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Monday, September 27, 2010

Plants - Botany Unity

We started our plant study by planting seeds, talking about the needs of plants, watching a seed in a plastic baggie grow a root, and planting that root and seeing it grow into a plant. 




Presentation of the parts of the plant.  In this work you see the parts of the plant using a tree.  The definition cards are for Sweet Boy because he is in 1st grade.  For the 3-5 age group you only name the parts of the plant.


After talking about the parts of the plant I had the kids do a tree craft.

We used the pre-made labels and added Spanish Labels to practice.

Here is a close up.

On another day I wrote the name of the parts of the plant in both English and spanish for sweet boy to glue onto his tree.  Bella watched.  She did not want to add these to her tree.



Here is a close up.  They color the entire tree on the first page.  The second and subsequent pages look the same but they only color one part of the tree and write the part they colored.  So you have 6 pages that look the same but the student only colors one part of the plant on each page and labels if ready to write.  You can see the control chart that Bella is using.  Bella does not write the parts of the plant only sweet boy.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Baby Got a Hair Cut!!!

I've got ears!!


He is sooooo cute!!  I just love his hair cut!!! 
We took "Andresesito" (this is how Bella calls him!) to a kids hair cut place.  I had enough with all of the hair.  It was just so long.  They cut about 2 inches.  He could use more cut but that is a good start!  Bella did not want him to get a hair cut.  She cried and did not like it at first but now she is used to it!

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

School Week 4

I thought I had posted this a few days back but it dissapeared....
Here it is again.

A few pictures of Week 4
We read about ants and put sugar and food out for them to see how they carried it.

Bug Microscope.  He was looking up ant information.  We also read a book on bugs and were discussing number of legs for different bugs so the kids pulled out the microscope to find out more information.
Bella worked on sequence work.
Here Bella is working on matching the lowercase letters to the uppercase letters.  I got this work from Montessori For Learning.

On one particular cool morning I took a walk around the neighborhood with the baby and the kids rode their bikes.  The kids then spent over an hour just testing out to see what would happen to different things they put on the wheel as it turned.  Sticks, grass, rocks, dirt, etc...
Sink and Float.  I presented this work and then put it on the shelf.  The kids pulled out the work about 3 times this week.


More grinding work.  It never gets old!
Each petal has a color name.  The child reads the name or you read it for them and they paint the petal that color.

Here is the flower pot.   Aqui esta el tiesto.  They can paint this any way they wish.  Then you make the stem and attach to the leaves.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Our Schedule



A little about our Monday-Friday schedule.

Monday - Homeschool All Day

Tuesday - 8am-9:45 Bella goes to Catechism Class. Sweet Boy and I work.
A little more school here in the middle
2:30pm-3:10 - Sweet Boy goes to Catechism Class.

Wednesday - Homeschool All Day.
                      4:15pm Church Choir

Thursday - Co-op
10:30-4pm. At Co-op the kids take a Geography/History class, have lunch and then take four classes
(PE, Music/Theater, Games(Playing Board Games, Cards, Puzzles), and Cooking)

Friday - Homeschool All Day.
Field Trips are scheduled on Fridays through the Homeschool Co-op so we will attend those that interest us.

Catechism is 5 minutes from our home. My husband takes Bella in the mornings which allows me to work with Sweet Boy alone.  I pick up Bella and take sweet boy in the afternoons.

Co-op - This is a huge homeschool co-op in this area. It is a very structured co-op with many classes to choose from starting at 8:00am until 4:00pm. I go to my office with the baby during co-op.

Bella is also involved in Y-Guides with my husband and Ballet/Tap.  Sweet boy is in Cub Scouts with my husband and Baseball. 

We are all very happy with this schedule.

Geography Resources - Flag Cards

From Homeschool Creations

Here are free flag cards

Monday, September 6, 2010

School - Week 3


We have been enjoying the cooler weather here in Texas. Look at our dead grass!


This is how I get sweet boy to go to nap while working with the kids. There is just no time to sit and nurse/rock quietly. It is NOT going to happen. So, I've learned to nurse and put him in here after nursing. He goes to sleep and then I take him out and put him in his crib!! Walking around in this hotsling puts him right to sleep. I also have to say that this is the easiest baby carrying contraption I have found. I tried the Bjorn (I'm not that coordinated), Ring Sling(too many parts) and the Warp (oh my, not sure I can do that)!! I did not even have to read directions on how to use this. I just looked at the picture and there!!

Five Kingdoms Presentation. For this presentation I checked out a book at the library to read about the Five Kingdoms. The more I know the more confident I feel talking about these. I gave the presentation once and reviewed on another day. I downloaded this work from here. I put color dots on the back for control.

Flags of the World.

United Sates Puzzle. Both kids did this map separately. My son did NOT want to work with Bella. This caused an ugly meltdown and me loosing my temper.

Happy working along side each other, after Bella had her meltdown and I mine!

Stamp Game. Sweet boy lets his sister give him the units, tens, hundreds and thousands he needs! It works out great.

Writing with the moveable alphabet. I ask him to do this work. Do not think for a minute he picks it out on his own!





Coffee grinding. They love this work and since I need the coffee grounded it works wonderfully for all of us!

Transferring beans. Any kind of transfer is also always popular.

Friday, September 3, 2010

Do you want to go back to school?


When we told the kids last Spring we were homeschooling they were a little sad to leave their school. I was sad also since I really liked their school. Bella said she was going to miss the monkey bars and friends and I had finally found a school Sweet Boy liked. For a long time I did not know if I was doing the right thing. We have now been homeschooling for a month. Today I asked the kids if they wanted to go back to their old school and they said NO WAY!! That made me feel good!

The weather has been so wonderful around here. Here in Texas we have a saying "If you don't like the weather, wait a few minutes and it will change." So true. Last week it was over 100 degrees. This week it is in the 70's! I love that we have been getting up and first thing we do is play outside. I love the relaxed mornings outside, drinking my coffee with baby, while watching the kids playing. And as I sit there taking it all in, I think about how at this lovely time we would be in the car, rushing to get to school on time and I would be praying that there would not be any traffic congestion.

Not rushing to get any where. Just enjoying our sweet baby! Yes, this is during school time!

These moments make me love homeschooling. If you do not homeschool, I don't want you to think it is a bed of roses. On the same day that I experience these lovely moments, the kids fight, someone complains about school work, I loose my temper, I feel lonely, tired, and/or frustrated. Just the fact of life. But I am learning to not react to fights, apologize when I loose it, get out of the house when I feel lonely, and follow the kids lead when it comes to school work.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Flags of the World



Sitting on our Map stand.

I found this work at Walgreens for $5! The flags are magnets. This is difficult for little ones because it has pages with the map and flags of all of the countries so you have to search for the ONE magnetic flag for that particular country. You place the flag on one large page(see above) that has the map of the world. But the control does not look anything like this! Challenging for my almost 7 year old. Frustrating for my 4 year old!