Oh heck, I can't remember much of what we did. The subjects we had been doing were pretty much the same. In math he is working on counting to 100. Each lesson has six sheets and on each sheet he is supposed to fill in the numbers 0-100. Shoot me in the foot now! I tried making him do it once, gave up, made him do it completely, then figured that was enough. I don't even think I would appreciate having to write all those numbers.
Grammar, handwriting, spelling all continued as usual. What made this week exciting was we started science and geography.
Science-we are using Elemental Science Biography and starting with animals. Why? I don't know. We learned about habitats, food, camouflage, migration. On Tuesday we did our first experiment!! It was so cute. It came from a book by Janice Van Cleave (I think it was Science Around the World but could have been Biology for Every Kid).
What we were supposed to do: Take 2 pages of newsprint (ones with a lot of writing), cut out 2"x3" sections with and without writing. Place on the other sheet of newsprint. Have them look for about a second at the paper and see how many little rectangles they see. They should only see about 4 (the blank ones) and not the four with writing on them because the ones with writing were camouflaged.
What we ended up doing: Since I never bothered to find a newspaper, I made a Word doc with four columns and typed out random rigamorole (ie, awo;u8y9r2q3hpifay0tq2hiorlgzreoh) on the WHOLE. THING. Yup, I'm amazing. I printed off two sheets of that and used those instead. The rest of the experiment was as described above. Oh I wish I had gotten a video of his face when I moved the camouflaged paper. He was so surprised that they were hiding right in front of him.
He's also working on the lapbook that came with ES. He's working on the desert and grassland sections while I read from the Kingfisher Animal Encyclopedia.
This week, we started learning about China. He's also working on a lapbook about China that I got off of homeschoolshare.com. This one is a little more boring for him. He has to fill out information and all.
My original plan for geography: Use Galloping the Globe to teach geography.
What we're really doing: Using GTG as a list of which countries to study. I was going to use the CD-Rom that came with the book to print off all the sheets we were going to use so as to preserve the book for Digby. But there ended up being so many I said, "Fudge on this!" and decided Pigby could just color on the book. So I am going to go to the library every week and get books and movies if I can on a new country. We're not going to cover every single country in the world, just the most important ones. I downloaded a lot of lapbooks from HSS, so that's my way of making it "fun". I'm not even trying to follow the recommended books from GTG, way too big a hassle. Now I just search the library catalog and try to find ones I think look interesting.
On Wednesday, school didn't get done because we had to take Pigby in to the doctor to get his shots. We walked the half hour to his pediatrician's office, had a quick exam and went to the grocery store to get ice cream. Then we went to the dollar store next door to get some homeschooling supplies. When we got home, the kids watched a movie while I cleaned their bedroom. Corey would be finishing the bunk bed when he got off of work so I needed to have the room ready. Pigby's legs hurt so badly he could hardly walk. I kept asking if he wanted to stay home from school but he said no.
Since I had to wake up so early on Thursday, I didn't have the kids switch to their new beds. I didn't want to be up all night with Digby escaping. In the morning we got up and got ready and left. Pigby was still crying because his legs hurt but kept insisting that he wanted to go to school. (His school is about 30 minutes south of here) About three minutes from school he said he was going to throw up so I said I would turn around. Then I remembered that I needed to turn in his updated vaccine card, which was the whole reason for getting them done in the first place. So I parked in front of the school, ran in to the front desk, had him be excused and turned in the vaccine record, came out and we went home.
Today we did a little bit of school. We did math, science, spelling and lots of coloring. Pigby asked to color TWO pages of Winnie the Pooh. Then Digby and Chuck's sleep schedules got all out of whack and we never finished. I suppose I shouldn't beat myself up over it. It's only his kindergarten year and kindergarten isn't even mandatory in this state. He's working mostly on a first grade level. If geography doesn't get done today it is ok. I'm trying to work it in with two toddlers; most seasoned homeschoolers say toddlers are the hard part about homeschooling.
But I feel really good that we're finding our groove and working out all the kinks for next year. Getting our Desk Apprentice organized and a system for all our curricula has really been beneficial. If we just keep on keeping on I think we'll be ok.
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