Lessons @ Our House

I post a lot about Tot School and Preschool but seldom mention what E and A are working on.  E is in 3rd grade and A is in first. So let's take a look.

E is working on her times tables and this great game idea came from a book called Games For Learning by Peggy Kaye and is called count your points.  E picks 2 cards and has to multiply them to find the product.  She takes the first card and draws the corresponding amount of vertical lines and then takes the 2nd card and draws the corresponding number of horizontal lines and what she is left with is a grid as shown above, then to find the answer she counts the # of intersecting points on the grid and whala, the answer.  The explanation may sound confusing but it isn't and it is a great tool for figuring out times tables.  i have seen E use it many times during math lessons.  In case you wanted to kno, our library has many of Peggy Kaye's books, so check it out if you need a pick me up for lessons.

This was a game A and I played many times this past fall.  A is working on addition and subtraction, so a pair of dice, a number line and a coloring page make great practice.  A rolled the 2 dice and I decided if he needed to add or subtract the 2 numbers, he found the answer on his number line and then colored in the correct number of apples.  A and I played this together and we each colored in the apples.

Another great addition game from Peggy Kaye's book.  This game is also played with a pair of dice and a self-drawn rainbow.  I remember playing this one with E and we always had fun.  Draw a rainbow and label it with 12 segments, then take turns rolling and coloring in the corresponding number, the first one with a completed rainbow wins.

Yep, my baby is ironing.  E is in a Keeper's of home club and she was introduced to the skill of ironing and she truly enjoys it.  She always asks to iron her dress for church and is willing to iron Jay's shirts.  Next to work on laundry skills.

Another Keeper's skill E is working on at home is cake baking and decorating.  E made a maple cake and decorated it using a leaf tip and pastry bag (don't ask why a quarter of the cake is cut off, all  I will say is my pretty cake plate is gone). This was also a cooking project as a follow up to our study of  Snowflake Bentley and Vermont.

E and A have both been working on compound words.  Here A is copying them into his notebook.

A is using our moveable alphabet and 3 letter objects to spell and read.

A is working on identifying beginning sounds of 3 letter words.

 In addition to these things we have been studying Abraham Lincoln and U.S. History, biblical character traits, fractions, poetry, cursive, grammar and piano. I hope to finish up our school year with a unit study on oceans and Harriet Tubman.

What our your children working on these days?

Preschool

Here are some things K has been working on during our lesson time.  It amazes me that last year at this time she didn't know her alphabet and had just begun to count and now she knows all the letters and sounds and can count to 30.  Enjoy!

Family name cards--K is using bottle cap letters to match and learn her name,our last name and the other members of our family.

Playing a listening bingo game called Soundtracks

K has accomplished 24 piece puzzles and has moved onto giant floor puzzles and 50 piece puzzles.  Puzzles come out multiple times a week around our house.

These are stones with the ABC's on them and she is putting them in order.

Putting numbers one to ten in order.

K is using the same snowmen cards but this time she is practicing one to one correspondence using colored paper clips as counters.

K playing with a balance scale to find the heaviest animal.

Practicing counting with bottle caps and numbers from 10 to 20.

Sorting letter beads.

Sorting letters.

Books I Like

Well my friends we are already well into 2011 and I meant to do this book post at the beginning of the New Year but life takes me by storm many times.

So first for the books I hope to enjoy this year.   For Christmas dear Jay bought me 2 books by Francine Rivers.  The first is Her Mother's Hope and the second is an anthology called A Lineage of Grace.  The first book I am currently reading at it is very thought provoking and enjoyable.  It is a multi-generational story based on the author's own family.  The second book is a compilation of novelas written by Rivers on the 5 women in the lineage of Jesus.  I know they will not disapoint.  In case you were wondering who the five ladies are--Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba and Mary.

In this photo you can see A Lineage of Grace plus several others on my "hope to read list."


Character Sketches--This is put our by The Institute for Basic Life Principles.  It is a great book incorporating both character, nature study and bible. We will be using this in our morning breakfast time.


Amon's Adventure--This is an Easter book.  The children and I are very much looking forward to reading this later in the month.  We read one of the Christmas books in this series, Jotham's Journey, and were amazed at the twists and turns in the story, it was beyond excellent (can I say that?) for a children's book.

Elizabeth George books--I am currently rereading A Woman After God's Own Heart.  I read this for the first time when Emry was a baby and it is still as wonderful. It covers the topics of homemaking, marriage, children, spiritual growth and ministry.  A Woman Who Reflects the Heart of Jesus, is the new George book for the year.  It is a study of 30 character qualities Jesus exhibited throughout his life that we are to display in ours.

Sally Clarkson--Sally is another one of my favorite "mom" authors.  Her ministry is all about being a mom.  Her blog is called I Take Joy and is always full of encouragement.  In the photo is the book called Season's of a Mother's Heart.  I have been awaiting this one for several years.  It is about the changing seasons in the life of a wife and mother.



Photoed below are some of my favorite reads of 2010

Real Learning--When I read this book last summer, I could not put is down.  Jay and I were in Napa and I kept reading him passages and he said "it's as if you wrote this book."  So many of Elizabeth Foss's words I have said, thought or felt.  If you are on a homeschooling journey I cannot recommend this book enough.  I was just so stunned to read my heart flowing from someone else's words.  Elizabeth also has 2 great blogs Serendipity and In the Heart of My Home.

The Privilege--Kay Smith is the wife of Pastor Chuck Smith, founder of Calvary Chapel.  I have been attending Calvary Chapel since 1995 and December was the first time I ever read a Kay book and wow was I blessed and encouraged.  This book fed my heart time and time again.  Many of the chapters I have read 2 if not 3 times.  Kay wrote this book for pastor's wives but the ministry of a PW stretches all the way to us homemaking mama's and wives.  Get this book, read it, underline it and reread it over and over again, you will be blessed to be in the presence of Kay in your very own home. One of my "life manuals."

Raising Godly Tomatoes--I did not by the book but read it online.  I have printed it out and bound it, yes it was that good.  Strange title but read it and you will understand.  This is a child training book that will challenge you in raising your dear ones. It will encourage you to think about heart issues rather than just behavior.  I also like this book because a bush is never beaten around, just frank talk on child raising and discipline. Another "life manual" that hasn't left my bedside.

Snowmen at Night--a cute story of what snowmen do at night and why they can look all slumped over in the morning.  We first borrowed it from the library but now we own it.

Enough for now, I hope you enjoy a little bit of what makes me tick.