School Pictures

Kidney Bean Science Project (October 2008)

Edward spelling some of the words he is learning to read (Oct 2008)

Edward doing a math problem (he was learning about units (ones) and tens -October 2008)

Edward at Homeschool Safety Day (October 9, 2008) put on by the Teaching Parents Association

Learning the order of the Alphabet (September 2008)

A Science Project (September 2008)

We are 3 weeks in....

We are 3 week into our school year. Edward is finding Kindergarten to be a great adventure. He is loving science. He especially likes the experiments (we have done 3 so far). I like most of the Sonlight Curriculum but I think that there needs to be some serious work and updating done on their Language Arts program. I think we might look for a different one to use next year. We will be starting Explode the Code, as soon as it arrives. I had to order it. We will also be using some of the Tatrus Method once we have our letters down. There are some letters that still allude Edward, but he is getting more and more of them every day. Edward also love math. We are using Math U See, plus working on money. Right now we are working on pennies mainly, plus sorting quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies. We have already finished the Box Car Children (book 1). We started the Arrow and the Apple today. I think he will love the story of William Tell. He is very excited about the crossbow that we read about in the story. Of course we also mapped out where the Alps are, along with Austria and Germany on our map. He seems to like map work. We are also doing Calendar work, learning the days, weeks and months. We working on learning the Pledge of Allegiance to the US Flag, Christian Flag Pledge and the Pledge to the Bible. Of course during calendar time, we also talk about the weather and seasons. We are working on writing our first and last name. Edward has been able to write his first name for a while now but we need to work on neatness. I love the Reason for Handwriting. Edward seems to love it too. We are also doing the Horizons Health, I like it for the most part. I am happy to report that we are able to get all of the Sonlight and various other subjects done in about 4 hours. That is nice. I will be slowly adding other things over the year for Edward to increase his learning opportunities as I feel that is some ways Sonlight is way to laid back on various things but since this is only Kindergarten I don't want to push it to much either....know what I mean?

Just Attended My First Homeschool Convention

Wooooo whoooo!! I went to my first homeschool convention this past weekend. I was unable to attend any of the workshops but that is okay because I was able to buy them on CD to listen to at my convenience. I can not wait to get started on that...I have 21 of them to listen 2 plus to others that I bought at a speakers booth on some subjects not covered at the convention. I was able to see so many products and pick the things that look right for us to use this year. Edward is now officially signed up to use the Sonlight K curriculum. Just purchased it. We are also going to be using Math U See (Edward is already begging to start this and I think we will), Character First, A Reason for Handwriting and A Reason for Spelling. I bought the newcomer on the Sonlight so the items I don't intend to use, I will be selling next year at the used book fair that our co-op puts on. I just had to share. Next year I plan to go both days and attend the workshops, Edward will be old enough to attend Adventures In Character that they have for 6 to 12 yr olds at the convention.
A Side note, Edward just started up his Summer Bowling League today. He is doing awesome. He got a 69 and a 74 today, that included 1 spare and a couple of very close other ones.

Changing

Well after much thought and prayer, I am going to be utilizing a new curriculum this coming year for Edward. I am leaning towards Sonlight. I am also interested in learning more about the Weaver Interlock curriculum. I like the Sonlight one and real feel God has laid this curriculum heavy on my heart but I still want to look at the Weaver one before I make a final decision. Iam going to my first homeschool conference on the weekend of May 30th. I need to have down what I want and need so I can get the good deals. I am so excited about attending this year even if it will just be for the shopping portion of the conference. I hope that next year I will be able to go to some of the workshops.

Pop! Pop! Popcorn!!!!!!!

This week's Curriculum theme is Popcorn! On Monday, we did a Science Experiment with a colored corn cob, that we popped in the microwave. We didn't pop it in a bag, so we could see what it doesn't when it pops. We used that popcorn to make art projects, it was very dry. We were to find out if the colored kernels would be colored or white like regular popcorn. He had to come up with a hypothesis, record the materials and procedure used. We also had to record the results and then wrote our own conclusion. Edwards conclusion was that it still tasted good. LOL! To Cute!!! Yesterday we made popcorn on the stove to show him that you can get popcorn places other than the microwave. We made a popcorn tree. We also made sand art. He loved doing. We made a tree with apples and a flower. This weeks letters are Ii and Jj. Our color is PURPLE. Our number is 7. Our shape is Square. In case your wondering we didn't do our curriculum last week do to the passing of my Father In Law. We just did a little review but mainly just took the week off. We did go to Kindermusik, Bowling, Co-op and Monart. He did a bicycle clinic. He learned the correct hand signals and the rules of riding your bike in our community. He loved learning all these new things.

Apples, Apples, Apples this weeks Curriculum

This week I've added a weekly theme to Edwards Homeschool Lessons. This week is apples. Today we stamped with paints and apples. We are doing a science experiment with two pieces of Apples, one has lemon juice on it and the other doesn't. We are going to see what happens to the two pieces of apple. We also about 4 types of Apples at the store today, a granny smith, a honey crisp, a Golden Delicious and a Gala. We tasted them and talked about difference in taste, look and texture. We also made a book about Apples. Tomorrow we will be making another book about apples using words we come up with to describe Apples. We've also been reading a poem by Robert Frost titled: After Apple Picking. This week we are also working on the letters Ee and Ff. Circle is our shape and Yellow, Black and White are our colors. 4 is the number of the week. Our Memory Verses is Genesis 1:3 "God said let there be light and there was light." We have been learning about light and shadows this week. We measured a trees shadow yesterday in the morning, then went back at 2pm to see where the shadow was at that time. Today we used a pencil and a flashlight to see how a sundial worked. We've been reading books on how a apple tree grows an apple and a great book called the Genesis of It All. We have also been working on Rhyming words and Beginning sounds. We have also been working on Edward writing his name all by himself without my hand steadying his. He is doing pretty good at it. We are very proud of him.