Present and Future Plans and All About Spelling

This week has been a focus on what we are working on now, what we will be doing next year and what we will be doing during the summer. We have reached the final section in The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading and I was trying to think of what would be the next logical step since her reading isn't totally fluent yet and her spelling is all phonetically (which obviously doesn't work all of the time). I bit the bullet and ordered All About Spelling. We aren't currently using a spelling program and I figured it would slide in and take OPTGR's place once we finish it. It's expensive but according to all the raves about it, it is supposed to be completely worth it. I am selling a bunch of stuff on Ebay right now anyway so that should cover the costs anyway. I bought the first three levels because I figured level one we would go through fairly quickly and I didn't want to pay shipping to Canada again anytime soon, so I got the first chunk of them all at once. I am excited to start so I hope shipping is fairly quick. I figure by summer we will be done our history, science, writing and geography programs so we can focus on All About Spelling, math, handwriting (probably cursive) and latin/french review. A lighter load for the summer but we definitely won't stop because she will forget at this young age. So that's my plan and this is what we did this week (which is now alternating between ballet/princess school and Hogwarts).

Memory Work - I added the signs of the zodiac this week because she was interested in them and who we knew under each sign. 

Phonics - We have reached the final section, today's lesson included homonyms.

First Language Lessons - Lesson 64-66, we are doing seasons and abbreviations.

Writing with Ease - Completed week 21 of copy work and narration exercises from Tom Sawyer excerpts.

Latin (Song School Latin) - We learned how to say I eat, I drink, food, supper and water, how the word for water (aqua) ties to aquarium and the phrase et cetera.

French (Nallenart) - The focus this week was feelings and sizes and how to pronounce them when referring to masculine and feminine objects.

We will stop in the middle for a shameless plug of cute baby wearing her aviators.

Math - Math Mammoth 1A number bar counting and sums up to 7. I am going to jump back and forth between 1A and 1B because I want to introduce new subjects such as clock and money while we are working through the addition and subtraction units. It will lessen the monotony of some of the lessons I think. 

History (Story of the World) - We finished chapter 20 and learned about the Greek alphabet in which we wrote our names and the Olympics. We are going to start Black Ships Before Troy once we finish our current history read aloud.

Science (Elemental) - We studied shrimp, crabs and spiders this week. All of the above make my skin crawl so it wasn't the most fun chapter for me to teach. We are almost done with the animals unit and will move on to the body within the next two weeks.

Art - Was a painting based on an experience. It is supposed to be of when she went boating on the lake. It appears to be more of an abstract interpretation of that;)

Our final two postcards of the first batch we sent through postcrossing arrived at their destination in the Germany and China. It's neat because once they are received the receiver enters them into the website and you get a nice little message from the receiver via email thanking you and commenting on what you wrote. 

Another positive week for my husbands band BeforeTheCurtain. They got the opening slot for Apocalyptica this Wednesday and are opening for Three Days Grace on Friday. I am very proud and very excited for him.

Not Back to School Blog Hop: School Room Week

School room week. A frightening thought for me since we live in a two bedroom apartment that hasn't been completely unpacked or set up yet. So I have been working at tidying, organizing and moving stuff. Too bad I don't have unlimited funds because I know how I want it to look. What I want and what I can afford are two different things (think Ikea catalogue). That always seems to be the way though.




This is of the computer area viewed from the kitchen, our school room shares with the dining room. Roo is demonstrating one of her worst habits of peeking over her glasses in this shot. It drives me nuts. Her desk is beside mine against the wall since she tends to get distracted easily, there is not much for her to stare at in this spot. The newly laminated world map an addition fact sheet are posted on the wall.




Same shot, slightly different angle, to include the white board and her old desk. The urge to fiddle inside of the desk was too extreme so a friend found us a flip top desk at a garage sale. When we do white board work she either sits in my chair or bounces on her bouncy ball in the middle (a good energy release for a very active child).




Our book cases, mine, hers and ours. Baskets filled with miscellaneous math manipulatives, games and crap I don't know what to do with yet. Every homeschool room is not complete without its Michael Jackson, David Bowie and Evil Dead movie poster;) This was not the wall I initially wanted these shelves on, but due to the age of the building and the slanted floor it was the best choice.  




Standing in front of the bookshelves you get the glorious view of  the fire escape:)




Due to lack of wall space our calendar, weather charts have been banished to the side of the fridge. It's actually a good spot though since it is pretty much visible from my desk.




Busy, busy work circling the things she likes from the Build-a-Bear catalogue. Those pink heart balloons are from my birthday last week. She made my husband drive all over town to find the exact colour and style she wanted. The computer is showing her favorite game of Jumpstart.




So that is our homeschool room. More tidying and organization is needed but overall this is what it will look like (unless we win millions of dollars). Most of our read alouds are done in the living room and in bed but since I haven't cleaned those rooms yet, there was no need to photograph my shame:)

First 12 Weeks of Weekly Schedules Done!

Semester 1 Grade 1, 2010-2011 School Year

It feels good to have completed some of them. I know I have a lot more to do, but I can go at a more leisurely pace now that I have finished the first 12. Some of the cells changed a bit when I changed it into pdf format, so some words have been cut off. I know what it says though, so it's no big deal. I am trying to get the dining room/school room set up and organized. Currently I have my new, large world  map poster off being laminated. I hope that they get it done soon, because I would really like to get the room looking more complete. It doesn't help that it is hot as he!! in here and I break into a sweat just by typing on the computer. I wish I could say that Fall was in the air. We went to see ABBAmania (Abba cover band) last night at the outdoor festival we have here during the summer. Roo loved it! She is a complete Abba fan and danced and jumped around throughout the whole thing. It made putting her to bed an easy job last night.

Eat Your Vegetables!

This is a common, funny thing you always hear associated with kids. For some reason, I seem to have the opposite problem. Roo loves green stuff. Broccoli is the favorite, but only when steamed, cucumbers - salted, green peppers, peas, beans, spinach salad and the adding of colour with carrots and corn. My problem is that she will eat all of the vegetables and leave the meat and other courses. Then complain 1/2 hour later that she is hungry and wants a peanut butter and honey sandwich. I have tried a million different things to eat but she will only stick to certain things, and even then she is fickle. How do you feed a kids a balanced meal when all she does is pick pieces from it? I make cucumber water almost daily (because I hate he non taste of plain water) and every time I open the fridge, there are less and less slices of cucumbers floating in the jug. I know I shouldn't complain because she likes to eat the green stuff, but I also want a nice balance of all of the healthy things.



I spent the rainy afternoon re-reading the Latin Centered Curriculum....again. Then I got up and came to the computer and finished my year at a glance spreadsheet. Which I will post on here later because I was having some upload issues. My next thing I want to tackle is how I want my weekly schedule to look. I want it more to resemble an LCC ideal, but I don't know if that is possible with the curriculum choices I made. I've got some serious planning to do since time seems to be flying by. Now off to steam some broccoli and do a little more planning.