curiosity nourished

"Ee" practice

2009-09-29T15:14:00.000-07:00

Teach the name of the letter "Ee" (the capital and lowercase forms) and practice writing them both. Teach the short sound "e" as in "bet". Spend as many days as needed until you feel the child has mastered this letter.

Look for visual or auditory opportunities during the day to reinforce the concepts (ie... "we're eating eggs, "Ee" says "e" for eggs" and "can you point to any big "Ee's" or little "Ee's" in this storybook?")

Draw "Ee's" in sand, with finger paints, make them out of play dough. etc. Color pictures of animals or other objects that begin with the short sound of "Ee". Save your child's work to assemble as a book when the alphabet is finished.

Learning the Alphabet

2009-08-31T13:22:00.000-07:00

Our favorite resource for learning the alphabet has been Sing Read and Write. The songs on the dvd's are so cute and they come with pages to color as you listen. Play them during the day and in the car on trips and they'll pick up the alphabet in no time.Another one of our favorites for learning the alphabet is Muffin Match, a game included in Happy Phonics. In this set, you have to cut out and laminate the games yourself but the kids love this one. You could also make your own version of a capital/lowercase matching game.There are lots of ways to proceed, but usually as soon as the child can say the alphabet and recognize the upper and lowercase letters, it's time to learn the sounds. You could also teach the sound first and the name of the letter after so the sound/symbol association is stronger and more automatic. Some also think it's a good idea to learn how to write the letter at the same time the sound is learned. If the child is old enough, I think it is a great idea. Whatever your preference or order, just spend lots of time helping the child gain a good solid foundation of the alphabet that includes the names of the letters in order, their sounds, and how to write them.

More resources:

alphabet mazes
alphabet connect the dots
online alphabet games
abc order game
starfall abc's

"Aa" practice

2009-08-31T11:41:00.000-07:00

Teach the name of the letter "Aa" (the capital and lowercase forms) and practice writing them both. Teach the short sound "a" as in "cat". Spend as many days as needed until you feel the child has mastered this letter.

Look for visual or auditory opportunities during the day to reinforce the concepts (ie... "we're eating apples, "Aa" says "a" for apples" and "can you point to any big "Aa's" or little "Aa's" in this storybook?")

Draw "Aa's" in sand, with finger paints, make them out of play dough. etc. Color pictures of animals or other objects that begin with the short sound of "Aa". Save your child's work to assemble as a book when the alphabet is finished.

"ee" practice

2009-08-29T13:02:00.001-07:00

"ck" practice

2009-08-29T12:57:00.000-07:00

"ar" practice

2009-08-29T12:47:00.000-07:00

Story of the World- Ancient Times Matching Worksheet #3

2009-08-29T12:25:00.000-07:00

Answer Key for #3:
1c 2d 3g 4f 5i 6l 7b 8h 9e 10a 11k 12j

Story of the World- Ancient Times Matching Worksheet #2

2009-08-29T12:22:00.000-07:00

Answer Key for #2:
1f 2i 3e 4a 5j 6k 7b 8c 9g 10d 11h

Story of the World- Ancient Times Matching Worksheet #1

2009-08-25T23:36:00.000-07:00

Answer Key for #1:
1d 2a 3b 4l 5f 6j 7n 8g 9i 10h 11c 12m 13e 14k

It's About Time for an Update

2009-05-29T10:16:00.000-07:00

When I decided to do weekly progress reports... ya, that was a little over-ambitious for me, considering the current state of affairs at our house. I'm modifying that goal to MONTHLY reports. Here's our report for May:

Math

K: lesson 74 (Fraction of a Set)
J: lesson 121
I: lesson 36

Spelling

K: Spelling Workout C, page 46 (Y as a vowel- money, every, eye, shy)
J: Spelling Workout B, page 65 (Y as a vowel- only, by, why, many)
I: Spelling Workout A, page 87 (Long Vowel i)

Handwriting

K: page 40 of HWT's Cursive Success, (Tow Truck Connections)
J: page 65 (letter m)
I: page 52 (practicing sentence spacing)

Grammar

K: page 180 (Synonyms)
J: page 37 (finding nouns)

Reading

K: Wind in the Willows page 118, finished Fablehaven I, II, and III, finished Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith, A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, Book of Mormon Alma 38, Bible Deuteronomy 27
J: Blueberries for Sal, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, Book of Mormon 2nd Nephi 1, Book of Mormon Stories chapter 36 (Hagoth)
I: still passing off beginner readers, mastered phonograms "th", "ch", "sh"

Science

The kids have been helping with the garden but we haven't been doing the journal entries or plant drawings. I need to remember this.

History

We're still catching up on making sure we have all the activities done for lessons 1-17 before we move on. Need to work harder on this.

Cinco de Mayo Party

2009-05-10T22:12:00.001-07:00

A game of "duck duck goose" before the pinata

CANDY!

Looking for ducks at the pond.

Easter Egg Hunt

2009-04-10T08:25:00.000-07:00

Another fun activity day with the cousins!

Weekly Reports

2009-03-25T15:51:00.000-07:00

I'm setting a goal to start writing these reports as an extra incentive to get a lot done, as well as to keep a record of everyone's progress. K is 8, well 9 in a couple of weeks, (third grade), J is 7 (first grade), and I is 5 years old (kindergarten).

Math
K is working in Saxon 5/4 on lesson 62 (Multiplying Three or More Factors, Exponents)

J is on lesson 110 in the Saxon Math 1 workbook. She's working on illustrating story problems, grouping money, addition facts, telling time, and many other introductory skills.

I is on lesson 19 of Saxon Math 1. He's writing digits, counting, and practicing following instructions with basic shapes and colors.

Spelling
K is doing Spelling Workout C, Lesson 6. Most recent list words include: raise, street, know, only, people

J is in Spelling Workout B, Lesson 8 practicing long vowel i words such as nice, fire, behind, wide

I is doing Lesson 11 of Spelling Workout A with words like: pig, fun, jar, bag

Handwriting
K is on the last few pages of HWT's Cursive Handwriting. He has recently learned all the capital cursive letters.

J is also in HWT's Cursive Handwriting, learning the lowercase letter i on page 36.

I is doing HWT's My Printing Book and is on page 45 where he is practicing lowercase j.

Grammar
K is on page 123 of Voyages in English 1, Pronouns and Adjectives, Feeling words like excited, angry, happy

J and I are doing First Language Lessons together. We're on lesson 32, common and proper nouns (for people and living things)

Reading
K is on page 9 of Wind in the Willows for his fun reading and page 141 of Christopher Columbus and the Discovery of the New World for list reading. He's also reading the Bible for his first time (at Leviticus 26) and the Book of Mormon for the second time (Alma 27).

J is on Lesson 22 of Book of Mormon Stories (her dad agreed to let her get her ears pierced as soon as she finishes the entire thing). She's been writing down the words she doesn't know as we go along. She is also reading the Book of Mormon for her first time and she's on 1 Nephi 13.

I is on lesson 33 of The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. He has learned all the sounds of the vowels and consonants and is reading beginner books like the first and second set of Bob Books. He's doing extremely well and exceeding my expectations daily.

Science
This year we've been doing life science. We spent a few weeks on animals, then the human body, and now we're doing plants. The kids are helping me sprout seeds for our vegetable garden (which they will help take care of all summer). We're going to try to journal an experience about it (including drawing pictures) once a week.

History
We've been using The Story of the World Volume 1: Ancient Times. We're on Chapter 17, Babylon and Nebuchanezzar. My goal for this week is to go through all the past 16 lessons and make sure all the pictures/activities are there and get everything in order. I know there's some catching up to do before we move on. I want to turn their history papers into spiral bound books when we're done with this volume.

St. Patrick's Day Party

2009-03-16T18:37:00.001-07:00

St. Patty's trivia: It has been said the shamrock was used by Saint Patrick to teach the people of Ireland about the Trinity. He said one leaf represented God the Father, one Jesus Christ, and one the Holy Ghost.
Today we got together with some cousins and went on a treasure hunt of shamrock clues to find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Then we ate green eggs and ham and all sort of other green treats.Uncle J even offered pony rides to everyone! We had so much fun.

Winter Nature Study

2009-02-07T14:15:00.000-08:00

A nature study can be as simple or as in-depth as you wish to make it. Today, we just went outside and payed attention to the world around us. And it was fun; a much needed breath of fresh air for us all. I was assured that spring is definitely on it's way.

We were surprised to see so much green underneath the melting snow.
The kids just wanted to run around for a while!
The wonders of winter and the outdoors are still brand new to C.
H found twigs under the snow, and can you tell which picture was taken when she spotted a cat?

"This stuff is fascinating, I could play with it all day! Ouch... what is that? Why does it hurt so bad?"

Kool-aid Playdough

2008-12-30T12:32:00.000-08:00

1 cup flour, sifted
1/2 cup salt 1 pkg kool-aid (unsweetened)
3 Tbsp canola oil

stir together then add:

1 cup boiling water

Stir until combined, place in fridge to cool slightly, then knead with hands until soft and play on parchment. I let them each choose a color.
Today we had cherry, orange, lemon-lime, and berry blue. (Store airtight in the refrigerator for days and days of fruit-scented fun)

Ancient Egypt (Old Kingdom)

2008-11-05T17:17:00.000-08:00

History has been fun for me because I don't remember a lot of this stuff. I don't know if I never learned it or maybe I just forgot? King Narmer (Menes) united Upper (southern) and Lower (northern) Egypt. He took the red crown of Lower Egypt and placed it on top of his white crown to symbolize the union.
Egyptians carved hieroglyphs into stone until they learned how to make paper from papyrus. Unfortunately many of the papyrus records were not preserved as well as the stone records.They believed that their pharaohs were gods. They also believed in many other gods such as Ra (chief god of the sun) Osiris (god of the underworld) Isis, Horus, and Set. See the double crown on Horus? He represented the living pharaoh. The Ancient Egyptians are known for their skill in making mummies and pyramids. It took over 2 months to make a mummy. They used salt, spices, oil, and linen. The organs were placed in special canopic jars but the heart was left in the body (so Osiris could judge the person by weighing it). The mummies were buried with treasures and everything they would need in the afterlife.Pyramids were built by hand as enormous monuments and tombs for pharaohs. There were often secret passageways and empty rooms to fool potential grave robbers. Unfortunately, many tombs were plundered despite the designs.

Grasshopper and Cricket Science Page

2008-10-14T17:34:00.000-07:00

I have been meaning to post a picture of a science example. H picked "Grasshopper and Cricket" from the jar, so that is what we learned about today. The kids love insects and were even motivated to draw their own pictures all by themselves, so we combined art with science today. K drew and colored this grasshopper entirely on his own! I was so proud (he's been a little afraid to draw- thinking he can't do it good enough, but he was impressed with this one and has got some confidence now). They have to write about 2 sentences describing what they learned in their own words. This should make a cute little book someday.

Scripture Stories

2008-10-03T19:03:00.000-07:00

We are reading these scripture stories in our history study. This year history will cover the Ancients (5000 BC to 400 AD). We do narrations at least twice a week on what we read and color pictures that go along with each story. The idea behind studying history the classical way is to do it in the order that it happened, from ancient to modern, using as many original sources as possible. It should be about discovery and familiarizing oneself with prominent people and events from every culture so that when you go back and revisit the same stories in greater depth (every 4 years)- you have mental "pegs" already organized to attach the new information to. I think it's great that the Bible and Book of Mormon stories will be covered along with secular stories in the order that everything happened. I am going to learn a LOT this year right along with the children because my "mental pegs" are all jumbled up and incomplete.

American Dagger Moth Caterpillar

2008-10-02T19:21:00.000-07:00

This one is fun; yellow and fuzzy with long black lashes! We put it in a jar today with leaves and branches to see if we can watch it turn into a moth.

Life Science for the Grammar Stage

2008-10-02T19:16:00.000-07:00

After I finished reading The Well Trained Mind, we started doing science like this (we'll focus on life science all year):

20 weeks of animal kingdom. I bought the Kingfisher First Encyclopedia of Animals- I let the kids each browse it and pick some they wanted to learn about. I typed up the list of animals they chose with the page number, cut them into strips, and put them in a jar. They are taking turns picking one for each science lesson (we do science twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays). Then we read about the animal (and look at pictures, talk about it, read more, do an activity if we want) then they have to "narrate" back to me a couple of sentences about what they learned. K writes these down (J traces my writing of her own narration) and we put them in their science folder along with a picture of the animal they get to color. I just colors the pictures for now but will start tracing soon.

10 weeks of human body. We'll use the Kingfisher First Human Body Encyclopedia and basically do the same thing we did with the animal study.

6 weeks of plant kingdom. We'll use Green Thumbs.

The basic idea for early science is that you are exploring and discovering the world and creating mental "pegs" to attach future information to. I love this idea and so far the kids are having so much fun with it. I'll try to post some examples of their work here soon.

Some Projects Need No Guidance

2008-09-30T19:24:00.000-07:00

Here's what I found the kiddos doing during our lunch break today. They are trying to make a bird nest like the ones they found. What a great science project, and I didn't even have to plan it.

Cozy Reading Spots

2008-09-25T19:28:00.000-07:00

Here's just a couple of the places I've found him reading. It makes me laugh but I remember so well as a child wanting to find unique places of my own :)

Edible Fingerpainting

2008-09-23T19:31:00.000-07:00

This is a fun way to combine art and snack time! Edible finger paints made with nothing more than instant vanilla pudding and food coloring. I didn't have white paper plates like I would have preferred, but I used clear plastic plates with a white paper underneath so they could see what they were doing. They drew pictures, wrote their names, and mixed colors to see the results (red and green make a good brown).

They really loved this and it was easy to clean up and start over.

In fact, that was one of the funnest parts, I think.

Leaf Rubbings

2008-09-18T19:33:00.000-07:00

Crayons, paper, and leaves. Place a leaf under the paper and lightly (and evenly) color over it with a crayon. Beautiful! This could be a fun fall project. We'll have to revisit this idea

She's Making Breakfast

2008-09-16T18:25:00.000-07:00

H did ALL the mixing this morning for breakfast. We made zucchini muffins. I brought her each ingredient and she kept on mixing. I thought I was going to have to help her out but she did great and it saved me some time. I need to remember to get her involved with the cooking and cleaning more often. There are so many things she can do to help (even better... she thinks it's playing!)

Katydid (Tettigoniidae)

2008-09-14T18:29:00.000-07:00

J found this cute little Katydid at Grandma's house. She kept telling me how "sticky" it's feet were. Did you know some other names for Katydid are "Long Horned Meadow Grasshopper" and "Bush Cricket"? The name Katydid comes from the sound made by the male: "katy did, katy didn't".

Well Trained Mind

2008-09-08T18:29:00.000-07:00

I bought this book (The Well Trained Mind) over the weekend and really like the ideas so far. It seems to follow the ideas we are striving for so I think I'm going to be changing things up to follow the classical model more closely.

Odonata (Dragonfly)

2008-08-27T18:32:00.000-07:00

I was proud of this find a couple of nights ago as he was taking the dog out. We're not sure of the exact species.

The "Battle Strategy" of Borrowing

2008-08-26T18:35:00.000-07:00

Here is K explaining to me this morning how he likes to figure out borrowing problems. It cracked me up because it fits his style so well. Here's how he talked me through it:

The "good guys" are on the top row and they're battling the "bad guys" on the bottom row. Starting with the right column, 5 good guys battle with 3 bad guys and there are 2 soldiers left over. Next column, uh-oh, not enough good guys to win so we have to go to the "general" (next column over) and ask for reinforcements. He always sends 10 troops at a time so now we have 10 good battling 5 bad... you get the idea. Whatever works, huh?

Checklist

2008-08-26T18:34:00.000-07:00

I like to have some way of keeping track of what has been (and needs to be) done every day. I really like this checklist from Donna Young. It saves as an Excel spreadsheet so you can change it up as needed. I use it to keep track of the basics: math, vocabulary, phonics practice, reading, journal writing, handwriting, copywork, and even chores for each child. We "officially" started school this week so here's what K's checklist looks like so far:

He didn't finish all of his vocabulary words yesterday (so he's got to do it today) and he still needs to do his chore. This is great for accountability and record keeping. If you need to take a day or two off, just mark it that way and you can make up for it later. Easy!

*Also, the kids know that if all their tasks are not checked off for the day there is no playing with friends, watching TV, video games, etc. This makes it very clear (now the hard part is enforcing it consistently).

File Folders

2008-08-19T18:37:00.000-07:00

These are great fun for visual and hands-on learning. There are so many for all different skill levels and subjects. I purchased a book to make the ones shown above...But there are also many available to print on the internet:

My File Folder Games

Crafty Chic: File Folder Games

File Folder Heaven

Beginner Journal

2008-08-19T18:36:00.000-07:00

I like to teach writing as soon as I start teaching phonics for a couple of reasons. One, I think it helps reinforce the learning process (seeing a letter, saying it's sound, and writing it) while giving the child practice holding a pencil and learning to control and use the muscles in the hands and fingers. Another benefit is he can begin to understand the process of transforming his thoughts into words on a paper. So what I do is ask the child to draw a picture of something he wants to write about. Next I ask him to tell me about it (what is happening, what is this person doing, etc). I use a yellow highlighter to write down his words and then he traces over them with his pencil. Usually one or two sentences is plenty. This should be fun so don't make it a drag by worrying about how much gets done! (I am reminding myself here)

The Cat Needs a Lesson

2008-08-18T18:40:00.001-07:00

We have this cat who's sort of a recluse. She hides away in the basement because she's afraid of our dog. If she'd quit running away from the little dog, she'd realize the dog is harmless, but the cat is too afraid. She won't even go outside if she hears the dog barking; what a boring life she has!

This morning at breakfast K said, "Our cat needs to read The Lobster and the Crab. She needs to learn that taking small risks can make life exciting." I asked him what book he was talking about because it sure sounded like it applied. He went into his room and brought out Fables (another Arnold Lobel favorite) and read it to us.We all had a good laugh comparing our cat to the crab in the story. We LOVE this book. It has 20 funny little stories, each with a moral at the end. It is surprising how well the kids remember the little morals. Some of K's favorites are:

The Elephant and His Son (Knowledge will not always take the place of simple observation)

The Hippopotamus at Dinner (Too much of anything often leaves one with a feeling of regret)

The Bad Kangaroo (A child's conduct will reflect the ways of his parents)

The Poor Old Dog (Wishes, on their way to coming true, will not be rushed)

Felt Activities

2008-08-18T18:40:00.000-07:00

I have a whole bunch of these that the kids love to do. Sometimes we take them to church (they're quieter than the file folder games which have velcro) and they keep the younger children busy during school time. The ones pictured above are from the Bug Book from Story Time. I sewed a cloth zippered pencil pouch onto each one to hold the pieces.

Bob Books

2008-08-18T18:38:00.000-07:00

So far I've only purchased Set 1 (12 books) and I think they're adorable. I love the drawings. I'm not sure you can have too many beginner books. They offer lots of practice and confidence building for new readers. I have some others from Hooked on Phonics and the Calvert Kindergarten set (which I thought was way too expensive, but nice stuff, especially the cute, full- color math workbooks). Here's an example from the first book and the last book in the set:

As an incentive, I usually offer a prize for finishing a set of beginner books and this seems to get them excited about reading at a critical time. I'd like to buy the Starfall beginner readers as well because I'm impressed with their website. Like I said, can't have too many.

Speckled Rabbit Egg?

2008-08-15T18:42:00.000-07:00

Keb found this abandoned egg outside today inside an old shed. Ike is trying to figure out what could be inside. A baby rabbit he wonders? (We see lots of wild cottontails around here). It was the perfect opportunity to explain that mammals don't lay eggs. Well, except, of course, the platypus and one other creature called an echidna (a type of spiky anteater). When Keb heard about the platypus he got really excited because he thought they were only make-believe!

Owl At Home

2008-08-14T19:12:00.000-07:00

Can you see it? This morning Bug came running frantically into the house yelling "it's looking right at us Mom, it's creepy! Come see!" I don't know how they even managed to notice this owl high up in one of our old pine trees. It took me a few minutes of looking before I could spot it. This isn't a very good picture of it because I don't have the right kind of lens for a close-up that far away. But they were right, it is definitely an owl! It reminded Keb of one of his favorite books "Owl at Home". We are trying to collect all of Arnold Lobel's books. The kids just laugh out loud every time we read them- his sense of humor is so innocent and timeless.

8/20/08

Here's a much better photo of our new friend:

He's trying to sleep and we keep bugging him! There's something about an owl's eyes that is so cool, especially when it looks right at you.