Well, this month has two holidays that we spend quite a bit of time on. I already blogged about Easter and Earth Day, but we also did quite a bit that was not tied to a holiday.
Math - Mostly we are just practicing addition within 7 and subtraction within 5. I have also had him practicing counting nickels, dimes, and quarters. My find of the month is Sudoku puzzles. Here is a website that has some sample puzzles for kids. There are 6 altogether that are 4x4 in size. The first two I walked him through, asking him for the answers after leading him there. By the third puzzle he was leading me through the "logic". Then I printed out the second sample page of three puzzles and he did the first two all on his own, asking for one hint on the third one. I'm going to see if I can find more 4x4 puzzles before moving on to 6x6.
Music - We spent some time earlier in the month on Sergei Prokofiev and "Peter and the Wolf". Our library has a book with CD and a DVD of a ballet. We had fun trying to pick out the instruments and move like the animals.
Art - Because the first Saturday in May is the Kentucky Derby, which is like a two-week holiday where we live, I chose Degas for his "Racing Horses" painting. We also read "What Makes a Degas a Degas?" by Richard Muhlberger.
Also, I found this wonderful blog called ART PROJECTS FOR KIDS. It's awesome. Samuel did this project, except his chameleon had stripes and polka dots and his background color was orange. It was his first time doing a watercolor resist and he was so amazed at how his crayon marks showed through the paint. We put it in a frame and put it on his art gallery wall in his room (it's just three dollar store frames in a row on the short wall next to his window).
Reading - I've moved into some challenging books for his reading aloud time, mostly level 2 and 3. He's doing very well. I always have a fairly large choice, but he gets to choose which ones he reads. For his "fun" reading time he usually chooses easy picture books, which is good too. Just recently we started a reading journal, where he records the books he reads and draws a picture from the story. I'll blog about that more later, after we've had a chance to develop it more. Here are the challenging books he has read for me:
"Dolores and the Big Fire: A True Story" by Andrew Clements
"The Berenstain Bears and the Tic-Tac-Toe Mystery"
"The Case of the Puzzling Possum" by Cynthia Rylant
Literature/Poetry - We are reading Charlotte's Web" by EB White and poems from "The Bill Martin Jr Big Book of Poetry". We'll probably finish up both of these in May. A la Charlotte Mason, I usually only read one chapter from the 2 or 3 books we have going at any given time each day or two, plus one or two poems each day, in order to "savor" them. We also have two chapter books going that fall in the Nature Study category.
Geography - We are listening to "Paddle to the Sea" by Holling C. Holling once a week in the car (although we usually listen to 2 to 4 chapters at a time). I also checked out the book and we look at the pictures and use our US placemat map (I really need to get a bigger map!) to see where he is. A really fun thing we've been doing geography-wise is singing "The Fifty States That Rhyme" song. There are several versions on Youtube and I wrote down the words to the one we like and we listen and sing along. It's very hard. I don't think he's learning anything from this, but it's just showing how learning can be fun. Here's the version we like:
Nature Study - This is one of our bigger areas of study just because it's so much fun. We finished up Thornton Burgess' "The Adventures of Danny Meadow Mouse" and began "The Adventures of Grandfather Frog". We have also been reading from "The Tarantula in My Purse" by naturalist Jean Craighead George. Strangely enough, we haven't heard one word about a tarantula! We also visited the Louisville Science Center and spent a whole afternoon exploring, learning, and having fun. Of course, the weather has been nicer and we've spent countless hours outdoors, exploring the effects of our winter ice storm on our little patch of trees we watch. We lost our tree that was home to a pair of mourning doves, but we have still seen them around.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Earth Day - Hooray!
Usually I do not post plans because I am sure to change them. Just compare my Kindergarten Curriculum posting in relation to my Monthly Reports. However, Samuel is taking an interest in my blog and wants me to post everything. While we have started our Earth Day fun/lessons, there is still time before Earth Day (April 22) and maybe it would be of interest/use to you for this year.
These are the books and videos I have gotten from the library so far:
Every Day Is Earth Day, by Kathy Ross (A Craft Book)
Earth Day -- Hooray! by Stuart J. Murphy (a living math book and the inspiration for my post title)
The Lorax, by Dr. Seuss (in DVD and book format)
The Magic School Bus Holiday Special DVD (three programs about recycling, saving desert animals, and the rainforest)
I also plan on reading the creation story from the Bible to relate how we should use what God provides, but still take care of His creation.
The first book I got was the craft book. Samuel loves crafts and was desperate to find one we could do RIGHT NOW, without having to go to the store or wait until we had collected whatever trash we needed to make the craft (like toilet paper rolls, etc). The one we decided on was the TRASH MONSTER!:
Side View
Top View (Face)
Here are the directions:
- Cut a large oval hole out of the bottom of a grocery bag (Samuel drew the oval and I cut it out). Open a second grocery bag and slide the first bag inside so that the bottom with the hole is at the top. The hole is the monster's mouth.
- Crumple newspaper into balls (we used half a page for each ball) and glue them above the mouth for eyes. Cut sharp teeth (triangles) from an old magazine cover and glue them around the inside of the mouth (we used scotch tape instead of glue).
- Cut large letters from the magazine to spell out "trash monster" and glue them to the front of the bag (our bags had writing already on them so we first glued our letters to the back of a piece of paper that we had previously drawn something on the front - more re-using!)
- The directions in the book made a nose out of a pipe cleaner that you could also use as a handle, but our bags had handles on them and Samuel wanted to draw on his nose so that's what we did.
- Take your trash monster for a walk and feed it trash you find along the way. Since we made this, we have had wet weather and I didn't think it would be a good idea to put wet trash in a paper bag, so we have been "feeding" it with bits of trash that cannot be recycled like the plastic from clothing tags and Easter candy wrappers.
I'll post pictures if we do any other crafts from this book. It's out of print as far as I can tell, but it's pretty good and I recommend trying to find it at your library or you can find it used through Amazon.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
To Bunny or Not To Bunny?
It's not about the Bunny. I know that. But the Bunny is a part of the day, just a very small part.
Beginning on Palm Sunday, I began our bible readings with Matthew 26 and continued each day through the rest of the story. I was happy, when I got to the part where Peter denies Jesus three times before the rooster crows, to hear Samuel say that was the bible story at school that week. At least I know he's getting some religious training, but I am not going to rely on that or our church for teaching him the important things.
We went to church on Saturday afternoon because our church asked its members to save the Sunday morning services for guests and those who were bringing guests. Then we went to dinner in a non-crowded restaurant because it wasn't Easter Sunday, and stopped by the Wal-mart to pick up a basket because we realized earlier that day that Samuel's basket from the past 3 years was missing.
Saturday night we also began making Resurrection Cookies. This was something I wanted to try last year, but we ran out of time. You can find the directions on many sites. I used something I printed out last year, but is no longer posted on that site. I googled "resurrection cookies" and came up with lots of sites, but linked Annie's Page.
Basically, you are making merengue cookies, but every step has some significance to the Easter story, with a bible verse reference to read aloud. The last step is to put the cookie sheet in the oven (tomb), turn off the oven and seal the oven/tomb with a piece of tape. In the morning you open the oven and give everyone a cookie to break open and see that the cookies have a hollow middle or are empty like the tomb, and read one last verse of the resurrection.
Beginning on Palm Sunday, I began our bible readings with Matthew 26 and continued each day through the rest of the story. I was happy, when I got to the part where Peter denies Jesus three times before the rooster crows, to hear Samuel say that was the bible story at school that week. At least I know he's getting some religious training, but I am not going to rely on that or our church for teaching him the important things.
We went to church on Saturday afternoon because our church asked its members to save the Sunday morning services for guests and those who were bringing guests. Then we went to dinner in a non-crowded restaurant because it wasn't Easter Sunday, and stopped by the Wal-mart to pick up a basket because we realized earlier that day that Samuel's basket from the past 3 years was missing.
Saturday night we also began making Resurrection Cookies. This was something I wanted to try last year, but we ran out of time. You can find the directions on many sites. I used something I printed out last year, but is no longer posted on that site. I googled "resurrection cookies" and came up with lots of sites, but linked Annie's Page.
Basically, you are making merengue cookies, but every step has some significance to the Easter story, with a bible verse reference to read aloud. The last step is to put the cookie sheet in the oven (tomb), turn off the oven and seal the oven/tomb with a piece of tape. In the morning you open the oven and give everyone a cookie to break open and see that the cookies have a hollow middle or are empty like the tomb, and read one last verse of the resurrection.
So, Sunday morning, the first thing is the basket. But while he was looking at the basket, he saw the first of the Resurrection Eggs that Hubby and I had hidden. This is the third year for this and he loves it. You can make your own eggs and follow an outline from many sites that you can find with Google. But I couldn't get it together, so I went to the local Christian bookstore and bought the eggs put out by Family Life, and the book "Benjamin's Box" by Melody Carlson that specifically goes with these eggs. Each egg has something in it that helps tell the Easter story, like a piece of cloth for the buriel clothes or a dice for when the soldiers cast lots for his clothes. The last egg is empty to signify the empty tomb. We all love this tradition.
Then we opened the oven/tomb and broke open the cookies to see they were "empty" and read the last verse. Non of us liked the cookies, but we all enjoyed the process and story.
Then we visited family and there was one way-too-many-eggs Easter egg hunt. All in all I think it's a pretty good balance with the main focus on Jesus.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Samuel's Zoo Notebook
I mention this often under the Science/Nature Study heading of blog entries, and since this is an ongoing project, I thought I'd take some time to describe it.
I am a sometimes scrapbooker. I am usually about a year behind, but Samuel loves my scrapbooks and asks to look at them often. Of course, he is the main subject of most of them of the last 5 1/2 years!
Since Samuel loves animals, we go to the zoo often. While other kids are running from one animal to the next, Samuel "observes" each animal for more than a few seconds. While other kids are shouting "hey look at the monkeys", Samuel knows that they are actually lemurs and the names of the 3 different kinds of lemurs in the exhibit at that. That is just his "thing" like other kids might be into dinosaurs (Samuel couldn't tell you much about them) or cars (knows nothing beyond the color of the car). So we usually visit a zoo when we are on vacation and between these trips and our local zoo trips, we have a LOT of pictures.
When Samuel was four, I started a Zoo Notebook with him. First we bought a cheap 3-ring binder in his favorite color (orange) and he helped me design the cover with a picture of himself eating pizza at the zoo and the title of "Samuel's Own Zoo Book". I anticipate he will want to change this when he gets older :-)
Next I sorted all the pictures by animal and asked him to pick an animal. He chose the Red Panda which we saw at the Atlanta Zoo. I asked him to tell me something about the Red Panda which I wrote in the journal box. The page ended up looking like this:
If you can't read the journalling, it says:
"Once upon a time, there was a little red panda, and the red panda climbed up a tree and he went into his cozy warm house. I saw this at the Atlanta Zoo." :-)
Clearly, I had a little work to do on the journalling aspect of this project. For the pages after that, I would first ask him what he knew about the animal, then we would go to wikipedia, where I would read him some of the facts from that animal's entry. THEN, I would ask him to tell me about the animal and I would write it down. It's been a process. The last page we did was a few weeks ago on the Polar Bear, which I think we saw in Palm Beach, FL.
The journalling reads: "Polar Bears eat seals. They live in the Arctic and spend a lot of time on the frozen sea. They like ice because it helps them hunt for seals. The polar bear is an excellent swimmer. They are a vulnerable species which means they are endangered."
He also is now designing the pages himself, picking the colors, papers and stickers and placing them where he wants them on the page.
After the first few pages, I added some alphabet tabs and put the animals in alphabetical order. I can see this being something that Samuel continues to add to and the pages getting a little more descriptive. I have an idea to go back and add the Latin Scientific names of the animals at some point.
I am a sometimes scrapbooker. I am usually about a year behind, but Samuel loves my scrapbooks and asks to look at them often. Of course, he is the main subject of most of them of the last 5 1/2 years!
Since Samuel loves animals, we go to the zoo often. While other kids are running from one animal to the next, Samuel "observes" each animal for more than a few seconds. While other kids are shouting "hey look at the monkeys", Samuel knows that they are actually lemurs and the names of the 3 different kinds of lemurs in the exhibit at that. That is just his "thing" like other kids might be into dinosaurs (Samuel couldn't tell you much about them) or cars (knows nothing beyond the color of the car). So we usually visit a zoo when we are on vacation and between these trips and our local zoo trips, we have a LOT of pictures.
When Samuel was four, I started a Zoo Notebook with him. First we bought a cheap 3-ring binder in his favorite color (orange) and he helped me design the cover with a picture of himself eating pizza at the zoo and the title of "Samuel's Own Zoo Book". I anticipate he will want to change this when he gets older :-)
Next I sorted all the pictures by animal and asked him to pick an animal. He chose the Red Panda which we saw at the Atlanta Zoo. I asked him to tell me something about the Red Panda which I wrote in the journal box. The page ended up looking like this:
If you can't read the journalling, it says:
"Once upon a time, there was a little red panda, and the red panda climbed up a tree and he went into his cozy warm house. I saw this at the Atlanta Zoo." :-)
Clearly, I had a little work to do on the journalling aspect of this project. For the pages after that, I would first ask him what he knew about the animal, then we would go to wikipedia, where I would read him some of the facts from that animal's entry. THEN, I would ask him to tell me about the animal and I would write it down. It's been a process. The last page we did was a few weeks ago on the Polar Bear, which I think we saw in Palm Beach, FL.
The journalling reads: "Polar Bears eat seals. They live in the Arctic and spend a lot of time on the frozen sea. They like ice because it helps them hunt for seals. The polar bear is an excellent swimmer. They are a vulnerable species which means they are endangered."
He also is now designing the pages himself, picking the colors, papers and stickers and placing them where he wants them on the page.
After the first few pages, I added some alphabet tabs and put the animals in alphabetical order. I can see this being something that Samuel continues to add to and the pages getting a little more descriptive. I have an idea to go back and add the Latin Scientific names of the animals at some point.
Monday, March 30, 2009
March Afterschool Report
March has been a fun month as I have tried an even less formal approach and allowing more input from Samuel.
Music - We have been listening to a Bach CD from our library, "The Essential Bach". It's a two disc set and we have listened all the way through twice (we only listen in the car) and we both have decided Bach is our favorite composer out of at least the last two. We also read a little about Bach's life from Mike Venezia's series of books.
Reading - I have been alternating between books that he can read with little or no help (mostly Level 1 and some 2)and books that require more help, with both the punctuation and words (mostly level 2 or "beginning chapter books" that are not graded). I don't know that the actual titles will be of interest to others. I try to find non-fiction readers about animals, because that's "his thing" or mysteries which he also likes. Lately he has started to read the "Henry and Mudge" books by Cynthia Rylant, which are at the comfort-zone level.
Literature and Poetry - We started "The Family Under the Bridge", but we find it difficult to keep more than two chapter books going at a time, so I took that back to the library for now. What we've been reading and will finish by the end of the week is another in the Boxcar Children series by Gertrude Chandler Warner, "Mike's Mystery". I personally do not like the sequels, but Samuel keeps asking for them, so every few months, I'll check out another one.
We also read a book of poems written and collected by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace, entitled "The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars" to go along with our impromptu study of the solar system (see the Science entry).
Finally, we read some of the old favorites from our very own bookshelves.
History and Geography - We finished up our thirteen original colonies study and began reading books about national symbols. So far we got to the White House ("If These Walls Could Talk" by Jane O'Connor), the Liberty Bell ("The Liberty Bell" by Mary Firestone), and began learning the Star-Spangled Banner (from the book by the same name illustrated by Peter Spier). I also downloaded a United States puzzle from Owl and Mouse Software and Samuel had a lot of fun and I think maybe learned a little.
Nature and Science - We finished up "The Adventures of Reddy Fox" and began "The Adventures of Danny Meadow Mouse", both by Thornton Burgess from a box set I gave Samuel for Christmas. Hubby planned a trip to the planetarium at the beginning of March to see a show designed for children called "Our Place in Space" and this what prompted enough interest for a small study on the solar system. We read "The Planets in Our Solar System" by Franklin Branley and "Zoo in the Sky: A Book of Animal Constellations" by Jacqueline Mitton, along with the book of poems already mentioned.
Life Skills - We did some more cooking in the kitchen, including some guided cutting, with my hands on his, and worked on setting and clearing the table. Clearing the table includes throwing away food and paper in the garbage and either putting the dishes/utensils in the dishwasher or sink. Also, I've had to work on th concept of "tone of voice" and the fact that how you say something is often more important than what you say. I think this is something most parents deal with on a daily basis!
I also found a good book at the library called "A Little Book of Manners for Boys" by Bob and Emilie Barnes which we have been reading about once a week.
And lastly, he began another set of swim lessons, which he also did last spring and summer to get ready for and practice during swim season. My secret hope is that one day he will want to swim on a swim team and I can be a swim mom (I will not push, I will not push, I will not push...)
Music - We have been listening to a Bach CD from our library, "The Essential Bach". It's a two disc set and we have listened all the way through twice (we only listen in the car) and we both have decided Bach is our favorite composer out of at least the last two. We also read a little about Bach's life from Mike Venezia's series of books.
Reading - I have been alternating between books that he can read with little or no help (mostly Level 1 and some 2)and books that require more help, with both the punctuation and words (mostly level 2 or "beginning chapter books" that are not graded). I don't know that the actual titles will be of interest to others. I try to find non-fiction readers about animals, because that's "his thing" or mysteries which he also likes. Lately he has started to read the "Henry and Mudge" books by Cynthia Rylant, which are at the comfort-zone level.
Literature and Poetry - We started "The Family Under the Bridge", but we find it difficult to keep more than two chapter books going at a time, so I took that back to the library for now. What we've been reading and will finish by the end of the week is another in the Boxcar Children series by Gertrude Chandler Warner, "Mike's Mystery". I personally do not like the sequels, but Samuel keeps asking for them, so every few months, I'll check out another one.
We also read a book of poems written and collected by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace, entitled "The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars" to go along with our impromptu study of the solar system (see the Science entry).
Finally, we read some of the old favorites from our very own bookshelves.
History and Geography - We finished up our thirteen original colonies study and began reading books about national symbols. So far we got to the White House ("If These Walls Could Talk" by Jane O'Connor), the Liberty Bell ("The Liberty Bell" by Mary Firestone), and began learning the Star-Spangled Banner (from the book by the same name illustrated by Peter Spier). I also downloaded a United States puzzle from Owl and Mouse Software and Samuel had a lot of fun and I think maybe learned a little.
Nature and Science - We finished up "The Adventures of Reddy Fox" and began "The Adventures of Danny Meadow Mouse", both by Thornton Burgess from a box set I gave Samuel for Christmas. Hubby planned a trip to the planetarium at the beginning of March to see a show designed for children called "Our Place in Space" and this what prompted enough interest for a small study on the solar system. We read "The Planets in Our Solar System" by Franklin Branley and "Zoo in the Sky: A Book of Animal Constellations" by Jacqueline Mitton, along with the book of poems already mentioned.
Life Skills - We did some more cooking in the kitchen, including some guided cutting, with my hands on his, and worked on setting and clearing the table. Clearing the table includes throwing away food and paper in the garbage and either putting the dishes/utensils in the dishwasher or sink. Also, I've had to work on th concept of "tone of voice" and the fact that how you say something is often more important than what you say. I think this is something most parents deal with on a daily basis!
I also found a good book at the library called "A Little Book of Manners for Boys" by Bob and Emilie Barnes which we have been reading about once a week.
And lastly, he began another set of swim lessons, which he also did last spring and summer to get ready for and practice during swim season. My secret hope is that one day he will want to swim on a swim team and I can be a swim mom (I will not push, I will not push, I will not push...)
Monday, March 16, 2009
How Protective Am I?
I was reading this post at Funschooling and got to wondering if I am an over-protective parent. Like Suji, we live in a yard-free environment (in our case a condo complex). So I decided to do a little inventory -
Knives - I have allowed Samuel (age 5) to use a table knife to spread and cut, although I started with a plastic knife, and after I taught him knife safety. Once I allowed him to use a sharper knife under my supervision, but he couldn't get a good enough grip without getting his fingers in the way, so I volunteered my fingers to do the gripping while he did the cutting. I'll probably wait a while longer to try again.
Climbing - we don't have any climbing trees in our complex, but I think I would let him climb a tree if we had one. He has climbed grassy hills (one so steep I couldn't even follow and when he couldn't walk back down, I had him scoot down on his rear) and ice covered hills, but I won't let him climb on the sofa, mostly because he tends to also want to jump on it and I am afraid for the life of the sofa more than the life of my child if he jumps).
Stoves - we do a lot of cooking together. He is the one who usually wants me to do the "hot" work. I wonder if this is because of the "don't touch the stove" warnings when he was smaller.
Fire - I haven't let him play with fire, but he does love to blow out candles.
Throw a spear?!! - What? I don't know anyone of any age who has thrown a spear.
Deconstruct appliances - In theory, if we had something that didn't work, I'd be all for it if he were interested, but I also think I've heard that some appliances have some dangerous chemicals in some of the pieces, so I think I would want supervision by someone who knows about that appliance.
Break the digital media copyright act? - I don't even know what this means.
Drive a car - Well, I do remember sitting in my Grandaddy's lap driving a tractor, but that was way out where no other traffic could find us, not in suburbia. Maybe in an office bulding parking lot on a Sunday. But he hasn't asked me to, so I probably won't offer.
So, even though somedays it feels like the only words I know are "don't", "no", and "ok time-out, mister", I think I am maybe more free-range than some, but not as much as others. However, I do desperately wish for a house with a yard where I can tell Samuel to go outside and play and I don't have to go with him because our "outside" is a parking lot.
Knives - I have allowed Samuel (age 5) to use a table knife to spread and cut, although I started with a plastic knife, and after I taught him knife safety. Once I allowed him to use a sharper knife under my supervision, but he couldn't get a good enough grip without getting his fingers in the way, so I volunteered my fingers to do the gripping while he did the cutting. I'll probably wait a while longer to try again.
Climbing - we don't have any climbing trees in our complex, but I think I would let him climb a tree if we had one. He has climbed grassy hills (one so steep I couldn't even follow and when he couldn't walk back down, I had him scoot down on his rear) and ice covered hills, but I won't let him climb on the sofa, mostly because he tends to also want to jump on it and I am afraid for the life of the sofa more than the life of my child if he jumps).
Stoves - we do a lot of cooking together. He is the one who usually wants me to do the "hot" work. I wonder if this is because of the "don't touch the stove" warnings when he was smaller.
Fire - I haven't let him play with fire, but he does love to blow out candles.
Throw a spear?!! - What? I don't know anyone of any age who has thrown a spear.
Deconstruct appliances - In theory, if we had something that didn't work, I'd be all for it if he were interested, but I also think I've heard that some appliances have some dangerous chemicals in some of the pieces, so I think I would want supervision by someone who knows about that appliance.
Break the digital media copyright act? - I don't even know what this means.
Drive a car - Well, I do remember sitting in my Grandaddy's lap driving a tractor, but that was way out where no other traffic could find us, not in suburbia. Maybe in an office bulding parking lot on a Sunday. But he hasn't asked me to, so I probably won't offer.
So, even though somedays it feels like the only words I know are "don't", "no", and "ok time-out, mister", I think I am maybe more free-range than some, but not as much as others. However, I do desperately wish for a house with a yard where I can tell Samuel to go outside and play and I don't have to go with him because our "outside" is a parking lot.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
February Afterschool Report
Bible
Samuel has been attending "big church" with us. I don't know how much he gets, but it has led to a few questions on baptism, communion, and giving. We are also doing devotions from Gotta Have God, but not daily. When we do the devotions, we are also reading from my NIV bible. I think I may switch some of his daily reading with me to the Beginner's Bible, which is on the Sonlight Curriculum Readers 2 list.
Math
In school, Samuel has been working on addition fact families. They made it through the "7" family. They also have been "counting pennies". I decided to enrich that aspect of school with living books on money, as well as talking more about money and adding change at home. These are the books I found that worked for us:
“One Cent, Two Cents, Old Cent, New Cent: All About Money” by Bonnie Worth
“How Much Is That Doggie in the Window” by Bob Merrill, retold by Iza Trapani
“Jelly Beans For Sale” by Bruce McMillan
“Counting Money” by Tanya Thayer
“You Can’t Buy a Dinosaur with a Dime” by Harriet Ziefert
Reading
“Honeybees” by Joyce Milton (All Aboard Science Reader, Station Stop 2) – This was by far the hardest and longest book (at 45 pages) he has read, but he kept plugging away and finally finished it. I am so proud of my little reader! And of course, this also counted as science.
He also read "There's a Wocket in My Pocket" which challenged him to use phonics to read all those nonsense words Dr. Seuss loved. And some other readers that I forgot to record.
Literature
We finished "The Story of Doctor Dolittle" by Hugh Lofting. This was a favorite and he even ended up naming two of his Webkinz after two of the animals in this book. We began "The Five Little Peppers And How They Grew" by Margaret Sidney. This book will take quite a bit of time. The language is so difficult that we only read 3 or 4 pages at a time, and we don't read this every day. So, I guess we're "savoring" this one.
History and Geography
We finished reading about the thirteen original colonies. When I requested some children's books from the library on the Revolutionary War, I made the judgement not to read any of them due to Samuel's sensitive nature. He knows that the war happened and the basic "why", but I decided not the emphasize the "how". Instead I read two of David Adler's "Picture Books" on George Washington and Paul Revere. For the next few months, the plan is to read more biographies of famous Americans and books like "Meet Our Flag, Old Glory" by April Jones Prince on national symbols.
Nature Study
We've been reading "The Adventures of Reddy Fox" by Thornton Burgess. Of course, his reading selection taught us about honeybees. And I already posted about our bird observations in this post.
Art
This past month we focussed on Leonardo Da Vinci. We read "Katie and the Mona Lisa" by James Mayhew and "Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists: Da Vinci" by Mike Venezia. I used the color printer to print out The Last Supper, Mona Lisa, and Lady With an Ermine and placed them in dollar store frames for our own art gallery.
Life Skills
We practiced more on making his bed, and added setting and clearing the table. I also found a cute book on manners at the library - "Do Unto Otters" by Laurie Keller.
Samuel has been attending "big church" with us. I don't know how much he gets, but it has led to a few questions on baptism, communion, and giving. We are also doing devotions from Gotta Have God, but not daily. When we do the devotions, we are also reading from my NIV bible. I think I may switch some of his daily reading with me to the Beginner's Bible, which is on the Sonlight Curriculum Readers 2 list.
Math
In school, Samuel has been working on addition fact families. They made it through the "7" family. They also have been "counting pennies". I decided to enrich that aspect of school with living books on money, as well as talking more about money and adding change at home. These are the books I found that worked for us:
“One Cent, Two Cents, Old Cent, New Cent: All About Money” by Bonnie Worth
“How Much Is That Doggie in the Window” by Bob Merrill, retold by Iza Trapani
“Jelly Beans For Sale” by Bruce McMillan
“Counting Money” by Tanya Thayer
“You Can’t Buy a Dinosaur with a Dime” by Harriet Ziefert
Reading
“Honeybees” by Joyce Milton (All Aboard Science Reader, Station Stop 2) – This was by far the hardest and longest book (at 45 pages) he has read, but he kept plugging away and finally finished it. I am so proud of my little reader! And of course, this also counted as science.
He also read "There's a Wocket in My Pocket" which challenged him to use phonics to read all those nonsense words Dr. Seuss loved. And some other readers that I forgot to record.
Literature
We finished "The Story of Doctor Dolittle" by Hugh Lofting. This was a favorite and he even ended up naming two of his Webkinz after two of the animals in this book. We began "The Five Little Peppers And How They Grew" by Margaret Sidney. This book will take quite a bit of time. The language is so difficult that we only read 3 or 4 pages at a time, and we don't read this every day. So, I guess we're "savoring" this one.
History and Geography
We finished reading about the thirteen original colonies. When I requested some children's books from the library on the Revolutionary War, I made the judgement not to read any of them due to Samuel's sensitive nature. He knows that the war happened and the basic "why", but I decided not the emphasize the "how". Instead I read two of David Adler's "Picture Books" on George Washington and Paul Revere. For the next few months, the plan is to read more biographies of famous Americans and books like "Meet Our Flag, Old Glory" by April Jones Prince on national symbols.
Nature Study
We've been reading "The Adventures of Reddy Fox" by Thornton Burgess. Of course, his reading selection taught us about honeybees. And I already posted about our bird observations in this post.
Art
This past month we focussed on Leonardo Da Vinci. We read "Katie and the Mona Lisa" by James Mayhew and "Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists: Da Vinci" by Mike Venezia. I used the color printer to print out The Last Supper, Mona Lisa, and Lady With an Ermine and placed them in dollar store frames for our own art gallery.
Life Skills
We practiced more on making his bed, and added setting and clearing the table. I also found a cute book on manners at the library - "Do Unto Otters" by Laurie Keller.
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