What Chloe's learning: This is the new site for a journal of Chloe's homeschoooling activities....
Mon. Aug. 4th So perhaps we're not using such a radical approach as some with greater faith in that process would, but we've decided on a bare bones structured approach. Chloe has discovered that if she doesn't practice with or use her ability to read, write, and do basic math regularly then she loses the ability. YIKES!!! this freaked her out, and she got scared. So I suggestedthat perhaps she do some of each of those things daily. She complained about how tempting her toys are, etc... so we now mutually agreed on some structure to cultivate discipline. Chloe reads a chapter book every morning, does math computation (sometimes after a short lesson) and writes a page in her writing journal every day before noon. Her abilities are back and growing rapidly and this excites her. She is also getting renewed interest in some of her long term projects (like her history timeline for example), and passionate about ideas that come up throughout our day; ideas for new projects.
Today she started the book Big Apple Barn "Happy Go Lucky" by, Kristin Earhart. She painstakingly worked on some subtraction problems using numbers in the tens, subtracting single digits from them, looking at patterns amidst the problems, and working on the number line to do it. Then she wrote a short story about a fairy. Amazing descriptive words.
Tues. Aug. 5th Another chapter in the book, good comprehension. She worked on some more subtraction problems using the number line to get answers. Wrote a page about Violet. Watched Digging For The Truth Episode about the El Dorado Myth. Loved it and couldn't believe the part about the gold was true. Was amazed at the Peruvian Jungle, and how it would sooo hard to find a lost city!
Wed. Aug 6th Several hours the dentist midday -no school work today.
Thurs. Aug 7th Another Chapter in the book, Discussed the tens, she played with tangrams. Wrote a little poem , then a page of self -depricating rant! She still has this in her, arrggh! We completed our data for the "Great Sunflower Project" which comes out of San Francisco State University Biology Dept. Basically we planted a bunch of sunflowers then we watch a specific flower and watch for bees to arrive. Chloe took air temp. and recorded it, and wrote how many bees visited and when, and which kinds of bees came. A little scientific observation and data recording. We learned that bees are responsible for every 3rd bite of food! We had so much fun doing this.!!! Chloe and Violet (2.5 yrs) kept squealing in delight every time they saw another beee!!!!!.
Fri. Aug 8th Big Apple Barn book still. Got out addition flashcards and learned what she did and didn't know adding the tables up to ten. Chloe looked at spelling words.
Sun. Aug 10 today was a field trip to the Wolf River. Chloe discovered mussels. She collected some shells, and learned that there are quite a lot of different species of them in TN. She scavenged a few different kinds. Says she wan tto come back and learn more about them. We saw a sign that said Preserve the natural resource, so we discussed what is a natural resource? what does resource mean anyway? She definitely sees the value of the natural resources trees, and water. Beside for beauty, simply for survival.
Mon. Aug. 11 Chloe reads another chapter in Big Apple Barn book. She copies a fairy poem, instead of original writing today. We discovered she knows her addition up to the 6's so I wrote out the tables form 6 to ten , and she worked the problems, and we discussed. I forgot to mention her drawing is picking up, she's doing it every day! She is priding herself in figuring out 3 dimension on her own, and drawing figures sideways...Awesome!
Tues. Aug. 12 Another chapter in her book. She reads it , then tells me what happens. Her comprehension is growing. In general these books are sort of boring. She writes a page of Potions, Stomach potion, Hair Detangling Potion, Flying Potion. She expresses a wish to know what ingrediants would make her potion explode, so I suggest making a volcanoe and erupting it. She's game, we just have to decide where in the yard. She starts memorizing the doubles in addition, the tens tables, and the 5's, and begins to understand that if she cam memorize a few facts then she can have them as reference points for knowing the rest of the facts in the tables. She thinks this is really cool so we test it out on the flashcards, and WA LA! It works.
Wed. Aug. 13 Big Apple Barn book again. Studies the tables , trys the flashcards again remembers over half of what she didn't know yesterday!!! Works some addition problems in the workbook . Doesn't write, but watche sthe History Channel's movie "From Ape To Man" She loved the discovery of Lucy, thought is was SOO COOL! Couldn't believe how far back human ancestors go. Learned about how it was once though htere were apes, then ape-man, then man. After so many fossilized skulls an dbones were found, we now know that there were many different stages, and species in the evolution of ape to man. We discussed species, Neanderthal, and the modern human. That culture is what made the modern human survive them all.
Thurs. Aug.14 Finished Big Apple Barn "Happy Go Lucky" book 3 chapters. No writing in journal, but we prepared a comfrey poultice from the garden for her arm which seems to have a pulled muscle, therefore no writing (or swimming today!) She worked 6 pages in a math workbook, number line and addition, studied the doubles, and 10's working at memorizing them. We went to water fountain park and Chloe had physical exercise.
Fri. Aug 15 Today we left midmorning to tour the facility where Chloe will take her dance classes. It took 3 hours so we just went home after and cleaned the house together. Big thunderstorm!
Sat. Aug 16 Field Trip day Chloe met with Richard Uderhill who sells local honey at the farmers market. We met him a tthe Botanic Garden Orchard where he keeps bee hives. He had a child's suit with gloves and hood for beekeeping and Chloe got to watch him for an hour. He taught her about smoking yourself and the area to help with disturbing the bees, she learned about bee bread, bee glue, bee wax made and used in the hive, she witnessed a bee being born out of it's cell, she saw the queen, she helped brush off the tray etc....she got to stick her head in the hive!!!! What a brave girl! So that was GREAT! dispite the HOT beekeeping suits.
Sun. Aug 17 Horseback riding with Sherry for 4 hours, took care of horses, and cleaned stalls.