Second Quarter Update

The good news:
My kitchen is 98% finished and it is beautiful - way more beautiful than I thought it would be
All of the kids, including the baby, are alive and well
School, in some form or another, has been happening each day according to my original schedule
I can wear some of my normal pants (anyone out there who is pregnant - keep those belly band things...you can wear them indefinitely, I think, while holding on to the belief that one day, you will no longer need them and you will actually be able to button your pants again)

The bad news:
Mitt Romney is not our president (I know, you already knew that)
School has been a struggle for everyone, and we're all lacking in ambition, focus, cooperation, attention to detail, endurance, and so on, and so on, and so on...
I have discovered that it is not possible to do anything in public with all 5 kids along, unless I'm in the mood to be humiliated and frustrated and possibly burst into tears. I'm not usually in that kind of a mood.
It is also not possible to do anything at home while all 5 kids are awake (except scream - we are all definitely capable of screaming while everyone is awake, or while some are sleeping, with the intention of awakening them)

I have not posted any homeschooling updates, but our 2nd quarter meeting with our supervising teacher is just around the corner, so I have actually prepared something for it. Here it is:

Isaac Wood

2^nd Quarter Update

Friday, November 7, 2012

English:

Learning Language Arts Through Literature Tan Book

Current Lesson: Lesson 13 – How to conduct personal research

Topics covered this year:

·         Prefixes

·         Suffixes

·         Timelines

·         Words beginning with c/k

·         Common and proper nouns

·         Helping and being verbs/verb phrases

·         Writing a biography

·         Figurative language – similes, personification

·         Adjectives

·         Poetry – stanzas, triplets, poetry vs. prose

·         Pronouns

·         Compound words

·         Adverbs

·         Paragraphs – topic & supporting sentences

·         Transitional words

·         Contractions

·         Possessive nouns

·         Organizing thoughts using a “circle word picture”

·         Positive/comparative/superlative form

·         Direct quotations

·         Subject & predicate

·         Sentence fragments

·         Sentence types

·         Adding suffixes to words ending in “y”

·         Compound subject, verb, sentence

·         First-person and third-person narrator

·         Context clues

·         Plot lines

·         Synonyms and antonyms

·         How to conduct personal research

From the Roots Up (Greek and Latin)

Words covered this quarter:

·         Biblos

·         Sauros

·         Photos

·         Graph

·         Tele

·         Metron

Read-alouds:

·         Where the Red Fern Grows

·         The Tanglewoods’ Secret

Math:

Math-U-See Epsilon

Current Lesson: Lesson 13 – Reducing Fractions

Topics covered this quarter:

1. Fraction of a number
2. Fraction of one
3. Add and subtract – equal
4. Equivalent fractions
5. Add and subtract – unequal
6. Rule of 4
7. Compare fractions
8. Add multiple fractions
9. Multiply fractions
10. Dividing fractions
11. Common factors
12. Reduce fractions 1
13. Reduce fractions 2

Social Studies/History:

My Father’s World & Elections Unit Study

Topics covered this quarter:

·         7 days of creation

·         Adam and Eve

·         Cain and Abel

·         Noah and the Ark

·         The Flood

·         After the Flood

·         Noah’s descendants

·         Tower of Babel

·         Fertile Crescent and Mesopotamia

·         Cuneiform

·         Farmers of the Nile Valley

·         Unification of Egypt

·         Egypt: Work on the land

·         Egypt: boats

·         Mummies

·         Pyramids

·         Job

·         Abraham’s journeys

·         Abraham and Lot

·         Hagar and Ishmael

·         Indus River Valley

·         God’s covenant with Abraham

·         Hieroglyphics

·         Papyrus

·         Voting and elections

o   Vocabulary: government, authority, power, liberty, tranquility, justice, rights, principle, vote, poll, prediction, tally, ballot,

o   Local, state, and national government structure

o   Purpose of government

o   Branches of government

o   How laws are made

o   About the Constitution and Bill of Rights

o   Electoral College

o   Democrat vs. Republican

o   Who can vote and be elected

Science:

My Father’s World

Topics covered this quarter:

·         Dinosaurs in the Bible/biblical times

·         What is light?

·         Bending light

·         What color is light?

·         Electromagnetic waves

·         Light as a form of energy & lasers

·         Light from unexpected sources

·         Pyramids

·         Preservation of mummies

·         Mold and decay

Simon Wood

2^nd Quarter Update

Friday, November 7, 2012

English:

Learning Language Arts Through Literature Red Book

Current Lesson: Lesson 13

Topics covered this year:

·         Short and long vowel sounds

·         Compound words

·         Nouns – common and proper

·         Adjectives

·         Syllables

·         Alphabetical order

·         Rhyming

·         Pronouns

·         Hard and soft g

·         “ck” sound

·         Three sounds of “y”

·         Fact and opinion

·         Two sounds of “s”

·         Order of events in a story

·         Months of the year

·         Adding “ing”

·         Context clues

·         Adding “ed”

·         Homonyms

·         Punctuation at the end of a sentence

·         Two sounds of “ow”

·         Contractions

·         Adding –ed and –ing to words with a short vowel and one consonant

·         “ar”, “or”, “ou”, and “aw” sounds

·         Fiction vs. Non-fiction

·         /er/ sounds – “er”, “ir”, “ur”

·         Direct quotations

·         “wr” and “ew” sounds

·         Compound words

·         Pronouns

·         “wor” sounds

·         Verbs

·         Synonyms

·         Possessive nouns

·         “dg” and “tch” sounds

·         Dropping silent “e” to add –ed and –ing

·         Possessive pronouns

·         “oo” sounds

·         Using commas in lists

·         “ea” sounds

·         Emotions

From the Roots Up (Greek and Latin)

Words covered this quarter:

·         Biblos

·         Sauros

·         Photos

·         Graph

·         Tele

·         Metron

Read-alouds:

·         Where the Red Fern Grows

·         The Tanglewoods’ Secret

Math:

Math-U-See Beta

Current Lesson: Lesson 13 – Column addition

Topics covered this quarter:

1. Place Value and the Manipulatives
2. Sequencing; Word Problem Tips
3. Inequalities
4. Rounding to 10 and Estimation
5. Multiple-Digit Addition
6. Skip Count by 2
7. Addition with Regrouping (Carrying)
8. Skip Count by 10
9. Skip Count by 5; 5¢ = 1 Nickel
10. Money: Decimal Point and Dollars
11. Rounding to Hundreds
12. Adding Money; Mental Math
13. Column Addition

Social Studies/History:

My Father’s World & Elections Unit Study

Topics covered this quarter:

·         7 days of creation

·         Adam and Eve

·         Cain and Abel

·         Noah and the Ark

·         The Flood

·         After the Flood

·         Noah’s descendants

·         Tower of Babel

·         Fertile Crescent and Mesopotamia

·         Cuneiform

·         Farmers of the Nile Valley

·         Unification of Egypt

·         Egypt: Work on the land

·         Egypt: boats

·         Mummies

·         Pyramids

·         Job

·         Abraham’s journeys

·         Abraham and Lot

·         Hagar and Ishmael

·         Indus River Valley

·         God’s covenant with Abraham

·         Hieroglyphics

·         Papyrus

·         Voting and elections

o   Vocabulary: government, authority, power, liberty, tranquility, justice, rights, principle, vote, poll, prediction, tally, ballot,

o   Local, state, and national government structure

o   Purpose of government

o   Branches of government

o   How laws are made

o   About the Constitution and Bill of Rights

o   Electoral College

o   Democrat vs. Republican

o   Who can vote and be elected

Science:

My Father’s World

Topics covered this quarter:

·         Dinosaurs in the Bible/biblical times

·         What is light?

·         Bending light

·         What color is light?

·         Electromagnetic waves

·         Light as a form of energy & lasers

·         Light from unexpected sources

·         Pyramids

·         Preservation of mummies

·         Mold and decay

Feeding the Baby

I was going to call this post "breastfeeding," but I didn't want to scare people (like my dad, who may want to avoid reading this post anyway).
Every baby is a new experience, and I've learned the following things from baby Phil these last three weeks:

1. I cannot nurse the baby and knit at the same time. I have tried my hardest, but it's just not possible. Maybe there's room for an invention here...some kind of hands-free knitting device that you can rest on the baby's head?
2. Asking, "Phil, do you have a poopy diaper?" will probably continue to make me giggle until the poor kid is potty-trained. I'm not sure if this is a pro or a con of naming your child after his grandpa. 
3. Babies can pee on you and you don't even know it. Either they're in your lap and you suddenly feel pleasantly warm, or you're changing them and then your face and the walls and the floor are being sprinkled on. Comprehending that it's pee takes a few seconds, even after the 20th time. During those few seconds, the experience is actually kind of nice. Who doesn't like a warm lap?
4. Car seats are a pain. A large, unwieldy, spit-up covered, impossible to latch into the stupid base part, life-saving pain.
5. I can nurse the baby and use the bathroom at the same time. Strangely, this has been necessary more than once already.
6. Babies are not good at keeping their feet in the proper leg holes of their pajamas. Both legs get stuck in the same one, and then they squirm and make it impossible to figure out how to get the snaps together in the right order. All baby clothes should have zippers, not snaps. Or babies should be born with enough fur to just remain naked all the time. Hello, evolution? Where are you when I need you? 
7. I can also check Facebook while nursing the baby, while simultaneously watching Parks and Recreation on Netflix (4 seasons in just 3 weeks). 
8. Esme and Grace will be great mommies someday, as long as they eventually figure out the difference between patting the baby gently and smacking him.
9. When it's the middle of the night and you're somewhat sleep-deprived, having a newborn baby stare at you can be very unsettling. You start thinking that he's going to start talking or read your mind or steal your soul (depending on your level of sleep deprivation).
10. Baby diapers are way better than toddler diapers. To avoid changing toddler diapers, wait for the toddler to poop, then announce to your husband that you have to go change the baby's diaper for the 50th time today, thereby guilting him into changing the nasty toddler diaper. I've almost got Grace trained to poop during John's lunch hour. Genius.

Can You Teach a One-Year-Old?

I think it's possible to teach a one-year-old. I'm sure that there are one-year-olds who are potty-trained, or who can speak in sentences, or who know their colors, or who at least know not to eat their colors and then use the remaining stumps to destroy the walls and furniture. MY one-year-old, however, seems to be unteachable. By me, anyway. At present. I'm struggling with everything - discipline, nap time, keeping her occupied during school time, potty training, table manners (not the complicated ones, just stuff like not throwing food everywhere) - I feel like Helen Keller's mom before she figured out sign language. (Remember that? She would just roam around the dinner table like a pet eating scraps from people's plates).
I know Grace is a good baby, and I am pretty sure, most of the time, that I'm at least an adequate caregiver, but I feel total despair about this. I've tried looking at homeschool blogs and websites about preschoolers, but they aren't helpful. Every "independent" learning activity I've come up with either fails to capture her interest or ends up in her mouth. She doesn't like sitting on my lap unless she can bang on the computer or draw on my stuff (which she can somehow distinguish from her stuff). She doesn't like to play with her own toys unless she's trapped in her room during naptime. She's discovered that ripping up her books bothers me, so she's started ripping the pages in all of her books. The only thing that keeps her quiet is the TV, and I hate using the TV.
Am I alone? Please tell me that this is a phase. Maybe it's the new baby? It started before the new baby, but maybe it's gotten worse? Has anyone figured out how to do this? Does anyone want a job as an unpaid nanny?