Science

Science has become everyone's favorite subject. In addition to studying outer space at co-op on Mondays,

...we've done some fun science work and experiments at home.

We learned about how plants send water to their leaves. Then we demonstrated it using blue food dye, water, and some celery stalks. The kids had fun checking the celery every 15 minutes to see whether it had changed. After the leaves turned blue, the kids cut the celery stalks to see the blue capillaries. Laine displays the end of hers...

We read about leaves and how they work and then collected leaves from various plants around our yard. We got a fairly impressive collection of them and used them to do leaf rubbings.

We all had quite a bit of fun with that one. The ones that involve going outside to work are definitely the favorites for all of us!

More Kindergarten

Homeschool is continuing on really well, but I'm not doing a good job at updating the blog. I'm going to do an update for about 2 weeks' worth of schooling because Todd left with my laptop power cord... for Austria. I'm not able to do much with my blog on the old computer upstairs because it is painfully slow and my new power cord won't be here until Wednesday. Bear with me...

This is the pile of books and manipulatives we're going to be using this school year. I meant to post this photo in the beginning, but forgot about it.

Isaac continues to work on his letters - he LOVES to write them BIG on the easel!!!

We made a weather vane when we were learning about wind.

Not school-related! Laine was helping Todd work on the shed and I loved this shot of her in her little work gloves.

You needn't worry that it's "all work and no play" around here...

Painting and crafts aren't a part of our daily plans, but I know the kids would like them to be. I'm trying to get better about that.

Isaac working on his "Explode the Code" workbooks. The kids and I are crazy about these books. I actually had to hide them from Isaac for a while because he wanted to work on them *constantly*. They're a fantastic tool for learning phonics/phonemics.

Using the magnifying glass to inspect some leaves and debris from around the yard.

Sorting the leaves out:

Working on the letter t in "Explode the Code." 

These are some of the pages from his "Explode the Code" workbooks. You can see where he's really mastering the letter sounds. I'm ecstatic about how quickly he's picking this up.

I promise there will be more soon. I have the photos loaded onto my laptop and I'll work on updating again as soon as I get a new power cord - hopefully Wednesday afternoon!

Reading is FUNdamental

It turns out I'm not great at keeping up with a blog. Taking a break from the kids' posts and posting more on a home-change (if not strictly an improvement) project:

Laine loves to look at books. Even though she's still not reading yet (which is fine! She's 3!), she really enjoys books. She's officially finished with potty training and we have finally moved the changing station out of her room. In a perfect world, I'd have sold it by now, but we'll get there eventually. I decided to make the little closet in her room into a reading nook just for her. We added some pink paint, rain gutter shelves, some paper lanterns with twinkle lights inside, and a squashy chair. It's her little slice of heaven.

Here's our starting point:

 Laine was excited at the chance to paint her own closet:

Naturally, Isaac wasn't about to let her (or me) tackle that project alone.

I think they did an excellent job! :-) I may have helped a wee bit.

Showing off her new chair:

The finished product:

 

Enjoying her new reading nook:

One of the books we borrowed from the library is PIGS MAKE ME SNEEZE! by Mo Willems. Both of my kids have thoroughly enjoyed this book and I got a great little video of her "reading" it in her new space.

 

Kindergarten - Week 1

This week, we started homeschooling in a more official capacity. I decided to try firing up Ye Olde Blogge this week so I could show you a little bit of what we're doing. The future looks bright!

We did some fun things and some serious things. I obviously didn't document every single thing we did because I want to be engaged in this process, but I thought it might be fun to share some.

Isaac decided to create his own instructions and then follow them to build a tower:

He practiced writing:

This is a neat program. It's called Handwriting Without Tears. First, we "build" the capital letters using big lines, little lines, big curves, and little curves. Then, we follow the "wet, dry, try" method. I write the letter on the chalk board. Isaac traces over it with a wet cloth, then again with a dry cloth, and then finally he draws it himself. He *really* liked this method when we tried it this week. 

I'm glad he's enjoying some of the process.

Then we practice again by writing it in his workbook. He's less thrilled about having to write the letters so much smaller, but he's working on it. He's such a perfectionist that he tends to get upset if it isn't just like he wants, so I'm thankful for erasers!

Meanwhile, not to be left behind:

For history, we're reading a fun book called Living Long Ago. This week we discussed different modes of transportation. There were boats called coracles that had animal skins wrapped around a wooden frame and then were coated in tar to make them waterproof. We made our own version of this using a plastic bag and pipe cleaners. I was ecstatic that it didn't immediately sink!

The other history lessons come from the Usborne Children's Encyclopedia. I can't possibly say enough good things about this book. It has QR codes (those little square boxes on nearly every package of everything that you can scan for more marketing materials). We scanned several of them and got to see videos on cloud formation and hurricanes (for science) and then saw a neat video about how the first farmers settled down in the Fertile Crescent. Clicking additional links while we talked about Ancient Egypt took us to a *phenomenal* site from a children's museum in Birmingham, UK. We got to take a 360* tour of a pyramid - inside and out as well as learning lots of new info about mummies via an interactive page. I was so fascinated! Isaac put up with me. LOL! 

We also have a fun science book we're using, but it's British, so they talk about fun experiments we can do using radiators. I had to laugh. Even if we had radiators in Texas, we certainly wouldn't be using them during school hours in early September! So we tried to use the heat from the road. This would have worked better a few weeks ago when the temps exceeded 100*, but we tried.

For P.E., Isaac learned something new (and not my favorite) this week.

Unrelated to homeschool, Laine has started ballet and tap classes this week and she's very excited about it. It was exceptionally cute to watch her and her new friends.

Finally, marginally related to homeschool, I now need glasses so I can keep up with our literature-based curriculum. I pick them up in 2 weeks, but here's the preview:

Anyway, Isaac is on his way!