Hello all. Thought I would share our Make Way for Ducklings lapbook we've made. Hannah's teacher read this to them a few weeks ago on her online class and we decided to have fun with it and make a lapbook. Hannah and I had alot of fun making it and we learned alot of things about ducks.
I used alot of pages from First-School.ws ( the duck we put together, My first letter D book, and the duck in their colors section
The small letter D book was from Kidzone
Our Map of Boston for Make Way for Ducklings was from the duck section on Homeschoolhelperonline.com along with the duck facts layer book we made
We printed the state of Massachusettes from Enchanted Learning
I was also able to Google our little yellow ducks for our number book
The smallest and largest objects were from tslbooks.com/preschool ( Preschool Concepts )
The little yellow ducks I printed out for our number book was from Kindergarden-lessons.com/ten_little_rubber_ducks.html
I also printed out the Five Little Ducks song from Kiddles.com
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Friday, September 19, 2008
Agora / Pacyber Back to School Kick off Week
Thought I would just take a moment and share some of our pictures of this week for our Back to School Kick off. Since we are with two different cybers we had double the fun.
Our first Back to School Kick off was with Agora cyberschool, which is our K12 school and the other was with Pacyber , they use Calvert and their own curriculum( we started with these guys before Agora came into existence.
Well with further adue here are some great shots I got of the girls having lots of fun.
Our first Back to School Kick off was with Agora cyberschool, which is our K12 school and the other was with Pacyber , they use Calvert and their own curriculum( we started with these guys before Agora came into existence.
Well with further adue here are some great shots I got of the girls having lots of fun.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Getting the hang of it all
Well this is day 10 and I believe we are starting to get somewhat of a groove. I'll admit that school is taking a bit longer to do then I'd like. But we are just going with the flow and it doesn't seem to be bothering the girls at all.
Hannah amazed me today by doing ALOT of school work. I've been noticing that I'm getting less of the " Oh no mom I don't want to do that." And she is becoming more cooperative with it. I can say that the K12 kindergarden has lots of coloring in it. Thank goodness my girls love to color. They could color all day and it wouldn't bother them. Hannah was able to do her math ( and she did two math lessons today) and she did her phonice lesson and her language arts which was making a Blue Color Book. Then on top of it all she finished her monthly homework assignments that are going to go to her teacher. The neat part is that Hannah will be getting to meet her Kindergarden teacher tomorrow at Barnes and Nobel. She will be taking a quick test called the Aimsweb test. I'm not sure other the its to help them personalize their curriculum for them. I think Hannah will do just fine. Then after that we'll go out to lunch and then go to Presque Isle for our Agora Back to School Kick Off. The girls will really enjoy that.
Thursday we are going to go to Asbury Woods for our Pacyber Back to School Kick Off Picnic. So we have a busy week ahead of us. That doesn't count in Girl Scouts this week and Awana on Wed. Phew! Just typing it all out makes me tired.
But the greatest thing is about it all is that we love it. I couldn't imagine life any other way.
Hannah amazed me today by doing ALOT of school work. I've been noticing that I'm getting less of the " Oh no mom I don't want to do that." And she is becoming more cooperative with it. I can say that the K12 kindergarden has lots of coloring in it. Thank goodness my girls love to color. They could color all day and it wouldn't bother them. Hannah was able to do her math ( and she did two math lessons today) and she did her phonice lesson and her language arts which was making a Blue Color Book. Then on top of it all she finished her monthly homework assignments that are going to go to her teacher. The neat part is that Hannah will be getting to meet her Kindergarden teacher tomorrow at Barnes and Nobel. She will be taking a quick test called the Aimsweb test. I'm not sure other the its to help them personalize their curriculum for them. I think Hannah will do just fine. Then after that we'll go out to lunch and then go to Presque Isle for our Agora Back to School Kick Off. The girls will really enjoy that.
Thursday we are going to go to Asbury Woods for our Pacyber Back to School Kick Off Picnic. So we have a busy week ahead of us. That doesn't count in Girl Scouts this week and Awana on Wed. Phew! Just typing it all out makes me tired.
But the greatest thing is about it all is that we love it. I couldn't imagine life any other way.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Lots and lots of boxes !
Okay.When we signed up for K12 we didn't realize how many boxes we were going to get. All I can say is Wow! We have boxes for each subject.
K12 seems to be having shipping problems this year so we are getting tons of bigger boxes and our UPS guy I think thinks we're crazy.
Not to mention the boxes sent from Pacyber with books for Marilyn. We are just up to our eyeballs in boxes.
I will have to admit that I love the K12 curriculum. I've used lots of curriculum in the pass and they've either been so so , or they've been pretty great. But honestly you can't beat K12. You have everything you need right at your disposal. The online school is so nicely organized and I feel like I can confidently teach Hannah and teach her well. Its taken her some time to learn in this new way. But she really likes it.
I think their phonics program is excellent. Hannah is doing pretty well with it. I'm using the program as is so we'll see what the outcome will be. Of course I don't do everything verbatium. But we do the exercises in the teacher's manual. We've been schooling for two weeks now and I can see Hannah learning alot already. She loves her History and is learning her 7 continents. We have a really nice cloth map of the world that I have hung up in the living room. We turn on the Continents song and we sing and point to the contients. Maggie likes to dance to it! Silly girl. Hannah is doing well with Math. Though some concepts she knew not that long ago she has forgotten. Like her shapes . But she has learned left and right really quickly and top and bottom and before , between and after really quickly. Hannah likes science too because some of the lessons have cute little interactive games she can play that go along with the lesson. So she likes that alot too. She likes to sit and listen to the stories for language arts too and doing the activities.
I try hard not to do everything. I pick and chose but there is just so much neat stuff on there that's for sure. I think our least favorite is Music. The songs on the Let's Sing CD are a bit dorky at best. My girls begged me to shut it off. But they do like the Let's Listen CD because its classical music. I do like Art but I think its a bit over Hannah's head. I guess exposure is the key. So its really alright. I do like it though. All in all we're doing great with the Agora cyberschool. Hannah has gotten to talk to her teacher and this Tuesday she will get to meet her in Erie for some type of testing of some sort. Then we'll see her again at Presque Isle( the beach) for our Back to School fair.
Pacyber has been alright. We're having some bumps in the road right now and I'm hoping we can smooth them out. I've been smitten with the K12 curriculum so of course what we are using right now isn't comparable to that. I feel like I've jipped my girls out of an education. I can't tell you Calvert is no where near enjoyable as K12. I feel like I wished I had tried it out years ago. But that's in the past and this is the future.
Marilyn is taking online classes for Math , History and English and they are alright I guess. She isn't thrilled with it. We're doing science ourselves and its very confusing. So far I don't care for the Lincoln Interactive curriculum. I had read many rave reviews on it and I'm just not seeing what everyone else is seeing. But maybe I will the more I figure it out and the more I get into it.
Katie is Katie. She's the one who I feel I need to spend more time with , and I'm hoping to get a schedule better so I can be right there with her. I'm thinking of having her do her work in the morning and just working with Hannah in the afternoon. But then school will take all day and that isn't the goal I'm looking for either.
The one thing I need to know is that the first month of school is just going to be rough as we figure out everything. So all of those out there just starting school up with their own children. Take a deep breath with me and breath out! Phew.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Island of the Blue Dolphins
I'll have to admit I love to read outloud to my daughters. Of course I always encourage them to read books on their own but reading them out loud seems to make them come alive for some reason. Marilyn is an auditory learner so she does better retaining the information hearing it then she does reading it and Katie is the total opposite. But they both love to listen to the stories.
At the end of the Calvert 4th grade the student is to read " The Island of the Blue Dolphins". I'll admit I had heard of the story but never read it growing up. Public schools never did focus on good literature when I was growing up. I can definitley say we enjoyed the story quite a bit. It did have a little bit of a slow start and I'll admit the story was at times lonely and sad but we really enjoyed how the author described the braveness of this young girl that had been through such a tough ordeal.
I'll give a brief description of the story. Well as brief as one can be.
The story begins on an island called Ghalas-at. An Indian trible happily lives on the island and never cares for the spring as the Russians and Aleuts come to the island to hunt the otter. The tribe had poor experiences with these two groups of people but they allow them to come on the island and hunt their otter. Chief Chowig the chief of the tribe speaks with these people and they promise to pay the tribe for allowing them to hunt , which turned into a big lie. This big lie caused a fight between the tribe and the Russians and Aleuts with the Russian and Aleuts killing most of the tribes warriors and the chief himself. The chief had three children , Ulape the oldest daughter, Karana who at the time was 12 and their 6yr old brother Ramo. Another man in the tribe takes over as chief and goes out to set to relocate the tribe else where. As the tribe waits to hear from their chief who promises to have white men come back to get them they prepare to leave the island. Finally they do come back to get them and Karana finds that her brother wants to go back to get his spear. She tells him no and they go off onto the boat. As Karana is on the boat and the storm in the sea begins she finds that her brother is indeed not on the boat. She calls out to him and screams to the captain but they tell her they cannot turn back. So Karana jumps into the water to swim back to her brother all the while having faith that these people would come back to get them the following spring. Karana and Ramo set up camp and gather food and make a place to stay when a few days later Karana cannot find Ramo. Knowing that there are wild dogs on the island she goes looking for her brother to find out that he was killed by them. Full of hate and vegenance Karana plans to get back at the wild dogs by killing them all in revenge. First Karana needs to make weapons and this is not something she is skilled in because it was something that was forbidden in her tribe. Karana learns to over come this law and learns that what was told to her as a young girl was not true. After making the weapons she seeks out to kill the wild dogs and goes after the leader of the pack. Karana spears the leader but goes back feeling sorry for the animal she hurt Seeing him half dead Karana brings him back to her 'home' and nurses him back to health. After the dog regains his health he learns to trust her and the two become friends. Karana makes many other animal friends while she stayed on the island and had many adventures as well.
Finally one day , eighteen years later to be exact, the white men finally come to the island and Karana is finally saved and brought over to the Americas.
Of course even though I just told you what the book was mainly about you still need to read it for yourself because there is alot more to it then what I described. It definitley was a good book. It did have a few slow points where you just wished someone would just save the poor girl. There were times you could feel her loneliness and this definitley had sad points. Karana loses her dad in the beginning , then her brother Ramo and later on in the end to find out Ulape and the rest of her tribe had drowned in a shipwreck before they made it to the mainland. The book is historical fiction so there are alot of true historical facts about "Karana" and her island. Of course the author had to use alot of his imagination to fill in all the facts that people didnot know about this Lost Girl of San Nicolas ( the true name of the island today). Most of what was known of "Karana" was few and far between because when she did make it to the U.S. there was no one able to interpret for her because no one knew her langauge. Most of what was told was by her through signs she made to communicate with the Americans at that time in the late 1800's. Some people come to think that the girl was older then 12 and was 20 and the young boy wasn't her brother but her son. Of course its all hearsay as we will never know this young girl's true story. The author though did a great job making this a story about a young girl who was brave , courageous and resourceful that learned to have a love of animals that she never had before. Its a definite must read for those who have children in at least 3rd grade and higher.
I was also able to find a great Reading Guide from Scholastic for Island of the Blue dolphins :
www.scholastic.com/homework/pdfs/Island_of_the_Blue_Dolphins.pdf
At the end of the Calvert 4th grade the student is to read " The Island of the Blue Dolphins". I'll admit I had heard of the story but never read it growing up. Public schools never did focus on good literature when I was growing up. I can definitley say we enjoyed the story quite a bit. It did have a little bit of a slow start and I'll admit the story was at times lonely and sad but we really enjoyed how the author described the braveness of this young girl that had been through such a tough ordeal.
I'll give a brief description of the story. Well as brief as one can be.
The story begins on an island called Ghalas-at. An Indian trible happily lives on the island and never cares for the spring as the Russians and Aleuts come to the island to hunt the otter. The tribe had poor experiences with these two groups of people but they allow them to come on the island and hunt their otter. Chief Chowig the chief of the tribe speaks with these people and they promise to pay the tribe for allowing them to hunt , which turned into a big lie. This big lie caused a fight between the tribe and the Russians and Aleuts with the Russian and Aleuts killing most of the tribes warriors and the chief himself. The chief had three children , Ulape the oldest daughter, Karana who at the time was 12 and their 6yr old brother Ramo. Another man in the tribe takes over as chief and goes out to set to relocate the tribe else where. As the tribe waits to hear from their chief who promises to have white men come back to get them they prepare to leave the island. Finally they do come back to get them and Karana finds that her brother wants to go back to get his spear. She tells him no and they go off onto the boat. As Karana is on the boat and the storm in the sea begins she finds that her brother is indeed not on the boat. She calls out to him and screams to the captain but they tell her they cannot turn back. So Karana jumps into the water to swim back to her brother all the while having faith that these people would come back to get them the following spring. Karana and Ramo set up camp and gather food and make a place to stay when a few days later Karana cannot find Ramo. Knowing that there are wild dogs on the island she goes looking for her brother to find out that he was killed by them. Full of hate and vegenance Karana plans to get back at the wild dogs by killing them all in revenge. First Karana needs to make weapons and this is not something she is skilled in because it was something that was forbidden in her tribe. Karana learns to over come this law and learns that what was told to her as a young girl was not true. After making the weapons she seeks out to kill the wild dogs and goes after the leader of the pack. Karana spears the leader but goes back feeling sorry for the animal she hurt Seeing him half dead Karana brings him back to her 'home' and nurses him back to health. After the dog regains his health he learns to trust her and the two become friends. Karana makes many other animal friends while she stayed on the island and had many adventures as well.
Finally one day , eighteen years later to be exact, the white men finally come to the island and Karana is finally saved and brought over to the Americas.
Of course even though I just told you what the book was mainly about you still need to read it for yourself because there is alot more to it then what I described. It definitley was a good book. It did have a few slow points where you just wished someone would just save the poor girl. There were times you could feel her loneliness and this definitley had sad points. Karana loses her dad in the beginning , then her brother Ramo and later on in the end to find out Ulape and the rest of her tribe had drowned in a shipwreck before they made it to the mainland. The book is historical fiction so there are alot of true historical facts about "Karana" and her island. Of course the author had to use alot of his imagination to fill in all the facts that people didnot know about this Lost Girl of San Nicolas ( the true name of the island today). Most of what was known of "Karana" was few and far between because when she did make it to the U.S. there was no one able to interpret for her because no one knew her langauge. Most of what was told was by her through signs she made to communicate with the Americans at that time in the late 1800's. Some people come to think that the girl was older then 12 and was 20 and the young boy wasn't her brother but her son. Of course its all hearsay as we will never know this young girl's true story. The author though did a great job making this a story about a young girl who was brave , courageous and resourceful that learned to have a love of animals that she never had before. Its a definite must read for those who have children in at least 3rd grade and higher.
I was also able to find a great Reading Guide from Scholastic for Island of the Blue dolphins :
www.scholastic.com/homework/pdfs/Island_of_the_Blue_Dolphins.pdf
Thursday, August 7, 2008
The Oil City and Titusville Railroad
This post is coming a little late because we've been busy with Girl Scout Camp and finishing up Vacation Bible School this week.
But last Sunday we went to the Oil City and Titusville Railroad with the kids. Kora and Collin are up for the summer so we thought we'd take them out and do something fun since we really haven't done much this summer due to gas prices.
We all had a super time and I made a cute slide show of our trip. The weather was perfect and the kids all had a great time. It made for a nice day and they learned something along the way.
Titusville is the birth place of the oil industry. Edwin L.Drake was the first to drill for oil here in Titusville, PA before anyone else did in the world. The area is rich in history of the boom towns that settled while everyone was looking to get rich at the time by drilling for oil and natural gas. If your ever out this way in Northwest , Pa its worth the trip as you take a ride on a vintage train through Titusville and Oily City. Seeing old sites that have been left untouched throughout the century.
But last Sunday we went to the Oil City and Titusville Railroad with the kids. Kora and Collin are up for the summer so we thought we'd take them out and do something fun since we really haven't done much this summer due to gas prices.
We all had a super time and I made a cute slide show of our trip. The weather was perfect and the kids all had a great time. It made for a nice day and they learned something along the way.
Titusville is the birth place of the oil industry. Edwin L.Drake was the first to drill for oil here in Titusville, PA before anyone else did in the world. The area is rich in history of the boom towns that settled while everyone was looking to get rich at the time by drilling for oil and natural gas. If your ever out this way in Northwest , Pa its worth the trip as you take a ride on a vintage train through Titusville and Oily City. Seeing old sites that have been left untouched throughout the century.
Friday, August 1, 2008
Its beginning to feel alot like the beginning of a new school year
Well everyone. Its that time of year when the UPS (Santa Claus of school) visits our house with huge boxes of wonderfully new school books.
Marilyn and Katie have been recieving their school books on and off this week. First off with Marilyn , who recieved all of her new 5th grade books. They all look great and I'm hoping that we will be able to enjoy history as much as we did this year in 4th grade using Children's History of the World. Marilyn is also beginning in Pre-Algebra as well. She doesn't quite know that yet , but it will be virtual class thank goodness because I know my math abilities have been waivering a bit the higher up in math she gets. They also recieved their Discoveries in Reading boxes and they love the stories in this series. Always great books to read and it makes a great summer reading program. They are reading their books as I type.
Katie recieved her Discoveries in Reading yesterday too and should be getting her 4th grade stuff really soon. I decided to give another cyberschool a try with Hannah for kindergarden. I signed her up with Agora which is a K12 cyberschool. I thought we'd give it a try and use something different. So we'll see how that goes. It took me quite a while to decide if I was going to do my own thing or use a cyberschool for Hannah for Kindergarden. The thing I know is that if it doesn't work then I'll just send everything back. But I think that Agora will be a good fit for Hannah. So we're just waiting for Hannah's stuff too.
I am looking forward to a new school year. Of course I have my other things that I plan on using with Marilyn and Katie , such as our Writing Tales and our Latina course which we need to get cracking on that again so we can start into Latina Christiana 1. The girls really love learning a new language. Even Hannah and Maggie love their Song School Latin songs.
I don't have any pictures with this blog today because our other computer started smoking so we're waiting on a new one and I have to hook up our thingy we use to get our pictures into the computer because our USB cable doesn't work on our camera anymore and we can't buy a replacement one for it.
The girls will be going to Girl Scout camp this MOnday and they always enjoy going every year. I'm not sure what to do at this point about what group they will join. Ever since our original group leader left we can't seem to find a good group anymore. We can't seem to find a group that balances learning to earn badges with field trips. Either a group does one or the other but there isn't one yet that I've found so far that can do both, and it is possible because our orginial leader did a great job at balancing both. So we'll see.
Marilyn and Katie have been recieving their school books on and off this week. First off with Marilyn , who recieved all of her new 5th grade books. They all look great and I'm hoping that we will be able to enjoy history as much as we did this year in 4th grade using Children's History of the World. Marilyn is also beginning in Pre-Algebra as well. She doesn't quite know that yet , but it will be virtual class thank goodness because I know my math abilities have been waivering a bit the higher up in math she gets. They also recieved their Discoveries in Reading boxes and they love the stories in this series. Always great books to read and it makes a great summer reading program. They are reading their books as I type.
Katie recieved her Discoveries in Reading yesterday too and should be getting her 4th grade stuff really soon. I decided to give another cyberschool a try with Hannah for kindergarden. I signed her up with Agora which is a K12 cyberschool. I thought we'd give it a try and use something different. So we'll see how that goes. It took me quite a while to decide if I was going to do my own thing or use a cyberschool for Hannah for Kindergarden. The thing I know is that if it doesn't work then I'll just send everything back. But I think that Agora will be a good fit for Hannah. So we're just waiting for Hannah's stuff too.
I am looking forward to a new school year. Of course I have my other things that I plan on using with Marilyn and Katie , such as our Writing Tales and our Latina course which we need to get cracking on that again so we can start into Latina Christiana 1. The girls really love learning a new language. Even Hannah and Maggie love their Song School Latin songs.
I don't have any pictures with this blog today because our other computer started smoking so we're waiting on a new one and I have to hook up our thingy we use to get our pictures into the computer because our USB cable doesn't work on our camera anymore and we can't buy a replacement one for it.
The girls will be going to Girl Scout camp this MOnday and they always enjoy going every year. I'm not sure what to do at this point about what group they will join. Ever since our original group leader left we can't seem to find a good group anymore. We can't seem to find a group that balances learning to earn badges with field trips. Either a group does one or the other but there isn't one yet that I've found so far that can do both, and it is possible because our orginial leader did a great job at balancing both. So we'll see.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)