Some how I missed putting up this post even though I wrote it almost a week ago... Oops!
A lot has happened since our last two week review, with some exciting Scooby-Doo news!
So first, Scooby-Doo.
He's still a little behind, but like I said before his schoolwork schedule is really more of a guideline then anything else. But, for some exciting news for him I think he might be getting his shapes down. He's not saying the name of the shapes, but his Minnie Mouse workbook covers each shape on a two page spread. So we practice the shape (with me holding his hand and guiding him) on the first page and then the second page has a mixture of shapes and you are only supposed to color in the shape you just reviewed. Well, he'll put his finger on the shape on the first page and use that too help him color in about half the correct shapes on the second page. He'll then stop checking back and forth between the pages and proceeds to color in ALL the remaining shapes, but hey, it's a step in the right direction! Trying to get him to color in a coloring book was like getting your teeth pulled. He wanted nothing to do with it, even though it was a Batman coloring book and he loves Batman. Optimus Prime and Bumblebee actually colored in the whole thing with Scooby-Doo gracing each page with one minuscule scribble...
Soon I have to start planning out next quarter. He loves doing his Color & Shapes workbooks, so I won't stop those, but I'm thinking that I do need to start adding onto what he does. Especially if he is going to start doing his Color & Shapes workbooks correctly.
Optimus Prime & Bumblebee are completely caught up. We had quite a few days of major cramming going on, days where there were fights because they were kept at the table longer than usual, but in the end we got it all done by the 25th. Let me just say that I hope we never get three days behind again!
Also, we did not do the September Concept Week. We had so much extra work to do trying to cram in the three missing days that it never got done. We will start it next week so all's well that end's well, I guess.
No exciting news here, but, oddly, a lot of endings.
Handwriting is the same as always. Sigh.
In Spanish we finally (thankfully) finished the Colors Unit. Next week we'll move onto shapes.
In Science we finished our North America Unit and start Asia next week. They're excited about that.
Our current English book is actually has the exact same pages as our previous English book. It also has new pages and everything is all mixed up. So even though the pages are largely review that's working out okay. They missed a lot of concepts the first time we went over them and they are now starting to sink in the second time around.
Math is going pretty good. We finished up the first half of our current book and start a new book next week. The second half of our book is all adding and subtracting double digits. Bumblebee might be ready for that but Optimus Prime definitely is not. So we'll save it for another quarter.
We finished our first Unit in Geography. We are done with maps & compasses and move onto land forms next week.
Reading is also the same as always. One change is that I decided to drop the Reading Quiz. Now that they realize they can read a bit on their own I don't think we need me to print up sentences for them to read anymore. Hopefully instead they'll start picking up on sentences in their books. We still have the Book Reports, but I'm thinking that we'll do them differently next quarter... I'm also thinking that we might need to start tackling some sight words worksheets to go along with our reading...
For old Spelling words that they just could not get down I made up a bunch of worksheets for them as extra work. They grumbled, but they did them and I dropped those words from their quizzes. They did pretty good on their new spelling units.
Logic and Art are the same as always. They also finished both of those books and start new ones next week.
Lastly we finished up Dinosaur Cove.
Like I said, a week of endings for Optimus Prime and Bumblebee - we finished three units, two books, and a book series!
Hopefully next week things will get back on track.
Monday, September 30, 2013
Friday, September 27, 2013
Dinosaur Cove
We have (finally) finished the Dinosaur Cove books! I am a bit sad to see them go since Bumblebee really liked them...
Synopsis - Dinosaur Cove follows the adventures of best friends Jamie & Tom and their dinosaur friend Wanna. Jamie & Tom find a hidden tunnel that leads to the past where they can visit real dinosaurs. While there they meet a Wannanosaurus and become friends with him. Together they travel around and observe dinosaurs first hand.
(Note - This series has quite a few books spanning over four series with a few extra double length books as well. However, only the six books of the first series (the Cretaceous Adventures) and the first three books of the second series (the Jurassic Adventures) have been published in the U.S., and they have been published as one series - not two. None of the other books or series have been. You can get them used online however at this time we are not doing that for two reasons. #1 is that they only came out a few years ago and I want to see if they will change their minds and release the rest since there is customer demand. #2 is I figured we could use a break from Dinosaur Cove for a bit and focus on the stack of books that we currently have sitting on our bookcase waiting for us to read - including more Scooby-Doo books, more Pokemon books, and some Magic Tree House books. We will eventually get around to buying them and once we do and read them I'll put up a new, revised, posts - one for each series. So for now, this post is only about the books released in the U.S.)
Ash Falcon - "These books were amusing and a very light read. They were pretty ridiculous, though, so if you are reading them to your kids prepare for some eye-rolling on your part. Let's just say that you have to suspend your disbelief (in regards to dinosaur reality) a bit while reading them. I'd say a 4/5."
Optimus Prime - "The books were good, but #8 was scary! Remember the monster [plesiosaur] was biting holes in the board?"
Bumblebee - "They were really, really nice and all of them were good! #8 was my favorite."
Synopsis - Dinosaur Cove follows the adventures of best friends Jamie & Tom and their dinosaur friend Wanna. Jamie & Tom find a hidden tunnel that leads to the past where they can visit real dinosaurs. While there they meet a Wannanosaurus and become friends with him. Together they travel around and observe dinosaurs first hand.
(Note - This series has quite a few books spanning over four series with a few extra double length books as well. However, only the six books of the first series (the Cretaceous Adventures) and the first three books of the second series (the Jurassic Adventures) have been published in the U.S., and they have been published as one series - not two. None of the other books or series have been. You can get them used online however at this time we are not doing that for two reasons. #1 is that they only came out a few years ago and I want to see if they will change their minds and release the rest since there is customer demand. #2 is I figured we could use a break from Dinosaur Cove for a bit and focus on the stack of books that we currently have sitting on our bookcase waiting for us to read - including more Scooby-Doo books, more Pokemon books, and some Magic Tree House books. We will eventually get around to buying them and once we do and read them I'll put up a new, revised, posts - one for each series. So for now, this post is only about the books released in the U.S.)
Ash Falcon - "These books were amusing and a very light read. They were pretty ridiculous, though, so if you are reading them to your kids prepare for some eye-rolling on your part. Let's just say that you have to suspend your disbelief (in regards to dinosaur reality) a bit while reading them. I'd say a 4/5."
Optimus Prime - "The books were good, but #8 was scary! Remember the monster [plesiosaur] was biting holes in the board?"
Bumblebee - "They were really, really nice and all of them were good! #8 was my favorite."
Dinosaur Cove by Rex Stone
- Attack of the Tyrannosaurus
- Charge of the Triceratops
- March of the Ankylosaurus
- Flight of the Quetzalcoatlus
- Catching the Velociraptor
- Stampede of the Edmontosaurus
- Saving the Stegosaurus
- Swimming with the Plesiosaur
- Tracking the Diplodocus
Sunday, September 22, 2013
The Chores Dilema
So I've been mulling this post over in my head for the past week or so and I've decided to give it a go even though it's not exactly about homeschooling. Chores, though, can be a bit like Home Economics. I never had Home Ec. when I went to school - as a matter of fact I don't even know if it's taught anymore - and while I was glad when I was in high school once I moved out of my parents house I was a bit sorry that it was never an option. I still remember the look on my future husband's face when I told him I had no clue how to work a washing machine. The shock and disbelief on his face would of been hilarious if I had been joking, but I wasn't so instead it was just plain embarrassing. Same with the time I had to tell him that the toilet wouldn't flush and could he come and fix it, please? The problem? The chain fell off of the handle. I had no clue that the handle was even attached to a chain. And while "How To Fix A Toilet" or "How To Operate A Washing Machine" were probably not topics covered in Home Ec., the class would of (ideally) taught me some of the things you need to know to function as an adult in the world.
Before that moment with the washing machine I was rather proud of my lack of skills. I looked down on women who cooked homemade meals, who sewed, who stayed home and took care of their families, etc. I mean, the 1950's were over with! Feminism had happened! Didn't women realize that they could be anything that they wanted to be?!? Why on earth would you cook a homemade meal when you can eat food out of a box or a can? Who would want to sew their own clothes when they could just go buy some from the store? Who would deliberately chose to be stuck home all day caring for their family? Not me! No thank you! Work a washing machine? Why would I need to know how to do that - oh, wait, that's right. To have clean clothes. Huh. I don't think I thought this feminism thing through that well...
Yeah. It was an eye opener all right.
Now, I'm the exact thing that I scorned at when I was 18. I stay home, take care of my family, cook homemade meals, and even know how to work a sewing machine - and I love all of those things. Life's funny like that, I guess.
So, when my kids grow up and move out I want them to know how to work a washing machine and how to cook something that doesn't come out of a can. They don't have to learn how to work a sewing machine if they don't want to, but they do need to know some basic skills and chores are the perfect place to start at.
Until this week Optimus Prime and Bumblebee's chores were pretty basic. Clean their bedroom, pick up their mess in the living room, feed the dogs, wipe up their bathroom sink with a washcloth at least twice a week, put away their laundry and rinse dishes for me when I wash them.
(Yes, I hand wash dishes. Don't hate.)
This past week I decided to shake up their chores for two reasons:
Before that moment with the washing machine I was rather proud of my lack of skills. I looked down on women who cooked homemade meals, who sewed, who stayed home and took care of their families, etc. I mean, the 1950's were over with! Feminism had happened! Didn't women realize that they could be anything that they wanted to be?!? Why on earth would you cook a homemade meal when you can eat food out of a box or a can? Who would want to sew their own clothes when they could just go buy some from the store? Who would deliberately chose to be stuck home all day caring for their family? Not me! No thank you! Work a washing machine? Why would I need to know how to do that - oh, wait, that's right. To have clean clothes. Huh. I don't think I thought this feminism thing through that well...
Yeah. It was an eye opener all right.
Now, I'm the exact thing that I scorned at when I was 18. I stay home, take care of my family, cook homemade meals, and even know how to work a sewing machine - and I love all of those things. Life's funny like that, I guess.
So, when my kids grow up and move out I want them to know how to work a washing machine and how to cook something that doesn't come out of a can. They don't have to learn how to work a sewing machine if they don't want to, but they do need to know some basic skills and chores are the perfect place to start at.
Until this week Optimus Prime and Bumblebee's chores were pretty basic. Clean their bedroom, pick up their mess in the living room, feed the dogs, wipe up their bathroom sink with a washcloth at least twice a week, put away their laundry and rinse dishes for me when I wash them.
(Yes, I hand wash dishes. Don't hate.)
This past week I decided to shake up their chores for two reasons:
- They are getting so bored doing the same chores over and over again that they are starting to complain. This does not help me out at all and turns a five minute chore into an hour long stressful event.
- They need to learn different skills.
So they still have to clean their bedroom, pick up their mess in the living room, feed the dogs, put away their laundry and wipe down their bathroom sink. But now they also have to sweep the kitchen floor and help me make lunch and dinner.
It's still all pretty basic. Nothing crazy. But all of it is building blocks to bigger chores and functioning on their own one day when they are an adult. Cleaning their room turns into making their bed which turns into changing the sheets on their bed. Cleaning up the living room turns into vacuuming the living room. Rinsing dishes turns into washing dishes. Feeding the dogs turns into walking the dogs. Cleaning up dirty laundry turns into washing laundry. Putting away clean clothes turns into folding clothes. Helping to make dinner turns into cooking dinner on your own. Or, at least it does if you provide your kids with the tools to build upon and learn those skills.
Chores are important. I used to think that they were a huge burden that the parents were supposed to do while you were busy hanging out with your friends, and my parents never really did anything to make me see them in any other light. Yes, I had chores growing up but I really resented them. To my teenager mind the only chore I should of been in charge of doing was cleaning my own room (which, truthfully, was usually pretty clean). My parents never took the time to sit me down and explain how unfair my expectations or beliefs were. Now I see that not only does everyone need to pull their own weight but that if they never strive to do more then the bare minimum they are setting themselves up for failure. Like my lack of washing machine and toilet skills.
So what do they get for doing chores? Aside from living in a clean house that runs somewhat smoothly?
They make $3 a week (each) that they can spend on any toy, movie, or book that they please. If they refuse to do their chores there is a penalty of 30 cents for the first chore and 10 cents for every chore after that. Also, as an added incentive to not waste their money on toys and movies (not that I have any problem with toys and movies they just have so many already that I cringe every time they buy more) if they buy a book their dad an I go halves with them. Just the other day Bumblebee wanted to spend his money on the last Dinosaur Cove book. The book cost $4, he spent $2 and I spent $2. It was a win-win as far as I was concerned. He only had to spend one weeks money on it and he had change leftover, and there was one less toy in the house for me to trip over.
Like I said - win-win.
Like I said - win-win.
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Concept Week #4: Calendars
Ugh, I have to say that as glad as I am that we did this for a Concept Week it was painful. Part of the problem was settling into a new schoolwork schedule. Another problem was all the house work going on at the same time. Plus everyone started to get sick right towards the end. But the biggest problem of all was I made too many worksheets. After day two (both day one and two we only did half of the calendar schoolwork for each day) Optimus Prime fully understood the calendar and was officially bored. After day three, where we tried to catch up but didn't really succeed, Bumblebee pretty much had it down. Then I was stuck with three and a half days of calendar sheets that they didn't want to do and I didn't want to just throw out. So we did them anyway, which meant a lot of whining, which meant we only did a few sheets at a time, which meant it got dragged out longer than it should have, which meant even more whining...
You can see how this is shaping up, right?
However, we survived, and they now fully understand calendars. They also never want to look at another one again, but they understand them.
I'll consider it a win.
The sheets were pretty cool, actually, and for right now you can find them here. This link might not be good forever, though, so I will tell you that they came from education.com - if you go there and search for calendar worksheets CURRENT ones will pop up. They only keep them up for two years, then they pull them down and put up new ones. So as of this exact moment you can only get September 2011 - September 2013. Next month September 2011 will be pulled down and October 2013 will go up. The link is for all the 2012 calendars, so like I said it might not be good forever.
For our project I printed up a calendar for October and November, also from education.com. They have a neat set called "Create a Calendar" where you print up blank calendars for the year and fill them in. I had them each take a month and fill in our schedule for the month with pictures. So we now have football practice, holidays, and other events mapped out for the next two months.
For a book I had to get creative. I could not seem to find a kids book that dealt with calendars. I found seasons books, but that did me no good, especially since we already own one of those and I'm using it for our next Concept Week. I did find a book on amazon.com called "The Berenstain Bears The Whole Year Through: With Earth Saver Tips and Things to Do for Each and Every Month of the Year." I was intrigued, however there was no photo up to show me what the product looked like, and no reviews or descriptions up either. And for a price tag of $20-689 (yes, you read that right) I wasn't even remotely interested in finding out how the book was. So I had to order "The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Pressure" by Stan and Jan Berenstain and hope it was good enough. Since the book did kind of deal with calendars it worked out okay. The plot was the Bear Family was trying to cram too much stuff into their schedule, which was causing them stress. I was able to tie the book into our lesson by pointing out how we use calendars to properly schedule our time so we can make sure we have the time to do the things we need to do (like schoolwork) and the things we like doing (like football).
So it worked out in the end.
You can see how this is shaping up, right?
However, we survived, and they now fully understand calendars. They also never want to look at another one again, but they understand them.
I'll consider it a win.
The sheets were pretty cool, actually, and for right now you can find them here. This link might not be good forever, though, so I will tell you that they came from education.com - if you go there and search for calendar worksheets CURRENT ones will pop up. They only keep them up for two years, then they pull them down and put up new ones. So as of this exact moment you can only get September 2011 - September 2013. Next month September 2011 will be pulled down and October 2013 will go up. The link is for all the 2012 calendars, so like I said it might not be good forever.
For our project I printed up a calendar for October and November, also from education.com. They have a neat set called "Create a Calendar" where you print up blank calendars for the year and fill them in. I had them each take a month and fill in our schedule for the month with pictures. So we now have football practice, holidays, and other events mapped out for the next two months.
For a book I had to get creative. I could not seem to find a kids book that dealt with calendars. I found seasons books, but that did me no good, especially since we already own one of those and I'm using it for our next Concept Week. I did find a book on amazon.com called "The Berenstain Bears The Whole Year Through: With Earth Saver Tips and Things to Do for Each and Every Month of the Year." I was intrigued, however there was no photo up to show me what the product looked like, and no reviews or descriptions up either. And for a price tag of $20-689 (yes, you read that right) I wasn't even remotely interested in finding out how the book was. So I had to order "The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Pressure" by Stan and Jan Berenstain and hope it was good enough. Since the book did kind of deal with calendars it worked out okay. The plot was the Bear Family was trying to cram too much stuff into their schedule, which was causing them stress. I was able to tie the book into our lesson by pointing out how we use calendars to properly schedule our time so we can make sure we have the time to do the things we need to do (like schoolwork) and the things we like doing (like football).
So it worked out in the end.
Saturday, September 14, 2013
Two Week Review: August 30 - September 12
Another two weeks over, and despite waking up sick this morning it looks like I might get this one up in time.
So, for some random info Optimus Prime brought something home and was really sick for about 48 hours. No big deal. He got better almost immediately then passed it onto Bumblebee and Scooby-Doo, both of whom have been sick for over a week now, Bumblebee especially. He even lost his voice for three days. Sigh. Optimus Prime has been fine since the initial 48 hours, just really tired. Then, this morning I wake up sick and Bumblebee is STILL doing bad (at least he got his voice back yesterday). Needless to say we have not gotten much schoolwork done this past week. As of this moment we are officially three days behind with no end in sight to whatever this is that's kicking around the house. So here goes...
We FINALLY finished up our first Concept Week for this quarter. We did calendars, and I'll post about it in a couple of days. We'll start seasons in a few days, I want to finish off our Week 6 schoolwork first, which we'll hopefully finish off tomorrow...
Scooby-Doo was a trial this past week. We actually did nothing but read books and are technically a week behind in his workbook. He was happy with his workbook (Dora Colors & Shapes again) up until he got sick. As for coloring and stickers - both are totally out. Stickers now go on the body instead of paper and he likes to position the marker in my hand and make me scribble on the pages instead of doing it himself. I explained to him that I already know how to color, but he wasn't interested in what I had to say. Bumblebee decided that I needed some "help" with getting Scooby-Doo to do his schoolwork, so he colored and put stickers all over the coloring book pages for Scooby-Doo. Scooby-Doo saw that as an invitation to either run away or freak out, depending upon his mood. Right now I'm content to let Scooby-Doo fall behind. Our homeschooling goals for him are more guidelines than set in stone, and since he's been sick this past week he has wanted nothing to do with schoolwork and everything to do with cuddling and napping. Plus, I know he'll catch up quick once he feels better - he loves his Dora workbooks and next is a Minnie Mouse one and I'm sure he'll be equally excited to do that one as well.
Optimus Prime and Bumblebee, like I said before, are also sick. Bumblebee actually has been completely housebound. I wouldn't let him go to football practice or anything. Optimus Prime made it to practice two out of three days but it really wore him out. Despite being sick, however, we actually have managed to stay almost on schedule.
Handwriting is the same as always. Sloppy for Optimus Prime, varying between neat, okay, and sloppy for Bumblebee.
We are behind in Spanish. I was planning on having the colors unit finished up by now, but with them being sick it hasn't happened. Actually, I don't think we did any Spanish at all this last week...
We are behind in Science, however our Science book (which covers animals by continent) likes to do an in-depth look at an animal or two for each unit and this last week we got to do that twice, so they were really excited. There's a book you get to rip out and staple together. Then you read it and color it. They love doing that and they were thrilled that they got to do it twice in one week. So there was a bright spot.
We finished off our first Math and English textbooks and should of started new ones yesterday, but like I said we are a little behind.
Math we went over fractions, time, and money. They did good on fractions and telling time by the hour. Once we got into the half-hour things got confusing. Bumblebee kept reading the hour wrong and Optimus Prime just started making things up when reading the clocks. We need to work on this some more. Our kitchen has a little digital clock that I use when cooking, so I'm thinking maybe I should get an analog clock to help them out. The only one we have in the house is my watch, which is always missing since I never wear it. They understood the concept of pennies and one dollars, but anything more than that just confused them. They said that they understood a nickel equals five cents or five pennies, but when it came down to it they just did not understand counting by fives to count the nickels. They wanted to say five nickels equals five cents, not twenty-five cents. We have some Disney Time and Money workbooks, and I'm thinking next quarter we need to pull them out and really work on the concepts of time and money.
As for English we worked on sentences - telling and asking ones - punctuation, and word order. There was a LOT of writing, more than they are used to. The unit was really designed for a first grader that knows how to read.
They loved Geography, of course. We just finished map keys and symbols and are currently onto map borders.
Reading was a little different. For the past week and a half we read the story The Little Red Hen from a workbook and did the activities that went along with it. It was a nice break from trying to teach them how to read. On the plus side, they are starting to read very basic sentences, but only if they know all of the words in the sentence and only if the sentence is a few words long. Example - The cat saw a bird. I can read books. Etc. They haven't figured out sounding out words that they don't recognize yet, or guessing the word based on the context of the sentence - but it's a start!
Spelling was pretty good these past two weeks, they both did really good on the last two units. However there are about ten words total, apiece, from previous units that they do not have down. I've decided that it's time to do something about some of these words. Tomorrow we will ideally be starting Unit 7 and some of these words are from Unit 3. One thought that I am having is to do a Spelling quiz everyday until they are caught up. Another is to give them extra Spelling assignments using these words. I'm not sure what I am going to do but I've got to figure it out by tomorrow night.
Logic and Art are both fine. They are thrilled to have extra Logic schoolwork. Now they want Art dropped, but I told them no. Some days they are really into Art, other days not so much. I'm thinking that maybe next quarter I'll change our assignments for Art, we'll have to see...
For a side note we just ordered the last Dinosaur Cove book and it should be here in a couple of days. Then we will promptly read it (because god forbid we not immediately read a book about dinosaurs the MINUTE it arrives in the mail) and then I'll put up a post about the series. I'm also thinking about doing a post about chores. I keep going back and forth over this in my head. It's not about homeschooling, however when you homeschool and your kids are in the house all day making a mess there are a lot of chores to do... I'll let you know one way or another this week.
On a final note I have decided that we won't start our one-on-one time until next quarter. Right now with everyone sick, just finishing last month's Concept Week, football practice 3-5 days a week, and being three days behind there is just too much on our plate right now - in my opinion - to start throwing one-on-one time into the mix. We will definitely start it next quarter, however, since Optimus Prime at least really needs it. Right now the only one-on-one time we get is when we do our Reading assignments for the week, and sometimes we don't have a chance to do that one-on-one.
All in all it was a good two weeks despite everyone being sick. So long as I don't wake up worse tomorrow I think we can start working on getting back on schedule.
So, for some random info Optimus Prime brought something home and was really sick for about 48 hours. No big deal. He got better almost immediately then passed it onto Bumblebee and Scooby-Doo, both of whom have been sick for over a week now, Bumblebee especially. He even lost his voice for three days. Sigh. Optimus Prime has been fine since the initial 48 hours, just really tired. Then, this morning I wake up sick and Bumblebee is STILL doing bad (at least he got his voice back yesterday). Needless to say we have not gotten much schoolwork done this past week. As of this moment we are officially three days behind with no end in sight to whatever this is that's kicking around the house. So here goes...
We FINALLY finished up our first Concept Week for this quarter. We did calendars, and I'll post about it in a couple of days. We'll start seasons in a few days, I want to finish off our Week 6 schoolwork first, which we'll hopefully finish off tomorrow...
Scooby-Doo was a trial this past week. We actually did nothing but read books and are technically a week behind in his workbook. He was happy with his workbook (Dora Colors & Shapes again) up until he got sick. As for coloring and stickers - both are totally out. Stickers now go on the body instead of paper and he likes to position the marker in my hand and make me scribble on the pages instead of doing it himself. I explained to him that I already know how to color, but he wasn't interested in what I had to say. Bumblebee decided that I needed some "help" with getting Scooby-Doo to do his schoolwork, so he colored and put stickers all over the coloring book pages for Scooby-Doo. Scooby-Doo saw that as an invitation to either run away or freak out, depending upon his mood. Right now I'm content to let Scooby-Doo fall behind. Our homeschooling goals for him are more guidelines than set in stone, and since he's been sick this past week he has wanted nothing to do with schoolwork and everything to do with cuddling and napping. Plus, I know he'll catch up quick once he feels better - he loves his Dora workbooks and next is a Minnie Mouse one and I'm sure he'll be equally excited to do that one as well.
Optimus Prime and Bumblebee, like I said before, are also sick. Bumblebee actually has been completely housebound. I wouldn't let him go to football practice or anything. Optimus Prime made it to practice two out of three days but it really wore him out. Despite being sick, however, we actually have managed to stay almost on schedule.
Handwriting is the same as always. Sloppy for Optimus Prime, varying between neat, okay, and sloppy for Bumblebee.
We are behind in Spanish. I was planning on having the colors unit finished up by now, but with them being sick it hasn't happened. Actually, I don't think we did any Spanish at all this last week...
We are behind in Science, however our Science book (which covers animals by continent) likes to do an in-depth look at an animal or two for each unit and this last week we got to do that twice, so they were really excited. There's a book you get to rip out and staple together. Then you read it and color it. They love doing that and they were thrilled that they got to do it twice in one week. So there was a bright spot.
We finished off our first Math and English textbooks and should of started new ones yesterday, but like I said we are a little behind.
Math we went over fractions, time, and money. They did good on fractions and telling time by the hour. Once we got into the half-hour things got confusing. Bumblebee kept reading the hour wrong and Optimus Prime just started making things up when reading the clocks. We need to work on this some more. Our kitchen has a little digital clock that I use when cooking, so I'm thinking maybe I should get an analog clock to help them out. The only one we have in the house is my watch, which is always missing since I never wear it. They understood the concept of pennies and one dollars, but anything more than that just confused them. They said that they understood a nickel equals five cents or five pennies, but when it came down to it they just did not understand counting by fives to count the nickels. They wanted to say five nickels equals five cents, not twenty-five cents. We have some Disney Time and Money workbooks, and I'm thinking next quarter we need to pull them out and really work on the concepts of time and money.
As for English we worked on sentences - telling and asking ones - punctuation, and word order. There was a LOT of writing, more than they are used to. The unit was really designed for a first grader that knows how to read.
They loved Geography, of course. We just finished map keys and symbols and are currently onto map borders.
Reading was a little different. For the past week and a half we read the story The Little Red Hen from a workbook and did the activities that went along with it. It was a nice break from trying to teach them how to read. On the plus side, they are starting to read very basic sentences, but only if they know all of the words in the sentence and only if the sentence is a few words long. Example - The cat saw a bird. I can read books. Etc. They haven't figured out sounding out words that they don't recognize yet, or guessing the word based on the context of the sentence - but it's a start!
Spelling was pretty good these past two weeks, they both did really good on the last two units. However there are about ten words total, apiece, from previous units that they do not have down. I've decided that it's time to do something about some of these words. Tomorrow we will ideally be starting Unit 7 and some of these words are from Unit 3. One thought that I am having is to do a Spelling quiz everyday until they are caught up. Another is to give them extra Spelling assignments using these words. I'm not sure what I am going to do but I've got to figure it out by tomorrow night.
Logic and Art are both fine. They are thrilled to have extra Logic schoolwork. Now they want Art dropped, but I told them no. Some days they are really into Art, other days not so much. I'm thinking that maybe next quarter I'll change our assignments for Art, we'll have to see...
For a side note we just ordered the last Dinosaur Cove book and it should be here in a couple of days. Then we will promptly read it (because god forbid we not immediately read a book about dinosaurs the MINUTE it arrives in the mail) and then I'll put up a post about the series. I'm also thinking about doing a post about chores. I keep going back and forth over this in my head. It's not about homeschooling, however when you homeschool and your kids are in the house all day making a mess there are a lot of chores to do... I'll let you know one way or another this week.
On a final note I have decided that we won't start our one-on-one time until next quarter. Right now with everyone sick, just finishing last month's Concept Week, football practice 3-5 days a week, and being three days behind there is just too much on our plate right now - in my opinion - to start throwing one-on-one time into the mix. We will definitely start it next quarter, however, since Optimus Prime at least really needs it. Right now the only one-on-one time we get is when we do our Reading assignments for the week, and sometimes we don't have a chance to do that one-on-one.
All in all it was a good two weeks despite everyone being sick. So long as I don't wake up worse tomorrow I think we can start working on getting back on schedule.
Saturday, September 7, 2013
Two Week Review: August 16 - 29
Somehow this post got lost in the shuffle of life. I mean, here we are onto Week 6 and I'm just now getting around to writing up what happened Weeks 3 & 4. I'm not even sure what happened to provide me with an excuse. I mean, the house has been finished (except for rearranging artwork and posters) this whole time and yes I was sick during Week 5 and Optimus Prime just got sick this week, however that's actually given me quite a bit of downtime in which internet stuff should of gotten done.
Scooby-Doo is doing fine. He's finished up his second Colors & Shapes workbook. It was harder than the first (not that he cared - it's not like he was listening to me while I was reading the directions or anything, he just wanted to scribble!) and not as interesting since there was no cartoon character. He doesn't even know who Dora is - we don't watch her show and we have none of her books - but he does like her. Go figure. While workbooks are in coloring is so Last Week and as for stickers he thinks they taste better than they look on paper. Sigh.
At least he's still into his schoolwork time. Also, our goal of three books a day has lead into a renewed interest in his favorite book Cookie Kisses, which after a merciful four month break has now become his favorite book again. We are back to reading it a dozen times over the course of the day again, as well as another dozen after tuck-in time. Sigh, again.
Optimus Prime & Bumblebee are doing good.
Optimus Prime's handwriting is getting worse, not sure how. I'm beginning to think our one-on-one time is going to consist of ABC sheets...
Spanish is doing good. We are still on colors, but we should be finishing that up by Week 6 and then we can move onto new things.
Science and Geography are as good as ever. I wish we could do more Geography, but I'll need to find more workbooks first. They love the subject, though, and always want to do more.
English was a lot better these two weeks, so that was a relief. Soon we will be done with their current workbook, ready to move onto a new which means we'll get to rehash everything and see if they've figured some stuff out yet or not.
Math these two weeks was no addition and subtraction, and plenty of patterns and shapes. I don't know why. Yes, the shapes schoolwork is going to turn into fractions schoolwork but for crying out loud, they are in first grade - they know their damn shapes! We don't need two pages of review for each individual shape - where we COLORED (?!?) them - followed by a few pages of counting stars and moons. I mean those pages looked like something in a pre-k workbook and they bored my kids. It was more basic than the shapes schoolwork Scooby-Doo is currently doing. As for patterns, when you get to first grade simple two color patterns are boring. They didn't even enjoy patterns that simple in kindergarten. I'm done complaining. I do want to add that for our quizzes in Math we did addition and subtraction even though we didn't cover those subjects at all. It amazes me how well Bumblebee had has his addition and subtraction down, considering we didn't do them at all for two weeks. He got almost every question correct. Optimus Prime, however, definitely needs to work on his subtraction.
Reading is going okay, still. Same with Spelling. Sigh. I'm just impatient. I love reading and can't wait until my kids connect the dots in their heads and figure it out.
Art is the same as always. Some days they like it, other days it bores them.
They finally won me over with their Logic argument. No puns about them winning me over logically, I was just tired of listening to them complain about it! If they want the extra schoolwork then they can have it! We now do logic every schoolwork day and twice on Saturday.
About our Concept Week we did start it Week 4, however we didn't finish it then. So I'll tell you more about it in the next Two Week Review.
That about sums it up. Our curriculum is updated if you want to check it out. My husband FINALLY got his work schedule so I had to fix ours. Plus, with doing extra Logic schoolwork it made sense to update the page. Also, my aunt sent me a bunch of workbooks for all three, which has me thinking that maybe next quarter Scooby-Doo will start doing other subjects too. Maybe he'll like some patterns or numbers or something. We'll see.
Scooby-Doo is doing fine. He's finished up his second Colors & Shapes workbook. It was harder than the first (not that he cared - it's not like he was listening to me while I was reading the directions or anything, he just wanted to scribble!) and not as interesting since there was no cartoon character. He doesn't even know who Dora is - we don't watch her show and we have none of her books - but he does like her. Go figure. While workbooks are in coloring is so Last Week and as for stickers he thinks they taste better than they look on paper. Sigh.
At least he's still into his schoolwork time. Also, our goal of three books a day has lead into a renewed interest in his favorite book Cookie Kisses, which after a merciful four month break has now become his favorite book again. We are back to reading it a dozen times over the course of the day again, as well as another dozen after tuck-in time. Sigh, again.
Optimus Prime & Bumblebee are doing good.
Optimus Prime's handwriting is getting worse, not sure how. I'm beginning to think our one-on-one time is going to consist of ABC sheets...
Spanish is doing good. We are still on colors, but we should be finishing that up by Week 6 and then we can move onto new things.
Science and Geography are as good as ever. I wish we could do more Geography, but I'll need to find more workbooks first. They love the subject, though, and always want to do more.
English was a lot better these two weeks, so that was a relief. Soon we will be done with their current workbook, ready to move onto a new which means we'll get to rehash everything and see if they've figured some stuff out yet or not.
Math these two weeks was no addition and subtraction, and plenty of patterns and shapes. I don't know why. Yes, the shapes schoolwork is going to turn into fractions schoolwork but for crying out loud, they are in first grade - they know their damn shapes! We don't need two pages of review for each individual shape - where we COLORED (?!?) them - followed by a few pages of counting stars and moons. I mean those pages looked like something in a pre-k workbook and they bored my kids. It was more basic than the shapes schoolwork Scooby-Doo is currently doing. As for patterns, when you get to first grade simple two color patterns are boring. They didn't even enjoy patterns that simple in kindergarten. I'm done complaining. I do want to add that for our quizzes in Math we did addition and subtraction even though we didn't cover those subjects at all. It amazes me how well Bumblebee had has his addition and subtraction down, considering we didn't do them at all for two weeks. He got almost every question correct. Optimus Prime, however, definitely needs to work on his subtraction.
Reading is going okay, still. Same with Spelling. Sigh. I'm just impatient. I love reading and can't wait until my kids connect the dots in their heads and figure it out.
Art is the same as always. Some days they like it, other days it bores them.
They finally won me over with their Logic argument. No puns about them winning me over logically, I was just tired of listening to them complain about it! If they want the extra schoolwork then they can have it! We now do logic every schoolwork day and twice on Saturday.
About our Concept Week we did start it Week 4, however we didn't finish it then. So I'll tell you more about it in the next Two Week Review.
That about sums it up. Our curriculum is updated if you want to check it out. My husband FINALLY got his work schedule so I had to fix ours. Plus, with doing extra Logic schoolwork it made sense to update the page. Also, my aunt sent me a bunch of workbooks for all three, which has me thinking that maybe next quarter Scooby-Doo will start doing other subjects too. Maybe he'll like some patterns or numbers or something. We'll see.
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Concept Week #3: DInosaurs
Well! All that hype and here we are onto our last Concept Week from kindergarten!
Bumblebee loves dinosaurs. Dinosaur toys, dinosaur books, dinosaur movies, dinosaur documentaries... I'm sure you get the idea. Optimus Prime & Scooby-Doo love dinosaurs too, but not nearly as much.
When we first started talking about taking a family vacation this past summer, and our initial plans were scrapped for costing too much, I decided that what we needed to do was something both closer to home and lots of fun. So I planned a dinosaur trip. There are LOTS of dinosaur museums here in Texas, I didn't realize just how many until I started looking into them. We had a blast at two different dinosaur parks and the Dinosaur State Park, and we even decided to expand our trip into two zoos and an aquarium for some variety.
My kids purchased little dinosaur toys almost everywhere we went (because what we REALLY needed in this house was more dinosaur toys!), as well as dinosaur puzzles and dinosaur eggs (that "hatched" in water).
They learned lots of stuff about dinosaurs and saw lots of animals and fish. All in all the trip was a total blast.
Then, when we got home it seemed only fitting to do some dinosaur themed schoolwork for a week.
I had some dinosaur maze books I had picked up on our trip, as well as some dinosaur dot-to-dots and coloring pages I printed up from education.com. We also had some dinosaur schoolwork books I had picked up from Target's dollar section back when they were babies and a book of jigsaw puzzles ("Discovering Dinosaurs!") I had picked up at a Waldenbooks back when they were going out of business. (A side note - if you have never seen jigsaw puzzle books before they are really awesome and you should pick them up. They are big board books that have a half dozen or so puzzles in them and on the opposite page is a few educational paragraphs about the puzzle, we are going to be using them a lot for first grade.)
So our "textbooks" about the subject were the books I had bought during our trip and from Target, as well as the worksheets I had printed up. Our activity was the puzzle book (we got to do a puzzle a day), and our book was "The Magic Schoolbus in the Time of the Dinosaurs" by Joanna Cole.
The workbooks from Target were grades K-2, but I have to be honest some of the activities were more geared towards second graders. However, they still had fun and the book introduced them to codes, which we had never done before, and they caught onto that pretty quick. Each dinosaur that was covered had a code at the bottom to translate to find out what the dinosaur's Latin name meant.
By the time the trip and schoolwork was over we had been on dinosaurs for almost two weeks, and we were definitely all ready to give it up, but everyone had lots of fun.
Bumblebee loves dinosaurs. Dinosaur toys, dinosaur books, dinosaur movies, dinosaur documentaries... I'm sure you get the idea. Optimus Prime & Scooby-Doo love dinosaurs too, but not nearly as much.
When we first started talking about taking a family vacation this past summer, and our initial plans were scrapped for costing too much, I decided that what we needed to do was something both closer to home and lots of fun. So I planned a dinosaur trip. There are LOTS of dinosaur museums here in Texas, I didn't realize just how many until I started looking into them. We had a blast at two different dinosaur parks and the Dinosaur State Park, and we even decided to expand our trip into two zoos and an aquarium for some variety.
My kids purchased little dinosaur toys almost everywhere we went (because what we REALLY needed in this house was more dinosaur toys!), as well as dinosaur puzzles and dinosaur eggs (that "hatched" in water).
They learned lots of stuff about dinosaurs and saw lots of animals and fish. All in all the trip was a total blast.
Then, when we got home it seemed only fitting to do some dinosaur themed schoolwork for a week.
I had some dinosaur maze books I had picked up on our trip, as well as some dinosaur dot-to-dots and coloring pages I printed up from education.com. We also had some dinosaur schoolwork books I had picked up from Target's dollar section back when they were babies and a book of jigsaw puzzles ("Discovering Dinosaurs!") I had picked up at a Waldenbooks back when they were going out of business. (A side note - if you have never seen jigsaw puzzle books before they are really awesome and you should pick them up. They are big board books that have a half dozen or so puzzles in them and on the opposite page is a few educational paragraphs about the puzzle, we are going to be using them a lot for first grade.)
So our "textbooks" about the subject were the books I had bought during our trip and from Target, as well as the worksheets I had printed up. Our activity was the puzzle book (we got to do a puzzle a day), and our book was "The Magic Schoolbus in the Time of the Dinosaurs" by Joanna Cole.
The workbooks from Target were grades K-2, but I have to be honest some of the activities were more geared towards second graders. However, they still had fun and the book introduced them to codes, which we had never done before, and they caught onto that pretty quick. Each dinosaur that was covered had a code at the bottom to translate to find out what the dinosaur's Latin name meant.
By the time the trip and schoolwork was over we had been on dinosaurs for almost two weeks, and we were definitely all ready to give it up, but everyone had lots of fun.
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