Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Stay Tuned...
I'm hoping to have a two week report up this Friday!! Squeak is doing well in her mish-mash of summer stuff!! I'm excited that Moving Beyond the Page is a hit this time around.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
"Secret" Curriculum
I think I've mentioned that I like to have a lot of resources available for Squeak. I don't list everything we use on this blog hence the "secret" curriculum title. LOL! Recently, we started working in Book 1 of the Key To Measurement workbook series by Key Press- there are 4 total. Squeak LOVES it!! I decided to order these books for a couple of reasons:
-Squeak enjoyed the online samples
-Squeak thinks measurement is fun
-The set wasn't very expensive at Rainbow Resources
They are a hit! I realize that Squeak won't be able to do everything in all 4 books yet, but at the present time, she can do a pretty good amount in any of the given books. And they are fun and include lots of hands-on activities. So I just wanted to share these wonderful workbooks and that they have been a great addition to our home school. I plan on continuing to use the Key to Measurement books when we begin our actual school year in the fall.
-Squeak enjoyed the online samples
-Squeak thinks measurement is fun
-The set wasn't very expensive at Rainbow Resources
They are a hit! I realize that Squeak won't be able to do everything in all 4 books yet, but at the present time, she can do a pretty good amount in any of the given books. And they are fun and include lots of hands-on activities. So I just wanted to share these wonderful workbooks and that they have been a great addition to our home school. I plan on continuing to use the Key to Measurement books when we begin our actual school year in the fall.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Friday, June 10, 2011
First week of Summer K/1st
Our first week of our "summer K/1st" was this week. I posted previously about our plans for the summer - we are taking a break from our regular curricula and working with other stuff!
Read Alouds:
I won my first ebay auction and it was a set of chapter books called "Ready Freddy". I was really excited about using these as our chapter book read aloud! Well, even though we will continue reading them, there is a lot of name calling involved - especially between Freddy and his sister. I edit as I read. There are 22 books in the set but I plan on continuing with them but with lots of editing. We read the first book in the set this past week.
We also were blessed with a half a garbage bag full of chapter books and a few picture books from my sister! Yeah! Since we completed Ready Freddy #1, we are going to try a Flat Stanley book before returning to Ready Freddy. I figured we can rotate between Freddy and the books from my sister for a while.
MBTP:
The Concept we started this week is the Matter and Movement Concept. Again, nothing in this concept is new material for Squeak. We are just having fun with hands on activities and activity pages involving matter. Both girls listened to What's the World Made Of by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld and Paul Meisel and Squeak worked on some activity sheets and did a few hands on activities. I returned the Teacher's Manuals and I'm glad I did...for what we are doing, I don't need them as guidance.
Other:
Squeak worked a couple of pages in the Vocabulary for the Gifted Student book. It wasn't very challenging but she did practice some handwriting while filling in her answers.
I printed two FREE ebooks (I put the link in the previous post) and Squeak completed one of the Color Me Physics activity books (minus two of the really hard pages). This was just something I came across and she enjoyed it.
Tonight, we may try a few pages in our Complete Book of the Solar System. I'm not sure yet.
The bottomline is that I think I have enough variety and Squeak is excited.
Read Alouds:
I won my first ebay auction and it was a set of chapter books called "Ready Freddy". I was really excited about using these as our chapter book read aloud! Well, even though we will continue reading them, there is a lot of name calling involved - especially between Freddy and his sister. I edit as I read. There are 22 books in the set but I plan on continuing with them but with lots of editing. We read the first book in the set this past week.
We also were blessed with a half a garbage bag full of chapter books and a few picture books from my sister! Yeah! Since we completed Ready Freddy #1, we are going to try a Flat Stanley book before returning to Ready Freddy. I figured we can rotate between Freddy and the books from my sister for a while.
MBTP:
The Concept we started this week is the Matter and Movement Concept. Again, nothing in this concept is new material for Squeak. We are just having fun with hands on activities and activity pages involving matter. Both girls listened to What's the World Made Of by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld and Paul Meisel and Squeak worked on some activity sheets and did a few hands on activities. I returned the Teacher's Manuals and I'm glad I did...for what we are doing, I don't need them as guidance.
Other:
Squeak worked a couple of pages in the Vocabulary for the Gifted Student book. It wasn't very challenging but she did practice some handwriting while filling in her answers.
I printed two FREE ebooks (I put the link in the previous post) and Squeak completed one of the Color Me Physics activity books (minus two of the really hard pages). This was just something I came across and she enjoyed it.
Tonight, we may try a few pages in our Complete Book of the Solar System. I'm not sure yet.
The bottomline is that I think I have enough variety and Squeak is excited.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Grandparent's Graduation Celebration/Summer Plans
Today, was Squeak's day to celebrate her graduation from Kindergarten with my parent's and my husband's parents and grandpa. I had most of Squeak's completed work set out on tables for viewing with a little note about what she completed and what she will continue with. We also had snacks and a cake!
Summer Plans!
(NOTE: As I list this out, it seems like A LOT - LOL! But Squeak is a very aggressive learner and I always like to have plenty (and a variety) of resources available. Frantic trips to the computer to print out "more" back when we first started home schooling taught me that lesson!)
Next week, we begin our K/1st summer - I'm aiming for 1-2 days a week. I previously listed a few resources that I planned on using. For the summer, we are taking a break from our regular curricula and re-visit some things that Squeak has enjoyed.
-Summer Link Math and Reading - Summer before Grade 3
-Top Readers Nonfiction Reading Comprehension (the book in the link is slightly different as it's "more nonfiction reading"...I couldn't find just the regular book we have)
-Vocabulary for the Gifted Student Grade 2
These are just fun books. I don't plan or expect to finish every page. Squeak can pick and choose what she wants to do, when she wants. The Top Readers book has a variety of topics to read about, so she can just pick whatever. Except for some of the activities in the Summer Link workbook, I don't expect these books to present much challenge....just keeping it easy and breezy still. I probably should have gotten the next level of the Top Readers and Vocabulary books but I was in a hurry at Barnes & Noble (little hands were getting into too much!) Oh well.
So, that's pretty much our "curricula" plan for the summer. Of course, we are hitting the library too. Having plently of free play (our days are very long - early risers) so I have a lot of hours that I need to keep them busy! So we'll see how it goes!
Summer Plans!
(NOTE: As I list this out, it seems like A LOT - LOL! But Squeak is a very aggressive learner and I always like to have plenty (and a variety) of resources available. Frantic trips to the computer to print out "more" back when we first started home schooling taught me that lesson!)
Next week, we begin our K/1st summer - I'm aiming for 1-2 days a week. I previously listed a few resources that I planned on using. For the summer, we are taking a break from our regular curricula and re-visit some things that Squeak has enjoyed.
- We will still continue with BJU Bible.
- I chose some materials from Moving Beyond the Page. I used MBTP previously and wasn't impressed since the 5-7 Concept didn't challenge my 3.5 year old. But this time around, I just wanted light, fun, no pressure activities. So I chose the 6-8 Measurement Concept and the 6-8 Matter and Movement Concept. A second reason is that Packy likes to tag along and MBTP will be our "snack/story/project" time. The 6-8 age range uses picture books as the literature and that's exactly what I was looking for. I returned the Teacher's Guides and just kept the Student Activity books and picture books.
- I bought The Complete Book of Our Solar System. I asked Squeak to choose between this and the Complete Book of Animals and she chose the Solar System. So basically, we are just going to gaze into God's beautiful night sky, discuss whatever and work on the activities in the book. Again, nothing new or formal, just for fun.
- I didn't buy a BrainQuest book. Instead I bought a few other workbooks to just use when we need to fill some time:
-Summer Link Math and Reading - Summer before Grade 3
-Top Readers Nonfiction Reading Comprehension (the book in the link is slightly different as it's "more nonfiction reading"...I couldn't find just the regular book we have)
-Vocabulary for the Gifted Student Grade 2
These are just fun books. I don't plan or expect to finish every page. Squeak can pick and choose what she wants to do, when she wants. The Top Readers book has a variety of topics to read about, so she can just pick whatever. Except for some of the activities in the Summer Link workbook, I don't expect these books to present much challenge....just keeping it easy and breezy still. I probably should have gotten the next level of the Top Readers and Vocabulary books but I was in a hurry at Barnes & Noble (little hands were getting into too much!) Oh well.
So, that's pretty much our "curricula" plan for the summer. Of course, we are hitting the library too. Having plently of free play (our days are very long - early risers) so I have a lot of hours that I need to keep them busy! So we'll see how it goes!
Friday, May 27, 2011
How do my girls spend their early Friday mornings??
Working with pattern blocks, of course!! LOL!
(Squeak is using the Patternables book and Packy is using Hands On Thinking Skills by Critical Thinking Company)
(Squeak is using the Patternables book and Packy is using Hands On Thinking Skills by Critical Thinking Company)
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