I decided today that we would take our classroom to the out-of-doors. Well, out of the kitchen door onto the screened in back porch, anyway. The weather has been so nice this past week, I just couldn't stay in the house. Not to mention, we haven't turned the air conditioner on yet, and upstairs gets well into the 80's pretty quick.
The girls did pretty well in their new place. There wasn't too many requests to go outside and play. Although, math took us about twice as long as it usually does. It is the subject that takes up most of our time right now, though. We have a lot to cover. We are using Saxon Math 1, which is the 1st grade math curricula, and it has 3 different sections to cover, not including the "homework" sheet. We begin with the "math meeting" where we talk about the calender, what day, month and year it is, what our shape pattern is for the month, the weather, the time (morning vs afternoon)... We added two more things to the list this morning: a number pattern (3, 4, 5, , , what's missing?), and the coin cup. Today, the cup had 7 pennies and we counted them and talked about pennies, how much they are worth and what the cent symbol is. They enjoyed that a lot. There is just something about money, no matter how little the amount.
Then we did a sheet with the shape blocks again. Oh, jeeze, I hadn't blogged since we played with the shape blocks the first time. I need to keep up better! Anyway, the sheet had different shapes that the girls had to cover with the blocks. There were different ways to cover each one, and it was neat to see how they covered them up. When Brianna discovered that Kirsten was doing her's differently, she wanted to change hers to match Kirsten's. I told her not to do that, that they didn't have to be the same. We ended up talking about cheating, too, because she wanted to look around me to see what Kirsten had done. I don't know why, but they are both on this "we have to do/have/be the same" about everything right now. Girls, you are different, and that's good!
Next we covered some spelling and rhyming words, and did our reading lesson. Brianna is doing so well, I am excited to start her on the grammar lessons come June. I really think she is going to like learning new things, and having some things be a little bit harder for her. Right now, everything is so easy, she gets frustrated/board(?) and tells me she doesn't want to do some thing. I get, "No, no, don't make me do that" quite a bit. Good lesson in persevering. I know that it is not hard for her, she just doesn't want to do it. Especially something she has done more than two times.
Kirsten is doing well with her reading as well. She is still just beginning to figure out blending, but I know with continued practice, it will come. I can't wait for the moment when it completely clicks and she takes off. I am hoping by the end of summer, she will have it down.
The girls' ballet recital is coming up this weekend, so I will try to get some pictures of that. They are so cute in their costumes! We also have our final official field trip on Friday, so we are looking forward to that. Daddy gets to go with us this time, so that will be exciting. I'll let you know how it goes.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Awesome!
We had such a great day in school today. Right now the girls are outside (yea Spring!), and I am able to have a few moments to rest and get ready for the rest of the day.
We learned about using a balance in math today. The girls had a lot of fun putting different things on it to see which one was heavier or lighter. I had some containers with different things in them made up so that they couldn't see what was inside. We had fun trying to guess what they were and which ones would be the heaviest.
I am so excited for Kirsten today, too. She started blending sounds together!!!! YEA! I was excited yesterday when she started putting two sounds together, but today she was reading CVC words! That's consonant-vowel-consonant words. Yesterday we began "squishing" sounds together like a and t, a and n, or a and d. She hasn't fully got the hang of it yet, but as we went along, and started adding the third sound, like p-a-t, she started blending them all together. I started asking her what it was that she read, like when she read "hat", I asked her what we do with that. She told me we put them on our heads. That way, I knew that she had a picture of a hat in her head, and wasn't just repeating sounds. Once she started putting them together without a lot of help from me, the neighbors could have probably heard me cheering. Brianna actually told me that she didn't think I liked her as much as Kirsten anymore because of all the yeas and hurrays. Yea, that took a few minutes of explaining.
Brianna is reading things like "quests" and "depths" and "strength", as well as silent-e words. I forget sometimes to cheer her on, too, so I am glad she brought that to my attention. I do need to "yea!" her, too, more than I do. Tomorrow, she begins studying common spellings for the long A sound. I have to say, I am loving this phonics review for myself as well. I am hoping that I will become a better speller going through it with her. The book points out things that I have either forgotten or was never tought in the first place about why letter combinations say the the sounds that they do. Did you know that the English language has something like 74 sounds, but only 26 letters to represent them? It's no wonder it is so hard to learn to spell it. There are at least six different ways to make the long a sound alone! How do you decide which one it is???? LOL!
We will be wrapping up our study of frogs tomorrow with Frog and Toad are Friends. I loved that book when I was little, and I love that I am going to be able to share it with them. We have actually read it before, but it has been a while, so I don't know if Brianna will remember it or not. Probably, though. She has the memory of the young. Steal trap. Today, we made frogs from clay and discussed if we could make real frogs or not. Can you make a real live frog? No? Who can make a real live frog? "God!" I get with a HUGE smile on the face. It's just awesome.
We learned about using a balance in math today. The girls had a lot of fun putting different things on it to see which one was heavier or lighter. I had some containers with different things in them made up so that they couldn't see what was inside. We had fun trying to guess what they were and which ones would be the heaviest.
I am so excited for Kirsten today, too. She started blending sounds together!!!! YEA! I was excited yesterday when she started putting two sounds together, but today she was reading CVC words! That's consonant-vowel-consonant words. Yesterday we began "squishing" sounds together like a and t, a and n, or a and d. She hasn't fully got the hang of it yet, but as we went along, and started adding the third sound, like p-a-t, she started blending them all together. I started asking her what it was that she read, like when she read "hat", I asked her what we do with that. She told me we put them on our heads. That way, I knew that she had a picture of a hat in her head, and wasn't just repeating sounds. Once she started putting them together without a lot of help from me, the neighbors could have probably heard me cheering. Brianna actually told me that she didn't think I liked her as much as Kirsten anymore because of all the yeas and hurrays. Yea, that took a few minutes of explaining.
Brianna is reading things like "quests" and "depths" and "strength", as well as silent-e words. I forget sometimes to cheer her on, too, so I am glad she brought that to my attention. I do need to "yea!" her, too, more than I do. Tomorrow, she begins studying common spellings for the long A sound. I have to say, I am loving this phonics review for myself as well. I am hoping that I will become a better speller going through it with her. The book points out things that I have either forgotten or was never tought in the first place about why letter combinations say the the sounds that they do. Did you know that the English language has something like 74 sounds, but only 26 letters to represent them? It's no wonder it is so hard to learn to spell it. There are at least six different ways to make the long a sound alone! How do you decide which one it is???? LOL!
We will be wrapping up our study of frogs tomorrow with Frog and Toad are Friends. I loved that book when I was little, and I love that I am going to be able to share it with them. We have actually read it before, but it has been a while, so I don't know if Brianna will remember it or not. Probably, though. She has the memory of the young. Steal trap. Today, we made frogs from clay and discussed if we could make real frogs or not. Can you make a real live frog? No? Who can make a real live frog? "God!" I get with a HUGE smile on the face. It's just awesome.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
It's Just Weird
I don't know about you, but I think it is just weird to hear words like "parallelogram" and "trapezoid" coming out of a five year old's mouth.
In our math lesson today, we started using shape blocks. Now, these are flat shapes, so I don't know why they are called "blocks" and they are not block-y at all. Only some of them are even square! I put a couple of hand fulls in front of Brianna and Kirsten, and they commenced to making all kinds of patterns with them. It was so fun to watch them make hexagons from trapezoids, and have them yell at me, "LOOK MOM! Look what I made!" Kirsten took some of the triangles and put them together. She said, "Look Mom, I made a pizza!" Michael was standing there and he and I both had to cover a laugh. It was just too cute. Brianna made a triangle out of some trapezoids and different sized star patternes with the parallelograms. Needless to say, math class was a hit today. I just love watching their faces as they try to figure stuff out. To see the understanding light their faces is one of the best things in the world. Thank You, Father, that I get to be the one to see it!
Handwriting is still a difficulty. Brianna just doesn't like practicing her letters. Numbers, either. I don't use a formal handwriting program right now, though, so I am hopeful that when we start one in 1st grade, she will do better. Kirsten is busting at the seams to learn to write. I know I should start her on her lessons, but I want to wait and begin it when we start the new school year. That will be in June, so she doesn't have that much longer to wait.
We will be wrapping up our study of frogs in the next few days. For our trip to VA, I went to the library and got two backpacks full of books. Some were just fun reading, but a lot of them were nonfiction. I got a couple books about frogs, and I got to hear all about them on the way up and on the way home. Brianna really enjoyed learning about them, and I think the things she learned will stay with her, since she discovered it for herself in the books.
Reading is coming along very well. Kirsten is on the verge of blending, and Brianna can read the newspaper now. Well, maybe not quite the whole paper, LOL. I am not sure what "grade" level you would put her reading on, but she is about ready for the smaller chapter books. She reads things I don't even know she can read. She has been doing that to me for at least a year now. Probably longer. She has got a lot of it from watching Between the Lions on PBS, so I am glad for that. I know that a lot of her reading is phonics based, but she does have more sight words memorized than I would like. I finally found a great reading program, so she is catching up in that area.
See you next time.
In our math lesson today, we started using shape blocks. Now, these are flat shapes, so I don't know why they are called "blocks" and they are not block-y at all. Only some of them are even square! I put a couple of hand fulls in front of Brianna and Kirsten, and they commenced to making all kinds of patterns with them. It was so fun to watch them make hexagons from trapezoids, and have them yell at me, "LOOK MOM! Look what I made!" Kirsten took some of the triangles and put them together. She said, "Look Mom, I made a pizza!" Michael was standing there and he and I both had to cover a laugh. It was just too cute. Brianna made a triangle out of some trapezoids and different sized star patternes with the parallelograms. Needless to say, math class was a hit today. I just love watching their faces as they try to figure stuff out. To see the understanding light their faces is one of the best things in the world. Thank You, Father, that I get to be the one to see it!
Handwriting is still a difficulty. Brianna just doesn't like practicing her letters. Numbers, either. I don't use a formal handwriting program right now, though, so I am hopeful that when we start one in 1st grade, she will do better. Kirsten is busting at the seams to learn to write. I know I should start her on her lessons, but I want to wait and begin it when we start the new school year. That will be in June, so she doesn't have that much longer to wait.
We will be wrapping up our study of frogs in the next few days. For our trip to VA, I went to the library and got two backpacks full of books. Some were just fun reading, but a lot of them were nonfiction. I got a couple books about frogs, and I got to hear all about them on the way up and on the way home. Brianna really enjoyed learning about them, and I think the things she learned will stay with her, since she discovered it for herself in the books.
Reading is coming along very well. Kirsten is on the verge of blending, and Brianna can read the newspaper now. Well, maybe not quite the whole paper, LOL. I am not sure what "grade" level you would put her reading on, but she is about ready for the smaller chapter books. She reads things I don't even know she can read. She has been doing that to me for at least a year now. Probably longer. She has got a lot of it from watching Between the Lions on PBS, so I am glad for that. I know that a lot of her reading is phonics based, but she does have more sight words memorized than I would like. I finally found a great reading program, so she is catching up in that area.
See you next time.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Home At Last
We are home again, and trying to get back into the swing of things. I am still on vacation mode, and not ready to get back to the old routine. I always seem to need a few days to get back to "real life".
Our trip was great. Seeing old friends is always a special treat. I will have a picture or two up soon, if I can remember to have the camera around me when I am at the computer!
Oh, and I discovered how to put music videos on my blog, so scroll all the way down to the bottom, and you can see where I want to go on my next "vacation".
Our trip was great. Seeing old friends is always a special treat. I will have a picture or two up soon, if I can remember to have the camera around me when I am at the computer!
Oh, and I discovered how to put music videos on my blog, so scroll all the way down to the bottom, and you can see where I want to go on my next "vacation".
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
April Fools! (meaning the day, not my post)
We had an extended school day today. We started out the morning, doing our usual routine of going over our Bible verse, and then moving into math. Our new Bible verse for the next month (we will be going out of town for two weeks, and I am not going to do any school. If I can help it.), is Proverbs 21:23. Once we finished math, we had to stop and meet family for lunch. Then we spent some quality time at the grandparents' house. We didn't get back until after 3 p.m., and we still had science, Bible and reading to get to. Thankfully, in kindergarten, none of these things is too involved.
Because of our going out of town, I decided to change the schedule up a little. Instead of reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar like we were supposed to today, I changed it to start our next unit study about frogs. That way, on Friday, the day we leave, we can do the caterpillar book and then be on our way. I hope to leave early, but we will have to see!
If you have any questions about scheduling, classical teaching methods, or anything else, please leave me a comment. I will get back to you. Maybe not for the next two weeks, though. It's vacation time!
Until next time...
Because of our going out of town, I decided to change the schedule up a little. Instead of reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar like we were supposed to today, I changed it to start our next unit study about frogs. That way, on Friday, the day we leave, we can do the caterpillar book and then be on our way. I hope to leave early, but we will have to see!
If you have any questions about scheduling, classical teaching methods, or anything else, please leave me a comment. I will get back to you. Maybe not for the next two weeks, though. It's vacation time!
Until next time...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
