So, I've found that blogging every day is absolutely impossible now. I'll just try to shoot for once a week or something like that. :) Homeschooling is a very busy full time job and I don't believe that anyone I know fully understands that. With the exception of fellow homeschoolers :) This is truly a commitment I've made, and everything else sort-of goes on hold. (the librarian at my library can vouch for that...oh no, 24 items still checked out?? with 2 due today?? oooops) I can't believe how it's opening all sorts of new doors in my mind! I feel such a sense of accomplishment when I see and hear how much BabyGirl is absorbing! She is amazingly brilliant and such a creative thinker! She loves to question everything and figure out the answers on her own. She has such a love of learning! She'll beg "Can we play more math games please!" or "Let's do some momma school!!!". Who could ask for more??
I've recently received the Core Knowledge book for Kindergarten so we're browsing through it finding cool things to focus on in all areas. I find that BabyGirl knows quite a bit of what goes into kindergarten already, but enjoys reviewing them and confidence building.
We practice math daily, whether it be through games, number writing, counting, etc. There are some fun ways of playing with numbers we've found and do them often.
Our reading adventures are going so well!! BabyGirl has really started "breaking the code" and has suddenly started reading "the fast way" on her own! I can hardly believe it! She looks forward to her adventure every day and loves the satisfaction of completing a story, understanding it, and then moving on to the picture to see what it looks like. Her comprehension is fabulous and I'm so proud of her!!!!! We read tons every day including poetry, chapter books (we've finished all the Little House and moved on to Ramona Quimby, one of my faves from childhood) , nursery rhymes, fables, etc. She can never get enough of reading! She hangs on each and every word, and often times acts out the story as I read it. Very entertaining!! :)
Our potato is growing leaps and bounds with the leaves just starting to sprout today. Since it's been so windy we're studying the wind, what it does, etc. We're making a weather vane today and going to check the wind direction each day to find out if wind changes directions. She cannot wait!
The field trip to the bank went well and she's learning the coins and their value at her own leisure. :) She loves to use her cash register to play with this, and when I listen to her, she's adding and subtracting values very well. Nothing like good ol playing store! I've started pointing out that she is doing math, and she becomes so excited when she completes a problem!
We've gone to the pumpkin patch, taken the hayride, done the hay maze and picked out our pumpkin. It was so much fun!! The jack o lantern came out great! Check it out!
We do art, music and p.e. daily. We explore all avenues of these subjects! We learn about different instruments and their sounds, as well as different types of music. You never know what kind of art we'll come up with! And we're involved in our usual gymnastics and dance weekly. Not to mention our weekly story time and playgroup! Whew!
The mazes, dot to dots, puzzles, number finds, Highlights Hidden Pictures, and who knows what all else is flying around here like crazy creating a learning frenzy! Every day we're presented with fun and new ways of coming together and learning with each other. I thank my lucky stars I'm able to do this with my life, with my daughters life. What a great thing to be able to say! I loved my job today! My child's eyes were shining with delight as we explored her imagination and our environment today! Need I say more???
Until we have time again....I hope you enjoy each of your days as much as we do!
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Chilly mornings
I love it when the mornings have that little bite in them! BabyGirl's favorite season is winter and she can't wait to see it arrive! We looked at the fog this morning and she remembered our talks about clouds.
We did our calendar, and our number journal #18. We did lots of worksheets where she completed patterns since she LOVES doing that!!! Then we continued graphing, and she already has that mastered. We practiced writing our numbers 0-18 and she did awesome!!!! Totally blew me away how well she wrote each and every one all on her own!! Yay!
We checked our potato again and noticed the roots are even longer since yesterday and so are the sprouts!
We had a discussion about Noah Webster. We talked briefly about the war with England and why he wanted to create American school books. She did find him interesting and paid close attention while I told her a summary of his life. (a brief one) She answered the few questions I asked her correctly after our talk. Yahoo! He really was an interesting man and held our interest far more than others have. If you know nothing about him, it's worth checking out the one and only children's book about him in the Tulsa Library system. It's very interesting to me that I was never told a thing about this man, and it was hard to locate information on him as well.... there's certainly no shortage of books on many other "heroes"...okay, that's a totally different subject :) The book is called What Do You Mean? A Story about Noah Webster by Jeri Ferris. I sure learned a lot from it :)
We started our book last night called Children of the Frontier. It shows pictures of and tells stories of how life was like for children on the frontier. She really loved the pictures of real families farms, etc. We could also relate all the information we had learned from the Little House series to this as well. There was a recipe for Johnny Cakes at the end of the book. They said they may have once been called journey cakes. Farmers used to put them in their pocket for a snack since they rarely had time to quit working to eat. We decided to make them today for lunch. BabyGirl did all the measuring and mixing as usual. They came out great!! I love the simplicity of the recipes from this time. And no matter how few the ingredients, they are never short on taste! Another fun book to try is My Little House Cookbook.
So, that's about it for today. We plan on having a reading adventure later, and going to our neighbors to share some of our Johnny Cakes. Also, if time allows, we will do a little more genealogy research for our family tree. Until tomorrow...
We did our calendar, and our number journal #18. We did lots of worksheets where she completed patterns since she LOVES doing that!!! Then we continued graphing, and she already has that mastered. We practiced writing our numbers 0-18 and she did awesome!!!! Totally blew me away how well she wrote each and every one all on her own!! Yay!
We checked our potato again and noticed the roots are even longer since yesterday and so are the sprouts!
We had a discussion about Noah Webster. We talked briefly about the war with England and why he wanted to create American school books. She did find him interesting and paid close attention while I told her a summary of his life. (a brief one) She answered the few questions I asked her correctly after our talk. Yahoo! He really was an interesting man and held our interest far more than others have. If you know nothing about him, it's worth checking out the one and only children's book about him in the Tulsa Library system. It's very interesting to me that I was never told a thing about this man, and it was hard to locate information on him as well.... there's certainly no shortage of books on many other "heroes"...okay, that's a totally different subject :) The book is called What Do You Mean? A Story about Noah Webster by Jeri Ferris. I sure learned a lot from it :)
We started our book last night called Children of the Frontier. It shows pictures of and tells stories of how life was like for children on the frontier. She really loved the pictures of real families farms, etc. We could also relate all the information we had learned from the Little House series to this as well. There was a recipe for Johnny Cakes at the end of the book. They said they may have once been called journey cakes. Farmers used to put them in their pocket for a snack since they rarely had time to quit working to eat. We decided to make them today for lunch. BabyGirl did all the measuring and mixing as usual. They came out great!! I love the simplicity of the recipes from this time. And no matter how few the ingredients, they are never short on taste! Another fun book to try is My Little House Cookbook.
So, that's about it for today. We plan on having a reading adventure later, and going to our neighbors to share some of our Johnny Cakes. Also, if time allows, we will do a little more genealogy research for our family tree. Until tomorrow...
Monday, October 15, 2007
Fun october updates
Since our last blog we went to a great pumpkin party with our other home school friends and had a blast! We hunted and painted pumpkins. We also started a "fall cleanup" at our house going through all kinds of things and organizing/pitching :)
In the math area we've done #'s 16 & 17 in our journal, introduced measuring which she immediately understood and loved (she's been measuring everything around the house), done many dot-to-dots and counting games, and introduced graphing. She also immediately understood graphing, but has to use stickers to fill in the boxes instead of coloring them! :)
In the reading area we've had lots of reading adventures! This includes many lessons in our DISTAR book which we call adventures now, and also lots of fun phonics workbook pages.
In the science area we've started making a seed potato and checking on it daily. We've read a great science land on potatoes! We've also made cookies, and some popcorn & milk. In the Little House days Almanzo would eat popcorn and milk...You have 2 glasses...one filled to the top with popcorn and one filled to the top with milk. You can drop each piece of popcorn one at a time into the milk, noticing that each kernel is different. The milk will hold every single piece of popcorn and not overflow! Then you get to eat it and see what they thought was a very tasty treat in their house!
In the history area we're still studying the pioneer days and have found some awesome new books about kids going west and what it was like for them! We plan on learning about Noah Webster tomorrow for his bday. (at a 4yr old level, anyway :) We've also been researching our genealogy and finding out some very interesting family history/stories. We look forward to long talks with great grandma...
We've done lots of Halloween art, mazes and had countless hours playing games, etc together...
In the p.e. area we continue to attend jazz/tap and gymnastics, with many trips outside to jump on the tramp and to the park.
We've gone to our regular playgroups and story times, and had an awesome family day at our Auntie's house in Claremore celebrating the family all being in town together. It was so much fun and BabyGirl thoroughly enjoyed romping with her cousins and her Uncle Jim who reminds her of Mr. Edwards :)
What a list!!! We've had great times with lots of learning mixed in! We look forward to sharing more with you soon!
In the math area we've done #'s 16 & 17 in our journal, introduced measuring which she immediately understood and loved (she's been measuring everything around the house), done many dot-to-dots and counting games, and introduced graphing. She also immediately understood graphing, but has to use stickers to fill in the boxes instead of coloring them! :)
In the reading area we've had lots of reading adventures! This includes many lessons in our DISTAR book which we call adventures now, and also lots of fun phonics workbook pages.
In the science area we've started making a seed potato and checking on it daily. We've read a great science land on potatoes! We've also made cookies, and some popcorn & milk. In the Little House days Almanzo would eat popcorn and milk...You have 2 glasses...one filled to the top with popcorn and one filled to the top with milk. You can drop each piece of popcorn one at a time into the milk, noticing that each kernel is different. The milk will hold every single piece of popcorn and not overflow! Then you get to eat it and see what they thought was a very tasty treat in their house!
In the history area we're still studying the pioneer days and have found some awesome new books about kids going west and what it was like for them! We plan on learning about Noah Webster tomorrow for his bday. (at a 4yr old level, anyway :) We've also been researching our genealogy and finding out some very interesting family history/stories. We look forward to long talks with great grandma...
We've done lots of Halloween art, mazes and had countless hours playing games, etc together...
In the p.e. area we continue to attend jazz/tap and gymnastics, with many trips outside to jump on the tramp and to the park.
We've gone to our regular playgroups and story times, and had an awesome family day at our Auntie's house in Claremore celebrating the family all being in town together. It was so much fun and BabyGirl thoroughly enjoyed romping with her cousins and her Uncle Jim who reminds her of Mr. Edwards :)
What a list!!! We've had great times with lots of learning mixed in! We look forward to sharing more with you soon!
Monday, October 8, 2007
What we've done...
We've had lots of fun since our last blog...here are just a few of the things we've done.
We went to story time which was about music this time. The kids had so much fun playing instruments together!!!
We went to the monthly meeting and heard about Will Rogers and traded our Flat Stanley again. Maybe this time we can actually do something with it! :) One of my many goals...
We went to the Oklahoma's Largest Classroom day at the fair. We looked at and touched all the animals, checked out all the artwork in the kids building, played with everything that was able to be touched in the entire fair :), and just had an absolute blast with Nan and Pop! BabyGirl got a couple new t-shirts from Nan. (one says 'I'd rather be hanging with my Bubs' which is the truth!) We rode some awesome 'big girl' rides! There was too much fun to even fit into a blog!
We went to a fiesta at our local library on Saturday. We did lots of arts/crafts, heard a band play, had some food, and hit a pinata. Buddy Bookworm was there and BabyGirl got to dance with him to the music and was thrilled!!!!!!!!!! What fun!
This brings us to today.....
We did #15 in our number journal. We did some more fun Halloween decorations that are so cute! (cut, paste, color) We worked puzzles together and played on BrainPop. We found some fun and educational new games on www.pbskids.org. They had some fun new Curious Georges ones, and some dealing with animal habitats and geography. Speaking of geography...we did some geography puzzles and briefly talked about where Columbus sailed since that subject was deemed 'boring' at our house! :) BabyGirl sat down with all her paints and experimented with mixing colors. This produced some beautiful art work! We also plan on making cookies to take with us to a fun pumpkin hunt tomorrow. This will be our math integration for the day. BabyGirl is very good at picking out the correct measuring cup for the job! Also, gymnastics later for our 'P.E.' :) We took a break from our reading lesson yesterday since she decided she didn't want to do it. We'll see if she wants to resume today or not.
We're going to keep up just doing what she wants to do around here since we actually get so much learning done that way (as you can see). No worksheets unless she asks for them, no science or math unless she prompts it, etc. She always gets around to each subject anyway, and it's fun to see how they all come together in the end. I'm planning some 'field trips' to some everyday locations that should be interesting....I'll keep you posted :) I plan on integrating some new vocabulary words, songs, math, science, etc into each one. Nothing is quite so good as learning in disguise!
Now....chocolate chips...here we come!!!!!!!
We went to story time which was about music this time. The kids had so much fun playing instruments together!!!
We went to the monthly meeting and heard about Will Rogers and traded our Flat Stanley again. Maybe this time we can actually do something with it! :) One of my many goals...
We went to the Oklahoma's Largest Classroom day at the fair. We looked at and touched all the animals, checked out all the artwork in the kids building, played with everything that was able to be touched in the entire fair :), and just had an absolute blast with Nan and Pop! BabyGirl got a couple new t-shirts from Nan. (one says 'I'd rather be hanging with my Bubs' which is the truth!) We rode some awesome 'big girl' rides! There was too much fun to even fit into a blog!
We went to a fiesta at our local library on Saturday. We did lots of arts/crafts, heard a band play, had some food, and hit a pinata. Buddy Bookworm was there and BabyGirl got to dance with him to the music and was thrilled!!!!!!!!!! What fun!
This brings us to today.....
We did #15 in our number journal. We did some more fun Halloween decorations that are so cute! (cut, paste, color) We worked puzzles together and played on BrainPop. We found some fun and educational new games on www.pbskids.org. They had some fun new Curious Georges ones, and some dealing with animal habitats and geography. Speaking of geography...we did some geography puzzles and briefly talked about where Columbus sailed since that subject was deemed 'boring' at our house! :) BabyGirl sat down with all her paints and experimented with mixing colors. This produced some beautiful art work! We also plan on making cookies to take with us to a fun pumpkin hunt tomorrow. This will be our math integration for the day. BabyGirl is very good at picking out the correct measuring cup for the job! Also, gymnastics later for our 'P.E.' :) We took a break from our reading lesson yesterday since she decided she didn't want to do it. We'll see if she wants to resume today or not.
We're going to keep up just doing what she wants to do around here since we actually get so much learning done that way (as you can see). No worksheets unless she asks for them, no science or math unless she prompts it, etc. She always gets around to each subject anyway, and it's fun to see how they all come together in the end. I'm planning some 'field trips' to some everyday locations that should be interesting....I'll keep you posted :) I plan on integrating some new vocabulary words, songs, math, science, etc into each one. Nothing is quite so good as learning in disguise!
Now....chocolate chips...here we come!!!!!!!
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Beautiful Day!
What a beautiful day it's turned out to be!!! We'll make this quick so we can go out and enjoy every minute of it this afternoon!
This morning we did our calendar, number 14 in our journal, updated and explored our Smart Globe, decorated and constructed some awesomely scary monster masks. (will be featured at a later date in blog after they dry) We also did some colorful and fun activities dealing with patterns, rhyming, phonics, left to right, matching sets, and groups.
I'm reading a little about Christopher Columbus with some materials I got at the library yesterday. I realize that I knew little about him, and what I did THINK I knew what fiction. So, let's unschool mom on this one first :) Then we'll discuss him next week....hopefully I can find some fun activities, too.
We're going to play out the rest of the day today!!!! Yay!!!! We can't wait to jump on the trampoline, swing, slide and bathe the dogs. Should be refreshing! :)
The next couple days will be SUPER busy for us with the library, meeting, dance and largest classroom day at the fair. So, until we blog again....enjoy this beautiful weather!!!!
This morning we did our calendar, number 14 in our journal, updated and explored our Smart Globe, decorated and constructed some awesomely scary monster masks. (will be featured at a later date in blog after they dry) We also did some colorful and fun activities dealing with patterns, rhyming, phonics, left to right, matching sets, and groups.
I'm reading a little about Christopher Columbus with some materials I got at the library yesterday. I realize that I knew little about him, and what I did THINK I knew what fiction. So, let's unschool mom on this one first :) Then we'll discuss him next week....hopefully I can find some fun activities, too.
We're going to play out the rest of the day today!!!! Yay!!!! We can't wait to jump on the trampoline, swing, slide and bathe the dogs. Should be refreshing! :)
The next couple days will be SUPER busy for us with the library, meeting, dance and largest classroom day at the fair. So, until we blog again....enjoy this beautiful weather!!!!
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Updates & Today
Since we blogged last we've had so much fun!!! We went to Disney on Ice and thought it was excellent! The colors and music and everything....we just had to pretend the rest of the day that we were actually in that performance!!! :) We also enjoyed lots of other stuff at the fair including all the fun rides and exhibits in the expo...I mean Quik Trip center :) We can't wait to go back for the Okla. Largest Classroom day!
Monday we played "clean the house" since we've been so busy lately. We had some wonderful incentive since our cousins, including a brand new one, were coming to visit! We all had a blast playing house and doing tons of laundry :) (inside joke) BabyGirl made a ghost mask all by herself and it was awesome!! We put up our new calendar and started working on that. We also went to gymnastics where we had an absolute blast!!! And, last but not least, a reading "lesson" at the end of the day. What fun!
Today we did our next cool science experiment. This one we took out of the Magic School Bus Gets Baked in a Cake. BabyGirl remembered what 'chemistry' means and that baking soda and vinegar mixed together create a gas. I was psyched by this since we read the book last week! She really retains everything from these books since she loves them so much! Anyway, we filled a container with water, added 3 tsp of white vinegar and 2 tsp baking soda which created some fizzing. Then we added some salted peanuts to see what happened. She guessed that "the peanuts would shoot up 100 miles away and then turn green" :) Of course it wasn't that dramatic, but still very cool! The bubbles would cling to the peanuts making them float, then the bubbles would break at the surface and the peanuts would sink to the bottom starting the whole process again. It was awesome to watch. While we were watching we discussed carbon dioxide again.
We did some art making jack-o-lantern faces on a paper pumpkin, decorating a stand-up witch and just free expression. I love to see how different the creations look as BabyGirl gets older and can control the pencil or whatever she's using better.
Later we plan to cut & paste if she wants, and do our little mini reading lesson. Until tomorrow...
Monday we played "clean the house" since we've been so busy lately. We had some wonderful incentive since our cousins, including a brand new one, were coming to visit! We all had a blast playing house and doing tons of laundry :) (inside joke) BabyGirl made a ghost mask all by herself and it was awesome!! We put up our new calendar and started working on that. We also went to gymnastics where we had an absolute blast!!! And, last but not least, a reading "lesson" at the end of the day. What fun!
Today we did our next cool science experiment. This one we took out of the Magic School Bus Gets Baked in a Cake. BabyGirl remembered what 'chemistry' means and that baking soda and vinegar mixed together create a gas. I was psyched by this since we read the book last week! She really retains everything from these books since she loves them so much! Anyway, we filled a container with water, added 3 tsp of white vinegar and 2 tsp baking soda which created some fizzing. Then we added some salted peanuts to see what happened. She guessed that "the peanuts would shoot up 100 miles away and then turn green" :) Of course it wasn't that dramatic, but still very cool! The bubbles would cling to the peanuts making them float, then the bubbles would break at the surface and the peanuts would sink to the bottom starting the whole process again. It was awesome to watch. While we were watching we discussed carbon dioxide again.
We did some art making jack-o-lantern faces on a paper pumpkin, decorating a stand-up witch and just free expression. I love to see how different the creations look as BabyGirl gets older and can control the pencil or whatever she's using better.
Later we plan to cut & paste if she wants, and do our little mini reading lesson. Until tomorrow...
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