Weekly Wrap Up

This week we only had a 4 day school week. We went to South Carolina last week drove home Monday. This week was extremely busy for us. The kids had karate, dance, baseball, and a karate graduation! Even with all this we managed to get everything done and start Five in a Row.  Oh, and the weather here was FANTASTIC. We spent a lot of time outdoors this week! The highlight of the week was attending Master M's karate graduation to an orange belt today!

We own several of the books needed for FIAR book 1 and since this was bought so Pork Chop could really join in on school I allowed her to pick the first book. She chose Madeline. I didn't think Master M would enjoy Madeline and that I would hear grumbles about it. I was pleasently suprised and he really enjoyed the book.  Today both kids were able to finish almost every sentence. Master M even asked to start with Madeline today. We did every activity listed in the book and the Madeline lapbook on homeschoolshare.  I loved that my kids can now show you where France is on a map! Pork Chop will say "It's where the Ipal (Eiffel) Tower is.". We aren't doing lapbooks right now, but we are doing a large scrapbook. It will contain all the info from our book of the week.

Math:
We are at a point in Singapore 1a where it is important for Master M to know his mental math (addition and subtraction 1-10) very well. He can tell you the answer, but it's not immediate. We took this week for review and did lots of addition and subtraction problems. He can spit the answers out much faster and accurately now, but I still feel he needs another week of review.

Reading/Phonics:
We have finally moved beyond the constanants in OPGTR and Master M is starting to read words and short easy sentences. Since OPGTR is so dry I write the individual words on our whiteboard for him to read. The short stories (really short just 3-4 sentences) I type up and put a box under each one. This gives Master M a space to illustrate the sentences which helps make OPGTR not quite so boring.  He really doesn't like to practice reading. Since he is a perfectionist and reading isn't something that comes to him immediately he doesn't want to do it.  I really have to push and help, but he is starting to get it.  I have started doing 3 20 minute reading sessions with him each day (morning, afternoon, and night).  He is reading basic readers and with lots of help.

Science:
We have started using R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey Life and I have to say we LOVE it! Since it's only 1 page of reading to several labs it works well for us.  Pork Chop sits in on the labs and "helps" and Master M really likes having hands on science. This week we did plot study and the kids had a lot of fun finding all the living things in our overgrown flower bed (I pulled the weeds while we were out there!). Our 2nd lab was a cell lab where we looked at an egg and labeled the parts.

The Wild Boy Scrapbook/Notebook (Mordicai Gerstein)

I couldn't find a pre planned lesson on this book so I made my own. This is geared toward younger children since my kids are 4 and almost 6.

*Book Report:What happened first? What happened next? What happened last? What was your favorite part? How good was this book 1-4 stars?  (I do most of the writing)

*Draw a picture of the wild boy in the woods. (My 5 yr old was very worried about how he was going to draw a naked boy. He said "I always draw people with their clothes on". Mind you all the people he has EVER drawn have been stick figures. lol He wanted to know if he should draw a skeleton and that led to the discussion of how you body has skin over your bones.)

*We printed out a picture of Jean Marc Itard and talked about how he was a dr. for deaf and mute people. Which lead to a discussion on what exactly deaf and mute meant. Beside the picture we wrote (straight from the mouth of my 5 yr old) A dr. who helped people who were deaf and mute. He took in the wild boy and cared for him.

*We defined the words deaf and mute

*We found France on our world map and put a marker there so we would remember where it was. We printed out a outline of France. We used our world map to find the mountains/forest and Paris. We then put the mountains/forest and Paris on our map. Beside the trees we wrote "The found the wild boy in the forest" and beside Paris we wrote "He was sent to Paris after he was captured.". Beside the map we used scrapbook letters to spell FRANCE.

*In the book it says Dr. Itard made cutout letters for Victor. I printed out the alphabet coloring pages and we will be working on coloring those in. After we are done with A-Z we will make a garland out of them to hang in our school room.

*Talk about how you would feel being completely alone.

*Research what kind of plants/berries/mushrooms you could eat in the wild to survive. Print them out and glue them to you notebook/scrapbook or draw them (don't forget to write down the names).

*Research out wilderness survival skills and list them.

*Talk about being different than everyone else and how to treat people who are different than us.

*Compare/contrast Paris (a city) and the forest

*Learn about walnuts (the wild boy's favorite food)

*Make a list of the foods the wild boy would and wouldn't eat

*The wild boy had to be taught hot from cold, rough and smooth, colors, and shapes. Find things that are rough and smooth to add to your notebook/scrapbook. Make a list of things that are hot and cold. Glue and label different colors and shapes to you book.

*Play cup and ball like Victor did in the book.

*In the book Dr. Itard gets frustrated with Victor. Talk about how you feel when you are frustrated. After Dr. Itard gets frustrated and yells at Victor he starts to cry and became upset. Talk about how you feel when your feelings get hurt.

*Dr. Itard teacher Victor the french word for milk (lait). Learn a few basic words in french and add them to your book.

*Toward the end of the book Victor becames very helpful. Talk about things the kids can do to be helpful. Make a list to go in your book. (Don't forget to have to kids do the things they listed to be helpful!)

*The book talks about how Victor liked to stand by his window under a full moon. Go out and look at the moon on different nights. You could track the moon phases or just research the moon phases and add them to your book.

Art-watercolor

We are using what your kindergartener needs to know book to finish up our K curriculum. We haven't really had art in our curriculum since we moved in September and we were kinda homeless till December. December was spent getting situated into our new home. Finally in January we jumped back into school. Which brings us full circle back to art class where we looked at watercolor paintings by various artists and then made some of our own.

History-china

We are learning about china and wrote out 1-5 in Chinese.

Earthschooling and a new home

We officially have 2 more days before we leave South Carolina and move to Kentucky. We closed on our house today!! I will spend the next 2 days packing up what I can to take with us. Mainly clothes, toys, and our cat, Gloria. While we have been here I have realized that 1) Boog takes things way above him and worries about it and 2) our current homeschool method wasn't working. We had started out our kindergarten year using k12, then switched to unschooling (which just didn't work for us), and then to child led learning. None of these things has fit us like we really wanted. Then I stumbled across charlotte mason and that led to woldorf. I think one of the big obstacles with our homeschooling is me! I don't mind admitting that I'm a pusher and sometimes I feel like Boog isn't trying hard enough. It's hard for me to remember that he is only 5 and all of this is new and abstract to him. So when a friend told me about earthschooling I checked it out. After reading tons about waldorf and so much on the bearth institute website I fell in love. So I made the plunge and paid the $85 for the kindergarten curriculum. I especially love how 1st grade doesn't start until 7. I *know* I've been way to pushy and need to let my children develop at their own pace. After really analyzing the first half of our kindergarten year I know that Boog really needs that extra year to be ready for first grade. Earthschooling allows us to do year round schooling. I plan to try this out for at least a month to find out if its a good fit with us. If it is a good fit then we will use it for the next year and a half until Boog turns 7. Theres plenty packed into the kindergarten curriculum for us to use it that long. I will also be able to use it with pork chop who turns 4 in January.

The Knight at Dawn

Magic tree house book #2 The Knight at Dawn

We did two activities with this book. The first activity was look up rules during the medieval times and decide which rules should be brought back. Here are the list of rules my kids brought back (the last 3 are from the list of rules knights had to follow):
1)Don't bite off more than you can chew
2)Dont eat foods you hate
3)Be calm while you eat;don't rush
4)Avoid emotions of anger and irritation when eating
5)Dont touch other peoples food
6)Make sure to tell the person who cooked your food thank you and how good it was
7)Wash your hands and teeth before eating
8)While eating don't make a mess
9)Don't lick your fingers while eating
10)After eating wash your hands, lips, and teeth
11)Protect the defenseless
12)Always tell the truth
13)Always year people with respect

The second activity we did was make a coat of arms. The colors and designs are based on the qualities each child came up with about themselves.
Yellow-generosity
Green-hope
Red-ready to battle
Purple-justice
Blue-loyalty

Lion/bear-bravery
Dog-loyalty
Pelican-selfless
Acorn-strength
Cat-courage
Cross bones-morality

Cretaceous period diarama

We read the first book in the magic treehouse series and made a diarama of the cretaceous period.