Project Fair 2013

Time for the project fair at our homeschool co-op.   I love these things and then I love when they are over!

Agent H's project focused on the life of a Civil War soldier.  He is such a history lover and he just reads and reads and gushes everything he has learned.  I think he gets it from EH's dad. :)






Notice the Lego soldiers with horse and cart (teeny tiny on the table there)?  Everything in life is better with Legos.  We made some hard tack to serve and put out a sign warning about possible broken teeth if they chewed it.  It's supposed to be good for something like five years!

Agent E made a book about eco-systems as we read through his science curriculum.  He wrote the book as if he and Agent H were traveling and so there are lots of great pictures of him running away from a volcano erruption, his brother pulling him out of quicksand, having tea and toast in the desert.  

I am so proud of their hard work!

2012-13 Curriculum

Okay . . . here goes another year of this adventure called home education (and a boring text only post - I'm so out of the blogging sadle)!  This year we'll have a 4th grader (Agent H), a first grader (Agent E), a preschooler (The General), and Shortcake who will again be along for the ride with a few tot activities.

I searched the web for reviews on the curriculum we're using this year and couldn't find any first-hand users.  I was so intrigued by it I went out on a limb and bought it anyway.  The name of the company is Living Books Curriculum.  It's a Charlotte Mason based curriculum.

4th Grade
Bible: The Story of God for Kids, recommended by Living Books Curriculum

History: The Story of the Ancient World from Living Books Curriculum.  We are starting with the grade one simply because that puts us at the beginning of World history.  I will be supplementing his study with independent reading.  Our first independent read is Adam and His Kin by Ruth Beechick.  We'll also use this book for narration.

Science: Answers in Genesis, God's Design for Heaven & Earth and weekly nature studies

Dictation (in leu of a spelling program): We'll be using Agent H's AWANA handbook

Math: This will be our first year using Horizons

Read Aloud: The Snow Treasure, some of the books from The Chronicles of Narnia

Extras: As listed below under first grade

1st Grade: Living Books Curriculum, Grade One

Bible: The Story of God for Kids, recommended by Living Books Curriculum

History: The Story of the Ancient World from Living Books Curriculum (LB Curriculum), grade one of course.  I've been pre-reading this and I LOVE it!
AND
American History, here is the list of books.
Geography:  See the books here.

Science: An assortment of living books that study life, earth, heath and physical science. See here for a list of the books.

Reading: We are using Hooked on Phonics.  The LB Curriculum does include a program but we're just going to stick with what has been working for us.

The LB Curriculum also includes poetry, art, and music appreciation, the same read alouds I listed for Agent H above plus a few others.

Penmanship: This is new grounds for us as well.  We have used Handwriting without Tears in the past but we're switching to the LB Curriculum recommended Italics program.

Math: Horizons

Storytelling (narration): Aesop's Fables

Nature Study: Weekly nature walks with the Handbook of Nature Study in hand.


Preschool
The General and I will be doing mix of LetteroftheWeek.com, Little Hands to Heaven by Heart of Dakota, and Totally Tot's ABC program.

This was our first week of school.  Yes I know everyone gasps at our early start but we really needed to start.  There is a certain amount of peace that the school schedule brings and we have been out since May so we've had quite a nice break already.

I'm going to try Charlotte Mason's recommendation to keep lessons to 15 minutes.  After just one week of school our experience has been that we are able to complete our lessons in the morning - a big change from last year.  But I admit that we have just one week done for this school year and time will tell if that lasts.

Happy studies!

Our wormery

Today we took advantage of the rain and scooped up some worms and made a wormery. I followed the instructions at Hillbilly Jillies. I think I see some fishing in our future. (That is if Agent H doesn't get too attached.)

It started out as a simple "panning for gold" activity as we talk about the CA gold rush in history.

It became a goggle-wearing, head-dunking, swim suit-wearing, surf board move contest kind of morning. I think all these grey days and rain are going to their heads. :)

The boys in their glory . . . .

Window + Markers = Chalkboard

We've been doing more school at the kitchen table than down at the desks lately. I was in need of a chalkboard one day and using the Crayola window markers on the patio door worked well. Agent H ended up doing his copywork on it too.

Note: The markers left smears all over the windows when wiped up with regular cloths. When wiped up with my Norwex cloths my windows sparkled. Dry erase markers work in place of window markers.

Spinning

When you're studying how thread/cloth is made it sure is handy to have an auntie who has a spinning wheel and will travel.

We

love

you

Auntie!

Pagoo

I was looking for a book to read to the boys when I remembered that there was a recommended reading list in the back of our Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory (Agent H's 1st grade curriculum). I ordered two books from our library.

The boys were gifted a couple of hermit crabs recently so in honor of them, we chose to read Pagoo by Holling Clancy Holling. I believe this book was first published in 1957, it's a gem of a book. Beautiful illustrations and words that tantalize your reading senses as this little pagurus finds his way in the big ocean and around the tide pool.

There are a lot of scientific words in this book (most with a phonetical spelling so you know how to pronounce it - thank you very much!) The sentences were big and I don't know that Agent H understood 1/3rd of it but he sat spell bound by the beauty of the words and the adventures of Pagoo. Agent E was fidgity as we read but he also would clamor for "One more chapter please?" There were probably two or three occasions where I rewrote as I read in regards to the age of our Earth.

In my naturalist's wanna-be opinion, this book was naturalist's dream story book. I feel a bit wiser and more well rounded for having read it. I love books that way!

The second book I reserved is The 21 Balloons by William Pene du Bois. We're about to start that adventure this afternoon.

Agent H Stitching

Agent H has been watching me stitch LE Babe's baby blanket and got up the nerve to ask "Mom, can boys stitch?" You bet! I gave him some muslin, a hoop, a threaded needle and he went to work stitching his initials. It made a nice workbox filler.

Ant Math

Our Heart of Dakota curriculum often has a visual activity to supplement the Singapore math. In this activity we drew ant tunnels and used our ants (raisins) to do addition/subtraction stories. The first photo is what I did and the second photo is because Agent H loved it so much he created his own version. To add to the fun we played some Ant Wars.

The first month of Acorns to Oaks

Placing the continents (index cards) on our earth (I heart blue tape)

Ebug engrossed in a book

Music exploration with the Boomwhackers









Ebug diving right into the sea activity bin (idea came from Pink and Green Mama)

Doesn't everyone practice their letter blends upside down?

Letter blends for K/1st grade

I'm pretty sure Agent H is going to break out in hives if he sees his letter blend flash cards in his workbox again. Agent Mama steps in with a stealthy move from Currclick (I could break out in hives of joy over this place). I took a look at some recent games I had downloaded from them and found the perfect letter blending activity for the boy who is trying to convince me that I should go to space with him someday. The game is called Blends Blast Off and it is moving your game piece along the game board to the bear in the rocket at the end. As you go you are matching a picture to the letter blend that is starts with. Will I be "busted" trying to sneak this past Agent H? Monday will tell.

UPDATE: After two days of the game, Agent H loves it, loves it, loves it!