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.

Coco's 4th Grade Curriculum- Math

I thank the Gods everyday for dollar store math workbooks and my son Nacho. I hate math. I'm fine with it, I can do it, I hate it LOL
Coco's math this year is pretty basic. We will use the CC book, the Scholastic Math and Math Testing books and a Math workbook I bought at Walmart. I found some of these neat kits at Target that have games for fractions and decimals. We also will be playing on the ten or so math sites I have found (they make my world easier lol)
www.aaamath.co
www.homeschoolmath.net
www.funbrain.com
www.mathiscool.com

Heres what I have so far. I have to admit, Nacho helped alot
1) Comparing and Ordering Numbers
2) Beginning Word Problems - we will do these all week and then a few times a month
3) Addition Review
4) Subtraction Review
5) Place Values
6) Rounding and Estimating
7) Rounding and Estimating
8) Money- I have a game/activity kit for these two weeks
9) Money
10) Multiplication Review
11) Multiplication
12) Multiplication
13)
14) Division Review
15) Division
16) Fractions- Identifying - I have a game/activity kit for these 4 weeks.
17) Fractions- Adding
18) Fractions- Adding/Subtracting
19) Fractions- Subtracting
20) Decimals- Identifying - I have a game/activity kit for these 4 weeks
21) Decimals- Adding
22) Decimals- Subtracting
23) Decimals- Multiplying
24) Measuring - this is also something we are working on in Science
25) Area- also working on this in Science
26) Volume- also working on this in Science
27) Perimeter- also working on this in Science
28) Angles
29) Geometry
30) Geometry
31) Charts
32) Graphs
33) Graphs
34) Averaging
35) Mean
36) Median
37) Mode
38) Review and Testing

As with most of the subject I test every ten weeks with tests I make up. I also use the Scholastic Math Testing workbook.

Coco's 4th Grade Curriculum - Language Arts

This is my favorite.. I love L.A. and so does Coco. And this year I got lucky! I grabbed a Language Arts book of the shelf in the dining room and it turned out to be a 4th grade Language Arts book! Flipping though it, I correlated the lessons with pages from the CC and from her Scholastic Grammar book. We are also focusing on neater handwriting and letter writing this year. I bought a beautiful stationary set for her and she is now looking for a penpal. This will help her learn sentence structure, paragraph formation and how to write a formal letter (not email lol)
We also have an extra sheet of grammar, spelling, vocab or whatnot every Wednesday from the CC book that didn't really do with any of the lessons.
We aren't going the full 38 weeks with Language Arts this year. Im confident we are cramming 38 weeks into our 36 LOL.

I don't think we need anything else for this year for this class...
1) Word Order and Meaning - text and workbook pages
2) Questions - text and wb pages
3) Start Poetry- this will go on every Monday for the rest of the year
4) Two Parts of a Sentence - textbook pages
5) Nouns - text and wb pages
6) Determiners - text and wb pages + an activity
7) Nouns in the Subject- text and wb pages
8) Pronouns- text and wb pages
9) Subjects- text and wb pages
10) Subject and Predicates- text and wb pages + an activity
11) Singular Nouns Showing Ownership- text and wb pages
12)Types of Sentences- workbook pages
13) Compound Words - text an wb pages
14) Days and Months (Capitalization)- text and wb pages + making calendars as gifts
15) Letter Writing Review - text and wb pages
16) Understanding a Table of Contents- text an wb pages
17) Library Skills- have many workbook pages
18) Dictionary Work- txt and wb pages
19) Tall Tales- will be doing these all week and then once a month- wb pages
20) Giving and Understanding Directions- text and wb pages
21) Homophones- text and wb pages
22) Homonyms- text and wb pages
23) Synonyms- text and wb pages
24) Antonyms- text and wb pages + review of past four weeks with games
25) Prefixes - text and wb pages + magnet game we made last year
26) Suffixes - text and wb pages + magnet game
27) Combination Pre/Suf Words- text and wb pages
28) Picture Words- textbook pages
29) Making an Advertisement- text and wb page
30) Adjectives- text and wb pages and Apples to Apples :)
31) Adverbs- text and wb pages
32) Verbs- text and wb pages
33) Verbs Cont.- text and wb pages
34) Contractions- text and wb pages
35) Review
36) Review and Testing

Language 4 by Laidlaw

Coco's 4th Grade Curriculum- Social Studies

My friend Sherri and I were on the phone and it came to me... Instead of just doing US History, why couldn't we do Explorers?!! I started on www.enchantedlearning.com and went through their list of explorers (that comes with at least one worksheet per explorer and a printable bio)

We are definitely looking for any resources we can get on this one.

1) Christopher Newport
2)Ponce de Leon
3) Vitus J Bering
4) Robert Burke and William Willis
5) Vasco de Gama
6) Eric the Red and Leif Ericson
7) Christopher Columbus (Well it is Columbus Day Week)- have worksheets from the CC
8) Robert Ballard
9) Amerigo Vespucci
10) Henry Hudson - we have a activity book about him I found at a yard sale
11) Roald Amundsen
12) Magellan
13) Kit Carson
14) Richard Byrd
15) Robert La Salle
16) Alvar Nunez
17) Jaques Cousteau - have two worksheets from the CC and a field trip to the aquarium
18) Neil Armstrong - have worksheets from the CC
19) Buzz Aldrin- have a field trip to the space center planned
20) Sally Ride - have a biography book and a few worksheets from the CC
21) Sue Hendricson
22) Pedro Alvares Cabral
23) James Cook
24) Douglas Mawson
25) Sir Francis Drake
26) Daniel Boone
27) James Smith- have a few worksheets from the CC
28) Lewis and Clark- this is Coco's obsession! We have posters, books, the board game...
29) Robert Scott
30) Sir Walter Raleigh
31) Mae Jemison
32) Marco Polo
33) Jaques Cartier
34) Mary Kingsley
35) Jean Le Perouse
36) Petre Stryvesant
37) Hernan Cortes
38) Final Review and testing.

I have created a lapbook style worksheet for this so she will have a Bio on Mondays, a worksheet from enchantedlearning, a worksheet from me, a vocab sheet with a crossword or word scramble (Gotta love www.theteacherscorner.net) and we have lots and lots of maps that I also got from enchantedlearnig.
Typically we test every 10 weeks and I have made those too.

Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions? (or materials I can borrow?)

Setting Up Coco's Curriculum for 4th grade- Science

God, I love this time of the year! Pulling books of the shelf, knowing that next year is a blank slate... Gives me goosebumps!

Heres what I have so far.

For Science we are going take Physical Science. The text book I have is for 7th grade but I used it to make a 38 week outline. Then I went online to the three or so of the sites we use for printables and found nearly all of the printables I will be using. (NO lol I didn't print them yet!) I also flipped through her Comprehensive Curriculum Grade 4 and found a few pages that would correlate. I am now hunting for either a grade appropriate text book or grade appropriate books on Amazon. (If anyone finds one LET ME KNOW lol)

Science week by week:
1) Intro to Physical Science - have tons of worksheets from the CC
2) Scientific Method
3) Scientific Method
4) Using Models- have worksheets from www.enchantedlearning.com
5) Measurements in Science- have worksheets from the CC
6) Measurements in Science- have a lesson plan from www.teacherspayteachers.com
7) Properties of Matter- have worksheets from the CC
8) Properties of Matter- have worksheets from the CC
9) Describing Matter
10) Chemical Properties
11) Physical Change- have a 6 page workbook I found at a book fair
12) Chemical Change - I only have a few experiments for these...
13) States of Matter
14) Laws of Matter
15) Changes of State
16) Changes of State
17) Elements - all I have for this one is a story book?...
18) Compounds
19) Mixtures
20) Review of the past three weeks
21) Solutions
22) Concentration/Solubility
23) Suspension/Collids
24) Motion- field trip planned to the Boomerang Guys House (hes a friend of mine)
25) Motion
26) Force
27) Friction
28) Gravity
29) Newtons Laws
30) Work
31) Simple Machines - have worksheets from www.teachervision.fen.com
32) Levers - have worksheets from teachervision
33) Planes/Wedges - have worksheets from teachervision
34) Screws/Wheels and Axles -have worksheets from teachervision
35) Pulleys - have worksheets from teachervision
36) Compound Machines -have worksheets from teachervision
37) Review and write paper
38) Review and testing

This Science seemed that I could make it a more hands on class. So I'm writing in Science Experiment Tuesdays.
We are using Science Project Ideas by Robert Gardner.

Open Swim at MRC

Today we got to take a tour and testout the poll at the Massilion Rec Center.

While the entire deal looks pretty good, I doubt I'm going to let the kids participate.

Nacho had so much fun and I will let him go with Lara. He doesnt need lessons though.

Lola had fun too, but clearly has a hard time listening to directions. During the tour, we couldnt find Lola and turns out she got in the pool all by herself.

Coco had a great time and she may need the lessons as well. She took lessons last year, but afte watching her, I dont think she retained much of the lessons.

Fifi, had the worst time of all the children. She wasnt allowed to go in the regular pool, the lazy float pool, or on the waterslides. They claimed that regardless of swimming ability, she was too little. Then halfway through the swim session, the lifeguards started getting whistle happy and it seemed the rules changed. Fifi wasnt allowed in the sprinkler area alone (I was sitting outside the fence and could clearly see her at all times) This made me think twice about coming back. I would have to hold Fifi's hand the entire time. We'll see what happens.