Weekly Wrap Up

Home ~ I think one of my kiddo's must have read my weekly wrap-up post last week, as they all acted completely opposite this week. I had to have a tooth pulled on Tuesday (only to find out later it was a healthy tooth), so I had trouble reading but both of my older kids read for me without me asking them to. Not only did they help with JJ's schooling they also pitched in for our spring cleaning! On Thursday DS cleaned out from under my sink and today DD organized and put everything back. I just love it when they do these things. Makes me feel so guilty about ever feeling frustrated with them, almost. :)
We are going on a field trip tomorrow to Reedy River Suspension Bridge. It ties in with our Inca, Aztec & Mayan study. I only wish there was a bridge around that was made out of grass.

School ~

• Monday - Struggled to get JJ motivated but after lunch he kicked in his brain, lol. I was able to read again!!! We had some good discussions comparing the Aztec, Inca and Mayan religion. This seems to fascinate JJ. He's the one who initiated the topic and I just let him talk. I love the book Incas Aztecs & Mayans by John Holzmann. It has alot of "Adult Notes" that has great facts and information that I wasn't aware of or had forgotten about. I would recommend this book to everyone. I'm going to look for more books written by Mr. Holzmann, maybe he has some more history books out there. JJ's favorite books for this topic are the You Wouldn't Want To Be: Incan Mummy, Aztec Sacrifice, and Mayan Soothsayer. These were a bit pricey but he pours over every detail on the pages. I think they were worth every penny and I'm glad I ordered one for just about every topic we have this year. He always asks to read these first. Here's a couple pics of JJ working on the Aztecs. We also completed all of his language arts.

• Tuesday - Didn't go so well. I got all of the American History reading done in the morning but then I had to go to another dentist appointment. The reading was going much better now that I could reading again. JJ even volunteered to read some of it. We never made it to his language arts studies. So it was a so-so day.
• Wednesday - Non school day. My mouth was too sore to read so he got the day off. He was completely bored by 3 p.m. Next time I've got to plan some activities for those times I won't be able to do school.
• Thursday - Everything went really well today. We did all of the Topic 1 reading and had some great discussions on the Mayan marriage traditions. He learned what the Mayan's do after a baby is born. He thought that it was pretty horrific. This info wasn't even in his "You Wouldn't Want to Be a Mayan Soothsayer" book, instead the gory details were in the Incans, Aztecs, Mayans by John Holtzman.
• Friday - It's been a wonderful day. We got caught up on all of his American History reading and finished all of the scheduled books. I didn't get all the projects done as of yet but I'm confident that we can still get to them.

I've decided to add in some additional books to our Topic 1 & Topic 2 studies. I'm such a shameful book junkie. Does anyone know of a book junkie addict support group? LOL

Don't forget to go read how everyone else faired this week at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

eChildblessedf

End of a Day

First day has come to a close. Big SIGH! Everything went better than I had hoped but could use some improvements. Less interruptions would be a blessing. JJ is letting his mind wander alot during his independant work. I can tell because he wants to share every thought that comes into his head and almost all of them have nothing to do with his work. On a very positive note; the books chosen for our first Topic in American History are all terrific. They all held JJ's attention and he was able to recall the majority of everything we read today. He cut out the timeline pieces and part of the Cortes pocket while I read to him. At first I wasn't sure if it would work for him. I thought it might prove to be to distracting but he did very well. In fact, when he was done cutting and just listened, I noticed he started to get antsy, so I stopped reading and instructed him on how to glue the pieces he had just cut out. I then went back to reading the rest of the book. We had a visitor and had to stop for a few minutes but he stayed right on track. When he found out I had a movie on Ice Mummies, he insisted we watch it today. I told him only if we had spare time. We did, so we got to watch about half of it. It's a bit long and drawn out but the mummies are fascinating to see.
So here's a run-down of the subjects covered: {Not In Order}

 

1. Spelling: (Using Spelling Wisdom) I told him how the program worked and what I expected of him. We first added up how many words there were, 5, then I asked which ones he didn't know. He told me he didn't know 1 but I told him he had to be completely sure of a word before we counted it as him "knowing" it. He changed his answer to "2".  I told him how I wanted him to study the words: see it, say it, cover it, spell it and if completely sure, he could write it. We practised together for a few min. then he copied the complete phrase into his notebook.
    
2. Grammar: (LLATL Yellow) We just opened up the teacher book, I didn't order the student book, as I see it as an almost duplicate of the teacher with one minor difference, and started. 1A was me reading a passage to him and then he had to copy it into his notebook. He became distracted at this point, it's beautiful outside and very warm. Both of his sisters were out playing and he wanted to join them. It was almost lunch time, so I had him continue until I had lunch ready and then gave him a break. After lunch, he did great and finished in no-time. He then did 1B and wrote the spelling words into his notebook.
    
3. Handwriting: (HWOT) Things went great here. I even made the Magic C bunny with a paper napkin. I'm still not sure what to do with it but JJ liked playing with it. He struggled with the placement of his paper and spent all day trying to correct it. He kept curving his hand the way a left hander would do. Until today, I wasn't even aware he had a problem with how to hold his paper and hand.
    
4. Vocabulary: (Wordly Wise 3000 bk 3) At first I had him reading all the words and their definitions but soon realized he was struggling with reading the words. After three or four words, I started reading the definitions and then having him narrate the definition back to me using only one sentence. He had a lot of fun with this. At first he tried to give a description for the word but when I wouldn't accept that he started challenging himself to come up with only one sentence. I was so surprised. JJ hates narration and I thought I would have a battle on my hands. SURPRISE! It must have something to do with challenging him by telling him how I wasn't sure it could be done, go figure. Whatever works, right, hehe.
    
5. American History Unit: Topic 1 Incas, Aztecs & Mayans 

• Read 1 Ch Secret of the Andes
• Read 3 pages of You Wouldn't Want to Be an Inca Mummy
• Read pages 3 - 5 of Exploration and Conquest
• Read pages 9 - 19 of Incas Aztecs Mayans (I think I'm in love with this book. I love the "Adult Notes" and JJ even enjoyed the short passages and learned two knew words; despotic and benevolent)
• Listened to Chapter 1 Track 3 of the Story of the World
• We did the review questions and JJ wrote a breif narration after listening to this.
• JJ cut out all timeline images and pasted them into his timeline book (we didn't discuss these yet)
• He cut out and glued the Cortes fast fact sheet and the pocket image from the History Pocket book. He glued them onto colorful paper and later we will add these to his notebook. He also colored this while I was reading to him.
• He cut out the map for Cotes and Coronado from Interactive 3-D maps. He's already excited about this project and can't wait until tomorrow to finish it.
• JJ begged for the Ice Mummies video, so we ended up watching half of it, even though it wasn't scheduled until Thursday.

 

So, that sums up our homeschooling for the day. I would say that I'm looking forward to tomorrow BUT I have to have some major dental work done in the afternoon and I have no idea how to get all of school done. Wednesday is looking bad to, as I'm not sure how well I will feel. Thank goodness hubby  is taking half a day off for me. I have the best husband in the world!
~~ChildBlessed~~

Our 2010 Homeschool Year Plans

Since day one of our homeschooling journey, I have always started planning and buying our school year curriculum in February. It's the time of year that we have the most money all at one time. We then usually start that school year in April or May and school year round. This year I'm trying some new things and everything I've ordered (one of the biggest orders I've ever had) has come in right on time. So this coming Monday, March 8th, will be our official start to 2010.

One of the new things planned for this year is a small summer vacation. Last year we took one week off in March and then a day here-n-there throughout the year, plus holiday weeks. I'm thinking maybe 3 or 4 weeks off, soaking up the sun, taking a trip to Ohio and doing a long weekend at the beach. Ahhh, sounds so relaxing already.

Another new thing is the choice of curriculum that I'm using this year. I'm eclectic again, but I'm adding a ton of notebooking and living books, with a twist of charlotte mason and lapbooking.  Here's my complete list of curriculum choices and daily schedule.

Subjects	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri
Math:
Teaching Textbook 3	R	R	R	R	R
History:
Early American History	R	R	R	R	R
Science:
Apologia Astronomy		R		R
Spelling:
Spelling Wisdom	R	R	R	R	R
Vocabulary:
Wordly Wise 3000 Bk 3	R	R	R	R	R
Penmanship:
Handwriting Without Tears	R	R	R	R	R
Grammar:
Learning Language Arts Through Literature	R	R	R	R	R
Bible:
Rod & Staff Bk 2			R		R

In addition to the above table we are reading extra "living books" as we find time. I'm in the process of posting our American History curriculum on squidoo by topic. I also plan on blogging weekly on what we do daily. The Math curriculum isn't available for purchase until April, so we won't have that resource right away. It's such a good program that I don't mind waiting for it to come out. I'm nervous and yet so excited about this year. I've been homeschooling for 14 years and yet I have quivering butterflies like it's the first year all over again.
eChildblessedf