Here are a few things we did in December for home school that I didn't have the energy to post last month. I also don't have a ton of excitement for elaborating too much about our activities in this post, so again it will be mostly pictures. BUT, I am very exciting for the rest of the year. Christmas break came just at the right time. I think we all needed it. Now we are ready to go. We've got a month of ancient Greece, the Mayans and Aztecs, Ancient China, India, and Africa, another month of ancient Rome, and then a quick Byzantine Empire and wrap up and then we are already done with the school year! I can hardly believe it. Joshua's reading has jumped up to the next level. I'm checking out the advanced early readers at the library for him. We're going to move through the rest of his second semester 1st grade math book and then spend the rest of the time (and the summer) an supplements to really solidify these basic concepts. We've got about 4 more weeks of animals before we move onto the human body for 6 weeks and then plants for the remaining 10 - just in time for the spring planting. Joshua's already staked out his personal garden plot (unfortunately it is right in the middle of our lawn so there will need to be a little negotiating there). And I am excited to start teaching Abigail to read next month. I think she is ready now. Lukas is excited for "potty trains" and he often reminds me that when he doesn't have diapers anymore and he uses the potty he gets a chocolate chip. And Kaleb can finally pull himself up to a stand! I know, at 13 1/2 months. He's definitely a Mock. My goal for him is to have him walking by the time he enters nursery... in 5 months. I hope he's on board with my timetable. Anyway, back to December.
Math - addition flash cards up to 18
I felt Joshua needed more drilling with his basic addition so we used these flash cards everyday and we came up with a really fun matching game - You'd pick something like the number 15 and then you got to pick up every card that equaled 15.
Stonehenge - We weren't totally into this and the books weren't exactly at the kid's level but we still learned about the different kind of stones they used and how nobody really knows anything about it. And then we made our own out of play dough.
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| This is the destruction of Stonehenge in fast forward |
Giraffes - Our books were really good, but no offense to giraffe lovers, giraffes are kind of boring. We made a strip of orange/brown paper as long as the longest giraffe ever recorded and displayed it on our ceiling... until it fell down because scotch tape isn't really that good at holding giraffes up on the ceiling.
Backyard Birds - the kids LOVED this activity. We checked out a bunch of guide books and made bird feeders out of pine cones, peanut butter, and bird seed. Then we hung them up in locations that we could look at from the bedroom windows and waited. The kids set up stations in their rooms, each with a guide book, some paper, crayons, and pencils. Anytime they would see a bird (I mean, ANYTIME) they would run to their stations and sketch it and then try and look it up in the guide book. They recorded some interesting finds, however all I've seen around lately are our doves that harass the neighbor's walnut tree. It took a few weeks but we finally got some takers on the bird feeders. The kids loved their stations so much that I just barely returned a guide book to the library, majorly overdue at this point, and Joshua was still complaining because he wasn't done with it yet. Still, it was kind of magical to show the kids when the birds came and actually ate from their feeders.
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| view from Joshua's window |
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| View from Abigail's window - I guess you would only see the feeders if you knew where to look - but I promise, they're hanging out there. | | | |
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The Food Storage Room. In other learning activity related news, Joshua has been helping a lot with our first in-home-home-improvement project. I didn't get a photo of the before picture, but here are a couple photos of the work in progress. First Derek took all our food storage OUT, then he tore down all the built in shelves, next his dad helped do all the electrical work, and then his brother came out and they worked on all the insulation (which takes a long time when you decide to DOUBLE insulate everything) and then they finally started the drywalling. Now Derek is working on mudding, then he will paint, then put in a tongue and groove wood ceiling, stain that, and add carpet. I'm sure I've left out a step. And I know you are thinking, this is only a food storage room that nobody is going to see (actually we use it almost every day - or we did before the project started) but this has been a fun project, a learning experience, and wonderful time for Derek, his dad, and brother to spend time together. Joshua and Lukas have also been right in the thick of it. And so far we are in need of only one tetnis shot! In the end, the room will be so nice, we might make it another bedroom. Just kidding. No matter how many times Derek brings it up, I remind him children should not sleep in closets!
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| still tearing out |
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| new lights and a new switch and outlet, double insulated, and partly drywalled. |
Last but not least - This doesn't happen very often so I took a picture. Sometimes it's fun to have to share a room. (Actually it's mostly fun until you are a teenager.) There are 5 pillows on that bed! I only have three kids who use pillows but it isn't unusual to find 10 pillows downstairs, all being used.
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