Homeschool Week 1: Bears Are Real

So this year we have decided that our lives were not complicated enough this school year we are homeschooling both girls. This will be the only year that we do this so we have committed to it and have dove in head first at full force. So this year our Homeschool Weekly Recaps will show both girls work.

Louie- Kinder- Week 1

Language Arts: We are starting right in the middle of the alphabet with the letters "Mm" and "Ss". We worked on the sounds, and how to write each letter. Louie and Poppa even did a scavenger hunt around the house looking for things that start with M.

And then we made a collage of all the S cartoon characters we could think of.

Reading: We talked about how when you read and write you go from left to right and from top to bottom. We also discussed what an author does and what an illustrator does. Louie took 6 books from her book shelf and we found the name of the author and the illustrator.

Writing: For writing we are starting with her name. Louie has been able to write her name for awhile now but we worked on practicing it. We need to work on the "E". She always writes it with a capital e.

Math: This week was all about counting up to 5 and recognizing the numbers 0 and 1. Louie and Poppa spent some time sorting things into groups of 5. Her favorite was the marshmallows! We did a lot of worksheets and counted everything we could!

Social Studies: The topic this week was rules yet turned into a lesson about bears. Louie and I sat down and folded a piece of paper in 4ths. I asked her to give me 4 different places, she chose the car, the farmers market, her classroom and a camp ground. Then we listed 5 rules for each place. We talked about how we have rules in place to keep everyone safe. When we got to camping it got interesting. We discussed how packing away food at night is a rule to keep people safe from bears. The Louie looks up at me with her sly little smile and says...

"Mom, bears aren't real"

Yup my 5 year old, who has been camping a few times, who has been to the zoo and has even seen a polar bear at Sea World, believed that bears were like unicorns and Big Foot. This lead to a lot of YouTube videos and discussion about bears and where the live. Like a real forest, not an enchanted one. 

Science: We started out with the basics, like what is a scientist and what do they do. We went through the little worksheet packet with all the things a scientist can do. Things like ask questions, observe, record, and teach!

We knew that working with Louie would be a challenge and we were right. She is a bit harder to keep focused but all in all she did a really great job for week 1.

Phi- 5th Grade- Week 1

Language Arts: We jumped right in with a novel. Phi is reading "Hatchet" by Gary Paulsen. A story about a young boy who is the sole survivor in a plane crash. Phi read chapters 1-4 this week along with a short writing assignment for each chapter.

We also had a project this week. She had the choice from a list of ideas. She picked "Packed-In" She had to back a single backpack with camping essentials. She made a list and her and Poppa packed up a very heavy backpack.

Math: Oh the dreaded dreaded math. We started this year with order of operations and writing expressions. We studied the difference between expressions and equations.  This year there is a workbook she will be working out of as well as the website "LearnZillion". For this site we punch in a code that the teacher gives us and we get a short video on the math topic. It's already caused some drama but not too bad. Yet....

Social Studies: 5th grade is the year of state capitals and state reports. Her teacher decided to get all that out of the way first. I like that. So this week Phi made her very own flashcards for the state capitals. She picked the first 10 and we started in with the memorization. We only have 3 weeks to get it all done so we need to pick up the pace! She also picked Hawaii for her state report. We have a list of things that need to be included in her report but she can present it any way she chooses. She has decided to do her own news cast. This project is going to be fun!

Science: We are going back to the basics just like Louie. We are talked about what scientist to and the scientific method. She did a little vocabulary words and then as a creative project she has a choice of prompts. She picked "a mad scientist mixes up potions." She wrote a script and asked her cousin Lili to help act it out. That god-daughter of mine is so stinking funny. Of course Louie steals the show...

So week 1 is in the books. Time to plan week 2!