Week Of March 26,2012: Weekly Wrap-Up

This week went by mighty fast! We had a very rainy week:( Of course that allowed for more school work to be done, and both of them took advantage of cozy indoor time using their time wisely and delved more into their interest.

Ken read about two and half chapters of Meet Marie Grace. Marie Grace is having a hard time adapting to life in New Orleans, and luckily Cecile is always right there at the right time to help. DJ read to chapter 5 in the Magic Treehouse series book The Hour of the Olympics. During his reading he learned about Plato, and Zeus. Also he has learned that once upon a time girls in Greece couldn't perform in plays. They also had lots of fun starting their own blogs, and pretending to be Greek Gods and Goddesses.

Diagramming sentences.

Matching sentences to pictures.

Mathematics is a area that they have been increasing their chose of works from. It is now becoming a habit for them to choose at least one math work daily. This has allowed me to offer more lessons, and they are understanding how repetition helps them to acquire skills .

The Geometric Command cards continue to get the most use.

DJ received his first lesson on the Multiplication Bead Layout.

Ken really dosen't need to use the Long Division with Racks and Tubes:) but she loves to use it.

Success with memorizing the Roman Numerals!!

Multiplying using the Small Bead Frame.

Solving multiplication equations without materials, still loves using the special paper.

After being introduced to the Multiplication Bead Layout DJ asked for me to return the Mulitplication Bead Board to the shelves. Now he does this work intensively, here my friends is an example of waiting and finding the right material . He wants to know his mulitplication facts a little better :)

DJ continues to want to learn more about frogs and to be honest my kids could enjoy school all week if those were the only kind of works avaliable to them.

The parts of the frog work, tracing the frog puzzle, Life Cycle of the Frog, and then coloring and labeling the picture.

DJ worked with some research cards from Montessori for Everyone and then listed the seven traits that animals have.

Endangered and Extinct animal research work.

Using a worm to make a microscope slide.


As always geography was definetly a part of their work week.

Africa Pin Map.

Europe Map Puzzle.

World Flag puzzle.

Practical Life activities played a major role in their week as well.

DJ finally got the tools he needed to continue building his 4 cylinder model engine.

Ken did lots of fun hairstyles practicing different techniques.

And life as it beautifully does happened. We had to spend about an hour and a half of our school time at the laundry mat. It was there first experience washing clothes at the laundry mat. Things we take for granted, like how to put quarters in the slot, adjusting levels for color or white,etc. Really I felt sad for waiting so late to expose them to this. After all if these two kiddos plan to attend college and live on campus this is a skill that they will definetly use.

To see how other homeschoolers spent their week learning pop over to Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. If you like to learn more about the Montessori Method, or too see other children learning inspired by Dr. Montessori please visit http://www.livingmontessorinow.com for Montessori Monday.

Ask A God

We have been having so much fun exploring Greek Mythology. It is spilling over into mealtime conversations. They are quickly learning who is God or Goddesses of what, and even developing their own myths.

 Here they are reading a mini booklet about the Gods and Goddesses that live in Mt. Olympus. After reading it they had to answer the questions that is in the photo below. Fun stuff!

They now give each other riddles to solve to see who can figure out which God or Goddesses they are talking about.

      DJ's  imitation of Atlas.                                                                     

Daily Report:Cosmetologyl( Advanced Practical Life)

Ken has always been into fashion. Her very own kind of fashion!! No brand name labels, she really wants to make her own product line, and she knows exactly what kind of hairstyle should go with it. Since a toddler she has been caught in my very few colors of nail polishes. Make up is something she likes to explore, this didn't come from me. At most I wear eyeliner, and lipstick(my choice of color has been the same for about ten years now). I have found outlets for both of my girls like teaching about skincare, and the usual talk "You are beautiful and you don't need any make up, you are too YOUNG". However Ken came up with another creative way and this is what she said, "Can I practice on a mannequin, I can then practice make up techniques, and also I can save money for more fabric..." I have to be honest I was smitten when she used the word technique, now were going somewhere. We went into the Beauty Supply store with just $10.00. Not much money, but a great start for eleven year old who just might change her career path(lol). Ken purchased a bag of really cheap weaving hair, hair glue, and a styrofoam dummy. Ken really caught me by surprise with her high level of concentrationl, I have to admit this may be her passion!!

 Applying the hair to the stocking cap using hair glue.

 Look!! You even need to know math to be a hairstylist. Her idea not mine:)

                            A closer look.

Turns out Ken needed to have purchased two bags of hair to complete one hairstyle. Here is Kens' story problem of the day; How many inches of hair or feet of hair does it take to do this hairstyle? Trust me she is meauring right now, because she wants to go get more hair!!  Nothing like going to the beauty shop and the stylist has ran out of supplies.                                                      

Daily Report: Multiplication Bead Layout

In order to save time posting during the week I will just highlight one of the kid's activities. It still helps me to keep documentation of their progress. Also I love doing the Weekly Wrap-Ups on Fiday when I post all of the other things that they did. Most of the works that they complete are repetitive, so there is no need to record those activities daily.

DJ loved this lesson and I was happy that he quickly figured out the pattern:)                                                                            

Week of March 19, 2012: Weekly Wrap-Up

It has been another awesome homeschooling week! The weather has been challenging our committment levels:) It is so hard to stay inside while looking outside and seeing such beautiful weather. I do have a plan if we are blessed again with another beautiful week. We are taking our materials outside, and we may begin our butterfly garden! That way we can still carry on and not try to rush through our work so we can get outside.

Language

DJ finished reading the Magic Treehouse series book Vacation under the Volcanoe. This book was packed with information about Rome and it was just amazing how Mary Pope Osborne introduced the story of Hercules to her young readers. Next up on his reading list is another Magic Treehouse book Hour of the Olympics and a non fiction companion book Ancient Rome and Pompeii. Ken read up to chapter 3 in Meet Marie Grace. Marie Grace is really surprised to see so many gen de couleur libres(free color people) in New Orleans. She is so thrilled that they have so many more luxuries than other colored people in the other states she has lived in. Marie Grace lost her mother and her father is a traveling doctor who helps anyone who is sick. It dosen't matter if they have any money and it dosen't matter what race they are. Finally Marie Grace and her father are going to stay in New Orleans for some time so now she is able to make friends. In chapter two she met her first friend of color Cecile. Again the kids reading book choices are really interesting and based on true historical events.

Here are other language activities that they completed independently.

Putting words in abc order.

Labeling geometric shapes.

Learning braille.

Labeling the leave shapes in the Botany Cabinet.

Sentence order work.

Diagramming sentences.

Defining parts of speech. I am pleased to announce that both of them are ready for Advanced Grammar lessons. They have mastered the parts of speech shown in the above picture.

Mathematics

Counting by hundreds with Roman Numerals.

Multiplication work with the Small Bead Frame.

Static Division with the Stamp Game.

Division with the racks and tubes.

Geography/History

Building the White House using legos.

Learning the names of countries in Europe.

Getting to know the Greek Gods and Goddesses.

Reading the Constitution. .

Sorting Endangered Animals by continents.

Learned how to use a Star Map.

Working with landform models.

Sciences

Experimenting with light to find out why we can only see stars at night.

In Zoology DJ learned the Lifecycle of the frog, the differences between frogs and toads, names of frogs and toads, and observed a frog.

DJ spent most of his time this week trying to put together a model of a 4 cylinder engine. Unfortunately he had to stop working on this because we need to get a different tool.

Ken was able to put both the brain and the skull together.

Outside Fun

We visited a local pond and they had fun catching fish in their nets.

To see more Weekly Wrap-Ups visit http://www.weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com and to see children doing activities inspired by the Montessori Method please visit http://www.livingmontessorinow.com