We spent it at the Freedom Center.
No time to make an entry but overall, things have been great.
We're working through Eragon, Jacob has a growing collection of narrations for history and science, Caitrin made a lapbook for the history of tea, Liam is doing math each day and some reading.
We are also watching American Idol and Friends every day. :) Caitrin has taken to knitting again and wants to make a lapbook for knitting.
Friday, January 27, 2006
Friday, January 13, 2006
Johannah and Jacob
Jacob worked on more of the Jacob's Algebra book. I really like it. He also saw the movie Munich with Noah. He is also whipping through the Pullman fantasy series and is keeping up with history. I noticed that he has a narrative about peter Stuyvesant in his history notes. We are going to work on polishing that into a finished product. He has great syntax but not such good punctuation. He is not bad at it, just a bit unconscious about being attentive to it. More dication needed.
Johannah and I went to her Algebra II tutoring (she finished her exams this week) and then went to Barnes and Noble where we worked on thesis statements and the expository essay. I like going there with her. I feel like I finally have time to help her work on writing in a way that she will do the work. We checked over her credits and she only has one history course left to graduate! I'm very proud of her.
We'll keep working on math and English next year, but she is done except for American History. She's done well, in spite of the challenge of school.
We are now scheduling her college visits.
Johannah and I went to her Algebra II tutoring (she finished her exams this week) and then went to Barnes and Noble where we worked on thesis statements and the expository essay. I like going there with her. I feel like I finally have time to help her work on writing in a way that she will do the work. We checked over her credits and she only has one history course left to graduate! I'm very proud of her.
We'll keep working on math and English next year, but she is done except for American History. She's done well, in spite of the challenge of school.
We are now scheduling her college visits.
Catch Phrase and Reading and Caitrin
Caitrin is finally breaking through. It's a slow process, but I see her trying to read more and more. She is actually working on it on her own, not just when I ask her to. Thank God!
She's making her way through Trixie Belden and an American Girl book, one paragraph at a time. It's taking her about fifteen minutes to do a paragraph alone and a little less if I'm a part of the process.
We are playing Catch Phrase a lot and the kids love it. Good game for using language to communicate. Tonight, Caitrin and Liam dusted Jon and me. Funny to see them beat us so easily.
Caitrin is weaving little rugs for her dolls. Very committed to the project. Lots of moving of her dolls around too. She narrated several of the Many Lands doll stories to Jon tonight. We also read some books at Barnes and Noble (Long-Long's New Year about the Chinese New Year). She loved that!
She has two Olivia books and is reading them with me too. I love her energy around books suddenly. Big change.
Today Liam and Caitrin came to Trader Joe's with me. Each one pushed his or her own cart. Little ones. I got a kick out of them. They have so much energy and are non-stop talkers.
She's making her way through Trixie Belden and an American Girl book, one paragraph at a time. It's taking her about fifteen minutes to do a paragraph alone and a little less if I'm a part of the process.
We are playing Catch Phrase a lot and the kids love it. Good game for using language to communicate. Tonight, Caitrin and Liam dusted Jon and me. Funny to see them beat us so easily.
Caitrin is weaving little rugs for her dolls. Very committed to the project. Lots of moving of her dolls around too. She narrated several of the Many Lands doll stories to Jon tonight. We also read some books at Barnes and Noble (Long-Long's New Year about the Chinese New Year). She loved that!
She has two Olivia books and is reading them with me too. I love her energy around books suddenly. Big change.
Today Liam and Caitrin came to Trader Joe's with me. Each one pushed his or her own cart. Little ones. I got a kick out of them. They have so much energy and are non-stop talkers.
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
YMCA for health
We're going to add the YMCA to our weekly outings. After the unqualified success of skiing, I am ready to add the YMCA for swimming for the kids and running for me. I weighed in at 126 (about fifteen pounds more than I want to be).
Today, kids played in the pool for an hour and I ran and lifted weights and sat in the jacuzzi.
We also read Eragon, had a teatime with poetry (read lots of nice poems out of our newest poetry book) and Jacob did his history and math.
All in all, a nice day.
Today, kids played in the pool for an hour and I ran and lifted weights and sat in the jacuzzi.
We also read Eragon, had a teatime with poetry (read lots of nice poems out of our newest poetry book) and Jacob did his history and math.
All in all, a nice day.
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Perfect Unschooling Day
Yesterday was perfect. I was gone in the morning at Rita's so worried that we wouldn't have as good a homeschool day as we usually do. Instead, it was better.
After lunch, I read to the kids (we are now slogging through Eldest, which they love). After we finished several chapters with a fire going, Caitrin began coloring a map of the world suggested in the book. Liam pulled out his Eono's Island Chain notebook and filled in details (gods and religions and other writing). We did some Internet research too and he decided one of the islands would have Confucianism for its main religion.
Jacob worked on his chemistry, history and writing.
We all sat at the table together for a long time (couple of hours) while we also began the new Jacob's algebra book. What a terrific math text! I'm so excited to really learn math this time. Both Jacob and Liam worked the problems.
Caitrin continued to color diligently her new map and then got the idea to make little standing figures out of paper and toothpicks and tape. She then put those figures on the map so they can move around. Each one was a character from the book. Delightful narration project!
At bedtime, Caitrin read the Mercer Mayer book Just For You all by herself. It was amazing to see her make so much progress. She's on the verge of a breakthrough for sure.
She's been busy with dress up lately too - lots of uses for a big swath of fabric (pink underskirt material).
After lunch, I read to the kids (we are now slogging through Eldest, which they love). After we finished several chapters with a fire going, Caitrin began coloring a map of the world suggested in the book. Liam pulled out his Eono's Island Chain notebook and filled in details (gods and religions and other writing). We did some Internet research too and he decided one of the islands would have Confucianism for its main religion.
Jacob worked on his chemistry, history and writing.
We all sat at the table together for a long time (couple of hours) while we also began the new Jacob's algebra book. What a terrific math text! I'm so excited to really learn math this time. Both Jacob and Liam worked the problems.
Caitrin continued to color diligently her new map and then got the idea to make little standing figures out of paper and toothpicks and tape. She then put those figures on the map so they can move around. Each one was a character from the book. Delightful narration project!
At bedtime, Caitrin read the Mercer Mayer book Just For You all by herself. It was amazing to see her make so much progress. She's on the verge of a breakthrough for sure.
She's been busy with dress up lately too - lots of uses for a big swath of fabric (pink underskirt material).
Sunday, January 08, 2006
Week one of 2006
So we discovered skiing and now that's all anyone wants to do. Caitrin, Liam and Jacob all did brillinatly on the slopes and got all that wonderful fresh air mothers concern themselves with.
Caitrin is reading On the Banks of Plum Creek all by herself, slowly, painstakingly, but refusing to let me help. Do I hear shouts from choirs of angels? Yes! She is also coloring in the ink drawings that we Xerox and making a beautiful collection. Challenges: reading fluidly, responding to punctuation as she reads and making her lower case letter only go up halfway on the lined notebook paper.
I got a kick out of two things. One: she received an "Olivia" book for Christmas and read it herself! She just bought the seond one and loves it. Two: We read "Phoebe the Spy" together (she part of the book, and me the other part) and she adored that story. She narrated the whole thing to Jon on a walk yesterday and it tickled me to hear her tell such a vivid version of the story. She compared Phoebe to a CIA agent. So cute!
She's into rewatching old Disney movies such as Aladdin, Tarzan, The Little Mermaid and more. She does a great job of narrating those stories to anyone who will listen. We continue to read mythology too.
Liam is also copying and reading. He finished his first Soup book over Christmas break and loved it. He listens attentively to our read alouds and continues to devour poetry. For math, we are going to dump Math U See (since it is way beneath his current level) and move on to Jacob's algebra starting the coming week. He and Jacob can work on it together.
Both Caitrin and Liam are hooked on Quiddler (card game) that makes you spell words out of random letters (a bit like Scrabble but with cards). Liam is great at it. We are also playing a lot of catch phrase and I'm thrilled at the way their verbal skills are growing.
We got to watch "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" as well as "Charlie and Chocolate Factory" over the break. They also watched myriad Christmas movies such as "Scrooged," "The Muppet Christmas Carol," and "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas." I liked comparing these stories.
Jacob continues his cookie business and has nearly finished his level of Math U See (in a semester!). We will embark on Algebra with Liam starting this week. He is addicted to skiing after one day on the slopes. Loved it. He blogs and keeps his journal going. He has done a great job of writing about science and history in the fall. I am going to introduce some testing ideas for those two subjects to help him prepare for essay testing.
Jacob is still playing saxophone and improving lots. Caitrin is playing violin and not improving as quickly but seems happy to do it.
We all went to Festival of Lights this year and Jon was with us. What a treat. Liam lights up himself any time we are around animals. Hope to go again this week (zoo).
Time to close. Life with the kids is good and I feel like they have struck a great balance between organized learning and their own pursuits.
Caitrin is reading On the Banks of Plum Creek all by herself, slowly, painstakingly, but refusing to let me help. Do I hear shouts from choirs of angels? Yes! She is also coloring in the ink drawings that we Xerox and making a beautiful collection. Challenges: reading fluidly, responding to punctuation as she reads and making her lower case letter only go up halfway on the lined notebook paper.
I got a kick out of two things. One: she received an "Olivia" book for Christmas and read it herself! She just bought the seond one and loves it. Two: We read "Phoebe the Spy" together (she part of the book, and me the other part) and she adored that story. She narrated the whole thing to Jon on a walk yesterday and it tickled me to hear her tell such a vivid version of the story. She compared Phoebe to a CIA agent. So cute!
She's into rewatching old Disney movies such as Aladdin, Tarzan, The Little Mermaid and more. She does a great job of narrating those stories to anyone who will listen. We continue to read mythology too.
Liam is also copying and reading. He finished his first Soup book over Christmas break and loved it. He listens attentively to our read alouds and continues to devour poetry. For math, we are going to dump Math U See (since it is way beneath his current level) and move on to Jacob's algebra starting the coming week. He and Jacob can work on it together.
Both Caitrin and Liam are hooked on Quiddler (card game) that makes you spell words out of random letters (a bit like Scrabble but with cards). Liam is great at it. We are also playing a lot of catch phrase and I'm thrilled at the way their verbal skills are growing.
We got to watch "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" as well as "Charlie and Chocolate Factory" over the break. They also watched myriad Christmas movies such as "Scrooged," "The Muppet Christmas Carol," and "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas." I liked comparing these stories.
Jacob continues his cookie business and has nearly finished his level of Math U See (in a semester!). We will embark on Algebra with Liam starting this week. He is addicted to skiing after one day on the slopes. Loved it. He blogs and keeps his journal going. He has done a great job of writing about science and history in the fall. I am going to introduce some testing ideas for those two subjects to help him prepare for essay testing.
Jacob is still playing saxophone and improving lots. Caitrin is playing violin and not improving as quickly but seems happy to do it.
We all went to Festival of Lights this year and Jon was with us. What a treat. Liam lights up himself any time we are around animals. Hope to go again this week (zoo).
Time to close. Life with the kids is good and I feel like they have struck a great balance between organized learning and their own pursuits.
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