Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Progressing right along
In general school is going very well. Jewel hit some issues last week with not understanding "first, second, third, etc" and decided she could not do anything. So we took Friday off for her to have some down time. By Saturday she was begging to do school again. We talked about the concept of first/second/third while walking or playing, but did no school until Monday at which point she was more focused. At age 4, seven straight weeks of school with no breaks is plenty! Today she was so proud of herself because she wrote her name for the first time. In math we were discussing the concepts of squares and rectangles and triangles. Here she is creating the shapes with toothpicks and playdough. (And here is Flower with her play dough as well).
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Reason #217 why I love Homeschooling
When everyone needs a "timeout" you can take one and not get behind.
Yesterday Jewel was struggling with her Singapore Math lesson, It was "count the ducks/cows/pigs and write the number in the box. She would count it without any problem, but when she would go to write the number she was consistently writing a different number--2 instead of 5, 4 instead of 8, no real rhyme or reason. I'd ask why did you write a 2 and she'd say because I want to. I'd ask what were you supposed to write and she'd say 5, but I don't want to. And on and on. And I got frustrated. And she got mad and started crying. So I said, "Neither of us are ready to do school right now. I'm frustrated and will say something mean and you are crying and can't work while your crying, so go play for 15 minutes then we'll try again."
She stormed to the play room and played on her Barbie computer (counting and sequencing games) and then brought her Magnetic Drawing Board to sit beside me and practice drawing her numbers. Forty-five minutes later she said, "I'm ready". And she was. And the lesson went smoothly.
Time outs are a good thing. #217 of good things. lol
Yesterday Jewel was struggling with her Singapore Math lesson, It was "count the ducks/cows/pigs and write the number in the box. She would count it without any problem, but when she would go to write the number she was consistently writing a different number--2 instead of 5, 4 instead of 8, no real rhyme or reason. I'd ask why did you write a 2 and she'd say because I want to. I'd ask what were you supposed to write and she'd say 5, but I don't want to. And on and on. And I got frustrated. And she got mad and started crying. So I said, "Neither of us are ready to do school right now. I'm frustrated and will say something mean and you are crying and can't work while your crying, so go play for 15 minutes then we'll try again."
She stormed to the play room and played on her Barbie computer (counting and sequencing games) and then brought her Magnetic Drawing Board to sit beside me and practice drawing her numbers. Forty-five minutes later she said, "I'm ready". And she was. And the lesson went smoothly.
Time outs are a good thing. #217 of good things. lol
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Water Fun and Scale Building
Thursday's SEBMath assignment was to measure cups and bowls of water to get accustomed to the concepts of holding more or less. Jewel had a great time counting and pouring water into various sized bowls.
Then yesterday the assignment was to use a balance scale to learn the concepts of weighs more or less. We don't have a balance scale, so we built one.
Then yesterday the assignment was to use a balance scale to learn the concepts of weighs more or less. We don't have a balance scale, so we built one.
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Not very good at this
Well I am already proving that I'm not very good at blogging our homeschool journey. I'm sure it will get better. Still just working through the Sonlight schedule. We did add the HWT workbook last week and Jewel loves it. Her straight lines have already improved and she is making L's and F's every chance she gets. We hit a snag in SEBM in that it asked the student to write numbers in the exercise. Jewel hasn't quite learned how to write her numbers. So we took 2 days off the workbook and learned to write numbers. She can write 1-9 minus 5. We practiced that some more yesterday in addition to the workbook. She loves sitting beside me on the couch while I cross stitch (usually bothering me). So yesterday I handed her a magnetic doodle board and said, while I stitch you can show me your numbers and letters. She practiced for 40 minutes!
Flower is less of a distraction this week. Friday a week ago she decided to learn how to build block towers. She had been just lining the blocks up on the floor. But that day she built a tower 4 blocks high. On Sunday she built one 7 blocks high! So now she builds towers while we do school. Here's a picture of one of her first towers.
Over the weekend my dear husband gave me a day at a Women's Bible Conference with friends. It was the first time I had ever left the girls for an entire day with him and just went with friends. I had a great time. But Jewel insisted that it was a school day. So he was able to review everything we had worked on during the week. She told him which books and which stories and showed off for him. He was pleased with how she is doing. And she was thrilled that Daddy helped with school.
Off to get ready for another day....
Flower is less of a distraction this week. Friday a week ago she decided to learn how to build block towers. She had been just lining the blocks up on the floor. But that day she built a tower 4 blocks high. On Sunday she built one 7 blocks high! So now she builds towers while we do school. Here's a picture of one of her first towers.
Over the weekend my dear husband gave me a day at a Women's Bible Conference with friends. It was the first time I had ever left the girls for an entire day with him and just went with friends. I had a great time. But Jewel insisted that it was a school day. So he was able to review everything we had worked on during the week. She told him which books and which stories and showed off for him. He was pleased with how she is doing. And she was thrilled that Daddy helped with school.
Off to get ready for another day....
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Another day
Fridays are absolutely crazy so I won't be blogging then. We have a ladies Bible study at my house on Friday mornings and then lunch, naps and finally school. But we got it all done and then managed to convince Daddy we needed to go out for Chinese food for dinner.
Monday we got up at 715 (yuck) and the girls watched Dora, Backyardigans and Fifi and the Flowertots while I blogged, did email and loaded the dishwasher. Then it was school time. We introduced the new memory verse, read about Abraham sacrificing Isaac (thank goodness she didn't ask any questions on that one), and then began to introduce sets of numbers in Singapore Earlybird Math (SEBM). This was the first math pages that she had trouble with immediate grasp. She can tell me which set has more than the other in the picture, but when it comes to saying 4 is more than 3, she gets confused with more and less. She'll get it, but she sure was frustrated. I read Mother Goose nursery rhymes while she coloured and then we read the Bernstein Bears Almanac and talked about wind. Then lunch and nap (yay!) After nap I introduced the HWT workbook. The first few pages are just crayon holding and scribbling, so I let her do all of them. Then she worked on putting together some puzzle pieces that have CVC words on them (1/2 the puzzle has both the word and picture the other 1/2 just the word). She is getting pretty good at matching the letters to put them together. She was tired and didn't want to sound them out, so I didn't push.
Today it was more of the same routine, only they slept later so were only able to watch Fifi before we got started. More comparisons of sets today in SEBM. She is still struggling with the concept, but was less frustrated today. We have finished lesson 11 in book A. She did say she was glad to get to "numbers" in math. lol We reviewed what we talked about wind yesterday. She couldn't remember it today. Then we talked about rain. She seemed to get that more. Bible stories today were about Jacob and Esau and she liked that. She was able to say her memory verse with only one prompt. This is the quickest she has learned a verse. She also put together the CVC puzzles, but again didn't want to do the sounds. She's napping now, but we'll probably do HWT when she wakes up if she asks. She has also asked to watch Cinderella after nap, so I'll let her do that as well.
Fairly routine days, but I'm just pleased we are getting a routine. Thanks for reading.
Monday we got up at 715 (yuck) and the girls watched Dora, Backyardigans and Fifi and the Flowertots while I blogged, did email and loaded the dishwasher. Then it was school time. We introduced the new memory verse, read about Abraham sacrificing Isaac (thank goodness she didn't ask any questions on that one), and then began to introduce sets of numbers in Singapore Earlybird Math (SEBM). This was the first math pages that she had trouble with immediate grasp. She can tell me which set has more than the other in the picture, but when it comes to saying 4 is more than 3, she gets confused with more and less. She'll get it, but she sure was frustrated. I read Mother Goose nursery rhymes while she coloured and then we read the Bernstein Bears Almanac and talked about wind. Then lunch and nap (yay!) After nap I introduced the HWT workbook. The first few pages are just crayon holding and scribbling, so I let her do all of them. Then she worked on putting together some puzzle pieces that have CVC words on them (1/2 the puzzle has both the word and picture the other 1/2 just the word). She is getting pretty good at matching the letters to put them together. She was tired and didn't want to sound them out, so I didn't push.
Today it was more of the same routine, only they slept later so were only able to watch Fifi before we got started. More comparisons of sets today in SEBM. She is still struggling with the concept, but was less frustrated today. We have finished lesson 11 in book A. She did say she was glad to get to "numbers" in math. lol We reviewed what we talked about wind yesterday. She couldn't remember it today. Then we talked about rain. She seemed to get that more. Bible stories today were about Jacob and Esau and she liked that. She was able to say her memory verse with only one prompt. This is the quickest she has learned a verse. She also put together the CVC puzzles, but again didn't want to do the sounds. She's napping now, but we'll probably do HWT when she wakes up if she asks. She has also asked to watch Cinderella after nap, so I'll let her do that as well.
Fairly routine days, but I'm just pleased we are getting a routine. Thanks for reading.
Thursday, September 28, 2006
The Start of the Adventure
On Monday, September 18 Jewel woke up, came running to me and asked "Is Dora on?" (her first question every morning) followed by "Are we doing school today." I answered "not yet and yes" and was greeted with jumping up and down with clapping. She was so excited to start school.
We are using SonLight Pre-K material along with Singapore Early Bird Math (SEBM) and (evenutally) Handwriting without Tears (HWT). So far, for the most part the fit seems good. She loves the SEBM workbook and is doing great at match vs. don't match, big vs. little, tall vs. short, etc. And her coloring skills are improving dramatically as she works in the workbook. She is doing really well learning the memory verses and then teaching them to Daddy at dinner time. She likes the readers, but her favorite books by far are "What People Do" and "Bernstein Bears" for science. We are currently working through the almanac book. Two weeks ago, Jewel had no idea about the seasons, only knew the names of 4 months, and had very little intro to "holidays" like Valentines Day. Today she can tell you the four seasons, that this season is fall but in England they call it Autumn, that January February and March are winter and April starts Spring. She is talking about making hearts for Valentines and that people play jokes on April Fools Day. I think she is comprehending what we are reading. It is great.
Flower is spending school time drawing or building with blocks or sitting in my lap listening to the stories. In addition to the 50-90 minutes of "school" time we are building with blocks, working puzzles, going for walks, going to the library, reading lots of books that aren't "school" books. Oh, and of course, she is still watching Dora, Backyardigans and Fifi.
Today we went for a walk through the neighbourhood and practiced "left vs right" and she picked out houses that "matched" or "didn't match" which is pretty simple since there are only 5 house styles in the neighbourhood.
So far, so good. Watch this space for our homeschool journey.
We are using SonLight Pre-K material along with Singapore Early Bird Math (SEBM) and (evenutally) Handwriting without Tears (HWT). So far, for the most part the fit seems good. She loves the SEBM workbook and is doing great at match vs. don't match, big vs. little, tall vs. short, etc. And her coloring skills are improving dramatically as she works in the workbook. She is doing really well learning the memory verses and then teaching them to Daddy at dinner time. She likes the readers, but her favorite books by far are "What People Do" and "Bernstein Bears" for science. We are currently working through the almanac book. Two weeks ago, Jewel had no idea about the seasons, only knew the names of 4 months, and had very little intro to "holidays" like Valentines Day. Today she can tell you the four seasons, that this season is fall but in England they call it Autumn, that January February and March are winter and April starts Spring. She is talking about making hearts for Valentines and that people play jokes on April Fools Day. I think she is comprehending what we are reading. It is great.
Flower is spending school time drawing or building with blocks or sitting in my lap listening to the stories. In addition to the 50-90 minutes of "school" time we are building with blocks, working puzzles, going for walks, going to the library, reading lots of books that aren't "school" books. Oh, and of course, she is still watching Dora, Backyardigans and Fifi.
Today we went for a walk through the neighbourhood and practiced "left vs right" and she picked out houses that "matched" or "didn't match" which is pretty simple since there are only 5 house styles in the neighbourhood.
So far, so good. Watch this space for our homeschool journey.
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