Letters From the Homefront

Just an update of some of what we've been doing around here. MATH Bug finished the addition booklet I printed out for her to use with the addition finger chart. I also gave her the first presentation of commutative addition (modified because it's been a while since I gave it to Miss Priss, couldn't remember exactly the steps I  used last time, and I needed to give it immediately that day) with the printed bead bars. I am in the process of  making her a new version of the addition booklet, to practice identifying the commutative addition equations. \ Miss Priss was working on some pages she tore out of an old workbook we had eons ago, that had been hole-punched and put in her binder. She came to a page that had addition equations involving money and several addends. She was having a difficult time, but has been resistant to using the stamp game - I think it's becoming more time consuming than she feels is necessary. I showed her how it is possible to do the s...

Today we worked on some exploration with magnets.  I found this very small, inexpensive set of magnets at a local school supply store here. They didn't have the one I REALLY wanted, so I settled for a cheaper one for the time being.  I prepared for our day this morning by going online and printing off a few ready-made free worksheets. And here is where you insert the gasp-heard-round-the-world. :)  I generally shy away from worksheets - we don't use them on a daily basis. I would not print out a worksheet for something that was new to my children. I believe you should always, as much as possible, give your children a concrete learning experience long before bringing in anything abstract, like a worksheet. In this case, they had already had that.  When you are working with children who have had the concrete first experiences you can build off of those with some that review what they know and give them a chance to expand and show what they have r...

Well, I didn't expect it to be almost the middle of January before I got back to blogging. Life wouldn't have been possible without this break, though. Things got so hectic, and probably will continue to be a little busy for the next couple of weeks as we try to enjoy as much time as possible with our family all together, and also try to prepare my husband to leave us for a 5 month stretch, then do a turnaround and leave again for 2 months. That's five months of  3 seasons worth of clothing, two types of uniforms, and so much more to get ready! Anyway, that has nothing to do with school and everything to do with life right now. A little update on the things we've been doing since the beginning of December. First of all - we moved, temporarily. If you didn't read the last post, the kids and I are staying with family (my mother) while my husband goes to an intensive, 5 month long school this year for his job, then follows it up with 2 months of OJT (on the job ...

Week 5 - Part II I posted some on what was going on in week 5 in my last post. It was too long, though, to go in to some extra fun, and this post will really be mostly extra fun that we have had going on. Enter Floam foam: A good friend of our family brought some goodies one day towards the middle of week 5, and one of them was a package of floam/foam beads. They LOVED playing with this, and it ended up being a fun mini-oceanography project, making a coral reef. Yes, that IS a large octopus and snake! We talked a little about camoflauge, and how it helps the fish/animals that live among the coral.  Can you find the fish??? Here's what's new in our world during week 6: They have come to take over our world..... and they have succeeded!  Birthday time for us is at a maximum in September, with 3 birthdays, 2 of which fell in week 6 of our school year. Hoss and Miss Priss have hit a Lego revolution with their free pla...