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.

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

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!

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

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?

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.

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 - 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?)

Holy Crap its Ocotber 8th!

I am a bad bad blogger. I think about you dear blog, I really do. Then my world crowds in around me and silly things like actually homeschooling my children take precedence. Seriously we have been busy. We have fought illnesses, braved making new friends, watched Gabe at his attempts with dating (which Hello he isnt allowed to date!) We have been grounded, gone on job interviews for jobs we dont want, lost a tooth, gotten haircuts... I wont promise to write more often cause I hate breaking promises. I will try to be a bit more consistent though.

Fifi:
In the past two weeks, Fifi my darling Fifi has master Addition with gummy bears, skittles, Care Bears and is now.. completely out of order, working with money. She gets it. She hasnt really ever worked with subtraction but to her money makes sense (cents LOL I am so tired I am slap happy)
Fifi is also working with more three letter spelling words. She insists on doing the same things Coco does so she is trying to write sentences, put them in ABC order and do a crossword puzzle. Umm, yeah, shes 4. She cant write sentences, ABC order requires ALOT of help and I can't make crossword puzzles with 3 lettered words. If anyone knows a site that will let me, tell me.
All three of my girls are also going to be in a play next month. Lola got one of the leads and Coco got a decent part and Fifi is grouped with all the other preschoolers in the play. We have rehearsals three to 5 days a week for the next month. I will youtube the play for those that want to see it.

Coco:
Coco is in the process of learning fractions. We have completed the math facts through the 12's table and are working on moving on to the wonderful world of fractions. My mom bought this great kit a few weeks ago and Coco was so excited to break it out. Its called Five Fun Ways to Learn Fractions and Decimals. I think she got it at the Christmas Tree Shop.
Since Mimi has stopped coming here, Coco has done so much better with her spelling and language arts. We are working with punctuation in Language Arts but in three days she was though periods and such. She is working on semi colons, commas, and quotation marks now. I am using the CC for most of it. I love our Comprehensive Curriculum guides. I bought new ones for next year and the year after for Coco and Fifi. Lola wants to go to public school next year.
In Science we are revisiting the formations of the planet. Apparently, Coco was distracted the first time. We are doing it over again as we start our chapter on lithospheres. We started working with matter but she knew it as well as I did so we went backwards for a bit.
We are finally on Delaware. The girls insisted we actually study Connecticut. They liked the easy week LOL. We made art projects of historical moments in CT history. We looked up all of our friends and family on the maps. We talked about the land forms that we had been too, the state parks, the beaches, the mountains... Now we are on Delaware.
Both of the older girls are now taking ASL as an independent study. I have provided them the books and videos and they are learning with each other. Once a week, they show me what they have learned.
Coco is also taking a new creative writing class at the library. She loves it!
Lola:
Lola has started fractions again too. We are reviewing adding and subtracting fractions from last year before we start the tough stuff.
Her spelling is damned near perfect as always. They are all still using http://www.aaaspell.com/ and http://www.theteacherscorner.net/ for most of our spelling needs. I love that aaaspell puts all of my work together for me and theteacherscorner lets me make crossword puzzles, word scrambles, word searches, math sheets and more...
We are working on the nervous system in Science now. It is not as easy as I thought it would be. I have been searching online for a body systems workbook. There are very little printable work for certain systems so we are just reading and talking about it. I have had to read the work first and make my own worksheets for her. A few of our sites have some printables like http://www.enchantedlearning.com/ and even theteacherscorner. Todd also went online and found some National Geographic specials on the human body. If anyone has any ideas on how to teach specific systems please let me know. Later this month we are starting the skeletal system, I plan to use the Hannah Montana Bone Dance song lol.
All four kids have been working with poetry this month. We worked on legends last month. The girls each wrote 2 legends and this month they have written a million poems. I have everything from
M-Makes me breakfast
O-Outstanding reader
M-Makes me lunch
M-makes me dinner
Y-Why because she love us.

Roses are red
Violets are blue
Lola stinks
Just like poo

We are now reading Shel Silverstien with Fifi and Coco and Emily Dickenson with Lola. Nacho is reading Poe but not saying much about what he is reading. I would hate to ruin poetry for him but quizzing him.

Lola is also learning Spanish, ASL and Creative Writing independently. I get some great stuff from her when I don't tell her what to do. I wish that worked with all of them but alas, I have Nacho...

Nachos entire homeschooled day comes from the text books we bought online. Every Sunday I sit down and review the work he did do independently and write out his next weeks schedule. He also spends about three hours every Sunday catching up and finishing the work he didn't do. This system, as much as it drives the controlling neat freak in me crazy, works for him. He understands the work. He asks questions and is actually doing quite well. It drives me nutty that he does it all in one day but hey... whatever works right?
I know he is working on quadratic expressions, properties of matter, Vikings, Norse mythology, building an herbal remedy for eczema (which he has) and poetry. He isn't writing any but he is reading them and I honestly think that is more important.
He working on 6 to 8 Spanish verbs a week in three tenses and making sentences that make sense on weekends. He is using some of the http://www.livemocha.com/ stuff and some Rosetta Stone but not much, he doesn't like them.

All in all, we are finally making some friends here. We have been able to get out and go on a homeschool field trip with them. Nacho has a sudeo girlfriend who is also not allowed to date. Lola loves the whole play thing and being the center of attention. Coco loves her creative writing class and roller skating. When asked what her favorite part of the writing class she replied, no one else from our family is there... And Fifi loves her art projects and roller skating. She is also loving the fact that we got for her all of the Disney classics on DVD so she can watch movies that seem like old hat to us but sadly they are all new to her. She loves Robin Hood and Cinderella. Who knew she had never seen them?

September 8th- DUH Today!

As I blogged about last week, I totally skipped today. So I shall tell you what we are starting this week and then I probably wont blog until Wednesday or Thursday (I start my new job Thursday!)

Fifi- Today she worked on sorting like colors and shapes. Over the weekend we bought her a huge bag of assorted beads and a bead sorter. She sorted about 300 hundred beads before she decided she was bored. She also wrote her spelling words on flashcards, and helped us make our Arkansas booklets for Jenn. Her Home Ec was making lunch with Lola.

Coco-
Because I didn't feel well on Saturday and Sunday, worse on Sunday, Mimi didn't come today. With Nacho and Lola's assistance Coco still did her schoolwork.
Math- She reviewed her 7's and 8's tables. She also did a subtraction with regrouping word problem paper from CC. She also got to use her new math game her Mimi sent her last week.
Science- We read some books about the Earth and its layers while laying on the couch.
Geography- She made some pictures that we will put words to about the wild life and agriculture of Arkansas.
Spelling- She made her flashcards for her spelling words with their definitions on the back.
Language Arts-I wouldn't let them have her start pronouns with Mimi so she did some random adverb worksheet. Turns out to be a good thing. She still needs help with identifying adverbs.
Creative Writing- She started her legends project and we read a few legends on the couch.
We skipped ASL today. Lola needs a new book and Nacho accidentally returned our videos to the library.

Lola:
Math- Lola is back on www.aaamath.com for subtraction. This should be her last day with it.
Science-We used the new books my mother (Mima <-- actual name LOL) sent and another book Todd bought at the huge book sale this weekend at our library and went over the Muscular System together.
Geography- Lola drew the pictures we will put words to tomorrow for the Arkansas booklet. She is doing famous people from Arkansas, Silly Named Cities in AR and Arkansas state facts.
Language Arts- She did another page from the CC on learning new words from words you know. (By adding a suffix or a prefix)
Creative Writing- While she still hasn't finished her original project, she is also starting her legends project today.
Spelling- She put her spelling words on flashcards with the definitions.

Nacho:
Math- www.aaamath.com Since he completed the first four lessons last week, this week he is just picking up where he left off.
Science- We blew off Science today. His Science books still aren't here yet.
Geography- We started reading about Ancient Greece from one of the other books Todd found the book sale.
Spelling- He read over his list of words, looked them all up for pronunciation and definitions.
Language Arts- Since that book is not here yet either, we talked about legends and myths (Hes also taking Mythology) and he did an adjective vs adverb worksheet from Sierra's CC
Mythology- He read the introduction to his Comprehensive Classical Mythology book. He also talked about Prometheus and his role in the last book he read.
Herbology- After last Saturdays class at Spirit Apothecary www.spiritapothecary.com Nacho cant stop talking about herbs and natural medicine. Last night he helped me make Omega 3 loaded bread fro Todd and Rosemary Omelets also fro Todd. He explained that Rosemary promotes blood to the head. He also began reading his Cunningham book on herbs.
Spanish- Nacho logged onto www.livemocha.com and started Spanish 101. He also dug out one of the old books I used to use and went over some of the simpler verbs. He wants me to find him a copy of a 10 year old workbook... Sounds like fun...

September 8th

I'm sorry I haven't posted in a week. My hand has hurt more than it did when I first broke it. I had also made some new friends in the area that I was pretty excited about meeting. Turns out not so much... Either way. Last week went fairly smoothly. With Todd here on Monday, Coco sick on Wednesday and no class on Friday for a homeschooling group picnic...

Fifi:
For math we did some pattern work with Skittles, added Matchbox cars and then counted how many wheels. This is a good foundation for multiplication. "If I have 6 cars, with 4 wheels each how many wheel are there all together?" The older girls played with us too.
For Spelling we spoke out our sentences using our words, made them with our foam piece puzzle. Todd bought two more kits so we can make words like hill and have both l's LOL.
We are focusing on Eric Carle's work this month so we read The very Hungry Caterpillar and then watched the DVD. Shes so funny, she tried to read along with the movie LOL. We picked up more puzzles at the library and worked with those too.
Fifi has watched Episodes 1 through 5 of Signing Time with Alex and Leah a few hundred times in the past 6 weeks. She wants to watch them everyday and she can do all of the signs on command, YAY!

Coco:
For Math last week we learned our 7's and 8's table. We also started working on Rounding and Estimating Numbers. I let Coco play on www.aaamath.com with the rounding. I think by today she may be getting it.
For Science we worked on the Earth and its relevance to the sun and moon and other planets. Todd has been teaching after school all last week.
For Geography we have been working with Arkansas. My wonderful friend Jenn lives there and she sent us our Arkansas magnet, a booklet, and a postcard with a map on it. We filled in our own maps, did a crossword, learned about the silly named cities in Arkansas... (let me tell ya..WOW) and we learned the basics of the state. Since Jenn is my friend, we will be making her a booklet like we did for Melinda.
For Language Arts we have focused on Adverbs. We are also starting our study on types of writing. All of the children (Lola, Nacho, Fifi and Coco) are learning about Legends this month and have to do a creative writing project weekly.
For ASL, Lola has taken over the teaching. She has three or four books and she surfs the web for ideas on how to teach. Mimi has repeatedly express that she doesn't want to learn Sign Language so we are now doing it after dinner. Coco has also expressed an interest in learning about Braille so Todd (who is blind-ish) is teaching her.
For Home Ec, she made puddings and whipped cream for dessert.

Lola:
For Math, we have been doing addition and subtraction with regrouping of 6 and 7 digit numbers. That is what aaamath had set up for her so I went on www.theteacherscorner.net and made my own sheets.
For Science, we have had the worst time finding printable worksheets on the Muscular System. So we made our own together (Lola and I) She has read quite a few books on the Muscular System as well. Her Mima in Connecticut also sent us some books on Anatomy. We love them!!
For Language Arts, we are used our CC book more last week. We looked at Learning New Words , which is making compound words and exploring suffixes and prefixes. Lola is also doing legends. She also completed Geography with the younger girls.
Lola is still writing her original Creative Writing project about Homecoming and Dicey's Song. My philosophy is as long as shes writing and thinking about it, there doesn't need to be a deadline. Why rush her?
Lola also head up the art projects this week. My hand hurt alot and I had to cook and bake for two picnics and a pot luck supper. Oye. She helped the girls make Grandparents Day cards and birthday cards for my friend who turned 40 Saturday (yup I said it YOU'RE 40 LOL)
Home Ec for Lola was Sausage and Ziti Bake, but she also helped with the Orange Cranberry Coffee Cakes and the Pork Roast with Sauerkraut.

Nacho:
Nacho didn't so much have a schedule last week but he officially got bored with summer so he jumped onto aaamath and started with a few assignments from there. He also read The Fire Thief by Terry Deary and started reading the Comprehensive Guide to Classical Mythology. Hey, I take what I can get!
Nachos Home Ec was making homemade pizza and wings on Sunday for the whole family while we watched Nim's Island.

We ended up only going to one picnic and one pot luck dinner. We attended an herbology class at www.spiritapothecary.com which was FANTASTIC. Matt Stewart is a genius.

August 28th 2008

More insomnia has affected my desire to blog. Please wait silently for the rain of frogs...

August 28th,
Fifi:
Math- we worked with patterns both in her Strawberry Shortcake workbook and on the kitchen table with plastic beads. She can do up to a five step repeating pattern now. Yay!
Phonics- we did another workbook page focusing on the letter k. We also watched Leap Frog Letter Factory like a million times in two days. Hey I was tired and it kept her in one room. LOL
ASL- we have now mastered the letter K. We also watched the Signing Time videos. Shes really good at one word at a time. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to move on the sentences?
Spelling- She read her words to me, out of order from a paper. 8 more down, 200,000 to go LOL
ABC's/Writing- we started big Ks and little ks. She is pretty convinced they are Rs.

Coco and Mimi:
Math- We were scheduled to start the 7s table today but I changed my plan and we started word problems. We make a wall list of the 6 steps of a word problem and did some work on the board. Then we did a worksheet from Math SkillBuilders Grade 3.
Science- Since we are using Endangered Animals in our ASL project, we had to look up where 10 different animals live to learn how to sign those. We also had to make our costumes for the ASL project. (Is this an art project, science project or ASL project hmmm)
Geography- We drew a picture of what it would look like looking out our living room windows if we lived in Arizona. Lots of cacti LOL
Spelling- We alphabetized our spelling words. Mimi did a great job, Coco did too but still managed to spell the words wrong LOL
Language Arts-We made soup. No really. They had to describe each vegetable and ingredient with two words and put it into the soup pot. Now I have soup for the weekend and they are getting better at describing. Mimi hate this for some reason. Since the law was passed in our home that "I dont know" isnt an answer (Honestly, I would rather get a wrong answer than nothing) She is forced to abandon her standing favorite answer and actually speak to me.
ASL- With Lola in charge the girls have had to change their play. It is now much more like a play and less like a really long cheer. There are now costumes, lines and umm sadly still no plot LOL. My classroom is looking more like a rain forest each day (I will post pics later I promise) and the girls are looking up words on their own to write their lines. This is exactly what I wanted!

Lola:
Math- www.aaamath.com has started her on comparing integers. For those that remember what this is... its greater than and less than. She actually thanked me and asked me if we could just do this all year. Sadly, she cannot.
Science- She did a Respiratory Cloze from www.bogglesworldesl.com
Geography- Since she had gotten bored a few days ago and made the Arizona flag, she relaxed a bit today and just drew a picture with the younger girls. Her landscaped included Mexican gardeners rolling out an artificial lawn. Nice.
Spelling- After having gotten 115% on her spelling pretest (Thanks Grama for cherub) she did her crossword puzzle today knowing there is no test tomorrow.
Language Arts- We are still working on different types of subjects, Lola hates this and I am pretty sure I am going to backtrack her LA next week. New month, less complaining...
Extras- Lola said she needed an extension on her creative writing project. She has gotten so caught up in reading Homecoming and now Dicey's Song, she hasn't been writing consistently. She now has until the 4th. She has also been writing cheers to help the younger girls remember their multiplication tables. I would be lost without her.

We are dropping Ohio State History from our curriculum. We don't like it, turns out it is not required (for certain grades) and we honestly don't have time to squeeze in the 30 minutes a week. End of story.

Also, as I know I have a few readers from Ohio Lore and Happy Homeschoolers. I wanted to say hi and thank you for your support!

August 26th 2008

This is Lola helping Fifi spell out her spelling words with foam tile puzzle pieces.

August 25th 2008

A Brand New Week!
We have to new computers in the classroom up and running thanks to our geek husbands! Mimi's stepfather and my hubby installed two new computers in the classroom with Internet so I can have my computer during the day. YAY!

We did have class on Friday the 22nd, but I didn't blog. I suffer from insomnia and allergies (skin allergies) and I hadn't slept in more than 48 hours. While we didn't so much take the day off. We didn't learn any new material. The girls did reviews, creative writing and worksheets. Lola and Tiki did alot of the instruction for me while I sat and zoned LOL. Nacho helped with lunch and alot of the housekeeping. Lets be completely honest. He helped because we brought him to see his long distance girlfriend of a year for her birthday Saturday. Suki is Tiki's older sister and Nacho was hoping to catch a ride. We did bring Tiki home on Saturday and, I was able to go to the school supply store in Parma. I went a bit nuts and now I have to find a use for all the stuff I bought LOL.

Aug 25th
Fifi:
Math- practice adding with sums up to 15
We used gummy bears and also got to practice writing our numbers up to 20
Science-Read Endangered Animals book with older girls.
Phonics- Workbook page from Strawberry shortcake. We are working on the sound "j" this week.
ASL- We focused on the letter J
Spelling- this weeks spelling words are:
jam jar, key, kite, joke, joy, kill, ice
We wrote out our words on raised lined paper
Sensory- We painted our end tables a beautiful rust color. Fifi got to help me!

Coco and Mimi:
Math- start 6s table
We forgot to buy beads this weekend so we counted out the 6s table just on the number board. We also did a worksheet showing counting by 5s to 500. I had a leftover Eskimo sheet LOL
Science- We read a the Big Book of Endangered Animals
Geography- Begin Arizona
We read a bit about Arizona and talked about some of the fun facts.
Spelling- Lesson 3 www.aaaspell.com
I decided to put Mimi back up with Coco. She did so well last week that I along with Mimi's mother am convinced it was the supplement she was taking the was clouding her skills. She can read and write pretty well when she can think clearly.
Language Arts- Adjective worksheet
We did an adjective worksheet from CC. You would think after the adjective scavenger hunts, adjective games we played during our sleepover Friday night and as many times as they have told me what an adjective is, that they would be able to come up with 6 adjectives to describe someone. We will be working on adjectives all week.
ASL- practice sign show.
This should be interesting. They have written and choreographed a dance and song but no actual play. I have heard a million times that Mimi is an amazing actress and very used to the theater. Not so much here. She wants Lola to do most of the work and follows her with a bit of hero worship.

Lola:
Math- Comparing Fractions and Decimals
www.aaamath.com Lola got an 82% on 50. Finally something mathy that I can work with her on. I finally received my copy of Comprehensive Curriculum Grade 6 and I have lots of new ideas.
Science- Respiratory System
Label diagram from www.enchantedlearning.com
Mr Todd finally paid for my subscription to Enchanted Learning! Now I don't have to steal their stuffs, they give it to me for free! (okay so $20 a year, but its better than nothing LOL)
Spelling- Start lesson 3 from www.aaaspell.com
Write words on flashcards
Language Arts- Page 24 and 25 of text book
Read and discuss incomplete sentences
I also found a lot more appropriate material in the CC book. We are going to back track a bit and work our way back to the sentence structure. Lola didn't do very well on her Language Arts test Friday. I promised her I wouldn't blog the grade.
Extra- Lola has decided to write silly math cheers for the girls to help them memorize their multiplication tables. She is working on the cheers on her own after she finishes her classwork.