Homeschooling Week 3

Family traditions. Matter and mass. This is Ben's version of our family flag, but I think it really is HIS personal flag. That is okay. We have our family crest and geneology already on the wall so he was not receptive to a new one.

School is going great. We are one week behind our original start date, but we didn't get materials and online services until three weeks after we started. I'm happy with where we are and his MOVIP teacher is okay with what we are doing so here we stay.

I really like the video teacher films and the materials from Little Lincolns. We've added Susan Bauer Wise's Story of the World Vol. 1 to our curriuculum. I read to him for about an hour and let him do simple map work included in the workbook for the text. He loves ancient history. We've been adding DVD's that show archeology about the time or area we are covering. I've also added Classical Kids stories of great composers that map out a child's version of the composer's life and work. Ben loves to listen to these CDs in the car as we travel. Usually he listens to one CD per trip to Tae Kwon Do .

I've added Daily Devotions, but I'd do that and read to Ben even if he was in public or private school. Need to get back to some of the classical literature I want to read to him at this point.

All in all we have found our niche. The correspondence course is working great for us and the fact that I have a teacher guiding me makes me feel so much more secure with this program. I am happy and Ben is doing his work with less and less resistance.

Pictures from Week 3

Week 3 Reading List:
*That Makes Me Mad by Steven Kroll
*The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister
Feelings by Aliki
Little Red Riding Hood by Trina Schart Hyman
Solids and Liquids by David Glover
Solid, Liquid, or Gas? by Sally Hewitt
-Am as in Ham by Elizabeth Salzman
-An as in Fan by Elizabeth Salzman
Family Traditions by Gretchen Super
*My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss
*Four Friends in Autumn by Tomie de Paola
*Noodles the Puppy by Hans Wilhelm
*Sometimes by Keith Baker

Homeschooling Week 2

Sculputres everywhere! Tinkertoy sculpture, lego sculptures, and this little cat was from the Little Lincoln video teacher. Lovely and recycled! Ben LOVES to recycle things!

Pictures from Week 2

Week 2 Reading List:
Panda Math: Learning About Subtraction from Hua and Mei Sheng by Ann Whitehead Nagda
Measuring Penny by Loreen Leedy
What is Mass by Don L. Curry
*Equal Shmequal by Virginia Kroll
Balances by Adele Richardson
How Long or Wide?: A Measuring Guide by Brian P. Cleary
Volume by Chris Woodford
Manners at a Friends Home by Teri Gezelle
*You Read to Me, I’ll Read to You by Mary Ann Holberman
*Silly Sally by Audrey Wood
*You’re All My Favorites by Sam McBratney
*Mouse Shapes by Ellen Stoll Walsh
*You Can Do It, Sam by Amy Hest
*Autumn by Gail Sanders Smith

Homeschooling Week 1

No materials. No Little Lincolns online. The teacher at MOVIP is working her heart out trying to get us materials to keep up, but it is discouraging.

We did an art lesson on texture that I found on the internet. Textured paper towels cut into leaves then dipped in a solution of 50/50 water and glue and pasted to posterboard. We let it dry and it was really rough and hard. Meshed with out lesson on solids and liguids in science as well. Crayon viens and watered down watercolors to paint the fall leaves. A masterpiece!

Pictures from Week 1

Reading List Week 1:
98, 99, 100! Ready or Not Here I Come! by Teddy Slater
Touch It! Materials, Matter and You by Adrienne Mason
Matter by Heather Miller
What Is the World Made Of?: All About Solids, Liquids, and Gases by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld, Paul Meisel (Illustrator)
Matter by Julie Murray
*A is for Asia by Cynthia Chin-Lee
C Is for China by Sungwan So,
*Babar’s Museum of Art by Laurent de Brunhoff
*Linnea in Monet’s Garden by Christina Bjork
Into the Air: An Illustrated Timeline of Flight by Ryan Ann Hunter,
Claude Monet: Sunshine and Waterlilies By: True Kelley
Monet by Shelley Swanson Sateren
Mary Cassat, by Robin Turner
Mary Cassatt: Family Pictures by Jane O'Connor
Mary Cassatt (Masterpieces: Artists and Their Works Series) by B. A. Hoena
Mary Cassatt: Impressionist Painter by Lois V. Harris
3-D ABC: a Sculptural Alphabet by Bob Raczka
What a Family! A Fresh Look at Family Trees by Rachel Isadora
Me and My Family Tree by Joan Sweeney
Shades of People by Sheila M. Kelly,
Five Creatures by Emily Jenkins,
*Authur’s Family Vacation by Marc Brown
A Ride on Mother’s Back: A Day of Carrying Baby Around the World by Emery Bernhard
Children Around the World by Donata Montanari,
*First Graders from Mars, Episode 1: Horus’s Horrible Day by Shana Corey
*Puppy Mudge Loses his Blanket by Cynthia Rylant
*Silly Sally by Audrey Wood

Homeschooling Week 0

This is our little work station on a short wall of the kitchen near the table and chairs. Our week is in slots and our appointment calendar is above that. We have a number line, a 100 number chart, rebus Pledge of Allegience, sight word index card holder which is actually modern art from our trip to the Nelson Atkins Museum, a skelaton, various junk, and magnetic calendar and chore chart with room for time and math practice. Pizza Hut Book It Chart and Where the Wild Things Are Poster for the upcoming movie.

We also have three bookcase filled with books, video, and music and tubs of art and science supplies that are in the laundry room. Homeschooling has taken over our entire house.

Week 0 was a week to set up daily rituals. Most we have kept, but some have gone to the wayside already. Every school day we begin with:

Graphing the weather for the day.

Add to our current pattern strip.

Update a magnetic calendar and magnetic chore chart.

Use a tally sheet and a 100 number chart to count the first 100 days of school.

Make a journal entry in Ben's Math Journal M-TH and Personal Journal on Friday.

We then count out and make change with money as a mini-game.

On Monday's we also add two words to Ben's Personal Dictionary and alphabetize his sight and spelling word index cards.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays Ben goes to Tae Kwon Do lessons.

We are trying to go weekly to a program through one of the surrounding libraries that is usually science related or a performing arts program. And will add different field trips as they come up that are mainly performance arts such as puppet shows, a musical, a ballet, a play, etc. We will do some work on percussion/rhythm instraments at home this year and add music lessons next year. Probably guitar lessons or violin.

Pictures from Week 0

Kid Games

Kid's Pages

PBS Kids

PBS Reader Island Game

Knowledge Adventure

Midcontinent Library Kid's Web

Ideas for Art Classes

Patterns/Fall Leaves

Textured Fall Leaves

Hello, Fruit Face

Pastel Cactus

My Many Colored Days Portfolio

The Dot Portfolio

Positve/Negative Drawing: Still Life

Colorful Spiderweb

Fall Leaf Butterflies: collage, symmetry

Torn Paper Animal Collage

Russian Buildings: Shapes on graph paper

Finish the Picture Animal

Pastel Penguin: Using geometric shapes in a picture.

Draw a Snake with Texture

Paper Collage House