Home-SU-Cool

We went to MoMa (Museum of Modern Art)  as part of our Exploration Day last weekend. Our friend gave us a free family pass. It was fun, esp the new material lab , which I really think it's wonderful! I thought they were really creative!! Only thing was I wish they have a place to eat (our brought in lunch)

Bible The Lord is watching everywhere, keeping His eye on both the evil and the good. Proverbs 15:3 Math This week we did counting. I realize Ian is not good at that because he tends to miss things. We also started a 8sums-a-day practice drills. Basically I give him 8 addition/subtraction sums that are to his level everyday to practice, beginning with very simple ones. I also love the pattern animal book . I feel that their worksheets have great questions. Booklist I like Fun with Numbers, Just Enough Carrots quite a bit. Science We talked about seeds, flowers...and we planted a rye grass project that someone gave us as a gift. It was really fun. Preschool I made some lapbooks and did my own dot-a-dot Math worksheets. I also found that it was fun to see how much uppercase letters my 3.5 years old recognize. And we did a fun busy bag idea of the poms here . Exploration Day For ED, we went to the playground downstairs, rode our bikes and enjoyed the blue sky in...

Aug 16 2011. Our IHIP was approved. YEH!

Bible A child who gathers crops in summer is wise. But a child who sleeps at harvest time brings shame. Character Building Diligence: Investing all my energy to complete the tasks given to me We learnt about the beavers and how they are not lazy, finish their work, concentrate and do the job right We also learnt about Thomas Edison (who was homeschooled by the way!) and his diligent journey to inventing the lightbulb (well, not that CFL we held, but that's all we have now in the house). Ian really enjoyed the stories Science Seasons. I really like Molly's Season s, I think it's written well. We also went out a bit this week to be around nature. Math We did some sorting and categorizing. For the preschooler we some of those "which does not belong" stuff. Button Box is a great book! Preschooler I found some great stuff on Homeschool Creations Art We are intending to use the family pass to MoMA this weekend.

We don't have a homeschool room, only a corner. No big shelves, closets, desks... This is where we put our active school stuff. (There is another small cabinet where we put the inactive ones) And this really is a corner. The dining table is our school table. Afterall, we live in a small NYC 2-bedroom apartment. This is good enough.

I'm attempting to put up my excel sheet for the weekly plans... Maybe I'll update it once in a while Here's for Days 1-21

Math We did patterns this week. Ian was not that happy. He said "I though Math is about numbers and adding..." and it turned out we did patterns EVERYDAY.  ha. At least he enjoyed the patterns of snack. =) We enjoyed all the books and I LOVE Stuart Murphy. Very good writer of Math books. Complete Book of Math is quite fun. Science We tried the pottery jars...a HUGE flop. I don't think I got the right consistency? Anyhows...=) We did a parachute man (using shopping bag, pipe cleaners and nuts...not the edible ones) to illustrate how authorities are our covering/protection (This is for Character 1st: Obedience). We also talked about things close to the ground and we observe some. That pic, btw, was Ian trying to sabotage the ants in his very boyish way. We drew the Singapore flag for Singapore's National Day and talked a little bit about the history of Singapore . Afterall, my boy IS half Singaporean and he's quite proud of it. =) Preschool The pre...

Our curriculum set aside a day a week as Exploration Day. I love the idea of it. Mostly it's to go outside, enjoy God's creation and I've planned many warm days to the park/walks etc. But today, we went to the city. Not quite a "nature place", but surely "outside" and amazing "God's creation" -people. It's interesting how much you do "school" when doing a "field" trip like this. (Actually, hubby has summer Fridays half days, so our motive was mostly to visit him at his office and come home with him) *Reading the subway map, understand our "route" - Geography , Neighborhood *Saw a lot of American flags - US History *Reading all the subway stations' names along the way - English *Counting the different streets (40th, 41st, 42nd...) - Math *Being superwhelmed by people and visual impacts - Visual arts *Heard some subway entertainers - Music *Had lunch/playground time - P. E . , Health *Wat...

IHIP 1st grade

Aug 9th 2011. I sent in the IHIP (I'm trying to see if I can upload it on the blog). and the metro card application form.

This is how we organize school this year. (I suppose it'll change as last year did, so I'll edit the post again at the end of the year) 1st, I do the lesson plan s. More elaborate for 1st grade (I'm trying to find a way to upload it here on my blog). Easy for PreK (I merely try to put down 3 activities/workbooks for her everyday). Preschooler also joins us for the activities of 1st grade if it's appropriate. 2nd, I put stickies on the pages of the workbooks/books etc that Ian was to do that day. Put them in the different subjects tabs in the workbox . Then put the workbox tag up. Every time we finish an activity, he takes the tag down and go to the next one. I'm trying to retry the workbox, since it didn't work last year . I'm hoping to train him in this method so that when the other kids need more work, he can be more independent. Our morning board . He can do this independently now. *Days of school *Date *Weather Chart *100 chart *Jewish ...