Math Monday #homeschool

We decided to come back yo Math-U-See for math this week. To celebrate the boys combined their blocks to create a tower. They worked together and shared blocks without arguing. Happy Mommy.

Lesson Plans for the week of November 7th #homeschool #lessonplans

So I decided to share my lesson plans for the week.

Cameron:
Scripture for the week:  Proverbs 12: 17, 28
Math: we are trying a new program for supplemental work (I will post our review next week)
Science: Rockets (he received a fun science kit for his birthday and wants to do it this week)
Reading: Mouse and the Motorcycle (Reading with Daddy)
History: Civil War (he only gets 1 day of History this week, we are spreading it out so he doesn't get obsessed with it)
Art: New program we are introducing including a little Art History

Nathan:
Scripture: Genesis 1: 1, 31
Math: Math-U-See Introduction to Math Lesson 24 and 25
Science : Rockets with brother
Reading: not sure yet, we are going to pick a new program to try this week
Art:  Program with brother


We also have Cameron's youth group field trip for Operation Christmas Child on Tuesday, Homeschool Co-Op on Wednesday , and an full evening of activities Thursday including our monthly Gleaner's meeting.

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Unionvale Homeschool loves Math-U-See we use it as our primary Math program for both boys. We are currently using the Classical Curriculum which is the older publication as we were blessed with a Foundations teacher's guide several years ago and will use it with both the boys until we switch to the new format.  I love the hands on aspects as well as the videos and simple worksheets. I watch the videos and then teach the concept as the boys aren't super excited about the videos but they are both still young. When we switch to the  new format I will have at least Cameron use the DVD as part of his lessons.

Our first week of #homeschhol

We survived our first week with only a few tears and a lot of proud moments.

Some things that worked:

1. the file folder modification to the workboxes has been a HUGE success.
2. Color Coding, at first the boys grumbled that we were continuing with the color coding from last year but it has made it easier for them and for Mom.
3. Consistent order to what is in the folders. I may rearrange the order of the folders later but this week they were all the same.


Some thins that need some tweaking:
1. I think I am going to try and offset the start times a little more... Having the boys at the table together is fine but I think if I start Cameron 15 minutes before Nathan he will get a little more quiet time. Once he gets settled into the new year I may let him take his folders to a different spot in the house or even outside but for now I'm going to keep them at the table.

2. Nathan needs to move faster in his Math-U-See , I think I'm going to test him and possibly skip a couple lessons or maybe move him into Foundations sooner rather than later.

3.Cameron needs more coloring/ artsy activities as well as a history unit soon... I need to add another folder to his mix soon rather than later...

Lesson Planning Count Down

So I realized today I have 2 weeks (actually less) until we start back to school... My lesson plans are mapped out as a guide but not finished.
Today I'm lesson planning and doing it here on the blog.

August 1st will be the beginning of the school year for us.
Here is what I have planned:

Cameron:
Monday: Scripture Verse, Math-U-See Review lessons 19/20 in foundations, Animal Classification Review and Notebook set up,  Read Animal Book from Basket and fill out Book Form, Phonics and Grammar (????)

Tuesday: Journal Prompt from 730 Journal Prompts (Two for Every Day of the Year) : August 2nd: "What is your favorite cool drink in the summer? Explain how to make it." , Math-U-See Lesson 20, Animal Activities, Read Animal Book from the basket and fill out Book Form (I'm going to make a themed form if I can't find one is a book), Phonics and Grammer (Primary Concepts Activity Board)

Wednesday: Journal Buddies,  Math-U-See Lesson 20,  Game Day : I Spy Animals, Phonics and Grammar : Primary Concepts Activity Board for review.

Thursday: Journal Prompts: 730 Journal Prompts Aug 4th "Would you rather be a starfish or a seahorse? why?", Math: Elephant game from Linking attribute Elephants,  Animal Notebook page for Elephants, Read an Animal Book from the Basket, Grammar (Montessori Sentence diagrams,)


Nathan:
Monday: Morning Message, Scripture Verse (Copywork), Math-U-See Foundations lesson 13, Introduce K-W-L (still looking for a small science journal),  Harvest unit

Tuesday: Morning Message , Phonics Activity Board, Math-U-See lesson 13, Magnetic word wall activities with word families, Harvest Unit

Wednesday: Morning Message, Math-U-See Lesson 13,  Word Families Readers, Harvest Unit

Thursday: Morning Message, Elephant Math Game with Cameron, Harvest Unit, Word Family Games


There , ok that wasn't so bad... I now have it written down and can start filling the folders.  I picked up a multi-colored file folder pack at Walmart the other day so I could pull the blue and green folders out for the boys. I am keeping the black ones for myself but the turquoise and red will go to Mike for the shop files.

Consistent things

I realized the other day that nothing is really consistant in our homeschool. We are always tweaking things to hopefully improve them. I decided to find some of the consistant things and focus on those this week.

1. A plan, I always start the week with some kind of plan. We don't always stick to it, but we start somewhere. Currently I am using Scholaric for lesson planning.I can plan for each of the boys separately and I can print their weekly plan by subject or by days.

2. Unit Studies, I try to have a unit study going for our main lesson combining history, science, Bible, geography, and reading. Right now we are focusing on the Civil War.

3. Math, we working on Math 3 -4 days a week. This week we are back into our Math-U-See books. The boys each have their own blocks. Nathan is using our mixed set of Math-U-See blocks in a Green box while Cameron has a set of Morteson blocks we were given. The colors match across both sets which is a blessing.

Cameron's blocks inside a Playmobile carrying case. The Ziploc bag has a set of color matched crayons and a pencil.

Nathan's block box inside a Steralite container with his 

tactile numbers cards and a Ziploc bag of color matched crayons.

The cards I made were inspired by Montessori sandpaper letters and numbers.

I used green, blue, and red glitter glue to make a set of numbers to match the place values on Decimal Street. They serve as a reminder when he forgets how to write a number, he can find the number, trace it with his finger and then write it. 

4. Computer time is a reward. I let the boys play Webkinz, Webkinz jr, or Lego.com games as a reward for finishing their school work. Cameron's new favorite game is Star Wars on Lego.com.

Have a great weekend and Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms out there.

M is for Math

When I asked the boys to help pick the topics for the rest of the A to Z Blogging challenge Nathan said , "M is for Math, silly Mommy" and then he giggled.... so I thought I would share what we do for Math at Unionvale Homeschool.

Last year I was blessed to receive a partial set of Math-U-See Blocks (it wasn't a full basic set but is and was functional). My boys fell in love with the blocks and immediately started building with them...  I bought Math-U-See Classic materials second hand so figured we would do O.K.  We have like so many other elements in our homeschool modified it to meet the boys learning styles and currently are just using the blocks with basic math facts sheets.

I did build the boys a Decimal Street on Poster Board covered with clear contact paper so we could practice place values. When I originally built it Nathan was struggling with writing his numbers so I made a set of number cards 0-9 color coded for each place value. I also used glitter glue to write the numbers on the card so the cards became a tactile learning element as well. The cards now live in the box with the math blocks for a reminder on how to form the numbers.

Currently the boys are practicing math facts using pages I downloaded and printed from Donna Young's website She has a wonderful collection of homeschool and home planning pages to download for free. You can also purchase a CD collection from her website.

We will go back to our books next month to introduce some new concepts and move on, but for now both boys are thriving on the single worksheet / review sheet in their workbox folders.

Workbox/ Math-U-See Game

For Christmas Cameron received a package of dice, 3 regular 6 sided dice and 2 12 sided number dice. We will be adding these into our workboxes along with his decimal street game supported by his Math-U-See blocks and book. Currently we just come up with the number for him to build and write on Decimal Street, with the new 12 sided dice we can roll for our number (I had hoped to get some 9 sided dies but no luck at the local stores I was at.) The Game will work something like this... Each player will roll the die and write the number in the Units section of decimal street, then roll again to get the tens number as well as the hundreds place. If they roll a 10, 11, or 12 they will have to roll again for now...
Both boys can play the game together or by themselves. roll, say, write, build, repeat.

Workboxes loaded and ready for take off.

I loaded the workboxes for Tuesday and planned the rest of the week.

C:
Workboxes this week include:
Lesson 5 from Foundations Math-U-See
Letter writing : Thank you letters from his birthday.
History/Geography: Abeka 1st grade: Symbols of America
Science: Abeka 1st grade: Baby Animals
Art: Little Boy Adventures (I think we are almost done with this one..)
phonics worksheets
Lego building: Lego City Tow Truck (birthday present)

N:
Letter O: My Father's World worksheets
Number 3: workbook
Unit Study: Hands of a Child : Down on the Farm Day 4
Sid the Science Kid: coloring and exploring pages
wipe off board: letter practice and word creation.
Tic Tac Toe: wipe off card... with Mommy or Brother
History with brother

I also have a couple craft projects for us this week including a collage for Thanksgiving, button flowers, cork boards from bottle corks, and spool kids from vintage thread spools.
The boys want to hit the bookstore and reading room this week so I think that will be fit in to Tuesday or early Wednesday before co-op but we will see... since we took today off for the most part we have to hit the books harder Tuesday and Thursday to make up for it, but I know they can do it.

Workboxes this week

So I decided to share our workboxes this week.

C: 1st grade
Today (Monday was much the same)
1: Computer time (starfall.com for phonic activities)
2. Starfall phonic print outs. Compound words and number words. (He got to work with Papa today as a treat... they did a great job together)
3. Math-U-See Foundations Lesson 4: skip counting by 2 , solving for an unknown, and build and solve simple addition.
4. Art: Watch me Draw "A Boy's Adventure from Walter Foster
5. Bible Time: Continue building our 10 Commandments Train book and reading Scripture Sleuth Series.
(we didn't get through the rest of the boxes today, but that was a pretty big day...)

N: PreK/K
1: My Father's World Letter T day 2 and a Leap Frog beginning sounds page.
2: white board writing
3: computer time with Starfall.com letter activities for Letter T
4: (we had some behavior issues so he didn't get to do anymore boxes today...)

I need to take a picture of the set up as it is working so well for us and the boys both like their cards (Thanks, Honey!!!).

I need to write up some more reviews I have worked up but need to put Nathan to bed for the night...

First Day of School Ready or Not here we come...

Tomorrow (Monday) will be the first day of school for the "new" year around here.
Cameron will be working on Jamestown with our online co-op and Hands of a Child and Math-U-See Foundations (Chapter 11 already, he is flying through it..), while Nathan will be working through his workboxes that include My Father's World Kindergarten (letter L this week), Math-U-See Introduction (we are counting unit blocks this week) Boogle Jr for L words, white board for coloring, drawing, general play fun, beading with foam beads, and cutting out leaves that he gets to color.

I have several fun activities for Cameron to pick from to go between his real work... Legos and Playmobil are his favorites as well as simply coloring anything he can get his hands on. Should be fun...

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