Sunday, September 21, 2008

School Update 21 September 08

What have we been up do in our homeschool lately? I thought I would give a brief summary of what we did this week.

Read Alouds:
Abraham Lincoln (D'Aulaire)
A Child's History of the World, chapters on Mesopotamia, India (Hillyer)
Ms. Frizzle's Adventures: Ancient China (Lily is a huge fan of Ms. Frizzle and the Magic School Bus)
Books on Monster Trucks and tractors for Luke

Reading practice: We played a sort of Bingo game, where Luke picked a card with a word and Lily got to find that word on her grid and put a coin on it. We were using *est and *eat words.

Activities:
Cello lesson on Monday.
Co-op on Wednesday: Lilly attended Language Arts class, where thry read the book "Swimmy" and discussed vocabulary etc.; Science class, where they studied waves, using water and slinkies to demonstrate, and Art class, where they studied Monet's style of painting and painted their own water lillies. I am thorough;y impressed with all the moms who put so much work into co-op.
Beginners orchestra on Friday--this was stressful for Lilly because it was her first time, but I think next week will go better.
A visit to the local aquarium with dad on Saturday, where everyone enjoyed the touch tank and other exibits.

What's missing? Oh yeah, math! I'd better focus on that this week! This is why I decided to actally try to "school" kindergarten this year--not because I think kids really need K, but because I need a year to figure out how do homeschool!

1 comment:

Kelley said...

My kids and I played the coolest math game this week. We played Yahtzee, and as the kids finished their turns, we'd count up the points on an abacus I made a few weeks back. This helped them to see numbers as groups (pre-cursor to multiplication, though I didn't stress it too much), and gave them a visual way to total their points. It was really fun, and I think they learned something, too.

We also play chess. It's not really a math game, per se, though it certainly helps with problem solving. Matt still loses a lot, but he's getting better. :)