Weekly Wrap up

Yet another week of school has come to an end.  I am enjoying this year of homeschool SO much.  I think the kids are too. 
This week.....
Breanne created havoc, played some with her busy bags, screamed a lot, learned how to say  or rather YELL "OP!" (Stop), napped, made a lot of messes, and ate snacks.  Pretty normal week for our little toddler.

Trent worked on the letter Cc.  We reinforced the letter name and sound, worked on some worksheets (rhyming, beginning sounds, and abc order), did math (Trent's favorite), and a couple of reading lessons from Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons. 

Marissa read a lot of books (she is determined to finish her 100 books before Audrey does), passed off the last of her "black key" piano songs, worked on adding and subtracting (single digits with double digits), learned about reading map keys, and worked on her handwriting.

Audrey read a lot of books (she is determined to finish her 100 books because she REALLY wants fake nails), took her first Math test of the year and (after a few corrections) passed with an 85%, finally passed off the word "giraffe" in spelling, learned how to read a map grid, learned about asking - exclaiming - and commanding sentences, and read from her Book of Mormon reader daily.

In Sciene we learned about the seasons and what causes them.  Each child made a seasons book.  We learned about the water cycle.  We also began talking about weather and made a rain guage.  Both girls predicted that we will have 0cm of rain this coming week.  They will continue to predict and chart our rainfall for the next 4 weeks.   

In History we finished learning about Columbus and learned about Ponce de Leon and how he discovered and named Florida.  Did you know that Florida means "flowers"?  I didn't.  We made old style maps charting Columbus's journey from Europe to America.  Our state for this week was New Jersey.  Did you know that New Jersey is called the garden state because more than half the state is still farms, woods, marshes, beaches and other undeveloped land?  New Jersey also grows 2/3rds of the world's eggplant!!!! 

We had a good week.  3 more weeks to go before our first break!  What did you do this week?

What's in the box: Audrey's 2012-2013 edition

I know you have ALL been DYING to know what's in Audrey's boxes this year.  Well, the long wait is over.  Here is the post you have been sitting on the edge of your seat, waiting for!  ;)

So, here we go.  Take a look at Audrey's new workbox set up.  If you look back to older "What's in the box posts" you will see that her boxes are not as varied in color scheme.  There is a reason for this.  I have color coded her boxes according to what type of activity is in them.  The top yellow box is for her school supplies (pencils, markers, scissors, ect.)  The next two green boxes are her independent study boxes.  The four purple boxes are her "do with Mom" boxes.  The bottom blue boxes are her group school boxes.  Now....what is IN each of those boxes you ask?  Read on, my friend, read on!

 Here we have box #1.  It contains her Evan and Moor Geography book.  She will do this independently and complete one page each day.  The tag for this is on the left side of the box.  On the right side is another tag, which is her practice piano tag.  She will be doing this independently this year.

 Box #2 contains her Faith in God activities.  It has her book, her check list, her journal, Article of Faith cards and other things she needs.  Each day she works on some aspect of Faith in God whether it is reading scriptures, writing in her journal, memorizing Articles of Faith or working on goals. On the right side of the box is a tag for her Typing.  We have typing instructor and she works on this every day.  This year I will be monitoring to make sure she is progressing.  Last year I just let her play around. 

 Box #3 is her first "do with Mom" box.  It has her spelling in it.  We use spelling power.  I like this curriculum because it keeps words together in rule groups and goes all the way through 12th grade.  PLUS, with this curriculum she never has to study and practice words she already knows how to spell.

 Box #5 is Math.  We love Singapore Math.  Audrey will be finishing up Math 2B (which is equivalent to beginning 3rd grade level Math) then moving on to 3A.

 Box #6 is for English.  This year we are trying out Rod and Staff grammar.  I am very excited to try it out! 

 Box #7 is not pictured.  It is her reading box.  Whatever book she is currently reading will be in it.

Box #8 begins our group school activities. All of the kids (excluding Bree, who will be napping) will participate together. This box has her Science notebook.  We are doing Elemental Science's Earth Science and Astronomy for the Grammar Stage this year.  It looks fun, and we really liked Biology last year, so I'm hoping we have more success with this curriculum.

 Box #9, and her last box, is her History notebook.  This year we are trying out Elemental History's Adventures in America.  It will take us on a trip of America from the Native Americans and first settlers up through the Civil War.  It looks like a lot of fun!  Unfortunately this is their ONLY curriculum so I will be on the hunt again next year.  :(

That concludes our session of What's in the box.  Tune in next time for........oh who knows what will pop up next!!!!  Hope you enjoyed seeing what Audrey will be doing this school year!!!

What ELSE is in the box?

Today we're taking a look at what's in Marissa's boxes.  Marissa is in Kindergarten but has done a lot of first grade work this year.  Marissa currently has 5 boxes.  Come fall she will have quite a few more.  As of right now, these are her boxes. 

Her first box, like Trent's, is her Calendar Notebook and media coupons along with the pens to fill out her notebook.

Marissa's second box contains her Math.  We use singapore math.  I love using it.  It works for us for many reasons.  Marissa has completed level 1A.  After she completed it I decided not to start her out on 1B quite yet and to spend some more time working on addition and subtraction facts.  She will start 1B in the fall (when she is officially a 1st grader) or when she finishes all of her addition and subtraction fact assignments this summer (which she is nearly done with and May isn't even over yet).

 Box number 3 used to hold Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons but she finished it months ago.  Currently it holds nothing because her reading assignments are on the computer doing a program called Funnix.  When she finishes up with funnix, this box will hold whatever chapter book she is currently reading.  Therefore, I just took a picture of the tag on the workbox. 

 Her next box holds her Handwriting.  After learning how to write all the letters, using the Handwriting without tears approach, I moved her into this book by Evan and Moor.  I have really liked it.  She is reviewing all of the letters right now, then she will do numbers and number words.  After that it all becomes copy work.  I can already see improvement in her handwriting.  She will probably be working in this book until the end of first grade.  If she does finish is up before then her handwriting will just be that in her other subjects.

For some reason, unbeknownst to me, she chooses to keep random objects in this drawer.

 Marissa's last box holds her Science book.  This year we used Elemental Science's Biology for the Grammar Stage.  I keep the two older girls together on Science and History and split the difference in their grade levels right now.  We have really enjoyed this curriculum.  Next year they will be doing Earth Science and Astronomy by the same company.  I'm planning on sticking with this company all the way through High School, that's how much I love it! 

Here is a close up picture of her section of workboxes.  You can see that the bottom drawer has 3 tags on it.  In general (and this will become more apparent when I show you Audrey's boxes) I put the tag for whatever is actually IN the box on the left of the drawer.  Tags on the right of the drawer are a visual reminder of subjects that need to be done but don't need a drawer.  On the bottom drawer she has science (which is actually in the drawer), a tag for history (which was a flop this year but will hopefully be better next year), and a tag for English (which we began with but thought our curriculum was so dumb that we stopped doing). 

Next year Marissa will have the following boxes:  General School supply box, Calendar Notebook box, Math, Handwriting, Science, History, and Geography. 
She will also have tags for Reading and Piano

So there's a peek into the school life of my kindergartener.  She is one bright little cookie and catches on to almost everything like lightning.  I feel very blessed to be able to homeschool her where I can allow her to excel in her academics and spend lots of time on character training to help with her temper.

What's in the box?

As many of you know we do a workbox system over here.  I thought that maybe you would like to get an idea of how it's set up and how it all works at our house.  I have three sets of rolling drawers.  These work AWESOME for us.  They are portable and lightweight.  They hold most things I need to put in them and they're colorful.  Audrey has her own set, Marissa will have her own set come fall since she will have more drawers, and the purple one will be Trent's (yes, he chose purple) and Bree's.  The tags on our workboxes come from here. 

Our Workboxes:  Left - Audrey Middle - Marissa (And currently Trent) Right - Will be Trent's and Bree's come fall

  Today, we are taking a look at what's in Trent's workboxes.  Trent is doing preschool.  We use the curriculum from here.  Trent has five workboxes.   His first workbox holds his Calendar notebook, his media coupons, and the markers he needs for his notebook.  We do this box as part of our daily devotional after breakfast each morning.

The other four workboxes are divided up by day.  He does one box on each day of the week.  (We don't do formal school on Wednesdays right now.  That is our homeschool co-op day.)  He gets to choose which box he does on which day.  Here he is doing his yellow box.  The yellow box usually contains:  A playdoh page for the letter of the week, a counting activitiy, a card with his name printed on it to practice writing and spelling his name, and an extra activity of some sort.  Some weeks the contents of the boxes will vary depending on exactly what activities I have for the letter of the week. 

Here Trent is sorting colored raindrops.  Marissa had to help.

Sorting big and little Uu.

The purple box usually contains: A coloring page representing the letter of the week, a Leap Frog video, a puzzle for the letter of the week, and a pre-writing activity.  (Obviously this week is a little off in what's in each specific box)

The green box usually contains:  Lacing cards, a color matching activity, a card to play on starfall, and an extra activity (usually cutting)

This box has been completed this week, but not cleaned out yet, thus the mutilated cutting paper.

 His last box, the red box, usually contains:  A do a dot page for the letter of the week, Big/little letter sorting, size sorting, and an extra activity. 

 Trent has a lot of fun and asks to do his school almost every day.  He's progressing well and will definitely be ready for kindergarten in another year.  Next fall his boxes will get shaken up a bit as he will be ready for more "intense" work.  This year we have been focusing on learning to:  Sit and concentrate, recognize letters and the sounds they make, recognize the numbers 1-10, put a puzzle together, and motor skills like lacing and cutting. 
I plan on doing a post for each child's workboxes so you can get a better idea of what each of their school days look like.