Week in Review: Oak Meadow Kindergarten ~ Week 16/17

It was back to business as usual this week, meaning we did approximately two days of school here and there.  But still managed to fit in two week's worth of content so I'd say we broke even.

Thankfully the first "week" was a review of letters A-L.  Sister wrote them all in pencil first and only needed to erase and re-write a slightly confused J.

We read the story "The Golden Spider" to introduce number 8 and sister asked to find the combinations of 8 on our dominoes before directing another how-to video which I assume we will be doing from here to 10.

Our science lessons for both weeks included stories about growing plants which is fitting since we are seeing many things sprout in our garden and around the neighborhood.

We also celebrated Earth Day this week which sister and I commemorated with a wet and windy  walk.

It was her idea and I'm glad I accepted her invitation since that one-on-one time is hard to come by these days.  We also put together our (Melissa & Doug) world puzzle and sister drew her version of the world which is really far better than anything I likely could have produced at age 5.

Another thing sister picked up this week was what she calls weaving or needling.  Her dad bought her some yarn a couple weeks back and she's been using Popsicle sticks to keep her hands busy while on the move

or in moments of stillness.

I wish I had hand-working skills in order to nurture her interest and am trying to talk myself into diving in for her sake.  Any points in the direction of knitting or crocheting would be welcomed.

We rounded out the week with a review of numbers up to 8 which sister has learned how to make starting with an X

as well as letter M via one Miss Moppet (photos by sister)

We are getting closer to a decision about school next year, and though it may look differently than anything I imagined over the course of this year, I am feeling more at peace with it than I imagined I would be.  I hope to share more here soon.

Here's hoping all these April showers are good for something!  

May is on its way.

 

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Week in Review: Oak Meadow Kindergarten ~ Week 14/15

For the first time in our near four months of homeschooling, we had school every day this week.  

Every day.

How, you ask?  Why?  I'm afraid I cannot answer that.  If sister didn't suggest it herself, she happily obliged when I did.  And it was a great, learning filled week.  

One of the focuses and much of the fun this week was exploring the number 7.  

We made houses built from just seven sticks 

and spent some time learning about the seven colors of the rainbow.  

Our dry erase colors were limited, but we made do and sister has been into indigo ever since.  

When I surveyed our surroundings and found some dominoes literally lying around the house, I decided to pull them into our seven work as well.  

We found the three combinations for making seven which sister displayed for a photo 

before requesting to film another how-to video assigning herself with the additional role of camera woman.  

This week we also discovered and captured on video her ability to belly roll.

Her talents abound.

Sister showed a lack of enthusiasm for drawing new letters K and L this week seen in her L drawing below:

This may have had something to do with the building anticipation of Easter day's celebrations.  Sister marked the upcoming occasion on the calendar with an egg more colorful than anything we produced when decorating the real deal.  This due to the fact that by the time we made it to the grocery store over the weekend, all the dye kits were sold out besides one (!) with an Iron Man theme.  

I mean, when I think Easter, I think Iron Man, don't you?

But hey- who's got time for buying dye kits when they're in school every day?

We didn't, and we didn't miss a thing.

Week in Review: Oak Meadow Kindergarten ~ Week 13

I donned my old professional hat for a few days this week so the kids got to spend lots of quality time with their grandparents and the sun came out which allowed us to rendezvous at the park one day for lunch.

Though far from the two week's worth we flew through last week, we did do some school work including an intrdocution to letter J:

It may not look like much at first glance, but it's actually a good representation of how far we have come in our homeschooling journey thus far.

As you can see on the right side of the paper, sister was working hard to glue down some yarn in the shape of a J as the curriculum suggested.  I gave it a try too but still no luck.  I've avoided wet glue in our lesson books so we problem solved out loud about how to approach what was proving to be a challenging task.  In the past, I think we would have both become frustrated pretty quickly, but I stayed calm and sister came up with a solution: tape the yarn to the paper.  She was further excited when discovering that you can color on top of tape.  

Small triumphs.

We also reviewed numbers 1-6, with the curriculum suggesting we match the numbers to a group of obejcts.  I divided a sheet of paper into six boxes for sister (though I realized I could and should have coached her on how to do it herself) and she wrote in one number per box. 

I gave her a handful of paper clips with each of the quantities linked together.  Counting was tricky and some of the links had to be switched around after recounting

but with brother lending a hand 

they were able to get the job done.

Sister couldn't resist the opportunity to up-cycle the paper clips by connecting them all together and adding a little bling to her outfit.

When soaking up the sunshine that stuck around through the end of the week, sister concocted a "potion" of various backyard items including recent addition: the bluebell.

She assured me that the chickens were appreciative.  I hope the neighbors were, too.

We did one day of Easy Peasy on the computer and sister continues to amaze me with how quickly her reading skills are progressing.

More than just ability, her confidence is blossoming.  After taking turns reading a page each in "Happy Birthday, Danny and the Dinosaur!" she offered to read the book by herself first to me and later to Daddy.    

Uncertain of what the future holds, I amstriving  to remain grateful for now.

Now is magic.  

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