'14/15 Week 1 Day 5

Our last day of the first week went by very fast. What a beautiful end we had to the day! 
Andrew fell in love with writing. The spelling part of it is still something we are practicing and working on, but, I believe, Andrew discovered the fun of expressive writing. It was such a great light bulb moment. I asked him to write a story where he would use adjectives that describe our five senses, like 'a loud noise' or 'a bright light', etc. He came up with a neat story of cars of different color tasting a lemon. Very imaginative. I was very pleased, and the writer himself was terribly happy with his achievement. 
We also started to read a new book about music - an introduction to the orchestra.It was very enjoyable. Andrew whistled Wagner's Valkyries the whole afternoon.

Art. Learning some watercolor techniques. Here, water onto water.

Water on dry.

Variegated.

Graded.

'14/15 Week 1 Day 4

A day dedicated to science again. At least the most fun part of the day.

Saara had her first first grade science experiments today. We started with magnets and began with just testing out some metals around the house. Saara was surprised to see that some of her guesses (like coins, Mom's wedding ring, etc.) were wrong - not all metals stick to magnets.

Science. Taxonomy for Andrew.

LA. Not Halloween. Just plain old Charlotte from "Charlotte's Web" - Saara's vocabulary learning and reading comprehension book.

'14/15 Week 1 Day 3

A cheerful day. My teaching pattern is smoothing itself out, and there were less bumps and halts in the flow of things today. Both teaching and learning are becoming more and more enjoyable. 

Saara's science class brought us outdoors. Once again, we went hunting for pictures of different animals in the animal kingdom. It was fun. 
What is even better, is that it fits perfectly with Andrew's biology class as well. He is learning about taxonomy. He chose the kingdom of fungi for his poster board project. I am curious to see how that is going to work out.

LA. Tackling grammar rules.

Science. This swallow-tail was so pretty. The insects - check.

Hummingbird - the birds - check.

Looking for frogs. We saw a few, but they were too fast for the camera.

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Neighbor's dog - the mammals - check.

A garden spider (?) - the archnids under insects - check.

Frogs! Finally, we found a lot of them peeking out of holes on the side of the creek bank. The amphibians - check.

More spiders.

We waited patiently for some turtles to poke their heads out of the water. They did, far away from us, but I managed to  capture one on the camera. The reptiles - check.

The fish - check.

More birds.

'14/15 Week 1 Day 2

A busy day with lots of reading assignments. I like it, and so does Saara. For Andrew too many pages is still a challenge, but he does not fight it, which is good.
He is doing much better, actually SO much better, with reading comprehension. The way he answered my questions today, made me think that, as he hears me read, he pictures the action in his mind as a movie. So exact and to the point were his answers. I am greatly encouraged. 

LA. Grammar does not look as daunting as I feared it would. So far, I have liked the Sonlight's grammar application, but I may add more to the present curriculum when it comes to learning grammar rules.

An impromptu painting fair while our lunch was cooking.

'14/15 Week 1 Day 1

 

First day of school. Somehow, it lacked all the fuss. It just felt like a normal day with organized activities. Seamless. No jitters. Not even me. 

The first week of school is always a sort of a week of trials and errors. I have to see how much extra activities we can manage time wise, how long will teaching a subject to both kids take, what are the things they can do together, where do I need to give more individual help, etc. The first day has already given me a couple of ideas to change to make our work more efficient.

For the children, the first day was intense but enjoyable. Andrew's reading assignments are longer, and his history and science are more in depth than before.

Saara has her own spelling words to learn, and she is so happy to have Andrew's old books all to herself now.

I am excited, ready, willing, and impatient. There's so much to learn. I pray, this year will be another great year of discoveries and adventures.

The trusted old calendar is helping us out this year as well.

History. Saara's first lesson today was about different countries of the world. We looked at our old passports, a few foreign coins, and listened to different foreign languages on the Youtube.

Andrew will focus on the American history this year.

LA. Saara making compound words.

For Saara's spelling practice, I am trying something new this year - stamping, rainbow-writing, and plain old writing. All on one page.

Science. Saara stepped into the world of animals, Andrew into the world of biology.

Box Day 2014

Oh, what a happy day! Our school materials were delivered to us this morning. The children tore into the box and squealed with delight. Andrew skimmed through the books, but stopped short at his new Bible. He loves it so much, I think, he will sleep with it tonight.

I will be reading the teaching tips tonight. Thankfully, Sonlight makes it easy on teachers by having everything super organized. I am pretty confident, we will be able to start our 2014/2015 school year on Monday.