Watercolor Painting

I recently went through all the photos. It looks like we have quite the back up of downloads =). What can I say? It was a fun school year.


These are the painting supplies we purchased. Paints are from Paper Scissors Stone. Paper and brushes from Dick Blick. We mixed the paint about half and half with water in baby food jars.


I used some ideas from A Little Garden Flower You Tube videos.


On my list for the upcoming year, is Painting with Children. I hope this might give me some help in actually planning some painting lessons. I'm not looking at being too formal. But, I do need a little help in that area.

Final Check-in for the 2009-2010 School Year

 Well here is our final check-in for the year.  We are on a break with our VA for the rest of the summer.  We will probably do some fun things around here.  We need to enjoy the son while it's here!

E-Grade 1

Building my cloud mobile was the funest thing I did.  I read books with Mom.  I liked reading with mom.  My favorite book is Little House in Prairie.  I hate Math but I do it anyway.  I'm in a different class for PE.  My swimming class is a different class, too.  I like Miss Lindsay.  She is really nice.  She doesn't yell and stuff.  Matt yells a lot, but he is kind of fun.  He lets us kids yell all time.  He is loud.  He gets in trouble from the other children cause he's so loud.  I learned about the Mississippi River.  It's long.  It's in the United States.

P-Grade 4

My favorite book was James and the Giant Peach.   I didn't really like my math this year.  I want to do Teaching Textbooks for next year.  I didn't really like my math this year because it was hard and boring.  I liked History this year.  It was really interesting and fun.  I liked learning about World History.  I liked all the map pages and notebook pages.  I liked listening to the Story of the World.  George Washington was interesting because he was the first president.  He didn't want to be president but he had to.  He was a very good president.  I like Science.  I liked when we dissected the owl pellets.  Next year, I want to use the Science in a Nutshell kits.  I like them because they have all the stuff with them.  They are fun and easy.  I want to build little machines and gears.  PE was really fun.  It was really nice joining the gym.  History and reading were my favorite subjects.  

G-Grade 7

My favorite book this year was the hobbit it was amazing in fact I,m thinking about reading it again.

My math was good this year it wasn't to hard and it wasn't to easy and I learned a lot about fractions.

I learned about photosynthesis in science like how most plants rely on it to get food.

In writing I did a ton of italics handwriting and almost got past the book and I finished the first two sections of jump in.

In spelling I did about 20 or 15 lessons.

In grammar I did 16 lessons of winston grammar and started on my new 1st language lessons for the secondary child book.

I finished the story of the world book 3 early modern times.

Week 34

Grade 1

I did reading lesson.  I used a little book.  I read Pig Wig and Cat.  I figured out what a question mark is.  You put a three on a six.  Then put another three on it.  Then you write a three on the line.  Then a two, then a 6, and a 1.  I watched Bill Nye the Science Guy.  He says everybody needs water.  He make a cloud from water and matches.  Then put the little pump on it for a lid.  Then it pumping a little bit and he count to three.  Then he take lid off and it make a giant cloud.  I have a new PE class.  I have a new teacher.  His name is Matt.  I miss my other teacher, kind of.  I have the same teacher as Porter.  I play crab soccer just like Porter did.  

Grade 4

We are studying Ecosystems, Habitats, Cycles and whatever else we encounter in this lesson.  He played a food chain vocabularly game.  He read about Food cycles.  

...and in his own words

I read James and the Giant Peach.  James crawled into the Giant Peach and found a whole bunch of giant bugs.  Then they slept inside the peach.  The bugs started gnawing on the stem of the peach tree that was holding the peach.  Then they went rolling.  In Math, I'm still regrouping and multiplying.  It's getting easier.  I did three pages of Italics and they are all cursive writing.  They were just letters.  We watched Bill Nye the Science Guy, The Water Cycle.  He made a cloud with a jar. He put water in it.  He put a pressurizer tube on the jar.  Then he pressurized it.  And, it didn't work. So, he lit matches and put them in there for dust.  Then he tried it again.  He counted to three and it made a cloud.  In PE class, I did a whole bunch of warm-ups and then we played crab soccer.  My dad and me looked out at the rotting log.  We lifted part of it up and found a snake skin.  We found this little duck fuzz at the pond.  We, also, are hatching chickens with our Grandma.  We put chicken eggs in an incubator.  

Grade 7

Well in reading I read to chapter 19 in Oliver Twist where Fagin and Bill Sikes were planning on how to break into a house and Bill Sikes needed a small boy and Fagin suggested Oliver.

In math I used the multiplicative inverse to solve for the unknown and I guess its sorta like algebra or pre-algebra and I also am going to try out teaching textbooks but since I have to do this report I will tell you about it next week.

In jump in I did skill 5 which was about the introduction of my opinion paper and I did 2 pages of italics.

In science I watched bill nye which porter pretty much did my report on it for me:D

In P.E. we did a TON of warm ups then we played crab soccer which left my wrists pretty sore(if you want to know what crab soccer is you have to crab walk and play soccer).

Week 32

Escher

I did some reading.  I read cat and rat.  

I take a really long tube.  A tube you can see through and it's kind of skinny and it bends.  I take the ends and put funnels on.  Then one person whispers in it and the other puts it over their ear.  It makes them loud.  

I make sculptures out of beeswax and soap.

Porter

I read James and the Giant Peach.  James' parents died and then he went to his Aunts.  In PE, we played Dodge Disc.  It was a really fun game. It's like Dodge Ball but with soft frisbees.  I molded modeling soap together today.  It smells good.  It was fun to sculpt.  We watched a movie about Sacajawea and Lewis and Clark.  They went on their journey to discover more land.  They needed to go across to the Pacific Ocean.

Gibran

In math i finished lesson 23.

In history i read about lewis and clark in chapter 32 of story of the world and i did a map of it for a notebook page.

In writing i did some prepositions and some pages of jump in.

In reading i read about 5 chapters of oliver twist.

At the YMCA i played dodge disc it was pretty fun.

Week 31

Escher

We got some paintbrushes and some paint and some jars for paint.  We put paint in jars and put water in there and then we put lid on all ways and shake it back and forth.  I make a dot, car, and waves.  I paint a cactus.  And a sun thing.  

I took a slinky and pulled it back.  I take five pieces of it.  I pulled it back and let go.  It bounced to the other person and back to me.  I take the tuning fork.  Then mom take shoe and hit the tuning fork on shoe.  Then mom put it in water and it make weird waves that go in every direction.

Muffin Match has letters on it.  Then I need to match the right letters.  Little a and big A.  Little o and big O.

Porter

I read Fantastic Mr. Fox.  He is a fox, of course.  He steals chicken and geese and apple cider.  He eats them with his family.  In Math, I'm multiplying and regrouping.  I tried a Teaching Textbooks sample. I liked it.  I want to change to that next year.  In Pe, we payed ultimate frisbee outside.  It was fun.  I'm studying prepositions.  Its hard to pronounce prepositions.  I'm memorizing aboard, about, above, and across.  

Gibran

In writing I did my new writing book jump in and finished the introduction i really like the book its easy and I learn alot of things about writing.

In reading fantastic mr fox and im reading oliver twist I really liked fantastic mr fox and im really into oliver twist I got to the sixth chapter.

In math I started a new lesson about reciprocols.

In handwriting I did 2 pages.

At the ymca we played ultimate frisbee but I didn't like it to much.

Week 30

G-Grade 7 aka The Prophet

This week in math I did lesson 22.

In hand writing I did 2 pages.
I read a retelling of oliver twist by eyewitness in reading.

In writing I got a new writing book called jump in writing and I did most of the intro part.

In grammar I memorized prepositions.

E-Grade 1 aka The Warrior

(Swimming Lessons) There's a girl in my class called Tabitha.  She mostly goes first.  My teacher put us down in deep water.  We climbed on the side of the wall to the deep water.  She put a pole in water.  Then I grabbed it and climbed all the way down and sit on bottom.  

(Science) First I got a box.  Then I got two rubber band.  Put it on box.  Take pencil and stick it under the rubber bands.  I make low pitch and high pitch.

(Math) I counted to 100 with Mom.  Mom count with Me.  

P-Grade 4 aka The Peacemaker

In PE class we played flag football.  

Our butterflies hatched out of their cocoons.  They are drinking sugar water and eating oranges.  

My math is getting hard.  

I'm reading James and the Giant Peach.  I like it.  

In Science, we made rubber band banjos.  We studied pitch.  We put rubber bands around a box.  We stuck a pencil underneath the rubber bands. 

I did First Language Lessons.  I'm studying prepositions and prepositional phrases.  I circled prepositions in sentences.  

Prepositions, Waldorf Chalkboard

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Originally uploaded by OakBlossoms

Here is the chalkboard we purchase from Paper, Scissors, Stone. I'm not sure how prepositions are introduced in the typical Waldorf school. But, this is how we are doing it in our school. It just so happens that both older boys are hitting prepositions at the same time in their curriculum. One is using Winston Grammar and the other is using First Language Lessons 3. We are doing just a few at a time until we learn them all. I'm not all that talented, so I'll do my best with the fancy chalkboard.

The chalkboard is nice. It's a good size and lightweight. I took this picture with a flash and I can really see the lines where we erased on it. I did have the boys go over with a piece of chalk first to prime it. But, maybe we should have went over it again.

I used the Mercurius chalk from Paper, Scissors, Stone. It's amazing and soft and vibrant.

week 29

This week was a bit laid back.  We had to get back into a new schedule.  After a few weeks off, we are back at the YMCA for a new session.  We are really enjoying our classes.  Our YMCA is wonderful.  Everyone is very kind and the environment is so nice. It's a nice place to hang out between classes.  The rest of our year should be a lot of fun. We got in new curriculum and supplies from Waldorfsupplies.com, Delta Education, and Rainbow Resource.  We are going to start having chalkboard drawings (I'm a bit nervous since I'm not very artistic), a new writing curriculum for the Prophet, Hooked on Phonics for our youngest boy, and three Science in a Nutshell kits from Delta.  I've been looking for science projects or kits that actually include everything.  The Nutshell kits look awesome.  They have enough stuff for three children and they include everything.  They even come in a great storage box.  They contain and activity guide and a journal for the kids.  I'll definitely do review posts about this.  

E-Grade 1

I did Explode the Code.  I write the letter i.  I colored matching words.  I write the letter a.  I read fan, mat, gas, cap, tag, and nap.  

On the Banks of Plum Creek.  Grasshoppers ate all the fruit, plums, corn, grass.  They ate all Pa's wheat.  

We read about Johnny Appleseed.  I did a map of where he went.  I made some cards.  I have to put them in order.  It's how an apple tree grows. First has a seed.  Then a sprout. Then a seedling.  Then a tree. Then blossoms.  Then Apples!

P-Grade 4

I'm in lesson 23 in math.  I'm still working on multiplying.  One of the chyrsislis looks like it's going to crack open soon. In PE, we played elimination.  Elimination is where there's four goals, four teams, and one soccer ball.  If the ball gets in a goal it looses a point.  It was really fun.  We went swimming last night as a family.   I did a spelling Test.  

G-Grade 7

In spelling last time i missed alot of words in group 32 so i had to redo it.
In History i read a book called johnny appleseed the story of a legend and did a outline on story of the world about the Maori people of new zealand.

In math i did 2 pages of lesson 22.

In italics i did 2 pages.

The Warrior Grade 1 Week 28

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Originally uploaded by OakBlossoms

I did Math. It was hard. I count by tens.

It was warm at the pool. I got my first swimming class. I needed to walk around the pool. Then I jump in the pool. We hold our breath and jump in water and stay in water for awhile. Then you breathe when you jump out. I front kick and back kick.

There are four cocoons. One is not a cocoon. It's trying to make a cocoon.

I take owl pellets apart. I take bones and pull them out. I liked it. Gibran not like it.

The Prophet Week 28 Grade 7

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Originally uploaded by OakBlossoms

For Science, I dissected owl pellets and pick out bones from it. It was disgusting. It was dirty and nasty and I had to wear gloves. I found a mole in there and a whole bunch of fur. We measured them. Mine was the smallest of them all.

I did lesson 21 in Math. It was about adding mixed numbers. It was easy for the main subject. Subtraction mixed numbers in Lesson 20 was easier than adding mixed numbers. I had problems in my systematic reviews.

In homeschool PE I got a new class. It wasn't as fun as my last class. There was a lot of little kids in the class. We played hockey.

I did six pages of Italics cursive. My handwriting is getting better.

I read a chapter of Story of the World. I read about the Industrial Revolution and the Luddites.

The Peacemaker Grade 4 Week 28

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Originally uploaded by OakBlossoms

In P.E., we played hockey outside.
Our caterpillars turned in to chrysalis. We got the caterpillars in a container. They ate this orangey brown stuff that was in the bottom of the container. Then they crawled to the top of the container. Then they hung upside down. Then they made chrysalis and their heads popped off. And then, red stuff oozed from the bottom of the chrysalis.
We dissected our owl pellets. Mine had a mole or a rat in it. I think it had two animals in it. Mine was the biggest. It smelled disgusting.

Week 27

This is week 27 for us.  Doing this weekly reports was a bit painful at the beginning of the year.  It's sometimes still painful for the youngest boy.  But, our oldest-The Prophet-pointed out that we had done a lot this year and it was nice to see how far we had come this year.

The Prophet-Grade 7

In history I outlined pages 340-341 which was about the factory workers of the industrial revolution and pages 350-351 which was about how the U.S.A. expanded In the 1800s and the pages were in the usborne internet linked encyclopedia of world history, I also colored the haiti flag, read chapter 30 which was about the haiti revolution and did map work in story of the world.

In math I did lesson 19 which was reducing mixed numbers.

In Italics I did pages 49,50,51.

In spelling I did spelling tests 32 and 35.

In science we read about the comparison between blood In living beings and sap in trees and plants In a book (I forgot its name) and I did picture of the comparison.

The Peacemaker-Grade 4

In Story of the World, I colored the Haitian Flag.  The African slaves rebelled.  The Africans called it Haiti.  

In Math, I did lessons 21 and 22.  

The owl babies are big and fluffy.  There is one more egg left.   

We got Painted Lady Butterfly larvae.  They are already growing.  They are making some silky stuff.  

I am on chapter four of Superfudge.  Fudge is Peter's little annoying brother.  

The Warrior-Grade 1

We learned about our eyes.  They can't move in different directions.  They can't move this way and that way.  Our pupil is dark and it turns bigger so you can see better in the dark.  Then it's in the sun.  It turns small.  

I added tens.  It's hard!

We got caterpillars.  They will turn into cocoons and then turn into butterflies.  

Art Spinning

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Originally uploaded by OakBlossoms

I just wanted to make sure to load this pictures up. This is the art spinner I was blogging about previously. It is a lot of fun. The little plastic guard that sits on top is not the sturdiest piece of equipment. Be careful not to toss it in the trash. It looks like packaging, but it's not. It keeps the paint from going everywhere. It's a great rainy day activity. If you don't have one, it would be great to purchase and put away for when the kids need something new and you don't want or can't get out to do something.




Here is a better pick of what it does.


Here is the actual toy. We purchased ours at a locally owned shop. I don't always get to do that. But, it always feels good to support a real person. The owner is often in the store and she helped us pick out some fun Christmas presents.

History Summary

G's History Summary
Originally uploaded by OakBlossoms

Here is the summary our oldest does for History each week (ala TWTM for Grammer Stage). I didn't do this when he was younger. He was never reading for this much handwriting till this year. But, he is doing so much better now. He used to fight writing so much. I admit I just gave up. I tried every few months. Now he is Grade 7 and has no problem getting it done. Happy Dance!!!!




No really he might actually enjoy History!

Escher's Schedule

Escher's Schedule
Originally uploaded by OakBlossoms

Escher is learning the days of the week. He is going to start working on doing his own schedule each week. I'll let him draw pictures till he can write one out on his own. I really wish I had done this with his brothers when they were younger.

3rd or 4th week of March 2010

I'm looking at the calendar.  Month of March is almost gone....

Monday morning my Grandmother turns 88.  So, this weekend the boys will be busy making some cards for her.  We are just starting a study on owls which coincided nicely with the birth of Molly's babies.


Next week we will be having some fun dissecting owl pellets. I love dissecting owl pellets and I realized (while ordering science supplies this fall from Homeschool Science Supplies) they had never done it.  We have a ton of library books to read.












We broke out this really fun art spinner kit. I remember doing this type of thing as a child.  I had purchased it at Christmas time.  But, I guess it got shoved to the back of the kids closet.  They didn't seem interested in it.  This past weekend E got super duper bored and broke it out in desperation.  Needless to say, everyone had a blast.

Porter

In PE we ran the track.

In water PE, we played water polo.

I multiplied In math.

In Handwriting, I'm writing cursive.

Escher

I played bowling scooters.  I put myself on the scooter.  I pushed myself into the bowling pins.  

We read books outside in the sunshine.  We read about the five senses.  We closed our eyes and we can hear stuff louder.  We heard people and animals.  We heard birds and a frog.  

Gibran

I watched owls on a live webcam this week http://www.sportsmansparadiseonline.com/Live_Owl_Nest_Box_Cam.html

At the YMCA i walked on the track in P.E. and in water P.E. I played water polo.

I did a outline of my history encyclopedia on the industrial revolution.

I did math and handwriting.

I have some pictures, but the husband keeps running away with the camera. I guess it's probably time to get my own camera or he his own camera...which ever fits.  My phone takes ok pictures...but I have some strange guilt about taking less than perfect pictures.  But, isn't a mediocre picture of our kids better than none at all.  I have some of the goofiest pictures of my childhood and they are such great little treasure. I don't need a million perfectly crafted and scrapbooked pics.  

Week 24

I actually remembered to get the boys weekly report up!  Remember it's written by children.

Porter

In climbing class I had fun i 

almost made it to the top. 

In water p.e. class we played tunnel tag.

In math Im in lesson 19 im mltuping.

Escher

I played tunnel tag and groundhog tag.  You need to put hula hoop.  You run around and be in hula hoop.  Then you need to count in the hula hoop, 5 seconds.  Then you get caught by the fox.  You need to sit by the teacher.  I got to be the fox.  There is one fox and a whole bunch of groundhogs.

I count by 2's.  2, 4, 6, 8.

We started a new book.  On the Banks of Plum Creek.  They moved out one house and got a new house.  It's built out of sod.  Grass grow on it.  They have a creek.  Laura saw a Badger.  

Gibran

I entered  Two timeline entries  for history which were both about the Haiti revolution.

in writing i did pages 43 and 44 in italics.

in history i read chapters 27 to 30 of Story of the world.

at the YMCA i played tunnel tag in the water P.E.

It's March

And, wow is it going crazy.  We had some snow. It didn't stick and try as I might we could not catch it on camera.  It was crazy, big, giant flakes of snow.

The boys are doing wonderful.  We have been going to the YMCA a few times a week for homeschool class and climbing classes and swimming classes and time with friends and walks around the gym.

Our little lady is trying to blow bubbles at the pool.  I didn't think a baby would do that.  I really didn't it.

Teaching the Alphabet Waldorf Inspired

So, I've read about Waldorf for many years.  I wanted to try Oak Meadow with my oldest in Grade 1.  That is actually in one of my first posts way back when.  But, I never did.

So without regrets and perfectionism we are will work through the alphabet equipped with stories from A Journey through Waldorf Homeschooling Grade 1, crayons, paper, and our imaginations.  He has already a half a years practice with letter, writing, and some reading instruction.  So, what you will see here isn't typical or wonderfully artistic.  But, it's inspired...and remember it's our journey.

Here are some more resources I dug up about Waldorf Inspired Alphabet learning and teaching.  If you have anything to share let me know and I'll add it.

Here is Elisabeth working on her main lesson book.
Artemis Moon shares how to make your own Waldorf inspired wall cards.
Road to Joy shares how she made the Alphabet hers.
Sara @ Teaching from the heart.

Friday

Math U See lesson for the youngest child. He will probably do this at a different time during the week.
Molly's Seasons
Cave and Claws Game


Of course, there is more work to be done. Some things just spill into the next day naturally anyway. But, this gives us a goal for each day. It's, also, give the children a visual to see that yes there is work to be done. No you cannot watch a movie. No you can't just play legos. Let me repeat. Did you see any legos on that shelf today?