Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Pumpkin
Pumpkin, the homeschooled cat, has been at it again.
A little light reading.
Relaxing in a bin of art supplies.
Comforting Princess Sassy-Pants when she was sick.
You are an odd cat, Pumpkin, but we love you!
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Friday, December 16, 2011
Week of December 12
We are wrapping up another week, surrounded by twinkling lights and the smell of evergreen. Despite the excitement of what is to come, everyone is working hard.
Math: J-Straco has been working on solving for the unknown. Farm Boy has been working on a review of multi-digit addition and subtraction, and will move into multi-digit multiplication. I have been skipping around a lot with him, as he is so 'mathy' and has yet to be challenged by fourth grade math.
Grammar: We have not completed much grammar this week. We took one day to cover a review of nouns and verbs, which is all I felt necessary- as we have a lot of grammar in our Latin curriculum.
Latin: Still declining and conjugating. We had a new list of vocabulary words to memorize. I downloaded them onto my I-Pod so we can listen to them when in the van.
Spelling: Both boys are still working through their respective workbooks. J-Straco has only a few lessons left in his book. Fortunately, I have the next 4 books already on my bookshelf.
Science: The boys are trying to grow algae. So far, no luck. I think we need run out to Grandma's house and see if we can find some pond water that is not frozen. Our well water doesn't seem to be cutting it.
Programming: They learned how to write a small program which prompts you to enter your name. It then replies, "Nice to meet you, __________"
Keyboarding: J-Straco is doing very well, as this is his second year doing the Dance Mat Typing. Farm Boy just started last week and is working on the home row.
History/Bible: We finally finished Tirzah! We all REALLY enjoyed the book, and read coordinating chapters from The Egermeier Story Bible. We finished the chapters on The Ark of the Covenant, and Joshua, Jericho and Rahab. What an amazing story! We dove deep and all learned so much about the Exodus. Next we move on to Nefertiti, Amenhotep, and Tutankhamen.
Writing: The boys have been free-writing in their notebooks. I feel so free since we have moved away from a 'traditional' writing curriculum and started using ideas from BraveWriter. J-Straco has a long, involved story involving an army of snowmen who protect Santa's Workshop. His goal is to finish and re-write by Christmas so he can give it to Ima (grandma) as a Christmas gift. I'll post it here when he finishes. It is truly a wonderfully creative story.
Art: We are still using online drawing lessons. Our recent projects include a koala and a fish. Farm Boy is really surprising me with his drawing talent. Santa may bring him a new art kit.
We also were inspired one day, to make a flurry of paper snowflakes. We laminated them and will hang them in the entryway.
Music: We have been studying the work of Vivaldi using the fabulous resources created by Dawn Keckly, a fellow WTM boardie. The boys loved reading I, Vivaldi, and Orphan Singer. We also checked out a fun computer game from the library: Alice in Vivaldi's Four Seasons. It includes games like finding the instruments of the orchestra by sound, and identifying the movements from The Four Seasons. I downloaded this MP3 album, Seasons' Greetings from Vivaldi which is another fun listen while in the van.
The boys were so inspired by this study that they have decided to learn the Violin. We went and rented two violins last night, and will start lessons in January. J-Straco picked up his violin and figured out how to play "Twinkle, Twinkle" in about 5 minutes flat.
We also recorded The New York City Ballet's The Nutcracker. We watched the first act, and The Princess went in her room and put on every tutu she owns (6), all at the same time and proceeded to twirl around the room. Farm Boy and The Princess loved it, J-Straco wasn't quite as impressed. I ordered a book for us to read on The Nutcracker, before we watch the rest. Hopefully The Princess will be old enough next year that we can go see a live performance.
Both boys have been practicing Christmas songs on their instruments. J-Straco's guitar teacher is amazed by how quickly J-Straco can do his pentatonic scale. He is almost down to 3 seconds, and his teacher said he's only ever had 3 students who could do it in 3 seconds.
Farm Boy flew through his new Christmas Music book, and we frequently hear "Jingle Bells" or "We 3 Kings" throughout the day.
After the Holidays, we will be gearing up for our Church Talent show which is in March. We need to pick a song and figure out who will play what instrument and who will sing. We so look forward to our family performance, the novices that we are.
In addition, all three kids have been working on their lines for the church Christmas Pageant. The boys are narrators, and Princess is a baby chick. I can't wait to see it, from helping with the practices it looks to be absolutely precious!
Math: J-Straco has been working on solving for the unknown. Farm Boy has been working on a review of multi-digit addition and subtraction, and will move into multi-digit multiplication. I have been skipping around a lot with him, as he is so 'mathy' and has yet to be challenged by fourth grade math.
Grammar: We have not completed much grammar this week. We took one day to cover a review of nouns and verbs, which is all I felt necessary- as we have a lot of grammar in our Latin curriculum.
Latin: Still declining and conjugating. We had a new list of vocabulary words to memorize. I downloaded them onto my I-Pod so we can listen to them when in the van.
Spelling: Both boys are still working through their respective workbooks. J-Straco has only a few lessons left in his book. Fortunately, I have the next 4 books already on my bookshelf.
Science: The boys are trying to grow algae. So far, no luck. I think we need run out to Grandma's house and see if we can find some pond water that is not frozen. Our well water doesn't seem to be cutting it.
Programming: They learned how to write a small program which prompts you to enter your name. It then replies, "Nice to meet you, __________"
Keyboarding: J-Straco is doing very well, as this is his second year doing the Dance Mat Typing. Farm Boy just started last week and is working on the home row.
History/Bible: We finally finished Tirzah! We all REALLY enjoyed the book, and read coordinating chapters from The Egermeier Story Bible. We finished the chapters on The Ark of the Covenant, and Joshua, Jericho and Rahab. What an amazing story! We dove deep and all learned so much about the Exodus. Next we move on to Nefertiti, Amenhotep, and Tutankhamen.
Writing: The boys have been free-writing in their notebooks. I feel so free since we have moved away from a 'traditional' writing curriculum and started using ideas from BraveWriter. J-Straco has a long, involved story involving an army of snowmen who protect Santa's Workshop. His goal is to finish and re-write by Christmas so he can give it to Ima (grandma) as a Christmas gift. I'll post it here when he finishes. It is truly a wonderfully creative story.
Art: We are still using online drawing lessons. Our recent projects include a koala and a fish. Farm Boy is really surprising me with his drawing talent. Santa may bring him a new art kit.
We also were inspired one day, to make a flurry of paper snowflakes. We laminated them and will hang them in the entryway.
Music: We have been studying the work of Vivaldi using the fabulous resources created by Dawn Keckly, a fellow WTM boardie. The boys loved reading I, Vivaldi, and Orphan Singer. We also checked out a fun computer game from the library: Alice in Vivaldi's Four Seasons. It includes games like finding the instruments of the orchestra by sound, and identifying the movements from The Four Seasons. I downloaded this MP3 album, Seasons' Greetings from Vivaldi which is another fun listen while in the van.
The boys were so inspired by this study that they have decided to learn the Violin. We went and rented two violins last night, and will start lessons in January. J-Straco picked up his violin and figured out how to play "Twinkle, Twinkle" in about 5 minutes flat.
We also recorded The New York City Ballet's The Nutcracker. We watched the first act, and The Princess went in her room and put on every tutu she owns (6), all at the same time and proceeded to twirl around the room. Farm Boy and The Princess loved it, J-Straco wasn't quite as impressed. I ordered a book for us to read on The Nutcracker, before we watch the rest. Hopefully The Princess will be old enough next year that we can go see a live performance.
Both boys have been practicing Christmas songs on their instruments. J-Straco's guitar teacher is amazed by how quickly J-Straco can do his pentatonic scale. He is almost down to 3 seconds, and his teacher said he's only ever had 3 students who could do it in 3 seconds.
Farm Boy flew through his new Christmas Music book, and we frequently hear "Jingle Bells" or "We 3 Kings" throughout the day.
After the Holidays, we will be gearing up for our Church Talent show which is in March. We need to pick a song and figure out who will play what instrument and who will sing. We so look forward to our family performance, the novices that we are.
In addition, all three kids have been working on their lines for the church Christmas Pageant. The boys are narrators, and Princess is a baby chick. I can't wait to see it, from helping with the practices it looks to be absolutely precious!
Friday, December 2, 2011
Weekly Summary
This has been an exciting week for me as a teacher. My kiddos seemed to have matured greatly overnight and put forth more effort than I thought possible of them. I have been on a math kick -reading a lot of books and articles about how math is taught in other (higher scoring) countries. Based on my research, I decided to mix things up a little. Two days a week we now do a math lesson from Dr. Wright's Kitchen Table Math, and the boys work cooperatively on a lesson from MEP. I have now demanded of them: team work, communication, and the ability of one to argue/justify their answer to the other. They did amazing! The other days they are working in their Math Mammoth books.
J- Straco's Math- Solving for the unknown
In Latin we worked on conjugating verbs:
We have been discussing the Exodus in History-
Here is a map the boys completed of The 12 Tribes of Israel
The boys started online art lessons which they LOVE!
The Princess had a busy week with the arrival of her new Rod & Staff Preschool curriculum.
We also printed off a Nativity Activity Packet from 1plus1equals1.com.
Rod & Staff Work:
Here are the Nativity Printables:
The point of this activity is to arrange the nativities from smallest to largest. The Princess completed this quickly and said, "That's not very exciting". We made a game out of it by numbering the nativities and when she closed her eyes I would remove one. She would have to tell me what number was missing. She LOVED this game.
"Number 2 is missing"
To make it more challenging we mixed up the nativities making it harder for her to figure out which was missing.
Here is a pattern activity:
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