Ramona The Pest Podcast Summary/Reflection

Haley read Ramona The Pest this week by Beverly Cleary.  She enjoyed reading this book and has created a podcast to share a summary and serve as a method of reflection about the story.

Week 1: November 8th-12th

We began our homeschooling journey in a rather relaxed state for this first week.  Even so, Haley has accomplished a lot in such a few short hours.  Here is an overview...

Monday, November 8th
10:00AM-1:00PM
cooked muffins together (Haley read the recipe and rephrased the directions in her own words)
artwork on her own with water colors
Singapore Math (subtraction with regrouping)
Making a list to solve for the unknown numbers
3rd grade reading comprehension passage
reading comprehension game (main idea, infer, cause and effect, etc.)
Sallie Gal and the Wall-a-kee Man and summary in notebook
Prefix "sub"
non-fiction reading about horses and spiders (and notes in inquiry notebook)
piano practice
gymnastics and dance practice


Tuesday-rest day

Wednesday  (about 1 1/2 hours)
made a Nutella sandwich for Zachary and herself
Singapore Math multi-digit subtraction with regrouping twice in a row
Making a list to solve for the unknown
Reading comprehension Passage about The National Anthem
Sallie Gal Ch. 7 and summary in notebook
Review prefix "sub"
Analogies
Grammar (ABC order)
Phonics initial consonants (review)
piano practice
practice gymnastics
dance class

Thursday-rest day (Veteran's Day)

Friday
10:00AM-12:00PM (plus independent time to practice music, do art, and finish Sallie Gal book)
Singapore Math (subtraction across multiple zeroes with regrouping)
Math Problem Challenge
Reading comprehension practice about Carribou
Prefix "trans" means across or over and review of "sub"
Analogies (word analogies)
Science (Caribbou reading passage)
practice piano and violin
finish Sallie-Gal book and write summaries for each chapter in her reader's response notebook
practice dance and gymnastics
gymnastics class (tonight)
violin lesson (tonight)
phonics lesson (ending consonants)-review


What an awesome week!  In about the time that one day of school would have taken us!

I look forward to next week's continuation of this special journey!!! 

From Kindergarten to 2nd Grade in 15 months

Haley began 2nd grade at five years old back in August.  She has done very well!  Enjoys her select few friends and her teachers, especially her AIG teacher, Mrs. Mobley.  Although she is especially social for such a little smarty, she has yet to be challenged academically, even grouped with children 2-3 years older than herself. 


While Haley has been working hard (or not so hard) in 2nd grade, I (Mommy) have been working hard growing a little baby inside of my belly.  The severe morning sickness has led to a medical leave of absence for the duration of the school year.  Because of the long drive from our house to school (35 minutes), and then 40 more minutes for Michael to drive to his work, it has become infeasible to get Haley to school without my driving her.

So, all of these circumstances have created the perfect storm leading us to withdraw Haley from Rockwell Elementary and begin to home school her as of the end of the school day, November 5th, 2010.

She has done an amazing job this week, although we have taken it quite easy to help her to adjust.  I am thrilled about the progress that she is already making in just a couple of short hours of work each day.  We feel such a sense of relief, knowing that we have made the best decision for our daughter and for our family!  I look forward to "getting my sweet little girl" back now that she is not worn out from long rides and long hours at school!  Home schooling is a blessing and we intend to make the most of it!

More to come...

5th Birthday-Cookies at School

So sweet and excited to have Mommy bring her cookies for her friends at school on her birthday!
April 14th, 2010

With Ms. Nettie

at her first piano recital. She played Magic Pony by Edwin McClean and Chicks by John Shaum.

Gymnastics Practice At Home

First Grade

Haley has now completed three weeks of FIRST grade! We thought about requesting this move ourselves at the beginning of the school year and then again at the end of the first quarter but decided to wait and see before pushing for any more acceleration that she was already getting (through reading and math class with first grade and AIG services once a week). Just as Haley's tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy recovery was almost over, the principal asked if we were interested in moving her on up to first grade. We thought about it hard, worrying mostly about her relationships with her amazingly sweet and positive teacher in kindergarten and her friends. We decided to make the move because, although we LOVE her kindergarten teacher, she hadn't really learned anything new all year and was developing more and more habits of just doing enough to get by.

Within one week of first grade her writing improved tremendously, she flew through over half of the 100 words to spell by the end of first grade (she could already read all of them on the first day-and I'm sure long before that if she had been tested), and continued to flourish in math and all other areas. We've had to work on her handwriting, correctly forming the letters just so on the lines. Her new teacher is quite a stickler for that.

Now, at the end of the third week she has only a small handful of the 100 words left to master the spelling of. She is adding and subtracting double-digit numbers, her writing is continuing to improve, and her reading ability continues to increase rapidly. (Although we have requested repeatedly that her reading level (DRA) be updated, we have met resistance to the timely meeting of our request. Hopefully in a couple of weeks this will be done. She is still labeled as being at a 10 but I know that she is at least at a 28 and probably higher than this). This weekend she read part of an article from a fourth grade National Geographic Discoverer with great comprehension. She is absolutely amazing!!!

I am looking forward to seeing what she is doing at the end of the year and then again at the end of the summer just before she enters second grade!!! :)

PS: She has been doing multiplication for a few months now using the skip counting strategy.

First Dance Competition

Haley had her very first dance competition this weekend. She and the other four little ones in her group did GREAT! They were eating up the audience's cheers and claps! They performed a mixed song with the Little Red Riding Hood theme. It is amazing to see what their teachers can get out of them. They are 4, 5, 5, 6, and 6. They scored a platinum and won first place overall in their category. On top of it all, Haley spent quality time developing relationships with the other kids in her group and the "big kids" from Fancy Feet who give her lots of sweet attention and have really taken her under their wings. We are so proud to be a part of such a compassionate dance studio family!

We are really looking forward to next weekend when Haley performs to a line production of "Never Never Land" from Peter Pan. She is Wendy and the dance combines her group along with two others in the next age groups (the Tinys and the Petites). I think that they will blow them away!