week 14

Another week that flew by way too fast. Jenna made Halloween cards, Jackalatern magnets and shrinky dink pumpkins to give out as gifts. We also did some Halloween crafting for our house. It seems like Tuesdays have been our big crafting day each week. She went to her first Halloween party this past week. She was so excited and had alot of fun. Halloween is tomorrow and she can't wait. Pumpkins are now turned into Jackalanterns. She made her's into a vampire.

This is what we did this week in school

Math- Horizon k book 2 - We are up to lesson 118. She is working on counting by 3's which isn't easy for her, so we will make sure to keep reviewing this, lots of subtraction(which she loves alost) and addition. Tens and ones place value. She was introduced to quarters which she already knows what they are worth. But we still struggle some when finding the total amount when quarters and dimes or nickels are mixed in. All in all she is doing very well.

Reading - Ordinary parents guide to teaching reading - She is on lesson 195, but we are going to review some of the previous lessons as well. We started reading some of the advanced progressive phonic books and reading books that we have on hand. I was looking at some of the future lessons and realize that she is already reading some of those words as well, so it will make doing some of those lessons easier for us. She is doing so well, I never expected to be this far along in the phonic lessons. When we started school the end of July she was just reading some cvc words, and now she is reading way beyond that. We are going to have a big celebration when we finish all her phonic lessons.

Spelling- We formally stopped doing spelling, but she still learns how to spell new words through her everyday and school writing. We will be using Ordinary parents guide to teaching reading and spelling rules come the first of the year. This will be our spelling program that we will be using. I don't want her just memorizing a list of words each week. I want her to know the spelling rules as well.

Writing - I did a writing assesment this past week. I had her print all the capital and lower case on lined paper. She did very well, she formed all her letters the right way and for the most part they were very neat. She also did some pages from her handwriting without tears 1st grade book. Pen pals have been neglected, so she will get back to writing them next month. I plan on her writing alot more next week.

A new month will be starting next week. We plan on learning about pumpkins, owls and continue with our fall projects.

65 days of school so far

This week went by way too fast. We didn't get everything done that we wanted to, but that's okay. Jenna was so cute the other day in school. I was teaching her a math lesson and she said, "you are such a good teacher, mommy". That just made my day.

Well here is what we did this past week

Math - We are still working on subtraction using the number line. But being the smarty pants that she is, she likes to try it without the number line first. Same thing when it comes to adding numbers like 82 + 6, she tries doing it herself before using the number line. And most of the time she gets the answers right. We have been relaxed on learning her addition facts, we are slowly working on the 3 facts. And we are learning to count by 3's which isn't going to be an easy task. All in all, I am very pleased with the Horizon k book 2 we are using.

Reading - Ordinary Parents Guide To Teaching Reading - We finished up the lessons with controll r words, but we are going to keep reviewing more she seems to have some problems with some of the words. Most she can get, but some she just can't seem to grasp. We started compound words which she is doing great with. And as I preview some future upcoming lessons, she knows alot of upcoming words from our reading. I do try to teach the phonics rule when we stumble upon words we haven't learned, but the lessons will be good reinforcement. We also have been reading everynight as well. My goal is to have her continue reading with me and to start reading independently by the beginning of next year.

Writing - We are still working on our 1st grade Handwriting without tears book. Other than that, we didn't do much school writing. But jenna did some free time writing, she made a book. All of her sentences were complet sentences, I was so proud of her.

Fall fun - We painted pumpkins, made paper bag pumpkins, halloween picture and fall picture. Also we made some cute papertowel owls. Jenna loves to play with them, she also made a scene for them.

It was a very good week.

12 th week done

Today we went and bought some pumpkins (4 little and 2 big). We will be using the little pumpkins for school next week.

 I also was busy yesterday, the fall and farm wall is all done. On the Farm wall, I have the saying Down On The Farm and posted all of Jenna's work. And on the Fall wall, I have the saying Fall -tastic,  a tree with falling leaves, pumpkins and Jenna's fall work so far.

We had a good week of school.

Math - Horizon k book 2 - Jenna finally seems to understand which numbers are odds and which are evens. She also learned more about telling time, she was introduced to the half past the hour. And started learning about halves. And she started subtraction, which she really enjoyed. There was also some review of previous learned material. We try to do 4 days of Horizon and one day of just review. We will be starting lesson 108 next week. I really love this math program and so does Jenna.

Reading - OPGTR - Another good week, she is improving daily. We both love OPGTR and it is so easy to use. She is on lesson 154, which is the  R controlled words. We finished up the silent letters in the previous lessons. She has also been reading daily, I try to find her stories with somewhat of a challenge, but not too much of a challenge.

Handwriting - Handwriting without tears - We only did this a couple of times this week. But on the days that we didn't, she was writing about her farm animals.

Writing- We have been working on complete sentences, capitalization and punctuation. She really seems to understand to Capitalize at the beginning of a sentence and what punctuation to use. I am also impressed how she seems to understand how to form a complete sentence in her writing (school and fun time). We will be beginning Writing with Ease, no later than January. She is so ready.

Farm unit-  Jenna wrote facts about sheep and horses this week. She decorated 2 sheeps, one with oatmeal and the other with cotton balls.

Fall unit- We made carmeled apples. Grandpa brought Jenna a fall leaf. First she did some leaf rubbings, then she waxed pressed her leaf (grandpa told her how to do this and she wrote down the directions), and put it in a little book.

Next week we will be learning about pumpkins, exploring the gourds that we picked up (science and math), start some Halloween fun and more leaf fun.

End of week 11 and some Fall fun

Jenna had some Fall fun on Sunday. She went to the Cabbage festival. She was able to ride her favorite horse and brush the pony. They had a cabbage toss, you needed to get it in the basketball net. After several attempts of getting the cabbage in the net, the guy who was in charge lifted her up to make the basket. She thanked him, but wanted to do it herself. So the guy flipped over the recycling bin for her to stand on, so she would be closer. After about a good 15 minutes, she finally made the basket. She was so proud of herself. She ended up with some prizes and was given the cabbage as an memento of the winning basket. Also there was a guy taking pictures and said she may be in the local paper. They had pumpkin and rock painting, which she had fun doing. Someone was doing some face painting, so she was able to get a witch on her cheek. Everything was free except the food. I was thankful that we got out and had fun on Sunday because for most of the week it rained and rained.



We had another good week of school.

Math - Horizon k book 2 - working on counting by 2's, even and odd numbers, math facts and working on telling time.

Reading - I love Ordinary Parents Guide To Teaching  Reading - Jenna is thriving using this. It's so easy to teach and she is enjoying it. We are at lesson 129. I do two old lessons and two new lessons a day at her request. This is the pace that is good for her now. We also have continued reading every night.

Writing - HWOT - I love this book and so does she. She has been writing alot of complete sentences, this week she wrote facts about cows and pigs. And today she wrote some sentences about the Cabbage Festival. I love that she understands aout Capitalizing at the beginning of a sentence and about the punctuation marks. Most of the time she remebers all of that without me telling her. And I will have her put words in a complete sentence first before I put my input in.

Farming - We started off the week learning about cows. Jenna drew a picture of a cow and wrote some facts down about them. We also milked a cow. Okay not a real cow, but a glove that had milk in it. She really enjoyed that. Then we took some heavy whipping cream, put it in a jar, shook it, shook it, shook it and shook it until we had butter. She also decorated a cute cow and put some glitter black spots on it.
Later in the week we learned about pigs. Jenna drew a picture and wrote some facts down about them. She also played in the mud(shaving cream mixed with brown food coloring). I laminated a pig for her to have fun with in the mud.

Fall - We didn't do much this week. We did count the Cabbage Festival sa some Fall fun. It was her idea to write about the Cabbage Festival and she drew a picture to go with. I will put that up on our Fall wall. Right now everything is off my walls because Jenna and I started Fall cleaning today.

Now that the rain is gone, we plan on getting outside and collecting leaves. We need to get some pumpkins later next week. We will be learning about pumpkins and leaves. Contnue working on our Farm unit ( I plan on posting pics of our farm wall). Fall crafting next week. And Halloween crafting in another week. I love fall!

10th week = 50 days

Jenna has been schooling for 50 days, we are half way to our 100th day celebration. And I am happy to say that she is still loving homeschooling. Oh and I love it too. Today I did an assessment of what she has learned since the beginning of the school year. We are farther along with Math, Writing and Reading than I had expected to be. And it's all her doing, I go at her pace, which is a fast pace. I would expect that the pace will slow down as the work gets harder. But for now, I am keeping up with her as best as I can.

We continued with our Fall and Farm unit.

 We made homeade apple sauce which was very yummy. I showed Jenna the star that is in the apple and she made some apple star prints. The seeds from the apples are going to be used in a future project. She was amazed at how fast an apple turns brown when we left some apple pieces out. We also did some estimating of which apples weighed the most and then we weighed them.

Jenna learned about chickens this week. I read stories about them. We watched a hen laying an egg and a chick being hatched. She then drew pictures of a hen and rooster. And wrote some facts about chickens. I hard boiled an egg and Jenna drew a face on it. I had her take care of the egg, like she was a hen. She really enjoyed it. Then to finish up our study of chickens, she made a cute hen stick puppet.

Math- Horizon k book 2 - learning to count by 2's, odd and even numbers and review.

Writing - Handwriting without tears first grade - I had her write some previous spelling words to practice her writing and to make sure she is able to still spell them correctly. I also added some new spelling words which had long vowels and she spelled them all right. She wrote 6 sentences when we did her facts about chickens. I was very impressed on how neat her writing was and how she can write complete sentences with very little input from me.

Reading - OPGTR - We are on lesson 110 and she is picking everything up quickly. Six more lessons and we will be halfway through the book. We do seem to go at a faster pace, I do two new lessons a day and then we review them the following day and add two more. The only reason I am doing two, is that this is the pace that works for her. At age 4 she is a very good reader and I would say at least a first grade or higher level.

We are all caught up with our penpals and will be writing to new one's this month.