Weekly Report for the week ending April 23

Finished k12's 1st grade math. Nathan has hated this program over the course of the last few months and it's been a big struggle to get him to do math. I hear they are rolling out a new program and I asked if he wanted to give it a try but he was quite vocal about not doing math from k12 again. So I ordered Singapore Math for him. I was so confused about where he'd be in the program so I decided to order 1b and then we can move quickly through it if it proves to be to easy. I was tempted to start him on 2a. After finishing the k12 math we worked longer on the numerous math workbooks I bought to help him review his facts since k12 didn't seem to review at times.

We also finished k12's science this week. We learned about the human body as the final group of lessons. I have to say out of all the science lessons we've done this year the human body has been a hit with all three kids. We made an outline of the human body and added the organs and systems as we learned about them. We also had a quick lesson on germs and Elizabeth Blackwell. The kids loved doing the cornstarch as a germ and seeing where they could leave germs. Noah has now been washing his hands at a more frequent interval than every 30-60 minutes after the lesson. Right now the plan is to stick with k12 science since it works well for us.

We are using Voyages in English for grammar and writing. We just finished with adjectives and pronouns. Fun lessons and I found some great books to supplement, which I have posted reviews to a few so far. I've decided we will continue with VIE next year.

Spelling is continuing to be a pain. I bought the game What's Gnu? and we've dumped the Spelling Workout and are just practicing spelling words with the tiles from the game. Seriously I need a not expensive spelling program that actually teaches spelling.

We are almost done with k12 history. We finished ancient India and started on ancient China. Again this is another program we aren't doing again next year. Once he finished ancient China he is done with k12. I'll be piecing together a unit on ancient Rome since we plan on using Story of the World 2 in the fall and it starts with the fall of Rome.

I also have a bunch of random workbooks that Nathan loves working in. Some are for reading comprehension, phonics, handwriting, and just random other things. It works for him and he likes them so I let him do it.

Mr. Popper's Penguins has been a huge hit for the kids. They have enjoyed reading the book and look forward to our reading every day because of it. Hopefully we can find another book they love just as much. Nathan has also been enjoying the Nate the Great book.

All three kids have been learning about lines in art. I've been using the Evan Moor book How to Teach Art and it's worked well so far.

Nathan also has been learning about Delaware. I've been using the book Cantering the Globe. Love the ideas in the book however for Delaware the lessons were dry. Maybe because our library didn't have many of the books suggested.

The twins started Galloping the Globe and have enjoyed it so far. We are just learning about the basics of the Earth right now. We made paper mache globes and that was a huge hit for them. I blogged about that yesterday if you want to see what we did.

The twins also use Rusty and Rosie, a free program through our state. There are days the love it and days they hate it.

I also started the twins on Wordly Wise 3000 for K. So far they have really enjoyed the program but whoa nelly it wasn't a cheap program. Unless life changes things we will also use the program for 1st grade.

Sometime in the next few days I plan on posting what I think we will be using for Nathan's 2nd grade year and the twins Kindergarten year.

Paper Mache Globes

Three days to complete but the globes are done. Nope the land isn't exactly right but the kids had fun making them. I wanted to have green and brown tempera paint for them but somehow I guess we used all of those colors and I never replaced them. We ended up using green finger paint which wasn't a really bright idea but one that worked. Overall they were a hit with my five year olds. I think Nathan was jealous he didn't get to make one. Maybe I'll let him make one really soon.

What was I thinking?

Today for a geography lesson I thought it would be fun to have the twins make paper mache globes. Well it was a great idea but it became obvious quickly that I didn't think the project through very well. The boys love making messes so sticky glue mixed with two boys who love messes wasn't a good match. Having a dad who hates messes like that didn't help in the project. In the end Noah decided he didn't like the glue and refused to touch it so I made his globe. Zachary was having a fun time but didn't quite get the whole balloon covered nor was all of his paper strips wet. Hopefully I was able to repair it enough that it will work out. Now to let them dry and I hope they dry quickly as I promised the boys they could paint it to look like a globe. Pictures to come as we finish the project.

Grammar Tales

These are some cute books to help your child learn the parts of grammar. Even my five year old twins loved reading these two books. They aren't very expensive, less than $4 a book, or I found some on paperbackswap.
The Planet without Pronouns was a story. On several pages there were little questions or tips about the pronoun. At the very end of the book there is a review with a few questions to ask and review what you learned.
The Bug Book wasn't a story but more of a read the caption under the picture book. It still had tips and questions and a review at the end.
For the price they are a great tool in helping your child learn grammar in a fun way. I notice there is even a book for using all the little books together as a grammar program.
We've only tried the two books pictured above but I do plan on adding the others to our home school as I have the extra money to do so.

Here are a few other books they have:
Grammar Tales: The No-Good, Rotten, Run-on Sentence
Grammar Tales: When Comma Came to Town
Chicken In The City (nouns) (Grammar Tales)
Grammar Tales: Francine Fribble, Proofreading Policewoman
Verb For Herb (Grammar Tales)

There are loads of others but any of these should get you to where you can see all they have to offer.

March in Review

In case you didn't notice but I didn't post at all last month. Why you may ask? Because we were sick for the whole entire month. The month started out with me having a kidney infection which was pretty painful and about 6 days later I developed a cold that turned into strep and bronchitis. Then the kids followed me into the evil sickness. And just when I thought we'd be entering April nice and healthy Zach gets hit with the stomach flu and I followed 36 hours later. I'm hoping no one ends up sick but who knows.