Tales" cookbook from my own childhood that had his story alongside a recipe for tuna train cars, so we looked at that. The kids still wanted to know more and hear the song, so we went online and looked up his legend, saw pictures of a couple of statues of him and of the railway tunnels steeldrivers like him made, and listened to a couple of different versions of the John Henry folk song. Hurrah for the Internet! As we were looking at it, we remembered that we saw an episode of Little House on the Prairie where Pa worked as a steeldriver, so that gave the kids a mental picture they could understand. Nathan said he would find a different job if it were him! 5. The kids played starfall.com reading games for quite awhile again- they don't seem to ever get tired of these! Nathan played his own, and Alexandra helped Juliana and Kalia. 6. Lots of playdough and modeling clay time again. 7. They took a picnic snack outside, went for a walk, set up their picnic, and then played in the wading pool for a long time. They had a blast and I got the floor mopped, among other things! 7. Soccer practice counted as PE. 8. After dinner, the kids are making thank you cards for some unexpected "just because" money their grandma Ruth sent them to buy something for themselves. (later note- we didn't get these done; will do them tomorrow) 9. Sammy, the Runaway Mastiff will be bedtime reading (later note- we read two chapters); plus a couple of picture books of the little girls' choice. (My Story of Jesus for Kalia and Dora the Explorer's Halloween for Juliana) 10. Alexandra will also read a story or two from her Bible storybook before bed. (she read two- "The Shepherds" and "Jesus Is Blessed.") |
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We reviewed the Let Dogs Delight poem, and Alexandra and Nathan both already it memorized:
"Let dogs delight to bark and bite, For God hath made them so. Let bears and lion growl and fight For tis their nature too. But children, you should never let Such angry passions rise Your little hands were never meant To tear each other's eyes."
Since that poem was about controlling anger, we also read the story "The King and the Hawk" from the Book of Virtues' self discipline section and talked about it.
Returning to First Language Lessons, we talked about proper nouns, and the names for family members (grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.) For writing practice Alexandra and Nathan wrote the names of the family in their notebooks. Since we have so many in our immediate family we didn't include the aunts, uncles, cousins, etc in this. Nathan just wrote Mommy, Daddy, the names of his sisters, dogs' names, and our last name; Alexandra wrote everyone's full name including middle names.
Nathan read to me three of his HOP books from Hooked on Phonics, then the kids colored the HOP books while I read aloud three more chapters of Sammy, the Runaway Mastiff.
Alexandra, Nathan, Juliana, and Kalia all got on the computer then, with the older ones helping the younger ones play games at starfall.
We then had to go out to run errands, and came home for a short time before Awanas leaders meeting (the kids used that time to make playdough creations.) We had several interesting conversations/teaching moments in the car- we had a very heavy religious conversation (I don't remember how it started, but Alexandra asked some TOUGH questions that I told her people have been struggling with for thousands of years!) and I was asked which state came first (I told them there were 13 colonies and then was tested as they asked me to name them! The song Fifty Nifty United States floated back into my head from my own childhood.) Nathan also said something about "dying with a hammer in his hand" which led to a conversation about John Henry (we'll be reading that story tomorrow as I couldn't remember the whole thing) and tall tales. And we recited every nursery rhyme we could think of after I said that "Let Dogs Delight" was their first poem, and Alexandra pointed out that they knew the Mother Goose rhymes. From Hey Diddle Diddle to Seesaw Margery Daw, they came up with quite a few of them. You just never know what will come up around here!
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The public schools are out for fall break this week, but since we started a month after they did, it didn't seem like we should take off! I actually had been considering sending the kids to fall art camp during the intercession since they enjoyed the summer sessions so much, but the executive director of the art society that we liked so much is no longer working there, and I don't think they even had the art camp.
Sunday the kids learned about Moses and the ten commandments at children's church. Brianna and Joshua came over in the afternoon and the kids did a lot of exploring outside, picking lilikoi and lemons and cracking macadamia nuts.Yesterday we had a lot of errands to run. Alexandra read aloud from National Geographic Kids magazine in the car, and a Berenstein Bears book to herself while I filled out Valentina's birth certificate info at the Department of Health..
Today we were back to routine with songs, calendar, etc. We added in First Language Lessons this morning, doing the first two lessons. We discussed the definition of a common noun and Alexandra and Nathan wrote it in their notebooks. We then started our first poem memorization- the book uses a poem called "The Caterpillar," but I replaced it with "Let Dogs Delight to Bark and Bite," since it fit in with the dog study we have been doing and also addressed character traits (I found it in the Book of Virtues, but when I looked through First Language Lessons later I noticed that they do use the same poem in a later lesson, but I still found it appropriate here.) I asked the kids what they thought the poem meant and Nathan summed it up perfectly, "Animals fight; people shouldn't." We read through it a few times, then they illustrated it in their notebooks while I read more from Sammy, the Runaway Mastiff. They kept asking for more of the story and we read three chapters. I mentioned that we had finished chapter 7 and were about halfway through the book. Alexandra said, "So it has 14 chapters?" Pretty impressive math skill, I thought )
Later in the day Alexandra read aloud the first three stories for the New Testament in her Read and Learn Bible- these covered Zechariah and Elizabeth, the angel Gabriel's visit to Mary, and the births of John the Baptist and Jesus. She also showed that she knows quite well how to use the table of contents, which was good to see.
Also today Alexandra on her own read From Sand to Sea, a book about Hawaiian marine life, and Nathan asked me to read Snip, Snapp, Snurr and the Yellow Sled to him. Soccer practice this afternoon was our P.E.
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After this morning's soccer games in Waiohinu, we went to the zoo in Hilo for Namaste the tiger's 8th birthday party. It seemed like a fitting field trip for our study of big cats. The zoo here is small but beautiful (also a botanical gardens) and the white tiger is the star attraction.
The irony of the trip is that we never actually saw the tiger, except for a flash of white as he hid napping in the bushes. We have seen him before, though, and there were plenty of pictures of him up for the day as well as stuffed tigers and every other sort of tiger souvenir for sale. There was a presentation of his birthday turkey dinner at 3:30 but we were tired, hot, and gone by then! (he'd had his birthday "cake" of an ice block with bone candles earlier in the morning.)
It was still a fun family outing. We saw the other animals including the ones at the petting zoo where Kalia really enjoyed petting a baby goat and Nathan was excited to pet the Hawaiian goose, the nene. The petting zoo is only open for one hour on Saturdays, so we've never made it there before. The kids played a "fishing game" to win little prizes.We ate Hawaiian plate lunches- laulau, kalua pig, beef stew, rice, and macaroni salad, and had free birthday cake and chocolate ice cream cones. The kids made birthday crowns at a craft table that had some tiger, pawprint, and Happy Birthday rubber stamps, and brought home the materials to make tiger puppets.
All in all a good time... even without the birthday tiger! |
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We just got The Kingfisher First Animal Encyclopedia in the mail from Amazon, so spent some time looking through that this morning. I showed the kids how an encyclopedia is set up in alphabetical order to look up the different animals. We read the entries about cats and dogs (wild and domestic,) and also the tiger page (we're going to a "tiger birthday party" at the zoo tomorrow,) the page about rats since we're trapping them on our macadamia nut farm, and then due to the kids' demand (just because they thought the name was so funny) the page about newts!
Alexandra wrote in her notebook the different categories of dogs: working, sporting, herding, hounds, terrier, toy.
We also read aloud more of Sammy, the Runaway Mastiff. I think the grammar, punctuation, and spelling is getting even WORSE as the book goes on (I'll have to post a sample paragraph) and I'm having to reword many sentences as I read, but the kids are very interested in the story. The book mentioned a pug and we went back to Eyewitness:Dogs to look it up so the kids could see a picture of one.
Kalia and I read several of her board books- Bob the Builder and a couple of Disney princess stories.
Alexandra read the part of her Read to Learn Bible corresponding to the book of Micah, which finished up the Old Testament for her.
The kids all helped me bake chocolate chip cookies to take to their soccer games tomorrow. We even got a little math in when Alexandra asked how big to make them (she and Nathan did all of the work putting the dough on the pans) and I said 3 rows of 4. 3*4 is 12 cookies per pan!
First Language Lessons arrived today, so we'll be adding grammar in on Monday. I also got our Story of the World activity book (as well as the Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia of World History and a couple of other books Sonlight recommended) but not the actual Story of the World book, so I'm thinking we'll add the grammar in next week and then add history to the schedule the following week. I've been reading the Usborne book myself- interesting but not as good as I had hoped. The websites it references sound great, though.
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Last night at dinner the kids showed Dave the books about dogs and mastiffs and a big discussion ensued- it's fun to see them so interested. Juliana gave him the mastiff picture she had colored and he taped it up on the wall- she was very proud! Then our friends Stu and Cathy emailed a bunch of pictures of their English mastiff, Gracie, for the kids to see.
My printer/copier is having a problem and I couldn't print out any of the pages I intended to use today, so Alexandra and Nathan worked in their math workbooks, and Nathan and I did some work in Hooked on Phonics. I also had one page already printed out with a picture of a dog that said "what do you need to take care of me?" All of the kids came up with ideas and Nathan drew them. They decided that the dog needed a collar, a bath, toys, food, water, shots, and love! We'll probably continue reading Sammy the Runaway Mastiff at bedtime- this afternoon is soccer practice once again. |
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I can't really count yesterday as a school day as we had multiple errands to run, and then soccer practice. Soccer is our PE at the moment, though! The only other sort of "schoolish" thing was that we got Millions of Cats in the mail from Amazon and Alexandra read it aloud in the car.
This morning we were back to school time. I read Millions of Cats again since the kids wanted me to; then we moved from cats to dogs. We looked through the Eyewitness:Dogs book. The kids were most interested in the facts that domestic dogs descended from wolves and that foxes are in the same animal group- they thought foxes were more like cats. We discussed some of the different groups of dogs (working, sports, toy, herding, etc.) and that there are 400 breeds of domestic dogs. We then focused in on mastiffs for today.
They colored pictures of mastiffs that I found online while I read the non fiction book Mastiffs. We got out the globe and found Tibet and India, where the book said mastiffs were first bred before being brought over to Great Britain. After that I read aloud a chapter of Sammy, the Runaway Mastiff and Alexandra illustrated it in her journal. I bought it simply because it was one of the few children's books available about mastiffs, and it had a great picture of a mastiff on the cover. It was the first time online shopping has really failed me- it turns out to be a self published book and it is the most poorly written book I have ever seen in print. I read it anyway because the kids wanted me to and the story is OK so far- since I am reading aloud they can't see the MANY, MANY spelling and punctuation errors and I can adjust the bad grammar as I read. It is bothering me tremendously, though, and it may be my first return to Amazon.
The kids are outside right now and we will be doing math and Bible this afternoon (story of Jonah- interestingly, there was a picture in the dog book of some artwork from the ancient city of Ninevah that had mastiff/hounds in it.) I think we are also going to bake some bread- Alexandra has been asking me for cooking lessons. |