Another busy month! Actually, truth be told, I think all of our months are pretty busy...
Scooby-Doo had his therapy. He also reached another big step developmentally. He always sits on my lap for his schoolwork, but he has started sitting on his own! My little baby is growing up! He worked on his letters, numbers, colors, shapes, mazes, dot-to-dots, etc.
Optimus Prime & Bumblebee had a pretty packed schedule. In English we covered sentences. Sentences, non-sentences, statements, telling sentences, asking sentences - I'm sure you set the idea.We also covered following directions and classifying. In Math we covered basic addition and subtraction, followed by addition and subtraction with double-digit numbers. Then we started a new book that covered calendars, time, and money. We'll finish it next month. In spelling we finished short i words and started long i words.
Art was painting. Geography focused on people - on how people settle on the planet, natural resources, how people change the planet, how people adapt to where they live, how people evolve, etc. Science was four units covering Animal Habitats, Food Chains, Decomposition, and Spiders. We used Magic School Bus books and did lapbooks as well. Religion covered Matronalia & Juno, St. Patrick's Day & Saint Patrick, Ostara & Eostre, and Solitude Day & the Goddess. Logic was pretty easy, we just did coloring & activity books. They had fun with the mazes, word scrambles, coloring in the pictures, etc. Super easy? Yes. Lots of fun and a nice break from traditional schoolwork? YES! Plus, we did reading, reading, reading!
Like I said a pretty packed schedule all in all!
Saturday, April 25, 2015
Friday, April 24, 2015
Batman
Synopsis - (Do you really need this synopsis?) Bruce Wayne's parents are killed when he is a child, so as an adult he becomes Batman and goes on to fight super villains and crime in Gotham City.
Wandering Falcon - "I love Batman! (Who doesn't?!?) I'm glad we read these books, especially since my kids loved them too! Now they want me to find a new Batman series to read to them..."
Optimus Prime - "All of them were great! Bat-Mite was my favorite!"
Bumblebee - "The one with Nightwing and Robin in it, I think it was ridiculous that Batman acted like a criminal!"
Wandering Falcon - "I love Batman! (Who doesn't?!?) I'm glad we read these books, especially since my kids loved them too! Now they want me to find a new Batman series to read to them..."
Optimus Prime - "All of them were great! Bat-Mite was my favorite!"
Bumblebee - "The one with Nightwing and Robin in it, I think it was ridiculous that Batman acted like a criminal!"
Batman*
- The Fog of Fear
- Poison Ivy's Deadly Garden
- Five Riddles for Robin
- Fun House of Evil
- Emperor of the Airwaves
- My Frozen Valentine
- The Revenge of Clayface
- Catwoman's Halloween Heist
- Bat-Mite's Big Blunder
- The Puppet Master's Revenge
- Mad Hatter's Movie Madness
- Harley Quinn's Shocking Surprise
- The Man Behind the Mask
- Arctic Attack
- Catwoman's Classroom of Claws
- Two-Face's Double Take
- The Maker of Monsters
- Robin's First Flight
- Scarecrow, Doctor of Fear
- Killer Croc Hunter
* These books are not numbered, so they are listed in the order that we read them. Also, for these books I have not listed an author since they are too much like comic books with multiple authors, illustrators, and creators.
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
Month in Review: February 2015
A nice, normal month! Of course, everyone was sick, making it harder to get work done, but we made it.
Scooby-Doo worked on his letters, numbers, and colors. He also worked on dot-to-dots, mazes, picture finds, and his magazines. He went to therapy twice a week. Also, BIG BREAKTHROUGH, he has started using his markers and pencils on his own!!! He always makes me hold his hand while he writes, sort of like a safety blanket, but he's been starting to write completely on his own.
Optimus Prime & Bumblebee had a FULL schedule. In English we covered handwriting, abc order, beginning and ending sounds, rhyming words, capital letters, plurals, action words, predicates, nouns, antonyms, synonyms, etc - all basic English class stuff. It was a lot of review, but review never hurts! In Math we covered handwriting, counting, addition, money, calendars, time, graphing, measurements, counting backwards, addition, and subtraction. Again, basic math stuff that was largely review. In Spelling we finished long e words, worked on verbs, and started short i words.
In Art we painted, in Logic we had random pages that covered a variety of topics (like Math, English, Spelling, etc). In Geography we worked on the 50 states and finished an entire book on that topic. We also started up our old Geography book which we'll finish this quarter. We talked about people patterns.
In Religion we covered Candlemas along with the goddess Brigid, Valentine's Day along with Saint Valentine, the Chinese New Year along with the Goat (this year's animal), and The Chinese Lantern Festival along with the story of the Jade Emperor and the Crane.
Science covered four different units. This quarter we merged our Concept Weeks with Science to move us towards a schedule where we do more Concept Weeks and less classes and subjects. So, we covered Stars the first week, Space Rocks the second week, Germs the third week, and Desserts the fourth week. We read Magic School Bus books that covered these topics and then I made lapbooks filled with worksheets, coloring pages, and activities for them to give us a further look into these topics. Lastly, we read a LOT of books, and they read me a lot of books too!
It was a BUSY month! But, it was nice to dive back into things!
Scooby-Doo worked on his letters, numbers, and colors. He also worked on dot-to-dots, mazes, picture finds, and his magazines. He went to therapy twice a week. Also, BIG BREAKTHROUGH, he has started using his markers and pencils on his own!!! He always makes me hold his hand while he writes, sort of like a safety blanket, but he's been starting to write completely on his own.
Optimus Prime & Bumblebee had a FULL schedule. In English we covered handwriting, abc order, beginning and ending sounds, rhyming words, capital letters, plurals, action words, predicates, nouns, antonyms, synonyms, etc - all basic English class stuff. It was a lot of review, but review never hurts! In Math we covered handwriting, counting, addition, money, calendars, time, graphing, measurements, counting backwards, addition, and subtraction. Again, basic math stuff that was largely review. In Spelling we finished long e words, worked on verbs, and started short i words.
In Art we painted, in Logic we had random pages that covered a variety of topics (like Math, English, Spelling, etc). In Geography we worked on the 50 states and finished an entire book on that topic. We also started up our old Geography book which we'll finish this quarter. We talked about people patterns.
In Religion we covered Candlemas along with the goddess Brigid, Valentine's Day along with Saint Valentine, the Chinese New Year along with the Goat (this year's animal), and The Chinese Lantern Festival along with the story of the Jade Emperor and the Crane.
Science covered four different units. This quarter we merged our Concept Weeks with Science to move us towards a schedule where we do more Concept Weeks and less classes and subjects. So, we covered Stars the first week, Space Rocks the second week, Germs the third week, and Desserts the fourth week. We read Magic School Bus books that covered these topics and then I made lapbooks filled with worksheets, coloring pages, and activities for them to give us a further look into these topics. Lastly, we read a LOT of books, and they read me a lot of books too!
It was a BUSY month! But, it was nice to dive back into things!
Monday, April 13, 2015
Long Break = Big Changes
So, I know I've been pretty absent for these past two months. The reason why was a lot of big changes going on in our house and in our homeschooling that kept me from blogging. I've been pretty busy, busy, busy.
These changes are going to be reflected on this blog pretty soon.
Optimus Prime & Bumblebee are at the point in their homeschooling that they are ready to move on and do different things. Even though they are in the same grade they are at different levels in some subjects and they have different interests in general. I've been trying to keep them on the same schedule, but that is starting to hold them back in areas where they are ready and eager to excel. It's time to let them move on into new territories on their own. This has effectively doubled my workload as I now have to write up two different curriculum's for them in some subjects!
Scooby-Doo is going to be preschool age in August. He still goes to therapy, and the school district is willing to let him sit in at preschool for an hour a couple of days a week, so his schedule is going to be VERY busy outside of our home. Likewise, he'll be officially starting pre-k here at home, so my workload just doubled! I wanted him to t-ball this year, but he is STILL too young according to the slip. They probably would have made an exception if I had asked them too, but with us packing and getting ready to move I had to make the tough choice to not sign him up.
So, changes in the blog and curriculum. What are they? I'm beginning to combine subjects for Optimus Prime & Bumblebee. Geography will be combined with History, Mythology, and Religion. These subjects really overlap so much already, and there was some overlap in our curriculum as it was, so now these subjects will be completely combined. Likewise, Reading will be combined with English, and after our summer quarter so will Spelling. This will help me to make Spelling and English units based on books we are reading.
Optimus Prime will be moving ahead in English/Spelling/Reading. I've been holding him back for too long waiting for his brother to catch up. He needs to start moving on to chapter books. Likewise, Bumblebee will be moving ahead in Math. He's been held back too long waiting for his brother to catch up. He needs to start multiplication.
Concept Weeks are going to be retired for Optimus Prime & Bumblebee. Or, I guess, it would be more accurate to say that they are going to be assimilated into History/Geography/Mythology/Religion and Science. All of our previous Concept Weeks have been based on these subjects, so from now on units in these subjects will be weekly, biweekly, monthly, quarterly, etc. For example, this summer in Science we'll be covering weather and the earth for a month and a half, followed by birds, fish, and water mammals for a month and a half. In History we'll cover ancient Egypt for a month, followed by ancient Greece and ancient Rome for a month each. When we cover these History units we will also go over the geography of the region as well as the religious beliefs and myths of those regions.
Another big change is retiring our workbooks for Optimus Prime & Bumblebee. This isn't to say we'll never do workbooks any more, but for most subjects they are going to disappear. Math will still be largely workbook based, but Science and History will largely be reading and lapbook based and English will be based entirely around books we are reading.
Everything is getting combined and shaken up.
Scooby-Doo's workload is going to change too. We'll start covering more things than the basics. Counting, the alphabet, colors, shapes, same or different, mazes, dot-to-dots, picture finds, etc are all important but it's time to start expanding his horizon in his schoolwork. Yes, I do read to him a lot (when he's in the mood for it, which is NOT everyday) but he really loves worksheets, so I'm going to take advantage of that and start introducing other subjects into our curriculum. I haven't planned out all the details yet, but I've begun playing with some ideas (like giving him Concept Weeks) and should know what I'm looking to do by the end of next week.
Lastly, our Two Week Review post is getting retired. I'm still going to give updates on how they are doing, but it'll be a monthly post instead of every two weeks. Also, this will retroactively start this current quarter! In the next few days I'll try to get our February and March post up so you know what we've been doing.
Like I said, big changes!
These changes are going to be reflected on this blog pretty soon.
Optimus Prime & Bumblebee are at the point in their homeschooling that they are ready to move on and do different things. Even though they are in the same grade they are at different levels in some subjects and they have different interests in general. I've been trying to keep them on the same schedule, but that is starting to hold them back in areas where they are ready and eager to excel. It's time to let them move on into new territories on their own. This has effectively doubled my workload as I now have to write up two different curriculum's for them in some subjects!
Scooby-Doo is going to be preschool age in August. He still goes to therapy, and the school district is willing to let him sit in at preschool for an hour a couple of days a week, so his schedule is going to be VERY busy outside of our home. Likewise, he'll be officially starting pre-k here at home, so my workload just doubled! I wanted him to t-ball this year, but he is STILL too young according to the slip. They probably would have made an exception if I had asked them too, but with us packing and getting ready to move I had to make the tough choice to not sign him up.
So, changes in the blog and curriculum. What are they? I'm beginning to combine subjects for Optimus Prime & Bumblebee. Geography will be combined with History, Mythology, and Religion. These subjects really overlap so much already, and there was some overlap in our curriculum as it was, so now these subjects will be completely combined. Likewise, Reading will be combined with English, and after our summer quarter so will Spelling. This will help me to make Spelling and English units based on books we are reading.
Optimus Prime will be moving ahead in English/Spelling/Reading. I've been holding him back for too long waiting for his brother to catch up. He needs to start moving on to chapter books. Likewise, Bumblebee will be moving ahead in Math. He's been held back too long waiting for his brother to catch up. He needs to start multiplication.
Concept Weeks are going to be retired for Optimus Prime & Bumblebee. Or, I guess, it would be more accurate to say that they are going to be assimilated into History/Geography/Mythology/Religion and Science. All of our previous Concept Weeks have been based on these subjects, so from now on units in these subjects will be weekly, biweekly, monthly, quarterly, etc. For example, this summer in Science we'll be covering weather and the earth for a month and a half, followed by birds, fish, and water mammals for a month and a half. In History we'll cover ancient Egypt for a month, followed by ancient Greece and ancient Rome for a month each. When we cover these History units we will also go over the geography of the region as well as the religious beliefs and myths of those regions.
Another big change is retiring our workbooks for Optimus Prime & Bumblebee. This isn't to say we'll never do workbooks any more, but for most subjects they are going to disappear. Math will still be largely workbook based, but Science and History will largely be reading and lapbook based and English will be based entirely around books we are reading.
Everything is getting combined and shaken up.
Scooby-Doo's workload is going to change too. We'll start covering more things than the basics. Counting, the alphabet, colors, shapes, same or different, mazes, dot-to-dots, picture finds, etc are all important but it's time to start expanding his horizon in his schoolwork. Yes, I do read to him a lot (when he's in the mood for it, which is NOT everyday) but he really loves worksheets, so I'm going to take advantage of that and start introducing other subjects into our curriculum. I haven't planned out all the details yet, but I've begun playing with some ideas (like giving him Concept Weeks) and should know what I'm looking to do by the end of next week.
Lastly, our Two Week Review post is getting retired. I'm still going to give updates on how they are doing, but it'll be a monthly post instead of every two weeks. Also, this will retroactively start this current quarter! In the next few days I'll try to get our February and March post up so you know what we've been doing.
Like I said, big changes!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
