Kindergarten Week 4
Sep. 19th, 2010 07:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
entirelysonjaI was sick much of this week, so I got to learn the sick homeschool parent techniques of, "watch documentaries," "do lengthy art projects," and "read in bed."
Math
Erika made good progress in math this week, ending the week with the first page of word problems and puzzles in the Math Mammoth Addition 1 book. I was happy that she enjoyed the puzzles, since she'd been finding the ones in MEP frustrating. I get the impression that she's now starting to recognize that the puzzles are the interesting part. It gives me hope that we might be able to go back to MEP at some point.
English
The coolest thing that happened in English this week was a conversation we had in bed on a day when I was feeling particularly rotten:
Her: Can you read this book [Jumping Kangaroos]?
Me: How about we take turns?
Her: Why did you get this book?
Me: Because I thought you might like to read it.
Her: Oh, in that case, I'll read it.
Me: Are you sure? I'd be happy to take turns.
Her: No, I'll read it myself.
She then proceeded to read it out loud with decent fluency, only needing help with a few words. As a side note, this book contains a significant factual error -- it says that kangaroo babies, and indeed the babies of all marsupials, are born in the mother's pouch. Uh, no. I had to find a video of kangaroo birth on the Internet to correct that particular bit of misinformation.
Science
The most hands-on thing we did for science this week was observe the activities of ants we accidentally disturbed in our garden, and look for pillbugs. Ah, well -- not a complete loss, anyway.
We did do a bunch of other stuff, though. We continued watching the Australia the Beautiful documentary, and also watched the "Under Antarctic Ice" show from the Nature: Antarctica DVD. I read a book out loud about Australian animals, too.
We also took a trip to the Natural History Museum, where we looked at the Australia section of the Mammals exhibit and sketched the dingo. When we were done there, we revisited the exhibit on the evolution of the horse, and took a long look at the gems and minerals upstairs.
Social Studies
The documentary about Australia included information about geography and native people, so I'm counting that for Social Studies this week. I also read out loud from a book about Australia, and we continued our temperature-tracking activity.
German
Erika made excellent progress in her Einsterns Schwester books this week, finishing up book one with enthusiasm. She also attended the second session of her Saturday school program, where they bought their books and started with the real work of the class. The first step was to learn about the "Buchstabenhaus," which is a picture of a house containing an image for each sound in the language and the letter used to represent that sound. For example, a picture of the sun is shown for "S", since the word "sonne" is the German word for sun. The kids use this extensively to remember the sounds of the letters. Erika also had an in-class assignment to fill in the letters on a buchstabenhaus that just had the pictures, and the teacher though she did very good work.
Art
After seeing an artist creating Australian aboriginal art in the documentary, Erika was interested in seeing more, so I found some examples on the Internet. She wanted to try some for herself, so I helped her mix up some colors she liked and let her have at it. Interestingly, she opted against dots, choosing to outline her kangaroo with lines instead.
She also sketched the dingo in the mammals exhibit at the Natural History Museum.
Music
We continued our Benjamin Britten experience in Classics for Kids, and she had a piano lesson with John. Not terribly eventful.
PE
This week we went swimming once, had some playground visits, and the kids are starting soccer again this afternoon.
Health
I had Erika start using the Anki software to memorize important information, like her own full name and various family phone numbers. I consider this health because it's about safety.
She's making excellent progress on our cell phone numbers, and has remembered them successfully for a day now. I'm sure that within another week or so, they'll be pretty solid.
Math
Erika made good progress in math this week, ending the week with the first page of word problems and puzzles in the Math Mammoth Addition 1 book. I was happy that she enjoyed the puzzles, since she'd been finding the ones in MEP frustrating. I get the impression that she's now starting to recognize that the puzzles are the interesting part. It gives me hope that we might be able to go back to MEP at some point.
English
The coolest thing that happened in English this week was a conversation we had in bed on a day when I was feeling particularly rotten:
Her: Can you read this book [Jumping Kangaroos]?
Me: How about we take turns?
Her: Why did you get this book?
Me: Because I thought you might like to read it.
Her: Oh, in that case, I'll read it.
Me: Are you sure? I'd be happy to take turns.
Her: No, I'll read it myself.
She then proceeded to read it out loud with decent fluency, only needing help with a few words. As a side note, this book contains a significant factual error -- it says that kangaroo babies, and indeed the babies of all marsupials, are born in the mother's pouch. Uh, no. I had to find a video of kangaroo birth on the Internet to correct that particular bit of misinformation.
Science
The most hands-on thing we did for science this week was observe the activities of ants we accidentally disturbed in our garden, and look for pillbugs. Ah, well -- not a complete loss, anyway.
We did do a bunch of other stuff, though. We continued watching the Australia the Beautiful documentary, and also watched the "Under Antarctic Ice" show from the Nature: Antarctica DVD. I read a book out loud about Australian animals, too.
We also took a trip to the Natural History Museum, where we looked at the Australia section of the Mammals exhibit and sketched the dingo. When we were done there, we revisited the exhibit on the evolution of the horse, and took a long look at the gems and minerals upstairs.
Social Studies
The documentary about Australia included information about geography and native people, so I'm counting that for Social Studies this week. I also read out loud from a book about Australia, and we continued our temperature-tracking activity.
German
Erika made excellent progress in her Einsterns Schwester books this week, finishing up book one with enthusiasm. She also attended the second session of her Saturday school program, where they bought their books and started with the real work of the class. The first step was to learn about the "Buchstabenhaus," which is a picture of a house containing an image for each sound in the language and the letter used to represent that sound. For example, a picture of the sun is shown for "S", since the word "sonne" is the German word for sun. The kids use this extensively to remember the sounds of the letters. Erika also had an in-class assignment to fill in the letters on a buchstabenhaus that just had the pictures, and the teacher though she did very good work.
Art
After seeing an artist creating Australian aboriginal art in the documentary, Erika was interested in seeing more, so I found some examples on the Internet. She wanted to try some for herself, so I helped her mix up some colors she liked and let her have at it. Interestingly, she opted against dots, choosing to outline her kangaroo with lines instead.
She also sketched the dingo in the mammals exhibit at the Natural History Museum.
Music
We continued our Benjamin Britten experience in Classics for Kids, and she had a piano lesson with John. Not terribly eventful.
PE
This week we went swimming once, had some playground visits, and the kids are starting soccer again this afternoon.
Health
I had Erika start using the Anki software to memorize important information, like her own full name and various family phone numbers. I consider this health because it's about safety.
She's making excellent progress on our cell phone numbers, and has remembered them successfully for a day now. I'm sure that within another week or so, they'll be pretty solid.
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Your week
Date: 2010-09-19 07:33 pm (UTC)OyYhyrffVWFgs
Date: 2011-06-01 05:47 pm (UTC)