Week 6 (just a little late)

Time is flying by here with the Heathens! With our theater troup starting back up, we have been very very busy here.

During Week 6 we hosted a playgroup in our home. It has been great having some of the younger children in our homeschooling group come over and just play. Fifi has made some wonderful new friends around her age! (finally) We also hosted a Tween Movie Night, which brought tweens all the way from Painsville to watch the Harry Potter movies! I think my friend Willow was more excited about these then the tweens lol. Lola is excited that these events have such a great turn out. Lastly, Nacho taught an art class to the group. Five families can and learned how to draw cartoon characters step by step. I love the idea of student led classes because they not only allow the teens in our group a chance to teach, but it gives the moms in the group a chance to sit and chat. We also went to our theater troup's read though. Our schedules are getting busier but we love it!

In week 6 Coco worked with:
Spelling- we wrote the words 3 times each, wrote sentences, wrote a newspaper article using at least 8 words and did a word search I made on www.theteacherscorner.net.
Language Arts- we worked with determiners. We worked with her Language Arts text book, her Scholastic Success workbook and her Comprehensive Curriculum workbook.
Math- we started working with Rounding and Estimating numbers. We used worksheets from www.abcteach.com, our Comprehensive Curriculum workbook and worksheets I made.
Science- we worked with measurements in Science. We used our Comprehensive Curriculum workbook and our Physical Science text book.
Social Studies- we are learning about Vikings as explorers. Being that we are Normandic Wiccans, we have tons and tons of information about Vikings. We also used print outs from www.enchantedlearning.com.
Journaling- we are working on writing longer journal entries. I am correcting them at the end of the day so she is now able to see the spelling and grammar errors. We are covering topics like - "What would you do if you had $100?", "What is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for you?", and "If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?"
We also made Personality Spirals, these are a spiral of construction paper cut with cut outs from different magazine of pictures of things that they think represents them. We then hung them up in our classroom. I will post pictures of them tomorrow.

In week 6 Fifi worked with:
Spelling- we learned the color words. We did color by numbers, wrote each word twice, and completed workbook pages from our Comprehensive Curriculum . We also played a game where we put a bunch of crayons in a bag and she had to pull a crayon and then put the right color on a poster board with the words spelt out on it.
Language Arts- we worked with complete sentences and what they are comprised of. We worked in our Scholastic Success workbooks, our Comprehensive Curriculum workbooks and with pages printed from www.instructorweb.com
Phonics, we are still working in our Hooked On Phonics workbook for Grade 1. We learned more rhyming words and to sound out the difference between Bs and Vs at the beginning of the words.
Math- we are working on counting by 2s. We used our Scholastic Success workbook and played games (hop scotch and made up cheerleading cheers)
Science- we started learning about giraffes. We read stories about them and worked with the printout pages from www.enchantedlearning.com We also made hardened paper beads that look like giraffes and made necklaces. I got one for my birthday!
Social Studies- we are still working with maps with our Scholastic Success Map for Grade 1 workbook. We made a map of the park using a key and worked more with directionals. We also talked about the Wiccan directional color associations. She is now coloring North green, South red, West blue and East yellow on every page lol.

Lola is still doing very very well with OHVA. She loves the workload and the teachers. We are doing alot of work with the Italian Renaissance both in art and history. She is reading A Wrinkle in Time by M Engle. I bought her the audio copy so we could listen to it during the day on the computer and she read the hard copy at night. OHVA doesn't really have a study guide or any quizzes, so I printed her one from www.coreknowledge.com This gives her a chance to work with vocabulary words from the book, do character summaries and state her opinions about the storylines.

Nacho is really doing well with his new curriculum. While I do have to sit at his desk with him the entire 4 hours, the work I'm getting from him is the best work Ive seen in three years of homeschooling.

In Math he is working with Number Lines. We are still using his Algebra 1 math book from K-12. His weekly average is 94%
In Science he is still working with power and energy. We are still using Holts Physical Science and printables from www.teachervision.fen.com His weekly average is 100%
In Health he is working on Personalities. We are still using his Health book from Prentice Hall. His weekly average is 83% (We still have an issue with writing out his answers in complete sentences and loses points off his grades for those errors)
In Social Studies he is learning about Religious Intolerance in Europe. He did a worksheet from www.teachervision.fen.com and wrote a paragraph about a specific incident. His weekly average is 81%
In Language Arts he is working on types of sentences. He is still using his Language Arts book from K-12. His weekly average is 98%
In Spanish he worked with a new vocabulary list and congregating standard ar, er, and ir verbs. His weekly average is 95%
He also attended an anime class at the Stark Main Library and was placed on the make up committee with the Stark County Little Theater Troup.

Week 5 Busy Busy Busy

When asked what her favorite part of this week was, I expected Coco to say the hike at Quail Hollow State Park yesterday. Instead she said it was emailing back and forth with her pen pal DJ. She wrote to him Monday and he responded right away. I love the idea of a pen pal because she is not only making a friend (in this case keeping a long distance friend) but she is learning spelling, writing and the art of conversation. Each letter between the two is less then 6 sentences long but they are a start.

This week with Coco we...
In Explorers (Social Studies) we started our unit on Vasco de Gama. We read a bunch of stories about him, completed a worksheet from www.enchantedlearning.com and posted his card of fun facts on our timeline. We also mapped out his voyage on our giant wall map.

In Language Arts we worked with identifying parts of speech. We used our Language Arts 4 (Laidlaw) and our Scholastic Success 4th Grade Grammar book.

In Math we finished up our Subtraction Review, completing worksheets made on www.theteacherscorner.net. Coco is just not a big fan of math, so I let her use my Expo markers and my hanging white board and she wrote out the problems and completed them on the board. When using the white board, she was considerably better at solving the problems.

In Science we are learning about measurements in Science. We are using our Physical Science book (Holt) and a few pages from her Comprehensive Curriculum Grade 4 book. We also printed a few worksheets from www.instructorweb.com
For fun, Coco picked a random science experiment from her book of experiments and made a volcano! It was simple, messy and fun!

We are still working on finishing the 38 page Stuart Little review. It was due today but we have 6 pages left so we will work on it over the weekend. I found it on www.teacherpayteachers.com for $2 and its perfect for us.

In Journaling this week we wrote about Going to the Fair, Making Coffee (how to), Going to Quail Hollow State Park, and we made cards for my mother, my grandmother and my grandfather. We also made birthday cards for Nacho in art class this week.

For PE this week, we went hiking at Quail Hollow. With 6 families from our homeschool group in attendance, we hiked a little over a mile through the woods. We followed that up by playing on the playground.

Fifi's went very well too!
In Spelling we worked on the colors. We used our 100 Words Your First Grader Should Know workbook and our Comprehensive Curriculum Grade 1 book. We also did some color by numbers.

In Language Arts, we worked on word order in sentences from our Scholastic Success Grammar book and our Comprehensive Curriculum book. We spent a lot of time writing out entire sentences.

In Phonics we worked on ending sounds of words (at, an, in, it...) using our Hooked on Phonics Grade 1 workbook

In Math, we started counting by 2s. We played games(2 4 6 8 who do we appreciate) We also worked with our Scholastic Success Grade 1 Math workbook.

In Science we worked with elephants. We used worksheets from www.enchantedlearning.com and read books about elephants. I found a great graph art project that made an elephant.

In Social Studies, we worked with maps in our Scholastic Success Maps workbook and we also learned about Mabon with our Our Pagan Family workbook.

Fifi also made cards for our family and wrote a short story (with my help) about her family... with pictures!

All in all this was a nice week. We got alot done, got fresh air and exercise, and have the whole weekend ahead of us to just relax!

So Proud of My Nacho!!

This concludes Nacho's first week of traditional homeschooling for high school. I couldnt be more impressed with his effort and enthusiam for the curriculum we created!

This week he completed:
Algerba 1- Using Algebra 1 by K-12
Review of Variable Expressions ~ 100%
Working with Variables~ 100%
Translating Word Equations~ 80%
Replacement Sets~ 100%
Week in Review Quiz~ 100%

Language Arts- Using Language for the 21st Century (Prentice Hall) and worksheets from www.teachervision.fen.com
Proper Sentence Structure~ 98%
Subject and Predicate Agreements~ 100%
Writing a Paragraph in Steps~ 84%
Punctuation Review~ 100%
Writing a Presuasive Paragraph~ 90%

Physical Science- Using Physical Sciene (Holt)
Work and Power (Chapt 8, Sect 1) + Vocab~ 100%
What is A Machine (Chapt 8, Sect 2) + Vocab~ 100%
More Power to You- experiment~ 100%
Mechanical Advantage (worksheet)~ 100%

Social Studies- Using www.teachervision.fen.com
Learning how to Research a Topic~ not graded
The Blitz of London (worksheet)~ 28%
The Blitz of London (redo worksheet)~ 100% = 64%
Write a Research Paragraph about the Blitz~ 90%

Health- Using Health (Prentice Hall)
Quality of Life~ 60% (not complete sentences, wrong page set up)
Risk Factors~ 100%
Causes of Death in Young People~ 90% (incomplete answer but well written)

Begin reading Robinson Crusoe. Study guide from www.coreknowledge.com
Study Guide Chapter 1~ 80%
Study Guide Chapter 2~ 100%

Spanish 2- Using Primsleur's Spanish II and Spanish Verbs by Vivianne Bey
Lesson 1~ not graded
Lesson 2~ not graded
Present Tense Verb Conjegation~ 90%
Verbs (worksheet)~ 90%
Lesson 3~ not graded

Unlike previous years, this is high school. Nacho is suddenly required to write out his answers, using complete sentences. He is required to set up his answer pages by certain specification. He is being graded this time.

For those of you whom I speak with everyday, yes I have to sit at his desk with him and keep him on task. Four hours everyday of reading my own book, looking up every 15minutes. If I walk away for any reason, I lose him. LOL But with results like these, its totally worth it, dont you think?

4th Week of School in Review

LOL, we didnt have any classroom time this week. We went on 3 field trips, went to theater auditions (twice lol), and battled a stomach bug...

Sunday we spent the day at the Stark County Fair. Aside from the food (which is lethal but YUMMY) we went on rides, saw an Argentine circus, watched a few animal shows, pet a million farm animals, donated blood....

We Knew He'd Do It...

Nacho decided on Labor Day that he had had enough of OHVA and we withdrew him. We then rushed and in 48 hours created an entire curriculum for him that meets state requirements...

Because we are moving to Connecticut in 5 months, and that meant 16 weeks of school (giving a week for Thanksgiving and two weeks for Christmas) This is Nacho's 16 week curiculum:

Language Arts: Using English Language Handbook (Senn and Skinner 2008), Robinson Caruso (Daniel Defoe 1719) The Jungle Book (Rudyard Kipling 1894) and Great Expectations (Charles Dickens 1860)--
coreknowledge.org/.../teacher%20guides/Robinson%20Crusoe%20TG.pdf
http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-jungle-book/
http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-greatexpectations/

1)The Sentence
2)Nouns, Pronouns, Verbs
3)Other Parts of Speech Review
4)Complements
5)Phrases, Verbal Phrases, Clauses
6) Using Verbs and Pronouns
7) Writing a Letter
8) Writing a Paragraph
9) Writing an Essay
10) Writing a Research Paper
11) Writing a Persuasive Arguement
12) Speech and Debate Writing
13) Making a Documentary
14) Making a Documentary
15) Writing a News Article/Blog
16) ------ getting ready for PS

Physical Science: Using Holt Science and Technology Physical Science, Physical Science A Labratory Guide (a K-12 book I bought at a book sale), www.teachervision.fen.com (again TOTALLY worth the $40 a year!!)
1) Work and Machines
2) Types of Machines- Simple Machines
3) Complex Machines
4) Forms of Energy
5) Engery
6) Energy Resources
7) Temperature and Heat
8) Matter and Heat
9) Heat Technology
10)Atomic Theory
11)Periodic Table
12)Chemical Bonding
13)Chemical Reactions
14)Chemical Compounds
15)Atomic Energy
16)Review and Midterms

*Each week he will do book work Monday and Thursday, worksheets from www.teachervision.fen.com Fridays, vocabulary on Tuesdays and and expirement from the book on Wednesdays

Algebra 1: Using Algebra 1 (Prentice Hall)and http://www.kutasoftware.com/free.html
1)Reviewing Equations
2)Problem Solving
3)Properties of Real Numbers
4)Comparing Expressions
5)Distributive Properties
6)Operations w/ Real Numbers
7)Reciprocals and Division
8)Solve Equations and Inequalities
9)Transforming Formulas
10)Applications- Cost Problems
11)Combined Inequalities
12)Applying Franctions
13)More Fractions
14)Linear Equations and Inequalities
15)Slope
16)Review and Midterm

Social Studies: Using www.teachervision.fen.com only
Nacho hates Social Studies so we picked 16 topics that should be taught in the 9th grade and will address one per week...
1) The Blitz of London
2)Hunger Around the World
3)Religious Intolerance in Europe
4)European Monarchy
5)The War of the Roses
6)Women's Sufferange
7) The Ghandis
8) The Kennedys
9)Historic Massacres
10)Fenian Movement
11)Edison's Inventions
12)Samuel Morse and Revolution in Communications
13)Man-Made Explosions
14)The Controversy of Nuclear Weapons
15)Serendity in Science
16) The Marshall Plan

*Each week he will do research on the specific subject on Monday, a printed worksheet on Wednesday and write a paragraph on the subject on Friday.

Japanese: Using Primsleurs Japanesse, www.livemocha.com, NTC Basic Japanese Level 1 Workbook (McGraw-Hill)
*Each day Mon-Fri he will listen to a lesson, repeating as prompted and completing a page from the workbook. On Fridays he will play on www.livemocha.com

Health: Using Health Skills for Wellnesss (Prentice Hall 2001) and www.teachersvision.fen.com
1)You and Your Family
2)Building Healthy Relationships
3)Preventing Violence
4)Reproducation and Heredity
5)Pregnancy and Birth
6)Childhood and Adolescnece
7)Adulthood, Aging and Death
8)Food and Nutrition
9)Movement and Coordination
10)Excersise, Rest and Recreation
11)Personal Care
12)Substance Abuse
13)Preventing Disease
14)Enviromental and Community Health
15)Saftey and First Aid
16)Review and Midterm

Week 3- A Week In Review

This week has just gone by so fast. Its Friday and, I realized I havent blogged all week. One of our biggest pieces of news is: WE ARE MOVING BACK TO CONNECTICUT IN JANUARY!!! We are all so homesick, its just time to go home. My very good friend Brenda will be taking over Canton Area Homeschoolers more and more as we get closer to the date and I will be helping her set up outside activites through the rest of the year. I will still be helping my extra students long distance as well.

Nacho's week... His online charter school has had many many computer issues. The foreign language courses are down and reset, so no Japanese this week. I did get my first chance to see his progress yesterday and apartently, he is not doing as well as he thought. I have made a few calls today and, starting next week, he will have an English tutor and a general tutor coming to the house once a week each to help him.

Lola is in San Fransisco this week!! I put my baby on a plane all by herself yesterday and she arrived safely in California. So far she has swan in the Pacific Ocean, sightsaw from Twin Peaks, gone shopping, cooked dinner and slept. She will be home on the 8th.
As far as school wise, the same online charter school that is messing with Nacho, has lost her major math test and she will need to retake the test when she gets home. She and I are both annoyed, as she has already taken this test, stressed over this test and now she has to take it again. Her French is also gone, as it is the same course site. She has been keeping up with her French using Primsleur's French CDs and some workbook pages I printed for her last school year.

Coco just amazes me more and more each week. We do have an issue with the homeschooling office at the BOE, as they rejected her notification. I didnt get her an assesment (and more then likely wont be this year either) I have called the office and the man in charge is on vacation until next week... another battle for another time.
Heres what shes been doing this week:
In her Daily Drills book, she has moved from daily language arts excerises to daily math excersises... lets just say, she was not excited lol
In spelling, she put her words in ABC order on Monday and put the same words in sentences on Tuesday. On Wednesday, she corrected her sentences. Today was her test and she got 100%
cloud quest flax still trim door clung loft pulp grape pose
*Best Spelling Sentence of the Week Award*
I have four cheeks on my body.
In Social Studies, we learned about Burkes and Willis, who were Australian explorers from the 1800s. We read a page from www.enchantedlearning.com and completed a worksheet from the same site. We had a hard time finding a book about them at the library, but our Usborne book had a short story. We also wrote out their info cards and posted them on the timeline, as well as marking their voyage on the great wall map.
In Language Arts, we worked with sentence parts. We worked in the Scholastic Success Grammar book, the Comprehensive Curriculum book and on our Laidlaw Language Arts 4 book.
In Math, we started reviewing subtraction. I printed all the pages from www.theteacherscorner.net.
In Science, we are working with using Scientific Models. We used worksheets from www.teachervision.fen.com and www.instructorweb.com and we did a science expierement using eggs and vinegar that will be posted in a later blog entry.

Fifi has been less enthusiastic about school so, in true homeschooling mom style, I snuck it in via games, tv and storybooks.
In spelling, we used week 4 of 100 words your 1st grader should know. We wrote them in ABC order, wrote them 3 times each and made up oral sentences with the words. We also did the three workbook pages that correlate with the words.
In Social Studies, we are finishing up our Scholastic Success Maps book and for our final project we made a map of our neighborhood showing streets, directionals and keys for parks, buildings and wooded areas.
In Language Arts, we worked with making complete sentences. We used our Scholastic Success Grammar book and pages from www.teacherspayteachers.com We also spent alot of time writing out sentences to help her with her penmanship.
In Phonics we worked on tongue twisters, and words with the "an" and "at" sounds.
In Math, we have given up on working with money. She is just not getting it at this point. We have moved the lessons around to work with addition and subtraction. We also played with counting by 1s, 2s and 5s with our Scholastic Success Math workbook, and Disneys 1st grade Math. We also spent some time over the weekend and Thursday working with plotting coordinates and graph art. Both girls love it!

On Thursday we went to our first day at the Stark County Fair and saw all kinds of farming animals. We will be going back on Sunday for a full day. Be sure to come back Monday to see the pictures!!

A bunch of pics

Fifi's Spelling sentences... such a huge improvement!

One of the latest art projects from the K-6 art curriculum I had posted previously.

Coco at the Stark County Fair petting a baby goat. (by B. Muhleman)

Fifi loving a baby chick at the Stark County Fair (by B. Muhleman)

Worm Terrarium

If you have a wholesale store
like Costco, BJ's or Sam's club they usually sell pretzels in a large plastic barrell. Empty the pretzels out of the container (save them to give to the kids as snacks). Drill about 4-6 small holes into the bottom of the container and 4-6 holes at the top of the container. Simply fill the bottom 1/4 of the container with shredded newspaper; then add about 1/4 of granulated sand; next
add a mixture of soil, wet leaves/lettuce to the container. You can either buy earthworms at a bait shop or dig them out of a compost pile. You will want to make sure that the container is draining properly so you may wish to purchase a plastic tray the kind you put under planting pots. This will allow the water to drain out of the container. You have to make sure that the container stays moist for the worms to survive. eventually, the worms will break down the leaves and lettuce and you will have your very own composting bin and fresh soil! You may need to add more leaves/lettuce (which was donated by the cafeteria) as the worms eat. You can add just about any kind of vegetable except for citrus fruits. The kids that I worked with loved to watch the worms travel around the bin. They even got to see the baby worms that had been produced in our bin. I did a mini-lesson on worms to go along with the composting bin. Each student got their very own worm to investigate and then place into the bin. At the end of the unit, we carefully emptied the container into the school's garden. I hope this intrigues! Good luck!

Week 2 Up and Running!

Yesterday was Nacho's first day of OHVA which is Ohio's Virtual Academy. It was also his first day of High School. I don't think either of us were ready for that, but we survived. His whole first day was nothing be online welcomes and orientations. He has to log onto these specific chat-like rooms and listen to the teacher. At the end of day two, his biggest complaint is that the other students in the Class Chats were rude and annoying. (HMMM very similar to a tradition b & m school...)

Lola is still moving right along. She is enjoying her math class which is rare for Lola. She completed her Scantron testing for her online school yesterday and asked me to let her do her other assignments listed for that day (I had told her she didn't have to if she was tired from testing)

Coco is still amazing me everyday. She has done everything I have planned without fail and spent all weekend asking for more school work...
Here's whats shes done yesterday and today:
DDs- pages 56 and 57 working on pairing and classifications
Spelling- wrote 3 xs each and made them into sentences
clip hate tape race mire kite bank fell pink hilt
Language Arts- using her book we covers pages 22-25 making statements questions and different types of questions.
Journaling- we wrote about how to handle different kinds of stress and how to build a terrarium (because we are building a soda bottle worm terrarium)
Explorers- Juan Ponce de Leon, we've read a bio about him from www.enchantedlearning.com and another one from our US History workbook
Math- we are reviewing double digit addition. We had some problems yesterday when Coco realized she had forgotten how to do them. It only took a minute or two on the white board and she is back on track. I make the worksheets on www.theteacherscorner.net
Science- we have started learning about the scientific method using our text book and worksheets from www.instructorweb.com
French- we work on the worksheets I created and listened to lessons 2 and 3 of Primsleur 2

Fifi is working on:
DD- CC1 pages 44 and 50
Spelling- Using 100 words your 1st grader should know, lesson 2 pages 8 and 9
am jump down fast have I in me my off on out play ran run up
Language Arts- Using SS Grammar book we did pages 7, 8 and 9 and then wrote out the sentences form page 9 on ABC paper. This week we are working with capitals at the beginning and punctuation at the end of sentences.
Phonics- still in the Hooked on Phonics grade 1 workbook, we did page 7 and 8
Math- Still working with money, we worked in out money workbook pages 8 and 9
Science- Starting Zebras this week, we did our activity from www.enchantedlearning.com and then we read some books about zebras from the library. I was so proud when she then explained to nacho that he is an omnivore and zebras are herbivores...
Since Fifi's day only lasts about 2 hours, I have been searching for movies for her to watch to kill time while I'm working with Coco. I rediscovered the Leap Frog series and watched the entire (all 5) series two days in a row now. I have an Animal Planet video for tomorrow about zebras.

Thursday is our first gym class at the Stark County Fairgrounds. We will be playing kickball. What I haven't told the heathens, Thursday night we are going to an Akron Aeros game cause they are playing the New Britain Rock Cats (as in New Britain CT) Thats a close to home as we will get for a little while.

Any questions or comments should be directed to paganpinup@yahoo.com
Thanks,
Dani

Puzzle Art Project

Really Getting into a Grove

We have had such a great week so far! Day 3 of our new school year and the girls are still so excited about their new lessons and projects. I am sneaking off the blog this as they are doing an impromptu art project. (I will post the project and the pictures when they are done)

Lola is moving right along with OHVA. We have run into a few stumbling blocks. Her French isn't listed on her daily schedule. We ended up noticing yesterday that she hasn't even done any of it, only to log on today to find the program isnt working right. We then took our own Primsluers French CDs and listened to a few lessons all together. I plan to wait until her online school actually starts before I ask any questions. I could just be because she started their program so early.
I am however, so very proud of how well she is doing in math. Those summer time math drills really are paying off!
Coco seems to be working harder and faster this year compared to last. I hate to admit shes having a better start without Mimi here. We are both enjoying her Daily Drills book (Daily Learning Drills by Brighter Child) and I am getting much less resistance to writing sentences than ever before.
In the last two days we have done:
DD pages 50 and 233
Spelling- correcting sentences and a word scramble (made at www.theteacherscorner.net
Language Arts- textbook pages 18 and 19 and CC page 294 (types of sentences)
Explorers- we marked the journeys of Daniel Boone on our US map and worked on some vocabulary words using a grid worksheet I found on www.teacherspayteachers.com
(settlers, wilderness, pioneer, frontier, exploits, treaty)
Math- SS pages 7 and 8. We are still working on comparing numbers and place values
Science- We started working on our weekly worksheets I made from the textbook. I will be using the same text book and worksheets with another student starting next week so Coco will actually be a week ahead of him.
French- we have been working with the vocabulary worksheets I made and we have also been listening to the Primsluers CDs with Lola.
Reading- we are still reading Stuart Little but its not really holding her interest. I have found some great character worksheets on www.teacherspayteachers.com and those seem to hold more of her attention.

Fifi more interested in school this year as well. She is still transitioning from K to 1st grade but is grasping 90% of the work she is being giving.
Our main issue with Fifi is that she is worried about not having any friends. She has playmates from the neighborhood, but no other homeschooling friends in her grade or her age. We are working on setting up some new playdates and 8 more families joined our homeschooling group in the past week!
I will post tomorrow what she has been working on this week.

As a side note, I have found many many audio and ebooks both educational and reading for enjoyment. Lola is trying to read The Hobbit with the audio book reading along with her. (Its not working well lol) Nacho is reading Animal Farm by George Orwell as an ebook and it seems to be working better for him than it was as a paperback.... If are looking for anything specific let me know.

Dani

First Day of School

Today is our first full day of school for everyone except Nacho. His courses haven't loaded yet with OHVA so, he gets to wait another week.
Lola is very much enjoying the full course load of OHVA's 7th grade. She is weeks ahead already. It is proving to be more difficult time wise though. I had hoped by using an online school, she wouldn't need as much hands on teaching, but Lola being Lola, she likes my attention so she "forgets" how to do things.
Today for Coco:
Daily Drills we used our Daily Drills workbook and complete pages 40 and 41 about acronyms
Spelling- we wrote spelling sentences together. Each sentence must be 5 words or more, with capitals and punctuation. I try to encourage sentences that show she knows what the words mean. (I get my spelling lists from www.aaaspell.com) She also played a game with her spelling words on www.aaaspell.com
free spin band pack bath dock gold pipe club shop
Language Arts- we used our Language Arts book and complete pages 15- 7 about Word Order
Journaling- Coco wrote a paragraph (4 sentences, 5 words long each with punctuation and capitals) about what she wants to do this school year differently than she did last year. I will post it later.
Math- Using her Scholastic Success Math workbook, we did pages 5 and 6 about Comparing Numbers
Science- Using our Physical Science 4th grade workbook, we did page 126 learning about what Physical Science is.
French- we are using Primsleurs French lesson A and worksheets I made. She listened to a lesson twice and did the worksheet.

Fifi-
Daily Work- Using her Comprehensive Curriculum she did page 16 about Following Directions
Spelling- we put her words in ABC order and she did pages 4 and 5 of 100 Words You Should Know by 1st Grade.
a an as at boy by girl goes has he is it little she the to was
Language Arts- Using Scholastic Success Grammar, we did page 4 about Capitalization
Social Studies- Using Scholastic Success Maps Grade 1, we did pages 2 and 3
Phonics- Using Hooked on Phonics 1st Grade, we did page 2
Math- Using Scholastic Success Math Grade 1, we did page 1 about Money
Science- we did a worksheet about Lions from www.enchantedlearning.com

All three girls are starting their required reading tonight as well.
Lola is reading Treasure Island
Coco is reading Stuart Little
Fifi is reading Rainbow Fish
I found some great quizzes and study guides on www.teacherspayteachers.com

Fifi's 1st Grade Curriculum- Science

It took me a few weeks (okay more then a month) to realize I had never made a Science curriculum for Fifi. I was so convinced I was done LOL. I have everything printed out, binders created, supplies bought... And then the realization came crashing down around me.

So, after questioning my little girl about what she would like to learn... I gave her a choice of animals, natures (trees and flowers), or Earth (a mini version of Earth Science). She chose animals, so here is what I put together today. (Hehe, I did put together an entire curriculum and all 38 lesson plans together today... and Im braggin')

Monday- introduce the animal and read the bio provided by the worksheet from http://www.enchantedlearning.com/ The worksheets will be put in her Science binder. I did also find Continental Animal booklets on the site, that encourage her to write a sentence about each animal found on a specific continent.
Tuesday- talk about the habitat the animal comes from, what it eats, how it breeds, where in the world we would be able to find it... We will also come up with 5 vocabulary words about that animal.
Wednesday- we will draw a picture of where the animal lives noting its main foods and surroundings. This will also be placed in her binder.
Thursday- we will write the 5 vocabulary words and define them on paper. I made vocab worksheets that are printable with 5 blank spaces for the words and 5 lines for the definitions. This way they can be put in her Science binder.
Fridays- we will do a coloring page about the animal and read a story about each animal from the library. I have a rough list of the stories and not all are non fiction.

1) Lions
2) Zebras
3) Ostriches
4) Rhinoceros
5) African Elephants and Asian Elephants
6) Giraffes
7) Chimpanzees
8) Cheetahs
9) Gorillas (and finish the Africa booklet from EL which I am counting as a test grade)
10) Parrots
11) Penguins (both African and South American)
12) Llamas and Alpacas
13) Camels
14) Beavers and Capybaras
15) Pandas
16) Snow leopards
17) Tigers
18) Yaks
19) Storks
20) Sun bears
21) Monkeys (specifically Asian monkeys ending the Asian booklet as a test)
22) Crocodiles and Alligators
23) Flamingos
24) Frogs and Toads
25) Owls
26) Kangaroos
27) Armadillos
28) Buffalo and Bison
29) Chinchillas
30) Squirrels, Chipmunks, and Picas
31) Pigs, Hogs, and Javelinas
32) Rabbits and Hares
33) Manatees
34) Sea Lions
35) Caribou
36) Horses
37) Bears (finishing the North American booklet graded as a test)
38) Finishing the Australian booklet as a test grade

Arts and Crafts Curriculum Grades 1 and 4

I cant recommend the Mailbox Magazine enough. Its very expensive so I borrow them from my library. I just picked up The Best of The Mailbox Magazines Arts and Crafts for K-6 at our library this week and I am soo excited.

Here is our new 36 week curriculum for the 09-10 school year. I will be doing these projects on Tuesdays with both Coco and Fifi (ages 9 and 5).

1) Name Design Posters- On one 8 x 11 sheet of white art paper have your child color the background completely with crayons or pastels. Rather then drawing a picture, have them just fill the entire page in with a design. On a separate 8 x 11 sheet of white art paper, have them write their names in bubble letters and trace a border around the edges of the entire name. Color the letters in with any design... Cut out the name around the border and glue the name onto the first sheet of paper. Let dry and hang above their desk area.

2) Patchwork Elephants- On an 8 x 11 sheet of poster board (I buy the big sheets and cut them at home, its more economical) create a 16 piece grid. (4 x 4 boxes) with a ruler. Have your child color in each box with a different design. Cut according to the picture above. Use the bottom rectangle to make an ear flap and tail. Use a marker to add an eye and tie some yarn around the elephants trunk.

We laminated ours so the kids could then put post it notes for things to remember...

3) Grandparents Day Magnets- September 9th is Grandparents Day and one of the things we love to do for my grandmother is make her updated picture magnets. This is a very simple project. We buy a sheet of magnet paper at the office supply store. Then we print them with wallet sized pictures. Once printed we make Popsicle stick frames around the edges of the pictures that we have decorated and dried before gluing on.

4) Split Personalities- This is one of the harder art classes but it does help build drawing skills and self esteem (well at least Coco's lol) We start by going through one of my magazines for a picture showing a full sized face. We then cut the face down the center and glue one half of the face onto an 8 x 11 sheet of white art paper. Then with markers we attempt to draw the other half of the face. We have also tried this with pictures of ourselves that we printed on plain computer paper (photo paper is expensive) and draw the other halves of ourselves.

5) Apple Prints- This is an oldie but a goodie. We go on a field trip to the orchard every September. When we get home we set aside our apples for different projects.. pies, sauces, dried chips... and art.

With our art apples we simply slice them in half. Then on a 8 x 11 sheet of white art paper we stamp the apple pieces onto the paper. I have found through trial and error that for less mess we use colored stamp pads vs paint. Make sure you cut your apples horizontally not vertically, it makes a prettier pattern.

6) Personalized Spirals- Starting with any color of regular construction paper, cut a 8 inch in diameter circle. Then take the circle and with a marker, start at the center and draw a spiral outwards. Don't make too tight of a spiral. Cut along the marker line making a spiral. Then have your child use extra pieces of construction paper to make "ornaments" we even use magazine clippings of things that they love or that represent them. Glue the extra pieces onto the spiral to make a mobile of sorts. Hang them by the very center of the beginning circle in your classroom.

7) Stuffed Owls-

8) Corn Mosaics -This is one of my favorites!! We buy big bags of popcorn kernels at the grocery store. Then we bring them home and put them in piles (handfuls... 8 of them)on cardboard in our driveway. Then I (the adult) spray paint them bright colors (or fall colors this year lol). I leave them on the cardboard to dry, be sure to move them around to prevent them from painting them to the board. One year we used those 99 cent hair colors that they have at Halloween to color them too!

When they are dry, put each color in a separate cup of a muffin tin. Give your child an 8 x 11 sheet of posterboard that they have drawn a shape on (we have done turkeys, flowers, rainbows, butterflies...) and have them glue the kernels to the paper in a mosaic pattern. Lola likes to color her pattern first and then fill each space with the coordinating color and, I have found that works well for my younger child too.

9) Ghosts in Flight- Start with black construction paper and use chalk to draw a creepy scene (omitting ghosts but leave room for some) When the picture is drawn, take the paper and spray it with aerosol hairspray (this prevents the chalk from rubbing off) When dry, gently pull cotton balls into ghost shapes. Glue the balls to the scene. We have also gone so far as to glue google eyes to our ghost.

10) Traditional Jack O' Lanterns....

11) Leafy Lanterns- Place bright colorful leaves on a 9 x 12 sheet of wax paper (wax side up) . Cover the leaves with second sheet of wax paper (wax side down) Using a press cloth, carefully iron (at a low setting) the outer surface of the wax paper until leaves are in place with melted wax. Fold in half two 2 x 12 strips of fall colored construction paper. Place top and bottom borders inside fold of paper (like a frame on either side) Glue into place. Rolls wax paper into a cylinder, form by overlapping unedged sides and staple (or glue) together. For a finishing touch add a 1 x 8 strip of same colored paper to top of lantern as a handle.

12) Rolled Paper Mosaics (Turkey Style)- Start with a standard white piece of art paper (even computer paper) Draw an outline for a turkey. (I got mine from www.enchantedlearning.com) Take multiple fall colors of construction paper and make 1/2 inch by 8 inch strips. Take each strip and coil it to make a "tile". Fill your handy muffin tin with tiles. (I do all of this before we even start the project (HEHE Monday nights is Medium night which is when i set up alot of our art projects)

When ready to start, give your child the turkey out line and the "tiles" Sometimes it helps to shade in the turkey with the colors of the tiles you would be putting, but otherwise, just glue the tiles, coiled, edge down, spiral showing on the paper, filling in the turkey.

Don't forget one black coil for the turkeys eye...

13) Color Through Thanksgiving Place Cards- I use card stock for these and we have used these more then on occasion in a row.

Using place card sized card stock (folded over to stand up better later) have your child press hard with crayons while coloring with brightly colored crayons. Be sure the entire surface is colored. Then have them color over the entire surface with a black crayon. Again be sure the entire surface is covered. Then, using bamboo sticks or toothpicks, have your child write the name of the person whose place setting they are creating in the black. The name will show up in the first colors with a black foreground...

14) Toy Soldiers- this is a premade project we buy at the local craft store every year. We buy a different wooden toy solider kit and paint them...

15) Handprint Wreaths- Using a 12 x 12 square piece of posterboard and green and red tempera paint we get ready to be messy! Starting with green, we dip our hands in the paint and press them on the paper repeatedly making a circle of green hands. On occasion we have sprinkled it with glitter... then we wait for them the green to dry completely.

Then we get the red paint and make a two handprint bow shape at the bottom of the wreath. We sprinkle it again with glitter... Wait for this to dry completely.

Then we take cameo sized pictures of the children, the parents, the family, the pets (1 inch pictures from old photos work best) and we glue them on as ornaments. Last year we finished it off with some glitter paint (or the glitter glue) and outlined the photos.

16) Bill of Rights Wind Sock- Bill of Rights Day is December 15th. We will be celebrating this by making this wind sock...

Materials:

five 1 1/2 inch by 15 inch strips of white tissue paper glue

five 1 1/2 inch by 15 inch strips of red tissue paper string

one 6 inch by 18 inch blue strip of construction paper gold star stickers

one 4 inch by 18 inch white strip of construction paper a hole puncher

a black fine tipped marker

Start by writing an amendment on each strip of tissue paper. Then write Bill of Rights in bold letters across the white construction paper. Glue the white strip to the blue strip. (so that blue edges show on the top and bottom of the white) Turn blue strip over so that the white side is down. Alternately lay the amendment tissues on the bottom edge of the blue paper. Glue the strips in place (so they hang from the blue paper) Glue together sides of the blue paper (white side out) to make a cylinder. Decorate cylinder with stickers. Punch holes in either side of the top of the blue to run string through so you can hang your wind sock.

17) Post Christmas/Yule Thank You Cards- There are two ways to do this... showing my analness.. I save the wrapping paper from each gift my children receive and we then use a piece of it to make a "Christmas ball" for each card (the paper matches whomever gave that gift wrapped with it) Or... you can just have them make little drawings per card.

We like to use card stock and for the younger children I prewrite the message, for the older children they have to write their own. Then we decorate the cards with either the paper or little sparkly pictures...

18) Snowflake Mobiles- My Coco thinks its fabulous to cover every single window in the house with those white paper snowflake cut outs that she produces by the millions... I am less excited about not seeing out my windows for 4 months a year. So we compromised. We make snowflake mobiles.

Using 8 or so pieces of white art paper (or even computer paper) make traditional snowflakes (the way we did when we were children LOL) Then using a 2inch by 12 inch piece of blue construction paper, glue the ends together making the top of your mobile. Using yarn, attach each flake to the top at varying lengths.

19) Peanut butter Pinecone Birdfeeders- I remember making these as a girl scout when I was 8 years old and we have made them every year Ive had children.

Take a large pinecone from your backyard. Attach a string of yarn to the top of the pinecone so you can hang it from a tree when you are done. Cover your cone in peanut butter (or applebutter) and then roll it in a paper plate full of birdseed. Place the cones in the bushes and trees around your house and watch the birds come flying in...

20) Penguin Art-

21) Valentine Abstract Art- Give your child a 12 x 18 piece of art paper. Have them use a pencil to lightly draw several large heart shapes. (The bigger the better) Then have them draw three intersecting lines through the entire paper, make sure the lines go from one edge of the paper to the other. (hopefully intersecting the hearts lol) The using the muffin tin, give you child three colors and black and white paint and have then color in the lines not letting two colors touch if possible. After the paint dries, have your child color over the pencil lines with a black marker.

22) Sandpaper Prints- A uniquely tactile experience...

To begin have your child use crayons to draw a picture on a sheet (4 x 6) of course sandpaper. Make sure they press hard on the sheet and color thoroughly. Place the sandpaper picture face down on a 4 x 6 piece of card stock. Using newspaper on your ironing board, press the papers together carefully with your iron, transferring your art onto the card stock. For display, mount both the sandpaper art and the card stock paper on a single piece of colored paper with glue.

23) American Eagle Art- In celebration of Presidents Day, we will be making eagles.

Start by covering a 12 x 18 piece of cardboard with aluminium foil. Cut an American eagle shape out on brown construction paper. Cover the eagle with balled up pieces of colored tissue paper (trying to keep it looking like an eagle... beak, white collar...) When dry, glue the eagle to the foil covered cardboard. To complete the effect, add gold foil stars around the eagle and strips of red, white and blue ribbon around the edges (like a frame)

24)

25) Rainbow Art- Celebrate the coming of Spring! Start with a piece of poster board cut to look like a rainbow complete with clouds at the ends. With a marker, mark the lines for the colors and clouds.

Give your child the muffin tin with ripped pieces of colored tissue paper. (red, orange, yellow, green blue, purple...) and glue. Have then glue the pieces of tissue paper to the poster board making a rainbow. When the rainbow is complete, glue on cotton balls to the cloud part of the design.

26) Sponge Grass- This doubles as an art project and a science project and we do these all year long! Start with a sponge, cut a shape out of the sponge and place in shallow dish. Cover sponge with grass seed and pour a little water into the dish. Keep the seeds moist and before you know it, you will see green cropping up all over your sponge.

27) Kite Making

28) Magazine Butterflies- A recyclers dream project. Using torn out pages of magazines, cut each page (3 pages) into a butterfly shape. Placed together, fold them according style horizontally. Unfold them and place a black or green pipecleaner around the center of the pages, twisting them together and leaving the ends for antennas. Carefully pull the pages apart, giving your butterfly a three dimensional effect.

We have even made a few at a time to make a mobile of them for our adopted grandmother to hang in her room at the assisted living center.

29) Rainbow puzzles- A good friend of mine gave us make your own puzzle boards. We use the for everything from math aids to art projects. Coco's favorite puzzle was when she made a beautiful springtime rainbow scene. Now on rainy days, she can put together a puzzle of a beautiful day.

30) Sticker Art- We have done this a few ways. One is using character stickers and making pictures (by drawing them) around the stickers. The other is using shape stickers and creating pictures from the shapes. A bunch of Dora stickers turn into a jungle picture straight out of her show whereas with the random shapes, we are learning geometry at the same time.

31) Springtime Vases- Begin by cutting a vase shape from construction paper or art paper and decorate. (we have also used leftover fabric) Then take large strings of recycled brown paper bag, making flower stems Glue stems to undecorated side of the vase, then glue vase onto larger piece of white art paper.

To create pussywillows, glue puffed rice cereal to the brown paper stems.

To create forsythia, glue bits of yellow tissue paper to brown paper stems.

It looks best to interchange the stems by creating a vase of both flowers.

32) Tulip Shaped Mother's Day Cards- Start by folding a 6 x 12 piece of card stock in half, making a card. Then cut the card to look like a tulip, careful not to cut the crease. Decorate the cover of the card with things like wallpaper samples, fabric, construction paper, tissue paper...

Cut a strip of green construction paper to make a stem and a leaf. Glue the stem to the leaf and then to the back part of the card.

Write a poem or message inside the card for mom.

33) Frog Plates- To start, fold a paper plate in half. Color one inner half of the plate red, to represent in the inside of the frogs mouth. Then paint the outer surface of the plate, green. Allow to dry. From red construction cut a small piece for the tongue. From some white paper cut circles for eyes, draw black pupils. From green construction paper cut arms and legs for your frog. Glue the arms, legs, eyes and tongue in place.

34) Love Earth-

Materials:

one paper coffee filter

one 9 x 12 sheet of white art paper

one 9 x 12 sheet of black construction paper

yellow, blue, green and purple watercolors

Q-tips

silver and gold stars

Wet a paper coffee filter then place it on white art paper. Use a Qtip to dab on watercolors onto filter. Cover the entire filter with color. Add more (very small amounts) water if the filter becomes too dry. Once colored, allow the filter to dry.

Remove the filter and a beautiful earth shape will remain on the art paper. Cut out the earth shape and glue it into the center of the black paper. Add stars around the earth on the black paper.

35) Beaded Key Chain Kits- we buy these at the craft store and make one for each grandfather, great grandfather and of course dad nearly every year.

36) Macaroni Frames- Make a four sided frame out of popcicle sticks (rectangular if possible) This should be traditional photo sized. With additional sticks beef up the framework, creating a flat surface. Cut a piece of cardboard to fit against the back of the frame. Glue three sides of the cardboard to the frame (leave one open to slide a photo in)

Decorate the flat part of the frame with elbow and other shaped pasta that have been spraypainted in the driveway (and allowed to dry)

We actually spray paint small amounts of macaroni on cardboard and then sprinkle them with glitter before they dry, then we allow them to dry completely before gluing them to the wooden frames. We have used the colored art sticks when making frames to add more color.

Summertime Homeschooling

We have finished the French lessons provided by OHVA. I'm not sure why they thought 12 classes would last Lola all summer... So we created our own.
Before the State of Ohio gets a chance to destroy our pubic libraries, I went up to Stark Main and borrowed all of their learn French and Spanish CD kits, I also borrowed some workbooks, easy picture books and Learn French CDs. This next part may not be legal so cover your eyes.... we burnt the CDs into Coco's computer... I created photocopies of specific pages and I also created worksheets of my own and quizzes for Fifi and Coco. Okay... uncover your eyes...
I have hopes that OHVA's nonsummer language classes are more then 12 classes and a bit more advanced. Lola truly finished the entire seasons lessons in 10 days.
For the rest of the summer all three girls will be listening to a language lesson per day and completing a worksheet. Then at night, when we are reading, the girls read one French storybook together. They may not understand all of it but they are understanding more and more words each time they read them. I bought new story books at the Children's Museum of Maine when we were there on vacation last week.

I have also decided that each day, each girl with make a journal entry. At first we were doing it to work on compiling our thoughts on a page. I give them simple topics and they have to elaborate. Such as "My Favorite Part of Yesterday was..." and they can just finish the sentence or write and entire page. As we have been writing more and more, we have started to work with spelling, punctuation, grammar, sentence structure... I didn't want to start with correcting those for a specific reason. I wanted the girls to feel free to write whatever they were thinking. Now, in Week 3, we are correcting Week 1's journal entries. Because it is summer and I still feel a little guilty for making them "do school" in the summer, I am not making them rewrite the entire journal entry. I am letting them proofread with a RED PEN and find their own mistakes as well as make their own corrections. I have found, they are more willing to add onto their entries, as well as more then capable of finding their own mistakes. (Its all in the magic pen, I swear)

Lastly, we are keeping up with our math workbooks, have dropped our Science unit, went on a wonderful vacation, and are spending alot of our time just playing outside.
I firmly believe we loose what we don't use.. so we do simple math everyday. This helps keep the girls up on their math facts. Not all math has to be in a math book either... Uncle Steven had a birthday and Coco's math for the day was this... If you are 9 years old, I am 6 times older than you, minus 2... how old am I? We spent the next two hours figuring our how old all 37 members of our family at the reunion were. We used our 9's table mostly (hey shes 9 lol) but we worked out a few tricky problems and even some division.

I should post soon with vacation pics and the girls highlights of their trip.

Summertime French Class

I was pretty sure we would be taking the summer off for vacations and whatnot. Apparently, my little overachiever wasn't happy with that.
Lola signed up for a summer course with OHVA, and will be taking French this summer. She started yesterday and requested I get her some workbooks to go along with the course. She also went online and looked for some online computer classes and is taking Microsoft Word, Excel and Power Point both online and at the local library this summer.
Coco wants to take French too, so I guess I will be looking into some workbooks, tapes or books for her.
Any suggestions?

My Book Addiction

I suppose the first step is admitting I have a problem.
Hello my name is Dani and I love books. I love the way they feel, the way they smell, escaping into them...
Homeschooling my children gives me the opportunity to play with tons and tons of books. Text books, chapter books, workbooks, educational books... It makes me giddy!
Not to mention, I read at least one of my books a day. My addiction causes me to shop for school books well after we are done with our curriculum. I have them waiting in my amazon cart, right there on the other tab... $40 in books, on sale, saving me hundreds, right? Okay, so we don't actually need them. We have what we need and the weekly lesson plans are already written out so we may not ever get to using those books... but they are saving me money right, on sale?... Unless common sense dawns and I realize they aren't saving me money when I buy them but don't need them... And heck the money I don't spend on books I don't need, I can always use to buy more vampire romance books!

Fifi's 1st Grade Curriculum- Social Studies

I wasn't sure if I would have her work with Social Studies or Science this year, as or main focuses are reading and math but I found these wonderful workbooks (by Scholastic of course LOL) and I decided that we could do a few (2 or 3) classes a week of Social Studies.
I was also able to get some great worksheets and lessons off of www.enchantedlearning.com to complete the 38 week year.

We will be using Scholastic Maps Workbook (SMW), Teacher Time Savers Workbooks for the Seasons (it has workbook pages for the different holidays and dates of notice through our the year) (TTS), and Our Pagan Family (OPF) workbook for the Pagan holidays and sabbats throughout the year. I did find some pages I can use in the Comprehensive Curriculum too.

1) Maps- SMW
2) Maps- SMW and enchanted learning (EL)
3) Maps- SMW
4) Maps- SMW and EL
5) Maps and Mabon- SMW and OPF
6) Maps- SMW and EL
7) Christopher Columbus- EL and Little Explorers Great Big Book of EXPLORERS
8) Maps- SMW
9) Maps- SMW and EL
10) Unit Review and Samhain- CC, SMW, EL and OPF (for Samhain)
11) Voting- EL
12)Newspapers- EL and CC
13) Thanksgiving- TTS, EL and CC
14) Newspapers- EL and CC
15) Calendars- EL and CC
16) Christmas and Yule- TTS and OPF
17) Setting Goals- I make
18)Astronauts- (Coco is doing them this week and we have field trip to the space center for everyone planned) EL and Little Explorers
19) MLK- EL
20) Olympics- EL
21) Imbloc- OPF
22) Presidents- EL
23) Presidents- EL
24) Olympics- they are on this week and we will be watching as well as using sheets from EL
25) Pledge of Allegiance and National Anthem- EL
26) Lewis and Clark- (Coco is doing them this week and WE LOVE THEM) EL and Little Explorers
27) Ostara- OPF
28) Africa- EL
29) Australia- EL
30) Antarctica- EL
31) Asia- EL
32) Beltane- OPF
33) Mexico- EL
34) South America- EL
35) North America- EL
36) Europe
37) USA
38)Great Sunflower Project- Time to plant our seeds www.greatsunflowerproject.com

Most weeks it will just be a quick chat, a worksheet or two and hopefully incorporating some vocab words into her weekly lessons. We do have some field trips and games planned, as well as videos and art projects in the works.

Fifi's 1st Grade Curriculum- Math

This years Math we will be focusing on Counting by Multiples, Patterns, Money, Time, Fractions, Place Values, Measuring and some Geometry. When breaking her curriculum down into 38 weeks of lesson plans, I realizes we would have to cover two topics a week. This may change depending on her ability to keep up. Being that its May, August is still a long way off...

We are using the Comprehensive Guide to 1st Grade (CC), Scholastic Math Workbook (SMW), Counting by Multiples by the Learning Line (CM), Learning about Money by Learning Line, and a bunch of Adventures in Learning workbooks (Dora's Subtraction, Lion Kings Addition, Belle's Beginning Fractions, Snow White's Shapes...) The Adventure in Learning Books are approximately 12 to 15 pages long and a nice supplement into what I am teaching. I bought the Adventure in Learning Books at The Dollar Store. I buy the Learning Line, Scholastic and CCs on Amazon for very very little. (This year, for all 16 workbooks Fifi will be using in ALL classes was less then $30)

Broken down into 38 weeks, here is our curriculum for 1st Grade Math:
1) Counting by 1's and Money- Counting LL and Money LL
2) Counting by 2's and Money- Counting LL and Money LL and CC
3) Counting by 3s and Money- Counting LL and Money LL and CC
4) Counting Review and Money- Quizzes I make, SMW, Money LL and CC
5) Counting by 5's and Money- Counting LL, SMW, Money LL and CC
6) Counting by 10's and Money - Counting LL, SMW, Money LL and CC
7) Place Values and Money- SMW, CC and Money LL
8) Place Values and Money- SMW, CC and Money LL
9) Units Reviews- CC and tests I make
10)Addition Review and Telling Time- CC
11) Addition with Sums +20 and Time- Addition AL, Time AL, CC
12) Addition with Sums +20 and Time- Addition AL, Time AL, CC
13) Double Digit Addition and Time- Addition AL, Time AL and SMW
14) Subtraction Review and Shapes- Dora Sub AL, Shapes AL and CC
15) Subtraction and Shapes- Sub AL, Shapes AL and CC
16) Subtraction and Shapes- Sub AL and Shapes AL and CC
17) Subtraction and Shapes- Shapes AL and SMW and Scooby Subtraction by Bendon Learning
18)Unit Reviews- CC and tests make (I may use some pages from Scooby as a quiz)
19) Addition and Word Problems- Sheets I make from www.theteacherscorner.net and CC
20) Subtraction and Word Problems- Sheets I make and CC
21) Addition and Word Problems- ALL sheets I make
22) Subtraction and Measuring- Sheets I make and SMW
23) Addition and Measuring- Sheets I make and CC
24) Subtraction and Measuring- Sheets I make and CC
25) Beginning Fractions and Patterns- CC
26) Fractions and Patterns- Belles Fractions AL, SMW and CC
27) Fractions- Fractions AL, SMW and CC
28) Fractions- Fractions AL, SMW, CC and Brighter Learning Fractions Kit
29) Fractions- Fractions AL, SMW, CC and Brighter Learning Fractions Kit
30) Unit Review- I make and will be using pages from SMW and CC as well for testing
31) Addition and Classifying Shapes- Sheets I make and CC
32) Subtraction and Graphs- Sheets I make and the CC
33) Addition and Graphs- Sheets I make and SMW
34) Subtraction and Lines- Sheets I make and the CC
36) Addition and Graphing- Sheets I make and Graphing from www.mathrocks.com
37) Subtraction and Graphing- Sheets I make and Mathrocks
38) Year in review- I make and use CC and SMW pages.

To work with Money we also have a few games we play, "field trips" to Walmart (the girls that work there are SOO willing to help me with teaching). Even playing grocery store at home lets her count money, add money, make change...
We also LOVE LOVE LOVE the Dollar Stores for things like foam shapes, flashcards, and educational posters (we have the fractions, money and telling time ones already). Fifi also loves Connect the Dots, but rather then the traditional 1, 2, 3, 4... we do connect the dots with the 2's, 3's, 5's and 10's tables. I have a website for them but I cant seem to find it right now. We do connect the dots almost everyday.

Fifi's 1st Grade Curriculum- Phonics and Writing and Reading

Last year Fifi worked on her letter formation using Carebear workbooks we bought at The Dollar Store. We combined writing and letter recognition using two different workbooks.
This year we are using Manuscript Letters by Learning Lines and My D'Nealian Handwriting Word Book. She will be focusing on writing a new letter each week.

For Phonics last year, Fifi worked with both the Carebear workbooks and the Disney Princesses Workbooks, both of them were from the Dollar Store. This year we are using Hooked On Phonics Grade 1 for the first 21 weeks and then we will be using Phonics and Reading by Learning Lines for the next 17 weeks. There is no point to writing out each week, as she will be just following the books.

Fifi and I sat down and made up a reading list for this year. Each week we will read a book together on Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday she will then read the book back to me, making note of the words she has a difficult time with. On Thursday she will read to me again. On Fridays she will do a book report of the book, drawing two or three pictures of the story, writing key words from the story at the bottom of the picture.

Here is her 1st grade Reading List:
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst
Are You My Mother by Philip Eastman
The Art Lesson by Tomie De Poala
Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey
The Cat in the Hat by Dr Suess
Hats For Sale by Esphyr Slobadkina
Clifford the Big Red Dog by Norman Bridwell
Curious George by Hans Augusto Rey
Green Eggs and Ham by Dr Suess
Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
Horton Hatches the Egg by Dr Suess
Lily's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes
The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper
Love You Forever by Robert Muncsh
The Mitten by Jan Brett
The Napping House by Audrey Wood
Oh The Places You'll Go by Dr Suess
Stellaluna by Janell Cannon
Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig
A Kiss for Little Bear by Maurice Sendak
Danny and the Dinosaur by Hoff S
Mouse Soup by Lobel A
Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See by Bill Martin

Please feel free to let us know if we missed any GREAT books!

Fifi's 1st Grade Curriculum- Grammar/Language Arts

Fifi is my 5 year old daughter. She will be starting 1st grade in the fall. The curriculum I have put together seems a tad advanced for a 5 year old but this is her 3rd year homeschooling and is pretty advanced in certain areas.

As with every subject, I will be using my Comprehensive Curriculum Grade 1, as well as the Scholastic Workbook Set Grade 1. With Fifi, I am still able to find alot of extra workbooks at Walmart and The Dollar Stores. I also use www.enchantedlearning.com for her printables.

This is her Language Arts/Grammar Schedule for 38 weeks.
Scholastic Grammar Workbooks are SGW and Comprehensive Curriculum are CC

1) Capitalization- SGW and CC
2) Periods and Question Marks -SGW and CC
3) Capitalizing "I" -SGW
4) Simple Sentences -SGW and CC
5) Word Order - SGW and CC
6) Question Sentences - SGW and CC
7) Naming Words (nouns) - SGW and CC
8) Proper Nouns- SGW
9) Days, Months and Holiday- SGW and CC
10) Unit Review- CC and pages I make up
11) Verbs- SGW and CC
12) Adjectives - SGW and CC
13) Telling Sentences- SGW and CC
14) Exclamation Sentences- SGW and CC
15) Singular and Plural Nouns- SGW and CC
16) Verbs (be) - SGW andCC
17) Nouns - SGW and CC
18) ABC Order - SGW and CC
19) Caps with Titles- SGW and CC (also working with library skills)
20) Unit Review- CC and pages I make up
21) Nouns- SGW and CC
22) Linking Verbs- SGW and CC
23) Capitalization of Names- SGW and CC
24) Synonyms and Sequencing- CC and Simple Sequencing from Learning Line
25) Synonyms and Sequencing- CC and SS
26) Antonyms and Sequencing- CC and SS
27) Antonyms and Sequencing - CC and SS
28) Homophones and Sequencing- CC and SS
29) Homophones and Sequencing- CC and SS
30) Rhyming and Sequencing- CC and SS
31) Rhyming and Sequencing- CC and SS
32) Unit Review and Sequencing- SS and CC and pages I make up
33) Sequencing- SS
34) Sequencing- SS
35) Sequencing- SS
36) Sequencing- SS
37) Year in Review- CC and pages I make
38) Testing- I make up the testing

Coco's 4th Grade Reading List

My Coco is a reader. She usually reads at least a book a week and sometimes reads smaller books throughout.
Together, she and I made up a suggested reading list for 4th grade.
She will be expected to read everyday and write a paragraph in her reading journal about what she wrote. When she finishes a book, she gets a choice of 4 of the book reports I found on www.enchantedlearning.com We have made shoebox dioramas, hanger mobiles, posters... Her favorite (cause I just asked her) is making a tri-fold brochure advertising the book. She prints pictures relating to the book and attempts to sell it.

Here is Coco's Suggested Reading List for 4th Grade

Charlotte's Web by E.B White
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
Mouse on a Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary
Superfudge by Judy Blume
Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume
The Wayside Series by Louis Sachar
The Ramona Series by Beverly Cleary
A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
Half Magic by Edward Eager
My Teacher is an Alien by Bruce Coville
A Llama in the Family by Johanna Hurwitz
Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
The Borrowers by Mary Norton
The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks
Aladdin and the Enchanted Lamp by Philip Pullman
Frindle by Andrew Clements

One of the things we like to do is have a group of our friends read the same books at the same time, so we can 1) discuss it together and 2) see the movie afterwards together. This worked out really well with Coraline for Coco and her friends and Inkheart for Lola and her friends.