January/February '10 Eclectic Thread

[mangopassion]

It's been awhile, so I thought I'd start a new thread for us folks that don't fit into any one 'category'.

How is everyone doing?

We are plugging along. December was very relaxed for us and it's been a little tough getting back into the swing of things in the new year. But, as usual, I've been doing a lot of research because I'm not happy with one curriculum or another.

Our power has been going out a lot and on Thursday evening, PeachyPapa and I went down to the gas station to get gas for our generator. When we got back, I was walking down our porch steps in almost complete darkness, missed a step, fell down, and sprained my right ankle and foot. It's getting better and I can nearly walk normal, but man oh man, that was some serious pain for a little bit! And I honestly don't know what I would've done if PeachyPapa weren't home.

We've been doing some living math while trying to get back into our groove. CherryPie did a neat activity on Wednesday for multiplication practice. I plan on posting about it tomorrow or the next day on my blog.

Also, we've been looking at putting together some mini offices for each of the kiddos. Does anybody use these?

What have you been up to?

[prairiebird]

I'm due with a baby sometime in the next 6 weeks (I've been both early and late, so really, anytime now!) so I've been trying to figure out what to stock up on so I don't have to hear, "I'M BORED," 453452345 times until we get back into the rhythm of things. I'm thinking a lot of hands-on crafty type things, some computer programs, and I have no clue what else!

They're actually quite happy though because this means we'll eventually be able to go on field trips again. I haven't been able to do much since 20 weeks pregnant due to difficulties, so these guys are chomping at the bit to go the museum or something!

[craft_media_hero]

Yay! Eclectic thread!

We have been really in our school groove lately. So nice after feeling slacky for all of December and half of November.

DD is rockin through the math; it's still her fav subject. Mostly doing workbooks, I admit it. But the other day she woke up before me, and FOR FUN made her own math sheet on blank paper doing "doubles" up to 13+13. We've been using our base ten set quite a bit. All of a sudden, she can do all this skip-counting that we really haven't been intentionally practicing.

We switched our foreign language studies to Greek and Latin. Consistently working on the Greek, but I have no idea where to start on Latin. She knows one letter (alpha) and one word, agape. She wrote a pretty fair "agape" in Greek by herself and seems to dig the trace pages I've made for her. That's enough for a six yo, I think. This is our second week working on the same letter and word. I think it'll stick, lol.

She's freaking me out with how she enjoys working in her italics handwriting book. Her endurance for writing practice is about two sentences free writing on blank paper or about half a page in the workbook. This makes me really glad that she's not in school, because that is about how much the required of her last year in kindergarten, and she hated it. Her tolerance then was like one word or letter at a time.

What we haven't been doing is our calendar stuff. DD and I were really enjoying this, and we got out of it when we moved and with the new year, yadayada. We were noting the moon phase daily and doing something special and spiritual on the new moon and reading full moon stories from around the world on the full moon. It was nice and kept us more grounded, so I'm resolving to bring Calendar time back into our routine.

Totally been slacking with music since we moved and can't find her color-coded song book. GAR! If it's not one thing we're slacking in, then it's something else.

Reading is still the one she feels least comfortable with, but I think she's making progress because the other day she asked "mom, can I read more" in her "school" reader (Treadwell's First Reader), and I was like YEAH! She just is the kind of kid who wants to be a master the first time they try anything, so she's not used to having to work it out like she does with reading. I think she's "on" grade level, tho, just not very confident and thinks it's hard.

On the bright side, Science and Social Studies have come back into view, and they were pretty much non-existent for months there. We have just been reading SOTW and "Children's fav stories from around the world" and then doing a page or two from Singapore Science workbooks which then sends us off looking stuff up on the internet or in the kids encyclopedia.

All in all, we're doing marvelously well. I have to make myself not panic that we're not doing enough, still though. I tend to think that the short amount of time we spend is not productive, but then out of now where she'll blow me away and convince me to sit down and just enjoy the view for a while.

[mangopassion]

craft media hero ~ Your calendar stuff sounds so fun! I might have to "borrow" that idea if you don't mind! Studying the phases of the moon sounds especially fun. Any story recommendations?

CherryPie did a neat activity last week for multiplication practice and I wrote about it on my blog: x9 facts

[craft_media_hero]

Originally Posted by mangopassion

craft media hero ~ Your calendar stuff sounds so fun! I might have to "borrow" that idea if you don't mind! Studying the phases of the moon sounds especially fun. Any story recommendations?

CherryPie did a neat activity last week for multiplication practice and I wrote about it on my blog: x9 facts

We have "13 Moons on a Turtle's Back", "When the Moon is Full, a lunar year", and "The Algonquian Year". I like all three books; they mesh nicely. Two are focused primarily around the lives of NE First Peoples before the arrival of Christopher Columbus, and the other (when the moon is full) is nice short poems that talk about each "moon name". So I count it all as social studies since it's calendar activities, and we're learning about the cultures of native people and how their lives revolved around the seasons, what activities they were doing when, etc.

That way if we totally skipped any kind of social studies all month, at least we'd have one solid day that was focused on a year-long culture study. Plus, it gives us a good reminder of the changing seasons and how our lives now can reflect traditional activities, too.

At least in theory, but since we moved and stuff we haven't been minding the lunar phases as much.

[rockportmama]

[MissRubyandKen]

Originally Posted by mangopassion

craft media hero ~ Your calendar stuff sounds so fun! I might have to "borrow" that idea if you don't mind! Studying the phases of the moon sounds especially fun. Any story recommendations?

CherryPie did a neat activity last week for multiplication practice and I wrote about it on my blog: x9 facts

mangopassion I so want to read this entry to your blog, but can't. I literally can't see the words good enough, the dark on dark background. Maybe its just me? Just thought I'd mention it, not sure if anyone else would have the same problem. It looks cool by the pics though.

[MissRubyandKen]

We also slacked off quite a bit in December, lol. I was all set to make another purchase from Rainbow Resource because I'm not satisfied with what we're doing for Science, Art, and History. However, we're set to buy our first home sometime end of Feb.-mid March, so decided to wait until we're settled. I want to give History Odyssey, My Pals Science by Singapore, and Artistic Pursuits a try.

Also not sure on where I stand about taking the summer 'off' again. So I've been thinking about that. We did last year for the first time. I was providing care for my neighbor's daughters all summer, so yeah, school was not happening anyway, lol. We've been so house bound lately I'm thinking we may slack off on academic and plunge into more physical pursuits after we move. Our location will be so much better. A pool, parks, school playgrounds, a library, and groceries all within walking distance. Yay! I'd really like to at least do some math though, because I know they have a hard time getting back into it after taking months off. Maybe 15-20 minutes 2-3 times a week, idk?

[ocelotmom]

Originally Posted by MissRubyandKen

mangopassion I so want to read this entry to your blog, but can't. I literally can't see the words good enough, the dark on dark background. Maybe its just me? Just thought I'd mention it, not sure if anyone else would have the same problem. It looks cool by the pics though.

It may be your browser (or your settings). The background behind the text is white for me, and therefore perfectly readable.

[mangopassion]

Thank you, ocelotmom!

MissRubyandKen ~ my blog has a dark blue background, with white in the middle. So if the page loads all the way in your browser, there should be white all behind the words and buttons and everything. Here's a screen print of what it should look like.

Hopefully, you'll be able to visit again and can read the post about CherryPie and her x9 facts activity. She had a lot of fun!

[mangopassion]

Originally Posted by craft_media_hero

We have "13 Moons on a Turtle's Back", "When the Moon is Full, a lunar year", and "The Algonquian Year". I like all three books; they mesh nicely. Two are focused primarily around the lives of NE First Peoples before the arrival of Christopher Columbus, and the other (when the moon is full) is nice short poems that talk about each "moon name". So I count it all as social studies since it's calendar activities, and we're learning about the cultures of native people and how their lives revolved around the seasons, what activities they were doing when, etc.

That way if we totally skipped any kind of social studies all month, at least we'd have one solid day that was focused on a year-long culture study. Plus, it gives us a good reminder of the changing seasons and how our lives now can reflect traditional activities, too.

At least in theory, but since we moved and stuff we haven't been minding the lunar phases as much.

Thanks so much for the book recommendations! I'll be sure to look at those titles.

I've still been kind of slacking, unfortunately. It's so hard to get back into the groove of things! Especially with dental appointments, doctor appointments, power outages, and an injured mama!

[Aeress]

I am very thankful to have the flexibility to adjust our schedules to health needs, other issues and general mid winter blah's.

We are wrapping up an fairly in depth study of the continents, and a intro to countries. We are also studying religion in the above context, which the girls have found very interesting. We have made salt maps, drawn maps and used maps we found on the internet, interspersed with atlases.
We are also learning about music and the girls will begin recorder lessons next week.

I just found a neat skeleton model, so after we wrap up our in depth continent work, we will move onto health and the human body.

Of course there is reading, math and spelling in there as well, not to mention the kids following other ideas. The questions the kids have been asking and the conversations and research that have followed have kept me going.

I have reports due mid February and feel really confident with our progress.