1st Grade Reading List Part 3

Here it is - our book goal for the next three months:

• Pokemon Junior: Save Our Squirtle
• Pokemon Junior: Bulbasaur's Bad Day
• Pokemon Junior: Two of a Kind
• Pokemon Junior: Raichu Shows Off
• Pokemon Junior: Nidoran's New Friend
• Magic Tree House: Dolphins at Daybreak
• Magic Tree House: Ghost Town at Sundown
• Magic School Bus: Space Explorers
• Magic School Bus: Twister Trouble
• A to Z Mysteries: Sleepy Hollow Sleepover
• The Berenstain Bears and the New Girl in Town
• The Berenstain Bears and the Nerdy Nephew
• Ballpark Mysteries: The Fenway Foul-up

Of course, we are going to read at least double that.  

I love meeting (and exceeding) our book goal each month!

Now, a note on our reading habits these past three months.  We did just fine, as far as chapter books go, but Optimus Prime & Bumblebee didn't get as much individual reading done like I was hoping.  I was hoping for some one-on-one time where they would get to practice their reading with me, but with football, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Yule, Christmas, New Year's Eve, and birthday parties our schedule was pretty packed.  Actually, it was VERY packed.  So we didn't get to do that much.  This quarter Scooby-Doo starts speech therapy and baseball starts in just over a month.  So this quarter is going to be really packed too, so packed that I slimmed down our schedule a bit.  

However, I'm determined.  I'm not sure how we are going to fit everything in, but we will - even if it kills me (so long as it literally DOESN'T kill me).  So, hopefully their reading skills (which are okay, but that's about it) will get some serious polishing this quarter!

Scooby-Doo! and You

I'm feeling kind of sad, because this is it for Scooby-Doo chapter books!  Oh, sure, we'll reread them some day, but not anytime soon...

Synopsis - Fred, Velma, Daphne, Shaggy, and their dog Scooby-Doo travel around the country solving mysteries and unmasking monsters.  These books are told from the point of view of either Fred, Velma, or Daphne as they investigate the mystery, and the solution to the mystery is kept as a separate chapter to see if you can solve the mystery on your own.  There are questions at the end of the chapters to review the suspects and clues to help you solve the mystery.  Each book is a stand alone book and they do not have to be read in order.

Ash Falcon - "I loved the books - of course!  I liked the idea of trying to solve it on your own.  Every time we reached the end we'd go around the room and say who we thought did it and why.  A couple of books the answers were sneaky (there was a book where two of the suspects did it together, and in one book none of the suspects did it - the victim did).  A couple of the books were also kind of poorly written, which was unfortunate, with a solution thrown together that didn't make any sense, but I suppose there are bound to be misses in anything.  I wish there were more books!  I'd give the series a 5/5."

Optimus Prime - "They were great, perfect, and all kinds of great and happy stuff.  They were fun!"

Bumblebee - "Just good, that's all.  I liked trying to find out who it was - at least we got one!"  (He got quite a few, so I don't know why he's saying "at least we got one!")

Scooby-Doo! and You by Jesse Leon McCann, James Gelsey, Vicki Berger Irwin, Jenny Markas, Tracey West, & Suzanne Weyn (author's initials in parentheses)

1. The Case of the Lost Lumberjack (JLM)
2. The Case of the Glowing Alien by (JG)
3. The Case of the Wandering Witch (JG)
4. The Case of the Haunted Hound (VBI)
5. The Case of the Theater Phantom (VBI)
6. The Case of the Doughy Creature (JM)
7. The Case of the Bigfoot Beast (TW)
8. The Case of the Wrestler's Ghost (TW)
9. The Case of the Creepy Camp (JLM)
10. The Case of the Freaky Oil Fiend (JLM)
11. The Case of the Mad Mermaid (JLM)
12. The Case of the Spinning Spider (VBI)
13. The Case of Headless Henry (JM)
14. The Case of the Leaping Lion (JM)
15. The Case of the Monstrous Mutt (JM)
16. The Case of the Terrifying Pterodactyl (JM)
17. The Case of the Angry Alligator (JG)
18. The Case of Dr. Jenkins and Mr. Hyde (JG)
19. The Case of the Purple Knight (JG)
20. The Case of the Seaweed Monster (JG)
21. The Case of the Singing Ghost (JG)
22. The Case of the Television Monster (JG)
23. The Case of the Living Doll (TW)
24. The Case of the Batty Vampire (SW)

Two Week Review: January 3 - 16

Just to let you know, these two weeks were also chaotic.  My husband was still on vacation and decided that it's time for some job hunting or transferring to the company's second location (which hasn't opened yet).  This means we may or may not be moving in the next few months.  Optimus Prime & Bumblebee got bunk beds, a new dresser, and we started new shelves for their toys.  I was still freaked out & stressed over my cousin getting so sick (he could have died - so, you know, scary).  Scooby-Doo had an evaluation for speech therapy, so we now have to do that twice a week.  Also, I'm trying to write up a new schoolwork schedule while planning around speech therapy visits, a possible moving date of less than 3 months away, and apartment/house hunting.  Plus, my kids discovered the joys of the local public library.  All in all a busy (and stressful) two weeks.

So, last I said Scooby-Doo took two weeks off from our "schedule" and only wanted to read books.  Fast forward to the end of this two week period and he was crazy into his workbooks and refusing to sit still to read a storybook.  Sigh.  Just, sigh.  I wish the kid would make up his mind.  However, he was so crazy into his workbooks that we completely caught up to our "schedule."  Meanwhile we are behind on his book goal.  I just can't win.

Optimus Prime & Bumblebee got to do a Concept Week about Outer Space.  They've wanted to do this Concept Week for a while now, it just kept getting shoved to the side to focus on other stuff.  So, they were happy.

After our Concept Week we had a regular schoolwork week (of course, I'm not even sure why I'm pointing this out...  I mean, what else would we have done?).  Worked on our Handwriting sheets.  (Sigh.  I just wish they would disappear...)

We did some more African animals in Science.  We started opposites in Spanish, which is a pointless unit since it's just a picture on the page with a word at the bottom that you trace.  Yeah, I'm still hating this Spanish book.  We started a new Geography workbook.  Actually, it's a unit inside one of our multi-subject 1st grade workbooks.  We started a new Art book.  Sight Words same as always, Reading Comprehension same as always.

We finished off our "cover all subject" Logic workbooks form Dollar General.  In Math we did a workbook from Target's dollar section that just covered addition.  It was a nice review, and was pretty easy.  Just basic one digit addition.  It doesn't hurt to go back and cover the basics again & again.  We also started a Strawberry Shortcake addition workbook from Dollar General.  This one starts you in on two digit addition.  A bit above them, but if you don't push them to try something new you'll never find out if they can do it.  The good thing about these workbooks is since it's nothing new I can have them try to do the pages completely on their own, while counting in their heads.  Bumblebee did real good doing the pages like that (1-2 mistakes per page), and Optimus Prime got at least 75% correct - more than I was expecting!

For English we went back to our multi-subject workbooks.  It's a review, since we've already done these pages, but like I said, review is good.  We went over long & short vowels (which I still can't tell apart) and consonant blends.  Then, Spelling was Opposites and Verbs Part 2.

Truthfully, not much went on these two weeks in regards to homeschooling, we were too busy with other stuff...

Two Week Review: December 20 - January 2

I know, I know - this post is VERY late!  Things have been very crazy here, and because of that I haven't been on the blog as much as I wish to be.  More on that in a bit & next post.  First I want to go over everything.

So, last post I talked about Scooby-Doo taking these two weeks off from workbooks.  We did that, he loved the break, he didn't get upset at all when I called his older brothers over to the table and never called him.  We just read books.  He was happy, I was happy, it was a nice two weeks.  Next week I'll bring the workbooks back and see how he reacts.

Optimus Prime & Bumblebee are doing okay.  In Handwriting we're back to our numbers & letters sheets.  I want to drop Handwriting, but they have so many worksheets left over in their kindergarten workbooks that we're going to be doing this for a while still.  Maybe even for the whole year.  We started Africa this week in Science.  Mostly just elephants, monkeys, and apes.

In Spanish we learned about clothes, food, and animals.  All of which they were interested in, and all of which only came with a couple of pages each.  I said last post that we need to start doing something different for Spanish.  I've decided that part of the problem is our workbook.  It says grades Preschool-1, however it's more preschool than 1st grade.  I'm bored with it, they are bored with it.  The only units that are covered extensively are the alphabet, counting to 10, and colors - and two of those units are really just a bunch of handwriting sheets (which are the exact same handwriting sheets from their prek & kindergarten workbooks, only in Spanish - and I'm not exaggerating when I say the EXACT SAME.  I still have some of them in the house, we're currently doing some of them in Handwriting, and like I said, the EXACT SAME!).  I think we're going to try finishing this workbook off next quarter so we can move on to a real 1st grade Spanish book.  When Scooby-Doo starts Spanish we might use this workbook, but it's too easy for 1 graders.  I mean, there is almost zero vocabulary in here and there are no verbs.  Done with my rant, moving on now.

We finished off our Geography book.  I'm a bit sad, they loved it.  We had some Geography sheets left over from their Kindergarten Brain Quest workbook, so we did those.  Actually, we should of done those very first, but that's okay.  We'll start a new Geography book next week.  In Art we finished off our current coloring book & start a new one next week.  I've decided that we definitely need to do something new next quarter for Art...

Sight Words is the same as always.  I think it's helping them learn how to read, but I think we're going to drop the class next quarter.  Reading Comprehension was also the same as always.  We still have too many sheets to go through to drop the class, but I think next quarter we'll finish them all up and then combine the class with English.  Some of their English sheets are really just Reading Comprehension sheets, so it seems silly to do the class twice.  Or maybe we'll do 4 days of English & 1 day of Reading Comprehension.  Hmmm, it's an idea...

Logic was some 1st grade "cover all subjects" workbooks from Dollar General.  Math was a Disney Time & Money workbook (also from Dollar General).  It was a bit above them, involving adding and subtracting money, counting in 5 minute increments, etc.  They liked the workbook, but they didn't get most of it.  My goal these two weeks was for one-on-one time where we practiced counting by 5's, but due to craziness (all of which is mentioned below) it never happened.

Last weeks English book (from Target's dollar section, I don't think I mentioned that part) had a part 2 book, which we did these two weeks.  They enjoyed it a lot more than the last one (which, like I said in the last post, was boring).  Lastly, in Spelling we did Nature & Body Parts.

So, like I said these two weeks were a bit chaotic.  My husband was on his vacation so our schedule was disrupted.  We had Yule followed by an 8 hour round trip drive to do Christmas with the family a few days later.  We had major housework to do (cleaning up from the holidays) as well as getting Optimus Prime & Bumblebee's bedroom ready for their new furniture.  Plus, one of my cousins got very sick New Year's Eve/Day and, to be honest, it was very, VERY scary.  So, these two weeks - schoolwork-wise - were a bit of a blur and a rush.

Concept Week #8: Ancient Greece Mythology

I can't believe that this post is almost a whole month late!  I have been so busy between Yule & Christmas that somehow this just completely slipped my mind!

This Concept Week was a bit of review and a bit of learning new stuff.  I was able to get a bunch of homeschooling worksheets from (of course!) education.com.  We covered the Greek gods, the mythological creatures, the ancient Greek Olympics, some of the famous statues, temples, and landmarks, etc.  My kids already knew a bit about the Greek gods but this really helped to expand their knowledge.

For our project we decided to try something new.  We made pastitsio - which is a traditional Greek recipe similar to baked ziti, only it uses a milk sauce instead of cheese.  Optimus Prime & Scooby-Doo liked it, Bumblebee refused to even try it.  It was good, but it takes a lot of work, makes your kitchen VERY messy, and makes a HUGE amount of food.  After eating it for three days straight we were so sick of looking at it that we gave it to the dogs.  FYI - I do NOT (NOT! NOT!!) recommend giving leftover pastitsio to your dogs, it is far to rich for them.  Trust me on this.

We did not do a book.  I was a bit upset, but the truth is we weren't ready for our book yet.  We have Magic Tree House # 16: Hour of the Olympics to read, where Jack & Annie travel back to Ancient Greece, but we aren't that far along yet in the series.  So, in a month or so I'll be updating this post to say "yes, we have FINALLY read our book" but until then we are book-less.

All in all it was a fun week (despite the dogs unfortunate reaction to the extra pastitsio) and they learned about some stuff that they didn't know about before.