Summer Reading (and more)

I signed the girls up for an online Summer Reading Class and so far they are loving it! 


Unicorn's first book was "Hatchet" by Gary Paulsen. 

The teacher "meets" with the class online once a week and they have a discussion about the book. Then she sends project options via email! Unicorn has been researching wilderness survival and is creating a  powerpoint of her Top 10 Survival items to show what she has learned. 

This is what she came up with:

10. Flashlight

9. Gloves

8. Water Bottle

7. Mylar Survival Blanket

6. Small Roll of Fishing Line or Dental Floss

5. First Aid Kit

4. Lighter

3. Compass

2. Cell Phone

1. A Map of the Area

Ladybug's first book was "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" by Judy Barrett. 

After Unicorn read the book to her and she "attended" class, Ladybug and Unicorn made a 6-Day Desert Food Forcast on powerpoint. They had fun finding clip art and animating the words and pictures! 

looking through the book for ideas

jotting down ideas

Here is their 6-Day Desert Food Forecast:

Unicorn's Monday Forecast - Blazing hot with a chance of monsoon pizza!

Ladybug's Tuesday Forecast - Cooler with a chance of ice cream storms!

Unicorn's Wednesday Forecast - Steaming hot with a chance of spaghetti fog!

Ladybug's Thursday Forecast - Really hot with a chance of cookie hail!

Unicorn's Friday Forecast - Frying hot with a chance of violent peanut butter storms!

Ladybug's Saturday Forecast - Really, really hot with a chance of hamburger tornados!

Ladybug's second book was "Pickles to Pittsburgh" also, by Judy Barrett (I wish I had a picture of this book but it was checked out of the library). Her teacher challenged her to learn more about Pittsburg and to hold a "Pickle Tasting" with her family and chart the results.

This is what they learned about Pittsburgh:

Did you know that Pittsburgh...

is in Pennsylvania?
is known as "The City of Bridges"?
is known as "The Steel City"?
is the Host City for the 2011 NHL Winter Classic?
was named "The Most Livable City" in 2007, 2009 and 2010?
has an average high of about 60 degrees?
has an average low of about 41 degrees?
was ranked as one of the top 5 places in America to raise children?
has one of the top 3 zoos?
is home to the original Mallo Cup marshmallow candy?
is where the movie "Angles in the Outfield" was filmed?
is where the "Big Mac" was invented?
held the first World Series Game night game?

And their Pickle Pictures & Results:


We tried 6 varieties - "Spicy Dill", "Sweet Gherkins", "Tiny Sweet Midgets", "Kosher Dills",  "Bread & Butter Chips" and "Sweet Relish"

This was Unicorn's face for all 6 kinds...she didn't like any of them!

Ladybug tried all 6 varieties that we bought but only liked the 

"Tiny Sweet Midgets" and the "Sweet Relish"

Monkey didn't like any of the pickles...He would tell Unicorn, "put that back!"


Dad liked all the pickles and Mom liked all but the "Kosher Dills".

Next week, Unicorn will be reading "Bridge to Terabithia" by Katherine Paterson

and Ladybug is reading "Froggy gets Dressed" by Jonathon London

Next week is also Friendship week so the girls will be doing a Friendship Web and a Friendship Poem.

Year-Round Educating...

While we will continue with Math, Religion, Reading and Preschool (and writing our Penpals) throughout the summer, I will be posting less frequently until August. We are getting ready to move (again) and I have started a new part-time job at the community college, so our "schedule" (term used loosely) will be a little crazy until the end of July!

Unicorn is progressing through Dreambox.com, Math Mammoth and has been reading books like crazy. She is almost finished with the "Series of Unfortunate Events" by Lemony Snicket, she only has one book left. She has also read "Ella Enchanted" and is starting "Hatchet" today for the "Beach Bag Book Club" that starts on Thursday. Tomorrow we will sign up for the library summer reading club. Also, tomorrow begins the summer movies at Harkins Theatres, the first show is "Charlotte's Web"! For Religion during the summer I am going to have her read "Book of Mormon Stories" and do the "Book of Mormon Workbook" from Discover the Scriptures. While the stories and the workbook are below her grade level in reading it will be a good introduction to studying the scriptures daily.

Ladybug is having a blast with the Mother Goose Time preschool curriculum. I have been supplementing it with extra letter and number pages to give her more practice with writing. 

Check out some pictures of what they have been doing!

Ladybug's Piggy Bank

Practicing "F" and "6"

Fun with Colors

Wow...can you believe she just turned 4!!

Ladybug's Pizza

Unicorn wanted to make Pizza too, so she found some scraps and made a Pizza!

Beary Scary Ladybug!

Our Bean Project!

Another way to Grow Beans!

Another angle on the planted Beans!

May 10-14

This week we discovered a math website: Dreambox.com. A blog I follow reviewed Dreambox and based on her experience I signed Unicorn up for the free trial. Since she started on May 7th, Unicorn has played for 7 hours and completed 24 lessons! Big bonus: She is LOVING it! This is a bonus because Unicorn HATES math. I don't have to ask her to play Dreambox...she "bugs" me to use the computer to play it!

Since we are near the end of our school year, we are transitioning to only the basics: Math, Reading and Religion. We will continue with this modified schedule until July, when Daddy goes back to work.

Unicorn working on math.

Unicorn using "Upwords" for spelling.

For Ladybug, I purchased a preschool curriculum: Mother Goose Time. This is mostly for my sanity. Ladybug LOVES doing projects and the preschool curriculums are full of fun projects as well as fun ways to learn letters, numbers, shapes, colors, etc. I was having trouble creating lessons for both children and decided that a "boxed" curriculum for preschool will work for Ladybug and Monkey. I researched many of these curriculums and for preschool the are all pretty similar...the biggest difference is the amount of materials you get for your money! Mother Goose Time, in my opinion, gives the most bang for your buck! Additionally, I will use this curriculum when I start up my preschool again. It is laid out very well and I can "tweak" whatever I need/want to "tweak"! I ordered the May, June and July curriculums and so far she is loving it! She asks to do school again! May's Theme is "Food, Fitness and Fun" and one of the first things we did is learn about fruits and vegetables and then "paint" with different fruits and vegetables! We used lemons, strawberries, carrots, celery and onions. It was so fun even Unicorn joined in!

Ladybug painting with a lemon,

a strawberry and

celery!

Unicorn painted with fruit and veggies too!

Ladybug's finished product.

Unicorn's finished product!

As a family we read the 5th Magic Tree House book: "Night of the Ninjas"!

I have always struggled with how to store/save all the papers that the children create. While reading another blog, I stumbled upon a cute way to store all the paperwork. Each crate has 14 file folders labeled from Preschool through 12th grade. Each day the children add their work to the appropriate folder and then each month we will go through their creations and decide which ones to keep, throw away or send to family. That way, at the end of each school year, the children will have saved their best work. Some of it will end up in scrapbooks, some of it on grandparents refrigerators and most of it recycled in various other ways.

Back on Schedule :)

Well, we are moved in (mostly) and were able to have a "typical" week of home educating.

Unicorn finished her unit on money and read the Constitution.  She continued to study nouns and illustrated one of her poems during art. She also used the "Scrabble" letters to spell her spelling words this week. Unicorn word of the week was bloviate!

3 of Unicorn's spelling words (she has 10 per week)

Ladybug continued to learn the numbers 1 and 2 and the letters A and C and their sounds (she's been sick all week so we have just been reviewing).

As a family we went to the park and pool for PE and read the third book in the Magic Tree House Series, "Mummies in the Morning" (we read the second one while we were moving). At the park we found rocks and painted them for art. The pool was very cold but the kids were insistent that we go!