Concept Unit #13: Dinosaurs

This Concept Unit (renamed from Concept Week for the simple fact that it wasn't a week long...) lasted three whole months and covered nothing but dinosaurs! My kids were in heaven.

There was quite a few differences. Instead of worksheets they had an entire workbook, there was no set project to do because the workbook was filled with projects and games, and there was no book or storybook to go along with the unit because we had an entire 300 or so page workbook to do. No need for overkill here!

The book we used was called Science Essentials: Dinosaurs Grades 1-3. I have to admit, even though it was a 1st grade book a lot of the stuff in there was over their heads and kinda boring. Most of it consisted of page after page after page of dinosaur, Pangaea, climate, landscape, paleontology, etc. facts that you would read about and then answer questions for. There was some fun stuff (dot-to-dots, mazes, picture finds, etc) and a LOT of math pages. And, like I said, some games (dominoes, rummy, and other easy games) and projects to do (homemade dinosaur digs, making a dinosaur playset, making a macaroni dinosaur, etc.).

All in all they had a blast doing a dinosaur unit that lasted the whole summer. I just wish it had been more their level. It was really largely a level where kids can read those big words and answer those questions completely on their own. So I guess 3rd grade more than 1st... Then there were some really easy pages that were honestly more kindergarten than 1st grade. However, I suppose that's the problem with a text book that tries to cover so many grade levels in one book. Some stuff will be too easy, some stuff too hard.

Still, they had fun for their final 1st grade Concept Unit and that's really all that matters.

Two Week Review: July 20 - August 2

Final Two Week Review for this quarter AND for 1st grade!!! YES!!!

I'm just excited because I have big, big, BIG news! Optimus Prime just mastered reading!!! (It was a few days ago now...) He's got level 1 books down and is doing really good on level 2 books! Not so much for his VERY jealous brother Bumblebee, but, like I told Bumblebee, he's good at math, his brother is good at reading.

So, on another note, they had a week of fitness class, followed by a 1k race on the 2nd. Their first race! I didn't realize it would be so easy or I would of signed Scooby-Doo up too. However, they are having one again in September, so I'm signing up all three kids!

Final notes! No schoolwork for Scooby-Doo. I decided we'll restart Week 2 of next quarter.

In Math all we did was review money. In Spelling all we did was our review words. Optimus Prime did so good he didn't have Spelling for the last week! Bumblebee was jealous... again. In English we did a "Three Billy Goats Gruff" unit followed by riddles and periods. Finally in Dinosaurs we did the Cretaceous Period. I already covered reading up above, so I think that's it...

Second grade, here we come!

Quarterly Curriculum: May - July 2014

Out with the old, in with the new on their curriculum pages...

Optimus Prime & Bumblebee:

Schoolwork on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, & Friday. Wednesday & Saturday off.

Subjects:

Math - Time & money for the whole quarter. 
Days - Everyday
Textbooks - The Complete Book of Time & Money Grades K-3 (American Education Publishing)
Number of Pages - 2

English - Large focus on reading comprehension.  I'm still waiting on our books, once I get them I'll let you know.
Days - Everyday
Textbooks - 
Number of Pages - 2

Spelling Review - A review of the spelling words & units from the entire school year.
Days - Everyday
Textbooks - None, just loose worksheets.
Number of Pages - 1 1/2

Concept - A three month long Concept Unit that focuses completely on dinosaurs.
Days - Everyday
Textbooks - Science Essentials Dinosaurs Grades 1-3 (School Specialty Publishing), DK Eyewitness Books Dinosaurs (DK Publishing)
Number of Pages - Varies day-to-day

Other "Subjects":

Reading - Reading simple storybooks on their own.

Sign Language - Learning basic sign language to help Scooby-Doo communicate better, and to help us communicate better with him.

Some final notes:

• Summer here is June & July, however since we do quarters May gets lumped into summer for us.  So they will have a nice easy schedule for May, which, I won't lie, is a huge relief for me.
• Subjects dropped for the summer?  Handwriting, Science, Spanish, History/Geography, and Logic.  Yes, even the beloved Logic has been dropped.
• Spelling has been turned into Spelling Review.  What does this mean, exactly?  We will review their old spelling words.  I was going to do a whole new set of units, however I realized the other day that I would serve them better by reviewing the words they never got down.  If they get them down, then we'll have some new units.  We'll see.
• Scooby-Doo will not be doing speech therapy during the summer, but he will for May (this really applies to the other schedule).
• We're trying out a new thing for Concept Weeks this quarter.  Instead it will be a "Concept Quarter" with the theme going on for the whole quarter.  I'm going to play around with the Concept Weeks next school year, so this is a prelude to that.
• I've added Sign Language on for the summer.  We're retiring Spanish until third grade rolls around, but we're doing sign language for Scooby-Doo, to help with his speech therapy.
• Baseball will still be going on for May, followed by the pool in the park for June & July.
• Reading Comprehension will still be lumped in with English.  It might stay like this for good, not sure.
• Learning to read will still be our main focus.  
• This (learning to read) is part of the reason for the half days.  The other reason?  It's summer!  My kids should be more worried about having fun.  We are doing schoolwork because my kids like to brain dump, because their schedule is pretty easy in general through the school year, and because (no lie) they get antsy if we take too much time off from schoolwork.  They like taking an extra day off here and there, but when it goes on for more than four days or so they start whining.  

Final, final note?  This is the last quarter that Optimus Prime and Bumblebee are on the exact same schedule.  Next quarter they will have different ones.

Scooby-Doo:

Curriculum May-July 2014

Scooby-Doo STILL isn't preschool age yet (he won't be for more than a year), but he loves doing his schoolwork and it's starting to help his speech so we're going to keep at it.  This quarter we're going to have an actual schedule with actual curriculum which we will try to stick to.

The goal was schoolwork on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, & Friday with Wednesday & Saturday off. The reality averaged out to every other day that his brothers did schoolwork.

Subjects:

Numbers - Reviewing the numbers 1-10, reviewing counting, each day will have it's own number that we focus on.
Days - Everyday.
Textbooks -
Number of Pages - 2

Letters - Reviewing the alphabet, each day will have it's own letter that we focus on.
Days - Everyday
Textbooks -
Number of Pages - 2

Logic - Reviewing Colors & Shapes, learning Same or Different and other similar concepts.
Days - Everyday
Textbooks -
Number of Pages - 2

Art - Coloring and painting.
Days - Everyday
Textbooks - Coloring books.
Number of Pages - 2

Other "Subjects":

Story Time - Reading a book every afternoon, even on days off.

Words Review - Going over simple words with him to help his speech.  This will be everyday, even on days off.

Sign Language - Learning basic sign language everyday, even days off.

Final Notes:

• Scooby-Doo will not have speech therapy this summer.  He will resume in August/September.  To make up for this we will work on his speech therapy at home the best we can.
• We will try our hand at sign language this summer to help his communication.

Two Week Review: July 6 - July 19

So, these two weeks saw us (Week #1) still on vacation with my uncle, followed by a trip to Carlsbad, New Mexico to see the bats. This was followed by (Week #2) another week of fitness class for the older two (with another week of fitness class next week). So, we were pretty busy.

For all of the above mentioned reasons, Scooby-Doo did NOT do any schoolwork. I wanted to, but we were WAY too busy, and it was a mad rush to keep his older two brothers on schedule. I'm not even sure if he'll do any for the next two weeks. We'll have to see how it all works out. I'm going to be pretty busy with Optimus Prime & Bumblebee as it is, and Scooby-Doo is probably going to be more interested in me chasing him around the house threatening to tickle him than in doing schoolwork with me. Priorities, you know.

So what did his older two brothers do? Math was spent reviewing everything up until this point, as well as introducing the half-dollar and the dollar. Bumblebee mastered the quarter, Optimus Prime mastered the nickel up to the number 50. Hey, almost there. In English we had a "Three Little Pigs" unit, followed by vocabulary and compound words. For some reason Bumblebee LOVES compound words. Don't ask, I have no clue. Spelling was, of course, more review. Lastly, in Dinosaurs we covered the Triassic and Jurassic periods - what dinosaurs lived then, what was plant life like, etc.

Next week will be the final week of fitness class for the summer, followed by a week doing a mad rush to get everything finished by next quarter. So, yeah, you know, busy.

Two Week Review: June 22 - July 5

First of all, the first week here Optimus Prime & Bumblebee had a fitness class at the local gym. Yay! Burn up some of that energy :) Also, my uncle came to visit us the first week of July, so there was a mad scramble to get everything done ahead of schedule.

Secondly, Scooby-Doo did NOTHING for schoolwork these two weeks. It was both really depressing and really nice. Depressing, because I wanted to do stuff with him, and there were moments when he wanted to do stuff with me, but nice because it was just nice for me to take a break from homeschooling him and he was happy to not be constantly pushed towards the table by me. I think he would of liked to do some schoolwork, but that's okay. I really needed the time to focus on his older brothers, and Scooby-Doo won't actually start pre-k until next next school year. He'll still be three when this upcoming school year starts. So, you know, no pressure.

Meanwhile, Optimus Prime & Bumblebee have been doing real well. Optimus Prime especially. In Math we covered dimes and quarters, counting by 10's and 25's. Bumblebee did great, of course, however Optimus Prime FINALLY got counting by 10's down. It was a big moment, with lots of praise (my part) and pride (his part). He was doing great until we added quarters into the mix, then he started getting confused again. I told him it was no biggie, he'll get it eventually after all. Meanwhile, for all the math problems where you had to say what coins you would use if you were spending 75 (or whatever) cents on something, I just got him to do the problem sans quarters. He did fine once the option for quarters was eliminated.

In English we covered short and long vowels and consonant blends. We also had a story unit on "Little Red Riding Hood." Spelling was, of course, more review. Optimus Prime had another major victory here. He got about half of his missed spelling words down, almost 20 total. Bumblebee isn't doing so hot reviewing his spelling words. Spelling, and reading, are DEFINITELY his weaker subjects. Meanwhile Optimus Prime is kicking butt in that field... And, as always, any day now they are going to get their reading down... (Also, book reports are going fine.)

In Dinosaurs we got to learn about other animals that lived during the same time, as well as the extinction of dinosaurs, dinosaur descendants, and we learned just what the Mesozoic Era means. I forgot to say last post that we've taken a break from learning more Sign Language. We've done quite a few weeks of it, and they've learned a ton of new words, but the rest of the summer will just be a focus on retaining those words and not adding any new ones.

Well, that sums up these two weeks. Next week we'll still be on vacation with my uncle, then we go to Carlsbad to see the bats. Can't wait!

Two Week Review: June 8 - June 21

* Okay, been really busy but that will all be explained as the posts come up *

First Scooby-Doo. He's doing great with his numbers. Of course. He's also doing good with his alphabet. We finished it this week and started from the beginning again. He did his coloring and seemed to really like it. As for Logic, we did colors. He really didn't understand the concept of only coloring something a specific color, but he did it to humor me. I also decided this week that Scooby-Doo's a bit burnt out. So, I'll let him take the next two weeks off. Also, I wrote up 13 weeks of schoolwork for him, just like I did for his brothers, but I'm going to spread the remainder of his schoolwork out over this quarter and next quarter. He's still 3, and I honesty don't think he's ready for an everyday pace like his brothers do. When they were 3 they did schoolwork everyday and (mostly) loved it. They were in a rush to grow up. Scooby-Doo isn't, so I'll let him be a toddler for a while longer.

Now, Optimus Prime & Bumblebee. Reading and book reports are both going great. Soon, for reading. Soon... Soon they will have it down. I can't wait! I'm really hoping by the end of the summer... Optimus Prime, maybe, which is kinda surprising. I thought it would be Bumblebee first...

For Math we are FINALLY done with time (think I mentioned that last post...), and started money. Yay, pennies! The easiest money schoolwork ever! Optimus Prime was BEYOND thrilled! We also did nickels, he wasn't so thrilled with that... He still doesn't have the whole counting by 5's and 10's thing down. But we're getting there. Meanwhile, Bumblebee has counting by 10's down (has for a while) but needs help counting by 5's. We'll get there! In English we got to read "The Gingerbread Man" and do a unit along with it. Then we started a new English book, which started with some REALLY easy stuff. They were bored. Seriously, it started with the alphabet, reviewing colors, and counting. Kinda kindergarten level... Now, the stories we are doing is also a kindergarten book, but while that is below them it doesn't bore them because there are fun activities (like making gingerbread cookies, only I didn't have all the ingredients so we made a cake instead) and a story they like (that they don't have to read, if you know what I mean...). However, the new English book FINALLY picked up and we got to do some opposites, abc order, story order (which they LOVE), and rhyming words. All's well that ends well, I guess.

Spelling was review, of course. I swear, their refusal to get these words down is driving me crazy... Dinosaurs was, of course, fun. We learned about paleontologists, fossils, and dinosaur theories (including skin types, warm- or cold-blooded, eyesight, vocal capabilities, and intelligence). We also did a craft and played some dinosaur games in the book.

Lastly, this last week Optimus Prime and Bumblebee had a fitness class at the local gym! It will also be for next week too. Wear 'em out ;) Too bad Scooby-Doo is too young...

Two Week Review: May 25 - June 7

After this post I'll be pretty much current! Yay! Now if I can just not fall behind again... Ah, to dream.

Scooby-Doo first. We started abc dot-to-dots, since he was doing so good with his number ones. Yeah, he doesn't quite understand abc ones. However, he's getting better at his mazes, especially if he has to follow a number trail (like he does on some). So, as far as numbers and letters go he's doing great. Coloring is coming along okay. Some days he is interested, some days not so much. In Logic we did the concept "What if?" What if a bee got married? What if an octopus was in a shopping cart? What if a worm family had their portrait taken? I'm sure you get the idea. I didn't make these up, they were in one of his workbooks. Yeah, that concept went RIGHT over his head. His answer to the questions? To scribble. That's all right.

Optimus Prime & Bumblebee are having a breakthrough in their reading. They've found their confidence and are starting to figure this whole thing out on their own. They still need my help sounding out words sometimes, but I feel like we are FINALLY getting there. In Math we finally hit a wall. We started the quarter/three quarter hour. Yeah, they (Optimus Prime especially) didn't really get that. I told them it was okay if they didn't understand it, they just needed to try. That was followed by counting the minutes by fives and then reviewing everything we had already done. We are now DONE with time and are starting money next.

For English we did a "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" unit in "Listen an Learn" followed by nouns, verbs, adjectives, true/false, fiction/nonfiction, compare and contrast, cause and effect, and punctuation. It was a lot. We finished up their English book and start a new one next week. Spelling was still review (soon they will have different review words). In Dinosaurs we learned about dinosaur packs versus solo dinosaurs, reproduction and raising their young, how dinosaurs are named, and how dinosaurs are grouped and classified. That last bit was over their head, they understand herbivore, omnivore, carnivore - but that's really it. They didn't really understand "bird hip bone" and "lizard hip boned" and "duck billed" etc. Lastly, I made them step it up in their book reports. Real sentences about the book. Optimus Prime freaked for the first two, but then he got it down. Soon, I'm going to up it even more. Soon, it'll be two sentences about the book.

Two Week Review: May 11 - May 24

Okay, still late (meant to put this up over a week ago, or, you know, back in May, but whatever). Tomorrow I should have the other back post up.

Scooby-Doo is having fun with his easy pre-k schoolwork. He's figured out doing dot-to-dots on paper, we're working on him doing mazes (he just draws a straight line from point a to point b). He's writing his numbers and letters. He's actually coloring. He was never really big on it, so I would just let him decorate paper with stickers. Yeah, I got bored with that (plus, all those stickers = expensive over time) and wanted him to figure out the whole coloring thing, so we're working on that. He worked on Same or Different, which he understood the concept of same, but not different. Then we worked on shapes, and he actually tried doing some shapes on his own. All in all a good two weeks.

Optimus Prime and Bumblebee are struggling with reading on their own. I'm confidant they'll start getting it down soon. In Math we worked on comparing digital and analog clocks and learning about the half hour. In English they got to do their new "Listen and Learn" book. They were thrilled. It's level kindergarten, and obviously above them, but they had fun with it even if it was easy. We read some Mother Goose nursery rhymes, did some activities with them, then read another book of Mother Goose nursery rhymes and talked about how the rhymes were both the same and different - how different words are sometimes used in the exact same rhyme, or how some rhymes (like One, Two, Buckle My Shoe) are actually different in different versions. We also worked on consonant blends, synonyms, antonyms, and compound words.

Spelling was still review, and Dinosaurs was still fun. We learned about dinosaur size, classifications, diets, teeth, attacks, and defenses. Lastly, book reports have been going good. I think I said before they just have to write one sentence (one their own - I'll help them sound out words, but they have to figure it out on their own) and draw one picture. I've been letting them get away with sentences like "The book was good" or "The book was nice." Yeah, next week I'm going to start requiring sentences that had some thought put into them.

Like I said, all in all, a good two weeks.

Two Week Review: April 27 - May 10

Yay! The ending of our spring quarter and the beginning of our summer quarter! I'm so glad we are switching to half days for Scooby-Doo's last month of speech therapy. It was just... too... MUCH! Thankfully he only has a few days of therapy left, thankfully he doesn't have it during the summer, but that's all besides the point.

So, onto what we did.

My grandmother was here for another week (as a matter of fact, the last week of our spring quarter), so again we were really busy and didn't do much reading. Plus, EVERYONE (but my grandmother) got sick with some 24 hour thing (which I came down with TWICE).

Optimus Prime and Bumblebee missed their t-ball all week, Scooby-Doo missed his speech therapy all week (except Monday). Thankfully we were ahead in schoolwork, because we only did it on Monday and Wednesday. And we only had to do half days on those days. Scooby-Doo only went to speech therapy on Monday, where he was a big chatter box (for him) and said about a half dozen new words for his therapists! Maybe we are FINALLY getting somewhere. I hope.

Optimus Prime and Bumblebee finished up all their schoolwork for the quarter, but between my grandmother being here and everyone getting sick they only read one book a day:

Optimus Prime:
I Can Read Phonics! The Berenstain Bears: Moo!
I Can Read Phonics! The Berenstain Bears: The Cute Pony
I Can Read Phonics! Batman: Toxic Terror
I Can Read Phonics! Superman: Superpowers
I Can Read Phonics! Superman:Super Hero Friends
I Can Read Phonics! Superman: Lex Luthor
I Can Read Phonics! The Berenstain Bears: Family Fun

Bumblebee:
I Can Read Phonics! Batman: Batman's Gadgets
I Can Read Phonics! Superman: Bizarro
I Can Read Phonics! Superman: Metallo
I Can Read Phonics! Superman: Parasite
I Can Read Phonics! Superman: Lex Luthor
I Can Read Phonics! The Berenstain Bears: It's Not a Frog
I Can Read Phonics! Batman: The Mayhem of Metallo

Then, the summer schedule started.

Scooby-Doo now has real goals for his schoolwork, and it's no longer a "if we do it cool, if not whatever" situation. He's officially being homeschooled in pre-k as far as I'm concerned. And he's loving it. He has 4 official "subjects" - Numbers, Logic, Letters, Art. Right now I'm trying to get him to do dot-to-dots on his own, as well as matching. He's not quite sure what to make of it. We'll see come next week.

Optimus Prime and Bumblebee have a nice, EASY schedule for the last month of speech therapy. They are working on their reading with a new goal. Before, when we read, if they didn't know a word I supplied it for them. Now, I'm making them sound it out (so long as it's under 6 letters). They're upset, but they'll adapt soon enough and get better at reading because of it. I'm also making them do book reports again on the chapter books we read. So far they are easy, I'm only looking for one sentence out of them about the book - a sentence that they have to sound out completely on their own. We should of been doing this all along, I just never thought of it for some reason.

We're also working on Sign Language. We only did five words this week. They picked them up pretty quick. We'll see how it goes. (Scooby-Doo has shown zero interest in learning Sign Language.)

Our new subjects? In Math they are learning how to tell the hour on a clock. We'll be doing clocks for the entire month. Nice and easy. No meltdowns from Optimus Prime because Math is too hard. English is English. We did beginning and ending sounds. Review, which is good. Spelling was also review of words they didn't get down this year. Then, we had Dinosaurs! An entire class for the whole summer dedicated to dinosaurs! They're excited. So, they learned about what makes a dinosaur a dinosaur, and about the continent Pangaea. So far (big shock) Dinosaurs is their favorite subject.

That's it. More soon.

1st Grade Reading List Part 4 & Book Reports

Yay!  New chapter book reading list goals!

Somehow, we skipped these two books from our goals last quarter:

• Magic School Bus: Twister Trouble
• Ballpark Mysteries: The Fenway Foul-Up

Not sure how that happened, but we'll get to work fixing that right away.  However, since we easily read four times the number of books we had listed I think I can be forgiven for forgetting about those two. 

New list to knock out:

• Wonder Woman: Sword of the Dragon
• Wonder Woman: Dr. Psycho's Circus of Crime
• Batman: Catwoman's Halloween Heist
• Batman: Big-Mite's Big Blunder
• Batman: The Puppet Master's Revenge
• Magic Tree House: Vacation Under the Volcano
• Magic School Bus: The Giant Germ
• Ghost Detectors: Tell No One!
• Ghost Detectors: I Dare You!
• Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew: Chick-napped!
• Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew: The Zoo Crew
• Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew: Mall Madness
• Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew: Thanksgiving Thief

Also, I'm bringing back the book reports.  I wanted to last quarter, but stuff was just WAY TOO CRAZY.  Scooby-Doo starting speech, two visits from relatives, Ostara/Easter, three birthday's in the family, news from my husbands job that we are moving... it was just too much.  Book reports are back in now, and they are simpler than they were before.  I think that was part of our problem.

Last time we did a weekly book report, this time we'll do one every time we finish a chapter book, so there could (and will) be more than one a week.  Last time I wanted them to write the author's name, favorite character, whether it was fiction or non-fiction, etc.  It was just too much for them.  This time they only have to write a sentence or two about the book and draw a picture.  That's it.  Nice and easy.

FYI, their reading is going good.  I'm hoping they will be completely reading level one books on their own (Optimus Prime especially) by the end of this quarter, and hopefully they will be ready to tackle chapter books on their own in second grade.  I'm stressing a bit about them being "late readers" but truthfully that's (a) common for late talkers (which they were), (b) common for kids who needed speech therapy (which they did), and (c) some kids don't master level 1 books until the end of second grade.  So, with two things stacked against my kids already it's quite possible they won't get this down until third grade.  I'm determined for that to NOT happen, but every kid is different.  We'll just take it one day at a time and see how it goes. 

Science Experiment #3: What Happens to Pine Cones in Water?

We did this experiment the first week of April.  Why so long putting this up?  My camera, with the pictures I took, is missing.  I'm beginning to suspect Scooby-Doo might of thrown it out...

If I find my camera I'll update this post, if not, well... we're not doing this experiment again.

So, in case you did not know pine cones have a natural defense built in to protect their seeds from falling out too soon.  Wind, animals, etc. knock pine cones off of trees, but the seeds are not always ready to fall out.  Maybe it's the wrong time of year, maybe the seeds aren't ready yet, whatever.  So, pine cones close themselves up until they are ready to drop their seeds.

The library has a huge tree in front that regularly drops pine cones, and Optimus Prime and Bumblebee like giving them to me as presents.  So, when faced with over two dozen pine cones in our home I was happy to find a use for them.

Supplies:

• A bowl
• Open pine cones
• Towels

Place the pine cones into the bowl and cover with water.  Walk away for an hour, come back.  What you will find is the pine cones have completely closed up.  Why?  They don't want their seeds drowning and becoming completely useless.  So, they close up to save them.

Then, take the pine cones out of the water and put them on the towel to dry.  As they dry out over the next couple of days they will completely open up again, because they now know it is safe for the seeds.

Pretty neat, huh?  This experiment was by far our simplest, but my boys loved it and that's honestly all that matters.

Two Week Review: April 13 - 26

These two weeks were crazy busy.  Most of our weeks are.  The first week I started rearranging furniture in our house, and the second week my grandmother came for a visit.  We also had an Easter egg hunt in our local park (where Scooby-Doo walked around saying "egg" the whole time).

Scooby-Doo had his speech therapy everyday, as well as his schoolwork most days.  Last night we had a major breakthrough in his speech.  We went to Dollar General, and I let him push the cart.  He was so excited because I let him walk - I always make him ride, I don't need three kids grabbing at stuff, thank you!  Well, he walked around the store picking things up and naming them.  I was so shocked!  Then, he kept repeating what I was saying.  Things like "Go this way," and "Over here," etc.  I was very shocked!  Last night he said more words than he usually does in two weeks.  Maybe we are FINALLY getting somewhere.  (He also had a big speech day today, but I'll tell you about that in the next Two Week Review post.)

Onto his big brothers.

Optimus Prime & Bumblebee had a bunch of t-ball games.  They also did their schoolwork with a bit of complaining.  Thank god this quarter is almost over...  We did not do much reading.  We still read everyday, but only 1 book.  Usually we read 2-3 a day, but with my grandmother here things are a bit crazy.  They are more interested in spending quality time with great-grandma than they are in doing schoolwork with mommy.  She's here for another week, so I have more of this fighting to look forward to...

Optimus Prime:
Olivia Goes to the Library by Jared Osterhold
Dragon's Fall Fair by Mara Conlon
Dragon Happy Valentine's Day! by Gabrielle Reyes
The Magic Footprints by Melissa Balfour
Shout, Show and Tell by Kate Agnew
Flora the Fairy by Tony Bradman
Fancy Nancy Pajama Day by Jane O'Connor
I Can Read Phonics! The Berenstain Bears: Let's Sell It
I Can Read Phonics! The Berenstain Bears: The Funny Pup

Bumblebee:
Olivia Goes to the Library by Jared Osterhold
Dragon's Fall Fair by Mara Conlon
Dragon Happy Valentine's Day! by Gabrielle Reyes
Shout, Show and Tell by Kate Agnew
The Magic Footprints by Melissa Balfour

Flora the Fairy by Tony Bradman

Fancy Nancy The Show Must Go On by Jane O'Connor
I Can Read Phonics! Batman: Meet Batman
I Can Read Phonics! Batman: Gotham's Villains Unleashed

On a side note, we've finished ALL of the library's Level 1 & Level Pre-1 books.

1st Grade Spelling Units #27-39

This post is ridiculously late.  If you want to know why, it's because I didn't even know what the units were going to be each week until the week started.  Finally the first week of April here rolled around and I decided that it was time to get my shit together and decide what the rest of the units were going to be so I could (1) stop writing up an entire week's work of sheets on Sunday night and (2) get this post up already, since it was supposed to go up the last week of January.

Our theme for these units was sight words, since our main focus for this quarter was learning to read.  I made three of our units a combination of holidays and sight words.  The units were all 10 words long instead of our usual 5.  This is for 2 reasons: (1) it's common to increase the spelling units to 10 words half way through 1st grade and (2) they were all easy words (except for the two holiday units, which is why they ended up a blend).

Unit #27 - Sight Words 
said
it
that
this
up
in
was
for
his
but

Unit #28 - Valentine's Day
candy
heart
rose
cupid
love
not
like
then
thing
did

Unit #29 - Sight Words Part 2
when
who
all
at
of
me
with
her
what
we

Unit #30 - Sight Words Part 3
come
down
fun
had
him
out
will
look
some
had

Unit #31 - Sight Words Part 4
every
time
walk
came
were
now
cry
oh
bed
here

Unit #32 - Sight Words Part 5
day
don't
just
there
back
friend
very
let
from
them

Unit #33 - St Patrick's Day
clover
lucky
gold
shamrock
rainbow
could
good
if
home
got

Unit #34 - Ostara/Easter
basket
rabbits
bees
flowers
butterfly
long
how
make
put
as

Unit #35 - Sight Words Part 7
right
nice
well
night
may
help
take
body
never
has

Unit #36 - Sight Words Part 8
try
saw
kid
off
us
took
does
hard
mama
papa

Unit #37 - Sight Words Part 9
morning
pet
sure
says
ran
soon
am
why
by
tell

Unit #38 - Sight Words Part 10
yes
over
thank
fast
house
our
door
room
head
ball

Unit #39 - Sight Words Part 11
do
your
about
think
grand
school
self
always
side
give

Two Week Review: March 30 - April 12

These two weeks were busy, busy, busy.

Scooby-Doo had his speech therapy (of course).  He also did a few workbooks in one sitting.  I guess he really wanted to learn... or maybe he's possessed...  His therapists say he talks all the time for them.  Just a word here and there.  But does he talk for me?  No.  Of course not.  Why would he?

Optimus Prime & Bumblebee had some t-ball/baseball confusion.  First they were on t-ball, then baseball, then back to t-ball, then the league manager called me at home to ask if I wanted to put them back on baseball.  Ummmm, let me think about this.  NO.  Let's just pick something and stick with it already, people.  Their first game is on Tuesday.

They did good with schoolwork.  Two more days and we will be completely caught up and then I case ease off of our insane schedule.  So, onto what we read!

Optimus Prime:
Ready for Kindergarten, Stinky Face? by Lisa McCourt
Handy Manny: Pinata Party
Reader's Clubhouse: Nick is Sick
It's the 100th Day, Stinky Face! by Lisa McCourt
I Can Read! Phonics The Berenstain Bears: The Chipmunk
The Giant's Garden by Cindy Leaney
What's Wrong Mrs Wolf? by Cindy Leaney
I Can Read! Phonics The Berenstain Bears: Search for Gold
Jungle Journey by Cindy Leaney
Nice News by Cindy Leaney
The Circus by Cindy Leaney
Barron's Reader's Clubhouse: Doc Block
Barron's Reader's Clubhouse: Too, Too Hot
Curious George: Librarian for a Day
An Amazing Machine by Cindy Leaney
Rooster's Alarm by Ian Smith
The Talking Telescope bu Cindy Leaney
Curious George: A Winter's Nap
Night, Night by Sue Graves
Happy Halloween, Mittens! by Lola M. Schaefer
Eloise Decorates for Christmas by Kay Thompson
No New Pets! by Hans Wilhelm
I Spy Thanksgiving

Bumblebee:
Handy Manny: Pinata Party
Ready for Kindergarten, Stinky Face? by Lisa McCourt
It's the 100th Day, Stinky Face! by Lisa McCourt
Reader's Clubhouse: Nick is Sick
I Can Read! Phonics The Berenstain Bears: The Sleepover
Station K.I.D.S. by Cindy Leaney
Rachel the Shy Jellyfish by Cindy Leaney
I Can Read! Phonics The Berenstain Bears: Family Fun
An Amazing Machine by Cindy Leaney
The Circus by Cindy Leaney
Nice News by Cindy Leaney
Curious George: A Winter's Nap
Barron's Reader's Clubhouse: Doc Block
Barron's Reader's Clubhouse: Too, Too Hot
Jungle Journey by Cindy Leaney
Rooster's Alarm by Ian Smith
The Giant's Garden by Cindy Leaney
Curious George: Librarian for a Day
Night, Night by Sue Graves
I Spy Thanksgiving
No New Pets! by Hans Wilhelm
Eloise Decorates for Christmas by Kay Thompson
Happy Halloween, Mittens! by Lola M. Schaefer

I cannot wait for them to figure out this reading thing.  Optimus Prime almost has it down.  He should by the end of the summer.  Bumblebee is going to take a LOT more work.  But if one of them would get it down it would be easier on all of us.  Then I could really focus with the other...  This summer, we're pretty much going to be reading all the time.

Anyway, I have to go and practice today's reading with them now.

Quarterly Curriculum: February - April 2014

Ahhhh, here it is, our curriculum again.  Posted so I can start getting ready for next quarter.

There was panic this quarter.  The schedule I had written was thrown out when Scooby-Doo started speech therapy every day for two hours a day.  Driving the half hour there, spending the two hours there, and then driving the half hour home was too much for us so we shelved most of our schoolwork for about a month and just focused on reading until we got our stride down.  Then we had to go back and cover all that lost ground.

Optimus Prime & Bumblebee:

So, our schedule was schoolwork Monday-Friday with Saturday & Sunday off.  I was not happy about this, but I had to work with what I was given...

Handwriting - Practicing handwriting (mainly numbers and letters), some counting, some letter sounds, etc.
Days - Monday & Wednesday
Textbooks - Comprehensive Curriculum of Basic Skills Grade K (American Education Publishing), Brain Quest Workbook: Kindergarten (Workman Publishing Company).
Number of Pages - 3

Science - Learning about different animals (broken into units) with some reading comprehension thrown into the mix.
Days - Monday & Wednesday
Textbooks - The Complete Book of Animals Grades 1-3 (American Education Publishing).
Number of Pages - 1

Spanish - Practicing Spanish vocabulary (broken into different units) and comprehension.
Days - Tuesday & Thursday
Textbooks - The Complete Book of Starter Spanish Grades PK-1 (American Education Publishing).
Number of Pages - 3

History/Geography - Map reading, directions, land-forms, continents, etc.
Days - Tuesday & Thursday
Textbooks - Scholastic Success With 1st Grade Workbook (Scholastic Teaching Resources), World Countries, 50 States (both of these workbook were from Target's dollar section) .
Number of Pages - 2

Art - Painting, other activities, etc.
Days - Friday
Textbooks - None.  Just a weekly project
Number of Pages - N/A

Logic - Same/different, patterns, opposites, mazes, dot-to-dots, word searches, crosswords, etc.
Days - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
Textbooks - Big Puzzle Play (School Zone).
Number of Pages - 2 1/2

Math - Addition, subtraction, fractions, counting by 5's & 10's, time, money, etc. 
Days - Monday - Friday
Textbooks - Addition, Subtraction, and Time & Money books from Dollar General and Target.
Number of Pages - 2

English - Learning the difference between vowels and consonants, learning how to sound words out, synonyms, antonyms, compound words, rhyming words, nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, sentences, punctuation marks, reading comprehension, etc.
Days - Monday - Friday
Textbooks - Comprehensive Curriculum of Basic Skills Grade 1 (American Education Publishing), Scholastic Success With 1st Grade Workbook (Scholastic Teaching Resources).
Number of Pages - 2

Spelling - Spelling words & units
Days - Monday - Friday
Textbooks - None, just loose worksheets.
Number of Pages - 1 1/2

Some final notes:

• The schedule had to get slimmed down a bit since Scooby-Doo is starting speech therapy.
• The first week of each month will just be our "core" subjects (Logic, Math, English & Spelling) and our Concept Week.  Trying to tackle "core" classes, "secondary" classes, and a Concept Week all in one week was too much.  
• Baseball in March and April!
• Sight Words has been dropped.  I only intended to do it for one quarter.  This semester most of our spelling words will be sight words.
• Art will just be once a week, and it will be a project.  No more coloring books (for now, at least)!
• Letter & Number Practice has been combined into just Handwriting.
• Reading Comprehension has been dropped.  I'm not too happy about this, but I had to slim down our schedule so it was combined with English.  We'll have to see if we like this or not as time goes by.
• Since our schedule has been slimmed down so much we're going to use what (little) extra time we have learning how to read.  We'll be spending A LOT of time on one-on-one reading to make up for the very basic schedule.

Scooby-Doo:

Scooby-Doo isn't preschool age yet, but he loves watching his older brothers do their schoolwork, and he likes to feel involved so I decided to start doing schoolwork fairly regularly with him.  This quarter we have a "real" schedule written up, but if we don't stick to it, I'm not going to worry.

• First off, we are dropping our book goal.  He just hasn't been interested this past month, so there is no point in setting a goal he has no desire to meet.
• We have the goal of 1 page (front & back) a day in a Colors & Shapes workbook.  He finally getting his shapes down and he's trying to figure out his colors.
• We have the goal of 1 page (front & back) a day in an Alphabet workbook.  He's starting to recognize letters so I don't want to stop!
• We have the goal of 1 page (front & back) a day in a Counting workbook.  I'm excited over this, since he already knows how to count to 10.  I thought about dropping the alphabet books to do this, but since he's starting to get that I don't want to.  So we'll just do both!
• Lastly, Scooby-Doo is currently doing speech therapy.

Concept Week #12: Knights

Knights was kind of a mellow concept week, so I really don't have much to say.  I really couldn't find many worksheets (which was fine) so all we really did was read about knights in our book and do knight themed puzzles in our jigsaw puzzle book (which was called Knights and Castles Jigsaw Book).  And we read another Time Traveller book (The Time Traveller Book of Knights and Castles) so my kids were super excited.

To flesh out this post a bit more I'll point out that we talked more about the "mythology" of knights rather than the "truth."  What do I mean?  Well, I didn't get into things like church politics, state politics, rapes, murders, oppression, slavery, ignoring the knights code, Crusades, etc.  In my kids eyes knights are heroes and I figured they're six, they can live with that myth for as long as they want.  So what they learned about was the ideal situation.  Where knights always followed their code, where lords never attacked a neighboring land unless they had too (and not because they wanted to spread their own territory), where the words rape, torture, and genocide don't exist, where religious or state politics didn't determine who should live or die or who should marry who, where people were civilized and not... human.  More of a Disney version of knighthood with clear good and evil than a A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones version which is far more accurate and truthful.  

So, they learned about how castles worked, why knights obeyed their lords, what a serf was, why serfs served the castle, political marriages, etc.  All of which is true, and accurate... and the ideal which is only part of the reality.  

These last three concept weeks (Pirates, Viking/Norse Mythology, and Knights) were more about the fun aspects than the truth.  Granted, I did tell my kids that these people killed other people, I just omitted than some of these people were bad people.  My kids still live in the world where good always triumphs over evil, and I'm not ready to burst that bubble yet...   

Two Week Review: March 16 - 29

These were a busy two weeks.  Scooby-Doo went back to speech therapy and my mom came to visit for a week, plus we did Ostara (Easter) while she was here and I had to make homemade candy for that (Scooby-Doo has severe allergies and store bought candy is rarely safe).

So, what did we do?

Scooby-Doo was so happy to go back to speech therapy.  During their spring break he was so grumpy and moody, and he kept trying to climb into the car and buckle himself into his car seat.  We did some schoolwork, but not as much as the last two weeks.  He also sang his abc's for his therapists which was a first.

Optimus Prime & Bumblebee were sad their fitness class was over with, but t-ball starts next week so they got over it pretty quick!  Now I just need to figure out how to schedule that in everyday...

They are still doing just fine on their schoolwork, and they've been real good about doing extra pages.  I fixed our schedule to reflect what it was initially supposed to be for the quarter, and by that schedule we are only two weeks behind.  So, we'll keep squeezing in a little bit here and there and we should be completely caught up by the end of the quarter.  Then I'll go back to updates about their regular schoolwork.

What did we (they) read?

A LOT!

Optimus Prime:
Fancy Nancy The Dazzling Book Report by Jane O'Connor
Brownie & Pearl Take a Dip by Cynthia Rylant
Brownie & Pearl Hit the Hay by Cynthia Rylant
Brownie & Pearl Go for a Spin by Cynthia Rylant
Brownie & Pearl Step Out by Cynthia Rylant
Handy Manny: Cookie Rescue
Handy Manny: Bunny Trouble
DK Readers: Homes Around the World
DK Readers: Ponies & Horses
Brownie & Pearl Get Dolled Up by Cynthia Rylant
Brownie & Pearl Grab a Bite by Cynthia Rylant
Brownie & Pearl Make Good by Cynthia Rylant
Reader's Clubhouse: Ted Saw an Egg
Step Into Reading: Barbie: Horse Show Champ
Curious George Race Day by H. A. Rey
I Can Read Phonics! Batman: Feline Felonies
Lego Reader: Help is on the Way
Mop Top by Sue Graves
Dad's Cake by Margaret Nash
Oh, Jet by Jillian Powell
Freddy's Teddy by Clare DeMarco
Alan and the Animals by Evelyn Foster
Harry and the Horse by Sue Graves
Station K.I.D.S. by Cindy Leaney
Rachel and the Shy Jellyfish by Cindy Leaney
I Can Read Phonics! The Berenstain Bears: It's Not a Frog
I Can Read Phonics! Superman: Bizarro

Bumblebee:
Fancy Nancy and the Boy From Paris by Jane O'Connor
Brownie & Pearl Make Good by Cynthia Rylant
Brownie & Pearl Get Dolled Up by Cynthia Rylant
Brownie & Pearl Go for a Spin by Cynthia Rylant
Brownie & Pearl Grab a Bite by Cynthia Rylant
Handy Manny: Bunny Trouble
Handy Manny: Cookie Rescue
DK Readers: Ponies & Horses
DK Readers: Homes Around the World
Brownie & Pearl Hit the Hay by Cynthia Rylant
Brownie & Pearl Step Out by Cynthia Rylant
Brownie & Pearl Take a Dip by Cynthia Rylant
Step Into Reading: Barbie: Horse Show Champ
Reader's Clubhouse: Ted Saw an Egg
Lego Reader: Help is on the Way
I Can Read Phonics! Batman: Toxic Terror
Curious George Race Day by H. A. Rey
Harry and the Horse by Sue Graves
Alan and the Animals by Evelyn Foster
Mop Top by Sue Graves
A Cake for Dinner by Sue Graves
Dad's Cake by Margaret Nash
Freddy's Teddy by Clare DeMarco
A Talking Telescope by Cindy Leaney
Super Sale by Cindy Leaney
I Can Read Phonics! Batman: Batman's Friends
I Can Read Phonics! Batman: Meet the Super Heroes

27 books each.  That's more than double what they read for the previous two weeks.  That's just short of 4 times what they read the two weeks before that.

Optimus Prime is doing great with his reading.  I'm hoping it'll come together soon for him so I can stat focusing on Bumblebee.  I always thought Bumblebee would get this reading thing down first.  If they keep at this pace they're going to prove me wrong...

Science Experiment #2: Can Flowers Change Colors? (Part 2)

I'm sure you've seen this picture kicking around facebook:

Well, I was curious whether or not it would work, so I figured it would be neat to try.  However, we already had so many mugs of flowers going in the house so I decided to break our experiment up into two parts.  So, we did this part the day after we were done with the first round of flowers.

Supplies:

• some white flowers (we used carnations)
• knife to cut the flowers 
• glasses/mugs
• assorted food coloring
• paper clips

First, put your water and food coloring into your cups/mugs.  We used 5 drops of food coloring again, and the colors were green, yellow, red, neon pink, neon yellow (not green, honest), and blue.

Second, cut the stems if you need to shorten the flowers (also, leave the stem longer than what you will ultimately need for the ones going into more than one color - trust me on this).  Then, for the flowers you are putting into more than one glass of water cut the stem like in the picture above.  Now, I didn't buy roses because they are expensive, so I bought carnations.  These stems were far too thin to cut into quarters, so I cut them in half and put each half into it's own cup.  We only did this with 4 of the 10 flowers.  The other 6 we just put into it's own cup (more on that in a minute).











I want to say, this was a MAJOR pain in the butt.  The picture above shows the flower hanging out hovering above four different cups, completely happy and content with life.  Yeah, not so much.  The stems did NOT like being cut like this, and I had to paper clip them to the cups.  And they didn't like that either.

So, after a couple of days the flowers were changing colors.  It took a little longer for the ones sliced in half, but they changed too.

Now, for the flowers in just one color, after they changed colors we swapped them around so that they all ended up in another glass than the one they started out in.  This has nothing to do with the facebook picture, I was just curious if they would turn into two different colors this way as well as the other.

Final results?  Those placed into two glass DID turn into two colors, just not as vibrantly or strongly as those placed in one cup:

Green and yellow

Blue and neon yellow

And, the one's that were swapped around did get a tinge on the ends of their petals of the second color:

If you look closely, the green one here has a neon pink tinge at the end of the petals.

Now, why leave extra stem for the ones going into two glasses?  Because this killed their stem and the dead part had to be cut off to try and prolong the life of the flower.  The flowers only made it a couple of days before I had to pull them out because they were dying.  The flowers in one color at a time were doing just fine and could of stayed in the cups for a few more days but I felt bad for the half-dead ones so I took them all out to clean up the mess.

The half dead flower that was cut in half.

Final opinion, though?  I wouldn't go slicing up these flowers again.  It almost killed them, and honestly, I felt really bad.  Also, what's the point of doing this if the flowers won't survive the process?

However, overall these two projects showed my kids that yes you can change the color of flowers with food coloring and it also showed them just how water effects plant life.

Science Project #2: Can Flowers Change Colors?

I remember buying green flowers for St. Patrick's Day at school when I was a teenager.  (I went to a Catholic school, so of course we celebrated St. Patrick's Day by wearing green carnations and going to church.)  I believe it was my dad who told me that they colored the carnations with green food coloring in the water.  So, since my kids can't buy green carnations from a school (if they would even sell them anymore, they probably don't) I decided to turn this into a science experiment for March.

Supplies:

• white carnations
• knife (if needed)
• glasses (mugs work just as well if your children have broken all of your glasses)
• assorted food coloring

First, cut the flowers if needed.  Your probably will, I have no idea who you would even buy short stemmed carnations from.

Then, fill the glasses/mugs up about half way with some water, and have your kids put in about 3-5 drops of food coloring.  Enough to get a strong color.  Then add the flowers, we put two in each cup (our colors were purple, neon pink, green, yellow, and neon yellow that looks like neon green but honestly it isn't).

Now it'll take a few days to fully happen but your flowers will start to change color.  The green started after a couple of hours.

Green, yellow, and neon green did beautiful.

After a coupe of days, and doubling the food coloring twice purple and neon pink only tinted at the edges.  Maybe the colors were too strong/deep to fully color the flowers?  We have no idea.

In the end we gave up on the purple and neon pink and just put the flowers in a mug on the table.  They lasted about a week, long after the bouquet said it would on the packaging.

A close up.

Concept Week #11: Norse Mythology

This concept week was a blast.  My kids are obsessed with vikings (courtesy of the "How To Train Your Dragon" movie - I can't wait to read the books with them), so they got to learn about Leif Ericson discovering North America, the way vikings and their slaves lived, and about their gods too.  We didn't have many worksheets.  Education.com failed me, and I had a hard time finding age appropriate ones anywhere else online.  Still, they learned a lot.

We covered the more famous myths as we worked on a scrapbook of the gods:

DEFINITELY, our most ambitious (and fun) project to date:

And for our book we read The Time Traveller Book of Viking Raiders.  (Two l's, that's not a typo, the book is British.)  It was a neat book where you go back in time and read about how a fictional group of vikings would have lived.  You read about how they build their houses, who lives in the houses, how the slaves were treated, how their ships were built, how they went raiding, what they did when they weren't raiding, etc.

It was a really good book, and they have another one in the series called The Time Traveller Book of Knights and Castles that I think we'll pick up for our next Concept Week.  We have leftover pages in the scrapbook, so I'm thinking we'll just keep adding other mythology groups to it.  Maybe Celtic next?  Not sure.  All I know is if your kids are as crazy about vikings as mine, you should do something similar.