Emma's piece at the Bach Fesitval

Emma performed this past Sunday at the 22nd annual Bach Festival. She was asked by her teacher two weeks before and while nervous about it at first, she was excited to do it.

March's poem: The Wind

This was Emma's poem to memorize for the month of March. We worked on it a couple times a week as well as played an MP3 of it over and over some days. The first 1/2 was memorized by repeating lines and by the time she had that memorized, she had 90% of the last 1/2 known just by listening to the MP3 so much. Here is Emma reciting "The Wind" by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Rabbits in the house?

Emma was laying on the floor working with a magnetic board and some letter magnets.  She soon realized she did not have the letters she needed and starting trying to create letters out of other letters in order to put together what she wanted to say.  I suggested we get the white board out instead and she was all over that.  Pretty soon the following came together: 

“If the rabbit gets in the house in the doggy door what will we do?  All he wanted was a carrot.”

I tried hard not to help but was not successful.  Actually, looking back, “what” was the main one I helped with.  I was surprised with “door” since we talked through what could make the “O” say its name and I think she was going to write “dore” but I reminded her that an “e” at the end of the word is not always the only way to make a vowel “say it’s name.”  We have not even touched spelling rules yet so any doubles that she missed do not surprise me.   We did talk our way through “wanted” by discussing the “o” makes the sound, which was what she started with, but then she remembered what “a” says when it follows “w”

Creating with clay

Emma recently checked a book out from the library about a pottery studio.  The Pottery Place by Gail Gibbons.  At the end it gives suggestions for 3 projects to make your own pottery.  So with a coupon in hand, we headed to Michaels and bought some air dry clay.  Project #1 was to make a pinch pot.  Emma worked on it yesterday and it is currently drying.  Once dry we will have to buy (or borrow) some paints so she can paint it!

 

Bike Riding!

We have wonderful friends here!  They had a bike their daughter has outgrown and for now it is on loan to Emma!  Dave mailed her helmet up and Emma has been thrilled it is nice enough to bike ride!

 

Weekly Review March 7th-13th

Math:

• Starting to work on sums above 10. Lots of practice with the white board.
• Starting to work on subtraction above 10.
• Singapore Math PM 1A workbook pages: 105-107
• Math worksheets: 19, 25-28

Language Arts:

• Starting to work on a poem for the the month of March. This month’s poem is “The Wind” but Robert Louis Stevenson. She has the title, poet’s name and the 1st third of it memorized. We have been playing it on repeat each day and she has bits and pieces of the rest of the poem in memory as well.
• Copy work – writing the parts of the poem she memorized
• Library visit

Science:

• Visited with goats and chickens
• Observed baby chickens and bunnies

Other:

• Visit to Humane Society to play with the cats
• Bowling – 3 games without bumpers! Scores 22, 18, and 32
• Violin practice and lessons. Working hard for her recital next Sunday!
• Walks and bike rides
• Worked with modeling clay. Made a sun/sky/clouds and a flower growing from the ground.

Weekly review Feb 28th- March 6th, 2010

Math:

• Singapore Math PM 1A: workbook pgs89-91 and 94-104
• Mental Math 4-6

Language Arts:

• Emma read "Ten Apples up on Top!" by Theo. LeSieg
• Emma started reading "Fox in Socks" by Dr. Suess
• Read "The Pottery Place" by Gail Gibbons
• Dictation - wrote "The Flag is up on the big stick" We talked about the mistakes and she rewrote with corrections. Spelled "the" incorrect, big "G"s instead of little "g"s and "c" instead of "ck."
• Worked on writing alphabet neatly
• Read Farmer Boy chapters 6-8

Science:

• Looked inside an ear with lots of earwax. Watched how the doctor removed ear wax.
• Observed a male white tail deer close by
• Learned about Flickers (type of woodpecker). We heard him tapping on the metal vent which is a way of them communicating so that many can hear.

Other:

• Violin lesson, 5 practices. Worked on a new song for the upcoming Bach Festival.
• Long walk - 4 miles
• Geocaching

Weekly review Feb 21st - Feb 27th, 2010

Weekly review Feb 21st - Feb 27th, 2010


Math:

• Worksheets: 13-16
• Worked on number bonds and writing addition and subration sentences for each bond
• Computer math game

Language Arts:

• Memorization: memorized dity from her Ramona: Age 8 audio book. Memorized "Hippity hop to the barber shop to buy a stick of candy. One for you and one for me and one for sister Annie." Talked about why you would buy a stick of candy from the barber shop; talked about that is where candy used to be sold and pointed out the similarity between the modern day red and white barber pole and a stick of pepermint.
• Right Track Reading lessons - half of lesson 46
• Copy work
• Worked on writing a story, wrote two sentences with little help.
• Worked on writing her alphabet neatly
• Lots of audio book stories

History:



Science:

• Visit with goats, saw how they jumped up into a pickup truck, how they jumped up to their hind legs to rach food, petted a month old goat.
• Informed us that a tsunami is a large wave that can occurs after a earthquake (Thank you Magic Tree House!) This happened when Dave and I were talking about the tsunami warnings after the Chile earthquake.

Other:

• Bowled two games. While the bumpers were up, a decent number of her balls went down the lane without touching. Scores of 80 and 73. Picked up a spare without the use of the bumpers!
• Violin practice 5 x, 1 lesson
• Violin workshop - step down from recital- played Song of the Wind and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star with her teacher accompanying on piano. Emma had never played along with piano until her lesson that day.
• Put together a 63 piece puzzle a few times and a 200 piece puzzle with little help (I had a hard time not helping, but she did most of it with suggestions on what helps when putting puzzles together. Time to shop for 200+ piece puzzles I think!

Weekly review: Feb 7th-Feb 20th, 2010

Due to limited internet access last week, I am combining last week's with this week's.


Weekly review: Feb 7th-Feb 20th, 2010


Math:

• Singapore Math PM 1A: textbook pages: 56-61 Workbook pages: 68-88. Finished subtraction. Worked on position and direction. Finished three reviews for the first part of the book. Next onto numbers up to 20.


• Mental math 1-4


• Math worksheets: pgs 7-12, working on addition and subtraction.


• Computer math game - addition and subtraction facts up to 10; begged not to do subtraction because she is "not good at it yet" (compared to addition). Informed her that is what the game is for, to help her get better. She knows it, we just have not spent the time drilling subtraction through games like we did addition. She did it and had a blast!

Language Arts:

• Farmer Boy (need to locate book to see what chapters read)


• Right Track Reading lessons 34-45, skimmed through some where we had already covered the rule


• Read the names of animals of the display plates at Cabella's animal exhibit


• Reading practice: Emma read outload from Fun With Our Family (Dick and Jane) - 63 pages; Fun Whereever We Are (Dick and Jane) - 15 pages;


• Worked on writing sentences from dictation


• Library visit, storytime, was read: Zathura and Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg

History:

• Story of the World: Started on chapter one.


• Talked about how Colorado is just part of the USA, not the USA. There was some confusion when she would see the American flag at the Olympics and she would cheer "Yeah Colorado!!"


• Talked about Montana

Science:

• Learned about wound care
• Watched molds of feet made so that special shoes can be ordered
• Helped spot birds of prey on our drive to Montana

Other:

• Afterschool club at the library, played board games with other kids
• Violin, lesson with new teacher (45 mins) 2 practices
• Ice skated at outdoor rink

Hockey race!

Last month, we had a couple weeks at the ice rink with friends of Emma's. The first was just a homeschooling field trip, the second was for her friend's 6th birthday! Both times a former hockey teammate of Emma's was there for lessons and the second time he and Emma raced. He had moved up after Emma's first season and he was skating backwards to Emma skating forward. He is 2 years older thank Emma I think


Emma was not too sure about it and even said she was not wanting to but after we talked a little she agreed to go, I think she was embarrassed because so many people were trying to talk her into it. Once out there, she started slow but said she had a lot of fun!

Fun with Dick and Jane

We are staying with family. I think it breaks down to be Dave's mom's cousin and her niece and husband (who were staying with her dad and now will be gone for a month). Anyways, Kathryn, the cousin, is letting us borrow some old Dick and Jane books and Emma is having a blast working her way through them! We stopped her regular lessons for a few days to let her just read for a while and she worked her way through 1 book! We have started the second book and are resuming her regular lessons so that she is learning the sounds not just the new words that pop up. I might jump around some as new sounds pop up but we will keep plugging through.

I will get some video up soon. I took some but the audio is not too clear.

Schooling on the road...

We are currently in Montana for an undetermined amount of time. Emma and I will be here at least another month while Dave heads home and gets some work done on the house. We are here helping out Dave's mom who is having some health issues. Due to these, she is unable to drive so we are relieving the woman who was helping her. She was being drained since her Dad was on hospice so she was with him. As it is, he passed this last Sat. While we had planned to come up and assess the situation, with the recent developments, Emma and I are here until she (the woman who has been helping) is back from Oregon (where the funeral is) and a trip to California. No one really expected things to happen this way so we are still trying to let everything settle and work out details.





Anyways, we are trying to keep things as normal as possible with school for Emma which has not been the easiest thing. The last week has been a lot of running around getting needed information and figuring out what is going on and what needs to be done.





So, on the drive up, we read quite a bit of Farmer Boy and started working on Emma writing as I dictate sentences that contained words that she can read. She did awesome with this and needed a little help with "was." We also worked on capitalization and some punctuation.



We have done this a couple times this past week with the same topic but mixing it up some. She seems to really love it so I will continue with it and start working in more difficult words.

Recent excitement!!

Emma has been working on a loose tooth since Jan 15th. Last Monday, we realized it was REALLY loose and I was surprised it was not coming out. I think was was nervous and/or scared of it coming out. Fast forward to Wednesday, Jan 10th, and Emma comes out of the bathroom crying. As she was talking to Dave, I hear him say "Your tooth is out!" She agrees and then with what she says, we realized why she is crying. "I was brushing my teeth and it went down the drain!" Dave came to the rescue and saved the tooth. She had not ran the water so it was an easy task!

Weekly review Jan 31st - Feb 6th, 2010

Weekly review Jan 31st - Feb 6th, 2010


Math:

• addition and subtraction flash cards
• Singapore Math PM 1A- textbook pgs 50-55, workbook pgs 53-67. Finished unit on subtraction, onto unit on positions

Language Arts:

• On the Banks of Plum Creek chapters 32-41. Finished the book, now taking a step back and reading Farmer Boy!
• Farmer Boy chapters 1-3
• Right Track Reading: lessons 30-34 (half way through)
• Lots of reading books borrowed from the library
• Poetry Pockets
• Read to by middle school students for 20 mins

History:

• Pages in her Life of Buddha book

Science:

• Watched an iridium flare, learned that the flare is the sun reflecting off of the satalite's mirrors.

Other:

• Art class: worked on and finished her collage
• Violin: lesson and practices
• Helped her Dad put together his table saw. Learned to use a socket wrench.
• Helped pick out and buy food to donate for a food drive for various local programs

productive day!

I am hoping to update more than just the weekly reviews but things have been busy!

Today was nice and we got a lot of schooling done in LA and math. Even some history!

I ahve decided to try to go to the library at least once a week to do some schooling. I think it will be good for Emma to work where she has to focus more on what she is doing rather than what is going on around her. We went for math earlier in the week and she did awesome! We went for her reading lesson today and she did pretty good. We had to be there at 10 for poetry pockets so instead we showed up at 9 to do some school. She was doing great until her friend showed up (her friend's grandma does poetry pockets). I had planned on having Emma finish the line she was on and then let her go, but she decided that would be a good timg to forget the basic sounds in order to try and rush through it. So instead she learned that when you take your time, you actually get done quicker! She had to do another line as well to focus on concentrating and she did a lot better on it.

She and her daddy did more pages in her Story of Buddha binder. She has asked to do it twice this week with him, so they have.

Math went smoothly. I realized earlier in the week I have been neglecting the mental math pages in the back so we started with them today. Mental math is a list of 20 problems for her to do mentally. Go figure... so we started with list 1 (she should be doing list 7) and we will do it until she catches up. The first list just dealt with adding 0-2 to various numbers.

I also worked with her on the challenge math for this section to see what she was capable of. Basically it was having her do a basic form of algebra. It had problems like 3+7=5+?, we worked hard on this to show that the solution for each equation would be the same so 10=10. Then it went in to subtraction and then a problem like 3+2=10-?. The last few were 4 ? 3=10 ? 3, she had to figure out the symbol (+ or -) to make the equation work. She did awesome at these!

As for non-schooling stuff... Have been working hard at getting rid of junk aka clutter. Two load to Goodwill in the last week or so, boxes to used book stores, clothes to the neighbor's baby, etc. Our back bedroom is cleaned out (a lot of it is still in the front living area but we are working on it) and we started demo on the master bedroom closet that eats into the back bedroom. The goal is to take the closet back to a normal size and by doing this give 15 square feet back to the back bedroom. In addition, we will be finishing off both bedrooms (Emma's and the back bedroom).

I am going to try to explain what we are dealing with.... lol... The bedrooms (2 mentioned and the master), the 2 bathrooms, and the hallway are all contained in a dome that reaches 12 feet high in the center. The hallway runs down the middle with two bedrooms on the left (Emma's and the spare), master and bathrooms on the right. The problem with the two bedrooms on the left is that the wall between the rooms and the hallway goes 8 feet up and stops, so we have a gap between the wall and the top of the dome... we can throw items from the hallway into the bedrooms. If you followed that.... Now our plan is to enclose the rooms from the hallway and each other (because the wall seperating the two rooms also goes 8 feet up and stops). We will build a wall to the ceiling between the two and then build loft beds over the hallway.

So today we tore out most of the closet. Some wood remains as well as a built up floor. We are not sure what we will run into under the floor but hopefully nothing too bad. The closet was added on after the house was built so there should not be anything too crazy under there...

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.