Jul
Week In Review
I’m still trying to catch up on my weekly review posts, and now I’m another week behind. Last week we had a thunderstorm and I heard a huge crash of thunder and suddenly all sorts of things in our house stopped working- the washing machine, the air conditioner, the tv, the blu ray player, the light in our dining room, the internet (ahhhhh!). Anyway, once I figured out how to reset our ground fault circuits everything started working again except a couple things, including the internet. I was hoping when Rich got home from work he would be able to get the internet working again, but he couldn’t. First he replaced our wireless connection box, but that didn’t help. Since this happened right before the 4th of July we had to wait to get a new modem, which we now have. Thankfully everything is now working again, but we were without internet for several days. Anyway, all that to say- now I am an extra week behind in posting.
This was our last full week of school- so we decided to have a fun backwards day. Hailey and Hunter wore their clothes backwards and both of them thought it was pretty funny.
Another day they wore their pajamas and both had a blast playing in shaving cream.
Language Arts:
Hailey has really gotten into reading American Girl books lately, so here she is working on the latest book she is reading.
Hailey finished up All About Spelling.
For most of the year we just did spelling lists to work on spelling words. Hailey usually did well on her tests at the end of the week, but then didn’t remember how to spell the words later. So, we switched to All About Spelling this spring. So far it’s going well and we have both learned a lot of rules for spelling.
Hailey made a really fun memory book about second grade- What’s Your Superpower? She loved working on this book and it will be great to look back on in the future.
Math:
We played some fun games to work on multiplication- in this game each person drew a card and then multiplied it by whatever the number was that we were practicing. For example, if you’re working on the 3s tables- and you draw a 9, you would answer 9×3. If you get the answer right you get to keep the card, if you get it wrong it goes back in to the pile.
This was Hailey’s favorite multiplication game- Each person flips a coin- on one side was written x2 and on the other was written x3. (You can use any number you want to practice any of your multiplication tables.) Then you draw a card and multiply it by whatever number you got on the coin. Then using a colored disc, find the answer to your multiplication problem on the paper and cover it up. The first person to get 3 in a row (or 4 if you want it to last longer) is the winner.
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Jul
Veritas Press Self-Paced History Review
History has been a bit of a struggle for us this past school year. We started out really enjoying it, but then as time went on it seemed like we were spending way too much time on one topic. Hailey started asking if we could please study something else. So, for most of the year I came up with our own history curriculum. It was time consuming and not something I want to do again in the fall, especially since I’ll be busy with a new baby. So, I have been busily searching for a new history curriculum.
We were given the opportunity to review a history curriculum from Veritas Press. I checked out what they had to offer and decided that we would just start at the very beginning and review the Old Testament and Ancient Egypt, which one of the Veritas Press Self-Paced History choices.
There are 5 different courses available:
Old Testament and Ancient Egypt
New Testament, Greece and Rome
Middle Ages, Renaissance and Reformation
Explorers to 1815
1815 to Present
The courses also have flashcards that are very helpful in learning all of the major events during the time period your child is studying. We were able to use the Old Testament and Ancient Egypt Flashcards, which cost $19.95.
The courses are completed online, so you will need internet access. Be sure to check the FAQ to make sure you computer and internet connection will meet the minimum requirements.
The first thing your child has to before starting any of the lessons will be the tutorial. This is a great way to become familiar with the way the course works.
When your child first logs on each day, she will be able to go to look at her assignments. This page shows the lessons that have been completed as well as the upcoming lessons. Your child’s current grade is also displayed at the top.
The lessons have different actors teaching the information. It is all very interactive and the students have to answer questions very frequently, which helps to keep them focused where they should be.
There are also talking characters, which will certainly keep your child interested in the information!
In addition, there are interactive games, which are educational as well as fun.
Every 5th lesson has a test, which is usually pretty short, but very complete.
So, how did we use Veritas Press?
Hailey started out using the tutorial. With these courses you have to complete the tutorial in order to move on to lesson 1. Then lesson 1 must be completed in order to move to lesson 2, etc. I had planned to just have her do the tutorial on her first day, but she begged to go on and check out lesson 1.
Each day she completed 1 lesson. Some of the lessons were longer than others, but I think they average around 20 minutes each. Of course, that is going to depend on how long it takes your child to complete the questions and interactive games, so it could be more or less.
There is a fun song to help your child remember the 32 major events in the time period being studied. The first day Hailey heard the song she said, “I’ll never be able to remember all of that.” But, it’s a catchy little song and before she knew it, she had most of it memorized. I often heard her singing it when she was taking her tests.
We also used the flashcards- this is the front of the first flashcard. Each flashcard has a picture on the front…
and some information, as well as resources available on the back.
On the back of the first flashcard the 7 days of creation are listed- so I had Hailey make her own art work to go along with it.
This is her completed version of the 7 days of creation flashcard.
Veritas Press Self-Paced History is an amazing program! Hailey absolutely loved it and would ask to do it. Some of the lessons were a little bit shorter than others and on those days she would beg to do just one more lesson. She learned so much from the time that we used the program- and I did too! In addition to the online lessons and the flashcards, there are several historical fiction books that are recommended to use along with the program. I was not able to find them at our local library, but they are available for purchase through Veritas Press. Hailey asked if we could please keep using this program when we start school back up in the fall. So, we are definitely planning to continue to learn all about the Old Testament and Ancient Egypt.
Here is what it boils down to for me:
Pros:
Very easy to implement
Fun characters that children enjoy listening to
Very little teacher prep time- most days we just watched the lesson and didn’t have to do anything else. There are hands on activities that can be done as well, which would involve a little bit of prep time, but not much. This will be perfect for us since we’ll have a newborn in the fall.
Hailey loved it, learned a lot, and asked to do it every day
Cons:
It is only available online, so you have to meet the minimum requirements in your internet connection
Cost- I think $199 is expensive for one subject
Want to see some more of Veritas Press:
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Jun
Tot School
Hunter is 30 months.
Letter W activities:
(Printables for the letter W are from 1+1+1=1 and Confessions of a Homeschooler.)
Hunter loves doing the do-a-dot printables for the letters. I have to make sure we do one of these every week.
Hunter colored his letter W paper and then glued some foam Ws onto the window.
I love that Hunter can do these color papers all by himself. He looks at the color word and then finds the right marker to color with.
W is for Worm.
(I usually just do the same letter craft with Hunter that I did with Hailey when she was in tot school… but lately I’ve been asking Hailey for ideas and she has some really creative ideas for our letter crafts and this was one of her great ideas.)
Shapes:
We focused on the triangle again this week- I’ve been doing the same shape for 2 weeks since Hunter does not know all of his shapes yet. Hunter used a triangle shaped block to do some triangle paint stamping.
Manipulatives:
This is another activity that I can just put out on the table for Hunter and when wants to, he’ll just sit down and do it without any help. I put the paper onto a baking sheet and then he puts the magnetic pom poms onto the circles.
Other:
We are continuing out caterpillar/butterfly unit. We ordered some caterpillars and watched them grow and then form a chrysalis.
Every day Hailey read us a book about butterflies. She even used a butterfly puppet when she read on this particular day. Hunter definitely enjoyed it!
Hailey and Hunter painted one side of a butterfly, then folded the other side over to show how butterflies wings are symmetrical.
Hunter’s butterfly on the top and Hailey’s on the bottom.
These activities are actually from a couple of weeks ago, I’m behind in my posting- so this is Hunter working on Father’s Day picture frame gift. Hailey painted half of it and Hunter painted the other half. Later they added some scrapbook stickers of tools but I never took a picture of the finished frame.
Stop by 1+1+1=1 to see what the other tots were up to this week.
Be sure to like me on Facebook and follow me on Pinterest so you don’t miss any of our fun activities.
Jun
Week in Review
I am a couple of weeks behind in posting my weekly reviews, so I am going to do my best to remember what we did.
Language Arts:
We continued our author unit study about Tomie dePaola from Around the Kampfire.
Hailey really enjoyed reading the books we used in our author study!
We read several books that had Big Anthony in them and we talked about cause and effect- how all of the things that Anthony did were the cause, and then the effect was the result of his actions.
On the left, Hailey wrote several things that Anthony did and on the right she wrote the results of those actions.
Hailey also made a post card pretending that Strega Nona had gone on vacation- she decorated the front of the post card and pretended that Strega Nona was in Disney World.
On the back she pretended to be Strenga Nona and wrote a message to one of Strega Nona’s friends- she decided to write to Bambolona and told her about the fun she was having on vacation.
Science:
Our caterpillars arrived at the beginning of the week to go along with our study of caterpillars and butterflies.
Only a few days after their arrival they were already preparing to go into a chrysalis.
By Friday we only had a couple left that hadn’t formed a chrysalis.
We did a comparison of butterflies and moths and learned how to tell the difference between the two.
Hailey and Hunter painted one side of a butterfly, then folded the other side over to show how butterflies wings are symmetrical.
Hunter’s butterfly on the top and Hailey’s on the bottom.
Every day Hailey read us a book about butterflies. She even used a butterfly puppet when she read on this particular day. Hunter definitely enjoyed it!
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