Sunday, March 23, 2008

Play With Me

Last week for our FIAR title we read Play With Me. This is such a cute book!! We learned heaps about different types of animals and started an animal classification chart. Liana can tell you the difference between mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish and insects!!!!

I am amazed at how much Liana is learning with these simple picture books. It is great. I would thoroughly recommend Before Five in a Row and Five in a Row to anyone with little ones, even if they are not homeschooling. It is a great opportunity for some extra cuddle time and you never know, you may even find yourself learning a thing or two!!

Here are some photos of our finished lapbook for this week.





Sunday, March 16, 2008

Artist Study

This term we embarked on our first attempt at an artist study. We are looking at Vincent Van Gogh for term 1. We began the term by reading Camille and the Sunflowers and looking at a book of Van Gogh's paintings. Our plan is pretty much the same every week. On Monday I put up a new print on Liana's pin up board. When she notices it we talk about what we see, what she likes and anything relevant to the painting including the name and who painted it (Van Gogh). We continue this through the week and then on Friday we either paint a black and white copy of the painting or attempt to reproduce it on our own. So far we have looked at the portraits of Camille and the Postman Roulin and then painted pictures of our family. Next was the Olive trees with a black and white reproduction and then our own version of Vase with 14 Sunflowers.

I must say I am pretty impressed with how she is doing so far and she is so proud to show everyone her version of the pictures.





The Birthday Photos!





Saturday, March 8, 2008

Happy Birthday Little Man!!

Today my baby turned 2!!! A bittersweet day. My little man is growing up but he will always be my baby. We had a Thomas the Tank Engine Fest with Thomas toys and Thomas cake. Liam had an absolute blast as did Liana. To celebrate we went to an indoor playground designed for 0-6 years old with 2 of friends and their little ones. I will post some photos of the birthday boy tomorrow once I dig the camera out of the birthday stuff!!!! But for now here are some pictures of my baby and the boy he is becoming.





Monday, March 3, 2008

Homeschooling

This year Liana is 4, so if we were sending her to school she would be in Kindy. So we are now officially (although we don't need to register for another 2 years) homeschooling. I thought I would post what we are doing for "school" this term.
FIAR: Our main curriculum is Five in a Row. We are just finishing up BFIAR and hope to start FIAR in a couple of months.

Bible: Joyful Heart Character from hubbardscupboard.org. We are also using her memory verse program. I love this website, I have used her 2 year old and 3 year old programs with Liana for the last couple of years and they are great.

Reading: Sight word booklets from hubbardscupboard.org. Reading lessons from readinglesson.com. We are just beginning blending sounds and cvc words.

Maths: hmmmmm, well, um, we are just learning naturally. Counting, measuring etc.

Artist Study: This term we are studying Vincent Van Gogh. So far we have looked at his pictures of the Roulin Family and painted our own family pictures. This week we are looking at The Olive Trees.

Music: Liana is still learning Suzuki Violin. Our composer this term is Bach. We are listening to the classical Kids CDs. Liam is also in the Suzuki Early childhood class and will start coming to Liana's violin classes to watch towards the end of the year.

Latin: We are part of a class called Kinderclassics which is for 3 to 6 year olds. It introduces the children to Latin through classics. Last term we read Aesop's Fables. This term we have been learning about Romulus and Remus. The children play games and sing songs and learn basic Latin words. Lots of fun!!

Both kids are still doing swimming lessons and loving it.

Phew!!! That looks like a lot but really most "subjects" only consists of about 10 minutes a day.

Liam is tagging along for the ride. I may start doing some of Hubbards Cupboard Bible Rhyme prog for 2 year old during the year. But at this point he is sooo not ready for anything structured.

Anyway, that is what our homeschool looks like this year. Will share some of our BFIAR lapbooks later.

Liana's 4th Birthday

Well, I finally got around to it. It is only 2 months after her birthday, but better late than never!! Liana had a great time at her party. She loooooved her princes dress and castle cake. the kids were all wonderful and everyone enjoyed playing and making and eating! So here are some pictures of the "GREEN PRINCESS PARTY" with the birthday girl and a few of her friends.