We only got about 5cm of snow last night, but with the blowing snow, the driveway was drifted all over. So we put off school to get some Phys Ed in. Brianna actually did a pretty good job helping me. I thought she'd slack off a lot more, but it wasn't too bad!
Schoolwork was happily painless today. She got everything done in about an hour. We did have to skip a couple things due to lacking materials. I needed to print a few things but havn't uploaded the printer driver to the new laptop yet and the library was lacking a movie we were gonna watch.
Brianna also finally thought she had enough practice cross stitching so started on her present for Grandma. It's slow going since it's the first pattern she's ever done. I told her not to worry, if she doesn't finish it before Christmas, Grandma's birthday is next month so she can give it to her then.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Monday, December 13, 2010
"Homeschooling Is So Much Better Than School!"
Brianna's opinion while we were doing a graph today. Now, of course, it could have something to do with the fact that we were graphing mini M&Ms, but I'll take it! lol
Squeezed in some Phys Ed with shoveling snow, which Brianna thinks is great. I told her just wait til it's heavy wet snow lol She thinks she'll still love it.
My quest for wagon wheel pasta is complete!!! Apparently it's a common American pasta, but a bitch to find here! I went to every store in town, including the fancy expensive grocery stores and found nothing. Even checked at Bulk Barn (which is now open weeeeee!), nothing. Finally thought to check Sharyn's Pantry, which is similar to Bulk Barn but can have more obscure items. BINGO! Got us a bag of pasta big enough to make at least 4 of our ornaments that I have planned! YAY!
Squeezed in some Phys Ed with shoveling snow, which Brianna thinks is great. I told her just wait til it's heavy wet snow lol She thinks she'll still love it.
My quest for wagon wheel pasta is complete!!! Apparently it's a common American pasta, but a bitch to find here! I went to every store in town, including the fancy expensive grocery stores and found nothing. Even checked at Bulk Barn (which is now open weeeeee!), nothing. Finally thought to check Sharyn's Pantry, which is similar to Bulk Barn but can have more obscure items. BINGO! Got us a bag of pasta big enough to make at least 4 of our ornaments that I have planned! YAY!
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Ooooh! A New Site!
A friend showed me a new site I'm pretty excited about. homeschoolmath.net/worksheets. I'm a big lover of free printables and this is the best kind of free printables sites.... it's a refresher site! Meaning every time you refresh a worksheet page, a page of new problems pops up! I haven't explored it fully, but in printing off worksheets for this friend I got 110 different pages of Grade 1 worksheets and I'm not even 1/4 of the way through the links offered for Gr. 1! YAY!
Our School Based "Reward-System"
Brianna has always been a fan of reward systems and I knew, at least at first, she'd need a little help keeping on track outside of the typical school setting.
I bought (but, yes, could have made) what looks like movie tickets. Tickets, numbered 1-6, are earned by paying attention well during school-time, doing extra reading and doing well on reviews (since recalling information learned, even just yesterday, is a tough one for Brianna). Potentially, Brianna could earn up to 18 "points" in 1 day.
Then comes the rewards. I wanted fun things that were out of the ordinary since before we'd be too busy to do that kind of thing. Also winnings that could be earned fairly soon (within a week or 2) to big things that could take a few mths to earn.
So we settled on the following rewards that Brianna is super excited about:
- 50 points, $2 added to her Tim Hortons card
- 100 points, buying a new book
- 200 points, going out for lunch
- 300 points, going to a salon to get our nails done (what Brianna is currently saving for)
- 400 points, going out to a movie
- 500 points, shopping spree! (essentially she gets $40 to spend on whatever)
We're both pretty excited about this system. The rewards are all things we've never done before and are "bigger" ticket items. She's doing well so far with almost 100 points, which surprised me since I was expecting a lot more "bad" days where less tickets would be earned.
I bought (but, yes, could have made) what looks like movie tickets. Tickets, numbered 1-6, are earned by paying attention well during school-time, doing extra reading and doing well on reviews (since recalling information learned, even just yesterday, is a tough one for Brianna). Potentially, Brianna could earn up to 18 "points" in 1 day.
Then comes the rewards. I wanted fun things that were out of the ordinary since before we'd be too busy to do that kind of thing. Also winnings that could be earned fairly soon (within a week or 2) to big things that could take a few mths to earn.
So we settled on the following rewards that Brianna is super excited about:
- 50 points, $2 added to her Tim Hortons card
- 100 points, buying a new book
- 200 points, going out for lunch
- 300 points, going to a salon to get our nails done (what Brianna is currently saving for)
- 400 points, going out to a movie
- 500 points, shopping spree! (essentially she gets $40 to spend on whatever)
We're both pretty excited about this system. The rewards are all things we've never done before and are "bigger" ticket items. She's doing well so far with almost 100 points, which surprised me since I was expecting a lot more "bad" days where less tickets would be earned.
Complete 180!
Tuesday was a horrible day for school. Wednesday was a great day for school!
Tuesday we got almost zero work done. We spent 6+ HOURS on one assignment. It was pretty simple. The question was how is dew formed. I had written out a paper about dew how dew is formed and we read a passage from a book about how dew is formed. The 6+ hr assignment? Put in your own words.... HOW DEW IS FORMED!!! Brianna's answer? I dunno *facepalm*
Fast forward to yesterday.... brilliant day! We got LOADS of work done since Tuesday's work was added to it. We did some more graphing work in her math book, we got French work done, and a HUGE project on emergency preparedness. First we wrote out the things we thought we'd need for an emergency kit for both the house and the car. Then we put together 2 emergency kits taking note of what we still need to the kits (sadly we still need lots). This was all done with smiles and full of "what do you want me to do nows". Wonderful, wonderful day!
*fingers crossed* that today is the same kind of day!
Tuesday we got almost zero work done. We spent 6+ HOURS on one assignment. It was pretty simple. The question was how is dew formed. I had written out a paper about dew how dew is formed and we read a passage from a book about how dew is formed. The 6+ hr assignment? Put in your own words.... HOW DEW IS FORMED!!! Brianna's answer? I dunno *facepalm*
Fast forward to yesterday.... brilliant day! We got LOADS of work done since Tuesday's work was added to it. We did some more graphing work in her math book, we got French work done, and a HUGE project on emergency preparedness. First we wrote out the things we thought we'd need for an emergency kit for both the house and the car. Then we put together 2 emergency kits taking note of what we still need to the kits (sadly we still need lots). This was all done with smiles and full of "what do you want me to do nows". Wonderful, wonderful day!
*fingers crossed* that today is the same kind of day!
Monday, December 6, 2010
St. Nicholas's Day
Brianna and I spent the day doing St. Nicholas activities of a sort. I was mistaken into thinking St. Nicholas' Day was St. Nicholas' birthday, but it is not. It is his feast day and the date of his death, being him birth into the eternal. So still sorta a birthday.
So, as with all birthdays, we made a cake! Well, Brianna made a cake. It took a lot out of my OCD self to let her make it herself. Down to the mixing, pouring and putting it in the oven. It's sooooo much easier to do it myself, but as I told her, she's gotta learn how to cook/bake sometime.
We also did Christmas cards for her old schoolmates and teachers. We had been told before pulling her that we could deliver cards to the office and the teachers would distribute them. One child's card may not be delivered because it was a recess playmate and Brianna wasn't sure even what grade the girl was in, let alone her teacher's name.
We read excerpts from The Truth About Santa Claus by James Cross Giblin. While I havn't read a lot of St. Nicholas material I found this book very informative and highly recommend it.
I think Brianna has finally realized that "Santa" isn't real but that we will still do all the fun stuff associated with Santa. I didn't come right out and tell her Santa isn't real, but we went into great discussion as to why older children shouldn't tell little ones that Santa isn't real, ect...
I had planned to watch Miracle on 34th Street with her as well, but by the time we were done school I was beyond pooped. Hopefully we can get school out of the way quickly tomorrow so we can watch it then. It plays into the theory of believing in the magic of the season and such.
We also did Christmas cards for her old schoolmates and teachers. We had been told before pulling her that we could deliver cards to the office and the teachers would distribute them. One child's card may not be delivered because it was a recess playmate and Brianna wasn't sure even what grade the girl was in, let alone her teacher's name.
We read excerpts from The Truth About Santa Claus by James Cross Giblin. While I havn't read a lot of St. Nicholas material I found this book very informative and highly recommend it.
I think Brianna has finally realized that "Santa" isn't real but that we will still do all the fun stuff associated with Santa. I didn't come right out and tell her Santa isn't real, but we went into great discussion as to why older children shouldn't tell little ones that Santa isn't real, ect...
I had planned to watch Miracle on 34th Street with her as well, but by the time we were done school I was beyond pooped. Hopefully we can get school out of the way quickly tomorrow so we can watch it then. It plays into the theory of believing in the magic of the season and such.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Christmas Season Begins!
We ended another rough week with a great Friday. School (other than a fun movie) was done before lunch and everyone was happy. Now if only we can get more of those days in!
I'm hoping this month will be easier simply because we'll be doing lots of fun Christmas stuff. We kick off tomorrow with St. Nicholas' Day. Well be reading of the history of Santa Claus, making Christmas cards, baking a cake, ect... I have lots of crafts and cooking/baking planned for this month, which Brianna loves.
I'm hoping this month will be easier simply because we'll be doing lots of fun Christmas stuff. We kick off tomorrow with St. Nicholas' Day. Well be reading of the history of Santa Claus, making Christmas cards, baking a cake, ect... I have lots of crafts and cooking/baking planned for this month, which Brianna loves.
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