First Week of School - May Our Life Never Be Quite This Eventful Again

Our first week of school was completely different than what I planned a few weeks ago.   The beginning of the week was pretty standard.  We took our obligatory first day pictures, ate some delicious donuts from our favorite little bakery, and got to work.  I was pretty concerned about trying to complete schoolwork for two students while a toddler ran around, but the first day was actually very smooth and very productive.  I am not naïve enough to believe that these cooperative, cheerful attitudes will be present everyday for the rest of the school year!

Math
Benjamin's math was probably my favorite subject this week.  His bookwork was scheduled to be about shapes but was a little dry, so we took out the pattern blocks and used them for several activities during the week.  He traced them into his Kindergarten notebook, made pictures and played tangram games.  Luke and Olivia were also drawn to them and while I worked with Ben, Luke worked with Olivia on her colors. 

Benjamin loves puzzles, so tangrams were really fun for him.

Luke helping Olivia to group her shapes.

Ben's shape picture. We traced the outline and he drew . . . .

An American Ninja Warrior course!

Language Arts
One of Luke's favorite activities was a contraction review game we called "Contraction Surgery".  I wrote the expanded forms of contractions onto index cards.  Luke cut out the letters that weren't part of the contraction (for example, the "o" in "are not") and then used tape to put the index card back together.  The tape represented the apostrophe.  He then wrote the words into his Word Bank notebook (which I'll show and explain in another post). 

Dr. Luke at work

Where It All Went Downhill (no pun intended)
Throughout the rest of the week, we managed to get all of the necessary work done, but also had a lot of distractions.  No pictures were taken and school was mainly marking off our tasks in between all of the extras.  We spent an afternoon with about 30 of our closest friends at Greenfield Village, spent time with Aaron's parents who were in town, but mostly worked (or watched others work) on our backyard.

Our yard is situated about 5-6 feet above the neighbors behind us.  The original owners built a retaining wall, but the wall was starting to significantly lean into our neighbors' yard.  The city ordered that we have the wall fixed.  After considering many options and talking to different landscapers and masons, we decided to take down the wall and slope our backyard down to the neighbors' property.  There were lots of factors that came into play.  The wall was in two parts that were situated around two garages and a shed.  We had to make sure our garage didn't come tumbling down.  The entire setup had to drain well so that we don't flood the neighbors' yards.  Plus, in the middle of the wall was a utility pole. 

The kids absolutely loved helping to prep the yard for the work.  They helped to drag the brush to the curb and even attempted to dig out some of the blocks in the yard.

 

 

By Thursday morning, the major work had begun.  The kids loved watching my cousin Andrew's landscaping business work.  Sitting in the house doing schoolwork was not going to happen, so we ended up doing our schoolwork outside on the back porch and whenever the workers took a break.  I think though, that the kids actually learned so much about landscaping, construction, drainage systems, machines, hard work, and so much more.  I could never teach all of these things around our kitchen table.

Watching the dumpster get delivered

There goes the fence!

The first half of the wall was down by Thursday night.

Luke sitting on the back porch with Papa while working on his math and phonics

The boys built the construction site out of Legos.  Later, they also added a very full dumpster.

I'll include pictures of the completed project next week after we add the tree border at the bottom of the hill.  Luckily, most of the project is finished, so we should be able to be a little more focused this week!

How Is It Time to Start Again?

I've been spending the past few days getting ready for the upcoming school year and although it feels early to start school, I'm ready.  We've been off for almost two months and have had a good chance to regroup and become somewhat refreshed. 

Luckily, because Luke only requires 2-3 hours to complete most of his work, we won't really lose the rest of summer.  Actually, I am hoping that knowing a beautiful summer day is awaiting him will cause him to be motivated.  It should be a good opportunity to discuss scheduling and time management.  (In later years, the kids will be creating their own schedules each week.)  If we plan well, we can still make it to the pool frequently and schedule fun things to do.

Changes
One of my favorite aspects of homeschooling is being able to adjust to the needs and preferences of our family.  Here are some of the changes we'll make this year:

Doubling Our Class Size
We made the decision to start Benjamin with a (mostly) kindergarten curriculum.  He is only 4.5, but as a second child, he is very, very eager to learn to read.  He's started to blend sounds and read short words, so I'm going to give him a chance.  If things don't work out, we'll just stretch out the material until he can handle everything.  Ben's curriculum will consist of Explode the Code (phonics), Kindergarten Singapore Math, and Handwriting Without Tears.  We also purchased the PreK books through Sonlight.  These books are mainly fairy tales and traditional stories, community helper books, and some basic science.  He is so extremely excited that he has already begun all of his workbooks!  (Luke thinks that is ridiculous.) 

He's cute and he loves to learn!

Having two kids doing "official" schooling is going to be a new challenge.  Our plan (for the moment) will be for me to work with Ben while Luke is doing workbooks that don't require my help.  This will probably be done while Olivia is watching Sesame Street.  If that method doesn't work, I'll try giving each of the boys 30 minutes of "Olivia Duty" (as coined by Luke) while we get in some one-on-one time. 

Our wild card!

Curriculum Changes
I spent some time over the summer evaluating what worked and what was too much of a challenge.  Luke and I sat down and discussed all of his curriculum.  We discussed each subject individually.  The overall consensus was that he loves to be read to, but hates anything that requires too much work.  :)  After explaining that wouldn't convince me to change curriculum, he explained that Spelling is really the subject that has given him the most frustration.  We were using a workbook with activities for each week, but said that the words didn't seem to stick in his brain after the week was over (even on review weeks).  I researched different curriculum and decided to go with Sequential Spelling.  The program is designed to teach students small word parts that can then be built into larger words when you add prefixes, suffixes, and other word parts that you already know (ex: all expands to tall, stall, install, and installment).  In the reviews, many people said their students remembered words longer and understood how to break them apart better.  We'll give it a try this year and see if it works for Luke.

Post meeting picture with Luke

This year, we're also adding a more formal Writing program.  Sonlight's curriculum was a little to loosey-goosey for me and we had difficulty finding motivation to complete the activities.  WriteShop is a little more structured and explains Writing methods to young elementary students pretty well.  I'm hoping the more formal curriculum will help us to make Writing a more consistent part of our schedule.

We're sticking with Sonlight for both boys.  Luke's curriculum this year is titled, "An Introduction to World History - Part 1".  We'll be reading about Ancient Egypt, Ancient Rome, Ancient China, and Ancient Greece.  A main portion of the history is from a book called, "A Child's History of the World" which tells history as a story that is interesting to kids and easy for them to understand.  I told him that we're going to be learning a great deal of the material together.  I remember learning a lot of American History in school, but not much World History.

Our new globe that sits on the piano

Time Management Changes
In an effort to transfer a little more responsibility to Luke, we're going to try to use a workbox system for his workbooks.  Both boys will have a box with their workbooks for the day that is divided into two sections (one for work to do and one for completed work).  Pages that need to be completed will be circled so that he can simply take out a book and complete the assignment.  After finishing, he'll put the book into the completed section.  Benjamin's school plan is different in that we'll work until I can tell that he needs to stop.  He is extremely motivated at this point, so I'm not going to push it. 

Each of the boys will also have their own mini-whiteboard with their daily work.  Both love to erase items off their list, so this has traditionally worked for us.

Home Stretch

This week is a break week!   We only have six official weeks left of school.  Wooohooo!!!  I almost made the decision to skip our break so that we could finish earlier than planned, but once the Michigan weather broke over the weekend I knew the fresh air was needed more than anything else. 

 

 

The boys are helping with the outdoor spring clean up and were excited to see a tulip plant in their little patch of land.

I have no idea why he's using a broom . . .

 

 

I haven't blogged in quite a while, but we have definitely been busy with school.  It is exciting to see an end in sight and we'll slowly be wrapping up our subjects one by one.  Luke just finished his Explode the Code books for the year and was thrilled to know he won't be working on phonics books until the beginning of the school year in late July.  He still is reading daily out of readers at his level, but he doesn't really consider that to be part of school.  He is working his way through one of the Boxcar Children books (he reads a chapter to me each day) and really seems to enjoy the plot.

 

Literature

We finished all of the Literature selections from Sonlight, as well, so I've been reading Wind in the Willows to Luke each afternoon.  The description passages are a little flowery and complex for a six year-old boy, but Luke doesn't seem to mind and really enjoys the storyline and interactions between the characters.  The book has some beautiful illustrations and Luke likes turning the pages to see the map of the characters' homes.

 

Playing "Pooh Sticks" from "The House at Pooh Corner"

 

Science

This week, we realized one of Luke's science books, "Everyday Things" is very outdated.  Most of the text was fine but the technology portion ended up being more of a history lesson!  We read about tv antennae, rotary telephones and tape recorders last week.  Luckily, YouTube is always available.  We've found lots of cool videos lately to go with the lessons.  I believe Ben's favorite was about dairy cows and Luke's was about the building of the Hoover Dam.  

 

Luke working on an experiment to see how different foods reacted to being in our freezer.

After learning about rockets, we watched a video on the International Space Station.  Later, I found the boys had turned Ben's bed into the Space Station.  I was told the pillows are solar panels.

 

 

Ben found a sprouting acorn at the park.

 

 

Geography

We just finished the last Geography book, "Wild Places" last week.  We learned a lot about the San and Tuareg people of the Kalahari and Sahara Deserts.  We even watched a video in which the San tribe were able to squeeze water to drink from plants. 

 

I was told they were nomads carrying their tents.

 

 

Math & Spelling

We seem to be most "behind" in these two subjects.  Math has taken longer because he's completing two books (a workbook and a book titled, "Intensive Practice").  We're behind in Spelling because we didn't actually start this book until December.  Unfortunately, this means Luke is still working on these books during our break, but luckily the topics for the week aren't too intensive (he's sitting beside me now working on telling time).

 

 

 

Cooking School

Learning to brown meat

Making French toast

Yum!

Olivia spilled orange juice down her jammies and managed to get syrup in her hair.  She was not impressed.

I had no part in making this meal!  Luke made the eggs and Ben made the toast.  Olivia and I both approved!

The Arts

Both of the boys are preparing to perform in a piano recital in a few weeks.  They are both pretty excited.  Ben has simply learned finger numbers and will play "Old MacDonald".  Luke has learned the names of his notes and will play "The Star Wars Main Theme".

 

Future student!

The boys, my parents, and I went to see a production of "The Aristocats" at a local theatre.  It was very well done and the boys loved it.  Luke is considering trying out for a play, but is still a little apprehensive.  Ben, however, has zero interest at all!

 

 

Physical Education

We've been spending lots of time outside this week and all the kids are ready to run off some of their winter energy.  They received new roller skates/roller blades for Christmas and are working on keeping their legs under them.

 

 

We've also been spending a lot of time at the YMCA with friends.  The boys are enjoying the rock climbing wall and seem to go higher each week.

 

 

 

Getting Out!

We made our first trip to the zoo last month.  Only about half of the animals were out and about, but the exercise and fresh air was wonderful for all of us.

 

Benjamin didn't look at many animals.  He wanted to follow the map and figure out our location.

Butterfly house and aviary

We packed a lunch, so Olivia didn't get to eat fries.  Again, she was not impressed.

Ben found the Bald Eagle on his map and was very excited when we finally reached the exhibit.

The bears were hilarious.  They are siblings and spent a good portion of the time play-fighting.

We went to Great Wolf Lodge with my family last month.  We almost didn't make it because an awful virus hit our house a few days before we left.  Luckily, we all went from this . . .

 

to this . . .

 

and were able to go.  We really had a good time.

Putting a menu on your head is really exciting for toddlers!

A successful trip!

 

That's our past month in a nutshell!  Here are a few pictures (in case you haven't seen enough)!