We're on Christmas Vacation from school

We're on Christmas Break

I guess that means we stay in our PJ's all day and watch Christmas movies

                                                      

                                       Merry Christmas from our home to yours

Learning about clouds and America

Our week of December 5th-8th

We started our study on clouds this week.  Learning the main types of clouds and their scientific names.

Here K is painting clouds..as you can see he added some rain to a few of his clouds.  This project was needed for his writing paper the following day.

Writing about the type of cloud that he painted a picture of

This is our cloud chart where we wrote some features of clouds that K knew before we started our study of clouds.

We are also learning about our country.  This is a short series as we are just doing short series this school year and next school year we are planning on covering the USA in depth state by state.

This week we are learning about the flag, our freedoms, the symbols of our country.

This next week we are working on finishing up our reading and phonics books and getting ready to start the next set of books after Christmas.

We are doing a fire theme this week for community helpers that we started last week but this week is hands on.  Look fwd to the pictures at the end of the week.

Have a joyous week

We're playing catch up

As of November 3rd we've been playing catch up with school.  I have a schedule for school and for the past 2 months that schedule was blown out the door because of personal reasons.  K and I have been working all day getting back on track.  We should be there by the end of the month.  YIPPEE we need routine in our life.

1st day back we had a airshow practice.  This was our favorite F-18 who gave us a pretty thrilling show before the show.  I wish I would of gotten it on video.  On his last run he flew right above our house and nice and low.  Freaked out the dogs but it was awesome.  Hubs knows the pilot so he was able to pass on the remarks from us to him :o)

Getting down to business with some writing

Practicing counting money combinations

mainly using the penny,nickles and dimes 

Practicing marking words and reading them

Week 1 of catch up is now under our belts with 2 more to go. 

Stay tuned for a video later this week

Have a blessed day

I'll be back this week

Sorry for the LONG time away.  We had some major family issues the past 2 months.  I could hardly breathe and think about anything for my in the home family that blogging was the last thing on my plate.  But it's over with now with a visit to the airport.  This last few days I just sat back and relaxed to re-coop a little.  I spent a some time yesterday (Saturday) getting things ready for some school catching up.  Yes we have a schedule with our studies that it's CATCH UP time.  Phew see you later this week with some school photo's

Welcome to another year 2011/2012

We are a month into our new year and our new schedule is starting to fall into place.

After 3 years of homeschooling things have tuned 2 folds for the better. I tell ya by the time K is done with school I will have it all down pat. Yeah pretty much I am creating new ways of making schooling easier. All I need now is a room to make into our school room. We are in the looks for a bigger house so that we will have more space for school and some more students :o)

New bulletin boards are going up based on things we're learning this year.



This year we are covering

Reading
Writing
Phonics
Math
Art -Monday
Music - Tuesday
Community Helpers - Thursday
PE - Wednesday
Bible - Friday (This is daily but Friday is more in depth)
Geography
Science - Tuesday and Thursday
History - Monday
Health - Wednesday

And

Homework

Mrs.Pattie

 

HOMEWORK for homeschoolers

How homeschool works for our school

Each day there is a given amount of time for lessons and seatwork for each subject.  At the very end of the day there is an extra seatwork time to finish up workpages that you didn't get finished.  If there is anything that is still not finished it goes into the homework folder.  This doesn't happen much.

Now every day I think of things that student needs to get some extra practice on and I put these into the folder.  Normally things such as flash cards that need to be memorized, sight words and so on but I try to keep it light and fun. And there is always 15 mins of quiet reading.

Now Abeka also assigns homework in the reading/writing/phonics dept every couple of days

The reason with the homework is to teach student to be responsible of getting it done without being told and turning it in the next day without being asked.  Which student has 2 grades daily with one for homework being turned in or not.  Another reason for this is so that dad can see what we're learning and for son to have that chance to show daddy what he can do.

A sneak peek of a homeschool teacher at work

My husband caught me in the act of planning

Geography Week 1 and 2

MEXICO

June 8th - 17th

(Wed&Thur ONLY)

Our passports are made and we are traveling around the world this summer. For two weeks we will be in Mexico studying. We are not really traveling there just learning about Mexico from our living room. Stay tuned I will be posting weekly on our travels.

Day 1 we start with going through customs and getting our passports stamped and stopping in for some lunch before heading to the classroom for Leaning a Music, Spanish speaking lesson, animals of Mexico and some good ol'coloring.

Day 2 Music, Spanish speaking lesson, animals of Mexico, Mexico info, Craft time

Day 3 Music, Spanish speaking lesson, animals of Mexico, Mexico info lesson, Lunch time

Day 4 Music, Spanish speaking, animals of Mexico, Mexico info lesson, videoing and party

Off to the airport to depart for our next country...... Where do you think we're going?

The Pyramid or the plate?

Which one do you like better? Which one to teach with?

Well both of course. Since we already stated learning about the food pyramid we're going to stick with it and bring in the plate method as well. After looking at the NEW plate chart I am liking the plate chart. For the most part this is how I am going to teach K about the different portions and how they should look on your plate and the pyramid will be used to show energy levels. What I mean by showing energy sort of like a battery charging. As you eat the different food groups your battery charges and when you exercise energy goes out. Each portion has it's own graph to show energy in. Now what do you think about the new charts??

Working on life skills

Life Skills

My pyramid

For life skills we are working on learning about nutrition. I feel it's important to teach K early on about proper nutrition for the body for fuel. He already knows a bit from me but now I am teaching WHY I buy certain things and limit certain things. This 1st week it's basically teaching him what the pyramid is and what it shows us. This next week we start with learning about grains and why they are important and so on. While we are learning about each group we will also sit down together and plan lunched together based on what we've learned. I want him to not only learn about the subject from reading and watching but also applying the knowledge.

Our summer life skills will cover

my pyramid
exercise and me
personal care and why

Summer Schedule has started

We have a fun learning schedule for the summer planned. Can't wait to watch K learn some new and important subjects that we don't get to focus on as much in our school year. LOVE schooling year around.

Police hall of fame field trip

This past Wednesday (4/06/11) we got together with a group of homeschoolers at the Police hall of fame in Titusville, FL. Great trip if you ask us. 57 police officers have been killed in the line of duty since the start of the year. Let's all THANK our officers who risk their life every day to protect us.

This car was the cruiser of a police officer who was killed just 3 weeks after coming to Florida to pay respect for another officer who was killed in the line of duty. The car was donated when his wife came to pay her respect to her husband when his name was added to the wall. She went home to have the car donated to the police hall of fame. The neat thing about the car is that at the officers memorial everyone who knew him wrote messages to him and then the car was clear coated to protect all the messages. My heart just hurt at this station. 9/11. These are parts of the World Trade Center. All the adults in the group had to touch these and NO ONE spoke.

Waiting in line to get in the police cruiser. K was really excited to sit in a police car.

Gas chamber..I sat in the chair and it's not comfortable Our guide a retired police officer locked all the kids in the cell..Look at those faces.Dress up time. That vest is HEAVY

Got caught by the student getting things ready for school

I was caught finishing up some new felt letters for the felt board. I think the SHOCK was that K never sees me getting ready for school. I have a rule to do this once K is in bed. Some times you just have to break the rules.

Week 01/25 -01/28 2011

This week is a busy week. We start a new song in Music this Wednesday have a few art projects to finish up and all our book work and start the homework routine. Yes even homeschoolers have homework. I love this idea because it teaches student that they are responsible to get things done without it being placed right in front of student. It also allows the other parent (dad) to have a hand in his school work and also see what they are working on learning.

Have a couple of test this week..Math and Phonics test :o)

Have a blessed week

The night before the 1st day back from Christmas Vacation

I spent my weekend working on getting ready for the month of school. Yes I pull the worksheets and make all my copies that I need the weekend before a new month. Keeps my free time at the end of the night once my student is in bed for me to sit down and relax.

I also have another binder now for Teacher stuff. I am a binder freak for my organizational OCD:o)


Have a wonderful week back to school