Learn to Draw, A in Science, Cool Parks

Science class this Tuesday, is about rocks. So tomorrow for Art class, Dj and Caitlin will be learning to draw rocks, using the short tutorial below.

I have blogged about our attempts to grow a garden, for a Science project. I am proud to say, that this year we got an A. We have been enjoying big fat tomatoes for some time now. I must say though, we bought tomato plants this year, rather than from seeds. It was easier, and worked much better. We have peppers, and cukes coming on right now, as I write this. Container planting, has been the miracle for the cukes. I have one pepper plant in the ground, in the other in a Topsy Turvy, that I purchased as an experiment. At first the Topsy Turvy appeared to be quite useless, but now is growing at a speed much faster than the one in the ground. I may buy another to put in tomatoes. My lettuce, and onions, while still growing, I think will not produce any veggies. I think I waited too long, and will have to try them again, come winter. Not bad, don't you think?

Yesterday, my husband had to take the kids, and the car back to the dealership to sign more paper work. Since I worked the night before, I was going to sleep. He told me he had found a cool park in Gainesville, he was going to take the kids to. Come to find out it was a park, with a huge swimming pool. In this huge swimming pool, was a huge two story water slide. Of course my kids wanted to go down it. Thank goodness the lifeguards have a test kids must take before they are allowed to do this. Caitlin was unable, but DJ had to be able to swim 50 yards, half a football field, without stopping or touching the ropes. My husband said he thought he was going to fizzle out at the end, but he did it, and he got to go down the slide. He said the first time it was kind of scarey because the steps were very steep, but after the first try it was ok. He said he had to get out of the way fast, because they do not make people wait to come down, until you are out of the way. That was probably the only negative thing I could say about this park. If you are going to implement safety rules, why not go all the way? At any rate, they had a great day, and then got to swim in our pool too.




Lesson Plans for 06/01/09:

Math: Graphs, multiplying two digits, division
Reading: Read pages 221-261 of Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone
Art: Learn to draw rocks
Music: I can play piano

Fun Friday 1969 The Year I Was Born

The topic for todays Fun Friday, is the year you were born. I was born in 1969, in upstate NY. The assignment was to look up the year you were born, and see how much things cost, way back then.

A Gallon of gas was a whopping .35 man oh man that is cheap.
Gallon of milk was $1.10 this seems kind of expensive compared to gas, and stamps
Stamps were .06
A new home was 40,000 this too seems high to me, unless this was a swanky, nice home. You can still get a home for that today, not a very nice one, but a house indeed.
A new car was 2,000 now that is my kind of price


Here are a few more things about 1969:

Minimum wage was only 1.60
The number one song the week I was born was, In The Year 2525, I have never even heard of this song.
I could not find the movie the week I was born, but Midnight Cowboy, was the Oscar winner for Best Picture, that year.
Of course August 1969 we landed on the moon.
Laugh In was the number one TV show.
Who could forget Woodstock.

I find it hard to imagine if minimum wage was only 1.60 how anyone could afford a home, car, or even a gallon of milk. Maybe it was an inflation year, but it just does not seem to add up.

If you would love to join in our Fun Friday topics, please join Blogging For Fun. We are a small group of bloggers, whose goal is to support each other. Click on the green square, on my sidebar, to join.

Summer Vacation, Blogging, Kindergarten Curriculum

I have had a few people ask me, if the new logo, means I do not blog through the summer. The answer is no. We will be on Summer Vacation, from lessons, but I still blog all summer long. I do some paid posts, and may explore other topics to discuss.

DJ is not feeling well today, so he is just going to read his Harry Potter book. We need to finish it up by the end of the year. He will make up todays work tomorrow, which is test day.

This time of the year, is when I start doing my curriculum for next year, and finding the info to cover the lesson plans. I am posting Caitlin's kindergarten curriculum, with DJ's to follow soon. Because I do my own, I add or remove things I do not want in there. Some of the kindergarten stuff was kind of dumb, and I took it out. If you are looking for a free curriculum for your kindergarten child, please feel free to use it.

Kindergarten Mathematics:

Simple counting to 20
One to one relationships
Concepts of less, and more
Sequence of events
Recognition of basic sets
Simple addition, and subtraction
Introduction to a number line'
Shapes- elementary geometry
Introduction to a calendar, and clock
Basic money skills
Basic problem solving strategies

Kindergarten Health:

Personal hygiene
Good eating habits
Care of teeth
Major body parts
Physical fitness
Safety

Kindergarten Science:

Observation of everyday, familiar things
Common animals, and plants
Classification of living/nonliving things
Farm Animals
Care of Pets
The sun, our principal source of energy
Weather, and seasons
Temperature
Light
Colors
Senses
Same/different
Simple measurement

Kindergarten Social Studies:

Meanings of Holidays, traditions, and customs
Understanding and appreciating other cultures
Individuals role in family, community, and church
Work and jobs
Safety rules, and symbols
Basic human needs
Self respect, and self awareness
Location of home

Kindergarten Language Arts:

Phonics
Sight words
Listening to music, literature, and poetry
Nursery rhymes, fables
Social listening
Constructing visual images while listening
Oral communication skills
Role play
Following and giving directions
Organizing ideas
Relating events, and experiences using complete sentences
Beginning handwriting

I also add Music, Art, and Spanish. These are add ons, and we try to do them at least one day a week.

Say Hello To Our New Car

Well we have been talking about getting a new car, for a while. Could we afford it, did we really want to do it? Well let me just say, I have owned two Fords in my lifetime, and they both sucked. I would probably never buy a Ford again, though I must say I have always wanted a Mustang. We have been getting quotes, and ideas, from our local dealers for some time. Ford, Dodge, and Chrysler. We kept waiting for these awesome deals they were supposed to be going to have, because they had to move their inventory fast. Bull, do not fall for it, it is a load of crap. We even went in on Memorial Day, get a great deal right? Wrong, they had increased all their sticker prices, and the lowest monthly payment was 400 dollars. Are you kidding me, who pays that? I am sure some will, but I will not, that is outrageous. So anyway, after some internet searching I sent my husband off to Gatorland Kia, in Gainesville. Not only did he get a brand new 2009, plus got a decent trade on the crappy Ford we currently drive, but all kinds of rebates, and discounts, on the first try. Plus we get the Obama rebate for buying a new vehicle, on our taxes, next year. The payments are around 300, which I wanted a bit lower, but it is doable. I drove it last night, and it is a nice, smooth ride, and plenty of room, for the four of us. I love it!

Today is our swim playgroup date. So far the weather looks lovely. Though it does say 80 percent chance of rain. Since we moved the time up to 10 we should be OK. DJ worked hard yesterday, to get most of his work from yesterday, and today done, so we really do not have much to make up from today. We only have two weeks of school left, and then we are on Summer Vacation.

Lesson Plans for 5/28/09:

Math: Graphs, multiply by two digits
Writing: Concepts of a paragraph
Language Arts: Sentence fragments, spelling practice
Spelling: Lesson 33- Put your spelling words in alphabetical order
Vocabulary: Lesson 33- Write each vocabulary word, and definition, two times each
PE: 30 minutes