Earley Learning

The Creative Child

2011-11-02T22:05:00.002-07:00

The other day someone told me how well this little 4 year old girl they had met was so different from my 4 year old daughter.

They told me that she sat and colored an entire coloring book page inside the lines. My 4 year old daughter can't sit and color a coloring book page inside the lines and neither could her sister at that age. Ellie at 8 barely does it now.

I've been thinking about this the past couple days....why can't my kids color inside the lines? I was wrong, I was taking it as they couldn't, but it's not skill, it's interest.

Then last night as I watched them I realized it all. Coloring books are boring. I believe we own some, somewhere but my kids have litte interest in coloring books. This is because I give my kids much more than coloring books. I give them free access to a wide variety of craft supplies and even items that might not be considered craft supplies but they use them anyway!

Last night and for the last 3 Halloweens Ellie (8) drew a face on her pumpkin then carved her entire pumpkin by herself. Then she made a stethoscope to play doctor with the cat. Elyza (4) also drew a face on her pumpkin and I helped her carve it holding my hand over her's on the knife, as she is only 4 and lacks strength to cut through a pumpkin.

Children by nature are creators, inventors, and explorers, and these abilities need the nourishment of creative are experiences. It's not art unless it provides an opportunity for children to use their ideas, thoughts, and feelings in their own ways.

The development of the ability to think creatively is more important than any art product a child can produce. Children express their ideas freely and creatively if adults do not cause them to be inhibited. Those who interfere with children’s creative expression do so because of a lack of awareness and understanding of children’s art. Ways in which teachers and parents interfere are providing children with coloring books, Hector pictures, patterns, and pictures to copy. These so-called art activities have had a devastating effect on children and their art. They prevent a child from expressing individual ideas, thoughts, and feelings: from solving problems, and from developing initiative, self-confidence, imagination, and originality.

Coloring books or hectographed pictures are sometimes used not only for art but also as a learning device in many subject areas of the curriculum. In such activities a child may have a choice of the color used, but even sometimes this is dictated. In this type of activity, children have neither choices to make or thinking to do. Neither do they have control over the shapes in which they work. They are just asked to obey…to color inside the limits of the outlined of printed drawings.

My children not only color, but think outside of the lines, they are innovative thinkers.. They have retained their own imaginations, something every child is born with but often removed from them with instructions on how to do things "right." I am happy my kids don't color in coloring books. They are not lacking an important skill because they don't, they are bursting with skills that are taken away from so many children. Why would they sit and color in a coloring book when they can have so much more?

It's been awhile

2011-11-02T22:05:00.000-07:00

It's been nearly 2 years since I posted on this blog. My homeschooling journey has taken me places I never thought it would.

Ellie is 8 1/2 year old. We are more on the "unschooling" side of things than ever except we, meaning Ellie, participates in a ALE through a local school district. Ellie has a dream to get far in gymnastics, and frankly without the program we can't afford it. The costs of tuition, meet fees, uniforms, etc is about $4000 for the year, this does not include travel to/from or our expenses to go watch her! She is now competing in Level 4 and she's doing fantastic. She just started this year, her first meet she scored high enough to make it to sectionals. She's an awesome gymnast and I couldn't be prouder of her. Technically we do unschool, because we do what she chooses, She understands in order to appease the school district we must do certain activities as "school work" and they in turn help finance gymnastics, so she does it.

Elyza is a sassy 4 year old. She's super smart and loves learning. She also does gymnastics because she wants to be like her big sister. So likely next year she will also go into the ALE and we will evaluate it as time goes on. Being in K the requirements of learning can all be done in life unless you live under a rock!

So, there's my update.

November Week 2

2009-11-14T10:07:00.000-08:00

Ellie did about 20 workbook pages from her Brain Quest 1st grade book.

She did spelling worksheets every day and got 100% on her quiz on Friday.

She read 2 books outloud.

HWT lessons is to write a story using her spelling words. She is not finished but has worked on this. She also writes in her Language lessons.

Singapore Math - Review 1 through 3

Language Lessons 18 through 21

Learning/Playgroup they played with homemade playdough.

Ballet on Monday

Gymnastics on Wednesday

Science class on Friday, they learned about red foxes, coyotes and gray wolves which all live in Washington.

1.5 hours of swimming.

Went to Kids and Clay where Ellie made several pieces that I can not list because some are gifts :)

November Week 1

2009-11-14T09:59:00.000-08:00

Ellie did about 20 workbook pages from her Brain Quest 1st grade book.

She did spelling worksheets every day and got 100% on her quiz on Friday.

She read 4 books outloud.

2 HWT lessons, practices numbers, she can now write 8's and 6's great! She had a hard time before.

Singapore Math - Lessons 29-31

Language Lessons 14-17

Daddy & Ellie made cookies

Ellie is in the process of designing an ever changing hat. She started it today as a Snack hat named Snack-A-Hat 6000. She made it herself.

Read to Ellie Dingoes at Dinnertime, Magic Tree house book #20

Ballet on Monday

Gymnastics on Wednesday

Science class on Friday, they learned about worms and took some home. We now are the proud owners of a worm farm. We made a worm farm because she wanted to keep the worms and they couldn't live in the little container she brought them home in.

About an hour on the computer doing learning games

Learing/Playgroup. We did a craft where we made our own pinwheels and bookmarks.

1.5 hours of swimming.

October Week 4

2009-11-14T09:53:00.000-08:00

Busy week again.

Ellie did about 20 workbook pages from her Brain Quest 1st grade book.

She did spelling worksheets every day and got 100% again on her quiz on Friday.

She read 2 books outloud.

2 HWT lessons with capital letters

Language Lessons 10 - 13

Singapore Math lessons 25-28

About two hours spent on the computer playing learning games.

Ballet on Monday

Gymnastics on Wednesday

Science class on Friday learning about the human body.

Homeschool Halloween party with crafts on Thursday.

Playgroup/learning group we went to the pumpkin patch where they have lots of activities and animals.

1.5 hours of swimming.

October Week 3

2009-10-23T19:00:00.000-07:00

We have been keeping pretty busy. This week we did alot of things:

Ellie did about 25 workbook pages from her Brain Quest 1st grade book.

She did spelling worksheets every day and got 100% on her quiz on Friday. She LOVES spelling, she wants to learn to spell and she does great at it! I changed her spelling a bit from the past couple of weeks. She has 9 words each week. Monday she writes each word twice. Tuesday she cuts out the word and pastes them in alphabetical order. Wednesday she unscrambles the letters to make each word. Thursday she writes each word twice again. Friday she does a word search with all of the words and takes a quiz. She loves how it changes each day and how there are fun activities added in.

She read 4 books outloud. Read and finished Tigers at Twilight, Magic Tree House book to Ellie. She reads some passages in these books to me while we read.

HWT-Frog jump letters on a slate. Page 10 of the workbook, and practice sheets.

Singapore Math - Lessons 17 through 22.

Language Lessons 6 through 9

About an hour spent on the computer playing learning games.

Ballet on Monday

Gymnastics on Wednesday

Science class started zoology. This week they opened up owl pellets and found the bones of the animal the owl had eaten, Ellie's was a vole and talked about it.

October Week 2

2009-10-16T16:28:00.000-07:00

Ballet x1

Acro & Tumbling x 1

Singapore Math Lessons 11 through 16

HWT = Hand Writing without Tears - Mystery Letters with "Frog Jump letters" and did some Pencil Pickups.

Science class learning about the human body

Computer time

October Week 1

2009-10-09T17:00:00.000-07:00

This week we had an adventure. We went on a small ship cruise to British Columbia. The ship holds 102 passengers but there were about 80 on board.

We left from Seattle and it was a gorgeous day. Ellie was fascinated by the Ballard locks and took a ton of pictures and we talked about how a lock works.

We went to Vancouver B.C., rode the Seabus from North Vancouver to downtown and then rode the city bus from downtown to Stanley Park and the Vancouver Aquarium. We saw the standard things that aquariums have like the Sea Otters, fish, jelly fish, touch tanks with sea cucumbers, sea stars, sharks, etc. We also saw a huge Leatherback Sea Turtle, Beluga's which were two mother and baby pairs (and the mother's were mother and daughter themselves), we even saw the babies nursing! We also saw pacific White Sided Dolphins who did a fantastic show for us. They also have an Anaconda, butterflies, lizards, seahorses, tropical fish, other snakes, two Hyacinth Macaw and Scarlet ibises. On the walk back through Stanley park to the bus we met a very friendly raccoon that Ellie was able to hand feed. He was nearly too friendly, but very cute. That was a neat experience for her too.

We had a fantastic day in Desolation Sound where we got into small inflatable boats to get even closer to nature. We were able to touch a real seastar and then return him to his home. We also some some seals and other sea life. We also saw several fantastic waterfalls and we were able to feel their spray, we were THAT close.

We went to Nanaimo, saw a few of their older buildings and learned about the history. Then we took a nice walk on the boardwalk on the water there and found a fantastic park for the kids to play in. We had a great time and then walked back to the ship for lunch and departure. When we returned to the ship a local artist & photographer Cim MacDonald who did a watercolor demonstration. Cim is the only local Chamainus artist to do a mural in Chemainus (we did not visit Chemainus on this trip) Ellie loved having a real artist on board and loved watching her paint. She sat quietly and watched and took it all in. After her talk she drew a sunset picture for Cim to take with her. Sim also took some cute photos of both girls that she will be sending me.

The next day we were in Victoria. We spent about 2 1/2 hours at The Butchart Gardens then headed to the ship for lunch. After lunch we went to the Royal London Wax Museum, then met my friend Jen and went to Victoria's Bug Zoo where we saw lots of cool bugs. We saw a scorpian mother with babies, they take care of their babies who crawl on her back for protection, who knew! Jen held a tarantula and Ellie touched it, and Ellie held a giant leaf bug. That was a lot of fun. After dinner we went to the lawn of the Parliament building so that Ellie could show off her gymnastics to Jen.

Friday was fitting, we were in Friday Harbor. Doug and Cassie rode the ferry over and met us for the last two nights. We did a bus tour around Friday Harbor and learned about the eccentric people who live and visit there and the history of the island. We were hoping to see Popeye, their resident sea lion but we missed him. We saw him on our last visit and we loved him! After dinner we went for a walk and let the kids play a little bit even though it was dark. When we were coming back to the ship we ran into Brittany who was a crew member, she was watching sea creatures with a flashlight, so for an hour we joined her watching shrimp (they are really cool and their eyes glow orange), sea stars, moon jelly, we harassed sea anemones by touching them with our fingers to watch them to inside of themselves. We watched sea anemones eat moon jellies, took a melibe nudibranch out of the water -- they smell like watermelon!

Saturday we went to Port Townsend. We did a walking tour there to hear about the town history and then we explored on our own. In the afternoon Ellie just HAD to go to the beach and swim, yes, she got wet in the freezing Washington water, at least it was a sunny day!

It was a wonderful experience for Ellie and I am glad I braved the 5 days alone with a 2-year old and Ellie to do it. Many of the women on board (who were mostly 60+) told me that I was so brave and I was doing so well with the kids.

MORE pictures from our trip can be viewed by clicking HERE

There are some fantastic pictures you will want to see!

September Week 5

2009-10-02T19:00:00.000-07:00

An outline of our week. Ellie asked to do more workbook stuff, math and sitting down and learning in general so we now have a goal of things to do daily, she is loving learning!

This week:

Language Arts

20 workbook pages from Brain Quest, grade 1
Read and wrote spelling list 3 times
Took Spelling quiz and missed ZERO out of 11. I put a bonus word on there which was the one she missed last week, she got it right this week.
Read 4 books
2 capital letter pages (printing work, writing each letter 3 times)
2 lowercase letter pages (printing work, writing each letter 3 times)
Read and answered 1 email
First Language Lessons 5 & 6
Started lessons from Handwriting without tears

Math

Lessons 3-10 in Singapore Math

Ballet Class
Acro/Tumbling Class
Played at the park

Arts/Field Trips, Etc

About 2 hours of Jump Start on the computer
Did art 3 times this week
She also played different fun things that include learning like Restaurant (she made a menu), etc.

September Week 4

2009-09-25T08:19:00.000-07:00

Language Arts:

40 pages from her Brain Quest workbook
Read 6 books
Read and wrote her weekly spelling list 3 days
Had her spelling quiz 1 day, she missed 1 out of 10 words.
Did lessons 1-4 from First Language Lessons

Science:

Went to science class where they discussed and diagramed organs.
Discussed fall

Art:

Did art (drawing/painting) everyday

Math:

2 Singapore Math Lessons

Started Singapore math and did 2 lessons and the workbook pages that coorespond

Sepember Week 3

2009-09-18T15:34:00.000-07:00

Ellie had her second lesson at the new studio and she loves it! I hope she does well and advanced quickly.

She also wants to start ballet so she will probably start that in October. I am going to have her try a class the last week of this month to make sure she wants to do it.

We finished Magic Tree House book #18 Buffalo Before Breakfast. Ellie has also been reading alot of books on her own, easy reader books but she's been doing great, I think reading really clicking.

I ordered Singapore Math and Handwriting without tears for her as well, I can't wait to start some of those lessons.

She has also been doing her daily drawing and art. I will take some pictures of some of it soon.

Sepember Week 2

2009-09-11T15:30:00.000-07:00

Ellie started Acro and Tumbling at the new studio this week and she loves it. She was a bit nervous about starting somewhere new but I knew she'd be fine, she always adapts well. She did great and I really think she will do wonderful at this new place... and it's only about 2 miles from home!

We've been doing lots of playing at the park and that type of thing.

We also finished Magic Tree House book #17, Tonight on the Titanic.

September, Week 1

2009-09-04T17:33:00.000-07:00

This was the first week of school according to the homeschool program we participate in, so I thought I would start this week with what has been going on.

We had a fantastic summer, I will get some pictures up soon. We went camping in May, did a family campout in a cabin with Campfire in June. We also watched the Strawberry festival parade in June, did the 4th of July celebrations which included a parade and fireworks. We went to the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, Ft. Nisqually, spent the night in a hotel between those two. We went to the Renaissance Faire in Buckley, and camping for three nights at the Ocean near Westport. And we wrapped up the busy summer by spending all day at the Evergreen State Fair, from 10:30am until 9:00pm!

Ellie has a sudden interest in drawing. She didn't even think about coloring or drawing until she was about 5 years old. She didn't color in coloring books, pictures, nothing. And the last two weeks she has spent drawing, completed her first colored picture. The other night Doug came home and found her sketching at midnight a line of necklaces she is going to sell at a booth. Tomorrow we are going to go buy her a sketch book and a nice pencil for said sketching.

I am so pround of her, for a girl who hard no interest who suddenly has an interest she's doing an incredible job.

This is what she drew today, I am a bit sad to see it leave the house but I think her friend is going to LOVE it. It's a princess and a knight with a sheild on a horse.

I don't think I have the time or energy to update this blog daily, as you can see I dwindled my posts for awhile there.

Ellie Gymnastics June 2009

2009-09-01T09:02:00.000-07:00

This is Ellie doing some gymnastics in our living room in June, a back-bend and then a kick over, then a handstand into a back bend.

We are changing studios this year and I hope that she will learn much more than last year. Last year the gymnastics class was mostly for recreation and while she learned she could have learned a lot more.

Earley Family Yearbook Page

2009-06-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

I made this page for the Trestle Yearbook 2008-09. It's a fun respresentation of our year.

Ellie's Kite

2009-05-31T08:30:00.001-07:00

This is a kite Ellie made last month... this was all her idea and plan. She designed it in her head, told me her plans, got the supplies, cut the paper, colored it and assembled, then went outside to test it.

Her original plan was that it would look like a bird, but when it was done she thought it looked more like a fish so she called it a bird fish kite.

May Update

2009-05-29T16:07:00.001-07:00

It's been MONTHS since I have blogged.

I fell out of my really good habit!

Ellie is now six and she reads! I am so proud of her.

Here is a photo of some of her kids and clay work she's done over the year, she's done lots, this is just a portion of what I and Daddy have been given as gifts.

Ellie in Gymnastics

2009-02-06T06:37:00.000-08:00

Ellie started Gymnastics in September. The first day the woman who owns the academy said "Her body is built for this." which I had been saying for while now.

She's really good at it, and finally the other day we remembered to take the camera and take some pictures.

She is only in level 1 but will be ready for level 2 soon, but I think we might wait until next year to move her up as we will likely be changing gymnastic academies.

1/5-1/9

2009-01-10T20:44:00.000-08:00

♥Ellie read two books each day, by herself. Either BOB books or Dick and Jane books. There was a reward at the end of the week if she did it without complaining or arguing and I am proud that she did it. We will have the sme challenge next week. I am hoping that within 3-4 weeks of this we can move onto higher lever easy reader books.

Also did the usual gymnastics and learning group and some workbook :)

Week of 12/13-12/20

2008-12-16T06:15:00.000-08:00

Ellie is at Nana's house this week but still learning!

♥Read
~Biggest, Best Snowman by Margery Cuyler
~Snow Bear by Miriam Moss
~The Big Snowball by Wendy Cheyette Lewison and Maryann Cocca-Leffler
~Little Miss Christmas by Roger Hargreaves
~Bob books by Bobby Lynn Maslen ***
~Little miss Christmas by Adam Hargreaves
~Snowmen at Christmas by Caralyn Buehner

♥Made gingerbread house
♥Made gingerbread tree
♥made foam santas and christmas trees
♥painted stained glass ornaments
♥painted plaster christmas figurines

♥Looked at a map and talked about where Uncle Jon is (Afghanistan)

Wednesday

2008-12-10T15:57:00.000-08:00

♥Worked on the winter collage. I think it's mostly going to be a snowman collage. I had Ellie start a snowman with cotton balls, now she's working on a snowman family. Dad, Mom, Cassie, Ellie and Elyza. She is really thrilled with the sticky google eyes that I just got in the mail too. It's quite a cute collage so far. I hope we will have room to add the months and the word Winter.

♥Read
~A Magical Christmas by Claire Freedman (this was her surprise book this morning)
~I know an Old Lady who Swallowed a Pie by Alison Jackson
~Bear stays up for Christmas by Karma Wilson
~The First Days of Winter by Denise Fleming

Tuesday

2008-12-09T09:22:00.000-08:00

I started a fun little thing for Ellie today. I have about 15 or so Holiday or Winter books I bought for her. So I left one Curious George Snowy Day on the dresser for her so that she would see it as soon as she woke. She was happy about the new book and she will get another one tomorrow.

♥Read
-Curious George, Snowy Day by H.A. and Margaret Rey

♥Holiday Party with our homeschool group. This was a fun night filled with food, games, crafts and singing.

Monday

2008-12-08T22:00:00.000-08:00

♥Did some computer learning work, Math, phonics.

♥Read
~Animals in winter by Henrietta Bancroft
~The perfect thanksgiving by Eileen Spinelli
~Snow by Uri Shulevitz
~Snow by Manya Stojic
~The mitten: a ukrainian folktale by Jan Brett
~Sunshine makes the seasons Franklyn Branley

♥Made some small ornaments for her mini Christmas Tree

Week of 12/1-12/7 2008

2008-12-07T14:29:00.000-08:00

♥I didn't do a great job at keeping track this week.

♥Learning Group did volcanos with vinegar and baking soda and two paper cups taped together, top upside down with a hole in the top one.

♥Read:
Jalapeno Bagels by Natasha Wing
What We Do by Reg Cartwright
Fancy Nancy's Favorite Fancy Words by Jane O'Connor
Big words for little people by Jamie Lee Curtis
Pinkalicious by Victoria & Elizabeth Kahn

♥Workbook pages, Math and Phonics.

♥Crafts stained glass ornaments and candle holders
Coloring
Drawing
Made some small ornaments for her mini Christmas Tree

♥Had a few reminder lessons and talks about her body and what to do if someone touches her or asks her to touch them.

Monday - Monday

2008-12-02T06:58:00.000-08:00

♥Ellie was sick for about 10 days. She did a few things like gymnasitcs before she got really sick. But for days she layed in bed and slept, poor baby girl. We did read some books and she watched some phonics DVD's but we mostly took a break from most of the learning last week.

Some of the books that were read:

Pumpkin soup by Helen Cooper
Fancy nancy's favorite fancy words by Jane O'Connor
Gus, the pilgrim turkey by Teresa Bateman
Big words for little people by Jamie Lee Curtis
Thanksgiving mice by Bethany Roberts

Archive - Books Read - November 2008

2008-11-30T07:04:00.000-08:00

Many of these books we read more than once but this is a list of each individual book we read during November 2008.

** Means that she read these by herself with very little if any help!

**Go Go Go (Dick and Jane)
**Jump and Run (Dick and Jane)
**Something Funny (Dick and Jane)
**We Look (Dick and Jane)
A Camping Spree with Mr Magee by Chris Van Dusen
A pocketfull of kisses by Angela McAllister
Abra Cadabra and the Tooth Witch by Nurit Karlin
Anno's Magic Seeds by Mitsumasa Anno
Anno's Multiplying Jar by Mitsumasa Anno
Baby Dreams by Eugenie Fernandes
Bad For Them, Good For Me by Aaron Zevy
Big Pumpkin by Erika Silverman
Big words for little people by Jamie Lee Curtis
Caillou & Gilbert by Joceline Sanschagrin
Caillou Tidies His Toys by Joceline Sanschagrin
Crab Moon by Ruth Horowitz
Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell
Diary of a Fly by Doreen Cronin
Diary of a Spider by Doreen Cronin
Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin
Don't Forget I Love You by Miriam Moss
Don't Forget to Come Back by Robie H. Harris
Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy by Jane O'Connor
Fancy Nancy Bonjour Butterfly by Jane O'Connor
Fancy nancy's favorite fancy words by Jane O'Connor
Grandma Calls me Beautiful by Barbara Joosse
Grandpa Takes Me to the Moon by Timothy R Gaffney
Gus, the pilgrim turkey by Teresa Bateman
Happy Halloween Stinky Face by Linda McCourt
How Do I Feel About Looking After Myself by Sarah Levete
I Ain't Gonna Paint No More by Karen Beaumont
If Frogs Made Weather by Marion Dane Bauer
If You Hopped Like a Frog by David M Schwartz
In the Haunted House by Eve bunting
Is There Reall a Human Race by Jamie Lee Curtis
It's Hard to be Five by Jamie Lee Curtis
Misson to Mars by Franklyn Branley
Mister Seahorse by Eric Carle
Mouse's First Halloween by Lauren Thompson
My Fuzzy Friends by Tad Hills
Nobody Here But Me by Judith Viorst
One Grain of Rice by Demi
Princess Ellie to the Rescue
Pumpkin soup by Helen Cooper
Purplicious by Victoria & Elizabeth Kahn
Pinkalicious by Victoria & Elizabeth Kahn
Shake Dem Halloween Bones by W Nokola-Lisa
Thanksgiving mice by Bethany Roberts
The Adventures of Bert by Allan Ahlberg & Raymond Briggs
The Biggest Job of All by Harriet Ziefert
The Halloween House by Erika Silverman
The Littlest Pumpkin by R.A. Herman
The Moon Seems to Change by Franklyn Branley
The Ugly Duckling by Kevin Crossley-Holland
Walk On! : a guide for babies of all ages by Marla Frazee
What We Do by Reg Cartwright
Zee Is Not Afraid by Michel Gay

Friday/Saturday/Sunday

2008-11-22T21:00:00.000-08:00

♥Read
~A pocketfull of kisses by Angela McAllister
~Abra Cadabra and the Tooth Witch by Nurit Karlin
~Bad For Them, Good For Me by Aaron Zevy
~The Biggest Job of All by Harriet Ziefert
~Caillou & Gilbert by Joceline Sanschagrin
~Caillou Tidies His Toys by Joceline Sanschagrin
~A Camping Spree with Mr Magee by Chris Van Dusen
~Crab Moon by Ruth Horowitz
~Diary of a Fly by Doreen Cronin
~Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin
~Diary of a Spider by Doreen Cronin
~Don't Forget to Come Back by Robie H. Harris
~Grandpa Takes Me to the Moon by Timothy R Gaffney
~The Moon Seems to Change by Franklyn Branley
~Misson to Mars by Franklyn Branley

Thursday

2008-11-20T16:04:00.000-08:00

♥Math worksheets

♥Read-
~Anno's Magic Seeds by Mitsumasa Anno
~Nobody Here But Me by Judith Viorst
~The Ugly Duckling by Kevin Crossley-Holland
~Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy by Jane O'Connor
~Fancy Nancy Bonjour Butterfly by Jane O'Connor
~Pinkalicious by Victoria & Elizabeth Kahn
~Purplicious by Victoria & Elizabeth Kahn

Wednesday

2008-11-19T07:22:00.000-08:00

♥Pinocchio Storybook Theatre Play

♥Read
~Something Funny (Dick and Jane)**

** Means that she read these by herself with very little if any help!

Tuesday

2008-11-18T09:36:00.000-08:00

♥Workbook

♥Learning Group, they did sink and float experiments

♥Read
~Go Go Go (Dick and Jane)**

** Means that she read these by herself with very little if any help!

Monday

2008-11-17T17:45:00.000-08:00

♥Ellie has read two Dick and Jane books to me since Saturday. I am SOOOO excited! The first one called We Look, the second one tonight was called Jump and Run. I hope she continues this and starts loving to read. Both books were not a struggle to get her to read. We've had these since Cas was little but Cassie has no interest in them. I got BOB Books for Ellie but she would read one and then reading anymore that month (lol) would be a struggle.

♥Laser Vaudeville Pied Piper Play

♥1 Subtraction worksheet

♥Gymnastics

♥Read
~Jump and Run (Dick and Jane)**
~We Look (Dick and Jane)**
~Princess Ellie to the Rescue (2 Chapters)
~Walk On! : a guide for babies of all ages by Marla Frazee
~What We Do by Reg Cartwright

** Means that she read these by herself with very little if any help!

Friday

2008-11-14T16:11:00.000-08:00

♥Read
~Baby Dreams by Eugenie Fernandes
~If Frogs Made Weather by Marion Dane Bauer
~The Adventures of Bert by Allan Ahlberg & Raymond Briggs
~Zee Is Not Afraid by Michel Gay
~Don't Forget I Love You by Miriam Moss
~Grandma Calls me Beautiful by Barbara Joosse
~If You Hopped Like a Frog by David M Schwartz
~Mister Seahorse by Eric Carle
~One Grain of Rice by Demi
~Anno's Multiplying Jar by Mitsumasa Anno

Thursday

2008-11-13T08:50:00.000-08:00

♥Math and Phonics workbook pages

Wednesday

2008-11-12T08:49:00.000-08:00

♥Kidz and Clay where Ellie made a bowl on the wheel, 5 ornaments and a snowman standing on snow decoration.

♥Watched two phonics DVD's

Tuesday

2008-11-11T21:00:00.000-08:00

♥Spent about 3 hours at the Skagit Valley Children's Museum.

Monday

2008-11-10T08:58:00.000-08:00

♥Jungle Playland for about 2 hours

♥Read
~Martha Moth Makes Socks by Cambria Evans
~Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer by Barbara Shook Hazen

♥Watched
~Rainbabies by Laura Krauss Melmed (Author), Jim Lamarche (Illustrator), this was a story being read and pictures being shown but on TV.

Saturday

2008-11-08T15:24:00.000-08:00

♥Read
~Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy by Jane O'Connor
~Purplicious by Victoria & Elizabeth Kahn
~I Ain't Gonna Paint No More by Karen Beaumont
~If Frogs Made Weather by Marion Dane Bauer
~Zee Is Not Afraid by Michel Gay
~Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell
~The Adventures of Bert by Allan Ahlberg & Raymond Briggs
~The Ugly Duckling by Kevin Crossley-Holland
~My Fuzzy Friends by Tad Hills
~How Do I Feel About Looking After Myself by Sarah Levete
~Baby Dreams by Eugenie Fernandes

Friday

2008-11-07T16:51:00.000-08:00

♥Computer Math games

♥Workbook, phonics & writing

♥Read-
Big Pumpkin by Erika Silverman
Happy Halloween Stinky Face by Linda McCourt
Is There Really a Human Race by Jamie Lee Curtis
It's Hard to be Five by Jamie Lee Curtis
Mouse's First Halloween by Lauren Thompson
Shake Dem Halloween Bones by W Nokola-Lisa
The Halloween House by Erika Silverman
The Littlest Pumpkin by R.A. Herman
In the Haunted House by Eve bunting

Thursday

2008-11-06T16:48:00.000-08:00

♥Workbook on phonics

♥Computer games

Wednesday

2008-11-05T16:47:00.000-08:00

Workbook on phonics
Played with her friend

Tuesday

2008-11-04T07:11:00.000-08:00

♥Learning Group where we made a leaf book (worksheets on leaves) and then we did leaf rubbings. These turned out neat and it was a fun day. Then the kids played played played.

Monday

2008-11-03T07:10:00.000-08:00

♥Gymnastics 1 hour

♥Computer math work & games

Archive - Books Read - October 2008

2008-10-31T21:00:00.000-07:00

Many of these books we read more than once but this is a list of each individual book we read during October 2008. We check books out from the library every week, I think we have 30 something checked out right now. We also have a decent and growing library of our own childen's books.

A Child's Guide to Common Household Monsters by James Otis Thach
An Earthworms Life by John Himmelman
Baby Shoes by Dashka Slater
Beautiful Bats by Linda Glaser
Big Hand, Little Hand by Herbst, Judith
Big Pumpkin by Erika Silverman
Child of Faerie - Child of Earth by Jane Yolen
Don't Forget I Love You by Miriam Moss
Everyone Poops by Taro Gomi
Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy by Jane O'Connor
Fancy Nancy by Robin Preiss Glasses
Fletcher and the falling leaves by Julia Rawlinson
Ghost Wings by Barbara M Joosse
Ghostown at Sundown, Magic Tree House Series #10 by Mary Pope Osborn
Grandma Calls me Beautiful by Barbara Joosse
Happy Halloween Stinky Face by Linda McCourt
Hello Squirrels! Scampering Through the Seasons by Linda Glaser
I Ain't Gonna Paint No More by Karen Beaumont
I know it's Autumn by Nancy Hayashi
I Love You, Little One by Nancy Tafuri
I'm Gonna Like Me - Letting Off a Little Self Esteem by Jamie Lee Curtis
If Frogs Made Weather, by Marion Dane Bauer
If You Hopped Like a Frog by David M Schwartz
In the Haunted House by Eve bunting
Is There Reall a Human Race by Jamie Lee Curtis
It's Fall by Linda Glaser
It's Hard to be Five by Jamie Lee Curtis
Johnny Appleseed by Steven Kellog
Just in Case by Judith Viorst
Kate and the Beanstalk, Mary Pope Osborn
Lions at Lunchtime, Magic Tree House Series #11 by Mary Pope Osborn
Mama Do You Love Me? by Barbara M Joosse
Mister Seahorse by Eric Carle
Mouse's First Fall by Lauren Thompson
Mouse's First Halloween by Lauren Thompson
Nobody Here But Me by Judith Viorst
One Grain of Rice by Demi
One Hundred Hungry Ants by Ellinor J Pinczes
Our Big Home by Linda Glaser
Pigs Will Be Pigs: Fun with Math and Money by Amy Axelrod
Purplicious by Victoria Kann
Shake Dem Halloween Bones by W Nokola-Lisa
Spectacular Spiders by Linda Glaser
Telling Time with Big Mama Cat by Dan Harper
The fall of freddie the leaf, Leo Buscaglia
The Grapes of Math, mind stretching math riddle by Greg Tang
The Halloween House by Erika Silverman
The Littlest Pumpkin by R.A. Herman
The Wind's Garden by Bethany Roberts
There Was a Little Girl, She Had a Little Curl by Harriet Ziefert
Three Minute Tales, Bunnies by Caroline Repchuk
Today I Feel Silly & Other Moods That Make My Day by Jamie Lee Curtis
Toes Have Wiggles Kids Have Giggles by Harriet Ziefert
Walk On! : a guide for babies of all ages by Marla Frazee
Wild Baby Animals
Wind Wild Dog by Barbara Joosse
Wonderful Worms by Linda Glaser
Zee Is Not Scared by Michel Gay

Books and other stuff

2008-10-06T10:06:00.000-07:00

About mid September we found a school, north of us, that we could enroll in and they would help reimburse some school costs. We never have to actually go to the school, it's a Parent Partnership Program for homeschooling families. You do have to have weekly contact with a Student Learning Coordinator (which can be done via phone or email) and you do have to submit a monthly review. All in all for our family it's a good situation. We can get reimbursed $800 for this school year. We will use it for consumable items like gymnastics, entry fees into museums, zoos, internet access, etc. If you use it for an item that can be used later by another student then you have to go through more and the school owns the item. So we enrolled Ellie. So far so good, I am just hoping it will all pan out like I hope it will. Ellie kind of understands it, she knows that a teacher emails her and that she answers the questions and we tell her what we do, etc...and then they help give us money for things. At this point that is really all she can comprehend, lol.

Also one cute little thing to share. We were reading a book last week that had the word migrate. So like I always do I stop and make sure she knows the meaning.
So I said "Do you know what migrate means?"
She says "yes"
ME: "What does it mean?"
E: "When something goes (makes humming sound) and shakes..."
Puzzled I stop and think for a second, then I realize what she's talking about.
ME: That's vibrate sweetie, not migrate.
Then I explained Migrate to her.

I bought a couple books for Ellie last week at Amazon, I can't wait until they are here.
This is what we got:

~Story of the World, Volume 1: Ancient Times Audiobook CD: From the Earliest Nomads to the ~Late Roman Empire
~Telling Time with Big Mama Cat by Harper, Dan
~Big Hand, Little Hand by Herbst, Judith
~Pigs Will Be Pigs: Fun with Math and Money
~One Hundred Hungry Ants

Sharing coorespondance with the teacher, from the school last week (those words are so taboo in the homeschooling world, it feels weird to write them!)

T: What is a goal you have for your learning this year? Or, as your family has made learning plans for the year, what are you really excited about learning this year?

E: I want to learn how to read books to Elyza.

I like gymnastics and I really love it. I want to learn how to do back flips and front flips. I am practicing front flips.

I like to do my collage about fall. I like fall. Fall has changed leaves and then the trees don't get much food.

T: Hi Ellie -
Thank you so much for writing to me. Learning to read is such great fun, especially when you have someone to read to like Elyza, so that will be a great goal for you this year.

It sounds like you are learning some wonderful new skills in gymnastics. Keep working on those front flips, and let me know when you start the back flips.

I went to your blog today. You've read and heard a huge number of books!

Thanks again for writing to me. I look forward to hearing from you again next week!

So about that huge number of books, lol. We do check out a huge number of books. We go every week and rotate out the books that need to go back. We usually get about 10 books each time. Ellie loves books and loves to listen and really takes things from them. Often she will repeat things whether they are facts or emotions or learning skills. Then I really know she listens!

Right now we have checked out:

The fall of freddie the leaf : a story of life f
The lion's share
I'm gonna like me : letting off a little self-es
Today i feel silly & other moods that make my da
It's hard to be five : learning how to work my c
When i was little : a four-year-old's memoir of
Tell me again about the night i was born
Is there really a human race
One grain of rice : a mathematical folktale
Once up on a lilypad
Wonderful worms
Beautiful bats
Our big home : an earth poem
Spectacular spiders
It's fall
Hello, squirrels! : scampering through the seaso
Wind-wild dog
A wind in the door
Ready, set, grow! : a "what's happening to my bo
Why do leaves change color
Brigid's cloak : an ancient irish story
Don't forget i love you
Kate and the beanstalk
Lions at lunchtime Magic Tree House Book #11
Fletcher and the falling leaves
The acorn tree and other folktales
Baby shoes
Just in case

And 5 movies:

Alice in wonderland
Toddworld. it's okay to be you
Johnny appleseed
Diary of a worm --and 4 more great animal tales
Swimmy -- and more classic leo leonni stories

Sunday

2008-10-05T16:00:00.000-07:00

♥We finished our fall collage today. The pumpking, apple, the 2 paper leaves and acron I printed out and Ellie painted with water colors.

She wrote the Fall at the top, wrote the months of fall on papers.

Then we did a tree on the bottom right. She used her arm to trace a trunk and her fingers for branches. Then she glued real leaves to the tree that we had collected and pressed. It was her idea to trace her arm, we did a similar tree last year (but she finger painted leaves) and she remembered.) It was also her idea to put some of the leaves on the ground near the tree. She decided where to arrange everything.

It's now proudly displayed on our wall near the wipe board.

♥Read

~Beautiful Bats, Linda Glaser

~Spectacular Spiders, Linda Glaser

~Is There Reall a Human Race, Jamie Lee Curtis

♥Played catch with a big rubber ball outside and jumped on the trampoline.

♥Spent lots of time with Kiwi.

Friday

2008-10-03T13:22:00.000-07:00

♥Three math workbook pages. She's really good at math, just like her Mama.

♥Six workbook pages on U/u & V/v.

♥Read
~The Wind's Garden, Bethany Roberts
~I know it's Autumn, Nancy Hayashi
~Mouse's First Fall, Lauren Thompson
~Ghostown at Sundown, Magic Tree House Series #10, Mary Pope Osborn (we read this entire chapter book today)
~3 Chapters of Lions at Lunchtime, Magic Tree House Series #11, Mary Pope Osborn

Thursday

2008-10-02T21:08:00.000-07:00

♥Three workbook pages on addition. These were 1st grade workbook pages but they were very simple. I hope as we go on they will get harder, she was not challenged at all. The first page was counting items 1-10, except #1 was first, then #2, etc... she didn't need to count, she knew what was up.

♥Two workbook pages on U/u.

♥Read
~The Wind's Garden, Bethany Roberts
~Johnny Appleseed, Steven Kellog
~I know it's Autumn, Nancy Hayashi
~Fletcher and the falling leaves, Julia Rawlinson
~Mouse's First Fall, Lauren Thompson
~It's Hard to be Five, Jamie Lee Curtis

♥Today we adopted a love bird from a fellow homeschooler. He's really neat so far so we are learning about love birds. Ellie named him Kiwi and she's quite fascinated. She kept telling him "I know we are going to be great friends!" She's kind of upset she can't hold him, but he's rather shy, hopefully she will eventually be able to hold him, hopefully.

Wednesday

2008-10-02T10:53:00.001-07:00

♥8 workbook pages on S/s & T/t.

♥Went outside and collected fallen for our collage. When we came in we put them in a book to press them. We found some great leaves.

♥Played at the park for about 45 minutes.

♥Played outside with neighbor kids and had a little lesson in real friendships during some conflict.

♥Played with stacking tops. That was alot of fun, we spun them and stacked them on all kinds of surfaces to see what would happen and talked about why they spin and how they can stack on top of eachother.

Archive - Books Read - September 2008

2008-09-30T09:20:00.000-07:00

Many of these books we read more than once but this is a list of each individual book we read during September 2008. We check books out from the library every week, I think we have 30 something checked out right now. We also have a decent and growing library of our own childen's books.

A Children's Book About Being Lazy (Help me be good book,) Joy Berry
A Children's Book About Being Greedy (Help me be good book,) Joy Berry
A Children's Book About Fighting (Help me be good book,) Joy Berry
Alice the Fairy, David Shannon
An Earthworm's Life, John Himmelman
Children's Book About Being Careless (Help me be good book,) Joy Berry
Cookie's Week, Cindy Ward
Corduroy's Christmas, Don Freeman
Curious George and the Dumptruck, H.A. Rey
Curious George goes camping, Margaret & H.A. Rey
Curious George Takes a Train, Margaret Rey and H.A. Rey
Dolphins At Daybreak, Magic Treehouse Series, Mary Pope Osbourn
Everyone Poops (my body science series,) Taro Gomi
Excuse Me!: A Little Book of Manners, Karen Katz
Exploring the Seashore, National Geographic
How do apples grow, Betsy Maestro
I Can Share: A Lift-the-Flap Book, Karen Katz
It's fall, Linda Glaser
It's Hard to be Five, Learning How to Work My Control Panel, Jamie Lee Curtis
Just Grandma and Me, Mercer Meyer
Kate and the Beanstalk, Mary Pope Osborne
Life Cycle of a Butterfly, Angela Royston
Magic School Bus At the Waterworks, Joanna Cole
Magic School Bus Gets Crabby, Kristin Earhart
Magic School Bus on the Ocean Floor, Joanna Cole
Magic School Bus Wet All Over, Joanna Cole
Mama do you love me? Barbara M Joosse
Martha Moth Makes Socks, Cambria Evans
Me and my sister, Ruth Ohi
Mouse's first fall, Lauren Thompson
Musical adventures with Elizabeth Falconer, volume IV, Once up on a lilypad -- The cricket's chirp -- Roofle! --Papachu -- The Looooong name
My Magic Cloth, Heide Helene Beisert, Naomi Lewis
Oceans Alive - Crabs, Scholastic
Oceans Alive - Dolphins, Scholastic
Oceans Alive - Manatees, Scholastic
Oceans Alive - Octopus, Scholastic
Oceans Alive - Sea Stars, Scholastic
Oceans Alive - Sea Turtles, Scholastic
Oceans Alive - Stingrays, Scholastic
Oceans Alive - Whales, Scholastic
Oceans Alive, Jellyfish, Scholastic
Oceans Alive, Parrotfish, Scholastic
Oceans Alive, Sea Dragons, Scholastic
Oceans Alive, Sea Horses, Scholastic
Oceans Alive, Seals, Scholastic
Oceans Alive, Sharks, Scholastic
Oceans Alive, Walruses, Scholastic
Snow Child, Retold by Freya Littledale
Super-Completely and Totally the Messiest, Judith Viorst
Swimmy, Leo Lionni
Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born, Jamie Lee Curtis
The fall of freddie the leaf, Leo Buscaglia
Touch the Bunny
Turkey Surprise, Peggy Archer
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Iza Trapani
When i was little : a four-year-old's memoir, Jamie Lee Curtis
Where Do Kisses Come From? Maria Fleming
Why do leaves change color, Betsy Maestro
Wind's Garden, Bethany Roberts
Wonderful worms, Linda Glaser

Tuesday

2008-09-02T14:52:00.001-07:00

♥Wrote Tuesday on the wipe board and changed the date to the 2nd.

♥4 workbook pages on the letter D which consisted of a maze and recognizing the letter D and practicing writing D and d.

♥Played in the Sand and Water Table. Ellie and Elyza both played, this is great for the senses and imagination... and Elyza's tastebuds (she eats sand of-course!)

♥Read
-Magic School Bus Gets Crabby, Kristin Earhart
-Magic School Bus At the Waterworks, Joanna Cole
-Magic School Bus on the Ocean Floor, Joanna Cole
-Magic School Bus Wet All Over, Joanna Cole

♥Watched 3 episodes of the Magic School Bus (Catches a Wave) on DVD that we got from the library. The first episode was Wet All Over and exactly like the last book we had read about an hour and a half before watching the DVD. It is about the life cycle of a water drop. The second show was Rocks and Rolls, the journey of a boulder subject to rock erosion due to water. And the third was Ups and Downs which was about how things float and sink in water.

Monday

2008-09-01T12:55:00.000-07:00

♥Wrote Monday on the wipe board and changed the date to the 1st.

♥4 workbook pages on the letter C which was two mazes (on following the letter C along the way) and two writing C and c.

♥Painted with watercolors two pictures, one of a corn stalk and one of an apple to put on our Fall Collage.

♥Read
-An Earthworm's Life, John Himmelman
-Oceans Alive - Dolphins, Scholastic
-Oceans Alive - Whales, Scholastic
-Oceans Alive - Octopus, Scholastic
-Oceans Alive - Sea Stars, Scholastic
-Oceans Alive - Stingrays, Scholastic

These Oceans Alive books are really neat. They are fairly short but show lots of real photographs and give info on each animal. I am reading each one at least twice, there are lots of them, we checked them all out. They also have glossary words we read so we are learning new words too. The second time I read them (which is a few days after the first) I ask Ellie questions about each animal before I read the page. She is comprehending the content well.

♥We also got our Pupa (caterpillars) for our Butterfly Garden the other day, I forgot to mention this. They are in a little container and since yesterday morning they more than doubled in size. We could see growth even between the morning and the evening yesterday. It's been fun to watch them and learn about them.

Archive - Books Read - August 2008

2008-08-31T23:59:00.000-07:00

This is from August 10th-31st as this is when I started keeping track. Some of these books we read more than once but this is a list of the individual books we read during August 2008.

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, Judith Viorst
Alexander, who used to be rich last Sunday, Judith Viorst
Claire and the Unicorn happy ever after, B. G. Hennessy
Cookie's Week
Daddy Kisses, Anne Gutman & Georg Hallensleben
Dancing with Manatees, Faith McNully
Dolphins and Sharks Magic Treehouse Resource Guide, Mary Pope Osbourn
Dolphins at Daybreak, Magic Treehouse Series, Mary Pope Osbourn
Everyone Poops, Taro Gomi
Ghosttown at Sundown, Magic Treehouse book, Mary Pope Osbourn
Just Me and My Mom, Mercer Mayer
Little Elephant's Trunk, Hazel Lincoln
Oceans Alive - Clown Fish, Scholastic
Oceans Alive - Dolphins, Scholastic
Oceans Alive - Lobsters, Scholastic
Oceans Alive - Octopus, Scholastic
Oceans Alive - Sea Anemones, Scholastic
Oceans Alive - Sea Stars, Scholastic
Oceans Alive - Sea Urchins, Scholastic
Oceans Alive - Stingrays, Scholastic
Oceans Alive - Whales, Scholastic
On the Night You Were Born, Nancy Tillman
Snow Child, Retold by Freya Littledale
The Magically Mysterious Adventures of Noelle the Bulldog, Gloria Estefan
The Other Dog, Madeleine L'Engle
The Very Hungary Caterpillar, Eric Carle

Sunday

2008-08-31T12:48:00.000-07:00

A photo just because she's beautiful, even when she's feeling icky. Ellie has had a fever today we we have just been hanging out, reading and talking and watching TV today.

♥Wrote Sunday on the wipe board and changed the date to the 31st.

♥Talked about tomorrow being a new month, September and what that means.

♥Talked about the meaning of Labor Day, which is also tomorrow.

♥Read
-Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, Judith Viorst
-The Other Dog, Madeleine L'Engle
-Snow Child, Retold by Freya Littledale
-Everyone Poops, Taro Gomi
-Just Me and My Mom, Mercer Mayer
-Claire and the Unicorn happy ever after, B. G. Hennessy

Saturday

2008-08-30T12:46:00.000-07:00

♥Wrote Saturday on the wipe board and changed the date to the 30th

♥Went to Kayak point
-Swam
-Looked for neat rocks
-Flew kites
-Played on the playground

♥Listened to part of Ghosttown at Sundown, Magic Treehouse book in the car

Friday

2008-08-29T17:12:00.000-07:00

♥Wrote Friday on the wipe board and changed the date to the 29th.

♥4 workbook pages on the letter B which consisted of coloring, recognizing the letter B, writing the letter B and words that start with the letter B.

♥Read 11 books
-Oceans Alive - Sea Urchins, Scholastic
-Oceans Alive - Lobsters, Scholastic
-Oceans Alive - Sea Anemones, Scholastic
-Oceans Alive - Clown Fish, Scholastic
-Dancing with Manatees, Faith McNully
-Oceans Alive - Dolphins, Scholastic
-Oceans Alive - Whales, Scholastic
-Oceans Alive - Octopus, Scholastic
-Oceans Alive - Sea Stars, Scholastic
-Oceans Alive - Stingrays, Scholastic
-Cookie's Week, twice

♥Played with a new kid for about an hour.

♥Started on our Fall collage. Ellie wrote Fall on the posterboard and then wrote September, October, November on pieces of paper and glued them onto the posted board.

♥2 Fall mazes, one pumpkin maze and one leaf maze that I printed from Enchanted Learning.

Ellie is really good at mazes. She has always loved mazes but today the leaf maze looked really hard, I questioned if she could do it or not, but she breezed right through it, I was surprised, pleasantly surprized.

Her penmanship is also improving. Today we picked up a manuscript tablet, the ones with a top line, a bottom line and a middle dotted line. She practiced writing B & b in her workbook with the same types of lines and she did really well and understands better how to form the letters so they are the same size.

Thursday

2008-08-29T17:10:00.000-07:00

♥Wrote Thursday on the wipe board and changed the date to the 28th.

♥Playgroup

♥Read
-How Much is a Million

Wednesday

2008-08-27T16:03:00.000-07:00

♥Wrote Wednesday on the wipe board and changed the date to the 27th.

♥Played at the park

♥Watched Curious George on PBS

♥Read
-Oceans Alive - Sea Urchins, Scholastic
-Oceans Alive - Lobsters, Scholastic
-Oceans Alive - Sea Anemones, Scholastic
-Oceans Alive - Clown Fish, Scholastic
-Dancing with Manatees, Faith McNully

Tuesday

2008-08-26T20:00:00.000-07:00

♥Wrote Tuesday on the wipe board and changed the date to the 26th.

♥Played with best friend (on computer, played with play kitchen, dolls, etc.)

Monday

2008-08-25T17:06:00.000-07:00

♥Wrote Monday on the wipe board and changed the date to the 25th.

♥Went to the Evergreen State Fair so lots of learning and fun there, I don't have time to list it all!

Friday

2008-08-22T08:01:00.000-07:00

I have been asked to make a wish list for things that would help with homeschooling Ellie. So we went to Amazon and made a list of some things we would like to have for schooling this year.

Wish List (Wish List Button also found to the right)

We are doing so much this year, there really should be some kind of tax break of rebate from the state for homeschooling your kid!

Right now as planned per month we have:

Gymnastics $28-$56 (once or twice a week)
Book Report Lunch and then Roller Blading $15 (once a month)
Kids and Clay $15-$30 (once or twice a month)
Craft Class $7 (once a month)
Science Co-op $5 week, estimate
3-2-1 Bounce once a month $6

I think that all of these things are important to be doing so she is around other kids, doing some neat things and getting some great experiences.

We also have 10 plays planned which will cost $162 for the year for tickets (and we pre-pay those.)

It all really adds up! They really need to give us some kind of break!

Today when Ellie gets up we will do the daily writing of Friday and the 22nd on the board and then get moving and finish packing for camping. Then we are off!

Listened on CD 1/2 of the Magictreehouse Ghostown at Sundown on the way to camping

Thursday

2008-08-21T12:00:00.000-07:00

I have found that since starting the writing day of the week and date on the wipe board each morning that 1. Ellie's handwriting has improved (yay!) and 2. she remembers Thursday when she says the days of the week in order. She was skipping Thursday no matter how many times we would recite them. And it has been 5 weeks or so that we started this.

♥Wrote Thursday on the wipe board and changed the date to the 21st.

♥Played with her best friend for a few hours.

♥Got her clothes ready to go camping tomorrow.

♥Stopped at the library to pick up new books to read on oceans and one on water (where is comes from and where it goes.)

Wednesday

2008-08-20T16:18:00.000-07:00

♥Wrote Wednesday on the wipe board and changed the date to the 20th

♥Helped wrap Elyza's presents for her birthday (taping mostly)

♥Watched Curious George on PBS

♥Did three worksheets on ocean creatures consisting of phonics and drawing.

♥Read to Ellie (These all need to go back to the library tomorrow)
-Little Elephant's Trunk, Hazel Lincoln
-Alexander, who used to be rich last Sunday, Judith Viorst
-Daddy Kisses, Anne Gutman & Georg Hallensleben
-On the Night You Were Born, Nancy Tillman
-The Magically Mysterious Adventures of Noelle the Bulldog, Gloria Estefan
-The Very Hungary Caterpillar, Eric Carle

♥Watched Leap Frog Phonics DVD

Tuesday

2008-08-19T16:07:00.001-07:00

♥Wrote Tuesday on the wipe board and changed the date to the 19th.

♥Played the Wii

♥Helped with lots of household chores to get ready for camping.

♥Looked through some coin books that I had when I was a kid (books to save a coin for each year) and talked about them

♥Watched Curious George on PBS

♥Helped make dinner, create your own pizza bagels

♥Read the last 4 chapters of the Dolphins and Sharks book.

♥Talked about the 5 senses.

♥Watched some National Geographic clips online

Monday

2008-08-18T17:30:00.000-07:00

♥Wrote Monday on the wipe board and changed the date to the 18th.

♥United States puzzle

♥Cleaned out hermit crab habitat and fed and watered.

♥Painted hermit crabs new shell so we can put it in his tank so he can move in when his old shell feels too small.

♥Added words to our letter lists.

♥Ellie read her site words of the colors.

♥Read to Ellie (and discussed)26 pages in the Dolphins and Sharks Non-Fiction companion book.

♥Read to Ellie 8 chapters (re-read chapter 3 which we read last time as well) of the Dolphins at Daybreak Magic Tree House book and finished it.

♥Read to Ellie

- Little Elephant's Trunk, Hazel Lincoln - twice.

-Alexander, who used to be rich last Sunday, Judith Viorst

-Daddy Kisses, Anne Gutman & Georg Hallensleben

-On the Night You Were Born, Nancy Tillman

-The Magically Mysterious Adventures of Noelle the Bulldog, Gloria Estefan

-The Very Hungary Caterpillar, Eric Carle - twice.

Today I also put on request Magic School Bus books, any that I could find on oceans or sea creatures, I think it was maybe 3 or 4 of them, so hopefully the library will have those ready for us soon.