Camping Memorial Day Weekend

We enjoyed our (almost) annual trip to Egg Harbor City Lake Campground for Memorial Day weekend. 

It was a chilly weekend but that didn't stop the kids and Daddy from swimming in the lake.  I thought they were crazy considering it was cold enough for me to sit on shore wearing a hoodie.

Vicki lost her first tooth right before we left for camping.  She came up to Daddy to check her loose tooth and it wasn't coming out without hurting so daddy thought it would be a few more days.  Instead Georgie yanked it out for her.  The tooth fairy came to the campground on our first night.

The kids had a great time doing the events around the campground, like a flashlight lollipop hunt on the beach....

and an ice cream social.....

and playing Angry Birds in the tent after getting caught in a sudden rain storm....

going to Longport Beach and jumping in the waves.....

Vicki tried a toasted marshmallow for the first time that she could remember, while Georgie tried one for the very first time (he didn't like it, she did).

hanging out reading in the play tent...

and feeling sad when it was time to go home.

Wrapping up another school year!

The kids have finished up another school year!   

They will continue to do some school over the summer.  Mainly “Bridge” –type workbooks, reinforcement of math facts (division for Georgie, addition/subtraction for Vicki), and lots of reading.

This was a very interesting year, starting out with my return to work, the brief attempt to continue our usual book-based work before switching to Time4Learning for a few months while staying at grandma’s house.  Then a return to home and much of our previous curriculum after the New Year with a private educator (our wonderful governess/nanny, Jennifer).

Despite the chaos the kids have actually had a really good year.  They are both still working above the grade level they would be in public school, and they have enjoyed a very active extra-curricular schedule for the past few months. 

Here it is, our wrap-up of the 2013/2014 School Year (and a few comments on what we may do for next year)!!

VICKI (rising 2^nd grader)

Language Arts

HWT:  At the start of the school year (July), Vicki was about 2/3 of the way through the kindergarten HWT book, was very resistant to writing outside of her workbook and even when writing for fun, did nothing but scribble.  Since then she has finished the entire 1^st grade book, and only has a few more pages left in the second grade book.  She is also doing her own writing for the rest of her school work.  Lots of progress in just one year, but at this point I don’t think she’s ready for cursive so we will probably do more copywork to continue practicing print writing (if it seems to be needed, she does quite a bit of writing at this point).

Reading:  At the start of the year, Vicki was doing a little bit of Explode the Code, and we had just started All About Reading.  She was doing fairly well with CVC words and had just started blends.  Other than her AAR readers and partner reading some Dr. Seuss, she wasn’t reading too much on her own.  She advanced very quickly while doing Time4Learning and she’s now reading for at least an hour a day.  She has worked her way through quite a few Junie B. Jones, Magic Tree House, Rainbow Fairies, and some Geronimo Stilton and Thea Stilton.  I did the San Diego Quick Reading Assessment and she scored at the 5^th grade level.  I don’t think she is ready for the smaller print and lack of pictures in higher level books but she’s definitely doing great with decoding.  Her reading caterpillar hit the wall so she is now keeping a reading log.

Grammar:  She wasn’t doing any grammar at the start of the year, except some games like Very Silly Sentences, because we concentrated on phonics and reading.   In January she started with Scholastic DoDEA Grammar, Usage and Mechanics Grade 1.  In April she switched to Evan Moor Grammar and Punctuation since my Scholastic download had gotten corrupted and I could no longer download it online.  She is about half-way through the 1^st grade Evan-Moor.   She may be ready to go right into the second grade book in September since there is a lot of repetition in the lower grades.

Reading Comprehension:  Reading comprehension is another one of those topics we weren’t covering at the beginning of the year to concentrate on phonics.  In January, she started with Scholastic 1^st Grade Basic Skills: Reading Comprehension and Reading Skills (done mostly orally).  We only used the pages that consisted of reading a short passage and answering a few questions.  She did very well and moved on to the 2^nd grade book in February, which included pages on synonyms, antonyms, sequencing and answering questions about a passage.  By this point she was doing her own writing and proceeding very well, but when she finished the 2^nd grade Scholastic book and switched to Evan Moor Daily Reading Comprehension we started with 2^nd grade.  The Evan-Moor passages are longer, have more details and the questions, while mostly multiple choice, required more thought.    She is currently up to Week 8 (out of 30) so will probably continue with 2^nd grade in September.

The Wand:   Vicki has completed through Level 2, Issue 1 in The Wand (which puts her about ½ way through).   The Wand includes activities in grammar, spelling, comprehension, and vocabulary and is geared toward K-2^nd grade (advanced for 5-6 year olds, targeted for 7-8 year olds) so Vicki is right in the group it is meant for.  She will probably continue working through the rest of The Wand and then switch to Writing with Ease 1.

Additional Language Arts:  Late in the year, we introduced a few other LA activities.  Scholastic: Success with Vocabulary: Grade 1 and spelling using Scholastic Week-by-Week Homework Packets: Spelling Grade 1.  Vicki has been doing well with both and I really like the vocabulary.  In the fall, I want to start a phonics based spelling program.   I already have All About Spelling, Level 1 and Level 2 but I don’t think Vicki needs something that involved.  We will probably try out the Evan Moor Skill Sharpeners Spell and Write (same program Georgie uses).  It looks like she could go right into the 2^nd grade level.

Math

Math Mammoth:  Vicki has worked through all of MM1A and most of MM1B.  She is completing the shapes and measuring chapter, which leaves adding/subtracting within 100 and coins.  Since she is doing a separate workbook on time and money, it may not be necessary to complete the coins chapter, and since there is a lot of review with addition, she may be able to start 2A in the fall.   

Evan Moor Skill Sharpeners Math:   She has finished the 1^st grade book!  We will probably continue with the 2^nd grade book in the fall since this provides a nice, ongoing spiral review of concepts.

Additional Math:  In addition to a Disney Time & Money workbook, she has also been working through Scholastic First Word Problems: Time & Money, Scholastic Practice, Practice, Practice: Addition & Subtraction, Scholastic Algebra Readiness Made Easy: Grade 1 (same program George uses, a nice introduction to logic problems), and Solve the Riddle Math Practice: Addition & Subtraction (same ones Georgie did).  This is probably the first time Vicki has started using programs originally purchased for Georgie. 

GEORGE – (rising 4^th grader)

Language Arts

Cursive Writing:  George started the third grade Handwriting without Tears Cursive book in June of last year.  He finished it in April, and since then has been practicing using Scholastic Cursive Writing Practice: Jokes and Riddles.  He’s also been doing more of his other school writing in cursive.   While I really like HWT, I don’t think he needs more instruction, just more practice, so that’s the way we’re heading for him.

Spelling: George was finishing up the third grade Evan Moor Skill Sharpeners Spell & Write in August of last year.  Since then he has completed the 4^th grade and started the 5^th grade workbook.  These books provide a nice mix of traditional spelling practice (copy the words), phonics rules, grammar and creative writing.    He almost always scores 100% of the spelling tests and it also shows in his writing.  For fifth grade, he’s had words like pitcher, trouble, station, beautiful, journey, neighborhood, everyone, surrounded, countries, quickest, guarding, purpose, ordinary, approach, tomorrow, knight, variety.  He completed through Unit 6 before stopping for the summer.  

He learned about Harriet Tubman, had a writing assignment to pretend he was a newspaper reporter when an alien was spotted in a cornfield, had to come up with five interview questions for Lance Armstrong, and learned about Knights and Pages.

Reading Comprehension:  He just finished up Evan Moor Daily Reading Comprehension 4^th grade, just in time for summer break.   He will continue with the fifth grade book in the fall.

Vocabulary:  He started the year doing the third grade Evan Moor Word A Day.  He completed that book and moved on to the 4^th grade book about mid-year.  He gets practice using the dictionary looking up each word before answering the questions.  In addition to the multiple choice questions, the fourth grade book has writing assignments using some of the words.  George’s selections included:  “When I lose computer time I get cantankerous”, “I’m wearing an orange dapper suit”, “I am very gregarious” (he really is), and “It’s so tedious doing schoolwork”.

Writing with Ease: George has completed through Week 22 of WWE1.   I think we’re going to continue with WWE2.  He is certainly doing a lot of other writing and grammar but I like the exposure to classic literature and we don’t have anything else that includes dictation work.  He has come a long way with copywork this year.  Below is a sample from September and one from May.  Big difference.

 

 

Reading:  George has been doing a lot of reading.  In addition to one hour of required reading during school, he reads each night before bed, and will pull out a book whenever he’s bored.  He’s been reading a lot of Hank Zipzer books by Henry Winkler, Geronimo Stilton, and has just started Eerie Indiana series by Mike Ford.

Additional Language Arts:  Late in the year (following another Scholastic Dollar Days sale actually) we introduced some additional “fun” language arts.  More Proofreading Practice Please! which has helped George apply the grammar, spelling and punctuation he is learning in other programs, Scholastic No Boring Practice Please: Spelling which goes over general spelling rules like syllables, suffixes, plurals and silent letters one rule at a time.

Math

Math Mammoth:  George finished up MM4A back in April and they took a break to work on solidifying his recall of math facts.  He is doing very well with recollection of multiplication facts but is having more trouble with division facts.  He will continue to work on getting the facts down well, and move on to 4B in the fall.

Skill Sharpeners Math – Grade 4:   George started doing the Evan Moor Skill Sharpeners Math workbook around April to add some mixed review and practice.   It gives him additional word problem practice, and topics such as coordinate graphing, calculating area, computation practice, fractions, and measurement.

Algebra Readiness Made Easy:  George finished up the 5^th grade book but was starting to really struggle by the end.  We decided to hold off on the 6^th grade book for a while, and possibly even re-do the 5^th grade book in the fall.

Logic Puzzles:  He started out the year doing a variety of logic puzzles from Scholastic Logic Posters, Problems and Puzzles which offers a variety of types of puzzles.  His favorites are definitely the grid puzzles.  Once he finished the Scholastic book (some of them for the second time), he started doing some grid puzzles from a Mental Floss logic book.  He likes them so much, he’s started making up some of his own. 

Additional Math:  George has learned how to do Sudoku puzzles, starting with 4x4 puzzles he has now moved on to the 9x9 grids.   He also started doing Evan Moor Daily Word Problems, Grade 4 in the hopes of getting him in the habit of actually reading the directions and writing down his steps.  Math is starting to get hard enough that he makes mistakes trying to do it in his head.  He is also doing some math facts drill using Scholastic Fast Facts: Multiplication & Division and Super Sudoku Math: Multiplication and Division.

Both

The kids have been making great progress in their school work but they’ve also been having a ton of fun.

In addition to swimming lessons (Vicki is now swimming underwater), they’ve been bowling, ice skating (both are doing great), fencing (Vicki has a real knack for fencing!), fishing, and camping.  They’ve studied Vikings, Electricity, and been to the National Zoo.

Posts on all that will be coming soon!

Wrap-Up Through 3/21/14

Once again computer problems have led to being far behind with posting but I've been working on catching up.  I now have a brand-new computer that will hopefully result in the need to come up with a completely new excuse.  J

The kids have been having a lot of fun the past few weeks.  Swimming lessons and Zumba have continued at the Y, the kids have been studying Vikings (including putting together a really cool village) and Electricity (full posts will come when the units are finished)....

and we started our Nature Study (those posts can be seen here and here).

 

The kids have been going ice skating each week and they’ve been doing great!  This week George made a full lap around the ice by himself!

They've also gone bowling...

 

 

 on a fun trip to the Camden Adventure Aquarium (see that post here)...

 

 

and another class at the Montclair Art Museum.  This time they cut out pictures, glued them to cardstock and made cards that could be stacked into towers.

 

We also had a very solemn funeral for Kevin – a pet ant George had for one night...

 

and Vicki has gotten quite good at hula hooping (she says Daddy taught her but it definitely wasn’t by example).  I'll have to see if I can get some video of my two girls hula hooping.  Steph is quite good at it too.

 

Vicki finally did some baking with Daddy using the new pans she received for Christmas (she also made jello with Jennifer)...

and Georgie has had a great time playing his new Dungeons & Dragons game, Legend of Drizzt.  Mommy has had the pleasure of playing with him.

And, of course, the kids have continued with their regular sit-down school work.

Scholastic just had another Dollar Days sale so I picked up a few more supplemental resources.  Between the Scholastic stuff and the Evan Moor Teacher’s File Box, we are in good shape for materials as long as the kids continue to like and do well with worksheets.

VICKI

Language Arts

Vicki has finished the 1^st grade Handwriting Without Tears book and started the 2^nd grade book.   She definitely getting better, and is WAY more willing to write than she used to be, but she definitely still needs the detailed instruction.

The file for our Scholastic DoDEA Skill Builder Grammar, Usage and Mechanics Grade 1 on my external harddrive is corrupt and I have been unable to get it online again (I can find it online but the pdf will not open.  Not even from work.).  Vicki has completed through page 48 but it looks like we are going to need to switch to something else.   Most likely that will be Evan Moor since I have the membership in the Teacher’s File Box and their options also offer a slow, easy introduction.   She has been working on naming words, singular/plural nouns, describing words, the pronoun them, linking verbs, words that compare, and capitalizing special names.

Vicki has almost completed the Scholastic Second Grade Basic Skills: Reading Comprehension and Skills book.  She is giving the Evan Moor Daily Reading Comprehension – 2^nd Grade book a try next.   This is the same series Georgie is using and is definitely at a higher level than the Scholastic so she will be starting with the 2^nd grade level.

Using “The Wand”, Vicki has finished the units on A Kiss for Little Bear, which covered “one” words (one, once, only, none, long, alone) and question words (who, what, where, when, why, which), place words (where, there, here) and Danny and the Dinosaur which did more with the <wh> digraph (who, what, where, when, why, which).

In addition to the books for “The Wand”, Vicki has been reading her way through the Junie B. Jones books, has read How to Train Your Dragon, Hiccup the Hero (to go along with the Viking study), and the Viking Ships at Sunrise Magic Tree House book.

Math

Vicki is continuing to do well with Math Mammoth 1B, although it’s definitely not her favorite.  She has completed through page 27 which included activities using the 100 chart, building numbers to 100, and working with groups of 10s.

Evan Moor Skill Sharpeners Math Gr 1, she has completed through page 96.   Activities included adding and subtracting to 16, word problems, graphing, telling time to the half hour, and adding up coins (pennies, nickels, dimes).  I believe she is almost finished with the first grade book.  When she is done, she will move on to the second grade book.

GEORGE

Language Arts

George has finished the Handwriting Without Tears – Grade 3 book.  Since he has the letter formation down pretty well and just needs more practice, he will not be continuing with the HWT books.  Instead he will do practice using various resources, including a new one from Scholastic – Cursive Practice Jokes & Riddles.

He continues to do very well with Evan Moor Skill Sharpeners Spell and Write.  He completed the Grade 4 book and moved on to Grade 5.   Most weeks he gets 100% on the tests.   I like the way these also introduce various grammar concepts, writing assignments AND interesting passages that sometimes lead to wanting to know more.

He completed three units in the time period of this wrap-up:

The first had a passage titled “Hero of the Sky” which was about Amelia Earhart.  Spelling lists for that week were two, too, their, there, weather, great, whether, all ready, already, teacher, league, people. The grammar topics obviously included homonyms.  Also included was proper punctuation for various titles and when to use capitals, underline, or quotes. (something it is clear that I occasionally struggle with J )

His writing assignments were to write a Cinquain….

Spiderman
A hero, buggy
kick, swings, saves
a tall thin great hero
heros

And to come up with questions to conduct an interview with Amelia Earhart.   

“What was the crash like? How bad was it? Do we need to call a ambulance? Or a repairman?  Should I get you a get well soon balloon? Are you bleeding?”

The next unit was called “Animal Helpers” and discussed service animals.  The word list included happily, swiftly, hopeless, tireless, recall, rebuild, unable, unlike, service, alert, person, guide.  He got 100% on his test and also learned the definitions for the words, and the differences between may/can and sit/set.

One of his writings assignments was to list other ways animals may help people…

Snake: rat/mice control
Cat: be sweet, loving Need I say more?
Armadillo: I meant anteater - the ant eater
Cheetah: speed, catch criminals
Jester: not an animal but we all need a laugh
fish: good cat award

and to write an Acrostic poem about animal friends.

Freaks
Right
In
Eternal
Night
Darkness
(not about animals)

And last but not least, last week he moved on to the 5^th grade book.  The first unit was “Baseball by the Numbers” and the word list was: which, another, rough, once, trouble, cousin, until, baseball, batter, field, pitcher and umpire.

The grammar activity for this week was on the difference between declarative, interrogative, imperative and exclamatory sentences and the correct punctuation to use with each.

Another acrostic poem was included this week:

Babboons
Are
Still
Eternally
Babboons
And
Lick
Lemons

And he had an assignment to write about a baseball game.

About 18 people are playing…3 teams…the Gravebusters VS Obelisks, The Gods VS Screeching Strikers!   Team Gravebusters: Leader Drake, Co-Leader Kia, Member Kong, Member Tyu, Member Lily, and Member Pipi. Team Obelisks the Gods: Leader Obelisk, Co-Leader Lin, Member Clement, Member Jack, Member Jill, and Member Jacob. Team Screeching strikers: Leader/Birdmaster Birda, Co-Leader/Co-Birdmaster/Birda’s Sister Eagle, Member Kaw, Member Kaw II, Member Kaw III, Member Kaw IIII. The game was tuff for the Screeching Strikers and The Gods, because they we’re playing on a graveyard field and the Gravebusters are masters on that type of field. But eventually, The Screeching Strikers came back around when they started used their super fast pitching reflexes. The game ended up like this: 1^st Place: Team Gravebusters, 2^nd Place: Team Screeching Strikers, 3^rd Place: Team Obelisks and The Gods. It was at night when this game happened and it went on 12:00AM-5:00AM.

He’s been typing his stories on the computer and his typing speed has been increasing quite a bit.  His accuracy with capitals and punctuation aren’t great but I’m not sure that’s a typing issue.

He has completed through page 146 in Evan Moor Daily Reading Comprehension Gr 4.   This week the passages were discussing character and setting, and theme, compare and contrast, making inferences, author’s purpose, and prediction.

He has completed through week 15 in Evan Moor Word-A-Day, which included the word lists:
motion, encouraged, demand, pollution
applaud, tattered, observe, function
command, hilarious, devour, solo

He did passages on Trumpet of the Swan, "Today is Monday", "Old Mother Hubbard" and The Saturdays in Writing with Ease.

Reading: In the past few weeks, George has been doing quite a bit of reading.  For his official school reading time he has read:  Stick-o-pedia Volume 1 and 2, Judy Moody and Stink The Mad, Mad, Mad Treasure Hunt, The Trumpet of the Swan, Usborne Greek Myths, Hank Zipzer Day of the Iguana, James and the Giant Peach, Time Warp Trio: Viking It and Liking It.  His free reading in the past week has centered around the Adventure Guide and Players Guide that came with his new Dungeons & Dragons Legend of Drizzt board
, or his Pokemon books, or his Simpsons comic books.  Not the best literature but some of the terminology probably stretches his abilities so it’s all good.

Math

George has completed Math Mammoth (4B) through page 75 which finished up the chapter on place value.

He has almost completed the 5^th Grade Scholastic Algebra Readiness Made Easy.   While I did buy the 6^th grade and 7/8^th grade books at the recent sale, they are going to take a break from these for a while since he has actually struggled occasionally with this book.  After a break, they will probably work through the 5^th Grade book again before moving on.

George finished the money work book he was doing as extra math practice.  He just started using Evan Moor Daily Word Problems – Grade 4 for extra practice.  The big advantage of word problems – he has no choice but to read the directions before trying to solve the problem.  He completed Week 1.

He has almost completed Scholastic Solve the Riddle Math Practice Multiplication and Division and has good retention of multiplication facts. 

George has continued doing either a grid logic puzzle, or a Sudoku puzzle each day.  He really likes Logic grid puzzles (which makes sense to me, I always liked them too).

 

Nature Study Saturday - Week 2

We lucked out with another beautiful day for our second week of Nature Study on March 22nd.

Since the Spring Equinox was just a few days prior, we started out by reading about the Equinox in our Nature Connections book.    When we recorded the times for sunrise and sunset and the hours of daylight, we noticed that between last week and this week, we switched from more hours of darkness to more hours of daylight.   (Yeah!!)

This week when we went around looking for signs of Spring we actually found some!  The first crocuses were blooming in the side yard.  Every year we dig up the crocuses that come up there and move them into the garden beds in the back.  And every single year more come up in the early Spring.

When I talked excitedly about the first crocuses, Georgie pointed out that they were the “first crocuses at our house”.  I guess he has a point there.

Vicki also mentioned that we were seeing a lot more birds, as a sign of Spring.  (it could also be a sign of the bird seed we are putting out again).  It was also pretty warm, an indication that Spring was here!

We did our three tracking pictures – rhododendron (buds still tightly closed), front yard (still bare branches), and back yard (still no leaves but no snow either so that's progress) and compared them to last weeks pictures. 

The only real difference is the lack of snow.  Still no sign of buds on the trees or opening up on the rhododendron.

 

This week Vicki was more willing to join in the notebook activities.  They added last week’s observation pictures, filled out the Nature Notes (George drew a picture of our fence this time).

Then Vicki hung out with Daddy soaking up some sunshine. 



 

 

Nature Study Saturday Week 1

We started our Nature Study on March 15^th.   This is going to be my attempt to have some time with the kids with a purpose.   :-) 

We will be using the Nature Connection book, various other books, and keeping records in nature notebooks.

 

The kids decorated their nature notebooks using cardstock and some cut-outs from magazines and old books.  Neither was overly enthusiastic about any of it but hopefully that will come with time.   We started out using prong folders with a  sheet protector to hold the cover but I realized that would make it harder to add pages, so we are switching to binders.
 

Inside were record pages from the Nature Connection including Nature Notes to fill out each day, Tracking Daylight to fill out on an ongoing basis, observation pages to record interesting observations on an on-going basis, and blank and lined paper for pictures, samples and other information.

Since it’s almost Spring we started out by looking around outside for signs of Spring.  Other than some of the snow finally melting into mud, there weren’t many.

Each week we are going to observe three different spots in our yard – our rhododendron bush (a broad-leaf evergreen), our front “yard” tangle of bushes, and down the back hill toward the river.  We will take pictures and then use those pictures to compare to the view the following week and note the differences.

 

We actually had a somewhat nice day for our first outing and the kids decided they wanted to plant some seeds.  George wanted another plant like Albert or Panner from last year.  I doubt they’ll grow anytime soon since they are still sitting outside in the cold.

When we went back inside, George filled out the observation pages in his notebook.  We tracked the hours of daylight using sunrisesunset.com, and George drew a picture of the bare gray trees on his Nature Notes page.  Vicki refused but I’m hoping she’ll get more interested as time goes on and we go on more field trips.