Nature Study, Outdoor Hour Challenge #1 . . .

For our nature study this week, we spent some time exploring a rocky bank of a reservoir. The kids had a ball looking at the world around them. They skipped rocks in the water, turned over rocks looking for anything, watched bald eagles flying over head or fighting with golden eagles, and hunting for crawdads in the muddy reservoir bottoms below a dock. It was difficult to pull them away. I think it was a good thing we were camped there for the weekend, so they could go back again and again. It was extremely hard to choose just two things to study for this week, but we did. Here are a few pictures:

This inlet was a prime spot to look for great rocks and crawdads.



Our resident rock lover with her own "Rock Shoppe". You can see the piles of rocks around her separated by physical characteristics. Any of these rocks could have been yours if you had a rock to trade that enticed her.



"Crabby" the crawdad. No we didn't bring it home, it was sent to a neighbor for care. This was as big as my hand. The kids were fascinated by it.

The kids' Nature Journal pages about our trip. The first is for a crawdad, the second a bald eagle, and the third a crawdad.

We will spend some time this week finding information about crawdads and bald eagles. Everyone is very excited! Yes, the fighting eagles comment is true. We watched 2 bald eagles and 2 golden eagles fighting for a few minutes. When we left, they were still chasing one another. Isn't nature great!!

Our First Week . . .

One of the only successful things that grew in our garden!

I think it was a success!! Our first week of homeschool has come and gone and I do believe that it was a great time had by everyone. I will just run through what we did. I really liked reading a play by play of someone's day or week of their schooling experiences. It helped me realize that it was reachable.

For Spelling, C9 finished lesson 37 in Word Lessons. She copied the words and definitions over a period of three days. The other two days were spent answering the questions that went with the lesson. C8 finished lesson 1 in Word Lessons. She copied each of the words over two days and then copied sentences that included these words two other days ( just a side note: C8 was sick with fever for a day, so took a break).

For Reading, C9 read through the opening pages of her book McGuffey's Fourth Reader and also read Title 1. C8 read through the intro pages and then Lesson 1 in McGuffey's Third Reader. They did this on Tuesday and Thursday. Monday thru Friday, they read the first 11 chapters of Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson. C4 worked on letter recognition. We used phonics flash cards to help her learn and remember her letters.

For Copy Work, C9 and C8 copied 1 scripture from the Bible, 2 from the Book of Mormon and a quote by Freud. C4 practiced tracing lines of different sorts and writing her name.

For our Family Read time, we read some old fairy tales from a book of virtues and we started on a book about myths and other stories. This has gone well with our "Take Five" topic and history.

For Math, C9 worked on basic multiplication facts with a times table, worksheet, flashcards, and games. C8 worked on triple digit addition with a worksheet and games. C4 worked on racogniton of shapes and drawing of shapes. She also worked on recognition of colors.

For "Take Five", C9 and C8 learned about why and how things, people, and places are named the way they are. From cities, to peoples last names. They also worked on capitilization of proper nouns with this.

For History, we read the first two chapters in Amercian History Stories, Volume 1. We have been reading from a biography about Lief Ericson and the Norseman. We started on our Book of Centuries.

We also got to go to the library to find new "fun" books to read, a couple of biographies, and play some games on the computers. C9 and C8 also spent time honing their typing skills with a FREE program I downloaded called Rapid Typing. We learned a new song and are helping C4 understand dates and weather with a morning calendar routine. This is basically the jist of our week. We completed our Nature Study over the weekend, but see a separate post for that.

All in all, an amazing week and a great time had by all. I especially loved every minute of it. It gave me a great feeling inside to know that my kids where home with me, just how I like it. Happy schooling to all!!

First Day . . .

Just a quick note to say that our first day was great! The girls loved being home and I loved having them here. We started at about 10:30, finished with our first half at about 11:45. After lunch and getting the baby down for a nap, we started up again at about 1:15 and finished for the day at 2:45. I think it went fairly smooth. There were a couple of things we will try differently. We will do our McGuffey Readers on Tuesday and Thursday only. We may also tweak how often we do some other things as well. We'll see how the rest of the week goes.

I found a great web site with ideas for our Nature Study. I also found the book she refers to, Handbook of Nature Study, online for a free download. So I made some some journal pages and hopefully we will do Challenge #1 this week. I would like to do a once weekly post just about our Nature Study, so keep a look out. I will post about our week at the end of it!!! Happy learning to all.

Weekly Lessons . . .

Here is a short summary of our Weekly Lessons:

-Typing: Brief beginner lessons on typing and computer work. (C9,C8)

-Library: At least once a week to find biographies, living books, etc. (mid-week)

-Nature Study: Get outside, observe nature, record in notebooks (first of week)

-Science: Living books involving subject interested in; used in conjunction with Nature Study (C9,C8) Learn about body, hygiene, etc. (C4) (end of week)

-Field Trips: Fun adventures that help us learn more about the area we live in and reiterate lessons being learned. (at least once a month or more, on top of nature study, library, etc.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It is getting closer to the day we start! Everyone is excited, some are disappointed that we didn't start this week, but we are waiting for a couple of more materials that should be here tomorrow. I will try to keep updated posts as to how and what we are doing. As always, any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!

Daily Lessons . . .

Finally, I have our lesson schedule done!! This took a lot of research, reading, time, and prayer and I believe that this will work great for us this year. You never know what will have to be tweaked or changed as we go along, but that is one of the great things about homeschooling. :) This post will contain our Daily Lessons and a brief overview of each. Some of the texts for spelling, reading, math and copy work are from A2 LDS Version. Enjoy, and as always, any ideas or comments are welcome.

2009-2010 Daily Lessons:

-Piano/Music : 20 minutes practice on weekly songs, theory work, performance songs; 2x/week MusIQ

-Opening: prayer, pledge, song, date, weather, etc. Everyone will participate and take turns.

-Spelling: Word Lessons: A Complete Speller

-Reading: McGuffey's Readers , phonics

-Copy Work: Copy Work pages; scriptures, quotes, great works, etc. ; Drawing shapes, writing letters, writing name

-Family Read: Mom reads aloud a predetermined book each day (I'm sure more than once). Poetry, fairy tales, etc.

-Math: Math worksheets, math book explanations as needed, manipulatives, games, computer programs, etc. ; recognizing shapes, colors, etc.

-"Take Five": Once daily fun facts, sometimes projects

-History: Read history stories, map work, Book of Centuries, biographies, etc.

-Playtime: Just what it says! A little break, sports, imaginative play, etc.

-Leisure Read: Read, read, read! Biographies, living books, etc.

-Journal Work: Writing a brief account of the day and what we learned. (C9, C8) Mom will write while little one narrates. (C4)

I will include our once weekly lessons in another post.

Lately . . .

I have been doing a bit of extra research and reading into the Charlotte Mason method over the summer, and the more I find the more I love it. I have been reading from this site, Simply Charlotte Mason. It explains Charlotte's method in an easy to understand and follow format. It also has living book references and archives. I also love the lesson plan guides. For those that are interested in starting this method, there are step by step instructions on where to begin and what to do next to build onto your lessons.

We have been working on getting our school space ready. Our basement is not quite finished yet, so the room that we will permanently be using is still under construction. Just a little more tape, texture, paint, etc. So for now, we will be using one of the other "unfinished" rooms. We got all of our bookcases, table and chairs, and cabinet moved in and I am starting to see that I will eventually need twice as many bookcases. I have finally been able to get our books, supplies, games, etc. put out and have been able to access what more we need. I think we are doing pretty good so far.



I also like many of the Montessori methods. But, like most of us, I find the products to be REALLY pricey, so I decided that I will try to make some of them myself. My first project was the Colored Bead Stairs. I really love these manipulatives and can see so many great uses for them in our math lessons. So I went to the store and found what I needed and spent about three and a half hours making them. They turned out great! When the older kids saw them and asked what they were for, I explained some of their uses and they were hooked. I figured out the price and I paid about a forth of what I would have to buy them outright!


Our "Bead Counters"

I found out, at my local library, that there are quite a few families locally that homeschool. They said that there will be a story time once a month for homeschool families so that we can get to know one another or meet others. I also got the invite, for the get-together a few weeks ago, but was unable to attend. Thanks for the heads up, but I would still like to meet some other homeschool moms in the area and maybe arrange group discussions or field trips. Anyone interested just leave me a comment with an email so I can get in touch. Thanks!!

Great Finds . . .

For those that know me, I love a great deal!! I was at Target the other day, and decided to look through their $1 bins, as they have some good finds from time to time. They had some school supplies and I filled the cart! (not literally, breath honey) I found some great things and all just $1 each. Here's what we got:



Flash Cards: U.S. Presidents (basic info including dates served, DOB, Death, spouse, interesting facts, also has 4 cards for important D.C. monuments), Insects ( info includes size, color, description, habitat, diet, life cycle, and fun facts), United States ( 1 card for each state including D.C., info includes flag, capital, nickname, statehood, bird, flower, motto, and fun facts), Space (Great info and facts from the atmosphere to the planets, telescopes, meteors, space shuttle, astronauts, and more)



U.S. States board puzzle, U.S. states map 100 piece puzzle, Math Bingo, U.S. Presidents Workbook (goes in line with the flash cards, similar info but with activities), thesaurus, & spanish-english dictionary

There were other flash cards for math that I did not get because we already have some. There were also phonics flash cards, and other things. All for just $1 each! It has been really nice to just shop for the supplies that we need and want for our home school and not the long lists given by the public schools. We also don't feel like we have to make a big shopping trip for new school clothes. We'll just pick something up as we need it or want it. Kind of relaxing.