Week of April 25-29th

This week Big H finished story # 15 in HOP 1, "Slam & Dunk: The Big Game." He worked through this story working very hard at it. I'm going to stay in this review area to build up more confidence and ease with these words. He was very proud to be reading such a big book to his father. Little E has just started this book but has not finished it yet.

In First Language Lessons we are up to Lesson 35 and I've found our copy of it. Thank you Holly for lending me yours. I'm going to have to mail it to you, I meant to bring it to the convention this weekend. This week we did a picture narration of NC Wyeth's The Master Bedroom.

We also reviewed proper pronouns for days of the week. I had the kids put the days of the week in order they both did very well at this. Little E needs a bit more work. The both mix up Tuesday and Thursday. We also reviewed are memory verses: The Caterpillar, Work, and Hearts are Like Doors. They also were introduced to a new memory verse.

Days of the Week

Mother Goose rhyme, adapted by Sara Buffington

Monday's child is fair of face,

Tuesday's child is full of grace;

Wednesday's child is ever so sweet,

Thursday's child is tidy and neat;

Friday's child is prone to a giggle,

Saturday's child is easy to tickle;

But the child that is born on restful Sunday

Is happy and cheerful, and loves to play. 

We ventured into dictation this week. These are the sentences we worked on.
1. The cat ran.

2. The dog sat.

3. The man can tan.

They have such a hard time with the sight word 'the' I wrote that on the board for them to copy. I also corrected any reverse letters they wrote as we went along. They both did surprisingly well and I don't think it will be as stressful as I thought it might be. I've decided to start off by using words from HOP K program. I think they will both being doing three sentences.

For Math U See Big H is on lesson 13 Beta and Little E worked on lesson 11 Alpha she was working on the shapes: circles & triangles.

For science we finished week 10 and are half way through week 11. We finished up week 10 learning about the animals of Madagascar in "Usborne World of Animals" and learning how sausages are made in, " See How it's Made." In week 11 we are starting to learn about the animals of Europe the children watched 10 part, 10 min each video series on youtube called "The Wildlife and Scenery of Europe." The children located Europe on the map, as well as the Pyrenees Mountains and Coto Donana in Spain. They learned about the habitat and animals that live in the Pyrenees Mountains: Ibexes, Marmots, Bearded Vultures, Pyrenean desmans and Butcher birds. They also learned about the habitat and animals of Coto Donana in Spain some of these animals are the: Iberian lynxes, Red deer, European bee-eater and Flamingos. In the Western Isles they learned about seals, puffins and otters. They have just started to learn about the animals of Asia at the end of this week. They located all of these areas on a map.

Wrap Up April 4th -8th

The kids watched me make a window stars this week. I was going to get them to make ones as well but folding tissue paper is tricky business. I went to Michael's to see if they had kite paper but they didn't I think the kite paper might be a bit stiffer and easier to fold. When I get around it I'll have to buy some online. I made a few using primary colours so the children can see the secondary colours the primary colours make as the sun shines through them.

I was excited to receive the 'Blue Fairy Book' this week. The kids and I have read the first two stories: The Bronze Ring and East of the Sun and West of the Moon. They both seem to being enjoying it. This week in Hooked On Phonics the kids have been working on the inital consonant sounds of:sh, wh, and th. There last review page contained the words: that, than, this ,them, then, chap, chat, chip, chick, chum, Chuck, thin, thick, thud, shall, shag, shin, shut, shed, shell, whip, whiz, whiff, whim and when. The word play section is a page that has empty spaces that the kids take cards with letters on them and spell out requested words. In HOP K the letter spaces where three long, they are now spelling out four letter words. The word list this week was: chin, thin, ship, chip, when, then, chop, whip, shut, and shed. BigH found this fairly easy to do and LittleE really struggled with it. I gave her the intial consonant flash cards to help her. LittleE will be reviewing this spelling next week. She reads the words well but when asked to spell them really struggles. It's really nice to see BigH humming along with his phonics.

For copywork BigH finished 'The Land of Counterpane' and LittleE has finsihed 'Who Has Seen The Wind' a few weeks ago. I plan on video taping the reciting those poems. They have started to be work on the 'Doxology.'



Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

We've been behind on our science so we are going to focus on it for awhile now until we are caught up. This week the children learned about Congo jungle and the Serengeti plains in Africa they coloured in and labeled these locations on their map of Africa. They learned about Gorillas, Congo bongos, Elephants, and Leopards to name a few.

I've misplaced our First Language Lessons book and I'm going crazy searching for it, it's one of our favorite resources. Also this week we've been using a new resource for Spanish 123.teachme.com we've been doing the day of the week in Spanish & the season at calender time. They have also been learning some vocabulary for animals, food and colour.

Wrap Up March 14th -18th

Mcarthor Island Park

Another school week with different energy. The week started with a lovely bike ride around Mcarthor Island Park We worked on math the same level as last week for both kids. We've been reading a lot of library books. BigH has took out a bunch of DK books on castles, knights and medieval Europe. LittleE took out some books about non fiction books on dogs and wolves and she took out a DK book on Butterflies & Moths.

We watched an interesting documentary on netfix.ca "Between the Folds," Filmmaker Vanessa Gould takes you on a provocative odyssey into the mesmerizing world of modern origami, where artists and scientists use the ancient art form to craft works of delicate beauty and to model cutting-edge mathematical theories. Pushing the envelope of origami to include caricatured portraits and elaborate abstract designs, these experts examine how paper folding can reveal the profound connection between art, science and philosophy. One of the people featured in this movie is past  homeschooler Erik Demaine . Erik and his father spent a lot of time in his early years figuring out puzzles. Erik entered college at 12 years old graduated at 14 at 20 years of age he was hired by MIT as a Proffessor of Computer Science the youngest proffessor in the intistitutions history. Origami and mathematics are just a few of his many talents.

The kids were very moved by this movie as we were watching it the kids and ran and got paper and just started to fold it. When I was at the library I put in for two inter library loans on mathematics and origami: 'Math in Motion' and another book thats name has escaped me. I'm excited to receive them but the librarian told me that they might not release them because they are the only two by these particular authors in the province.  To hold us over until we receive the library books I found this cute website Origami Club  who knew there was so many people involved in origami!

Phonics both children are working away on HOP 1 work through some new words with initial consonants 'sh,' shall, shag, shack, ship, shin, shot, shock, shut, shed, and shell. And initial consonants 'wh,' whip, whiz, whiff, whim, and when. They are both working with the HOP K sit words and initial consonant sound flash cards for HOP1. I've noticed that BigH is having problems remember the sound that U makes. So we are working on that as we do his reading.

BigH has been digging out in the yard and bring in rocks to share with me. He's very interested in them I found this cute site that talks about the life cycle of a rock and the different types of rocks.

We have done a lot of read aloud reading this week of many library books and home books but none from our school curricula. I guess we just need a bit of change. Friday we are going to Kamloops for a swim & lunch it should be a fun day. 

“A man's errors are his portals of discovery.” ~ James Joyce 

Wrap March 7th-11th

This week we had a late night to watch a special documentary " Hana's Suitcase" on CBC television.

"Hana's Suitcase: An Odyssey of Hope tells the harrowing true tale of the owner of the suitcase, Hana Brady. Brady was born in Nove Mesto, Czechoslovakia, in 1931. She was deported to Terezin, a ghetto for Czech Jews outside of Prague, in 1942. She died in the gas chambers at Auschwitz in 1944, at the age of 13." The children learned a little about WW2 and the discrimination that the Jewish people faced. BigH seemed particularly touched by Hana's suffering and the unfairness of the situation that Jewish children were in. The website it self if very interactive and education and a little less intense for sensitive children. Because of BigH love of soldiers and war I'm glad he got to see some real life consequences of war so to understand it's not a fun event. You all know how little boys can be.

We worked on Math U See alpha unit 10 and beta unit 11. We worked on HOP K site words and initial constant sounds for HOP 1.

In history we learned about Babylonia in the Mesopotamia we found the country and area on a map. LittleE started a letter to a new pen pal a 7 yr old girl who lives in Montana. We've done a lot of cleaning around the house this week and guests over Friday which is always nice.

The kids learned about para boiling and cooking chicken in the oven. And thinking of food this coming week we will start volunteering every Monday at our local food bank helping to stock shelves and tidy the premises.  I'm looking forward to it we will be working with a lady from our community who is a retired school teacher and very sweet. I know the kids will love her.

It was a slow week this week. We still had fun though.

Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers Weekly Wrap Up

Wrap Up Feb 28 - Mar 4

This week we worked on science and science projects everyday. We finished up N. America by learning about the Florida Everglades. The children also did a science experiment with their Dad; they learned about electric circuits, different strengths of batteries, and how if you keep adding more batteries the stronger the circuit is.  Next week they are making an electric circuit with a can of cola, a penny and two pieces of tinfoil. I can't wait to watch it sounds so exciting!

We are now learning about Africa which is exciting for the kids to learn about about all the great animals there; elephants, giraffes, and lions. The Namibia desert is in South Western Africa animals that live there are very specialized to be able to survive the heat. We learned about this fascinating insect called the Fog Basking Beetle. Here is a video about this little bug.




LittleE finished her letter to Auntie Yvonne she finished it in two sittings. She dictated to me the contents then copied it out in her own printing. It's darling and we are e-mailing a copy of it to our Distributed Learning mentor. LittleE has much neater printing then I had at her age. She also loves to write notes and little letters so maybe she will become an author like her great great aunt Olive or like her grandpa Jim. Olive wrote some charming children's books.

LittleE's drawing she sent a long with her letter to Auntie Yvonne.

 BigH has a new pen pal a 8 year old boy from N. Carolina.  He's very excited about it and has included a hockey card picture of himself in the letter. He also sent away for some ants for his ant farm which he got for Christmas.

In language lessons we've been going over our memory verses and learning more about common nouns and proper nouns for family. And working on common nouns of household items such as chair, curtain, china cabinet, table, etc.


We started to work on HOP 1 this week. we are working on Ch words: Chad, chap, chat, chin, chill, chip, chick, chop, chug, chum, Chuck, chess, and check. We also worked on Th words: thin, thick, and thud. We are still reviewing the sight words from HOP K and the initial consonant sounds from HOP 1Both BigH and LittleE worked on these this week.


BigH has moved on to Math U See lesson 11 he is learning about rounding numbers to the nearest 100 and is adding/caring over three digit numbers. Slowly he got the hang of rounding numbers to the nearest hundred I think in a few days he will master it. LittleE is still working on lesson 9 but next week should be able to move on to 10.


 This week we did an artist study using Garden Of Praise art appreciation section. We learned about the American folk painter Grandma Moses she did not start painting until she was 70 years old and her paintings where selling between $8000-$10,000 by the time she was 80 yrs old; she lived to be 101 yrs. We studied several of her paintings. The children had fun pointing out all the different animals and details in the pictures. We talked about what season was depicted, what was the picture of, landscape, architecture or indoor pictures and what the people were doing in the pictures. At the end of each lesson there is an activity to choose from. Both kids decided to do the online puzzle of "A Beautiful World" they loved this activities and asked for Garden Of Praises to be saved to their favorites.

Beautiful World by Grandma Moses



“That work which is of most importance to society is the
bringing-up and instruction of the children”  ~ Charlotte Mason
 



Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers Weekly Wrap Up

Wrap Up Feb 21-25

In Language Lessons, lessons 25-27 we have been working on common nouns aunts, uncles & cousins. And proper pronouns Auntie Pam, Uncle Ben and cousin Xae. They have been doing copy work for these lessons and they're working on a new memory verse.

Hearts Are Like Doors

Anonymous

Hearts, like doors, will open with ease,

To very, very little keys,

And don't forget that two of these

Are "Thank you, sir" and "If you please!"

For science we have finished week 7 in Sonlight. We covered the Sonoran Desert, which is the hottest dessert in N. America and the art of hand blowing glass from the book, "How It's Made." We  have also done some nature study drawings of Black Capped Chickadees. They flock to the feeders on our covered porch so the children have ample opportunity to study them. We also get Stellar Jays, Mountain Chickadees and we have newcomers as well but we've not been able to identify them.

In Math U See BigH has been working on Unit 10 in his Beta program and for the most part is finding it easy. LittleE is working on unit 9 in alpha and is coming along, she is still struggling a bit with her 9+ tables. They both have been working on the drill pages on the MUS website.

They are both still working on the HOP K sight words LittleE consistently can read 23 out of the 30 cards. BigH can read about 7 out of the 30 but he's been working on them for about two weeks and LittleE has been working on those sight words for about 2 months. As soon as BigH can read 15 out of the 30 I think we will move on to HOP 1 with both children. I'm hoping by the end of next week he'll be almost there. I have been working on these words faithfully and daily for short periods of time.

BigH & LittleE have also been having silent reading time and read out loud to Mom, Dad or a family pet daily.

For History we have been reading about Egypt from, "A Child's History of the World" and we read " Step Into Reading Tuts Mummy." We also read chapter 10 in "Missionary Stories with the Millers" and read about John Beekman a missionary in Mexico who was working with the Chol people. The children have done map work finding Egypt and Mexico on the map and marking them down.

We have followed along with our Church in studying the book of Exodus with Studio 32:7 for our Bible Study.

“The parents’ chief care is, that that which they supply

shall be wholesome and nourishing, whether in the way

of picture-books, lessons, playmates, bread and milk, or

mother’s love” ~ Charlotte Mason


Weekly Wrap Up Weird, Unsocialized Homesdchoolers

Wrap Up Feb 14-18th

What a week Valentines Day was not all we were hoping it would be, BigH was sick and had a fever thankfully it broke Thursday. I'm also very thankful nobody else seemed to catch whatever it was he had. Poor guy! We did do some school work this week despite it all.

BigH worked continued on doing Lesson 9 in his MUS beta program and he helped LittleE with her math flash cards this week. LittleE also tried doing some the drills on the MUS website

LittleE has completed the HOP K program. Shout out to Miss LittleE! BigH has been showing some frustration with ETC online, it does sometimes seem a bit glitchy. I'm not sure if it's their computer or ours. So for awhile he's going to join LittleE and doing HOP 1. LittleE is helping BigH to learn the sight words from HOP K it's very cute when they can take turns teaching each other. Here is a list of sight words they are working on.

Sight words HOP level K
"no, now, see, he, game, where, with, you, this, need,want, play, me, what, is, be, are, and, has, says, do, look, to, too, we, the, of, like, on, for, my"

For HOP Level 1
They are learning initial consonant blends such as: ch, th, sh, wh, sm, sn, sp, sl, sc, sk, sw, st. They won't be moving along in level 1 until they have mastered level k sight words and the initial consonant blends. So we are working diligently on them. We go over twice a day 3 x in a row. I lead in reading them so they are not guessing by the end of next week I'll start to see what they've retained. Especially BigH because he's not been working on these particular sight words although he seemed to know a few of them. LittleE is having problems remember the words: want, what, play, game. We are also having some read aloud time with the level k HOP books. I'm trying to boost BigH confidence in his reading.

Language Lessons are going well we have finished lesson 24 to date. Lesson 24 was a picture narration of an oil painting called the, "The Family" by Mary Cassatt.

We talked about what the picture was, an oil painting and who was in the picture. Was the baby a boy or a girl. LittleE said it was a girl. Then we looked up the picture online so we could see it in colour. The picture in the book was black and white. Both children seem to appreciate doing picture narration work. It is a fun way to bring out their langauge development.

 The children have also been working on writing their full names, and have been doing some copy work from the Bible Psalms 91:1 and completed their Valentines cards this week. We decided to hold out giving them out because BigH was sick. We have started reading Usborne Greek Myths we've read two stories so far, "The Gift Of Fire" and "Pandora's Box." This is not satisfying their story time needs however and BigH made me read to chapters of "George Muller: The Guardian of Bristol's Orpahns."

BigH has shown an interest in stamps and would like to start collecting them. I told him about pen pals and he's decided he'd like to write to one. The children still have to respond to a letters they received from their Great Aunt Yvonne a few weeks back.

The kids have a hockey game in Clearwater BC this Saturday it's very exciting. After this they have one more game and that will be the last game of the year. 

Friday we are going into town to do somthing fun. I'm not sure what we are doing yet but I'll think of a few things and let the kids decide.

The greatest poem ever known Is one all poets have outgrown: The poetry, innate, untold,
Of being only four years old.     ~Christopher Morley, To a Child

Wrap Up Febuary 7-11

We had such a fun week. BigH & LittleE's big brother J came up for the week. To add to that excitement kids attended a birthday party. It was extra special because after a delicious lunch a Boston Pizza they went to Game On Interactive Fitness.  It was cool to have fun and play with the kids and funner still to play with my adult friends and still be with my children. Dance Revolution here I come. I love places that encourage multi-generational interactions. Seeing all different ages playing together it was so much fun. It was our first time there and I know we will be returning again sometime soon with Dad in tow.

We did manage to get some school work done. We finished Understood Betsy which turned out to be my second favorite book this year. The kids are working on Math U See alpha & beta lesson 9. Next week LittleE will be working exclusively on her math flash cards 2+ and 3+ tables.

They have worked on week 7 in their Sonlight science program learning about the animals of North America. They have been marking out on the map of N. America different habitat and naming animals that live there. Brother J did their science lesson with them.

LittleE has finished reading book 13 in HOP K and has one last book to read before moving on to the next level. She has also finished her copy work for, 'Who Has Seen The Wind' by Christian Roesetti. BigH is working on Book 2 ETC Online he's been working with initial consonants 'gl' and has been working hard at mastering it. I put a proper capital 'I' on the keyboard so he would not confuse it for the 'L' which he was doing.

In Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind the kids have been learning about proper nouns for their town, province and country. They have also spent some time copying out their proper home address.

For crafts this week we've been working on decorating Valentines cards.
 J cut up the card stock for us and the kids used heart shaped potato stamps, paint, ribbon and precut  by me hearts  from scrapbook paper. I think the children have done some beautifu work.



BY J, BigH & LittleE Feb 2011:



Weekend Wrap Up Jan 31st - Feb 4th



BigH Mesopotamia writing in plasticine.



Another good week we started out with using water colour paints to paint a plaid design activity sheet in 'How To Teach Children Art.' We finished week 7 in Sonlights history the children have enjoyed learning about Mesopotamia and Archeology digs as well. The children flattened out some plasticine and made some tablets with Mesopotamia symbols for fish, ox and wheat. They also drew some artifacts and bones on a paper; I made a grid over it. And they told me where the items were located in the grid. They caught on to reading the grid fairly quickly.

LittleE Mesopotamia writing in plasticine.

In science we have started to learn about the animals of North America in particular the Bald Eagle, Mountain Goat, and the Black Bear. BigH & LittleE located the Rocky Mountains on a map of North America and also shaded in the continent of North America on a world map. They also located Ethiopia on a map of Africa this week in correlation with the chapter 7 story in Missionary Stories With The Millers.


We are on Chapter 5 of Understood Betsy the kids are loving it; however I think I'm loving it more. I thought this was our last read-aloud for the year but we have one more, 'Usborne Greek Myths,' we are not disappointed.

BigH is working hard on ETC online. LittleE has now read book 12 in her K HOP program, two more and she will have finished this level. I went through the back end of ETC online and followed up on a suggestion for some extra curricular phonics work.

I made flash cards for the words: hat, man, bag, pat, tap, Meg, hen, bet, pen, Ted, hit, pit, bid, tin, pot, mop, hot, tot, tug, pup, bun, mud and hut. I had BigH  (LittleE joined into) read the flash cards then they made groups of words sorted out by the short vowels, initial consonants and last consonants. The children did these without too much difficulty but I would not say they had mastery and we will continue next week with practicing these words.

We started to work on some math flash cards 0+ , 1 and 1+1 ect. Henry did very well the only two he had not memorized was 6+6 and 7+7. Next week he will be in charge of helping LittleE learn her flash cards and I will be working on some new flash cards with him. BigH is very excited about be in charge of helping his little sister.

This week for MUS the kids worked on alpha & beta lesson 8 BigH has had no problems with this lesson and LittleE has been coming along as well. Next week will move on to lesson 9 for both children.

January 24 - 28th 2011

I can't believe how fast this month is going by. I finally feel like I'm back on track after the Christmas holidays. This week we've put in a good effort getting back in to the rhythm of home learning.


We've remained on Lesson 7 in MUS alpha/beta doing a page each day. Monday we will move on to Lesson 8 for both kids.

We completed the last chapter in Henry Huggins and LittleE is looking at the book on her own it's exciting to see her enthusiasm. Our new read-a-loud  is "Understood Betsy" by Dorothy Canfeild Fisher we've read up to chapter 3 and both children are enjoying it and doing some narration work for after each chapter. As well as going over some vocabulary and questions that are asked in the Sonlight curriculum package for the story.

Henry completed book one of ETC online. Shout out for the BigH! :-D LittleE has start book 11 in HOP but is still working on it. I notice that she is getting tired I'm thinking I'm going to be making her lessons shorter  maybe do two 10 min lessons daily. I'm not sure how that will work out. One day this week the kids decided to mix things up a bit and LittleE worked on ETC and BigH worked on HOP with me it was a fun change.

We've finished three lessons from Language Lessons FWTM: 13, 14, and 15. They focused on proper pronouns first, last and middle names and also we started a new poem to memorize.



'Work while you work'

Work while you work,

Play while you play,

This is the way

To be happy each day.

All that you do,

Do with your might,

Things done by half

Are never done right.

Author Unknown

And they also practiced printing their full names which if fairly challenging because the both have two middle names. They also spent some on their copy work from the poems they are working on, Who Can See The Wind & The Land of Counterpane as well as LittleE doing a page out HWT and BigH doing some work in his Kumon book. LittleE has shown quite an interest in writing notes to the lady next door. She'll recite to her father what she wants to say, he writes it down, she copies it into a card.  The neighbor lady has a new miniature puppy, we allowed LittleE to buy a little toy for the dog. LittleE neatly wrote out a little note in the card and went over for a visit to give it to her. It's very sweet. LittleE says Edna is her best friend. <3


Our art work is coming along nicely the kids worked on one of the activity sheets from How to Teach Children art. The children worked again today with mixing primary colours. BigH seemed to really enjoy his time painting and took his time and concentrated on his work. Our end of week project is using primary colours water colours to paint quilt designs. The children had to draw them out first before they painted then. I have to get my scanner hooked up to my computer once again so I can put up some of their beautiful work.

Started on week 6 of Sonlight's science the children worked on colouring in the Amazon Forest on their map of S. America as well as locating the Amazon river. We also worked on learning about the PH scale because we have been having some problems with our 20 gallon tropical fish tank (luckily I have a Biology 12 text book) we worked on PH levels and did some more PH tests and talked about the PH scale going from 0-14: and how 0 was very acidic, 14 was very base or alkaline, how 7 was equal parts acid and base and therefore neutral. We talked about how acidic things taste sour and base things tasted bitter. Both kids got a chance to perform a PH test of the water in the fish tank.

For history this week we completed chapter 9 in 'A Child's History of the World'. Which covered the peoples of Israel settlement in Egypt and how they came about and also how Rameses had ordered the killing of all the Israel's baby boys. We followed this up by later on reading from our DK Bible Exodus chapters one & two. We just love this Bible the historical notes and other items of interest enlighten our understanding of the places and people that lived so long ago before us. BigH looked up Egypt on a blank map (came with our Sonlight package) and wrote in the name of the country in. We also read Chapter 6 in Missionary With The Millars.

We've missed Spanish with Mr. Morales again... Trying to arrange for our Spanish lesson to be on a different day. Fridays are our fun days we go swimming our try to do some other field trip activity and work on art and read-a-louds. Had such a great day Friday with the kids and hubbie lucky me!

Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.~1 Peter 4:8

Jan 17-21 2011

This week we started out with an art project that is going to be completed in eight weeks. We are going to be going through chapter three 'colour' in Evan-Moor's, "How To Teach Art to Children" Each week the children will completed one colour work sheet and one art project. Some of the projects are fairly large and  the children will work together to complete them. Mondays we will complete the work sheet and Fridays we will be working on our art project. I feel this project will give the kids a new vocabulary and technical know how when working with colour.

Monday the kids filled in a primary and secondary colour chart and Friday the painted a flag one side of the flag was painted with primary colours the other side was painted with secondary colours.

This week LittleE finished reading book ten in her HOP program. BigH has completed 75% of book one of ETC online. We also finished reading chapter 4 of Henry Huggins. We also spent each morning working on calender; days of the week in English & Spanish and the months of year.

Tuesday our Distributed Learning teacher Holly & her family came for a visit we looked through the kids work I was glad to be able to show Holly the HOP program because she is not familiar with it. Both BigH & LittleE showed of their reading skills. E read some of her HOP books and H read some of his pages out of his Kumon work book.

For math this week we continued on with Lesson 7 in both alpha and beta in Math U See. BigH worked on carrying over and LittleE practiced more with counting to 100.

The kids had a hockey tournament in Enderby BC this weekend they played three games on Saturday and worked very hard. The both received trophies for participating in the tournament. And Sunday they played two games here in Logan Lake. The slogan this weekend was, "All hockey all the time."

~

"If you could only sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to the people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person."
~ Fred Rogers

January 10- 14th 2011

Calender time this week we've been practicing the days of the week in English and Spanish. Plus we've been working on the months of year. BigH seems to be starting to remember the months of year. We've also worked on memorizing our birthdays. The kids have also continued on their copy work poems Who Has Seen the Wind & Land of Counterpane.

This week we've still been working in lesson 6 in alpha & beta Math U See; lesson 7 in the beta program for BigH introduces the caring over concept I want to make sure BigH is grasping everything he's learned  before we start. BigH has also worked on his Rhyming & Phrases Kumon work book this week and has also spent an hour and half this week working on his phonic with Explode The Code Online. He's enjoying it and seems to be moving along nicely with the program.

LittleE worked this week on her Hooked On Phonic Program (http://www.hookedonphonics.com/learn-to-read-kindergarten) and finished reading book 8 her Kindergarten HOP goes to reader 14 I think she will finish this level sometime in March.

We also worked on science this week and have completed Week 5 of Sonlight's science program we spent time learning about some of the animals and different habitats of South America. We also learned about how paint is made with pigment and binders and about magnets in compasses.

We also are on chapter 8 of "A Children's History Of the World." They studied this chapter with BigD and also read about the the Tower of Babel in their DK Illustrated Bible. We have also started the read aloud, "Henry Huggins" by Beverly Clearly we've read from the introduction to chapter 3.

The children have finished Lesson 12  in "First Language Lessons For the Well Trained Mind" a chapter on story narration. Both the children seems to really enjoy this text and know what a noun is and the difference between common and proper noun.

The children have been very helpful this week LittleE did an amazing job cleaning the bathroom for me and BigH has been helping by vacuuming the hallway. They have also been enjoying all the snow we've had by spending an hour each day outside sledding and playing.

Friday is a short day we did math,phonics & read a chapter in Henry Huggins then went swimming.

~

If you have a mom, there is nowhere you are likely to go where a prayer has not already been.  ~Robert Brault

Christmas Decorating with Gifts From Nature

Had a fun day today decided to use up some old crayons and decorate some pine cones for the Christmas tree. I was not the brilliant mom who thought up this wonderful craft we found it here don't blame me if you get addicted to that site.

 The kids took great joy in peeling the paper off the crayons and we melted the crayon wax plus a little bees wax. In a double boiler style over the stove, once it was melted.  We tied  yarn  around the pine cones the kids dipped the cones in the wax. I helped out making sure the top part of the cones got covered.

It was BigH's idea to use the left over wax in some ice cube trays we had to make crayons. They turned out very nice with more of a consistency of pastels. The bees wax softened the crayon wax considerable and we now have some beautiful blue & green crayons.





“Children are the hands by which we take hold of heaven.” ~ Henry Ward Beecher

 



Other things we accomplished this week @ homeschool

We have completed lesson 6 in Alpha & Beta Math U See lessons

Completed Lessons 9 & 10, First Language Lessons;For the Well Trained Mind (more work on common and proper nouns and capitalization.)

A Children's History Of the World we have read chapter 7 and have placed our first timeline sticker in our 'Book of Time' at 3100 bc noting King Narmar that united Upper & Lower Egypt.

LittleE is more then half way through her HOP K book she's on pg. 82 working on words ending in 'un'.

BigH is working away on Explode the Code Online and been reading some of LittleE's HOP books which has been wonderful.

We continue to work on 'The Land of Counterpane' for BigH and 'The Wind' for LittleE each day they work very carefully doing one page of copy work. They will also usually draw a picture was well to go with this copy work.

We have also been diligently working on the day's of the week in Spanish we founds this cute video that has been helpful. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5WHgkjL3kE&feature=related We go over the Spanish days of the week while we are doing calender time.

We have been going over almost daily, The Duggar family guidlines which we renamed, 'Family Beliefs'.

* BigH received a certificate of Achievement from his BC 4-H Cloverbud unit 3!  My boy congratulations!!! This year they learned about pigs, goats, bicycle safety, dogs, clothing, and sewing to name a few things. LittleE did all the same work but she was not old enough to officially join. Everyone acknowledged her and clapped for her knowing that the only reason she did not get a certificate was because of her age. That's ok she took it well and she is now old enough to be a Cloverbud.



I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go, I will
       counsel you and watch over you. ~   Psalm 32:8