Thursday, April 29, 2010

Day #124/175 Days


Lego-Man
  • Private Devotions
  • Mathletics
  • Update blog
  • Writing Journal
  • Math-U-See
  • AWANA
  • Easy Grammar
  • Spelling
  • Part of Speech Page (verbs)
  • Handwriting
  • Assigned Reading
  • PE outside walking
  • Animal Care
Conductor
  • Private Devotions
  • Math Score
  • Mathletics
  • Writing Journal
  • AWANA
  • Easy Grammar
  • Spelling
  • Handwriting
  • Assigned Reading
  • Wii Fit/PE outside - bike riding

Day #123/175 Days

Together School

  • Popcorn Prayer
  • Pledge of Allegiance
  • America the Beautiful 
  • Calendar time with Happy
  • Poem "The Moon"
  • Read Aloud (Little House book)
  • Matthew Chapter 21
  • A Child's Story of America
Lego-Man
  • Private Devotions
  • Mathletics
  • Update blog
  • Writing Journal
  • Math-U-See
  • AWANA
  • Easy Grammar
  • Spelling
  • Part of Speech Page (verbs)
  • Handwriting
  • Assigned Reading
  • PE outside walking
  • Animal Care
Conductor
  • Private Devotions
  • Math Score
  • Mathletics
  • Writing Journal
  • AWANA
  • Easy Grammar
  • Spelling
  • Part of Speech Page (verbs)
  • Handwriting
  • Assigned Reading
  • Wii Fit/PE outside - bike riding
AWANA club for all boys.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Day #122/175 Days (Co-Op)


Guess who came to visit the co-op today? Yup, Smokey Bear! I think the kids enjoyed this. One of the men in our church is a Forest Ranger and he agreed to come visit and talk about what he does and bring Smokey with him. 

After this we enjoyed our snack of grapes, cheese, and grape juice. This went with our study of Italy. We read a story about Italy and then talked about the various country features. We did a shorter version than we normally do because of the talk earlier but I think it worked well.

We ended with our craft. I talked briefly about who Michaelangelo was and how he painted the Sistine Chapel. We then taped a large piece of paper to the underside of each child's chair and had them draw a picture. We ended the day by having them play a traditional Italian folk game "What Time is it Mr. Wolf?" 

It is played similarly to Red Light-Green Light. One child is Mr. Wolf. The other children are opposite a line beyond where Mr. Wolf stands. They ask Mr. Wolf what times it is. He can respond with a number. If he does, then the children take that many number of steps. He can also respond with "I'm hungry!" Then he can try to catch a child. If they make it back behind the line, they are safe from Mr. Wolf. Game play continues until Mr. Wolf succeeds in catching someone. 

Lego-Man again attended the ecology class next door. Today they worked on a project in class - making posters. I'll add more on that later.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Day #121/175 Days


Lego-Man
  • Private Devotions
  • Mathletics
  • Update blog
  • Writing Journal
  • Math-U-See
  • AWANA
  • Easy Grammar
  • Spelling 
  • Part of Speech page (verbs)
  • Handwriting
  • Assigned Reading
  • Walking outside for PE
Conductor
  • Private Devotions
  • Math-U-See
  • Writing Journal
  • AWANA
  • Easy Grammar
  • Spelling 
  • Part of Speech Page
  • Handwriting
  • Mathletics
  • Assigned reading
  • Outside play time
Happy
  • Wii Fit
  • Outside play time
  • Head of the Class
  • Computer games

Monday, April 26, 2010

Day #120/175 Days

Together School

  • Popcorn Prayer
  • Pledge of Allegiance
  • America the Beautiful
  • Calendar time (Happy)
  • Poem to memorize ("The Moon")
  • Read Aloud
  • Matthew Chapter 20
  • A Child's Story of America
  • Family Walk Devotion
Lego-Man
  • Private Devotions
  • Mathletics
  • Update blog
  • Writing Journal
  • Math-U-See
  • AWANA
  • Easy Grammar
  • Spelling (write out definitions - any else hearing the massive amount of moaning & groaning going on?)
  • Part of Speech page (verbs)
  • Handwriting
  • Assigned Reading
  • Walking outside for PE
Conductor
  • Private Devotions
  • Math-U-See
  • Writing Journal
  • AWANA
  • Easy Grammar
  • Spelling (oral test on List B - 100%)
  • Part of Speech Page
  • Handwriting
  • Mathletics
  • Assigned reading
  • Outside play time
Happy
  • Wii Fit
  • Outside play time
  • Head of the Class
  • Computer games

Friday, April 23, 2010

Day #119/175 Days


Lego-Man
  • Private Devotions
  • Mathletics
  • Update blog
  • Writing Journal
  • Math-U-See
  • AWANA
  • Handwriting
  • Assigned Reading
  • Play a game with Conductor - his choice
  • Read a book to Happy - his chioce
  • Watch an episode of Life - your pick
  • Walking outside for PE
Conductor
  • Private Devotions
  • Math-U-See
  • Writing Journal
  • AWANA
  • Mathletics
  • Assigned reading
  • Play a game with Lego-Man - his choice
  • Read a book to Happy - his choice
  • Watch an episode of Life - Lego-Man's choice
  • Outside play time
  • Wii Fit
Happy
  • Wii Fit
  • Outside play time
  • Computer play time - education games (PBS Kids and the like)

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Day #118/175 Days


Lego-Man
  • Private Devotions
  • Mathletics
  • Update blog
  • Writing Journal
  • Math-U-See
  • AWANA
  • Easy Grammar
  • Spelling
  • Part of Speech page (nouns)
  • Handwriting
  • Assigned Reading
  • Walking outside for PE
Conductor
  • Private Devotions
  • Math-U-See
  • Writing Journal
  • AWANA
  • Easy Grammar
  • Spelling
  • Part of Speech Page
  • Handwriting
  • Mathletics
  • Assigned reading
  • Outside play time
  • Wii Fit
We also made t-shirts for Earth Day. 

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Day #117/175 Days


Lego-Man
  • Private Devotions
  • Mathletics
  • Update blog
  • Writing Journal
  • Math-U-See
  • AWANA
  • Easy Grammar
  • Spelling
  • Part of Speech page (nouns)
  • Handwriting
  • Assigned Reading
  • Walking outside for PE
Conductor
  • Private Devotions
  • Math-U-See
  • Writing Journal
  • AWANA
  • Easy Grammar
  • Spelling
  • Part of Speech Page
  • Handwriting
  • Mathletics
  • Assigned reading
  • Outside play time
  • Wii Fit

Monday, April 19, 2010

Day #116/175 Days

Together School

  • Popcorn Prayer
  • Pledge of Allegiance
  • America the Beautiful
  • Calendar time (Happy)
  • Poem to memorize ("The Moon")
  • Read Aloud (Little house book)
  • Matthew Chapter 19
  • Devotional: Family Walk
  • A Child's Story of America
Lego-Man
  • Private Devotions
  • Mathletics
  • Update blog
  • Writing Journal
  • Math-U-See
  • AWANA
  • Easy Grammar
  • Spelling
  • Part of Speech page (nouns)
  • Handwriting
  • Assigned Reading
  • Walking outside for PE
Conductor
  • Private Devotions
  • Math-U-See
  • Writing Journal
  • AWANA
  • Easy Grammar
  • Spelling
  • Part of Speech Page
  • Handwriting
  • Mathletics
  • Assigned reading
  • Outside play time
  • Wii Fit

Happy
  • Wii Fit
  • Outside play time
  • Time4Learning


Saturday, April 17, 2010

Day #115/175 Days (4-H activities)

Our first "official" activities for 4-H happened today. The first stop of the day was at a tin-punching workshop held at the county extension office. I think the boys really enjoyed this. We stayed for about an hour and Conductor had a blast working on his. He made a cat.



He was actually the only one to finish in the hour we were there. He even went and added a smiley face to his kitty cat. We will most likely be entering it in the fair. He had to much fun doing this that I went to the dollar store and picked up another cookie sheet for him plus we took another pattern (a hen and an egg) for him to complete later.

Happy had a hard time with this skill but he preserved. I was probably more frustrated than he. He picked a pattern to make a chick.




He was only able to finish about the first ten holes during the hour we were there. He wasn't hitting the nail hard enough to make it go through the tin. One very brave leader was actually holding the nail for a young boy to hit. I simply wasn't that brave. I did it once or twice but I just couldn't do it for the whole thing. We brought it all home with us and I'll have him continue to work on it until he finishes it.

Lego-Man picked a very complicated pattern - a barn. He managed to finish about half of it while we were there. He was making deep holes and having to hit the nail hard to get it through. I think he was getting a bit tired by the end. Again, my plan is to have him finish it in the neat future. These projects will most likely be entered in to the fairs this summer.


Once we were done at this workshop, we headed over to our 4-H leaders house to have a planning meeting and to tie-dye some shirts. We'll use these when we do fundraisers and such. I have to admit right now...I have never ever in my life tie-dyed anything. And I'll admit this...it was FUN! My boys had a good time as well I think.

I forgot to snap some photos yesterday of the finished shirts - once they were washed and dried. I'll grab those soon and add them here. They all came out very nice!

Friday, April 16, 2010

Day #114/175 Days

Workboxes for Lego-Man & Conductor

  • Private Devotions
  • Mathletics
  • Update blog (Lego-Man only)
  • Writing Journal
  • Math-U-See
  • AWANA verses
  • Easy Grammar
  • Spelling test (they did this with me)
  • Part of speech page
  • Handwriting
  • Assigned Reading
Happy - Time4Learning

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Day #113/175 Days

Together School

  • Popcorn Prayer
  • Pledge of Allegiance
  • America the Beautiful 
  • Calendar time with Happy
  • Poem work
  • Read aloud
  • Matthew Chapter 18
  • A Child's Story of America
  • Discussed what April 15th means to most adults
Lego-Man
  • Private Devotions
  • Mathletics
  • Update blog
  • Writing Journal
  • Math-U-See
  • AWANA
  • Easy Grammar
  • Spelling
  • Vocabulary (working now on "too, to, & two")
  • Handwriting
  • Assigned Reading
  • Compound Words
Conductor
  • Private Devotions
  • Math-U-See
  • Writing Journal
  • AWANA
  • Easy Grammar
  • Spelling
  • Vocabulary (working now on "too, to, & two")
  • Mathletics
  • Handwriting
  • Assigned Reading
  • Wii Fit
**Happy has baseball practice tonight. All the boys have AWANA club meeting tonight.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Day #112/175 Days - Co-Op

We started something new today at co-op. All children ages 10 & up started a new class with a friend of mine teaching. She is doing an ecology class for them. She used to be a public school teacher and did this class for eighth graders. I think it went well. This is the class Lego-Man will now be doing. Conductor and Happy will continue in the geography class.

This also halved the number of students we had in our geography class. I taught about the country of England today. My hubby & I had the opportunity to visit here about 12 years ago so I brought in my photo album. We discussed the facts about the country (capital, continent, currency, government, flag, etc.). I also found a great website and used it for most of my information. It's called ProjectBritian.com and it was set up by a junior school to share information from a project they did.

When we had a break and snack, the older children joined us. We enjoyed tea (of course!) and scones (so yummy!!) as well as some "biscuits" (lemon cookies & ginger cookies). I think this is the favorite time for the kids!

We finished up with a craft. They kids created a "Royal Guard" paper doll that I found at DLT Kids site.

Once this was done we sent all the kids outside to play for the last 45 minutes. I brought along a soccer ball and we had some nets set up so a few chose to do that. The rest played on the swing set. We'll start doing this more often to give them some time to burn off some energy and just have fun playing together. It also gives us a chance to clean up the classroom without rushing to get to where we need to be next - well, me anyway.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Day #111/175 Days

Together School

  • Popcorn Prayer
  • National Anthem
  • Began learning "America the Beautiful"
  • Calendar time with Happy
  • Poem
  • Read Aloud
  • Mathew Chapter 17
  • Devotion on Self-Control
  • A Child's Story of America
Lego-Man
  • Private Devotions
  • Mathletics
  • Update blog
  • Writing Journal
  • Math-U-See
  • AWANA
  • Easy Grammar
  • Spelling
  • Part of Speech page - finished antonyms
  • Handwriting
  • Assigned Reading
  • Finished reading test
Conductor
  • Private Devotions
  • Math-U-See
  • Writing Journal
  • AWANA
  • Easy Grammar
  • Spelling work
  • Part of Speech page - finished antonyms
  • BBC Typing
  • Mathletics
  • Handwriting
  • Assigned Reading
  • Continued on reading test
Happy
  • AWANA
  • Alphabet Beats
  • Alpha-Phonics - Lesson 1
  • preK Alphabet book (finding A's & B's in words)
  • Time4Learning
  • Super Star Speech articulation test (he passed all levels)

Happy & Conductor had baseball practice in the afternoon/evening.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Day #110/175 Days

Together School

  • Popcorn Prayer
  • Pledge of Allegiance
  • National Anthem
  • Calendar time (Happy)
  • Poem work ("The Moon" by Robert Louis Stevenson)
  • Read aloud (By the Shores of Silver Lake)
  • Matthew Chapter 16
  • My Book of Devotions: about Self-Control - very short but to the point 
  • Grapevine studies
  • A Child's Story of America - Chapter 1 (It's by Christian Liberty Academy - the boys like it. We're reading a chapter each day and orally answering the review questions at the end of the chapter.)
  • Watched an episode of "Life" - "Hunters and Hunted"
Lego-Man
  • Private Devotions
  • Mathletics
  • Update blog
  • Writing journal
  • Math-U-See
  • AWANA
  • Easy Grammar
  • Spelling work
  • Part of Speech pages (working on antonyms)
  • Handwriting
  • Assigned Reading
  • Reading Test from abcTeach
Conductor
  • Private Devotions
  • Math-U-See
  • Writing Journal
  • AWANA
  • Easy Grammar
  • Spelling work
  • Part of Speech pages (working on antonyms)
  • BBC Typing
  • Mathletics
  • Handwriting
  • Assigned Reading
  • Reading test from abcTeach
Happy
  • Time4Learning

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Day #109/175 Days (Co-Op Day)

The two younger boys participated in the Geography Co-Op all morning. I have been teaching a sporadic photography class for older homeschooled kids that started back in September. I started out with 12 kids and I had 3 today. Lego-Man was one of them so I spent the first hour of Co-Op teaching that.

Then I joined the Geography class. Our country today was Kenya. It was taught by one of a Mom who has been there. Our church supports a missionary family who lives there (Actually, they are coming home for good next month! They have been there over 20 years!). Mrs. L had some wonderful insight in to the country and had a lot of great hands-on activities for the kids.

She actually took them outside and built a cook fire. Then cooked chai as that is a staple in the country. It wasn't bad. It tasted like bitter chocolate to me. Then some cornmeal mush. I didn't try that one. And finally a rice dish with goat meat. I did try that one - pretty yummy actually.


Goats are pretty valuable in Kenya and used for a variety of things. The funniest thing she did was have some of the younger kids try to herd the goats from one end of the parking lot to the other. These were Mrs. L's goats - just babies. In Kenya children as young as four have the job of looking after the family goats.
Happy is trying to point this baby goat in the right direction. It just wants to get back to its "mama" (Mrs. L). She finally had EVERYONE run across the lot and the goats happily came along. 

This was a lot of fun and I wish I had seen the first half of it. Mrs. L did send home a fun project of papers for the kids to work on at home. We'll be doing that soon. 

Monday, April 5, 2010

Day #108/175 Days

Together School

  • Popcorn Prayer
  • Pledge of Allegiance
  • National Anthem
  • Poem (began memorizing "The Moon" by Robert Louis Stevenson)
  • Finished our read aloud
  • Matthew Chapter 15
  • Read Worthington Botts and the Steam Machine by Betty Baker
Lego-Man
  • Private Devotions
  • Mathletics
  • Update blog
  • Writing Journal
  • Math-U-See
  • AWANA
  • Easy Grammar
  • Spelling
  • Part of Speech paper
  • Handwriting
  • Assigned Reading
  • Playing outside
Conductor
  • Private Devotions
  • Math-U-See
  • Writing journal
  • AWANA
  • Easy Grammar
  • Spelling
  • Part of Speech paper
  • Handwriting
  • BBC Typing
  • Mathletics
  • Assigned Reading
  • Wii Fit/outside playing
Happy
  • AWANA
  • Time4Learning
  • Zoodles
  • Outside playing/Wii Fit

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Day #107/175 Days

Together School

  • Popcorn Prayer
  • Pledge of Allegiance
  • National Anthem
  • Read Aloud 
  • Matthew Chapter 14
  • Lent Study (in which I discover we are an entire WEEK behind! We should have been doing our Holy Week study and we won't be able to catch up at this point. So annoyed with myself.)
  • Writing Journals
  • Math
  • AWANA