Hunter's Washington Video Blog - Day 5.5

Tonight, Hunter and I had a special night out at Medieval Times! We had so much fun, shot a bunch of video, but then forgot to shoot a recap after the fact! Oh well - enjoy :o)

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Hunter's Washington Video Blog - Day 5

Today we went to the National Zoo!

Pictures and details on the family blog! http://justbatts.blogspot.com/

Hunter's Washington Video Blog - Day 4

Today we visited the Smithsonian Museum of American History - WOW! Here is Hunter's video, for details and pictures, visit the family blog!

Hunter's Washington Video Blog - Day 3

Today was a great day! We found a rockstar parking spot, right in front of the Museum of Air and Space, which means we parked for free, for 3 HOURS! (yesterday's visit was somewhat inhibited by needing to move the car away from the meter because I was out of quarters... $0.25 buys you 7.5 minutes!)

So today, we were able to explore the remainder of the Air and Space Museum - it was awesome! Details and pics are on the family blog, but here are Hunter's videos -

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Hunter's Washington Video Blog - Day 2

Today we enjoyed a few hours at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. We are actually headed back there tomorrow, so the post-visit video will be posted tomorrow evening...

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After our time at Air and Space, we had enough time to visit the 'Math Alive' exhibit at the International Gallery! It was a fully interactive exhibit focusing on real-world math applications!

Visit the family blog for pictures!

Hunter's Washington Video Blog - Day 1

At the moment, the kids and I are in Washington DC visiting Justin while he is here on a temporary duty assignment. You know, every.single.day I think of another reason to love homeschooling. Traveling the country at random, unexpected times is my current favorite reason!

The kids and I arrived on Friday night, crashing Justin's beautifully appointed, very business-like hotel room.... after a ten hour drive, I'm sure we looked like the Clampets, hauling in blankets, stuffed animals, sippy cups, pack and play, etc.... oh well :o)

We got settled in somewhat, and then headed out to dinner.

On Saturday, we went to the awesome children's museum in downtown Baltimore, you can see those pictures on our famiy blog, Just Batts .

Today, we spent the day getting the lay of the land downtown DC, in preparation for a week of field trips to the various Smithsonian museums!

For detailed pics of today's adventure (including the blooming cherry blossoms!), visit this post on our family blog

As for the school blog, I thought it would be great if Hunter got to video blog during our trip, so that you don't always have to hear my opinion on things :o)

Another Smiling Face!

As of October 31st, we have another student in our classroom! Meet Jordan, aka JJ, a bright, funny, energetic 4 year old! JJ is joining us every weekday afternoon - it is truly a one room schoolhouse now, as I am teaching 1st grade (which is technically 2nd/3rd grade if you're talking about content) and Pre-K simultaneously! It's what homeschool is all about!

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The boys work side-by-side quite well!

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The only thing the boys do together are the 'First Language Lessons'. I read a passage from classic literature, and they both respond. Hunter with a dictated sentence, and JJ with a drawing in his literature journal.

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For JJ, we are focusing primarily on early literacy and pre-reading skills. Prior to joining us, he attended a private preschool that used ABeka, so he is quite used to tracing his name, as well as other letters and numbers. Our goal is to move away from the tracing, and get JJ writing independently, working up to basic reading skills.

As for the Pre-K curriculum, we are doing the same thing I did with Hunter - using the Brainquest Kindergarten workbook, and supplementing with worksheets made by yours truly :o)

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Here is my other smiling face :o) Still working hard, and FLYING through
Math U See Alpha!

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Another concept I am working on with JJ is the calendar - days of the week, months of the year, yesterday/today/tomorrow, etc.

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For the calendar, JJ counts all the days of the month, starting with 1 and ending up at the current day - the future days stay turned over until we get to them! (I saw it done this way in Hunter's mommy&me class a long time ago, and I loved it!)

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Today is TUESDAY!

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While we have had to make many adjustments, they have all been postive! We do science and history at odd, random times now (while eating lunch, while I'm cooking dinner, before bed...) but that is just the fun of homeschooling!