Wordless Wednesday - Making a Friend

Weekly Review–Week 2

 

This will be a short review, week 2 went fine.  We are getting in the groove and finishing all our work either before lunch or just after.  Spelling brought tears this week and I am positive he will never forget how to spell the word guard.  Other than the “guard” incident the week went fairly well.  He is liking the workboxes and he would rather have one item in all 10 drawers than more items in 6 drawers.  I like that he is working a bit more independently and is working hard to get to the next drawer.

I have discovered piano practice is eating into my school time more than I had planned so I need to make some adjustments for that. 

Next week we will be concentrating on the Olympics. We are excited for the games to start and will be watching as much as possible.  I purchased a lapbook from Currclick.com on the Olympics and I have found some activities and printables I have pinned on Pinterest. Olympic Activities

Have a great weekend!

Wordless Wednesday - Erin Condren Planner

My new Erin Condren Planner, it is so pretty and the Papermate InkJoy pens match perfectly.

I like the 2 page weekly pages.

There is a folder and a zip pocket in the back to add extras.

You also get stickers to add special dates to planner.

While I am a gadget person and use my phone for almost everything,  I like to have a paper version for school.  I keep a paper lesson planner and I purchased this planner to keep up with our school year. It was my back to school splurge.  

Field Trip –Instrument Petting Zoo

 

We have had our first field trip of the new school year.  The Nashville Symphony has an instrument petting zoo for kids to come and try out the instruments used by the orchestra.

This past weekend they were at the Nashville library.  The Nashville Library is beautiful and I want to go back and just spend the day there. 

 

We were there for the instruments and the library was very hot, we will go back and visit later this year. 

Kiddo got to try a variety of instruments and his favorite is still the cello.  He started piano lessons this summer and he wants to take cello lessons once he learns to read music.

		Instrument Petting Zoo VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

It is a great program the Nashville Symphony offers to introduce children to the world of music.  We look forward to visiting the Schermerhorn this year.

Week 1 of 3rd Grade

 

We made it through our first week of 3rd grade, I was not sure we were going to make it.   How an 8 year old can have such an attitude, makes me wonder about the teenage years. 

Other than attitude issues, the week went fine.  He is liking the workboxes and is having fun coming up with a pattern of which box to do when.  I let him pick any box he wants to do but he must finish one box before moving on to the next box.

Our Workboxes

 

We finished all of our work for each day, which is great. He is not complaining about handwriting so far, a miracle.  His nemesis spelling is still a headache for everyone involved. He has such a mental block about spelling, he likes to be perfect the first time and if he does not know exactly how to spell a word he will worry himself into a state trying to figure it out.  This year instead of writing in the Sequential Spelling book, we are using a dry ease board so he can build on the words and I think that is helping a little. Since we are using basically the same books just the next year for almost every subject it has been easy to get back into the work.

 

I have been to Staples twice this week so far. I have bought binders, copy paper, mini notebooks, some Martha Stewart accessories for my lesson planner, glue, notebooks, etc.  I love back to school supplies sales. They are supposed to get a truck in tomorrow and I hope they get in the dry erase markers and mini storage containers that are on sale this week. They have been sold out at two different Staples all week.

 

I have am loving the Staples Better Binders. They are a poly material with a rubber type edge. They have a clear cover and a one button push to open. The colors are great and you can buy matching dividers index tabs. I traded in some old binders for the $2.00 discount per binder and used the Staples $5.00 off $30.00 coupon that is available this week. It made the Better Binders a great deal this week.

Staples haul from 2nd trip

 

We have had our first field trip this year a petting zoo of instruments with the Nashville Symphony.  I have a separate post about that coming up. It was so much fun.

 

He is enjoying piano lessons. I am surprised by the amount of homework he has with the lessons, I am working them into my daily lesson plans to make sure they gets done.

 

Have a great weekend.

Wordless Wednesday - Spelling is Hard

Thinking through his spelling lesson. 

1st Day of 3rd Grade – New Room

We started 3rd grade today. How is it we are starting our 4th year of homeschooling already?!  Along with moving the school room to the dining room I am trying a new system this year, workboxes.  I am not sure how it is going to go over with Kiddo, he was not real enthusiastic on the practice we have been doing the past few weeks, we will see.

The school room is basically done, I have some books from the attic I need to bring down but it is too hot to go up there and sort books!  We have this years current curriculum and books I know we will be using in there for now.  I have a couple of decorations I need to add. I am working on a vinyl saying on canvas and I have ordered a periodic table poster to put up.  To put the school room in the dining room, I tried my best to use only things I had in the house.  I did not want to spend much money.  Overall, I did really well, we borrowed a bookcase from the office and one from our room that is why they don’t match and yes, it is driving me a little batty.  We took the table from the office, built the side table from wood we already had, I cleaned out photo boxes of scrapbook supplies to reuse them.  The only items I bought new were the metal baskets, a few more photo boxes, tin buckets, a can of hammered metal spray paint to paint the metal buckets and supplies to make the 3 tier tray on the table. 





We have a school pet, the small fish tank which has grown into a hobby that is taking over. 

I completely redid my lesson planner for this year. I splurged and bought a Martha Stewart 3 ringer binder and matching accessories from Staples, because it was pretty. I did have a coupon and they were on sale.


I still used DonnaYoung.org to print my lesson planner.  I switched to a 2 page weekly lesson planner since last year I was running out of space to write in. As you can see in my first weekly plans, I ran out of space and need to do some work to get it right.  It always takes me to about the 6 week mark to get the lessons plans down the way I want them to be.  I use Papermate InkJoy pens to color coordinate the planner.

I also set up a file box with printables, copy work and items needed for daily workbox.  I am hoping to have all the worksheets, copy work and other papers needed for the workboxes done weekly and then all I will have to do daily is fill up the workbox for the next day. I hope I can stay that organized. 


Here is what I am using for the workbox. It is one of the 10 drawer roll carts that we already had.

I made some laminated(I love love love my new laminator I bought this summer)  pages for fun time to add to the workboxes so school stays fun and a bit of a surprise some times. LEGO play time, 15 minute free time, Typing Instructor, Kahn Academy, Reading Time, Outside Play, Piano Practice, etc.


I am fairly organized and as ready I am going to get for the new school year.  The curriculum we are using this year can be seen on the right sidebar of the blog.

Happy 4th!

Happy 4th of July!  I hope everyone has a great day.  We will be back to the blog next week because school starts back on Monday.

For July 4th we did a little easy fun experiment.  We took white carnations and dyed them red and blue. All you have to do is add food dye to the vase and within a day dyed flowers.  I want to try with roses next. 

White flowers

After about 6 hours.

The next day.

Didn't they turn out pretty.