Summer School Part 1

Yes, we are schooling year-round.  It actually gives us something to do on the days that it is just too hot to be outside.  We have found that doing an activity in the morning (such as a playdate with friends at the park or going to the beach), and then school in the afternoon works well for us.  Of course, we switch it up on occasion and do school first and activity afterwards as well.  Either way works!

Riley
The baby is starting to become more and more a part of the schooling process.  Not so much a baby anymore, I guess.  So, I'm testing the waters with busy bags and mini themes for him during the first part of the day.  Our library system is amazing, and they have these Traveling Tales, which are bags that you can check out for 3 weeks that all have a theme.  Inside the bags are books, a CD or DVD, a puppet, flannelboard activity, art project suggestions, and finger play songs all related to a certain theme.  This first part of the summer, I was able to get the Boats Traveling Tales and Ocean Traveling Tales.

B is for beads and boats.

Balancing balls

Sorting colors

Flannelboard activity

M is for macaroni? 

Some serious coloring going on here.

Working on our fine motor skills by putting "worms" in a "nest".

F is for fish.  Hard to see here, but there are fish drawn on the paper and he is putting
a certain number of "air bubbles" above them depending on what number is written
on each one.

Water sensory play time outside.  

Language Arts
Both Hayden and Sawyer worked on wrapping up their LLATL curricula.  I was anxious to be done with this as both were becoming monotonous and boring for all of us.  We just needed a change.  Hayden finished his up completely.  Sawyer completed all but the last few lessons in his.

Order sequencing:  with each story, Sawyer had to color, cut, and assemble pictures
in the correct order of the story he just read.  

As we neared the end of the curriculum, we also added on by writing a
sentence to go with each picture.

Hayden's readers with his curriculum became too simplified and not very interesting.
So, he branched out to other books that were more captivating and had better plots.

Putting one of his last Word Family Flip books together.  

Math

We are still very happy with our RightStart Math curricula.  Both boys are progressing very well in this.  Sawyer has been learning to add 2-digit numbers and continue patterns in geometry, and Hayden has been working a lot with multiplication and calculating areas.

Timed multiplication 

Determining area with square inch tiles.

Copying and continuing patterns on the geoboard.

Calculating areas in square centimeters

World Geography

For the summer, we decided to go back to exploring the world.  This first part of summer, we went to Russia.  What an awesome country!  After reviewing the continents, oceans, and previously explored countries, we learned a lot about Russia's culture, government, music, and architecture.  

Russian Tea Party!
Although we were unable to use actual Russian tea glasses & samovar, we got the
gist of it by listening to the Russian balalaika and hearing some common phrases
in the Russianlanguage while eating pigs in a blanket, smoked salmon on potato
pancakes, and Russian tea cakes,  and sipping some hot tea.

Drawing St. Basil's Cathedral after reading about Ivan the Terrible and Peter
the Great.  

Adding color bit by bit

Designing our own matryoshkas after watching a video on the history of the
matryoshka and reading "The Littlest Matryoshka" by Corinne Demas Bliss.

This is what imagination looks like  :)

Finished products (with the remainders inside).
Sawyer's is on the left and Hayden's is on the right.

Tea party #2!
We love tea parties, obviously, especially when good food is involved.  This
time it was pigs in a blanket (bc the boys love these), apples, and red velvet cupcakes
after learning about everyday life in Russia.

Listening to Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf while following along using a story map.

And finally - our Russian meal to end the unit!

Roasted Marrow Bones with a Caper-Onion Relish

The relish and toasts for the marrow.

Beef Stroganoff 

Medovik Tort (Honey Cake)

Sawyer was not a big fan of the dessert.

But this guy was!  :)

Stay tuned for our Summer School Part 2!!

Spring 2015 - 3rd 8 weeks

Our third 8 weeks was chock full of field trips and activities.  Man, was it fun!  We still had our everyday studies of language arts and math, but we had a great time with all the other stuff as well.  So, let's get the boring stuff out of the way.

Hayden
In language arts, Hayden got through all but the last story in his second reader, Forest Fables, which we would've finished if I hadn't decided to switch gears and do an author study at the end of the 8 weeks.  He worked on homonyms, contractions, and comparing sounds.

Decorating trees for each of the four seasons and writing describing words for each.

Comparing words with two o's.

ABC Order practice

Reading Eggspress - lots of time spent here.

Learning to write in cursive.

Books/Stories Hayden read for language arts:

The Grass on the Other Side by Yuriko Nichols

Two Heads are Better Than One by Yuriko Nichols

Actions Speak Louder Than Words by Yuriko Nichols
The Ox Cart Man by Donald Hall

In math, Hayden worked a lot with drawing figures using a T-square and 30-60 triangle (triangles, stars, and hexagons).  He also began learning multiplication facts, and adding several numbers at one time.

Review and Practice worksheet

Drawing an equilateral triangle and dividing it into fourths.

Equilateral triangle divided into 12ths

Sawyer

Sawyer's language arts involved a lot of letter cards and blending sounds together and character evaluation.

Putting pictures from his story in the correct order.

Working on handwriting.

Books/Stories Sawyer read for language arts:

Kit for Kim                               \

The Crow and the Pitcher          \

A Mix for Ted                                readers from LLATL

Three Big Hats                           /

Oh!  What is on the Rug?        /

The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats

In math, Sawyer worked on partitioning numbers, learned the commutative property, how to use base 10 cards to add larger numbers, and put together a portion of the Cotter Tens Fractal.

Base 10 Cards

Commutative Property

Working on the Cotter Ten Fractal

Finished portion of Cotter Ten Fractal

Author Study
This was a lot of fun, and it sure works better for me that I don't have to teach the boys separately.  I think I will try doing something like this at the end of each 8 weeks.  It's a nice break from the norm, and the boys really enjoy working on similar projects.  So, our author study this 8 weeks was Leo Lionni.

The books we read were:  Little Blue and Little Yellow, Swimmy, Frederick, and Fish is Fish.

A completed story cube.

Making story cubes after reading Little Blue and Little Yellow.

Paint Blot Art.  Even Riley could participate in this one!

Creating Story Strips after reading Swimmy.  This was a good lesson in
finding solutions to problems.

A little bit of science learning about jellyfish (also Swimmy).

Sequence of Events activity in Mini Mouse book form after reading Frederick.

Completed mini mouse book.

Postcard from a frog (after reading Fish is Fish).

Back of the postcard:
"Dear Fish, There were a bunch of Legos and roller coasters.  I miss you.  Love, Sawyer"

Hayden's postcard front.

Back of Hayden's postcard:
"Dear Fish, How have you been?  Hope you are having a good time.  I am at Sea World.
I have seen lots of penguins.  Some were big and some were small.  Love, Hayden"

Mimicking the Artist
The boys used the sides of crayons - 2-3 shades of blues and greens to create a
similar textured background underwater scene.  Then they painted fish and seaweed
over it.

Medieval Times
Our big unit of the 8 weeks.  We had a great time with this one, finishing it off with a trip to the medieval faire in Gainesville and a medieval feast at home.  We learned about knights, castles, feudalism, and food.  Mostly, we focused on the early years of the Middle Ages.  I figured we could learn more about the art and music of the Renaissance another time.  This was more up their alley for now.

Making Swords for the Knights

The Steps to Knighthood 

Creating a coat of arms and learning a bit about heraldry.

Jousting

Our knights' Code of Chivalry

 Medieval Feast!!

Bread with Salt

Baby Knight

Sad Jester

Salad on a Trencher

The Jester, the Knight, the Wench, and the King

Roasted Cornish Hens and Leek Potage

Pork Pies

Dinner on a Trencher

Eagerly awaiting desserts!

Field Trips
Our first field trip was to the Hoggetowne Medieval Faire in Gainesville, Florida.  The boys had a BLAST.  Here are the highlights from the trip:

Our next field trip to be noted was rock climbing at The Edge Rock Climbing Gym here in Jacksonville, Florida.  The boys love this.  We've been a few times, and they are getting better at it each time we go.  

And last, but not least, we got to see the Acrobats of the Shanghai Circus.  They were fun - not as impressive as the acrobats at the medieval faire, but still fun to see.

Extras

And, just for a fun little add-on to wrap up the 8 week session, we were fortunate enough to get a hold of a cow eyeball!  We had a GREAT lesson with some friends while dissecting the eye.

Examining the outside of the eye.

The top half removed from the bottom half.  You can see the aqueous humor in the pan,
and the lens in the bottom half.

Checking out the cornea and the iris.

Yay gloves!

The boys are having a fun time with their eyeballs.  :)

I love the looks on their faces in this one.

Here, they are feeling the vitreous humor that the lens is embedded in.
It is like a hard clear jelly.

All the parts separated:  top half (cornea & iris), bottom half (retina), vitreous humor,  and lens.

Trying out a little vision activity.

We found out that the lens is like a tiny magnifying glass.

We also found out that animals have a lining to the retina (the tapetum) that humans don't have
which helps them to see better at night.  This is why their eyes reflect lights at night.