Friday, September 23, 2011

2nd full week of school

I can't believe how fast this week went. Jenna is excited that fall has arrived and is looking forward to some fall crafting. She picked out her Halloween costume the other day.

I came up with an idea to give jenna an incentive to push her out of her comfort zone. I am going to start her treasure box with little dollar store items(maybe even some candy which is a big deal to a kid who hardly ever gets candy) and doing things out of her comfort zone will earn her points. After so many points she gets to pick from the treasure box. I was very pleased and proud of my little girl this week. Yesterday we went to visit Miss Patti at her hair shop and Jenna recited two poems from her grammer lessons to her. Jenna has a very hard time doing this in front of anyone but me, so this was a huge thing. She stood up straight, looked right at her, and spoke very clearly.

Reading - Jenna flew through explode the code book 5 this week, what I forgot is we did some of book 5 and book 6 before book 4 this school year. So at her request I am not going to make her finish book 6 and go right to book 7. I am not too concerned because Jenna is only using this program as a reinforcement of everything she has already learned. We finished reading Ramona The Pest today and started are fourth book Ramona And Her Mother. We havn't purchased the other 4 books yet, but they are on our wish list.


Writing - She started back up with Writing With Ease 1, lesson 14. She did this twice this week and we will continue doing it twice a week. I like the idea of doubling up the days. She also worked on some sentence worksheets the rest of the week.

Spelling - Spelling Workout A, lesson 14. She spelled all the words correctly on monday, but i still had her do all the work for that lesson, so 3 days of workbook pages. Then I requizzed her on Thursday and again she spelled them correctly. So that puts us at spelling 4 times a week.

Grammer- First Language Lessons 1 - She finished with lesson 29 and worked on memorizing her third poem. We also did some worksheets on nouns.

Handwriting - I had her practice daily, writing her full name, the day, month, date and the year on line paper.

Math - She is still working on addition facts need to make up some subrtraction facts as well. We did this and working on money 4 times this week. She also did a bunch of lessons in her Horizon 1st grade book 1 and took test 2 today. So she ended with lesson 20.

Geography - We reviewed the world map and then talked about our continent. She identified the countries in North Americia and then we looked at the map of Untied States. She can identify New York, California, Texas, Flordia, Hawaii and Alaska. She also worked out of a workbook about being able to read neighborhood maps.

Phys. Ed. - The weather was beautiful yesterday so she went bike riding. The rest of the days are spent running around the house pretending to be a super hero, dancing to moms radio thats on everyday, hopping and skipping.

Well this was Jennas week of school. I spent this afternoon after school pulling out some fall colored paper in hopes of creating a fall banner this weekend. That will be Art class, lol.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Kindergarten started Wednesday, September 7th

 I never expected to be on a break for as long as we were. From now on we are schooling year round with only short breaks in between.  A new school year has begun. Jenna's first official year of homeschooling. We are both excited. The last week and a half has been filled with lots of review. I am surprised at how much she has retained from last school year. She is eager to get right to work each day and get everything done without any breaks. So are goal is to start school by 10 and be done before 2.

So here's what we have planned so far for this year. With more to be added as I see the need or Jenna asks for to be added.

Math - Horizon math 1st grade book 1
            Addition and subtraction math facts
           
Reading - Explode the code books 4 - 8 (book 4 was started last school year)
                Chapter books reading aloud (her reading to me and me as well to her)
                Silent time reading were she will pick a book and go of and read by herself

Spelling - Spelling work out book B (started this last year up to lesson 12)

Hand writing - Working on neatness and still working on some formation of some letters
                       hopefully handwriting without tears 2nd grade book

Grammer - First language lessons book 1
                  some worksheets from online to reinforce what she's learned

Writing- Writing with ease 1 (which we started last school year and will be starting again soon)
              http://www.growingwithgrammar.com/1www_Level_1.html I really hope to purchase this

Vocabulary -  Wordly Wise K (used a little bit last year)

Science-        Dinasaurs and hopefully nature study
                     In January Real Science Odyssey life

Geography - I have a mixture of material to use from different resources

History -       I would like to do some pre history before starting Story of the world 1 ancients
                   
Art -             Some fun seasonal projects
                     Artistic Pursuit the preschool book (did a handful of lessons in this last school year)

phys ed -      Everday play and hopefully soon our wii will be fix to do wii fit plus

extra things -  Jenna wants to learn sign language, cursive writing and I want her to learn latin (song school 
                     latin is suppose to be a good start for her age)


So this is our agenda for this year.
 
This is what we've done so far this school year
 
Math - Horizon first grade book 1 - She did lessons 1 - 10
            Also worked on addition facts and money
 
Reading - Read two chapter books Beezus and Ramona
                                                      Ramona the brave
                 Explode the code book 4 -  did 8 lessons 2 more to go
 
Spelling - Reviewed words from last year will be starting new words next week
 
Hand writing - I have her writing her full name, the day, month, date and year everday on lined paper
 
Vocabulary -  Wordly Wise K - we did one lesson
 
Grammer - First Language lessons 1 - still working on nouns from last year and she has memorized two
                  poems
 
Geography -  we reviewed from last year
 
That's it I am thankful daily to have the chance to be able to be a major part of my daughters education.