Workbook Breakdown

Math Skills: Addition and Subtraction (Shelby)

• ordering numbers
• counting
• odd and even
• place value
• addition and subtraction
• multiplication
• following directions
• perimeter
• telling time
• division
• fractions
• reading and making graphs
• plotting on a grid
• shapes
• non standard measuring
• patterning

Number Activities Grade 2 (Shelby)

• letter/number recognition and formation
• planning
• hand/eye coordination
• fine-motor-skill development
• beginning drawing skills

Planet Earth: Animals of the Water (Shelby)
Learn on the Go Reading Comprehension  Grade 2 (Shelby)

• story characters
• sequence of events
• retelling parts of a story

The Learning Line:  Addition Facts to 18 Grades 1-2 (Shelby and Grace)

• adding numbers with sums up to 19
• column addition with three and four numbers

The Learning Line: Cursive Writing Grades 2-3 (Shelby)

• cursive letters, words and sentances
• read letters and words written in cursive handwriting
• small muscle control
• follow written directions

The Learning Line: Manuscript Writing Grades K-2 (Grace)

• practice printing: capital letters, lowercase letters and words
• write words, phrases, and sentances
• follow writen directions

Learning Train Beginning Reading Grades K-1 (Grace)

• letter recognition and formation
• printing practice
• reading comprehension
• vocabulary building
• finding the main idea
• critical thinking
• inference

Workbooks completed from September 5 to November 20

ok, wow

So 2 months might seem like a long time to not update your portfolio blog, but we HAVE been doing school every day, I swear!
I just got done grading a whole pile of workbooks and sorting artwork and finding pictures.  And I tell you, I am comitted to getting this thing caught up today.
So, what I thought I would do is take pictures of whole workbooks and give a rundown of what they contain.  These two are CRAZY for workbooks and are sailing through them just as fast as I can give them out.

 

This new blogger makes it very difficult to post pictures with captions so my next post will be all the photos of the workbooks followed by a post about all the skills.  I know, it's a little crazy but it will save me hours of frustration.

The Sword of Damocles (a drama)

The king was very cruel and was always in fear of being conquered.Damoclese asked the king if he could be with the kings riches for one dayWhen Damoclese laid in the kings bed, he found that there was a sword hanging by a single horse hair above his headHe asked the king why there was a sword above his head and the king said "I am always in danger of being killed by enemies."Damoclese left and the king sat back on his throne.

New Moon

Well, they do say that the new moon is a good time to start new projects! It just so happened that even though I had planned the first real main lesson block for the kids on the birth of the universe, it all got derailed so Mama could start a project of her own.

Money is tight for everyone right now and we are no exception. We even looked into the possibility of enrolling the kids in public school and my going to work full-time. I view this scenario as a last resort so I decided to look into making some extra money at home by going into the granola bar business! I threw myself into days of recipe perfecting, marketing and now full blown selling.

The kids have still been doing their daily practice work and lost of reading, but as for the main lesson, waiting there in those beautiful books, they will just have to wait till the next new moon.

Yellow

Shelby's summer poem to memorize:

Yellow

Yellow sun

And yellow sky,

A dandelion's

Yellow eye;

Yellow pollen

Dusts the breeze,

And yellow

Lights the summer trees.

A yellow buzzing

Prints the air;

In dappled yellow

Dreams the pear.

And from the finch's

Yellow throat

One golden, flowing

Yellow note!

India Lesson

After performing The Life of Buddha, we read a slightly different version in The Prince Who Became a Beggar and also flipped through this book on Buddhism by Anita Ganeri.

The girls write a simple paragraph about Buddha to go with yesterday's illustration.

Then....we cook!

Rajma: A kidney bean dish made with ginger, onion, fresh tomatoes, garlic, green chilies and tomato sauce. This was served over a bed of white rice tossed with fresh cilantro. We also fried flat bread to act as a serving tool as well as a side. All that was washed down with iced red chai masala.