8.30a - writing numbers as words
9.15a - writing prompt - If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live and why?
----"I would live in Japan. I like the soup. I like the way the roofs are shaped on the houses."
9.30 - online game: School of Dragons
----She made a lot of ground after begging me to allow her to play this. I previewed it last night and it looked involved and complicated enough to count as some school time. She read instructions, followed quests, and learned new controls and interfaces. This is an important part of our goals for 'engineering primary school', that she discover new things, really get into the workings of them and make and achieve her own goals. Of course, the game or interface has to have things that really teach, too- not a pony dress-up game, but something with strategy, quests and lessons.
12p - reading aloud: "Crawdad Creek" by Scott Russell Sanders
12.15p - half mile walk
12.30p - done
Tomorrow is a library day, and my day off- so we can get some more done. This has been my 'six days on, one day off (Sunday) and four more on' week and it can be tough even without incorporating school goals into it. I am very proud of the amount of writing she has done this week. 'Writing and writing to the end of time etc..' as she said it was this morning as she despaired over the two worksheets on her desk. She has really shown she has the ability - we just have to get in the practice.
I am hoping to cover another section in our Social Studies book 'People Together' tomorrow morning before we leave for the library. She has things to show me in the dragon game that she is proud of - she begged tonight to spend some time tomorrow showing me the new things she has discovered and what her dragon has accomplished 'in only one day - I was so amazed' in her words.
+20 pages in Grimm Sisters before bed
Showing posts with label engineering. Show all posts
Showing posts with label engineering. Show all posts
Thursday, August 27, 2015
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
Tuesday dragons
10 am - dragon city game, upkeep, reading, logic (powers and battle)
10:30 - break for food
11 am - math on matific, try frustrating activity from yesterday again
11:15am - handwriting dragon sentences and noun worksheet
11:30am - break
12 noon - Painting practice, acrylics
12:45 - break
// She has been learning from the Joy of Painting episodes! She did great color mixing and put different color shadows on both sides of the mountain, one for shadow, one for sun rays. I painted, too - on another sheet.. and made a few things. I had her present her painting in a tablet video but the sound was really quiet. I told her for school we would work on making better videos.
1:30 - Minecraft design and exploration by herself, she went back to Horse City and built other things in several of her worlds. I limited her to one hour or this.
2:30 - painting presentation video
2:45 - 7 Wonders of World reading in Places to Know book
3 - break
4-6 - LAN play with Mom building house, pool, doing fireworks, learning multiplayer interface
6 - washing dog
6:15 - done
Note : We are still iced in. The mailman stopped by and said we would likely not get to the highway today, either - the main road is cleared but our hills on the back road are glare ice. The Rhymes and Poems book I had ordered the other day did not come - instead, I got another volume in the series - 'Places to Know'... not really what Esme was interested in, either.. read her the first few pages anyway. I told her we would study those a bit more and then test her out on it.
Daddy is trying to rest up from a cold - doing that hydrant in the cold rain the other day.
Columbus, the puppy - is getting quite spoiled.
Mark says he is like a 100 watt heater and 'eventually' he will
be too big for this... sure....sure...
Gifted and asynchronous first and second graders - article
Disclaimer : We have never had Esme tested for IQ...but she fits the profile for asynchronous so very well..and her method of learning is 'all over the board',which made regular public school tough to handle (for them, and some for her)... Some days I wonder what we're learning exactly during one of our blocks - but I realize we are learning her way - and she really is picking up skills along the way...just not the way you would expect in a 'first grade classroom.'
Saturday, February 21, 2015
First Grade Curriculum materials
Will update this as I go here.. but want a collection to refer back to and add on to...
Spelling : K12 reader list of spelling words We are using the first grade spelling words as 'spell it from hearing it' and the third grade spelling words as vocabulary and copywork. I have a 1968 spelling primer 'Language Mastery Primer' that I bought at a library sale we are using, as well. We picked up a 1.00 dictionary for her to learn to use, at the same place.
Reading Comprehension : k5 Learning Reading Comprehension This is a hard one to find something simple enough for her writing ability but tough enough for her logic capability. She can read a lot more complicated items, but her handwriting still is a barrier at times, and she is just beginning real composition. We have a book from the Calvert school that Aunt Dot sent to us that has lots of fables and questions in it - we've used that, and also some of the poetry from it for copywork.
Reading - books, poetry and rhymes. plurals, tenses, etc... too many to list, but we are active in searching out books to introduce her to, read with her, etc etc...I have bought several 'old school' textbooks that are on her reading level, and we've read them sometimes when she doesn't have something else she is 'into' and we haven't finished. She has her own library card now, and we have went often. She likes the chapter books from Franny K. Stein and also the Stink Moody series, they are fun. We've read some Charlotte's Web, and I have Half-Magic and Little House in the Big Woods on reserve, but I don't want to start more than two chapter books at a time.
Handwriting: 'the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog', for copywork, mixed with other sentences and copying names of dragons, etc.. She has a perfectionism tendency...but once in a while she lets me correct her and I do see her improving steadily.
'English': First, things that come up, like homonyms she doesn't understand, or capitalization and punctuation while we are writing some sentences. Second, 'voice' in reading actually falls under this, I believe - because once you understand how sentences in books flow, the punctuation and forms come easier. Third, identifying
Math with : Khan Academy, Matific and using specific games online that make her think about math while she is playing them - multiples, scarcity, probability etc... She has done the Dragonbox algebra prep for age 5 and up from start to finish. We also downloaded and used Math Stretch as a mobile app and some calculation apps for basic addition/subtraction. We started with multiplication tables up to 10x10 earlier in the year and very simple division with fractions (circle pizzas) and regular numbers (counters/word problems). Still working on the 11/2 is 5 and a half TWICE... maybe find some materials for that or make a prop to help.
Math / Geometry : Matific and Khan again, and trying to put some hands-on in there. Also have used Solid shape Geometry worksheets from Mathworksheets4Kids which she is ready for. Making PVC items from our kit works in here, too. Math Salamanders 3D solid nets
Science:
Asking questions and finding answers - researching for information, creating tests and recording the results. Started with the Chemistry cards at Pinay Homeschooler, introducing them 9 at a time (page) and talking about them. She is picking up on the ideas with the pictures and categories much better than she did with just the letters. We have done lots of experiments, ones she found online and some we got from a Lowes kit, oobleck and such. For nature science she is learning a lot about different animals and environments, how to prepare and care for different pets and animals and learning about plants with her greenhouse. When it was warmer we went for lots of nature walks around the house and answered her questions as they came up.
places to investigate more, GeoDetective , Try Engineering and Edheads
Geography:
Started her out playing World Explorer map geography game at the library. She didn't really believe all of these other places could be real at first - thought it was just stories. We have three hallway maps, bought and from National Geographics. We are using National Geos and youtube videos to investigate different places, the animals and people who live there, as well as tectonic plates, volcanoes and etc... We printed out a map from Printable maps and put it up on her wall, for us to fill it out and color it in as we learn from the other maps.
History
We had her watch Liberty's Kids from start to finish, and have talked about history in general, where people lived, where they moved to, Columbus discovering America, wars, Indians and the settlers - taking little bits as she is interested in them. She has played the Civlization game with me and it gives some good ideas that people had to learn things slowly etc.. I think once she has a better idea about the world in general- from our geography studies and relating those studies to history and people, she will be ready to take on more lessons.
Languages: She did a little modern Greek online at the beginning...waned off of that and it became too much of a chore. She agreed recently she should go back and learn it some more. BUT - she had remembered several words all this time!
Photography, Video : She has used our smaller camera, printed out the photos with me at the store - and is learning to take photos and video on the tablet.
Computer interface: A lot of the games, Minecraft, PBS kids etc that she plays fall under this. She is really good (and has been for years, really) at figuring things out to play complicated games. Now, she is learning from them, learning how to look things up about them and really getting into them for strategy and quests.
Other supplies:
Electric Company series videos
Blue Planet series videos
Mr. Roger's Neighborhood (on Youtube)
SnapCircuits electronic building kit
art with Joy of Painting videos, art supplies with Mom
other building kits we picked up long ago...Da Vinci and so forth
mancala and dominoes, checkers and dice
balltrack building kit
Knex and Lego
dolls and figurines, making up stories
Scrabble and Monopoly
paper, glue, scissors, yarn, macaroni, beads etc.. making things
simple cooking with Mom and Dad, measuring etc.
weighing with a balance scale
woodcrafting with Mom and Dad
candlemaking with Mom
sewing and weaving lessons with Mom
rollerskating, weight lifting, running laps and general exercises
taking care of her chickens, puppy, cats
cleaning up after herself, putting away clothes, organizing desk etc.
Specific materials I've sourced for her:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Books from The New Basic Readers collection (several years ago), Fun with our Friends etc.
-----she has almost outgrown these, now - but will keep them for a while
-----There are two other similar books 'Up and Away', and 'Seeing New Things'. That last one is a science book. They were both from library sales.
Library discard sales:
Sun and Shadow (1982 primer book 'Level 4'...of 1st grade, perhaps? it doesn't say)
Pets and Promises (1980 primer book - listed as 2nd grade level 1) , seems more difficult than the other one.
Books from the 1979 Childcraft How Why Library - we have four now, one from my original set (Indian Book), the Story of the Sea, Things we Make and Rhymes and Poems. Probably will add more as we go.
Power Pack and Supergirl comic books
A book called 'the Car', on the history and construction of the car, also car racing.
A topographical map showing mountains, volcanoes and ocean currents.
was going to buy a world political map - but found one at the big box for 5.00
The Half Magic, Charlotte's Web and Little House in the Big Woods books
A compass and binocular multitoy from Toysmith called Optic Wonder
A vintage Speak and Spell
candle molds
Seeds for her gardening projects, dianthus, cockscomb, geranium and herbs.
Spelling : K12 reader list of spelling words We are using the first grade spelling words as 'spell it from hearing it' and the third grade spelling words as vocabulary and copywork. I have a 1968 spelling primer 'Language Mastery Primer' that I bought at a library sale we are using, as well. We picked up a 1.00 dictionary for her to learn to use, at the same place.
Reading Comprehension : k5 Learning Reading Comprehension This is a hard one to find something simple enough for her writing ability but tough enough for her logic capability. She can read a lot more complicated items, but her handwriting still is a barrier at times, and she is just beginning real composition. We have a book from the Calvert school that Aunt Dot sent to us that has lots of fables and questions in it - we've used that, and also some of the poetry from it for copywork.
Reading - books, poetry and rhymes. plurals, tenses, etc... too many to list, but we are active in searching out books to introduce her to, read with her, etc etc...I have bought several 'old school' textbooks that are on her reading level, and we've read them sometimes when she doesn't have something else she is 'into' and we haven't finished. She has her own library card now, and we have went often. She likes the chapter books from Franny K. Stein and also the Stink Moody series, they are fun. We've read some Charlotte's Web, and I have Half-Magic and Little House in the Big Woods on reserve, but I don't want to start more than two chapter books at a time.
Handwriting: 'the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog', for copywork, mixed with other sentences and copying names of dragons, etc.. She has a perfectionism tendency...but once in a while she lets me correct her and I do see her improving steadily.
'English': First, things that come up, like homonyms she doesn't understand, or capitalization and punctuation while we are writing some sentences. Second, 'voice' in reading actually falls under this, I believe - because once you understand how sentences in books flow, the punctuation and forms come easier. Third, identifying
Math with : Khan Academy, Matific and using specific games online that make her think about math while she is playing them - multiples, scarcity, probability etc... She has done the Dragonbox algebra prep for age 5 and up from start to finish. We also downloaded and used Math Stretch as a mobile app and some calculation apps for basic addition/subtraction. We started with multiplication tables up to 10x10 earlier in the year and very simple division with fractions (circle pizzas) and regular numbers (counters/word problems). Still working on the 11/2 is 5 and a half TWICE... maybe find some materials for that or make a prop to help.
Math / Geometry : Matific and Khan again, and trying to put some hands-on in there. Also have used Solid shape Geometry worksheets from Mathworksheets4Kids which she is ready for. Making PVC items from our kit works in here, too. Math Salamanders 3D solid nets
Science:
Asking questions and finding answers - researching for information, creating tests and recording the results. Started with the Chemistry cards at Pinay Homeschooler, introducing them 9 at a time (page) and talking about them. She is picking up on the ideas with the pictures and categories much better than she did with just the letters. We have done lots of experiments, ones she found online and some we got from a Lowes kit, oobleck and such. For nature science she is learning a lot about different animals and environments, how to prepare and care for different pets and animals and learning about plants with her greenhouse. When it was warmer we went for lots of nature walks around the house and answered her questions as they came up.
places to investigate more, GeoDetective , Try Engineering and Edheads
Geography:
Started her out playing World Explorer map geography game at the library. She didn't really believe all of these other places could be real at first - thought it was just stories. We have three hallway maps, bought and from National Geographics. We are using National Geos and youtube videos to investigate different places, the animals and people who live there, as well as tectonic plates, volcanoes and etc... We printed out a map from Printable maps and put it up on her wall, for us to fill it out and color it in as we learn from the other maps.
History
We had her watch Liberty's Kids from start to finish, and have talked about history in general, where people lived, where they moved to, Columbus discovering America, wars, Indians and the settlers - taking little bits as she is interested in them. She has played the Civlization game with me and it gives some good ideas that people had to learn things slowly etc.. I think once she has a better idea about the world in general- from our geography studies and relating those studies to history and people, she will be ready to take on more lessons.
Languages: She did a little modern Greek online at the beginning...waned off of that and it became too much of a chore. She agreed recently she should go back and learn it some more. BUT - she had remembered several words all this time!
Photography, Video : She has used our smaller camera, printed out the photos with me at the store - and is learning to take photos and video on the tablet.
Computer interface: A lot of the games, Minecraft, PBS kids etc that she plays fall under this. She is really good (and has been for years, really) at figuring things out to play complicated games. Now, she is learning from them, learning how to look things up about them and really getting into them for strategy and quests.
Other supplies:
Electric Company series videos
Blue Planet series videos
Mr. Roger's Neighborhood (on Youtube)
SnapCircuits electronic building kit
art with Joy of Painting videos, art supplies with Mom
other building kits we picked up long ago...Da Vinci and so forth
mancala and dominoes, checkers and dice
balltrack building kit
Knex and Lego
dolls and figurines, making up stories
Scrabble and Monopoly
paper, glue, scissors, yarn, macaroni, beads etc.. making things
simple cooking with Mom and Dad, measuring etc.
weighing with a balance scale
woodcrafting with Mom and Dad
candlemaking with Mom
sewing and weaving lessons with Mom
rollerskating, weight lifting, running laps and general exercises
taking care of her chickens, puppy, cats
cleaning up after herself, putting away clothes, organizing desk etc.
Specific materials I've sourced for her:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Books from The New Basic Readers collection (several years ago), Fun with our Friends etc.
-----she has almost outgrown these, now - but will keep them for a while
-----There are two other similar books 'Up and Away', and 'Seeing New Things'. That last one is a science book. They were both from library sales.
Library discard sales:
Sun and Shadow (1982 primer book 'Level 4'...of 1st grade, perhaps? it doesn't say)
Pets and Promises (1980 primer book - listed as 2nd grade level 1) , seems more difficult than the other one.
Books from the 1979 Childcraft How Why Library - we have four now, one from my original set (Indian Book), the Story of the Sea, Things we Make and Rhymes and Poems. Probably will add more as we go.
Power Pack and Supergirl comic books
A book called 'the Car', on the history and construction of the car, also car racing.
A topographical map showing mountains, volcanoes and ocean currents.
was going to buy a world political map - but found one at the big box for 5.00
The Half Magic, Charlotte's Web and Little House in the Big Woods books
A compass and binocular multitoy from Toysmith called Optic Wonder
A vintage Speak and Spell
candle molds
Seeds for her gardening projects, dianthus, cockscomb, geranium and herbs.
Wednesday, November 05, 2014
Wednesday math, a potato and more
The Potato clock was done today!
They had to work around a lot of things - but they got it working :)
The Dinosaurs did some copycat action and went after the mountain of Skittles in the care of several turtles. Esme says this is a picture to send to her friend EmK to see in her house!
We started Khan Academy math again, and racked up 4800 points, and then did our first of the computer programming modules. Will return to it again!
Mark and Esme made a skeeball target for her catapult she got for her birthday, which was their engineering craft project for the day (besides the potato).
Thursday, October 09, 2014
Adventure day two and Engineering day
Adventure log drawings
2014-10-98am - Greater / Less than worksheet
- Bike parts worksheet
- Starfall
- Break
9am - Tongue Twisters
- word search
- PE (weights! 30x 5lb lift, 30x 5lb squats, .25mi run (quarter mile), 10 situp)
10am - Outside adventure nature observation walk
- Writing report of observations
11am - recess
4pm - Web searches with Rhe
- Designing monkey bars
5pm - Engineering: pipes, T and elbow joints.engineering vocabulary
5.30pm - Done
extracredit: Spider egg case drawing for science , discussion
eating watermelon from a coworker's garden with her egg and cheese sandwich for dinner
the light was almost completely gone and the camera had a hard time getting much quickly... got quiet contemplation and 'super excited'... She had her knee-high socks on and rollerskates on and had been skating for about an hour today on the concrete floor just before I got home...
List of things she wants to do 'soon':
Potato stamps art project
ink blots with paint
Engineering school:
Project requests:
Build a cottage out of wood - bit too much for us at the moment...but possible
Buld a set of monkey bars out of pipe and a ladder.. very possible, need used ladder
We discussed both options, looked it up some for material cost and discussed measuring and how to decide how big a project should be when it's done. Went to a store site, looked up materials, talked about price sorting and how to check if an item is what you want. Talked about counting pieces in a design so you don't have to go to the store more than once for materials, and why it would be hard to go back once you were building/working. Then we practiced using our PVC bag of parts and pipes (from the flea market tent) to build a structure, make it stable, balance and mirror (opposite but the same - she said) parts so it comes together.. how to compare lengths of pieces and find four/eight etc. the same, how to substitute a part if you don't have what you need right at hand... She was very good at keeping-trying and then also about making her drawing, counting, and cleaning up.
//transition //
She asked if she had to go to school tomorrow (Friday) and I said not go 'to' school, she would have school here at home, like the past days since Monday. She said she didn't want to do school at home either (she wanted to skate and play and I had told her it was really time for bed).. but then I said she didn't want to trade her Saturday, did she? Oh no, don't want to do that... She still gets the weekend off like she would at 'regular' school and we had fun things planned for the weekend.. and she gets to plan some of the things she wants to do, unlike at the public school. So, she planned some things and is ready for classwork tomorrow then a fun weekend with no 'required' stuff. She then said 'I am kind of tired.' I said I saw it in her eyes. She said she saw I was tired in my eyes, too.. Yes, and I have work tomorrow. She flip-flopped for a few minutes while taking forever brushing her teeth.. by the time I had her in bed and reading a few poems to her she was in a sweet mood.
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