Tuesday, February 17: 137/180

MAHC classes were cancelled due to a snowstorm. Robin worked with Life of Fred, Handwriting Without Tears, and Explode the Code. He read a Bob Book. I read to him: Trout Are Made of Trees by April Pulley Sayre


Merry Christmas, Harry: Story and Pictures by Mary Chalmers


Robin exercised.

Friday

Robin worked with Saxon Math 1 today.

He did a word worksheet.  I read to him.

Including a book about how your heart works.

Robin took a bike ride.

Climbing

We began our math year by having Robin take the first couple of 'assessments' in Saxon Math 1.  I love that they have the assessment lessons so I can figure out where we need to start working through the book this year.

I read comic books and other books to Robin.  He is working on alphabet recognition and sounds and also on some short-a sound, three-letter word flashcards.

We read a book about Abraham Lincoln.

Robin went swimming.  He also climbed around the Walnut Lane Bridge, after hiking there (with bare feet!)

Progress on Counting

Robin is making good progress with counting.  Reciting numbers isn't automatic for him, but he's now able to count pretty solidly to 100 with minimal prompting.  He's also getting the hang of counting by 10s - we are using a number chart and cuisinaire rods, which seem to be working well for him.

Robin did some drawing.

Robin read to me and I read to him.  

We went to Oxon Hill Farm with our homeschooling group this week and took a tour with  one of the Rangers there.  It focused on the dynamics of slave-holders and slaves at the time the house there was built, and on the Underground Railroad as it passed by the house.  

Robin walked and biked this week.

Robin went camping last week and learned about camping safety including fire building and safe fire tending.  We also read a book about camping safety.

Counting by 5s

The topic of counting by 5s has come up recently for Robin in Saxon Math K.  This has been quite challenging for him.  He needs a lot of repetition to learn things like this.  At the same time he has excellent pattern recognition skills.  We're supposed to use nickels, but it was just confusing him terribly.  So I got out the hundred number chart and showed him how to put a nickel on each multiple of 5.  He understood how to do that immediately, and once he got that he had no problem figuring out how many nickels it takes, for example, to make 35 cents.

I read to Robin and he read to me.

Including a bi-lingual retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk.

And a book about a boy who assisted the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk.

Robin jumped on a trampoline, walked, biked, played kick-ball, used a batting cage, and played miniature golf (Happy Birthday, Patrick!)

We read a book about rainforests and one about animals fighting.

Metal Detector

Robin found a magnifying glass/metal detector kit at the thrift store for 90 cents.  We weren't sure it would work but he put it together with some help from his dad and lo and behold it works quite well!  We read books about meadowlands, lions, tigers and sharks.  We looked up ligers and tigons.  We also had a discussion about sextuplets (Robin's sister is very interested in multiple babies).  

Robin continues to work with Saxon Math K.  This week's topics included tangrams, and we worked on counting a lot.

We read a book about markets around the world.

We read a book about the Great Depression.

Robin walked, roller bladed, and biked.

Magnetism

Robin got really into an experiment we did with magnetism:

The paperclip is defying gravity (well, sort of)!  We also visited the Battle Creek Cypress Swamp in Calvert County with our homeschooling group.  And read a book about owls.

We celebrated Pi Day on 3/14.  Robin worked on Saxon Math K.

I read to Robin and he read to me!  This is still so exciting.  We 'catch' him reading things occasionally, too, although he claims he is just 'guessing'.

We read a book about the Underground Railroad.

Robin and his brother had quite a jam session with a drum and the piano.

Robin walked and rode his bike.

Marble Run

This morning, after arriving at our house at 6:30 in the morning from our 2 week trip to Texas (we drove at night) Robin and his brother were inspired by an episode of Curious George to take our recycling and some tape and design a marble run.  I am especially impressed because they did it ALL by themselves, while I was unpacking and decompressing from the 36 hours in the car.  (Excuse the lousy photo - I forgot the camera was on manual!)  Robin did several puzzles, including one up to 550 pieces.

We spent the last two weeks on vacation, driving to Texas (through Virginia, Tennessee, & Arkansas) and visiting family in Austin and Roby.  Robin was quite interested in mapping our trip.

He learned about the history of Lady Bird Lake in Austin, TX.

Robin walked a lot, including in neighborhoods and along Lady Bird Lake.  He also did a lot of bouncing on giant trampolines (trust me, this is a major workout.)  He used his grandparent's apartment building's exercise room, too.

We visited the Texas Memorial Museum, a Natural Science museum including fossils and minerals from Texas (and dinosaur footprints!)  Robin also went to the Zilker Botanical Gardens in Austin.

Reading!

Robin read his first book this week!  He's been doing pretty well with short-vowel sound flashcards so I got several level 1 easy readers out and we started with this one.  He's very proud of himself.  I'm proud of him, too!  He needs a bit of help sounding things out, of course, but this is the first step (yes!)

I read to him, too.

The math lessons this week involved learning to play War, which I'm pretty sure he already knew.  And we worked on counting and I think he's ironed out his avoidance of 15 and his uncertainty about transitions from 20s to 30, 30s to 40 etc.  We read a book about shapes and opposites.

Robin drew a birthday card for his uncle.

We read a book in Spanish.

Robin did some exercising.  We read a book about running.

We read books about sharks, animals, pumpkins, and bugs.

Gym Fun!

We visited a homeschool play-group at a rec center gym in Philadelphia this week.  Robin loved it!  They had these scooter-like things with a flat plastic seat, three wheels, and a handle-bar in front of the seat.  You sit on the seat, put your feet on the handle-bar, and hold the ends.  When you wiggle the handle-bar side-to-side, you move forward.  If anybody knows what they are called, tell me!  We also visited a homeschool coop, which Robin was a lot less enthusiastic about.

We read a book about peace illustrated entirely with quilts which he found very interesting.

Robin's Saxon K math this week included making various different types of patterns and practicing with word problems.

I read to Robin.

Graphing

Robin took one of the 'assessments' in Saxon Math K today.  It was to sort and then graph pattern blocks.  I was quite impressed by the ease with which he did this.  He wouldn't have known how before, but he sure does now!

I read to Robin and he continued to work on learning short-vowel words.

We read a book about Buster (from the TV show Arthur) visiting Chicago.

A book about being sick and how to get better.

And books about the stone age and a woman pirate from the 17th century British Isles.  He also watched some of a documentary on WWII.

Robin did lots of walking, jogging, scootering, and strength training.

We read parts of a book about how things work.

Pattern blocks

One of Robin's Saxon Math K lessons this week involved replicating a pattern with pattern blocks, and then creating a different pattern within the same outline.  Robin loved this, and when he was done, he took the pattern blocks and created a design using every pattern block available.  He chose to do it symmetrically, although he knew he didn't have to.

I read to Robin and he practiced vowel-sound words.

We went to a buffet chinese restaurant for lunch with our homeschooling group in honor of Chinese New Year.  Robin also attended an RE class about this holiday.

Robin went swimming and roller-blading.

We read a book about bugs.

Skiing!

Robin has been asking for at least two years to go skiiing - and this week he got his wish!  We went to Whitetail Resort and Robin skiied for 4 hours without stopping.  He fell down a lot at first, but after trying a slightly more challenging hill he got more confident on the bunny slope.  He had a great time.

Recent Saxon Math K topics have included ordering numbers through 20 and replicating patterns.

We found a vowel-sounds app for the iPod which Robin has completed all the free levels of and he's trying to get me to buy the $2.99 version.  I read to Robin regularly.

We read books about Hanukkah, Passover, Easter, narrow gauge railroads in the Rockies, and a bilingual Spanish/English book.

We read a book about the supermarket.

We read books about a Cuban girl who immigrated to New York in the 1950s and one about the building of the Great Wall of China.

We read books about winter and cells.

Reading Words

Opening presents Christmas morning!

I asked Robin to try reading some very simple words today, just to see what would happen.  I gave him "rat," "hat," and "bat."  We sounded them out together, since I know he is more confident about what sounds letters make than what their names are.  He felt successful!  And offered to do more right there and then, although because we had other things we needed to do, we didn't actually do more.  Next time!

Saxon Math K topics have included making charts (life-sized, on the floor), experimenting with geo-boards, and writing the numeral 3.

Robin made a pot out of clay.

We read a book about Nascar racing.  And one bilingual book.  Robin also practiced simple Spanish words and phrases with his newly adopted half-aunts (ages 11 and 13) from Bogota, Columbia.

We read a book about Samurai and one referencing Greek gods and heroes.

Robin tried a bean this week and although he did not like it, he did consume it.  His comment was that it tasted kind of like potatoes, which is an accurate description of the texture.

Robin enjoyed experimenting with making drums using a pick-up with his dad.

Robin is active nearly every day, either outside walking or biking, or indoors doing pull-ups, sit-ups, etc.

Robin is learning how to manage a wood-burning stove safely, including how to work the dampers, how to manipulate wood, and how to protect younger children from injury.  He especially likes splitting logs (small, pre-split logs that need further splitting into kindling.)

We read books on turtles and DNA.  One of our favorite Christmas presents (thank you Great-Grandpa & Great-Grandma) was a family membership to the Zoo, so Robin went to the Zoo and observed & photographed animals including apes, alligators, and goats.

Holiday Preparations

Robin is getting into the holiday spirit!  He helped make up gift kits for his cousins this week, and bake cookies.

We did some Saxon Math K.  Robin made a chart showing winter activities and how many of them were indoor activities and how many were outdoor activities.

We read lots of books.

Including one about animals and about the seasons.


Wolfy went for several long walks and bikes.

A Musical Dramedy!

Robin sat through 1 1/2 performances of his congregation's 50th Anniversary musical extravaganza of a show.  He was enthralled by the song/dance/drama.

Saxon Math K included Robin's first official worksheet - the number 1!

We did lots of reading.

Including a book about the first official national Thanksgiving (declared by Abraham Lincoln.)

Robin went on several long walks.

We also read a book about early mammals.

Visiting with Grandma

Robin has been loving visiting with his grandma this week.  They are both early risers, so he's been popping out of bed in the morning and going to her immediately to play Uno.  He's really very good at Uno, winning about 2/3 of the time!


Topics in Saxon Math K this week included making a graph showing family members' eye colors and matching numbers of objects with the appropriate numerals.  For some reason Robin had a hard time identifying the numeral 9 but all the rest of it was easy for him.

Robin did some drawing with his grandma and siblings.

We read lots.  We continue to work on Robin's alphabet by using writing, sign spelling, the alphabet song, and www.starfall.com.

We read a book about sight.


We read a book about the Middle Ages.

And one about movement.

Sick, sick, sick

Robin was quite sick early in the week and has been taking it easy to recover.  So he learned a lot about fevers, stomach viruses, and appendicitis (which we don't think he had but were worried about for a while.)  We read a book about the sense of touch.

A recent topic in Saxon Math K was identifying pennies and quantities of pennies.

Robin continues to be read to regularly.

And he went bowling!  He got a strike and a spare (with the bumpers up).

Robin watched an episode of Mammals.

Elephant & Piggie

Robin continues to work on pre-reading skills.  He does very much enjoy being read to, especially books which are humorous.  One of our favorite authors is Mo Willems, especially the Elephant & Piggie books.  They are at about the level of simple Dr. Seuss in terms of number of words and vocabulary, and quite sophisticated in the emotional subtlety conveyed in the character's expressions.  We also like finding the pigeon somewhere in each book.  I think they're great!

Today we read a book about jazz that came with a cd showcasing each of the instruments in a typical jazz ensemble.  

Robin continues to use Saxon Math K.  Recent concepts include identifying pennies, ordering numbers 0 - 10, and ordinal numbers up to fourth.

We read a book about amazing animals, and Robin is intermittently watching a documentary series about mammals.

We read a book about in-line skating and Robin was inspired to go in-line skating for the first time in a while.  He's also been on several long bike rides recently.

Alphabet song

First, let me apologize for the lapse in blogging here.  It's been quite a month and a half.  Nothing drastic, really, just very, very busy for me at home and at work in so many ways.  We all had a virus for a couple of weeks, too.  We HAVE been learning, and even doing 'formal' learning activities.  I'm not really going to try to cover everything that happened in the last six weeks.  I'm just going to start from here.

Robin has been using Saxon Math K.  He is getting a lot more familiar with the days of the week and the months of the year.  Nothing we've done so far other than that has been at all challenging to him, really.

Robin is getting a lot clearer on his alphabet.  Some days we use the Kumon wipe-off cards I got for him to practice with.  Some days we sing the alphabet song.  And yesterday I started teaching him the Sign alphabet.  I figure a variety of learning modalities is always a good thing.  We attend Storytime at the library regularly, and read at home regularly, too.

We have read some books on geographic topics, including one about Japan recently.

There have been some interesting discussions of anatomy and physiology with the births of two cousins.

Robin continues to be very active!  We walk/bike/scooter regularly and Robin recently upgraded to a 16" wheel bike.  He is going ice-skating today!  We participated in an effort to get the most children doing jumping jacks for one minute at a time.

The library Storytime one week had a section that for some reason included a fire safety lesson on what to do if you are on fire - Stop, Drop, and Roll!

We had a magazine about fungi recently and Robin collected a variety of fungus from the woods around us and photographed them for posterity.  On the same day we baked fresh bread, and observed the action of the yeast (fungus!)