States Unit Week 1

Here's what we did for week one.

Starting Over

So, it's been a long time since I made a post. So much has happened. I had another baby. Annalise will be one next week. I want to start blogging again to document all of our learning and adventures. This will be more for me than anyone else, but if someone can benefit by seeing what I've been doing then great!

The start of a new year

So we started school today. I know I haven't posted anything in over a year.since then we've added a new student, Annalise, born March 9, 2016. A goal now is to just keep a record of what we're doing in school. Maybe it will turn into something more. But for now it's just a journal. I need to update our pics and info.

As I said today was our first day of school. James began kindergarten and Janelle 2nd grade. I was having some thoughts about my school year and my friend summed it up beautifully when she said this would be the year of less is more. That's just how I feel. I want to do those few things that will have the greatest impact. So I started today with just reading, math, poetry and for Janelle violin practice. And that's it. If I can keep that up for a month or so then I'll add in something else. But for now that is all I'm doing. I'll report about our day to day dealings and what I may do with the babies. Until next time.

Deborah

Math for 2015

I wanted to put down my plans for math for the rest of the year. We finished up Singapore Math Earlybird K book B in January. But instead of jumping into the first grade book I decided to go through their Essential Math K books A and B. But upon receiving them I determined that the A book was a little too simplistic for Janelle. So I started James in the A book and Janelle in the B book.

After starting I wanted Janelle to get a good understanding of her math facts before she moved into addition and subtraction. I had been eyeing Right Brained Additiin and Subtraction for about a year and finally decided to give it a try. I'm glad I did because I love it. We've been using the program for only one week and James can identify numbers one through ten. Which he couldn't do at the beginning of the week. I'll make a review post on the whole program. 

When we're done with that we'll go back to fininshing up Essential Math B.

The rest of the year will go as follows:

Right Brained Place Value

Singapore Math 1A

Singapore Math 1B

Right Brained Multiplication and Division

We are also doing Life of Fred once a week, and Khan Academy. 

That's my plan, but I will definitely stop or slow down if I need to. As Charlotte Mason says "follow the child, not the curriculum. 

Logic

I wanted to share some of the resources that we have been using for logic and reasoning. The first is chess. We just started this week and right now we're just learning how the pieces move on the board. My dad taught me how to play when I was a little girl and I have fond memories of playing him in chess. Check here to read about some of the benefits of playing chess.
Next we have Spot it! This is a great game for visual analysis. Visual analysis skills are useful in a number of areas. For more info on that click here and here.
Another great visual game is Pixy Cubes. We are really enjoying this game as well.

Here are some workbooks that we have used or are using. I only do one page from each book per week.
Logic Safari 1
Connections
Balance Benders

Logic, visual and critical thinking skills are helpful in math, reading comprehension and a host of other things.

The day the crayons quit

We are loving this new book. The kids have asked to read almost every day. It is a humorous story about a box of crayons that decide to write letters to their owner, Duncan. They each in turn voice their complaints or praise of his usage, or lack thereof, of them. The illustrations are wonderful and the story is captivating for old and young. I originally checked it out at the library. But after being asked to read this several times I decided to add a copy to our library. I would definitely recommend this book for anyone's collection.