Saturday, February 19, 2011
Reading
We continue to use lots of books from the library. I'm going through the Kindergarten supplementary books on the Seton Home Study webpage. And I'm teaching her to read using Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. We're about half way through. We only do it when she asks for it.
Social Studies
Today we played Candy Land with NO RULES. It wasn't any fun. Then we played it with the rules, and it was great. We did this to introduce the concept of law. We talked about laws she is familiar with - I drew pictures of a stop sign, speed limit sign, and stop light, and we talked about what would happen if people didn't follow those laws. Then we talked about the 10 Commandments. We went over the 3 branches of our government in a representational democracy, and then talked about dictatorships with good dictators and bad dictators. In the kingdom of God, God is the one and only ruler - a supremely good dictator. Our country is the USA, and it is a rep democracy. We talked about how we have reps at a state and national level, and worked our Melissa and Doug state map to draw her connections between state government and something she is already familiar with - states. Did we really do all of that??? Seems like a lot for a 4 year old when I write it out, but she seemed to really follow it.
Science: Botany
I'm using the curriculum standards from Core Knowledge (http://www.coreknowledge.org/) and the NJ Dept of Education Core Curriculum Standards.
We've been growing beans and seeds and doing simple plant experiments, like putting a carrot in water and seeing what happens. We put kidney beans in damp tissue paper wrapped in foil, one or two a day over the course of a week. Then we unwrapped them and arranged them in order of least to most developed, talking about germination. We did some experiments with this. Like, with some beans we tried using too much water - she thought it was fun to use too much water, but then when she smelled the saw the rotting bean she decided not to do that. She designed her own experiment - putting pine needles in a bucket of water to see if they would turn green. The experiment was successful - she learned that they will not turn green through water alone. She also helped improve on the carrot experiment.
We've been growing beans and seeds and doing simple plant experiments, like putting a carrot in water and seeing what happens. We put kidney beans in damp tissue paper wrapped in foil, one or two a day over the course of a week. Then we unwrapped them and arranged them in order of least to most developed, talking about germination. We did some experiments with this. Like, with some beans we tried using too much water - she thought it was fun to use too much water, but then when she smelled the saw the rotting bean she decided not to do that. She designed her own experiment - putting pine needles in a bucket of water to see if they would turn green. The experiment was successful - she learned that they will not turn green through water alone. She also helped improve on the carrot experiment.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Science
GREAT early elementary science resources that are not too expensive:
http://www.sciencewiz.com/books/books.htm
http://www.sciencewiz.com/books/books.htm
Monday, September 20, 2010
Animals
Today was my husband's day off, and it turned into a homeschool animal day. We took the kids to the zoo. It was loads of fun. My daughter rode a camel. When we got home she and I read/worked through the first portion of her Little Kid National Geographic magazine of this month (complete with punch-out cards with animals on them with their names and fun facts), learning about owls and playing some of the games in the magazine. Then we spent a lot of time just running around outside while my husband trimmed the shrubs...
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Fall
So this fall...
Science:
1. I'm checking out books from the library on different things in nature. This week we used a children's flap-book on birds - finches, flamingos, birds of paradise, peacocks, and penguins. Flamingos were her favorite.
2. My parents ordered her a subscription for National Geographic for Kids. It is fabulous. This month's came with punch-out cards with pictures of different kinds of animals on them and facts about them on the back. There was an extensive "article" on bears, and games (rhyming, matching, etc.) to play inside.
3. We have a membership at the Aquarium and the Zoo, both really fabulous facilities. We went over the summer, and we'll likely go to each once more this fall.
Social Studies:
1. We are learning Spanish. She has taken to saying "Hola" to people on the bike path, now that she has heard several people speaking Spanish as they passed her. We're using a music CD and kid Spanish/English dictionaries/phrase books from the library to build vocabulary and learn grammatical constructions.
2. I'm teaching her the countries (and their capitols) where Spanish is spoken. So, mostly Latin America, South America, and Spain. I'm using a rap I actually learned in my 6 week introduction to Spanish class in the 7th grade for this, along with our shower curtain (a map of the world).
3. We're reinforcing the states of the US, which she learned earlier, with the Melissa and Doug USA map puzzle that she received for her birthday.
Math:
1. Legos.
2. I bought Montessori math beads - unit, tens, hundreds, and thousands - to teach her how much these amounts are from a tactile and visual perspective. The plan is to use these to teach basic calculations, although she is so interested in blocks and building and playing pretend that she usually wants to use the materials for other purposes. So we might wait on calculation, or just insert it slowly here and there. We'll see.
Language:
1. We're using Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. She is on lesson 30 and doing great.
2. Spanish.
3. As far as communication goes, she is learning quite a bit at nursery school. Her teachers are doing a great job. She has started saying to me when she doesn't understand something I've told her, "So what you're saying is... [insert paraphrastic reflection]." :D
4. Of course we talk with her and use expansive vocabulary.
5. We read books to her.
6. We're not really doing writing much right now. Her fingers didn't seem ready for it. I test it out every once in awhile to see how it goes.
Art:
1. She is taking dance.
2. We play act-out-the-story, especially with Little Red Riding Hood and also The Three Little Pigs.
3. I got a book on drawing horses from the library. She loved it. She painted a horse, used a crayon, and used a pencil. I wanted her to do this to see the differences of creating the same picture from different mediums. Today I did a little lesson on perspectives. We looked at a cup straight down - it looks like a big circle around a little circle - and I drew it from that perspective. Then we looked at the cup from the side. The top circle looks like an oval, and so does the bottom circle. I drew it that way. She wanted to go back to horses, though, and so we did. We gave the horse food (grass, carrot, strawberry, and grapes), a red barn around it, and a rider with a red hat (like her Little People farmer) carrying a saddle to ride the horse. Some of it she painted and others she wanted me to paint.
4. Music is a part of our lives. We sing as we learn Spanish. We also listen to the Music Together CD from the summer session.
Physical Development:
1. Dance class
2. Soccer
3. Playgrounds
4. She bounces around (and off the couches) at home.
Social Development:
1. various activities listed above - dance, soccer, also church and, I think, the Spanish
2. nursery school twice a week for a couple hours in the morning.
Christian Education:
1. Church Worship
2. Sunday School
3. Participation in all church activities that are child-friendly
4. We listen to "Wild and Wacky, Totally True Bible Stories" in the car.
5. Regular prayers.
6. Our little cross liturgy before she goes to bed at night.
So, in terms of the "7 intelligences":
physical - see above under physical development
interpersonal - see above under social development
intrapersonal - we talk about how she feels, etc.
musical - see above under art
spacial - see above under art/visual
linguistic - see above under language
mathematical/logical - see above under math
Science:
1. I'm checking out books from the library on different things in nature. This week we used a children's flap-book on birds - finches, flamingos, birds of paradise, peacocks, and penguins. Flamingos were her favorite.
2. My parents ordered her a subscription for National Geographic for Kids. It is fabulous. This month's came with punch-out cards with pictures of different kinds of animals on them and facts about them on the back. There was an extensive "article" on bears, and games (rhyming, matching, etc.) to play inside.
3. We have a membership at the Aquarium and the Zoo, both really fabulous facilities. We went over the summer, and we'll likely go to each once more this fall.
Social Studies:
1. We are learning Spanish. She has taken to saying "Hola" to people on the bike path, now that she has heard several people speaking Spanish as they passed her. We're using a music CD and kid Spanish/English dictionaries/phrase books from the library to build vocabulary and learn grammatical constructions.
2. I'm teaching her the countries (and their capitols) where Spanish is spoken. So, mostly Latin America, South America, and Spain. I'm using a rap I actually learned in my 6 week introduction to Spanish class in the 7th grade for this, along with our shower curtain (a map of the world).
3. We're reinforcing the states of the US, which she learned earlier, with the Melissa and Doug USA map puzzle that she received for her birthday.
Math:
1. Legos.
2. I bought Montessori math beads - unit, tens, hundreds, and thousands - to teach her how much these amounts are from a tactile and visual perspective. The plan is to use these to teach basic calculations, although she is so interested in blocks and building and playing pretend that she usually wants to use the materials for other purposes. So we might wait on calculation, or just insert it slowly here and there. We'll see.
Language:
1. We're using Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. She is on lesson 30 and doing great.
2. Spanish.
3. As far as communication goes, she is learning quite a bit at nursery school. Her teachers are doing a great job. She has started saying to me when she doesn't understand something I've told her, "So what you're saying is... [insert paraphrastic reflection]." :D
4. Of course we talk with her and use expansive vocabulary.
5. We read books to her.
6. We're not really doing writing much right now. Her fingers didn't seem ready for it. I test it out every once in awhile to see how it goes.
Art:
1. She is taking dance.
2. We play act-out-the-story, especially with Little Red Riding Hood and also The Three Little Pigs.
3. I got a book on drawing horses from the library. She loved it. She painted a horse, used a crayon, and used a pencil. I wanted her to do this to see the differences of creating the same picture from different mediums. Today I did a little lesson on perspectives. We looked at a cup straight down - it looks like a big circle around a little circle - and I drew it from that perspective. Then we looked at the cup from the side. The top circle looks like an oval, and so does the bottom circle. I drew it that way. She wanted to go back to horses, though, and so we did. We gave the horse food (grass, carrot, strawberry, and grapes), a red barn around it, and a rider with a red hat (like her Little People farmer) carrying a saddle to ride the horse. Some of it she painted and others she wanted me to paint.
4. Music is a part of our lives. We sing as we learn Spanish. We also listen to the Music Together CD from the summer session.
Physical Development:
1. Dance class
2. Soccer
3. Playgrounds
4. She bounces around (and off the couches) at home.
Social Development:
1. various activities listed above - dance, soccer, also church and, I think, the Spanish
2. nursery school twice a week for a couple hours in the morning.
Christian Education:
1. Church Worship
2. Sunday School
3. Participation in all church activities that are child-friendly
4. We listen to "Wild and Wacky, Totally True Bible Stories" in the car.
5. Regular prayers.
6. Our little cross liturgy before she goes to bed at night.
So, in terms of the "7 intelligences":
physical - see above under physical development
interpersonal - see above under social development
intrapersonal - we talk about how she feels, etc.
musical - see above under art
spacial - see above under art/visual
linguistic - see above under language
mathematical/logical - see above under math
Friday, August 13, 2010
Hebrew
We aren't going to do this, yet, I don't think, but this website looks like a really fun way to teach Hebrew.
http://www.cartoonhebrew.com/index.php
http://www.cartoonhebrew.com/index.php
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