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).

Monday

Monday
Originally uploaded by OakBlossoms

From top to bottom. A Journey to Waldorf Homeschooling Grade 1.  This is just the outline for the first month.  We are just going to start at the beginning of the curriculum.  I figure some of it will be review even if it's in a different form.  It shouldn't last us a year, but I didn't want to jump up to Grade 2 yet.  A few books to read aloud including Gail Gibbons From Seed to Plant.  We love Gail Gibbons!  Spelling Power book for Spelling Tests.  Math U See for the two older boys.

Long Division online tool

This very cool tool allows you to work on long division on the computer. It then self corrects the problem. How very cool is this? Division is our next stop with our oldest. We have been using MUS up through this year. It's the only program he likes. But, I'm not sure if we can afford it this next year. So, I've been looking to see what we can come up with. The only thing I want to buy for this year is paper, ink, and a Math Curriculum. I went a little wild last year and I don't feel like we learned anything enjoyable. Nothing much stuck at the very least.

Our oldest has Aspergers and a lot of workbook stuff just really bothers him. So, I'm thinking I might try Math Mammoth since the books are inexpensive along with some fun online games/tools. I think it might fit who is a lot better. He is actually quite intelligent. He understands things the first time you give it to him. So, having to repeat constantly seem beneath him (or at least he feels that way).

But, I'm not good at Math. I'm sure I could be, but I think I need to start over again from the beginning (and thanks to homeschooling my children I get to do just that!)

The Flops and Flutters and Plans Oh my...

The Flops

Well we did a lot less reading this year.

Story of the World and it's appendages probably works well for children who like to do everything in a neat row. Or children who like coloring pages. My children do not. We spent all year trudging through SOTW and it's activity guide and really missing out on the reading we love. We do have outside classes and I did take a full-quarter this winter. But, there just wasn't enough to keep us afloat. It's not like we enjoyed it either. I said TRUDGING.

The Flutters

I want to finish up Volume 1 by the end of the summer. We have the Volume one audio and we have been listening to that during the week in very small bites. I figured I could get the boys through it faster and at least cover the information. SUPRISE, SUPRISE, SUPRISE!!! The boys enjoy it a lot more and are retaining an amazing amount of information. Jim Weiss is a gem of a speaker. Now we have free time to read other books and fill out History Scribe pages. My boys seem to prefer these since they take some imagination and I had just enough paypal to buy a set. I love that the set includes a Native American set. I wanted to start doing some American History but really had no idea what to do for Native Americans. The sets include Maps so we can fill those out when we see locations in our readings. They filled out at least 20 maps this year and each has a river or maybe an arrow. I want to be able to glance at the very least 2 or 3 maps and see what they learned that year.

The Little Plans

I'm going back to letting the children listen and read and follow tangents. It just works better that way. I do plan on using an Ambleside inspired outline for our year. We will see how that works. I have a very small budget this year so I'll be using the library and online sources. I might purchase a level or two of Math U See for my oldest as it seems to be all he is willing to use.

Reading

Books I've decided to use will be made into reading list on good reads and kept track of in my sidelines. Hopefully I can convince the boys to write reviews of books they read.