Week in Review: “Rowing” with Jesse Bear

Finally we much delay due to our recent move, we were able to resume our homeschooling two weeks ago towards to end of October.  To celebrate, we rowed our first book this year.  

Our first choice for BFIAR was “Jesse Bear Jesse Bear, what will you wear? by Nancy White Carlstrom. In the book, Jesse Bear is excited about his day as he wakes up, gets dressed,  plays outside, eats, takes a bubble

Week in Review: the house hunting edition and family

Our second and third week was a very light week of homeschooling. Between searching for a new home, making calls and visiting properties, we managed to only get a few days of school done during the last two weeks.      

Last month (August 22), the boys began working on their “All About Me” book and this month they continued working on them with our Family unit study.  

Here are the highlights

Good news

Thank you Lord. Thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers.  We recently found a three bedroom home that we can move into within 2 months. It is close to my parents home and some extended family members.

For the next several weeks I will dividing my time between homeschooling and getting ready for our move. There’s plenty to pack. The last time we moved, my oldest son was a toddler. The

unexpected Transitions….

This Saturday, after living in the same apartment community for over 8 years, we have been informed that our lease will not be renewed due to remodeling.  There are no vacancies and we must be out in about 8 weeks. The timing could not have been worse with my husband out of work.  

We will be looking for a new place for us to live (house or apartment) and in the process of searching and packing

Week in review: Our first week

This Monday we started our first week of school. I’m glad we waited until late August to begin because it gave the boys a few weeks of summer vacation time.  We had a light week with basic subjects and a few electives such as health and science mixed in. 


Each day we are doing Calendar Math. We made a new Calendar and Morning board this year and the boys really like it.  The boys are learning

Finally, a homemade play clay recipe we love

In the past, we always used play dough with my youngest son (my oldest son dislikes play dough due to his sensory issues).  Play dough is fun but it can be difficult to remove off the carpet,  so I was trying to find something that would appeal to my children and to me (that was easy to clean).

This week we made a simple version of modeling clay (play dough) that can be stored for weeks in a

Our Homeschool Calendar and Morning Board

On Monday, we embarked on a new homeschool, year. Over the summer, I decided to update our Homeschool Calendar.  I had been looking at examples from fellow bloggers and printed several great files to use. I created a few of my own to add our Calendar Area.  This year, we are using a large Pocket Chart we purchased at Wal-Mart several  years ago to use as our Calendar Area.

We have limited space

Our Story wands

 
I love looking through catalogs from stores, especially Lakeshore Learning.  We have purchased a few items in the past from them.  This year our budget has been tight so when I saw these wonderful story wands, I knew I could make our own.

The materials I used to make ours were:
Craft sticks 
foam sheets 
scissors
packing tape
copy paper 
the font I used to make the lettering was MTF

Our Homeschool Curriculum 2011-2012

 
I know that I have not posted much recently but we have been busy enjoying our summer vacation. For the last several months, I've spent a great deal of time thinking and planning for our new homeschool school year.  Early on, I knew some of our curriculum choices and ordered throughout the year as we could afford them. 

In truth, we did not get everything on our wish list so I managed to

Science: Bean Sprouts

In May, the boys started growing bean sprouts when we did a garden unit study towards the end of the month.  The boys have been observing their bean sprouts since late May and have been documenting their growth.


.

At the end of  each week we take a photo of our bean sprouts and the boys write about them or draw a picture of them in their bean plant diary.  Above, you can see some of the bean

Week in review: Gardening (weeks 28-29)

Gone are the days of cool Spring weather, summer heat has taken its place.  Still we have managed to use the early morning hours to explore and have fun outdoors.  The boys explored the subject of gardening (as part of their  homeschooling) the past two weeks. 

Note: For those who do not know my sons are nicknamed Godzilla boy, age 11 and Turtle, age 5. My oldest son has some learning

Week in Review: Spring (weeks 24-25)

March 28 to April 8
We spent two weeks on our unit study on Spring.  The previous two weeks (March 14 – 25) we took off for an extended Spring break.   During our studies, we read books about the season of Spring and about animals in Spring as well as Spring activities.  Note: For those who do not know my sons are nicknamed Godzilla boy, age 11 and Turtle, age 5. My oldest son has some learning

Homeschooler Mother’s Journal (for March 19)

In my life this week...We enjoyed our spring break by relaxing and enjoying time away from schooling and blogging. We celebrated my 46th birthday with dinner at a restaurant. We got a subscription to Netflix so that we can watch our favorite documentaries and even view some with the boys for homeschooling. We had a wonderful St. Patrick’s day with food and music. My husband is Irish so it goes

Week In Review: All about Birds (week 21)

February 21 to February 25This Wednesday we began our two week unit study on birds (to coincide with the Great Backyard Bird Count).

We learned what birds are, which birds fly and which do not. We read books about birds and painted with feathers. It was a fun filled week that included our Nature Study on birds in our area.
Note: For those who do not know my sons are nicknamed Godzilla boy, age

Homeschool Mother’s Journal (for February 25)

I have been participating in another journal for sometime and when I read about this one I thought I would try to participate. I am still keeping up with my homemaker journal because it ties in with my bible devotionals and housekeeping but wanted a separate journal for homeschooling so this is my first entry for The Homeschool Mother’s Journal.


In my life this week...Some of our

Week in Review: a Snow day to end our week (wk 19)

January 31 to February 5This week we began our study on the Polar Regions: Arctic and Antarctic Animals.

We stayed indoors most of the week due to below freezing weather but no one mined that because the boys were looking forward the to the chance of snow that was in the forecast for Friday morning.

We used Monday to review of the previous week. Last week we did not have a unit study and

Week in Review: Pilgrims, Wampanoag, First Thanksgiving (week 12)

November 15 to November 19
This week, we learned about the Pilgrims and their voyage on the Mayflower, Pilgrim and Wampanoag Indian life, the first Thanksgiving and about Turkeys. It was a fun filled week that was rich in history and culture.

On Monday, we set sail on the Mayflower by reading about about the Pilgrims and their travel to the New World through the book “If you sailed on the

Meeting a Pilgrim and Wampanoag and building homes

Today, we continued our reading of the book “If you sailed on the Mayflower” by Ann McGovern. I read aloud pages 32-50 from the book which tells the story of the Pilgrims voyage to the world and life during the 66 days they sailed and then landed in the New World.

After our reading, we enjoyed viewing a live webcast from the Pilmoth Plantation that was being made by Scholastic. I had registered

Setting sail on the Mayflower

Monday, was our first day of our Thanksgiving unit. I read aloud pages 10-31 of the book “If you sailed on the Mayflower” by Ann McGovern. We used our dry erase board to explain the story to my youngest son. We learned why the Pilgrims fled Europe to travel to the New World. The boys said that they would feel sad too if an English King told them they had to give up something or someone they love

Our plans for this week (Thanksgiving unit)

This week, we are learning about the Pilgrims and their voyage on the Mayflower, Pilgrim and Indian life, the first Thanksgiving and about Turkeys. I have a general outline of our plans for the week that I thought I would share with you. Next weekend, I will have our Week in Review on our week posted after we complete our study on Thanksgiving.

Here are the books we will be reading throughout