Monday, February 13, 2012

Weekly Wrap-Up: Spelling Woes

Bible
We have continued to read in our Bible Storybook... while the stories are great and simple for us to read. I think the best part is the conversations that follow the story. I'm starting to feel less like it's a "to do" I need to "check off my list" and more of a sweet time of growing.

And Awana verses! Lydia had 4 lessons signed off on last week. And Chris had two:) Anna is stuck on a LONG passage, so we're hoping this week we can get that section signed off:)

Language Arts
Again, this week... trying to get done the basics.

On Monday when I had a sick older kid, busy middle children and a demanding toddler, I printed off this worksheet. I had found on Pinterest from The First Grade Sweet Life!

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here's the direct link

 It fit with what Lydia and Chris had been working on in Grammar and it was a good review for Anna, who decided to join us when she saw the scissors and glue being taken out;)

My concern this week has been about Chris NOT doing formal spelling. I go back and forth on this issue. I feel like requiring him to sit still for another "worksheet" is really asking too much of him right now. We played Sight Word Bingo again last week and he wrote a story or two:) Anyway, I'm still pondering :/

IMG_9346I did TRY to make his reading review work a little more "fun" this week. Instead of him just reading the sentences, he had to highlight the his reading words that he could find in the story. Then as we read through the story we found the ones that had been missed! We've done it this way before and the kids like the "change".


Anna and I are also struggling a bit with spelling. I like concept of the Spelling Power method. She's doing well and has mastered many words I still have to use spell check for;) But I've been noticing more and more often that the reason she is misspelling words has NOTHING to do with the rule that day!

For example, one test this week looked like this...
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The spelling rule we were working on was words with the "ar" sound. With all three of the misspelled words, she didn't misspell them because of the "rule"... in fact it was an ending rule each time;) Not the vowel middle sounds.

It's a great method! I like that it's simple and she is progressing well! I think she gets frustrated having ANY misspelled, but I keep reminding her that with this method, we only know the ones she needs help with when she misspells them. So it's ok:)

Anyone else using SPelling Power and having this issue?

Math
Lots of math lessons, racing the oven timer and some fun activities;)

I didn't take pictures, but Lydia got to "grocery shop" for math! This is actually her 3rd time... LOL!! But she lived it up taking turns checking people out and getting a chance to shop herself, too!! The goal was for her to start adding 2-digit numbers together using dimes and pennies;)

Chris made a pictograph of which Day of the Week people prefer. We called Grandma and then asked our friends/family on Facebook:)

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And Anna mustered up energy so she could learn how to write checks;) She had looked ahead a few days ago and had been looking forward to that lesson;) We made extra copies of the worksheet so she could make checks for everyone in the family!

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History
We worked on the wars between the colonists and Indians due to the English towns expanding and taking the Indian's resources. And we talked about the start of Pennsylvania by William Penn. We stayed with the basics.... reading our books, map work, coloring pages and a few library books;) The best books for us were Welcome to Felicity's World and Tomahawks and Trombones.

The next few weeks in Story of the World we are supposed to skip around the world... I'm going to skip them and stay in America for a bit!! Our library has a LOT of fun reading materials for the next American lessons, so I'm really looking forward to some history topics that have a LOT of children's books for us to read together.

Science
Here is the You Tube video we've been watching to help us with the elements. We only watch the 1st two sections of the video. They are singing along now to the 1st section and are learning the elements as well. I like that they will learn the atomic # and mass with it, but Brian and I were talking that they really should know the use, too! So our little element cards are helping with that!

Next week is the beginning of the Great Backyard Bird Count. So we will take a little break from elements and Chemistry for a bit to learn about some of the species of birds in our area and try to start identifying them so we'll be ready for the count;)



Extra Activities
On Monday night we attended a bilingual reading program at our local library!! It was great! Super organized, focused on Days of the Week and fruit vocabulary based on the book The Very HUngry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. They had a little game for he kids and take home resources for us to practice until next month's program!

Nate's Activity of the Week
One day last week, Nate was determined to get out a few supplies for his "school time". He needed the counting bears, cups and the balance;) And then he got to work.

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Ten minutes later he called me.... to show me;)
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He's been sorting for a while. But NOT the whole bag and not been "excited" to show anyone;) He's getting soo big:)

We're linking up to Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers and
Hip Homeschool Hop Button

2 comments:

In Everything said...

I found this.... http://www.k12reader.com/first-grade-spelling-words/

Maybe it's something we can "try" :) To ease Mom's heart and give Chris a little spelling practice;)

Jenny said...

That is so cute that Nate got out the counting bears. He looks so proud. Abby loved those!

Anna did so good on her check writing and her spelling! If I gave Abby that many words, she'd pass out. LOL! She's more like Chris where she can't sit for worksheets. Good idea to have him do the highlighting.

I love the verbs and noun sort!