April 21st, 2011-Back Handsprings! Yay!

Cheer corps is fun. I learned how to do a back handspring there.today I got a trophy  and metal there today. I am very very very proud of my self.

What I did today!

I love my mommy.  I love her she's the best mom ever.  I love my daddy too!

What I Did On February 15th, 2011...

I love home school. I love doing what I,m supposed to do . I cant wait till Halloween.  I just love my mommy I just do.

Haley's "Spend-the-Night" with Grandma Lowder

I had a good time at grandma lowder it was fun. I love her I really do. I got to pick out my clothes.I had a lot of fon I really do love her. I love everyone in my family.

Multiplication Maniac

Today Haley has been skipping ahead a bit in her Singapore 2B book and has cruised through 8 pages of multiplication.  She really understands this and her accuracy is close to 100%.  I am so proud of her positive attitude about this and her progress!  Although we are NOT focusing on memorization (because I philosophically and pedagogically disagree with this method), she is beginning to "remember" some of the facts because of the understanding that she has been building since beginning to learn multiplication concepts early last year (at 4 years old). 

In addition to this, she has been reading a chapter book, Girls Acting Catty, and working through leveled readers and comprehension on Raz-Kids.com.  Her comprehension continues to grow as she is exposed to more and more reading concepts and comprehension-based questions and activities.

I look forward to getting back into the "Moving Beyond the Page" program on Thursday and Friday as we finish up the Weather, Environment, and Literature Unit ("Tornado") that we've been working on for the past month or so.


Overall, Haley is doing very well with her homeschooling.  We are continuing to work on her anxiety and attitude (led from her perfectionist fear that she will miss something).  We are also continuing to work on settling into a solid rigorous schedule that will work well for both of us (and little brother Zachary).

:)

Haley's Reflections-January 17th through 21st

Haley has done so much great learning this week!  She's flown through 8 out of 12 Dance Mat typing lessons.  She has completed several mental math addition lessons in Singapore 2B.  She's learned about mood and conflict as well as how to organize a paragraph based on a main idea with interesting details.  She has also worked towards the end of her unit on environment, weather, and geography in Moving Beyond the Page.  On Friday, we had a "FUN DAY".  She worked on BigIQKids spelling, vocabulary, and math lessons as well as her independent reading and typing lessons.  She is now going to try out her newly found typing skills to give her own reflections about this week's learning.

Haley's Reflections

A fish bone it was about was about when Asha died I was sad so was zack mom and dad.my dog bell wouldn't leave her I was sad zack was sad and mom and dad was sad.  I started a new math book.  I did fun friday.  I tride on five little monkey costumes and oh so quiet costumes.  I got mesherd for tap.

Friday, January 14th

After 3 days to play in the snow this week (and ice), we've finally gotten started back with our lessons.  Haley has been learning more about weather and environments this week.  She has explored with the globe, day and night (using a flashlight), weather around the world on the same day, and labeling flat maps (continents, oceans, equator, North Pole, and South Pole).  In math, she has started Singapore Math 2B and is working on mental addition and subtraction with larger numbers (up through the hundreds).  She is doing very well with this and works on multiplication and division review from the end of the 2A book independently while I work with Zachary on reading and math (Kindergarten-style).  Today she planned and wrote her own myth about how the turtle got it's shell and reviewed spelling words that she has previously mastered as well.  Her anxiety certainly gets in the way of her thinking, mostly during math and writing.  We are working through understanding that we use mistakes and challenges as opportunities to learn and are not expected to perfect!  We expect her to try, but would rather her miss everything, than whine and worry throughout the process and be "perfect".  We are hoping that this improves as she experiences "real" learning (that which she has experienced very little in the past year and a half of "school").