Week 36 Day 4

 We had already some time ago decided that Andrew will be taking music lessons come August/September. Today, he proved he is ready. Andrew found an old sheet of music and was half pretending to 'read' it. I went a step further and printed out children's sheet of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star". He has been glued to his little keyboard practicing away. Andrew promised to perform for Dad when he comes home.

The rest of the day was somewhat rainy (finally) which puts a damper into our soccer game this afternoon, but it did not disturb us a bit as we were ploughing our way through today's assignments. Even our math lesson went by well. I got inspired by an article I read on crosswalk.com about how to help children with their math problems. I am going to try out some of the things they suggested there. Here's a link to the article:

http://www.crosswalk.com/family/homeschool/taking-the-frustration-out-of-math.html?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=fbpage&utm_campaign=dailyupdate

Story sequencing. Andrew piecing together the story of Snow White.

Week 36 Day 3

I really liked the creative writing assignment today. Andrew had to tell a story about a painting. I found this adorable picture of Charles Edenshaw "Breakfast In Bed" and asked Andrew to tell me what he thought was going on. He came up with a nice account. I loved the part when the dog ran in the kitchen and barked at Mom so she would come and clear up the breakfast dishes on the bed. :o)

Literature and writing seem to be an easier challenge for Andrew than solving math problems. I have long stopped writing words and sentences out for him to copy. I just dictate and Andrew gets them right 99% of the time. That is pretty amazing. At the same time, math... The boy is brilliant and he knows how to add and subtract, but if it is just plain paper with a bunch of numbers on it, he loses his focus and the task becomes a struggle. I have tried to make a game out of the drills and he does perform so much better. I do know one thing, come summer break, we will be sitting down with math problems on a regular basis until the new school year begins.

Week 36 Day 2

Today went past super fast. We have been knee deep in getting to know the planets in the Solar System. It is so fascinating. The only thing I remember from my science class when we were covering the subject of planets was that our teachers kept changing, nobody stayed long enough to teach us. Sad. 

I, however, am a constant, and Andrew and I (and Saara) have been watching some truly interesting videos on the internet. Of course, ALL of them have been presented from the Big Bang view point, but we have already learned to successfully ignore the godlessness and focus on the beauty that God has created. A very good clip is right here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2EU96xqEk4

Week 36 Day 1

Memorial Day. We ended up doing some schoolwork. It has become very obvious that Andrew will complete the Core A course sometime it mid June. Which is fine. Which also means, I will use every day available to do school work. Not that I am rushing, but it would be nice to be done. I have already lined up so many wonderful projects and things to do during the summer. 

But as to today, and Saturday, we did a lot of experiments. Our main focus was science and it was delicious. First, we learned a lot about juice. We looked at different fruit and where they store the juice and how easy or difficult it is for us to get it out. And, of course, the kids ate their school work, again.

Second, we revisited the lesson of heat and cold and what happens to air when it heats up or cools down. Our table tennis ball experiment fell through because Mom made a dent in the ball that was way too big and no amount of hot water around the ball could not heat up the air inside the ball to pop the dent out. Our other experiments were more successful.

And third, Dad lent a helping hand and read to the kids about the sound systems and CDs and how all that electronics works. He did really well and I might use him as a substitute teacher when it comes time to teach the kids about computers - Dad used to build them, so he knows way more than I do.

Over the weekend Andrew also colored and built a patriotic windsock and we found another bird family living in a very unusual place: the hanging basket with my petunias is hosting a mama bird and her two eggs. Both kids are super excited about two birds' nests right by our doors.

After squeezing and examining the fruit, the kids ate their school work.

Strawberry juice on a white linen. A lesson in why it is important to wipe your fingers in napkins and not your clothes.

Painting with lemon juice. I remember doing that as a child with milk.

The hot iron revealed Andrew's lemon juice painting.

The ping-pong ball in the hot water did not lose it's dent.

Daddy teaching about sound systems.

Andrew's patriotic windsock.

A peek inside my petunia planter.

Memorial Day Garland

This afternoon found us practicing our measuring and cutting and folding skills. We were making pretty stars (Saara called them flowers) from construction paper to decorate our house a bit for Memorial Day. If the garland holds up, I might keep it up until all the red-white-blue holidays are over, that is until Veteran's Day.
I found the project on marthastewart.com (http://www.marthastewart.com/275496/fourth-of-july-crafts-and-memorial-day-c/@center/276964/60-days-summer#/271212). 
For a six-year-old, it was quite a challenge to make the star on his own, so I did the trickiest parts myself. However, it is a good project to practice measuring and marking (it takes a lot to line up the ruler with the dots, hold the ruler still while drawing a line pushing the pencil against the ruler), cutting in a straight line, and folding. I would like to keep doing little crafts like this one, because Andrew really enjoyed the whole process.

Week 35 Day 3

Well, the weather is wonderful outside, but Andrew and I are much under the weather. Yesterday it was so bad, I had to declare it a sick day. Andrew spent most of the morning in bed. Thankfully, he is feeling much better today, his voice is hoarse, and so is mine. In fact, I have no voice. 

Nevertheless, we did all the lessons I had planned for yesterday and on top of that watched a very good show on NatGeoWild about a team of conservationists who took a trip to the Himalayas to find tigers on high altitudes (http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/tv/2010/09/lost-land-of-the-tiger-filming.shtml). We just covered a long study on the mountains and the kind of animals that live there, the kind of lifestyle people lead. It was fascinating to watch the houses, the people, and, especially, the wildlife. And, yes, they found the tigers living high in the mountains. 

Over the week end, we will get better, celebrate the Memorial Day, and be back on Monday.

Week 35 Day 2

I did not expect our school day to be this quiet. It was loud with learning about Mercury and Venus, about solving math problems and telling time, about reading and describing a new word and it's antonym, about practicing handwriting and rhyming words, about discovering our God given talents, and about so much more. It was all well done. Quietly, without a rush.

Week 35 Day 1

We love our geography lessons! Andrew can not get enough of the rainforests. Today, we looked at how chocolate is made out of coco beans and had a cup of hot chocolate while watching a YouTube video. Also, one-by-one we are finding video clips about different jungle animals. I am learning a lot alongside Andrew, like I was always under the assumption that piranhas will chew your toes off as soon as you poke them into the water. Come to find out, locals swim in the piranha infested waters. Oh, they do occasionally bite and sometimes injure bathers and swimmers, but a piranha bite is considered more an act of carelessness than that of misfortune. 

As we have run out of books to read, we took a trip to the library this afternoon. Andrew liked Robinson Crusoe very much and is looking froward to our next vocabulary learning book about Robin Hood. I also got him some easy readers for our reading practice. Andrew, well, he borrowed a huge number of books about snakes and frogs. No, he is not going to have a pet of that sort. NO! :o)

While we were at the library, I also registered both kids for the summer reading program. That should be fun.

Over the week end I captured on camera a couple of interesting things. First, our grill which has been rusting away quietly, has become a home for a bird family. I have not been able to identify the mommy bird yet, but she definitely has a baby in there. We opened the cover once to take a peek at the baby bird, and have not disturbed the feathered family since. Well, at least somebody is getting some use out of the grill.

Second, on our way to church on Sunday morning we saw a hot air balloon. Because the air is so hot already in Texas one does not see those things around here much. It was fun. Brought us back to our studies about hot air rising, etc.

Memorial Day Poppies

My search for a suitable Memorial Day craft on the Web yielded nothing. Oh, there is a galore of fantastic ideas, but somehow none of them looked appealing enough to try to make with a bunch of 4-to-9-year-olds. That is the age range in my Sunday School class at the moment. So, I rolled up my sleeves and came up with this simple picture that involves just coloring and pasting, and following instructions. For my class, I will prepare all the poppy pieces, so all that is left for the little hands to do is to assemble the flower and glue it together. 

This is what Andrew and Saara will be making on Wednesday evening during their Children's Hour.

Materials needed for the poppy: cupcake liner, red tissue paper, pencil, scissors, black construction paper, glue stick, and one brown craft pom-pom.

Flatten the cupcake liner and use it to trace three circles out of the tissue paper.

Fold each circle in half and cut wavy edges. I cut each circle a bit smaller than the previous one.

The tree layers of the flower are ready to be twisted.

Holding the circle from the center, twist it around.

Untwist the circles.

Add just a dab of glue to the center of the circles and glue them on top of each other.

It is beginning to look like a poppy.

From the construction paper cut out two rectangles 1 1/4" x 3/4" in size. Fold them in half and cut off the folded corners. Cut the open edge into a fringe, open the paper and curl the fringed edges around a pencil.

Glue one fringed paper piece in the center of the layered circles with the curls facing up.

Glue the other piece crossways on top of the first one, again with the fringed edges curling up.

From the pom-pom assortment, find the right size pom-pom.

Glue the pom-pom in the center of the flower.

For my class, I printed out a card I will have the children color and then glue the poppy on the circle in the middle of the card.

Should be easy and fun to make.

Fifth Game. May 19, 2012

 It was a good game. I am amazed at the 'teamwork' the Rattlers have. Their defense is awesome. Because of the shortage of players we had only one sit out a period and the rest endured the heat and the intensity of the game wonderfully. Good job. Andrew had a splendid attitude, quite a little sportsman, wanting and willing to play without stopping. He received a star for going over to a hurt opponent and asking if he was doing all right. Good job.

"Coach, I scored! Did you see that?"

Attack the coach!

Week 34 Day 5

Andrew could not wait for me to read some more about the rainforests and show him some more videos online. We managed to watch only parts of one video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrY1HDHi2-0), but the photography of this one was extraordinary - the colors and the clarity of photos was phenomenal (oh, a blessing to own a camera like this!). The video showed a number of animals and insects that live in the Amazon rainforest. I would not mind watching it again. Over the week end I intend to search for more videos about the wild life in the jungles. Andrew wants to watch again the National Geographic video about gliding animals we found yesterday. It was really good to be able to point out the different equipment and gadgets the biologists used, including a observation platform in the jungle. Cool!

The other thing that both kids were looking forward to was reading the story of Robinson Crusoe for our vocabulary development and the Grain of Rice story that we devoured in two days instead of four. Good stories.

Among other things today, Andrew and Saara enjoyed their language task of sorting words by their vowels as well. It was a good school day. And now - outside! The weather is gorgeous.

Fifth Practice. May 17, 2012

 At today's soccer practice we had a snap of a visit from a turtle. Thankfully, it did not distract the players for long.

During their half-time devotional Andrew and others started learning about being humble. That is something that for Andrew comes with a lot of difficulty at times, especially when he is hungry, tired, hot, and sweaty. Sounds like a kid at a 5:30 soccer practice to me. A good place to learn humility no matter how challenging the situation is.

Week 34 Day 4

The highlights from today: Andrew wrote his fist poem and we spent a lot of time watching videos about rainforests.

For our creative writing assignment Andrew had to write his own song to a well known tune. I went with a simple poem task instead. I asked Andrew to give me four rhyming words and then make sentences with them, paying attention to the rhythm as well. He loved doing it. The first lines came about rather quickly, it took him a little trying with the third and fourth line, but it was all done with a big smile on his face and he was very pleased with his outcome. 

We traveled back to the rainforests of the world today in our geography lesson. After reading about the birds and animals that live on different levels in the jungle, we searched for some good video clips to watch. There is a galore of excellent material on the YouTube. Like this one,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UczKUylZDv8&feature=fvsr

Week 34 Day 3

We had an industrious but rather uneventful school day.  Our math assignments today turned out to be rather challenging. We spent more time on reviewing money and telling time than I had thought we would. But here's the beauty of homeschooling again: I am not driven by a set number of minutes to accomplish a task, I can focus on the task or challenge and dissect it, chew on it or even sleep on it, until I understand. That is exactly what I did with Andrew. We proceeded slowly and step by step and many, many examples and exercises later, Andrew now understands. 

In science we looked at the Moon. Andrew likes the Moon. I think, all children do. Last week, when we had this Super Moon shining, we took our binoculars and looked at the Moon. It was cool. If it had not been for the mosquitoes, we would have stayed out there late gazing into the night sky. Living in the country, we should really invest into a nice telescope. The stars are amazing things.  

Week 34 Day 2

 A quiet rainy day. A perfect day to stay indoors and curl up with a good book. We did a lot of reading today - both Andrew and I. In fact, Andrew asked me if he could read more. Here's my six-year-old who could recognize only a few words last August, and now is reading books at his level by himself, a boy who is familiar with a whole package of sight words, and is able to pen down words that I dictate to him. Has he grown this year? No doubt. 

I took a look at some books in the Sonlight Core B (I searched them out on Amazon.com and most of them let you take a peek inside) - this is the next package we will be ordering for Andrew, and realized that he might benefit more from the Grade 2 Readers than Grade 1. I am still praying about it, though.

We did venture outside today for a few minutes. It was drizzling and muddy. I almost stepped onto a turtle by our dog pen. We all were fast to get our cameras out and doing our best to shield them from the rain took some nice shots. See for yourself.

Week 34 Day 1

Today was a 'Pooh' kind of a day. We finished reading "The House At Pooh Corner" and watched both Pooh VHS's we still own. There was not a whole lot to do after school work was over. The sudden rainfall ran us back inside this evening. I am thankful we took a extended lunch break and both kids got to play outside for a long time. 

We also finished learning about mountains. We did a short review and Andrew remembered a lot of the facts about mountains. Tomorrow, then we are off to the jungles of the world!

Andrew surprised me with a very nice story we did for our Creative Writing Assignment. His little tale of Ed and Pam making music was short and imaginative at the same time. Most of all it was comprehensibly logical. All his stories before had  been fun but wild with adventure and partly hard to follow. His last assignments did show he had learned how to bring everything to a nice conclusion and now, it seems, he understands the beauty of brevity and logic in a story. At least, that is what I see. 

I counted today the math lessons left - there's only 13 more. Many things are close to being done, like tomorrow we will look at our last word family. We finished learning the sight words last week. Is the school year really coming to an end soon? Hard to believe.