Weekly Roundup July 23-27, 2012

We tried something a little different this week - a four day week.  In science this week we talked about air as matter.  We proved through our experiments that air takes up space and has weight (technically mass, but we haven't talked about gravity yet, so I didn't go into that much detail with them!)  Here is our demostration showing that a balloon filled with air is heavier than an empty balloon.

The boys also got to spend some quality time on the playground with their cousin on Thursday.

The one school-related thing we did on Friday was our history project - a model of the Nile River.

This was both of the boys' favorite activity of the week.  They definitely love history!

Both boys are doing well in math.  Isaac just finished his first unit in Singapore 2A.  He made a 100 on his Unit 1 Chapter 3 Test and will take the Unit 1 Cumulative Test on Monday.  Ethan has been flying through Singapore 1A so quickly that I forgot to check the front of the HIG for when to take the tests!  It's odd that the 2A HIG puts the tests in the lesson plans, but the 1A HIG does not.  So, Ethan will spend a lot of next week reviewing what we have covered by taking the 3 tests we have skipped.  He is getting close to finishing Unit 3.

The boys are also loving the Salsa Spanish videos and their Latin lessons.  It was another great week for us!



Wordless Wednesday - July 25, 2012



Weekly Roundup - Weeks 1 and 2

We finished our second week of homeschooling yesterday, and it has been a lot of fun and a lot of work!  I have spent countless hours planning and going over everything, and so far the curriculum choices I have made have worked out well.  I asked the boys about their favorite subject and they both said history.  We are using Story of the World 1: Ancient Times as our spine for history.  When I asked them about their least favorite, they both said they like everything!  Here is a summary of what we have done so far:

Math: (Singapore Standards) - Isaac has been working on place value to the hundreds place, grouping objects by hundreds, tens, and ones, and adding and subtracting within 20.  He has also used money to represent numbers within 1000.  Ethan started with reviewing numbers 0 to 10, understanding "more" and "less" and arranging numbers in order/finding missing numbers.  He just finished the unit on number bonds, which was a new concept to me.  I can really see how thinking about math in this way makes mental math so much easier!  Both of the boys have made perfect scores on their math tests so far!

Spelling: (Rod & Staff) - We are using R&S 2 for spelling.  The word lists are extremely easy for Isaac, but I've read that the power in the R&S program comes not from the lists but from the activities that the children do with the words.  It is a phonics-based spelling program and since I am not doing formal phonics with Isaac this year I thought this would be a good program to use.  I'm just not sure if I should accelerate him a grade level or just go with it as is.

Language Arts: Isaac is using Primary Language Lessons and has done really well so far with this program.  His memory amazes me.  He has had no trouble with the two poems he has memorized.  I was a little surprised when, after only reading the poem to him twice (once Monday and once Tuesday, along with reading it on his own once each day), he was able to recite it from memory on Wednesday.  We are using Grammarland for grammar, but I have to admit this is the one thing I have let slip in these first 2 weeks.  I'm not concerned about it because it is a relatively short book and we are on chapter 7.  We have covered nouns, pronouns, articles, and adjectives.  Ethan is on lesson 44 in his reading program (A Beka Reading 1).  We skipped to where his ability level was and started there.  We are doing a lot of review of dipthongs and learning some new ones.  He loves the A Beka readers and begs to read them.  I don't think he feels the same way about the Handbook for Reading though.

Literature: Isaac has finished The Treasure, The Giving Tree,  and The Chalk Box Kid.  He is currently reading Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder.
Ethan quickly read through the beginning readers we had at home, which are mostly Dr. Seuss books.  I am going to the library today to pick up a couple more books for him to read next week. 

History: As I said before, both boys have said that history is their favorite subject.  The first week we studied archaeology.  We read out of Story of the World and The Usborne Encyclopedia of Ancient History.  Isaac also read the book Digging Up History.  This week we focused on nomads and the first farmers, and we learned about the Fertile Crescent and why people started settling there.  The boys got a kick out of thinking of living in that time and going hunting for lizards to make stew.  Another book Isaac enjoyed was   It's Disgusting and We Ate It.  We did mapwork, coloring the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and the Fertile Crescent, as well as identifying the cities of Jericho and Catal Hayuk.    We read The First Dog and colored a picture of a farmer using a shaduf.  The boys went outside and tried to make a shelter from materials they could gather, but they had a hard time with that, so we watched a video from BBC about a man creating a shelter for a group in the woods.  It was very interesting to watch!

Cave Paintings

Science: This week in science we were studying the states of matter.  We classified different substances as solid, liquid, or gas.  We did a few investigations including timing how long it took the scent of air freshener to get from one side of the room to another and watching my Scentsy go from solid to liquid to being able to smell it as a gas.  Then we melted butter so show that temperature can cause a solid to change to a liquid and put an ice cube in a pot on the stove and watched it change from solid to liquid to gas.  I also placed a glass with ice cubes in it to the side so we could see that the cold glass caused the water vapor in the air to condense and droplets of water could be seen on the outside of the glass.  The boys then made booklets about the states of matter.

Foreign Language: We have learned several new Latin words in the last 2 weeks, and the boys think Song School Latin is a lot of fun!  We listen to our CD and sing the songs.  Isaac does the workbook and Ethan colors coloring pages to go along with the chapter we are on.  We have also watched a couple of episodes of Salsa Spanish.  I'm interested to see how much they pick up from watching those.

Hopefully next week I will be able to post pictures and my roundup won't be so wordy!

BFSU

Unfortunately I have had some computer issues, and I am not able to upload pictures at this time, but that issue will hopefully be resolved soon.  I've got some great pics to post so far!  As I type this, my boys are sitting at the kitchen table creating booklets about the three states of matter.  We are only in our second week, but I am loving Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding by Bernard J. Nebel, Ph.D.  Tuesday I introduced our lesson on solids, liquids, and gases and we learned how to classify substances into these three categories.  I used my Scentsy warmer to illustrate how matter can change from a solid to a liquid to a gas (particles in the air that we can smell).  We also sprayed air freshener from one corner of a room to see how long it took for the other person on the opposite side of the room to smell it (about 1.5 minutes).  Today we talked about how water changed to ice and we also melted butter.  This showed that temperature affects the state of matter.  We then took an ice cube and melted it, then let it evaporate on the stove, showing that the heat changes it from solid to liquid to gas.  I had a glass with ice cubes inside sitting nearby so we could see the water condensing on the side of the glass and I could explain how the water vapor changes back into liquid water.  We are having a lot of fun in science!

Day 3!

Today we studied about archaeologists in history, which the boys loved.  We read the section in Story of the World and also read the book The Magic Treehouse Shows and Tells.  The boys did narrations and drawings about what an archaeologist does.  I had planned to do the archaeological dig on Friday, but it has been raining for the past few days and the forecast calls for more rain.  I think I am going to pull out their excavation kits and let them work on those instead.  We will see how the weather goes. 

A good thing about the rain is that we can measure how much it rains each day and record that as part of our nature study this week.  Today there was 1.4 inches in the rain gauge.  That is probably the amount we have gotten over the last couple of days.  We are going to continue to check it over the next few days and then I will have Isaac write about our findings.  I may look up average rainfall for this time of year in our area because this is not normal for us! 

Isaac started reading The Chalk Box Kid and Ethan read a couple of the early readers we have on their bookshelves.  I pulled out a Kindergarten workbook for Ethan to work in after he finished the rest of his work, to keep him busy while Isaac was finishing. Both of the boys seem to be enjoying all of their subjects.  As we go through the year, I hope I will be able to determine how well the curriculum fits and if we need to make any major changes for next year.

Day 2 of Week 1

I was advised that it would be a good idea to blog every day this first week of our homeschooling adventure. That way I will have a record of it to look back on later in our journey and remember the beginning.   As we continue after this week, I will probably only blog once a week about our homeschooling. 

After 2 days of homeschooling, I feel tired but fulfilled.  I'm not sleeping at night (it's after midnight now and I'm up writing this) but I don't know if that's because of being nervous about having everything together or what.  It's hard to go to sleep at night.  This morning we got up later than I planned, but I couldn't help thinking that if it was a school morning last year it would have been so stressful and it wasn't at all.  So, I started school in my pajamas...worse things have happened! 

One thing I have planned for Tuesdays is "tea time".  Dh laughed a little when I told him about this ("You had a tea party with your boys?") but he really does get it.  Yes, I put a tablecloth on the table and took out our nice china and a few punch glasses to have blueberry muffins with the boys this morning.  As they ate, I read to them from A.A. Milne's When We Were Very Young.  They really enjoyed it (mostly due to the blueberry muffins, I'm sure) and Ethan says he wants to try hot tea next time.  Maybe I need to hint to someone that I need a set for my birthday.

This afternoon we had our first science lesson.  The lesson was about why we organize things into categories.  Since my background is as a science teacher, it was interesting to get to plan the lesson for my own kids.  I also am accustomed to teaching 11 and 12 year olds, so 7 and 5 was a little different!  I took them to their bedroom and talked to them about how their things are (supposed to be) organized.  The action figures go in this box, the cars go in that box, the airplanes here, etc.  Then we went into the kitchen and talked about how the kitchen is organized and we also discussed how the food is organized in a grocery store.  We went to the library so the boys could pick out their free reading books for the week(also discussed how the books are organized in the library), and when we got back home I had them record a couple of sentences in their science journals about why we organize things into categories.  It took Isaac a while to come up with his sentences, but he finally was able to come up with a good answer.  We are using the book Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding by B. Nebel, and that is where a lot of the ideas for this lesson came from.

I asked the boys today what was different about homeschooling than going to school.  Their responses were:
-"We get to spend more time with Mommy."
-"We don't have to get up and go anywhere, because we're already here."
-"We don't have to go home at a certain time, because we're already home."
-"We don't have to ride a school bus."

Tonight I took Ethan on a date to see the movie Brave.  We really enjoyed having one-on-one time.  I'm looking forward to the rest of the week, and hoping I can get some rest in at some point!

First Day of School 2012!

This is how the boys started their first day of school this year!  They were waiting on breakast and decided to cuddle up on the couch together. 

We had a special treat for breakfast this morning - cinnamon rolls! (On a school day????)

After breakfast, I read our Bible story for today on creation, and then the boys cleaned up and did their chores.  Finally, we settled in for our first stretch of work.  We practiced Isaac's poem from Primary Language Lessons and then I read to them from My America and My World.  Isaac worked on his morning folder (maps, math review, and analogies) while I taught Ethan his math lesson.  While Ethan was working in his math workbook, I went over Isaac's spelling lesson and started him on his assignment. Even though Ethan is working from a first grade math book, he had no trouble with the lesson.  After spelling, Isaac did a handwriting assignment while Ethan and I curled up on the couch for his reading lesson.  This part of the day went much faster than I anticipated, and we actually finished about 15 minutes early.  This just meant that the boys got more playtime because recess was next!

Before I let the boys run off and play, I had to take the traditional first day of school photos!

The boys had about 45 minutes of outside play time, and I joined them for a little catch after I got dinner going in the crock-pot.  By that time, they were ready to come in and cool off, so we cleaned up, got a drink, and got back to work.

This next part of our day actually took longer than I expected, so I had to do some rearranging.  Isaac did great with his math and Ethan flew through his handwriting and got to play on Starfall.  I ran into the problem that Ethan being on the computer was distracting Isaac from doing his math problems, so I need to come up with a solution for what to have E do while Isaac is working on math.  After a little while, I sent him to his room to play with his blocks and things went better after that.  Here is Isaac working in his math workbook.  You can see E's reading words on the chalkboard in the background.

Next we did Isaac's picture lesson in Primary Language Lessons.  I had to work with him a little on answering the questions in complete sentences.  We also started Grammarland.  I expected to have time for Isaac to do his reading before lunch, but it was already lunch time at this point so we took about an hour break for lunch.

After lunch, Isaac re-read (because he also read it the day we brought it home from the library) the book The Treasure by Uri Shulevitz.  He gave it a thumbs-up, especially since the main character shares his name!  I had him create a picture essay to tell the story.  He did a great job, and was able to retell the story to my mom when she stopped by to see how the day went.

Our last official subject of the day was history.  We read the introduction to Story of the World 1: Ancient Times and I asked the boys comprehension questions.  They had a tough time at first answering the questions, but when it came time to give narrations they did pretty well for the first time.  Here is Isaac's narration, which he wrote himself, along with the pocket we made that contains examples of artifacts historians might find.

Ethan gave me his narration orally and I recorded it in his notebook for him.  As his handwriting improves, he will start to write his own narrations as well.

We finished our day by practicing instruments.  Isaac plays violin and Ethan is wanting to learn piano.  Isaac practices out of I Can Read Music , his Suzuki book, A Tune a Day, and music from Star Wars that his teacher gave him.  Ethan is using Pianimals to learn piano.

So at the end of the day, when everything was said and done, Isaac decided to spend his free time drawing the Solar System on the chalkboard and then, when the mail came, opening up the book I ordered for later in our history study - Ms. Frizzle's Adventures Ancient Egypt- and reading it.

And this is....THE BEGINNING!

Beach Time!

This past week our family enjoyed a vacation at a beach house on Bolivar Peninsula along the Texas Gulf Coast.  We had a great week spending time with family and enjoying the beach.  Our beach house had an ocean view in the front and an Audobon bird sanctuary in the back.  The boys enjoyed hunting for seashells and watching the birds.  They got to see live jellyfish and we actually watched a jellyfish eating a fish!

On Thursday we went to Moody Gardens and toured the Rainforest Pyramid, the Aquarium Pyramid, and the Discovery Pyramid, which was showcasing Bodies Revealed.  Isaac said it was "gross" and "cool".  We also watched the  3-D film Wild Ocean. We enjoyed our week, but we were also glad to get home.  Now we have a week to get things done around the house before we start our new school year!