A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

library

The library and more

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Today overall was a good homeschool day.
we did a lot of reading today, and played ‘rats’ and went to the library to do some book work.

After doing morning devotions we started off our day playing rats upstairs.  Today the rats (who somehow became mice overnight) were GOOD mice and had to learn to ask for things and to trade for what they wanted.  🙂  they wanted a soft bed made of paper and to be able to play drawing games so they traded back all the things they took without asking (because mice see something and it Immediately belongs to them).  and so they became better mice.

We then moved on to reading about black-tailed prairie dogs in the Ultimate Guide to wildlife in North America. 

Mommy?   Why are they called dogs?  shouldn’t they be called gophers?
and the very next sentence I read said that they barked and that’s why they are called prairie dogs.   Interesting that.  🙂   I like having an observant boy child.

Then off to read from “the Lamb”. Today we did chapter seven.   Both of us are enjoying this book but we find the questions very simple.

Then we read from our world history book.   We are learning about pirates. 


T
This sticker book has it’s focus more on the life of a pirate, what the ship was like.   The lad wanted to do  two pages again today, but we were at the library, the weather was looking very grey and I had bunnies on the lawn and was feeling nervous about that.  So ended up only doing one.


We have started to go through this book called “the big book of questions and answers about Jesus.”

I expect we’ll do one page at a time.
Each question is laid out over two pages.  It starts with reading material and introduces the topic and then has activities for the child to do.   Today’s lesson was on where Jesus lived.

While at the library we did some bookwork.
But first we returned some books.  it was a bit nerve-wracking because I knew we had 27 books out, but I counted 26 and simply couldn’t find the last one.   It was like ACK!!!  I don’t want to pay for this book!!!   but somehow between home and the library it showed up in the library bag.
 

Spiders on the case Lasky, Kathryn. – this book we are still reading.
Diary of a spider Cronin, Doreen. the lad LOVED this book 
Spiders of North America Squire, Ann. factual, interesting book
Minerals Miller-Schroeder, Patricia. didn’t actually get to this one
Tell me about the world. — we like this book , we renewed it as we’re still going through it
Math for fun projects King, Andrew,
1961- ditto on this.  
Science and technology Winnick, Nick. never got to this book.
A million dots Clements, Andrew, 1949- Can we get this again mommy!?!?   Sure lad.
Life cycle of a spider Fridell, Ron. factual book, helpful  
The life cycle of a spider Kalman,
Bobbie, 1947- ditto 
Daddylonglegs Anderson, Catherine,
1974- NOT accurate.  Daddy longlegs are NOT spiders, though they are somewhat related.
The garden spider / Jan Ethelberg
Ethelberg, Jan. factual, interesting  
Spiders Gibbons, Gail. it was okay, not great 
Black widow spider Harris, Monica,
1964- this one intrigued the lad
Tarantula Harris, Monica, 1964- never actually looked at this one
The magic school bus spins a web : a
book about spiders West, Tracey, 1965- a hit this one 
The last loon Upjohn, Rebecca, 1962- took it out, never really got to it 
The Snow Blew Inn Regan, Dian Curtis. good story book
The long white scarf Trottier, Maxine. semi-historical, it was interesting.  the boy thought it great how the girl got her scarf back
My cat, the silliest cat in the world
Bachelet, Gilles. What a HOOT!   Get this book, laugh with your child.
Dolphins on the sand Arnosky, Jim.  We liked this one, the little dolphin was a tease at the end of it. 
A winter walk Barasch, Lynne. Just a simple book.  
Big bear hug Oldland, Nicholas, 1972- MOMMY!  YOU CAN”T BRING IT BACK!!!  (complete with tears)…but buddy.. we can get it out again.. Oh, okay then.
Madeline and the cats of Rome Marciano,
John Bemelmans. Enjoyed this book.  
A bumblebee sweater Waterton, Betty,
1923- Caused smiles to appear on the face of one six year old boy.  Surprised me as I thought it more a girl book, but he liked it.
The sabre-toothed tiger Solomon, Evan,
1968- Liked it the first two times we read it, but didn’t ask for it again. 
Time to get out Testa, Fulvio. – This book was just so so.  Got one thumb up and one thumb very down.
We did book work in: 

First grade fundamentals: we focused on reading stories and answering questions.
 

Numbers and counting: Practiced greater than and less than. 
 

Daily Smart:  he continued to practice putting word puzzles into equation form.  Learned today that sometimes you can’t just write the numbers in as you see them.  That was tricky!


We have learned that we thoroughly enjoy going to the library to do our book work.
it means we have to focus.   We have to be quiet.  We can’t argue about what we get to work on.  AND if if a certain young lad is good and smart he can earn extra stickers for thinking of new things he can work on with his mommy.  🙂  Always a good thing that!

that worked well

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went to the Stratford library to do our schooling before heading off to swimming.

I think I shall do that more often. Getting out work done at the library means less distractions.

means I have to be better organized, but better organized, and having better schooling done over a shorter period of time sounds like an excellent idea to me. 🙂

We did art and science today at the library. A good thing that! We first did some book work though, then played art and language skills on a computer, and some science as well on the computer. Then we started doing our Christmas cards… excellent way to practice our spelling!

He has watched the rescuers a fair bit lately so the golden eagle and the boy riding the figure prominently. 🙂
building Christmas cards… stickers, drawing and writing. It’s all good.

Then off to lunch at boston pizza, and then over to the YMCA for swimming lessons.

the lad in the blue head band. 🙂

Then home again.

Played a game before bed (connect four) and played a construction game as well.

Today we….

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We started off with our normal daily readings out of

10 minute stories

The lad didn’t appear to be impressed… was off playing and chatting while he listened. Some stories keep him glued to the chair.

World History

We are into Roman history now. It’s just fascinating reading tidbits about ancient history. Today we learned what good builders and architects they were.

Then we went with reflexmath. The lad enjoys this program.

Then upstairs to do a snowman search and find. This gives us a chance to talk and read a page in a large floor puzzle book. We talk about different ways to hold a pencil crayon to get different effects, and the lad has fun searching out the hidden objects.

A fellow homeschooler over at Learning To Homeschool gave me this idea. To have a daily word to learn. I asked her how she came up with them and she said just words they come across as they read or talk. Since that’s too “iffy” for me I decided to use this

Children’s Illustrated Dictionary.

Today’s word was Abacus: a frame with beads that slide along wires, used for counting.

I read another chapter out of First Language Lessons, Levels 1&2

We read a few poems out of a book until we found one that made us both think of a picture in our heads, so we drew. This also gave us an opportunity to talk about the different ways one can hold a drawing implement in order to achieve different effects.

I’ll try to post pics of what we did later today.

now off to swimming lessons, and then the library afterwards if it’s still open upon our return. 🙂