Homeschool Kindergarten Week in Review

This week in Homeschool Kindergarten was very relaxed and productive.  I was consistent in getting the kids together for school-time in the morning and it seemed that all the kids were a lot more focused and less argumentative than the previous week.  Here's a glimpse of how our week went..



Literature (not including the many picture books we read during circle-time):

Among the Farmyard People by Clara Dillingham Pierson (we read a story a day during lunch)
Minn of the Mississippi by Holling C. Holling (4 chapters in.  E is especially fascinated by turtles and was mesmerized by the drawings of the turtle embryo growing in the egg)
Impunity Jane by Rumer Godden (my favorite doll story ever!  The girls have been taking their dolls on a lot more 'adventures' lately so I wonder if this story influenced them.)
A Penny's Worth of Character by Jesse Stuart (we're about half way through this book and everyone loves it).
A First Book in American History by Edward Eggleston (we read the first chapter about Christopher Columbus and found Italy, Spain, Portugal on the globe)

Independent Reading

The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss (I'm throwing in some easy books to build fluency and confidence)
Piggy and Elephant series by Mo Willems (the kids like using their 'dramatic voices' for these)
The Little Island by Margaret Wise (this was a bit on the challenging end)
Mercy Watson to the Rescue by Kate DiCamillo (girls loved this one and did really well)
You Read to Me, I'll Read to You by Mary Ann Hoberman

Writing

 We played a spelling-bee game where I called out words for them to write (we usually do this orally).  I'm a little disappointed that after doing copywork all year the girls are still mixing uppercase and lowercase letters, but at least spelling simple words phonetically is easy for them.

 We've been seeing many signs of spring on our walks, and have included the spring-theme into school work.

Math

 Math has been fairly relaxed lately with lots of manipulatives, playing with legos, logic games, etc..

 
I occasionally make my own ad-hoc worksheets.  E especially enjoys the ones that allow her to draw..

Art

The kids and I have been enjoying daily art projects.  Here's a sample of what the girls have produced lately..

Handicrafts and Life Skills

I got the girls set up with a little sewing project.  They were very enthusiastic at first, but lost their focus after about 10 minutes.   I have a feeling that this will take quite a while to finish (I'll probably take it out once a week so they don't get bored).

After a two week trip to Phoenix last month and tasting oranges just picked from the tree, we we inspired to make fresh orange juice on a regular basis.

The kids have been helping me with simple homemade meals lately, like these mini-pizzas.

I'll post later this week about the specific unit studies we've been doing.  The weather is improving and I'd like to include one day a week where we spend most of the day outside observing nature.

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