Kindergarten Wrap-up

In the last couple weeks we finished our desert. This was the best unit so far (even though we did LOVE the Savannah). I think it was a culmination of Annabelle just getting older and me being able to let go of doing it all. I focused on things that I thought we would really enjoy and did those....and guess what.....we really enjoyed them! (Imagine that...lol)

We did plant cactus seeds, but they were destroyed by another person living in this house (whether maliciously or not we never determined lol). We went to the store and to our surprise the cacti were in bloom. Of course we bought this one with the pretty pink flower.
Annabelle observed and drew a picture of her cactus....
....she named the cactus Pink Sparkles....the cactus is obviously a girl. :)
We made a model of Pink Sparkles out of play dough and toothpicks. Annabelle wanted to put on the pink beads to resemble flowers.
....she is definitely pink...and sparkly. (That Annabelle cracks me up!).
We also learned about snakes. We chose to make our paper chain snake the poisonous Coral Snake. 'Red on black venom lack.....Red on yellow kills a fellow.' She then proceeded to chase her brothers around the rest of the afternoon trying to poison them. She even put it across the doorway to her room and threatened that if they tried to come in her poisonous snake would bite them. However, Silas the snake slayer ripped it to shreds later that evening.
Annabelle also made an armadillo.....
Zak thought it was a hippo.....it does greatly resemble a hippo....however, the corrugated, cardboard clearly makes it look like an armadillo.
Our notebook animal for the past couple weeks was the camel/camel family. We had a lot of fun learning about camels.
Finished animal notebook. I asked Annabelle what her favorite thing about a camel was....she said, "Riding it." (We've never ridden a camel...lol).


I take so many math pictures! Annabelle really enjoys math. She is usually most cooperative during this time.

We do an estimation jar every day where she estimates how many objects are in the jar. After that she sorts the item into piles of 10 to figure out how much she has. Then she finds that number on a 100s chart (that is a new addition...she's just starting to get the hang of it).
I also have her fill in missing numbers 1-20 every day (soon 1-30...and eventually work our way up to 1-100).
Math this week was SO much fun. She learned her very first card game. WAR. We had a lot of fun playing. It is a great way to begin to understand values and greater than/less than. She gets a goofy grin and says, "Yes." every time she wins a card. She does try to say it quietly so she doesn't make the 'loser' feel too bad. :) Fortunately, she is not super competitive so she doesn't get a bad attitude when she loses.
So fun!
I'm really geeked about our next unit. We are moving onto the rainforests.....so many cool animals in the rainforest to discover. Happy blogging!

jess_hak

Linking up to Preschool Corner

Schooling Consistently

I have a confession....it might shock some of you or maybe it's more normal than I think in the homeschool world.... I have a serious problem with schooling consistently (or doing anything consistently for that matter....except garage saling). I started chalking it up to having 3 kids ages 5, 4 (in 2 weeks!), and 2.5 (3 in June). By consistently I mean every single day, at the same time, getting everything done. Anyway, what do all you awesome ladies do to stay on track and focused...especially if you have little ones planning a mutiny while you're trying to get something done with another one. I would LOVE my days to be a little more ordered and routine....more predictable. Maybe I'll get there someday, maybe it's just the phase of life we are at right now, maybe my kids are just little monsters and no one else has this problem....lol :)

We started a new unit this week in Animals and Their Worlds. We have trekked to the desert (a cactus desert to be exact). We didn't do the animal of the week this week because it was a chameleon (and they live in the rainforest so I didn't want Annabelle to be confused). We actually had a lot of fun reading and discussing this week. I finally gave myself permission to let go of the fact that there are just some activities we are not going to be able to accomplish this time around....that it's ok, I'll be able to do them the next time! :) The bad picture above is of some of the animals/plants we'll be taking a closer look at in this unit. Annabelle saw the tarantula and said, "I will NEVER live in a desert!"

We had a good friend move back from New Mexico and she brought the kids cactus seeds. We planted them this week to see if we could actually grow some....
It says the ideal climate would be 75F. Zak won't let me turn up the heat...his logical idea was to wait and plant them until summer. I said that it doesn't fit with our school unit then.... our thinking is so different sometimes! lol
For some reason I took a lot of Math pictures this week. We are moving right along, and we will be done with Saxon K before the end of March. After that we will continue with the Horizons K that I had originally planned on at the beginning of the year. We will do that through out the summer to keep her thinking! :)

This week we worked with buying things with pennies and dimes.
Recognizing/counting/ordering numbers 0-20
AND we played some with our pattern blocks. I really like Saxon's pace. I do believe that K is more of a preschool math level, but I really like that they don't push such high ideals on her age level. I think because of this she looks forward to math everyday instead of fighting it (like her reading at times).
Ready2Read unit 6 word family sorting activity.
In spite of my first paragraph we actually were able to do school pretty consistently this week. The boys were slightly neglected during our school time, but I think if I can get a routine down for Annabelle I will better know what to do with the boys during that time. I am a perfectionist in some areas and this happens to be one of them. I think if I get one routine perfect (or what I would view as perfect...definitely not perfect by many standards) it will be easier for me to add something else into the routine. Just trying to add a little peace and order to our self proclaimed chaos (that I really LOVE for the most part). Happy blogging!

jess_hak

Linking up to Preschool Corner