Monthly Highlights: October 2010 for B

This month was big on activities outside the home, so our indoor academics were a little lighter than last month. It seems that the tide of indoor and outdoor activities flows regularly.

Some months we have little on and spend a good deal of our time on academic work and other months it is the complete opposite.

I am firm believer in all activities having equal importance, there is after all learning to be enjoyed in everything we do. So I am rarely concerned when our out of doors activities seem to take over our desk work. Just another reason why homeschooling is a wonderful way of life.

Language Arts

Fitzroy Word Skills 4, completed the first lesson. Finally these lessons seem to be digging a little deeper (we've been breezing through them for a while now). The readers are now relatively easy for B but we are continuing on with the lessons as they cover much more than just the reader.

This lesson worked on a-e sounds, ou sounds, sight words, opposites, nouns, literal comprehension with both fill in the gap type questions and more open questions for discussion, oral english discussion questions, Idioms and he had to design his own Birthday Party Invitation.

Explode The Code Book 3 1/2 Lessons 1 - 6

We've started including some of the Developing Literacy Activity Books by Blake Education into our day.  A brief description for this particular book from their website: develops children's understanding of sound-spelling relationships. It includes activities which focus on phonics, spelling, word recognition and vocabulary. You will find extension activities on each page which reinforce and develop what the children have learned.

We did not use this cover to cover, only where we saw a need or we knew that the activity would benefit. The Word Activities book contains a few games also which we have enjoyed. B has now completed this book and will move to some of the activities in Book C.

Developing Literacy Sentence Activites Book B: helps children to develop grammatical awareness in order to make sense of text, skills in prediction words and an understanding of elements of grammar introduced in Book A. It also helps to develop an appreciation of the appropriate pace and expression with which a sentence should be read, an understanding of the effects of changing word-order in a sentence, people's titles, family names, titles, headings and captions, the demarcation of sentences using full stops, questions and the use of the question mark, when to use capital letters to begin names other than those of people. This book provides as well an understanding of different kinds of sentences and their structure, and the roles of different kinds of words. (from their website) Once again we've only used parts of this book.


Read Alouds
African Hippo Race (finished off from last month)
Littlenose The Hunter (history read aloud)
DK's First Book of Fairy Tales (requested by K)
We also made a start on  The Children's Treasury of Fairy Tales, Nursery Rhymes & Nonsense Verse (requested by K)
We started Enid Blyton's Story Time Book.

Free Reading - Time Travellers, The Snack Attack Mystery, A Star Is Born

Computer Classroom At Home Software - Spelling after having access to Time 4 Learning for a month it has prompted us to pull out some of software that has been sitting for quite some times.

He is progressing nicely with Handwriting Without Tears Cursive and completed pages 16 - 21.

Maths

You might remember me mentioning that we had decided to go back and pull Math u See off our shelves. Now we could have easily skipped a level but we chose to finish off the Alpha level simply because I like the way the concepts are taught and if you don't have the basics down pat then everything else is generally that much more difficult. So whilst B is breezing through Alpha, his number facts recall is increasing in speed considerably. He completed lessons 15 - 17, the unit test for lessons 1 - 17 and lessons 18 - 23.

B has also been working on the Math U See online timed drills. Twelve months ago he disliked anything that was timed but has been enjoying seeing is time score come down, this has also really helped his fact recall speed.

Qld Targeting Maths completed end of term Revisions work and finished off 5 Evan Moor Daily Word Problems.

We were given a copy of Letts Toady Times Tables Level 1, a fun, colourful, sticker book introduction to Times Tables. Since this is exactly where he is at with his Qld Targeting Maths work we decided that this might be fun. He worked on, what they call the 'Tricky Twos'.

History

We finished up our Pre History Unit earlier in the month Charles Darwin and Evolution, Littlenose The Hunter & Cave Art (post coming), Galapagos Documentary and Notebook Pages

Geography

Mapping the HMS Beagle Voyage

We attended our first ever homeschool camp where the kids did some beginning Orienterring and Map Work. B loved this, although it was more challenging than it appeared to be.(post coming)

Science

Learning about the Galapagos was exciting for all of us and B especially loved this, he was enthralled as the vastness of some of the volcano's and the diversity of the wildlife. He was intrigued with how the islands are slowing shifting and transforming. I think we will definitley revisit the Galapagos sometime in the future. Galapagos Documentary and Notebook Pages

On camp everyone had the opportunity to try their hand at pond skimming in the Creek to see what Critters they could find. Several little bugs and beetles were scooped up, as well as quite a few guppies.

One of the Instructor lead, camp activities was to follow a Waterway from a rainfall catchment area, along the river and out to sea. 

The group followed along the story with their maps in hand,  as the Instructor lead them through the journey of what our water experiences as it travels down the rivers and makes its way out to sea.

To begin she had B scoop a small clear container of water from the dam where this activity took place (the rainfall catchment area) and there the journey began, past parks, through residential areas, so on and so on, finally making its way to the ocean.

As each area of the river was passed the children discussed the types of pollutants that could possibly enter the waterway, as they did this one of them added these pollutants to their water way (the small container of water).

By the end of the waters journey it was quite icky and horrible, terribly polluted.

Discussions then lead into how our ocean life handles this pollution and what it would be like to be a fish swimming in the polluted waters.

Many children came up with various ways in which they could help our water and little fishy friends.

A great hands on, visual activity. Oops this what a tad too much detail for Monthly Highlights Post, oh well it's all typed now so I won't be deleting it hehehe

LOTE

One of our very lovely Grandmothers has offered to teach small groups of Spanish. B enjoyed three trial lessons this month and has loved it. He seems to have a knack for picking up the pronounciation quite easily and his dad was very impressed with him rattling off what he had learned - Hello, My Name Is, What Is Your Name, I am x Years Old, A few colours and a couple of other random words.

We are very lucky to have a fluent speaker working with the kids.

Social Studies/Cultural Studies

We have started a brief Aboriginal Unit this month (post coming) and also experienced two very neat Aboriginal Experiences.

The first was to a local cultural centre where the children spent the day learning more about the Aboriginal way of life (post coming).

The second was a shorter experience, whereby the presenter came to us, but was fabulously hands on and interactive.

Art and Crafts

During one of Little C's Playdough exploration times B decided to join him and sculpted himself a pet Playdough Pet Dinosaur.

His drawing is still advancing in leaps and bounds as can be seen from his recent notebook pages in this History Unit.

We used Oil Pastels to create cave drawings, similar to those done by early man as part of our History Unit. (post to come)

He also completed Mosaic Stickers Pirate kit that we had here in the cupboard. I'm not sure why the poor old craft kit gets such a bad knock. Do they really stifle ones creativity? Not in this house they don't anyway.

I suppose if a child had limited experience with various art materials and mediums and was utilising craft kits (cookie cutter crafts) and colouring in books as their staple art and craft experience then I am sure that their creativity would be limited.

However if kits and the like are only used as a supplement, a from time to time activity (as they are here in our house) then really I see absolutely no harm in them.

All things in moderation is one of my motto's!

They are fun, generally quick to complete. Easy to put together and generally give fairly good results. Often some of the kits we have had on hand have sparked many a creative adventure. I ask for craft kits as gifts as I would much prefer the children received these than some plastic toy that will either end up broken or left in the cupboard after a week or two of play.

Computer/Technology/Construction

B has been quite keen on learning to type of late so he tried out BBC's Dance Mat Typing and I dug out a Sponge Bob Squarepants Typing disc we have here. This was a sparodic exercise though as we were out and about so much this month. I do know that I will continue to steer him to Dance Mat Typing over the Sponge Bob program, which offers very little in the way of 'exactly how to type' and much more game type activities.

As always he spent a great deal of his spare time working on Lego creations. His desire for new Lego kits seems to be slowing down (thank goodness as we are being over run by them) and he now seems content to just build his own things.

This Ice/Snow war type scence took some searching through his buckets for all of the white pieces. He enlisted dad's help for that!  He uses the, "hey dad, come play lego with me" spiel when really all dad does is find the bits and B creates....do you think he has his dad all figured out all what hehehe

However I was most impressed with his Razor Scooter, with fully working wheels, moveable handle (the whole wheel piece swivels like on a scooter) and a working brake.

And here I struggle to build a simple bridge design lol!!!

Sports

B had a super active month what with we our camp activities, regular outdoor play and our annual Sports Day. (posts coming so I won't go into details here)

Other

And we can't forget that my firstborn baby has now entered his last year of single digits. He celebrated his 9th Birthday.


We have another busy month ahead of us and will certainly be ready for some down time come Christmas.

Monthly Highlights: September 2010 for K

Language Arts

Our current focus for this area is getting all of the beginning letter sounds down pat. You have probably noticed that we have taken the 'better late than early approach' here, so we are working on mastery with the letters, not just exposure.

I did not want this to be a plain and downright boring exercise, cause let's face it, if you don't know your letter sounds there are lots of them to learn!!! So I have been working on putting together silly letter chants (which K absolutely loves) we enjoy practising these in the car and together we are putting together an alphabet rhyme book, along with some more of the traditional letter activities.

We are following along with the Explode The Code Primers, hence the order that the letters have been introduced.  Letters covered this month, F, B, M, K, T and half way through R (both kids were quite sick in the last week of the month so not much was doing here during that time).

You can see the Letters we've covered here.

This coming week is review for those letters so I will have some fun things to share with you on that.


Read Alouds - Mrs Pepperpots Outing and The 27th Annual African Hippopotamus Race, along with several picture books. 

Time 4 Learning - we had our months free trial over at a Time 4 Learning an K enjoyed some of the Preschool Language Arts activities on it.

K spotted this Same or Different Activity book awhile back at the grocery store and wanted it to do, it was far too easy for her so she breezed through it this past month.

Mathematics

She wrapped up Singapore Earlybird Mathematics 2A, it finishes with introducing the concept of Addition. We've been doing this for awhile now anyway, with lollies and things so she has breezed through this.

Book 2B continues with the Addition concept applying it in various ways.

Time 4 Learning covered basic math concepts such as calendar, patterning and sorting objects.

Science

Professor Jellybean Science Workshop with our Home School Network.

History

We have just about wrapped up our Pre-Hisotry Unit covered Big Bang Theory, Evolution and Charles Darwin.

Art/Craft 

Cake decorating with our Home School Network.

Painted Toilet Paper Trees in art class with Home School Network.

Fathers Day Handprint Posters.

Paper Towel Tie Dye activities were done this month also.

Social Studies

We've been watching Heston's Feast, this guy is truly amazing with what he does with food. A great series! The kids have loved this to bits.

Be warned, there sre some elements to this that are not suitable for children at all, but overall it is fabulous.

Thankfully we have our TIVO and the kids watch a recorded version that we can skip parts if needed. Check it out here.


Sport/Outdoor Activity

Her Golf lessons for the term wrapped up this month. Whilst she was very keen in the beginning, with these, she also lost interest very quickly.

We went Bowling one afternoon with some of our Home School Network friends.

Se always spends considerable time on her scooter, jumping on the trampoline, swinging, plain old running around the backyard and is forever dancing, dancing, dancing.

Other - she, along with her dad and brother built an outdoor cubby/lean too in the back yard. (post coming)

Cross Curricula

This is another book from the supermarket which K picked up. It was much more at her level and covers basic 'Kindergarten Basics'. She generally does a page or two a day.

We have also technically had two weeks of public school holidays during the month of September, but we've just kept on going, although at a much more casual pace.

Add into that a week of illness for both B and K (as in lying on the lounge we can't do anything mum) and well I think that's more than enough, don't you?!?!

Monthly Highlights: September 2010 For B

If you've been reading along for awhile you might remember that I spent some time doing weekly review posts. These became tedious and took the enjoyment out of blogging for me though and so I decided to do away with them.

I have however missed the ease at which you can look back over a period of time and see what was done, even though it is a near impossiblity to include every little thing in a wrap up style post it does give you a really good idea of what was covered. A month is a little trickier to remember everything, unless you write things down or have a 'plan of attack' which I did not. I might try one out next month though ;-)

So I have decided to try again, but this time looking back over a month in review, we'll see how they go hey!

Language Arts

Began Cursive Handwriting with Handwriting Without Tears. Completed pages 7 to 15 and doing very well. He has been asking to learn cursive for nearly 12 months and is loving it. Just itching to be able to write in cursive though, so the handwriting lessons can't come quick enough at the moment.

Read Alouds - Mrs Pepperpots Outing and The 27th Annual African Hippopotamus Race, along with several picture books. 

Free Time Reading - The Adventures of Ook and Gluk. Star Wars The Visual Dictionary (post coming) Books, especially free reading is one area that I lose track of if I don't write them down, so I have no idea what else he read this month!

Phonics - Explode The Code - Completed Book 3 (we use ETC for enrichment) Lessons 11, 12, 13 and the Post Test. His reading is coming along nicely but his spelling is not. We took the time to discuss this and have decided he will complete Book 3 1/2 and I have now ordered a Spelling Program for him.

This part of homeschooling is one that I love. We could actually discuss this together, so that I could hear his thoughts and let him know mine. As opposed to just doing what the 'teacher' feels best.

He completed Lessons 1, 2 and 3 in Book 3 1/2 of ETC.

Fitzroy Program ( phonics, sight words, comprehension, grammar, spelling) - Completed Lessons 29 and 30 and the Level 4 Test.  Covered sounds ow as in how and ee as in tree. Covered sight words made, again, flew, corner, heard, Four, whole, laugh, mean, learn. Covered nouns and contractions and reading comprehension is included in every lesson.

Time 4 Learning - he also used T4L quite a bit since we had a review to do on this. Covered synonyms, antonyms, prefixes, suffixes, homophones and idioms.

Mathematics

Qld Targeting Maths Year 3 - Fractions: halves and quarters, Area in squares and area grids, Subtraction to twenty, Angles, Rhombus, Money Subtraction, Estimation, Calculator Work (This is the first time I have allowed him to do the calculator exercises. I think they are introduced far too early these days). Division as sharing, division with money. Time o'clock and half past, digital and analogue. Multiplying by 3's and 4's (this is the first bit of mulitplication he has done and did very well). Comparing mass.

Targeting Mental Maths Year 2 (national book which is Year 3 in Qld) - pages 30 - 39.

He's been saying that Maths is starting to get hard and he isn't enjoying it as much as he used to. We have decided to put these two on the backburner somewhat. They will still get worked in but not as our primary source for now. We have gone back to Math U See, which has been sitting on the shelf for far too long :-( so he is still only in the Alpha Stage, but of course is he breezing through the lessons and these will ensure he has a nice solid foundation before he tackles multiplication head on. He completed lessons 12, 13 and 14.

I found some Math Fact pages that another homeschooling mum has put together so we did a couple of Maths Corners ones.

He has also spent more time this month playing online games to assist with fact recall. He knows all of his addition and subtraction facts but just needs to build his recall skills.

We also have a copy of Evan Moors Daily Word Problems book and completed 2 weeks (set up for one word problem a day, revolving around the same theme for the week) of word problems. These are great for word problems and really helps to put the math into practice for real life situations.

Time 4 Learning - He covered Place Value beyond the hundreds

Science 

Professor Jellybean Science class with our Home School Network.

History

We have just about wrapped up our Pre-Hisotry Unit  covered Big Bang Theory, Evolution and Charles Darwin.

Art/Craft 

Cake decorating with our Home School Network.

Self initiated papercrafts - Ferris Wheel and Waterfall. (post coming)

Crazy Candles with Home School Network.

Self Initiated Drawing - he is constantly drawing and we always have far too many pictures for me to blog about all of them.

Painted Toilet Paper Trees in art class with Home School Network.

Fathers Day Handprint Posters.

Paper Towel Tie Dye activities were done this month also.

Unit Studies

Lego Lapbook - he very keenly completed this Lego Lapbook (post to come) covered, history, geography, science, maths and language arts topics within this.

Social Studies 

We've been watching Heston's Feast, this guy is truly amazing with what he does with food. A great series! The kids have loved this to bits. Be warned, there sre some elements to this that are not suitable for children but overall it is fabulous. Thankfully we have our TIVO and the kids watch a recorded version that we can skip parts if needed. Check it out here.

Sport/Outdoor Activity

His Golf lessons for the term wrapped up this month. He has decided to not continue next term with golf.

We went Bowling one afternoon with some of our Home School Network friends.

Soccer season also wrapped up this month.

He always spends considerable time on his scooter, kicking his soccer ball around, running around the backyard and coming up with new dance moves with his sister.

Other - he, along with his dad and sister built an outdoor cubby/lean too in the back yard. (post coming)

We have also technically had two weeks of public school holidays during this month, but shhhh don't tell the kids, we've just kept on going, although at a much more casual pace.

Add into that a week of illness for both B and K (as in lying on the lounge we can't do anything mum) and well I think that's more than enough, don't you?!?!

Vote for us. One click is all you need!