Blog Archives

Changed Plans

2/20/2013

Originally our homeschooling day today was to have consisted of visiting a dairy farm and taking part in Dairy Day activities in Stratford. Well... overnight we received about 8-10 inches of snow. That caused buses to be cancelled and well.. roads are still being cleared so we're not doing that. :)

Ergo we stay home and do other things.

We will therefore engage in regular homeschooling activities.

Human Body

Today we looked over what a cell is made up of. Kid Discover has an infographic in the human cell. Will the lad understand it all? No.. but exposure over time will help him retain the information long term. He was quite intrigued by this and asked good questions.

Canada Study

We'll continue our efforts in drawing lodging of the First Nations people. We ran out of time to do this today, but there's always tomorrow. :)

OH! Almost forgot to add that right now (since our heritage is Dutch) that we are reading through an book called Kit and Kat about some twins who are Dutch. It talks about the things that children and families would have needed to do in the past. The lad is quite enjoying the book. It's only available as an e-book to the best of my knowledge.

Our Regular Stuff

We started off our day with Adventus.   The lad did well with it, and even asked to do the lesson over again. This morning he earned a new game to do.   He did struggle with understanding how to do the rhythm part and is part of I think why he wanted to do the lesson over again. He wanted to get it right from the get go.   We did our question from Target the Question.    We did another lesson from A+Tutorsoft math, he finally understands regrouping with subtraction over 10's   So nice to see that confidence now.    Then on the Essentials in Writing lesson. Again there were two pages to do, and he accomplished both quite handily.

We've gone back to reading from a reader.   Right now we are using a reader called: The New Days and Deeds.   i find it useful to specifically read things the lad might not necessarily choose because I find it a good way to broaden his horizons and to have something different that I can ask him questions about.

We went through our book on Telling Time. With this book he learned all the 1/2 and quarter ways to tell time. He learned how to write it digitally and manually.   It's a wipe book which makes it easy to correct mistakes.

We've started using a product called "Slide'n Solve Language Flash Cards". This is a simple product that helps with critical thinking with language arts. Asks a question, you need to draw or say the answer, and then look on the opposite side to see if you answered it correctly. The lad is having fun with this, and it only takes a minute to do.

We did a number of pages in Comprehensive Curriculum of Basic Skills. Skills such as finding the blended letters, reading comprehension, regrouping when adding groups of numbers and such like. It's a good book, American focused, but it approaches things a bit differently and the Canadian Curriculum book which is not a bad thing. Keeps the lad thinking which is a good thing. We will probably alternate books daily.

Science

Yesterday the lad came up with his own science experiment which today he followed up with. "I wanted to know if water would taste good if I melted Valentine Candies in it."

The result: yes! the water is GOOD!

Busy Day

2/19/2013

If you haven't see the Complete Canadian Curriculum books yet, you aught to check them out. They are fairly handy for teaching youngsters a variety of subjects. We were working in this book today because the lad has been struggling to understand a math concept taught by A+Tutorsoft Math so I thought I'd give him a gander at a simpler version of it and give him a boost in confidence that he too can do this (and he can he just needs to KNOW he can).

if you want a chance to win your own copy of it as well.. head on over to The Canadian Homeschooler and check out her give away.

Anyways, working in that book we came across a flowers poem that taught about how flowers have meanings attached to them. So the lad asked. MOM, what flower says I'm sorry? I did a quick google search and found EasyFlowers which told me that the Purple Hyacinth is the "I'm sorry" flower. isn't that interesting to learn? You can make whole bouquets up to express your thoughts to someone else (as long as they are also conversant in the meaning of flowers).

Yesterday we started our work with Adventus, and this morning continued it. I thought it was interesting this morning how the lad came and asked.. Mom, why do they call it bird notes and whale notes? Why couldn't they call the bottom one pig notes? Then the angry birds and the pigs could have fun playing with each other.

So far the lad is enjoying the music program. It's starting very slow and easy and is a bit "below him" mentally, but since he doesn't really know music terminology at all, I figured it was okay to start him lower and he can get up to speed fairly quickly.   Should be good.   Can't quite figure out why the high notes aren't picking up at times...so I've sent off an email asking about that.

What else did we do today?   um.. We did Target the question.   This weeks questions are significantly too easy for him, so I think we'll be skipping ahead a bit.   See if they are harder down the road..but I'll do that this week. Once started a week we need to finish it or the lad gets annoyed. :)

He read a BOB book fairly independently.   I think soon I'll have to start challenging his reading a bit more as he's really coming along here. We also worked on some CVC words.   He got these fairly easily, though I did confuse him with A.C.T.
m -Can you make a word?
TL - yes.. CAT.
m - can you make another word?
TL - NO.. CAT is all you can make from those.
m - So I said what about TAC?
TL - TAC???
m - Yes, TAC, as in I will TAC that to your head.
TL - What does that mean momma?
m- well... it means I'll take something sticky and TAC it to your forehead.
TL - Oh... Not like a TACK for the bulletin board?
m - NO.. that would just hurt you I laughed...wouldn't it? I wouldn't do that to you. :) You are a silly lad.
TL - Giggles and then tacs something to MY head. :)

Oh....I annoyed him to no end today.   He's been struggling with his math facts so I made flash cards for him and had him go through the whole works today.   That's alot of cards to go through and he was not impressed with the amount of time it took. BUT he knows about half of them which means tomorrow it's less work.   That didn't make his efforts any more satisfactory to him though, just resented it he did.   The biggest thing is he doesn't get the point of it. Why memorize when I can just add it up in my head. He doesn't quite get the speed factor aspect and how much easier it makes it to have your facts memorized. The two pictured he knows full well, harder higher ones (such as 8 + 7 he struggles with).

OH! I almost forgot.
We wasted some fun time today looking over the Quirkology videos. Boy.. are they FUN to watch. Some we had to watch a couple of times before the lad figured them out. The lad was most intrigued by: 10 more amazing bets you will always win.

So that overall was our homeschooling day. I did some clean up/tidy up in the book room today, not as much as I wanted to, but some anyways.

But if you have any ideas on how I can encourage sheer memorization that would be lovely. Thanks! :)

Refugees - London Children's Museum

2/19/2013

Last Friday my son was going to spend the weekend at Gramma's house. So we thought we'd head up early and just spend the morning together and then hubby and I could have the afternoon to ourselves.

We went to the London's Children's Museum. We had fun together.

They have one room where they set up short term displays. This month it is on Refugees. We spent a fair bit of time there.

As we walked in, they had this refugee tent set up in the lunch area.

The lad asked a fair number of questions, didn't quite understand why someone would have to live in a tent. "Why can't they just move to their gramma's?" The concept is so far out of his scope of living that at seven years old he doesn't quite understand it. I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing.

They had a room upstairs where children could listen to the stories of refugees and even work on building a refugee tent.

They had two maze games to help children understand why it might be difficult for refugee children to be educated. This raised a lot of questions for the lad. Why would they have to work? Why would it be dangerous for them? Why mom why? It was good to spend time helping him understand why life can be difficult for some children. AND why expectations for girls would be different than for boys.

They also had a display case set up to show a variety of toys for refugees. The lad had no interest in this. Though another display case for showing medical needs and malnutrition created a great deal of interest for him. Daddy's two fingers showed how thin a malnourished child can be and that made an impact on the lad.
"My arm is bigger than that right mom?"
yes son, see? (as I wrapped the band around his arm)
"that person is thin then mom, why???"

it is good to open up a lad's eyes a bit to show him that not everyone is as well blessed as we are right now in our lives.

After learning comes play time of course. :) and the lad had a new angry bird friend that needed a nest rather badly. :)

Review: Wet, Dry, Try App by Handwriting Without Tears

2/18/2013

Handwriting without Tears has developed a new app, for seven inch or larger android or ipad devices called Wet, Dry, Try.

As part of the TOS Review Crew I was able to review this app with my seven year old son. This product is geared for 4 to 8 year olds. It is like the popular slate chalkboard that is the well-known part of the Handwriting Without Tears program. The name of this app is Wet, Dry, Try. It is available for purchase for Android or Ipad devices for $4.99. It is meant for tablets with a 7 inch screen or larger. The Wet-Dry-Try App is designed to act as a virtual chalkboard, allowing your child to work on writing their letters anywhere you want to learn!

There are two ways to work with the program: Pick and Practice or HWT's Winning Order.

This screen shot is of their Pick and Practice screen. The child can pick whatever letter they want, in whatever order they want, to practice writing their letters. This was my son's preference. He went through this fairly quickly indeed, and did not have to be asked to do it..

This is the screen shot of their Winning Order. In this version you must complete each letter in the order that it is posted. We learned that you don't have to go through all three levels to be able to move on to the next letter, but you have to at least practice it once. My son had a STRONG dislike for a forced order of practice, and therefore very much took his time doing this version.

How it works

You press on the letter to be done. It comes up with a picture matching the letter, for instance R has a rainbow.   You need to earn three stars to earn a letter card. Each star is progressively more difficult to earn.

First the program shows you how to draw the letter, then you sponge off the letter, dry off the letter and then write it yourself.

It allows three mistakes before it shows you how to correct your error. Lines need to be drawn in one smooth motion with no significant deviations.

The instructions are very clear. The audio is encouraging to children.   I like silence with my apps so beyond asking the lad what he thought of the noise/audio I tended to turn that aspect off.

My thoughts on this product

The device I used this on: My device is a 9.7 inch N90 Dual Core 2 Tablet.

I chose to review this product for two reasons.
1. My son is particular in how he does things and once a method of doing something is chosen DISLIKES very much changing it.   In his writing he does not write in the most efficient manner, but simply in the manner that he decided was best.   I wanted a product that would force him to think about how he was writing.
2. I wanted him to have to complete a project that was particular about how it got accomplished.

I did NOT get it to teach him his letters. He knows his letters and he knows how to write them.   Just the way he wrote them was a concern for me.

Did this program accomplish the objective I wanted from it?

YES.

It challenged him on letter formation, and one time he said "Mom, they way they make me do this letter (I can't recall right now which letter it was) is easier Mom. I think I'm going to do it like that from now on."   And he does.

The winning order version forced him to follow another person''s idea on what was the best way to learn your letters. He disagreed, but since arguing with a tablet is rather meaningless, he followed through. :)

The pick and practice also forced him to slow down at times.   Going slowly forces a body to think.

We found that it worked best on a surface with a wee bit of give to it (like the couch). It did NOT work well in a vehicle.

My son's opinion of the app in general: "I thought it was pretty good".

My Concerns

My husband as he looked on at my son working on this app commented once, "How is this going to actually help him write the letters? One doesn't write letters using their index finger".

I consider that a valid concern. This app is EXCELLENT at teaching what letters look like and how one might approach writing them, but using an index finger to write doesn't teach children how to physically write the letter. This is where using a physical chalkboard and chalk would be more helpful. :)

I would LOVE to see lowercase letters as an option once all the upper case letters were completed.

To read more

I would invite you to check out what other reviewers have to say about this not only the HWT's app but also the physical books that one can use. You can go here to do that. :)

Disclaimer

I received a free copy of this product through the Schoolhouse Review Crew in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC Regulations.

hackSchooling makes me happy

2/16/2013

If my son will be this articulate at age 13 I'd be pleased.
If my son had this focus on life (to pursue happiness) I'd be displeased.
If my son has this drive to learn and grow and develop the gifts that God gave him I'd be delighted.

I want to raise an articulate, intelligent lad.
But I mostly want to raise a child who loves God deeply and is able to share that love with the world around him WHILE holding down a good job.

Skating, The Basics and First Nations

2/14/2013

We started the day by going Skating. My goal is to skate for 1/2 an hour, more if I can do it. Today we got to 1/2 hr and the lad was done. I skated a bit longer as he learned how to remove his own skates. :) This I've learned works much better if he does it without anyone around.

Did the Regular Basics

I needed to run an errand so we did that first then home to do our regular work. Two questions from Target the Question..which he did a good job at , we did two since tomorrow we are going out for the day. We listened again to regrouping for Subtraction with A+Tutorsoft math he's almost got the gist of it. I"m going to send him to gramma's this weekend with some very basic math subtraction just to give him a bit of confidence that he can do this. Doing the 100's is just messing with his mind. We easily did The Essentials in Writing lesson. Two pages to do today which he was surprised by, but he did the job well and had a basically good understanding as well.

Math - an Issue

Despite me doing a few different things to help my lad learn his basic math facts nothing has really worked so I"m going to the straight rote memorization. To that end today we made some flash cards. i wrote the facts on the front and the answers on the back so they will be self-correcting. He knows the facts up to about the 3+'s, but sometimes he still counts in his fingers (mentally). Though today he told me he figured out how to do the 8 and 9"s.

Mom.. I know they are close to 10 and adding 10's is EASY so I just pretend it's 10 and then I just take away 1 or 2.

I told him Good Job figuring that out. :)

First Nations

We didn't build the sleeping racks in our longhouse yesterday, we're going to build them today but without building the actual longhouse. We're hoping to make it a "see into" type of structure so we can show how it was used. The goal is to put this into our homeschool groups project fair at the end of the year.

And the lad got inspired to do some other building as well. He made some furniture for his angry bird/bad piggies toys. Made from a simple dollar store kit.

Lethe and Verdue: Word Blog Hop

2/14/2013

Writing Challenge Blog Hop

Word of the Week: verdure: the greenness of growing vegetation; also : such vegetation itself. 2: a condition of health and vigor

Super Challenge: lethe: capitalized : a river in Hades whose waters cause drinkers to forget their past 2: oblivion, forgetfulness

Take the vocabulary word presented and build a written piece using it on Wednesday, February 13th

The Challenge Met

Where the Lethe flows there is no verdue. It's a dark deary place where forgetfulness reigns. No cares, no worries, no nothing.   No one remembers, no one has a past, one merely exists.

Whereas where the Nile flows there is verdue. Life in abundance, tears, laughter, joy, promise of new things.   Happiness, contentment, anger, violence, satisfaction.

The Nile is NOT the Lethe.   Verdue exits and one is pleased.

To read more word hops Visit here.

" target="http://www.hiddenvalleysimplicity.com/2013/02/2132013-word-blog-hop.html#disqus_thread"> Word! Blog Hop

Free Kindle Books

2/14/2013

NOTE: free at time of posting.

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From AW I don't wanna to .... Mom, this was the best EVER!

2/13/2013

My goodness....talk about fighting homeschooling this morning. The lad was full of complaints and general disagreeableness this morning.

We struggled through Target the Question..which he did a good job at (sans the complaining). We listened to two math teachings and one Q & A with A+Tutorsoft math.   The one lesson is just listening to so he can let the concept ruminate in his head for a bit as he's struggling with understanding it.   He's better today than he was last Friday so ruminating is good.   We easily did The Essentials in Writing lesson.   Once again...filled with complaints and I don't want to.. I want to PLAY mom. I just want to PLAY.

That's all he's got on his brain this morning.
Tough luck he has to school eh?

Then we got onto our Canadian studies.   We've been learning about the First Nations people and today I had planned we'd work on a longhouse (building) and make some Indian bread.   I DON"T WANNA I wanna PLAY!!!!   Was the beseechme

Son, this will be fun. You go get some sticks and bark, I'll go get some branches.   This will be interesting come on... no playing without getting our schooling done.

Long house - -such as what the Huron's built

The Huron people lived right about where we live now. We've seen the one they have up in London. We thought it would be cool to build our own. In the spring we'd like to build a wigwam outside which will be a fun place for a boy child to play in out of the sun and he can put all his own "Stuff" into it. Please mom! :)

But it's winter, one toy sized long house to build.

We used these places as inspiration in our building design but ultimately did our own thing. The Lenage longhouse. F1W Longhouse.

Supplies: birch bark, Construction paper, Apple branches, hot glue and gun, something to use as a base, and a picture as inspiration.

We ended up rejecting the styrofoam as a base as it wasn't strong enough. We went with a cardboard box instead.

The apple branches were used as they are somewhat flexible. We curved them around and hot glued them in place.

We wanted to tie them together like the First Nation people would have done but couldn't for the life of us figure out how to do that so we decided to use construction paper over top. Is it accurate? NO. One can't soak construction paper to make it pliable to stitch it together with stitching to go around logs. Just won't happen. BUT this will do the trick.

Indian Bread

The recipe is found on page 13, it's called Blackfoot Fried Indian bread.Directions

1. Sprinkle one package of dry active yeast over 1 cup of lukewarm water. Let sit for five minutes.
2. then add 2 tbsp soft butter, 1 tbsp sugar, 1 tsp salt, and then 2.5-3 cups of flour.
3. Knead. you add just as much flour as you need to make a stiff dough. Our recipe used about 2 3/4 cup flour.
4. Let sit for one hour in a warmish place (we turned the oven on for a while then shut it off, letting the bread sit over the oven vent)
5. heat some oil in a saucepan til it's decently hot (about 175 celcius). We used canola oil as that's my preference in cooking.
6. Form the dough into cakes approximately 3 inches across by 2 inches wide and drop into the oil carefully. I DID THIS PART.
7. deep fry for about one minute per side or until golden brown.

As they cooked we discussed what the First Nations people might have eaten with these. Berries! Meat maybe mom?
Hmm.. what about honey? I asked.
The enthusiastic response was "OH YES MOM Honey! They could find honey from bees right"?
Indeed they can lad, was my smiled response. :)

So we enjoyed them with honey. They were DELICIOUS! :)