Monday, March 9, 2009

Homeschool Weekly Highlights - Mon. Mar. 9 -

Days 121 - 125

Writing: Shayla completed writing out Psalm 23:1-6 and John 3:16-17, and John 1:12 for part of Badge 1 requirements! She can recite the verses from memory, too!

She will send off for badge 1 next week.

Speaking of badges, I ordered and received her Brownie try-its this week. She has earned nine badges so far (8 at home and 1 with her group), but she is motivated to start work again, because she loves badges right now. (Scouts at Home)

I actually got them put on her sash before we worked at the cookie booth sales on Friday, yay!


Scouts at Home: Told you the badges were motivators. Both girls started badgework this week. We started on the Creative Composing badge. I'll post more about this later.

Math: We watched Learning Treehouse Addition DVD. Practiced addition flashcards and used various manipulatives (m&m's, etc) with addition and subtraction workbook pages. She seems to be understanding addition and subtraction a little better, but still not memorizing any facts!

Language: Adjectives. We're reading Quick as a Cricket by Audrey Wood. Each page describes how the child is like an animal. We made our own version of the story. Here's what we came up with for Shayla:
I am as
Shy as a turtle
Quiet as a mouse
clever as a fox
mean as a shark
grumpy as a bear
playful as a puppy
fast as a bunny
wise as an owl
pretty as a butterfly
tough as a rhino
wild as a monkey
gentle as a lamb
lazy as a lion
busy as a bee
Morgan taught me how to use Google image. I made pages by saving black & white cartoon pictures with the words we chose. Then she colored the pages and we made it into a book. It turned out so cute.
Spelling: This weeks list is short o sound words. Thus far, she has been able to correctly sound and spell each word the first day of the week.

She loves to practice her spelling words when she can use sidewalk chalk.

Reading: She is continuing the Abeka 1st grade reading curriculum. But we have split phonics and reading up. She is only doing one or the other in a day.

Another helpful hint we've been using lately is a tip that I got when I suspected that Shayla had dyslexia. Most days, it appears that she doesn't have dyslexia, but some days, like today, she struggles and rubs her eyes, gets i's and l's mixed up, as well as b and d, p and q . *Interestingly, I've had problems with her the past two days, I also have had our CFL on while doing reading.

First read about light sensitivities and the problems it can cause at the Irlen Institute. We have been using folder dividers to cover Shayla's reading book. It seems to help her.

These problems may also be related to spring coming. Shayla is highly allergic to grass and tree pollens. Spring is the worse season for her. I've actually thought of taking spring off from school because it affects her behaviors so much. She's like Jeckyl and Hyde.

Art: Shayla completed another page in the art book we've been making. We learned about secondary colors. We did some color mixing with paint, then we made blotter bugs. I made some simple bug shapes and Shayla painted one side, then we folded the paper in half and blotted it.

2 comments:

Nekey said...

Sounds like a great week!

Anonymous said...

I'm playing catch up, here with what everyone else did for Weekly-wrap up...since it's time for another one tomorrow!! You've been doing some really nice activities. Thanks for the link. I'm going to check out that Quick As a Cricket book. Also I've never heard of those special glasses before, but I bookmarked the link.My son craves visual stimulation, but maybe we'll find these useful in the future.