HSV Garden Challenge post #2

Lots and lots of growing going on here. Unfortunately still just inside of the house. Not time for outdoor planting yet. Another couple of weeks to go. My hubby is on a seed sowing frenzy this year and I am not sure which neighbors garden plot I am going to have to borrow to plant all of his crops in. We have already decided to enlarge ours but yikes! I have rhubarb coming up and I LOVE it. I am patiently waiting to tear into a fresh rhubarb crisp. Flowers are blooming and the tree leaves are beginning to sprout now just BRING ON THE FRUITS AND VEGIES! I have a picture of some of the plants growing in the basement

I can't wait until next HSV post. Everything will be planted outside and growing and it will be so much more exciting. See you all then.

Julie

Weekly review April 18-22

We had a great week focusing on Easter and the true meaning of it. With the little ones only being 3 and 4 they don't really grasp the concept of death. Then throw in the resurrection to the mix. A bit out of their league, BUT I do know that they learned a lot this week about the events leading up to and after his crucifixion and seemed to each take certain parts of the story to heart. Sophie gets so excited that "he's alive" after all of the suffering he went through. We made our own file folder version of the resurrection eggs and talked about them daily.  We read the bible stories and the Easter story. We also read other books about Easter: Easter Mice and Easter Ribbit. We also had an Easter joke book but not such a big hit. Not real funny and a bit over their heads. We colored and cut out Easter eggs and bunnies. Did a bit of decorating and celebrated our Savior.

Lucas started on his new math (MEP) this week and that went good. I like how they are short lessons that build on on another while introducing new concepts and continually reviewing. It is starting out very basic which is good so he does not feel like he is being pushed too far at first. There is a lot of counting 1-5 which is very easy for him but he does not seem to mind the repetition of it. I thought it might irritate him because he is not into beating a dead horse-- no time for that you know :) That's my Lucas! Sophie really wants to be included but I want Lucas to focus on what he is doing and not have her interrupt (not that she doesn't anyway) him. He at times tends to let her do all of the answering and then gets side tracked and will start doodling or something. So I think for now I am going to see how it progresses and if I feel it appropriate for Sophie I will do hers separately from his 1:1. We can do our Miquon together at this point because it is just learning the units/rods and their relations. It is more just play at this point.

Other things they did this week:

• ABC's- get ready for the code cont. letter Rr since it was appropriate for Resurrection. That was the end of that book so I had them go back over any spots they had not completed in the book also just for review. Tracing sheet A-Z, keyboarding computer game, starfall.com, lacing letter R, make the word Easter
• 123's- Rabbit pattern sheet/blocks, geoboard -Sophie made shapes and Luke made shapes and a Rocket, built castles with geoblocks, roll-a-kite game (they both like this and asked for it)

Here is a picute of Lucas (in his pj's with his crazy hair) working on a math lesson. He was actually suppose to draw the pictures in the lesson but he decided he would rather use his c-rods and make them instead.

                     
 This picture is Luke's firetruck drawing using his 1-2-3 Draw book. He really likes to draw and up until this point has usually traced the pictures but with a little encouragement he attempted to draw this one on his own just by studing the shapes in the book and I was so impressed with my little guy. I wish the picture was not so bright so you could see the book drawing better but  I though he did a great job. After he was done coloring this one he drew a garbage truck.

We wrapped our week up with an Easter egg hunt up at the park on Saturday afternoon. The kids had lots of fun and both won prizes. Then on Sunday it was off to church then back home to enjoy family, food, and an egg hunt of our own in the yard.

Julie

Two week catch up-- Happy Easter!

Time sure flies when you are having fun. I will post 4/11 - 4/15 first. Good thing I keep my planner handy (and filled in) or I would be at a loss.

• ABC's- Our letter this week was Rr. We (as always) colored our letter r for the letter tree, Get ready for the Code, starfall.com, short vowel blends for r,c/k, and b, flash cards
• 123's- Sequencing (used preschool workbook pgs) with patterns, shapes and #'s 1-10,- played with cuisenaire rods building houses, stairs, and Luke did some basic addition. I love seeing their minds at work. While playing with their magnet fridge #s and letters I have introduced them to the concept of a number sentence because they wanted to know what the "shapes" were that they knew were not #'s or letters (which were the +,-,=). Not really expecting that they would understand it. It was just to answer the questions they had. Well, while we were playing with the c-rods Luke had figured out that 1 unit and 1 unit equals the 2 unit rod and that a 1 unit and a 2 unit rod equals a 3 unit rod. He then asked me if I could show him how we could write that down and grabbed a paper for me. It amazes me what they store in their minds without us even knowing it. Okay back on track. Also played a matching game with # and picture cards, placing 3's in correct 1-10 order, We do our daily calendar and they count all of the days in the month and skip count by 10's to 100. They have this down now so we will soon start working on 5's
• Fine motor- Lots of cutting practice this week with Easter decorations. They also decorated foam Easter bunnies and eggs with sticky foam cutouts.
• Read alouds- Easter stories of course and Lucas said on the way to the library he wanted to get books on the rain forest and then decided just on baboons, orangutans, gorillas and chimps. So those are what we read about this week. He seemed to be most interested in the baboons and his recall of the info always amazes me. He also colored a picture of a baby one and was sure to make his fur black(because they are very dark as babies) and with a pink face and ears ( because they do not get fur on those parts until they are older. Can you tell I just love watching them learn. Or more so the "lighting of the fire".

We had MOPS on Wednesday morning so we did not do anything real structured that day. That was our last morning MOPS meeting until fall. I, as always, did lots of research this week on curriculum and teaching ideas. I ordered Living Learning Books level 1 science for this fall. I am glad I got it on ebay cheap because if I would have paid full price I would have been disappointed. Not because I do not like it, just that there is not much to it. It is not anything I could not have put together easily myself. I feel like I am finally feeling comfortable with where I want to go curriculum/method wise, now I just need to trust my own instincts and not feel I need a guide for everything. I love the living books approach to science as well as notebooking, and an activity to solidify the info. With math I like the miquon approach to mathematical thinking but I just want to take it slow and follow Luke's lead (with gentle introduction to new concepts) in the style of building and games with his rods for now. I found MEP math and dug in and researched it and really like its approach as well. I like that they have a reception year (pre-k) which does not require them to use a written numbers approach to math. Lucas is able to write his numbers but the point for me is more that he gets a solid foundation of concepts and mathematical thinking before he has to actually apply them to numbers. If he gets that foundation first he will transition much easier into the application piece of that he has already learned. I plan to incorporate a living books approach to his math as well. At this stage this style works well for him. I sure wrote much more on all of that than I had planned. I plan on putting together a post of our fall curriculum. I had better get on top of putting the weekly stuff down first, right :).

Since I got long winded on this post I am going to leave part B 4/18-4/22 for tomorrow.

New blog template and layout

I am so excited to have found this adorable template. The kids even think it is cute. They just love looking at their pictures on the computer. Oh how the little things excite me.

Schoolroom pics

Finally getting around to posting pics of our room after the kids got their new desks. I just love how they are working out. The layout is great.
                                          

                             Luke's desk is on the left and Sophie's is on the right. They each have a little caddy which has 2 cups in it. One for crayons and one for pencils. They also keep a glue stick in there. They also got these cool bars which hold larger cups (as you can see above Luke's desk) but have not figured out exactly what is going in them yet. Next to Sophie's desk is their file crate to go along with their workboxes. We also keep the calendar stuff and a few other things in there.

 My corner of the room. I love having this big table and I usually have it full of stuff.

This is the organized clutter. Not sure how else to describe it. You may not be able to tell by the picture but there is a method behind my madness here and we all know where everything most things are. It may not be a huge room but I feel so lucky to have this space. We did have our room in the basement but it is so much more convenient for it to be up here.

Well there is a peak at where a little bit of our "learnin'" happens.

Julie

Weekly review April 4-8 2011

We continued on with our Gardening theme this week. Oh how I love spring. I have actually seen the kids in clothes besides PJ's this week. Unless we are going somewhere there is usually no getting dressed going on around here when it is cold out. Now that we can actually get outside and soak up some sunshine we are coming out of hibernation! I did not take too many pics this week but we covered lots of ground (haha on the pun). So here are some of the things we worked on:

• Bible- Creation notebook Day 3- Then there were land and seas and plants and trees. Gen 1:9-13,  Daily devotional book, Painted fruit of the spirit paper, Read about and discussed fruit of the spirit, played a matching game and "what's missing" game with our laminated spirit fruit.
• ABC's- Worked on letter Tt and reviewed last weeks Kk. Did Get ready for the code, lacing cards, matching beginning sounds on picture/word cards with letter cards after cutting them out (sneaking in the fine motor), Tt handwriting sheets (tall and tiny), Tree make the word verse sheets, sight word "and", flower picture/word part puzzle, starfall.com(phonics)
• 123's-  cut out 1-10 and glue in correct order, plant growth sequencing, uno (game), hidden picture sheets on garden and in the tree tops, cut out shapes, number and shapes flash cards, write correct # on number strips for how many objects are on each one
• Extras- Nature walk- Sophie took her little garden basket with and gathered some "signs of spring" and some stray gravel because she thought it was pretty :) We got buds and bark off of an oak tree, a weeping willow and a pear tree. We seen lots of flowers waking up for the year. Then we found a really cool piece of oak tree that had been cut that had great growth rings. Mind you this was a pretty good chunk so I hauled it home and had Daddy cut us off a much more managable sized piece to keep. Best of all we planted some more seeds but this time flower seeds: sunflowers, petunias, daisys, and columbine. The vegetable seeds are down in our work room in the basement under the lights so we don't get to see them all the time so we are keeping these up in the kitchen by the patio doors to observe their growth a bit easier.
• We checked out quite a few books from the library on plants, seeds and trees which we read throughout the week along with their books from home.

A few pics for the week...

 Luke's nature journal page of the tree buds drawing and bark rubbing along with his narration (He says it and I write it)

Here are some signs of spring in our yard...

                              Bring on the rhubarb crisp!!!

Lucas opted out of school on Friday so he could work with his dad on this "handycraft". Since getting the well put in last summer this area is just an eyesore. I wanted something to cover up the well head and my darling hubby made this for me. He even put flower boxes on the sides. I am just so excited about this. I love it!

That's a wrap. We kept busy and had fun!

Julie

Our week review 3/28-4/1

This has been a fun and busy week. We started using workboxes this week and it went over way better than I thought it would. Lucas usually balks at changes and new things but he said they were the best things ever! Of that was music to my ears. Then seeing him working through his boxes with pleasure was equally exciting. Sophie is more of a roll with the flow kind of girl. She liked them too but I figured she would. :) It was so nice to hear "okay what is next Mommy?" instead of "aw man". I think it gave them a feeling of independence and also pride that they could work through them on their own (with a bit of guidance of course).

I think for me it made me feel like we were not doing enough. I am not sure if that is because things were actually already planned and they could just go right through them without me having to "come up with" something to do next or gather things or copy things. Or that we were actually doing more things before and it took longer but I don't think that is the case. For me it just felt like things went so smooth. Yes, it may be a bit more work for me to plan the week out over the weekend and get things ready for the week ahead but I think I would rather do it that way than fumble through as we go.

On thursday we took the afternoon and went to Ikea. My plan was to get the Trofast bin system for the workboxes but after looking at them and the amount of room I would need for them I decided not to get them. Oh but I found so many more things I wanted. We got them each a table/desk and chair as well as a few other odds and ends. I am going to continue with the toy bin shelves that I have now and when we start kindergarten this fall I may just use the crate with hanging file folders. We'll see how it goes.

We worked on Letter K (get ready for the code) this week and gardening/seed planting. For the letter Kk we did

• Bible verse: Ephesians 4:32 Be Kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving..
• Kind- find the letters with letter tiles to make the word
• Color the k for letter tree
• k craft- kite
• roll a kite game
• pattern block kite
• geoboard k
• stringing the words kind and kite onto small laminated kites with yarn tails
• letter K tracing/coloring sheet
• K lacing card

For gardening/seed planting we did:

• Gardening pack from http://homeschoolcreations.com which included letter tracing and word picture matching, plant growth sequencing cards, pre-writing strips, beginning letter sounds. We will continue with this next week and continue or gardening/seed planting activities.
• Made playdoh flowers to learn the parts of the flower- petals, stem, leaves, roots.
• Planted lots of seeds with Daddy and strawberry plants in hanger
• Read books on planting, growing and types of plants.

Other things they did were

• Large foam letter hop- we spread the letter around the livingroom and they take turns hopping the the letter I call out and say the name and sound of the letter.
• Number bingo
• Poem of the week- Mary Mary Quite Contrary (which they both memorized) I looked up the meaning of this rhyme and yikes I just let the kids think it was about gardening :)
• Nature journal- white-breasted nuthatch, mourning dove

Well I am sure I missed some things. We only did boxes 3 days this week so after typing all of that I suppose we did okay. I had planned on taking Wednesday off but the trip to Ikea on Thursday kind of put a damper on our schooling- oops! Okay here are a few pics for the week...

Lucas making his word with letter tiles.

Sophie coloring her letter k for the letter tree.

Working on the playdoh flowers.

Building a "barn", as the kids called it, after we were done with the letter hop.

I have some new pics of the classroom set up but I am going to post them separately. I also have my weekly planner and some pages I made for the week I am going to try to get uploaded here to share.

Julie

Giveaway!

Today is the last day to enter for this free giveaway at Confessions of a Homeschooler here is the link if you are interested. She has lots of other great stuff on her site as well.

http://confessionsofahomeschooler.blogspot.com/2011/03/road-trip-usa-geography-and-history.html

Julie