First Quarter Report Cards are Done!

Yesterday, I worked on report cards for the first quarter.  A lot of DJ's grades are done online, and I just have to record them.  Caitlin's, however, still need to be graded manually and recorded.  After I get everything in line I can figure out averages.  I did not scan them, because their full names are on the report and well you know you can't be too careful with their privacy.  So, you will just have to read it below.  Thank goodness I can type, and you don't  have to try and make out my handwriting.  They both did awesome, by the way, and the first ten weeks were a success.  DJ was contacted to join a Bio Mass 4H group, which will be during school hours, so if he tries it and likes it, we will have to do some adjustments to be sure he gets enough hours for credits.  Even though I don't have to do that until high school, we are adjusting and practicing this year in preparation for next year.  At this time we have opted not to do a Health class this year.  They did First Aid last year, and we are active, so this year we have opted not to focus on it much. 


Caitlin 4th Grade 1st Quarter Report Card

Science:  99
History:  93
Language Arts:  78
Math:  83
Spelling/Vocab:  84

Even though Caitlin only has a C in Language Arts, this is a massive improvement for her.  Creative Writing and the rules that come with it, are not natural to her like her brother, and she has struggled with it.  Likewise her Spelling has been amazingly good, but she needs to work on her Vocabulary.  Her overall grade is an 87 and I certainly can not complain about that.

DJ 8th Grade 1st Quarter Report Card

Science:  85
History:  89
Language Arts:  83
Math:  87
Spelling/Vocab:  93

DJ has awesome Creative Writing skills, as well as Reading, however the rules of Grammar continue to bore him and make it a challenge for him to pay attention to it.  Science is his favorite subject, but he is studying Atmosphere and Weather, apparently not as exciting to him as it is to me.  I am super pleased with his Math grade, and it has been a much more pleasant Math year so far.  He is still doing the challenging Algebra type work, but in a much more relaxing way.  His overall grade, believe it or not, is also an 87. 

Learning the States the Fun Way

I saw on Pinterest where another homeschool mom made a sight word game using popsicle sticks. I was just talking to a friend the other day about Geography, the states, capitals and other generalized topics. I had stated how I felt we were ignoring learning the states and capitals, mainly because it is so boring. I have tons of popsicle sticks lying around. Mostly because we do a lot of crafts. I was going to throw them away, but then I decided to make a stick game with them. So, today, and this was way more time consuming than I expected, I took on the task of writing on 50 popsicle sticks. On one side I wrote the state and the abbv. for that state. On the other side, I wrote the year it became a state and the capital. Then I placed them in a clean pizza sauce jar with 50 states written on it. You can see the results in the image. Since we have a states wall map they will have to find the state and the capital. We probably won't start this until after the Christmas holiday. If I can squeeze it in sooner I will. You could do this daily, or weekly, however you want. It is a great memorization tool. You could do this for multiplication, skip counting, sight words, spelling, etc. Be creative with it. If your child is having a hard time learning something, or is just bored to death, try something different and new. That is the beauty of homeschooling. And popsicle sticks are cheap and you could recycle the container. Matter of fact you could go into a lesson about recycling at the beginning of using your new jar game. Huh think of that.

My Top Education Apps Set 1

I have educational apps on both the smart phone, yes I finally got one, and my tablet which I got at an awesome price last year on Pre Black Friday sales. Anyway I love them for school, riding in the car, or just waiting somewhere like the doctor's office. I use both apps and internet games, especially over the summer to reinforce things they have learned. This is my first set of favorites, and trust me I have tried a lot. I am not sure why I can't find Duolingo in the app store, but trust me it is worth getting, and I believe it was free. Of this set, only two are .99 and the rest are free, but they are worth the 0.99. The fraction calculator and Droid Math we use all the time. We don't use the calculator to cheat, just as a tool, if we are stuck and then figure out from there what we did wrong. Most schools let kids use calculators now a days anyway. We love Brain Pop but did not like Brain Pop Jr. We use it every during regular school. It is quick and gives them a test you can record in your book.

Learning With Flashcards

Yes, flashcards are monotonous and can be boring. But, I find for the best way to remember things, repetition is best. That is how I learned to spell, multiplication and division tables, muscles and bones of the body. Through repetition and memorization. We have some of the Hot Dot things shown below. My kids seem to like them, but I find them kind of expensive and not necessary to have such fancy flashcards. I did find a website that I love, and it is FREE, braineos. I did the ones for the Periodic Table, and even today at age 43, I only got a couple wrong. I still remember them after all these years, and no I am not a Chemist. Repetition works even if others don't like it or want to use it.

Sylvan Workbooks And A Contest

I was recently asked to review the new line of Sylvan workbooks. This is a new line or workbooks, that you can purchase for at home education, or for extra work for public school children. Sylvan is well known for their tutoring, now you can get tutoring in a workbook.

I was supplied with 3 workbooks, all for the 4th Grade. These workbooks will be given as a contest prize, to start in teh middle of February. See the post at the top of this blog, for details.

The first book is Spelling Success. I really like this workbook, as it is complete with fun activities to help learn spelling. Each chapter has keywords, and then various activities to help learn those keywords. Each chapter focuses on a topic such as, prefixes, suffixes, root words, and homophones. There are also review chapters, for a total of 17 chapters, in the workbook.

The second book is Reading Comprehension. I love this book. Of the three books, this one is my favorite. It has all kinds of great ideas for learning, and evaluating your child's Reading Comprehension. The activities are thoughtful, and extensive. There are a total of 10 Chapters, with 4 to 5 activities per chapter.

The third book is Vocabulary. Like the spelling book it centers around keywords, with various activities to learn, and use the keywords. There are reviews, and 14 chapters. Each chapter has its own set of activities with topics like prefixes, suffixes, root words, and homophones. The only thing I did not care for with this book, were the chapters on foreign languages. There are two, and you have to find the meanings of the words, as I doubt most kids will know that many foreign language words. These two chapters, were the only two inconveniences I could find in any of the books. It is not like they are that big of a deal either. You could easily find them online, and incorporate them into the chapter.

While browsing at the Sylvan website I noticed that these great books start at 12.99, a great value, in my opinion. I also noticed that they have a 5th grade writing book, which I will definitely be in need of, in the very near future.

If you are starting to plan your curriculum for next school year, you might want to check out these great workbooks.

Tips To Help Teach Spelling, Birthday Wishes

Today is my moms birthday, so Happy Birthday Mom. Today is also National Bird Watching Day, which is fitting because my Mom loves birds. My children love to watch the birds too. We always make sure they have food, and they try to look up what kind of birds they are. This time of year we get tons of birds, so there is plenty of watching to do.

Here are some great Spelling Activities, to help your child learn to spell. I have been using various ones of these, for 2 years.

1- Write each word, and circle the vowel. I use this one, it not only helps with spelling, but grammar as well

2- Write each word, and circle the consonants, same as above

3- Make flash cards for studying your words. I have not used this one, as my son picks up spelling very easily. I will see for my daughter

4- Write the words and a synonym, for each word. This is great for both spelling, and grammar.

5- Write the words, and an antonym, for each word. Same as above

6- Draw a picture and hide the words in the picture. I have not tried this one.

7- Write a story using most of your words. This is great for spelling, and writing skills.

8- Make a spelling rainbow. I have not tried this one.

9- Write spelling definitions. From each spelling list, I pick 10 words to be the weekly vocabulary words. He looks them up in his dictionary. I will post tips for teaching vocabulary tomorrow.

10- Write your words, and write if they are a noun, verb, adjective, pronoun, adverb, or compound word. I have not tried this one yet, but probably will for fourth grade.

11- Make a cartoon using the spelling words. I have not tried this one.

I hope this can be helpful to anyone, who needs to help teach their child to spell.

Day 1 Activities for 3rd Grade 09/02/08

The first day of school is Sept 2nd. I am posting the first day of class activities.

Tues 09/02/08
Spelling List Lesson 1: fast, bird, nine, life, since, kill, cannnot, egg, water, mark, person, quite, beside, sister, forest. Write each spelling word two times each. Once in print, and once in cursive.

Vocabulary words Lesson 1: fast, bird, kill, cannot, egg, person, mark, quite, forest, beside. Use your dictionary to look up and write the definition for each word.

Math: Add and subtract 2 digit numbers, multiplication single digit numbers,

Read 1st chapter of Dinosaurs Before Dark

Writing assignment: Things I want to learn to do.

Language Arts: Phonics review, Nouns, Building Sentences.

Science: Plants and animals of the sea lesson 1 Crabs. This is a multi week lesson, with various activities for each topic. At the end of Sept a field trip to the Ocean at Shyree Island is planned.

PE: 30 minutes

Recess: 30 minutes

At the end of the day, if there is time left over one of several things can be done. Take a tour of the marine mammal center at http://www.marinemammalcenter.org/learning/education/mammalinfo/mammals.asp
Secrets of the oceans realm learning page at http://www.pbs.org/oceanrealm/index.html
play online educational games, arts and crafts, play educational games on leapster l-max, music, or spanish lessons. Any educational documentaries on TV are also allowed at the end of the day.