Category Archives: Homeschool

Learning at home with a second-grader and a fifth-grader.

Homeschool, National Blog Posting Month

Maybe our homeschool needs more Selleck

NaBloPoMo 2010When I was in school, the days before a holiday break were not the most productive. I can’t remember how many teachers resorted to showing us “Quigley Down Under” in middle school. But I know I’ve seen it more times than I would’ve chosen to on my own.

We didn’t watch any Tom Selleck this week, but we did slack off quite a bit. I’d planned for next week to be a week off from school, but we took it so easy this week that I might have to change that. We didn’t have a “Five in a Row” book this week, and I didn’t have much planned beyond our regular stuff.

home/school

  • Poppy finished her handwriting book on Tuesday. I’m planning to start her on copywork using the poems she’s memorizing. But the printer’s out of ink, so I’m going to have to fix that before I can print the sheets to do that.
  • She’s still doing well with Rosetta Stone Spanish, but she asked this week if she could do it less frequently. She’s been doing a lesson every day. This week, she just did it on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. We’ll probably stick to a schedule like that once we add our math and science curriculums.
  • We’re talking about Cheerfulness in our “Character Building for Families” study. I can’t say with 100 percent certainty that the lessons are helping all of Poppy’s character issues to fix themselves, but it has helped me to have something specific to say when she has a meltdown or is being generally rotten. Something other than “Stop that,” I mean.
  • Poppy memorized “We Thank Thee” by Ralph Waldo Emerson this week. This was the first poem that took her the full five days to memorize.
  • We finished “The Water Horse” this week. I finally looked up the summary of the movie, and it is so far removed from the book’s plot that I’m not going to put it on the Netflix list. I’m not sure what we’ll do for our next read-together.

    • Our next “Five in a Row” book is waiting at the library, but we won’t start on it next week. I’m guessing next week is going to look a lot like this week.

    What to know what other homeschoolers are doing? Here’s the Weekly Wrap-Up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. I’m linking up there, and lots of other homeschoolers have, too.

    Homeschool, National Blog Posting Month

    The study of cakes, cats and composers

    NaBloPoMo 2010This week’s “Five in a Row” book was “The Duchess Bakes a Cake,” about a bored duchess who bakes a ridiculous cake that’s so full of yeast it carries her up into the sky. Ridiculous, but Poppy thought it was pretty funny. We talked about feudal society (while Pete wore the knight costume he got for his birthday), alliteration and baking. We tried to make a tres leche cake, but something went amiss. It didn’t home/schoolabsorb all the milk and ended up looking like a cake that someone had spilled a cup of milk on. Rockford says he’ll eat it anyway, so I’m going to pour off the excess later today and let him try it for dessert.

    In that-which-we-do-every-week news:

  • Poppy is pages away from the end of her handwriting book. Happily, Zaner-Bloser has a great tool available for making your own copywork pages. I’m using lines from the poems she’s memorized, songs she likes and movies she loves.
  • Speaking of poems, this week’s was “The Cat of Cats” by William Brighty Rands, which naturally became “The Marsha of Marshas” or some such derivation.
  • We read chapters three through seven of “The Water-Horse,” and I still haven’t decided whether or not to put the movie on the Netflix queue. I’ll be googling at some point to find out how it stacks up to the book. Have you seen it? What do you think?
  • Once again, Poppy finished her BookIt challenge this month with weeks to spare. Her assignment for November was to read 100 pages. It’ll be 200 next month. I don’t want it to be insurmountable, but I’d like to find a number or a book that will actually take her through the whole month.

    • We did start something new this week. I’ve been thinking about doing composer studies for awhile now, but I don’t have much classical music on hand. But I was given an iTunes gift card for my birthday (thanks Chloe!), so I downloaded a Mozart compilation. On Monday we listened to the Classics for Kids “About Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart” podcast and then spent a little while actively listening to some of his works. We usually have music on in the background as we go about our day. This week, it was mostly Mozart. Pete enjoyed it even more than his sister did, even if he was disturbingly fixated on the composer’s fate. Nearly every time I turned it on, he’d walk into the room and say, “Is this Mozart? Mozart is dead.” At least it’s proof that he was paying attention to the podcast.

    Homeschool

    I started the week by getting the wrong book from the library

    home/schoolIt kind of feels like we didn’t do all that much worth writing home about this week. I know it’s all valuable material that Poppy’s covering, but it’s pretty much the same week-to-week at this point. I need to rejuvenate, I think. Anyway:

  • Poppy did her handwriting exercises every day, as usual. She’s nearly finished with her handwriting book. I’m not sure whether I’m going to order the next book or just do copywork from here on out. I’m leaning toward copywork.
  • She’s doing really well with her Spanish lessons. I don’t know that she could carry on a full conversation in Spanish yet, but she could definitely tell you whether el hombre comiendo manzanas or fresa.
  • We started the “deference” section of “Character Building for Families.” Poppy has very strong leadership qualities — read: she’s bossy — so I’m hoping this sinks in for her.
  • She memorized “The Window” by Walter de la Mare this week. It’s kind of a creepy poem. I told her that I’d make a DVD of all of her recitations, so I’ve been learning iMovie this week, too.
  • Poppy’s BookIt challenge this month is to read 100 pages. She’s starting with “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.” We also started a new chapter book this week: “The Water-Horse” by Dick King-Smith. It was made into a movie a few years ago. I saw it with my niece when it came out, but I don’t remember much about it. So I’m not sure whether or not we’ll put it on the Netflix when we’re finished reading the book.