Oct 9, 2009

Reading/Writing:

Reviewed and drilled - a, c, d, f, g, o, s, b, e, h, i, j, k, l, m, p, r, t, u, v, w

played a 'memory' type of game with them

she loved that!

Introduced and wrote - n, x, y, z

Ch 6-8 of Little Women, L.M. Alcott

Oct 8, 2009

Gymnastics, lunch, and that's our whole morning ;-)

Science:

created bath fizzies:

discussed combo of baking soda and citric acid

why it smelled like peppermint, etc....

took bath in new bath fizzy water they made

Oct 7, 2009

Reading/Writing:

Review and drilled - a, c, d, f, g, o, s, b, e, h, i, j, k, l, m

Wrote and introduced:

p, r, t, u, v, w

Ch 5 of Little Women, L.M. Alcott

Unit Study:

'Fall' Collages with pre-cut shapes glued to construction paper (houses, trees, and falling leaves - shape/color co-ordination)

Oct 6, 2009

Reading/Writing/Spelling:

introduced, wrote and drilled phonograms h, j, l, b, e, i, m, k

reviewed phonograms a, c, d, f, g, o, s

practiced straight strokes

(which Lydia has renamed tall grass, short grass, grass in the dirt, dying grass and tired grass!

they are supposed to be long line, short line, lines with tails, slanted lines and horizontal lines.

we're going with the grass labels because why not!?)

little sampling of her work lately:

played red light/green light sort of game with the phonogram flash cards.

I held up a card and if I said the correct phonogram(s) she could take a step forward, if not, she had to stay in one place and turn in a circle.

we switched, after she made it all the way to me and she got to call out the phonograms right or wrong until I got all the way to her.

Sophie joined in the fun too ;-)

Ch 2-4 of Little Women, L.M. Alcott

Unit Study:

F is for Fall

started a craft/project we will finish after nap.....

melty crayon/wax paper/construction paper trees.

Lydia had to pick out the best fall colors she could find.

I think she nailed it!

...and there were enough little pencil sharpeners for everyone to get in on the action!

didn't think they'd be into this, uh hem...I was WRONG!

(with four girls though I am getting used to being wrong a lot, so it's ok!)

catch up.

I am back.

with a little less expectation on myself.

I wanted to not only document our days but also photograph them with beautiful works of art.....ha!

Not gonna happen.

So, if you're reading this, warning, it may get boring.

I'm logging everything we do here for record keeping sake.

If you find some great ideas, awesome!

If you see a picture of what we did...be amazed!

For the Record:

We are using Write Road to Reading, the Spalding Method

for the learning to read/write/spell process.

My personal take on the issue is that even if it's harder for me, which this is!!!, I'd rather do it right the first time and NEVER have to back track.

I've poured hours into studying this system, after the hours I poured into studying the reading process in general that is, and I LOVE it's mission, it's facts, it's passion for teaching children and giving them absolutely solid foundations.

I love that it's logical and breaks down the English language into a sensible, teachable and simple language (unlike everything I've heard about our language my entire life).

I am using a supplement that has it all broken down for me because, like I said, it's not easy.

It gets easy once you've mastered it but this isn't the way I was taught, for the most part, so I'm no master. (give me a year or two though and I'll be writing my own supplement, I'm sure!)

It's RIGHT for us, it's just not easy!

THE SUPPLEMENT, in case you need it too!

(really, I think if I ever get the chance to meet this gal, I'll be kissing her through my tears of relief - HUGE burden released when I got my hands on this book! I was sold on the Spalding Method but learning to teach it was a-whole-nother ball game! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!)

Again, personal view on this.

I never want to hear myself say, "I taught her to read in three months but she can't spell and her handwriting is behind"

It's a package deal for us....and the process will be tailored to each child....the package will be the same, the wrapping will be different!

We are hitting READING/WRITING/SPELLING hard core right now.

There will be other things to our schooling but the only expectation I have on us to accomplish every day, is the reading part.

Math will be done with games and through life skills,

Unit Studies will happen, when they happen.

They are planned and ideas are kept in a journal, supplies are bought, so they opportunity to happen, but if it's one of those days, we just let it 'be' one of those days.

phew.

that felt good to get out!

I've gone to bed with this 'log' on my mind a lot lately!

When Lydia turns six I have to keep track of our days for the state, I wanted to get in the swing before then....so here we are ;-)

Oct 5, 2009

reading/phonograms:

wrote and drilled

a, o, s, f, g, c, d

Ch 1 of Little Women, L.M. Alcott

math:

Countdown board game

unit study:

"Fall"

colored in black and white photographs of leaves/trees with colored pencil's

(photo's printed on regular paper)

learned a fall song:

(sing to 'Have you ever seen a Lassie')

Have you ever seen a pumpkin, a pumpkin, a pumpkin

Have you ever seen a pumpkin that grows on a vine?

A round one, a tall one, a bumpy one a squishy one

Have you ever seen a pumpkin that grows on a vine!?

P.E.:

10 min 'workout' in living room

push ups, sit ups, jumping jacks, high kicks, twists at the waist and stretching

(there were some serious wiggles to get out!)

May 18

F IS FOR FLOWER, G IS FOR GARDEN:

started out with just Lydia this morning - 

Noah Websters (she is rocking at this!!!) and

Dick and Jane 

wrote out as many short 'e' words as we could squeeze from her attention span.

checked out some flower poems on line

wrote our own flower poem:

Dandelions are pretty

I want to pick them

When I spell 'dandelions' I sound very witty

Dandelions are better with the stem

They have very pretty seeds

Maybe they like to fall on me?

Samantha's turn:

and then there was Samantha.

who had an 'accident' in the middle of her picture.

which made mommy need to take a break because mommy is so over these 'accidents'

grrr....

we did get it written, at least:

If a flower is purple, you pick it.

You smell it, blow it and pick it.

The purple flower is by my house.

It smells like grape.

The purple flowers are my favorite.

They are irises.

They look like marigolds.

I love them.

after a break we came back, fininshed the flower picture

worked on her version of Noah Webster and Dick and Jane.

the attention spans are short this morning due to a new hunk of iron and plastic in the back yard - 

so, after we worked a little, chores and school - we played.

May 15

a little reading - various books.

a little writing practice for all in the living room floor - whatever came to their minds!

Hello Kitty, their names, etc...

and then off to garage sale and clean out for our own garage sale!

and that was about all we got accomplished ;-)

May 14

started the day with our Noah Webster's Reader

and a dab of Clifford easy readers

checked on our celery experiment - they are LOVING this!

not pictured but much loved are the holes at the base of the celery where you can see exactly how the water is traveling up to the leaves.

outside to rub the bark, with paper and crayons, on three different trees

talked about the differences and the patterns

Off to the last day of gymnastics for the season and then lunch with our favorite Daddy at Burger Kinger.

home.

Lydia, Nora and Samantha (for about 30 sec's) collected as many 'helicopters' out of our vegetable garden as we could and discussed why we didn't want these seedlings to steal all the nutrients our vegetables needed.

more discussion about what a flower or garden needs to grow.

a fight broke out between Nora and Sophie which triggered nap time!

Lydia is practicing more handwriting in more dollar section workbooks

mama is blogging too much

up and adam to cut up our celery and see what's inside!!!!

(and then eat it, of course!!!)

great conversation about how the leaves get water from the 'tubes' inside the celery.

and then, in a moment of weakness the other day at Wally World, I bought worms.

the girls love them...they go with our F is for Flowers and G is for Gardens and boy was it a hit!

worms and their poop - boy oh boy.

(and I am praying that the robins, who have a nest on our house, will be eating these the moment we are away!!!)

May 13

F is for Flowers/G is for Garden

(just decided that those needed to be combined and we'll just stretch the two all across May)

How Plants Eat Water Experiment:

off to friends house to play so mama could get a much needed hair cut

home to check the celery - nothing.

mama cut the bottoms wrong - oops.

recut the celery.

lunch, nap, nap, nap!!!

Lydia practiced hand writting during nap.

gotta love those dollar section work books!

not sure why that morning was tiring, but it was!?

Dick and Jane (a TON of these!), I Spy, Golden Alphabet book - all some of our fav's!

outside to dissect 2 more kinds of flowers - a marigold and delphinium.

Lydia is WAY into the parts and LOVES finding the seeds!

so precious.

Bike riding, dinner, hang out with sistas'....

more books with mama and story telling with daddy.

good night!

May 12

F is for FLOWERS

photosynthesis experiment

build two terrariums.

one goes in the sun, the other one hides in the dark.

after a few days we'll be able to see the affects of the sun on a growing plant.

Samantha chose tomatoes and Lydia chose carrots.

fitting.  those are their favorite veggies ;-)

photosynthesis explained to a little one:  the plant uses the sun to make food for itself.

more planting of flowers and herbs.

on to the park!

tire swings are a great way to test velocity - head up is slow, head down is fast!!!

just ask Lydia and Samantha.

rolling down hills are also a great way to test velocity.

just ask mommy....err....after her stomach settles back down anyway....it's been a while since I rolled down a hill

lunch, Pete's dragon, nap time

Lydia is sorting laundry for mama and working on some alphabet books to keep her occupied during nap time.

...and the thunder rolled in to wake everyone up early from nap.

nothing a little Madagascar couldn't handle.

into the kitchen to bake,

because that just seems the right thing to do in a rain storm.

Rocky Road Cake Mix Cookies

1 Devil's food cake mix

1 egg

1/4 c. oil

1/4 c. water

choco chips, nuts, marshmallows

mix it all up

roll 'em up

drop 'em

bake 'em at 350 for 15 min.

yum.

the thunder stopped and out we went, white skirt and all, celebrating just how yummy these flowers must think the rain is!

shower, dinner, books, bed.

and that's a wrap.

May 11

F IS FOR FLOWER

thank you to whoever planted those Irises who know how long ago!

male parts, female parts, petals, stem, leaves....that's as far as we got!

making dye out of the petals.

dandelions are also being tested out as we speak!

a little Noah Websters Reader.

a walk and 'tag' with a BUNCH of squirrels who sure looked like they wanted us to play with them.

books, books and more books with the little ones.

story telling and pretending to all be mommies at lunch time.

nap time!

wrapped the day up with 

Grass Heads 

(potting soil, grass seed, socks, glue, buttons, rubber bands, water and sunshine - we'll have some hairy heads in a few days)

after dinner a shopping trip for the weeks groceries and more F is for Flower activities!!!

what a precious day.

everyone is in the bath and headed to bed - including the mama.