Discovering Eighths

J has discovered eighths on his own, he even figured out what they're called by noticing the pattern in this project (which stopped at 1/4 but he wanted to continue).

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When The Books Are Good

This is how you know your kid likes his curriculum... He was doing this when I came down stairs this morning!

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Fine Motor Development

Sprite had been showing some readiness for writing, so here she is practicing is an activity suggested by a member of a local homeschool group.

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It's like this...

Let me begin by explaining that we don't school on a traditional cycle by any means of that word.  Not only do we choose to school year round, but I do not stick to any grade level of any kind with either of my kids.

For example:
Jupiter (my son) is about four weeks away from finishing his current Language Arts text, so this means we'll have to find something for him to continue with.  He is also about one week from completing his "Level B" math book, good thing I bought "Level C" last year when I thought we would school through my summer displacement and our move from MI to CT (what the heck was I thinking?).  To further complicate things, if we can actually stick with some sort of schedule, we (the kids do Science and History together) will be done with Astronomy in the end of April and History in the middle of May.

Sprite (my daughter) has already completed the entire "Kindergarten" year through the program she uses online, so I have allowed her to continue to 1st grade.  A lot of repetition is involved, and I have to explain concepts more than once...  but she eventually gets it and she's doing quite well!

At least this situation is timed well this year re: tax return.

Our Curriculum Goals for 2011
Jupiter
Language Arts
Complete Phonics Road Level I

• We are only on Level I despite his age because even with completing Sing, Spell, Read and Write (also known as SSRW), while he is an excellent reader he can could not spell.  He is doing about two weeks for every week that is scheduled in the text because he can handle it, and I'm proud to report that his spelling ability and general understanding of the English Language has improved immensely.  In related commentary, we are not using SSRW with Sprite.

Phonics Road Level II

Math

Complete Right Start Math Level B

Begin Right Start Math Level C

Introduce Zillio Math Mountain

Science

Complete Apologia Astronomy and accompanying Notebook and Labs

Begin either: Apologia Zoology I or Apologia Botany.  Can't decide, might do both.  No matter the decision, we will also have him complete the Notebook and Labs - the enrichment provided by these activities is astounding to me.

History

Complete Mystery of History Volume I and construct a detailed timeline

Begin Mystery of History Volume II and construct a detailed timeline

Sprite
Language Arts
Completed Time4Learning "K"

Starfall.com as desired - we use the free stuff

Working through Phonics Road Level I at readiness

Math
Completed Time4Learning "K"
Right Start A at readiness
Introduce Zillio Math Mountain

Science

Complete Apologia Astronomy No Notebook for Spritely, but she does do the labs alongside her brother.

Begin either: Apologia Zoology I or Apologia Botany.  Can't decide, might do both.  

History

Complete Mystery of History Volume I and construct a detailed timeline

Begin Mystery of History Volume II and construct a detailed timeline

I've decided to maintain a separate tab which will archive these posts as I write them.  I expect to add to it as we add to our curriculum.

<3

Bad Apple

Jupiter was biting into a slice of apple today and it slipped out of his teeth...  He picked it back up and brought it to me, telling me, "This is a bad apple - something is wrong with it!"  I looked at it and told him it was fine, but he was so insistent that there was a problem, so I asked him what made him think something was wrong with it.

"When I bit it, it felt like it was making my teeth go wowowoOOOoOOOoah or something!"

I immediately wondered if it was his teeth, so I asked him to show me his mouth and I touched the teeth he pointed to - sure enough, loose, loose.

I'm not sure how long it will take, but those little teeth aren't going to be part of my little guy much longer!

Vacation Destination

Today's assignment was to design an advertisement to convince aliens that Earth is a good place to visit. I allowed inventive spelling, because right now we are in a period of trying to make writing less of a frustration... Seems to be working, he giggled all the way through this project!

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Enjoying the Last Bit of Snow

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Flip Out

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Zing!

Zing!
Originally uploaded by angecrwfrd
1/2/11's 365 snapshot. I giggled at this, just as I do every time we go here (our favorite coffee shop in New London).

Flickr

I'm trying to do this whole Project 365 thing, let's see how long I can stick with it ;)

Happy New Year!

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Happy New Year's Eve!

We aren't going out for any kind of New Year celebration.  New Years Eve is our *real* anniversary, this year marks 9!  This year we are starting a tradition with our kids.  A friend of mine has a wonderful Winter Solstice tradition that we love and want to adopt.  We are making "Wish Bread"!

It's monkey bread.  From scratch.  And here's our take:
Earlier in the day, make the dough and let it rise.
Punch it down, then form golf ball sized lumps of dough.
As you form the lumps, think or discuss your wishes for the coming year.
Toss the lumps into a bundt pan and allow to rise again.
Begin baking at 11pm.
Enjoy friends and family immensely during the last hour of the year.
After the ball drops, enjoy your first meal of the new year: Wishes!

If you'd like more detail, here is the recipe I plan to try.  Pictures to follow.

Getting Ready for School in 2011!

Our goals for 2011 are pretty simplistic - I need to relax.  I also need to be less lazy and more scheduled.  I'm not sure how to accomplish those two things at the same time, but I aim to try.  The problem is, I really like to sleep in.  Like, REALLY like to sleep in.  I am not the type of person to wake up before the sun, get the school materials out, have my coffee while I make a hot breakfast, and accomplish life.  I am the type that stays up until 3am on a regular basis and enjoys the quiet that a house full of sleeping people brings.  I need to rearrange my priorities it seems, as well as my sleep cycle.

First sledding in CT!

Finally, it snowed!  While everyone around us was getting dumped on, we did get a modest snowfall that was plenty deep enough to sled on.  It was insanely windy for most of the time, so we only went out for a short time but it was all kinds of fun.  Eventually, Spritely was climbing all the way to the top on her own and sledding down the entire way!  We put both of them in the same saucer a few times which was a lot of fun, and once or twice we went down with them all together.  I hope it snows again, because now it's mostly all green.

Christmas Morning

Merry Christmas!

I think they're excited!

School Pictures - 2010

I took these a while ago, and never got around to posting.  Yes, I'm back-dating...  I'm sure you will survive.  The location for these is Harkness Park, which is a lovely area on Long Island Sound...  Just beautiful.

 

Jupiter, 2nd Grade                         Spritely, Kindergarten

Let's Have Another Go...

Well, here I am again - after a two year hiatus.

I have hundreds of pictures on facebook, but I really like the organizational value of a blog so I'm going to try to post short little things here again.  I did like it, I just got WAY too busy (read: distracted) to keep up.

I'm probably not going to try and play catch-up with all the things I neglected to post about, but I hope to at least jump in where we are with the occasional update and of course photos.

Much love for you all out there.

School Pictures - 2008

All my friends with kids have been calling/emailing me telling me about their kid's first pictures... I was so excited to hear about this milestone, but it also made me feel a little sad when I realized that my kids won't ever have a kindergarten picture day!

I started thinking about that a little, and then it hit me... who says picture day has to happen in school? So today, we got the kids all dressed up and hopped in the car and started driving around aimlessly - and look what God gave us!  ***Edit:***  I'm not sure why the pictures don't show up in the post any more, but if you click on them you can view them.

Art Ideas

I subscribe to The Old Schoolhouse Magazine's email newsletter, and there are a variety of articles included each week. One of my favorite parts is the Freebie section, and this week contained quite a gem: www.artprojectsforkids.org

Enjoy! Now, pick something and get messy with your kidlets. ;)

Post #75...

Well, a new school year is starting - and as everyone probably knows, I am organizationally challenged. I've been spending a lot of time trying to figure out how to spend less time doing the stuff that I feel wastes my time... heh. I'm trying to come up with a rough routine for our day and all that good stuff, so far I have some wonderful ideas that I have yet to implement ;)

Here's a link to a site with very useful stuff: Donna Young .If you need forms for things like attendance, grades, or scheduling (plus some other neat stuff) you should go check her out, her forms are free for the printing!