Thursday, 1/29/09

Sorry!  No pictures today.  We had a pretty easy lesson today.  You know it's funny.  My oldest daughters math lessons have been a challenge for her.  Not an impossible, I don't want to do it anymore challenge, but a  I have to think about this challenge.  But now all of  a sudden we have started a unit on shapes and it is a totally snore!  ZZZZZzzzzzz...... Anyways, hopefully we can breeze though it and move on!  As for phonics we started learning about capital letters and periods.  She actually knows about these already because when they sent us the wrong materials at the beginning of the year they were teaching this very principals.  So this lesson was pretty much a review for her.  Then we talked about pollution a little bit and how we need to clean up outside our home just like when we clean up our room.  For language arts we read a book titled, "A Story, A Story".  It was a good book, but the names were horrible to try and figure out how to say.  It was a pretty uneventful day which is probably why there is a lack of pictures. 

Wednesday, 1/28/09

Today was a fun day!  We started with phonics and made it through 3 lessons and did a weekly assessment.  We also did a math unit review and assessment and she did great!  But the best part was when we read Tiki Tiki Tembo.  The girls loved the story and we talked about China and how they just celebrated their new year and then we made Chinese lanterns and the girls were acting like it was magic how they came together.  So cute!  

Tuesday, 1/27/09

Today we started out with science.  We began a new unit on taking care of the Earth.  I am grateful that I am the one teaching her this so that she can learn that it's good to take care of the Earth, but that we are not evil for using the wonderful resources we have around us.  I remember a teacher of mine that made us feel guilty for walking on the grass because we were harming the environment.  What were we supposed to do?  Hover?  Anyways, we talked about how when we cut down a tree it is good to plant a new tree in it's place and also about conserving water and electricity.  My husband will be excited about this as it will save him money! :)  We then read a silly story called Bouki Cuts Wood.  Since we talked so much about trees today and with Valentines Day around the corner, I thought it would be fun to make heart trees.  I found the idea on Flip Flops and Applesauce.  The girls loved this activity and my son couldn't help but get in on the action of having his picture taken.  Later we did some phonics and then did two math lessons.  One on logical reasoning and the other on hidden information.  A pretty good day! 

Monday, 1/26/09

O.k.!  So I know we have been gone for a while, but with the holidays it was all I could do to get school done let alone blog about it.  But I am hoping to keep it updated from now on.  So here is what we did today!  We started with language arts by reading The Velveteen Rabbit.  Even though it was a little bit longer than our typical books the girls were really into.  I really enjoy this story other than the fact that I hate to give away any of the kids toys after we finish reading it.  After reading it you feel like the toys, the Real ones anyways, will have hurt feelings or something. :)  We then made rabbit faces and the girls really enjoyed that.  I thought they turned out pretty cute.  We then did two math lessons.  The first was on Estimating Time and the second was learning about the calendar.  The estimating time lesson was pretty funny to see how a five year old views time.  After math we did a few phonics lessons reviewing digraphs and trigraphs.   Then my oldest took her weekly phonics assesment.  It amazes me how well she is doing with phonics and reading.  She amazes me even further every time she does one of her spelling tests.  I love that I am the one that is seeing her grow and to know that I am the one doing it!  I can't tell you how grateful I am, STILL,  for the decision we made to homeschool.  Our kids love and I love it!