Kindergarten Assessment

Here's a link to some Kindergarten assessment activities: http://homeschoolparent.blogspot.com/2008/12/kindergarten-assessments.html

Christmas Project Success!

We handed out our Christmas treats yesterday and today, and were met with bright smiles, warm hearts and lots of "Merry Christmas" wishes. It was amazing how a little kindness could start conversations between strangers who never would have taken the time to chat otherwise. G was a great little helper and really got into giving away treats. We started by giving one to his kung fu instructor and the kids in his kung fu class last night. Then we stopped by a friend's house and gave them some treats. We gave one to the grocery store clerk, auntie and the people in her office, and the girls at our apartment office. Then we went to Starbucks for some hot chocolate, and as we sat there I could see the idea come into G's mind..."I'm going to hand out goodies to everyone sitting here in Starbucks", and off he went with treats in hand, passing them around the store with a "Merry Christmas" and a smile. It was so much fun! We'll definitely be doing this again next year!

My First Sock

I wanted to try knitting some socks, and this is definitely the right time of year for it, so I decided to knit some socks for G. I've got one done so far and have learned a lot! I'm pretty excited about how it turned out. Now to try to make a match!

Gingerbread House

We made this gingerbread house today for Uncle Erik. We got the fun of putting it together, and Erik will get the calories. Everyone is happy! :-)

Our Christmas Project is Ready!

We did the last of our baking today and made our little goody bags. We will hand these out to the people we come in contact with in our community. Just a little homemade Christmas gift to share the love of God. We have attached a Christmas Bible verse to each package to remind people of the real meaning of Christmas. We're planning to give these out next week to our librarians, the grocery store clerk, the UPS man...anyone we come in contact with as we go about our day. We are praying that God will use us to touch the world around us.

Baked Item of the Day

Today we baked these Hershey Kiss Cookies:

More Crafts and Baking

Today G and I made these bookmarks for the special people in his life who love to read.

We also whipped up some Christmas fudge...mmm. Now the trick is to keep my fingers out of it so we'll have some to give away. :-)

First Purchase

G made his first purchase with his own money today. DH and I occasionally get Dove bars to eat after G goes to bed, and we're pretty stingy with them, so G decided he would buy his own. When we got to the store, we found that the Haagen-Dazs bars were on sale, so G got those instead. He was so excited to have his special treat tonight that he bought with his own money.
It turned out to be a nice simple math lesson as well. G took his $5 bill to the store, the bars were $3, and he got $2 back. We discussed that more on the way home.

Let the Christmas Baking Begin!

We kicked off the Christmas baking season with these gingerbread cookies. G had fun drizzling icing all over them and decorating them with sprinkles.
Here's the recipe we used for these. It was fun to see how the baking soda reacted with the molasses mixture!

Today's Craft...

Handprint and footprint reindeer craft!

Poinsettia Craft

Today we did this poinsettia craft using construction paper, glue and glitter glue. G loves crafts, and we haven't done many lately, so I thought this would be a great week to do a few.

How to Bake an Apple Pie and See the World

This week's Five in a Row book was How to Bake an Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman. It was a fun book about traveling to several different world locations to gather ingredients for baking an apple pie. Some of the activities we did to go along with the story were:

1. We looked at a book about Italy, introduced G to some of the major Italian landmarks, and found Italy on the world map.

2. We did the same for France and then built our own Eiffel towers out of popsicle sticks. Daddy was the perfect leader for this project!

3. We found Sri Lanka on the world map.

4. We looked at a book about Jamaica (paying special attention to pictures of sugar cane plants).

5. We found Vermont on the US map.

6. We read a great science book called How Do Apples Grow? by Betsy Maestro.

7. We did a science project: Evaporating the water out of salt water and finding out what was left (salt crystals). G even enjoyed a taste test.
8. We made an apple pie and discussed measurements and fractions as we prepared the pie for baking.

On to Christmas

And just that quickly, Thanksgiving is over and our thoughts go directly to Christmas. G drew this last night. It's one of his first drawings of a person who has a body and not just legs coming out of his head. :-) This is Santa on a sled full of gifts.

Thankful Tree

Here's this year's thankful tree. This year G is thankful for Dad, Me, Grandma, 1234 (numbers?), Uncle Erik, Grant, Plants, Mom, Grandpa, Vitamin D (he likes his new vitamins), God and Kiki (the cat).

Rocket Ship

We had to buy more paper cups because G has been using them like crazy for his creations. So here's his first creation with the new cups. :-)

7 Things Meme...

Ok, so what the heck is a meme? Since my friend, Kimberly at Altering Life tagged me, I'll give 'er a whirl:

7 Things I Can Do:

1) Knit & Crochet
2) A bit of Karate
3) Bake bread (I baked my first the other day)
4) Keep a reasonable workout schedule
5) Homeschool my boy
6) Continually learn
7) Play a bit of piano


7 Things I Can't Do

1) Spend money on myself.
2) Get pregnant.
3) Get by on 6 hours of sleep per night (like my husband does).
4) Pass up a piece of cake.
5) Remember to floss EVERY day.
6) Live without my computer.
7) Fake interest in electronics or computer programming (just ask DH).


7 Things that attracted me to my husband:

1) He was super cute!
2) He was smart.
3) He had nice muscular legs (I'm a leg girl).
4) He was funny.
5) He had pretty eyes.
6) He smelled good.
7) He was fun to talk to.


7 things I say most often:

1) C'mon (G likes to take his time when we're out and about).
2) You're so cute, I just want to eat ya!
3) I love you.
4) I'm SO cold!
5) Nice job!
6) How was your day?
7) What up, foo?


7 Celebrity Admirations:

1) Jenifer Aniston's hot bod
2) Madonna's hot bod
3) Kirk Cameron's bold stand for his faith
4) Britney's Smile
5) Ummmm...
6) This is a
7) hard one.


7 Favorite foods:

1) So you already know about my cake fetish.
2) Fettuccine Alfredo
3) Banana, peanut butter, tortilla wrap
4) Peanut butter captain crunch (which I almost never eat).
5) Grandma's strawberry jam
6) Pork chops
7) Steamed veggies


7 People to tag:

1) Uhhh...I don't really know very many people on here yet.

This Week's Theme: Cranberry Thanksgiving

Our Five in a Row book this week was Cranberry Thanksgiving by Harry Devlin. It was a fun holiday book with lots of great activities to go along. Some of the activities we did this week to go with the story were:

1) We tried fresh, whole cranberries and dried cranberries for a snack.

2) We talked about nicknames.

3) Our Bible verse for the week was "Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." 1 Samuel 16:7 It went perfectly with the way the grandmother in the story judges Mr. Whiskers by the way he looks.

4) One of the illustrations is done in silhouette, so we talked about what a silhouette is and made

our own silhouettes using a bright light and G's easel paper. We also took a photo using the

silhouette technique.

5) For science, we did a project to find out how an alkaline ingredient like baking soda would react with an acidic ingredient like yogurt, lemon juice or vinegar. We found that it makes bubbles of carbon dioxide, and that's what makes a cake rise when baking.

6) We made Grandmother's famous Cranberry Bread. The recipe was at the end of the book.

Bread

I just got done baking my first ever loaf of regular whole wheat bread! I've done tons of sweet breads before, but never regular bread. I am surprised and happy to announce that it worked!! The recipe said not to cut it until it cooled, but I could not resist. It's actually edible! Yay again! I do feel happy knowing what went into this bread. I have the peace of mind of knowing that it is healthy for us, and doesn't have any preservatives or high fructose corn syrup. Now comes the real test: seeing if my guys will eat it.

Footprint Turkey

I got this idea from http://www.childcareland.com/ . G had fun with it!

Mini Pumpkin Pies

I got this idea from a friend of mine. These are the perfect size for a little snack or for sending in my husband's lunch. I just used a store-bought pie crust, rolled it out a bit thinner than it already was, and used a glass to cut out circles that were about 3" in diameter. Then I lined the cups of my muffin pan with these pie crust circles and poured in my regular pumpkin pie filling. I baked them at 425 for about 10 minutes, then lowered the heat to 350 for about 15 minutes.

Piano

Today was the first day of the 2nd quarter of kindergarten. I decided to add piano to our studies and found this cute little book for children ages 2-6. It's for the absolute beginner and I expect G will get two things out of it:

1. He will have fun with it since he will be playing songs he knows within a short amount of time.

2. He will learn the letter names of the white piano keys.

He's excited about starting piano, and so far he loves his new book!

Lentil

This week's Five in a Row title was Lentil by Robert McCloskey. Since one of the characters in the book was Colonel Carter, we took the opportunity to talk a little bit about Veteran's Day. Some of the activities we did to go along with the book were:

1) Baking cookies for a US soldier currently serving in Iraq.

2) Writing a "Happy Veteran's Day" note to a friend of ours who is serving in the Army and has been deployed to Iraq twice.

3) Introduction to the Pledge of Allegiance.

4) Experimenting with the lip puckering power of a lemon.

5) We talked about musical instruments, counting quarter, half and whole notes, and practiced clapping in time to music. The new quarter starts next week, and we will start learning the piano, so these music activities were the perfect lead-in for that.

New Phonics Activity

G loves to write, but isn't so excited about phonics so yesterday it came to me to try having him write the words we're working on reading on his white board. It worked wonderfully. We did it until he was bored with it and we got an extra 15-20 minutes of phonics in. I'm hoping this will help solidify the concept we are currently working on, the silent e.

What is wrong with me that I didn't think of this before? I wonder how long it will last.

Happy Halloween

G had a blast wearing his costume all day long. In the morning, we went to story time at the library, then after lunch it was off to a homeschool group Halloween party, and of course there was the church carnival and a bit of trick-or-treating in the evening. A very full but very fun day!

Creativity Strikes Again

Last night G noticed that Daddy's watch was broken. The band had come off and all that was left was the face. Daddy had been carrying it around in his pocket so he could still tell the time even though he couldn't wear the watch. G decided he would fix daddy's watch. Using a paper cup, some scissors and some tape, G fashioned a new band for the watch. What a resourceful boy!

Halloween/Pumpkin Theme

This week we have been having fun with our Halloween/Pumpkin theme. We've been reading Pumpkin Jack by Will Hubbell, and doing some of the go-along activities we found at homeschoolshare.com . We've also been reading From Seed to Pumpkin by Wendy Pfeffer to learn more about the pumpkin life cycle.

Yesterday we did my favorite pumpkin activity and baked pumpkin pies!!!

Jack-O-Lantern Craft

Yesterday we made this paper strip Jack-O-Lantern using construction paper cut into strips, 2 brads, black construction paper to make the face, and glue. I got the idea from Art Projects for Kids.

My Little Pumpkin

We went to the pumpkin patch on Sunday and got a miniature pumpkin for today's project. We measured its height and circumference, we described the pumpkin, and G guessed how many seeds would be inside (20). Then we cut the pumpkin open and counted the seeds to see how many there actually were (299). Then G drew a picture of his pumpkin with the seeds inside.

Creative Free Time

G is a very creative guy. He gets that from his daddy. They are both on a never ending quest to figure out how to make things. Quite often during free time, G will wander around the house looking for things to use for his newest project. Yesterday the project that came to his mind was puppets. Now remember, he did this on his own with no help from me other than my approval of the materials he wanted to use. He used paper lunch bags, tape, markers, popcorn seeds and mini marshmallows (for the eyes, mouth and nose). Here's what he came up with:

Later in the evening, he used paper bags cut into strips and some tape to make himself into a helicopter. He taped the strips to his head for the blades, then he twist-jumped off the couch so his blades were spinning. LOL!

I Had to Laugh

Today G was playing a Jump Start learning computer game and he asked me if he should choose the 1st grade level.

"Why? Is the Kindergarten level too easy for you?", I asked.

"Well, yeah. It's kind of lame." was his answer.

I had to laugh.

Phonics Curriculum Review

Well, we've settled into a phonics routine and it is working very well. We've been using Explode the Code Online and Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading. We alternate back and forth for a bit of variety and also to spend extra time on harder concepts. I'm amazed at how well he's picking up on new lessons. We've recently learned the sounds for sh, ch, and th, and we'll be moving on to the silent e soon. I'm very happy with the progress we've made recently. I find him reading signs as we drive around town. It's a very exciting time!!

Another 100!

This time, it's sit ups. Daddy made a deal with G that when he can do 100 sit ups, he will earn $5. 10 sit ups and 10 push ups a day has been a part of our weekday routine for the past month or so. G started out not being able to do even one sit up by himself. Just a week or so ago, he was able to do 10 on his own, and by the end of last week he did 20. Today he told me he was going to do 100, and he blew me away when he actually DID IT! We were both so excited, and he got to call daddy on the phone to tell him the good news. It just goes to show that if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything. Haven't I heard that somewhere before? :-)

Love Note

G came out of his room the other day and gave us this note. I think it's about the sweetest thing I've ever seen! It says, "Dear Mom and Dad, I love you very much 100 times." Talk about melting my little heart. This is definitely one for the scrapbook.

Johann Sebastian Bach

This week we learned about Johann Sebastian Bach. We read a few children's books about him, listened to his music, and learned about sound and how we hear it. We talked about sound waves and vibrations and we enjoyed doing the projects we found in Sound and Light by David Glover. We also read Ears are for Hearing by Paul Showers and learned about the parts of our ears and how they work together to enable us to hear. Being the cat lover that G is, we went a step further and also found out that a cat's ears have the same parts and work in the same way as human ears, but cats are able to hear higher pitched sounds than humans or even dogs can.

Counting Machine

My little couldn't-care-less-about-counting man has officially hit another counting spurt. He did this once before when he was 2 and was counting everything in sight. He is a counting machine! Whether he's in bed, riding in the car or just wandering around the house, he's counting. Last week he had not yet counted to 100 on his own and this morning the first thing he wanted to do was show us how high he could count...223! It's so much fun to see these bursts of learning, and his excitement about it.

History is History

We are 5 weeks into our kindergarten year and I've decided to drop history from our schedule. We have been using History for Little Pilgrims, and it's okay, but not great. I don't think G is getting much out of it. I also have to remember that this IS kindergarten and a separate history course is not really necessary. He'll be getting some history here and there anyway with Bible and FIAR studies. History will be a major subject in grades 1-12 so it won't be missed this year.

Impromptu Math

G found the number magnets at Grandma and Grandpa's house and happily entertained himself making number sentences with them and then writing them down on paper. When he was finished building his number sentence, he wrote it down then put the numbers back and started again. I guess we need to get some number magnets for home. :-)

E-I-E-I-oh

I've read that this is common, and it certainly is around here, it's the mixing of the "E"s and "I"s. When we are reading, G often confuses the letter sounds for E and I. Even in writing, he has to confirm that the E is the one with the 3 horizontal lines coming out of the vertical line, and the I is the one with the two horizontal lines crossing the top and bottom of the vertical line. Practice and repetition will cement it all in, I'm sure, and the issue is already starting to clear up, but I just wanted to mention it so I can go back later and see how much progress we have made.

100!!!

I set up a reward (or bribe, whichever floats your boat) for G a couple of months ago; when he showed me that he could count to 100 without help, we would go out for ice cream. He was excited about the idea at first, but as time went on, he seemed not to care about our little deal. I was even thinking about taking that deal off the table and trying to come up with something a little more enticing. Lo and behold, last night I caught him practicing his counting in bed when he should have been going to sleep. I knew he'd be able to count to 100 soon, and today he did it! He's so excited that all his practicing has paid off, and I'm so proud of him. :-) It's Baskin Robbins for dessert tonight, baby!

Speaking of The Magic School Bus...

I found a site where you can watch Magic School Bus episodes online. I think we'll be getting some use out of this!

Sunday Morning Creativity

Yesterday morning G (being the Magic School Bus fan that he is) watched an episode of the show about spiders. Next thing you know, he's asking for yarn and a pair of scissors so he can make his own web. He covered the couch in "web", then made a bug out of a pipe cleaner and acted out the way a spider catches its food complete with tiny, high-pitched screams for "help, help" from the bug who was caught in the web, and the sounds of the spider sucking its blood. It was hilarious...and a fun way to learn about spiders! And the best part is that he came up with this idea on his own. :-)

The Museum of Flight

Today we visited the Museum of Flight and it was amazing! I'm so glad we did a little background reading beforehand. It was exciting to see G's face light up when our tour guide mentioned that the Wright brothers came up with the idea of "wing warping", since he had seen that on a video we had watched during the week.

It was so amazing to see how quickly airplanes evolved. They went from gliders to actual jet airplanes within 45 years! I got lots of pictures of the different airplanes they had on display:

This is Leonardo da Vinci's glider design:

Here's the Wright Glider:

And here's the Wright Flyer. They made the engine themselves at their bicycle shop since nobody would do it for them because it wasn't worth the time to make just one engine. Engine makers didn't anticipate the flyer being a success. The engine is off-center on the flyer so they made one end of the wings 2 feet longer than the other end to compensate for the extra weight of the engine.

This is the first Boeing passenger plane. It had seating for 18 and was the first to have the co-pilot feature. It also came complete with flight attendants.

They also had a section on space where we saw a command module,

a replica of the lunar rover,

and a replica of the inside of the space station. Oh, and we also saw a real moon rock!

Next, we got to board the Concorde and a retired Air Force One!

Last, and this was Daddy's favorite, the Harrier Jet:

We had such an awesome day! We'll definitely have to visit the Museum of Flight again someday!

Seeing Double

Ok, how often does THIS happen...seriously! Today must be my lucky day!

Health Website for Kids

I just found this site that has doctor-approved articles, animations, games, and resources to help kids learn more about their bodies and staying healthy. It looks really cool! http://kidshealth.org/kid/ I can't wait to play with it more when we do our All About Me unit in a couple of weeks.

The Glorious Flight

This week we are reading The Glorious Flight for our FIAR book. We are also reading about the Wright Brothers, Charles Lindbergh, and Amelia Earhart. All this learning about famous people in the world of flight is leading up to our trip to the museum of flight this weekend. I think G is going to LOVE it!

Fed Up with Verizon!

Ugh! Have I ever mentioned how frustrating it is to deal with Verizon Wireless' Customer Service? Let me just see if anyone here can understand this scenario: There was one account with 6 phones on it. We wanted to split it into 2 separate accounts; one with 4 phones on it, one with 2 phones on it. Still with me so far? In addition to THAT monstrous change, we wanted one account to keep its current mailing address and owner name. We wanted the other one to have a new owner name and have a different mailing address (essentially, we wanted to open a new account and transfer two of the six lines from the old account to the new one). If you are still with me, you are WAY too with it to work for Verizon's Customer Service, either their help line or at their store. Why is it that it took us 6 MONTHS to get it through to them what we wanted to do? I think we finally got it ironed out today, but we'll see. It's highly likely that we'll still be getting bills with someone else's name on them.

I hope it IS all sorted out because if it is, I NEVER want to have to talk to them again! It's THAT irritating and frustrating. The actual phone service is fine, the customer service is horrible!

James and the Giant Peach

We began doing read aloud books last year, I believe. We kicked it off with Charlotte's Web. Since then we have read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Chocolate Fever, The Chocolate Touch (do you see the theme here?), How to Eat Fried Worms (ok, end of theme), and Alice in Wonderland. We are now reading James and the Giant Peach, and G is LOVING it! It's so much fun to read to a child who bursts into laughter with each silly thing that is said. G is constantly begging for another chapter. He never wants to stop! It is so great!

Noah's Ark

We've been reading the story of Noah's Ark this week, and I thought it would be fun for G to paint a picture to go with the story. He loved the idea!There's a dove in the sky, then left to right we have a turtle, Noah, an alligator, a giraffe and an elephant.

What Do You Want For Breakfast?

That's what I asked G this morning, and his answer was a new one...and a yummy one! He suggested we go outside, pick some blackberries and make blackberry pancakes. I had never done this before, but it sounded good. So he went out and picked a few berries, and we made the pancakes. He really got into the chef's role, apron and all! We also took the opportunity to play with the measuring cups and get an introduction to fractions.