Seemed like a pretty basic week of school. We are still, 4 weeks in, trying to establish a good routine. It is much easier to make a schedule look good on paper than in real life. Especially for this extremely non-morning mom! We'll get there though and I'm hoping that happens before Christmas! Not so many pictures this week, but we were still busy and did lots!
We completed week four from the Bo Curriculum July Year 2. This week's focus book was DINOSAUR TRAIN. Since Caleb LOVES to watch the Dinosaur Train program on PBS he was very excited about this book and has really enjoyed everything about our two weeks of study on dinosaurs. We also read LOTS of books about trains this week. They colored, cut out, and created a paper dinosaur peeking out of an egg, completed a dinosaur research paper where they designed their own dinosaur, and soaked hard boiled eggs in purple Kool-Aid to make dinosaur eggs. Our favorite craft this week was a dinosaur bean collage. These turned out great! They completely covered the dinosaur picture with a variety of beans.
McRuffy Phonics Kindergarten
Really nothing exciting to report here. This is really quite slow right now. Caleb continues to do well with his handwriting and for some strange reason insists that I use a colorful pen to mark letters that he could improve next time. It really is amazing the difference a year has made with him in this area. I have always been an advocate for not pushing skills too early if the child seems to be frustrated or not ready- this has been a perfect example.
I did feel a little silly this week about our phonics work. I am having Caleb work through this Kindergarten curriculum when really he only needs to learn a few things that are covered towards the end of the year. Not exactly sure what I plan to do at this point. Can't decide if I want to keep going at a slow pace and cover it all since he is getting more advanced practice other places such as Explode the Code Online, or if I want to pick up the pace and get onto the stuff he hasn't already learned. On our way home from the library this week he was in the back seat accurately reading Little Quack books, Curious George books, and Little Critter books out loud cover to cover fluently. Made me feel a little silly pulling out our phonics books and going over a lesson about the sound the letter s makes. Hmmm, what to do?
McRuffy Math- First Grade
This curriculum is the perfect level for Caleb and we are both enjoying working with it. This week we worked with pattern blocks, telling time to the half hour, simple addition, adding money, and place value.
Preschool
We completed the letter Tt activities from Raising Rockstars Preschool. Our Bible verse this week was "Thou shall not steal". Hannah LOVED listening to our Ten Commandments song from The Singing Bible CD. I love this CD as well. The songs on it are very fun, but the kids (and I) learn SO much about the Bible while listening.
Anyway, Hannah worked a lot with the letter Hh this week and loved having another special book just for her. This week her book focused on the sight word "the". She also loved the new power point show. Her books and power point shows are both from the Raising Rockstars Preschool site.
Hannah also enjoyed adding several new letters to her uppercase and lowercase letter match activity.
McRuffy Kindergarten Science
We finished our unit on the 5 senses this week. We did activities about hearing and touching. We also read a few other books about the senses. My favorite part about science this week was all through the day Hannah would say, "Mommy, we're using our sense of _____." LOVED IT!
Other Fun Things From the Week
Caleb learned to jump rope! He can only jump it one time, but he is so excited. I'm sure he'll be putting a few jumps together very soon.
Caleb also lost his 4th tooth this week- yes, he's 5 1/2 and has already lost 4 teeth and has his 6 year molars most of the way in. At his last dentist appointment the dentist said he was about a year ahead of schedule. He goes back on Monday. He can't wait to show her that he has lost two more teeth since the last time.
On a final note, I must share with you what a fabulous week we had in regards to behavior and sibling play time. Caleb is obsessed with tv, wii, and the computer. I love that he has learned so much good stuff from some of the wonderful programs on PBS as well as some wonderful sites on the internet, but that is ALL he wants to do. We have also noticed that the more time he spends in front a screen, the worse his behavior is! Due to some recent poor behavior there has been NO tv and NO wii this week. Computer has been allowed in very small doses and mostly only for school work. His behavior has been wonderful and he has played amazingly well with Hannah. He has played creatively with toys he usually never touches. I MUST do better at not allowing so much screen time to creep back into his day.Well, that wraps up our week. Check out what others did this week at Homeschool Creations.
I LOVE all the dino activities! I'm glad to hear that Caleb is doing well with the first grade math. I'd started to worry about starting Sam on the K curriculum too early, and him not being ready for first grade stuff next year.I think some of the stuff I'm hoping to use for first grade subjects is really for older kids, but I'd planned to continue with McRuffy for 1st grade math. As for phonics, I'd skip to the end with Caleb, and reuse the program with Hannah or try to sell it on ebay? We have the same issues with t.v. and behavior. We canceled cable and just have PBS now. I still offer t.v. to him, but usually, he's seen the same show a million times, and just turns it off and walks away. Phew. Just what I was hoping for. And so far, he enjoys the computer when I suggest it, but he doesn't ask for it much. I'm sure that will change. He's his father's child...
ReplyDeleteFood for thought regarding Caleb. I have a friend here who has 4 children and has been homeschooling for about 14 years now. I had a great conversation with her one day and the topic came up about a young child who is advanced. She mentioned the idea of keeping a young child at his/her age level when it comes to things like reading and math, but to help them explore new areas such as a foreign language or music. The idea being to go wider with their education rather than deeper because things like reading and math will come, but when they are young is the perfect opportunity to spark their to desire to learn with something new. Maybe you and Caleb would enjoy learning Spanish together or him learning an instrument or diving deeper into a sport...you know Caleb and his interests (o: I've heard wonderful things about Muzzy, which is a TV based Spanish program for kids. And we've always loved the Signing Time DVD series for teaching sign language. If you want to stay away from the TV maybe he would like to learn an instrument. We started Olivia with violin, and though we're working a great deal with attention span her mind is just soaking it in like crazy...and it's been good for me to not feel bored like you going over letter sounds when she can read above her age already; and I've slowed down on trying to push getting her further advanced in her reading, which comes so naturally for her anyways. Now we're just broadening her horizons...and working on attention span (o: So, just some food for thought (o:
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