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Friday, August 28, 2009

Our week in review

Our first week of homeschooling is at it's end though we never stop learning around here. To help me maintain my grasp on this new endeavor I am going to try to do a review of the week and list or write about some of the things we learned over the course of the week. I know it is already well into the next week and I have probably forgotten half of what we did last week but better late than never....spoken like a true procrastinator.

Monday: "Muffin Monday"
I teach in the morning from about 9 until 12 then we all eat lunch together and I put the baby down for a nap and go out to the studio to work until dinnertime. Mark gets to work in the mornings and he has the girls in the afternoon to teach and entertain. The plan is for the subject emphasis on Mondays to be math, mapping(for now) and music with Mark in the afternoons. A little bit of everything else is thrown into the mix as it fits.
1. Introduced the weekly routine chart( We are talking about one day at a time because it is still subject to change as we see how our week flows and we don't want anyone to get overwhelmed)On Monday mornings we will be baking and doing some measurement related math. By baking on Monday we will hopefully have a tasty snack like muffins ready for several days for the girls. We also prepared a crockpot meal ...enough for dinner and lunch the next day.
2. After breakfast we went for a morning nature walk and found some small sassafras trees and dug roots for tea. We made sure to identify the leaves online. We made tea and Cammy drew and wrote in her nature journal about the experience.
3.Talked about maps and globes(We have been mapping all of our Etsy sales this summer so Cammy was familiar with a map somewhat)
4. Read section 1 in Maps, Globes and Graphs workbook
5.Tried to draw a map(This frustrated Cammy quite a bit because she wanted to draw a very advanced map, her brain is about 100 steps ahead of where her actual skill level is at sometimes) finally calmed her and got her to draw just a simple map of her room.
6.Introduced weekly spelling words: map, globe, earth, land, ocean, where, compass, north, south, east, west and bonus words: direction, community, neighborhood
7. Listed the order of the universe form home to street to neighborhood to city to county etc.
8.Did a few simple addition workbook pages for review and started our grow a pony(one of those spongy things that grows in water)
9.Music didn't make it into the day but a trip to the beach with dad did.

Tuesday: "TV Free"
No television at all even for the grownups when the kids go to bed.
Luckily Cammy takes well to no TV most of the time and Karma seems to have zero interest in it so this was no problem in our house. Same game plan with me teaching in the morning, lunch together then I work in the afternoon and Mark works in the morning while I'm teaching. The subject emphasis for Tuesday is on telling time and reading and writing.
1. Cammy was a little resistant to start the day so I made her go and find the funkiest hat in the house to be her thinking cap. She immediately ran upstairs and grabbed this black and whit checker board patterned hat. Awesome choice I say! It worked like a charm she was into it now so I had her play a little word game with our spelling words. As it happens all of the weeks spelling words actually had a least one hidden word inside them, for example earth has ear and art inside or where has he and her hidden inside. Cammy got it right away even catching some that I had missed and I thought this game might be a little hard for her.
2. Cammy did some copy work of the list we had made about geography on Monday
3. Cammy copied her spelling words and put them in abc order
4. We built a tee pee in the back yard with some small trees that the power company had chopped down.
5. Cammy did some time oriented math worksheets

Wednesday: "Wacky Word Game Wednesday"
Again I teach in the morning while Mark works. Then I get to work until dinner time....Mark is a great cook. I'm loving this, he even does the dishes.
1. Cammy was a little resistant to start the day so I made her go and find the funkiest hat in the house to be her thinking cap. She immediately ran upstairs and grabbed this black and white checker board patterned hat. Awesome choice I say, now that is the hat of a genius! It worked like a charm she was into it now so I had her play a little word game with our spelling words. As it happens all of the weeks spelling words actually had a least one hidden word inside them, for example earth has ear and art inside or where has he and her hidden inside. Cammy got it right away even catching some that I had missed and I thought this game might be a little hard for her.
2. To continue with the wacky word game theme I distracted her with a little busy work of some math worksheets and writing in her nature journal. While she did this I hid some rebus puzzle note around the house and put some mail in the mailbox for her to find. It was a letter addressed to Special Agent Cammy and required that she help this family solve a series of mysterious images that have been popping up in the most unusual places. She figured out the rebus picture puzzles no problem. They spelled out I love you, but she was angry that I had tricked her into it and that it wasn't a "real" piece of mail.
3.Made a compass rose with some glow in the dark window cling paint
4. Did a couple of math review pages
5. Read some more of Maps, globes and graphs
6.The girls went to the beach with Mark again and talked about the horizon line out on the ocean and where you would be if you went straight out until you hit the next body of land....turns out on google earth that we are directly across from Morocco.

Thursday: "TV Free" no television at all again.
Mark works away from home on Thursday mornings so it's just the girls and I until after lunch.
1. We read a butterfly poem and talked about butterflies and symmetry.Cammy copied down the poem in her journal and drew a picture
2. Painted butterflies ink blot style: snuck in a little fraction math with paper folding and cutting
3. Did some claymation for Cammy's book "Karma Kong"
4. Cammy measure the grow a pony again and recorded the info into her math journal
5.Got out the slime chemistry set and made pseudo putty

Friday: ???
Mark works away from home on Fridays so it is just the girls and I until late afternoon.
1. We took an early morning walk and discovered a cicada casing in the driveway but Cammy refused to get too close to it or touch it. Visited the snails that seem to always be covering the neighbors driveway posts. Less than a block from the house we came across some vultures that were devouring something dead in the woods. Did a little math counting them as they flew away.
Cammy drew the cicada and the feather we found in her nature journal
2. Did some more reading in Maps, globes and Graphs
3. Did some writing in the Karma Kong story
4.Measured our grow a pony and graphed it's growth on a bar graph. Did a few simple math pages for review: Cammy tells me she is tired of this baby work! I was just trying to start her off easy since we didn't do any real schoolwork over the summer.

I am sure that I have forgotten tons because our days are full to the brim of questions and little side shows and projects. The learning never has to stop just because it's not "school time". I don't plan to do this review every week but for a while until we are settled into this new homeschooling routine I am going to try to keep up with posting a review so that I can keep myself oriented and focused.
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2 comments:

  1. So neat to hear about your week, thanks for sharing.

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  2. Thanks...we are always struggling to keep some sense of routine here because we both work from home most of the time. I'm hoping that keeping up with it this way will help keep my head on straight.

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