Day 16

Today's Activities:

• Reading -
  

1. C & C - Chapter 4 of Sarah Noble. We talked about what they relate to in the text.
2. ME - Half of Chapter 5 of Homesick.
   

• Explora Classes - All three girls experimented with color today.

• Arts & Crafts Class

• Dance Class for Catherine & Chloe

• Singapore Math

Day 15

Today's Activities:

• Family Inquiry/Science - Mark and the kids built the family composting bins. The girls helped shop for the materials, measure, cut, drill, and assemble. We've been saving our household scraps and ashes from the fireplace as our nitrogen source. We need to gather some leaves and maybe buy some manure and peat moss to get the pile really going.

Arts & Crafts - The girls made colored salt dough today.

Day 14

Today's Activities:

• Read Aloud from A Faith Like Mine

• Reading -

1. ME - Filmstrip sequencing of Chapter 3. Read Chapter 4 of Homesick.
2. C & C - Read Chapter 3 of The Courage of Sarah Noble. The girls also did another character map.
   

• Singapore Math - Catherine and Chloe took data on the number of each type of yellow Lego. Then they made a bar graph.

• Family Inquiry/Science - We are working toward composting. We made edible compost today out of graham crackers, green pudding, almonds, gummi worms and chocolate chips. I tried to convey to our little students that composting requires a mix of nitrogen-rich and carbon-rich materials in order to encourage our friends the microorganisms and macroorganisms to do their work of making our food waste into rich soil for our vegetable garden. Tomorrow we build the bins.

Day 13

Today's Activities:

• Library time - This was supposed to be 'story time' but my little lovelies were not cooperating with my efforts to shepherd them onto the story mat. Rather, everyone picked a book or two and we left.

• Mandarin lesson with Ms. Kitty

• Read Aloud from A Faith Like Mine - Divali

• Reading -
  

1. ME - Chapter 3 in Homesick. We were supposed to talk about sequencing but the main character's baby sister died and we were both crying so hard over the text that I didn't feel like any other response was needed today.
2. C&C - Chapter 2 in The Courage of Sarah Noble. We discussed Sarah's feelings toward her settlement host.

• Singapore Math - Madelyn passed her second test. Catherine told me today that math is her favorite part of homeschooling.
  

Day 12

Today's Activities:

• Read Aloud from A Faith Like Mine.

• Reading -

1. C & C decided to read The Courage of Sarah Noble by Alice Dalgliesh. We defined new words and talked about what makes Sarah feel safe. C & C listened to a few chapters from Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater that I got on CD at the library this week.
   
2. Madelyn and I finished reading Chapter 2 of Homesick. We compared what it's like to grow up as an American in China versus in America.
   

• Singapore Math

• Grammar - Madelyn memorized Lesson 4 from Primary Language Lessons. She was sure yesterday that it would be impossible for her to memorize so much. But today she did it, even better than me.

• Word Study - C & C did a word hunt through two magazines for short-a words and long-a words.

• Family Inquiry/Science - We did another guided fantasy today from Teaching Children About Food. This time it was about being a seed that sprouts. Each girl drew their experience. Then we talked about what happens to leftover food. We discussed trash, recycling, and composting. More to come later this week.

• Rotations - Each girl spent 15 minutes practicing piano, writing in their journal and practicing handwriting.
  

Day 11

Monday's Activities:

• Reading -
  

1. ME read from Chapter 2 in Homesick. She and I discussed how the main character was treated as an American in China in the 1920s.
   
2. C&C finished Rapunzel by Paul Zelinsky. We all swooned when the prince's eyesight was restored by Rapunzel's tears. We made text-to-world connections, especially regarding twins.

• Explora Classes - Madelyn explored density and Catherine & Chloe explored circles. http://www.explora.us/en//programs/home%20school/

• Arts & Crafts Class - The girls made beaded keychains this week.

• Singapore Math - Madelyn only

• Ballet II for Catherine & Chloe

An aside...

Ordering Happy Meals for six children at McDonalds is an exercise in combinations and permutations. If only we had enough time when ordering fast food to do a math lesson!

Day 10

Friday's Activities:

• Family Inquiry - One of my goals in homeschooling our children is to provide them with a 'real' education. It was with great enthusiasm that we headed to our local food bank to volunteer today as part of our inquiry into food (where it comes from and where it goes). It was also a lesson in being part of a state-wide community. We repackaged 1,620 bags of Chocolate Lucky Charms for hungry kids in New Mexico. That is almost a weeks worth of cereal for that program. What a great feeling for all of us! Oh, and what a great math lesson. We divided, multiplied and added.

• Arts and Crafts Class - The girls made name tags out of macaroni and pompoms. They also made beaded necklaces. I got to extend the experience by talking about patterns.
  

Day 9

Today's Activities:

• Read Aloud from A Faith Like Mine

• Reading

1. ME - Read Chapter 1 from Homesick: My Own Story by Jean Fritz. Completed character map.
2. C & C - Read half of Rapunzel by Paul Zelinsky. Also completed character map.

• Singapore Math

• Grammar Lessons 3 and 4 from Primary Language Lessons by Emma Serl for Madelyn. Catherine and Chloe completed a long-a/short-a word sort.

• Science/SS - meal selections for next week
  

Day 8

Today's Activities:

• Story Time at the local library. I originally scheduled this for the boys since they have generally been neglected on the extracurricular front, but the girls had a great time listening to stories and singing.

• Mandarin lesson with Ms. Kitty

• Reading --

1. ME - Another first chapter review. She decided her next Newbery book will be Homesick: My Own Story by Jean Fritz.
2. C & C - Read Anansi the Spider by Gerald McDermott.
   

• Read aloud from McBroom's Wonderful One-Acre Farm by Sid Fleischman

• Singapore Math - Madelyn passed her first test. It was on adding and subtracting centimeters and meters.

• Piano lessons with Ms. Linda
  

Day 7

Today's Activities:

• Read Aloud from A Faith Like Mine.

• Great books study

1. ME - finished Abel's Island. Completed story map. Madelyn was teary-eyed at the end.
   
2. C&C - read Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters by John Steptoe. Find South Africa on map and discuss similarities and differences between book and Cinderella story.

• Singapore Math -- loving this math program!

• Grammar lessons 1 and 2 from Primary Language Lessons by Emma Serl for Madelyn. Catherine & Chloe took a spelling inventory from Words their Way.

• Science/SS - Today we continued our study of the food groups, specifically the grain group. We did the World Foods Guided Fantasy from Teaching Kids About Food by Christine Berman and Jacki Fromer. We went shopping at our local market for breads of the world. We had a bread tasting party after we mapped where each bread was from and how it is generally served. We tasted telera with turkey. Telera is a traditional sub sandwich bread from Mexico. We sampled a baguette (from France) with cheese. We moved on to Italy for some pane paisano complete with dipping oil and herbs. Next was Ukranian bread and finally pita wedges with hummus. Based on the breads, we had three votes for a trip to Italy, two for France, one for the Middle East and we suspect Harrison would vote for a trip to Mexico. Now to find a grant that would fund us.

• Handwriting - Madelyn continued her work on cursive and Catherine and Chloe did their best printing. Chloe has a goal of staying tighter to the margins.
  

Day 6

Today's Activities:

• Read Aloud from A Faith Like Mine

• Great books study (Caldecott & Newbery books)
  

1. ME- continued reading Abel's Island. Discuss mood and make list of feeling words.
2. C & C - read Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold. Discuss story quilts.

• Singapore Math - Our math program finally arrived in the mail. Catherine & Chloe started on Level 1B today and Madelyn started on Level 3B.

• Social Studies - read aloud of Martin Luther King Day by Linda Lowery. Reading books aloud can be very emotional when you're reading them to your own children. Our children are lucky not to know a world where discrimination is so overt but there is still much we can do as a family and a nation to work toward a world that strives to achieve peace and justice.
  

• Writing - We 'read' The Grey Lady and the Strawberry Snatcher by Molly Bang. As it's a wordless picture book, we decided to put words to the pictures in an attempt to capture the action and vivid detail of the story.

• Science - We started Field Journals today. We planned to take a hike but a wind storm thwarted that plan. Instead we walked around the front yard and identified three plants or animals each and recorded them along with habitat and size in our journals. We also started using the Audubon Society's Field Guide to the Southwestern States as a reference.

Lesson for the Day:

Don't be a slave to the clock! I tend to want to assign time to everything. This should take 30 minutes, that an hour. I need to work on letting the lessons dictate the time required. Math never seems to take as long as I think because it comes easy to our girls. Reading takes longer because I like to read with them individually.

Day 5

Today's Activities:

• Read Aloud of The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales by Jon Scieszka

• Reading -

1. Madelyn - continued reading Abel's Island. Discussed Abel's survival adaptations and changing character.
2. C & C - Read Fables by Arnold Lobel. Discussed favorite fable and why. Catherine liked the one about the cats because it was about cats.

• Math Review

• Journaling - the girls spent a half-hour writing about whatever they wanted. All three decided to plunge into fiction rather than recount the week.

• Arts & Crafts Class - "I Have a Dream" craft
  

Other stuff: Being new to homeschooling, I'm not sure how thoroughly to account for our time. I have thus far recorded our daily activities during 'school' time but have left out the other enriching activities the children are engaged in. At the moment, Madelyn and Chloe are each on a basketball team that has one practice and one game weekly. All three girls are enrolled in weekly ballet classes, Mandarin lessons, and piano lessons. The ballet classes and Mandarin lessons are an hour each and the piano lessons are a half-hour with 15 minutes of additional practice daily. In addition, we have set a requirement that the three girls plan and prepare one breakfast, one lunch, and one dinner each week. This week Chloe made muffins and yogurt for breakfast and last night Madelyn made an Asian soup. Tomorrow Catherine is making egg salad for lunch. The girls are learning about reading recipes to determine nutritional value and appropriate quantity for our family. They are learning to follow directions, measurement, fractions and the science of how heat changes matter. We have been very pleased with their efforts thus far.

Finally, we do family reading each night from the Little House on the Prairie series. We are on our third book and look forward to reading the rest of the series.

Day 4

Today's Activities:

• Read Aloud of Frederick by Leo Lionni

• Reading -

1. Madelyn - Continued reading Abel's Island. Discussion of vocabulary and survival strategies.
2. C & C - Read Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey with oral retell

• Math Review

• Family Inquiry - Explore food pyramid at MyPyramid.gov. We discussed how we chose the foods we eat. After doing coloring page of food pyramid each girl played Blast Off game.

• Homeschoolers Park Day - Our goal is to each learn one new person's name per week. I met Kayla this week.
  

Day 3

Today's Activities:

• Mandarin Lesson with Ms. Kitty

• Read Aloud of Hey, Al by Arthur Yorinks

• Math Review

• Reading Comprehension Workbook

• Field trip to the local library
  

• Piano Lessons with Ms. Linda

Day 2

Today's Activities:

• Hobby Time -- I have long craved time during the day to pursue hobbies. I have visions of sewing and doing needlework alongside the children. We're not quite there but today started with everyone deeply engrossed in a new Lego house. Who am I to interrupt their imagination? So we flipped the schedule for the day to accommodate hobby time. The flexibility of homeschooling is great!

• Family Inquiry -- Madelyn finished her research about the six new fruits we picked up at the market yesterday. She did most of it last night, after hours. I'm glad she's feeling so motivated by this inquiry. Anyway, Catherine & Chloe joined her in developing a PowerPoint presentation to represent their findings. Each slide included information on where the fruit grows natively, how it is served and at least one interesting fact about it. Of course, there was a lot of time spent making the slides pretty and the transitions noisy. We hooked her computer up to the TV and she presented the slideshow to us. Next we had our taste party.The most memorable part was the horrific stench that came from the papaya, kind of like vomit. Catherine was the only one brave enough to taste and swallow the sample. She felt obligated because it was 'her' choice. Most everything else got a thumbs up!

• Read Aloud of The Gardener by Sarah Stewart.

• Reading --

1. CK & CM - Read When Sophie Gets Angry - Really, Really Angry by Molly Bang. Draw a picture of where they go to feel happy and calm down when they get angry.
2. ME - Read chapters 2 through 4 of Abel's Island. Using Abel's learning, draw a new boat design to help Abel get off his island.

• Math -- Review workbook pages.

Quote of the Day:

"Mom, your assignments are really hard!" --Madelyn

Day 1

Today's Activities:

• Read aloud of Millions of Cats by Wanda Ga'g

• Reading

1. ME -- First chapter of 4 Newbery books (Great Gilly Hopkins, Homesick, Abel's Island, Shiloh) with typed review and preferences.
2. C & C - Read Blueberrries for Sal by Robert McCloskey. Practice handwriting and discuss through, though, and thought.

• Family Inquiry

Our first family inquiry is about food! One of the girls' collective assignments each week is to prepare one breakfast, one lunch and one dinner for the family. The first round was very successful!

We want to further investigate food and nutrition. The first question we're addressing is where does food come from. Today we went on a field trip to our local market to investigate all the places our produce comes from. Madelyn recorded the different foods and where they are grown. When we came home she made a T-chart of the produce and origin of it. Then she made a bar chart representing her data. We were happy to learn that more food came from the USA than any other place. Madelyn looked on Google Maps to learn where the other 7 countries were that she found produce from. I think she was more excited about learning to 'add destinations' and 'get directions' than in the countries themselves.

While at the market we also picked up a new food for each child. Madelyn selected a pummelo, Catherine chose a papaya, Chloe chose a golden delicious apple, Seth chose a granny smith apple, Sam chose a grapefruit and Harrison chose a pomegranate. When we came home each child explored and recorded information on their fruit using four of their five senses. We are planning a tasting party for tomorrow as we ran out of time today.

• Arts & Crafts at Community Center - the girls had a good time painting and the boys and I had a good time playing at the local McDonald's Playplace.
  

Favorite Things and What We Learned:

Madelyn: "I learned what verdure means and I also learned about produce and where it comes from. I liked reading because I got to use my favorite toy (Netbook) and I like to read."

Catherine: "My favorite part of the day was the art class. I learned what a papaya smells like and feels like."

Chloe: "My favorite thing was reading today because I liked the books. I learned what a yellow apple smells like and sounds like (a drum)."

Mommy: "My favorite thing about today is that we started our adventure in learning as a family. I no longer feel like a secondary teacher. I am the primary teacher. It was so great to give learning context with the food inquiry and to share some great books with my kiddos. I also enjoyed giving the girls a chance to meet new people and to operate independent of me in their arts & crafts class."