Homeschool Highlights - week of April 4, 2010

Days 142 - 147

Sunday: 

Reading:  We read an Easter storybook, as well as, the real reason for celebrating Easter from the Bible.

Since she likes to do a Bible craft each week, we made this cross craft out of paper plates.  The colors represent the sunrise. 

Since my little darling is allergic to most candy and goodies, her basket was stuffed with toys and treasures.  We spent the day doing these activities. 

We made her Build-A-Bear from this kit.  (I was so disappointed in this kit.  You have to sew the skin.  If you buy a Build-A-Bear in the store, the skin is already sewed.  UGH!)

But, we had fun making her!

We used our hand muscles and imagination to play with her new spring colored playdough.

We did our traditional coloring of the eggs.  This was good for practicing measuring and pouring, squeezing and counting the drops of color (fine motor and math) and a little science mixed in.  Why will the dye not color the egg where the wax is?  What colors can you make by mixing?

Shayla's newest craze is shooting baskets.  We spent some time playing hoops with her this weekend. (phys ed)

Shayla solved a 24-piece Barbie puzzle that she found in her basket.  I was very impressed with her since she usually has great difficulty with anything other than a wooden tray puzzle!  Yay! (problem solving skills, fine motor)

In the evening, we did an outside Easter egg hunt.  Somehow, we didn't make it to any community egg hunts this year, but she enjoyed this one without all the kids, chaos, and confusion, much more.  She quickly found all 36 eggs!  (math, problem solving, details)

Does your family celebrate any other Easter traditions?  Please share!

Daily:

Reading:  Innovative Kids - Series 4 - Book 10 You're It!  This book caused some difficulty because of it's use of contractions.

Writing:  Finished up A Reason for Handwriting (Level K) workbook.  Most days she is forming her letters without much direction, but the past two weeks (since her spring seasonal allergies are kicking into overtime) I've noticed she "forgets how to make letters" and makes letters perfectly, but completely backward. 

Overall, she has progressed well.  Her writing is legible, which is the goal, right?

Math:  Abeka 1st grade.  Still proving to be a challenge for her, although not causing the stress it did in the past.  We are taking about two days to work on a lesson.  She has still not mastered memorization of any addition facts, but is easily able to do addition problems with counters.  (Although not completely independently, yet).  Sometimes, it does take several days to do a lesson, sometimes we have to add a math game or two in there because of her attention span.

Overall, she is showing progress.  Hey, at least it's not causing the frustration that it was!

She appears to be loving homeschool right now.  Every subject is her favorite subject, she just can't choose!

Monday: 

Rosie's Walk by Pat Hutchins

About the story:  Rosie, the hen, goes for a walk on the farm.  A fox follows behind her every step.  He continually runs into problems that do not allow him to get Rosie.  All the while, Rosie continues her walk, unaware of the fox. 

We read a library book and learned about chickens.  Then we went outside and spent some time observing ours scouraging the yard looking for bugs to eat.  Learned the ASL sign for chicken.

We also read a library book about foxes.   And the ASL sign for fox.   Several years ago, we had a fox that ate many of our chickens.  Shayla decided she didn't like foxes, but when we read the book today and looked at the pictures (especially of the babies), she fell in love with them.  LOL!

We made some cool paper projects, including a Rosie hen and her own Rosie's Walk book. 

Tuesday:  The Monkey and the Crocodile:  A Jataka Tale from India by Paul Galdone

A hungry crocodile plans on making a monkey a snack.  The crocodile tries to trick the monkey into coming close enough to him.  The monkey always manages to outwit the crocodile. 

Geography:  Located India on a globe.

Science:  Read library books about crocodiles and monkeys. 

Foreign Language:  Learned the ASL signs for monkey and crocodile.

Music:  Sang and signed 5 Little Monkeys song. 

Art:  We made a diorama and a paper

monkey.

Field Trip:  A trip to the library to pick out books for school and pleasure :)

Wednesday:

Yesterday went so well.  What could have happened in 24 hours time?!?  It was one fit after another.  She behaved like a typical two-year-old, all day!   If you don't have a special needs child, I'm sure you don't understand the meltdowns.  Oh, it's bad behavior, not a medical/emotional issue.  It's a lack of discipline on the parents' part. (After eight years, I've heard it all).   Why is it then that this behavior is increasingly worse in the spring, then goes back to normal in the other months. 

On top of the fits, there was the inattentiveness.  A milli-second was longer than her attention span was today.  I know, stop red dyes and sugars.  Done that.  My child has never had a soda pop.  Eats only organic, whole foods.  Occasionally she gets a cookie, but that's it!

She says she feels fine.  No fever, no complaints of headache or bellyache.  Nothing!  Sleep?  Check.  She gets 10 - 12 hours a night. 

Luckily, I didn't have many lesson plans made out for the day.  She was able to complete reading, writing, (finally, after many tries) math, and unit study.  Later on we did curl up together and read some library books. 

Writing:  Finished up the A Reason For Handwriting (K) book.  Back onto working on badgework for awhile.  I don't think she's yet ready to transition to cursive. 

Where's Waldo?  by Martin Handford

I was surprised she was able to focus on the pages, but her little ADD self found the Waldos on each page very quickly and easily.

Then we watched this video that's similar to the Where's Waldo books.  That started another meltdown.  After watching it, (we've had it for years and never watched it before today - and she wasn't really very attentive to it today), she seen me putting it in the get rid of pile.  You would have thought I was getting rid of her most beloved toy in the whole world.  UGH! 

Hopefully, tomorrow is a better day!

Thursday:  Unit Study.

Miss Nelson is Missing by Harry Allard and James Marshall.

Sorry, I failed to log in the work as I went, so I don't remember much about this.  I do remember that Shayla loved all the Miss Nelson books that we read and understood everything about them.

Reading:  Finished up the Innovative Kids I Can Read Series (1-4).  That's 40 books!  Yay! 





Friday: 

Spot Goes to the Farm by Eric Hill

Science:  We read books about different types of farms.

Music:  We sang Old Mac Donald's Farm. 

Art:  Shayla made this cute paper Spot dog.

Other than that, I don't remember much that we did!

Reading:  Shayla enjoyed doing this book.  Where Is My Home? is by Innovative Kids, the same authors that wrote the Now I'm Reading series that she just completed. 

The Now I'm Reading series is similar to the Bob books, but more fun and colorful, IMHO.  This book was broken into three sections.  In the first section, Read it, the child reads the story.  This book was more challenging for her, but still at her level.  In the second section, Write it, some of the story is printed, but you have to fill in the blanks.  The last section, Draw it, the pages are black and white, so your child can color them and put stickers of Little Chick on each page. 

*As a disclaimer, I will say that I am not a paid representative of Innovative Kids, but I did receive this book for free to review. 

Check out other "typical" homeschool weeks at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.