Week 4 ( Jan 26-30 )

Happy Birthday Westen!

So of course our recipe of the week this week is Birthday Cake! Westen decided he wanted chocolate and vanilla because even though chocolate is his favorite, his brother likes vanilla. Inside this yummy chocolate cake is a middle layer of vanilla. Wes helped with all the baking. His favorite part is cracking the eggs and working the blender. He also chose the bundt cake pan and the decorations. My contribution was the homemade chocolate frosting. It turned out yummy!

In academic news:

Math - We have been doing some very challenging work this week with Fractions, Improper Fractions and Mixed numbers. In addition to brushing up on his long division, Wes has mastered turning improper fractions into mixed numbers and vice versa. I'm so proud of him! Tomorrow we'll take it a little easier with multiplication and division review and then we'll move on to factors and multiples.

Language Arts - We've added a daily Q.A.C.C. or "Quack!" as we like to call it, to our routine. Q. is for question of the day, A. is for answer (Wes responds with one good sentence), C. is for comment (I reply and also make suggestions to make his sentence stronger) and the second C. is for correct (Wes rewrites his sentence based on my comments) I try to keep the Q.A.C.C. fun and relevant to his interests.

We are also going back and reviewing (I'm assuming they've been taught to him at some point) parts of speech. I think the key to eventually having strong writing skills is to really know the fundamentals of language. That might make me a little old school, but there it is. This week it's nouns and proper nouns. I've been incorporating my new activity folders (like centers). We focused on writing sentences with all three types of nouns (person, place, thing) to make good descriptive sentences. Used Draw and Write activity folder. I plan to continue with nouns through the end of this week adding plurals and possessives. Wes is a great speller so I don't need to spend to much time here.

We are also still reading our chapter book, Geronimo Stilton and The Lost Treasure of the Emerald Eye. Wes is enjoying the story. We are focusing of not taking mid sentence "vacations" and being more fluid.

We've also incorporated a Daily Language Book by the same company who makes the Daily Math. Wes responds well to the format.

So we've kicked Language Arts up a notch. I'm still easing our way back into writing. Public school made writing such a chore. We are still decompressing. We are, however, going great with our cursive lessons. We've covered A through N.

Science - Last Friday we made Milky Ways as an end of the week art project. This week we will end our planetary studies with a trip to the Science Museum. It's also his birthday treat. Next we will be studying plants. Afterward, we'll rotate back into Social Studies.

Extras - We are still studying Piano and Keyboarding and this week we will publish Vol. 4 of our newspaper, the Indie Press.

Week 3 ( Jan 20-23 )

Starting today with:

Math - Daily Math, Multiplication review, Fractions - mixed numbers, lowest common denominator, equivalent fractions. Math To Know workbook pages 108 + 109

Cursive - The Letter I plus letter review

Social Studies - Watch Inauguration

Language Arts - Begin Daily Language Book, Homonym Review, Begin Practice and Learn Third Grade, They Sound the Same Activity Binder

Week 2.1

On the Schedule for today:

Math - comparing fractions with like denominators and ordering them from least to greatest
Cursive - F's and letters combo's through F
no science today
piano - review last week and move forward
Vocab/Grammer - homophones
Reading - Chapter 2 of Lost Treasure of the Emerald Eye (Scholastic Third Grade Reader)

Week 2 ( Jan 12-16 )

First I have to share a picture from the end of last week. We finished off with a Friday Fiesta! Wes created a homemade pinata and he and his brother and another friend had a great time whacking it open with a baseball bat after dinner.

Its already Tuesday of Week 2. Monday was a review day although we moved on to D's in cursive. Today in:

Math - we are starting with Fractions. We are going over the basics for a day or two and then we will move on to comparisons and operations.
Science - Wes read one book about Space and I read another about Mars
Recipe of the week - Caramel Corn - made for snack time and wrote up recipe, made copy for newspaper


Cursive - E's and letter combos A-E
Social Studies - The Sonoran Desert + Spanish words

Week 1.3

I am definitely still adjusting to the demands of my new busy schedule, but I love spending all of this extra time with Wes. I don't know what the days feel like to him. For me they are flying by and I'm trying to catch my breath!

Today's recap:

Math - reviewed place value, covered expanded notation, began discussing decimals

Cursive - we worked on our b's and a's

Key boarding - Had our first session beginning with hand position and drilling f, j, d, and k


Newspaper - our review, took everything off of the story board and created our weekly newspaper the "Indie Press". We looked at a real newspaper to understand the layout, organized our stories, Picked our front page story and so forth. Wes wanted to make copies and sell them he was so excited!

For tomorrow
Math - review whole numbers, work with money math, begin by viewing Study Jams-math-decimals and percents: Compare Money Amounts and Making Change. Practice with real money and do worksheet
Cursive - C's and a, b, c combo's
Science - make final conclusions about our sundial experiment in our journal, place space game
Social Studies - Read book on Mexico and do corresponding activity book. Make pinata. Have Friday Fiesta!

Week 1.2

Today went great. I feel really good about how much material we cover in one day. I find myself tweaking the schedule, but I expected that. I do like to have something in writing to refer to, so I'll be updating my "Week at a Glance".

Week 1.1

Wes and I just got through our first day homeschooling. We covered a lot of ground. I skipped working on our menu because it seemed like too much. We only had one moment when I had to help Wes refocus on his work. Our school day lasted from 9:00 to about 1:20 with a 30 minute break at 10:30. It's a little longer than I expected, but it will take me some time to get used to how long activities take and how quickly Wes does his work.

Today's Recap:

Whole numbers and place value

Solar System

Recipe Write-up

Chicken and Cheese Burrito with Broccoli and Bacon Bits.... Yummy!

Began Cursive

Map of Mexico

Spanish numbers through 12

For tomorrow:

Practice whole numbers and place values

Place Value Game

Cursive, review A's

Solar system Study Jams A Day on Earth

Make Sun Dial

Piano

Compound words

Fiction reading

Story Board

Week 1 ( Jan 6-9 ) Beg at mid year 3rd Grade/Resources

Beginning each day at 9:00am

Wes likes having a morning routine and I think it will help us "get in the groove" so to speak. Each morning will start with Wes doing the appropriate day's Daily Math from the Evan-Moor Grade 3 Daily Math Practice workbook. It's five review questions a day and we will check answers to right away so he will start the day with a positive reinforcement. Also, any questions in which he needs help will show me the areas we need to review.

(Concept 1 for 3rd quarter math is Number Sense: Understand and apply numbers, ways of representing numbers the relationships among numbers and different number systems.)

This week we will focus on reading whole numbers, place value, putting them in order, <>, and expanded notation

Begin with Place Value Video from Study Jams

Use blackboard or paper to make our own place value chart

Use popsicle sticks or toothpicks to make numbers

Resource 1: pages 10-12 Math to Know Teacher's Resource Book

Resource 2: Scholastic Success with Math Workbook pages 5-7,9

Resource 3: Skill Sharpeners Math Grade 3 pages 9,11,24,35,63

Science: Begin Space Unit with Solar System Book and Coloring pages.

Social Studies: Begin unit on Mexico. Read first few pages of book on Mexico. Study and Label Map. Learn spanish numbers to ten and play dominos

Getting Started - Our Weekly Schedule

One more day before school begins and I'm getting myself all geared up.  I have everything I need as far as materials go and now I just want to write a few things down.  I've developed a rough outline for our week.  Mostly it's so I don't have moments when I'm wondering what I want to do next.  I like having a mental outline and Wes tends to be the same way.  Once again, I'm looking to achieve structure with wiggle room.  Nothing to rigid.  Here goes:

Monday - math, science, break/snack time, banking, pick recipe, shop and food prep, photograph meal, story board

Tuesday - math, science, break/snack time, recipe write up, computer menu, cursive, social studies, story board

Wednesday - math, science, break/snack time, piano, vocabulary/grammar, Reading Series, story board

Thursday - math, science, break/snack time, keyboarding, Newspaper Review

Friday - math, science, break/snack time, educational games, field trips, social studies activities

So as you can see, each day will begin with math and science.  This will give us structure and will also serve us in other ways.  It will naturally become his non-fiction reading and comprehension.  The reason I don't have reading listed everyday is because it will be a regular part of doing all of the subjects.  I have also found a fiction series that we will use whenever we have down time or on it's given day.  Writing will also be a natural part of the other activities.  In particular, science will give us ample opportunity to write and hypothesize.  I am intentionally steering away from the "read this paragraph/answer these questions" format that is used by the school.  I want Wes to stop thinking of reading and writing as unhappy work and start to realize that they are just part of doing.

Monday may be our most unique day and also the day that incorporates things necessary in running our home.  Banking is how we will do our practical hands on money math.  I bought a cash box and have started it off with a set amount of money.  We will use this money for our outings during the month and incidentals.  It will also be used to pay out allowances.  Each of my sons have a "bank account" (envelope in the cash box).  Wes will be in charge.  He will count the money to make sure it's all there.  He will keep track of receipts.  At the end of the month he will figure out how much money we need to add to the bank to bring it back up to its set amount.  The boys will also earn 3% interest on the money that they keep in the bank. Wes will learn how to calculate the interest earned.  It will be hands on money managing.

Monday is also recipe day.  One of my ideas to keep writing and reading fun is to keep a recipe box and start building up a menu.  When we have enough recipes we like, we can publish our menu and open up a restaurant.  Wes can cook, serve meals and even write up reviews.  Cooking, besides being an important life skill, is a great way to reinforce math concepts.  It helps you learn how to think on your feet and strengthen fine motor skills.  We will also do our shopping on Monday.  Wes will help cook dinner each Monday night to test out the chosen recipe.  We will take a picture of our finished dish that we can later use on our Menu.  

Story Board.  At the end of Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, we will post what we have studied on our story board.  This is a large bulletin board on an easel.  The purpose of our story board is to give us a visual reminder of what we are learning and an easy way to review our materials.  The story board will be used to put together our Newspaper on Thursdays.

Tuesday will start with math and science and then Wes will write up the recipe from the night before and file it in our own school recipe box.  If the recipe passed our taste test, Wes will type it into a file on the computer where we will start to compile information for our menu.  This will also give us practice is different forms of writing.  We will need to use lots of juicy adjectives!

Tuesday will also be cursive learning day.  I have a workbook that he will used to learn his letters and how to join them and we will learn some each week.  We will also introduce our social studies subject on Tuesday.  We will be studying other cultures and history.  I plan to cover all of the basic subjects covered by my school districts curriculum as well as others.

Wednesday, in addition to math and science, we will be studying a vocabulary and grammar concepts and focusing more on our reading.  We'll also have a piano lesson or explore music in some other way.

Thurdays will start with math and science as always and then we will publish our Newspaper.  I have purchased legal size paper so that we can fold it over to look like a newspaper when we are done.  We will look at real papers to incorporate some of their elements, but our paper will be a mixed media work of art.  Things can come right off the story board and be pasted onto the paper.  We will write short articles about each of our topics of the week and so on.  It will be our way of reviewing all that we've learned in a creative way as well as working on our writing and organizational skills.  

Friday will start with delivering our Newspaper to Dad during coffee time and relaying all that we are learning.  Then on to math and maybe science.  This will be our lighter day when we will play educational games that coincide with our subject matter.  It will be our day to take field trips or do crafts that relate to our social studies topic.  

So that is basically our week.  We will focus on holidays when they come along and recognize major events.  Future posts will include more detail about what we are actually studying and I'll take some pictures to share.  I will also do a post on what materials I'm using.