Homeschool Day 19 - Tues. Sept 30, 2008

Writing: The curriculum suggested practicing capital alphabet letters. Rather do this on paper, I got out Shay's Leap Pad. Tad's Writing Fair game models the correct way to make capital letters. Shayla was bothered by either the pen or the sounds the game made. She chose to complete her letters J-Z on the lined dry erase board. First, I drew the letters modeling the correct way of drawing, making sure to discuss starting/stopping points and in relation to middle line, etc. She traced in a different color dry erase marker. Then I asked her to draw one beside, giving verbal directions. She was unable to do this, so I drew dots on the starting/stopping letter points. She was very successful at this!

Read along out loud, I Can Write book (reading).

Completed ARFH-K pg 10 - tracing straight and slanted lines. Pgs. 15 & 16 - tracing o's and making o's with just a start dot. (She was unable to do this independently, so I drew dotted lines for half of an o and she completed the other half.) She traced the word octopus and colored a picture of one.

Used pipecleaners to form letters of the alphabet.

Spelling: Introduced consonants l, q, y, and z. I named several words that begin with these letters, Shayla got them all correct, so I didn't see any need to review. She completed pg 330.

Music & Movement: First we listened to some of Shayla's favorite music here. Then, we had a pots and pans jamboree. Playing pots and pans was one of Shayla's favorite activities when she was younger, but I thought it would be a fun time to talk about musical terms like beat and such. You can see what she thought of this activity!

We were really feeling wild, so we got out our tote of musical instruments. Some were bought over the years, but we have just as much fun with our homemade ones in here, too. Like our shakers and spoons.

Homeschool Day 18 - Monday, Sept 29, 2008

Shayla had the sillies today!!!

Activity: Shayla drew horizontal & vertical lines to make 4 squares. She followed directions in identifying boxes (find top left box). She traced number word, number, color word and object word, then drew objects.

Math: Introduced number words. We played Pooh's Number Match game. Shayla found number card (1-10), the card with correct number of honeypots, then the card with the number word on it. She placed the correct number of shapes on the number cards. Then we turned the game over and solved the 3 pc. number word puzzles on back. Completed pg. 174 - Take an Animal Count.

Reading: The curriculum suggests making an alphabet book. Shayla did this last year. She needs to move on. Today we just read aloud. I read a pile of her books aloud. We discussed pictures. I ran my finger under the words sometimes. I asked her what does this word begin with. She always got it right. Then she read aloud to me. She read Buttons, Buttons and Bob Books Set 1: Numbers 1 & 2. This was the first time doing Sam - Bob book 2. She did a wonderful job! She watched a video I picked up at the library sale, Sesame Street: Do the Alphabet. Tomorrow I plan on starting Abeka 1st grade phonics/reading.

Homeschool Day 17 - Friday, Sept 26, 2008

The Biggest Bear Unit Study Day!

Reading: First we read The Biggest Bear by Lynd Ward. It is a Caldecott Award winner published in the 1950's. I noticed some of the things in the story Shayla did not understand because it's not a part of our culture anymore (like the smokehouses full of hanging hams) and hanging animal hides on barns. I also had to explain what humiliation meant and a play on words in the story. The characters last name was Orchard and they owned an orchard. We really discussed alot of things with this book (language and social studies).

Writing/Art: We colored by number, cut, and assembled a booklet of the events that happened in the story. I got this from the Literature workbook we use. We expanded on the idea by Shayla telling me in her own words what's going on in the pictures and I wrote her words on the back of the pages. (language/memory)

Art: Shayla sponge painted in a bear shaped outline.

She also made this shadow box:

Language: We discussed the ending of this story. She said she liked the ending because the boy did not have to hurt the bear, he got to live in the zoo.

Homeschool Day 16 - Thursday, Sept 25, 2008

I kept lessons brief today. Shayla was definately distracted. You'll see why in the next post.

Grammar & Writing: Shayla completed a page in ARFH-K. She made o and l. We discussed patterns while making these (math). The lesson in the book was too difficult, so we practiced forming lowercase alphabet letters using playdough. Shayla then traced over the letters with her finger. This is one of the things that I read about being good for helping dyslexics.

Spelling: I introduced beginning letter sounds w, j, k and v. Shayla named many words beginning with these letters. She completed pg. 329 Beginning Letter Sounds IV. Then she traced and formed these letters for handwriting.

Science: We noted that 3 of our 5 pinto bean seeds have begun to sprout.

We also did days of the week/weather charts, phys ed, journal and music & movement.

Homeschool Day 15 - Weds Sept. 24, 2008

Activity: Yesterday Shayla used a ruler to make a horizontal and vertical line to make 4 squares on a page. She made a shape in each square. She drew the circle independently, but had to have dots for the square, triangle and oval. Then she wrote the name of each shape above it. Today, she wrote a color name below the shape and colored the shape the corresponding color.



*Note: She is improving in how many letters she needs dots for. She is now able to make r's and n's, but still needs dots for u, e, and w.



Math: We reviewed counting by 2's. Also counting by 1's, 5's, and 10's. We used coins to count these. Shayla had alot of fun using coins as a visual. We also reviewed the names of the coins. It really clicked for her today! She was able to color the squares by 10's on the hundred chart with ease. She completed pg 172 Desert Trek. Coloring by 10's and pg 173 Circling and writing numbers by 2's, 5's, and 10's. *Note: We had to change directions to accomodate again. She circled the numbers instead of the other shapes as instructed. She also traced my numbers. It was just taking too long the other way. We ended math by reading The Crayola Counting Book and counting along like the book said. We read The Bugs Go Marching - practicing ASL signs for numbers and skip counting by 2's. We read The Skip Count Song - practiced counting by 1's, 2's, 5's and 10's. These books are small enough and the print is very large, so I am moving my finger underneath the words as I read. Shayla sometimes follows along. I let her say some of the words she knows.

Reading: Shayla is now reading! She read aloud two books. The first is called Buttons, Buttons and the second is a Bob book called Mat. We also used letter cubes from her Boggle Jr. game to roll, name the letter, and identify the letter before and after the letter cube. She liked this game although didn't fully understand what comes before the letter part. She did pg 259 Alpha-bear-tical Antics. Sorry, I thought I took a picture, I guess not.

Great learning day! It's so exciting to see Shayla progressing so much everyday!

Homeschool Day 14 - Tues. Sept 23, 2008

Supplemental: I wrote "This Old Man, he plays ...." on the white board. I pointed to the words while we did the fingerplay. We practiced using ASL signs for counting 1-10 while singing. (music & movement)


Spelling: Introduction of consonant sounds g, p, n and h. I said random words and Shayla pointed to which of these letters it began with. Several times she pointed to the ending sound. We'll continue to review. She also had trouble particuarly with confusing n as r sound. We played "Show Me the Sound." I called out a word and Shayla showed me on her alphabet chart the letter it began with. She got the first few correct, so I believe she understands the concept, but she became overwhelmed quickly because the pictures on the chart are different than the words I was saying. We'll review this again tomorrow. She completed Beginning Sounds 111 pg 328. The directions were to put the shape that was around each letter around each item that began with that sound. Much too difficult. Instead, she got a different color marker for each letter/sound. She did trace each shape, but then circled the pictures with the markers. Much easier. Then she traced letters g, p, n and h. First I wrote them and gave her verbal instructions how to draw letter, then I take my pen and show her as she is tracing. Next, she traces dotted letters that I draw. Lastly, I give her verbal instructions and she makes 3 of each letter. I noticed remarkable improvement in this! (handwriting)


*Note: I've noticed that she needs her lessons to be brief and needs frequent breaks to perform best! Hey, so do I! Works for me!

Social Studies: All About Me. We made an accrostic poem out of Shayla's name, using words to describe her. (language/poetry) Here's what we came up with:

Sensitive

happy

artist

young

laughs

action

Science: We observed her seeds that we soaked yesterday. We noted the following changes: they stink (I explained fermentation, briefly) and they were bigger. We read The Seed Song and acted out the seeds growing (movement). She completed pg 411 - Plant Parts.

Reading: Shayla read and sounded out the first Bob Book called Mat. She's not very confident, yet and relies on me sounding the word out for her before she will say it.

Homeschool - Day 13, Monday, Sept 22, 2008

We finished up activities from The Very Busy Spider.

Social Studies: We're still focusing on All About Me and emotions/feelings. Shayla made a life size picture of herself.

The finished project. We will be using this throughout the year for science.

Next we played Pop-Tops. It's a learning game using little magnetic faces. Basically, the teacher reads different scenarios and the child puts the appropriate facial expressions in the correct places. This has been a favorite for a long time. She was more than willing to do this kind of school!

Science: Seeds. Personally, I could give or take this science program. Shayla loves science and social studies and is far beyond this curriculum, but we use it as a guide and supplement with alot of hands on stuff. To learn about seeds, we read: From Seed to Pumpkin - A Let's Read & Find Out Science Book (for lessons to go with these series, go here. The Magic School Bus Plant Seeds: A Book About How Living Things Grow and The Seed Song. We then soaked several pinto beans in a wet paper towel and put in a baggie in the sunshine. We will observe these daily to see what changes occur.

The Very Busy Spider - Homeschool Day 12

The Very Busy Spider Mini-unit Study Day!

Spelling: Shayla picked out magnet letters and spelled our theme word "Spider."

Reading: I read aloud The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle. Shayla enjoyed that the web stuck out from the page, so you could feel it with your finger. We compared how much the spider had built her web on each page. (language)

Foreign Language: We learned the ASL sign for spider here.

Music & Movement: We did the Itsy Bitsy Spider fingerplay and learned these new spider songs.

Science: We learned many things and seen spider pictures here. We also read Spider Silk by Augusta Goldin a Let's Read and Find Out Science Book. We went outside and observed a spider in an orb web. I read an idea to spray paint the spider web onto a piece of paper, but this did not work.

Art: We made this paper spider.

And...of course, a spider has to have a web, so we used glue and silver glitter and made the spider this web.

She also completed a page with the Very Busy Spider activity book we were using. It had the animals in the book. Each animal was in a block and there was the number of the order which it came in the book. She traced the number, traced the color word, colored the animal the color word. Then she cut and glued the squares onto a color corresponding piece of construction paper. To reinforce math skills, she counted and put the correct number of stickers on each page of her mini-booklet. (math)

Speech/Play: We found little animals that went with the story. She re-enacted the story using her puppet theater and little animals, while I read the story. The family loved her performance!

Phys. Ed: We played Spider in the Web on the trampoline. One of us was the spider in the middle. We would reach out and grab for the "prey" when they least expected it.

Another thing we did was watch Charlotte's Web movie. An old-time favorite!

*Note: I started supplementing her diet with essential fatty acids and she seems to be doing better as far as focus, following directions, and fine motor skills.

Homeschool - Day 11- Thursday, Sept 17, 2008

Can we be on Day 11 already!?! Only 169 days of 1st grade left!



Today we started by solving another large floor puzzle of the alphabet. This one was with Clifford the Big Red Dog holding each letter of the alphabet.



Grammar & Writing: I read "I Can Write" a little book by Creative Teaching. Shayla likes the pictures and the print is large and very easy. I'm hoping it gives her confidence that she, too, can write. Shayla completed page 11 of ARfH-K. She traced Oo's. We discussed patterns because of this page. She also practiced tracing her name again. She really is not showing any improvement at all on writing without the dots. She just doesn't remember how the letters are formed and gets them backward when given verbal directions. I am going to be learning about dyslexia and exercises to do to help her with this. It's becoming apparent that we are dealing with a learning disability. Instead of doing the curriculum, we did this today. I bought a small white board with lines like elementary school lined paper. I formed the lowercase letters a-z (one at a time), verbally tellling how I was making it, where to place it (under the middle line, start at the top line, etc). I had her trace my letters with a different colored dry erase marker. *Note: Shayla is not lazy and unmotivated. She so much wants to be able to write. We used these Bender Blocks to form the lowercase letters (a-z). I wrote the letters on the white board, then verbally told and sometimes showed Shayla how to form the letters. *Note: This is similar to Handwriting without Tears. Much cheaper, especially since I found these at a yard sale many years ago. We formed the letters, then I had her trace over the wooden letter with her finger.

I am trying not to become discouraged, but it's apparent that we are not going to be able to keep up with this curriculum. We are still on week 1. Oh well, that's the great thing about homeschooling. It's adapting to her learning needs.

Spelling: I introduced letters d,m,r, and f. I had Shayla find each letter magnet and put on her magnet board. Then we took turns naming words that began with each letter sound. She completed pg 327 Beginning Sounds 11. She was able to verbally identify each object and the letter it began with. I made dotted letters after she identified them, then she traced them. She is not behind here at all, so it must not be a auditory problem.

Homeschool - Day 10 - Weds, Sept 16, 08

We started the day by changing the days of the week and weather charts. Then we had music & movement with Dr. Jean. We reviewed ASL signs and Spanish for the days of the week. We also reviewed counting in ASL 1-7.

Activity: Shayla drew a horizontal and vertical line on her paper to make 4 boxes. Today we were working on triangles. I tried to show her how to draw one, but she couldn't get it, so I drew dotted numbers in each of the four boxes. I made her tell me what the number was (ie...What is the number in the top left box?) She identified it as 2. She then traced two. Then I made two dotted triangles in that box. She traced them. At the bottom of the boxes I wrote a color word. I verbally told Shayla to color the triangles by the color words. She was able to complete this task without me standing over her! She remembered (or read) the words and got them all correct! Woo-hoo! Following directions to completion is something she usually has trouble with.

Math: Math is quickly becoming Shayla's favorite thing! How ironic! We must be polar opposites because I despise math. First we read our little books about skip counting. Then we practiced counting by 1's, 2's, 5's and 10's using the chart. I would call out a random number and Shayla would point to it on the chart. Our focus today was counting by 5's. Shayla was given a paper with 1-100 on it. She circled every number by 5's. She chose a different color marker for each number circled. We sang 5,10,15,etc for each number she circled. She liked this and was singing it on her own later. It took much longer to do it this way, but she got it. I guess that's what matters. Then I folded a sheet of paper into many squares. Shayla cut the squares out then rubber stamped numbers by 5 on them (5,10,15,20,25). We used m&m's to count and put on the squares to be a hands-on approach to teach counting by 5's.

Reading: First, we solved a large Fisher-Price alphabet floor puzzle. Then I retaught vowels and consonants. This was review from last year when I tried to teach phonics. She showed she was not ready to go forward last year, but for some reason retained the vowel/consonant part of the learning process. She completed pg 258 Letter Lift. She cut out letters and put them on the appropriate (vowel/consonant)hot air balloon.

Homeschool - Day 9 - Tues, Sept. 16, 2008

Today we got quite a bit done. Surprisingly!

We started with spelling. It is just an introduction to beginning and end letter sounds. This is review for her. We put her abc flashcards in order and she picked out the letters I told her to. (b,t,s, and c). We took turns naming words that began and ended with each letter. She completed pg. 326 circling Beginning Sounds. Then she colored by directions. She then practiced writing a b,t,s, and c. First, she traced the letters I had written, then she traced over the dotted letters I had formed, lastly, I tried to get her to make them on her own. (handwriting) *Note: She makes letter c perfectly - backwards.

Social Studies: We named different emotions and feelings. We discussed when we felt those feelings. Then Shayla looked in the mirror and made each face we named. She then made a paper plate person of herself. Completed pg 373 Silly Me (finishing the sentences - I feel sad when...). Then we did one of her favorite activities, we sat down together and looked at a new Parents magazine. We discussed the pictures, the people, what they were doing and feeling (by using facial cues and body language).

Science: I read Is It Alive? We reviewed the definition of living things. Shayla cut pictures out of a magazine and glued them on appropriate sides of chart living/non-living.

Shayla then had journal time. We also wrote an original number poem about our family. Shayla illustrated it.

Music & Movement: We put the alphabet cards on the floor throughout the house in a trail. We walked, skipped and jumped by the letters as we sang The Alphabet Song. She loved this and did it about a dozen times. My camera batteries were dead at that Kodak moment! Then we listened and did motions to Dr. Jean songs. We reviewed Spanish & ASL signs.

We changed days of the week/weather charts. We reviewed tracing her name and her dotted name. We also jumped on the trampoline and read a pile of library books. Including a Magic School Bus Book about Microbes. She really seemed to learn alot from this!

Homeschool Day 8 - Mon. Sept 15, 2008

We had a late start today, thanks to clean up from the windstorm. Morgan was also home, so keeping Shayla's attention was a big problem today.

We changed our day/weather signs. We reviewed days and counting in Spanish and ASL.

Math: We pointed to the number chart and counted by 1's and 2's to 100. We read the following books and counted with the books: The Crayola Counting Book, Buttons, Buttons (Shayla started to read this! Reading) The Bugs Go Marching (music) The Skip Count Song (music).

Reading: We put the alphabet flash cards in ABC order. We read several ABC books. Then we read Grover's Own Alphabet. It's a cute story where Sesame Street's Grover makes the letters of the alphabet with his body.

We used these charts. Sorry no photos of us doing these. This middle age gal is too out of shape! (movement)

Handwriting: She traced grapes (pg 10 ARfH-K). Shayla worked on her name on lined paper. First she traced her name (first and last) then, she traced over dotted letters to make her first and last name. On the last line, I turned her loose to try it herself. Some improvement.

Homeschool - Day 7 - Weds. Sept 10, 2008

Activity: Shayla drew horizontal and vertical lines using a ruler much easier today. I gave her verbal instructions (find the top left box)she would identify, then I would draw a dotted number she would trace it using the directions for making each number that I told her. I told her to find a certain number and color of dot stickers. She did the dots with ease, she still had trouble following verbal directions with dotted numbers and had to erase and redo several times.

Music & Movement: We are using songs from Dr. Jean and Friends CD. The first song is called Today is Monday. It goes through all the days of the week and names food, then does each food/day backwards. Good for memory! We did the 5 Little Monkeys song. We made motions to go with it. It teaches subtraction/backward counting. We did Mother Gooney Bird - it helps with left/right and memory. We did the Days of the Week song. We did it in English, we used ASL to make days of the week signs, we did it again in English using fingers to count in ASL to 7. Then we sang it again in Spanish. We took this time to change our day/weather charts. We reviewed spelling of days of the week and Spanish words for days of the week. I read All Through the Week with Cat and Dog (reading).

Math: Shayla used pointer and chart and pointed to numbers 1-100 while counting. There was much improvement over yesterday. I asked Shayla to point to random numbers on the chart. She had problems with this - review tomorrow. We reviewed skip counting by 2's. Shayla still didn't act like she got it. We read The Skip Count Song (reading). I think she finally started understanding it when we read The Bugs Go Marching. She was able to put the skip counting to music and movement (on the exercise ball). After this I gave her a chart of 1-100. We counted by 2's and put stars on the numbers. We counted again when we got to the end of each line. We will review briefly tomorrow. We discussed things that come in pairs. I had to explain the difference between pear and pair, first, then we brainstormed. I read Buttons, Buttons (reading). Shayla was able to really read some of the words in this simple book! Then we took the flashcards (1-10)from yesterday and put the correct number of buttons around them. (fine motor). Shayla then traced dotted numbers 1 and 2. Much improvement over yesterday (writing).

Reading: Shayla put together upper and lowercase letter puzzles. She did this with ease.

After all this hard work, we went on a field trip to pick out books at the library and other errands. What a busy day!

Homeschool - Day 6 - Tues, Sept 9, 2008

Activity: Again, Shayla drew horizontal and vertical lines to make a page into 4ths. I told her to draw #6 in the top left box and make 6 apples. She was hesitant and said she couldn't draw very well. I encouraged her to try her best. She did and I praised her for trying.

Read aloud/music: Shayla had asked to do Playtime Devotions a song/fingerplay book the prior day. I promised, but never got to it, so we did it this morning.

Math: Shayla counted to 100 with ease today. She used my pen to point to each number as she counted. Next, she put flash cards in order 1-10. Then she added the correct number of buttons around the flashcard. She struggled with a few numbers. I was surprised that she couldn't do this with ease. We'll do this again tomorrow to make sure she understands. Maybe it was just a bad day? I gave Shayla a piece of manuscript paper and demonstrated how to make a #1. She had a difficult time following directions. She did not make the 1's from the top line to the bottom line consistently, despite repeated directions. She was not being silly - it was like she couldn't remember! I drew dots on the top line and bottom line. She drew her 1 in between of the dots. She did fine this way. We'll definately be practicing!

She completed Sheepish Shepherd page 170.

Social Studies: One of the GS badges dealt with communities. I bought a magnet board with different people and store fronts. Shayla had fun creating scenes. We told a story about each scene she created (language).

Reading: Shayla used a card game to match upper and lower case letters. She then counted them (math). I let Shayla use my pen as a pointer again and had her recite the alphabet song using the chart. She stumbled a few times, so we'll review again tomorrow.

Completed Sea Search pg. 256 - identifying upper and lower case letters

We completed the Student Survey on pgs 26-27 of the Sept. Idea Book - we did this exercise orally. I was surprised at some of her answers. They were all appropriate and on task, just surprising. I'll have to use her answers as a tool to teach!

Grammar and Writing: We did not follow the curriculum. It advised copying all the lowercase letters. That would be WAY too much! Instead I had Shayla do page 8 of A Reason for Handwriting - K. It was tracing dotted bubbles. She had to follow the arrows to trace the bubbles. Again, she did not follow directions of consistently starting on the green dot and tracing the way the arrow pointed even after being constantly reminded. It's like she just doesn't listen or remember! Then I wrote her name on manuscript paper. I had her trace her name. Then I helped her write her name with hand-over-hand assistance, telling how to form each letter. On the third line, I turned her loose. It was maybe just a tad better than previous attempts.

Shayla is really wanting to learn to read and write. She is putting the pressure on herself, but she's just not demonstrating the abilities needed to begin.

In order to encourage writing I bought a small dry erase board with lines similar to manuscript paper. Shayla took this outside and practiced making c's and d's, then just doodling while I hung laundry outside. I've noticed she does much better with short play breaks between the hard tasks.

Imaginative play: Shayla played with her new magnet shapes/magnet board. She made some interesting pictures.

Music & Movement: We started using the days of the week and weather charts that I bought today. I showed her how to "read" the day/weather by the first letter sound. Then, we spelled out the days and weather. I taught her the days of the week in Spanish and the ASL signs for the days. (foreign language). Then, we sang Dr. Jean's Days of the Week song in English (with signs and without and in Spanish. We also did several other Dr. Jean all time favorites. Some of these were done while bouncing on the exercise ball!

Sorry for no pictures today! I promise we'll have more tomorrow.

Does anyone have any ideas for handwriting?

Homeschool - Day 5 - Mon. Sept 8, 2008

Social Studies/writing: Shayla finished her Me Book.

Science: Theme: Living Things. Shayla named some things that are living and explaned how she could tell they were living(lang.)We went outside and discussed other things that were living vs. non-living (science) We read Is It Alive? (reading). Shayla completed page 410 Living or Non-Living.

Activity: Our curriculum has an activity for each day. On this day, she drew a vertical and horizontal line to make 4 boxes on a page. We counted the boxes, then I gave her directions like, draw 6 squares in the top left box. This was good, because lately she has been getting her left and right mixed alot.

Math: Used counting chart to practice counting to 100. Read I can skip count. Then we used chart to practice skip counting again. It seemed to make more sense to her after reading the little book.

Phys. Ed: I included an extended time on the trampoline because she really seemed to need to get her bouncies out today!

Homeschool - Day 2 - Thurs. Sept 4, 2008

This was a battle of the wills morning. I thought we would start by playing one of the memory matching games that I just bought. Shayla had an interest in the little plastic Turtle Recall game because it had been sitting on my table all night.


Anyway, we battled for nearly 45 minutes. She wanted to play it, but she wanted to play it her way! I'm not being unreasonable here, I allowed her to play it her way, and even played her way with her, I was trying to teach her about sharing and how to play the game the right way.






Was the battle worth it? Yes, Shayla is sometimes a very strong-willed child. She was finally able to play the game the right way. And get this, she had a great time doing it! In fact she won again, with more matches than me.



After this battle of wills, Shayla returned to her peaceful self.

We watched a video for social studies called All About Me. It talked about feelings and facial cues, your senses and what makes each person different.


We read God Made Our Bodies by Heno Head, Jr. I love these books. It is written from a Creationism perspective.


Shayla then started on her, My "ME" Book. We did about half of it together. It was quickly frustrating her because she has forgotten how to form some letters. It was also the first time she was using lined paper. Guess I'll have to do alot more review in handwriting.


Art: We decorated Shayla's school area. Right now she tends to sit at her little desk, but we'll see how long that lasts. In the past, she tends to follow me around room-to-room. Anyway, we colored and cut out "classmates" for her school.


We then took a field trip to do some errands. I consider this school sometimes because Shayla is behind in her social skills. I try to model positive communication skills with people I come in contact with and later Shayla and I discuss these communications. With each trip, I encourage something different to "bring her out of her shell" a little bit.

Back to School - Weds. Sept. 3, 2008 - Day 1

We started the day by reading several age appropriate school related fiction childrens’ books.

Activity: Shayla followed verbal instructions and copied my drawing on the white board. She made a line horizontally and vertically on a paper to make 4 boxes on page. We counted each square. I told her to draw 6 boxes in the first box. She needed assistance drawing the first box. She drew 3 circles in the second. She drew 2 triangles in the third. She required assistance drawing the first triangle. And she was given instructions to draw her choice of 5 of anything in box 4.

Math: We used the counting chart to practice counting to 100 by ones. We practiced skip counting by 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s. She did fairly well counting by 1’s and 5’s. She needed help with 40, 50, 60, 70 counting by ones and twos.

We used the magnetic number board. We took all the numbers off. Shayla was given instructions to find numbers 1-5. She did. Then I had her tell me the color of the number (ex: 1 – yellow. Put 1 yellow shape beside the yellow number).

Completed Pack a Snack page 169

Reading: Letter Recognition. We played upper and lowercase alphabet memory game. We did letters A-P. Shayla won with 12 matches!

I read aloud the following books: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin, Jr., Dr. Seuss’s ABC, and The Alphabet Book by Al Perkins.

Shayla put alphabet flashcards in ABC order.

Completed ABC Follow Me! Pg 255

Handwriting: Shayla is not ready for some of the activities in the first grade writing curriculum. She practiced tracing her name, capital letter S, and simple shapes with a dry erase marker on a plastic sleeve.

Page 7 of A Reason for Handwriting – K. She traced wavy dotted lines to help animals get to their food.

Journaling/Creative Writing: Shayla’s question was “What would you like to learn about in 1st grade?” She drew a picture and identified fish, hippos, and the Earth/globe.

Spelling: Shayla recited the alphabet and identified the correct letter while putting the flashcards in order.

We listened to ABC Theater songs on tape and followed along with the book

D is for Daniel - Homeschooling Day 4 - Sun. Sept 7, 2008

Through the summer I started doing Bible lessons for Shayla. We didn't get to as many as I would have liked, but I hope to get started again.

As you can see, my approach to teaching Bible is the same as my homeschooling style. Hands-on!

I have to say, I was not able to come up with much on Daniel. That really surprised me because it is a wonderful story of faith!

First, we went here and found some Daniel printables. We do a color page and add it to her Bible scrapbook.

Next we watched Veggie Tales video, Daniel in the Lions' Den. She enjoys singing along. Ok, I do, too!

Then we watched the Read 'n' See Bible on DVD. I love this book. It has the book with a DVD of the Bible stories and on the DVD after the story is a song. She looks forward to the songs.

I found another song on the Singing Bible. This is another great reference, we utilize it all the time!

We also discussed how Daniel ate. How his food choices made him stronger and healthier than the others. We also discussed the bad character of jealousy.

Of course, after all the hard stuff, Shayla put on her lion costume and we acted out the story of Daniel in the Lions' den. Although, I'm not sure she gets the whole story. In her version she (the lion) wanted to eat me (Daniel)! Oh well, I think she's just being her silly self!

Do you have any other ideas for this or any other ways of making Bible hands-on fun?

Building Art Brownie Try It - Updated - Homeschooling Day 4 - Sun Sept 7, 2008

We first learned about architect by reading library books about the job.

Your Home

We talked about what makes the home. Shayla had a lot of hands on experience with this because we added an addition onto our home several years ago. In order to be able to financially do this, my husband and I did much of the work ourselves. She has seen first hand how the blocklayers laid the blocks for our crawlspace, and how the concrete is poured, how the framers make the walls of the house, how to wire a house, how to insulate a house, how to put up drywall, finish the drywall, then paint and add trim. She also seen how vinyl siding and roofing is done.

She has also seen and been a part of the maintenance of the house.

Look at Buildings and Spaces

When we go to town, we often talk about the different architectural qualities of buildings, including what time period the building was constructed according to its qualities.

We discuss differences in shapes, patterns, sizes, colors and materials. We visited several playgrounds and talked about how they are designed. Shayla decided that the playgrounds are designed nicely because of the plastic equipment and the mulch underneath. I told her when I was a small girl, our playground was not designed well at all. We had steel playground equipment that got very hot. You could easily get burnt. My playground was covered with rock, when you fell down, it hurt alot.

The Best Neighborhood

We discussed what makes a good neighborhood. What needs to be in a good neighborhood (doctors, dentists, stores, and library). We talked about how people would act in a good neighborhood (good, not do bad things).

Discovering the Strengths of Shapes

We did an activity from the Brownie handbook. It was an experiment using a piece of paper to see which design was the strongest.

Experiment 1: Put a penny on a flat sheet of paper. Hold paper by one edge in the air. Put penny on it. It falls off, so this is not a good design.

Experiment 2: Take sheet of paper and fold into fourths. It will look like a card. Put the coin on the corner of the folded paper. This should hold the coin. This is an example of a good design.

Experiment 3: Fold sheet of paper like a paper fan, curve the end. Put coin on the curved end - it should hold the coin.

Designing Space for Someone With Special Needs

First we read in the handbook what a "special need" is. It can be something you can see, like using a cane, walker or wheelchair. Or something you can't see like someone being blind, deaf, or having a learning disability.

Shayla has had a lot of real life experience with this, as well. Several family members have at one time or another required special equipment.

We discussed how some places might not work for people because they don't have sidewalks, doorways may not be wide enough, or the building may have stairs instead of ramps. We discussed how you should not leave anything lying around because a blind person or a person with special equipment (or anyone - especially in the middle of the night)could trip and fall and get hurt.

After all that learning, we had to do something fun, so Shayla pretended to be an architect and designed her own building with blocks!

Ok, there was no extra activities for this badge in the book. It makes it way too boring with no activities. So, while bouncing on the trampoline, I thought of this. We used old food boxes to design buildings to make a town. Shayla played with the buildings on her "community" rug. She used little cars and people and even a lego playground with it.

Bread & Jam With Frances Unit Study - Homeschool Day 3 - Fri, Sept 5, 2008

We had so much fun with the literature based mini-units that we used over the summer, that we decided to continue doing them. Hopefully we'll get through one each Friday.

We started each day by reading Bread & Jam With Frances by Russell Hoban

She spelled our theme word of this unit.

Here is the paper Frances that Shayla made. It has a wheel inside a window of the sandwich that turns. It shows the four food groups.

For health and science, we discussed Frances being a picky eater. We talked about how being a picky eater is disrespectful to your mother, or the cook and how it can cause your body to not get the vitamins and minerals it needs from missing food choices. We discussed how you should use your manners and try all foods. At least a bite of everything.

To reinforce good eating habits, Shayla sorted her plastic food into the four food groups. She loved this activity. And put almost all in correct categories.


Shayla and Morgan picked some fresh blackberries from the vines. We brainstormed as many berries as we could come up with (blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, elderberries, etc.).

In the book, Frances sang several chants. We sang the chants several times in a variety of different voices (normal, fast, slow, high, low, soft and loud). Shayla made up several chants of her own. They were funny! I wish I would have written them down. (language)

We played a game of food concentration using the paper from the Literature Activities for Young Children book 7. Shayla colored these. I cut them out and we played memory. And as always, she won! Are you seeing a pattern here? I can't remember anything! LOL! She enjoys counting to see who has more pairs then discussing more and less.

I used another page in LAfYC 7 to make a mother, father, and Frances badger. Shayla colored these, cut them out, then I hid them around the family room. I used verbal cues like hot, cold, and warm to help her find them. After she found them, we counted them, and she glued them in order from smallest to largest. (math - counting, size comparison)

Shayla made a Frances puzzle from LAfYC 7. She colored, cut it out and glued it. She did not put the puzzle together correctly the first time, I had to assist. Sometimes I like to let her try to do things independently to learn to follow directions, but most of the time she requires constant attention.

For science we learned about badgers, here. She did a badger color page.

For art, we created wove a red and white construction paper placemat. She required alot of assistance with this. She did better with verbal reminders (over, under). Then she colored, cut out and glued a paper pot of jam and slice of bread. We brainstormed as many different kinds of jam we could think of, too. Shayla also helped make her favorite breakfast of a rice cake with peanut butter and grape jelly. (language, fine motor). Then we had a nice snack together while discussing what she liked and disliked about Frances.