Homeschool Wrap-Up Week 33

I've decided from here on out to include a brief synopsis of both Joe's and Hanna's school week in one post. When I spoke with a lady from my homeschool accountability group a couple weeks ago she said a lot of homeschoolers document online now through blogging and pictures, so this will be perfect for me.

This week Joe and I studied about our solar system, outerspace, rockets and the moon. We read lots of good books. (I've added them all to my Shelfari, so make sure and check it.)

Joe made a cool spaceship and pom-pom alien. He has been playing with this all week!

We made moon craters using pie pans filled with a mixture of salt and flour, then covered over with moon dirt--cocoa powder. Joe and Hanna took turns dropping different objects--marbles, buttons, quarters--onto the moon, removing the objects carefully with tongs and examining their craters.

Afterward, one of our lizard friends got to walk on the moon. An out of this world experience for him, I'm sure.

In Hanna's Science she finished up an experiment she's been working on. She placed lima and kidney bean seeds in ziploc bags with a wet paper towel and sealed them shut. She placed each of the bags in different places--the fridge, the closet and taped the last two onto a window that got a fair amount of sunlight. Her hypothesis was, "I think the bean seeds in the window will grow the best, because to grow a seed needs: warmth, water and sunlight." She observed each of them daily for twelve days and recorded her observations on a growth chart.

We were surprised at the result. It differed from her hypothesis. Here are the beans that were taped to the window:

Here are the seeds from the fridge--they did nothing, which is what we expected.

Here are the seeds from the closet. They grew the most. We also observed that kidney beans grew much better than the lima beans--we didn't expect this either.

Here is a cool picture of the inside of one of the kidney bean seeds. Hanna told me this is the plumule in the middle of the two cotyledons. She says the plumule will become the first leaves.

Lastly, for Science we mapped our tongues--bitter, sweet, salty and sour using water in 4 different cups with sugar, salt, lemon juice and a little bit of a crushed children's Tylenol tablet mixed into the cups for each sensation. We used Q-tips to dab the mixtures onto our tongues. This was fun!

Joe is making huge strides in his reading! He is blending, reading any 3 letter word you put in front of him, some four letter words, and beginning to recognize sight words! I cannot tell you how proud I am of him! It is the best feeling I've ever had teaching him to learn to read. I was so scared I wouldn't be able to do this. Teaching my little ones to read is what I've been worried about more than teaching high school subjects or anything else in our homeschool journey. This is a huge blessing and relief to know that I can do this!

Our new maths--Singapore for Joe, and Life of Fred for Hanna are going super! They both enjoy them and are learning.

I pulled out Joe's geoboard and had him make shapes on it. He hasn't used it in quite some time.

We really had a great week of school. We had fun learning together, got lots accomplished and it wasn't too much. I think I am finally finding a good balance for the amount of work, crafting and projects that we do. I am looking forward to getting some new materials in the mail over the next few days for Joe in the areas of Science and History. We only have 4 more weeks left in our school year, and it has been a wonderful first year!

A Castle Fit for a King (and Queen!)

The past two weeks Joe and I have centered our theme for preschool on dragons and castles. We read lots of books, made a couple dragon crafts, and then for our grand finale I found an awesome castle I wanted us to make!

I quickly realized this was not going to be a project for mom, but more suited for Dad:-). I got as far as cutting out the drawbridge and several windows on the main structure and that was it. I turned the rest over to Jamie. He, Hanna and Joe had fun making this over the weekend.

Joe was very excited to see that his dragon fit perfectly through the drawbridge door.

Hanna painted it the last couple days. She even sponge painted a few bricks on it randomly.

Today they were able to try it out.

It was a hit! I am so glad I found this and we stuck to it and got it finished. I know it will be played with over and over again! Here are a few pictures of it.

The back:

The front:

The sides:

The top--this is where the secret compartments and chutes are:

I think this may be the coolest craft type thing we've made so far! The kids LOVE it! I have been saving all sorts of cardboard boxes, snack containers, TP rolls--any and everything that I think we may need for various crafts. It finally paid off! 

Zoo Class With Hanna

Today Hanna had a zoo class. I really enjoy taking the kids one-on-one to their zoo classes. I am excited that Jack will get to start little classes of his own after he turns 2 mid-March. Hanna and I were both happy to get out alone together today and had a fun time.

Her class was about symbiotic relationships--commensalism, parasitism, mutualism. OK, I had no idea what this stuff was. The class got started and the teacher started off by asking the kids if they knew what any of the above mentioned topics (she had them written on the dry erase board) meant. I was totally shocked to see Hanna raise her hand. I immediately thought, hmmm, I bet she hasn't got a clue--wonder what she'll say. I was blown away when she not only answered, but knew every single thing, and in depth. She continued to answer question after question voluntarily throughout the entire class. I have to add, she was the only one in the class to know the answers--yes, this was a super proud mama moment for me!

This class was exclusively for homeschoolers. After class, the teacher walked up and said to Hanna, "You are really on top of your stuff, I didn't learn these things until college Biology." She then looked at me and said, "You are a great teacher." I had to tell her the truth, so I said, "I didn't even know she knew any of this, but I am so proud of her." Hanna went on to tell us that she learned all of it in her Apologia Science this year.

This was music to my ears and so reassuring. I have wondered so often throughout this school year if she was truly retaining all that she reads and studies. Most of Hanna's subjects/curriculums are taught to the student, meaning I don't teach them. She reads, takes notes, makes portfolios, does projects and various hands-on activities to learn the material. We don't do many tests and so forth, so I've wondered so many times if I've chosen the right style of learning, and a million other things I've questioned as well. I will no longer question the style of learning I've chosen for our homeschool. I know now that tests, grades are not the only way to go. I am so happy to know Hanna is learning and that our hands-on, notebooking style is working because we LOVE it!

Among some of the critters the kids got to handle and study in today's class was a giant millipede. Everything from today's class was centered around Madagascar, Africa.

After class we looked around at a few of the animals that were on our way back to the van. It was cold and raining today, so we didn't get to explore the zoo entirely. We checked in on our koalas. Mama and baby were snugged up together napping.

The baboons were cleaning each other. I rarely see them like this, so I thought it was a neat picture to get.

We stopped in at the penguin house. Hanna watched the penguins diving and zipping through the water for quite some time. They were moving faster than I've ever seen them move today.

Hanna is looking forward to her next zoo class which will be in the Botanical Gardens of our zoo. Since she is studying Botany right now in her Apologia Science this should fit perfectly.

We both enjoyed our time out today. These zoo trips with the kids are so much fun, and I LOVE each of them! I am so thankful my mom is able and willing to watch the other kids so that I can make these trips special one-on-one times.

Homeschool Wrap-Up

Well, there really isn't much to report for our week of homeschool as far as Joe and I go. Honestly, we haven't done anything more than a handful of worksheets and read books together. Hanna continued with her daily work as normal.

We are working on a really cool castle that Joe can use with his small knights and dragons. It should be finished by the weekend and I'll post some pictures of it. I've gotten as far as I can on it without Jamie's help:-). Joe is super excited about it!

I really needed a week off to catch up around home with lots of things. Plus, Joe is sick again, and as of this morning Jack and Jesse are sick all over again too. Joe is on the mend, and so far Jack and Jesse don't seem too bad. I so hope they don't get really sick. Our school year only has 25 days left and we will have our 180 in. We have taken very little breaks since we began, and we began the last week of May. I spent a lot of time this week getting end of the year paperwork completed and in order to turn in soon to our homeschool association, and making sure all that I want to use for next year is either here or ordered and on its way. I've almost completed the kids' portfolios for the year as well. This is no small undertaking, and I'm surprised how quickly they've come together, but relieved!

I've decided that we are going to follow a year round school schedule for our upcoming school year. I don't like to take big long breaks, so for me I know I will feel most comfortable with this sort of time table. We will school for 8 weeks and then take 3 off year round.

This school year (5th grade) Hanna has completed the following:

• Language Lessons for the Elementary Child Volume 1
• Half of Grammar Ace
• Rod and Staff Math Grade 5
• Began Life of Fred Fractions
• Apologia Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day--Zoology 1
• Began Apologia Botany
• Wordly Wise 3000 Book 5
• Half of Writing Strands Level 3
• History Odyssey Ancients Level Two

For the upcoming school year (6th grade) she will be completing the following:

• Language Lessons for the Elementary Child Volume 2
• Second Half of Grammar Ace
• Life of Fred Fractions and Life of Fred Decimals
• Finish Apologia Botany and begin Apologia Zoology 2
• Second half of Writing Strands Level 3
• Wordly Wise 3000 Book 6
• History Odyssey Middle Ages Level Two

Joe (4K) has either worked on or completed the following:

• Kumon Numbers 1-30, 1-70, 1-120 and Number Games
• Kumon Mazes, Dot-to-Dots
• Kumon lowercase letters and uppercase letters, ABC Games
• Language Lessons for the Very Young
• Happy Phonics
• Explode the Code Primers A, B, and C
• Abeka 4K Math
• Began Singapore Earlybird Math Book A (briefly)
• Various workbooks, crafts, science experiments and we've read, read and read books together!!

This upcoming year (5K) Joe will work on the following:

• Various Kumon workbooks for numbers and writing practice
• Happy Phonics
• Explode the Code Books 1 and 2
• Language Lessons for the Very Young Volume 2
  
• Science experiments I pull from various books and online
• Crafts and art lessons from various books and online
• Singapore Earlybird Math Books A, B
• Galloping the Globe Geography
• Of course, we will continue to read like crazy!
  

I also used this week to catch up on many things around home like laundry, decluttering, sorting toys, organizing and many other things that were much needed! I have come up with a laundry schedule, revamped the kids' chore packs, gotten Joe's school all planned for next week and I'm ready to go now! I need to allow myself some down time like this every now and then. I realize after this week that Joe will be ok if we occasionally miss a week or a few days of school:-).

Lastly, today is Jamie's birthday. I've got his cake ready, his presents wrapped and the kids just finished his birthday banner. We are going to enjoy pizza, cake and presents later.

Zoo Class With Joe

Today Joe and I had another zoo class together. It was SO much fun! Today's class was about penguins. This was perfect because a couple weeks ago Joe and I read lots of books about penguins, and have still been reading his very favorite, The Emperor's Egg, (EXCELLENT penguin book for facts and storyline!!), a few times a week.

We learned about the different kinds of penguins that we have at our zoo, their names and a little about their personalities. We got to feel a penguins hair/skin, which felt very different than I imagined it would. We learned that some penguins waddle and some prefer to hop--the rockhopper penguins.

Miss Jenny had awesome centers set up today. In one, Joe colored a baby penguin, placed it inside a plastic egg and then practiced carrying it on top of his feet just as daddy penguins do.

Next, was Joe's favorite part of the class. When Miss Jenny told the class about this center I thought Joe was going to start jumping up and down with excitement. He was grinning from ear to ear and his eyes lit up at the announcement of making a snowglobe. He looked at me and said, "I can't believe I get to make one of these and take it home today!". I never knew it, but you add glycerine to the water in a snowglobe to get the glitter to float down slowly like real snow.

He jumped from rock to rock at the next center just like a rockhopper penguin. He jumped until he was out of breath, and then jumped some more.

Lastly, we learned that some penguins build their nests with rocks. After the nest is built, the penguin takes a rock from the nest to the penguin he wants to be his mate and offers it to her as a way of saying, I love you. So, the kids got to pick out a rock and make a penguin valentine complete with a rock to give to their special someone.

Joe has made several valentine's throughout the last couple weeks and given them to different people. I asked him as he was making it who he wanted to give it to. He answered, "You Mama, I haven't given you one yet." Melted my heart:-).

Before we left class Joe gave Miss Jenny a hug, told her thank you and that he had so much fun, all without any prompting/suggesting from me. I was so proud of him and thought this was so sweet. Jenny really does go above and beyond in these classes and we enjoy each and every one we attend.

After class it was really too cold to see all of the outside animals, so we just enjoyed several that we walked past on our way to the aquarium, penguins and koalas which are all inside exhibits. We saw that our lion cubs that were so tiny last Spring are practically full grown now, and found out they will all be leaving our zoo in March. I want to make sure we remember to visit them again in a couple weeks at our next class.

It's only been just over two weeks since we saw the baby koala in his mother's pouch, but he is already venturing out. Today mommy and baby were eating side by side in a tree. Here is the baby peeking out through the leaves....

....here are baby and mommy peeking through the leaves.

I got a good shot of the tiger yawning. I love the tigers.

Can you see the snake hiding in these leaves? Each time we go to the zoo, Joe and I play I Spy with this snake. Sometimes it takes us forever to find him!

This next picture is of what I believe to be Madagascar hissing cockroaches. These are new, and don't even have a description plaque yet, but they are disgusting!! I'm not really sure what the purpose of looking at them is, and Joe was just as grossed out as I was:-).

We had a wonderful time together. I LOVE these zoo trips with Joe. They are precious moments and sweet memories, and I am so very thankful for each and every one of them.

Chinese New Year

For our Preschool this week we have been learning about the Chinese New Year and dragons. Our study of dragons has been both the legend that represents Chinese New Year, and "classic" castle dragons. Joe informed me today that next week he wants to have books about dragons and castles, so I guess I will center our books, crafts and activities on that.

We read many good books about the Chinese New Year, and they are all listed in my Shelfari. Joe and I both learned so much about it. This was my first time ever studying it, or knowing what it is really about. I found it very interesting.

I printed out some sheets with the Chinese numbers 1-10 not knowing if Joe would like this or not, he loved it! He did really well writing the numbers.

Singapore math is so much fun! There is much throughout this first book that I hadn't thought to cover with Joe, so I am very glad for my decision to use this curriculum. This week his math focused on patterning, sorting, and matching.

We played lots of Happy Phonics games. Since Happy Phonics, we've gone from Joe not wanting to try and sound out words to him wanting to play and sound out/make/read words over and over again.

Hanna and Joe made Chinese lanterns of several different sorts:

Hanna actually bought the lantern above and below with birthday money months back for her new room, but never got around to painting them. Hearing about our Chinese New Year theme she remembered them and wanted to share one with Joe. So sweet of her, and he was very excited.

Joe made a lion that resembles the one seen in the Chinese New Year parade.

We had a very fun week! Joe seemed to really enjoy reading the Chinese legends especially. I didn't expect him to like this week's theme with Chinese New Year half as much as he did, but I am so glad it went so well.

Dragon Tales and Claws Too

For part of Joe's school work this week I read the following story starter to him: "How to catch a dragon", and then he dictated quite a tale! He really got into it and I was starting to wonder when he was going to stop. Here is his story....

How to catch a dragon....You need to use a fire launcher, a tree and an axe. You need to use a dinosaur toe, a tiger tooth, a shark and a whale. Next, you need to use an old pirate ship and a frog too. I'll get a monster truck and a big tree. The dragon gets tangled up in all that stuff, and then I'll catch a fire breathing dragon. Then, I'll need a house to put him by with a metal chain to be a guard dragon. Then, I'll see his X-ray to make sure he's ok after all that stuff tangled on him. I'll throw the whale and shark back in the water. I'll put the tooth back in the dinosaur's mouth. I'll put the fire launcher back in the castle. I'll put the trees back in the ground, and I'll put the horns back on the antelope. Then, I'll put the frog back, and the X-ray machine back in the house. His bones were fine.

I'll put the fire launcher in his mouth so he can breathe fire on the bad guys.

I'll put chicken feathers on the dragon so he will tickle people--The End.

This is the most entertaining story Joe has ever made up!

After his story, he'd picked out a dragon picture to make. He is doing so good with his cutting. As recently as a few weeks ago he would have never cut out so many things on his own without complaining almost to tears. He happily cut out all the pieces by himself except for the top white horn. I accidentally threw the one he'd cut in the trash, so I cut another for him:-).

I'd seen these dragon claws....

....and knew he'd think they were cool, so I made them for a treat. We all enjoyed these. They are just Nutter Butters dipped in green candy melts with cashews attached for the claws. I love how these turned out.

Joe has loved reading our dragon books this week. So much so, that he asked if we could do dragons for another week of school and add in castles.