A great way to practice times tables!!!

How could I get my son to regularly practice his times tables? Put up a list on his bedroom wall! This is a great way for him to practice and have a visual often.

William Shakespeare

Our first club activity subject was William Shakespeare. One of the Mothers' talked to the kids about some of his famous plays, his family and of course Knock Knock jokes! The kids made masks, juggled and tried writing with a Quill pen.

Our School

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!

We finished our first day of homeschool today!!!! I got the kids up at 7 and in school by 8. The school room is organized and the schedule is in place. The kids were excited and we had a lot of fun!!!!

This year's curriculum

I made my order today!!! I am excited to try Explode the Code books this year. My younger sister, who also homeschools, recommended these books to me and they are great! For my daughter I ordered books 1-4 at a Kindergarten level. For my son I ordered books 6-8 at a Grade 4 level. There is also a pocket chart which follows the workbooks loaded with stories and activities to emphasize the lessons. I chose Horizons Math this year for both of my children.
I ordered also the Language arts handbook Grade 4 for Jordan and Treasure Island series #1-#6 at $2.95 per book.
I got very lucky this year and got boxes full of free "stuff" for Kindergarten level from a retired teacher of 22 years. So I have all of the reading material needed for Jenna, sight words included!
This year's Science subject is the human body. I already have the books so I ordered charts and models to help visualize.
So there we go!!!! Here comes our second year, starting on August first!!!!!

This is one way to enjoy the summer!

Our beautiful garden.....

We have had so much fun this summer and now it is time to start planning for the new school year. My sister is moving here from North Dakota and we are going to join a homeschool group this year which I am so excited about. Our new book and curriculum choices this year are going to be so much better. I also have new ideas on how our weekly and monthly schedules are going to be and I will print off my calendar sheets and start planning that as well. HAPPY LEARNING!!!!!

Third grade test

Here is the Third Grade Test. He will also be finishing his last "Ready Freddy" book and the last three chapters of Math on the computer. This is what we're doing this week!



Preschool test

Here is a review of what my daughter learned in preschool this year. We started the test today and we will be finished by Friday before our two week break. I read her the questions of course, but I do not help her with the answers. It looks like she still gets her "C" sound mixed up with "K"!

What we've been learning...

I haven't posted in a week but here's an overview of what we have been doing:
 Our son has been working on fractions and measurements. I had the kids help make cookies and put to use the measuring spoons and cups. To help visualize fractions, we used different colored rocks in a cup. For instance, if there were six rocks all together and one of them were black, we would have a fraction of  1/6. He really enjoyed this and has a brain for these types of concepts. He finished his last quiz in math with 100%. We use Teaching Textbooks which I highly recommend because not only do they get a sit down lesson, but then they do the lesson at the computer and it is quite fun and they can check their own work and percentage.
We are also finishing up American history chapter 10 with two more chapters to go. He is reading his last book in the Ready Freddy series and we are reading Courage of Sarah Noble. We all sit and read this book, our daughter enjoys it as well. He is also finishing up his cursive handwriting book and is doing much better!  We would like to finish these books up by next week: our big test!!
Our daughter is finishing up with the letter V. We have been reviewing the letters and their sounds and practicing putting their sounds together to make words. She wants to read so bad and the BOB books are great because she can read them herself with help of the pictures. There are four of them that she can read. We have also been doing a lot of reading together. One of her favorite chapter books right now is Beauty and the Beast. We have been reviewing her numbers as well. I collected different food items such as raisins, noodles etc. for her to count and glue.
Last week we went to the Natural Resource Festival and has so much fun. We came home with a lot of learning material and information. I also got a lot of ideas for scouts which is a bonus! So, we have been doing the online games, coloring pages and activity books this week and the kids have really enjoyed it. Happy Learning!!!!

Our new additions to the family!

FURBALL

KRISTI

Clouds!

We start our day with Science which usually gets the kids excited because we do an experiment and craft. It seems to start the day with a positive attitude. We have been studying the Solar System and in particular Jupiter and now Saturn. The lesson moved into why Jupiter and Saturn look like giant clouds. They both spin very quickly and take about 10 hours to spin around once. This fast spinning makes their clouds line up in colored bands, so the planets look striped. One of the most incredible things about Jupiter is that it has a large storm called the Great Red Spot. It is three times the size of Earth! The Solar System by Rosalind Mist is an excellent book!
Our experiment was to fill a plastic cup half full with water and add glitter. The kids stirred the water around and around and watched the glitter follow in swirls. This gave them a visual of how the clouds form and look colorful with the spinning of the planets and the light.
So of course we moved into the types of clouds we see in our atmosphere and how they are formed. We talked about three specific types: Cirrus, Stratus, Cumulus.  The kids then got to draw each type with a white crayon on blue paper. I found a couple sites online where they read a little more on each type and looked at more pictures.

Poetry

I put together a book for my son and on each page we reviewed the different types of poetry. He was to write his own poem using that particular type. This was a lot of fun! The poetry book we have been following during the year also comes with a CD so that we can listen to them. We reviewed: Free Verse, Nonsense poetry, Quatrain, Haiku and ended with Nursery Rhymes. Our daughter joined in on the Nursery Rhyme part and we spent fifteen minutes taking turns with our favorites.

Parts of a Whole

My son enjoyed learning about parts of a whole yesterday. We made these cut-outs so he could make and see what 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/5 and so on means. Afterwards, we all went to the kitchen and the kids made cookies following a recipe and using the measurements. This is the kind of math any kid would enjoy!!!

We also reviewed graphing: pictograph, bargraph and linegraph.

Last month!

May is our last month of Home school before taking our two month break. Normally during the week Wednesday is a day off, but not this month, we have a lot to finish up. I am typing up an end-of-year test for each kid on the computer for a year-in-review.
What an experience this has been for us! No matter how much I tried to prepare myself for this, I just didn't have a clue. Not only has my image of education changed (public school setting; memorization, papers,papers,papers, sit for six hours etc.) but I have such an appreciation for the resources that are available to the kids and I and how far creativity can go. There were definitely some "misses" this year with our schedule, curriculum and just working through the hoops. BUT there were also some definite "hits"! The kids and I have a different and new understanding for one another during those learning hours and we can do as much as we need to on a particular subject until it makes sense. Wow, this year has been full of memories!
I have so many ideas for next year and the ideas that I have center around each child and their type of learning, what clicks with them and/or interests them. I feel that I am much more comfortable and creative with guiding and teaching when it comes to their education. This year was just as much an experience of learning for me as it was for the kids. So, we will get ready to enjoy our busy summer and I'll be excited to start a fresh new year in August with fresh new ideas!!!!

Flash cards are great!

SPELLING

I wanted to make spelling a little more interesting and fun this week.

JUPITER

This week in Science we started learning about Jupiter and it's four closest moons: Lo, Europa, Callisto and Ganymede. Lo is the closest moon and is very colorful due to the many volcanoes and sulfur. In fact, Lo's volcanoes are the very hottest of anything in our Solar System next to the Sun. What is interesting is that the next three closest moons are rocky moons covered in ice. Ganymede is the largest moon in our Solar System. There are more than 63 moons orbiting Jupiter.

So here is a craft the kids did. This is Jupiter with its closest moon Lo.

Part of the lesson was how we get these pictures from satellites. So the kids made a rocket!

Pocket Chart

The story of the U.S.A book 1 we are using for our third grade is great because the chapters are short and after each chapter are multiple choice questions, true or false, fill-in-the-blank, and discussions. Each chapter, however, is packed with information and sometimes even after going through all of the questions, my son has a hard time retaining some of the info. So I made a chart with six windows; he opens the window, reads the paragraph and does the activity. This was so much fun for him and he was excited to show his Dad at lunch!

The story ends with Captain John Smith teaching the colonists to work. He taught them to cut down trees for houses and to grow crops. Out of 105 settlers in Jamestown, only 38 lived. Many more would've probably perished for their laziness as well. The settlers just needed a little guidance from someone who was motivated.
So we ended our morning session with building our own houses.....

Letter "T"

On each flower are stickers of things that begin with the letter T: truck, teddy bear,trees, tomato and taxi.

While our son was at the computer, I sat with our daughter to do some letter T tracer pages, coloring and tractor cards where she learned about size difference. She cut out shapes of different sizes and made her own tractor as well. We also practiced putting sounds together to make words with these level "A" readers from Scholastic. I read the book to her first and then she reads them back to me, although she has them memorized, I ask her to point to and follow the words. This way, obviously she can start to recognize the letter sounds and sight words.