Back to work

We dove back into school today after our break. Niles wasn't too hard to convince. :-)

It ended up being more of a winter break

and we went roller skating, to the movies to see the Tale of Desperaux and basically enjoyed Hanukkah. :-) Things should be picking up again w/in the week. I have the next science experiment lined up!

A 3 day break

Due to my crazy schedule, Niles is getting a 3 day break. Lucky him! :-)

So the good news about homeschooling is that you can follow tangents. Which of course leads to the bad news about homeschooling, which is that, you guessed it, you can follow tangents. In Astronomy, we read about the Mayan calendar, which led to finding pictures of the Mayan calendar, which led to Niles rediscovering that Mayans were in Guatemala, which led to Eliana is from Guatemala....and so on. Now I don't really mind this, as there was a progression, an interest, and excitement, but there's also Type A me, who is thinking "enough already, I wanted to get to this point in the lesson today and it had nothing to do w/looking up pictures of Mayan pyramids in Mexico...." So I tell myself that because I am homeschooling, I can relax, look up the pictures of the Mayan artifacts and we can read the rest of the dumb chapter tomorrow, so enjoy the fact that your kid just told you he loves history and run with it. He tried to talk me out of the actual history chapter I had planned today because studying about the Mayans in Astronomy was actually part history too....why do my children love to debate me? Yeah, yeah, I know, it's a good thing. And the history lesson was finishing up some of the American Indian studies we were doing so it was all connected in the long run I guess.

I feel to a certain degree I am doing parts of what he learned over again, but it's helping me to learn what he knows already, what he wants to learn more of, and plant the foundations for where we are going next. We started the Singapore math book today and this is a good example, as it starts with having you identify what numbers are in the thousands, hundreds, tens and ones columns. Plus, we're continuing the multiplication facts in the mathscore program. So, while it's review, it isn't hurting and he did ten pages with out prompting! I ran to switch laundry, fold it, etc and when I came back, he had finished the first two lessons. So to make up for the astronomy where I didn't get as far as I wanted, he completed two lessons in a book where I thought we'd do one. :-)

The other thing he asked me to do is what I was giving him for grades. I have a great excel spreadsheet where I keep track of everything and he sees me update this from time to time. Each sheet gets a grade, usually it works like this - each question is worth from one point up to five, depending on what it is. So math is straight forward, right or wrong, and mathscore even gives me his percentages. So anyhow, his grades are based on how well he answers each question, if it's right or wrong, etc, just like at his old school. I think he's discovering that Mom isn't necessarily going to be easier than his old teacher. :-)

The story of Chanukah

Photobucket Album

Zoo Borns - some great baby animal pictures

Field Trip Day

Today, we went and spent the morning with Luca's preschool class. We peeled potatoes, grated them, and then Ms. Deborah fried up the latkes. Niles enjoys being the big kid in his old preschool class room. Then at pick up time, there was a magician there, so we got to see him perform as well! In between, we braved the rain and went to the Homeschool Gathering store. I had Niles take the Singapore Math assessment test the other day, to get an idea of what he knew/didn't know in terms of division, which is next. He's been working hard at the multiplication on math score and has really improved his skills. We've worked on some strategies and he's gotten to where more of the problems are now memorized.

Anyhow, I like math score for the drilling, but in terms of explaining, I like to have paper to hold in my hand and show him. So, having known a family that worked with the Singapore program before, I decided that I want to try it. I'd been using a Spectrum math book, but felt like it jumped through things too quickly. Luckily, the store we were at carries Singapore, so I was able to get the books I wanted w/o having to order them. I also picked up the first K book for Luca, since I'll be starting w/him in January.

I found a coloring book on the Lewis and Clark Expedition too. So picked that up as well, it was in the used section. In history, I like the set up of the book I'm using with the vocabulary, short lessons w/q&a afterwards, but there's a lot left out too. So I figure I'll supplement with other things I find. The L&C book will be later, but it was such a good deal, I couldnt' pass it up! I found information on the 13 colonies at CurrClick that I'm thinking of getting. It also has a copy book to practice handwriting, which my little leftie seriously needs. LOL!

Niles has been playing the games on spelling city and I think it's about time to move on to lesson 3 next week. The final things I picked up were a grammar book and a book on health to work through. I figure we can do that on the days he has TKD too - working in some health lesson to go w/the exercise.

A Story by Niles

[I left his spelling intact]

One morning Templeton was looking for food. Then Wilber walked up and said what are you doing? Shooting lazers out of my eyes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWW said Wilber.

Then a beam of light destroyed the barn and the marines were attracted to the exploshen.

Then the marines launched a jet and shoot at Templeton. Then he shoots back at them. Back to Wilber, his mouth feel off and hit the ground.

The End.

I found a great new spelling website thanks to my friend Tammie, who is going back to school to get her elem ed degree. She gave me a few great ideas to try w/Niles so I'm looking forward to incorporating them into our h/s routine. Yeah, Tammie - you rock! Here is the link to our current lists of vocabulary words - one from his wordly wise book and the other from Charlotte's Web. It won't work if we are online using it, but that's probably not likely. What are the odds?!

This week we continued to work on handwriting, Charlotte's Web and American History. In Ch 2, Niles read about several Indian groups, including the Iroquois, Pueblos, Mayans, Incas and Aztecs. There was a discussion about how each group was different, and how the groups were similiar. He decided it would have been better to live among the Pueblo who were farmers, than the Iroquios who were warriors. [Even with his interest in weapons] Niles was dismayed by the fact that some groups carried out human sacrifices. This led us to a discussion of our own Torah story of Abraham and Isaac. Why did G-d test Abraham by using Isaac as a sacrifice? Why was it revolutionary when G-d stayed Abraham's hand and ruled that human sacrifice was not acceptable? It was a great conversation!

Today, Niles worked on Wordly Wise spelling. The first unit was on marine life and specifically giant squids. His favorite fact was that their eyes are as large as dinner plates and he declared that he would enjoy seeing video of giant squids and sperm whales fighting. He also wanted to know why sperm whales were called "sperm" whales and I have no idea, so that's on our to do list for tomorrow.

He also worked on the kids astronomy, completing assignment 2 and most of assignment 3. Before Religious School, he had to go with me to the Doctor for a mole removal and read the Biography of Squanto, which he thought was cool. He's decided that he wants to go to a shooting range and is lobbying hard for that for Hanukkah. I'm not sure if I'm mortified or surprised it's taken this long, or both. Niles has always been fascinated with weapons, not just the shooting, but how they are made, watching things hit targets, etc. He loves the shows Myth Busters, How It's Made and the one about the weapons, whose name currently escapes me. Not sure we're going there anytime soon, but he's so very into helping set what he gets too study...military history is a part of early American history mom. And I can study how fast bullets go in math. And then we can take pictures and make a collage of the targets for art.....

Speaking of math, I really like the math score program a lot. It is really forcing him to practice what he doesn't know. I can see him improving a little each day. :-)