Monday, July 28, 2008

Berry Picking

Today was berry picking day! We drove to a U-pick place.

The kids loved running around the strawberry plants, and did a great job picking. They ate a few, but they mostly picked pretty hard. We drove to a different place for raspberries. Delta didn't like picking the raspberries because some of the plants were prickly, and he didn't seem to like the taste much either. Echo had a little pail for the raspberries, and was picking quite a way down the row from me. She would get 2 or 3 in the pail and then run to empty it into my big pail. LOL. I don't know if she ate a bunch of those or not.

While picking the strawberries, Delta asked me what "that" was - pointing at a strawberry plant leaf. I told him it was a strawberry plant, but he said "no - this" I did manage to explain that it was the same plant that the strawberries were growing on.

We also bought some fresh peas - and I had the pleasure of showing Echo the treasure inside! She loved it and ate a bunch. Mike had shown Delta, and he ate some too. (Mike has shown it to him before, in a snow-pea, but the regular peas are much bigger of course.)

Friday, July 25, 2008

Beach - well sort-of

Well, today we spent some of the time at the park - with the kids just playing in the sand and the grass (there was an area for beach-volley-ball - hence the sand....).   They spent a lot of time poaking around a gopher-hole.  we also got to see the gophers (from a different hole).

 

we also bought a cheap glockenspeil (a type of xylophone) and some kazoo's.   They loved both of them!

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

more this and that

Delta is doing really well, getting a bit smoother.  His sentences are getting harder, but he is working out most of the words on his own.

 

Echo is also doing well, she has read the first 3 sentences.

 

My only real concern is that Delta doesn't want to review, he wants to continue further each time.  Mind you, it doesn't seem to be a big problem at this point.

 

We are also reading more of the Beatrix Potter books.   I want to get going on the writing program, but I need to cut the cards and laminate them....  and either scan the master practice pages I need now, or make my own.  sigh

 

Friday, July 18, 2008

Delta doing great

 

Well, last night, we pressed Delta's leaves - they are now sitting between some encyclopedias

 

Echo is basically finished the letter sounds that are before the sentences in our program.  I'll probably keep her doing review for a bit though.   Delta is onto letter combinations - and his reading seems to have suddenly improved.  He still has to sit and figure a lot of words out, but it is going a LOT faster - he seems to have the blending concept figured out.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Swimming

[asked about what swim level the kids are in]


Delta is in Otters even though he isn't 5 yet - the non-parented lil'dippers and parented lil'dippers don't have a summer class at the same time, or even at times that you could put one in babysitting, get then changed in between, then have the other in babysitting!   Anyway, he is THIS close to passing Otters this time!  He has everything marked by the teachers - he just needs to be tested by the deck supervisor.   So they will test him first day of the next session next week.   So he will probably pass and get his badge, or else they will tell me what he has to work on.

 

Also - the teacher and deck supervisor have both told me that Echo should go into the non-parented lil'dippers (bobbers I think?) now even though she isn't 3.  She passed both levels of the parented one months ago, is tall enough to stand at the deep end of the kid pool, and is comfortable in the water and independant.

 

So, I spent a bunch of time today changing our summer swim times so that she can be in the non-parented, and Delta can still swim at the same time.   It'll be nice if it works out, as I can then walk on the treadmill!

 

This afternoon, for a few minutes, we went and collected leaves.  Delta has wanted to for MONTHS.  I'm going to show him how to press them later tonight.

 

Hopefully we will get in some violin practice (I've let that slide again - sigh) and some reading tonight - but will depend on Foxtrot.  I suspect she will want to eat most of the evening.

 

Oh yeah, Echo is so motivated on reading - she wants to do everything Delta does.  She is always the one that wants to do it - Delta needs coaxing a lot of days.  It just makes me wonder though - she is almost to sentences!   I think there is only 1 more letter - maybe 2???

 

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

a Few things

Well, it rained today, so we didn't get to do the leaf collecting that I'd told Delta we would do today.  Hopefully it is nice tomorrow.   Also, at swimming today, a lot of kids got report-cards with badges on them.  As Delta didn't, I assume he hasn't passed yet.  I'll be getting his report-card tomorrow.     I think he is just so skinny that he can't float yet, and swimming is harder too.   Oh well, he doesn't seem to notice or mind, and I'm assuming he is improving all the time....

 

Today was a BAD day - but did get some homeschooling in.  I'd read up on the writing program, and it looks pretty good.  It is setup to go along with a different reading program (but is supposed to be ok on its own) - it should be fine, but some of the terms and stuff is hard to figure out without using their reading program...  I did a preliminary exersize with Delta.   There is a bit of stuff I gotta do before really using it.

 

I also had Echo do a few of her reading cards - she now has over 100!  (I introduced "D" to her, and added those words.)    Delta also did some more of his sentences - which finished off the main sounds of the entire alphabet, along with a LOT of exceptions.   According to the book, he would be reading at a grade 2 level now!   But I don't think he is fluent enough to say that - so we need to work at practice.   

 

I also read him the Tale of Benjamin Bunny.  Oh, and they also played with the mosaic pegs.     I have in mind that when I'm working with one child, the other can play with the mosaic - but although I haven't tried that, I have a hard time seeing that working, as I think that they would both be wanting to play with it....   it is going to be so much fun trying to work out how to keep Echo busy when working with Delta, and the other way around!

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Beatrix Potter

Tonight I read a couple of Beatrix Potter stories to Delta and Echo.  The Tale of Peter Rabbit - and one about a squirrel.... don't remember its name.

 

It seemed to me we did more - of course there was swimming.   Oh yeah, we also took a little walk down the street - Foxtrot in the snugli, and the other 2 kids walking.  It makes me sad to realize that I don't even know the name of many of the common weeds here!  

 

I also received a writing program I ordered a bit over a week ago.  I hope it is as good as I've heard.

Read a book alone!

Delta read a book by himself yesterday - "Bears on Wheels" by the Bearnsteins.  (sp?)    It isn't the most thrilling book, but he did it himself!

Friday, July 11, 2008

Sumer School

It seems harder to get homeschooling in while my dh is off, and he doesn't have so much overtime now... 

 

anyway, we have been doing summer swim lessons, so that is M-Th....  They are doing great.

 

Today was our shopping day.  At one point while we were doing some waiting, I had Delta and Echo practice their counting with some pennies in my pocket.  They were doing better at it - Echo was counting to 6 consistantly (which was all the pennies I gave her...)  and Delta was counting to 14 consistantly (which was all the pennies I gave him.)    I wanted to stop them right at the point they start getting confused and work from there.

 

Also, violin practice is going a bit better again.   It definately works better when I do it every day!

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Which Curriculum?

Still doing pretty good...  didn't do as much today, although Delta was asking.  (Foxtrot was having a "eat all day" type of day.)

 

We have gotten the violin practice going again.  We are enjoying the childcraft set as well.

 

Delta did a simple word search the other day (not sure if I mentioned it or not?).

 

I'm also spending time to decide if I'm going to follow a particular Charlotte Mason curriculum (free) that is online.  There are 2 that I am looking at.  For either, I'll have to modify the history to put in Canadian history instead of American...

Monday, July 7, 2008

Less TV helps!

I made a conscious effort to greatly reduce the amount of TV the kids (and I ) watch now that Foxtrot doesn't take so much time.  The amount of time they watch has been slowly increasing since Echo was born

 

Once I got up (and their show "Super Why" was done - dad had turned it on for them...)  We had violin practice with Delta.  We haven't in probably almost a month - so he did NOT want to co-operate.  He got told that he wasn't doing anything until he had done that (and we had swim lessons not much later in the day...).   Fortunately he decided to do it.  (I was going to put the baby gate up across his room (which so far he has never climbed - but we don't use it anymore either...) - but he decided to do the practice before I got it out.... and the waiting time was used getting things ready for swim lessons.    We didn't do a lot for the practice, mainly some basic stuff.

 

Swim lessons were next, and a bit of time playing at the Y.  Then it was home for lunch (and 1 more show...)

 

Then let's see....   they played on the organ some, and we also got out their other musical instruments and played a bunch.  (maracas, tamborines, etc).

 

We had a math lesson

 The math lesson was on counting - we counted pennies.  Delta can count well up to 12, then starts mixing up.   Echo can count to 4 - but does recognize that the numbers correspond to the pennies.  (wierd, she can count to 10 if she isn't counting something but just saying the numbers...)

 

I made up a simple word search puzzle - Delta did GREAT.  He found a lot of them with no help, and the last few with a little help.  Echo didn't get the idea, but I didn't really expect her to - she coloured instead.

 

They also played with that mosaic pegboard I bought - Echo just puts the pegs in anywhere - but Delta filled in a rectangle shape with different colours.  And of course, it is great sorting practice as I make them sort it when putting it away.

 

And tonight I read the Alladin story from the Childcraft set.  Sometimes I don't know if Delta is really listening to these longer stories (Echo doesn't) - but I think he gets something out of them.

 

Overall - a lot done!

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Asking for homeschooling!

wierd - looks like the last post was cut off a bit.

 

Anyway - Delta has been asking to do homeschooling each day the last few days. 

 

Tonight we finished reading "The House at Pooh Corner"

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Good Day

We did good this evening!

 

They played "Ledges" - Delta could pick the words our right away (mind you, it was review for him) and Echo was able to figure them out (and got some extra practice reading the wrong choices....)

 

They then practiced their scripture mastery - Echo does better than Delta who tends to confuse some scriptures together.

 

Then Delta read 6 new sentences from the book - it introduced the sound x makes.   I then went ahead and asked what z says, and what qu says - and he knows them....  so should make the reading the next few days fairly easy.   He is doing better at blending out new words, but sometimes still needs me to help him - and I really don't think that he should....

 

I then gave Delta a "cars" book that no-one is going to read to him.  I think I made a bit of a mistake though.... I bought it as an impulse and a quick flip through.  It is a step 1 reading book - but I see now that with that set of books, step 1 is "getting ready to read" so is read by a parent.  I probably wanted a step 2 book which is for kids that can sound out some words.   So there are some tough words in his book (like bright and night....).  Oh well, it will be a challenge - but not TOO hard I hope.  I did tell him the bright and night words, but am not really helping him on the others.

 

Echo of course wanted a book too - but I explained that she will get her own book when she is at that stage of reading.  We then did some cards, and she learned what "s" says.    I then read her a "little critter" while Delta was working on puzzling out his book.

 

They then played the organ for a while - just playing on it of course.  (I haven't figured out how to teach them it yet!!!)    Then Delta told me that he couldn't play "Armagedon" (by Prism).  I told him I couldn't either!

 

So Delta knows the basic sounds that all the letters make.   I think we will do a lot of practice with them for a while - then the sentences get into the letter combinations etc....

 

 

Echo then wanted to do her car

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Canola is not dandilions

We've still been taking it easy so far. Mike has been off the last couple of days...

Today we went to the playground - a different one from normal. Echo liked the clover growing in the field there, and had a close look at a bee (which made me a little nervous...) We also did a bit of driving around, and Delta pointed out the canola fields. (they are bright yellow - and used to be called rape seed). Even though he knew what it was last year, today he thought they were dandilions.... I told them what they really were though. And a bit further on, they were right up near the road, and he was able to see that they were different from dandilions - so that is cool.