Practice

Today J passed her Timzit in under 1 minute (28 cards placed on a sheet) while W passed his Dubbit in under 1 minute. YEAH!! Regular practice really helps.

Here the kids works on their memorization work for CC.

Form Drawing practice by J
(walking the form prior to drawing it really helps)

Form drawing practice (W)

Build and Grow

Courtesy of Lowe's Build and Grow workshop, J/W each made a school bus with some help from daddy. We really like these once a month projects. You can sign up on line here. You can also make similar items at Home Depot and you don't even need to register, just show up. Lowe's seem to have more toy projects while Home Depot's items are more functional.

Reading instructions/illustrations

Lots of nail pounding

Putting on finishing touches like stickers

Here it is!

Playing

Review of our 1st week of school

Overall, this 1st week went pretty well. We didn't stick entirely to our schedule due to some unexpected circumstances. But for the most part, except for music and a handwork project I had planned, we got most of what we wanted done.

What is going particularly well is language study. This year J and W are learning 2 languages, Chinese and Spanish and a tiny bit of Latin from CC. I have decided I will be teaching them both to the kids at home. For Chinese, we have been learning anywhere from 8-12 words/few phrases of their choosing on most days and their retention has been pretty good. The nice thing is they really seem to enjoy it esp. the little competition with each other. As far as Spanish, I can't tell you how getting a few stickers become the main motivation for learning the words. Of course, singing songs help too. We are using Collins Spanish Club currently.

Another resource we have been enjoying in the morning is Games Children Play and Yoga Pretzels when we do our movement. We also kicked off science with some trepidation from me.

For math practice, we use a resource called MATH IT which is really good practice for the kids. This is mostly practice for mastery. They have add, double/half, multiply, but no subtraction problems. So we made our own subtractions cards this week and began practicing that as well. For example, "add it" have 29 addition problems (range from simple like 5+5 to little more tricky 5+9) and they need to place it on the board in under a minute.

Something unusual and "dangerous" thing the kids did this week was spending the night outside by themselves on our enclosed deck. This was inspired by the book "Fifty Dangerous Things (you should let your children do)" by G Tulley with J Spiegler. While they were very excited about it, it left me concerned. But this is something they read in the book and wanted to try out.

That's our 1st week in a nut shell. I should also mention both kids seem to enjoy the fables/saints stories so I'm happy about that too. I also tried it on another child who says he "hates" listening to stories (but likes reading), and he also liked it which is huge. So there you go! :)

For God So Loved the World...

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16 (HOLY BIBLE)

J has been copying bible verses on Popsicle sticks and making them into little scrolls out of her own volition and giving them as gifts. She also made some for hanging. Of course, W followed suit.

Fierce battle

Last night, a little boy named W was knighted with his cape and sword and allowed to engage in battle to fight against the "bad guy".



What a fierce battle! The picture don't capture half of it as knight W bravely charged and brandished his sword strategically against the mighty bounce shield-ball.



Finally, after a lot of fighting and hacking the "bad guy" 4x on the arm and piercing him 2x on the chest, knight W won the battle and was crowned the king of the land. The "bad guy" says knight W was "fast and furious". Cheers for W! You were bold and courageous. May you always be the champion for the good and keep a pure heart.

Fun with different friends

We have been busy spending time with our friends and for that we are thankful.

J with 2 little friends.

W, being often the only boy, have fun slidding down the hill

The misting wheel - all the children got very wet

spending time bowling with our friends

At cousin S's princess theme party so he came dressed as a prince.

Good to have some fun with his (boy)friends!

Happy Birthday, Princess S!

End of our "light" school

Today is the last day our last "light" school but the key pieces of our rhythm for the coming school year is well established.

Get up
Breakfast
Outside walk/yoga stretches or games
Math practice alternating with form drawing (to be replaced with MEP math next week)
Grammar /handwriting
break somewhere when they ask or need a snack
Sonlight (history through literature/ bible reading)
Lunch
Free time
Language (Chinese/Spanish)
Project

Next week, we will add science, music, and CC. We have done a couple of Aesop fables and read a few Saint's stories from Christopherus 2nd grade book and done some drawing/writing so we will continue to sprinkle that in. We will also continue with form drawing. Then once homeschool classes begins, we will also have that. But I'm excited about this school year. This year I'm going to keep track of our school days and have a daily journal of what we do so that I can use that to reflect for next year.

outside time

Yesterday was a beautiful day to be outside. We can already feel the waning of summer as differences in temperatures begins to increase. We toured and enjoyed the grounds of a prominent family and learned a little history in the process.

Love the contrast of sun/shade

J strikes a carefree pose

The water is so clear; W enjoyed this the best

I just love the blue; so calming and expanding

walking along the trail before we saw the water

observing

all wrapped up

feeling the hole a spider made;
verdict: so sticky

boy in the tree

boy in the tree - close up
best friends

Opening your heart

As we were all having a snack break today, J looked outside into our backyard which has some trees planted in the back. She kept staring until she exclaimed, I see something. Here is what she say she saw,

" I see a man. He has an orange mustache and orange hair. Oh, I see more of them. They have different faces. I see a green dragon with fire coming out the his nostrils."

When W wanted to see what J says she sees, J tells him, "You have to OPEN your heart." :)

window star

I'm so happy that I found another window star tutorial today. You can click here for the link. One of these days, I will buy the actual book. J picked the colors for the star. Later, the kids will make their own and put into their room. For now, they are too busy having free play.

J says it looks more like a snow flake.
She also says after the colors speak to her as winter colors.

1st time making bread

J surprised me by wanting to make bread. So I gave her a basic recipe and she set to make it. Later when it was time to knead, W joined in.

Here are the kiddos working hard.

One of our dough just after kneading

Our bread turned out fine and we all ate it heartily. But for some reason, it didn't rise very much. Perhaps the yeast is too old so lost effectiveness ? We'll have to try again next time with fresh yeast.

Re-arranging and space

I can't believe we re-organized, re-arranged , cleaned (just a little), ALL day! We also threw away a lot of "junk", i.e plastic/broken toys. We also set another pile of toys for donation.

When daddy called in the afternoon, J said, "We haven't done any light school today yet". Even though she helped all day other than a lunch break, J says it feels it only like 3 minutes. Um, okay, that's an interesting way to look at it. Does she know what 3 minutes feels like, I wonder? But looking at the fruit of our labor, it was a very good day. W also helped though his efforts was more sporadic, but still excellent for a 6 years old.

Here are few of sneak peaks at the newly arranged space...

The wool board is now displayed rather than on the floor and tucked away. Hopefully, the kids will play more with it. The wool is hidden behind the board because I still need to buy a basket to put it in.

The chairs/table were moved from upstairs and is now ready to actually being used. J put the silks there when she played.

All their favorite character toys are all out on display now. Before they were all in a his/her bucket. Their books are also separated, top shelf contains W's books and mid-level contains J's books while the bottom contains over sized books.

The wood animals are also now on display though they are hidden behind a door. W says they are in the "dungeon".

Turtle origami

I have decided to make turtle origami today with W to give him some practice of his fine motor skills. We also did little weeding in our lawn in the morning. Another great practice for those pincher skills. In the beginning, W was pulling the weed with all his fingers. But toward the end, he was getting better and using his pincher more. Anyway, I digress. Let's see some origami fun. You can find the tutorial here.

Lots of folding and pressing

Here is his decorated turtle. He was done after making two.

While J worked on her own and figured out the direction on her own

Here are her turtles. She also had some practice turtles when she was trying to figure out the direction. So this is good task for different levels of children. You can decide how much support to give to each child.

making chicken shish kabob

Who knew skewing meat/veggie would be so difficult for W? Just look at these expressions. I think more practice on those fine motor skills and hand/wrist is in order. This is a great benefit of having kids help with making dinner, simultaneously working on those fingers and who knows what other skills.