One School Day!
Yesterday we were all ready to dive back into school and had a very productive day, despite my youngest granddaughter's arrival and quick departure when we discovered she had a stomach bug. I have made Dakota a work station at the desk in our diningroom with my old laptop set up there for him and room for him to have his supplies there or he can easily turn around and sit at the table and work with a little more room.
Today's special was, of course, Happy New Year and he learned quickly to say Happy New Year in sign language. His morning work was online, at www.kidblog.org, where he journaled about his wishes for the year. Then he created a Biography Poem from www.lauracandler.com and typed and printed it before visiting Wordle.net to make a personal description Wordle. This is a fantastic, fun site that I recommend you visit with your child. Even by yourself, it's great fun!
Continuing with our 2014 trend to incorporate more computer/technology into our homeschooling, Dakota was able to get his Kindle Fire and play the Creating Olympus game to review his Greek Myth class information. He told me this wasn't a great game, but he played for almost 30 minutes, so it couldn't have been too bad. I had to hear a lot of grief when it was time for math, but he did well with his Greatest Common Factors lesson and then we took a break for lunch.
Lunch was interesting.....one son wanted hot dogs and macaroni, Dakota wanted grilled cheese, daycare baby agreed to the hot dogs and granddaughter wanted "chickie nuggets". I just wanted to eat! Got everyone fed and the littles down for a nap and Dakota got 45 minutes to eat and do what he wanted before we implemented another new idea....the reading box. I have been trying to get him to read more and I have noticed that if I leave his magazine or other interesting things out, he will often pick them up on his own, so I made a box with a National Geographic Kids magazine and a few shorter books that correspond to our lessons. After lunch, while he is still comfy on his bed, he has 30 minutes to read anything in the box. He complained A LOT, in typical Dakota fashion, but he settled in and read his NGKids and called me in to share some of the more interesting articles.
Our afternoon consisted of partner reading Chapter 10 of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe and then doing our first lesson in our Forces and Motion unit in Science. This did not go well, as we didn't start it until 2:00 and Dakota is a terrible afternoon worker. We muddled through it and I left him to work independently on the graphic organizer for an expository writing piece because I was tired of hearing him grumble. He did take to the project we had....making a marble maze. He cut the straws and glued them down and we put a small ball inside and it worked like a charm.
After school and dinner we got an unexpected night off, as the snow that was predicted started to fall quickly, with beautiful fat, fluffy flakes. We all spent some time hanging out in the livingroom and Dakota also did some painting on the birdhouse he built the night before and discovered the wonders of Spirograph from some pieces a friend sent over the other day. I do like that he seems to be keeping himself busy lately with things other than video games. We have been playing alot of Phase 10, a card game, and he has been more willing to do some creative things. I would like him to be a little more independent, but I am working on that.
Today's special was, of course, Happy New Year and he learned quickly to say Happy New Year in sign language. His morning work was online, at www.kidblog.org, where he journaled about his wishes for the year. Then he created a Biography Poem from www.lauracandler.com and typed and printed it before visiting Wordle.net to make a personal description Wordle. This is a fantastic, fun site that I recommend you visit with your child. Even by yourself, it's great fun!
Continuing with our 2014 trend to incorporate more computer/technology into our homeschooling, Dakota was able to get his Kindle Fire and play the Creating Olympus game to review his Greek Myth class information. He told me this wasn't a great game, but he played for almost 30 minutes, so it couldn't have been too bad. I had to hear a lot of grief when it was time for math, but he did well with his Greatest Common Factors lesson and then we took a break for lunch.
Lunch was interesting.....one son wanted hot dogs and macaroni, Dakota wanted grilled cheese, daycare baby agreed to the hot dogs and granddaughter wanted "chickie nuggets". I just wanted to eat! Got everyone fed and the littles down for a nap and Dakota got 45 minutes to eat and do what he wanted before we implemented another new idea....the reading box. I have been trying to get him to read more and I have noticed that if I leave his magazine or other interesting things out, he will often pick them up on his own, so I made a box with a National Geographic Kids magazine and a few shorter books that correspond to our lessons. After lunch, while he is still comfy on his bed, he has 30 minutes to read anything in the box. He complained A LOT, in typical Dakota fashion, but he settled in and read his NGKids and called me in to share some of the more interesting articles.
Our afternoon consisted of partner reading Chapter 10 of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe and then doing our first lesson in our Forces and Motion unit in Science. This did not go well, as we didn't start it until 2:00 and Dakota is a terrible afternoon worker. We muddled through it and I left him to work independently on the graphic organizer for an expository writing piece because I was tired of hearing him grumble. He did take to the project we had....making a marble maze. He cut the straws and glued them down and we put a small ball inside and it worked like a charm.
After school and dinner we got an unexpected night off, as the snow that was predicted started to fall quickly, with beautiful fat, fluffy flakes. We all spent some time hanging out in the livingroom and Dakota also did some painting on the birdhouse he built the night before and discovered the wonders of Spirograph from some pieces a friend sent over the other day. I do like that he seems to be keeping himself busy lately with things other than video games. We have been playing alot of Phase 10, a card game, and he has been more willing to do some creative things. I would like him to be a little more independent, but I am working on that.
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