Happy birthday to W! We have spent part of the day reading poems by A.A. Milne from the book Now We Are Six, making and eating frozen homemade juice pops, making paper airplanes, cleaning for the party, playing, and watching the movie Cars which he has proclaimed his favorite. We are about to make cupcakes and W insisted on waiting for his gifts until after dessert this evening. It is snowing here in NH. Just flurries (I hope!) C is Mr. Crankypants having skipped his nap in order to watch Cars so I will try to put him down so we can get started on the cupcakes.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Monday, February 28, 2011
Magic Tree House books
W has recently discovered the Magic Tree House series of books by Mary Pope Osborne and in the past couple of days he has read several of them completely on his own. I asked him a few questions about them for reading comprehension and it seems like he understands the story but he is a speed reader! This means a library trip will be in order very soon. We bought several of these books at the Christmas Tree Shop which offers them at dollar or more off of list price (yes, I love a bargain). He has read #1 Dinosaurs Before Dark (and study guide), 2 The Knight at Dawn, 3 Mummies in the Morning, 4 Pirates Past Noon, 11 Lions at Lunchtime, and 23 Twister on Tuesday.
This reading transition to chapter books is happening as I am planning W's curriculum for spring/ summer 2011 so now I am in search of similar book suggestions, if you have any please post a comment. As for other subjects, we ordered the next step of Math-U-See (Alpha student & teacher texts). I am slowly acquiring other first grade materials, and will certainly be on the lookout for local book sales. We have a few things already including a set of Flat Stanley books we got at a homeschool book sale last year. W was a little young for them at the time but now I think they would be up his alley. We will also keep going with Five in a Row books and some of the longer chapter books such as Little House on the Prairie for read-alouds.
Today besides reading W was working again with the Explode the Code 1 workbook, Math-U-See, and making his own mazes and drawings. It was raining and sleeting today, it will be nice when the ice is gone and we can start thinking about the garden.
This reading transition to chapter books is happening as I am planning W's curriculum for spring/ summer 2011 so now I am in search of similar book suggestions, if you have any please post a comment. As for other subjects, we ordered the next step of Math-U-See (Alpha student & teacher texts). I am slowly acquiring other first grade materials, and will certainly be on the lookout for local book sales. We have a few things already including a set of Flat Stanley books we got at a homeschool book sale last year. W was a little young for them at the time but now I think they would be up his alley. We will also keep going with Five in a Row books and some of the longer chapter books such as Little House on the Prairie for read-alouds.
Today besides reading W was working again with the Explode the Code 1 workbook, Math-U-See, and making his own mazes and drawings. It was raining and sleeting today, it will be nice when the ice is gone and we can start thinking about the garden.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
EcoTarium day trip
I forgot to post some photos from our visit to the EcoTarium in Worcester, MA last month. We met up with most of Jacob's side of the family so the boys enjoyed spending time with their cousins, uncles & aunt. It is a nice little museum which I think would be even more fun in the summertime when more time can be spent at their outside areas as well. We got to see the polar bear Kenda who was happily napping in the snow.
They also exhibit animals of the non-living variety. This used to be a mountain lion.
The iguana demonstration was neat, the handler put a bunch of unlucky crickets in the pen for a snack.
The EcoTarium seems to be expanding as the upper level of the museum was closed and under renovations, so it would be fun to go back on a warmer day when there is more to see.
Mid Feb update :)
W finished reading Farmer Boy and despite both boys having colds we have been continuing our usual homeschooling routines the past week minus the whole playdate thing, hoping to see our friends again soon! We celebrated Laura Ingalls Wilder's birthday on Monday and made little maple cakes from the My First Little House Cookbook. The cake part was sweetened with maple syrup and W loved them. C loved the icing, also maple based. W also read a lot of the My First LH books that day. During our book club meeting a couple of weeks ago we watched the Almanzo Wilder documentary I mentioned in a previous post, which was produced by the multi talented Dean Butler who played "Manly" on the TV series. The kids ages 9-2 enjoyed it, and the Moms as well!
I am so so tempted to go to the Wayside Inn's ice harvesting demonstration this Saturday in Sudbury, MA. It would be very interesting to see the old fashioned way of "making" ice just like in Farmer Boy.
Last week we "rowed" Very Last First Time by Jan Andrews. It was first published in 1985 and is set in Ungava Bay, Canada. Upon looking up the map to give W a point of reference I was blown away at how far east Ungava Bay is (the link can show you the location on google maps).W made a booklet on the Inuit people and we found some printable resources online through Homeschoolshare.com. I love that site.
W watched the NOVA special How Smart Are Animals? which aired last night on PBS and he was absorbed. He told me he especially liked the octopus and how it "blends in" to its environment to camouflage itself. It was fascinating to see how quickly it could hide from predators. I had tuned in to watch the show myself but I was happily surprised that W enjoyed it so much.
I am so so tempted to go to the Wayside Inn's ice harvesting demonstration this Saturday in Sudbury, MA. It would be very interesting to see the old fashioned way of "making" ice just like in Farmer Boy.
Last week we "rowed" Very Last First Time by Jan Andrews. It was first published in 1985 and is set in Ungava Bay, Canada. Upon looking up the map to give W a point of reference I was blown away at how far east Ungava Bay is (the link can show you the location on google maps).W made a booklet on the Inuit people and we found some printable resources online through Homeschoolshare.com. I love that site.
W watched the NOVA special How Smart Are Animals? which aired last night on PBS and he was absorbed. He told me he especially liked the octopus and how it "blends in" to its environment to camouflage itself. It was fascinating to see how quickly it could hide from predators. I had tuned in to watch the show myself but I was happily surprised that W enjoyed it so much.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Brrr!
It is the coldest day in about 6 years here in New England (therefore the coldest day in W's life so far). Our original plans to play in the snow were dashed as a result because I don't want anyone to get frostbite. W is working on a writing book and I am trying to remind him to write some thank you notes. His writing is slowly improving but he prefers to write in all capitals. I can see a big difference from the fall when the letters were all different sizes, now they are more uniform so he is getting there. He is chugging along with Math-U-See, and is now almost done with chapter 19 of the Primer. I should probably begin researching the next steps for this program so that we will have something to continue with this spring and summer.
Appropriately this week we will be reading Reuben and the Blizzard by Merle Good and P. Buckley Moss as a faux five in a row. It is a book we bought when we took a trip to Pennsylvania's Amish country in 2009. Our book club was rescheduled to this Friday due to last Friday's snowstorm. We only have a couple more chapters of Farmer Boy as our read aloud as well so he should be done by Friday and we will watch the Almanzo Wilder documentary with our homeschool book group. It is available through the childhood home of Almanzo in Malone (Burke, NY).
Over the weekend the boys got to visit with their cousin & uncle and go to a bookstore which was a nice treat for all of us. On Sunday we were signed up to bring the food for coffee hour at church and that went off well (kind of glad to have the stress of that done with) and we enjoyed bible study in the evening as they provide a babysitter and we got to hear the band rehearse too. :)
Appropriately this week we will be reading Reuben and the Blizzard by Merle Good and P. Buckley Moss as a faux five in a row. It is a book we bought when we took a trip to Pennsylvania's Amish country in 2009. Our book club was rescheduled to this Friday due to last Friday's snowstorm. We only have a couple more chapters of Farmer Boy as our read aloud as well so he should be done by Friday and we will watch the Almanzo Wilder documentary with our homeschool book group. It is available through the childhood home of Almanzo in Malone (Burke, NY).
Over the weekend the boys got to visit with their cousin & uncle and go to a bookstore which was a nice treat for all of us. On Sunday we were signed up to bring the food for coffee hour at church and that went off well (kind of glad to have the stress of that done with) and we enjoyed bible study in the evening as they provide a babysitter and we got to hear the band rehearse too. :)
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