Homeschool Weeks 6 and 7 {Butterflies, Bananas and Magnets}

I have definitely taken a more laid back approach in our homeschool this year vs. last year and I am loving it--so are the kids.  It is making our school time so much more enjoyable.  There is no stress, no pressure, no overcrafting, overscheduling of work or activities.  We are truly going at our own pace and it is making all the difference.



I decided we'd study insects this quarter--me and the boys.  We spent the last two and a half weeks on caterpillars and butterflies.  We read many books on the subject.  Some new, and lots of old favorites. Joe's very favorite of the books below was without a doubt, Clara Caterpillar. He loved it! It is a super cute book and fun to read. Jack enjoyed it too.  My fave was Are You A Butterfly--a must read!





We've just been moving along in daily core subject lessons the past couple weeks. Joe is doing well in reading and math.  He has been taking his time more on handwritng too which pleases me.  I've pulled out my Abeka 5K math book to use with him.  It seems to move a bit faster and be a little more ahead in its scope and sequence than the Singapore Earlybird.  Joe needs this for Math at this point and time.  I'm taking it real slow with his reading.  I'm not rushing him at all.  He's doing well and I can tell he comprehends as he reads and he learns new words every day.  He is so happy as he learns to read.  I am so proud of him.  He is moving along quickly with ETC Book 1.  I've been surprised by how fast he catches on and completes the lessons/workbook pages.



Hanna started Teaching Textbooks Math 6 a couple weeks ago.  It is going super!  I haven't had to do a thing for math.  It does everything from teaching to grading--LOVE it!!  She wasn't complaining about Life of Fred, but she is actually happy to do her math now, like really happy.  I so hope this ends up being "the math" for our homeschool.  Everything else is going well for her--Science, Grammar/ELA and History.  She's currently reading The Trumpeter of Krakow and moving on to Beowolf next, as well as completing history lessons while she reads.



Jack just isn't ready for much structured activities yet.  He has about a 20 second attention span on something like a tot tray.  Every now and then he'll surprise me with one and actually do it for a lengthy span of time, but for the most part I've put tray activities on hold for him.  Right now he's doing a few simple crafts, play doh, being read to lots, and we're just having fun playing on the floor together and singing songs like Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes and Itsy Bitsy Spider.

Playskool Busy Gears

Working together

We completed a few simple crafts, and I mean very simple.  With a some day trips and Father's Day thrown in I had to keep it simple.  Besides what's pictured below, Joe also made several insect Shrinky Dinks just today.  No picture though, I haven't baked them yet. 

Jack making a caterpillar letter "C"

painting a butterfly

Jack always has to end up finger painting!

finished ink blot butterfly craft

Joe's fingerprint caterpillar on a leaf from Kid's Soup

Joe's butterfly he colored with Crayola Color Switcher markers--he LOVES these!

 Hanna made some awesome clay figures while she was staying at Aunt Teresa's.  Here they are:

her cat Baby O. and a laptop computer

Jack's lovie, a box of Godiva chocolates and a cloth diaper pin

Joe busy with his Shrinky Dinks

We are conducting a fun Science experiment right now on flies.  It will take a few weeks to complete and I'll post all about it then, but for now, here's what we've got.  This was taken about a week ago, so of course now everything is all moldy....

Joe is interested in magnets so I checked out a fun book from the library called Playing With Magnets.  It is filled with simple experiments.  I chose several for us to complete over the next few weeks.  The first I chose was making a butterfly "fly".  Here's what we did:

Cut a shoe box to look like this:

Tape a bar magnet to one end of the shoebox, the bar magnet needs to be at the top when you do the experiment.

Cut a medium sized butterfly out of regular printer paper.  I had Joe color it.  Punch a flat thumb tack through the top corner of the butterfly.  Next, tie a piece of thread--I didn't have any and actually used dental floss:-)--to the back side of the thumbtack.  This will secure the tack and keep it from falling out of the butterfly when you do the experiment.  Tape the loose end of the thread (floss) to the bottom end of the cardboard box.

Lift the butterfly slightly and let it go.  The magnetic force will pull it the rest of the way up.  Joe LOVED this!  He thought it was really neat.  He has had fun all week long taking his magnets around the house seeing what they will and will not stick to. 

To go along with our caterpillar/butterfly theme I printed a Very Hungry Caterpillar graph, days of the week handwriting booklet and emergent reader for Joe.

I found some awesome blend ladders with the idea of using them on a cookie sheet with magnetic letters.  I printed the ladders and laminated them so I can reuse them and write on them with dry erase markers.  I had Joe spell words by adding magnetic ladders to the blends.  This was challenging for him, but he didn't complain and enjoyed it.  He did this for about an hour!  He even made some four letter words.  This is such a wonderful learning game.

I think that finally wraps up our highlights from the last couple weeks.  We are moving on to crickets and flies next. 



I know I say this with almost every homeschool post, but I am so, so, so thankful that I am blessed enough to be able to homeschool my children and so thankful that I enjoy it.  It is truly the most fun, most rewarding, happiest times of each week other than snuggling and eating chocolate--ok, I had to throw that in there at the end:-)!



To see what others are learning and doing visit Homeschool Creations.

Homeschool Week 5

We wrapped up week 5 of our homeschool last week.  This week is our week we're due to be off, and we are very happily taking it off.  I am loving our schedule of year round schooling and we will be sticking with it!  I've had to totally redo our workbox system.  Jack and Jesse were just wrecking it.  I've also had to take up Jack's trays and only put them out when it's time for him to use them.  This is in part because of Jack getting into them--yeah, finding the contents of all the trays and the sensory bin literally all over the floor of our family/school room several days in a row did not make me happy--and Jesse was beginning to get into this stuff too.  So the middle of last week we bought these from Walmart.

I have one for Hanna and one for Joe.  I printed new labels for them and strips, and got them all set up and organized.  We are loving them!  They are also on rollers so I can turn them to the wall if I need to and the little boys can't get into them.  I don't need all of the drawers for Hanna and Joe, so I can use the extra ones for Jack.  These units take up way less space than the original workbox system, are much, much sturdier and in my opinion, way more attractive too.



MATH

I have one more change coming up.  Hanna will complete her first Life of Fred math book next week.  So, it was time to reorder.  Back when Hanna and I chose Life of Fred it was her second choice.  Her first was Teaching Textbooks.  TT was also my first choice, but it was just so darn expensive I decided we'd try Fred first.  Fred has been successful.  Hanna has learned and she enjoys it too.  So, why switch to TT now if she's doing well with Fred?  Two main reasons, 1)Fred has all the answers right there in the book.  I do not think Hanna is a cheater, but I just don't like this fact.  I could cut these pages out throughout the book, but I don't want to cut up a textbook.  2)TT is totally hands-off for me and this is really appealing to me especially concerning math (I can't stand it!).  So, I ordered it today and she will begin it week after next.  I'll let you know what I think in a couple months.  I am hoping we love it, because it starts in 3rd grade and I would like the boys to be able to go this avenue with math as well.  **In the upper high school years, Life of Fred does offer higher maths than TT, I would definitely go back to Life of Fred then so that Hanna gets all the math she needs and more for college prep/entrance**.



GRAMMAR

Just thought I'd give a quick run-down on how Hanna and I are liking her Grammar--Junior Analytical Grammar.  We are loving it!  We went through two grammars last year, not being satisfied with either.  One was too gentle and the other was overkill.  I found Jr. Analytical Grammar from Simply Charlotte Mason (a site I use to outline the scope and sequence that we cover things in, in our homeschool).  We have covered 5 units so far.  The units have been easy to teach with wonderful teacher instructions.  The exercises are thorough but not overkill for Hanna.  It gives her enough to master the skill without making the two of us miserable.  The tests at the end of each unit are very adequate.  Analytical Grammar incorporates writing courses for SAT and college prep beginning in 8th grade and goes on to cover grammar and writing instruction throughout the high school years.  Hanna is actually catching on to parts of speech and even diagramming sentences and with ease, not complaining!  This is a miracle!  I am very happy with this course:-)!



Here are some pics and brief recap of what we did our 5th week of homeschool.

 Jack did lots of things like play-doh, coloring, puzzles and just fun, easy stuff.  No frills this week:-). 

Hanna pulled her flowers out of the Borax from a couple weeks ago to see if they were dried.  They were.

Hanna just carried on with her daily lessons otherwise.  No problems.

She was really enjoying History, can't you tell:-).  She really wanted her pic taken too, the happiness is evident all over her face!

Joe and I continued to read about Benjamin Franklin in History.  My mom had these cool books for us as kids called Value Tales.  Almost every historical figure Joe and I cover this year she has!  This past week we read the Value Tale for Benjamin Franklin.  Joe loved this book.  I did too.  Interesting to read, really keeps your attention while being informative and entertaining, and each one also teaches a moral lesson.



We did a Science experiment on electricity with these supplies:

Inserting the coins.

I wrapped copper wire around a compass, cut two slits in a lemon, inserted a dime in one and a penny in another, then wrapped the ends of the copper wire from the compass around the coins and we watched the compass needle slowly move.  I was SO happy it worked, so was Joe! Probably me more exicted than he was though, sometimes my experiments don't work as they should and Jamie has to end up redoing them, so I was very pleased:-).

Feeling the tingle.

We did no art at all.  This is not like me.  I missed it.  I was busy trying to re-organize and set up the new workbox system and a few other things in our home that really needed attention so art went lacking.



I did find some awesome, awesome math games though for Joe!  I am in love with Confessions of a Homeschooler's site!  She is SO generous in all that she shares, and her free printables will amaze you!  I will be visiting her site daily and using so many of her resources.



Joe had so much fun with the new math games.

Dice addition worksheets

Add It game--very fun!

Close-up of the dice addtion worksheets and Joe's finished work.

In addtion to the math games, I printed a build-a-sentence game too.  This game is pretty simple as far as sentences go and the sentences are very easy for Joe to read, but my reason for using this game is for handwriting practice and to teach Joe that sentences begin with upper-case letters and end with punctuation.  Joe doesn't always enjoy handwriting, but he didn't complain one time while playing this game throughout the week.  (There is also room to draw the picture of the sentence on these sheets.)

**I laminated all of these games so that Joe could use a dry erase marker and we can reuse them for years to come.**



We also played games from Happy Phonics together, Boggle Jr., and Joe enjoyed reading to me from some of the readers I've checked out from the library for him.



(*We didn't read many new books this week.  Check out my Shelfari to see what we are reading now.  Not really enough to put a spinny widget in this post.*)



That pretty much wraps up the highlights from our week.  I have a very fun unit planned on caterpillars and butterflies next.  We'll be starting it next week and will probably spend two weeks on it.  Even though things have been a bit amiss, homeschool remains a bright spot in each day for me.  Such a blessing and so very rewarding in every way.



Check out what others are doing in their homeschool fun at Homeschool Creations.