Today's homeschool post is actually on our everyday life page as it is a whole life impact story.
So please click on the Everyday Life/Weekly tab to read our story about our homeschooling triumph!
Accidentally Homeschooling - Our Homeschool Rooms...
Friday, September 3, 2010
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Very cool homeschool site for Spelling
I have to thank my friend Renee for this....Thanks Renee!.....
This will work beautifully with our weekly spelling words, add fun and be part of his computer lessons.
Spelling City is a spelling and vocabulary website that uses your own spelling/vocab words. The site will teach, test and use games to help your child with their weekly spelling or vocab words. It verbally spells out the words in the learn section and then uses it in a sentence. The test section (you have to click each individual box) will say the word which your child then types into the box, they can also use the buttons to have the word said again or used in a sentence again, both are done initally upon clicking on the box. You have to do all of the spelling words before clicking on the check me as it does the whole test as a whole. It grades you, allows you to print the report or a certificate. Under the games section there are games and learning activities such as sentence writing practice, my son enjoyed almost of them. I can actually see using this more and more on a daily basis along with and instead of a couple of things we have already started that seem sort of stuffy and old fashioned. I love the idea of him taking his test this way as well.
This will work beautifully with our weekly spelling words, add fun and be part of his computer lessons.
Spelling City is a spelling and vocabulary website that uses your own spelling/vocab words. The site will teach, test and use games to help your child with their weekly spelling or vocab words. It verbally spells out the words in the learn section and then uses it in a sentence. The test section (you have to click each individual box) will say the word which your child then types into the box, they can also use the buttons to have the word said again or used in a sentence again, both are done initally upon clicking on the box. You have to do all of the spelling words before clicking on the check me as it does the whole test as a whole. It grades you, allows you to print the report or a certificate. Under the games section there are games and learning activities such as sentence writing practice, my son enjoyed almost of them. I can actually see using this more and more on a daily basis along with and instead of a couple of things we have already started that seem sort of stuffy and old fashioned. I love the idea of him taking his test this way as well.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Enjoying the last days of summer....
Well, August did not go exactly as planned with our school work but that's okay. Instead of us being full on everyday we have been doing bits and pieces while we enjoy ourselves. We have been hitting the shore (we live in NJ, USA so we call the beach the shore, unlike the rest of the world. LOL!) on DH's days off or other things locally. Its us hanging onto the last of summer I guess.
So, we have being doing weekly spelling, language arts (parts of speech actually) and math. Next week we'll be starting full on but we'll still be taking advantage of those days off to hit the shore while everyone else is back at school and work, its much less crowded that way.
Anyway this is what we have been working on the past three weeks:
Grade 2
Week 1 (8/10 - 8/14) -
* Spelling words - gas, sat, had, bad, mad, rag, bat, wag, pat, bag.
First Day - introduced the list to him, matched the list to index cards and spelling out loud from them.
2nd Day - he was able to spell half the list without looking at them again, by the end of the day he had all 10 words down. We also identified vowels and consonants and wrote words in a sentence.
3rd Day - wrote the list of words from memory 3x each, did worksheet from book for words and brainstormed other words ending in ad, ag, as and at.
4th Day - wrote a rhyme using brainstormed words from day before, took spelling test.
* Reading - studying parts of speech.
Read Q is for Duck; an Animal Guessing Game (Mary Elting/Michael Folsom).
1st Day - Explained what a noun was and he picked all of the nouns in the book. He then wrote the animal nouns adding some of his own to the list.
2nd Day - Proper nouns - created names for the list of animals from yesterday's list, wrote those names making sure each began with a capital letter. Completed 2 worksheets from book (common nouns/proper nouns).
3rd Day - Changed each singular name from book into plural nouns. 2 worksheets from book (singular nouns/plural nouns).
4th Day - Introduced what a verb is and then he picked out the verbs in storybook, writing them in alphabetical order.
5th Day - Wrote an original noun/verb book using the proper nouns from 2nd day's work.
* Math -
Along with other math work (addition/subtraction) from Learn at Home book we read the book Domino Addition (Lynette Long). Then, using real dominoes created addition and subtraction problems using the pips on each domino. Completed worksheet from LAH book.
Week 2 - (8/17 - 8/22) -
* Spelling Words - wet, pen, rest, tell, best, well, set, fell, men, met.
For the week we continued the pattern from week 1 using different worksheets from LAH book.
* Reading - Read Tacky the Penguin (Helen Lester).
For the week he learned what verbs were, identified the verbs in the book, learned past and present tense with activities, linking verbs and changing words using ed and ing, also completed related worksheets in LAH book.
* Math - Additon and subtraction using numbers 1-10, fact families and using manipulatives including dominoes, parts and whole, improved speed and accuracy of addition/subtraction with flash cards.
Week 3 - (8/24 - 8/28) -
* Spelling Words - fix, win, hit, still, tin, will, bill, sit, fit, hill.
Same as first two weeks.
* Reading - Adjectives - picking and describing objects around the house and outside.
Read Six Sick Sheep: 101 Tongue Twisters (Joanna Cole). During the week we identified adjectives from the book, made our own twister, described his own toys and played a guessing game by describing an unseen object with adjectives switching who guesses while playing and completed related worksheets from LAH book.
* Math - Part-part-whole frames, missing addends, count on's to find missing addends, skip counting in missing addends, using subtraction to find missing addends and checking answers, completed worksheets as usual.
* Social Studies - Read the books This Is the Way We Go to School: A Book About Children Around the World (Edith Baer) and the fable The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse. Used both stories to compare and discuss neighborhoods.
By the way, the book This Is the Way We Go to School is great and one that we will be adding to our library at home and Six Sick Sheep may also be added since we need to use it for a few weeks in our studies.
Week 4 looks like this:
* Spelling Words - job, rock, cob, pop, got, lot, hop, box, sock, fox. With a review of phonic skills of short o vowels, the ck sound and the letter x. Also, while typing this list I'm adding the Dr. Seuss book Fox In Socks, it will be perfect with this list.
* Books for the week are Frog and Toad Are Friends (Arnold Lobel), Adventures of Taxi Dog (Debra and Sal Barracca) and if I can find it City Seen From A to Z (Rachel Isadora). The last two books are part of our social studies for the week but City Seen is hard to find in the library so I may end up using This Is the Way We Go to School from last week or something else.
* Math - Subtrahends and Minuends.
We'll also be starting our science and writing journals. More on next week...well, next week.
I am very happy that The Red Ranger's spelling, math and parts of speech lessons are going so well...far better than I thought they would. We've also continued with our geography (oceans and continents of the world) and our "Where in the USA and Where in the World is...." (daily) map work, he really enjoys map work. We were going to do a unit study branching off from oceans and continents but since we have a unit study coming up next week on Native Americans for four weeks I think it would be too much. So, we will slowly continue adding to oceans and continents by with animals that live in the seas and continue from there. It looks like it will be an ongoing study instead of a themed unit study. Also, our LAH curriculum book has an ocean study of its own coming up at week 10 with lots of books to read and our local aquarium (Adventure Aquarium in Camden, NJ) offers a week of study especially for homeschoolers in the fall. We didn't get to do this last year because of DH's illness but I'm hoping to fit it in this time around.
We'll also be introducing a Cleopatra study this fall because our local museum, The Franklin Institute, has a big Cleopatra exhibit going on until the end of the year and we have to take advantage of that AND I missed the King Tut exhibit and refuse to miss this one!!
Sorry....Mommy rant there......I'm better now.......as you can we are busy and it will get even busier as the weeks progress. I'm hoping to get more pictures up for the Not Back to School Hop but there just hasn't been any time. Hope you enjoy the waning days of summer!!
So, we have being doing weekly spelling, language arts (parts of speech actually) and math. Next week we'll be starting full on but we'll still be taking advantage of those days off to hit the shore while everyone else is back at school and work, its much less crowded that way.
Anyway this is what we have been working on the past three weeks:
Grade 2
Week 1 (8/10 - 8/14) -
* Spelling words - gas, sat, had, bad, mad, rag, bat, wag, pat, bag.
First Day - introduced the list to him, matched the list to index cards and spelling out loud from them.
2nd Day - he was able to spell half the list without looking at them again, by the end of the day he had all 10 words down. We also identified vowels and consonants and wrote words in a sentence.
3rd Day - wrote the list of words from memory 3x each, did worksheet from book for words and brainstormed other words ending in ad, ag, as and at.
4th Day - wrote a rhyme using brainstormed words from day before, took spelling test.
* Reading - studying parts of speech.
Read Q is for Duck; an Animal Guessing Game (Mary Elting/Michael Folsom).
1st Day - Explained what a noun was and he picked all of the nouns in the book. He then wrote the animal nouns adding some of his own to the list.
2nd Day - Proper nouns - created names for the list of animals from yesterday's list, wrote those names making sure each began with a capital letter. Completed 2 worksheets from book (common nouns/proper nouns).
3rd Day - Changed each singular name from book into plural nouns. 2 worksheets from book (singular nouns/plural nouns).
4th Day - Introduced what a verb is and then he picked out the verbs in storybook, writing them in alphabetical order.
5th Day - Wrote an original noun/verb book using the proper nouns from 2nd day's work.
* Math -
Along with other math work (addition/subtraction) from Learn at Home book we read the book Domino Addition (Lynette Long). Then, using real dominoes created addition and subtraction problems using the pips on each domino. Completed worksheet from LAH book.
Week 2 - (8/17 - 8/22) -
* Spelling Words - wet, pen, rest, tell, best, well, set, fell, men, met.
For the week we continued the pattern from week 1 using different worksheets from LAH book.
* Reading - Read Tacky the Penguin (Helen Lester).
For the week he learned what verbs were, identified the verbs in the book, learned past and present tense with activities, linking verbs and changing words using ed and ing, also completed related worksheets in LAH book.
* Math - Additon and subtraction using numbers 1-10, fact families and using manipulatives including dominoes, parts and whole, improved speed and accuracy of addition/subtraction with flash cards.
Week 3 - (8/24 - 8/28) -
* Spelling Words - fix, win, hit, still, tin, will, bill, sit, fit, hill.
Same as first two weeks.
* Reading - Adjectives - picking and describing objects around the house and outside.
Read Six Sick Sheep: 101 Tongue Twisters (Joanna Cole). During the week we identified adjectives from the book, made our own twister, described his own toys and played a guessing game by describing an unseen object with adjectives switching who guesses while playing and completed related worksheets from LAH book.
* Math - Part-part-whole frames, missing addends, count on's to find missing addends, skip counting in missing addends, using subtraction to find missing addends and checking answers, completed worksheets as usual.
* Social Studies - Read the books This Is the Way We Go to School: A Book About Children Around the World (Edith Baer) and the fable The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse. Used both stories to compare and discuss neighborhoods.
By the way, the book This Is the Way We Go to School is great and one that we will be adding to our library at home and Six Sick Sheep may also be added since we need to use it for a few weeks in our studies.
Week 4 looks like this:
* Spelling Words - job, rock, cob, pop, got, lot, hop, box, sock, fox. With a review of phonic skills of short o vowels, the ck sound and the letter x. Also, while typing this list I'm adding the Dr. Seuss book Fox In Socks, it will be perfect with this list.
* Books for the week are Frog and Toad Are Friends (Arnold Lobel), Adventures of Taxi Dog (Debra and Sal Barracca) and if I can find it City Seen From A to Z (Rachel Isadora). The last two books are part of our social studies for the week but City Seen is hard to find in the library so I may end up using This Is the Way We Go to School from last week or something else.
* Math - Subtrahends and Minuends.
We'll also be starting our science and writing journals. More on next week...well, next week.
I am very happy that The Red Ranger's spelling, math and parts of speech lessons are going so well...far better than I thought they would. We've also continued with our geography (oceans and continents of the world) and our "Where in the USA and Where in the World is...." (daily) map work, he really enjoys map work. We were going to do a unit study branching off from oceans and continents but since we have a unit study coming up next week on Native Americans for four weeks I think it would be too much. So, we will slowly continue adding to oceans and continents by with animals that live in the seas and continue from there. It looks like it will be an ongoing study instead of a themed unit study. Also, our LAH curriculum book has an ocean study of its own coming up at week 10 with lots of books to read and our local aquarium (Adventure Aquarium in Camden, NJ) offers a week of study especially for homeschoolers in the fall. We didn't get to do this last year because of DH's illness but I'm hoping to fit it in this time around.
We'll also be introducing a Cleopatra study this fall because our local museum, The Franklin Institute, has a big Cleopatra exhibit going on until the end of the year and we have to take advantage of that AND I missed the King Tut exhibit and refuse to miss this one!!
Sorry....Mommy rant there......I'm better now.......as you can we are busy and it will get even busier as the weeks progress. I'm hoping to get more pictures up for the Not Back to School Hop but there just hasn't been any time. Hope you enjoy the waning days of summer!!
Thursday, August 5, 2010
An Usborne Mystery Hostess Online Book Party
In case you hadn't seen yet I'm a Usborne Books Consultant, works great for our homeschooling.
For August I'm holding a Mystery Hostess Party online at my Usborne site.
You can order some of the books you need for your homeschooling and also get chances to win the free books generated by the Mystery Hostess Party. There are a few other chances and you can see them below. I've held off placing my own Usborne order so that I could include it in the sales totals for this event.
Link for the Mystery Hostess Online Party: www.ubah.com/HOS177386
Link for Facebook Page: The Usborne Kid's Book Train
For August I'm holding a Mystery Hostess Party online at my Usborne site.
You can order some of the books you need for your homeschooling and also get chances to win the free books generated by the Mystery Hostess Party. There are a few other chances and you can see them below. I've held off placing my own Usborne order so that I could include it in the sales totals for this event.
Link for the Mystery Hostess Online Party: www.ubah.com/HOS177386
Link for Facebook Page: The Usborne Kid's Book Train
Teaching Time to my son or sometimes he directs where the lesson goes...
While doing lessons the other day we had one of those moments where The Red Ranger directs where the lesson goes. We were doing a telling time worksheet and then matching the times on the worksheet with our handheld clocks and he was loving it so I pulled out our time flash cards (analog and digital) which led to one of our workstations. I put in the cards as digital, The Red Ranger then pulled out the clock face and matched it and then self-checked by flipping over the flash card.
We spent so much time on this lesson with 5 more folders to go in our workfolder system but this was one of THOSE moments, you know the ones where the learning is more of a game so they think its a break!! This of course had now led to me having to go back to the $ store (they come in packs of 4) to pick up more of the clock faces but its going to be great. My son took one of clocks for his room and I used one for our season block on our morning meeting chart so really need to get more for the workstation now. In case you are wondering the Mom really liked how this all worked out as well!
The hanging pocket chart came from the $ section at Target (the pocket charts there are actually $2.50 but still worth it, you'll be seeing lots of them in these posts). The season sheet was from one of our workbooks.
The analog/digital time flash cards were a freebie I got from the Carson Dellosa Facebook Page last year (I got a whole package of cool free stuff from them just for being a fan on their page and posting).
My husband has said more than once that the kids (teens) working for him do not understand analog time. If it isn't a digital clock they can't tell time and heaven forbid you say "be back at quarter-after or half-past", they haven't a clue what you are talking about. These are teens GRADUATING from high school!!
AND people wonder WHY we homeschool??!! LOL!!
The hanging pocket chart came from the $ section at Target (the pocket charts there are actually $2.50 but still worth it, you'll be seeing lots of them in these posts). The season sheet was from one of our workbooks.
The analog/digital time flash cards were a freebie I got from the Carson Dellosa Facebook Page last year (I got a whole package of cool free stuff from them just for being a fan on their page and posting).
My husband has said more than once that the kids (teens) working for him do not understand analog time. If it isn't a digital clock they can't tell time and heaven forbid you say "be back at quarter-after or half-past", they haven't a clue what you are talking about. These are teens GRADUATING from high school!!
AND people wonder WHY we homeschool??!! LOL!!
Monday, August 2, 2010
Our Curriculum for Curriculum Week - Not Back To School Blog Hop
Our curriculum so far.
ABC For Fitness - Several times daily - 30 minutes for the day.
Morning Meeting Work consisting of calendar, weather, letters, words, vocab. for the week.
Geography - US, World, and themed studies.
1. August - Oceans of the World and the sea life in them with workbooks, scanopedia and other materials. Twice a week.
2. US - Identifying states, flags of the states. Will expand on each states info as needed. Twice a week.
3. With the Oceans, we'll be studying the continents of the globe and some of their countries along with animals and flags. Once or twice a week.
History - Will be tied in with the geography studies above. One day US history, one day World.
Will also be doing a unit study on Egypt and Cleopatra across subjects to be followed by a visit to the Cleopatra exhibit in Philadelphia at the Franklin Institute.
Science - Two or three times a week. SuperCharged Science program and Space, experiments (physics), dinosaurs, nature from many other sources.
* ADD-ON - Updated 8/3/2010 - The Young Scientists Club - See update below.
Art - Palette of Fun - 4H curriculum, grades K-6. Plus other Arts and Crafts from other sources and themed.
Music - Beginning guitar and piano.
For now these are our main books:
COMPREHENSIVE CURRICULUM: 2nd Grade
All of these are in binders and I'm using the page protector's over them to preserve them.
- Learn at Home Series from Carson Dellosa - it gives you an entire year's worth of lesson plans to help you start off with, done week by week. Its a great starting point.
- Flash Kids Series - Complete Curriculum from B&N.
- And the Big Second Grade Workbook from School Zone.
- Learning with Literature series, two books one each for a Math twist and Science Twist. For grades K-2. (Carson Dellosa)
- Several Homework Booklets from Carson Dellosa on phonics, grammar, reading comprehension.
- Supplemental Workbooks and flashcards for math, science, history, geography, space. Most of these have come from the $1 bins at Target and the Dollar Store. They are perfect for independent work, busy or I'm finished already work, or as compliments to other lessons.
None of this includes my books from Usborne yet as I just can't decide what I want (or rather what I can afford!). So I'll add them later.
We also have a science program, HOP reading (2nd Grade) and I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff but its a start for this blog. I'm sure as I read the other blogs in the hop I'll realize what I forgot or find something else we might want to add. My husband is also helping with science (computers, ham radio, electricity, music). Not sure about a language just yet.
Here are some of the photo's of our books, I haven't included our science, history or geography because this post is just getting too long. Can't wait to see what everyone else has! Thanks for dropping by!
* UPDATE: Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010 -
As expected while reading other blogs in the hop we have found the first add-on for our curriculum this year.
It's The Young Scientist's Club and it came from the blog Fortunately For You Books.
I can't wait to order the first kit for The Red Ranger, I love the way each kit builds on what is made and learned in the previous kit for use in future kit's.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Page Protectors and Workbooks
Today I'm cheating and sending you to another homeschooling blog I follow. She had a fabulous idea for the problem of using workbooks for your child and still being able to reuse them later for review or younger children. Its come at the most timely time because as I prepare our 2nd grade work I have all of these books I don't want us to write in but taking the time and money to scan them and print them using a bunch of paper and ink and then I feel guilty about trees when I see all the paper! And VIOLA here is the answer!! I feel like I should make up an award and send it to her blog!
So, I change the shopping list of supplies once again....lol.....but oh what a difference this will make.
Please check out Homeschool Creations for the post about this and don't forget to click follow on this blog for when I update, its attached to my other blog but you have to follow this page as well as the other's in order to get updates.
So, I change the shopping list of supplies once again....lol.....but oh what a difference this will make.
Please check out Homeschool Creations for the post about this and don't forget to click follow on this blog for when I update, its attached to my other blog but you have to follow this page as well as the other's in order to get updates.
Friday, July 30, 2010
A reprieve...
Thursday, July 29, 2010
I've been getting our new system down and also introducing new things to our school day but I've also wanted to get our curriculum down, post what we do each day and how things are changing, etc. but I've been so bogged down with things that its just hasn't been happening.
Today, I found the solution on another homeschooling blog......
Heart of the Matter Online is hosting a "Not Back to School Blog Hop" and each week during the month of August is a theme. Care to guess what the first two weeks are? Go on...take a guess....Yup, you got it. The first week is curriculum and the second is school room week. Deep breath...there that feels better already. And in case I find something I really like while hopping around that I would use instead or add to what we are doing, there will be plenty of time to do so before mid-september. If you are interested you can join the hop with the button below.
Meanwhile for August we will be working with our ocean theme. Since its still summer here with some more days of hitting the shore and boards in Wildwood, NJ it will fit in perfectly for our lessons and there's the added bonus that the Carson-Dellosa Facebook Page is having a bulletin board contest so guess what our bulletin board will be. Then we'll switch into our Cleopatra/Egypt theme because when we take off the first couple of weeks of September, when everyone else is going back to school, we'll be hitting The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia for the Cleopatra exhibit. I'll be sure to add what we are doing with both units of study in case anyone else wants to do their own thing.
Also hoping that I get this blog thing figured out soon. I believe I fixed the comment section now below this homeschooling page so you should be able to comment directly on this page now. Now, if I can just figure out how to post to each page individually instead of it going on the main blog I will be very happy. Sigh, of course now I can't swap back the bold and italic. I better quit while I'm behind! I also cannot get the caps out of fix all the different fonts, it seems my technology problems of yesterday are continuing today....heavens, I may have to shut down the computer!
Our new system - Starting 2nd Grade work...
We our beginning our second full year now of homeschooling. I can't believe we are starting second grade work but here we go..........!
Originally we pulled our son out of kindergarten in the public school system back in Feb. 09. This year begins a whole new system of learning with The Red Ranger doing more for himself.
We started by using the Sue Patrick Workbox System that I had read about on a fellow homeschoolers blog - Confessions of a Homeschooler. I found the way it was described on Confessions of a Homeschooler very easy to adapt for our usage.First, its not a curriculum, its an organizational system to make things easier for you and your children. It will (and this is BIG) stop, it has for us at least, the "how long are we doing lessons today?", "when will we be done?", "how much more do we have to do?"
We had to adapt it for us because we just don't have a seperate room or space for the storage carts. Our classroom is all around us, living room, dining room, even part of the kitchen, not to mention lessons all over the house. So we are using a hanging file folder system/pocket chart that I recently got from the website Really Good Stuff.
All we do is use labels to direct our son to centers, his easel for art, his computer lessons and so on for things that can't fit into the pockets. Then as The Red Ranger finishes each folder he places the folder and work into a box placed under the chart and continues to the next folder. We have two built in 10 minute breaks and a half-hour lunch and there's also the new fitness program we just started which is helping with the fidgets of having to sit and learn after playing. I'm finding that it really focuses him on his learning and its fun as well.
I'll add pictures of just how we are set up soon and also the books we are using for our 2nd grade work as well as the fitness program we are using later.
There is one thing that I've learned going from 1st grade work into 2nd, we didn't have enough of a variety with the 1st grade work. I was only using one curriculum book with supplemental materials and I've now found that there is a gap. I'm thinking it might be because I switched the brand on the curriculum and we didn't have a broad base to start with the one book. Instead of only one comprehensive curriculum book we are now using three with many, many supplemental books to switch things up each day for fun.
For now these are our main books:
COMPREHENSIVE CURRICULUM: 2nd Grade
- Learn at Home Series from Carson Dellosa - it gives you an entire year's worth of lesson plans to help you start off with done week by week. Its a great starting point.
- Flash Kids Series - Complete Curriculum from B&N.
- And the Big Second Grade Workbook from School Zone.
- Learning with Literature series, two books one each for a Math twist and Science Twist. For grades K-2. (Carson Dellosa)
- Several Homework Booklets from Carson Dellosa on phonics, grammar, reading comprehension.
- Supplemental Workbooks and flashcards for math, science, history, geography, space. Most of these have come from the $1 bins at Target and the Dollar Store. They are perfect for independent work, busy or I'm finished already work, or as compliments to other lessons.
We also have a science program, HOP reading and I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff but its a start for this blog. I'll post how our day works along with a more detailed description of our lessons and system at a later date.
Summer Reading List:
The page looks so blank so here's our summer reading list (even though yes we have school during the summer). We are more than halfway through!
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