Sunday, May 29, 2011

Being Patriotic

flag
This weekend is when we celebrate Memorial Day.  But, it means so much more than just special store sales, and picnics, and parades.  so, what does it mean?  We are to honor and remember those in the military service.
soldier
What can we do to teach our children to honor those who gave their lives for our freedom?
~ We can go to the parade
~ We can have them memorize/read some patriotic poetry
~ We can have them color a picture, and write what Memorial Day means to them
~ We can have them write a letter to a soldier
~ We can have them pray for those currently serving and their families
~ We can teach them about proper flag etiquette
~ We can read books about men and women who gave their lives
~ Have a discussion on what is meant by “Freedom isn’t free”

I’ll end this post with this little poem:

One Nation Under God

by Roger Robicheau
One Nation Under God we live
Think about all some had to give

We the people share freedom’s life
In a world of ever present strife

Be grateful to those who keep this true
Warriors of our red, white, and blue

They're trained by those of great skill
Honed to perform, so strong their will

They show what love is all about
They’ll fight for us, there is no doubt

Defending bravely what we are
No holding back each heartfelt star

Highly praise these men and women
Giving thanks time and again

Those in uniform will always be
The golden pride of this country

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Notable Noah

One of the things we have finished recently is his room.  Finally, it is the way we both agree on .  He like wolves, so that is the main theme.  006The “pile” under the desk is one thing we don’t agree on, but I have to learn…it’s his room. 
He says it is his hideout.  It is cute when he holes himself up in there, though. 

007 
008
The RED PART  says “The N Cave”  I love this: he makes request:  1. Get a hug  2.  Play a board game with mom.  So, if I want to go into his room, I have give him a hug, or play a game. 

Sunday, May 22, 2011

School on Sunday??

When I got an email last week saying there was to be a Geography Expo on Sunday, I knew I should take Noah.  I mean, I kind of feel bad because we have not done a whole lot of geography this year.  This was put on by the homeschool group in our area. 
We are changing that for next year though.  This time next year he will be a geography champ (in my mind anyway)

So, here are a couple of pictures I took today. 
geo exp 4
Love this one! His eyes, just say, Egypt has HOW MANY people?

geo expo - 1
So, they got passports and had to fill out some main facts, when they did that, they got to get a stamp.  In some cases it was a flag sticker. 
If Noah could not find the info, then he did not put on a stamp.  That was his choice, he said he didn’t fill it out completely.  {Even when the board didn’t have the info on it}  He’s a major rule follower – that one!  But that is a good thing.

geo expo 3 geo expo 2
And, most of the tables had food from the countries they could taste.  He is tasting fresh mango.  He didn’t like it. 

Friday, May 20, 2011

Our special trip!

Noah has finished his school work for the year, and when that happens I like to do something fun.  This year we wrapped it all up with a “little” hike, on a bit of the Appalachian Trail.   {that’s what we’ve been learning about.}  And a trip to one of his favorite restaurants – Red Lobster!  Seriously, we have to save up for this child to eat there – does he love his seafood!

threetwo

But, first we had this tiny hike.  Really, it wasn’t long – it was very muddy. 

appalachian traillast day of school! 003 

 

appalachian traillast day of school! 004

Just hanging out at the trail marker.

 

appalachian traillast day of school! 005

edible plant life

 

appalachian traillast day of school! 008

See!  VERY muddy

appalachian traillast day of school! 018 

 

appalachian traillast day of school! 019

appalachian traillast day of school! 021

observing – for the second time-

a worm he didn’t want walked on.  Worms were everywhere!

appalachian traillast day of school! 023

Umm… why walk on the planks when you

can walk in the mud?

 

appalachian traillast day of school! 025

BIG TEMPTATION for a child.

appalachian traillast day of school! 026

See?  He just HAD to.

 

We both had a fun day, a good end to a good school year. 

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Ice Cream Reading!

Thursday is our last day of school for the year!  We will have one week off before we begin our summer stuff! 

Noah will have to read 11 books this summer (one more than last year).  When he does this he will get something of his choosing. Last year, he choose a Swiss Army knife.  Boy, does he love to carve things! 

I am going with an ice cream cone theme this summer, and found a cute printable (probably cause it's for preschoolers to color) 

~if you life this one, click it to print your own~
I plan on decorating the "flavors" in all kinds of fun ways.  Can you imagine an ice cream with eleven flavors! 
Have fun reading!

Monday, May 16, 2011

For my son...

My son Noah loves this song... 
Tim Hawkins is very funny.  I usually don't get into comedians much, but he usually has me laughing.  Noah oftens repeats parts of this song... 

Oh well... it is a dreary Monday morning and I thought I cheer everyone up a little (or waste a little time, before getting back to my cleaning!)

Erin

Who doesn't love a break now and then?

Last week, we had a beautiful day -- too nice to stay inside and do work.  Either mine or his! 

So...  we went to the lake for a little walk and some fishing. 



From this....

To this...

To finally this....

He didn't actually go to sleep... just enjoying the sun! 

Saturday, May 14, 2011

What we couldn’t do without…

I am going to attempt to list what we couldn’t live without while we homeschool.  These things… just make life easier. 

Pencils – And lots of them.  Not the kind you have to sharpen.  No… he would take most of the day just to sharpen a pencil  (to get out of his work of course)
The mechanical kind, and even better that that we use the smaller ones.  - these seems to help his writing a little.
They all go into a little magnetic cup holder thingy on his white board which sits right next to him. 
school obects 002school obects 003

A Timer – definitely  a timer to keep him on task.  We just use the timer that is on the Ipod Touch.  This is fun for him, because I let him choose the “alarm sound”  -- something fun like ducks quacking or a car honking, or something like that.  I don’t know why, but a timer works  for him.

A schedule -  At the beginning of this school year, I used a form of schedule like workbox.  
006007 
workboxtags1(click the picture for the site)  This is where I got the wonderful ideas for these workbox tags!  Thanks Robin at Heart of Wisdom. 

While this type of schedule worked for Noah, we tried something different later in the year. 

My printer and computer – I use both of these just about everyday.  There is always some worksheet or something invaluable  to benefit us in our schooling.

A lapsize white board, and dry erase marker -  we use this all the time for practice work.  Just another “different” way of practicing new skills.  Like math facts, new grammar rules, or drawing, etc.
click for where to get one!

Netflix – Netflix is awesome for school.  It has so many documentaries (or just movies that go with what we were learning)  on instant play. 

Ipod Touch/Ipad -   we personally have the Ipod Touch.  There are so many educational apps these days. 
Many of which are free.  We also use it for his Bible reading, SOME book reading, and listening, and for music of course. 
These are just a few of the things we couldn’t live without… I am sure there are many more I have forgotten. 

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my 9 year old!  He has waited a long time to be nine!  About a week ago, he sat down and says he needs to make a list of things that he needs to do when he is nine. He called it his "Nine year old Resolution"  Then he proceeds to ask his dad if he made his birthday resolution (his dad's birthday is on the same day) 

I forget what he has planned for the next year, but you can be sure there are plans.  Noah always plans.  He has plans all the way up to and including when he is too old walk any more.  ... he will get a hoverround, of course.  (and, don't you know that by that time they will actually hover!)  His words, for real. 

Anyway, here are some pictures on how we celebrated Noah's 9th birthday.
He is into making his own cards games lately.  This is what he is doing -- playing party games!


Waterproof Bible. 




His new bike!


Getting ready for high fives from dad.  Loves the Battleship game they got to play together!


Ninja cake cheese cake


Ending the day with sparklers.  (those are his rockets boosters)


I hope that you have a very good year, my Noah.  I love you! 

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Math Manipulation

This may be not at all what you are thinking this post will be about.  It is not about those little blocks, bears, or other counting devices used for math. 

This is about my experience with my child’s “manipulation”  in my TRYING to teach him his math.  Now, I say manipulation because I know that he is VERY capable of doing his math sheets.  But, is constantly a struggle to get him to do it.  Why?

So, then, I ask myself about every other day (as I am trying not to totally lose my cool over this)  Why will he take 2 hours for ONE paper?

This comes from a child who:  has a wallet full of money, and when wanting to buy something will calculate correctly how much he can spend, how much will be left, – and do this all quickly in his head!  {he does this in everyday life on a number of occasions}

As I am standing beside him, dumbfounded, I am silently asking myself. “Is this boy playing me, or what?”  I mean “is this the same boy that takes up to 2 hours to complete a paper. 

In order to improve our school time (paper work) I have come to these conclusions:

1.  Pick your battles – we break up the way we do our math for school.  Some days Timez Attack, sometimes multiplication.com, sometimes we practice facts with dice.  Not to say, we do away with the papers, we don’t, they are important.

2. We now use a timer.  He actually loves this.  I let him choose the “times up sound” from the Ipod touch himself.  I give him 20 minutes for the paper.  And you know what?  He gets it done!

3.  I have cut back a little on the “daily drills”.  Personally, this one was hard for me, because I believe facts should be memorized as this was the way I learned them.  But everyone is different.  To be honest, he has never benefited from constant, repetitive review.  He seems to shut down, when it’s “review time”.    Does he still get practice everyday?  Yes.  In the form of his work papers.  If the answer is wrong he needs to redo it.  That is enough for now because:

4.  When something is important enough it gets learned.  I have seen this over and over again.  For example, his money is important to him.  So, I take that an a learning opportunity.  (I can sneak in a few multplication/division facts.)  And, really, do you learn what you are interested in?

5.  Learning should not be about a battle between you and your child.  He learned his facts this year. 

It’s all about finding what works so you and your child – hopefully I have done that. 

Noah's 4th grade reading list

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