Monday, February 29, 2016

Monday

8a    - CC Math workbook
8.15    - 150x JJ, 16 cat lifts,
8.30    - reading: "Cassidy the Costume Fairy"
9.30    - reading: "Anya the cuddly creatures fairy"
10.20    - reading: "The Winter Solstice"
10.35    - reading: "Clarence the Copy Cat"
10.45    - reading: "Big Plans"
11    - break

2:40 - Spelling with Mom
2:50 - Writing Yule Bird story
3:40  - P.E., Frisbee, running outside
4:30 - done


Sunday, February 28, 2016

bits

We had a nice day out yesterday - at the library, then the park.  She had to be on her best behavior because she had two tantrums this week - and we were going out because _I_ wanted to, not because she wanted to.  I did want to spend some good time with her..   I found a book at the library and read while she played a game and talked to kids.  I found a quilt pattern to copy that I might try today.  She told the librarian as she was checking out that 'She loves to read.'  After that we had  our packed lunch and took a walk around the park track.  She had some time to play with the kids, but got up nicely when it had been an hour and a half and I needed to be up and moving myself again.  Then we went to a little store and looked around, but she had to spend her own money on something she wanted, and give me time to look at what I wanted if she had time to look at her things.  Fair for fair.  She grumbled a little because there was more stuff for mom to look at then stuff for her to look at.. but she realized what she was doing and tried to correct her attitude.

Today I had to be up so very very early to go to a yearly meeting we have at work.  Then when I came home we gathered everyone up and went to the grocery store before the crowds hit.  She was pretty good during all of this, too.

I am wondering if I can start to work on the quilt block I copied from the magazine, or should just sit and finish the book I started.  It is from the young adult series 'Dear America', and is a 'diary' of a girl going as a companion on the Titanic to earn her passage to America.  It is pretty well done, a few years before Esme would enjoy it though perhaps.

I have started reading the end of Little House in the Big Woods to Esme at night.  She couldn't comprehend how the little girls were five and seven and had never been to a store...but she did try after she realized I was serious, and tried to get an idea of what the store was like...so very different than any stores she has seen.

Later:
I made up one of the Kaleidoscope blocks, harder than expected - but successful.  Then I made a skirt for Esme's rag doll (Flora Daisy, apparently) and a pair of pants for Esme herself.   Esme and I went out in the garden a little earlier and planted tulip bulbs, located the rosemary and peppermint plants and put stakes in the ground to mark them.  I showed her the hyacinths that had come up from last year.  That is a bit more productive than I've been in a while...maybe Spring is on its way sometime in the next month....

Friday, February 26, 2016

Friday

8a    - tantrum
//I had to go to work, and she had plans for the day... those words were heard this morning 'I hate school!'...*sigh* No, you just hate not being able to do what you want for the day but public school is going to be much much worse on that so you have to get used to it.  She threw herself on my bed and cried for a while, and then got up and started handwriting practice by herself.
8.30    - handwriting practice
8.45    - reading: "A Poor Excuse for a Dragon"
9a    - reading: "Hope the Happiness Fairy"


10    - scrabble
11.45    - CC math workbook wk9
12.15    - America ep "Cities"
1p    - done

Thursday, February 25, 2016

Thursday

8a    - CC Math workbook wk8 review
8.30    - research: pink dolphins?
9    - PE, 200x JJ, 50x 15lb bench, 100x rev situp
9.15    - kitchen stuff: dividing / packing meat, cooking chicken
10    - America ep: "Civil War"
11    - break

4:20     - Crash Course Economics #5  : How the economy is measured
4:40     - America ep: "Heartland"
5:45    - done

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Wednesday

8a    - CC math workbook wk8
8.30    - 200x JJ, 50x 15lb bench, 100x rev. situp
8.45    - skating
9a    - 5 facts about: Minecraft
10.45    - Crash Course Astonomy #1
11    - break


I tried to get us into Economics when I got home from work, but dinner was ready in the middle of the discussion about Gross Domestic Product - we saved it for tomorrow.  Instead, we opted for cultural studies.  //Four episodes in a row - on what being a teenager was like when Mom and Dad were kids -and sibling relations.
4p    - Anthropology: "Clarrisa Explains it all"
6p    - Geometry discussion about 180 and 360 degrees.
6:15p - done

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Tuesday

//We had to be up very early to take our dog Minerva to the vet.  She is getting spayed today.  I think some of Esme's mad yesterday was from worry about that... But she is there now and we will pick her up later today.

9a - Penmanship : signature
9:15 - Letter writing to Grandparents (counts as Spelling)
9:45 - .5 mi walk
10a  - Frisbee and Fencing work
10:15 - CC math workbook grade 3
10:30 - Geometry worksheet
10:45 - break


11am - Reading library books:
    -Snow Puppy, Rabbit Ears, Mapping Penny's World
11:45am - Mapping her room with a key and symbols
12:15 - break for lunch

12:45 - Crash Course Economics : Supply and Demand (and discussion)
1:00 - Minecraft : Survival mode in the mineral-rich world Daddy made.  I worked on my house, she started collecting materials for her house -which includes some of the hardest things to get, like mined prismarine from an Underwater temple that she has to get one block at a time between air gulps. 
2:15 - done (we actually quit out at 3, but the timed part was done at 2:15)


// We are starting to watch the first disk of Clarissa Explains it All.  We finished Crenshaw. 
Minerva is home and has the cone of shame on.  She is so depressed.  The other dogs though, they are feeling much better.  When we took her out early today, and she was still missing they were worried.  Especially as, to them, we didn't seem worried.   They were all nervous and stuck close to their beds waiting to find out what was happening.  Now, they are all sorry for her but much more mobile around the house and yard.  She has taken up residency in the stairwell in protest so everyone has to step around her for the rest of the night.  Catahoulas.  They are unique.

Monday, February 22, 2016

Monday What a Day

8a - Reading comprehension grade 2
8:20 - tantrum (not counted) // This was over using the dictionary, and she didn't much like the page in the reading and it set her in a bad mood.  She scribbled on her paper, dropped every single thing that was possible and just kept escalating her anger until she really couldn't do much at all.  Then we both got on her just how impossible she was being - and she calmed down a little more... 
8:30 - Spelling with dictionary -- I made her rewrite all the words on a clean sheet because some of the first few were huge, black and scribbled.

8:45 - CC workbook grade 3 - done much better.
9am  - Geometry worksheet - quickly, nicely
9:15 - Penmanship : Addresses - quickly, nicely
9:30 - break

1:30 - patchwork pillow project (and expansion of cat palace)
3:00 - break

5p  - Felicity chapter 5, reading and questions (finished this book)
6:15 - done




Design for the pillow, and rethinking after the fact.
We talked about applique and patchwork - decided that 
the simpler patchwork pattern was what we would do.

 
This is the cardboard cat palace she has been making.
She added the new room (a box from something we ordered) onto it yesterday.


Now she is cutting new doors and windows in the new room.

 The cut and laid out pieces of the pillow she wants to make for her cats in the new room.
She helped measure, draw and cut out all but the black pieces. Some of the fabric was thinner and required using the scissors in a different way.  She adapted pretty well once I told her what the difference was.

Then she helped me take the pieces to the sewing machine and put them together -although I operated the foot pedal and she helped guide every other seam or so.  She is very scared of the noise.. and thinks it is going to suck her hand in.  But, she got brave each time (with coaxing) and did it with me.

Then she picked a fabric out for the backing and traced out the shape.

 And cut the fabric.
Then we sewed it together, turned it inside-out and stuffed it.
She tried to thread the needle for the ties and put the needle through once with the yarn, but that was a bit hard for her with the thickness.

 The finished pillow.




Friday, February 19, 2016

Friday

8a    - Spelling with Mom (100%)
8:15     - Reading comprehension grade 2
8:35     - CC workbook grade 3 (100% first try)
8:45     - Penmanship : Names
9:52     - U.S.A. Geography : 74% and 84%
9      - break

10a    - 150x JJ, 50x 15lb bench
10.15    - subtraction worksheet
10.45    - cat fortress project
11    - minecraft (massive valentine hotel project)




12.15    - cooking scrambled eggs
12.30    - HHMI Video: "The Making of the Fittest"
1p    - .5mi walk
1.15p    - done

//We've completed five straight days of starting at 8 am.. although this morning it was harder, she got in her seat at the last minute and got to work.  I won't be home in the morning three days out of five next week... so it will probably not continue.  But, it is a good exercise to do while we can.

 I'm reading the Tattooted Potato by Ellen Raskin.
We're halfway through Crenshaw as a bedtime book.

Thursday, February 18, 2016

Thursday

8a - Reading comprehension grade 2
8:20a - Math review : subtraction with borrowing
8:40a - Spelling with Mom
8:50a - Reworking math review sheet
9a    - CC math workbook
9:20 - USA Geography game: 64% then 86%, Europe : 72% first try
//She got right almost every European country we had actually studied.  We need to look at the Balkans more, but they are small and close together.  The only one I expected her to get she didn't was between Switzerland and Austria, as she had 'studied' Switzerland.

9:30 - break

9:45 - Penmanship : Names - she can write neatly when she really tries.
10:00 - Crash Course Kids Engineering process (2)           
10:10 - Crash Course Economics episode 3
10:25 - Exercise : 150 jj, fencing
10:45 - Fencing Olympic videos





11am - break
// We set lunch to cooking, and went back down to get it after reading.

11:10 - Felicity chapter 4 (reading)
11:40 - break
// Putting food on plates, getting drinks etc.


11:50 - Sky Monsters Nat'l Geo documentary on pterasaurs
1:20 - answering questions about Felicity Ch.4


//She ate all of her lunch today and was working on being as good as she could.  The fencing made her quite a bit happier.. she wanted some 'action and adventure.  I'm an adventure kind of girl!'
1:40  - done

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Wednesday

8a - Reading comprehension grade 2
8:20 - Spelling with mom
8:40 - CC math workbook
//lots of mistakes... lots of despair over having to do it over.

9am  - break
9:30 - .5 mi walk and 150 jumping jacks
9:45 - break

10a - European Geography  (and Penmanship)
//I have been using Sheppard Software's free map site that highlights the image on the map, flashes the name and says it at the same time.   Sheppard Software site  I print out a blank map and letter A through J for her to discover what country that is and write it out.  She says she wants to explore somewhere else next time, Australia maybe... hmm.
10:30a - break

12:00 - Geography quizzes and money work while in town
//I found a clipboard and a new penmanship paper tablet.  I'd been printing them out from a PDF before that as I couldn't find our old one.  She answered some good geography questions and did some percentage math.
12:15 - break

2:00 - P.E. -fencing, weight lifting 50x15 lb. bench press
2:30 - Felicity chapter 3 and questions

//on the back I had her write the promise that Jiggy Nye had made about the horse - as it was the most important part.  'Mr. Nye said that anyone who could ride the horse could have it.'


3:15 - Crash Course Economics video : Specialization and Trade
3:30 - Minecraft : Valentine Hotel (and more talk about Econ : Supply and Demand)



5:00 - done

// She helped me make a dinner tonight and then sat with it mostly untouched during an hour and a half movie.  Daddy eventually gave most of it to dogs.  Five minutes after that she was trying to grab a snack, which spurred off a 'waste not want not' discussion between her and me in her room.  She really pouted and said there was nothing wrong with her I was the one the dog was saying something bad about but she c couldn't repeat it to me.   But I laid out my case to her and said she really needed to think about these things and it is my job to help her learn these things whether they are pleasant to learn or not - to avoid big troubles when she is older!  We've just started reading the book Crenshaw, where the family is starting to have a hard time because of a layoff and the father getting sick.  I read it last week and it was a good mixture of hard facts and funny situations - and the kid really makes some good points.  Esme knows we've had hard times in the past so I don't want her to get spoiled and think she can just waste things - that she needs to be more self-aware of this, food, toys, etc...  She has a room full of toys and she still wants the perfect one that will make her happy.  It isn't one thing that is going to make you happy - she got really mad and said the Quilt maker's Gift was about one thing the King wanted to make him happy - the quilt... but he had to give away everything and in the end it wasn't the quilt that made him happy, it was what he had learned.  She had forgotten that part of the story...  We read some more Crenshaw and played a little with stuffed toys and she felt a little better.  I told her she had to get up at the same time tomorrow, do her morning work well and we would probably take a trip to the library tomorrow. 

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Tuesday

8a    - Reading Comprehension grade 2
8.30    - Spelling with mom, penmanship : printing
9    - break

9.15    - CC math workbook
9:45    - break

10      - Geography : Europe
10:30   - Study: Switzerland, wikipedia and youtube
//discussion about resources and trade
10:45   - Crash Course Economics episode 1
11am     -   break
//lunch
12    - "Meet Felicity" chp 2 and questions
1p    - break

1.45    - Exercise : 150x Jumping Jacks, 50x 15lb bench,
2p    - done

Monday, February 15, 2016

Monday "Getting in the Car" on the road to school

8a    - reading comprehension Spectrum grade 2
//informational reading about bridges
8:30     - Spelling with mom

"I wanted to get the library off the bridge."

This was a drawing that she combined her spelling words and the reading comprehension assignment together into a story picture.  The library has to be moved because the poles holding it up are breaking.



8:45     - CC Math workbook
9a     - penmanship, signature
9:15     - Minecraft
10a    - Chapter 1 of "Meet Felicity" and 6 questions on it

10.45    - Video: "Tuned Mass Dampers"
11    - Algodoo
11.15    - Nova: Tales From the Hive
//She told me about the bee larvae, honey, drones, queen, mating dance and the royal jelly.
12.15    - done

Mom Notes:  
This morning I gave Esme her schedule first thing she appeared upstairs.  She would have to get into fresh school clothes and be presentable, and have her breakfast eaten by 8 am.  If there was any time between when she was ready and 8 am she could play, otherwise, not.   She is really serious about wanting to go to public school again for third grade.  I discussed how she would have to start acting as if she was already in public school, getting ready t he same as she would, acting right and doing the harder work at her desk in a timely, neat and mannerly way.  There would be no playing, hanging upside down on her chair etc.

She said she knew what we were doing - we were 'getting in the car' for the trip to school  - that is, if we were getting ready for a trip to public school - we're at the st age where we're getting in the car for the journey.  That was a pretty good analogy for her!

She still grumped for a full minute with her head down on her desk - but she turned it around and got out her pencil and worked quietly and well on her reading comprehension book.  I discussed the 'second semester' of our school year and that she would continue with third grade math and third grade reading books and second grade English and reading comprehension.  We will also do writing, reports, science quizzes and geography like a third grader.  She asked to make sure we do crafts, and Minecraft.

Tonight I checked her work and it looked very good.  She read the chapter of Felicity by herself and answered the questions.  Daddy said he did not help her with it or read it with her- even though I left for work at 9:30 am and he took over.  I told her she also has to go downstairs and take a shower and wash her hair in preparation for being 'school ready' tomorrow morning.  I work late tomorrow, and we will be doing our school the same way tomorrow.  She wanted to stay up and watch a specific movie - but she  didn't finish her dinner on time to have the shower AND watch a two hour movie.  She accepted it although she was upset.  I told her tomorrow is open for the movie, with Daddy - or I'll be home the next two days after that.

Friday, February 12, 2016

Friday my Valentine







We were reading our Ten Kids, No Pets book and had gotten to the Valentine's part!  We decided to do a few Valentine's projects today.


9a    - 150x JJ, 550x 15lb bench
9.15    - spelling with mom
9.30    - CC Match workbook wk4
9.45    - Crash Course Kids
10a    - break
10:30    - Minecraft Valentine Village
12.15     - break - go to town, gather library books et al.




 
 Valentine's village - fountain of hearts and a romantic restaurant that serves fruit and bread.



1:00 - library and checking out books
1:15 - break - grocery store and lunch

//Two more episodes of Saved by the Bell -and discussing what the story was in each one.
4:15 - Crafting Valentine Card
5:00 - done



'Act Natural'... this kid, definitely ours.  Definitely unexpected.
Whatever the public school will do with her, we probably don't want to know.
But for now... well, she  continued her project after goffing off.

She's reading 365 Penguins. 
I'm reading The Interrupted Tale from the Incorrible Children of Ashton Place series

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Wednesday Thursday

THURSDAY:
I stayed home from work today, as the chills, headache and nauseousness I felt kept me up half the night and still hadn't entirely went away.

9a    - spelling with mom
9.15    - CC Math workbook wk3 review
9:30     - reading Caitlin the Ice Bear Fairy, 3/4 of the way through
//Then Mom had to go back to sleep... I couldn't stay awake any more.
10.30    - reading "Complete book of Dragons"
11a    - break

11.30    - 150x JJ, 50x 15lb bench, 50x rv. situp
11.45    - art: cat faces
12.15    - break

12.30    - color vision test (32 vs daddy's 19)
      http://www.xrite.com/online-color-test-challenge
12.45    - 15min multiplication table (100%, 35sec left)
1p    - division problems
1.30p    - break
// I woke back up and we finished the book.
2.15    - reading Ice Bear
2.45    - done

we all contributed an artwork to the boiled eggs


//I started her watching Saved by the Bell, Mark said we should count it as cultural studies.  *heh*  I wanted her to have some exposure to the kids-in-school-environment and it does deal with some topics that are hard to bring up otherwise between kids as they grow up.. The episode was about a dance party and one girl is afraid she is too tall, one boy lies that he can dance when he can't etc etc... She thought the music scenes were very funny.

WEDNESDAY:
I was pretty sick when I got home from work last night, so I didn't post this.

10.30    - 150x JJ
    - writing copywork
    - spelling with mom
10.45    - CC math workbook wk3
11am      - Crash Course Kids : Engineering, Mixture/Solvent
11:30a     - PacMan / old arcade games
12.15      - Minetest
12.45    - break

1.30    - Geography, geometry, geology discussion
1.45    - Football research and report
//She read Wikipedia for about two hours and wrote down a few of the significant dates she found.
3.30    - done

Tuesday, February 09, 2016

Tuesday

Mark gave Esme a snow day from homeschool today.  She was tired and cranky and just wanted to sleep.  He did, too.  I went into work but came home when Mark said they weren't feeling all that well - and the snowstorm was due to get worse over the course of the day.  When I got home Esme was in bed asleep which is not normal for her.  I made her some chicken soup and everyone got to rest up.  I put on Flipper and played some farm game while Mark napped and then had a hot bath.  Now they both seem a little perkier.  They're watching Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and soaking up the electric blanket.

I'm feeling a little tired and cold myself.  Might just be the weather. 

Monday, February 08, 2016

Monday

8a    - Spelling test
8.15    - break

9    - CC math workbook wk2 review
9.15    - break

10a    - Town: Library, directions, shop and scheduling
11a    - break

11.30    - Town
12.15    - break

12.45    - Minecraft
1    - School of dragons
2p    - reading: "How do Dinosaurs say 'I love You'" and "Snow Bear"
2.15    - reading: "Leona the Unicorn Fairy"
//She read the entire fairy book by herself!
3p    - done

Sunday, February 07, 2016

New bed

 Relaxing on her new bed, reading to Lizzie the vampire dragon.

 There is plenty of room for her to grow.

Grr!  It's my bed now!
Mark helped build the bed, so he had to test it out.

We also had to get her bigger shoes.  She informed us that her foot was so cramped she couldn't go to sleep.. and I surmised that her shoes were getting too small.  One size up and she says they feel so much better.  She is growing so fast she'll be taller than me!

I'm prereading the Wollstonecraft Detective Agency book one for her.  It's pretty good.  We'll have to read this one together.

 

Saturday, February 06, 2016

Mom notes

We got a shower head the other day - 10 minutes in a hot shower is worth more than 40 minutes in a warm tub.  I'm enjoying it quite a bit - saves time and actually stay warm!   I'm also doing an exercise routine, and trying to keep my calories down.  I have tomorrow off, and Esme wants to go see a friend.  We'll see if we can link that together with Grandma's shopping.

I'm reading The Other Log of Phileas Fogg.  Strange.  Very strange.

Friday, February 05, 2016

Friday

9a    - Kinetic and Potential Energy
9:10a     - Nuclear and Radiation Energy
9:30a     - Spelling test with mom #3
9:45a     - break

10.15a     - CC math workbook wk2 review
10:30a     - Energy review
10.45    - break

11a    - Minecraft farming
1          - PE: 10 cat lifts, 150x JJ, 50x 15lb bench
1.15    - School of Dragons
2.30    - done

Thursday, February 04, 2016

Thursday

9a    - spelling test with mom
9.15    - sims
10a    - 15min timed mult. table (100%, 13m49s)
10.15    - PE: 150x JJ, 50x 15lb bench, 50x rev. situp
10.30    - video: "World's Fastes Rubik's Cube Solving Robot"
10.40    - CC math workbook wk1 review
11a    - Algodoo
11.30    - Extreme Engineering: "Hong Kong Airport"
12.15    - "Tunneling Under the Alps"
1p    - done

We are continuing with Ten Kids, No Pets  - her expression is getting better, she is reading questions as questions etc... sounding out given and family names 'McIntyre'..

Wednesday, February 03, 2016

Wednesday

9:30a    - Curious Crew : Magnetism
10a     - Spelling 39,40 + 12 word review
10:15     - Magnetism experiments
10:30     - Minecraft design : Rollercoaster and tunnels
11a     - break

12p     - Crash Course Kids 30.1, 34.2, 27.1, 27.2
12.30    - CC math wk1
//We have a new Common Core math workbook for grade 3.  They did the first page - which apparently was one week's worth?  We expect to do a page a day...

1p    - Extreme Engineering: "Widening the Panama Canal"
1.45    -  "Boston's Big Dig"
2.30    - done

Tuesday, February 02, 2016

Tuesday

9:30a    - Crash Course Kids : 12:1,2 13:1,2
10:15a     - CNN article China moon mission Jade Rabbit
10:30a     - break

10:45     - Engineering Process vs. Scientific Method
11:00a     - Design for pretend science lab
12:00p  - break

1p    - Khan video: long division
1.30    - research: parallel bars
1.45    - PE: 150x JJ, 50x 15lb bench, 50x rev situp
2p    - break

2.30    - Algodoo
3.30    - done

We started reading 'Ten Kids, No Pets' by Ann Martin tonight before bed.

Monday, February 01, 2016

Monday

10a    - Research: Why do crabs walk sideways?
    - writing "crab facts" report
12p    - break

1.30p    - Discussion: What are Leap Years?
1.45    - PE: 150x JJ, 50x 15lb bench, .75mi walk/run
2p    - kitchen chem. / home ec: koolaid and pork spice
2.45p    - reading "Molecules" science fair project book
    - raisin rehydration
3p    - timed mult. table (15min, 100%)
3.15    - break

7.30    - Leap Year and Crab Facts review w/ Mom
8p    - done