Dec 14,2015

Monday at the park/cafe/home
We did: spelling, cursive practice, math, nature study, P.E., memory work, social studies, music appreciation, history.
At the cafe we worked on memorizing parts for the creche liturgy this Sunday. The children all read scripture. The girls then wrote their spelling words as I dictated them and E wrote a spelling sentence. E did her copy work.
At the park by M's work there is a duck pond. We discovered that the ducks and coots like to eat acorns. We saw geese eating them recently so we decided to offer some to the coots and ducks. We found some that were soft enough to peel with our fingers after the recent rains. when we exhausted this supply we found a bunch more that were larger and difficult to open. We decided to try smashing them open with a rock and picking out the insides to throw to the birds. We also saw mourning doves who ate a few bits and a black bird who sang to us but wouldn't eat any acorn bits. There was also a great blue heron observing all from afar in the reeds on the other side of the pond. We talked a bit about how people prepare acorns for food and how much work it is. The girls drew four nature drawings each including coot feet, duck feet, coot beaks, coot heads and acorns.
After this they played on the playground including hill sledding on boxes with some boys who were there.
in the car we listened to classical music and to English history: Our Island Story.
We came home and C did Khan academy math working mostly on line segments and place value E did her math ordering 4 two digit numbers, writing number words 20-100 and addition with numbers 20-99. C and E practiced  violin. C did copy work. We read poetry by Walter de la Mare and Tennyson.

Outdoor School

After listening to Katy Bowmans' podcast about Outdoor School we've been trying to spend more time outside.
We collected wisteria "coins" palm bark, acorns and a broken bracelet among other treasures. The next day we discovered that the acorns had little grubs which crawled out and let us observe them. We climbed and did hanging at the playground, found a little time for some written work at the picnic tables, looked through our rock and shell collections, made music with sticks, collected some caterpillars and put them in a cup with some greens. (description not in order of photos)

Collage #2

E at science center building a bridge. The kids and friends at Griffith Park. E with binoculars trying to see a bird. C and E Cafe schooling before hitting the beach (below left). Examining a sign at science center. Tree climbing at the arroyo. C checking out a big piece of bark at Griffith Park.

School Collage #1

School Collages:
I want to start making photo collages of each school week. Here are some recent photos

First is Cl at the beach, next is a photo of pyracantha berries which caught Emily's eye on a walk, Next is Sage the turtle at Natural History Museum, below is the new willow house in the gardens at NHM, Cl is ironing fabric to sew a backpack on her machine, above and to the right is a photo Cl took of some tree fungus that has been popping up in our area , the tiny one is of Em in her new prayer corner and the other we saw on one of our beach field trips.

Week One 2015

We started a new school year Monday. C is in 4th grade and E  is in 2nd.
We are following the Ableside Online (Charlote Mason) Curriculum

We did the following during our first week:
Daily morning prayer and  Bible readings, we are learning a hymn which begins, "And now oh Father mindful of the love...
C did a bit of copywork, E worked on penmanship
Both Learned about pronouns, adjectives, and verbs using MCT Grammar. (Michael Clay Thompson from Royal Fireworks Press)
E did several pages of Explode the Code phonics book
E and I played phonemic awareness and sight word games.
C and E reviewed phonogram cards from Spell to Write and Read (SWR) (Almost daily)
C worked on multiplication facts 7-9
E worked on addition facts
Both learned the basics of using an a abacus from right start
They tidied up their room/work table
We read poetry by Walter de la Mare and Alfred, Lord Tennyson
We read two picture books in Spanish a few times throughout the week

C did some Khan academy math
We read the first two chapters of Understood Betsy
C worked on cursive writing
E read to me daily from. McGuffy primer
Both did a nature drawing from a piece of spruce E collected on a walk
Both did  spelling assessment and began working on a new spelling log for SWR
Both worked on memorizing I'm Nobody by Emily Dickinson
We did  vocab lesson from MCT and reviewed Latin roots
C began The Age of Fable AKA Bullfinches Mythology
We listened to the beginning of Pilgrims Progress
C read chapter one of Robinson Crusoe
We did a geography lesson on the use of the compass
We listened to several pieces by Brahms. C and E made up their own version of the ballet Giselle (which I videotaped) and danced to a Brahms concerto.
We listened to folk music and sang along to a new song, Little Bird
We read from Parables from Nature
 C. Began Madam How and Lady Why
They worked on finger crochet
We finished Viking Tales by Jennie Hall
We listened to several chapters of This Country of Ours by H.E. MRSHALL and several poems on the Garrison Keillor CD 2 dozen poems
We listened to Spanish Folksongs
We read about Charlemagne in Trial and Triumph
C read first 3 chapters of Minn of the Mississippi by Holling Clancy Holling
We did some math games

Reading Success

My six year old has been a very reluctant reader. She has wanted to avoid trying to read books in favor of reading a page or two from the McGuffey's Eclectic Primer or Reading Pathways. She has been slogging through Explode the Code  Phonics and learning the 70 phonograms from the Spell to Read and Write curriculum. We play all kinds of games in order to learn sight words: we break apart poems and put them back together, She get's to erase words off the white board as she reads them aloud. She catches a beach ball with sight words all around it and reads one each time she catches it etc.
Finally today she decided to read to me. She read several pages of Dr. Seuss' Ten Apples Up On Top and then all of Old Hat New Hat and a few pages of P.D. Eastman's Are You My Mother. Interspersed with this  I also read 6 books/stories to her. I think she was especially motivated since we got a box of books from a friend who is moving. Earlier today I put together a box of books that are fairly easy to read and left it in her room. At the time she was trying to read a Mo Willems book aloud to her dolls and asked me to help her. I am so glad she is taking an interest in reading.
Mental note to self: continue reading lots of fun books aloud.

February

End of January: We had some very casual homeschooling recently while relatives were visiting. The girls learned how to play checkers and chess, we took field trips to the gardens at Greystone Manor in Beverly Hills, the Griffith observatory, took a hike in Griffith Park, and spent time at the California Science center. We are in the process of doing two hands on science lessons on crystals, one from sugar and one from a kit CL got at the Science center from her grandparents. Cl also learned the basics of knitting. Em did reading each day either with Nanna or me and is improving a lot. She likes both the McGuffy primer and Reading Pathways

The past two days we got back into the swing of things. Monday Cl did Khan academy math, her Spanish CD, copy work, poetry reading, a biography about Shakespeare. Em did copywork reading from Reading Pathways, listened to poetry and biography of Shakespeare. we all read a chapter from Trial and Triumph about St. Athanasius, and one about woodpeckers and flickers from Burgess Bird Book.

Today was super productive. We did Hymns, Memory work, Math, Spanish )both video/songs and Cl's CD, CL was singing along with the Calico Spanish for the first time :) we did composer study: Mozart's Magic Flute, Cl did spelling sentences and words, altogether we read poetry, Aesop's fables, listened to a Parable From Nature and a story from 50 famous stories retold (Training and Restraining and Casabianca respectively.) We finished Paddle to the Sea read some A.A. Milne poetry and William Blake. Cl read a biography of Michelangelo to herself. E, did reading pathways,  singapore math and worked on counting by 2's 10's and 11's. We went on a fieldtrip to the Natural History museum and spent most of our time in the gardens. We had the pleasure of noticing a scientist (Jann) at work and she let us join her in searching for tiny snails. I was able to find half a dozen for her and she put them in specimen jars to identify in the lab she said next time we come she would show us around upstairs and we can take home some some snail shells. We also spent a little time in the nature Lab and Hall of Mammals and looked at the mystery items in the rotunda and collected some silk floss fibers.