Week 8 - Community Helpers

After a great week of learning about fire safety last week, we decided to continue and expand our learning by studying more community helpers.  This week we focused on the police.  We read lots of books about police men and women and why they are so important to our community.  On Thursday, we even joined our homeschool friends for a field trip to the local police station!  Big K was pretty disappointed that we didn't get to go see the actual jail, but we did get to check out the garage where they keep all the police cars!

After the field trip, we went with another homeschool family to the park for a picnic lunch and some playtime.  All of a sudden we started seeing something in the sky - SKYDIVERS!  Apparently this park was located right next to an airport and skydiving school so as we played we got to see several planes take off, people jump out of them, float down, and land right on the other side of the park!  Talk about an unexpected treat for the kids! 

One think we also learned was how the police catch criminals.  We learned all about how unique our fingerprints are.  We even made our fingerprints on paper to look closely and see how Big K's and Little E's fingerprints were alike and different.
 
The kids were also really interested the learn about the role that animals play in the police force.  We learned about how police K-9 units work, and how dogs help the police.  We also learned that some police use horses in their work! 

In math this week we have been learning about place value and have been working on numbers up to 1,000.  We are getting really close to finishing the first book of our math series, Life of Fred, which is really exciting!  One day we played a game using UNO cards.  We picked three cards and then tried to make the biggest number possible as well as the smallest number possible with the three numerals.  We also worked on the less than and greater than signs with three digit numbers.  Big K breezed right through it! He's such a smart guy and math is definitely his forte!


This week was also the September edition of Tail Waggin Tutors at our local library - always a favorite with the kids!  This month they  had a ton of books by Big K's favorite author, Mo Willems for the kids to pick from. 

Happy Learning,
Momma C

Week 7 - F is for Fire Safety and Field Trips!

What a busy week we had last week!  So busy that it is Monday morning and I'm just now catching up on our end of the week things, like blogging!

This week we learned about fire safety.  We read books about firemen and fire safety, we talked about what to do if we had a fire at our house, and even had our own fire drill!  Most of it wasn't new information to Big K and Little E, but I still wanted to drill it into their brains a little more.  We also expanded by talking about the fire triangle and what a fire needs (air, heat, and fuel).  We did an experiment where I lit three candles and tried to put out the flame by taking away one of the needs.  The kids were amazed at how putting a glass over the fire would make it go out, and they really enjoyed squirting the flame with a spray bottle and sprinkling baking soda on the flames to extinguish them.  Apparently I'm raising a couple fire bugs, so it's a good thing we learned about fire safety! 

We also did a few fireman themed math activities this week.  One day we played a game called Roll and Count where we had to roll a dice, count the number of dots, and then find the numeral on the firetruck and cover it up.  Little E is getting really good at identifying her numbers and counting with one-to-one correspondence! 

We also took a field trip to the fire station with a homeschool group we are in.  The kids had the chance to see the firetrucks up close and personal as well as talk to a fireman about fire safety.  Big K's favortie part was seeing the living quarters at the station.  The fact that they had a kitchen and a big bedroom with lots of beds was pretty cool! 

  

This week also marked the start of weekly play practice! Big K is going to be in a production of Around the World in 80 Days.  He is a character named Thomas Flannigan and is also going to be a British police officer.  The kids read through Act I this week and also got an acting lesson where they learned how to move their bodies on stage to portray different modes of transportation. 

Our big treat for the week was a day trip up to the Children's Museum of Indianapolis.  We had never been there before, and the two hour drive was just perfect for a day trip!  The kids (and us grownup) had a blast!  

Big K liked the train tunnel!

We acted like paleontologists and practiced digging for dinosaurs

And then we dressed up like dinosaurs!

It wouldn't be Indy without a kid friendly race car.  Big K wants to be a race car driver when he grows up, so this was a particularly special treat! 

Then we took a trip to China and learned all about what life is like on the other side of the globe.

Little E practiced her pretend cooking skills making a traditional Chinese meal

And learned the proper way to serve tea

Of course, Baby W just enjoyed a day full of snuggles!

Looking ahead we are going to transition our fire safety project into one about our community and community helpers!  We are even heading to the police station for another field trip!  

Happy Learning, 

Momma C

Week 6 - On the Go!

What a busy week!  This homeschool business sure keeps us busy.  So much learning, so much time together.  I LOVE it! 

We had several big events this week.  On Tuesday Little E had a tooth pulled.  Her tooth has been bad since it grew in, and finally needed to come out.  She was such a brave little girl, and our dentist office was amazing with her.  We took that opportunity to learn more about our teeth and how to keep them healthy (Little E's tooth was bad all on its own - she takes good care of her teeth!). 

On Wednesday we went to a program put on by our local parks department.  We learned all about squirrels and how to identify the different types of squirrels that live in our local area.  We learned about what squirrels eat and what happens to the nuts they don't eat.  We also learned what animals in the area eat squirrels.  The kids then made squirrel magnets for our fridge!

Since it was such a nice day to be at the park, we decided to go for a hike down the the creek.  It has been a very dry summer, so the creek bed was the perfect depth for taking our shoes off and splashing around a bit.  We found lots of rocks and even a few shells!  There was lots of discussion about how and why those shells were there.  The highlight of our creek experience was seeing a little crayfish.  Big K and Little E were amazing watching it duck in and out of the rocks. 

 Friday the kids had their first tumbling class.  A local gym does a Homeschool class the first Friday of the month, and I think it is safe to say we will be going back!  I was impressed with how many boys there were in Big K's age group.  He worked on some forward and backward rolls, cartwheels, and some trampoline skills.  After the hour long instruction, they kids were allowed to explore and practice for an hour worth of free gym time.  After a while, the practicing turned into fort building with the mats, but it was great to see Big K being able to have some free exploration play time with a group of boys his own age!  We made quite a few new friends and got some great exercise while we were at it. 

On Fridays Big K generally writes in his journal about something he really enjoyed that week.  And Tumbling class made the cut for this week's entry! 

"I did flips and jumps at tumbling class.  I did roll overs at tumbling class.  Max was there at tumbling class."

Week 5 - FAIL

Well, I guess we will just consider week five as our early fall break..... 

Between Labor Day on Monday, and me and Little E coming down with stomach bugs, we really only had one day of sit-down school stuff!  No one had the motivation or desire to do much except lay around reading books and watching movies. 

A friend of mine introduced us to a great book series for kids.  They are called I Survived! and Big K is really into it!  This week we finished up I Survived!  The Sinking of the Titanic 1912 and started a new one called I Survived!  The Shark Attacks of 1916.  They are great historical fiction novels.  I love that they don't really sugar coat the awful-ness of the event (in fact, one chapter in the Titanic book actually made Big K cry a little!) but are still really kid friendly.  The chapters are short and the books are easy to follow along.  Big K and I usually read a chapter or two before bed.  He is perfectly capable of reading them, but most nights he just likes to listen.  That's fine, too!  We have gotten them from our local library, but you can find them on amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/I-Survived-Sinking-Titanic-1912/dp/0545206944/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1410208241&sr=1-1&keywords=i+survived+titanic

Big K also spent some time learning on the computer this week.  We really like www.starfall.com and the Umi Zoomi games on www.nickjr.com! 

We have a FULL week planned for week 6, so we will make up for lost time for sure!  It all evens out in the end!

Happy Learning,
Momma C

Week Four - Plants

We still had a few things this week that we wanted to do relating to Jack & The Beanstalk,  and since we are homeschooling and can do whatever we want, we decided to keep going!

On Monday we read a super cute fractured fairy tale called Jack and the Baked Beanstalk.  Then we compared the books using a Venn Diagram.  I cut up strips of paper with statements on them related to one or both of the books and Big K decided where in the Venn Diagram they belonged.  We will definitly be looking for more fractured fairy tales to explore!  We really enjoyed this book!


We also kept observing our beans we planted last week. It is amazing how well they are growing with just a paper towel and a sandwich baggie in the window.  We read several books about the life cycle of plants and also learned about the different parts of a plant and what they do. Big K also planted a few beans outside and has been comparing to see which set of beans is growing the fastest.  The outside beans are currently winning, and Big K has decided that's because plants really need dirt to grow their best.  It's pretty amazing they are growing at all since it has been so hot and dry here!  He must be sneaking water out there to his bean plants!



This week for spelling, Big K worked on words with the "ig" chunk.  Each week his spelling list has four sight words and four phonetic words that all have the same chunk.  One of his favorite spelling activities this week was making bean words!  I wrote the words on paper for him and he had to trace over the words with glue and use beans to spell the words.  It was great practice for his fine motor control too! 





Have I mentioned how much we love our local library?  Once a month they hold a program called "Tail Wagging Tutors."  A group of local volunteers bring in their therapy dogs and the kids can sign up for a half-hour of reading to the dogs.  We go almost every month.  At the end of their session they can collect bookmarks from the owners with the dogs names and pictures of them.  Big K collects those cards and treasures them like other kids do baseball cards.  He looks forward to it every month!  Little E loves it too.  She always sits and listens so patiently while Big K reads to the dogs.  We have a dog at home he could read to, but our Charlie isn't a big fan of sitting still long enough to listen to a book!

Our favorite math activity this week was called Elevator Math.  We got the idea from an awesome blog I follow, that you can find here: http://deceptivelyeducational.blogspot.com/2012/01/up-down-add-subtract-elevator-math.html.  We altered the game a bit, and rolled two dice, added the numbers together and that's how many floors the elevator moved up.  When we got to the top of the building, the elevator went back down.  We wrote different stores for a few of the floors and Big K got a kick out of visiting the park and the grocery store on his game!  Definitely filing this one away for another day! 

Between all that work, Big K starting football practice, and Little E battling a tummy bug this week I'm surprised we fit everything in!  Homeschooling sure keeps us busy and on the go!  Bring on the next week!

Happy Learning,
Momma C

Week 3 - Jack and the Beanstalk

I think we are finally starting to fall into a good routine!  Yay!

This week we studied the story of Jack and the Beanstalk.  Fairy tales are great for working on reading comprehension!  We read a different version of the story every day and talked about how the books were similar and how they were different.  We also rented the movie "Jack and the Beanstalk" staring Christopher Lloyd and Chevy Chase from the library.  (It was about as far from the original story of Jack and the Beanstalk as possible!!)

This week we also filled up our sensory tub with, what else - BEANS!  We used black beans, garbanzo beans, and pinto beans in the tub.  Big K still enjoys the sensory tub even though it is more geared towards Little E's learning goals.  The kids had fun using funnels, spoons, buckets, and other things to explore the textures of the different beans. 

We also planted some beans this week.  We got a paper towel damp and put it in a sandwich bag with a few beans so we can watch them grow.  We have four types of beans - pinto, black, garbanzo, and the kids' personal favorite - JELLY BEANS!  Big K is recording their progress in a science journal.  We have been amazed at the growth from the beans we bought in the grocery section! 

We also used the story as inspiration for some art!  We took butcher paper, and painted tall beanstalks with green paint!  Big K even added Jack to his picture. 

Of course, there was lots of "boring" work going on too.  Big K's spelling words worked with the "it" chunk this week and Little E is hard at work learning how to write her name!  She is doing a great job and I'm fairly certain she has better fine motor control that Big K does! 


This week we also visited the Sharon Woods Harbor park.  Big K thought it was the best park we've visited so far - he even rated it a 9 out of 10!  He will be typing up his review and posting it on our blog this week! 

Next week will be a busy one!  Big K starts football practice and cub scouts is now if full swing!  We are also getting involved in some local homeschooling groups, and have LOTS of field trips on the books for the next month. 

Happy Learning,
Momma C

Week Two

Yep, less than a month into the school year and I'm already behind.  Oops!

One of the things Big K's kindergarten teacher complained about what that he didn't have great comprehension skills, so we have been working hard on both reading and listening comprehension this week.  We have been studying the author Kevin Henkes, and we ended up taking an in-depth look at his book Bailey Goes Camping.   We read the book each day and filled out a chart describing the beginning, middle, and end of the story (you can find that printable as well as other great comprehension sheets here: http://campkindergarden.blogspot.com/2011/07/giveaway-reminder-and-2-freebies.html ).  We also did several extension activities to go along with the book.  One of our favorites was putting up our camping tent in the backyard and playing in it!  We even did some reading in the tent.  It was such a hit, that Big K and Little E decided they wanted to have a camp-out that night, so we brought the tent and put it in the living room and Big K slept in it!

We have also been incorporating a lot of music into our comprehension work.  I made a playlist on Spotify with several listening songs, and Big K and Little E are loving them!  They have to listen to the words and do what it tells them.  It's great because #1 they are working on listening skills and #2 it gets them up and moving and wears off some of that extra energy!  You can find our playlist here: Listening Songs.

We had two special outings this week as well.  On Thursday, "regular" school started in our district so we celebrated being homeschoolers by visiting one of our favorite local parks.  It was a nice, hot summer day so the sprinklers were a great touch!  Big K is starting a year-long project visiting and reviewing kid friendly places in our area, so this was our first stop.  More information about that project coming soon!





On Friday we went to a special program at our local library.  Illustrator Steve Harpster was there teaching kids how to draw animals and monsters using numbers and letters.  Big K thought it was cool creating baby hedgehogs and scary monsters using numbers and letters to start.  He struggles with his fine motor skills sometimes, so being able to produce recognizable pictures was a big deal for him!  We even checked out a few of his How To Draw books so we could go home and draw some more!  (We really like this book: http://www.amazon.com/Drawing-Monsters-Letters-Steve-Harpster/dp/0615413374/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=undefined&sr=8-2&keywords=steve+harpster)

Overall the week went well.  Big K was a little upset Thursday seeing his school friends get on the bus without him, and I think homeschooling will be an adjustment for all of us.  But we are looking forward to all the things this year will bring!