The One Room Schoolhouse

Another Smiling Face!

2011-11-16T07:25:00.000-08:00

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!

The boys work side-by-side quite well!

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.

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!

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

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!)

Today is TUESDAY!

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!

Burning Things! (don't worry, it's science!)

2011-10-09T14:21:00.000-07:00

For the past two weeks, Hunter has been learning about the sun! To end the week we did a little outdoor project

What better way to exemplify one's ability to concentrate sunlight than to burn things with a magnifying glass on a sunny day! (science lesson + good old fashion fun = an awesome Friday afternoon!)

We started with a fun-size Hershey bar, which was not super gratifying to watch. It was definitely melting, but it wasn't amazing to watch...

Enter... the dried leaf!

Now THAT'S what I'm talking about! The dead leaf was great because it heats up very quickly, gives off a significant amount of smoke, and smells awesome!!

Next, Hunter wanted to know what would happen if we tried to burn a green leaf. Now, we don't routinely go around destroying living things, but in the name of science, I was willing to sacrifice a leaf from the bush in our yard.

So, thanks to Hunter's awesome question, I got a chance to explain to him why the green leaf didn't react to the concentrated heat the same way they dried leaf did.. (three cheers for homeschooling!!)

And then, because, why not? We burned a marshmallow...

And yes, Hunter got to eat it :o)

Pyramids, Treasures, and Mummies, OH MY!

2011-10-07T15:54:00.000-07:00

To wrap up our week on mummies and pyramids (no pun intended haha), Hunter experienced an archaeological dig right in our dining room :o) I found this Dig and Play Egyptian Tomb kit on Amazon, and was saving it for the perfect time - Friday was that time!

I hid the box, and just presented Hunter with the plaster brick and digging tools. We talked about archaeologists, and what it might be like to find a Pharaoh's treasure!

This was the first glimpse of treasure:

Hunter's face was so cute, because he didn't have a clue about what he was expecting to find!

Brushing away the dust!

All kinds of treasures!

And of course, a mummy! (Hunter was VERY excited about this!)

How awesome is Hunter's surprised/excited face?? I love that I get to experience moments like this, in the middle of a Friday afternoon :o)

The Caterpillar (memory work!)

2011-10-07T09:41:00.000-07:00

One of the components of the First Language Lessons curriculum is memory work. Every few weeks, Hunter sets out to memorize something, whether it be a poem, a Bible verse, or a list of important people!

His first memory task of the year was a poem called 'The Caterpillar'

Here is is final performance :o)

'The Caterpillar'

by Christina G. Rosetti

Brown and furry

Caterpillar in a hurry;

Take your walk,

To the shady leaf or stalk.

May no toad spy you,

May the little birds pass by you;

Spin and die,

To live again a butterfly.

Chapter 1 and Chapter 3 History Projects

2011-10-03T19:05:00.000-07:00

We are having a great time working through 'Story of the World'! For Chapter 1 (The Earliest People), Hunter made an awesome cave painting! He used a crunched up brown paper grocery bag, and some dark paints - I am so thrilled with how it turned out!

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Last week, we worked on chapter 3 (The First Writing). Hunter learned all about stone and clay tablets, hieroglyphics and cuneiform, and papyrus. On the last day of the week, Hunter made his own cuneiform tablet using FIMO clay.

Roll the clay out into a tablet shape (I only picked up one square of clay, and our project came out a bit small. If I had it to do again, I would use to squares).

Poke two holes in the top of your clay, for hanging after the project has hardened.

Using the cuneiform guide in the activity book, spell out a message! This one says 'HWB' (Hunter's initials)

Justin had an unexpected afternoon off, so he joined us for this project :o)

When the design is done, bake the tablet at 230 degrees for 30 minutes, and let it cool completely.

I hung the tablet using some leather string and a 3m hook - it looks great hanging under Hunter's cave painting - I'm looking forward to seeing this wall fill up with more history projects as the school year moves along!

Spelling Power

2011-09-20T12:25:00.000-07:00

Today I thought I'd provide a glimpse into the new spelling program we are using this year. So far, I LOVE IT (as for Hunter, I've received no complaints whatsoever). 'Spelling Power' (an award winning program and Cathy Duffy pick!) focuses on the 5000 most frequently used and misspelled words in the English language. There are no grade levels (just corresponding letters -level A= first grade, level B= second grade, etc.), and no weekly lists. You read that right! NO WEEKLY LISTS!

You start off by giving your student a series of detailed assessments (very user friendly, everything is in the manual!). The results of these assessments determine which level is an appropriate starting point for your student. You begin with group 1 of the appropriate level, and work your way through AT THE STUDENT'S OWN PACE! No pressure to finish the book in one year, no getting bored with the same words over and over. In my opinion, I believe the best part of this program is the idea that if Hunter knows a word, we move on, and he never has to prove his knowledge of that word again! We only practice words he has misspelled.

Here is a shot of the page we are currently using. He is on level C, and working through group 3 right now.

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Hunter's test sheet starts off looking like this. The left column is labeled 'Test Words', and the right column is labeled 'Words to learn'. The book comes with a cd rom that contains files of printable test sheets. I feel they are a little busy for Hunter's level, so I just improvise :o)

The first words of the test are always the word/words he got wrong the day before. SO you start with the missed words from yesterday, and then continue through the list in the book - for five minutes, and then you stop!
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I love watching him use that noggin!

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Here he is writing the first word, 'which', which is the only word he missed yesterday.

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An important step in this special process is to stop and review each word immediately after your student has finished writing it. If they spelled it right, move on to the next word. If they spelled it wrong, the student rewrites the word, spelled correctly, in the 'words to learn' column. Move on to the next word.

Hunter got through five words before he missed one, 'pick', which he spelled 'pik'. At that point, I write the word on the whiteboard, and we discuss the correct spelling.

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Here is Hunter copying the correct spelling into the 'words to learn column'.

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After that, we had time for one more word, 'picked', which he spelled correctly, leaving 'pick' as the ONLY word he has to study!

Here is where things get interesting:

Now that we have his words to learn, we go through a unique list of activities.

Step one:
Review the word, say the spelling out loud, and discuss anything tricky, such as silent letters

(Hunter took this picture, and was told NOT to include anything but my arm, on pain of no birthday presents!)

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Step two: The student closes their eyes, says the word, spells the word, and says the word again (spelling-bee style). If the student spells is right, move on, if not, go back to step one.

Step three: The student traces the letters on a tabletop, while saying the letters out loud. This is an awesome mental/physical connection for them! Again, if he gets it right, we move on. If not, we go back to step one.

Step four: The student says the word, writes the word (speaking out loud as he writes each letter), and says the word again.

At this point, if he has it right, you're done! (if not, you guessed it! Go back to step one, and continue until the student gets all the steps right)

Go through all of the steps, on missed word at a time. I make a point to throw the words out at Hunter throughout the evening, and especially at dinner. So tomorrow, the first word on Hunter's test will be 'pick', and I'm sure he'll get it right!

By the way, if your student gets the word wrong again the next day, it is no big deal, you just proceed exactly the same way. That word will stay on their test until they've gotten it right, but you've been able to move through the list at the same time!

Another interesting thing worth mentioning, is that the book you purchase contains ALL of the spelling lists needed for 1st - 12th grade! That is ONE non-consumable book that will sustain ALL of your kids through ALL of their school years!

Friday Reflections - Week 1

2011-09-09T11:52:00.000-07:00

Well, week one is officially behind us! We had a great week, and I am BEYOND thrilled with all of our curriculum. I think the 'well-trained mind' way of doing things is wonderful, concise, organized, and casual, while at the same time, is extremely content-rich!
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Here is a look back at our first week of the year

Here is our happy first-grader on the first morning of school!

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He was VERY happy to see the new school room. He had been SO patient as Justin and I poured everything we had into that room to get it ready for the new school year!

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Morgan quickly made herself busy, checking out the goodies in her nook :o)

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And of course, my 15 month old baby stayed on the rug and quietly amused herself while Hunter and I did lessons. (yeah, I totally snorted pop out of my nose when I read that sentence too....)

I swear - she looked like this the WHOLE time!! (Ocean front property in Arizona, anyone???)

When I was planning out the school year, I had a little bit of difficulty deciding how I would organize some of Hunter's work this year. One thing I am really, really happy with kind of sprung up out of nowhere, but I think it's going to work great.

For writing, we are using Writing With Ease. It is easy to forget that writing should involve much more than handwriting worksheets. This program encompasses the physical act of writing, but also includes reading comprehension, narration, mechanics, and formation of thought.

I decided that we would organize Hunter's writing in a composition notebook (which I covered in camo duck tape to up the 'coolness' factor!) Each page will have the entire week's worth of lessons on it. This way, we can flip through the book and see Hunter's progress as the year goes by.

While reading 'The Well Trained Mind', it was brought to my attention that just because Hunter is physically capable of writing, that doesn't mean I should force him to write out every little thing he thinks. Hunter has written very little this week, but each day he has formed thoughts into words, which I have put down on the page for him to read. At this stage, most kids' ability to form sentences in their brains far outpaces their ability to physically write those sentences down. By incorporating narration into almost every subject, Hunter is generating complex thoughts and sentences, but not getting burnt out while recording them. This concept makes so much sense to me, and it's validity was confirmed 100% as we got through an entire week without so much as a *peep* of complaint from Hunter.

Here is what his writing notebook looks like:

In Writing With Ease, each week focuses on a different work of literature. Week one takes its assignments from 'Little House in the Big Woods'.

Day 1: copy work sentence, discuss title and author

Day 2: read a passage from 'Little House', discuss comprehension questions, complete narration exercise

Day 3: copy work sentence

Day 4: read a second passage from 'Little House', discuss comprehension questions, complete narration exercise

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Science was also fun this week, as Hunter learned about NASA, Copernicus, Galileo, and definitions of words like astronomy, astronomer, and gravitational pull! He also created his own mnemonic device to remember the names of the planets. The sentence he came up with was:

My Very Enthusiastic Muppet Jumped Sideways Up Nine Pinetrees

(and yes, we discussed the Pluto controversy!)

Here you see one of the notebook pages, once again utilizing narration!

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I copy Hunter's worksheets in the hope that the originals can be used for Morgan in the future. Our copier/printer is acting up, so I had to do as the Marines do and 'Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome' - so hand copied worksheets it was!

We are continuing from where we left off at the end of last school year, Alpha, lesson 15

So there is our week in review! On deck for next week: Pinocchio (for writing), nomads, full moon, and a cave painting!

The School Room is DONE - and just in the nick of time!

2011-09-06T12:43:00.001-07:00

Well, it took Justin and I until 3am this morning, but sure enough, we got the school room done in time to begin Hunter's first grade year this morning! We had a great day, and I can't wait to get back to it tomorrow! (When we were done, Hunter actually said "awww, can't we do more??" - so I let him use my label maker while we put some binders together :o)
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Anyway, how about some school room pics??
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In order for you to get the full effect of how far we've come in 3 months, I'll share some before pics:

Here we are looking into what is now the school room, this is what it looked like when we moved in over Memorial Day.

Inside the school room looking out into the living room. We built a closet that now conceals the water heater and stashes all of our school goodies.

Here is Justin framing one of the 9,000 soffits in the school room, thanks to the builder leaving pipes in inconvenient places.

My Dad and Justin framing the wall that now holds our whiteboards. (We had to frame all four walls in this room)

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And now for the After photos!!

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Here we are in the living room looking into the school room. (we dropped everything in the living room to focus on the school room, which is why the stairs are still bare and the doors lack casing. Don't worry, after a small break, we'll get on that :o)

Ahhhh, just like I dreamt it!!!

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Here you can see the closet over to the left.

Hunter's desk: a thrift store find that I stripped and painted black, then I painted the top with dry erase paint, so his whole desktop is one big dry erase board!

Goodies waiting for Hunter at his desk this morning included a brand new, big kid Bible, a Berenstain Bears book, and a Toy Story lunch box with new dry erase markers, Chicago sports teams pencils, bookmarks, and some silly-bands :o)

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We added a little bit of Hunter's personality/passion to the desk drawers

I used this adorable antique canning jar for pencils. I secured the jar to the desk using 3m picture hanging strips.

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Morgan's nook :o) I made the magnet board out of an antique frame and some flashing

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This is the shelf above my desk; a little homage to Laura Ingalls Wilder and my love for the one room schoolhouse concept

I LOVE this antique tea table, and it just happened to work perfectly in the room as a printer stand!

Well, there it is! There is still a lot of wall space to fill, but I was not at all interested in cluttering up the walls straight out of the gate. We'll be doing rain gutter bookshelves again, and hanging various projects from throughout the year. For now though, I love how simple, clean, and calm this space is! The rest of my house is still a disaster, since we spend every spare minute on the basement. However, now we have this space to greet us every morning, and I am feeling so blessed :o)

Hitting the Road (Is that even legal ?!?!)

2011-08-12T11:04:00.001-07:00

While most people seem to have kicked off their 'official' school year already, we are delayed a little bit :o) Our school room is a few weeks shy of being completed, but that is not the only reason we are pushing things to September. On Saturday, the kids and I (and my Dad, who is so wonderfully caring and generous - he is flying out to Georgia tonight so that he can drive with me!) are heading up to Chicago for the second time this summer. However, Chicago is not our final destination! We will spend one day in Chicago with my parents, and then my mom and the kids and I will drive up to North Dakota! (Yes, I'm crazy. I'm okay with it.)
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While on the road, I have some things for Hunter to do, most of them revolving around geography. We have a map on which he will trace our route through all the different states, and each time we hit a new state, he will read some information on that state and tell the rest of the passengers in the car.
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I am very much looking forward to spending this time with my son. I am grateful for the quality time he will spend with his grandparents and great-grandparents, learning lessons and experiencing things he would have to miss out on if he were not home schooled. I try not to dog on the public schools (heck, I'm a public school teacher by trade), but it makes me a little bit ill to think of my son sitting at a desk from 8am to 3pm every day, while so much life is happening outside those walls! Because Hunter isn't sick, I would not legally be able to take him out of school for the two week period he would miss. But because we've been blessed and called to home school, we have a very special freedom that I am pleased as punch to take full advantage of in the next two weeks!
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Here's to time with family, time with our elders, time to explore this beautiful country God has blessed us with, and the time and freedom to grow outside of cinder blocks and in the fullness of the life we've been given!
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Stay Tuned!

We're Back!!

2011-08-03T17:01:00.000-07:00

Since my last blog, we have moved - again - this time to Northeast Georgia! We are settling into our first (owned) home, and loving it! The crown jewel of this house was an 819sqf unfinished basement, which we have poured our hearts and souls into this summer. The basement now consists of a beautifully tiled full bathroom, a large media room and bar (who's ready for some FOOTBALL??), and best of all, a BEAUTIFUL school room!

We are still putting the finishing touches on the basement, but we will be ready to start school after Labor Day weekend. For now, I wanted to revive my blog (which WILL be updated every Friday during the school year, with notes about the curricula we are using), and participate in the "Not Back to School" blog hop! During the month of August at 'Heart of the Matter Online', bloggers can post links to their pages about a different topic each week.

This week, the topic is curriculum, and lucky us - the UPS man delivered a big ol' box of school goodies from Rainbow Resource today!

For Hunter's first grade year, we are going all in on the classical method of homeschooling. Back in May, I read "The Well Trained Mind" by Susan Wise Bauer, and I was hooked! I will do a post next week with regards to method itself. As for this year's curriculum:

Language Arts:

- Spelling: Spelling Power

- Grammar: First Language Lessons

- Writing: Writing With Ease (vol. 1)

- Reading: Whatever he likes!

Math:

- MUS Alpha/Beta: Hunter ended his Kindergarten year halfway through the Alpha book, so we will be picking up where he left off, and moving on to Beta when he's ready

Science:

- Apologia Science, "Exploring Creation With Astronomy"

Social Studies:

- Story of the World, Vol. 1

Art:

- We are involved with the home school group at our military base. Hunter will be participating in an hour-long art class every Wednesday afternoon (I am VERY pleased to outsource painting this year :o)

Music:

- Later this fall, we will be purchasing a piano. When we do that, I will begin teaching Hunter how to read music and play the piano.

I think that's it! Of course, we are including all kinds of wonderful literature and reference books revolving around the history topics - this year it's ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome. I am so excited about this year. There are many new things happening, such as reporting to the state, and having attendance and instruction time requirements, but that is all part of the adventure, and I can't wait to begin. Welcome, First Grade, we've been waiting for you!!

First Chapter Book!

2011-03-24T08:33:00.001-07:00

I am beaming with uncontrollable pride right now, because this morning, Hunter finished his first chapter book, The Fantastic Mr.Fox!

I decided to present this book to him, just to see how it went, and to make sure I was meeting him at his level. Hunter read every single word of this book out loud to me, reading one chapter per day. At the end of each chapter, he drew a picture of what had happened in the story. I am still deciding what I will do with the pictures - I'm thinking either a nice report cover or spiral binding, not sure yet.

At any rate, here is Hunter, looking as though he just conquered the world!

New Home, New School Room!

2011-02-09T08:22:00.001-08:00

After a mid-year PCS move, we are all settled in our new home in Texas. Until May, that is :o)
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In this house we decided to have the kids room together, so that our third bedroom could be used as a schoolroom. This is working out perfectly, because Hunter and Morgan do SO well together, and having a designated space for school is very, very fun!
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I really didn't like having school posters and pocket charts in our living room in the last house. Having a separate space really helps with organization and focus. It also allows us to hang as much stuff on the walls as we want, without taking over the dining room!
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Here are a few pictures:

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We are loving this set up, and as we search for a new home at the next duty station, having a secluded school room is very high on our priority list!

Apple Pie by Hunter

2010-09-27T12:21:00.000-07:00

Reason number 1,273 to love home schooling: spending Monday morning together in the kitchen, baking an apple pie with the apples you picked last Monday morning :o)

Last week, our Five in a Row book was How To Make an Apple Pie and See the World. (I will post our lapbook on this sometime tomorrow) Our unit study culminated with the baking of a magnificent apple pie.

Step One: Combine dry ingredients

(ps - how adorable is the juxtaposition of the Urlacher jersey/puppy dog apron??)

Step 2: Pour dry ingredients over apples that took mom forever to peel and slice with a paring knife because she got all ready to make the pie and realized she doesn't have any kind of a peeler...

Step 3: Press pie crust into 9" pie plate

Step 4: Destroy any evidence that might suggest you used a store-bought pie crust.

Step 5: Pour coated apples into *homemade* pie crust.

Step 6: Place top layer of *homemade* pie crust, and flute the edges. That's right, flute.

Step 7: Paint the *homemade* pie crust with an egg white (or as Hunter, the five year old comedian, prefers to call it - boogers)

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Step 8: Put the pie in the oven and wait patiently...

Step 9: Sniff and admire :o)

All in all, our project was a huge success! We had a great time together, and Hunter is extremely proud of his pie - we are so excited to rip into this bad boy during half-time tonight!

Mike Mulligan

2010-09-19T16:45:00.000-07:00

This week we started a new curriculum (although, we are still doing Math-U-See and A Reason for Handwriting/Spelling)

Five in a Row!

This is awesome. Each week we have a new book, and do projects in five different disciplines (social studies/geography, language arts, art, math, and science), all relating back to the story. I chose to incorporate lapbooks, because it keeps all of our components in one place, and let's face it, I like things that way!

We started out with Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel. Over the course of the week, and with just this one story, Hunter explored steam powered machines, learned about stewardship, measured squares, wrote about personification and character traits, and drew trees from both aerial and close-up perspectives!

I took a few videos of Hunter giving a 'tour' of his first five-in-a-row lapbook. A few disclaimers:

-please excuse the pj shirt :o)

- I swear on McDonald's Frappes that I did not tell him to say all that stuff about having fun doing projects with his mom... if you listen closely, you can hear me melting behind the camera :o)

I printed off all of the lapbook components from HomeSchool Share - they have GREAT five in a row resources!

I can't wait to start this week's book - How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World!

Charter School

2010-09-19T15:41:00.001-07:00

After a fun and busy Labor day weekend, Hunter started classes at the Big Sur Charter School. I had a lot of fun making this day as special as possible for Hunter. I have very fond memories of my first days of school growing up. Shopping with mom for new supplies, new outfit, new backpack, and dad going in late to work so he had time to make us waffles :o)
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Fortunately, Justin had the day off as part of the long weekend, so we started the day off together with blueberry muffins and some sausage

The annual front door picture

Is he a handsome kindergartner or what??

Cubby!

Hunter, with his first ever homework assignment - and 'all about me' poster that he had to present to the class!

After we dropped Hunter off, Morgan, Justin, and I headed to the Paris bakery for breakfast part 2, and coffee

Four hours later, it was time to pick Hunter up. He was super excited, and said he had a great time. To celebrate, we went out to Baskin Robbins for a treat

We are two weeks into this charter school thing, and I'm still trying to decide what I think. Hunter really enjoys it, has made some friends, and seems to be benefiting from the time he spends there, so we'll stick it out for now. Tomorrow we are taking a field trip to a local apple orchard, so that should be fun!

Branching Out

2010-08-20T12:09:00.000-07:00

Recently I met some fellow military homeschoolers in the area at a park day. It was there that I learned about a new charter school called Big Sur Charter school. They have been operation successfully down in Big Sur for many years, and this year, they are opening a 'branch' in Monterey.

After attending an informational meeting, and discussing Hunter's specific educational needs, Justin and I decided to go ahead and enroll.

This is a state-funded charter school that exists only as a supplement to homeschoolers. Hunter will be attending three hours of class every Tuesday and Thursday starting the first week in September. These classes will be with five other Kindergartners and possibly a few first graders. They will be led by a teacher who will provide opportunities in music, art, and science. In addition to the classes twice per week, there will be field trips at least once per month. The best part of this set-up is that we, the parents, are in charge of content. The parents decide what classes the teacher will teach, and what field trips we want to take. In other words, the way it should be :o)

I am so excited to be a part of this charter school! It is going to be a perfect fit for us, as Hunter will be able to enjoy all of the 'fun' things about Kindergarten (art, music, recess, field trips, etc...), while at the same time, cruising at his own lightening-fast pace in math and reading at home.

We will also be starting a new curriculum at home, called Five in a Row. As I have mentioned before, Hunter is well beyond the phonics stage of reading (he was reading Stuart Little to me the other day!). On the flip side, Hunter is still only four years old, so it is difficult to find reading material with age appropriate content. Through Five in a Row, we will be reading classic stories, but delving much, much, deeper, and focusing on content and comprehension, rather than mechanics. Stay tuned, as I'll be sharing our experiences with this new curriculum!

Kindergarten!

2010-07-27T15:24:00.000-07:00

I'm linking up to the 'Not Back to School Blog Hop' over at 'At the Heart of the Matter Online' -

Well, it's time to breath some life back into this blog! We started Kindergarten a few weeks ago (started early due to the big move coming up in November when we'll have to take a little time off)

The curriculum run-down for this year - after researching curriculum for about a year, I finally pieced Hunter's kindergarten work together. So here is the lineup as it stands now:

Handwriting - A Reason for Handwriting, Level A. This is really great so far - each week Hunter learns a new Bible verse, and then practices printing a few words from that verse each day. On Fridays, he copies the entire verse and puts it in the mail to Grandma :o)

Math - Math-U-See. We are using the Primer level, but skipped ahead a bit and started with lesson 9. So far this has been really great! This week we are on lesson 12, and Hunter is learning to add without counting! It comes with a set of really great manipulatives, and Hunter even enjoys the dvd lessons. Math-U-See uses a mastery approach to math, meaning that we take as much or as little time needed on each concept before moving on. I think this is going to give Hunter a very strong foundation in math (something I do not have!)

Spelling - A Reason for Spelling, Level A. Since Hunter is reading fluently now, we are doing this formal spelling program. Each week, Hunter gets a new list of ten words. For each day of the week there are varied activities incorporating different styles of learning - for example, one day he might use alphabet stamps and stamp out the spelling words, and another day he might do a word search or word scramble puzzle containing the spelling words. Last week we did spelling in the car - I would call out one of his words, and he would try to find each letter on a different road sign. I like this program so far, but four weeks in a row now, he has aced the pretest... so I'm not sure how long this will be interesting for him!

Reading - Explode the Code, Online version. We are still working out the kinks of this program. With Hunter reading independently, we have yet to get him into the right level. This is an online program, that auto-adjusts based on the child's performance - so far things are still way too easy (the program has him working on consonant blends). Right now I have him working through the levels until we find the right spot.

These are the subjects we do daily - in a few weeks I will start alternating science and social studies once per week. As for extra curricular, Hunter has swimming lessons a few times per week, and then soccer starts in September! We are looking into a few different co op/charter options that will provide different art and music opportunities, though we haven't decided on one yet.

I can tell Hunter is going to keep me on my toes, as he has a way of taking my plans and flying past them! It will be a race to keep up with him, but what a great ride it will be!

Hunter - The Reading Machine

2010-03-12T12:36:00.000-08:00

Since this year has really been about trial and error, I didn't plan much beyond writing letters and numerals. Hunter took off faster than I imagined, and before Christmas, he finished everything I had planned for the year! So for now, while I pour over kindergarten/first grade curriculum for the fall, we are really putting most of our time into hanging out and reading together, in addition to working on traditional kindergarten skills (cutting, gluing, organizing big bigger biggest, and first, second third, etc.) Hunter's reading skills have really exploded in these last few months, and he is reading everything in sight (this makes trips in the car very fun. Here is a video of Hunter reading one of his Now I'm Reading beginning readers this morning - when I took this video, it was the very first time Hunter had attempted this book.

Spelling 4-Letter Words

2009-10-23T11:31:00.001-07:00

It has been too long since my last blog post! We have been keeping up with 'school at home' as Hunter calls it, but during the month of October, we scaled down the big projects. So for now, Hunter is still working on printing - he did 'T t', 'U u', 'V v', and 'W w' this week, with 'X x', 'Y y', and 'Z z' coming next week.

Hunter is also working on spelling. We have been working with this magnet set from Lakeshore at the beginning of the year -

Hunter was doing so well using the magnet letters, I decided to increase the challenge...

That's all for now!

An American Flag

2009-09-28T16:19:00.000-07:00

"Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom."

~ John Adams

Last week, Hunter had his first American history lesson. We talked about the colonists and why they wanted their own country. We started talking about freedom, and what that means. Hunter has been familiar with the American flag for a long time, but we went a little deeper this time and talked about the symbolism, Betsy Ross, and George Washington's request. For an art/social studies project, Hunter constructed his own flag that now hangs in his playroom.

We started off with a piece of white foam board. I drew out the lines, and then taped them off with painters tape.

Hunter's first step was to paint the exposed stripes red.

He then painted the small square blue.

We let it dry for a little while, and then removed the painters tape - this step was really fun for Hunter, as he really enjoyed seeing his flag come to life!

The next day, Hunter applied thirteen stars (cut from craft foam) to the blue square. (I decided that Hunter can make a modern flag when he is old enough to cut out 50 stars :o)

Here is a video of Hunter talking about his project:

Five Green and Speckled Frogs

2009-09-02T19:51:00.000-07:00

This week Hunter learned all about the life cycle of frogs. He was fascinated and soaked up quite a lot of information! For a fun froggy themed project we made an interactive display to use during the "Five Green and Speckled Frogs" song....

Hunter started out by painting his hand green and making five hand prints:

I rigged a drying rack and let the sun do the work while we did some other tasks:

Hunter is all the way up to "L,l" in his printing. Here he is saying each letter and getting ready to place his completed "L" strip in the pocket chart. As he was doing this he said "hey mom, take my picture":

Hunter also spent some time reviewing the printing of the numbers 1-5 (take a close look at the printing!!):

After the hand prints had dried, I cut them out (I also cut the thumbs off, leaving four froggy legs) and Hunter drew smiles and speckles on each one: (oh, and Hunter chose to give this frog glasses as well :o)

Next came google eyes and popsicle sticks glued to the back:

After the glue had dried, it was finally time to place the five speckled frogs at home on their speckled log:

Ready to sing!

"Five green and speckled frogs, sat on a speckled log,

eating the most delicious bugs; YUM! YUM!
One jumped into the pool, where it was nice and cool,

now there are four green speckled frogs" etc...

Bubble Painting

2009-08-28T14:37:00.000-07:00

We are incredibly fortunate to be blessed with amazing neighbors with whom we have become very good friends. As if that isn't awesome enough, their family also homeschools! So on Wednesday we got the kids together to do some painting with bubbles. The paintings didn't turn out exactly how we thought they would, but it was a fun project none the less!

Here is our neighbor Kaitlyn mixing up bubbles and food coloring:

I made a make-shift easel so that all three kids could paint next to each other. On the left is Kaitlyn, then Hunter, then Kaitlyn's brother Brandon on the right:

Here is Hunter looking on as Kaitlyn mixed colors:

Hunter's finished product:

Porcupines and Arabic

2009-08-18T14:41:00.000-07:00

As we continue our exploration of animals, this week Hunter learned about the different ways animals protect themselves from predators. We read a small passage from what your preschooler needs to know, and then hopped on youtube to watch videos of porcupines, puffer fish, skunks, and rattlesnakes. After that we did a little artwork - here is Hunter with his porcupine, who he named, surprise surprise, Urlacher :o)

Lately, Hunter and I have become more and more interested in having Justin teach us a little Arabic. We can now say 'hello', 'my name is...', 'God willing', and 'I love you'.... I have been working very hard on writing the alphabet, and yesterday, Hunter wanted in on the Arabic action...

Anxious Paint

2009-08-12T22:03:00.000-07:00

As someone who is constantly worried about the state of her military base housing carpeting, kid art is always a stressful situation for me... Hunter did get quite a bit of painting in today, including a short lesson on color mixing.

We started out using crayola no-drip finger paint, which really stunk. It has an opaque quality to it, not like beautiful, bold poster paint:

Also, it turns out that red and blue crayola no-drip finger paint does NOT make purple!

So I broke out the Melissa and Doug poster paint, ahhhh that's better!

Here is the final product hanging in the playroom:

A tip: Mix a little dish soap in with your paint to ease the process of cleaning your cups, brushes, and kitchen floor :o)

After the color mixing discussion, Hunter was given free reign over his art station - this particular piece involved a trampoline and a water slide :o)

All in all, it was a success - we managed to keep the paints on washable surfaces, which is all I was hoping for :o) Thanks to our Melissa and Doug no-spill paint cups with lids, the paints are now easily accessible, so I'm sure we will be painting much more frequently from now on...

Teacher's Eye View

2009-08-07T15:46:00.000-07:00

For my fellow homeschoolers reading the blog, I thought I'd give you a quick tour of how I am operating thus far...

First, the school bell in this house does not ring until I have coffee in hand - this morning things got a little fancy :o)

We start off the morning with the calendar. Hunter counts the days that are already turned over, and then figures out which number comes next. After turning over today's date, he sings the 'days of the week' song. Then, we move over to the red pocket chart and Hunter figures out 'yesterday was', 'today is', and 'tomorrow will be'.

After Calendar, we sit down at Hunter's table and read a short story out of our Devotions for Preschoolers book. This book is really cute, and offers quick stories pertaining to prayer, kindess, family, etc.

From there we move to Language Arts - Right now I use our Brainquest Pre-K workbook to introduce the printing of whatever letter we are working on that day. After that, Hunter just practices the letter on printing paper 6 or 7 times. If time allows, Hunter reads from his sight words book.

After L.A. we move on to math, again using the Brainquest Pre-K workbook. In addition, we use the spectrum math kindergarten workbook.

Those two subjects take us about 0ne hour, so by then we are ready for a break. We break for about 30 minutes, giving me a little bit of time to straighten up, do some laundry, or check facebook :o) Hunter is usually begging me to get back to school after just a few minutes.

We come back from break to do science (and starting in September, social studies). I am taking my science and social studies topics from What Your Preschooler Needs to Know.

Depending on how much time is left, I fill in with either a file folder game, or a phonics game (I have acquired several good ones from Lakeshore Learning Materials)

Some supplies I recommend and have found extrememly useful/benicifial thus far include:

A shelf designated for your school supplies

Art Supplies

Math Manipulatives

A Planbook - or if you are a little bit crazy, two planbooks (I use the brown one for longterm, theme planning, and the blue one for short term planning - this allows me to adjust plans according to Hunter's progress)

An Interactive Calendar (this one is from Lakeshore)

A Cool Pointer for interacting with above calendar (dollar spot @ target!)

An adorable, chunky pencil

A Space Designated for school time, and Pocket Charts (these have an infinite number of uses, and I found my small ones in the dollar spot at target!)

And Finally:

A loving, encouraging, and super supportive husband! (seen here eating mushrooms at the Gilroy Garlic Festival)

An adorable, enthusiastic, eager preschooler

Week One - A Retrospective

2009-08-07T15:06:00.000-07:00

In a nutshell: so far, so good! Hunter woke up every day asking when 'school at home' was going to start (even though we are only doing Monday, Wednesday, Friday). In the first two days, he ripped through all of the math concepts I had planned out for the first two weeks. So I will be speeding up the math a little bit, and moving into patterns next week. On the flipside, printing seems to be a bit of a challenge for Hunter, so we will definitely be taking our time with that (ahhh, the beauty of homeschool...)

This week, we worked on printing the letters A, a, B, b, C, and c, Hunter is already good to go on knowing his letters and the sounds they make (thank you amazing leapfrog dvd!), so that provides a good foundation for learning how to write the letters himself. We are also working through a sight words book collection, and Hunter is able to read these great little books all by himself (I have to cover up the pictures though, because he likes to cheat and say what's in the picture, rather than go to the trouble of sounding out words :o)

I was trying to get Hunter to look at me and smile for this picture, but he kept working and said "I'm really busy!"

In math, we did a few worksheets and hands-on activities related to the concept of same/different. I am really loving our Brain Quest PreK workbook, as well as our Spectrum Math workbook. The spectrum book is illustrated by Mercer Mayer - Hunter has a book called 'Daddy and Me' that is a Mercer Mayer book, so he calls his spectrum math book his 'Daddy and Me Workbook' :o). I find both of these books to be really colorful and simple, and so far, Hunter really looks forward to using them.

I ran out of math for Hunter this morning, so he did this worksheet on shapes and colors...

In science, our topic for the week was 'Animals have different kinds of bodies' (by the way, I've taken all of our science and social studies topics from this book) We read a little bit about some general animal classifications - insects/spiders, birds, fish, reptiles/amphibians, and mammals. Hunter finished putting together the chart that we had started on Monday - his favorite part was seeing pictures of himself, and our dog, Charley, in the mammals category :o)

After completing the chart, we relaxed on the couch for awhile and watched two episodes of 'Bill Nye the Science Guy' (the insects and amphibians episodes, of course!)

Next week, we will be working on letter D-F, and moving on to patterns in math. In addition, we will be learning about the different ways that animals move.

Pre K - Day 1

2009-08-03T21:21:00.000-07:00

Today was our first day of the 'trial-run' school year. I decided to use Hunter's pre-k year as an opportunity to prepare/experiment for home school kindergarten which will happen next year. I definitely think it is safe to call this day a total success! Hunter woke up this morning and ran into our room saying "is it time to do school at home????"

We started our day at 8:45 with calendar and a Bible verse. At 9:00, we started on Language Arts. First, Hunter did a few worksheets that had him identifying objects that start with a short 'A' (think A as in apple). After that, he spent a little bit of time practicing printing upper and lowercase A. In addition to light phonics, we are working through a sight words book - today's words were 'A' and 'And'.

After all that, Hunter was eager to discover what was next. We moved on to math - today's work involved finding objects that were the same. This ended up being way to easy of a concept for Hunter, but he enjoyed the workbooks, so it worked out just fine.

Note Hunter's name at the top of the page - all him!

This worksheet was supposed to be a bit more challenging. Each row had 3 abstract objects, and Hunter had to circle the two that were the same - he ripped through the whole thing in about two minutes - we won't be spending too much extra time on 'same' and 'different'!!

After the worksheets Hunter took this big pile of bear manipulatives and separated them into the correct color cups. I found it fascinating to watch him do this, because where I would have picked up the bears in no particular order and sorted them, he chose to sort each color individually - he picked out all of the green bears first, then the yellow bears, etc. ...

After math we took a 30 minute break so that I could take care of some chores, and Hunter could stretch his legs for a while. After about 10 minutes, Hunter was begging to get back to school!

Science came next. Today's topic was 'Animals have different kinds of bodies'. We read about insects, spiders, and birds, (fish, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals to come...) After reading, Hunter glued some pictures of these animals to card stock and I cut them out. He then placed each picture in a hanging pocket chart that we will add on to as the week continues.

So that was day 1! We were done with all of this in about 2 hours (including the half-hour break) leaving plenty of time to play outside before lunch. After his nap, Hunter woke up and said 'can we do school again???'. All in all, I was thrilled with the way things went - I am looking forward to learning more and more about what works and what doesn't in the weeks ahead!