We have different gifts,according to the grace given to each of us. accordance with your faith;if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach Romans 12:6-7
We are using the enthusiasm of NCAA tournament as a unit study to explore healthy debate habits, math concepts (decimals, probability, statistics, percentages, mean, median, mode and averages, writing algebraic expressions) and geography(history, geography and culture of a state, city or region). Using inspiration and concepts from the following resources:
Some families are even using brackets to learn the Presidents. (Washington vs Jackson).
While searching for ways to make this interesting and fun I have found that Lucasfilm released a Stars Star Wars March Madness bracket pitting the Light Side of the Force against the Dark Side. The March Madness competition being played out in the bracket will be held online, where fans can vote on who should win each day’s face-off.
I know most of us have had our fill of Star Wars, but this is proving to be an interesting and engaging discussion. The whole mythology of Star Wars lends itself to great character character analysis.Plus it is just fun. analysis. Plus it is just fun. ;-)
We will be celebrating Pi Day with Co-Op friends. We are scheduled to complete scavenger hunt, share treat and
several Pi themed games. At 3:14 pm we will sing Happy Birthday to
Einstein.
We will post all the fun later. But here is a peek how we kicked off Pi Day.
In order to bring the joy back into our homeschooling journey I have switched to a six weeks on and one week field trip schedule. This allows me to plan six weeks of work and a week to be off enjoying what it means to homeschool. Also it allows me to add or alter lessons based on the progress of the pervious six weeks.
So far is it working very well because I print the weeks schedule out in advance. He knows what we have to do and I leave enough time in the schedule to follow what I call “Popcorn Subjects”. Subjects that just POP into your schooling adventure that beg to be investigated.
Co-Op
Co-op is going well new year we will be looking for something in the area of two or three days a week.
Bible and Character Building
January we studied the concept of Self Control with Studio 252 as well has studying his T&T AWANA book. Our memory verse for the month was .
Our big self control challenge was building a tower out of our favorite candy (gum drops) without eating them. It was fun to work together and talk about what it means to have self control.
We also talked about how to bring self control into our daily lives through prayer and practice.
Science
We are wrapping up our study of the human body with the Digestive and Nerverous System with an introduction Genes.
Our primary resource is R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey Life program with additional information from Usborne Science Encyclopedia.
It was fun to discover just how long the digestive track is in the average human.
We had a lot of fun doing the bar chart of reaction time of catching a ruler.
Music
This month we studied Mozart. Again we used Classics for kids as our resource along with books from the library and Brain Pop.
Our local classical radio station celebrates Mozart's birthday all month long playing every piece of Mozart music available. It was great to see his eyes light up as we drove around town to our different errands as he recognized a music concept or just enjoyed the music.
Next months goal is to attend an actual concert and find a percussion class.
Art
Epic Fail on art this month. We were suppose to finish Leonardo Di vinic but art kept getting moved to the back burner. I need to find a more interactive outlet for art.
Math
We have finally breached the walls of double borrowing and multiplication. He loves it. We are using Mammoth Math and Teaching Textbooks 4. TT is only one day a week when we have a lot of outside activities. He see it as a reward.
Handwriting
I decided we need to review some basic concepts of HWOT but did not want to take him back to the “ baby” books in his words. We found a good bridge in the form of HWOT's Can-Do Print. It is recommended for 5 th graders but it fits our needs and he loves the Greek and Latin elements.
Product Description:
Can-Do Print is for fifth graders or older students who prefer print to cursive, but still need practice.
Students receive a quick, thorough review of printing.
Practice pages reinforce other language arts lessons (grammar, Greek/Latin roots).
Printing skills are used to write paragraphs, poetry, plays, autobiographies, and thank-you notes.
So once a week we do cursive and the other days we do CDP.
History
This month has been a study in Roman for SOTW. He finally got his question answered about the tow children on the front of the SOTW Volume 1 book. We will be focusing more on the time in in February.
Language Arts
I finally broke down and bought Sonlight LA for Grade 3. Simply because nothing else worked and we fast approaching boredom with LA. It has some good elements but it is still not as exciting or challenging as FIAR. The components are not holding his interest and the stories either bore him or depress him.
So I will be using it as a spine and incorporating BYFIAR into our six weeks schedule.
He still loves Worldly Wise 3 and at this rate might finish it by April which is when I will begin All About Spelling.
Our first week of homeschooling is two weeks behind us. It was a good week with a field trip and learning new tools. It was not a full fledge workboxes out and six subjects week. I decided this year to keep things simple and cover the basics.
We awoke and had pancakes while discussing our day. The expectation was set with the following sign.
During the summer we started the day with breakfast while watching an hour of TV. That's right breakfast was over an hour long. An hour for breakfast is not a great way to start a homeschooling day.
Then we completed two chores and sat down at our new IKEA desk to begin our daily devotional. This desk is setup up stairs looking out a window so he has plenty of sun light and is not distracted by the kitchen, frig, TV or couches. The table is adjustable so he always has an age approiate writing surfaces. It even tilts so he have a drafting desk.
We are using Mammoth Math. During the summer we completed at least one page everyday of math. It is easier to start back when you have been practicing all summer. The first day Ironside completed three full pages without a single prompt and was signing while doing his work. GOAL!
Science
At his request we have been studying storms and natural disasters for the first week of science. This is because in the week before school we experienced an earthquake and the edges of Hurricane Irene. As an adult I was shaken so just imagine what a child feels with these events so close together. I used science to discuss his fears and give him pro-active plans for living through a diaster.
These activties were a lot of fun and a great way to get warmed up for handwriting.
Theraputty scavenger hunt with buttons, pearls and mini-figs.
Geo-Board: Stretch rubber bands over the pegs of a geo-board to make artistic designs, letters and patterns then copy the design on grid paper.
Whiteboard shape race while crossing the midline of your body.
Physical Education
Martial Arts
It was a good week but we did not see a lot of friends because they were either sick or still on vacation or started public school. Social time will pick up next week with the return of homeschool activties.
Thanks to the good folks at Heart of the Matter is hosting a "Not Back-to-School Blog Hop. I so love this time of year. It has become a tradition as well as a necessity in our adventure. Because this Blog Hop always helps me organize my plans and is the skeleton for our required state yearly Notice of Intent (NOI) homeschool documentation.
The theme for this year is character building and simplicity. We did not finish some core programs last year due to hospitalization and family issues. We needed this summer off and I did not want to rush through the material in May. Some of what you see may look like a little like last year.
I will be trying something new this year. I call the concept layering. Instead of starting with all six subjects on the first day of school I am going to start with three basics and add on one additional subject in three weeks. This allows us to slowing expand the day as opposed to just jumping back into the jammed back schedule which leaves me wiped out and the family in chaos.
Here we go....
Bible and Character Development
Positive Action for Christ's program Growing with God. And weekly review with church provided material from Studio 252.
We are considering AWANA, but it may make the schedule to intense and not leave time for play dates and down time.
Sonlight Language Arts for Grade 3 will include good literature and
“ Includes full schedule, teaching helps, separate parent instructions with full answer and definitions, reader schedule, dictation, spelling, creative expression, and student activity sheets.”
Grammar We will still use living books from the series “ If you were” to supplement Sonlight grammar.
So I was going to leave states as just fun time and do one country a month for world geography usingExpedition Earth: A Journey Through God’s World. We will listen to music of the country a couple of times of the four weeks and end the month with either dinner out or homemade meal from this country.
Physical Education
We are enrolled in a Homeschool Physical Education co-op class and martial arts. Whew!
We are enrolled in a local art co-op class and visiting museum exhibits throughout the year. The National Gallery of Art has a great homeschool program were you can borrow material and get free online tours
Still need to find a music class we can afford but we will be taking part of in free concert/play venues in the area. The search is still on for individual instruction but we do have an at home drum program. As well as alternating sources with a musician month using Classics for Kids and AAALMA.
Science We are enrolled in a accelerated local co-op class and visiting museum exhibits throughout the year. We still have Real Science 4 Kids Pre-Level Biology to complete but we will take our time. We have a month of things to do just with the microscope.
Remember plan subject to change due to real life events.
How fast is the space shuttle Endeavour traveling around the earth?
So we go to Real Time Satellite Tracking at N2YO.com which gives the location of Endeavour in latitude and longitude as well as ~ travel speed. According to this site Endeavour was traveling at 4.62 m/s during Day 2 of it's mission. That means it travels 5 miles in about a second. WOW!
So we have to do a little math to get miles per hour.
Let's start with basics:
60 seconds = 1 minute 60 minute = 1 hour
16272 m/h
This means that the Endeavour orbits Earth (and sees a sunrise) once every 92 minutes!
We finished the day with a writing prompt titled "What would you bring on the shuttle?"
Hey Mom, why do you buy all that gluten free flour? Why are you getting so much?
Son, it is cheaper to shop in bulk than to buy big small bags. Let us go to the white board and bring the laptop.
First we found the price of favorite GF bread at the local grocery store and online.
Bob's Red Mill All-Purpose Gluten-Free Baking Flour Local Grocery $3.99 for 22oz (3.99/22) = $0.18 per oz (add tax,gas) = $0.25 Amazon $26.80 for 176.oz = (26.60/176) =$0.15 per oz
The Amazon flour is sold as a bulk item, so it may look like we are saving only pennies but factor in driving to the store, local sales taxes and just time spent shopping it can actually add time to our day. Amazon.com is better than local grocery store price per pound and you get free shipping over $25 dollars. Which saves on me driving to Wholefoods to buy Gluten Free items.
Hmmm Mom, does that work with Legos? Let's do the math.....
Okay at the Lego Store's small pick a brick bucket is about $8 you get about 40 pcs. The bigger bucket is $15 dollars and you get squeeze about 90 medium pcs or 200 small pcs in the bucket.
$8/40=$0.20 for the small bulk bucket and you points towards more Legos. $14.00/90=$0.16 for the Big bulk bucket and you points towards more Legos.
So it's cheaper to buy the big bucket. Can we go to the Lego store?
(Why didn't I see that coming. LOL)
Kitchen Tip: I also use http://www.mambosprouts.com/ which has organic food coupons.
I use my crockpot using this http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/03/perfect-gluten-free-bread-baked-in.html to make bread. All of her dishes are gluten free and it saves time, but you have to plan.
(All photos are borrowed from the web because my camera is off-line.)
We are introducing new math, grammar, spelling and History program this year. Also we are going to start to focus on more home education and a little less roadschooling.
This is our planned curriculum for homeschool for 2010-2011 2nd/3rd Grade Years:
Core: Five In A Row Our primary curriculum will be Five In A Row Volume 4. I wanted to move to Winter’s Promise for a theme program because I simply didn’t have time to plan, print and organize FIAR this year. But after going to the local homeschool conference I realized that FIAR can work for us just modified. In the seminar about gifted children the speaker did warn changing everything from year to year. After the BIG MOVE last year where his whole world changed, I think we need to limit the amount of changes this year.
After much prayer we thought it best to leave the spine of FIAR but altered it to fit our needs. FIAR has a bible curriculum which I will be using and adding lapbook elements for scripture.
Mathematics We are excited to start Right Start Math this year. The box arrived last week and we can’t wait to get our hands on the manipulatives. History This will be our first year of formal history study using the Story of The World program Volume I, Ancient Times. It covers history from the First Nomads, Egypt, the Jewish People, Abraham and Joseph, Hammurabi and the Babylonians, the Assyrians, Ancient China, Ancient Africa, Exodus, the Phoenicians, the Greeks and Rome.
Physical Education We are enrolled in a Homeschool Physical Education co-op class, basketball class, swimming and martial arts.
Art We are enrolled in a local co-op class and visiting museum exhibits throughout the year.
Music/Drama We are enrolled in a local co-op class and taking part of in free concert/play venues in the area. The search is still on for individual instruction but we do have an at home drum program.
Science We are enrolled in a accelerated local co-op class and visiting museum exhibits throughout the year.
After much prayer and review here is our official plan of record for the 2009-2010 school year. I wanted share this with the great folks at The Homeschool Lounge who have been a source of inspiration and support during our homeschool journey. Please click over to find the one of the best homeschool resources on the web.
Like everyone our challenge for this school year will be doing more with less money in a new location. However with some creative planning, sharing, swapping, re-purposing and fieldtrips I think it is going to be a year full of adventure. We will also be using Sue Patrick's Workbox System.
Also note that while technically TS is a first grader we will included some activities that are designated for 2nd grade and above during this school year.
Our primary record keeping will be using Lapbooks with the exception of History which will be notebooking with the goal to turn it into electronic media for a family resource.
The book also covers the basic of who is on our current money which was a good tie in with our Presidential election unit study. Did you know there have been only six non-presidents on our money? Can you name them?
I think skip counting is an essential skill set to have mastered before tackling counting money. TS mastered skip counting by 2s, 5s and 10s last year with the Hooked on Phonics Kindergarten Workbook. Before proceeding with money counting I wanted to review the concepts in a new way. I found the perfect tie in with our mini unit study on Pumpkins with the book "How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin?" by Margaret McNamara. (We enjoyed her Robin Hill School series.)
The implied exercise, based on the story, is to take a pumpkin and count the seeds in groups of 2s, 5s and 10s. So after pumpkin picking with our co-op we bring home our pumpkin and try to estimate the number of seeds like Sid the Science kid. The process was then to open it and scoop out the seeds.
This is where life got interrupted because once we opened the pumpkin, TS started to look a little green about the gills. "Mom, the inside of this pumpkin looks like orange buggers and smells disgusting." Then he got the look, every parent knows that look …their eyes get wide, they clamp their lips and sway ever so slightly. You got it ..upchuck central. It turns out TS had a nasty little stomach bug that took that moment to present itself. Needless to say we are done with pumpkins for a long time in this house.
In order to work with TS's interest I did change the order of our Rowing. The green blocks are units completed with lapbooks. Papa Piccolo was a big hit and went on for two weeks.
Our math dilemma has been solved using Houghton Mifflin Math online for K and 1st grade.
Unfortunately the economic down turn affected the number of homeschool classes offered in our area. So currently we only have gymnastics, weekly playgroup, monthly fieldtrips, library story and craft time.
I have been encouraged and motivated to start a Kindy Co-Op using lapbooks. I will start with one a month focusing on holidays in November.
First let us start with what we are using this year and why.
Main Curriculum (Language Arts, Music, Art and Science) This year we are using Five in A Row (FIAR) and Five in a Row Christian Character Bible Study Supplementas our major Homeschool curriculum.FIAR is a unit-study approach to early education based on outstanding children's literature.We chose this program because our auditory and kinesthetic learner will all benefit from Five in a Row's variety of lessons and activities.
Handwriting Curriculum We are sticking with Handwriting Without Tears (HWOT).It worked really well last year with the preschool module called “Get Set For School”.TS was getting frustrated just writing letters because he can read so I ordered both Kindergarten and First Grade for this fall.That way we can start working on the letter then the First Grade book and work on associated words.
Music and Art Curriculum We are scheduled to take an Art class at the local fine arts Homeschool academy and we are looking for a drum class.To supplement that I am using “What Your Kindergartner Needs to Know: Preparing Your Child for a Lifetime of Learning” by E.D. Jr Hirsch which has a good section on both music and art.This book is a nice resource to a unit study but I would not use it as the “be all, end all” of what your kindergartner needs to know.
The local symphony has monthly educational concerts and locally we have kid friendly music venues, which we will take advantage of with our Homeschool co-op.
Math We were scheduled to us Horizons Math, however after the first week this workbook method is not working for us.Math-U-See was soundly rejected..”Ughh Mom”.So, I right now I am looking for a free online kindergarten math program.If I cannot find a one I will order Progress in Mathematics, which was recommended by an education specialist.
Reading Comprehension TS, much like his father and I, is a natural reader.I have never used a flash card, phonics program or computer program.I did his evaluation and he reads on a third grade level but comprehension on first grade level.We are going to focus on comprehension and phonic rules.
