First Week back at school and we are reevaluating EVERYTHING! Kindergarten needs to be fun, so we are taking ourselves less seriously and playing more. This is one of our favorite Games: Kids of Catan. Gotta start em young!
Winter Class
Posted by on December 2, 2011 Leave a Comment
Homeschooling in the winter is super cozy. We spend as much of our day as we can curled up with a good book, or sitting at the table, looking out the sliding doors at the snowy wonderland. We’ve been trying to get outside when the sun is shining, but this is the biggest problem we have…
Avery hates it outside! I usually bundle her up, which is a challenge, and take her outside even if she doesn’t like it. I keep hoping she’ll get over it. The last time we went out was better. She didn’t cry and scream for the whole time. Maybe she’s getting used to it. Or maybe she just realizes that no one is going to take her inside for at least a little while.
She’s only sort of smiling in this picture because I told her that if she smiled she could go inside. I know, bribe parenting…bad Courtenaymomma. Mr. Snowman nudist there is apparently named “Alina Melina”. I’m thinking that is one confused snowman. Or should we perhaps switch to snowperson…
Emily and I have been talking a lot about how snow works and the weather. “Why it melts”, has been the question of the week as it warmed up so much. First his teeth fell out, which left him looking a bit like a hockey player. Then his nose fell off. Then the mits. Now he kind of looks like a zombie snowman. His face is all messed up and his arms hang limp at his sides. He went from cheerful to creepy in one week. Emily keeps saying we should fix his face, but to me, that seems just as morbid. “Excuse me Mr. He/She while I remove your head for repairs…” See what I mean. Next year I’ll make a clown snowman that can melt and the creepyness will be complete.
NaNoWriMo
Posted by on November 30, 2011 2 Comments
I did it. I dropped of the face of the blogosphere for more than a month because I took on the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) challenge. The challenge was to write a 50,000 word novel start to finish in the month of November. You can’t finish something you started already. It needs to be a fiction novel. There are a few other rules, but that’s pretty much the jist of it. So thats what I did. I did it. I finished a novel start to finish yesterday. I even had one day to spare.
Emily helped me with some ideas for the story. We used that for some cool book writing parts in homeschool last month. I would tell her the story and make it up as I went along. I started by recording me telling her the story. It changed drastically by the end of actually writing, but that was to be expected.
It’s a children’s speculative fantasy novel. Think ages 9-12. I would have preferred to write a bit edgier and have it make the young adult class, but then I couldn’t read it to emily and that just didn’t seem fair. You, my blog reads get the first snapshot of my book. You’ll also get first choice to read sample chapters, and maybe even one day own a book written by Courtenay Kasper.
The premise of the book is the steam punk adventure of two young foxes whose parents are kidnapped and the kidnappers are coming for them next because they are actually heirs to a broken kingdom. The foxes set off in their hot air balloon airship on a journey across land and sea to rescue their parents. Along the way they meet many strange and silly woodlanders that will either help or hinder their journey.
That’s the basic premise. I kind of like to think of it as a steam punk redwallian adventure. You’ll get it if you get it. So now begins the long process of editing and developing my story until it is ready to be published. I know Morgan will publish at least one copy for us to have, so that’s a start. I’d love to see it read far and wide.
So off I go to edit!
Emily’s First Report Card
Posted by on November 23, 2011 Leave a Comment
It was a very surreal thing to get my daughters first report card. It was kind of cool to see that Im raising an over achiever who will struggle with perfection like her dad and the need to be ahead like her mom. Its weird to see something of yourself in your child’s kindergarten report card. She did wonderful all on her own. I love that we homeschool, so she doesn’t even know she gets a report card. I think I’d like to keep it that way as long as possible. I dont want her to stress about a piece of paper that says where she is at. She is where she is. I want to know all the details, but I’d rather she just tried to do her best and keep trying new things.
Emily loves her teacher too. Not me… well she does love me, but I mean our schools teacher that meets with us before report cards. I think emily thinks a teacher is someone who comes over that you get to talk to forever and tell how great you are and thats right up her alley. She literally thinks she is the best at something if she as dont it once. She is apparently a professional ballet dancer, laundry folder, artist, singer, and well, pretty much anything she does. Its a tough balance to keep her grounded and not braggy while trying to help her soar with courage to try things. Good thing I’m up for a challenge.
Ginger Snaps
Posted by on November 16, 2011 Leave a Comment
For school today, we put the books on the shelf and the math manipulatives in a bin and tied on our aprons.
Earlier in the day I pre-dotted the letters for a recipe in Emily’s Journey book. She traced the letters and sounded out the words for reading and writing.
Then for math, we made the recipe. She counted all the scoops and we even talked about fractions when we cut half of something.
Normally, about halfway through backing something Emily gets board or unruly and I send her off to play while I finish up. This time, she did wonderful. I think she knew what to expect because we had read the recipe and knew what we were going to do with it. It was great fun!
Water Math
Posted by on November 9, 2011 Leave a Comment
Please excuse the pics. I only had the ipad and it really takes terrible pics, but at least I have them
We tried a new experiment this week. We were working on a unit about measurements, weight, volume, and mass.
I’m pretty sure Emily things the experiment was about mixing colours, but that’s her artist brain at work.
We filled seven jars with water and added different food colourings. Then we guessed which would have the most and least.
Then we took small cups and measured how much was in each cup. I loved the shocked look on her face when the tall skinny cup held the same as the short fat one. It was a great experiment for our goal. She really grasped the concept.
Books!!
Posted by on November 2, 2011 Leave a Comment
We have ben book crazy lately. We borrowed the largest bag of books from our neighbours and we are trying to work our way through them. Here’s our favorite so far!!
If you think Poo is funny, this book is for you! Emily just about giggled out of her pants while we read this!
Christmas stories are ever the favorite and Roddy Doyle is winning huge awards around our house for being down right hilarious!
The Boxcar Children (Emily calls them the Boxcart Children) have been a wonderful addition to our reading. I like the sweet stories as much as Emily does. Her and Avery play Boxcar Children all the time. We just started book three and Emily is dying to know whats inside the Yellow House! She’d read all day if my voice could hold out that long. Makes her book loving momma proud!
Apple Stamps
Posted by on October 25, 2011 Leave a Comment
One of the projects we worked on this week was for Phonics Museum. We were working on our short “A” sound and the final part of the lesson was to make a piece of art. We did “Apple Stamps”. We cut an apple in half and dipped it in acrylic paint (Mommy needs to find the cheap tempura paint for her painting monsters to use ALL of. It’s still packed somewhere I think.) Then I helped Avery stamp it on paper. Emily did her own, but I helped Avery more after she thought we were painting the apples and then eating them…gross.
Emily’s look a bit more like apples, but either way we still had fun with it.
Phonics Museum
Posted by on October 18, 2011 Leave a Comment
We decided to switch phonics programs and we are loving our new program.
It’s called Phonics Museum by Veritas Press. We will continure to use Explode the Code, Reading Eggs, BOB Books, Progressive Phonics and a bunch of other things as resources, Phonics Museum has taken the lead. Its an awesome program that I picked up for a steal from this amazing homeschool Mom at a homeschool co-op swap. The basics about this program that I love:
- It’s true phonics, so it teaches letter sounds instead of just letter names.
- Its perfect from my Speech Therapy Background because it starts teaching letter that are developmentally appropriate and made first in speech production.
- It’s Christian, so I dont have to worry that the readers will have topic I wouldn’t be comfortable with, but it isn’t cheesy at all.
- The readers are real literature not just the old “Dick and Jane” style readers without a point.
- Its based around art! We do art, we read art. The visual cues are art. We read about art…etc!
- Its actually visually pleasing. As a graphic designer, I have a hard time looking at clip art…not going to lie. Clip art and Comic Sans are evil.
- It uses different fonts so Emily can recognize upper and lower case letters with serifs, san-serifs, “a” with a hook on top or not.
- My favorite part is that Emily has her own Museum set up in her room with art hanging all over the walls and things that start with whatever sound we are working on in her room.
- It’s Modern Manuscript style printing so she will be ready for cursive writing.
I pretty much cant say enough good things about this program. We are loving it!
Homeschool in the Fall
Posted by on October 11, 2011 Leave a Comment
Boy are we sure enjoying fall. It’s always been my favorite season. I like all the seasons, but fall is my favorite! I wrote a paper in school based on a speech given by Carl Honore titled” In Praise of Slowness”. Basically the gist of it is that we live our lives at 100 miles an hour and we miss alot of the living to be had. So we’ve been fully pursuing slowness this fall. I love the way it makes me feel to get into a rythym and a day to day routine without so many things in the week that everyone is confused.
A day in the life of fall:
7:30-8ish get up and make breakfast. Emily is learning to do this on her own, which is one of our goals for this year.
8:30-9 – I do my devotions and spend time praying while the girls play downstairs. This is the best part of my day and without it, Im in the wrong frame of mind the rest of the day and lets just say it goes more smoothly if mommy gets some time to her self.
9-10:30- School starts. We cuddle on the couch and read Emilys bible on the iPad and go over her A-Z Memory verses. She is on “E” – “Every good and perfect gift is from above”. then we sit at the table and do some reading, writing and math. I’ve been keeping it more consistent for the last little while because emily needs the same things more than I do. Avery takes this time to draw on a white board or play with playdough. If I have something really tough to teach Avery gets the playmobil house because it holds her attention even longer. Speaking of tough things…how dumb is English that p,b,d,q,6 and 9 are all essentially the same shape! so not fair to kiddos leaning letters and numbers!
I should clarify that all these times are “ish”, meaning that we just start when we start and when Im ready for us to start.
10:30-11 a snack and more play time. On nicer days, the girls play on the deck or outside
11- 12- Lately I’ve been throwing together crock pot meals and getting laundry done.
12 – Emily makes lunch! Just globby jam sandwiches and yogurt and carrot sticks, but its super cute that she wants to make lunch.
1- More playtime. Usually in the back yard or the playroom if its raining or windy.
2:30-3 Nap time and quiet time and mommy studies Spanish time!
4-5 reading books or playing games with the girls and then getting dinner ready.
The evenings are all over the place, but they’ve been more routine since Emily got over her issues with water on her face and started showering. Wow that makes it sound like I dont bathe my kid, but really she just prefered baths before.
All around we are enjoying the fall and the fun leaf treasure hunts that come with that. I really need to find my camera…
