We are still here!!!

We are officially on break until June 1st and my computer has been on the fritz until finally crashing a few days ago. So I haven't been posting much.

Despite being on break, Squeak and Piglet are doing more "unschooling" type things. Lots of reading (my voice has returned so I can read to them too).

All of my orders from Rainbow Resources have arrived including our Peak With Books books, the Miquon stuff, AL Abacus and some Kumon writing workbooks. This should keep my girls busy this summer for "inside" school stuff.

I am excited to start Miquon and MEP and decide if either or both will become part of our math regime! Potentially dropping Horizons. Squeak was playing with the C-rods today and was making connections between the rods and their sizes and building "stairs". I'm going to let her free play all this week and start some games with them this week and next week. MEP and Miquon also "slow down" tactics on my part as she is zipping along through 1st grade math.

So that is where we are now. I guess we need to decide on what to do with the computer. It's Windows that actually crashed...ugh!

My beloved backpack!

In 1995, I bought this backpack from an Eastern Mountain Company store in the mall:

It went to college with me and traveled around the world with me. I added those patches: the Israeli flag and Israel Defense Force (IDF).

I still use this bag and classify it as one of the best purchases I ever made!

All done with PreK!!!

I decided that since we are still sick I am going to end the PreK year now and take two weeks off and start our summer stuff on June 1st. Summer stuff will include:

Both girls:

Rod & Staff Bible Coloring and Stories
Peak with Books 
Playing with math manipulatives

Squeak:

MEP
Miquon Math

and we will still keep with Singapore Math and Sonlight Science but about 2 days a week. And of course, all the outdoor stuff the Lord will allow us!!

So Squeak is officially a Kindergartener as of NOW!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SQUEAK!!!!!!!

MY BABY IS FOUR YEARS OLD TODAY!!!!!!!!

Here she is at one year old!

About 2.5 here!

An early 3 years old here!

Weekly Report (5/10-5/14)

This is a quickie because I'm not feeling well! We didn't do much school this week anyways!

Bible -  Here are the girls coloring while I read a Bible story from the Rod & Staff books I recently received:

We have a copier now so I can copy the page from the coloring book so Piglet can color too. I also bought another Bible book from the Dollar Tree called "Brave Acts" and it includes Daniel and the lions, David and Goliath and Samson. We've been reading through that too.

Math - Squeak worked in Singapore 1a this week and some sheets I made up myself:

She used math linking cubes like C-rods to see if the parts made the whole. She colored in the correct bars and "x-ed" out the ones that didn't equal the whole.

We are going to use MEP this summer I decided! And I bought an AL Abacus and workbook to go along with it for the summer. And we are going to work on math facts a bit more. Squeak is working on a puzzle right now that practices math facts.

Other - Piglet exploring a new puzzle set I bought her:

Science - We only got to one quick lesson in Sonlight Science about coasts. That's it!

Weekly Report (5/3 - 5/7)

So our last month of Preschool is winding down! Squeak will be officially a Kindergartner after 5/28!! LOL!

Bible - I got the new Bible coloring book this past week and to my delight, it's actually a read aloud book AND a coloring book (it is new and unused but I bought it from a gal on the Well Trained Mind forum). So as I read the Bible story, Squeak colors a picture about it. Even though I plan on starting this in June, Squeak asked to do the first story which was a basic overview of the Bible. There are also questions at the end of the story. Here are links to this set from Rod & Staff:  Bible Pictures to Color and Bible Stories to Read. So we will officially use these books beginning in June after our break.

Math - Math is cruising along with Singapore 1A and Horizons 1. Squeak is doing very well in math.

On another note, I think I may have another math guru in the house - PIGLET! She was free playing with the math cubes again and started counting them! She missed "4" but she counted 9 cubes out. And it wasn't rote counting, she actually picked up a cube on the right of her and moved it to the left of her while saying a number! I tried to get it on video and she wouldn't let me - she would put them in her mouth every time I tried to record her!! I remember Squeak could rote count to 10 well before she was 2 years old but I don't think she could count objects like Piglet did (who is almost 18 months).

Science - We had a fun science week including a two day experiment in which we made an iceberg. We started that on Thursday by filling a bucket about 1/3 full and dropping two small toys in, then we filled it another 1/3 with two more toys then filled the rest with another couple of toys. We let that set overnight. So on Friday, we let our iceberg melt in the bathtub with water in it and watched the toys break free. We also discussed the basic physics about freezing to melting. Squeak seems to be interested in physics, I have noticed. I guess that shouldn't surprise me since her Grandpa (my dad) was a physics professor and the head of the department at one time. Here is a picture of Squeak with her iceberg:

We also made up a plate of different materials to see if they would freeze including cheese, mustard, cream cheese, etc. Squeak made her guesses and we recorded them. She guessed some wrong and she guessed some correctly! LOL! Here is that pic:

Here is another science picture from the week:

That is the ocean scene Squeak painted while we were learning about the deep sea!

Other - Piglet has been tinkering around with magnets in a tin baking pan:

Our hydroponic lab is still growing strong on the kitchen window sill. My test tube is out-growing Squeak's now! I don't have any pictures this week....maybe later on in the week!

Weekly Report (4/26-4/30)

Just a brief report of the weekly highlights! May 28th is the last day of PreK for Squeak!!!

Bible - We are half way through the Devotional. I also bought a Rod & Staff Coloring book with Bible stories. That should arrive in the mail shortly. I decided against doing a more formal Bible study now and just focus on Jesus in prayer and in everyday life.

Math - Squeak started Singapore Primary 1A this past week. We completed Chapter 2 last night. After 3 nights of Number Bonds, Squeak said that she understood and "let's move on!". I'm only doing Chapters 2-6 in 1A. I'm not going to waste time going over shapes and weights and measures as Squeak already knows this stuff. We are still working in Horizons Math 1 as well.

Science - We covered a couple of different habitats this week such as rainforests and oceans and grasslands. Squeak made a book of seas and ocean animals. As I type this, she is painting the background for an ocean scene.

Squeak had problems writing the "A" so after we finished some pages in her ocean book, she asked to work on Printing Practice.


Other stuff - We have two test tubes in our Hydroponic Lab going. But first, we ran an experiment to see which pea seeds would germinate faster -

The one on the left are pea seeds on a wet paper towel in the zip lock baggie and the right is the test tube. Squeak picked the test tube so I got the paper towel by default! Squeak's seeds won! Then we transferred the paper towel seeds into another test tube.

Squeak has also been working more complex puzzles in her Patternables book. We are still reading through our Ralph S Mouse book.

God Bless you this week!!