What does learning look like?

Learning can take on many different looks. Learning can look like this...

Or learning can look like this...

Or maybe even like this...

Children are always learning. Learning about family and love....

Learning about where food comes from...

Learning about a favorite author "Laura Ingalls Wilder"....

Learning about nature...

Learning about the letter "H".....

Or even learning that when the weather is nice you can take your spelling test outside...

And still get 100%! 

Sometimes the end result of learning put together with play results in a messy livingroom....

However as my wise parents told me, "There won't always be messes but you'll miss it when they're gone."

So I continue to enjoy learning with my family no matter if it is quite or loud, messy or organized, inside or out. What does learning look like? The possibilities are endless.

Math frustration

Subtraction. I don't like it. Wait, let me be more specific. I don't like teaching subtraction. Maybe it will be different with Sierra. Maybe she will just teach herself subtraction. She already has an amazing sense about numbers. It is not the same with Zoey. I have a wonderful teacher's manual and follow it well. However, once she starts getting frustrated she shuts down. I am trying to stay on track. But sometimes a kid needs a break. Here is where the hard part comes in. Do I keep pushing or back off a bit for a while? She is the kind of kid who if you give an inch she takes a mile so I don't want to play into her game, if indeed it is that. Hmmm... The crazy part about all of this is she is doing well. It gets ugly when she gets something wrong or forgets how to do something. Specifically with problems like 504-237=. 

Ok just rambling. I think I know what I need to do. 

How about a picture that has nothing to do with subtraction???

This girl wakes up with some crazy hair!

The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Grey Bridge / Play With Me

Friday night and I sit here in disbelief that another week of school is done. Some weeks drag on painfully slow and seem never to end. This was not one of those weeks. We didn't quite get everything done that was planned but that is ok because there is always next week. Here is a review of what we did with our Books of the Week.

Zoey was ready to get back to school work after a week off. She continued with The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Grey Bridge by Hildegarde Swifte, as her book of the week. We started off with geography and Zoey was excited to find out that the lighthouse and bridge are real structures that still exist. The bridge is the George Washington bridge in New York and the lighthouse is still there. We looked at pictures of it online and both of the girls loved this. Then they asked to go there. Um, maybe not today.... We also talked about New York City and read some books about it. We had two drawing activities this week too. In the first one we showed the balance of the title words and in the second one we showed contrast in size. Sierra has her own book of the week but she loves to join in on anything she can. Here are their drawings. I thought they were cute so I had to share. Ok, I can't get them to rotate, ugh! Well just turn your head. Nice huh? Sierra didn't quite understand to draw the lighthouse on one side and the bridge on the other but that is ok. I love how they both drew the light coming out of the lighthouse. Today we also compared lighthouses from before electricity and computers to today.

For art study we discussed the contrast in size between the lighthouse and the bridge. I asked the girls to draw pictures of something really big next to something really small. Zoey drew a bridge and a lighthouse. I guess she was not in the mood to think outside of the box on this one. Sierra drew an elephant, and alligator and a cherry or an apple. I forgot which one it was.

By far Zoey's favorite activity with this book was when we talked about how the fog made it hard for the boat captains to see. The girls took turns wearing a blindfold trying to find their way around the house. Then I stood in the middle of the living room pretending to be the lighthouse and yelled "ALARM" if they got too close to me and the pretend rocks. They played this on and off all day. There was lots of giggling and eventually fighting.

This weekend Zoey wants to set up the Brio train track set because it has a bridge in it. We are trying to figure out how to make a lighthouse to put next to the bridge. So as you can see we are still loving Five in a Row. And that was just Zoey's book.

 

Sierra finished the book Play With Me by Marie Hall Ets and started a new book. One of the first things we did with this book was to talk about the different emotions you can see in the little girl's expressions. I made funny sounds that the little girl might be making and then they begged me to do it again every time I read it after that. We also talked about the morning dew. This was amazing to Sierra that the grass was wet even though it didn't rain. Now when she sees the grass wet in the morning she gets so excited and says, "Mama, morning dew!" I know it is a simple thing to us but I love to see them discover something with their young eyes.

 

We went for a bike ride to our pond to see how many animals we could find that were the same as in the book. We saw plenty of turtles just like in the book. Later we added new animals from Play With Me to our classification cards. Sierra loved sorting them in many interesting ways. First we did it the way we usually do; mammals, fish, birds, reptiles, etc. Then Sierra made new groups. Animals that like the night. Zoey corrected, "You mean nocturnal." Animals that jump. Slimy things. Animals that like trees. Bears. Bears had their own group. I wish I could remember them all. It was so funny. She decided to dived them up even further and line them up with help from Zoey and me. That is when I took the picture.

We did a few more things but I need to go to bed. Thanks as always for reading. I hope you enjoyed it.

Vacation Week

We had a great month of school in August. We are already four weeks into the new school year. This first week of September we are taking off. Daddy has the week of and we have been having some great family fun. We went to Carowinds and had a blast. It seems Sierra likes roller coasters and can't wait until she is tall enough to ride more. Zoey wanted to try a roller coaster again but after last year she is just not ready. They rode all of the kiddie rides. Some of those rides were quite wild for kiddie rides but that was great for them. My favorite part was the lazy river. LOL!

A few days later we made our annual trip to the apple orchard. The girls have been talking about going for months. There are chickens, peacocks, turkeys, goats, sheep and geese at the orchard too. We were able to feed the chickens, goats, sheep and geese. The girls really like this part. The orchard also has jungle gyms and play houses. I laughed when Zoey started cleaning out the playhouse. There was hay all over the floor. Zoey also found that if she was loud enough she could hear her echo. Being loud enough is not difficult for Zoey. She kept saying, "Yodel lay-he-who" and "echo." It made us all laugh but especially the older couple sitting nearby. Next we were off to the waterfalls. The water was higher at sliding rock and colder this year so we went over to Looking Glass Falls. Mat and the girls played in the river and had so much fun. Mat was skipping rocks and finding eastern hellbenders. What is a hellbender?  Zoey and Sierra played with the mud and collected rocks. An extra nice thing about today was that Grandma got to come with us. We were all exhausted at the end of the day. The thing I love about day trips is we all get to sleep in our own bed at the end of the day.

 

 

Today we went to Charlotte Nature Museum and Discovery Place. We saw the IMAX movie Flight of the Butterflies. That was really cool. It did make me dizzy a few times though.

 

Tomorrow we are off on another adventure and that will be the last one for this week. After that the girls are off to Grandma and Poppy's house so Mat and I can go out for our anniversary.

 

I have to say I am truly loving the age the girls are right now. They are not so small that you have to do so much for them but they are not teenagers either. I will enjoy it for as long as it lasts.

 

Coming Soon...A review of our new art program.

First Day of Kindergarten and Second Grade 2013

We are off on a new adventure! On Monday we started our 2013-2014 school year. It was mostly a great day. The girls were excited to unpack their backpacks and look at all their new school books and materials. Zoey was over-the-top excited about everything and Sierra was very surprised by the new package of colored pencils. Here I'll let you see the excitement...

Zoey is very excited about cursive handwriting. Seriously!

Sierra was surprised to get so many new things.

After we went through all the fun new stuff it was time to take First Day of School Pictures.

I wanted to take their picture in front of the front door but we have a wasp nest inside the cover for the front porch light. They had to look at it before I could take their pictures.

 

I hope you enjoyed the photo session. lol I am glad we are off to another great start of a school year. I'll try to do more updates than I did last year. Thanks for reading.

What a mess!

I have so much to do before Monday. 

I am emptying the shelves in the homeschool room in an attempt to organize it. Yikes! What a mess. School starts on Monday so my deadline is quickly approaching. And as if this mess wasn't enough I have a large table set up in the living room with stuff on it. I need an extra me! Ha!

One good thing is I have a bunch of stuff I am getting rid of. Some garbage, some Goodwill. Either way it's outta here. Also, the girls are cleaning their rooms so at least they are not slowing me down. 

Ok, back to my mess I go.....

New School Year Quickly Approaching

School starts August fifth, one week, seven days! And we are off on another adventure. Zoey will be in second grade and Sierra will be a kindergartner. Zoey has been begging for school to start. Sierra is excited but a little apprehensive too. Sierra is young so I was concerned if she would be ready for kindergarten or not but she has shown me she is very ready. I will have the same approach with her that I had with Zoey when she was five. I will give her as much as she is ready to do but stop if she needs a break. One of the many reasons I love homeschool is I can go at their pace. Honestly, I still do the same with Zoey. She is very self motivated most of the time so breaks in a subject are not as common now.

Today I will be tearing apart our school room and organizing everything. I wanted to start this earlier but I have been working on a project that I just finished last night. I will blog more about that in a few weeks. So what will we be using this year for curriculum? Read on to find out.....

Sierra - Kindergarten
Sierra will be doing many of the same things Zoey did when she was five. She knows her letters and most of her letter sounds so we will begin Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading. I used this with Zoey and it worked well. For handwriting Sierra will use Handwriting Without Tears. She used this for Pre-K and really enjoyed it. It is simple to use and does not tire her hand out. She also will be using Explode the Code, Get Ready, Get Set and Go for the Code. These will reinforce letter sounds in a fun way.  In math she will be using Singapore Essentials. I did not use this with Zoey but I wish I had. Now that I know about Singapore, math has become easier for me to teach. I will also be using the cuisenaire rods to help her learn concepts. We love those rods here. And finally she will be doing the Book of the Week with Five In A Row! We love, love, love this curriculum and continue to have great fun and long lasting learning with it. Sometimes Zoey and Sierra will be working on the same book of the week and sometimes they will have different books of the week. Sierra will also be joining Zoey for science, history and art. More about those later.

Zoey - 2nd Grade
Zoey will continue using many of the same curriculums she has been using. Singapore math, Miquon math, Writing With Ease, First Language Lessons, Handwriting Without Tears and Five in a Row will all be continued this year. Near the end of last school year we started Story of the world volume 1- Ancient Times. We all are really enjoying this history program so far. I like anything where I can combine them. Last year we finished the science we were using and so we have something new this year. It is Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding. I will have to blog more about this once we get into it and let everyone know how it is going. Once again I like that I can combine them together for this. Both science and history are covered in Five in a Row also but in a much different way. The girls have always loved the additional history and science so we continue and have fun learning. Some new subjects for Zoey are spelling, vocabulary, and geography. Zoey is nervous about spelling but the program we will be using looks to be her style. Hopefully, once she gets started she will see it is not as bad as she thinks. We will be using a program called Spelling by Sound and Structure. I read about one billion reviews of spelling programs and this one seems to be the right one for us. The geography we will be doing is a simple workbook that teaches how to read maps, charts and graphs. It is one simple lesson a week but she will learn so much from it. We have been doing geography in Five in a Row but the focus is on countries and states. Learning where they are, some history, and what it is like there. This workbook focuses more on map reading skills. Also, Zoey requested Explode the Code this year. Last year we finished up book 2 and did not continue with book 3. She says that she misses it so I have book 3 and 4 for her to do this year. Zoey is reading very will but this will still help her reinforce the phonics she knows and work with her spelling too. This long list of curriculum may seem like a lot but most of them are not done everyday or are very short lessons. Short lessons are perfect for Zoey or any kid really. Most of all when we are done for the day, we are done. If everything didn't get finished we just pick up where we left off the next day. (I may need to remind myself of this from time to time. lol) Zoey did exceptionally well on her year end testing so she is learning quite well.

New for both of the girls this year is an art program. It is called Home Art Studio. I got a great deal on this program back in April and the girls are so excited to start it. The art lessons are taught on DVD by Ms. Vilon. She taught art in elementary school and has now created these DVD's for homeschool use. Check out her website to learn more. http://www.officialhomeartstudio.com/ I have previewed them briefly and they look great. We will be alternating using the kindergarten and second grade levels. We already so a lot of art but these lessons will take us beyond what I am able to teach.

I am so happy that because of Mat's hard work on promotions at his job we were able to buy all the curriculum needed for this school year. Yea Mat!!! The only thing we left we have to buy is the art supplies for Home Art Studio. If anyone is interested in buying one of the items we need or contributing in any way just let me know. Once we get started with this I will blog about how it is going.

So now I am off to tear apart our dining room aka homeschool room. Wish me the best. I have to get it all put back together by this weekend so I can start decorating for Back to School!