| The Magic School House |
Kinder fell asleep last night readingWe had a tough day yesterday. Kinder has a tummy bug. Oldest has a sore throat. Littlest needed lots of attention since her sister was sick.I got the girls to bed on time and littlest was asleep before 8:30 (Thursday is my night to do this hubby does it the rest of the week.) I read a couple of extra chapters of the Odyssey to kinder as we snuggled together. She even guessed that Mentor was Athena in disguise. The night was going well. Hubby was at the bookstore. I was watching Survivor. The girls were in bed. Oldest was on the computer and laughing at me and Survivor. Then of course, kinder wasn't feeling well and couldn't sleep. I gave her a snack and turned on her night light and got her favorite book for her to look at until she got sleepy. Later, littlest woke up crying. When I went in to check on her, kinder was sleeping with her book on her chest. it was very sweet. However, I wondered how many kindergarteners consider Time Traveler history books to be their favorite. It does make me glad that I decided to start reading history with her. I thought she was ready for the more complex ideas - maybe I was right. 7:14 PM - Friday, April 6 - comments {0} - post commentMath Woes - againSo let me write this again. What is it about math that causes us so much trouble? My middle DD is 6. She is apparently good at math. I just sold our MUS Alpha. It was great. I enjoyed sitting down and playing the dvd then working the problems with her. I felt confident teaching it to her. She picked up the concepts quickly. And now we are done. I skipped a few lessons at the beginning and a few in the middle. We only did math one day last week. We sat down at the table and worked 2 digit addition and subtaction then we worked on carrying and borrowing. Now we are done with Alpha. Oh and I can't forget that last week she also sat down with some blocks and worked out some simple multiplication and division - 2 x 3 is 6, 4 x 6 is 24, 24 / 2 is 12. I ordered Singapore 2A with the challenging word problems. I want her to spend some time working at this level as she slowly discovers the next level herself. She has decided that Math is boring. Where do they get that from? I think she just needs to find some math that challenges her. 6:09 PM - Saturday, March 31 - comments {1} - post commentIdentify and Classify Sea Shells aka MollusksHere are the main resources I am using for my sea shell classification class this week.This site has some great pictures and a "lesson plan". http://manandmollusc.net/lesson_plan_files/lesson_one_cover.html This site is wonderful for identifying sea shells. http://www.seashells.org/seashells/sanibelseashellident.htm What I basically plan to do, is take my collection of sea shells and a basket of shells from the craft store into class. The kids in my class are 5-7 and really respond to discovery learning. I am going to give them each a set of shells to enjoy then ask them questions about the differences they notice in them. Next, I'll have each child group thier shells and explain why they chose those groups. I'll then discuss with them the way that scientists classify them (Gastropods, Bivalve, and other). The kids can then regroup thier shells into the scientific categories. We'll then discuss things that aren't mollusk that get grouped in with sea shells like sanddollars, starfish, sea urchins, crabs, corals, and sponges. Finally we'll try to use some shell guides to identify the shells we have. If there is time or if the kids don't respond to the classifying, I also have an activity for estimating which shells have more volume. The kids will get measuring spoons and cups with water. They will predict which shells can hold more volume, then measure the amount of water it actually holds and compare thier results with their estimates. I have snails in the fish tank that will be taking a trip to class. I am also considering steaming some clams to bring into to class for the kids to be able to examine the creature that is inside. Here is a link to a clam information and dissection guide. 11:39 PM - Sunday, March 25 - comments {0} - post commentMy kinder knows her +9 facts!!!We watched the video yesterday afternoon. She didn't want to pay attention to it, but at least if was short. After that we worked through a page in the Student book. At some point she "got it." She thought it was pretty cool that there is a trick to figuring it out. We reviewed in the tub last night. She knows them! We are going to do a systematic review again today. If that goes well, we we move on to the next lesson tomoorow. This doing math most days is working. I think she was ready for the more formal work, even if it adds upto less than an hour everyday. 11:58 AM - Thursday, March 15 - comments {0} - post commentWhat we are using for KindergartenHere is the current kindergarten curriculum Math - Math-U-See Alpha Phonics - Phonics Pathways History - Story of the World volume I with audio CD's and Activity Guide Literature - recommendations from Sonlight, Ambleside Online, and TWTM Science - doing a unit on Animal classification in co-op, plus whatever interests her Geography - going to start Geography songs Art - co-op Clay class Poetry - Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization (love this we just have the book both kinder and older are doing this and littlest is learning the poems just by listening) Other - co-op cooking class, teaching pre-school class at co-op, gymnastics, Brownie Girl Scouts, swimming at YMCA once a week Okay, written down this looks like a lot of schooling. It isn't. I am working hard now that dd is older to try to do math four times a week - twice is the record so far. We do phonics twice a week. We do one chapter from SOTW a week with one or two readings of it. We do poetry once or twice a week. Altogether we spend less than an hour a day doing school work (not counting dh and I reading to the kids). My dd is loving school this year. Her imagination is growing by leaps and bounds. She has learned all the math that I had planned for her to learn and she is reading quite well. I am not a big proponent of early schooling nor am I a believer in child-directed learning. I'll post more on my educational philosophy as it changes. 5:27 PM - Saturday, March 10 - comments {0} - post commentWhat grade are you in?Today at lunch, my kinder was chatting with two boys who looked to be about 7 or 8. She was telling them the secret to making homemade ice cream. This was all very cute. The boys' mother asked her how old she is. She dutifully replied "6". The mom then asked her what grade she was in. This always gets interesting responses from her. Today she answered. "I am supposed to be in kindergarten, but since I am so smart, I am in second grade." I just had to laugh. I think she isn't suffering from any self-esteem issues. She is extra proud of herself today. Last night she read a chapter from Charlotte's Web herself. I helped with a few words like "interestingly" and "queerly", but for the most part she read it all by herself. She surprised me - I didn't think she knew some of those words. So, what grade are your kids in and what grade do they think they are in? 3:52 PM - Friday, March 9 - comments {0} - post commentMath happened again todayWell, we did math again today. That is two days in a row! For today, I watched the dvd before kinder did. I also skipped ahead a few lessons. We did lesson 7 today. It covered the +2 addition facts. Kinder did great. She was very proud when she figured out that 20 + 50 is 70 and 200 + 300 is 500. She was a little intimidated when I asked her the "big" problems. But she quickly figured out that 20 + 50 is no harder than 2 + 5. She was really proud of herself for working through it. We ended up doing 3 worksheets. Yes, I cheated and she did them orally, but we did 3 worksheets. After the lesson she asked me "What is 50 + 5 ?" I said 55 and she told me I did a good job. She was testing me and not asking. I think that is great. See, I am trying to stick with a math program. 3:41 PM - Friday, March 9 - comments {0} - post commentHow Kindergarten plans have changedI looked through my past entries trying to find what I had planned for Kindergarten t his year. Apparently we planned to work on reading, start RightStart math, spend lots of time outside, play, and read. Now my dd is 6 and coming to the end of her kindergarten year in a couple of months. Here is what our weekly schedule looks like: Monday - gymnastics (little one in morning then kinder in afternoon) Tuesday - co-op Wednesday - usually swimming Thursday - grocery store in morning then I have to work 4 hours in the afternoon from home Friday - I work from 2pm til 2am Saturday Weekend - I work two more 12 hour shifts How much homeschooling do we do? Monday - read aloud history and literature selections, sometime phonics lesson Tuesday - kinder takes a science and math class from me at co-op, plus cooking, pottery and Brownies Wednesday - new poem or memory item. math lesson and phonics lesson Thursday - grocery store - isn't that homeschool? Friday - read aloud We also randomly sqeeze in additional read alouds and listening of audio books. Everyday - We try to review our poetry and memory work. Darling Hubby reads to the kids before bedtime - currently reading Charlotte's Web again, No Flying in the House, and The One Eyed Giant. I think our homeschool is going great. Kinder is happy, learning, imagining, playing and still very excited about school. Things I am changing: I just added some suggestions from TWTM such as The Story of the World with the AG and some of the history and literature reading. My dd6 is very imaginative and I decided she was ready for more complex stories. I think these will work out great. I am switching to Math-U-See for math. I love RS, but I want something different. I really want dd6 to know her facts. She can currently figure them out without too much trouble and is pretty good at visualizing numbers, but I want her to really know her facts and I think MUS will do this. 5:58 PM - Sunday, March 4 - comments {1} - post comment2,4,6,8 divided by two - that's four for each of usDon't you love how kids learn?My dd6 was counting up something do divide with her little sister. So she counted them, "2,4,6,8. That is 4 for each of us." You might ask "What are we doing for math?" She is in her K year. We started out using RS, but I felt she wasn't ready for a formal math. So we stopped. A couple of weeks ago, did a couple of lessons from Singapore 1B. She got it, but it didn't click well with me. So we stopped. She is just learning math by playing. We had worked hard on counting by 2's, 5's and 10's earlier in the year, but we haven't done any real math since before Thanksgiving. She is still learning her maths quite well - naturally. I think its like her reading. I can teach all I want or not at all, but she learns it when she is ready. 7:00 PM - Saturday, March 3 - comments {0} - post commentI thought that word would be biggerAs a confessed phonics junkie, I can share this.I got A, a new phonics game from Hooked on Phonics. I have been "forcing" her to do a lesson each day. This morning ( I work on Saturday so I don't see a real need for her to take the day off from our new phonics everyday plan), she was learning about dividing words at double consonants. I actually heard her say, "FOSSIL, I thought that was a bigger word." She repeated it that same astonishment as she went on through similar words. I think that this is just at the right level to help her get past her current comfort zone and into higher level reading. It's my first experience with Hooked on Phonics and its just a game and not the whole system, but it is better than I expected. Personally, I have liked every phonics program I have tried. However, I will try to not buy anymore for her until she is older. I am planning to use Spell to Write and Read next year when she starts first grade. She will be reading very well by then, but it should really help my spelling. 2:52 PM - Saturday, November 25 - comments {0} - post comment
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Description A homeschool and life blog about the adventures of one mom and three kids (my ds Handsome who is 17, my dd Beautiful who is 6, and my dd SweetPea who is 2) and a wonderful husband (known here as hubby). I work full-time three days a week. Hubby works 5 days a week. I am a relaxed classical homeschooler that is making it all up as I go along. Home User Profile Archives
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