Boogie School

Story Game - Racing seeds

2006-04-20T08:36:00.000-07:00

STORY GAME

Make up cards (colored index cards or squares of construction paper). Write down the required things on the specified colors.

YELLOW: PLACES (ie – home, zoo, Canada)
RED: LIVE THINGS (ie – dog, cat, lion)
BLUE: THINGS TO DO (ie – play, climb, drive)
GREEN: PEOPLE’S NAMES (ie – Mom, Nana, Dad)
PURPLE:STUFF (ie – toy, car, tree)

Pick one card of each color.
Make up a short story using the words that you chose.

RACING SEEDS

1.Pick out 3 different seeds (we chose sunflower, pea and bean).
2.Label 3 baggies with the name of your seeds and place a folded dampened paper towel in each.
3. Label 3 plant pots with the name of your seeds and fill with soil
4. Place one seed in each of the correct locations.
5. water the pots and place in a sunny place
6. Tape the baggies to the window above the pots.

7. Have each kid or kid and parents choose a seed to "root" (haha) for. Then watch and wait.

Gardening

2006-04-17T04:59:00.000-07:00

It's that planting time of year.
My seeds came in over the weekend and I'm itching to get them all in the ground, or at least start the ones that I can. M wants to help and have her own little flower garden which I think is a great idea.

I'm also thinking of doing the bean in the baggie science observation thing. This blog explains it well and I'm thinking of doing her blogging idea too. I think M would love to have a blog. She's only 5 but I think it would be interesting.

More to come....

Doing Good

2006-04-07T12:12:00.000-07:00

M is still doing really well when I'm able to get her to work...
It seems like I need to make sure she knows at least one day ahead that she has school coming up. She doesn't seem to remember that there are certain days out of the week that we always work. She also freaks out when she doesn't know ahead of time. egads.

She's also decided that she doesn't want to do any outside classes or sports. When only a short few months ago when I couldn't afford it, she wanted to do it. I don't know. I just hope at some point she changes her mind. I think classes or sports would do really well for her socializing and learning.

The amazing thing is that when she is ready to work she breezes through everything. Review and new stuff. We did our work today and then I printed out some worksheets for her. One of the worksheets even had new stuff that I didn't even discuss with her. She breezed through all of it and got it right.

She's so damn smart.

I found a new place to print worksheets from
learningpage.com

It looks as though it's stuff from 2000. Although it all seems to be really good materials that could've been written more recently (except for the calendar that is a calendar fo 2000). Still the worksheets having to do with the calendar will still work to teach calendar months, days, etc.

Weather Journal

2006-01-25T05:47:00.000-08:00

This is probably the best thing we're doing lately. We're doing the math and the reading and all that but the weather journal is fun.

I have her draw a picture of the weather then answer questions - precipitation, color of the sky, temperature, and ground cover. Then she has a spot that she can write what else she observes.

We do this once each week and it takes up a good amount of time but I think it's pretty valuable. She's observing, answering questions, reading temperature, writing, and really thinking about it.

I look forward to the end of the year when we can go back and look at it to see the changes in weather.

Goals for January into February

2006-01-04T10:44:00.000-08:00

I meant to post goals just for January but as I started to write them I was being a little industrious and figured it might take into February to accomplish some of them.

LA/Reading/writing
Read a book - Lions at Lunchtime (Magic Treehouse series)
Re-write Moira's stories so they're legible.
Write new stories?
Vowels/consonants - work at recognizing them quickly
Syllables - clap them out (car game)
phonemes
Sentence structure maps
Title page of books - choosing a book from a library based on what you want.
Penmanship
Drag out Shel Silverstien book and maybe memorize a poem

Math
Continue with addition and subtraction exercises
write her own math problems
Count by 2's, 5's, 10's, etc.
Money
Temperature
Work on graphs
Days of the week

History
review Native American stuff
Famous Americans
Do more with national symbols

Geography
Maps
I'm thinking of having M map out where she would like to go on a field trip this spring. Look up the maps online and draw her own pictures and map out a place to go see. Even if it's only the beach or a hiking spot. I want her to be able to give a general idea of how we'll get from A to B.

Science
Weather Journal? - I had planned for this to be a spring exercise since the weather is so varied and interesting but I'm going to introduce it now.

Light and Shadows - Work also on the planets and how you can sometimes see the moon in the daytime.

Begin planting seedlings for the garden. Planting a bean/pea between wet towels and a clear glass so she can see how they grow.

Human body stuff - 5 senses - we'll work on this just because she likes to. We work on it much of the time anyway.

Start winter Lapbook

Misc
Spanish - work on songs
Karate - I need to sign her up for classes

Lady bugs

2005-10-31T11:07:00.000-08:00

I think I may be better at the "unschooling" thing than the "homeschooling". Or maybe it's just easier at this point in M's education.

We have been over run with lady bugs in the past couple of days. My dad and I tried to count them yesterday, we got to 10 on the door and looked up to see a bunch more here and there. They were all over the place.

Today they were still pretty plentiful and M was just thrilled with it. She went around with a container and collected them, placing them on plants inside the house. I explained ot her part of being a scientist is to observe and report. I told her to watch the bugs and then report on them.

She gave me a one page report with drawings on it.
There are several lady bugs, one is even flying - very correct looking too.
She wrote:
Ladybugs fly
Ladybugs walk
Ladybugs eat bugs that are called aphids.

I think it's pretty good for a 5 year old.
I can't wait to se thenext thing she finds interesting. I hope to have a whole folder of these cool little "reports".

Hurricanes

2005-10-24T04:39:00.000-07:00

M has been interested in all the hurricane news since we know people in Florida. I plan to do a lesson this week- hopefully later today. Here are some maps:
Moving Map

Still map from 0ct24 am

Projected paths and advanced info
National Hurrican Center

CLN Hurricanes

October Update

2005-10-19T14:22:00.000-07:00

The past few weeks have been hectic.
Kate was born on 9-28
One week later Gram had a stroke.
One more week and Kayla went to the vets with a Broken hip.

We've still been homeschooling although it's turning more into an unstructured "unschooling" environment. Not that I'm against it.

We've worked on:
Math: She's done more worksheets and advanced pretty well into the higher double digits and she's doing well with word problems.
Temperatures: What they mean and how to read a Thermometer
Seasons: We've talked abut Fall and the changing weather. We should start the lapbook for this soon.
The Vores: She's worked on distinguishing the difference between Herbivores, Carnivores and Omnivores. She's drawn pictures and written little bits about the pictures.
Reading Comprehension: When I read to her, she's almost flawless (so long as the story isn't too long), and she's not bad when she reads the story out loud to me.
writing and penmanship:
Reading: We've been trying to make sure to do 15-20 minutes each day. When she reads a new book I check her Comprehension.
Language Arts: She's started to write stories. She draws pictures and has a story that goes along with them.
Human Body: This is something she's still really interested in and has done some drawings of bones and was working up a story about the human body.

Things we need to work on more:
Spanish
Science
Money
Time
Human Body

Mid September Update

2005-09-15T06:20:00.000-07:00

I've been keeping track of all our work in my written books here instead of writing online that much. Each week I've been keeping track of progress and write the goals for the following week.

Progress and what we've done so far this year:
Spelling - she has phonetics down, now we're working on correcting that. I didn't teach her phonetically exactly, it's just what comes to her. She actually makes some decent sentences when she tries. She has letter tiles that she spends lots of time arranging over and over again. Letters b and d in the lower case are still being mixed up.

Reading - She's reading to me daily. We've breezed through many of her quick to read books and are moving on to the longer stories. Letters b and d in the lower case are still being mixed up. When she doesn't feel like reading anymore I have been reading her Black Beauty.

Misc. Grammar - Language Arts She's done well with Syllibication. There are times when she's bored that she'll just start to clap out syllables of words that she thinks of. She knows her vowels. She's doing well with sight words.

Penmanship gets better all the time. She is best at doing one word at a time. If I give her a sentence, she runs all the letters together.

Simple Math She was rushing and being a spaz for a while. Telling me she hated math. She's slowed down and now gets most of her problems correct. Subtraction we are doing 10 and less. Addition is for the answers being 19 or less. We've done a few word problems - she seems to like them.

Money This is an absolute love of hers. I think it makes her like Math more in general. We just started to work at recognizing money and it's values.

Spanish We work at reveiewing words throughout the day. We just did a project on color which she loves. She reads practice words well and sometimes with the correct pronunciations.

History We finished our books on Native Americans. I've been trying to find movies to watch (with no luck). We'll go to the Nat. Am. museum once I have this baby, I can't take that long of a trip at this point. We made dream catchers, corn dolls, and a totem pole. Soon I'd like to make a Nat.Am. style dinner from one of our cookbooks. I plan to keep reviewing this over the year and tie it in to more American History as we continue.

Geography We've done puzzles and papers, read books and looked at Google map stuff. She knows what country, state and town we're in. She can also easily find Maine and California on the state map. She made a globe (painted styrofoam ball) for a mobile that we plan to do. I hope to move onto other countries soon.

4 seasons This week or early next week I hope to finish up our lapbook for "Summer". She has a good grasp of the seasons and the holidays that are in those seasons. In October we'll probably start the "Fall" lapbook.

I'm sure I forgot something but that's what I can remember at the moment.

Kinder web

2005-08-16T07:07:00.000-07:00

Lots of really easy stuff but also has things on time, money and fractions
Kinderweb

Native American studies

2005-08-16T04:52:00.000-07:00

As part of our curriculum this year we will be working on studying Native American culture (social studies). I might drag it out throughout the year but for right now I have some great books to start with:
Corn is Maize (Aliki)
-a nice little story book
Plains Indians (Pluckrose)
- more factualy but with good illustrations
The First Americans (Sherman)
- An adult book but has great illustrations/photos
Daily Life in a Plains Indian Village (Michael Bad Hand Terry)
- lots of illustrations/photos, I hope it realy sucks her into the life at the time.

Nothing drives that home better for my little one than crafty stuff:

I found this site for some crafty ideas.

This site looks a little more advanced so I might wait to do some of these in a couple of months or so. I think M would enjoy the Cornhusk doll.

Possible field trips:

I know that a simple drive up Rte1 would result in some places to stop but with gas prices as they are, I want to try and plan this out.

Pueblo Pottery of Maine in Limington. It looks like it is solely a gift shop but it does have lots of Native American goods.

Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor. There are also exhibits in Acadia Nat. Park but they are only open Spring to October. This looks like a great museum to visit. Here is a listing of places that might be worth a visit but most don't have a website nor do they seem as fabulous as the Abbe Museum. This looks like it might be a better list of Native American sites to visit in the state.

At the Wildlife Par in Gray there is an ongoing Pow-wow (July 13-Sept 14). The pow-wow is open 11 am to 2 pm.

This should keep us busy for a while.

link

2005-08-04T08:09:00.000-07:00

Just adding another link to look at when I have time.

http://www.homeeducator.com

Why homeschool

2005-08-01T10:18:00.000-07:00

I like this article

This is a fabulous summary from the article posted above:
I don't think homeschooling is for everyone. Heck, lots of parents welcome that 9 to 3 break from their kids. And many parents are so devoted and involved, they make public schools better for everybody, and I admire that.

But I'm not that patient.

No, until our society can stop the violence, pay teachers what they deserve, fund superior classroom technology, get past the arguments about religion, tailor education to individual children, abolish the bureaucracy and define "Waffle Stix," I'd just as soon do this myself.

Besides, we enjoy teaching our children. And that's reason enough.

social misfits

2005-07-25T07:46:00.000-07:00

I get a little tired of hearing "but how will se be able to relate to other kids" "she'll be a social misfit if you homeschool" and so and so forth. I'm sure lots of parents that homeschool have to listen to this bunch of hooey.

I see kids all the time that are less adjusted to playing with other kids than my daughter. There is one that immediately comes to mind. She goes to school and is in daycare. She is quiet, reserved, and timid. My husband has said on occasion "I had no idea she was even there". This girl is sweet and kind. Many would think that she is perfectly behaved child and she is very well behaved. But if she were being homeschooled people would say "she's anti-social because of homeschooling." The behaviors demonstrated by this child are the behaviors displayed by my husband while growing up. He has dubbed himself a social misfit even though he went to a good sized public school. It seems to be ok to be a social misfit and anti-social if you went to public school.

Our daughter is outgoing, gregarious, and very active. She may seem like the wild child at a get-together but she has manners and (most of the time) listens well for her age. I'm sure though, that someone that is anti-homeschool would find "something" anti-social in her behavior.

What makes children anti-social aren't solely based on homeschool environments. Some kids in public school become anit-social because of teasing or parental restraints or millions of other reasons. Homeschool kids may become anti-social but not just because they aren't thrust into a public school environment. There is no rule that just because a kid is homeschooled, they WILL become a social misfit. Just like there is no rule that states that a kid going to public school will be well rounded and a social capable human being.

2005-06-22T07:54:00.000-07:00

I started to do my reading on the laws of the state and when I felt like my head was going to explode from all the tedium I switched to reading curriculum ideas. I read the first part of my book on curicula for M's grade level and I've gotten some great ideas that I think will be perfect for M.

The hard part will be getting to the library. They closed the local library, the one I could walk to. There isn't much in this town I can walk to so I was excited to be able to do that with M. Now we'll have to borrow a vehicle. It sucks because I know we won't go as often now.

My next little hurdle will be to sign up with a local homeschooling group. It seems necessary for end of year testing and such. I had planned on signing up anyway. Hopefully M will be able to start Karate or Dance in the fall. She didn't seem to enthused about the idea of Girl Scouts so I think that will be put off another year.

heart

2005-06-17T10:43:00.000-07:00

M wants to know how the heart works so I found this. Looks promising.
http://www.howstuffworks.com/heart.htm

They also have brain, immune system, kidneys and lungs.

more sites

2005-04-14T04:03:00.000-07:00

More sites I need to check out

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050411/damfns1.html?.v=1

http://www.cobranchi.com/archives/004917.html

http://www.myeducationathome.com/

http://www.oakmeadow.com/

http://www.teachwithmovies.org/

http://www.livejournal.com/community/homeschooling/115246.html?nc=6

Montessori

2005-04-10T10:43:00.000-07:00

Montessori World

I haven't checked it all out yet but it has some great stuff for handwork at least. It might have other good things that we can use and tie into daily life.

websites

2004-10-22T03:43:00.000-07:00

Right now we're taking it easy. I've never pushed her but I do encourage her curiosity. Earlier in the week she ask what is a brain and how does it work?

This is the site I found to explain things. Brains Rule We played a few games and much of it was over capabilities at this time but she did pick a few things up. Its cute to see a 4 year old talking about brains.

Meeting people

2004-09-20T09:55:00.000-07:00

It all happpened when I went to get little M from school today.
Another woman that has her youngest in with M at nursery school is homeschooling 2 of her older kids.
We talked for a while about it but not too much because the kids got let loose soon after.

I had to say its encouraging to see one of her older daughters with her and she has piercings and a cute haircut and all with being a smart kid with a great attitude. Now piercing aren't all that is important but its an indication that the kid is a "kid".

I think I worry like anyone else about M being a well adjusted kid. Sometimes homeschool kids seem so withdrawn but I plan to have M involved in things.

I was thinking on my way home today that if I homeschool M that she will have MORE time available for social things. She could do dance AND tumbling. She could choose hockey, t-ball, karate, or a million other activities. If she was doing full days in Kindergarten and then coming home to do homework, she wouldn't be able to do it all.

This is looking good.

Homeschooling

2004-09-16T09:42:00.000-07:00

My daughter is currently in Nursery School and we have been seriously considering homeschooling her starting next year. It seemslike the best option for us. I'm starting to research all the ins and outs of this and I wanted a place to keep all the info.

If any one else is in a similar situation, maybe this blog will be able to help them on thier journey as well.

I have to say, the more I look into the programs and info available, the more "jazzed" I am to be thinking of doing this with our daughter.