Weeks of 5/1/12 & 5/7/12

1. Board Games – Monopoly Jr., Clue
2. Jigsaw puzzles
3. Math – fact family practice where the highest number is 10
4. American Sign Language (ASL), Lesson 2 (finished) and Lesson 3 at Lifeprint
5. Solo reading – Bounty Hunter: Boba Fett (Star Wars: The Clone Wars chapter book)
6. Read Together – Predators (Tangerine Press) & Animals Exposed!  The Truth About Animal Intelligence (Tangerine Press)
7. Baking
8. Spelling review - First Grade, Lists 9-25 from Super Teacher Worksheets
9. Android App – Draw Something (drawing, phonetics & spelling!)
10. Grade 2 Evan Moor Daily Math Workbook

Weeks of 4/17/12 & 4/24/12

1. American Sign Language (ASL), Lesson 2 at 
Lifeprint 
2. Addition (More Complex, 2 Digit & 2 Plus 3 Digit  with carrying - many versions Dad's Worksheets)
3. Subtraction (1 & 2 Digit Subtraction, No Borrowing - many versions)
4. Similies
5. Poetry writing (two pieces: The Airplane Ride and Legos)
6. Read together – Porpoises (non-fiction) & Astronomy (non-fiction)
7. Movie – The Making of Frozen Planet
8. Board Games – Chess, Uno
9. Android App/Game – Cut The Rope
10. Baking
11. Lego kit building (three Star Wars kits)
12. Very large and very small number concepts (as pertain to astronomy and space)
13. Rounding to the nearest 10 and the nearest 100 at the grocery store
14. Movie - Walt Disney Legacy Collection: True Life Adventures Volume 3: Creatures of the Wild 
15. PS3 Game - Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7

Week of 4/10/12

1. American Sign Language (ASL), Lesson 2 at Lifeprint 
2. Subtraction (Spaceship Subtraction K, Version 1 from Dad's Worksheets)
3. Subtraction (Two Digit Subtraction, No Borrowing, Version 1)
4. Spelling activities (First Grade, Lists 25 from Super Teacher Worksheets)
5. Read together – Growing Up Protected (Tangerine Press)
6. Solo reading – Jigsaw Jones, The Case of the Mummy Mystery & Jigsaw Jones, The Case of the Glow- In-the-Dark Ghost
7. Movie – The Making of Frozen Planet
8. Board Games – Scrabble, Chess, Uno, Clue
9. Android App/Game – Cut The Rope

Week of 4/3/12

Spring Break!

Week of 3/26/12

1. Creation of original Star Wars comics (see this post for details)
2. American Sign Language (ASL), Lesson 1 at Lifeprint - we're done with Lesson 1
3. Addition (Spaceship Addition, Version N from Dad's Worksheets)
4. Spelling activities (First Grade, Lists 24 from Super Teacher Worksheets)
5. Subtraction (Spaceship Subtraction, Versions I & J from Dad's Worksheets)

Kitchen Learning. A List.

Reading.
Measuring.  Estimating.  Fractions.
Reactions.  Thickening.  Thinning.  Effects of temperature.
Kitchen vocabulary.  Rolling boil.  Simmer.  Saute.  Roast.  Puree...
Nutrition.  Balanced meals.
Multi-tasking.  Dice onions while rice simmers.  Clean spinach while onions sautee.
Kitchen management.  Onions are gone.  Put onions on grocery list.
Improvisation & creativity.  No pasta.  How about rice?
Pride in creating something.
Sense of accomplishment.
Joy in creating something together.
Smells.
Eats.

Curriculum. Lesson Plans. Worksheets... Just.  Can't.  Beat.  This.

Week of 3/19/12

1. American Sign Language (ASL), Lesson 1 at Lifeprint - we're almost done with Lesson 1! 
2. Cooking with mom (see this post for quick thoughts on "Kitchen Learning")
3. Genetics game using Punnet Square - Crazy Plant Shop at Filament Games
4. Creation of original Star Wars comic (see this post for details)
5. Board games

Sight Words Discovery Jar Bingo

I got this idea from the mama at Mom to 2 posh Lil Divas.  The sight word list is from Super Teacher Worksheets (Dolsch, Pre-Primer level).

J & S really enjoyed it.  the number of words in the jar and on the bingo/word card was a bit overwhelming (next time I'll use less words).  Even so, they were able to stay excited and curious with the involvement of myself or big brother C.

Here's a picture of C helping J find words.  The big jar is filled with rice and individual, laminated sight words (about 1 square inch in size).

J working on a "blackout" of his bingo card

Leprechaun Traps!

We didn't catch any, but we sure did try...

A Garden Planner

C and I used Sprout Robot to help us decide what seeds to plant, when & where (start indoors versus outdoors directly in the garden bed).  Then we made this cool planner to keep all of our information and seeds in one place.  This was a fun project that came with the added bonus of providing our family with a really useful tool!

We printed a calendar page for each month of our planting/gardening season, then indicated by picture (C *loathes* writing) the vegetables we would be planting in the week Sprout Robot recommended.

Following each month's calendar page we made a storage space for all of the seeds we would need in that month.  We just glued an envelope to heavier, card stock paper and tucked the seed packets in the envelope.

Here are the cover and all of the calendar pages with corresponding seed storage before assembly

And here's the planner all put together.  C made the cover page.  I love the planting/growing stages he included up at the top!

Week of 3/12/12

1. American Sign Language (ASL), Lesson 1 at Lifeprint
2. Spelling activities (First Grade, Lists 21, 22 & 23 from Super Teacher Worksheets)
3. Clone Wars Adventures online game
4. Vegetable garden planning with the help of Sprout Robot
5. Vegetable garden planner/book (see this post for photos)
6. Seed planting

Week of 3/5/12

1. Addition (No Carry, Simple Addition Carrying, Version 1 from Dad’s Worksheets)
2. Addition (No Carry, Addition Without Carrying, Version 1 from Dad’s Worksheets)
3. Addition (More Complex (w/carry), Two Plus One Digit Addition, Version 1 from Dad’s Worksheets)
4. Addition (More Complex (w/carry) - Two Digit Addition, Version 1 from Dad’s Worksheets)
5. Solar System video and quiz from cookie.com
6. Scale Sun and Earth video at Khan Academy
7. Mars video at BrainPop
8. American Sign Language (ASL), Lesson 1 at Lifeprint
9. We got some new board games recently (Sorry & Trouble) so we spent quite a bit of time playing them as well as our old standby, Uno.

Week of 2/27/12

1. Rush Hour - board game with brothers
2. Writing - three blog entries; favorite ride at Disney World, concept amusement park ride, concept amusement park resort with ride)
3. Subtraction (Spaceship Subtraction H, Version 1 from Dad's Worksheets)
4. Practice writing equations vertically
5. Surfing BrainPopJr.com 
6. Counting Money
7. Uno - card game with brothers
8. Painting - acrylics on canvas
9. Movie - Turtle: The Incredible Journey
10. Lego project with dad
11. Spelling activities (First Grade, Lists 19 & 20 from Super Teacher Worksheets)
12. Drawing - concept amusement park ride and concept amusement park resort with ride
13. Clone Wars Adventures (online game)
14. Building Leprechaun traps with brothers

Week of 2/20/12

Some kind of crazy virus (Perhaps Noro?).  Lots and of rest and recovery

Week of 2/13/12 - Disney World!

Traveling is such a great opportunity for learning.  C had so many growth spurts on this trip; intellectually, socially and emotionally.

Don has taken flying lessons and piloted planes on many occasions, so C got some "Flying Basics For An Almost-Seven-Year-Old" on the airplane ride down to Florida.

He overcame many worries and fears that would have been crippling only six months ago (noisy, crowded places, dark, loud movies, anything unexpected or unplanned to name just a few!)

He bought a new watch (with hands) with his spending money and learned how to tell time.  Prior to this trip he could tell time using a clock with hands only by the hour and half hour.  Because time is of the utmost importnace in DisneyWorld he spent a lot of time practicing how to read his new watch.  Now he can read the clock as well as I do!  He didn't need worksheets, computer learning programs or apps.   He just needed a reason to learn it and lots of opportunity to practice.

He started collecting Disney Pins on our trip and got lots of practice making tough decisions regarding pin purchases and pin trades (there are lots of opportunities to trade with other collectors and participating cast members).  He had opportunities to chat with folks about his collection, learn the history of some of the pins and trading ettiquette.  So cool!

He loved touring the countries in Epcot's World Showcase with his dad.  He learned how to say and write his name in several different languages.  He enjoyed learning the different flags and got a flavor for different architectural styles from around the world.  He met people from other countries, racial and ethnic backgrounds and cultures (Epcot's World Showcase employees are from the countries in which they work).  Epcot World Showcase was his favorite part of the trip.

There is so so much more that he learned, I can hardly remember it all!  That's what is so cool about this kind of learning.  It just happens; you barely even take notice!

Week of 2/6/12

Strep throat and an ear infection.  Lots of rest...

Evil, Un-Educational Computer Games?

C has been spending a lot of time playing Clone Wars Adventures.  "Experts" say too much computer time is bad bad bad.  I have been hearing the same messages as every other parent since C (my oldest) was in the womb.  I am just as wired as most parents to feel almost-compulsive guilt about, not merely "un-educational" computer game play during "school time", but LOTS of it.  When this happens I try to sit with the guilt, fallacies and fears until I get through it and to a place where I have a new script.  For example:

"What a horrible mom I am for allowing him to waste his time on something that has no educational value."

eventually turns into this:

"This is so cool that he can spend time playing a game he loves when he feels compelled to while learning things like: larger number concepts (counting thousands and tens of thousands of Republic Credits), estimating and rounding up and down in the hundreds and thousands (in order to "buy" gadgets and gizmos he wants), keeping track of his "spending" and making careful choices about how to spend his Republic Credits, losing a strategic battle game several times before finally winning with the perfect set-up (determined through trial and error and many losses), exercising extreme patience in that battle that lasted 3 hours before he was finally victorious!"

I love my job.

C's Terrarium

Week of 1/31/12

Stuff C worked on this week:

1. Addition (Spaceship Addition, Version N from Dad's Worksheets)
2. Khan Academy - Addition 3, video and practice
3. Disney Story Smash Up card game
4. DVD - Ecosystems and Biomes
5. Built a terrarium, made frequent observations and wrote about the project and documented some observations on his blog.
6. Spelling activities (First Grade, List 18 from Super Teacher Worksheets)
7. Subtraction (Spaceship Subtraction, Version G from Dad's Worksheets)
8. Counting money
9. Writing arithmetic equations vertically
10. Battleship board game
11. Clone Wars Adventures (A LOT!)
    
    
    

Week of 1/24/2012

Here's a quick list of things C worked on this week:

1. Clone Wars Adventures (A LOT!)
2. U Draw on PS3
3. Marble art project
4. Acrylic paints on the wall
5. Fractions (on Clone Wars Leapster Explorer app)
6. Spelling activities (First Grade, List 17 from Super Teacher Worksheets)
7. Writing arithmetic equations vertically
8. Create blog and write several entries

Week of 1/17/2012

Here's a quick list of things C worked on this week:

1. Spelling activities (First Grade, List 16 from Super Teacher Worksheets)
2. Subtraction (Spaceship Subtraction, Version F from Dad's Worksheets)
3. Writing arithmetic equations vertically
4. Solar System project
5. Fractions between 0 and 1 on a number line using 1 calendar year as an example.
6. Mad Libs
7. Human anatomy game
8. Solo reading (My Side of The Mountain)
9. Spelling (Jigsaw Words game on Kindle)
10. Dots and Boxes game on Kindle

Week of 1/9/2012

Here's A quick list of things C spent time on this week:

1. Khan Academy - Addition 2 video and practice
2. Khan Academy - Human Evolution Overview video
3. Spelling activities (First Grade, List 15 from Super Teacher Worksheets)
4. Addition (Spaceship Addition, Version L from Dad's Worksheets)
5. Counting Money
6. Mad Libs
7. Reading together (Animal Builders & Sea Creatures)
8. Math worksheets (fractions and mixed numbers from Super Teacher Worksheets)
9. Mammoth dig project
10. Solo Reading (The Solar System)
11. Tye die project
12. Fraction shapes review, fractions between 0 and 1 on a number line using 1 calendar year as an example.
13. Khan Academy - Place Value video
14. Khan Academy - Introduction to Evolution and Natural Selection video

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