Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Enjoying the weather!

My beautiful puppy, enjoying the wonderful weather we've been having.

5 march 2012 - 18 march 2012 ((weekly wrapup)) x 2

I (mistakenly...) *thought* I had published a weekly update last Sunday. Imagine my surprise when I came to update for this week and... I hadn't.

So this "weekly" wrapup will actually be twice as exciting!

Phonics - We've read through the first three beginner books of Progressive Phonics. I realized this week that we probably could have started with the intermediate books because Jenna is flying through them, but it'll be a good review at least.

Spelling - We finished step 1 and 2 of level 1. Jenna is pretty solid on most of the phonograms, just a little shaky on some of those with multiple sounds (Y is giving her trouble!)

Literature - We've read so much. Our long read-aloud was The Water Horse by Dick King-Smith, which we both enjoyed. We are going to watch the movie and use a venn diagram to compare the differences. This weekend we started reading My Father's Dragon and The Little Princess: Zoey's Story.

Math - Jenna finished up chapter three (addition) in Singapore 1A last week, and we've been doing supplemental worksheets to really solidify addition facts in her head. She's getting really quick with the mental math and I feel good about moving on soon.
Science - We learned about density this week, and you can read a little more about it here.

History - We started SOTW 1 and have gotten through the introduction and first part of chapter 1. Both of us are really enjoying it so far!

Geography - Nothing yet. We'll be starting this week.

Art - Ah, the best of intentions. Art did not get done this week because someone forgot to get the supplies we needed... (duck and cover).

Music - Jenna practices her violin for music. She really seems to "get" it, and loves playing an instrument!

Health - Another subject left undone. I'm not even really sure what to do with this. I feel like we do enough for health just through our conversations about health.

PE - bike riding and running made up the bulk of our physical education.

French - Jenna has been working on Hooked on French. She doesn't really like it much because it is extremely repetitive... the other French program I have is okay, but takes a lot of pre-planning which I don't have time for. I'm considering a switch to Spanish.

Logic - We've been working through Lollipop Logic. Jenna enjoys it and begs to do it everyday!

Handwriting - copywork, copywork, copywork. :)

World Cultures - nothing. nada. rien. I needed more time to prepare for this subject!

Keyboarding - Dance Mat Typing. It's fun for Jenna, easy for Mommy... what more could you ask for?

Poetry - I picked up The Random House Book of Poetry for Children from the library and we've been reading a page or two of poems Tuesday and Thursday.

Journaling - Jenna has responded to two journal prompts: Draw a picture of you doing your favorite thing (she chose dancing) and Trace and decorate a picture of your hand (she turned it into a turkey).

Of course this is just a really quick review of what we've done, there are little things I'm sure I'm missing. It sure seems like a lot, but Jenna seems to be thriving on school every day. Today I thought we'd take a day off, and after dinner she was begging for school!

5 march 2012 - 18 march 2012 ((science))

This week we learned about density. 
First we filled a jar with molassas, water, and oil to see what would float and what would sink.

We also used chalk shavings to do marble painting. Jenna loved this project and wanted to do it again today!

To wrap up the week, we collected things on our nature walk and did a final experiment with density. What we learned is that most of the natural things we found on our walk floated- the only item from nature that sank for us was a rock!

This week we'll be learning about crystals and colors, and trying to grow our own rock candy!

Monday, March 19, 2012

5 march 2012 - 18 march 2012 ((history))

We had so much fun with history this week! We started SOTW 1, and are halfway through chapter one.
We started (appropriately!) with the introduction, finding out what history and archaeology are, and have now started learning about the very earliest peoples.

Here is Jenna doing her archaeological dig. I went out while she was busy and buried some things in the yard. Then we dug them up and discussed what we could learn from them. 

 The same day we started the chapter on the first nomads and did mock cave paintings. This was a much loved activity... Jenna spent a long time on her painting.
We also looked at numerous archaeology books (mostly just for the images, although we did read a couple of excerpts). Our favorite book from this period was Little Grunt and the Big Egg: A Prehistoric Fairy Tale, a cute story about a caveboy and his pet dinosaur.

We are both excited to get to the next chapter and start learning about the Egyptians!

2012 - first grade, what we use

First Grade, and what we're using.
Since we've been doing school very on and off all year, I've decided to count 1st grade from the beginning of March until the end of August this year. I think we can get enough done in 6 months to count as first grade, then we can be on track to finish up in May each year (which is my goal. I'd like to run from June-May. I think finishing in May, with the public school schedule, will be beneficial.)
So, anyways, here's what we're using, and when we're using it. (For now. There's a chance this could change as the year goes on!) Also, the "when" should be taken as a guideline... scheduled things can and do get pushed back to the following day, and the day following that, and the day following that!

Phonics - Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday. Jenna and I are reading through Progressive Phonics together. She loves that we are reading together, and I love that it works (and it's free!)

Spelling - Monday, Wednesday, Friday we spend 15-20 minutes on All About Spelling, level 1.

Literature - Every day! (Well, we aim for everyday.) This is mostly bedtime read-alouds.

Math - Monday through Friday, and occasionally weekends also. Instead of doing longer lessons, I'd rather do math Saturday and Sunday also with shorter lessons. We're using Singapore 1A as our spine, supplementing with Miquon (if I can ever figure it out...).

Science - Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, using Elemental Science-Intro to Science, and weekly nature study.

History - Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday using Story of the World 1.

Geography - Only on Mondays, using Evan-Moor Beginning Geography as an easy intro to geography

Art - Sundays. No program, just doing an art project a week.

Music - We aim for 7 days a week practicing the violin, but generally get in 4-5.

Health - In my state, we have to teach health as a subject, so on Saturdays we'll do something health related. This is, of course, on top of regular discussions about staying healthy.

PE - For structured activity, Jenna takes dance lessons for 1.5 hours a week, as well as attending a homeschool gym class for an hour a week. And then, you know, she's a kid. Park days, riding the bike, running around with the dog in the back yard... it all counts.

French - :lesigh: This subject.... well. We aim for 5 days a week, Monday through Friday, but it never happens. The interest is there, Jenna really wants to learn French, we just haven't found an effective method of teaching it. For now, she uses Hooked on French and together we do L'art de dire, but neither program is sticking or any fun. I'd like to put together a program, but of course, I don't have time. We may switch to Spanish for the availability of curriculums.

Logic - Monday using Lollipop Logic and playing Chess together.

Handwriting - Monday through Friday. Jenna can form all her letters, just needs some practice, so we're using copywork to practice forming the letters correctly.

World Cultures - I'm putting together unit studies for the weekends. On Saturdays and Sundays we'll study one country a week.

Keyboarding - Monday, Wednesday, Friday using Dance Mat Typing.

Poetry - Tuesday/Thursday, we're reading poems. Pretty simple. Also, once a week Jenna is drawing a picture about one of the poems.

Journaling - Wednesday and Sunday. For now, I have Jenna responding to prompts by drawing, eventually I hope to switch to written prompts.

Wow! After writing out all those subjects... we're doing quite a bit. It certainly doesn't feel like that much, maybe because it's quite a bit of reading together as opposed to worksheets. Also, many of the subjects only take a short time each week (example: poetry, which only really takes about 20 minutes a week.)

Monday, March 5, 2012

Accountability.

I have a problem. I lack follow-through. I have so many ideas for things I want to do with my daughter but just never seem to get around to them. For one, life is busy. Very, very busy. For two... I didn't realize that adulthood=almost constant fatigue. It seems I'm always tired! (It may have something to do with that very, very busy life we lead but....)

So. Here's my blog. I figure, if nothing else, I can shame myself into getting things done when I look back over the blog and see how nothing has been posted and feel pity for my poor, neglected child. (Okay, that was sarcasm. She is anything but neglected.)

My blog has a second purpose though. We live far away from most of the people we love. So, through my blog, I'd like to share what's going on in our lives with the people that I should do a better job of keeping in touch with but don't. (And don't tell me this is the lazy way, I KNOW that, but.... it's so... easy....)

Well. Here goes nothing.