Pollution Solution

WOW!  What a busy week!  On top of reading, writing, social studies, math, etc we had gymnastics, our first week back to Wednesday night discipleship classes for the fall, a library field trip, and another fun class at Reed Creek Park.  Both Caleb and Hannah are progressing nicely through their work.  Hannah is whizzing through her review lessons and is ready to start new material next week.  YEAH!!!  She would love to do more work than I ever have planned for her.  Caleb acts like his arm is going to fall off if he has to complete a workbook page, but he still does very well with his work when he finally does it.

Our Reed Creek class this week was called Pollution Solution.  The kids went on a scavenger hunt for pollution then talked about how long it would take for each item to decompose.  It ranged from 3 days to a million years.  Then they got to use a model town to see how pollution from different areas of the town affects the entire community.  As always they loved it!

Pond Exploration

We made it through week two but not without a struggle.  Caleb was sick Sunday so we started off a little slow on Monday.  Mom was sick on Thursday so we didn't get any school accomplished that day.  Friday we doubled up and got in two days worth of work to make up for Thursday.  But then we ended the week with a great experience.  Saturday morning we attended a Pond Exploration class at Reed Creek Park.  We use to attend the Preschool Walks at Reed Creek but hadn't been back since the kids got to old for that.  I am SO GLAD we found our way back for the elementary school age classes!  The instructors are awesome and the classes are amazing.  Caleb and Hannah had so much fun learning about what can be found in and around the farm.  They learned about amphibians, reptiles, cold blooded/warm blooded, mosquito fish, dragonflies, leaches, and more!  Then they got to go get in the mud and use a net to scoop up pond creatures.  They got very muddy and had tons of fun!  

First Week of School 2011-2012

We have officially started a new school year.  This is the first year that we are required to report attendance to the Board of Education so our schedule will be a bit more strict this year.  We have a full year of curriculum on our shelves and are ready to explore.  Here is a quick summary of what we will be using this year.

We will begin our day with calendar time which includes lots of fun songs and poems. We will continue using Harcourt Kindergarten Social Studies A Child's View.  Our science curriculum this year is Nancy Larson Science 1.  We will alternate social studies and science doing one this month then the other the next month.  We will continue using McRuffy for language arts.  Caleb is using the first grade level and Hannah is using the kindergarten level.  Both kids are also working through All About Spelling level 1.  McRuffy is also our preferred choice for math.  Caleb is using the second grade math this year and Hannah is using Kindergarten.  We are using Writeshop for creative writing.  We have another week or two of studying Our 24 Family Ways for Bible Time.  We will probably use Grapvine Studies next.  We will read a variety of picture books and chapter books together throughout the year.  The kids will occasionally attend nature studies at Reed Creek Park.  We will also be participating in field trips with other homeschool kids.  It is going to be an exciting year.

So, onto our week in review...

The first day of school was also Caleb and Hannah's first day of gymnastics.  They insisted on coming to school in their gymnastics clothes.

My favorite moment from our first day of school is a quote from Caleb.  He laid his head on top of his language arts book, took a deep breath, and said, "Ah, I missed the smell of this book."  It certainly wasn't an easy day overall, but these little moments give me the momentum I need to keep going.  Last year I spent the first half of our school year thinking the Kindergarten LA curriculum was way too easy for him, but decided to stick with it just to make sure he got a good sollid foundation.  I AM GLAD I DID!!!  The first grade curriculum is much harder.  It is perfect for him this year.  I started the Kindergarten LA curriculum with Hannah last March.  She finished the first 30 lessons then I decided she wasn't quite ready for it and decided to save it for fall.  My plan was to just begin again from the beginning and redo each lesson.  What a difference a couple of months makes!  The same lessons she struggled with 4 months ago are a breeze for her now.  She reviewed the first 25 lessons this week.  Now I think we are at a point that is a good starting place for her.  Phonics have really clicked for her  now and she is on her way to reading!  My favorite moment with Hannah was when she went to the board and wrote "tede bar" and said, "Mommy, I wrote teddy bear all by myself."  Caleb refuses to use inventive spelling.  If he knows it isn't 100% correct he doesn't want to do it.

And then it was off to gymnastics and what an adventure that was!  Long story short we went to regular gymnastics on Monday night then decided to switch to homeschool gymnastics on Tuesday afternoons.  There is only one other family (two kids) in their class.  They love it!

Here is a sample from this week's guided writing from our Writeshop curriculum.  The first one is Hannah's the second one is Caleb's.

Fancy Nancy came to school on Friday :)

Other fun this week...

We enjoyed a couple of nights of visiting with special neighbors who moved away last year.  We also celebrated Daddy's birthday with a night of bowling.

Holidays and Heros: July 25-29

This was our last week of "taking it easy" with school.  Monday will start our new year of school.  This week we learned about holidays and heros in social studies and took a unit test.  I was rather surprised by how much they actually learned about our country this month.  Wednesday we enjoyed going to the movies to watch Winnie the Pooh.  On Friday we had dinner with neighbor friends before going to Savannah Rapids to take portraits for them.  The youngest child is missing from the picture below.  All six kids and 4 adults were HOT and SWEATY by the time we left but we got some great pictures and had a good time.

So, our summer break is officially over, but I rejoice in the fact that this doesn't mean I will be seeing less of my kids.  Summer activities are over and we will be spending more of our time doing "official" school work.  The schedule will get busier and our routine will become less flexible.  But, we will still be together.  Learning together, cooking together, exploring together, laughing together, struggling together...

Goodbye summer vacation.

Hello little first grader.

Hello sweet kindergartener.

It is a new school year and we have so much to learn together!