How is it that I did not so great in math, and hated math with a passion for a good bit of school, yet my older son LOVES math, anything related to math, and is doing SO awesomely in it so far?
Last week, at the beginning of the week we were on lesson 10.
Now, after a few days of not doing any math in the last two weeks (letting things sink in and allowing him to continue practice and exploring with the manipulatives) We are on lesson 20! There's only 10 lessons to go in Primer!
This may be because Primer is meant as an introduction, and Alpha is where he'll have to start memorizing things, but he is FLYING through it. Once he seems to understand a topic, we do a couple of teh worksheets and then go to the next lesson. Math is only during Thing 2's naptimes because Thing 2 thinks that the blocks are potentially delicious, so any time we can move on to the next lesson we do because we never know when math time will be cut short by the little one.
Also, how is it that my little baby is now hitting 8 months old?! Thing 1 is rapidly approaching 6, and Thing 2 is rapidly approaching 1 and I just can't stand it :(
Friday, April 30, 2010
Monday, April 19, 2010
Box 12
In the First Day! post I mentioned the perpetual box 12. It is Thing 1's chore folder.
I have a bunch of the library pockets that I ordered, as well as tagboard, so I made a lapbook style folder for his chores. On the front it has his name and Chore Folder, as well a note that it is to be kept in box #12. I wrote his chores down on index cards, and when he completes them, he moves them from the Note Done pocket to teh Done pocket.
Very very simple, but he enjoys it and so enjoys his chores now too. He loves being able to move things from one folder to another.
His chores are:
Make Bed
Clean Playroom
Put Books Away
Feed Impa
Put Silverware Away (from the dishwasher... he can't reach any of the cabinets where the other dishes go)
Clean Bedroom
Read (Thing 2) a Book
As we get better settled in the house and he gets older we'll be adding things, and may also have to split into two separate folders for morning and afternoon chores.
I have a bunch of the library pockets that I ordered, as well as tagboard, so I made a lapbook style folder for his chores. On the front it has his name and Chore Folder, as well a note that it is to be kept in box #12. I wrote his chores down on index cards, and when he completes them, he moves them from the Note Done pocket to teh Done pocket.
Very very simple, but he enjoys it and so enjoys his chores now too. He loves being able to move things from one folder to another.
His chores are:
Make Bed
Clean Playroom
Put Books Away
Feed Impa
Put Silverware Away (from the dishwasher... he can't reach any of the cabinets where the other dishes go)
Clean Bedroom
Read (Thing 2) a Book
As we get better settled in the house and he gets older we'll be adding things, and may also have to split into two separate folders for morning and afternoon chores.
First day!
We are moved in now for the most part, and enjoying our new home. Today was our first day of school in the new house, and Thing 1 thoroughly enjoyed himself.
He practiced writing our new address, his full name and the letter A. I used some of our primary lined paper, write what I wanted him to practice, and laminated the pages, so we can do this many many times without wasting paper. YAY!
He finished lesson 9 in Math-U-See Primer (he actually got a head start the other day and we did the first few lessons because he was begging me to be allowed to do some math stuff). Tomorrow he may either be building numbers using his hundred board and Decimal Street and blocks, or we'll move on to lesson 10. I haven't entirely decided yet. Maybe we'll do both ;)
Since our handwriting letter for the week is A, he learned the ASL sign for the letter A as well.
He played with the pattern blocks and did the first activity from the Pattern Blocks for Primary Grades notebook that I have. He also made a little person with them.
And last but not least, we discussed our plans to go to a big park on Thursday. He then watched the garbage episode of Bill Nye the Science Guy and we discussed trash and things like why we don't use paper plates and why Thing 2 is cloth diapered ♥ (I happen to have some disposables in the house because they were given to us "just in case" and as soon as I picked one up, Thing 1 said that they are gross LOL) And he wants to pick up trash at the park Thursday, so we will be taking bags with us.
All that is left is the perpetual box 12, which I will talk about in a separate post ♥
He practiced writing our new address, his full name and the letter A. I used some of our primary lined paper, write what I wanted him to practice, and laminated the pages, so we can do this many many times without wasting paper. YAY!
He finished lesson 9 in Math-U-See Primer (he actually got a head start the other day and we did the first few lessons because he was begging me to be allowed to do some math stuff). Tomorrow he may either be building numbers using his hundred board and Decimal Street and blocks, or we'll move on to lesson 10. I haven't entirely decided yet. Maybe we'll do both ;)
Since our handwriting letter for the week is A, he learned the ASL sign for the letter A as well.
He played with the pattern blocks and did the first activity from the Pattern Blocks for Primary Grades notebook that I have. He also made a little person with them.
And last but not least, we discussed our plans to go to a big park on Thursday. He then watched the garbage episode of Bill Nye the Science Guy and we discussed trash and things like why we don't use paper plates and why Thing 2 is cloth diapered ♥ (I happen to have some disposables in the house because they were given to us "just in case" and as soon as I picked one up, Thing 1 said that they are gross LOL) And he wants to pick up trash at the park Thursday, so we will be taking bags with us.
All that is left is the perpetual box 12, which I will talk about in a separate post ♥
Monday, March 29, 2010
Mysterious Ways
So we still haven't moved yet. We had a couple things go horribly wrong with the closing, and it went insane.
Last week, we ended up going and looking at different houses. We found one that has ended up being the same price, but a little smaller.
HOWEVER, it doesn't require any work to make it presentable. It has all new carpets and all of the walls are teh same color (the other house you could tell someone had TRIED to paint, but done a REALLY bad job, and in a few places didn't even go all the way up the wall... so the stairwell had three different shades of off white). There is also a fireplace in this one, and a couple of rather large mirrors in the largest room downstairs. The yard is a lot smaller, but the back yard is already fenced in, so that is less work for us as well. This place went on the market literally right as the other one was falling through. So some mysterious ways have been worked, and even our realtor feels like this was meant to be.
We are supposed to close later this week (in 2 days to be exact) and then will start the whirlwind of activity to get everything moved and get this apartment cleaned before the 10th of April.
In other news, Link and I celebrated our second anniversary yesterday! We didn't do much, instead choosing to relax.
(And Thing 1 has just informed me he wants a baby chicken...)
Last week, we ended up going and looking at different houses. We found one that has ended up being the same price, but a little smaller.
HOWEVER, it doesn't require any work to make it presentable. It has all new carpets and all of the walls are teh same color (the other house you could tell someone had TRIED to paint, but done a REALLY bad job, and in a few places didn't even go all the way up the wall... so the stairwell had three different shades of off white). There is also a fireplace in this one, and a couple of rather large mirrors in the largest room downstairs. The yard is a lot smaller, but the back yard is already fenced in, so that is less work for us as well. This place went on the market literally right as the other one was falling through. So some mysterious ways have been worked, and even our realtor feels like this was meant to be.
We are supposed to close later this week (in 2 days to be exact) and then will start the whirlwind of activity to get everything moved and get this apartment cleaned before the 10th of April.
In other news, Link and I celebrated our second anniversary yesterday! We didn't do much, instead choosing to relax.
(And Thing 1 has just informed me he wants a baby chicken...)
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Wow!
create your own personalized map of the USA
or check out ourCalifornia travel guide
I have seen this type of map around a lot lately, and finally got around to making one of my own. These are all states that I have personally set foot in, although most of them were while in the process of moves growing up. I Was born in Virginia, but have lived in both Carolinas, California, Arizona and Maine. All but Maine were before graduating high school and were more like VA, SC, NC, CA, SC, CA, VA, AZ.... then back to VA, to ME and now VA again.
I have family and friends scattered all over though. It's just amazing at how many states I have set foot in while on those moves... (54%!)
Monday, March 8, 2010
Tick Tock
Time is moving right along while we get ready for this move. And with this move comes settling in in a new place and then starting to more diligently do SCHOOL!
I've started creating a basic plan on what we'll do when, especially since I am slowly adding more subjects as we go along. By the winter "term" we should be done adding things finally.
So for Thing 1's kindergarten prep and year I have chosen the following:
~Math-U-See, Primer and Alpha
~Lesson Pathways lessons plans for Science introduction and Social Studies introduction
~Astronomy study later on, this is what he WANTS to study, so we'll do a LARGE unit on it
~US Geography/states study
~Edcon Literature worktexts level 1
~Wordly Wise 3000 Second Edition, Level K
~Hooked on French (this is on the computer, and looks like lots of fun for a basic intro to foreign languages)
~Sign Language cards for learning a few signs (probably just once a week to begin with this year)
~Many many types of manipulatives, including pentominos, tangrams, pattern blocks, linking cubes, cuisineaire rods, opaque counters, colored wooden cubes, a geoboard
~Free-reading
~Handwriting practice, using the ream of handwriting paper I got, not workbooks
~Writing letters and such to family
~Drawing both on paper and on the computer
~Introductory typing (he uses the computer, and I want to try and steer him away from bad habits as much as possible)
~Playing with his brother and the dog and me and Link and a group of local homeschool kids
If at any point he seems overwhelmed (keep in mind that many of these are only once a week!) I can always back off some on most of this. The joy of being able to work at HIS pace, not someone else's.
I've started creating a basic plan on what we'll do when, especially since I am slowly adding more subjects as we go along. By the winter "term" we should be done adding things finally.
So for Thing 1's kindergarten prep and year I have chosen the following:
~Math-U-See, Primer and Alpha
~Lesson Pathways lessons plans for Science introduction and Social Studies introduction
~Astronomy study later on, this is what he WANTS to study, so we'll do a LARGE unit on it
~US Geography/states study
~Edcon Literature worktexts level 1
~Wordly Wise 3000 Second Edition, Level K
~Hooked on French (this is on the computer, and looks like lots of fun for a basic intro to foreign languages)
~Sign Language cards for learning a few signs (probably just once a week to begin with this year)
~Many many types of manipulatives, including pentominos, tangrams, pattern blocks, linking cubes, cuisineaire rods, opaque counters, colored wooden cubes, a geoboard
~Free-reading
~Handwriting practice, using the ream of handwriting paper I got, not workbooks
~Writing letters and such to family
~Drawing both on paper and on the computer
~Introductory typing (he uses the computer, and I want to try and steer him away from bad habits as much as possible)
~Playing with his brother and the dog and me and Link and a group of local homeschool kids
If at any point he seems overwhelmed (keep in mind that many of these are only once a week!) I can always back off some on most of this. The joy of being able to work at HIS pace, not someone else's.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Box Day #2!
I got (most of) the rest of my stuff I ordered today! This was the box from Rainbow Resource. I am missing the student book for the Wordly Wise, but I just got the tracking number for it in my email. Woohoo!
Can you tell I have a love of manipulatives?
Can you tell I have a love of manipulatives?
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Box Day #1!!
Our Math-U-See stuff has arrived. I already switched the blocks from their cardboard box to another box (which I think originally had makeup in it)
We have Primer, Alpha, the starter set of blocks (you can't see all of them in the picture, but they're there) and the skip counting CD.
In a couple days my order from Rainbow Resource should be here, and then I'll have everything from this round of ordering :) (I forgot to order something, so have to convince Link to let me order it) (Don't mind the other stuff in the box, that's the stuff I bought at Borders a couple weeks ago)
We have Primer, Alpha, the starter set of blocks (you can't see all of them in the picture, but they're there) and the skip counting CD.
In a couple days my order from Rainbow Resource should be here, and then I'll have everything from this round of ordering :) (I forgot to order something, so have to convince Link to let me order it) (Don't mind the other stuff in the box, that's the stuff I bought at Borders a couple weeks ago)
Monday, February 22, 2010
Totally Non-Observant!
I just realized a little bit ago (before the realization about the lapbook, honestly) that one of the ladies from the There's No Place Like Home forum that I have been frequenting most recently has commented on a number of my blog posts from BEFORE I knew ther ewas a comment issue. I had no idea anyone had gone BACK and commented on the older posts. Thanks Jenn~!
And thanks to anyone who comments (like Heather whose comment about the GM lapbook reminded me I hadn't posted it)
Apparently the comments hold me more accountable than I hold myself. OOOPS!
Hey look, baby picture! And Impa-Puppy and my foot apparently. This was just taken a couple days ago ♥ (And I really wish Blogger would quit being weird and let me put text AFTER my pictures!)
And thanks to anyone who comments (like Heather whose comment about the GM lapbook reminded me I hadn't posted it)
Apparently the comments hold me more accountable than I hold myself. OOOPS!
Hey look, baby picture! And Impa-Puppy and my foot apparently. This was just taken a couple days ago ♥ (And I really wish Blogger would quit being weird and let me put text AFTER my pictures!)
How did I forget?!
I apparently at some poitn along the way forgot that I hadn't posted Thing 1's Goodnight Moon lapbook pictures.
I am horrible with the slacking thing! Back, inside and then the underneath of the flappy part on the right inner section. Because that TOTALLY made sense as a description. The things in this one are a lot more spaced out because there were a lot of bigger things, and I have only ever been involved in the making of one other lapbook, y'know? He seems to REALLY enjoy making these at least :)
I am horrible with the slacking thing! Back, inside and then the underneath of the flappy part on the right inner section. Because that TOTALLY made sense as a description. The things in this one are a lot more spaced out because there were a lot of bigger things, and I have only ever been involved in the making of one other lapbook, y'know? He seems to REALLY enjoy making these at least :)
Busy Busy Busy!
I'm still alive! All of us are, in fact.
We're just REALLY busy right now. And probably will be for about a month or so if everything goes well.
Why?
We're working on buying a house. If we succeed (which it is looking extremely likely since all that is left is to actually secure the loan and the closing), then we will be working on moving and going through things and figuring out what in the WORLD to do with all of the space we'll have. (Currently in a small two bedroom apartment, looking at moving into a 4 bedroom, two story townhouse)
Since I have a camera now, and have figured out many of its workings (although not all, of course) I have no excuse to not have pictures when I return for a more regular basis. Which will happen! I am expecting in the next week ro so to recieve all of our curriculum stuff (box days! yay!) and so when we get settled we will be able to more seriously get into our schooling.
Here is a recent Thing 1 and 2 (and Impa-Puppy) picture though that just melts my heart:
We're just REALLY busy right now. And probably will be for about a month or so if everything goes well.
Why?
We're working on buying a house. If we succeed (which it is looking extremely likely since all that is left is to actually secure the loan and the closing), then we will be working on moving and going through things and figuring out what in the WORLD to do with all of the space we'll have. (Currently in a small two bedroom apartment, looking at moving into a 4 bedroom, two story townhouse)
Since I have a camera now, and have figured out many of its workings (although not all, of course) I have no excuse to not have pictures when I return for a more regular basis. Which will happen! I am expecting in the next week ro so to recieve all of our curriculum stuff (box days! yay!) and so when we get settled we will be able to more seriously get into our schooling.
Here is a recent Thing 1 and 2 (and Impa-Puppy) picture though that just melts my heart:
Monday, February 8, 2010
New Toys!
Link and I decided with our tax return this year, besides putting money toward a down payment for a house (yay?) we would treat ourselves to new computers. They are QUITE nice, and definitely a LOT faster than the old ones (although my husband refuses to use any computer straight out of a box, and so has already modified his)
Another thing I got is a camera! I now no longer have to wait until Link is home to take pictures :) I am still working on figuring this thing out, but here are a couple pictures I just took a few minutes ago to see the difference with and without flash on the Auto setting.
Another thing I got is a camera! I now no longer have to wait until Link is home to take pictures :) I am still working on figuring this thing out, but here are a couple pictures I just took a few minutes ago to see the difference with and without flash on the Auto setting.
This is WITH Flash, and yes, Thing 2 IS sleeping like that...
This is WITHOUT Flash, and I think looks a little better in this case.
Much playing to be done with the camera! And with the new computer playing with the pictures from the new camera.
Oh yes, this will be lots of fun, indeed.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Why Yes, I AM Still Alive
I am in desperate need of a proper camera. Using Link's phone is really hard to do when he's not always home. (Job kinda keeps him away 40+ hours a week... BAH!) I have found one I like though. Now it's just a matter of getting the tax return and buying it. Along with a new computer, Thing 1's curriculum for this year or so, and more diapers (with my sewing machine being difficult I can't MAKE them since Thing 2 is already outgrowing the current ones).
And hopefully another wrap if I love Mojito as much as I think I will. Because I can never have too many wraps (and I don't always wear green, so having a color besides green might be a good idea)
New hobby lately? Crochet. And not just blankets. In fact, I have yet to make a single blanket. I make HATS. So far I have made 8 hats. Three belong to Thing 2, 2 have other homes, and 3 are being set aside for collecting as stock so I can hopefully open my own store at some point. No two hats are alike, because I keep finding more patterns that I like to try and use. One hat was originally going to be one of those baby sleep-sack things and I got bored at about hat length and decided to make it a hat instead. I can whip out most of them in less than two hours, although the one I am currently working on is kicking my behind. I keep stopping every other row because the next little section sucks to do and I dread it during the two rows. But it is going well! So once I finish using all of the yarn I currently have (which is a lot, Michael's had a sale on a lot of their yarn, so I bought a lot of yarn) I should have at LEAST like 12 more hats. Which will probably all be with different patterns. I will have to post pictures once I get the collection built up a bit more. (I even bought pink yarn so I would quit trying to claim hats for Thing 2 lol)
We had snow today! Which Link and Thing 1 enjoyed playing in. As well as the puppy, although she is a chicken and at times would go sit in the overhang area and just shiver because she is not well equipped for dealing with the cold. Thing 2 and I made a couple appearances outside, but mostly just hung out inside. I made beef, potato and corn stew for dinner. Well, more like soup. Whatever. It was good.
Thing 1 completed another lapbook, this time on Goodnight Moon. I have not taken any pictures of it yet, although I definitely NEED to. I have, however, taken to putting the month and year on the front of the lapbooks. That way I can see the progression in things like his handwriting.
All in all, it's been busy busy busy around here :)
And hopefully another wrap if I love Mojito as much as I think I will. Because I can never have too many wraps (and I don't always wear green, so having a color besides green might be a good idea)
New hobby lately? Crochet. And not just blankets. In fact, I have yet to make a single blanket. I make HATS. So far I have made 8 hats. Three belong to Thing 2, 2 have other homes, and 3 are being set aside for collecting as stock so I can hopefully open my own store at some point. No two hats are alike, because I keep finding more patterns that I like to try and use. One hat was originally going to be one of those baby sleep-sack things and I got bored at about hat length and decided to make it a hat instead. I can whip out most of them in less than two hours, although the one I am currently working on is kicking my behind. I keep stopping every other row because the next little section sucks to do and I dread it during the two rows. But it is going well! So once I finish using all of the yarn I currently have (which is a lot, Michael's had a sale on a lot of their yarn, so I bought a lot of yarn) I should have at LEAST like 12 more hats. Which will probably all be with different patterns. I will have to post pictures once I get the collection built up a bit more. (I even bought pink yarn so I would quit trying to claim hats for Thing 2 lol)
We had snow today! Which Link and Thing 1 enjoyed playing in. As well as the puppy, although she is a chicken and at times would go sit in the overhang area and just shiver because she is not well equipped for dealing with the cold. Thing 2 and I made a couple appearances outside, but mostly just hung out inside. I made beef, potato and corn stew for dinner. Well, more like soup. Whatever. It was good.
Thing 1 completed another lapbook, this time on Goodnight Moon. I have not taken any pictures of it yet, although I definitely NEED to. I have, however, taken to putting the month and year on the front of the lapbooks. That way I can see the progression in things like his handwriting.
All in all, it's been busy busy busy around here :)
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Weird...
So after some issues being brought to my attention regarding the inability to leave comments on my blog posts, I changed my blog's update thing to the new one.
It looks just the same as the old, only a couple little buttons are different. If that is seriously what was causing the problem, that's just dumb.
Just saying...
It looks just the same as the old, only a couple little buttons are different. If that is seriously what was causing the problem, that's just dumb.
Just saying...
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
First Lapbook :)
Thing 1 did a Humpty Dumpty lapbook today. And I took a number of pictures, but here are a few (back, front, and inside)
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