March 18, 2011

Math

Spelling

Mapping Skills - finding the North Star

Learning the inventions of ancient China - lots of neat stuff

Expedition Earth: China - adding the mini-book to the lapbook for this one.  Nearly done with China, just a few books to pick up from the library today to read over the weekend, and some plans for Chinese food for supper tomorrow :o)

March 16, 2011

One of A's tracing pages for today - she's a tracing addict.

 A little practice identifying shapes and colors, because she was feeling rather left out of doing school.

Today's spelling words

Without peeking - What is an antonym?  ;)

A bit of math - measuring, counting coins and adding were on the menu for today.

History - mummies and pyramids and pharoahs, oh my!

Expedition Earth: China

The flag of China

An add-on to the geography package is a brief study of animals from the country you're learning...
a mini book:

... and pictures and headings to learn some basic animal classifications.

 

Did you know that the pangolin is the only scaled mammal?

March 15, 2011

Math - adding up coin values

Phonics - review of starting blends...

Today's spelling words - learning the idea of adding "ed" and "es" to words, not to mention that bizarre "ight" sound.

Mapping Skills - reviewing the four compass directions

Expedition Earth:  Arts & Crafts as part of our China unit study - Chinese Paper Lanterns

This one is neat:  http://www.first-school.ws/theme/crafts/chinese-new-year/paper-lantern-dragon.htm

History - we read about ancient Egypt and learned a little bit about mythical gods, floodplains, and class systems. Just a little light reading for the morning.  LOL  We also hung up our history timeline where we'll be pasting pictures that go with the stories we're reading.    C has also been reading a Magic Treehouse book at night with Daddy - Day Of The Dragon-King.  Lots of history packed into a little novel; I'm thinking this is a set of books worth getting.

March 14, 2011

A has started a new book of ABC dot-to-dots and thinks it's great.

C's spelling words for today (yes, we worked together on nighttime):

Mapping Skills - following directions

Copywork

Expedition Earth: China

Making letters in Mandarin

Where is China in the world?

Finding some of the major landmarks in China:

Learning some basic facts about the country:

March 10, 2011

Pardon the cruddy pictures...  my SD card failed so I'm using the kids' camera until I get a new card later on... ask me how thrilled I was to NOT be able to take a real camera to the Watoto concert last night.  :o(

Math : Adding up coin values.  She does great with pennies, nickels and dimes but needs some coaching through how to add up quarters.  Although I suppose this is a rudimentary introduction to fractions, eh?

Phonics - This is seriously "easy peasy" work for her, but I'm seeing her through the book anyway because I want to make sure she doesn't have any holes in her phonics comprehension.

History.  No, I don't expect her to remember any of this particular chapter, we're just reading it and doing the worksheets together.  I think most people are in their 20s before they can remember things like Semites, Berbers, Egyptian, Indo-Europeans and keep them straight... if then... 

Beginning Map Skills

Geography: Today we got our passports for Expedition Earth, and ordered a slew of books from the library. On Monday we start with China.

In our Bible reading we're just finished with the building of the Tabernacle and the Israelites are journeying through the wilderness.  We're reading through the One Year Bible for Children ... it's pretty good as an introduction and study, but it's not a "real" Bible.  I like how it's broken down by date so you just turn to today's date and start reading wherever that is.

We're also reading one story each day out of Leading Little Ones to God: A Child's Book of Bible Teachings, which is a very nice book - simple stories with huge truths in them.

A collection of ideas for Lent...

Yesterday was Shrove Tuesday.  We did the pancakes but didn't really get into the spiritual side of the day.

Today is Ash Wednesday.  I've never actually marked this day, but I'm thinking that this afternoon we'll have a discussion about it and do a couple of activities.  I like these:

http://www.christiancrafters.com/lesson_LentCross.html

A little maze for kids about Jesus and the Way of the Cross
http://www.comingtofaith.com/pdf/grade1/4301-W_105.pdf



Then comes Lent... 40 days not counting Sundays... and I'm looking for some things to mark the season.

I like this calendar- a simple way for kids to mark the days and their own little sacrifices:
http://catechistsjourney.loyolapress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/40-crosses-english-2011.pdf

I saw a neat idea where you make butterflies and hide them in their cocoons until Easter morning
http://www.hhmi.org/coolscience/forkids/butterfly/

The Merciful Cross - gluing flowers to a large cross to mark acts of mercy
http://ponderedinmyheart.typepad.com/pondered_in_my_heart/2007/02/merciful_cross.html

Kind of the opposite... nailing our sins to the cross through the season of Lent and seeing them disappear on Easter morning.
http://www.domestic-church.com/CONTENT.DCC/20000301/FRIDGE/sincross.htm

This one is more for the family, with a focus on blessing each other.  I think this would be great in a family with lots of kids who maybe didn't always get along so well...
http://www.domestic-church.com/CONTENT.DCC/20000101/FRIDGE/blessing_eggs.htm

An Easter Tree for the 12 days leading up to Easter
http://www.domestic-church.com/CONTENT.DCC/19990301/FRIDGE/tree.htm

March 9, 2011

Math - this is the math book we are in this year:

Horizons Math K SET of 2 Student Workbooks K-1 and K-2

Copywork - this is the book we're using right now.  Nice, because it's a download that I can print again later.

http://www.currclick.com/product_info.php?cPath=866_1201&products_id=25939&it=1

Spelling words from today's story

History - A quick skim across the discovery of fire, copper, tin, the Bronze Age and the entry into the Iron Age.  Interesting, in that we learned that copper + tin = bronze.  

Geography - We're starting to learn the continents, and also learning about the parts of a map.  The application of the latter was that I had C draw a map of an imaginary place that included a title, a compass rose and labels on the things she drew in it.

Pancake Day!

 

(aka Shrove Tuesday... we had a little chat about the history of the day and why people made pancakes and what Lent is about, but it was pretty brief.  Mostly the fun was just centered around really yummy pancakes.)

  
Mama's a traditionalist, but the girls went a little crazy with sugar sprinkles and chocolate chips.  :-)

School Work today...

The life cycle of a butterfly

Reviewing the value of Canadian coins:

What is a Map?

Early Maps - Let's draw a map to show a friend where to find us

History - "People who lived in caves" -  I do want them to know these random bits of human history but I'm glossing over this stuff a bit.  In my opinion it's more important to learn the history of actual documented civilizations and cultures, and the human history recorded in the Bible, than it is to learn ideas and theories about what life might have been like at this or that point in pre-history.  That said, like most kids she found the idea of cave-dwellers rather interesting.

Our history book:   A Child's History of the World by Virgil M. Hillyer, and the companion workbook from Calvert School.