2 Week Wrap-Up: 5/2-5/13/11

I never did a weekly wrap-up post last week since we mainly worked on our Prehistory study.  This week was much more productive. 

I decided to change the way I do my weekly wrap-ups (again?) to try and keep them more interesting.  I’m going to start with all the fun, unusual activities we did and then just list what we accomplished in our core curriculum at the end.

Last week, we learned about the Vendian period (click to see details)…

while this week we learned about the Cambrian period (click to see details).

Georgie had his first t-ball game last Saturday.  It was….interesting.  Team sports may not be Georgie’s thing.  He was extremely distractible and showed little interest in learning how to play.  Instead he chased butterflies, dug in the dirt, kept sneaking over to talk to the pretty girl playing third base (at which point the coach actually picked him up and carried him back to where he was supposed to be).   He might need a few more years, and a strong desire to actually play, before he’s ready for sports.

Vicki did a few things this week (besides drive me crazy, that is).  She played a solitary game of Very Silly Sentences which basically involved rolling the die/spinning the spinner, picking up the correct color card and stacking them on the game board.  She did periodically ask what the cards said.  This actually kept her busy for quite a while.

The other thing guaranteed to keep her amused for a little while is playing with our balance scale and Unifix cubes.

I’ve been trying to come up with ways to keep Vicki amused while I work with Georgie.  I’ve set up Tot Trays, had special toys just for school time, had her own “school” stuff available.   Most didn’t work for very long – she either lost interest in what was available or wanted something completely different right from the start.  Even television or Leapster games aren’t likely to keep her interest for more than a few minutes, and since they are very distracting for Georgie, I try to avoid them during school time.  So, here’s my latest attempt.

I set up a crate with hanging file folders.  In each folder is a different activity.  We have counting cards and starting letter cards from Confessions of a Homeschooler that she does using dry erase markers….

picture cards to be done using bottle cap letters, some from Confessions of a Homeschooler, some from other sites and some I made up myself….

a pattern chart to do with our Unifix cubes…

a few file folder games from File Folder Fun, her Handwriting without Tears capital letter cards and foam pieces, a few dry-erase workbooks and Boggle Jr.

I think I may have to work with her one-on-one first to get her started before starting school with Georgie.  I feel like by the time I find what works with her, she’ll be old enough to join us in regular school work.

What Georgie accomplished this week:

Handwriting: 
HWT pg 12 (caps), 13 (numbers), 14 (lowercase c); additional practice on capital letters and numbers on paper.

Reading:
OPGTR Lessons 46, 47 and 48.   A review of Lessons 41-48.
New books he read this week were The Eye Book and The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Phonics: 
We are taking a break from ETC until we do beginning blends in OPGTR since I want this to serve as review/reinforcement.

Spelling:
AAS Step 11 – dictate phrases; Step 12 – th, ch, sh.

Grammar:
pg 24 from Scholastic 1st Grade Basic Skills: Reading Comprehension; pg 8 and 9 from Scholastic GUM (capitalizing I).

Math:
Math Mammoth pg 52, 53, 54, 57 (addition) and 76, 81, 82, 83 (subtraction) from 1A; pg 11 (place value), 50 (clock) and 62 (shapes/measuring) from 1B.

Sign Language:
Continued reviewing the alphabet, his name and I love you.  He periodically “borrowed” the book to flip through and try other signs.

Our read aloud for the week was Magic Tree House Dinosaurs Before Dark.  If finally found something that works to get them to listen during read-alouds – coloring!   It has mixed results from Vicki and usually keeps her semi-quiet but Georgie loves doing somewhat elaborate coloring pages.  He's getting very meticulous with his coloring these days.  After I read for a while, he may stop coloring and curl up on the couch with me to listen.   I do try to make the coloring pages somewhat relevant to what we’re reading or what we’re currently studying (which may be the same general topic, as they were this week – prehistory).


I feel like we have made some real progress and almost have a workable routine.

Prehistory – Part 4 Vendian Period/Making Kimberella

This week we were finally ready to introduce our Charlie’s Playhouse timeline playmat and Creature Cards.  While we will be concentrating on one Period at a time, the kids were very interested in this new toy with all the bizarre creatures and had to explore it more fully before we could narrow our focus.  We spent quite a bit of time just looking at the timeline, reading the various description and trying to pronounce the creature names.   Our living room isn’t long enough to open the entire timeline so we mainly concentrated on the earlier time periods, which definitely have some of the more bizarre creatures.

Once some of the novelty wore off, we folded the timeline so just the Vendian Period was showing.  We pulled out the appropriate creature cards – Tribrachidium, Dickinsonia, Spriggina and Kimberella.  We read the descriptions of each critter, discussed how big they were (mostly small but Dickinsonia could be 3 feet long!!) and how odd looking they were.  We then matched up our cards to the timeline (pretty easy at this point) and read the timeline information for each creature.

The timeline describes Kimberella as looking like “a pasta shell on top of lasagna” so I decided to go with that.   I soaked lasagna noodles in water long enough for them to soften (this took about an hour in warm tap water).  Once they were malleable, I cut them in half lengthwise and wrapped each one along the outside of a piece of cardboard cut in the shape of a pasta shell.  Once they dried and re-hardened, I glued a pasta noodle on top. 

Once the glue dried, the kids painted their “Kimberella”.   Since we have no idea what color most prehistoric creatures actually were, they were able to be as creative as they wanted.

We also read about the Vendian Period in our Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia of World History and our DK Prehistoric Life.

Next, we will be moving on to the Cambrian Period and having lots of fun learning about Trilobites and Hallucigenia.

Weekly Wrap-up: 4/24-4/29/11

We ended up taking an unscheduled Spring Break last week thanks to unexpected doctor visits and lots of practice driving.  We were able to get right back in to things this week, despite spending most of the week away from home. 

Language Arts

We didn’t do any spelling this week since I didn’t want to bring the large white board and all the little tiles with us.

Georgie is continuing to do fairly well with Handwriting without Tears.  He really likes writing in the book but I usually have him practice on lined or gray box paper first.  We have gone through the different uppercase letters forms but we are doing some review of the whole alphabet since he still doesn’t always use proper form (starting at the top and going down, etc.).  We will probably move on to numbers and lowercase letters next week but continue practicing with uppercase letters at least a couple times a week.

We are continuing along in our Grammar programs.  We are still working on telling sentences and Georgie is having no problem knowing if something is a complete sentence or not.  We also played with our new Mad Libs Junior book – Animals, Animals, Animals.  Georgie surprised me by being able to read most of the word lists himself.  Which brings us to….

Reading.  Georgie is doing excellent with his reading.  We did Lessons 43,44,45 and 46 in Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading.  These all dealt with ending consonant blends.  We are doing about one lesson a day as long as he is able to read the lesson without a problem. 

He read I Wish I Had Duck Feet all by himself to add to his bookworm.  We read a selection from Frog and Toad Are Friends by alternating – he would read a two page spread, then I would read the next one.  He also read most of Rainbow Fish – Finders Keepers but had me read the last few pages.

In addition to the books I pick out for him to read, he is trying to read every book we use for school.  We used our Usborne IL Encyclopedia of World History to learn about evolution this week and he tried to read the selections we were discussing.  He was only able to read about half the words in each paragraph but since he doesn’t mind if I correct him, I like that he is so excited to try.  Even if it does make everything take twice as long.

We did three or four pages from Explode the Code each day.  These are also dealing with ending blends and we ran into a few pages that we hadn’t covered in OPGTR yet.   Since I really want to use these for review, we may have to take a break to give us a chance to get a little further in OPGTR.  I think I am going to continue using these for review until Georgie is proficient in reading.  They really do a good job of reinforcing what we are covering in OPGTR and helps me confirm that he really does understand a lesson.

Vicki has done very little this week except play on the computer.  She knows all her letter sounds but was resistant to blending so we may have to take a break for a little while. 

Math

We are continuing along with Math Mammoth.  I know I’ve seen on forums that students don’t need to do all the problems on a page if they show they understand the concept but Georgie actually likes to do them all.  He won’t necessarily do them in order, but he likes finishing a page.  Each day we are doing an addition page and a subtraction page from 1A, then each day we do one additional page on Place Value, Clock or Shapes/Measuring from 1B.  We are holding off on continuing with money until he has a better understanding of Place Value and adding two digit numbers.

Electives

We did a brief overview of Evolution as part of our Prehistory unit.

Georgie recently saw a show that did a presentation of the American Sign Language alphabet.   This caught his attention in a big way and he came running into the kitchen where Steph and I were talking to show us some letters.  Steph and I both know the ASL alphabet so we were able to explore it further with him.   Georgie showed so much interest, I decided to add Sign Language to our curriculum.   So far we are working on  the alphabet, his name and the sign for “I Love You”.

The town where Steph goes to school has a K-8 School for the Deaf that sends its graduates to her high school.   They offer a wonderful 1/2 year course in Sign Language that taught about deaf culture and offered the opportunity for discussion and practice with deaf students.  Steph took this class her sophomore year and was able to give me the materials from her class to get us started.  They are a wonderful resource and will help me a lot as we proceed but since they are written at a high school level, I also ordered the Scholastic book Sign Language My First 100 Words.

Not too many pictures this week but I did manage to get one half-way decent shot of my three kids together.

Prehistory – Part 3 Evolution

The next topic in our Prehistory program was a brief overview of evolution.  Since we will be discussing evolution as we proceed through the eras of prehistory, this was meant to just introduce the concept.

We read from our Usborne IL Encyclopedia of World History and read the story Our Family Tree.


Then we explored watched some episodes of Just So Darwin, which are cartoons with stories about animals such as “Why does the giraffe have a long neck” and “Why is the Platypus so unusual?” told from an evolutionary point of view.   My kids love watching programs about animals so these were a big hit. 

We also played the Monster Game where you get to create a creature and see how well he survives in the jungle.  Information is provided about animals with similar ears, noses, teeth and eyes and why they work well (or poorly) for survival.

Next week we will start working our way through the eras of Prehistory beginning with the Vendian Period.

Weekly Wrap-up: 4/11-4/15/11

We had a really good week despite Daddy being out of the country and all the literal and figurative headaches that came along with that disruption to our routine.  Not to mention the fact that I have to cook dinner.

Language Arts
Georgie is continuing to advance quickly with his reading abilities.  I felt that using All About Spelling as a reading and spelling program wasn’t moving fast enough so we started Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading this week.  I started him on Lesson 40, which is a review of short vowels words, since this is where he is as far as official work is concerned.  He completed lessons 40, 41 (double consonants), 42 (ck combination) and 43 (lk, lb and lp endings) without any real problems.  We will do Lesson 43 again next week since he did have a little hesitation with that one but I think we will be moving pretty fast through this, at least for now.  We will continue with All About Spelling for spelling and the review of phonics rules.

Georgie read One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish all by himself and completely in one sitting (it’s 63 pages long).  His stamina for reading is definitely improving along with his ability.

I had the opportunity to let the kids try out Click n Read this week (Thanks Jana!!).  Both kids really liked it so I’m going to be adding this to our curriculum.  It won’t be a daily thing but it will be great to occupy one kid while I’m working with the other.  There is a special buy of $29.99 for a lifetime account through the Homeschool Buyers Co-op.
 
Georgie is loving Handwriting without Tears.  I’ve been keeping the plan for each day pretty short since he generally doesn't like writing.  We’re doing the Grade 1 book so we’re starting with a review of capital letters.  Since I want to make sure he’s doing them correctly, I printed off some gray block paper with the starting dots and I have him practice on that before doing the book.  He’s so eager he wants to do multiple pages each day.  I have to stop him since his hand gets tired and he ends up holding the pencil in his right hand but guiding it with his left.

We didn’t do any Explode the Code this week but we’ll start back up with that next week.  It won’t align exactly with OPGTR so will generally be a review.  We’re working in Book 2 and I haven’t yet decided if we are going to continue it after this book.  With OPGTR, HWT and AAS, not to mention Click n Read, it may be too much to continue with ETC as well. 

I started Vicki with Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading as well.  We started by reviewing all the letter sounds to make sure she knew them well.  She did, so next week we will try some blending and see how it goes.  For now we are using the letters from Fridge Phonics.

Vicki also played on Click n Read this week.  She enjoyed it as well and has no problem with doing it by herself.  I set her up with my laptop on her table with her back to Georgie.  She had to wear headphones this week since my laptop is set up to use a headset to do Skype video calls with Daddy.  This actually worked well (except I couldn’t hear what she was doing) since it didn’t distract Georgie as much as I think it would with speakers.

Vicki is doing the Pre-K level of Handwriting without Tears.  She used the capital letter guides I printed out, along with the foam pieces, to build letters this week.  She really enjoyed this and went through most of the alphabet each day.

Math
We continued with our new Math Mammoth this week.  We are doing a few selected pages from 1A to learn their method of teaching addition and subtraction.  Mixed in starting next week will be pages on Place Value, Clock, and Shapes and Measuring.  We will also continue doing MEP along with it but I’m thinking of moving Georgie up to Year 2.  Year 1 is going very slowly and he’s starting to get a little bored with it.

We played one of the games suggested in Math Mammoth – 10 Out.  Kind of like Go Fish but you put down matches that add up to 10.  Georgie was VERY good at this and was making matches using 3 or 4 cards at at time.

Electives
I never posted a weekly wrap-up last week but we finished Part 1 of our Prehistory unit (formation of the Earth) last week and Part 2 (fossils) this week.

We also spent an entire day outside since we finally had some beautiful weather. (Counts as physical education, nature study and art, right?)

Finally – A Nice Spring Day!

We finally had some decent weather around here.  The kids and I took advantage of it to spend the entire day outside.

We went to a local county park that has a great overlook where you can see New York City on a clear day.  I’ve been going to this park since I was young enough that my dad had to carry me part of the way up.  Since I wasn’t too sure I could even make it up the fairly steep, 1.3 mile trail anymore, I wasn’t going to even try with the little guys so we stuck to checking out the wildflower trails.

Evidently it was too early in the year because we didn’t see any wildflowers.  We did have a nice little hike through the woods and over a cute little bridge.

We saw only one small patch of little white flowers in one of the few spots without a sign telling us what grows there.

After our hike, we went and played in the playground.

After a quick trip to the store for supplies, I made some sidewalk paints (cornstarch, water and food coloring) and the kids decorated our patio and the outside of our chimney.

We walked down to the river but it was slightly over its banks making a big patch of mud, so we didn’t stay long.

All that exercise and the kids are now playing Wii Fit Plus.  I think I may get my wish for an early bedtime tonight. ;-)

Prehistory – Part 2 Fossils

We continued our prehistory study by learning about Fossils.  What they are, how they are made and how they are found.

First we read about fossils in our Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia of World History.  This book has wonderful pictures and brief text – the perfect combination to keep my kids interest.

We also read from the DK Eyewitness Books Prehistoric Life.

We learned about what tools paleontologists use to find fossils by doing a page out of our Junior Paleontologists Activity Book and then playing a game of Dig that Dinosaur.

Dig that Dinosaur was one of the games in a Scholastic Ebook I bought during their dollar days – Quick and Easy Learning Games: Science.  In this game, each player is attempting to gather tools and get to the dinosaurs skull first.  The directions say to use a spinner but I’ve never had a homemade spinner work well so we used dice.  It also has each player collect three tools.  I made an extra copy of the tools and had each player gather all six and discuss what each was used for.   I laminated the game in a file folder and we used plastic dinosaurs as pieces.

For the next activity, we used the Safari Ancient Fossils Toob (I love the Toob’s) along with the real fossils they were able to get at the museum during the Rock and Mineral Weekend, and some sea shells.   I wanted to do a semi-realistic dig site outside for the kids.   Thanks to pre-construction activities our yard is currently all dirt and rocks.  Perfect for a dig.  Unfortunately, though we finally had some warmer temperatures, it rained every day this week.  So, I went with plan B and we had a “dig” in our rice bin.   There were a few plastic acorns in there left over from our Fall Sensory Bin but I left them figuring that some junk is usually dug up at any site. 

Both kids had fun searching for the fossils.   Vicki really had fun pretending to dig for the fossils and then brushing them clean as they were found.  She re-buried them at least twice and found them all again.  Georgie was only interested in finding them once and then looking up what they were on the information sheet that came with the Toob.

The tools we used for our dig and what we found…

We learned about how fossils are formed and the different types of fossils by doing the first few activities in our Magic School Bus Back In Time With the Dinosaurs science kit.  We learned about True Form Fossils, Mold Fossils, Cast Fossils and Trace Fossils.  We used the kit contents to (attempt to) make samples of Mold, Cast and Trace fossils but they didn’t come out too well.  I think I may have added too much water to the plaster of paris mixture.

We also went to our local museum for the first activity in honor of the opening of the newly expanded dinosaur exhibit – making a coffee ground fossil.   First, we gathered our sediments (coffee, flour, salt), then the river water came…

and swirled them all together.  Only Vicki was willing to put her hands in there and stir it all up.

The river dried up and left behind mud.  Sea creatures died and their shells settled down and made impressions in the soft mud.

Then over millions of years (or the next day), the mud hardened into rock with an impression of the shell in it.

While at the museum we were able to examine some fossils in the Rock & Mineral collection.

We learned more about the conditions needed for fossils to form by playing the Burying Bodies game, which allows you to move a dinosaur body to different places (side of a volcano, beach, river, ocean) to find out whether its a good place for it to turn into a fossil.

We played The Road to Fossilization game from the Junior Paleontologists Activity Book which I laminated in a file folder.   We used some fossils from our Toob as pieces and rolled a die instead of flipping a coin as suggested.  Even numbers moved 2 spaces and odd numbers moved 3 spaces.  The game gave information on how fossils are formed and some of the things that can prevent formation.

During our study we also watched The Magic School Bus Shows and Tells and an episode of Sci Girls on Digging Archeology.

Books we read:

Coming up next:  A brief overview of Evolution before we start on the first life on Earth.