Grandma Diesel Visits

We had a really great week!  Our biggest surprise was that we got to visit Grandma Diesel for a few hours on Thursday.  She was helping Brad move to Dallas and took the trip to Hobbs to be here for a while.  We had a lot of fun with her.  We ate lunch, fed the ducks, and then went to the cowboy museum.  It was so nice to see her! 

We started a few new ideas for learning this week.  We started a nature journal.   In it we are going to include drawings done by the girls, leaf/flower rubbings, short journal entries of what we saw, information about the new things we are learning in nature.   By the end of the year the girls should be able to tell the name of 6 trees that we studied in each different season by looking at the bark and the leaves.  They will also be able to name 6 types of plants/wild flowers when looking at them.  They should also be able to tell the name of 6 birds by appearance and by their call.  So this means we will be outdoors a lot.  I am very excited because I LOVE nature and being outside and so do the girls.  This week we learned about 2 trees.  The Elm and the White Poplar tree.

Mackenzie has started reading a poem a day.  She also has started to read Aesop's Fables.  Some of them are pretty interesting.  She has also been studying Ancient Greek Myths.  This week she read about Albion (son of Poesidon) and how he was the first ruler of an island that was named Albion after him. Later on it was named Britannia (named after Brutus who conquered the island of giants) and finally named Great Britain (because it was the largest of the group of many islands).  I ordered her a new book off of Ebay.  It is A Little House in the Big Woods.  I can't wait for her to start reading it.  I know that she will love it.   

Both of the girls have started "copywork".  This is where I find a passage from a book or a poem, something for them to copy.  I bought the lined paper with the dotted line down the middle.  This is to practice their penmanship.  I also think it will help them learn capitals, punctuation, and spelling.  I have seen an improvement in Mackenzie's printing in this short time already.  I think it has made her more aware of writing neatly.  Before she would just write and not worry about what her writing looked like.  Now she does.

Lorel continues to improve with reading.  Sometimes I even find her trying to read stuff on her own!  YAY!  I haven't done much else with her but read.  She reads to me and I read a lot to her.  She, of course, is learning about nature and loves it.  She also listens in on Mackenzie's lessons.  She is very much so a free spirit and learns a lot on her own by watching and listening.  She is so laid back and only does things when she wants to do them.  She loves to play with water in the sink, sand outside, bubbles, anything to make a mess! LOL!  Which is great.  That is the joy of homeshooling.  She can learn at her own pace.  I think the most important thing with a five year old is that they get to run, jump, and play when and how they want to.  I still think that she is ahead and is very smart!

The girls tried a pomegranate for the first time this week.  They loved it!  It really surprised me.  I am so lucky to have children that aren't picky. 

Today we are going to make a count down to Christmas chain.  Then at 3:00 we are going to the library because they have a man that plays guitar coming to sing Christmas songs with the children.  It should be fun!

All of these new ideas that I have implimented came from an educator named Charlotte Mason.  She taught school in England.  She lived from 1842-1923.  She saw trouble with the public education school systems so she dedicated her life to improve the quality of education of children.  Her ideas were a head of her time.  Her ideas are now used by many homeschooling families.  She was a brilliant woman and I have enjoyed reading and studying her life and her work.  I am very glad that I stumbled across her.

This is a picture that I captured last night of the sunset from our backyard.  I LOVE it so I decided to put it on!

 I am so glad that I am the one raising and teaching my children.  I know that the most important person in a child's life is their mother.  I love my girls more than they will ever know and glad that they are apart of my life. 

Getting ready for Christmas

We have had a pretty busy week.  The weather has been BEAUTIFUL here.  Wednesday and Thursday it was 70.  Today it is supposed to get up to 78.  It is perfect.  We did our school work in the morning and then I gave the girls a chance to play outside all three days in the afternoon.  They LOVE being outside. 

On Saturday the girls had fun raking leaves.  The neighbor kids came out and raked their leaves also.  The girls really enjoyed jumping in the piles.

 

On Monday we got our Christmas tree.  It sure was a crazy sight with us driving it home in the camaro!  We had fun decorating it though.  We can't wait for Christmas!

  

  On Tuesday the girls, Chad, and I made a bird feeder.  We found the kit at Lowe's so we kind of cheated so we didn't have to cut the wood.  The girls used wood glue and the drill to screw it together.  They then painted it.  We allowed it to dry over night and hung it up on Wednesday.  We haven't seen very many birds eating from it but hopefully in the spring we will see more.

  The girls learned about mummies online this week.  We read many books.  Lorel continues to get better with sounding out words.  Both of the girls are doing really well in math.  We are studying poems this week.  The girls are in the process of memorizing a poem.  It's called One Sister for Sale by Shel Silverstein.  It fits the girls perfectly!  It's about a sibling who is trying to put their sister up for sale in an auction.  They almost have it down.

This week we started a little reward system with tickets.  The girls receive a ticket for positive behavior such as helping me, helping their sister, picking up, getting their work done, etc.  They get a ticket taken away for negative behavior such as fighting, back talking, arguing, etc.  Then every Saturday the girls will count how many tickets that they collected during the week and choose if they would like to use them or keep saving.  We made a list of rewards and how many tickets each one is worth.  For example, an ice cream cone, a new book, a small toy are all 15 tickets.  Then we have big rewards like a new outfit,  a big toy, a movie, and a day out alone with mom or dad.  These, of course, are all 50 tickets and above.  It really seems to be helping!

I am really enjoying homeschooling and the more we do it the more I feel that it is working for us.  I really feel that the girls are right where they need to be.  Am I preparing them for standardized tests? Well, no.  But I do feel like I am preparing them for life.  I have never really agreed with standardized testing anyway.  How can one test determine what a child knows and how smart they are?  Homeschooling educates a child in a completely different way than the public education system.  I really do believe that homeschooling was a positive decision for us.  

It was a good week!  I am REALLY looking forward to next week!  We are going to try some new ideas with homeschooling!  I can't wait!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

This week has been really fun!  We have kept pretty busy.  We took a break from school Wed-Fri.  It was a much needed break for me and the girls.  It was nice to just relax and not have to worry about school work.  We still did activities though so the girls were not bored.  We played games, went to the park, cooked, fed the ducks, and went to see a movie at the theater.  We had a very nice Thanksgiving as a family.  The girls helped me a lot with the cooking.  It was a nice, easy, quiet, and relaxing day!   

Lorel lost her first tooth on Monday.  I was helping Mackenzie pick out what she was going to wear for the day and Lorel came running in saying she lost it.  I asked her where it was and she said that she dropped it in the carpet somewhere.  So we went to search for it.  Well, our carpet is thick and we couldn't find it anywhere.  I still have no idea where it went.  I even vacuumed and took the canister outside and dumped it on the ground with no luck.   She was really upset.  She thought the tooth fairy wouldn't bring her money without the tooth.  So Lorel wrote the tooth fairy a letter explaining what happened and asking if she would still come and visit her.  She left it under her pillow and the tooth fairy DID visit her!  She was really excited.

We read a lot this week.  The girls watched a show on National Geographic about mummies.  They were really interested in it.   So next week we are going to study about mummies.  We also watched a show about sharks.  I love the National Geographic Channel!  Lorel is learning how to measure using inches and centimeters.  She is still working with on the computer with her little program.  She loves it.  Mackenzie is still working with double/triple digit addition and subtraction.  She is currently reading a Junie B. Jones book.

We went to the state park this week.  The girls had fun.  We fed the ducks, drew a nature picture, played at the playground, kicked the soccer ball, and took a walk on the trail.       

This week was not busy at all.  The girls did their normal studies.  Mackenzie didn't have soccer practice because of the time change.  It was too dark to practice.  The girls didn't go to art class because they just wanted to stay home.  We did go to story hour today. 

Mackenzie learned about vowel pairs AI, EE, EA, OA, and OW .  She is still working on addition with regrouping.  She is almost finished with her Baby Sitter's Club book.  She created an art book where she drew a flower pot, a self portrait, and a guitar. Mackenzie started to learn to play the piano this week.  Well I guess she is learning to play on the keyboard that we have.  I am just starting out with the basics.  Then when she has that down we are going to find someone to give her lessons.  Lorel continues to get better with reading.  She has been solving addition and subtraction problems.  She is doing well!

The girls played dress up.  We went to the park.  We went to the grocery store and Mackenzie read the list to me and crossed off the item after we found it.  We danced!

It was a pretty easy week.  Next week we are going to crack down and get a lot done.  I feel like the girls are progressing and are learning a lot.  They are both doing excellent!

Poor Mackenzie! :(

Last Saturday was an eventful day! Mackenzie was carving a pumpkin and cut her pinky finger close to the palm of her hand.  It was pretty deep so we took her to the emergency room.  They cleaned it well and then glued it shut.  We were lucky... NO stitches!  Her finger is doing much better now.  She still can't bend it because it hurts and it is swollen.

Sunday, Chad had to go back to work at about 4 PM.   I decided not to take the girls trick or treating without him here.  I didn't want to be out alone after dark.  We had already went to the safe trick or treat at all the local shops around downtown Hobbs anyway.  Instead we had a little Halloween party at home.  We got a pinata(couldn't find a Halloween one), did a few Halloween crafts, grilled out hamburgers, and ate cake.  We all had a very fun time.  After Chad left we watched some Halloween shows.

 The girls are doing really well in their schooling.  Lorel has started to read!!!!! :) YAY Lorel!  I have tried and tried with her but she just hasn't wanted to do it.  I know that she can because she knows the sound of every letter, she knows tons of sight words, and she knows how to blend the sounds.  She has just been stubborn.  But on the website that I found called Time 4 Learning they have little beginning reading books on there.  On Monday we sat down together and she started to read them.  I gave her A LOT of praise, maybe a little overboard!  Mackenzie and I even gave her a round of applause!  So that is a great HUGE step for her.  I guess I was worrying about her for nothing! I know she is very smart she just might be the type to only do things when SHE is ready!

The girls had fun on Tuesday writing with chalk outside.

Mackenzie has still been working memorizing her addition facts.  She is getting very good at addition with regrouping.  She learned about what a main idea of a picture or story is.  She is reading a Baby Sitter's Club book.  She learned this week about silent consonants such as k in knot and w in write.  She also learned three letter blends such as str, spr, spl, etc.  She is doing super and works very hard.  I am so proud of her!

  

This week the girls learned about what an archeologist is.  They then went in the back yard and dug up anything they could find.  They found some pretty interesting things!  They got really dirty!  They had fun!

We went to the park a couple of times.  We fed the ducks on Thursday.  We try to go visit them every couple of weeks.  They girls love the ducks and are always asking to go and feed them.  I think the ducks love us too!  We are constantly going to the library.  We read for an hour everyday whether it is me reading to the girls, silent reading, or Mackenzie reading to Lorel.  I really believe reading is the most important thing that a child needs to be strong in.  If a child isn't a strong reader, then they won't be a strong learner.  We love to read!