Six months in the making...

This morning Emma asks if we could go to the mall today. I was not planning on going anywhere and was about to say 'not today' but Dave had the sense to ask whether she wanted to go to the mall or specifically go to Claire's? She shyly smiled and said Claire's. She has been going back and forth about wanting to get her ears pierced for a while now and each time we have been near Claire's she watches if anyone is getting their's pierced but was never 100% ready... until today.

So we made a trip to the mall, specifically Claire's. There was a 5 year old in the chair when we got there and let out a "Ow!" when her ears were pierced. Emma hopped up without a problem, got the marks drawn on and then got to sit and wait. We were asked if we wanted someone else to come help so both ears could be pierced at the same time and both Dave and I thought it would be a good idea just incase. However, the only other person available had about 10 people in line. She checked a few out and ran over to help. They counted to three and Emma did not let a peep or a tear out! She later said it hurt a little more than she thought it would but she handled it real well!

Looking forward...

I have been spending the last week or so thinking over what I want to do with Emma in the next year to year and a half. Time to start evaluating what we have been doing and what is and is not working as I would like. Also time to start planning for first grade.

In first grade, the amount of hours we need to log jumps from 2 to 4 each day. Not too worried about that since we are already way ahead this year (she is about 16 hours short of having her hours for the year). I do want to start building her sit down time some with more regular history and science. So far, and I wanted to keep it light this year, we have been doing what she is interested in. Now, I am looking at a history curriculum as well as a plan for science. The science we will follow from a suggestion and fill in as she is interested. The difference will be we will keep moving forward in the science subjects but stop and research deeper when she wants to.

History I am really excited about. So excited that I messed up when I ordered everything tonight. I was trying to order a PDF version of the activity guide and instead ordered the actual text. Not too big of an issue, it was actually more to order as a PDF (Amazon has the actual text cheaper) but I think now I can just print chapter by chapter. I went back and ordered/downloaded the activity guide as well. One plus, I guess, is that we can get going as soon as I can get some books from the library.

We are going to be using Story of the World Volume 1: Ancient Times. I am not sure what pace we will go at yet. I think they suggest a chapter a week but there seems to be so many suggestions for addition history readings and fun activities, we might take it slower. However, I will not know until we get started.

Science we are going to focus on Life Science (Animals, Human Beings, and Plants). They suggests a 20 week study for Animals, 10 week study for Human Beings and 6 weeks study for Plants. Not sure how we will do this. Due to the fact we will probably school year round, we will go into as much depth on these topics as we want and them move on. She is really intersted in the human body right now, so I can see us taking more than 10 weeks on that. We will start with plants in the near future since it is almost spring! There is not a better time to be studying plants!

I have also been looking into fleshing out her language arts. I have ordered First Language Lessons (FLL) and Writing With Ease (WWE) for either the fall or a year from now. The writers of FLL strongly suggest that the student be at a particular place (or past) with regards in learning to read and Emma is just not there yet. We are slowing chugging away at that though and will get there!

For math, I plan on continuing with Singapore Math. She is currently in 1A and we will move through at her pace. We are moving slow to make sure she has her facts down and understands the current concept.

For art, we will continue with art classes as long as Emma is intersted. The next class starts in 2 weeks is "INTRO TO SCULPTURE for HOMESCHOOLERS -Introduction to sculpture with clay, paper mache and polymer clay." Emma was really excited when Pam (her teacher) told her that they would be working with polymer clay!

For music we will continue with violin as long as Emma continues to practice without much fight. This is one thing I am hoping she continues with just for the experience in learning to play.

Also for music/art, I want to introduce different composers/artists. I am leaning toward 1 of each a month and just studying the music and art of each and their history. I am looking at a program that will introduce an artist and their history. It talks about what style of art they did and then a mini art lesson on teaching the student how to replicate that style.

For PE, Emma has decided at this time not to play hockey. We will continue skating a couple times a month, possibly meeting up for a lesson 1x a month to work on skating skills. We will continue with swimming lessons and other team sports. She has shown an interest in tee-ball and I am talking with her about soccer. Once the weather warms, we will be back on hikes, walks and bike rides.

I also want to do more with community service this next year to year and a half. A good part of that has been picking up trash which has been near to impossible with the amount of snow we have had on the ground. I would also like to start visiting a nursing home with her at least 1x per month.

Weekly review: January 24th-30rd, 2010

January 24th -30rd, 2010

(Emma was sick for most of the week so skipped co-op and violin, also took it light on other items.)

Language arts:
- Right Track Reading: Lessons 28-29
- On the Banks of Plum Creek - chapters 29-31
- Watched Disney’s movie Little House on the Prairie. Emma spotted areas where they followed the storyline and areas where they did not. Starts in Little House in the Big Woods and continues through Little House on the Prairie.
- lots of reading with Emma’s books.

Math:
- addition and subtraction worksheets
- lots of daily use and practice
- Singapore Math PM 1A - textbook pages 48-49 and workbook pages 49-52
- introduced addition and subtraction flashcards.

Science)
- bird watching: Emma spotted a bird in our yard she had not seen before. It was a white crowned sparrow.

Other-
- Art class- Make up class. Learned warm and cool colors. Made a sun with warm colors using pastels. Painted the sky with cool colors using watercolors. Crumpled it up and un-crumpled it to create **???***(and this I need to check with the teacher on what the art term if for what they did).
- Art class- This week’s class. Part 1 of a two week project. Working on making a collage. Took 4 pieces of watercolor paper and painted on them with 2 colors. Assignment was to have 1-2 colors (same two) on each page but for each page to look different. Also, water colored a larger paper. Next week will learn to create a stencil and continue with the painted pieces.
- Ice skated for two hours Friday. Included a race with a former team mate, an 8 year old boy. Emma skating forwards, N skating backwards. N says it was a tie.
- learned about donating used items.

Weekly review: January 10th -23rd, 2010

January 10th -23rd, 2010

Science
- electronic snap circuits.
*** Project #1: Electric Light and Switch. Talked about open and closed circuits.
*** Project #2: DC Motor and Switch. Talked about how a motor like this is used with battery operate items that require rotary motion like drills and electric toothbrushes
*** Project #3: Sound Activated Switch.
*** Project #4: Adjusting Sound Level. Saw that adding a resistor reduces the sound from the speaker.
*** Project #5: Lamp and Fan in Series. Saw how the lamp got more voltage than the fan and that the fan had a hard time starting to spin because it was not getting much voltage.

- put water in a cup with a popsicle stick and put in the freezer to see what would happen (she choose to do this on her own after flipping through a science experiment book). Predicted that it would freeze.

- field trip to LA Zoo. Talked about what different animals eat.

- played and observed worms. Learned about worms. Some things learned: They have 5 hearts, no lungs, no bones, no eyes. Longest worm found was 22 feet.

Language arts-
- Learning about dictionaries.
- copy work about her trip to the zoo.
- copy work about worms.
- Right Track Reading - lesson(s) 24-27, starting to learn long vowels and other vowel sounds
- On the Banks of Plum Creek - chapters 24-28

Math:
-addition and subtraction worksheets
-lots of daily use and practice
-Singapore Math PM 1A - textbook pages 41-47 and workbook pages 42-48 (introducing subtraction)

Other-
- Art class- This session is mixed media. Worked with pastels and watercolors. Learned about mixing colors to make other colors.
- Art at home: made a color wheel. Learned about cool and warm colors.
- Geocaching many, many times
- Stopped and watched how the x-ray machines at the airport work.

weekly review...

Last week's weekly review will be included with this week's. Just easier since the two weeks have pretty much ran together lol.

sewing woes...

I told my mom I would attempt to make her a pair of sleep pants to keep her warm for Christmas. Well, they did not get done in time, so I am working on them now (my second last minute) before I leave for California tomorrow. I had them all cut out at the last craft day (the homeschool group has 2 days a month set aside as craft days) and pieced together. I did not feel like sewing that day so I left it for now or tomorrow (another craft day).

Tonight I set the machine up and sewed the pieces together. This is the 3rd time I have made pants and you would think by now I would have it together right?!? Nope, was grabbing the seam ripper and ripping two LONG seams out... I have realized I would rather make a big mistake like this on something I am sewing for Emma!

The only thing I am actually blaming myself for is not checking the directions before sewing. One of the gals at craft day told me what to piece together and either she told me wrong or I heard her wrong... Silly me, did not double check to make sure I had front to back and so on... sewed front to front and back to back.

All is good now, just have the hems to do at the bottom and waist. The bottom Iwill finish up here in a minute, waist I might just wait until CA and borrow Donna's machine to make sure I get it where my mom wants it. I cut plenty high enough to make sure I had enough material. As for the length, somehow I do not have as much as I thought I would but they seem just about right when I try them on. We will see what Mom thinks...

As a side note, am borrowing a pattern from said person above that is all hand sewing to make a little bear. I think I might see what I have for scraps and cut out the pieces for Emma to work on. She has been asking for scraps to sew with the past couple days!

Cute story from today..

Let me start by saying that I am horrible at recognizing people away from their normal surroundings, especially if I do not really talk with them much. I can see someone at the grocery store and know I know them but can not figure out from where. Now this is not the case with most people I know but those who I might say hi to or cashiers and such that I see on a regular basis. It happened not too long ago with the woman who delivers our mail. It took me (and Dave) about 10 mins before it came too us... And so onto today's story...

Emma and I were at the grocery store and had just picked something up from the discout bread bin. As we turned around, I saw a young lady and she smiled and said hi and then smiled bigger at Emma and waved to her. I was pretty sure we knew her since she looked very familiar. I waited until we were out of hearing and I leaned over and asked Emma if she had any idea who that was. She looked back quickly and tells me "Mom! I think that was Taylor Swift!" I glance back quickly, 99.9% sure that there was no way it was her and could see why Emma said that.

On the way out, Emma stopped to spend 2 quarters at the candy/toy machines. The young lady was on her way out and turned and joked to the guy behind her "Are you stalking me today?!" and as I glanced at his jacket it dawned on me that she is a cashier at the local Ace here in town. The jacket that clued me in had Ace Co-op written on it... it was a coworker of her's.

I asked Emma once we got to the car if it was ok if I relay her "Taylor Swift" comment to the young lady next time we see her at Ace and Emma was totally ok with it!

Tour at Vet's office...

We had Dorje in for an appointment this week. As it was wrapping up, I asked if it would be possible to have a tour in the near future of the clinic. Emma has been showing a lot of interest lately of being a vet. The vet asked if right then was a good time! I put Dorje in the car so I would not have to worry about keeping him calm and we started the tour.

He first showed Emma where they do lab work. Where they are able to look at feces and blood. We then went into the operating room and he explained what all the machines were for and how they monitored the animals (they only see dogs and cats) during surgery and how they are able to give them fluids when needed. We then moved into the x-ray room and he took out an interesting x-ray for Emma to look at. He pointed out the skeleton of the dog, the hips, spine head, and then pointed to a smaller skeleton in the same photo and told Emma how the dog was pregnant! We then saw the kennels and where the dogs recover and the special kennels where they put the contagious dogs.

He finished up by letting Emma know that when she is older, she can come and observe a surgery which she was excited about. She later asked me why she could not at her age now. Depending on the surgery she quite possibly would do ok now, but it is hard to judge. She has not had a problem gutting fish or seeing a quartered/skinned elk hanging.

Weekly Review Jan 3 - Jan 9, 2010

Weekly review Jan 3 - Jan 9, 2010

Math:
- Played Sum Swap. Board game working with adding and subtracting.
-Counted to 20 by 2‘s, 100 by 5‘s
- Number bonds written out.
-Working on counting backwards from 30.
- Began introducing rounding up or down. Would look online (or in the car) for the temp a couple times a day and then choose the correct piece for her weather chart (temps starting and 0 and increasing by 10‘s so 0, 10, 20.…100)

Language Arts:
-Right Track Reading - lesson(s) 22, 23, 24 (half). Lesson 24 introduced working on blended consonants with exercises like “fat --> flat” She flew through them!
- Tried sounding out animal names in a book she checked out from the library.
- Poetry Pockets at library.

History:

Science:
-Bird watching - we set up 3 feeders in our yard. She is able to identify male and female house finches!
- Started reading books about animals. Browsed through “Emi and the Rhino Specialist.” Also looked at webcams with rhinos and looked at pictures of a baby rhino taken from a webcam during the 1st hour of his life.
- Tour at the vet’s office. We were in for Dorje and asked about the possibility of a tour in the future since she has been expressing interest in becoming a vet. He took us for a tour then!
- Exploring with a black light.
- Keeping track of temperature on her weather chart (as well as what the weather is like, what clothes to wear and the day of the week).

Extra curricular:
- Lots of geocaching!
- Learning basics of chess
- Ice Skating
- Bowling
- Meeting with RC for monthly meeting
- Began learning how to use a hammer properly. She remembers to put on her safety glasses before she starts.
- Does Wii FitPlus count towards PE in the winter?!? One of the activities on it is bumping bumpers with numbers on them to make sums of 10... She did great on this one. She is also loving the free run, skiing, biking, and balance games to name a few.