Field Trip Day

Ahhhh...a day spent outside can never be a wasted day, right? Just look at the smiles.  While we walked the trail at the park today we realized it had been 3 years since we were at that park!  It was unseasonably hot today and we didn't see too many animals, but we had a nice day with friends.  

I'm at that point in the year when I start to worry about.  I constantly worry about Ryan's writing skills.  I'm trying to have faith in the program we are following and not compare him to where my students were when I taught 2nd grade.  He is making progress, but could I be doing more for him?  I worry about Brandon also.  Some days he amazes me with the things he knows and how quickly he catches on to things.  Other days,  he can't say the alphabet! I think he's a trickster, well I know he is.  However, does he use humor as a cover up or is he really just trying to be funny?  Ohhh...Brandon...

Our work for the week:

Ryan

Rosetta Stone

AAS18

Boxcar Children

RSC - Geometry

SOTW - CH. 33

Sonlight Science

Writing - Narration/Dictation and whatever else I can sneak in

FLL2

Brandon

Logic Puzzles/Telling Time

AAR

Writeshop A

I also hope to get our science projects started!  

Back in the Swing...

We are just getting back into our school routine.  November and December were pretty tough for the family and as a result, school took a backseat.  We did continue with our lessons, but just the basics.  I'm finally at a point where I'm ok with that.  Family is far more important than the Middle Ages!  

I did a deep cleaning in the classroom and it feels fresh and ready for ideas to bloom.  It was a little bit harder for than I was expecting when it came it time to back up the preschool things.  They've been taking up space and collecting dust, but it was still hard to pack them up.  

So this week Ryan will:

AAS Level 3: Step 16

RSC: make up lessons we didn't do when I couldn't find the T-square

SOTW2

Sonlight Science

Read: Jake Drake, Bully Buster

Writing: Narration and Dictation

Brandon will:

Take a break from his regular work! We are going to catch up on the Core Knowledge reading list

and do lots of work with our phonics games.  We are also going to fine tune a few things with handwriting.  

We will continue with RS math and also make sure that telling time is solid.  

He is doing a great job with his K work, but I want to take a few weeks to make sure certain skills are mastered before we move on.  I feel we were starting to just power through the lessons and not having as much fun as we could be.  

Both of the boys are working on their music also! I'm so excited for them and I hope they love playing as much as I love hearing them play.  

Brandon is sick right now, so his main goal for the week is to get better! 

A Peek at our Week

EDIT - This should have been posted 1/12, but apparently was not published until 2013. OOPS...newbie blogger!

The biggest news is that Brandon learned to ride his bike without training wheels.  I couldn't believe my eyes.  He was downright refusing to even try no matter how sweet the bribe was.  Then, big brother had just the right words of encouragement and the rest is history.  He started pedaling and hasn't stopped.  I was in so much shock I didn't know if I should stay close to catch him when he fell or run for my camera.

Arthur Loofer King

Ha ha! I started this blog and then couldn't figure out how to write anything on it! I'll get the hang of this though.
We've had a great week so far.  Monday and Tuesday our public school friends didn't have school.  Monday, we went to the Elgin's house so Georgie could help Ryan learn how to do a back flip.  That was a great plan, but when Ryan spotted the rip sticks in their garage he wasn't interested in flips anymore.  He did a few and Georgie showed me how to help him because I know he still wants to learn how to that.  He spent the afternoon working on mastering the rip stick though.  He is one determined little kid! By Tuesday he was ripping around the driveway with no trouble at all.  He kept saying, "I'm really getting good at this!" Note to self...work on Ryan's lack of self-esteem.
Tuesday we had a science class and learned about energy.  Brandon's class read a story and then did a few experiments.  They played a cute version of Red Light, Green Light called Kinetic, Potential.  Ryan worked on building a solar powered car with K'Nex and did an experiment with fire! The museum had new exhibits about pirates and treasure. I thought Brandon would be in heaven, but he wasn't interested in that at all.  He went right back to his puppet theater and put on a show for me. He was so thoughtful and prepared a grocery cart filled with vegetables so I could have a snack during the show.  After the class, we met some friends at Chuck E Cheese.  The kids played and the moms had a few minutes to sit and chat.
Today, the boys begged to have school in the driveway.  I agreed and we spent the entire morning outside.  I love homeschooling!  Ryan is struggling through 2 digit plus 2 digit addition.  Somehow, the blue sky and sunshine makes it all so clear to him though.  Maybe there is magic in sidewalk chalk?  He's getting the hang of it, but it is not his favorite subject right now.
Brandon hit a bump in the road with his reading so I've slowed down and backed up a bit.  We are working on phonemic awareness and really trying to give him a solid foundation for literacy.  Right now we are working on counting sounds in a word.  It's going to take more practice before we can check this off his list of accomplishments.  I showed him a picture of a knee which has two sounds, but he is counting them as n/ee/ee or three sounds.  The other thing we are working on is blending sounds. I give a word, one sound at a time, and he has to put the sounds together and tell me what word I was saying.  This is really hard for him.
We are also learning about Martin Luther King, Jr. this week.  Brandon insists on calling him Arthur Loofer King.  I'm okay with that, but I wish I could at least get him to understand why we are learning about him! He told us he could be a speaker just like Martin Luther King, Jr. I asked him how he'd do that and he said he'd be very still and just sing! Yes, he thinks MLK was a stereo speaker!!  Ryan thought that was hysterical.
I guess that's it so far.  Maybe tomorrow I'll learn how to add some pictures.

My First Post

Here is a little test post to try out my new corner of the web world.  I'd like to set up this blog as a journal of our homeschool days.  I always enjoy reading other homeschool blogs, maybe someday somebody will enjoy reading this one!