September 8, 2008

Today was a great day for a Monday!

A tried out his new letter practice books and LOVED them. He played for 15 minutes on the math trainer at mathisfun.com. He also completed 6 pages in his Phonics workbook. He finished up by going for a visit to Grandma and Papa's.

J came home this afternoon (he was visiting at Grandma and Papa's) so he skipped morning work and bounced straight in to afternoon work. We read the first two chapters of Story of the World out loud.

K worked on some inference, dividing decimals by whole numbers and a page in his spelling skills workbook. (still need to find a program to use for spelling with him) He was the one that read Story of the World out loud for the most part.

I downloaded a program to help me keep track of their assignments and lessons. I'm testing it out now and like it but need to work out the kinks.

September 4, 2008

So after 2 days of posting the wrong dates.. oh boy.

Today was a good day.

K posted on his blog for the first time. He was required to spend at least 15 minutes on it.. I showed him some of the mistakes he made. For some reason he was never made to capitalize I in his writing.. hopefully I can break that habit. All in all, I think it was a great exercise for him.

J spent 15 minutes at his favorite math site practicing his multiplication tables. He's hoping to get all golds (perfects) eventually. I keep telling him practice makes perfect.

A reviewed some phonics. He's fairly proficient with short vowel sounds and recognizing if the sound is in the beginning or middle. He did some basic addition using pennies, nickels and dimes.

September 2, 2008

Another easy, gentle day. The boys worked on some math lessons and that was about it. I think tomorrow K will post his first post on his blog and J will get serious about those times tables.

I found a spelling curriculum that I'm interested in trying for K. It's called Sequential Spelling. I think it is perfect for him, it helps to show the patterns in words. I think he could understand that much easier than attempting to explain the "rules" of English spelling. He's always had such a difficult time of things when it comes to spelling so maybe this will be the breakthrough he needs.

September 1, 2008

It's been a rocky day. Everyone is a little off kilter from the long weekend and we need to work at getting back on task. Long weekends are rough on us, I think.

This week we will kick off a kindness bootcamp. I want to work on how we deal with each other, myself included. I'm still working out the kinks but will post about them when I do.

We attempted to get some workbook time in but it didn't happen for the two littles unfortunately. We did however manage to get started on a solar system mobile. Tomorrow we will likely finish that off. I will be taking some pictures and posting them.

K and J set forth some goals this morning. K wants to blog at least 2 times per week and J would like to memorize his multiplication tables up to the 6's. I think maybe we'll focus on working up to the 4's this week. 15 minutes per day on the math trainer game and that should definitely help him accomplish that.

We also need to implement a set reading time and maybe as incentive for that, I'll match them minute for minute on one of the game systems.

August 28, 2008

Today felt good. I was given some very sage advice from another homeschooling mama friend this morning and the feelings it provoked lasted all day. We were very relaxed but got our morning work done pretty quickly.

I finally found the perfect tool for J to learn his multiplication tables. We used this site, www.mathisfun.com and he had a 15 minute turn with the math trainer. He was pleased with himself and that of course evoked some confidence in him. I'm hoping he'll want to do it again tomorrow. :) J also did a reading comp. lesson and played some games on the Scholastic website.

A worked on reading small passages and answering questions about what he read. He also learned to count by 10's.

K did a grammar unit on relective pronouns (myself, himself, themselves, etc), a spelling page, inference and some more multiplication of decimals. He was supposed to use one of the writing prompts in his blog but we didn't get there today. That's ok there's always tomorrow.

I must say it's very enjoyable to watch the boys interact with each other lately. It is so different from when they were in public school. It truly is. Don't get me wrong.. there is still bickering and arguments. There always will be but they seem to handle those sorts of things better now.

August 27, 2008

A pulled out his reading rods and started making simple words today. He's got CVC words mastered. Now I think it's time to move on to long vowel sounds... hope we don't confuse him along the way!

J worked on multiplication again today. He also knocked out a reading comp. lesson and worked on Subject Pronouns.

K worked on decimal multiplication and inference. He was supposed to get to some Lang. Arts but I think he put it off.

All 3 learned how to hook up a water line to a refrigerator and how to install a dishwasher with Grandpa. The highlight to this was watching Grandpa pull the hose through the floor in to the crawlspace. There was lots of giggles and exclamations of Watch! Watch!

We watched The Magic Schoolbus: Space Adventures.


I felt much more relaxed today. Although around 4pm, I feel a little overwhelmed by the noise and activity level. Seems a good time to throw 'em outside for a bit.


*Quit procrastinating and figure out the Homeschool Group situation.

*Keep scouring the web for a decent spelling program, or kick myself in the butt to make my own.

*Introduce K and J to their writing blogs. Maybe tomorrow have them sit down and write.

*Figure a way to implement the kitchen lessons the boys are all interested in. We've picked recipes, now I need to find a fair way to implement how to choose. I think we might stick the names of the recipes (along with the page number) in to one of my baskets and let each one choose one each pay period. Then we will work together to make the new recipe and hopefully enjoy trying new foods as well.

August 26, 2008

Today went a bit smoother than yesterday. Morning work was accomplished with little fan fare.

J worked on his times table. I don't want him to just memorize them (although this of course will help) but to actually know what he's doing. He's pretty good all the way up to the 6's... after that it starts to get a little frustrating for him. I know in time he'll get it. That's all he did today.

A worked on copying some sentences (he needs handwriting practice again) and some basic math review.

K jumped right in feet first. He knocked out two math pages, two reading pages and a spelling page from his next unit. He's working on decimals and inference.

*I really need to find or create a spelling curriculum that will work for both K and J. J is ahead and K has never been a natural speller.

*I need to keep going slow.. add one thing at a time.

*I think we should do a fun, crafty type project this week.

*Keep looking in to homeschool groups. Don't really want to but I know the boys would greatly benefit from one. Don't forget about 4H AND take another look at scouts.