Postcrossing

We really love postcrossing. We started postcrossing back in 2010, but after the newest edition, the move, and being busy we haven't sent out anything in a while. I wanted to get back into it and bought a 8 postcards at the beach 2 weeks ago and sent them out. Today we received 3 postcards. We ask the sender tell us about themselves, their city (including historical info), send recipes, ect. After we receive them we read them, find where they were sent from on our wall maps, and talk about how far they travelled.

From a preschool teacher in Luftkin Texas.

 

From Birgit in Monchengladbach Germany.

Vintage postcard from Renee in Norwalk Iowa.

Fall Semester 2012

The older kids are away at Grandma and Grandpa's house this week and I am using this time to get all my projects and to do items done.  So last night I sat down and wrote out our entire fall semester schedule!  I still need to order a few books before school starts, but I have everything planned out. I even filled out my teacher planner with all the lessons and chapters! WOO-HOO!

Here is what it looks like for Monday - Thursday:

Math: Singapore 1b-Singapore 2a 2 lessons daily + 5 minutes math drills
Reading:Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading. We will start will lesson 1 and do 2 review lessons daily + 1 new lesson (starting at lesson 60 where we left off)
Language Arts:First Language Lessons 1 lesson each day
Spelling/Vocabulary: Soaring with Spelling and Vocabulary 1 lesson each day+ weekly test and Evan Moor A Word a Day Grade 1
Science:Real Life Science Odyssey 2 lessons each week
History: History Odyssey Ancient Times 2 lessons each week
Spanish: Learning songs and practicing conversational phrases
Literature: We will be reading the following books over the course of the fall semester: Wind in the Willows, Oliver Twist, Moby Dick, and Where the Sidewalk Ends
Grammer: Evan-Moor Grammer & Punctuation Grade 1 daily
Logic: Evan-Moor Critical & Creative Thinking Grade 1 daily
Writing: Evan Moor Daily 6 Trait Writing Grade 1 daily

On Friday Master M will be attending a homeschool co-op from 10-3 and take the following classes:
-Conversational Spanish
-Learning with Aesop
-American History Through Art
-Drama

We are also part of another homeschool group that meets weekly for playdates. There has been talk of starting a book club where the kids would read a book each week and discuss it at the beginning of the playdate. 

Last year we started homeschooling through k12 in August. Quit with k12 in September due to my husband's job relocation. The kids and I moved to my inlaws and continued to use the k12 material for the 1st few weeks. Then for the remainder of the fall we unschooled since I was traveling a lot and it was hard to get everything done in the k12 material. When December rolled around we were moving into our new home and took December and January off to get settled in. In February we started back school and following a more classical education line of curriculum.  It must have been exactly what we needed because not only did Master M finish up all his kindergarten work he started on 1st grade work. When we stopped the 2011-2012 school year in June he was 3/4 done with 1st grade math, 1/2 done with 1st grade science, right on for 1st grade reading, 1/4 done with 1st grade language arts, and a few lessons into 1st grade history.  I know if a school year of upheaval and only doing school work for a few months looks like the above that he can soar to amazing heights this year if I am organized.

VACATION! Days 1-3

We are officially on VACATION!  We will be completely off from school for 2 whole weeks.  When we come back we will start schooling on our summer schedule.

Saturday (Vacation Day 1):
-Took P to French class.  She is such an outgoing, never shy child but at French class she is very reserved and forgets everything. I know she is picking it up though because she will say things like colors and body parts in French :) 
-We spent our afternoon at the park hiking. We hiked a 1.25 trail that was easy. We all enjoyed getting out and getting some exercise. The kids were a little scared to hike the trail through the woods though. They kept thinking a bear was going to get us!
-After hiking we went home to grill out. Hubby brought the food in just as a storm was rolling in. Half way through dinner we had to leave our plates and run down to the basement because the weather was so bad.  We had high winds and a TON of hail. This is a picture of our back porch.



Sunday (vacation day 2)
-Hubby had to go to work so the kids and I spent the morning hanging around the house and cleaning up.
-After a big lunch we headed to Target to pick up some things for our trip on Thursday.  Like new shoes for Goose.


-I finished reading Fifty Shades Darker.
-Started reading Money Can Buy Happiness. I am REALLY enjoying this book and have spent a lot of time since starting it working through our finances.  We have followed Dave Ramsey's plan until now and have been feeling really stressed out by it even though we are in a better place financially.
-Spent 2 hours cleaning out my car and scrubbing the inside. My poor car needed it SO bad. We feel like we are riding in a new car now!

Monday (vacation day 3)
-Took P to speech therapy. She has started saying I by herself some. She still says me a lot in place for I, but we take what we can get.
-Went to the car wash. The kids LOVE driving through the car wash. I don't care for it. Being in that little room with the brushes and things beating up against the car makes me feel clostraphobic and trapped.  The car is now looking GOOD. It has been washed, vacuumed, and armoralled. Of course as soon as we got home a bird pooped on it :/
-Spent the rest of the day trying to get some things done before our trip. All day I felt like I took 1 step forward and 2 steps back. I did manage to keep the rooms I spring cleaned maintained and a few loads of laundry done. 


-The kids spent the rest of the day driving each other CRAZY! I kept telling myself "Only 1 more day till Hubby is off for 12 days!!!".

Weekly Wrap Up: 4/23-4/27

This week we struggled! We are going on a 11 day vacation to visit my parents and inlaws next week and school work was a drag this week.  We are all so happy to be off for the next 2 weeks!

This week we did some graph work for math, learned about our respiratory system, finished 3 lessons in our reading book, completed a spelling unit (Master M made 100), and completed week 1 in History Odessey.  We have also been practicing our French. The kids are learning their numbers 1-10, colors, and some basic words- hello, goodbye, snack, baby, dad, mom, girl, boy, dog, cat, ect.  P is really enjoying her French lessons. I'm enjoying learning with her and teaching the other kids what we are learning. 

Our highlights of this week were being able to watch P practice her ballet and tap recital pieces and going to Master M's baseball game. He got a hit all the way to the fence!

Weekly wrap up 4/15-4/22

This week Master m worked on: blending 2 consonants in reading
started the 2nd book of Singapore math 1st grade
did 2 science labs about the body's circular system. We had a lot of fun making "blood"
Learned more about ancient Egypt


This week Princess P (previously known as Pork Chop):
Declared she no longer wants to be Pork Chop
Rowed the book Red Clogs
Learned her colors and numbers in French

We also had a playdate at the park with friends.
Master M had:
karate and learned a new move
His 1st baseball game of the season. He is playing 1st base and made 3 outs
His baseball parade and had his picture in the news! (picture 3 Yankees)
http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2012304210098



Princess P:
Got her dance recital costume in
Learned a lot in French class

Week 14 Weekly Wrap Up

Sunday:
- Master M completed the entire shapes unit (4 lessons) in math. He has known his shaped since his 4th birthday so it was just review for him. 
-I read the first 3 chapters of Captain Courageous to Master M. Added a disk tomap to show where Newfoundland is.
-Dad finished reading the Angelina Ballerina chapter book to Pork Chop.
-Master M reviewed 2 lessons in OPGTR and completed a new lesson. OPGTR is really working for him. Since we started this book in late January he has made serious improvement.
-On Saturday I went to Barnes and Noble to pick up the book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother and a book on the human body for the kids. While I was there I found a Dover coloring book on the human body (My First Human Body Book). The kids colored a page on your skeleton to add to the science notebook.
-We are going through The Egyptology Handbook for history and read lesson 2. Master M colored a picture of the Sphinx to add to his history notebook.
-Master M took a pretest in spelling on his new words and old words he spelled incorrectly. He got all but 2 right (the 2 he missed were new).
-I finished up Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. I really enjoyed this book.

Monday:
-Spent an hour practicing baseball with Master M.
-Started Rowing Mike Mulligan.
-Reviewed all the disks on our map.
-Pork Chop had speech therapy. Her homework for the week is to work on saying I and not me.  If she does this for 4 weeks her therapist told her she would be able to get something out of her treasure chest.
-Master M revied 2 lessons in OPGTR and completed a new lesson.
-Master M completed a page in his spelling book.
-We read lesson 3 in The Egyptology Handbook and added a page to our history notebook on Saqqara.
-Pork Chop made a number caterpillar (1-10) for math.
-Master M completed the measurements unit in math (2 lessons). This was another review for him. His Papa has had him measuring and building things since he could walk.  He showed off during his lesson by counting by 2's,3's, 4's, and 10's.
-For science we colored another page in the Human Body coloring book. I read a page on your skeleton while the kids colored and had them tell me what they learned. I wrote it down on a notebook page and added both things to our science notebook. 
-I read chapter 4 of Captain Courageous to Master M and Make Way For Ducklings to Pork Chop and Goose.
-I started the book Savannah Breeze. My mom gave me this book to read a few months ago and I just haven't had time to read it. In fact I had forgotten all about it until today when I was down in the basement looking through some of the moving boxes (GASP! Yes there are 3 boxes in our basement with junk that I never unpacked) and found it.

Tuesday:
-The kids played outside all morning and found a tent caterpillar. They put it in a jar so we could keep it.
-We met some friends at the park in the afternoon.
-Master M had karate class. While he was at karate Pork Chop, Goose, and I walked next door to the pet shop and bought a little plastic home for our caterpillar.
-I read chapters 5-8 of Captain Courageous to Master M and The Rooster Crows to Pork Chop and Goose.

Wednesday:
-Master M did a math unit on weight.
-Master M completed lesson in OPGTR.
-The kids wrote a story about a caterpillar.
-Pork Chop went to dance class.
-The kids spent a lot of time outside.

Thursday:
-The kids hung out in the house playing because of the rain.
-After the rain stopped they watched the glass guy replace my windshield.
-The kids played outside in the afternoon.
-Pork Chop asked me to download the umizoomie math game for her on the Ipad and I did. She spent about 30 minutes playing it.
-We went to the library.
-Master M had baseball practice. His coach said that he will be playing 1st base!!!
-I read several chapters of Captain Courageous to Master M and started the book Dolphin Adventures with Pork Chop.
-Goose is trying to sing the alphabet song and is now saying bath.

Friday:
-We rowed Mike Mulligan for the last day. The kids did some Mike Mulligan word problems, we talked about creative problem solving and road egineering, and the kids drew trees for art.
-Master M took his spelling test and made 100% including the words he missed last week.
-Master M took his end of the book test for 1A in Singapore math and made 100%.  I have the HIG (home instructors guide) to 1B, but I am waiting on the workbook and text book to come in.
-We read Croco'Nile for history and the kids drew their favorite part.
-We made an arm in science that shows how your muscles work.
-The kids played outside and found another caterpillart to add with the one we found earlier this week.
-I finished the book Savannah Breeze.

Wordless Wednesday

I've spent a good bit time this week reading. I read Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother in 2 days and am currently reading Savannah Breeze. I should finish it by the end of the day.