Sorry, I have some posts started . . .

but I haven't had time to upload the pics yet. I have a post about preschool and what is on the shelves for January, and I've got a post about Montgomery Academy downstairs version, and I've got a post about the homeschoolers learning spaces, and I've got a post about our new language area for preschool. All of them really need the pictures to be really helpful. I'll try and get at least one post up tonight, I promise!

Otherwise, we are doing fine. A bunch of colds around here, including myself, but that isn't exactly unusual for January. We had snow, and then it thawed, and now we have a couple inches of snow back on the ground. Not exactly unusual for January either.

What Happens When People Are Sick . . .

This week, my sister was out a couple days because her toddler was ill. Thankfully, we had done a teachers meeting fairly recently, and we both had lesson plans done for the month. My sister came over on Monday night to pick up some books, and then she came back on Wednesday morning to switch with me. As it turned out, each of us got about 90% of the school work done. And it was a fun week too. My girls enjoyed making a seige tower out of legos, grammar flip books, and learning about capacity. Now if I could just find a way to get Flower to finally memorize her times tables . . . . . .

Oh, and a thumbs up on the Swan Lake CD referenced in the homeschooler post for the week of January 11th. It told the story of Swan Lake with the music interspersed, and than another track had information about the composer, but then it had a heavy metal version of Swan Lake, and a sing-along about "Tchaikovsky Made A Great Ballet." All the homeschoolers really enjoyed it.

Oh, and if you use the Lives of the Musicians book for Tchiakovsky, you will probably want to preview it before having your children read it.

Preschool Lesson Plans: Week of 01/11/2010

Just to review, I have 5 preschool students, including my son Super (who turned 5 last September). I have 1 three year old, 3 four year olds, and 1 five year old. I teach preschool Monday through Friday from 9 am until noon. We read and write/draw in journals, have a morning snack, have cicle time, work time, and then eat lunch. On MWF, all five students are here, and on T/Th, there are four students.

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Color of the Month: White
Number of the Month: 5
Shape of the Month: Pentagon

Letter of the Week: Jj
Theme of the Week: Snowflakes

Sensory Table
* Nature Box with evergreen boughs and rocks
* Pouring between two pitchers with ice

Playdoh Table
* White playdoh

Easel
* Watercolor paint

Practical Life Shelf
* Spooning with silver pom poms
* Open/Closing
* Folding
* Tonging with plastic snowballs
* Small clothespins on the top of a glass
* Snowman lacing
* Dressing Vests
* Feather Duster
* Hand Vacuum

Art Shelf
* Free Art Supplies (crayon rocks, crayon twistables, colored pencils, markers, scissors, glue sticks, clear tape, stapler, paper punch)
* Paper (white copy paper, white cardstock, blue construction paper)
* Foam snowflakes
* Snowflake coloring sheet
* Paper prepared to make snowflakes

Sensorial Shelf
* Knobbed Cylinders
* Brown Stair
* Natural Tower
* Color Tablets 1 and 2 and 3
* Sound Cylinders

Geography Shelf
* Insets
* Shape Puzzles
* Shape Game
* Stereognostic Bag with shapes
* Geometric Solids
* Constructive Triangles 1-3

Language Shelf 1
* Sandpaper Letters
* Yellow Language Materials from My Montessori Journey

Language Shelf 2
* Bob Books
* Pattern Matching
* Classified Cards
* Farm with labels

Writing Shelf
* Letter J coloring sheet from Kids Soup
* Letter J tracing set from Kids Soup
* Magnadoodle
* Moveable Alphabet
* Pink Language Cards

Science and Culture
* Flower Puzzle and 3 part cards for flower
* Bird Puzzle and 3 part cards for bird
* Continent Puzzle
* Continent Globe and Sand and Water Globe

Math
* Number Rods
* Spindles
* Snowflake numbers and counters
* Number Cards
* Sandpaper numbers

Stories
The Little Snowflake
Millions of Snowflakes
Ice Is Nice
Snowflakes in Photographs
Snowflake Bentley

Homeschool Lesson Plans: Week of January 11, 2010

Just to refresh your memory, my sister and I are homeschooling four children - my two girls and her two boys. There is Jelly Bean (mine), age 8 and in 2nd grade, Helper (hers), age 8 and in 3rd grade, Flower (mine), age 10 and in 4th grade, and Scooter (hers), age 10 and in 5th grade.

My sister teaches the homeschoolers in the morning (and watches the toddlers) while I teach preschool (and watch a newborn) , and then I teach the homeschoolers in the afternoon (and watch a newborn, while my sister watches preschool-age daycare kids and the toddlers.

Monday

Reading: Individual selections
History: Ch. 15 of Story of the World I - Dying eggs and dying noodles
Spelling: Olders - Master Skills Series Spelling Grade 6 , Youngers - Jelly Bean 2 pages in Spell and Write Grade 3 and Helper 2 pages in Spell and Write Grade 4.
Grammar: Lesson from Grammar Manual on Articles - Definite and Indefinite
Writing: Flying Horse (a short paragraph on an a pre-selected topic for the week (selected by the local paper. This week's topic was about Best Foods.) Winners are selected and printed in the local paper.)
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Science: Astronomy - Introduction to Venus in Apologia Astronomy
Geography: Olders - Books about Asia (borrowed from the library), Youngers - Books about Illinois (borrowed from the library)
Art: M is for Masterpiece - Frida Kahlo
Music: Story of the Orchestra - Tchaikovsky
Math: One Lesson/Unit

Tuesday

Reading: Individual selections
History: Ch. 16 of Story of the World I - The Return of Assyria reading
Spelling: Olders 1 page, Youngers 2 pages
Writing: Finish Flying Horse and put in mail
Reading Comprehension: Reading Comprehension - Amazing Animals
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Science: Botany - Angiosperms in Apologia Botany
Geography: Olders - Study about Asia in Atlas, Youngers - Study about Illinois in Atlas
Art: Picture Study - M is for Monster in Museum ABC
Music: Swan Lake CD (borrowed from the library)
Math: One lesson/unit

Wednesday

Reading: Individual selections
History: Ch. 16 of Story of the World I - Write a book for the Assyrian Library
Spelling: Olders 1 page, Youngers 2 pages.
Grammar: MOE Grammar Sentence cards for Article and Noun
Writing: Writing Bubble for History topics
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Science: Astronomy - Make Lava from Apologia Astronomy
Geography: Olders - Plant and Animal cards from MOE Asia Continent Kit, Youngers - Illinois Quarter from H.I.P Lesson Plans
Art: Frida Kahlo books (this one, this one, this one, and this one)
Music: Sleeping Beauty cassette (borrowed from the library)
Poetry: R is for Rhyme - Limerick
Math: One lesson/unit

Thursday

Reading: Individual selections
History: Ch. 16 of Story of the World I - Make Assyrian siege tower
Spelling: Olders 1 page, Youngers 2 pages
Writing: Copywork or handwriting practice
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Science: Botany - Flower Dissection from Apologia Botany
Geography: Olders - Map and Flag cards from MOE Asia Continent Kit, Youngers - Illinois map and flag
Art: Frido Kahlo art project from Great Artists
Music: Tchaikovsky books (this one, this one, this one, and this one) borrowed from the library
Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet from Tales From Shakespeare
Math: One lesson/unit

Friday

Spelling: Spelling tests
Literature: Literature Pockets
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Math: Math tests (Scooter is in Saxon 65, Flower is in Saxon 54, Helper is in Math U See Beta, and Jelly Bean is in Math U See Beta)
Music: H is for Harmony from M is for Melody