Homeschool Highlights - April 19 - 25, 2009

To see a peek into other people's homeschooling, check out the weekly wrap up.

Days 149 - 154

Reading/Therapy time: We spent an hour and a half reading the books for anxiety and SM that I bought for discussion.

We made Shayla's Feeling Book. It is using the 1-5 system. One being comfortable, two being nervous, five being in meltdown mode (and everything in between!) We put numbers and corresponding facial feelings on tags, then secured with a metal ring. Shayla helped me make this. The plan is that she will carry it around for awhile and point to how she is feeling at different places. I'm hoping this will bring more communication and understanding.

Fine Motor: We did an activity that we seen in Family Fun magazine. We made puppets by cutting different facial features from different people. Then we glued them to a craft stick.

Later, Shayla and dad put on a puppet show with them.
Aren't they lovely?

Language: Alphabet order. We did a worksheet on alphabetical order. I don't think she gets it.

Spelling: Review week. We discussed dictionaries and looked at one, then we made our own picture dictionary using spelling words for the last 5 weeks. I went to Google image and searched for pictures to go with each of her spelling words. Then I saved them to documents, made labels according to the weeks (short a, short e, etc). She cut out the pictures, we put them in alphabetical order, then she wrote the word beside each one.

She definately understood abc order after this exercise. And such a neat project to make and show family and friends!

*Note to self: I think I will make these up and add to her dictionary on a weekly basis as part of her spelling activities. It took entirely too long to search images for five weeks of spelling words!

Science: Senses. We read several library books on the senses.

• Stop, Look & Listen: Using Your Senses from Head to Toe by Sarah Williamson (I love these books!)



• You Can't Smell a Flower With Your Ear! by Joanna Cole (author of the Magic School Bus series)



• And my personal favorite, Look Here! An exciting way to learn about your senses by Sally Hewitt

Sense of sight. We started this topic last week because Shayla and I had an eye doctor appointment. We frequently discuss things with her before they happen to reduce anxiety, BUT not too far in advance or it creates more anxiety!




We read books specifically about sight. Then came the fun stuff! Here's what we did:

• We studied some braille writing.



• We took turns leading each other around the house with a blindfold on. We decided that we would have to do some major housecleaning/decluttering if we became blind!



• We played Pin the glasses on Arthur. Similar to pin the tail on the donkey game. *I had this game made up from another time, I didn't see it, but I provided the home page so you could look around if you're interested.



• Blindfold one eye. Hold a pen without the lid out in front of you. Try to put the lid on the pen. It's not so easy!



• In the same style, we got out our big basket of balls. Shayla enjoyed throwing the balls into the basket. Then, I blindfolded one eye. It appeared that the basket was closer than it was. Most of the balls fell just short of the basket. (phys ed)

You can see she enjoyed playing the blindfold games, but in the end, we agreed that we are thankful for our sight!


*I think she was blind when she picked out this color combination of clothes! LOL! But at least she's doing it herself!


We continued work on letter M. This covered various subjects.




We read the Earth Day story and played the recycling game at starfall. (reading)




Science: We did an experiment for fun that I found in Homeschool Enrichment magazine (Nov/Dec 2008). Morgan even became interested, so it must be cool.

Specials/Science: Earth Day. We finished up the Earth and Sky Brownie Badge. You can read about the activities here.

Petrified Paper

1. Mix a level Tbs. epsom salt with 2 Tbs. water on a plate.



2. Fold a paper towel into quarter and then roll it into a log. Sop up the epsom salt/water mixture with the paper towel and let it evaporate to dry. (This can take several days, I put ours near our woodstove, so it was ready in 24 hours)



3. Wood petrifies, or turns stonelike as dissolved minerals in water slowly replace the wood fiber.

After your log completely dries, feel it, then try to burn it. With mom's help, please!

It will not burn! Cool, huh? My kids and I were impressed, but it doesn't take much. LOL!