Pumpkin Mania

This week, in honor of Halloween, our studies focused around pumpkins.  It was kind of an easy week for us which was nice after the last couple of not-so-great weeks.  There were no spelling words, and I have cancelled the reading lessons for the time being until I get something that works better for us.  We still have the Reading Eggs program that Hayden appears to really enjoy.  There is a lot of review for him, and it seems to be a bit redundant for me (much more so than the 100 Lessons book we were using before), but the constant repeating of the same sounds in one lesson for him with this program doesn't bother him at all.  With the book, he would whine and complain every time I had him repeat the same word or sound over just once or twice.  The last time he got on the Reading Eggs program, he spent an hour on it (joyfully, I might add).  12 minutes with the Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons was pure torture for him.  So, I guess this is better?

In addition to the Reading Eggs program, we also worked together as a team to write a Halloween story.  Sawyer also helped out with this.  Tomorrow (Halloween Day) we will put the story together in the form of a book with illustrations, title page, cover, etc.

Books we read this week were all about Halloween and pumpkins.  They are listed in the Books We Read post for October.

Probably the most enjoyable thing we did this week was the Five Little Pumpkins Felt Storyboard.  The boys absolutely loved it, and I videotaped them doing it themselves.  If I ever figure out how to connect the video camera properly to the computer to get just a certain segment, I will do it.  If you don't know the poem, it goes:

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate.

The first one said, "Oh my! It's getting late!"

The second one said, "There are witches in the air!"

The third one said, "But we don't care."

The fourth one said, "Let's run and run and run!"
The fifth one said, "I'm ready for some fun!"

Whoo-ooh! went the wind,

and out went the lights,

And five little pumpkins rolled out of sight.

Of course, my children like to ad lib to make the ending unique, and they are very fond of saying, "and the witches went dead." instead of the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight.  Gotta love boys, right?

Our math and science went hand in hand this week.  We used pumpkins to measure, weigh, estimate, and count.  We recorded our estimations vs. actual measurements, and we performed a pumpkin floating experiment.   The boys compared pumpkins with other fruits and vegetables by guessing which ones would float vs. which ones wouldn't.  They played with that activity for ever.

Measuring the pumpkins



End results posted on board after weighing, measuring,
and estimating our seeds.

Floating pumpkin experiment

Recording results of floating vs. nonfloating foods

Everything but the carrot floats!

Time to count the seeds!
(Guess who wouldn't put their hands in
the pumpkin?)

In addition to these activities, we also had a Halloween party with our homeschool group.  The boys got to dress up and enjoyed playing with some of the other homeschoolers their age and older.

We also took a field trip to Vicar's Landing in Ponte Vedra Beach which is an assisted living facility.  We went with some friends (this was our third year doing this), and all the children dressed up in their costumes while the sweet little old ladies oohed and aahed over them and gave out candy.  It was very enjoyable for everyone, and it's nice to know that you can start working with your children at such an early age on the importance of being kind to others and giving them a sense of community, etc.

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Lesson Learned...for Me

This week was a real eye opener for me.  I finally realized (and probably not for the first time) that my son is not as old as he or I thinks he is when it comes to schooling.  He's articulate, loves science, has a great memory when it comes to remembering insanely long dinosaur names or whose house we went to last year on that Wednesday in June after playing at Ollie Koalas (or something along those lines).  However, when it comes to reading and writing, it's like someone switched my kid with someone else's.  Each week has gotten progressively more difficult with his cooperation, participation, and my patience when it comes to the reading lessons.  And since his spelling words come from the reading lessons, those have gotten worse, too.  Even his handwriting this week turned to crap.  I could tell he just did NOT care to do any of it.  I flat out cancelled one reading lesson after 15 minutes of complete frustration.  What's the point?  If neither of us is enjoying it, he can't possibly be learning, and if he is, then he certainly isn't developing a LOVE of the subject.  And I do not want to foster a hatred of reading and writing.  I love it too much.

I'm not giving up the Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons, but I am going to back off.  You're supposed to do one lesson a day, but he just can't stand it.  When Sawyer is here, it's even worse because he's constantly trying to interrupt or even participate (but not properly), and it's extremely distracting.  I'm not sure exactly how I'm going to change it, but somehow or another, I've got to change my approach with his learning to read.  I did find a website that we tested out yesterday, and he seemed to really enjoy it.  It's called Reading Eggs.  This site has lessons in the form of a map that the child completes.  He gets to create his own avatar, he gets a house to live in, and special "stuff" to unlock as he does the lessons.  He also gets eggs to "spend" on games and additional features for his avatar or house, etc.  The animations are very captivating, and the lessons are fun.

As for math, we are continuing on with our money lessons.  Hayden is doing a great job with this, and because of this, it is the first thing we do after our opening each day.  He is learning to count by 5's and 10's very easily now because of the money activities, and he's gaining a better memory for which coins are which.  He's also figuring out how many nickels are in a dime, how many dimes in a dollar, etc.  We did/are doing some activities that I found at Math for School.  This site has curriculums, concepts, and subjects divided into separate groups and by grade level.  It has some great ideas.

Our fairy tales continued this week as well, but without as much gusto.  Either I picked the wrong books with the wrong morals/lessons, or Hayden is just not into the fairy tales.  Or maybe it was just that kind of week.  Seriously, this was the longest week ever.

Next week is bound to be better.  Pumpkins are on the agenda for every subject across the board.  I think that this will prove to be a better route to go - kind of like I did with the dinosaurs and Florida, Dr. Seuss, and the 5 Senses. 

Fairy Tales and Money

This week began a couple of new units for us.  It occurred to me the other day that I have never read fairy tales to the boys.  How could that have happened?  They don't know who Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Rumplestiltskin, Thumbelina, or any of those fairy tale characters are.  Shame, Mommy!  So, I decided that we needed to incorporate some fairy tales into our homeschooling lessons. 

Since Halloween is fast approaching, I figured that the Brothers Grimm were a good place to start with the fairy tale reading.  However, since the boys are still pretty young, I thought it best to stay away from the super creepy tales that they invented.  The Germans can get pretty twisted in their storytelling at times.  I had forgotten that the Brothers Grimm made quite a collection of tales with good morals to their stories.  So, that is what I am focusing on for the moment.  I have the list of books we read here. 

With the books we read this week, the morals we focused on were be kind to others and sharing.  With each story, we talked about the main characters and what their problems were, how they solved them, which characters we liked the best and the least, and we discussed how the story ended and what lesson the story taught us.  Mostly, I wanted Hayden to start learning how to discuss a story and how to pick it apart a bit.  I also wanted him to try to be creative with coming up with new endings, putting himself in the characters' places, etc. 

Since a lot of fairy tales focus on gold, trade, money, etc., I thought this would be a good time to start teaching Hayden about money.  This week was all about learning the names and values of coins, and next week will probably be similar.  I had no idea what a hard concept this can be for a child to learn.  It is incredibly difficult to remember which coin is which, what value belongs to each, the characteristics of each coin....and we haven't even touched on dollar bills! 


Making patterns with pennies and nickels



Using a number chart to count nickels.
Great way to count by 5's.  We will also
do this with dimes and quarters.



Coin Exchange and Counting Game

For the Coin Exchange and Counting Game, Hayden had to learn first that 1 nickel equals 5 pennies, 1 dime equals 10, and 1 quarter equals 25.  Then we were able to play a game where we roll a die and collect the number of pennies that the die shows.  Once 5 pennies are collected, you can trade them in for a nickel.  When you have 2 nickels, you can trade them in for a dime, and when you have 2 dimes and a nickel, you can trade them in for a quarter.  We played until we each got to the quarter.  He really enjoyed this game, and we'll probably play it as many times as he wants!

We also used money and a chart with a letter code to see how much each of his spelling words were worth.  Each letter had a cent value, and Hayden would add up the value for each letter after writing out each spelling word.

Last, but not least, we did a science experiement with the pennies.  I set out various ingredients to try to clean the pennies (vinegar, salt, ketchup) and some ingredients that wouldn't clean pennies (water, flour, milk, etc.).  The boys guessed which ingredient would clean the pennies the best and which would not clean them.  This one was a lot of fun, and I found an extension we can do with this experiment as well which we will do next week.

And for a completely off-subject project, a friend of mine sent me a link - the happy scientist - that has lots of fun science experiments, some of which are free.  This particular experiment involved collecting mushrooms and making spore prints, and they are definitely in abundance around here since we've had so much rain the last couple of weeks.  We collected at least 8 big ones.  It took us a couple of tries to get it right because they have to fully opened for the experiment to work, and the first ones I picked weren't completely mature.  However, in the end, we got some really good ones.  Below is a picture of our favorites.

Florida Unit Comes to a Close

We finished up our theme of the State of Florida and the City of Jacksonville with our final two field trips and the completion of our Florida lapbook.  As fun and educational as it was for the boys, I'd have to say that I am done with field trips for a while.  I am field tripped-out! 

We did a lot of reading lessons this week, and Hayden also got his first list of spelling words as well.  He completed his very first spelling test, missing only one of the 5 words he was given.  I was very proud of him!

We also started a new weekly math activity.  Each Monday, we will estimate, measure, and record how much Mommy's belly grows.  We'll also mark how much change occurs each week using addition or subtraction.  This is my 16th week of pregnancy, and I am interested in seeing how curious Hayden becomes this time around and if we wind up making a unit on babies.  So, if anyone reading this has any ideas on teaching this concept to a 5 year old (albeit a very inquisitive and methodical 5 year old), I am all ears. 

With that said, I'll backtrack to our field trips this past week!  Our first field trip was to the Alligator Farm in St. Augustine.  That was an exciting day for the boys, and Daddy even got to come with us.  They learned some differences between crocodiles and alligators.  They saw how big an albatross is, and they watched a zookeeper feed the alligators dead rats (ew!).

Comparing our arms to an albatross' wings

Eating time for the gators

Feeding frenzy.  I'd hate to fall into that!

The 3 Stooges inside a gator's mouth

Maximus, an old ginormous alligator

Our second, and final, field trip was to the Jacksonville Zoo.  We have been there many times before, but it never gets old.  It is an amazing piece of Jacksonville to see.  The gardens and the animals are a sight to see.  You can feed the giraffes, pet pigmy goats in the children's area, ride a train and a carousel of circus animals, feed nectar to the lorikeets, pet a stingray, and much more.  It never gets tiresome!  After this trip, we did a math activity using animal crackers.  We picked out the zoo animals (because there must be at least 20 different animals in those boxes!), sorted them out, and graphed how many there were of each.  After that, we made paper plate lions, which turned out pretty hilarious.

Beautiful female leopard near the entrance to the zoo.

Western lowland gorilla

Watching a zookeeper feed fish to the penguins

Preening penguins

Emulating the spider monkeys



They must've gotten tired watching my boys

Another project that Hayden did before finishing up our Florida unit was a follow up on the Timucuan Indians who were one of the original tribes here in Jacksonville when the Spanish and the French arrived.  He learned a bit about Timucuan pottery in St. Augustine at the Old Florida Museum as well as at the Fort Caroline Timucuan Preserve.  I found an art project on Fort Caroline's website that gave instructions on making your own Timucuan pottery.  So, we made clay from flour, salt, tartar, and water, and Hayden learned the coiling method of pottery making.  He then chose some shells he brought home from the beaches to make patterns on the bowl/cup he made. 

And last, but not least, the completed lapbook that Hayden worked on for the past 5-6 weeks.  With this lapbook, he learned some of the more important cities of the state of Florida.  He learned what states border Florida and what bodies of water surround it.  He also learned about some of the best places to visit in Florida, some of the original inhabitants of Florida, what the name "Florida" actually means, state symbols, the seal of the state of Florida, and what makes the city he lives in special.


Lapbook cover

 

Inside the lapbook with all mini books closed

Inside lapbook with all mini books open.

Mini books (from left to right side):
1. Fan book of "Ff" words
2. Flower fold with state seal inside
3. Graduated book of "Places to Visit"
4. Twice folded book of "Original Inhabitants"
5. Pocket folder with pics of Jacksonville
6. Mini matchbooks of "State Symbols"


Hayden did a great job with this lapbook.  He worked really hard and retained a lot of what he learned.  Lapbooks may look scary and complex, but I think they are awesome.  They can hold as much or as little information as you want, and they can be used for any subject.  I recommend lapbooks for anybody.  They have a certain degree of chaos hidden inside an amazing organizational tool.

October Books We Read

Week 13
Pumpkin Day, Pumpkin Night by Anne Rockwell
J is for Jack-O'-Lantern - A Halloween Alphabet by Denise Brennan-Nelson
Holidays, Festivals, & Celebrations - Halloween by Ann Heinrichs
Halloween Day by Anne Rockwell
Wonderbooks Halloween by Kathryn Kyle
Celebrations in My World - Halloween by Molly Aloian
Mouse's First Halloween by Lauren Thompson

Week 12
Leila at the Library and the Letter L by Klingel and Noyed
Snow White and Rose Red retold by Ruth Sanderson
Little Red Riding Hood retold by Jerry Pinkney
Hansel and Gretel retold by Cynthia Rylant

Week 11
Kaya's Kindergarten and the Letter K by Klingel and Noyed
My 'k' Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure
The Golden Goose retold by Dennis McDermott
The Elves and the Shoemaker retold by Jim LaMarche
The Bremen Town Musicians retold by Hans Wilhelm

Week 10
We're Going to the Jacksonville Zoo! by Fran Peacock Coker
Josef's Journal and the Letter J by Klingel and Noyed
My 'i' Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure
My 'j' Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure

Old Florida Museum Field Trip

What an awesome field trip!  The Old Florida Museum, located in St. Augustine, Florida, sets aside one or two days in September each year just for homeschoolers to come visit.  We went with our homeschool group, the Palm Tree Peace Homeschoolers.  The boys had such a great time learning about the Spanish settlers who came to Florida, the Timucuan Indians who were here way before the settlers, the pioneers who lived here, and they got to be archaeologists who sifted through and learned the difference between artifacts and ecofacts.  Below are pictures from our trip back in time!

Digging for artifacts

Artifacts vs. Ecofacts



Inside a Timucuan ceremonial hut



One little, two little....

A spear made with a swordfish nose!



Warpaint and tattoos - now you're a REAL indian!



Gardening with conch shell hoes



Grinding the corn for dinner



Timucuan game of corn darts

Inside a Spanish settler's home

Spanish war hero

Spanish conquistador

Fluffing up beds of Spanish moss & hay

Pioneer students and their teacher

Writing name with turkey quill & ink

Pioneer games - hula & stick

Helping pump water for the garden

Grinding corn for cornbread and grits

Pioneer Tic-Tac-Toe!

September Books We've Read

Weeks 8-9
Helen at Home and the Letter H by Klingel and Noyed
We Love Our River! by Fran Peacock Coker
We're Going to the Jacksonville Museums! by Fran Peacock Coker
Imagination and the Letter I by Klingel and Noyed
We Love Our Library! by Fran Peacock Coker
We're Going to the Timucuan Preserve! by Fran Peacock Coker
We Say Go Jaguars! by Fran Peacock Coker
We're Going to the Beach! by Fran Peacock Coker

Week 7
Welcome to the U.S.A. Florida by ??
We Say Thank You City Helpers! by Fran Peacock Coker
Wet Pet by ??  (a short phonics book on the endings -et, -ed, and -am)

Week 6
My "f" Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure
Fred, Me, and the Letter F by Klingel and Noyed
Florida Facts and Symbols by Emily McAuliffe
Florida by Carmen Bredeson

Field Trips Galore!!

Okay, I have a LOT of catching up to do.  Over the past two weeks, we have been taking a field trip to a part of Jacksonville or St. Augustine almost every day.  If you read my earlier post about the Sunshine State, you'll know that our theme this month was the State of Florida.  I decided to focus the last half of the month more on Jacksonville and St. Augustine since this is the area in which we live, there is so much history and culture right at our fingertips, and I think it's important for the boys to know more about their city.  The map skills I had planned to start working on with Hayden never really took off because I became so wrapped up in the history and ecology of our area.  But, I figured, no big deal, we have plenty of time and opportunities for that.

For each of the field trips, I'd take along our math and language arts to complete while there.  Most of the activities didn't really follow the theme of the month or have much to do with Jacksonville. 

For math, we played with cuisinaire rods for the majority of the past two weeks.  I got a few pretty cool ideas from www.ttac.odu.edu/Articles/cuisenai.html  and Varnelle Moore's Primary Math Activities that was helpful in introducing cuisinaire rods to students.  Hayden had a good time learning to build a house, make stairs, models of short vs. tall and horizontal vs. vertical.  He made brick wall patterns, designed a bridge, and measured several everyday objects with different sized rods.  For each activity, he manipulated the rods, drew a picture of what he had done, and I helped him write a few words about the activity.  I also had him practice writing his numbers a little bit, and we did a couple other activities which I will bring up later.

For language arts, we did our mini books for letters Hh and Ii (short i sound).  I also read a couple of phonics books related to these sounds.  We also worked on a small phonics workbook I bought at School Aids, a local teacher store here in Jacksonville, in which Hayden gets to add a star to the back of for every page he completes.  We did an activity (at the car dealership waiting for an oil change one day) where I printed out about 5 different fonts of each letter, and Hayden had to glue the letters to the appropriate letter's box that it matched.  I also made an ABC game with egg cartons and craft sticks which Hayden would go back to over and over again when he had nothing else to do.  It was like a puzzle for him.  He'd stick the craft stick (with the capital letters written on them) in the upside down egg carton that had the matching lower case letter written on it.

As for the field trips, we went EVERYWHERE.  And with each trip, we had a special book to go along with it.  I used the books from Mayor Peyton's Book Club.  They're found at all the local libraries and were made for a special reading program, RALLY Jacksonville - Leading with Reading.  They're kind of silly sing-song books, but great for Hayden's age, and there is a book for every aspect of Jacksonville.

Field Trip #1:  The St. John's River and the Cummer Museum
We went across the Main Street Bridge and walked along the Riverwalk by the Landing for the first part of this field trip.  Hayden learned a little bit about bridges, the name of our river, what swims in the river, and things to do to preserve it.



On the Riverwalk by the Main Street Bridge




Cuisinaire rod activity at the Landing



Drawing finished bridge of cuisinaire rods

The second half of our field trip took place at the Cummer Museum which has quite a display of European and American paintings, sculptures, decorative arts, antiquities, and amazing gardens that are awe inspiring at certain times of the year.  I was planning on doing our reading lesson here, but Hayden got completely wrapped up in this "Art Right Now" that the museum had set up specifically for kids, that I just let him go with it.  He had to pick a spot in the gardens that inspired him to draw and create an impressionist piece of artwork.  He chose to do this activity twice.  I couldn't say no!

Hayden's first drawing spot.



2nd drawing spot




















Field Trip #2: The Alltel Stadium (Jaguars Football Stadium)
Our dog, Sparky, ended up going on this little field trip with us.  He hopped into the car before I could stop him, and I didn't have time to shoo him back into the house.  So, I just decided to take him along.  We did our lessons outside the stadium next to the big Jaguar statue.  I started a new reading lesson from this book that a friend told me about: Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Lessons by Siegfried Engelmann.  Each lesson is 12-20 minutes longs depending on how quickly your child can go through it, and how much time you spend on each task.  We also did the Domino Parking Lot Game which we've done once in the past, adding the task of writing down each equation that the dominoes make up.  Afterwards, we tried going into the stadium, but it wasn't possible to tour inside during the football season.  However, the lady at the front desk did give Hayden a book (it just so happened to be the very same book from Mayor Peyton's Book Club that we read before going inside), and she took a picture of the two of us next to all the Jaguar paraphernalia. 

Big Jaguar statue we sat next to for our lessons

Domino Parking Lot Game

In front of the Alltel Stadium.  Go Jaguars!

Entrance of the Jaguars' stadium

Field Trip #3: Timucuan Preserve at Fort Caroline
In Jacksonville, one of the main tribes of Native Americans that first lived here was the Timucuan tribe.  We learned quite a bit about the Timucuans this week from our trip to Fort Caroline, but also from the Old Florida Museum in St. Augustine which is in it's own separate post because it was a field trip we took with our homeschool group, The Palm Tree Peace Group. 

We didn't get to do the whole planned field trip at Fort Caroline, unfortunately, because the mosquitoes and fire ants were really bad.  It was unreal how badly those mosquitoes swarmed us just going from the car to the visitor's center.  Even inside the visitor's center, I was slapping a few of them off of Hayden that escaped inside with us.  Needless to say, we were unable to hike over to the fort, but we did get a little education while inside the visitor's center, and Hayden was able to complete a worksheet that made him an official junior ranger of the Fort Caroline Timucuan Preserve.  He got a badge, and the ranger signed a little certificate.  He was very proud of himself. 

Box of shells, bones, etc. found here

Working on the junior ranger worksheet

Timucuan artifacts inside the visitor's center

Proud of his badge and certificate!

Field Trip #4: Jacksonville Beach
Of course we had a great time on this field trip!  We did our lessons before we left on this one.  I know what kind of mess we always end up with on trips to the beach, and I didn't want anything getting destroyed while there.  The boys mostly played in the sand and water, but I also had them collect 5 shells to bring home.  Back at home, we observed, drew, and measured each one. 



The collection



Measuring the collection

Tracing/drawing a few favorites

So that pretty much sums up the last couple of weeks.  There is the one homeschool group field trip not mentioned here, and there were a few days that we just stayed home, but for the most part, it was a whirlwind of activity.  We still have two more places to go that I have planned for next week.  After that, I think I'll be ready for a break from field trips!