Summer Planning Part I

Our first week of summer vacation! I'm doing a lot of brain storming for the upcoming school year.
I know what it is that we are doing, I just want to do some things a little different.

For A8 the 3rd grade is really a transition year. She will leave behind the things she's been doing for the first three years of school and move into things she is going to start doing in the last three years of elementary school.

For the first 3 years the focus was on learning to read, learning to write and of course math.
In third grade we will start to go in another direction. Now that she can read and write, she will use those things to broaden her learning horizons so to speak. She will be learning how to assimilate information, more specifically, information she gets from reading a book herself.

We are still going to do FIAR and lapbooks, but we'll be adding chapter books as well.

The chapter books she will be reading are part of our American history course. I don't want to do lapbooks for these books, I want something different. I'm looking into this resource book: Better Than Book Reports: More Than 40 Creative Responses to Literature. Hopefully this book will help us find different ways to present the information she will be learning from the My America books.

Like I said, it's going to be a transition year for her. As for X5, things are not going to change too much for him. We'll be doing math, phonics and lots of reading a loud with FIAR. The lapbooks will look different than hers just because he can't read or write yet. I need to come up with simpler things than she had for his lapbooks. A lot of the lessons will be oral, just like I did with her during her K year.

I've been told many times by homeschoolers with boys that they are usually behind girls when it comes to reading, but will catch up by 4th or 5th grade. I will trust the wisdom of these mothers and not panic... yet! ha ha!!

End of Clubs Picnic

This Saturday is our last Club activity, our end of clubs picnic. Normally we have a Camp out for the older kids and a picnic for the younger ones. This year not enough funds or people to have a camp out, so we decided to have everybody come to the picnic instead.

It looks like it is going to rain on Saturday, I'm really hoping it won't start raining till the evening. The picnic is from 12 to 4.

It is wonderful to see another Club year come to an end. We have some ideas on what to do for next year. Some leaders are leaving, hopefully most are coming back. What a blessing it is to have a Pastor who is really taking a interest in making Clubs better.
Enjoy the Summer brake everybody... we'll see you back in September!!

End of School

Last Week of School

Our last week of school, we have been doing our dinosaur unit study. The kids are really enjoying it! This week we are finishing the fact files activities. We took a day off last week, which means one extra day this week. We should be done with everything by Thursday, unless the kids decided to do everything in the next two days!

A8 had her evaluation, I think it went very well. Now that she is entering the third grade we have to let the local school district know she is going to be hhomeschooled. I need to send them a notarized affidavit stating she is staying home plus I need to list the objectives for third grade. At the end of the year I need to get her evaluated and she needs to take a test. Followed by a portfolio of work she's done throughout the year, plus we need to show we did school for 180 days... they don't need to know what we did each day, just show that we did school for that long.

Thankfully I've been doing all of this since she was in grade K, I wanted to get comfortable with the whole process before having to actually do it for real... The only thing I haven't done is the test. I'm going to get it online and give it to her myself just so she knows what to expect next year.

So that is it! that is all for now, we are going to take the rest of May off and I will start my planning for next Fall in June!!!(ha! no, I don't buy that either!)

School Week 35 & 36

Here we are, last two weeks of school. Both kids are done with math and handwriting, A8 is done with her spelling and language lessons book and she has one week left of vocabulary.

Both kids will be working on a Dinosaur unit study from Learning Page.com is very much like the other ones we've done in the past. We have fact files on all the different dinosaurs, we'll be doing a mural, which means the kids will be coloring all our dinos and pasting them to the mural. Then, they'll get to do different activities based on the fact files... science, lang. arts and of course math. The activity sheets are by grade, so I have activities for both K and 2nd grade.

I also have The Field Guide to Dinosaurs to read a loud and a movie. I really want the kids to watch Jurassic Park. I think it's PG13 but if I can skip the dinosaurs eating people parts it should be okay for them to watch.. I love this movie and can't think of anything better for them to enjoy dinosaurs!!!

This unit study is not going to take two full weeks, however we have three school days that haven't been counted this year(two COOP days and one field trip), so I decided to count them at the end of the year. So we'll be officially done with school on Tuesday of week 36.

After that we'll do nothing for the rest of May and come June both kids will have one day a week of review, handwriting for X5, reading, writing and math for A8. As for me, I will start my gathering(printing) of activities for each weekly folder in June. I am very much looking forward to sunny days at the pool!!

School Week 34

This week we are rowing our last FIAR book of the year, Wee Gillis. It's a short book with a really good message! it's about an orphan with a tough decision to make: whether to live with his mother's relatives in the Lowlands and raise long-haired cows or his father's relatives in the Highlands and stalk stags.

Geography: Scotland, highlanders, lowlanders
Lang. Arts. copy work, days of the week, months of the year
Science: bagpipes, lungs, fog

X5 is also rowing his last book, The Little Engine that Could.

Two weeks of school left!!!!

Three Weeks to Go

We have three weeks of school to go.. today A8 got done with math, she has two more weeks of vocabulary. X5 is done with math and his handwriting book.

I made the decision to end math with lesson 15. A8 took her unit test which covers lessons 1-15. I did not want her to start something new and have to wait three months to finish it. I'm going to keep it 15 lessons per semester.

A8 is going to be evaluated next week so I want to have all her work ready to show the evaluator. Too many things on my mind about next year, changes I want to make... I need to finish this year first!:)

One thing that won't be changing is our workboxes, they worked better than I expected.
Lots of posts coming on new things for next year and changes from this year... stay tune!!

School Week 33

This week we are finally rowing the book Follow the Drinking Gourd.
The story of an old white sailor called "Peg Leg Joe" who went from plantation to plantation in the pre-Civil War south, teaching enslaved blacks a folksong that he wrote, the lyrics of which held directions for following the Underground Railroad to freedom. This particular story focuses on the journey of one group of runaways who travel according to the directions of the song to reach the Ohio River, where Peg Leg Joe himself is waiting with a boat.


X5 is rowing the book Blueberries for Sal.

Philadelphia Field Trip

Over the weekend we took a trip to Philly. We were there to visit my sister and her new baby!
The kids had never been to a city the size of Philly so it was a field trip to them! We got to see so many places while we were there. Many historical places is Philly. We also got to eat a Philly cheese stake, it was so much better than the stuff we get around here!!! There were also a lot of cars... everywhere..I'm not kidding.... they have so many cars in that city that they have to park in the middle of the street I kid you not.. the hotel we stayed in was wonderful and huge.. the kids really enjoyed the trip.

Of course the best thing about the trip was of course the baby! She is a beauty, such a good baby!
She had no problem being in my arms, I even got to change a poopie diaper.. ha ha!!
My sister is doing very good with her, she is adjusting very well to motherhood!

Here is a collage of pics we took of me and the baby!

School Week 31 and 32

Okay, spring break is over and we are back at work or rather school. We have four weeks to go!!
I got a lot accomplished in the two weeks we had off. I have the book list for both kids done. I also have a very good idea and plan for next fall for both kids. During the summer I'll be working on the weekly folders for each kid, can't wait.. I love getting everything ready!!


School Week 31
We rowed the book The Tale of Peter Rabbit. Wonderful story however we didn't get in to the book as much, instead we learned more about the author Beatrix Potter. We watched the movie Miss Potter and watched a documentary about her that was in the DVD. Here life was truly a fairy tale!
A8 loved the movie, she loved the parts were Beatrix was drawing her wonderful bunny friends.
A8 got to draw using watercolors just like Miss Potter.


School Week 32
This week we are rowing the book Down, Down the Mountain. I'm not sure what we are doing with this book because I don't have my planner with me.. oops.. ha ha! I will edit this post when I get a hold of it.
Edit.
Geography: Blue Ridge Mountains, what is a mountain?
Language arts: Vocabulary, onomatopoeia, alliteration
Science: turnips, night time birds

X5 is rowing the book Katy No Pocket and doing a lapbook.

This Thursday is Earth day, the kids and I are going on a field trip to watch the Disney movie, Oceans.

Spring Break

We are in week two of our Spring break. We had a great Easter weekend with Nina and Grandpa! On Saturday we had the Shape and Race at Church. The kids got trophies again this year, 4th in Show for A8 and 1st in Speed for X5... I know, we were shocked with that one!!
As soon as I get their pics I'll post them.

Like I said in a previous post I've been working on the book list for next year. I'm done with A8's list and now I'm working on X5's. He has 35 books for next Fall, one for each week of the school year. A8 only has 18. We are not going to do the Little House on the Prairie series next year. I chose two other books that will go along perfectly with the whole 2 weeks per book schedule.
I'll leave the Little House books for when we start Beyond FIAR, they will fit perfectly with those books.

I also have all the curricula I need for the kids for next year. A8 is going to start Wordly Wise 3000, a vocabulary workbook. Each workbook has 15 lessons, so I got 2nd and 3rd grade. One for each semester. That and Apologia Science is all I'm adding to our school next year. She'll also be reading My America books as part of American History.

That's all for now, let me go and enjoy the rest of our break!!

My Niece

Some great news! I am an Aunt once again. My sister just gave birth to my niece Gabriella Jazmeen, 6 lbs 10 oz!!

She is a beauty!!!

Easter Break

We are officially done with school for the next two weeks. We ended in a good place for both kids. X5 is done with book C of the Code, when we start school in two weeks he's going to start book 1. A8 finished her math in a good place, when we come back from break we will be starting with measuring, something completely new to her...

I scheduled two weeks off, Easter week is full of activities, Shape n Race being one of them. I'm in charge of food this year again, plus filling up Easter goodie bags since we are not having an egg hunt this year.

Then there's Holy Week activities in our church, we hope to make it to some of them!

As far as school planning, I'm going to work on the book list for both kids for the Fall. X5 is going to be ready for FIAR books since we mostly worked on BeforeFIAR this year. He will be doing Handwriting w/out Tears 1st grade workbook, he will be done with the K book in a few more weeks. He has about three more weeks of math, lessons 28, 29 and then 30!! He will be starting Alpha in the Fall.

X5 is doing math & handwriting at a K level but his phonics and reading are still at a preschool level. In the Fall we will continue like this, 1st grade math and handwriting, K level phonics and reading... Many Moms continue to assure me boys usually catch up in the phonics/reading area within a few years... no problem! that's the beauty of homeschooling, I can customize everything to fit where he is at, at the moment!

A8 is going to be doing FIAR Vol 4. This Vol has a lot more activities than the previous books. The books are meant to be rowed for two weeks instead of one. There are 16 books in Vol 4. Which means 32 weeks of school. For the other 4 weeks she'll do Little House in the Big Woods and Little House in the Prairie lapbooks, each book will take two weeks. This will prepare her for what is coming in 4th grade, Beyond FIAR, which uses chapter books instead of illustrative books. We will do them at the end, the last 4 weeks of the school year.

As far as math, when we get to the end of the year she will have 20 lessons done in Beta. A8 is about 10 lessons behind in math since we started with Primer on her 2nd semester of K. Instead of 30 lessons she will do 35 till she is caught up. By the time she is in 5th grade she will be ready to start Epsilon in the Fall.

I'm getting way ahead of myself here.. ha ha!! The thing is math is tricky, if I want them both to take calculus their Senior year, I have to make sure they are on the right path now... same for Science which we will be starting next Fall with Apologia science.. but again, I'm getting ahead of myself... we still have this year to finish.. ha ha!

Happy Easter!!!!!!

Our New Pet

After the death of our beloved hamster Cookie we decided to take some time and see if we wanted to get another hamster or not... after months of going to Pet stores and looking at hamsters and not really connecting with any of them I am happy to say this past weekend all that changed!

After A8's Performathon we went to Pet Smart just to "look", we found these Robo hamsters, they are supposed to be the smallest hamsters out there. Well, we fell in love, or rather DH fell in love!

We got all of our old hamster stuff out, made sure we had everything we needed. However, after researching all about robo hamsters we relized we couldn't use our old cage because robos are too small for them, they can easily get out, so we needed a fish tank instead. Lucky for us a coworker of Dh's gave us a free one last year!!

We got a new wheel for it and some things for the hamster to climb on and we were ready for a new hamster!

We got her yesterday and named her Snickerdoodles!!! She is the cutest thing, so tiny and fast..

Here is her new home!

I told you she was small!

One more because she is too cute!

School Week 30

This week we are rowing the book Mrs. Katz and Tush. I have to tell you I haven't read this book yet, but the author is Patricia Polacco and so far I've loved all her books.

Geography: Poland, NYC
Soc. Stu: immigration, loving or neighbor, Passover
Language Arts: reading comprehension
Science: yeast

X5 is rowing The Carrot Seed.

We have two weeks off. I'm going to be looking into the book list for next year. That way once we have off for the whole summer I can start getting lapbooks ready for next year. That's all I need to take care off during the summer.

School Week 29

This week we are rowing the book They Were Strong and Good. This book is jammed packed with stuff, from the Civil War to bees to family trees... I'm going to keep it simple and maybe row this book again in the future and then get more in depth.

X5 is rowing the book Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? Fun book and fun lapbook!

One more week and then two weeks off!!!

School Week 28

I'm a little late, but better late than later. This past week we rowed the book Little Nino's Pizzeria. We read this book two years ago, it's very simple with a great message. Both kids rowed the same book this week.

We mostly had fun with this book, talked about pizza toppings, fractions and how to help those in need.

We have to weeks of school before our Easter break, we just want to get through it without burning out..two weeks off sounds very nice. After that we have six weeks and off for the whole summer!

Piano Recital

Here is a pic of A8 at her recital last month. I have a video of it as well, that will be coming soon.

Here is the video clip of her performance!

New and Improved Bedroom

Last week my daughter and I had a long talk about her room. No matter how many times she cleans her room it always looked messy. Sometimes it was so bad(after playing with her little friends) that she had no idea where to start.

She had no room and too much stuff... we decided to do something about it. After praying about it for two days, yes you read right, we prayed about this!!! So after praying it finally came to us.. well to me.. I stripped her room of everything, EVERYTHING but her bed, desk and dresser. Nothing on the wall, nothing in her closet.

I left it like that for a couple of hours just so she could see how much better it looked empty than with all her stuff. Then we began the process of determining what would stay and what had to go.

She did a great job of letting alot of things go. I think she was a little worried that all her stuff would be gone but we were able to keep a lot, we just need a new way to store it.

We got rid of two pieces of furniture, her bookcase and her little drawer. We put her books in a light green crate, just like her brother has in his room. We got rid of some little stuff she had in her little drawers and we moved things around in her closet.

Since I got rid of all the stuff she had on the walls I needed to figure out what was going to replace them... we went to Target over the weekend and she picked the perfect thing!

Here are a few pics of how her room looks now!!

She picked dots, they look great on her wall!

I had to move her dresser a little and there's her crate with all her books. I will be moving her peg a little higher and to the right.

As a reward we bought her a new quilt set from Target, no more ballerinas!!

I moved her phone next to her desk and got her a small bulletin board.

This is a French memo board and it will be going above her headboard, we ordered it online because Target didn't have it in purple. We should be getting it this week!

Her room is much more manageable now, it doesn't look as crowded and the new quilt looks perfect in her pink room!

School Week 27

This week we are rowing one of our favorite books, Madeline and the Cats of Rome. This book was a gift from Nina and Grandpa and we've been waiting a almost a year to finally row it!

Geography: Rome, Italy traveling from France to Rome.
Character: stealing, adopting a pet
Language arts: vocab words, copy work, Italian words.
Science: cats, pasta

X5 is rowing the book Caps for Sale and lapbook.

I have a clip of A8's recital coming soon as well as pics from the recital! A8 started her cursive writing workbook, she is very excited about it!