Homeschool Mother's Journal: February 22, 2013.

In my life this week…
Disneyland excitement is currently pervading our household. Disney music fills our home and daily countdowns are performed. Aidyn, striving hard to reach the 46" requirement to ride Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye, has become mightily interested in all things Indy.

He's been watching The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones and even checked out an picture-encyclopedia all about Indy. Within the pages detailing Indiana Jones' uber-cool persona, we found that he was homeschooled, too! That little fact excited Aidyn about his new favorite hero.

In our homeschool this week…
We have had a busy week with six extracurricular activities outside the home. On Tuesday, he attended a heart-themed class, in which they learned how the heart works and how to keep it healthy. He also participated in his P.E. class, where they played a game of soccer, and karate as well as a character class on flexibility. He made an octopus craft and started on a fire ant project in his art class.

On the homefront, we have started Level B of Sadlier Phonics, which starts with lots of review, so he's breezing through it. With math, he's learning to add sums to 12. In the mornings, we use Evan Moor's Ten-Minute Activities to get our brains energized.

I came up with another morning exercise to help him with counting on called Rabbit Ears Math. This helps him count up by 2, and so at the end he makes rabbit ears with his fingers. The more he practiced, the quicker his rabbit ears perked up!

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…


Absorbing skills and facts and retaining them long-term happens best where excitement and emotion pervade. We remember best that which is new, exciting, and emotional. We usually remember special birthday celebrations and field trips but hardly anything about the day after. If we teach in funny, exciting and novel ways, the lessons are much more likely to be remembered.


Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…
We've had our friend Amanda and her son over for two days this week. I love (and need!) her company and enjoying talking things out with her and sharing vents about the world. She is also helping the time fly by this week as waiting for our vacation can make time drag.


 My favorite thing this week was…
Watching Aidyn's excitement over discovering a new hero, Indiana Jones. I love seeing new interests grow in him.


My kiddo's favorite thing this week was…
Definitely climbing trees yesterday. He came in, red-cheeked and glistening with sweat and excitement, and proudly proclaimed that he had climbed a tree all by himself (but with a little boost from a friend).


 Things I’m working on…
I'm still scrimping and saving for our Disneyland trip and finding new ways to cut costs where I can. Once we return, I'll be sharing money-saving tips and techniques here.


 I’m cooking…
Frugal meals from Miserly Moms.

Here is her Easy Mexican Casserole, which was easy to make and easy on the wallet. It cost me about $5 to prepare and fed us and a guest for dinner and lunch the next day.

 I’m grateful for…
My husband who works hard every day and even put in an extra day on Saturday. He deserves a vacation terribly, and I aim to make it enjoyable for him.

 I’m hoping for…
A way to slow time down just a bit so we can fully relax and enjoy our upcoming vacation.

 I rewarded my kid this week by…
Giving extra cuddles when he was upset and talking him through it. He rewarded me yesterday by picking me a new flower blossom from the tree he climbed.

 Something I am ogling or have my eye on…
Same thing as last week:

 A photo, video, link, or quote to share (silly, serious or both!)…
 I love TED Talks, but this one had me tears-- the good kind! This 13-year-old "hackschooler" passionately follows his interests and helps me remember why I choose to homeschool and to ignore those voices that express anything less than full-on support.

Mamatography 2013 Week Seven: Shhhh! Art, Dress-up, and a Bit of Science.

I am taking part in the Mamatography 2013 Challenge with Momma Jorje and Diary of a First Child to take a photo every day of our day-to-day life and post once a week.

I still suck at remembering to take pictures every day, but I'm trying!

Pig art.

Finn from Adventure Time--err, I mean, Aidyn. :)

Learning about consonant digraphs.

 

Playing Domino Rally.

 

Morning science exercises.

Sad to say that is the extent of this week's photos, but soon there will be massive amounts of whimsy and color with Disneyland vacation photos!

Homeschool Mother's Journal: February 15, 2013.

In my life this week…

Disneyland excitement! We are making the final arrangements for a Disneyland vacation, our first as a whole family (with Grandma) since 2009. When we're not doing lessons or ordinary stuff, we're squealing about Disneyland.

In our homeschool this week…

In the wonderful world of reading, Aidyn is working on consonant digraphs. We planned a firefighters unit study, but with the Cesar Chavez holiday and coming fresh off our Abraham Lincoln unit study, we focused on book work. We have also been using Evan-Moor's Ten-Minute Activities in the mornings to fire up the brain.

 We've done all science activities since we are not currently doing a science-related unit study. In Math, we just finished up comparing numbers with < , > , and =. Midweek we moved onto adding sums up to 12. It had been a few weeks since doing addition work in the book, but he picked it up pretty smoothly.

With Victory Drills, he is reading, on average, 24-26 words per minute along with easy readers. He also does daily writing every day that connects with the books he is reading. 

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…

I am continuously amazed how and where learning pops up. On the drive to karate, I gave Aidyn our old map of California and our old GPS. The GPS needed charging, so he folded open the expansive and tattered map and pored over our home state. Although we have been to the beach many times, he was in awe that a whole side of our state "is beach," as he put it. We subsequently talked about the Pacific Ocean (and connected it with the words "pacify" and "pacifier") and how it is a relatively calm ocean. He declared that California "is the tallest state."

Just another lesson for myself that learning happens everywhere and does not always fit into cute, well-planned boxes.  

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…

This week, Aidyn went to his P.E. class and practiced soccer and football moves, jumped on the trampoline, and performed strength training exercises with his classmates. He also attended karate, in which he practiced high kicks, and his art class where he made a Valentine's Card and a Valentine's Day necklace.

Every day he plays with his gaggle of friends outside, riding bikes, tossing baseballs, telling secrets, and squeezing out more time playing in the dusk as the days start lengthening.   

My favorite thing this week was…

It may seem minor, but I loved how we drew pigs this week during downtime. Aidyn isn't overjoyed to draw, but I'm trying to teach him some basic shapes and styles of drawing.

We joked that this was King Kong Piggy, with evil red eyes but gentle enough to eat a flower.
   
My kiddo's favorite thing this week was…

I would take a guess that it was an unexpected Fun Day, where we put school work aside and just played.

   

Things I’m working on…

• learning to better manage our finances by tracking spending and budgeting appropriately.
• to complain less when I am tired and/or hungry
• to go with the flow and worry less about getting lessons done on time  

I’m cooking…

Frugal meals from Miserly Moms ! I've made her Mushroom-Onion Chicken, Pasta Bake, and Tuna Casserole, which were all delicious and very inexpensive!  

I’m grateful for…

The ability to homeschool, the joy of watching my son absorb a lesson and apply it independently, my hardworking and loving husband, and our impending vacation that we all so desperately need.  

Also: finding time to read a whole book!

 

I’m hoping for…

Warmer days.  

I rewarded my kid this week by…

Taking Valentine's Day off from school work and letting him have fun with Domino Rally and his croquet set. I also uploaded more Cliff Hanger videos to watch in between lessons. He loves them.

 

Something I am ogling or have my eye on…

A photo, video, link, or quote to share (silly, serious or both!)…

 
 

Main Street U.S.A: Abraham Lincoln

With the whole park of Disneyland before your eyes, most visitors look beyond Main Street, its waving flagpole, quaint buildings and fictitious businesses, and the clomping horses pulling their carriages. But for keen eyes, it's a look back to a living and breathing Marceline, Missouri-inspired town square.

Walt Disney said, "For those of us who remember the carefree time it recreates, Main Street will bring back happy memories. For younger visitors, it is an adventure in turning back the calendar to the days of their grandfather's youth."



While walking through Main Street, one can hear the clanging on the fire engine or even the lively music of the Firehouse Five Band, see the lamp lighting the window above the firehouse to signify Walt's staying presence, mosey into shops to sample ice cream, coffee, and baked goods, hear a moving oration by an animatronic Abraham Lincoln, or slip into the Main Street Cinema to catch classic Mickey Mouse cartoons.

With only a few weeks before our vacation to Disneyland, we are embarking on a simple unit study of Main Street, focusing on Abraham Lincoln (a fitting study close to his birthday and President's Day), firefighters, and a side of classic cartoons and ice cream.

Last week, we learned about Honest Abe.

Social Studies: The life of Abraham Lincoln through a living history

We read Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire's beautifully illustrated book Abraham Lincoln .

The pages were large enough to pore over, and it was written in a clear and enjoyable story form. We mainly focused on Abe's youth the first day. We also watched a video, Animated Hero Classics: Abraham Lincoln.

Below is a clip from the show, but we watched the entire episode through Discovery Education:



After learning about Lincoln's simple childhood, we made a version of the log cabin in which he grew up.

The idea came from Enchanted Learning, which has an array of President's Day crafts as well as worksheets about many of our presidents.

Character Study: Honesty

Abraham Lincoln is still revered for his honesty. We watched Adventures for the Book of Virtues: Abraham Lincoln, which showcased events in young Abe's life, in which he chose honesty, and the story of a honest student and a man who also elected to be honest rather than scheme his way to quick fortune.



When we visit Disneyland in a few weeks, we will be stopping in to see Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln on Main Street.






To hear about other Disneyland-inspired unit studies, please visit Destination Disneyland Unit Studies!

Mamatography 2013 Week Five: Word Relays, Honest Abe, and Reading

I am taking part in the Mamatography 2013 Challenge with Momma Jorje and Diary of a First Child to take a photo every day of our day-to-day life and post once a week.

In our homeschool, we played a couple games of Word Relay. This week, he learned about r-controlled vowels.

We also learned about Abraham Lincoln, and subsequently built a version of the log cabin in which he grew up.

He played Super Mario Chess early one morning.

Tying his belt for karate.

Cuddling with Meggie on a Saturday morning.

And on Sunday, I had one of those read-a-whole-book-in-one-day kind of days: Unbearable Lightness by Portia de Rossi.

Fun Videos for Learning to Read

I'm always on the lookout for videos to help my child learn to read. Sometimes it just is not enough to work through his Sadlier Phonics books. Words on a page ebb from his memory, but a catchy song or a hilarious video tends to keep those memories alive.

Below is a catch-all collection of YouTube videos which have greatly helped Aidyn remember phonetic sounds.

Our favorite series of all are the Cliff Hanger videos, which not only entertain but provide a nifty sort of captioning, keep us watching to see if this poor guy will ever get off the cliff. Most of the Cliff Hanger videos focus on long vowels, as in "mole" and consonant digraphs like "ship."




Short A videos:

Between the Lions: "If You Can Read at..."
Between the Lions: Chicken Jane and the Bad Ram
Between the Lions: What's Cooking? Slammed and Rammed Ham (-am words)

Short E videos:

Between the Lions: Cliffhanger and the Bed
Between the Lions: Chicken Jane and the Red Elephant
Between the Lions: Gawain's Word: Net
The Electric Company: Wyak- Short E

Short I videos:

Between the Lions: Cliffhanger and the Tricky Pixie
Between the Lions: Gawain's Word: Kick
KidsTV123: The I Song

Short O videos:

Between the Lions: What's Cooking? Hot Chop Drop Soup
Between the Lions: Chicken Jane and the Ox in a Box
Between the Lions: Magnificent Monkey Cheerleaders- Hop
Between the Lions: Sloppy Pop (-op words)

Short U videos:

Between the Lions: Grubby Pup
Between the Lions: What's Cooking? Rubbed and Hugged Mutton
Between the Lions: Chicken Jane and the Duck with the Truck (with -ck ending words, too.)
Classic Sesame Street: I'd Like to Buy a U for the Word "up"

Long Vowels: -ai-, -ay-, -ea-, -oa- videos:

Between the Lions: When Two Vowels Go Walkin' (amazing video to use throughout long vowel instruction!)
Between the Lions: Cliffhanger and the Rain (-ai- words)
Classic Electric Company- Everyone Has a Pain (-ai words)
Between the Lions: Cliffhanger and the Enchanted Goat (many -oa- words)

Silent E videos:

The Electric Company- Silent E Music Video
Classic Electric Company- Silent E


 Long A videos:

(still searching for good ones!)

Long E videos:

Between the Lions: Double E Song (mainly -ee- words)
Between the Lions: Monkey Pop-Up Theatre- Bo Peep (lots of -ee- words)
Classic Sesame Street- E Imagination (-ee- and -ea- words)
Between the Lions: Gawain's Word: Weep
Between the Lions: What's Cooking? Beef in a Sheet (-ee- words)

Long I videos:

Between the Lions: Vowel Boot Camp- Long i

Long O videos:

Between the Lions: Dixie Chimps- Long O
Between the Lions: Cliffhanger, the Mole, and the Rope
Classic Sesame Street- The O Song (wonderful song with long o words)
Between the Lions: Fonix- Double O, Oo (-oo- words like "moo")


Long U videos:

The Electric Company: Josephine: Long U


Y as a vowel videos:

Classic Electric Company- LY
Between the Lions: B.B. the King of Beasts- Troubled by Y

Long vowel combo videos:

Muffin Songs: ABC Phonics Chant Song- Long u, o, and e

Consonant digraph videos:

Between the Lions: Cliffhanger and the Sheep on a Ship (-sh- words)
Between the Lions: Gawain's Word: Shark (-sh- words)
Between the Lions: What's Cooking? Squished Fish on a Dish (-sh- words)
Between the Lions: What's Cooking? Tickled and Pickled Ribs (-ck- and short i words)
Between the Lions: Gawain's Word: Tickle (-ck- words)
Between the Lions: Cliffhanger, the Pheasant and the Phone (-ph- words)
Between the Lions: Cliffhanger and the Chuckling Chickens (-ch- words)

r-controlled vowels videos:

Between the Lions: Cliffhanger and the Dirty Purple Shirt

More will be added as we find and use more. Check back later for new additions!

Mamatography 2013 Week Four: Ocean Potion and Yellow Submarines.

I am taking part in the Mamatography 2013 Challenge with Momma Jorje and Diary of a First Child to take a photo every day of our day-to-day life and post once a week.


I am failing miserably.

Although last week was chock full of fun ocean books and science experiments, I documented next to nothing. It was one of those weeks where we had busy homeschool fun and didn't think twice to stop for a picture.

I have some, so I will share. And resolve to take more pictures this week.

Here's Aidyn making Ocean Potion, a neat little snack idea from Spoonful. It is a basic blue gelatin with submerged ocean gummies.

We have been working on copywork lately, but I think I need to thank his Nintendo 3DS and his art class for his improved fine motor skills.

In our homeschool this week, we have been learning about the ocean, specifically coral reefs, aquatic animals and submarines. Here, Aidyn's eating a Tuna and Seaweed (spinach leaves) sandwich with a side of chips and ocean fruit snacks while watching The Beatles' Yellow Submarine.

We have a super busy week, but I resolve to take more pictures!