Garage sale season!!

Emma and I like to go garage sale-ing Fridays and some Saturdays.  Usually not looking for anything in particular but she will pick up a toy sometimes and I usually do not say no to books.

Between paying .25 and .10 a book at a garage sale and the used book store, we spent $5.

The top two were at the used book store.  Not sure we will use them but for 10 cents each it is worth the buy just in case we can use them just once.

The bottom two will fit in with her science next year.  Again, if we only use them once or twice, worth 25 cents each!

These were all from the book store at 10 cents each.  The owner who is wonderful, thinks of Emma and me when things came in.  Occasionally, she will have a stack of books put away that she will not sell but knows I may way.  The last time was phonics books for Emma.   This time she directed me to these historical fiction books for Emma.   She is not ready for them yet but they look good!

Emma’s books!  I saw the Cam Jansen books and had to snatch them up for her!  She is getting close to being at that level.  She snatched up the B.Bear books and then I saw the Magic School Bus. 

 

I really need to go through her bookcase and organize into what she can read now.  I do not think she realizes that 99% of what is in her book case she can read most of now!  It is exciting to see how well she is progressing! 

 

Other garage sale find was for Dave was a approx 20 foot long hose of misters for our patio for $5.  He was going to make his own since the real ones are so expensive and I am not sure he could have bought the materials for it for $5.  They are going to feel nice when the 90+ weather hits!  Told him when he called for lunch and he was really excited with that find!

Fun with Biology

Here are some pics from Emma's recent science project, Got the idea from someone at Treeleaf Zendo to do a "Bottle Biosphere" The idea is to demonstrate a fully enclosed and self sustaining system, was very easy, and so far working much better than I would have guessed. Just collected some Mud and goo from the bottom of the local lake, a bit of green grassy stuff and water. after the contents settled out a whole world of critters emerged, we have four or five snails many worms, and small wiggly things, and when in the right light you can see tons of extremely small shrimp like critters darting around. The top is completely sealed off from the environment, and the system is on a window sill for solar energy to "run" the system (not in direct sunlight) It is said these mini biospheres can run themselves for a long time we will see, so far it has been going for eight days, and the water has gotten very clear and the snails are busy cleaning every surface in the bottle.

math and language arts

Math:

Emma is cruising her way through the new math book. Only stumbling point we hit was subtraction with regrouping so it is time to stop for a couple days and work with the manipulatives and white board until she grasps the idea. Then she will cruise again for a few days. Still ahead in this unit.... adding 3 numbers together (2+4+1) and review. Then I think it is on to very basic multiplication and then basic division using pictures.

Language arts:

Emma has been emailing family and working on spelling through the emails. Thanks to my aunt for telling me what a kindergarten class at her school does, Emma now has a word wall where she can go if she needs help spelling a certain word. It is lacking right now, but as I see words that can be added, they are added.





We have a little money left from her hsing account this year so I think I am going to go buy the fun typing program I saw at Best Buy. She enjoys emailing but hunting for the letters takes a lot of time.

We also started her spelling program yesterday. We are using All About Spelling (AAS). The first four lessons we have worked through covered making sure Emma knows the first 26 phonograms, how to segment words, and introduces the letter tiles she will be using. She did great with the phonograms that were introduced. Not yet nailing all the vowel sounds but she never has been asked to say them all together. Today, she was told a sound and asked to write it down. Had to think on a couple and with the exception of "qu" got them all correct! The next 5 lessons deal with the short vowel sounds within 3 letter words, so it is a great ease in since she has been writing words with short vowels!

learning to jump rope...

Emma got a jump rope from the Easter Bunny and after seeing me jump rope this past weekend she was eager to try again!

Testing went very well!

Emma did great with her two assessments today. Her phonetics one she aced. The few struggles she had did not surprise me, and a couple were just her rushing. Compared to the fall, she improved a lot. I had to laugh because near the end she has to write her name. She turns to the test giver and asks "Can I write it in cursive?" I knew that question was coming!

As for the DRA2, I was a bit disappointed but it was due to my expectations being too high I guess. And the disappointment has nothing to do with Emma just the way the test was given. Emma did awesome! What it was set up as, was a assessment to "test out" of kindergarten. So the test was at a level 3 (test givers assumption Emma would do good at) and she past with flying colors. Level 3 is also the final K level. I asked about testing further and her resource consultant pulled out level 8, which is mid first grade, and again Emma passed with flying colors. This is where my disappointment comes in. I was assuming they would test until they found which level she was really at. So, I asked that come this fall, if we could set up a time and go through the test and find where she is at. I know they are busy now, and I want to go through more of her curriculum this summer. That, along with lots of reading, will give a much better assessment in the fall.

DRA2 testing tomorrow...

Tomorrow is the day for Emma's testing. She will be given both the DRA2 and a phonetics type test. Can not remember the actual name. She took the phonetics test back in the fall and did very well. I remember the reading specailist who administered it being very impressed Emma was able to break down the sounds and give her just the beginning sound or the ending sound. It was funny because there were some she had to draw the letter out for instead of naming it, Q is the one that comes to mind. I think that test she should nail. I do not think we are missing any beginning phonetic sounds and it seemed very basic.

As for the DRA2, I have no clue what to expect. I was going to work with her on long vowel combos this week but then figured why? She will test where she tests and then in the fall we can do it again to see where she is once she masters it. She might surprise me anyways. It is close to clicking. We really do not do enough reading outloud and need to change that. Based on the books she is reading from the library, I am going to guess she will be at a mid 1st grade level, but it is a total guess. I am hoping this summer to just plug away at her learn to read curriculum and lots of reading and have a break through. Most of her hang ups right now are with sounds we have not covered (go figure lol), long vowel combos and recent lessons that have not quite set in... and then just the normal rushing and guessing.

cursive writing

Emma has been asking to learn cursive. Her printing is decent (I think) but it needs work. I was debating about what to do but after what happened last week, I might go ahead with it. We were waiting at the doctor's when Emma asked me to write her name in cursive so she could try to write it. That turned into me also writing "cat" and "hi." This is what we ended up with (Emma's writing in blue). Guess we will continue with printing as well as add learn to write in cursive.

School today…

Emma was asking to go to her friend’s house today instead of going with Grandma to her doctor’s appointments.  I agreed as long as she got her school work done first.  Usually I have her bring her math with us and it takes her part of an appointment or the time in the waiting room.  Buys me some quiet time! 

So I had her do a few pages of review in her math worksheet book (extra aside from her curriculum), write out her spelling words 5x each, and write a sentence or two that she thought up. 

Two of the three math sheets she did today.  Besides forgetting to do a problem and making a silly mistake (8-0=9) she got them all correct!!

This evening she dumped out money she had and proceeded to count it.  She had $1 coin from the Tooth Fairy, $2 in dimes from the Easter bunny, 3 quarters, and I can not remember what else there was but it added up to $4.37.  While she did not count to 100 by using the quarters, she realized she needed 25 cents more to make  $1 and used 2 dimes and a nickel from the spare change and did it!  She then took the change I had and added it up. 

Emma’s spelling words for the week:

Emma’s sentence(s) she wrote for writing.   We talked about sentences (capital letters and punctuation) and spelling of “wonted.” 

For reading, Emma decided to grab Farmer Boy and see if she could read it.  We made it through 1 paragraph and she did well!  “They ate at the table in the kitchen, because there was no company today.  The kitchen was bright with the glitter of snow outside.  The floor and the tables were scrubbed bone white with lye and sand.  The tin saucepans glittered silver, and the copper pots gleamed gold on the walls, the tea kettle hummed, and the geraniums on the window-sill were redder than Mother’s red dress.”  It took a while and we had to work through the words and some of the sounds we have not covered yet but she was thrilled when she finished!

She has been begging me to buy a collection of Dick and Jane when we get back to Colorado but she is slowly realizing that there is a lot more that she can read now!

Weekly Review catch up… Language arts…

Another one subject review, so I can keep tabs on what we are covering.   Been taking things lightly as we get to them lately.  Emma is way past what she needs for hours and with the trip, school has been hit or miss some days…

Reading: 

Have not really touched her learn to read curriculum still.  I did get it back out last night and we will start working on more vowel combos.  She was on the lesson that teaches when c and g make their other sounds but we will come back to it.  I am noticing when she reads to me, vowel combos are a better area to hit right now. 

She is still loving reading from Dick and Jane.  These are her go to books and it is helping with speed.  We have also been working with Adventures with Frog and Toad, Berenstain Bears and Little Bear books as well.  I have been also finding her reading more labels and signs now that she is aware that there is a lot out there she can read!  She still asks me what stuff says and depending on what it is, I turn it back to her!

She is scheduled to take the DRA2 on April 22nd so we will be working to make sure she knows what she had learned so far.  Still struggling with glancing at the entire word before sounding it out.  Words like “bike” and “cake” where the “e” makes the first vowel long are hit and miss.  She knows the rule but forgets, also the same with words the have two vowels that produce a long vowel with the first and the second is silent.  Both of these are hit or miss and I think she just is not taking the time.  Occasionally she will realize she is wrong and correct it with out resounding it out.

Poetry:

She is working on another poem, almost memorized, just working out kinks.

Spelling:

Starting to introduce spelling words.  Right now, they are sight words that she is putting into her stories.   The first week was “the” “was” and “what.”  “What” carried over one more week and has joined the list with “one” and “two".”  Numbers are also going to be on the list. 

weekly reviews have been lacking... math review

I think this weekend will mark the 3rd weekly review I have not done. We have been working but things have been busy so I have not taken the time.

I will try to do an update each day on different subjects...

Math: We are almost done with Singapore PM 1A. We have a few more sections but I am going to put those aside until we are back in CO... They are dealing with comapring liquids and weighing. I just do not have the resources here and it is not going to matter if it gets done now, or in 6 months, or sometime in between. She has a good sense with regards to those areas so I am not concerned. We will move through that parts that require now weighing/measuring and then do the rest later.

We have struggled a little with subtraction with regrouping (for example 13-6). Not so much she did not understand it but she was not doing it the way her curriculum wanted her to do it. Instead she created her own formula that when written out, actually involved negative numbers and such but it worked. So we are going to do a lot of online activities that work with this concept. Actually, she was able to do it on paper but when mentally doing it was when I figured out she was doing it differently. I was not sure how it would impact her work when we hit double and triple numbers so we went back and reworked on it the Singapore Math way. She understands it now but I want to keep working it to make sure it is concrete.

In the mean time, we had taken a break from the regrouping and I decided to challenge her again and see what she was capable of. She gets really excited when she is challenged. We had been working on the white board and realized that I had been giving her problems like 13-12 and she was missing them. I realized we had not covered that yet, she was trying to say 11. So we did a lot of 13-1 and 13-10 but using a lot of other numbers than 13 and it clicked. She was having trouble with the subtraction of the 10s place. So I started using numbers above 20 and slowly started doing stuff like 36-31 and so on, but nothing that required regrouping (borrowing). We also played around with addition, 32+31 as well as 38+43 and that clicked right away!

I then took advantage of that to show her that she could now add money including quarters! We had done dimes, nickels and pennies already. This also led into an intro on fractions and multiplication. I am not expecting it to stick yet but we will continue to ease. Her next semester curriculum eases into multiplication/division with pictures.