Thursday, May 06, 2004
Sophie on Miami's South Beach, taking a break from swimming. Nice work if you can get it, eh?
Bobby had a conference in Miami yesterday, so Sophie and I went along for the ride. While he was working, we walked down to South Beach and played in the ocean.
Sophie admired the art deco buildings immensely. Today, we read up on art deco, and she made an illustrated booklet about her day in Miami. She also played a bunch of math games (we hadn't done those in a while), and read another "American Girl" book, as well as carrying on with Harry Potter. She's getting very close to the end of the fourth book. She takes it with her wherever she goes : at climbing tonight, for instance, she went and read when she'd got too tired to climb anymore.
Tomorrow we're going to start a timeline - I thought I'd use index cards in a box, and she can add cards as we read or learn about various things ... so, for instance, she could put in a card for Laura and the other pioneer books she's read, another card for today's "American Girl" book, which was set in 1904, another card for WW1, which came up in a poem we read ... Sophie's quite keen on the idea.
Bobby had a conference in Miami yesterday, so Sophie and I went along for the ride. While he was working, we walked down to South Beach and played in the ocean.
Sophie admired the art deco buildings immensely. Today, we read up on art deco, and she made an illustrated booklet about her day in Miami. She also played a bunch of math games (we hadn't done those in a while), and read another "American Girl" book, as well as carrying on with Harry Potter. She's getting very close to the end of the fourth book. She takes it with her wherever she goes : at climbing tonight, for instance, she went and read when she'd got too tired to climb anymore.
Tomorrow we're going to start a timeline - I thought I'd use index cards in a box, and she can add cards as we read or learn about various things ... so, for instance, she could put in a card for Laura and the other pioneer books she's read, another card for today's "American Girl" book, which was set in 1904, another card for WW1, which came up in a poem we read ... Sophie's quite keen on the idea.
Monday, May 03, 2004
The thing Sophie enjoyed most today was making an illustrated flyer for her dream house. The house has a pool and a spa. Also, a carrot patch, an orange tree, and a tyre swing. And a bowling alley, a movie theatre, a private playground, a jet, ten bedrooms and a waterfall. In that order. She came up with this activity after we took a drive around the neighbourhood, scouting out possible homes to buy.
We had an interesting discussion about present-day dream homes, as opposed to the kind of home Laura and Mary Ingalls dreamed of, when, by chance today, we got to the bit in "On the Banks of Plum Creek" where Pa's built them a new 3 room house from machine-sawed boards, and they're all thrilled ...
Today she also read another chapter from the fourth Harry Potter book (she read that at the Y while I was working out). And she did some math from her workbook.
Aside from that, she's scooted, skipped, played with her polly pockets, cartwheeled around the lake, and played with Julius. She's had fun.
We had an interesting discussion about present-day dream homes, as opposed to the kind of home Laura and Mary Ingalls dreamed of, when, by chance today, we got to the bit in "On the Banks of Plum Creek" where Pa's built them a new 3 room house from machine-sawed boards, and they're all thrilled ...
Today she also read another chapter from the fourth Harry Potter book (she read that at the Y while I was working out). And she did some math from her workbook.
Aside from that, she's scooted, skipped, played with her polly pockets, cartwheeled around the lake, and played with Julius. She's had fun.
Tuesday, April 27, 2004
Maybe I should make a point of updating this blog on a set day each week - it's been a while since I wrote here.
Today, Sophie did several experiments to do with air pressure. It was a lot of fun : we imploded empty soda cans, poked straws into potatoes, and karate-chopped bits of wood. She took great pleasure in repeating the experiments for Steve and Em as soon as they got home.
I ordered her some math books from Singapore math a while ago : I got nervous and wondered if she was getting a good enough grounding in math. So she does a bit from there every day; it's consolidating stuff she already knew, which I think is probably good.
We baked cookies this afternoon as well - I needed to halve the recipe, so that was good math practice for Sophs.
As far as reading goes, she's about half-way through the fourth Harry Potter book, and still loving it. Her vocabulary is increasing by leaps and bounds. Her spelling is still extremely idiosyncratic, however. Every time she writes, I try to pick a couple of the words she's misspelled and show her the correct spellings. Sometimes this sticks; often, however, it doesn't.
Emily had to do a project on one of the former US presidents (she was assigned the not-very-charismatic Grover Cleveland). Sophie was inspired by this, and, on her own initiative, wrote reports on Abraham Lincoln and George Washington. She googled them, found short bios, and wrote down some of the facts that she found. All on her own. I was very impressed.
I am grateful that I never have to struggle with Sophie when it comes to homeschooling. Some of the accounts I've read from other homeschoolers sound rather grim : forcing kids to read, chivying them through required math or whatever ... I'd hate to have to try to teach someone who didn't want to be taught. Thus far, I'm finding that following her interests is giving her a good grounding in all the basic learning areas. I hope it continues to be this easy.
Today, Sophie did several experiments to do with air pressure. It was a lot of fun : we imploded empty soda cans, poked straws into potatoes, and karate-chopped bits of wood. She took great pleasure in repeating the experiments for Steve and Em as soon as they got home.
I ordered her some math books from Singapore math a while ago : I got nervous and wondered if she was getting a good enough grounding in math. So she does a bit from there every day; it's consolidating stuff she already knew, which I think is probably good.
We baked cookies this afternoon as well - I needed to halve the recipe, so that was good math practice for Sophs.
As far as reading goes, she's about half-way through the fourth Harry Potter book, and still loving it. Her vocabulary is increasing by leaps and bounds. Her spelling is still extremely idiosyncratic, however. Every time she writes, I try to pick a couple of the words she's misspelled and show her the correct spellings. Sometimes this sticks; often, however, it doesn't.
Emily had to do a project on one of the former US presidents (she was assigned the not-very-charismatic Grover Cleveland). Sophie was inspired by this, and, on her own initiative, wrote reports on Abraham Lincoln and George Washington. She googled them, found short bios, and wrote down some of the facts that she found. All on her own. I was very impressed.
I am grateful that I never have to struggle with Sophie when it comes to homeschooling. Some of the accounts I've read from other homeschoolers sound rather grim : forcing kids to read, chivying them through required math or whatever ... I'd hate to have to try to teach someone who didn't want to be taught. Thus far, I'm finding that following her interests is giving her a good grounding in all the basic learning areas. I hope it continues to be this easy.
Wednesday, April 07, 2004
Sophie's day today :
From 8 till 9, she scooted, blew bubbles, and did pull-ups off the tenth stair leading up to the next floor of the apartments. (The stairs are those concrete ones with spaces inbetween). She wants strong arm muscles, she says.
Then we went to the grocery store. She tries to keep a running total (to the nearest dollar) of the things we buy, and she tries to figure out the most economical options. And we read package labels. So it's not wasted time, I hope.
Back home, we made the quicksand I mentioned yesterday. It worked wonderfully, she had an absolute ball with it. So did I, actually. We sank toy animals in the quicksand, and rolled the substance into balls that mysteriously dissolved as soon as we stopped moving it. We found the experiment here : this guy has compiled a whole list of really easy, fun experiments. I think it's a great resource. The nice thing is, that the explanations of the science behind the fun are very clear and easy for Sophs to follow. Here she is, experimenting with sinking her hands into the quicksand.
Then she wrote a bit about mosquitos, and did that activity from enchanted learning.
(Both of the above activiities were inspired by Little House.)
Next : time to scoot and run races outside. Personally, I could have done without the running, but she gets a huge kick out of it, so I humoured her. And it'll soon be too hot to play those games comfortably, so I feel that we should take advantage of the weather before it gets really hot.
Lunch time, and she blew two eggs (which I subsequently scrambled for our lunch) and then painted the empty shells (Easter decorations).
The painting in progress :
Then we read a few chapters from Little House on the Prairie. We take it in turns to read a chapter aloud to one another.
Story-time at the library : they had a presentation on bats, which was pretty interesting.
Then gymnastics. Her first time back there since the dreaded broken heel.
And then supper time, bath time, bedtime. Today was a good day.
From 8 till 9, she scooted, blew bubbles, and did pull-ups off the tenth stair leading up to the next floor of the apartments. (The stairs are those concrete ones with spaces inbetween). She wants strong arm muscles, she says.
Then we went to the grocery store. She tries to keep a running total (to the nearest dollar) of the things we buy, and she tries to figure out the most economical options. And we read package labels. So it's not wasted time, I hope.
Back home, we made the quicksand I mentioned yesterday. It worked wonderfully, she had an absolute ball with it. So did I, actually. We sank toy animals in the quicksand, and rolled the substance into balls that mysteriously dissolved as soon as we stopped moving it. We found the experiment here : this guy has compiled a whole list of really easy, fun experiments. I think it's a great resource. The nice thing is, that the explanations of the science behind the fun are very clear and easy for Sophs to follow. Here she is, experimenting with sinking her hands into the quicksand.
Then she wrote a bit about mosquitos, and did that activity from enchanted learning.
(Both of the above activiities were inspired by Little House.)
Next : time to scoot and run races outside. Personally, I could have done without the running, but she gets a huge kick out of it, so I humoured her. And it'll soon be too hot to play those games comfortably, so I feel that we should take advantage of the weather before it gets really hot.
Lunch time, and she blew two eggs (which I subsequently scrambled for our lunch) and then painted the empty shells (Easter decorations).
The painting in progress :
Then we read a few chapters from Little House on the Prairie. We take it in turns to read a chapter aloud to one another.
Story-time at the library : they had a presentation on bats, which was pretty interesting.
Then gymnastics. Her first time back there since the dreaded broken heel.
And then supper time, bath time, bedtime. Today was a good day.
Tuesday, April 06, 2004
For some reason, on the way to gym this morning, Sophie was speculating about fish that could walk. So, when we got home, we found out some information about the northern snakehead. Sophs printed out a picture and wrote down a few facts about this creepy creature.
Then we did a science experiment : made a bubble bomb. It's pretty cool : the "explosion" is enough to rip a big hole in a sandwich-sized ziploc bag. She's been doing a lot of baking recently (she actually made a pretty decent pecan pie last week) so it was interesting for her to learn about how the different rising agents work.
So, those two activities were unrelated to any general theme :-)
She also read a chapter of Harry Potter #3 aloud to me, and then I read her the next couple of chapters from Little House on the Prairie. We talked about malaria and how it's transmitted : tomorrow we'll study the mosquito's lifecycle in a bit more detail. Then we found pictures (thanks to Google Images) of the wildflowers that Laura mentioned in today's chapters. Sophie drew a picture of a vase, printed the flower pictures out, cut them out, and stuck them in her vase. I labeled them for her. It'll be cool if she actually ends up being able to recognise various wildflowers : I am woefully deficient in that area.
Tomorrow we're going to make quicksand (another Little House inspired activity): would have done it today, but I'm all out of cornstarch.
It's amazing how much we can pack into a couple of hours!
Then we did a science experiment : made a bubble bomb. It's pretty cool : the "explosion" is enough to rip a big hole in a sandwich-sized ziploc bag. She's been doing a lot of baking recently (she actually made a pretty decent pecan pie last week) so it was interesting for her to learn about how the different rising agents work.
So, those two activities were unrelated to any general theme :-)
She also read a chapter of Harry Potter #3 aloud to me, and then I read her the next couple of chapters from Little House on the Prairie. We talked about malaria and how it's transmitted : tomorrow we'll study the mosquito's lifecycle in a bit more detail. Then we found pictures (thanks to Google Images) of the wildflowers that Laura mentioned in today's chapters. Sophie drew a picture of a vase, printed the flower pictures out, cut them out, and stuck them in her vase. I labeled them for her. It'll be cool if she actually ends up being able to recognise various wildflowers : I am woefully deficient in that area.
Tomorrow we're going to make quicksand (another Little House inspired activity): would have done it today, but I'm all out of cornstarch.
It's amazing how much we can pack into a couple of hours!
Saturday, April 03, 2004
Sophie spent a few hours building a fairy house with a friend from the homeschool group yesterday. This friend has a wonderful yard : shaded by gorgeous live oaks, lots of fallen leaves and secret places - not to mention a newly installed humongous trampoline. I enjoyed it a little less when she cautioned them to keep their shoes on, because they'd seen coral snakes in their yard a couple of times. Small, pretty, and deadly, if you didn't feel like clicking on the link. Ugh, Florida has its downsides. Still ... I suppose it's no worse than the cobra that my folks found under their house in Simonstown, or the green mamba they found in the dogs' basket when they lived in Hilton ...
Here are the cute girls, and their garden. You can't see all the details, but it even has a tiny saran-wrap-lined swimming pool.
Before we went to the playdate yesterday, we drove to the big library downtown and picked up the Frontier House series on video. (To tie in with the Little House reading we've been doing). I love the library here! They have every book and video imaginable, and if they don't have something, they can generally get it from somewhere else. Last night we watched the first two hours of the series : it was fascinating. We were all riveted. We'll watch the next tape tonight - everyone's looking forward to it. We all agreed that if we had the chance to participate in something like this, we'd definitely go for it. I'm sure we'd do better than the Clune family are currently doing! Sheesh, if your makeup is that important to you, why the heck would you sign up for a project like this?
Here are the cute girls, and their garden. You can't see all the details, but it even has a tiny saran-wrap-lined swimming pool.
Before we went to the playdate yesterday, we drove to the big library downtown and picked up the Frontier House series on video. (To tie in with the Little House reading we've been doing). I love the library here! They have every book and video imaginable, and if they don't have something, they can generally get it from somewhere else. Last night we watched the first two hours of the series : it was fascinating. We were all riveted. We'll watch the next tape tonight - everyone's looking forward to it. We all agreed that if we had the chance to participate in something like this, we'd definitely go for it. I'm sure we'd do better than the Clune family are currently doing! Sheesh, if your makeup is that important to you, why the heck would you sign up for a project like this?
Thursday, April 01, 2004
What Sophie's doing :
She's steadily reading her way through Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Still entranced. She takes it with her wherever she goes, just in case she gets bored. When we go climbing, for instance, she sits on the couch and read once she's got tired.
We're reading Little House on the Prairie together : I read her one chapter, she reads the next aloud to me. The "Little House" books lend themselves wonderfully to all sorts of related activities. So far, we've studied the map to see the states that the Ingalls family traveled through on their journey from Wisconsin to Kansas, as well as looked up various plants and animals that Laura mentioned. The book has also sparked off some good conversations about Native Americans, and about the settlers' behaviour. And about sexism, and children's rights, and what should be part of a balanced diet. (Soph has noticed that the Ingalls' don't get much in the way of fresh fruit and veg.) And about why poor Baby Carrie is mentioned so seldom. This stuff is fun. Today she also enjoyed making a little covered wagon from a milk carton. She has been using it as she acts out the story during the chapters when it's my turn to read; the corn-husk doll she made last week stands in for Laura.
Tomorrow night, Sophie is going to make johnny cakes as part of our dinner. Laura had them with fat salt pork; don't think I can stomach that so we will have pork chops with them instead. Or bacon maybe? But I only have turkey bacon in the house, so that would be even less authentic.
Sophie's not liking math at the moment, so we're giving that a rest for a few days. That technique worked very well the time that she decided she hated writing. Bobby was highly dubious as to whether this would work, but I was right : she's back to writing long involved stories several times a week.
I highly recommend Family Fun magazine, by the way : it's chock-full of wonderful activities and recipes. We did an experiment from this month's to show that plants respire, and we've baked several of the goodies.
She's steadily reading her way through Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Still entranced. She takes it with her wherever she goes, just in case she gets bored. When we go climbing, for instance, she sits on the couch and read once she's got tired.
We're reading Little House on the Prairie together : I read her one chapter, she reads the next aloud to me. The "Little House" books lend themselves wonderfully to all sorts of related activities. So far, we've studied the map to see the states that the Ingalls family traveled through on their journey from Wisconsin to Kansas, as well as looked up various plants and animals that Laura mentioned. The book has also sparked off some good conversations about Native Americans, and about the settlers' behaviour. And about sexism, and children's rights, and what should be part of a balanced diet. (Soph has noticed that the Ingalls' don't get much in the way of fresh fruit and veg.) And about why poor Baby Carrie is mentioned so seldom. This stuff is fun. Today she also enjoyed making a little covered wagon from a milk carton. She has been using it as she acts out the story during the chapters when it's my turn to read; the corn-husk doll she made last week stands in for Laura.
Tomorrow night, Sophie is going to make johnny cakes as part of our dinner. Laura had them with fat salt pork; don't think I can stomach that so we will have pork chops with them instead. Or bacon maybe? But I only have turkey bacon in the house, so that would be even less authentic.
Sophie's not liking math at the moment, so we're giving that a rest for a few days. That technique worked very well the time that she decided she hated writing. Bobby was highly dubious as to whether this would work, but I was right : she's back to writing long involved stories several times a week.
I highly recommend Family Fun magazine, by the way : it's chock-full of wonderful activities and recipes. We did an experiment from this month's to show that plants respire, and we've baked several of the goodies.
