Still here

So you are thinking I fell of the face of the earth, or just quit blogging. No neither of those I just have either been busy or just not inspired. However, before our first day of school is here and I start sharing things about our new school year I thought maybe I should sum up the end of last school year.


It really is hard to believe Sierra completed kindergarten and Zoey 2nd grade. Last year really did go quickly now that I am here looking back on it. The girls both learned so much last year and we managed to have fun too. Sierra completed Before Five in a Row and began Five in a Row volume 1. The first book she choose was Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton. She loves this book. She had such a good time with it she wants to do it again for the first book of the new school year. I would rather move on to other things. Anyways, one of the things we learned about with Mike Mulligan was personification. This was fun because I made big eyes and put tape on the back and let them personify things around the house.

 She personified the plant,

her jewelery box,

 and my laundry basket.

 

Zoey got in on the action and personified her light switch. Pretty funny I thought.

Other lessons we learned with this book included the history of the steam shovel (very brief), new vocabulary words, being flexible with changing times, drawing basic trees, and showing motion in a drawing. We used the sandbox to try out some road engineering and also took some time to look at all the road construction going on all around us. I also got out the geo boards so we could explore geometry and both of the girls loved using them. Looking back I can see why Sierra had so much fun. 

Road Construction

At the same time Zoey started Five in a Row volume 4 with the book Albert by Donna Jo Napoli.

This is a heartwarming book about a man who is a bit afraid to leave his apartment but he sticks his hand out his window everyday to see if the weather is just right. One day when he does this a cardinal starts building a nest on his hand.  We love how this story turned out. Check it out from your local library to find out for yourself. You won't be disappointed. The illustrations are beautiful too. Since this is a volume 4 book there are many more activities to do. We took a long time to explore this book. We learned about city living and apartments. Zoey made and painted her own apartment building from a cardboard box. We discussed compassion, discovering the truth, and subtle symbolism. We had fun imagining where the plane in the book was going and what was in the packages the people on the street exchanged. We also explored comics. This had led us on what is called a rabbit trail, further learning about a subject a child is very interested in. Zoey had made some of her own comics a few months before this just for fun. Now she started drawing comics again as we did a little research about comics. We extended it even further this summer. We started a unit study called Crazy Cartoons. It is Download N Go. We have used some of these in the past. We have not finished yet but so far Zoey is loving it. She loves to draw, tell jokes and write. Perfect way to combine these three things. More on this in a later post. 

Other subjects we explored with this book were the mathematical aspects of baseball, observing birds, cardinal research, joints in the human body, and so much more. We spent weeks on this book. Another  thing the manual suggested was learning about pantomime. I explained what it was and we tried pantomiming ourselves. It was pretty funny. Then we looked up videos on YouTube of Marcel Marceau and Charlie Chaplin. They begged for more Charlie Chaplin. Weeks later they asked to watch more. They really thought Chaplin was so funny. I agree.The crazy thing is even with all the time we spent with Albert we still didn't do everything I had planned. Maybe next spring we will explore this book again. Zoey liked the book so much I bought her a used copy on Amazon this summer. I am going to surprise her with it on the first day of school. Using the library book was fine but now she has a copy of her own. (Note to self, need to get Mike Mulligan for Sierra)

While Zoey finished up Albert, Sierra started a new book Papa Piccolo by Carol Talley. This is a story about a tom cat that adopts two orphaned kittens. It takes place in the city of Venice, Italy. We learned all about Venice and gondolas and streets of water. We did so many wonderful activities with this book too but I will just share pictures of one fun thing I took pictures of. The girls got to try out painting one way Michelangelo painted. 

Sierra was so peaceful when she was painting. Zoey didn't like having to wait her turn. 

While all this was going on we continued on with our regular math, spelling, phonics, handwriting, grammar ancient history, and art class. They also had so much fun with Muddy Boots and other science classes at the two local nature centers and finished another year with PE class at the recreation center. No wonder I haven't blogged! We have been seriously busy. Here are a few pictures of the last day of school. I put together buckets filled with fun little surprises like bubbles, stickers, colored pencils, and more. They loved it. (Thanks to Grandma and Poppy too) 

Last day of school.

Oh and I can't forget the zoo, organic dairy farm and strawberry picking!

Sierra riding horses at the zoo.

Zoey feeding lorikeets.

Lorikeet and Zoey hanging out.

Sierra not so sure about feeding the lorikeets.

Riding horses at the dairy farm.

Feeding hay to baby animals.

Zoey riding horse at farm.

I didn't take any pictures of the cows. LOL!

Strawberry picking!

Well I think this is enough for now.

No wait just a few more pictures...

PE class

Last day awards.

Library book club group picture.

Zoey doing her Laura Ingalls Wilder presentation.

OK, now I think I am done. I know that was long but I suppose that is what happens when I don't blog for so long. 

Coming soon.......

Crazy Comics and Summer Download n Go

and 

Chicken Mummy!

and 

Back to School (in September)

Back to School - part 2

I didn't intend to break this up but I got so long winded about the new history program I ran out of time to keep going. So here is some more about our new curriculum.

Elemental Science - Introduction to Science

This program I also purchased digitally so I have the same benefits that I do with Adventures in America. I can print for Sierra and only print what I need. It can be scheduled two or five days a week. I do two so we can do it the days we don't do history. So far it is working out well. We will see how it goes once our schedule gets crazy again with gymnastics and other programs. I think I need another me and a few more days in the week. Anyways, the program covers six areas of science, spending six weeks with each area. The areas covered are chemistry, physics, geology, meteorology, botany, and zoology. The program consists of simple experiments, easy enough for Sierra to join in, coloring pages, book suggestions, and nature study.

Peeling the crayons took quite a while.

Last week we learned about liquids and solids. We melted ice in our hands as we began our discussion then we melted crayons in the oven. I now have a muffin tin that is dedicated to art. We played the solids, liquids, and gases game where we pretend to be molecules. Every time someone calls out solid, liquid or gas we have to either hold onto each other tightly (solids), loosely (liquids), or just bounce around the room (gas). This was fun and it really helped Zoey to remember the difference.  We are also keeping a notebook for science.  A suggested book to go along with this curriculum is Usborne Internet-linked Encyclopedia. We read selected pages from this about solids and liquids. It is short and just the right amount of information for young children. The science experiments are mostly from More Mudpies to Magnets. I was already familiar with this book so I knew it would work for us.

Coloring with our once again solid crayons.

For nature study we went on a nature walk to see if we could find pine trees. We found many pine trees. Some of them even had sap oozing from the bark. When we got back home the girls could draw what ever they wanted in their nature journals. Zoey drew me pushing Sierra in the jogging stroller and her pushing Bitty Baby in a stroller. It was so cute. Sierra drew something....???  If you would like to see more about this science program just go here.

Math Mammoth
We have a new math program too! We will still be using Mathematics Enhancement Program that we used last year but only once or twice a week. So far Zoey is flying through Math Mammoth. It is another digital download program so I can use it for Sierra too when she is ready in a few years. Zoey has been begging me to give her math problems for quite a while now. When we are in the car or just have a quiet moment she starts asking for the math game. I am surprised how well she does. The only thing that messes her up is 8 and 9. She calls them the wrong name sometimes.  More about Math Mammoth here.

First Language Lessons
I knew I wanted to use this program I just didn't know when I wanted to start it. I ended up ordering it because I needed a slightly bigger Amazon order to get free shipping. I am glad I did. I started it with Zoey the first week of school and figured I would see if she was ready for it or not. Part of the program includes memorization of grammar rules and poems. The program is a start in learning about English grammar. It is done only three days a week. The first day was very simple but kind of boring so Zoey was not that crazy about it. The second day we read a poem and I explained that she was going to memorize it.  After I read it she wanted to read it too. Great! I guess I failed to tell her that she had weeks to memorize it because when we got the book out again on Friday she read the poem once and then repeated it back to me from memory! She made one small mistake. Since then she says the poem a few times everyday and gets the biggest kick out of it. I will try to get it on video so that I can share it with you. I was so surprised that she learned it that quick. Children's ability to remember things can be almost scary. She can't remember to turn off her bedroom light though? Learn more about First Language Lessons here. Oh and now she asks to do this almost everyday.

Programs we are keeping:
Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading  - We are keeping this because Zoey is reading at age 5. If it is working this well we will keep on going. The book is supposed to take her through 4th grade so we have a while to finish it. Some days the lessons go fast and other days it is a struggle. I try to break up lessons that are long and we do the optional follow up as a separate lesson.
Download n Go - We will continue to do these unit studies when the interest is there. We did the Summer unit study this summer (duh). I will add pictures of us making ice cream for this study at the end of this novel that I am writing. We started Goofy Geckos this week. We usually do these in bits and pieces so they take us a while to go through them. They just came out with one called Football Frenzy. Sounds good to me!
Five in a Row - Better known to my loyal blog readers (aka my family) as the book of the week. At the end of the school year with did four books in a row that Zoey was only so-so about. I thought maybe we had come to the end of using this curriculum. Zoey and I had a heart to heart conversation about it. She wants to do the book of the week. She said she has fun doing the activities and I know she is learning AND remembering so much but she does not like it when I read the book over and over and over again. Part of the program is to read the book five days in a row to reinforce what was learned previously. However, something I have read many times from experienced home school parents is to make the curriculum work for don't work for it. So I decided we would continue with Five in a Row our own style. We will read the book at least once and more if Zoey wants to. Apparently she has an excellent memory so maybe I don't need to read it over and over again. The other very nice thing about this curriculum is Sierra can join in too. Also, I can decide which activities to do since multiple suggestions are given for each topic. My next hurdle with this program was getting volumes 2 and 3. To buy them new it would of cost around $90 with shipping. Volume 1 was easy to find used last year since it is more frequently purchased. Not so with vol 2 and 3. I decided to search one more time and found both of them used on Amazon! Yes! I am very happy. So when we finish Goofy Gecko's we will choose our next book of the week. I can't wait! I really enjoy this curriculum so much.

Last but not least Handwriting Without Tears  and Explode the Code round out our curriculum. Anybody still here? Don't know why I wanted to give so many details other than I am so excited and so far so are both of the girls.

Making ice cream this summer.