Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Weekly Report 5/17/10 - 5/21/10
This week it feels like summer has officially hit and it is hot in my house. The central air is broken and the landlords have not gotten it fixed yet. I swear it is sometimes hotter in here than outside, the only plus is that we can sit in front of a fan in the house. If that is considered a plus. There are no plans this long weekend so I figured I would do my weekly report tonight, eat something and then read a book until whenever. We had a good school week this week and I must say her new favorite subject seems to be French.
In phonics we have started to cover the silent letters. Her reading is getting more fluent and we have begun the 4th set in the Bob Book series for her to read to me at bedtime. Thank goodness for inter library loans that I didn't actually have to buy the 4th set. A money saver that is:) We have begun a review of lessons 14-18 in Spelling Workout. Her writing the words out is currently our only handwriting practice, but for the moment that's all I am going to use until she gets more comfortable with printing. She doesn't really like to write a lot so I think adding handwriting again will be overkill.
Math has become a less time intensive subject for us since we dropped Saxon. She worked on odd and even numbers, telling time on a digital clock, and skip counting practice. In French we worked on people in a family, made a small family tree and learned how to introduce people in the family. Next week we work on colours.
Art class is always fun, but this week she got to make a fairy garden. Since fairies are close to her heart, she really enjoyed this project. We finished Pinnochio this week and have started to read The Wizard of Oz as our next read aloud. I'm trying to figure out what to read after this so I can make sure the library has it and put it on hold, but I am drawing a blank. I am open to any suggestions for books you may have enjoyed with your kids. I think I hear rain beginning and I am keeping my fingers crossed that it will cool the temperature and not make it more humid. I need to move someplace that has cooler summers, I hate the heat:)
Fairy Garden
Walking with her homemade wind sock.
In phonics we have started to cover the silent letters. Her reading is getting more fluent and we have begun the 4th set in the Bob Book series for her to read to me at bedtime. Thank goodness for inter library loans that I didn't actually have to buy the 4th set. A money saver that is:) We have begun a review of lessons 14-18 in Spelling Workout. Her writing the words out is currently our only handwriting practice, but for the moment that's all I am going to use until she gets more comfortable with printing. She doesn't really like to write a lot so I think adding handwriting again will be overkill.
Collecting Pinecones
Math has become a less time intensive subject for us since we dropped Saxon. She worked on odd and even numbers, telling time on a digital clock, and skip counting practice. In French we worked on people in a family, made a small family tree and learned how to introduce people in the family. Next week we work on colours.
Making a wish. I'm sure the neighbors love the fact that the Dandelion seeds blew all over their lawn.
Art class is always fun, but this week she got to make a fairy garden. Since fairies are close to her heart, she really enjoyed this project. We finished Pinnochio this week and have started to read The Wizard of Oz as our next read aloud. I'm trying to figure out what to read after this so I can make sure the library has it and put it on hold, but I am drawing a blank. I am open to any suggestions for books you may have enjoyed with your kids. I think I hear rain beginning and I am keeping my fingers crossed that it will cool the temperature and not make it more humid. I need to move someplace that has cooler summers, I hate the heat:)
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Saturday, May 15, 2010
New Sleeping Arrangements
My daughter hates to go to bed. Period. Night time rituals have always been stressful and tiring for us. Every aspect of it, from brushing her teeth to deciding what stories to read have got to be drawn out and dramatic for some reason. I blame her father for the drama gene she so obviously inherited. Teeth brushing includes tears, clenched jaws and occasionally the same moves we have to make to get eye drops in her eyes. After all that she is in bed, story read and she seems ready to sleep. Nope, she then begins the singing and the talking, or the chanting of mama for sometimes up to two hours. It's really hard to ignore in a small apartment, believe me I try.
So hubby the other night thought is was a great suggestion for her to sleep in her tent on the bed. He thought that if she was sleeping in something neat and different she would happily climb in a fall asleep. I'll give him credit on the fact that she got sucked into the idea and went to bed easily that night, although she still didn't fall asleep quickly. The problem is, that the tent has to be set up on our bed. For some reason she won't fall asleep in her own bed. She gets hysterical if you try, something about that room scares her. She rarely plays in there either, she'll drag her toys down the hall instead of sitting in her room. So now the nightly ritual doesn't just include the bedtime fight. Now she has to be taken out of the tent when she falls asleep, then we have to move and collapse the tent so we can go to bed. There has to be an easier way.
So hubby the other night thought is was a great suggestion for her to sleep in her tent on the bed. He thought that if she was sleeping in something neat and different she would happily climb in a fall asleep. I'll give him credit on the fact that she got sucked into the idea and went to bed easily that night, although she still didn't fall asleep quickly. The problem is, that the tent has to be set up on our bed. For some reason she won't fall asleep in her own bed. She gets hysterical if you try, something about that room scares her. She rarely plays in there either, she'll drag her toys down the hall instead of sitting in her room. So now the nightly ritual doesn't just include the bedtime fight. Now she has to be taken out of the tent when she falls asleep, then we have to move and collapse the tent so we can go to bed. There has to be an easier way.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Friday, May 7, 2010
Weekly Report
I'm sitting here across the hall from Roo, who is in bed but refuses to sleep. Sometimes I just don't have the energy to get her to bed when she fights me, it is almost easier to sit back and ignore her. She is currently humming and singing as song about Iza the cat. I wish I had that much energy, if I even had a portion of it I would definitely be some kind of domestic goddess who has several Phd's and is fluent in 5 languages. Now it is staring to thunder, which normally I find relaxing but of course it freaks her out and she screeches at every rumble. Now on to our week.
In phonics we finished lesson 131 in The Ordinary Parents Guide. We are doing practice reading from The McGuffey's First Eclectic Reader. I find that the sounding out is getting less and less (or at least the sounding out loud is getting less and less), so the reading sounds more fluent. We have the first 3 sets of the Bob books and I want to order the fourth, I just don't want to fork over the money for it. I wonder if I can get it from an inter library loan? That thought actually just came to me and I will try after I finish this post.
My husband bought a great child size school desk off of Kijiji for $20. The guy even threw in a child size wooden rocking chair which she seems to love for some reason. I am excited about the desk, I just need to figure out a better school set up than what we have. It's hard to carve a niche out of a apartment that has every part of it in use.
Math is smoother now that we have dropped Saxon. Our main focus this week was telling time to the half hour. We haven't practiced skip counting for a couple of days and I was a little concerned. But earlier this evening I walked into the living room and she was pretending to do sit ups with a makeshift ab roller (that she made from a really big stuffed horse) and was counting by 5's during "exercise". Strange but funny, for some reason she likes infomercials.
For Spelling we completed lesson 17 and she did her spelling test on a Magna Doodle. She got all the words correct on her first try. I'm glad we started the Spelling Workout A this year because it is easy enough for her right now and it seems to be a nice review of her phonics. For French we were still working on greetings and introductions. She has been practicing il and elle by introducing her dolls to one another. We came up to our first French quiz today. I had to hold up a picture of a historical figure (they came with the lessons) and then introduce it. She had to listen to ensure a) that I was using il and elle right, and b) that I was saying the correct name. She did really well and I was glad to see that she understood.
For art class the theme was Mothers Day. So they made some crafts, the biggest one being a painted and decorated pot with a flower in it. I was impressed that she did most of it herself aside from using the hot glue gun.
Today was a rainy, colder day so we went through the "what can we do today" whines. I think she jumped from one thing to another today without finishing anything. I made a collage of photos of her started projects/activities.
I'm tired and cranky tonight, probably from lack of sleep. I tend to stay up really late and read every night because I enjoy the solitude. The problem is, I'm not a morning person and it definitely makes it worse. Oh well, off to read anyway. Good night.
In phonics we finished lesson 131 in The Ordinary Parents Guide. We are doing practice reading from The McGuffey's First Eclectic Reader. I find that the sounding out is getting less and less (or at least the sounding out loud is getting less and less), so the reading sounds more fluent. We have the first 3 sets of the Bob books and I want to order the fourth, I just don't want to fork over the money for it. I wonder if I can get it from an inter library loan? That thought actually just came to me and I will try after I finish this post.
My husband bought a great child size school desk off of Kijiji for $20. The guy even threw in a child size wooden rocking chair which she seems to love for some reason. I am excited about the desk, I just need to figure out a better school set up than what we have. It's hard to carve a niche out of a apartment that has every part of it in use.
Math is smoother now that we have dropped Saxon. Our main focus this week was telling time to the half hour. We haven't practiced skip counting for a couple of days and I was a little concerned. But earlier this evening I walked into the living room and she was pretending to do sit ups with a makeshift ab roller (that she made from a really big stuffed horse) and was counting by 5's during "exercise". Strange but funny, for some reason she likes infomercials.
For Spelling we completed lesson 17 and she did her spelling test on a Magna Doodle. She got all the words correct on her first try. I'm glad we started the Spelling Workout A this year because it is easy enough for her right now and it seems to be a nice review of her phonics. For French we were still working on greetings and introductions. She has been practicing il and elle by introducing her dolls to one another. We came up to our first French quiz today. I had to hold up a picture of a historical figure (they came with the lessons) and then introduce it. She had to listen to ensure a) that I was using il and elle right, and b) that I was saying the correct name. She did really well and I was glad to see that she understood.
Magna Doodle spelling
Today was a rainy, colder day so we went through the "what can we do today" whines. I think she jumped from one thing to another today without finishing anything. I made a collage of photos of her started projects/activities.
She started a human body puzzle and started to use her knitting machine.
She made me some clay earrings but didn't paint them like she said she was going to. Last photo is of her attempt at redecoration. She dragged her couch and toys into the living room to set up a "house" but decided that she needed to go listen to Abba in the other room instead.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
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