8-21-18

Finally mostly back at it and gearing up for the next “school year”.

Today we didn’t push it, as we are getting into the routine after a vacation and birthday celebrations.

A worked on four subtraction pages. They are finally doing the subtraction without any complaining, so hopefully that is a sign that they are building up some confidence.

A also got introduced to some new sight words (came, give, some, she, said and with) and we did two pages in the starfall workbook with the new words. A does not seem too interested in working in the 100 lessons book, so we might take a break from it for a week or two and do some actual book reading before circling back.

J worked on a #3 worksheet. She had a hard time remembering to make the second ‘loop’ and not just turning the 3s into 2s but was determined to get it right! She also sorted the bananagram tiles by letter. A joined in to this activity and we all put the letters in alphabetical order and cleaned them up using clues (find the first letter in your name, find the letter at the end of a word, etc).

We all continued on our ocean unit and did the next several pages in our underwater explorer NPS books, learning about SCUBA diving. We also read a book about a mother octopus, started the Magic Tree House Book about the sea serpent and watched an Octonauts about octopus.

6-28-18

Today we read another chaper in Little House in the Big Woods after taking a few days off from the story. We also listened to some pioneer songs, which both of the kids enjoyed.

For math A worked on his end of the book review for Singapore 1B. When we get back from vacation, my plan is to work on addition and subtraction facts for the rest of the summer, before starting Singapore 2 in September, but we’ll see how far I can get making him do addition and subtraction all summer. Depending on how it goes, we might just do a review sheet each day and then learn something new to keep him more interested.

We didn’t do any reading today, but worked on finishing his Battle Aliens story. Today he wrote the words on one of the pages all by himself! I can see that he is becoming a reader.

J made her own connect the dot with me writing most of the numbers for her. She wrote 1,2,3 all by herself, without me even really knowing what she was working on! I solved this dot-to-dot to reveal what she claims is a dragon. Her 2nd creation is waiting for mama to do when they come home from work!

 

6-14-18

Daily Schedule

• Oregon Trail Packing
• Sight Words
• Little House in the Big Woods chapter 2
• Peg the Hen story and online activity

Today’s big activity was deciding what we would pack if we had to head out on the Oregon Trail. A and I, with some help from J, learned about things pioneers might need on the trail and then had to make some decisions about what items we would put in our wagon. Both kids did a pretty good job of ensuring we had the basics without adding too much stuff that would add weight without any meaning. This was a fun math and social studies activity. We also talked about how it might take the pioneers about 3 months to travel to Florida from Vermont and why it only takes us 3 days. It took them a while to realize that the answer is because we have a car!

Today was our last day with our current sight word list before adding some more. A knows all of the words consistently except the (still!) me and us. After we finished the sight words we all headed to the sofa for some more Little House. I think both kids are into the stories, and we certainly have plenty of conversation as we read.

Once we finished the read aloud, A read me Peg the Hen. He is really getting comfortable with the little readers and doesn’t usually complain about them. He knows when he is saying a word that shouldn’t be there (today he said her instead of a and self corrected) without making it into a production, he is using picture clues, and he is willing to sound out words vs just guess. It is exciting to see him become more comfortable with reading and be willing to give it a solid try. After reading the story to me, we played the /e/ games on his tablet as a way of finishing up the /e/ unit.

Today J: Joined us for part of the wagon packing activity, worked on the /s/ sound and writing s, did letter shape puzzles and did Starfall activities on her tablet.

6-8-18

Daily Schedule

• Sight words
• Starfall workbook
• ‘Smath
• tornado experiment

Today we got started even before breakfast! A did sight words before he ate and then both A and J asked if they could sit at the table and if I could read our snack story to them while they ate breakfast, so we finished our Magic Tree House book.

A got started with his Starfall workbook. The first page was word building and then reading a short several sentence story. He did this with mostly ease and even read 90% of the story without my help. I was also able to compliment him and tell him that he is getting better at reading without him getting upset, in fact his reaction was “I know” The second activity was reading words and matching them to a picture which he seemed less interested in.

Next up we played ‘smath (think scrabble but for math) without keeping score for a while until A got stuck, didn’t want me to help with his equations and we decided to quit and try again a different day. It was fun until it wasn’t. Of note, as we were playing A put down 3 x 12 = blank square and A said “it is 30 and then 3×2, right? It is 36”. It sometimes amazes me how intrinsically he knows math.

Last on today’s agenda was making a tornado and filling in our science notebook. This was mostly uneventful and was briefly amusing for both kids.

J today worked on letter names and sounds and then playing in her room. She ended up not having time for all four of her chosen activities today.

6-7-18

Daily Schedule

• Sight Word Flashcards
• Peg’s Egg story
• Tornado writing
• 1st Grade math workbook choice pages
• Twister Trouble
• Magic Tree House story
• William Wegmann ABCs

Today was our first day with J doing training also, which I will have more to say about later, so A had to be a little flexible and take turns and work on some activities on his own, which mostly went ok. He originally wanted to start with the easy reader Peg’s Egg, since reading isn’t his favorite, but we found it challenging to do while J was doing her work at the table too, so we switched to sight words first. This second set of sight words is taking A much longer to learn than the first set. I think they just aren’t as meaningful for him out of context. Peg’s Egg wasn’t much of a struggle for him at all, but man, the child DOES NOT want to sound out words on his own. At least I know that he can, so we aren’t stressing on it, and focusing on a positive experience instead. He read the story twice in a row without complaining. Yay!

I had plans for us to write a story about tornadoes, but A couldn’t get into the activity. He did come up with his own solution: Make a wordless story like his favorite book Journey. He ended up drawing the cutest story about a man who helps rebuild a house after a fire tornado destroys it. I think he was surprised that I let him do this instead of writing a dictated story.

Next up he got to choose three pages in the “gifted student” math book. He chose adding three digit #s, a skip counting activity, and a page about finding three dimensional shapes. After math we finished our lapbook for tornadoes and the Magic School Bus book before reading three more chapters in Twister on Tuesday and then watching a ABC order video.

Before lunch A and J played a few games together (briefly) and now they are playing LEGOS and tsum tsums together.

Today was also J’s first day of training with us. Since A is working through the summer, she is going to do some activities with us to. Her daily choices (she chooses 4) are take a bath, make her bed, do a puzzle or activity on the floor, do an activity at the table with us, do an art project, and/or play in her room.

Today J:

• Worked at the table with a blue board and counted/filled in missing # between 0-10
• completed a Todd Parr puzzle
• took a bath

made her bed