October 5, 2011

What we did today:

Reading Selections:

Aesop's Fable- "The Mice and the Weasels"

"October," by George Cooper

"Hunter's Song," by Sir Walter Scott

Just So Stories- "The Elephant's Child," by Rudyard Kipling

Copywork and Phonics:

Kahmylia- page 1 in Copywork Notebook

Brisa- a page in McGuffey Reader Copywork Notebook

Alpha Phonics- Lesson 36

A page apiece in their Phonics Workbooks

Reading Practice:

Brisa- "Little Tuppens," from Harriette Taylor Treadwell's Primer

Kahmylia- "The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse," from Harriette Taylor Treadwell's First Reader

Narrations:

Kahmylia- "The Mice and the Weasels," an Aesop Fable

Brisa- "Hunter's Song," by Sir Walter Scott

Spanish:

Despicable Me, movie in Spanish

Math:

Kahmylia- math workbook page introducing telling time on the quarter hour

Brisa- math workbook page introducing tens and ones places

Maze worksheets for both.

Music:

Brisa had a piano lesson. She gets really frustrated because her hand posture does not come naturally. I cut the lesson short before she could get too frustrated.

History:

We finally worked on our timelines today! It was very fun to finally put some pages in our timeline. We added dates for Julius Caesar conquering Britain, the birth of Wolfgang Mozart and Alexander the Great.

October 4, 2011

What we did today:

Ballet and Tap Class

Reading Selections:

Bible- listened to audio recording of Genesis 45-Exodus 10

Aesop's Fable- "The Peacock"

"A Baby Sermon," by George MacDonald

"The Canary," by Elizabeth Turner

Our Island Story, by H. E. Marshall- "A Warrior Queen," Chapter 5

A Whale Is Not a Fish, by Melvin Berger- Chapter 1

Sea Full of Whales, by Richard Armour- Introduction and Blue Whale

Giants of the Ocean- pg 24-31

Copywork and Phonics:

Brisa- McGuffy Reader Copybook- 1 page

Kahmylia- Started copying a poem by Christina Rossetti but did not finish

Phonics Sight Words Flash Cards

Reading Practice:

Brisa-Harriette Taylor Treadwell's "Gingerbread Boy"

Kahmylia- 3 poems by Christina Rossetti

Narrations:

Kahmylia- "The Peacock"

Brisa- "The Gingerbread Boy"

Spanish:

Reciting numbers 1-20

Reviewed numbers by tens to 100

Math:

Egg Carton Math Game

5 addition problems for Brisa

6 addition problems for Kahmylia

Art/Music

Painting projects

Nature Study:

See above reading selections about whales

September 29, 2011

Harry is taking over Thursdays! Here is what THEY did today :-)

Reading Selections:

Fifty Famous Stories Retold- "Alexander and Bucephalus"

"At the Zoo," by William Malepeace Thackeray

Aesop's Fable- "The Stag and His Reflection"

Copywork and Phonics:

Kahmylia- a page in her copywork notebook

Brisa- a line in her McGuffey Reader copywork notebook

Sight Words Flash Cards

Reading Practice:

Kahmylia- The Dress I'll Wear to the Party, by Shirley Neitzel

Brisa- Who Sank the Boat, by Pamela Allen

Narrations:

Kahmylia- "Alexander and Bucephalus," from Fifty Famous Stories Retold

Brisa- "The Stag and His Reflection," an Aesop Fable

Spanish:

Review of numbers 1-20 and alphabet flash cards

Math:

Calendar Math games

Music:

Listened to Mozart Requiem in d minor on YouTube.

Geography:

Maps Study

September 28, 2011

Here is what we did today:

Reading Selections:

Aesop's Fable- "The Wolf and the Lion"

Just So Stories, by Rudyard Kipling- "How the Leopard Got His Spots"

"Crumbs to the Birds," by Charles Lamb

Phonics and Copywork:

Brisa- a line from her McGuffey Reader copywork notebook

Kahmylia- 2 pages from her copywork notebook

Alpha Phonics- Lesson 35

Sight Words Flash Cards

Reading Practice:

Kahmylia- Surprise Party, by Pat Hutchins

Brisa- Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?, by Bill Martin, Jr.

Narrations:

Brisa- "The Wolf and the Lion," an Aesop Fable

Kahmylia- "The Travelers and the Sea," an Aesop Fable

Spanish:

Review of vocabulary for shapes and colors

Math:

Kahmylia- workbook page reviewing sums to the tens place

Brisa- workbook page on telling time

September 27, 2011

Since we skipped over some of the work I had scheduled for last Saturday, we made up for it a little today.

Here is what we did today:

Reading Selections:

Bible- listened to Genesis 41-45

Our Island Story, by H. E. Marsall- Chapter 4, "How Caligula Conquered Britain, and How Caractacus Refused to Be Conquered"

"Answer to a Child's Question," by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

"A Child's Prayer," by Margaret Betham-Edwards

Aesop's Fable- "The Travelers and the Sea"

Burgess Bird Book for Children, by Thornton Burgess- "Jenny Wren Has a Good Word for Some Sparrows"

Parables from Nature, by Mrs. Alfred Gatty- "The Unknown land

Copywork and Phonics:

Kakhmylia- a page in her copywork notebook. Kay really loves her copywork. I will have to get her some new notebook pages soon!

Brisa- a line her McGuffey Reader Copywork Notebook

Alpha Phonics- Lessons 31 and 34

A page in the Phonics Workbooks

Reading Practice:

Kahmylia- Christina G. Rossetti poems

Brisa- finished N-O says NO

Narrations:

Brisa- "The Unknown Land," from Parables from Nature, by Mrs. Alfred Gatty

Kahmylia- "The Travelers and the Sea," an Aesop Fable

Spanish:

The Jesus Movie in Spanish (streaming online!)

Math:

a puzzle

Art:

coloring projects

Geographpy:

maps study

September 24, 2011

Today was a VERY abbreviated session, :-)

Reading Practice:

Kahmylia- Itchy, Itchy Chicken Pox

Brisa- N-O says NO

Spanish:

The Jungle Book in Spanish

September 23, 2011

What we did today:

Reading Selections:

Aesop's Fable- "The Fox and the Stork"

"The Kitten and the Falling Leaves," by William Wordsworth

Parables from Nature, by Mrs. Alfred Gatty- "The Unknown Land"

A portion of Mozart's biography from The World's Great Men of Music, by Harriette Bower

Copywork and Phonics:

Kahmylia- a page from her copywork notebook

Brisa- a line from her copywork notebook

Alpha Phonics- Lesson 30

Both did a page in their Phonics workbooks

Narrations:

Both girls narrated "The Fox and the Stork," an Aesop Fable

Spanish:

Vocabulary practice at spanishspanish.com

Math:

A puzzle featuring whales and other underwater creatures.

September 22, 2011

What we did today:

Reading Selections:

Aesop Fable- "The Hares and the Frogs"

"Autumn," by Emily Dickinson

"I Started Early," by Emily Dickinson

Fifty Famous Stories Retold- "The Ungrateful Guest"

Portion of Mozart's Biography from The World's Great Men of Music, by Harriette Bower

Copywork and Phonics:

Kahmylia-a page in her copywork notebook

Brisa- a line in her copywork notebook

Alpha Phonics- Lesson 29

Sight Words Flash Cards

Reading Practice:

Brisa- "The Three Billy Goats Gruff," from Harriette Taylor Treadwell's Primer

Kahmylia- "The Boy and the Fox," from Harriette Taylor Treadwell's First Reader

Narration:

Kahmylia- "The Hares and the Frogs," an Aesop Fable

Spanish:

We sang a few songs in Spanish together.

Math:

Balloon Count Dice Game

Music:

We listened to four of Mozart's early compositions and a piano sonata

Nature Study:

We reviewed some facts about whales in our nature study notebook.

September 21, 2011

Today is so gorgeous outside! I'm glad we were able to finish school by 1:30, so the girls can have some time to play outside. I had a doctor's appointment for Quint this afternoon, but I decided to reschedule it. So now there is more time for play! And I am now finally caught up with my posting!

Here is what we did today:

Reading Selections:

Genesis 29:31-35 (We were unable to get the Bible CD to work on Brisa's cd player to work today. I think it may have something to do with the formatting, because obviously it worked fine in the car yesterday.)

"A Ballad of Two Knights," by Sara Teasdale

"The Fox and the Sheep," an Aesop Fable

"How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin," from Just So Stories, by Rudyard Kipling

Phonics and Copywork:

Alpha Phonics- Lesson 27 (We are one lesson behind in AP because we did not do one yesterday)

The girls each did a page in their phonics workbooks.

Brisa started working on some new copywork pages I printed for her. They were just tracing, but I thought they might help her confidence.

Kahmylia is now two days ahead of the copywork pace I set for her. She is really excited about the new copywork pages I printed off for her. She had to finish her old ones first.

Reading Practice:

Brisa finished reading "Chicken Little," from Harriette Taylor Treadwell's Primer. Kahmylia finished reading "Straw Ox," from Harriette Taylor Treadwell's First Reader. I anticipate that the girls will be finished with the Primer and First Reader by the end of October, maybe sooner at the rate they are reading!

Narrations:

Kahmylia narrated "The Straw Ox." She did excellent.

Brisa narrated, "The Romans Come Again," from Our Island Story. She remembered most of the details, but forgot one important point. I was still pleased because this was yesterday's story.

Spanish:

The girls each went through the Spanish flash cards twice-- once to say the letter, and once to say the picture. We also reviewed the vocabulary words leche, tazon, cuchara, and vaso.

Math:

Brisa did a worksheet from her book on number order.

Kahmylia did an exercise reviewing inequality.

Art:

Today we did two Fragonard picture studies-- The Swing, and The SeeSaw. They are both very intuitive. We discussed mood, use of color, and focal point. I was impressed!

Geography:

We looked at the world atlas to gain some context and insight for some of the reading selections and learning we have been doing. We found the Red Sea because there is a reference to it in "How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin," and we looked up where France and Great Britain are, as they referred to in Our Island Story. We also found Austria, birth country of Mozart, the composer we are studying this semester.

Restructure

(I am still a little behind on posting, so this is what happened yesterday, September 20, 2011.)

I really think I am going to have to restructure our Tuesdays somehow. Maybe even the whole week. It is just so hard to do school on Tuesdays when we spend the entire morning traveling to and from the girls' 45 minute ballet class. I have real difficulty getting the piano lessons in on the other days, so I'm thinking I may try to put more art and music and less reading on Tuesdays. I am going to have to do something because we barely made it through the lesson plans for today. Now granted, once we got home, we did get interrupted again to get a gift of furniture (A couch, a love seat, and two recliners from our friends Charlie and Jacinda Eaton. YAY!), and we did have to be done by 5pm so that we could go to Bible study. So, we did have more than the usual number of interruptions. But this always seems to happen on Tuesday. I will definitely be rethinking this. One thing that did happen that was cool is that since we do have nearly two hours in the car, we have lots of listening time. Harry's dad just gave the kids a Bible on cd, and we blew through a week's worth of readings while we were in the car! It was super cool because the girls kept begging for more!

Here is what we did today"

Reading Selections:

Genesis 31, 32, 33, 35, and 38 (in the car).

"Dream Song," by Walter de la Mare

"The Fox and the Lamb," an Aesop Fable

"The Romans Come Again," Chapter 3 of Our Island Story, by H. E. Marshall

Phonics and Copywork:

Sight words flash cards (in the car)

Brisa practiced writing letters L-O.

Kahmylia surged ahead on her copywork; she did nearly 2 days worth!

Reading Practice:

Brisa started a new story from Harriette Taylor Treadwell's Primer- "Chicken Little."

Kahmylia continued reading "The Straw Ox," from Harriette Taylor Treadwell's First Reader.

Narration:

Kahmylia narrated "The Roman's Come Again," from Our Island Story, by H. E. Marshall. Brisa did not narrate today.

Spanish:

We practiced the Spanish abecedario and vocabulary for colors. We sang "Las flores se inclinan"-- a family favorite.

Math:

For math, I decided to mix it up a little and do some activities this week. We reviewed how a clock works and how to tell time, then we practiced telling time with the girls little board clock.

Music:

We listened to Mozart's Piano Concerto in G (in the car).

Nature Study:

The girls started a word search activity of the names of 15 types of whales. We also reviewed the different types of whales before hand.

Hangover

(I got behind on my posting. This is what happened September 17, 2011)

Ok. So none of us have real hangovers, but we are all VERY sleep deprived. The girls were at their lock-in last night and didn't go to bed until 2:30 am!!!! They actually did tremendously well today considering how tired they were! Harry, Quint, and I also went to sleep at 2:30 am because, while we thought staying over at the in-laws was a good idea, Quinty decided he would rather be in his own bed and was going to scream until he got there. So we got up at 1:30 am and went back home, finally crashing into bed at 2:30 am. Then Harry, my hero, got up at 7am to go pick up the girls in Wentzville at 8am. Suffice it to say we barely made it through school today! But thanks to the provisions I made for today and the extra readings we did this week, we made it!

Here is what we did today:

Reading Selections:

Genesis 29:1-30

Stone Soup, by Marcia Brown

Chapter 1 of Winnie the Pooh, by A. A. Milne

Phonics and Copywork:

Alpha Phonics- Lesson 26

Sight words flash cards

For copywork, Kahmylia copied a Bible verse, and Brisa practiced writing letters J-L.

Reading Practice:

The girls spent some time reading and listening to music on starfall.com. LOVE this website. It is so fun for the kids and they are learning at the same time!

Kahmylia continued reading "The Straw Ox," from Harriette Taylor Treadwell's First Reader.

Brisa continued reading "The Pancake," from Harriette Taylor Treadwell's Primer.

Narrations:

Kahmylia narrated the Bible story about Jacob found in Genesis 29:1-30

Brisa narrated "The Monkey and the Camel."

Spanish

The girls watched Ice Age in Spanish.

Music:

We spent some time listening to various selections from a website called Classics for Kids.

Excited Kiddos

(I am posting this a little late. This is what we did September 16, 2011)

Today was a very exciting day for my girls. Tonight is the night of the all night Girl's Lock-In at Daughters of Grace Dance Company out in Wentzville, MO. Now, of course, a big downside to this is that it is just so far away, but the girls were so excited to go. We ended up going to the Kid's Closet Connection Consignment sale first and were able to find a used Disney Princess sleeping bag for Kahmylia. This definitely helped the budget! We then bought one new at Walmart for Brisa. They finally made it out to the lock-in just a few minutes later than 8pm. Success!

Here is what we accomplished today:

Reading Selections:

Genesis 28:10-22

"Abou Ben Adhem" by Leigh Hunt

"The Lion, the Bear, and the Fox," an Aesop Fable

"The Law of Authority and Obedience," from Parables from Nature by Mrs. Alfred Gatty

Phonics and Copywork:

Alpha Phonics-Lesson 25

Both girls worked in their phonics workbooks

For copywork, Brisa practiced writing letters F-I, and Kahmylia did the next page in her copywork book.

Reading Practice:

Brisa continued her story from Harriette Taylor Treadwell's Primer-- "The Pancake."

Kahmylia started a new story from Harriette Taylor Treadwell's First Reader called "The

Straw Ox."

Math:

The girls each did a page out of their math workbooks.

Narration:

Kahmylia narrated "A Laconic Answer" from Fifty Famous Stories Retold.

Brisa narrated "The Bear, the Lion, and the Fox," an Aesop Fable.

Spanish:

The girls were able to get on spanishspanish.com to listen to vocabulary words and repeat them. They also played an imitation game with spanish color words on the site.

48 Degrees!

It was 48 degrees this morning! Whoohoo! I have been waiting for this weather! It is such a relief to be done with the really unbearable heat!

P.S. Thank you Quinty for your 3 hour nap!

Reading Selections:

Genesis 27-28:9

"Fly away, fly away over the sea," by Christina Rossetti

"The Birds, the Beasts, and the Bats," an Aesop Fable

"The Law of Authority and Obedience," from Parables from Nature by Mrs. Alfred Gatty

"The Old Orchard Bully," from The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess

Phonics and Copywork:

I have Brisa practicing letter formation because her handwriting is so sloppy. Handwriting has always been very difficult for her. She must write the letters perfectly to move on to the next letter. She puts greater effort when she knows she can move on as soon as she does a good job.

Kahmylia is still copying Scripture verses. Her handwriting has really improved. She is very meticulous.

Reading Practice:

Kahmylia finished reading "Wee Robin's Christmas Song," from Harriette Taylor Treadwell's First Reader. She was very proud of herself. She really made a concerted effort not to make up words when she lost her place. I was very pleased with her efforts.

Brisa started a new story from Harriette Taylor Treadwell's Primer- "The Pancake."

Spanish:

I was able to find some printable Spanish alphabet flashcards! We went through those today and recited numbers 1-10. Brisa is starting to remember siete.

Nature Study:

We reviewed the two types of cetaceans and watched a few examples of humpback whales breaching on YouTube. The girls also colored a picture of a sperm whale and squid.

Narration:

Kahmylia narrated the Bible story, Jacob steals Esau's blessing.

Brisa actually did not narrate today.

We also did not do our picture study today. We will just have to do it tomorrow. : )

Rainy Day

So everyone slept in because of the rain this morning. It was ten 'til nine when Brisa knocked on our door- nearly two full hours later than the kids normally get up. It was a little weird, but believe me, I was not complaining! Our late start made our school day start around 11 am- which is still better than yesterday's 1 pm!

Here's what we did today:

Reading Selections:

Genesis 25:19-34

"Diamond's Song" by George MacDonald

"Wynken, Blynken, and Nod" by Eugene Field

"The Donkey, the Fox, and the Lion" an Aesop Fable

"How the Camel Got His Hump" from Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling

"Damon and Pythias" from Fifty Famous Stories Retold

The Story about Ping by Marjorie Flack and Kurt Wiese

Phonics and Copywork:

Brisa and Kahmylia both read Alpha Phonics- Lesson 23

Brisa completed two pages out of her Phonics Workbook on long sound -a. She learned long -a sound words with -a and silent -e and words with -ai.

Kahmylia did a fill-in-the-blank worksheet in which she had to choose the correct short vowel sound word to complete the sentence.

Brisa completed her copywork page from her McGuffey Reader. She is simply not ready for this book yet. Her handwriting is really atrocious. I am going to go back to letter formation with her.

Kahmylia worked on writing lowercase b and d and words beginning with these letters. She is still having some difficulty distinguishing these two letters. After I did some dictation with her using words that start with b and d, I realized that she knows these letters, but she simply doesn't take the time to distinguish them when she sees them in context.

Reading Practice:

Brisa finished her story, "The Boy and the Goat" from Harriette Taylor Treadwell's Primer a day ahead of schedule. She is really sailing through these stories. She also read the abridged version of Hop on Pop, by Dr. Seuss.

Kahmylia finished the rest of the Mother Goose stories from Harriette Taylor Treadwell's First Reader. Because she did not do any reading practice yesterday, I also had her start her next story, "Wee Robin's Christmas Song." She read the first page.

Narration:

I realized today, that we didn't do any narration yesterday. Oops!

Today Kahmylia narrated "The Donkey, the Fox, and the Lion." She did quite well!

Brisa requested to narrate our Bible selection, Genesis 25:19-34, about the birth of Jacob and Esau and how Esau sells his birthright. This was a little too much for her because it is really two stories. But she got most of the overview and a few of the details. I was impressed with her comprehension.

Spanish:

Today we continued to work on the alphabet using flash cards. We also recited numbers 1-10. Brisa is still forgetting siete, but we are working on it! I am going to look for a printable Spanish alphabet flash cards set because the Spanish word for the pictures of the English set we are using don't always correspond with the Spanish letter. We will see what I can find.

Math:

Today Brisa did three pages in her workbook on identifying 2 and 3 dimensional shapes.

Kahmylia and I reviewed telling time on the half-hour. I think she is finally grasping the concept. She also did a few pages in her workbook.

September 13, 2011

Let me just say that teaching when you're sick is just not fun any way you look at it! But to top it off, today was the girls first ballet class--which is out in Wentzville (a good 45 minutes away in good traffic. let's not talk about bad traffic!). Harry graciously took the girls out for me because I wasn't feeling well. Side note here: the girls really enjoyed their first ballet and tap class. It was way too cute to see them in their leotard and tutu and tights with their hair all slicked back. Harry said they really had a blast in the class. And they will be taking a field trip to see the nutcracker in December. Very EXCITING! Daughters of Grace Dance Company really is a neat dance company. Anyway, back to the school story. Since the girls were gone all morning, we had to do school this afternoon. In 93 degree weather. In our un-air conditioned house. So let's review. Mommy cold+late start+93 degrees+no air conditioning= A STEP ABOVE MISERABLE. But despite my misery, we actually touched on all our subjects. Whew!

Here's what we did today:

Reading Selections:

Genesis 24

"The Frog and the Centipede" Anonymous

"The Boar and the Fox," an Aesop Fable

"The Coming of the Romans," from Our Island Story

Phonics:

Alpha Phonics- Lesson 22

Sight words flash cards- all cards both sides.

Reading and Copywork:

Kahmylia copied Psalm 40:24.

Brisa read the first two pages of "The Boy and the Goat," from the Primer by Harriette Taylor Treadwell.

(Brisa did not do copywork and Kahmylia did not do any reading practice from her First Reader by Harriette Taylor Treadwell. Copywork really should be done everyday, but realistically the day is over so we will just have to try again tomorrow.)

Spanish:

We recited the Spanish alphabet, then used alphabet flash cards to identify letters by sight.

We sang Cristo Me Ama .

Math:

We did word problems aloud involving addition and subtraction to ten, and counting by tens. Kahmylia and I worked through a problem counting backwards from 100 by tens. (We should practice counting backwards from 100 by tens.)

Nature Study:

Today we read from Artist Nature Magazine. We learned about the two different types of cetaceans-- toothed and baleen. Then we watched videos on YouTube of sperm whales and blue whales. We learned a lot of really astounding facts about whales and saw some great footage. The videos were from National Geographic and BBC. A particularly interesting piece we saw was from Jonathan Bird's Blue World, where he swims with sperm whales. Also saw a NatGeo clip about a scientist who has been studying the sounds that blue whales make. The sounds that they make are truly astounding!

Music:

As we are doing a composer study on Mozart, today we listened to three selections from The Marriage of Figaro. Which, as I discovered today, does not really have a plot suitable for children. Live and learn! I should have read the synopsis before our school time so that I could at least make an attempt at helping them understand what was going on without introducing them to the world of philandering and romantic trysts. Anyway, we ended up watching some clips of the selections we listened to on YouTube, so the girls were able to see the context of the music. Pretty cool. They really enjoyed it. I think they would enjoy going to an opera if we could discuss the story beforehand so they could follow along. As a singer myself, this, of course, is very exciting to me. So we also watched a few clips of The Magic Flute and Susanna's Secret- two operas I in which I performed in college. Fun stuff!

Dance:

The girls went to their very first Ballet and Tap class at Daughters of Grace Dance Company out in Wentzville. I wasn't there, but Harry said that the girls did very well. I am excited to check it out next Tuesday!

September 10, 2011

It is weird having school on Saturday. Last year we really only did school four days a week, but this year I'm determined to really do a full five days a week. Since we take Monday as our day of rest, our school week is Tuesday through Saturday. So in the spirit of Saturdays as a traditional "down" day, I have tried to schedule more hands-on activities and less seatwork and reading selections.

This is what we did today:

Reading Selections:

Genesis 22:1-8

"God's World" by Edna St. Vincent Millay

"Jenny Wren Arrives" from The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess

Nature Study Videos:

Several videos on YouTube about House Wrens. We saw some really great footage and one in particular had a very clear recording of the wren's call. We also saw a mother wren feeding her babies. It was super cool!

Spanish:

The Sword in the Stone in Spanish. The girls got such a kick out of watching a movie for school. Ah, I'm so tricky....

Copywork and Phonics:

Brisa did some corrections on her work from the week, and practiced writing question marks.

Kahmylia started the next Scripture verse in her copywork book, but did not complete it. She will finish it next week.

Both girls read Alpha Phonics Lesson 21-words with -th.

Reading Practice:

Brisa finished her story, "The Old Woman and the Pig" from Harriette Taylor Treadwell's Primer.

Kahmylia read two more Mother Goose poems from Harriette Taylor Treadwell's First Reader.

Math:

The girls completed a 60 piece puzzle of the Fifty States.

Narration:

I let the girls choose a favorite story of the week to narrate.

Brisa chose "Jenny Wren Arrives," the story we read today.

Kahmylia narrated "The Monkey and the Camel."

They are still missing chunks of the story, but I imagine that their skills will increase with practice. They are able to tell a coherent story most of the time. I never tell them they are wrong or make them repeat their efforts. I mainly use this for myself to gauge their reading comprehension.

The jury is still out on whether or not we will get to the art activity....

September 9, 2011

Today was kind of icky. Harry was not feeling well and Quint woke up very congested. Brisa is getting over her cold, and I'm catching it. Fun times. Needless to say, school required special effort today! In order to conserve our energy and stay as comfortable as possible we all had to stay in our pajamas. ; ) Actually, I think we all just felt so tired and icky that we forget to get dressed!

This is what we did today:

Reading Selections:

Genesis 21:1-8

"The Monkey and the Camel," an Aesop Fable

A Lesson of Faith," Chapter 1 of Parables from Nature by Mrs. Alfred Gatty

"Little Things," by Julia Fletcher Carney

Reading Practice:

Brisa read two more pages of "The Old Woman and the Pig."

Kahmylia read four poems from a collection of Mother Goose Poems. Both of these selections came from Harriette Taylor Treadwell's Primer and First Reader respectively.

Copywork and Phonics:

Brisa completed Lesson 2 of her copywork book. She had a few well formed letters, but she is still pretty sloppy at times. Her handwriting has improved considerably, though, so I am encouraged. She is trying very hard.

Kahmylia completed tracing and copying Psalm 25:4. She is very conscientious and it bothers her a lot if she makes any mistakes. Her handwriting is coming along.

For phonics, both girls read Alpha Phonics-Lesson 20.

Math:

Today Brisa worked on some addition and subtraction word problems

Kahmylia did a calendar activity where she numbered the calendar and then answered some questions about it.

Geography:

We identified all the continents and worked on memorization by singing the continents song.

Kahmylia learned this song at a Classical Conversations Day Camp two summers ago, and she still remembers most of it. She needed a bit of a refresher today. Brisa started picking it up too. We also found Austria, birthplace of Mozart, and England, the setting for the book Our Island Story, on the map of Europe.

Spanish:

Today we sang a few songs in Spanish- "Jonas no hizo caso", "Las flores se inclinan," and a new one- "Alabare." I also tried to teach them the names of foods while we made lunch.

Music:

We had piano lessons today! Yay! I have been wanting to do this for so long, and I think the girls are finally ready. I was pleasantly surprised that they can both keep time fairly well. Kahmylia has a natural feel for the hand posture, and picked up the note names quickly. She is working through Alfred's Prep Course for the Young Beginner Level B. Brisa can concentrate on playing a simple part in time while I play another part. She is working through Alfred's Music for Little Mozarts. I was VERY impressed with both lessons.

Narration:

Kahmylia narrated "The Monkey and the Camel." She did very well. I think she is finally over her anxiety about narrating. Brisa narrated "A Lesson of Faith" from Parables from Nature. I noticed that she picked up a little of the enthusiasm I used in my reading of the story in her narration. Her expressiveness was really cute.

Bonus: Today we baked a loaf of banana-walnut bread and some banana-walnut muffins from some EXTREMELY fermented bananas and it was delicious! So don't throw out your old bananas (unless they are moldy), they make fantastic banana bread! And now that it isn't so hot, it is banana bread season...

September 8, 2011

I really hate that our school success is so dependent on Quint's nap schedule! This is particularly difficult because he doesn't nap the same way twice! Today I tried three times to put him down for a decent nap, and each time he would only stay quiet for 30-45 minutes before he started crying. It was frustrating to say the least. I think, however, that we must be pretty used to rolling with the interruptions because we did pretty well today--all things considered.

This is what we did today:

Reading Selections:

Genesis 18:1-15

"Smells" from Chimneysmoke by Christopher Morley

"The Cock and the Jewel," an Aesop Fable

"The Sword of Damocles," from Fifty Famous Stories Retold

Phonics and Copywork:

Alpha Phonics- Lesson 19

Brisa completed the first page in her McGuffey Reader and Copywork book

Kahmylia copied Psalm 33:13

Reading Practice:

We are reading through Harriette Taylor Treadwell's Primer and First Reader

Brisa read two pages of "The Old Woman and the Pig," from the Primer

Kahmylia read "The Cat and the Mouse," from the First Reader. Using a bookmark to keep her place as she reads is helping a lot. I am encouraged. She doesn't seem to be guessing every other word now.

I also think working on sight words next week will help them have a little more confidence.

Math:

Brisa has continued to work on addition and subtraction facts to 10, and we made a number line for her to use with her workbook.

Kahmylia has continued to practice addition of numbers to the tens' place.

Picture Study:

Fragonard- The Grand Cascade at Tivoli

Winslow Homer- compared and contrasted the mood of three of his famous seascapes.

Spanish:

We did a worksheet reviewing the vocabulary of the week, and practiced reciting the alphabet and numbers 1-30.

Narration:

Today Brisa narrated "The Sword of Damocles," and Kahmylia narrated "The Cock and the Jewel." They both did quite well, although Kahmylia still seems to be getting over some anxiety of doing narrations. When she finally did the narration, I think she was encouraged by her success.

September 7, 2011

Today Quint decided to only take a 1 1/2 hour nap in the morning. So much for daily 3 hour naps! He did, however, take an afternoon nap as well, so we still accomplished quite bit over the course of the day.

I have decided to start using St Louis Public Library almost exclusively. We have typically used the St Louis County Library, but the libraries are further away, and (having limited transportation availability) it simply takes longer to get to them. This, of course, impacts the accumulation of library fines and the frequency with which our visits occur. Planning nearly an hour of travel time is simply not feasible for weekly trips. So, yesterday we went to one of the city libraries- the Kingshighway branch- which happens to be right around the corner (or two) from our house. Besides having a really good time, we enjoyed not having to be in the car for so long! I also discovered that I can reserve books online from any of the city libraries and pick them up at any library I choose. VERY convenient.

So here is what we accomplished today:

Reading Selections:

Genesis 15

Robin Redbreast, by William Allingham

"How the Whale Got His Throat" from Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling

"The Leap at Rhodes," an Aesop Fable

The Little House by Virginia Burton

Nature Study:

We looked at photos of marine mammals in the oversize book, Spirit of the Polar Regions

Spanish:

We played chalupa, a spanish bingo game

Phonics and Copywork:

Both girls read words from Alpha Phonics- Lesson 18. We discussed the importance of reading practice.

For copywork Brisa practiced spelling her name and started the first lesson in McGuffey's Reader.

Kahmylia completed her copywork of Ephesians 6:1.

Reading Practice:

We are using selections from Harriette Taylor Treadwell's Primer and First Reader

Kahmylia finished "The Three Little Pigs." I gave her a bookmark to put under each line as she reads. This helped her ability to keep her place tremendously. She is still making up words a lot, so we will have to work on that.

Brisa read "The Gingerbread Boy." I am genuinely surprised at her enthusiasm for reading. She has never wanted to try before. It seems that the success she is having is fueling her fire.

Narration:

Brisa narrated "How the Whale Got His Throat."

Kahmylia narrated The Little House

Math:

Kahmylia continues to work on addition of numerals to the tens' place.

Brisa is working on addition and subtraction facts to 10.

First Day of School, September 6. 2011

After much planning and preparation, we started our first day of the new school year on September 6, 2011! We are following Ambleside Online Year 1 pretty closely. I decided to keep both of the girls in the same year for everything except math, phonics, and reading. It is so much simpler this way, and I feel like they are able to work at their own respective levels. We are only loosely following the weekly schedule, but we are using almost all of the book recommendations in the Year 1 book list.

This is what we did on our first day:

Reading Selections:

Genesis 12:1-8

September by Helen Hunt

"The Lion and the Gnat", an Aesop Fable

"A Whale Watching Story," from Artistic Nature Magazine Aug-Sep 2009

"The Stories of Albion and Brutus," Chapter 1 of Our Island Story

Video Selections for Nature Study:

Whale Watching of the Coast of Santa Barbara, CA- You Tube

Humpback Whales Underwater- You Tube

Spanish:

Spanish Practice using the vocabulary for breakfast dishes- la cuchara, la leche, el tazon, el vaso

Composer Study-Mozart:

Serenade No. 13 for strings in G major ("Eine Kleine Nacht Musik")

Started learning a bit about his life.

Narration:

Kahmylia narrated "A Whale Watching Story." She did well and got most of the story line.

Brisa narrated "The Donkey and the Load of Salt." She was eager to do it which excited me because in the past she has been very reluctant to do narrations.

Copywork:

For Brisa we practiced writing perfectly the letters in her name.

Kahmylia started a copywork book of Scripture verses. She traced Ephesians 6:1. The print and lines are smaller in this book, so she is practicing writing much smaller letters then she has been practicing in the past.

Phonics and Reading Practice:

Alpha Phonics- Lesson 18

Brisa- "The Little Red Hen" from Harriette Taylor Treadwell's Early Reading Primer. I had really planned for Brisa to read this story over the course of the week, but she read it all in one day!

Kahmylia- "The Three Little Pigs" from Harriette Taylor Treadwell's First Reader. Kay did not get through the whole story. She was making up a lot of words as she went and I noticed that she was losing her place a lot.

Math:

Brisa is using a workbook from Premium Education- Math Grade 1. She did a worksheet on subration facts to 10 (pg 16 in the book)

Kahmylia is using Horizons Mathematics 1 Book 1. She did Lesson 37- horizontal and vertical addition to the tens' place.

All in all I was very pleased with our first day of school! It helped a lot that Quint had a 3 1/2 hour nap in the morning. I'm hoping he does this everyday, but we'll see!

Missouri Botanical Garden

We are so fortunate to live a block and a half down the street from Missouri Botanical Garden. To have access to such an incredible resource is invaluable to our homeschooling endeavors. We have been so many times that we can get around pretty well now. The crazy thing is that there is so much left for us to learn!

When we visited today we were in awe of the magnolia blossoms. We went in search of daffodils and we weren't disappointed! We noticed the tulips were coming up. We took sketch paper and colored pencils with us so we could draw what we observed. We had a really good time. I was so proud of them today!

Sketches

So today was really fun. Our school week goes from Tuesday through Saturday. Often Tuesday feels like we're trying to get a running start. Today was no different. On our walk this morning Kay noticed some daffodils in bloom in someone's yard. She was so excited to see them, that it inspired me to do something about it. When we got home I googled "how to draw a daffodil." I found a nice little tutorial here. I have to tell you, I am so proud of my girls!

This is Brisa's sketch.

This is Kahmylia's.

This is mine! : )

Back in the Saddle

We took a few weeks off of school because my sister was in town. This week we return to school despite my developing sore throat. Yesterday we had a difficult time getting back into the swing of things so today I was determined to get some things accomplished in the school arena. And I did! (Thanks to Harry who took Q for a couple of hours.)

Memory Verse Review

Genesis 1:1, 18:14a, 22:14b

Reading Passages

Genesis 24:1-51 Isaac and Rebekah

During our discussion of this story, I pointed out how Abraham's servant immediately begins to praise and thank God for answering his prayer by sending Rebekah to him. We talked about how God answered our prayer in giving Daddy a job. Brisa asked if we could praise and thank God for Daddy's new job, and for our wonderful new friends at The Word at Shaw. So we stopped and took some time to pray! This truly warmed my heart today.

Aesop's Fables

The Ass and His Driver

Yes, today I also had the opportunity to explain why we were going to substitute the word "donkey" every time we saw the word "ass." Fun times.

Brisa narrated the story when we were finished. She gave a solid effort. I was pleasantly surprised because she has been very against narration in the past.

Platypus from Nature's Children series of books.

We added the words monotreme and echidna to our vocabulary.

Then we took a break and did some stretching and singing. We sang three songs in Spanish:

Las flores se inclinan

Jonas no hizo caso

Cristo me ama

We played a game I made up for learning sight words. For each sight word read correctly the girls could take one step. The goal was to get across the room. They didn't quite make it all the way across, so we are going to try again tomorrow.

We rounded off the day with some work in their phonics notebooks, some handwriting practice, and some picture study. No dictation today.

We had a full and productive day in spite of how badly I was feeling. I think I will take my cue from Brisa and praise and thank the Lord for it!

Help me!

Does anyone out there have any brilliant suggestions for homeschooling two kids (one in kindergarden and one in first grade) when you are home alone and breast feeding a five month old?  My original thought was that I would school while he napped, but the kid is against napping.  I find that my goal of prioritizing the girls' school and taking care of a needy infant seem to be at odds!  I do know that part of my struggle has to do with my own expectations.  Somewhere in my brain, I'm still planning my school day as though I don't have an infant who doesn't nap consistently.  Harry had to remind me today that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting a different result each time.  Hmmm..... Got me there!   Well, at least I got that off my chest!  

Readings for today:

Genesis 18:1-15

Aesop's Fables--The Fox and the Grapes.  

Spanish--review of greetings, introductions, color words and vowels.  The girls actually did some reading in spanish today!  It was very exciting.

Art- studied The Four Continents by Jan van Kessel

Activity- feeding the ducks at Tower Grove Park

Movie- Fly Me to the Moon. This movie actually sparked some interest in the Apollo 11 mission, gravity, etc.  Did Russia put a man on the moon?  I actually don't know.  Tomorrow.... 

Internet!

May I just say that it has been really hard to homeschool without the benefit of internet at home. When we first let go of our internet last year I was surprised at how much I missed it. I expected to miss checking my email and facebook page. I knew I'd miss being able to have information at my fingertips to look up recipe or a map or a phone number. I was concerned about how not having internet would impact our homeschooling. Still, I was surprised with how often I needed to look something up but couldn't. But we managed somehow. We went to the library a lot. We focused on reading and phonics and math. We made it work.

When Harry started working at The Word at Shaw the church got him an internet hot spot on his mobile phone so that he could work from home. For the last few months we could get internet when Harry was home and his laptop was available. Believe me, that didn't happen very often. BUT today we got our first day of internet at home, and it was sooooo cool!

Because we noticed squirrels on our morning walk (and we're studying mammals), we googled squirrels when we got home. We found the National Geographic Kids website. Which, by the way, is a fantastic resource. We were able to identify the squirrel we saw as the Eastern Gray Squirrel. We listened to squirrel calls, and saw photos of different types of squirrels. Then we looked up a tutorial on how to draw squirrels. The internet is such an awesome tool!

Homeschooling just became a teensy bit more accessible today. Yay!

Reading for the day:

Genesis 17

Snow Fun!

So, we have been having a lot of snow here in St. Louis lately.  And, of course, snow means it has been cold!  In keeping with the values of a Charlotte Mason education, the girls and I try to get outside as much as we can, but Q is so little and can't really take being outside for too long.  So last week I decided to bring the outside in. We brought the snow inside! We sat at the dining room table and made snow men and snow castles on cookie sheets.  We used the girls play tea set and various other cups and containers.  The girls really had a blast.  It also helped release some pent up energy and creativity too! When we were done we watched the leftover slush melt in the sink on its way down the drain.  The girls enjoyed this immensely!

Ice Castle

Brisa's Snow Lady

In a Nutshell

So, homeschooling in the Walls household has been a little more free form than usual this week.  Our school week goes from Tuesday through Saturday because we like to take Mondays as a sabbath.  (Sundays tend to be long and busy, so we don’t usually get much rest then.)  I had intended to get everyone, myself included, on an earlier bedtime routine, but, circumstances I didn’t plan for sabotaged my efforts.  But here are some things we did accomplish.

~We went for two nature walks.  On one of them, the girls collected leaves, pine cones, and other plant specimens.  They will draw pictures of what they found in their observation notebooks.  They also draw pictures of their observations in their observation notebooks.  Eventually, they will be writing in these as well.

~We made ice castles and snow men--indoors.  We lugged snow in and made them on old cookie sheets at the kitchen table.  Very, very FUN!

~We practiced Spanish.  We went over greetings, introductions, and basic vocabulary--counting, colors, weather, etc.  I spoke to them almost entirely in Spanish during one of our nature walks.  It worked out really well.  I think that will make a good, consistent, opportunity for Spanish practice.  

~We read five chapters of The Magician’s Nephew from The Chronicles of Narnia. We also read from Aesop’s fables.  

~They each did a page in their math workbooks, and another day we did addition word problems, and counting by 5’s, 10’s, and 100’s.

~We only managed to get copy work in one day.  Although, I do still have tomorrow.  Still, I would prefer we do copy work every day. 

~They both did a little bit of reading in their easy readers.   

~I try to have them narrate, or at least discuss after each reading, but I need to get into the habit of having them narrate separately.  That is still a work in progress.

~We also have a trip to the Missouri Botanical Gardens planned for tomorrow, which will add a third nature walk to our week.  

Now that I have all that written down, it doesn’t look as horrifying as it felt in my head!  I would, however, like to add piano practice, more copy work and narration, and phonics to next week.  We will see how we do.  It is comforting to see our efforts “on paper,” so to speak.  It looks like we actually did something!

Walking with the Walls

We, the Walls, have decided to homeschool.  We have actually been homeschooling for a couple of years now, but this year the girls are in kindergarten and 1st grade, so we are starting to get to the point where we need to be a bit more structured and consistent with the methods we use.   After two years of trying different things, looking at different curriculums and studying various homeschool methods, I've finally settled on Charlotte Mason.  I am a fan for several reasons, not the least of which is the fact that there is a website that offers a free Charlotte Mason curriculum which uses many free online texts.  Thrilling!  I will be enthusiastically sharing the many other reasons I like Charlotte Mason as I blog through our journey in homeschooling, and as I continue to read and research.  I will also be recording our endeavors and archiving our accomplishments here on the blog.  I hope our stories inspire you, and that in our sharing we will be encouraged to press on.  We invite you to walk with us.