Small Successes

1.  I made it through our first Learning Record meeting (LR) with Joyce.  After arriving late from Monterey on Monday..like driving up the driving at 11:30pm I still stayed up until 3:30AM to complete the records.  Joyce was here bright and early at 8 and I was ready.  It felt so good to be done with the first meeting and have Joyce see all the good work we ACTUALLY did in the first few weeks of school.  Hurray for us!!

2.  I planned our menu for this week while grocery shopping and didn't spend one dollar on eating out!  Now that is an accomplishment for sure.

3.   I started writing Isabella's journal again.  After a wonderful talk with Kat I felt inspired to tell my Isa about it.  The actual talk wasn't written about only the idea of the topic from our conversation.  Which is a post all to it self.  Hopefully when Isa get's this journal (I started it when she was only a few months old but haven't wrtten in it in a long while) she'll have a bit of her momma's thoughts to guide her.

What are your small successes for this week?

Stop by faith & Family to read more of this week's Small
Successes

more on nature studies

I could scream of pure joy right now.  I just found, through my countless online searches, Thorton Burgess books ONLINE.  There not all there but hey...it's better than nothing and having to save up to purchase the books.

Our nature section is really looking great and this just adds such depth to it.

Here are some more Burgess links to check out later.  I can only spend 4 hours a day a short time a day on online:

1.  A book list
2.  A bio and online books
3.  bed time stories for kids
4.  The one mentioned above
5.  full view goole search

My many thanks to the contributors to these list from the 2Real blog site.  I have learned sooo much from this site alone.  God bless them for their efforts.

Bird Watching for our nature studies

I am excited to see so many options available for our nature study.  Here are some areas I want to look into for the kids and the cousins to participate in:

1.  ebird

• a year long bird count and FREE

2.  project feeder watch

• a winter watch program
• $15 charge but comes with a research kit and has good homeschool resources on the site

3.  the great backyard bird count

• this is the one our friend does every year and it's free
• only 4 days in Feburary

Poetry

R is For Rhyme

Serendpitiy

week 1

• 
  
  Poetry Terms:  Acrostic
  
  
  
• 
  
  Writing Concepts:  Synonyms and use of a Thesaurus
  
  
  
• 
  
  Poet:  Lewis Carroll (? weeks)
  
  
  

First Stop...Colonial America

The American Trail

First Stop

Each stop is approximately 1 week long but we can take longer when needed.  The entire trail is meant to last 8 weeks

little kids (L k-2)

middle kids (M 3-5)

big kids (BK 6+)

Book list

* if found in library a L will be next to title

American Kids in History-Colonial Days L (used for the 1st 4 weeks of entire theme)

American Kids in History-Revolutionary War Days L (used for the last 4 weeks of entire theme)

What's the Big Idea Ben Franklin? L

Ben and Me L (this can be used for language arts block)

A Picture Book of Benjamin Franklin L

Geore Washington's World L (bk)

Sea to Shining Sea (bk)

update: 

We added the  Colonial Life CD for projects and lapbooks and these books

Johnny Tremain (bk)

Warrior Scarlet (bk)

The Sign of the Beaver (bk)

The Witch of Blackbird Pond (bk)

Feast of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta

State 2 State Studies Guide

What we are doing

2009-2010

Following down the Amercian Trail for histroy, we'll be trotting through geography too.  Learning about the great states of the U.S as they joined the union.  

There are tons and tons of options in learning about the states.  Since I have a 3rd and kinder doing this study I needed to make it simple and fun.  So jumping off both Jessica's and serendipity's suggestions we started a notebook for each kid.  We'll be reading, drawing, writing, pasting, and eating our way through this awesome country...state by state. 

We'll also allow ourselves the flexibility to do more or less each time.  I plan on moving slowly with this.  Especially since we'll be joined by my SIL's little ones too.  I'll have 5 students for about and hour to hour and a half each week. Hopefully our time will go something like this:

week one:  Locating the state on our big map, reading from the state book, taking time to look at the pictures, studing the state's flag and it's symbols...an introduction day

week two:  Taking a closer look at the state's bird, flag, and seal.  Coloring their own flag, hearing the call of the state bird, illustrating (w/ narrations) a favorite characteristic of their state and color a closer map of the state.

week three:  We'll look at the famous inventors and people that have come out of the state.  Who were they and what were their contributions.  We'll find pictures to paste into their notebooks and begin to assemble their state's pages.  We'll listen to the state song and end with a game of Junior Great States game.

week four:  Cooking!  We'll find a symbolic treat or snack to make together and eat while we admire a well done job.

~ Resources ~

• The Discover America Series (also located at our county library)
• Student Activity packages and examples
• G is for georgraphy (Serendipity)
• Kidzone Geography

state facts

state flowers 

state bird  

• The Enchanted learning website

State Map
State Facts

• U.S mint website for the states quaters 

Lesson Plans (worksheets) 

coloring pages  

• U.S Leaders coloring book
• Sections from our notebooking pages
• Great States Junior game 

We'll borrow books from the library from time to time too.  To assemble their pages the kids were given 3-ring binders with pockets.  I use sturdy cardstock paper for the scrapbooking pages. and try to stay with the state colors.  The notebooks are sectioned off to have a place for their scrapbooking and a additional place for history.  In the history section they can add their narrations.  

 

Only Boy and Rose's front covers...decorated and ready to go

Daily Goals for 2009-2010 Learning Year

Our Daily Plans

 

6:00am - 8:00am 

• wake up, Mass or visit, chores and breakfast

Morning Baskets

8:00am - 9:00am

 

(all kids will spend time with our Saint of the Day) 

•  Isabella   ~ grammar (Mon, Wed, Fri), vocab (Tues &-Thur), spelling, Latin, copywork, poetry
• Victor Mario (ID) ~ grammar (Mon, Wed, Fri), vocab (Tues & Thur), spelling, copywork, poetry, calendar time
• Carolina  ~ calendar time, 100 easy lessons (20 min), reading time

 Math Block

9:00am - 10:00am 

• All kids  ~ Math (10 min w/ Victor then 1-1 with Carolina) 

           Older girl: 1-2 lessons on Teaching Texbooks a day

*update:  OG moved from TT 7 into Aleks Math (7th grage).  We started having negative results in what she was learning.  She was into chapter 5 when we both realized it was too much review for her.  I was really disappointed because I SO LOVED this math program when we first started.  Oh well...she likes Aleks better and feels more challenged. 

           Only boy:   1 daily lesson using HSP, computer game 1x a week, math game on Fri

*update:  OB is also doing more Aleks than HSP.  Though, he is still doing both programs.  He is working 3x a week in Aleks and 2x a week in the HSP book.  The reason here is that he needed a visual break and more hands on math.  Since first posting this OB is being helped by a math/reading tutor.  He has come a long way but i needed to break up the math more.

           Carolina 1 daily lesson using HSP, computer game 1x a week, math game on Fri  

* Wednesday math gets moved up to the morning basket

 

Language Arts Block

10:00am - 11:00am 

(Wednesdays & Thurdays are blocked off for out of home activities)  

• Only Boy ~ reading and phonics practice using McRuffy, Language of God, and flash cards

*update:  We have cut out McRuffy and Language of God.  This learning block for OB is self created sentences, reading on the couch w/ momma.  We have altared most of OB's curricula to better fit his learning style...workbooks wasn't it.

• Rosa ~ Alphabet Path and Handwriting w/o Tears program

 Sunflower Basket

Older Girl

(Using Literature for the Young Lady found here ) 

•  Literature  ~ using the following books; "Anne of Green Gables" & "Jo's Boys"
• Writing      ~ begining a notebook; writing narrations, critiques, short essays
• History      ~ study the Victorian History era with timeline, notebooking
• Botany       ~ study of herbs and plants; observations, research, experiments
• Poetry        ~ using R is for Rhyme for the study of poetry and Lucy Maud Montgomery
• Art                  ~ using various artist from the Victorian Era

*update:  A great success!!  We were so happy with this and OG really got into poetry, Monte, and Queen Victoria.

Lunch

12:00pm - 1:00pm

  

History/Geography Block

1:00pm -2:00pm

  

(Mondays & Tuedays possbily adding a day)

• all kids

         Monday:     American History & Government
                        ~ Following Serendipity's American Trail (First Stop)
                           1.  Colonial Life  lapbook pages and projects
                              ~ State by State study using the following resources:
                           1.  US mint 
                           2.  enchanted learning   
                           3.  kidzone geography
                           4.  A map I found in the homeschool share web site (sorry I can't find the direct link)
                        ~ Map workbooks

* Older Girl does an extra ID assignement in economics using this

                    
         Tuesday:     World History Studies using:
                         ~ Story of the World vol 1
                         ~ RC history guidelines vol 1
                            1.  lapbooks (when time allows)
                                      2.  notebooking

*update: 

We are doing a mix of SOTW and reading from RC Hx.  Only Boy also started a history class at a Co-op group for homeschool kids on Wednesday.  Really really cool!

Older girl is now reading A Little History of the World by G. H Gombrich as her text

                         ~ Timelines (on wall or in notebook..haven't decided which will work best)

*update:  ON THE WALL

                         ~ And lots tons of reading through history books

 

Our Faith & Language

2pm - 3:00pm

(while one child is on computer the other will recieve tutor time) 

• Spanish   ~ Older Girl 1st half hour then Image of God
• Spanish   ~ Only Boy 2nd half hour then Image of God

What's Left

after 3pm 

• tutoring time (if needed)
• make up work
• finish uncompleted project (that can't wait and they r excited to complete)
• cooking
• cleaning up
• play play play....relax relax relax....or....sleep sleep sleep

Fridays

@ 4pm

(when not at Little Flowers forBlue Knights)

 

Faith Tea Chat

 

This will hopefully be a cherished and anticipated time for us (it'll be new). I would like it to include a bit of what we have tried learned that week (cooking like the colonies, cooking for our alphabet) but we'll see.  

• little ones: time of manners and reading Leading Little Ones to Mary 
• big ones: time of chatting and catching up plus reading The Secrets of Mary Explained to Children

I Hope This Works...

Wow! Just looking at this is giving me a headache. It looks like a mess but I do have it set to make changes as needed. I have to adjust it as I go.

Note to self....don't look at it as a monthly calendar. View it daily or weekly instead, it'll make a more sense.




Okay...I think it's working.