Homeschool Discoveries

Sharing a few things I've discovered along the way…

Collage Friday: Valentines Fun and New Stuff February 17, 2012

Filed under: Weekly Highlights — kirstenjoyhill @ 2:42 pm
Tags: , , ,

Our week had a bit of a different rhythm than usual with a fun day of “Valentines School” on Tuesday.  Here’s a snapshot of our week:

1. I had so much to say about Valentines day that it got its own post with a full recounting of our activities.

2. Grandma Karen dropped by for a couple hours on Wednesday.  Aren’t all the kids cute cuddled up with her in the big chair while she reads?

3. Miss M got a “Sand Art” craft kit from Grandma Karen as a Valentines gift.  Here she is working on it at her desk in her room.

4. The geometry lessons in RightStart Math C proved a bit more challenging this week.  At one point neither of us could figure out how to divide a circle into thirds.  This happened in the late afternoon one day (we had procrastinated finishing the math lesson).  When I was more awake the next day I remembered how to do it and could help Miss M!  Using the drawing tools to make a clock also proved a bit challenging.  I thought I was giving Miss M the proper directions, but the first result was a clock with 12 numbers ending about where the seven should have been.  Whoops! I had to make one myself before I could explain to Miss M how to do it properly.  The drawing lesson directions clearly assume a bit more spacial reasoning than I seem to have!

5. We finished Mystery of History vol. 2 this week and started in with the first two lessons of Mystery of History Volume 3.  I love the full color pictures!

6. I also gave Miss M a new book for writing practice — Spectrum Writing Grade 2.   While I wouldn’t say that this basic workbook is an excellent method for teaching writing, I am in the “something is better than nothing” mode with this.  Since I was ordering Mystery of History Vol 3 from the Hearts at Home curriculum store anyway, I picked up this book on sale as well.  Miss M told me she really likes her new writing workbook, so that is a good sign, I suppose.

7. Miss M practiced counting by sixes and sevens this week.  When Mr. E saw the bugs on this sheet from Miss M’s math book, he wanted to know if he could learn how to “count by sixes all the way to nine.”  That led to a great discussion about what it means to “count by” something, and he practiced counting by 2’s!

8. Late night Lego play with daddy — he let the boys stay up an hour past their bedtime to make some really fun Lego creations together.

9. Just for fun — gotta love the Nutella “beard” on Mr. K!

Now TGIF!…(part of our day today involved all three kids taking a turn at spilling all the cards to a certain game in which the cards need to be sorted in a particular way…and the cards were spilled on purpose each time.  Sigh!)  We’ll have a definite three day weekend from school since daddy is off from work on Monday.  Tuesday baby J has a medical appointment and circumstances are such that we might not get much school done that day either.  A mini-break will be nice!

Linking up with Collage Friday @ Homegrown Learners and Weekly-Wrap-Up @ Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers! 

 

Valentines 2012 Wrap-Up February 16, 2012

Filed under: Holidays — kirstenjoyhill @ 11:08 pm
Tags:

We had a whole day of fun and “Valentines School” for Valentines Day this year…and we didn’t even get to everything that I had in mind! Here’s some of what we did:

Some years I have made a special breakfast for Valentine’s, but this year I just made a dish that is a favorite with my kids — baked apple french toast.  We started our day of “Valentines School” with fun printables.  Everyone enjoyed the Valentines Early Learning Printables from Homeschool Creations.  I also printed a couple of Valentine’s word searches for Miss M.

After everyone was bored of working at the table, we read a stack of books related to love or Valentines.  Most were selected by the kids during last week’s library trip.  I selected the classic “Guess How Much I love You” from our bookshelf.  None of the books the kids picked out were particularly classics, though “Zombie in Love” did get several readings this week at our house! I also re-read with Miss M the chapter from Mystery of History II on the true origins of Valentines Day.

Following the theme of love, we read 1st Corinthians 13, the traditional “love chapter” in the Bible.  I printed out the key words from the “love verses” and had the kids put the verses into categories of what love is or is not and we discussed those qualities of love.  The kids were very excited to decorate the poster when they were done.

Heart shaped food is great for Valentines of course, so I made the kids heart-shaped grilled cheese and I attempted to draw hearts in their tomato soup using whipping cream and a tooth pick.  The kids laughed at me in a good-natured way and said they didn’t look like hearts, but I think they appreciated the effort.  🙂

After lunch it was time for candy math! Using inspiration and printables from several sites (here, here, here, here and here) we tore into a bag of conversation hearts and went to work.  Miss M and Mr E both most enjoyed making a graph of the colors of candy hearts in each of their bowls, while Mr. K’s favorite activity was making patterns.

Miss M took some time to finish a “Heart Tree” craft kit she started last year at Valentines, but never finished.  It’s now decorating our buffet!  After that, she finished addressing envelopes to mail a few valentines.  Yes, our recipients got them a little belatedly since they went in the mail on valentines! This was Miss M’s first time addressing envelopes on her own, and it was a good practical lesson on our fun “valentines school” day!

We went out to drop off a few valentines at neighbor’s houses and take our larger envelopes to the post office.  Upon returning, we opened valentines mail and gifts we received!

We rounded out our special day with heart shaped pizza, homemade white chocolate pudding with strawberries and special drinks that daddy brought home.

It was a fun and full day…no wonder I was exhausted at the end of it.  🙂

I’m linking up with Love-ly-ideas at Homegrown Learners! I’ll be looking forward to reading what other bloggers have posted and bookmarking or pinning ideas for next year!