Our summer was filled with beautiful times: gardening (water, weeding and harvesting), tenting, sunsets and boating, star and comet gazing, phosphorescence, family get-togethers, sprinklers, beaches, birthday parties (Lauren turned 6), beaches, picnic, and art. I dare say it was my most enjoyable summer as a mother- the kids are at an age where we can do more, and their experience of it is that much more rich.
Grade One!
September came upon us awfully fast and Lauren enters Grade One!! She met the new school year with much excitement. At the end of last year I had purchased many workbooks to get us set up for the new year and we were all looking forward to seeing the Spring Leaves' gang again.
*Note to Julie* At the end I will summarize the specifics of our learning, and the workbooks and exercises.
First day of Spring Leaves (note the comfort items going with them).
Lauren's Mind Map.
Lauren standing in the Pea House
It's 'bean' a good year in the garden!
Lauren watched me can. She got bored rather quickly, but she got to watch the process. Also, the kids and I picked blackberries and made jam sweetened with honey.
We canned the jam too. Froze extra beans.
Lauren and Matthew enjoyed a lesson on magnets.
Geography Lesson. Intro to map making. I drew the shape of her room,
she filled in the mess, I mean rest.
Understood the concept and enjoyed it.
Learning about crystals was on Lauren's Mind Map. So for science class this is what we did!
Lauren's solution was sugar-based. Matthew's was salt.
After a week or two of crystal 'growing', the kids want to look at crystals under the microscope. I printed out a science experiment report template, and Lauren dictated her methods and early observations, as well as predictions, including the shapes of the sugar/salt crystals. "You know mom, science is all about solving mysteries. And I like that a lot!" Lauren says to me. Cool. Stay tuned for this experiments conclusions!
Art Tuesday. I painted a big Fall tree and they painted hand-print and free-form leaves and this evolved into ghosts and bats and pumpkins too!
The finished tree. Not bad!
Morning math warm-up. Matthew is right in it this year. Has his own workbooks and sits down at the table with Lauren. He doesn't always last as long, but he did just turn four. And this is the kid I couldn't possibly keep happy or occupied last year. He had no interest in art, and now he's blossoming into a little artist, and a keen learner. Keep it up Matthew, because Kindergarten is coming....!!
Going to the garden with the children is never boring. Here one of our carrots became "Carrotina". And she went on a marvelous adventure. Here she is in her carrot house. Lauren finally ate her! This gave me a great idea of doing a stop-motion film with the kids. They write the story, help me move the figures, and I'll import into video editing software. Then they can pick music, effects, etc.... Lauren has watched me video edit before and I think this will be something fun to work towards!
Our beautiful pumpkin! All the other pumpkins shriveled and rotted. But this one made it. I kept a close eye on this one all summer, and prayed it'd make it. The kids really wanted their own home-grown Jack-o-lantern. (I wanted pumpkin puree to last me a while).
We dried our sunflowers. Then we learned together how to process them for eating.
Boiling in salted water. Then roasted in oven. Mixed results. Some of the seeds were empty. But the ones that weren't were tasty. Learned things for next year. The kids liked them raw better. I concur.
We picked Limberlost apples. Grandma decided an Apple Stand would be a great idea.
It was. Here Lauren is pricing, packaging and labeling the apples.
Matthew helping to decorate the sign.
All set up. Now they wait.
(My mom and I were crossing our fingers folks would stop)
Proud and hopeful.
Waiting for customers to stop. And they did!! The kids sold out of apples within an hour. Cecelia Kordyback bought the last few bags. Thanks Cecilia (she got it).
Over Thanksgiving- Lauren's Auntie Lydia (the research scientist) showing Lauren constellations on our space globe thingy. Uncle Mikey got the big telescope out and the kids saw Jupiter (i think) and it's four moons. It was incredible.
More on crystals. This is a crystal mining kit. Slow work. Lauren is sooo patient. Once the crystals are found in the plaster rock, you can identify the type of crystal with the provided chart.
The four of us took a road trip to Tofino, the third week of September. We crossed our fingers for decent weather since we were camping. And we got dreamy weather. The kids spent three days on the beach. There was a fresh water creek that flowed down the beach and into the sea. We learned a lot about erosion, delta formation, and recreated Ladner, Tsawwassen, Richmond, built bridges and pointed out where the Deas Tunnel would be, etc.... Sand castles, sand art, and an intro to boogie boarding by their Dad. Lauren also took my camera and discovered the joy of taking photos. Matthew turned four during our trip too! Had a campsite party and cake.
Lauren took this photo. I finally found a way to feel comfortable in FRONT of the camera- get my daughter to take the photo!!
So that was the picture journey of our months so far. Here's the nuts and bolts for reporting purposes.
*Here you go Julie:
1. We are starting off the year with a good schedule. 9 am I ring the tibetan bells (yes, I do!). The kids like it, and run to the table and find their seats.
2.) Start with Math everyday.
- Math Ahead Grade One: Chapter Money
- In this unit she identified, described and stated the values of different coins.
- show money amounts to 20 cents
- add and subtract amounts to 10 cents
- She easily grasped concepts. And enjoys it! (we have play money waiting at the school supply store for more money learning. We want to set up a store.)
- Math Ahead Grade One: Chapter 2-D Shapes
- learning about common 2 dimensional shapes and sort, and classify shapes by their characteristics
- Complete Math Smart Grade One (this book Lauren is really enjoying!)
- Lauren is on page 80 in the workbook and has covered and understood with ease the following chapters and ideas:
- Comparing height and lengths
- Comparing positions
- Comparing shapes and weights
- Matching and Arranging Objects
- Sorting Objects
- Ordering Objects
- Addition and Subtraction (values of 1; to 6; to 0; to 10
3.) Hooked on Phonics Kit
- Lauren loves this kit. She controls the CD audio, and presses play/pause, follows in the workbook, places stickers on the chart after each milestone, and loves the little reader books that are included. She is bombing through it. "Can I do another chapter mom??" And I think to myself "I need a break!!" She is very keen.
4.) Reading Progress
- She is reading grade one/two readers. I bought her one the other day called the Frog Princess. Grade level 1/2 and read it to me from her car seat. It was astounding. Matthew was even proud of her.
5.) Spelling.
- I started daily spelling B's. She writes one to ten down her notebook and I give her words to spell. The first couple of days were shocking and a lesson to me, that just because you can read something, spelling is a whole new thing! She got many wrong in the first couple of days, and really took it in stride. Had no need to get things right and was eager to learn the correct spelling. Within the first week I saw incredible improvement already. I would give her words from previous days to see if she remembered the correct spellings, and she is. Now she is thinking ahead before she spells her words, remembering those rules "silent e makes the vowel say its name, etc....
- Can I do spelling B mom???? She loves it.
6.) Montessori Thursdays
- I send Lauren and even Matthew with workbooks. Anne is taking an active role in our schooling. Thank you Anne! Every day the kids do work (Satya, Jessie, Matthew) there and they come home with completed work. Lauren came home with the new concept of the ones, tens, hundreds concept using those yellow math blocks and can add something like 301 + 224. I was amazed.
7.) We do recess and I'm shoving them outside no matter what the weather. I find they want to do more school when they come back in. This is usually when we do either science (crystals, or cooking) or Geography.
8.) When Lauren did her mind map she said she wanted to make cookies all by herself. So she did. I wrote out a simple recipe and she followed it. Did NOT want me to touch anything. I couldn't find my 1/2 cup, so I told her 1/4 is half of a half cup. She got it, and figured out the recipe accordingly. Is that right mom? she'd ask before dumping in ingredients. Yes, I say. She even used the electric mixer. Gulp. The cookies turned out to be uniquely shaped, but delicious. Well done Lauren.
9.) We are starting 'Beginning Geography' Grades K-2 and this is where the bedroom map making lesson came from. Two pull-out wall posters came with it. We did a lesson on landforms and bodies of water and continents and oceans. I put the names of all of them on Post-Its and then they placed it on the appropriate item on the poster. Lauren has a very good understanding of the continents. Knows them by name. Has a good grasp on north, south, east and west. And I taught a quick lesson on continental drift. Lauren and Matthew could both see where the continents fit together like puzzle pieces. She now knows of Pangea, and a couple days later asked if this is why Pender is now two islands. Cute!
10.) I recently went to the School House Supply store and ordered some resources that will supplement our grooving routine. Spelling curriculum book (so I don't have to wing it), many wall posters (math, geometry, angles, fractions,). They love posters and the interactive nature of it, plus it's "schooly" Lauren says. I like them too. Plus more math blocks (one, tens, hundreds), play money, and other goodies.
11.) Finally, a quick update on Lauren's extra curricular activities. Violin and Choir.
Violin- continuing lessons with Denny on her new bigger violin. Practicing hasn't been so great yet- but she is still excited about lessons.
Choir- she is over the moon about this. How many more days till choir???? She sings all day. Reads her lyric notebook and listens to CD Dana and Bruce Mcconchie gave the children. Last class Lauren put up her hand to perform a 'show and sing'. She sang a poem 'Twinkle Twinkle Butterfly". I couldn't believe it. She has come a long way this girl of mine. Go Lauren!!!!
O.k. I'm done. That just about covers it. We've been busy. No wonder I'm tired! But it's all good. We are having a wonderful year so far.
Thanks for reading as always,
Joanne
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