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.