Homeschooling Week 7

This week Ben was sick all week with some sort of stomach bug. We accomplished a great deal considering how bad he felt. Ben even made a set of pompom and pipe cleaner farm animals with no help or instruction from me. We studied push and pull / force and friction this week in science. We studied the difference between fantasy and reality in fiction especially. We read about Hannibal and his elephants crossing the Alps into Italy in History. Ben did well on his spelling and wrote a persuasive letter. Finally we did leaf rubbings with crayons and made beeswax candles while we listened to Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" and listened to Classical Kids "Vivaldi's Ring of Mystery."

Pictures and papers from Week 7

Homeschooling Week 6

We learned about chemical changes and physical changes this week. We put Mentos candies into Diet Coke and found out that is a chemical change. Neither can go back to what they were before. We made brownies, a chemical change, and we mixed Teddy Grahams with Animal Crackers and made a physical change. Ben did great on his spelling test with ten words this week. He learned what 100 pennies and 100 beads strung together looks like. Ben knows the months of the year, the days of the week, time by the hour and half hour, but we struggle with money. He tells me every morning how much to give him to make the number of days he's been in school, but when it comes to exchanging pennies for larger coins he falters. We work on it here and there, but I think I need a system where he has to pay for treats or art supplies with real money. We also found a raccoon in our cat trap. Daddy is trying to catch a tomcat that is hurting our cats.

Pictures from Week 6

Homeschooling Week 5

We balanced things on a balance scale exploring more measurement of mass. We also studied precipitation, evaporation, and the water cycle. The shadow was just an added benefit.

Ben wrote a letter to his sister and the little smarty pants drew a picture of a letter then wrote: This is my letter. Period.

Ben summarized The Mixed Up Chameleon and got 100% on his spelling test this week.

Pictures from Week 5 Set

Week 5:
*An Octopus Followed Me Home by Dan Yaccarino
*What Can You Do With a Shoe by Beatrice Schenk de Regniers
Why Does Ice Melt? by Jim Pope
Home by Jeannie Baker
House and Homes by Ann Morris
*When Marcus Moore Moved In by Rebecca Bond
The Leaving Morning by Angela Johnson
*Hide and Seek All Week by Tomie de Paola
*Sharing Time Trouble by Grace Maccarone (First Grade Friends Series)
*The Counting Race by Margaret McNamara
*The Mixed Up Chameleon by Eric Carle

Homeschooling Week 4

Ben is doing well in TaeKwonDo. He really likes it and is working with the purpose of EARNING a yellow belt. This week we moved at a steady pace with no make-up work. It was relaxed and we didn't skip anything so the flow seemed smoother. We studied mixtures in science, maps in social studies, and fact family 10 in math. Ben took his first spelling test. He did well working with the words in his work all day, but missed one on the test at the end of the day. We read "The Dot" by and Ben made his own dot masterpiece for art. This was in place of charcoil cave drawings that we have done before.

Pictures from Week 4



Week 4:
Inch by Inch by Leo Lionni
Short Cut by David Macauley
Hot and Cold by Jack Challoner
Only One Neighborhood by Marc Harshman and Barbara Garrison
*In My Neighborhood by Mari C. Schuh
The Loud Move In by Carolyn Crimi
Who’s Who in a Neighborhood by Jake Miller
Safety in Your Neighborhood by Lucia Raatma
The Fire Station by Robert Munsch
*Hit the Ball, Duck by Jez Alborough
*The Counting Race by Margaret McNamara
*The Cat in The Hat by Dr. Suess
*Sometimes by Keith Baker