I love the look on Cait's face as she reads! She tries so hard to act like it isn't a big deal but there is a smile full of pride when she completes one of the Hooked on Phonics books!

The iPad has been SUCH a great resource for us! There are SO many apps that the kids love. 

 

Cait asked to pull apart our human body model and match the pieces to the organizer.

Jayden is chipping away at his math. This particular day we focused on the different ways to write numbers. 

 He learned the difference between deserts and plains and what kind of animals live in each.

 He also learned about canyons and valleys.

 For reading time he chose to read a book on Barack Obama!

While neither my nor Juan's plants are alive anymore, Jayden's started sprouting little leaves!

Netflix has proven to be a wonderful resource for us! The kids love Beakman's World. This episode taught them that the largest human organ is the skin!

Dairy Farm Field Trip!

We recently went on a tour of a local dairy farm with a homeschooling group and had a great time! Our tour guide, Mark, was really informative and answered everyone's questions.
 

Can I just say it smelled bad? Yes, I am a total city girl. Manure is not my thing. The smell came in waves. Sometimes it didn't stink so you would get tricked in to breathing through your nose again. Then it would smell like crap again. It was actually pretty clean for a barn with at least 20 cows. But Mark said that they clean out the barn at least 5x a day.

The cows (holstein) were really curious and really gentle, which surprised us because they are HUGE.

 Cait was super excited about petting the cows!

 Jayden decided it was a better idea to hang toward the back and keep his hands to himself.

pooping cow

peeing cow

After touring the barn we went outside to see the calves which were all 2 months and under.

 

Mark brought this little guy out and he was really friendly!

He explained that these babies were really content when you put your hand in their mouth because they thought they would get milk if they suckled.

 

 When Mark put him back inside, the little calf kept mooing at Caitlin.

We headed over to visit the one donkey they had at the farm. He was also really friendly. While the kids visited the calves he brayed, calling attention to himself until we visited him.

Of course we could not leave a dairy farm empty handed. We bought some amazing freshly made chocolate chip cookies.

 

We also bought some fresh vanilla ice cream. This is AMAZING! It is so creamy and delicious.

adding sprinkles

 

Yummy!

 When I asked the kids what they learned from this trip, these are the answers they gave:

- Cows are pregnant for 9 months
- Calves weigh almost 100lbs when they are born
- Cows tongues are about 8 inches long and feels like sandpaper
- Cows do poop
- Holstein cows make 10x more milk than their calves can drink

We literally left the barn smelling like cow poop. It was pretty gross, but it was a fun trip!

Jayden signed up for Lego magazines a couple of months ago. My heart warmed up when I saw him turn off the Wii on his own and spent 2 hours poring over the magazine.

Last week was a special day in karate. There was a little ceremony held and Jayden got moved up to orange belt in the junior division.

We have been making a real effort to eat healthier. Cait and I had "lunch" that she prepared. Granted they were plastic, but all she put was veggies and fruits on our plates!

A new family activity we are doing is playing board games. We got Monopoly Junior and had a GREAT time playing together. Somehow Juan, Jayden, & Caitlin all ended the game with $30+. I ended up with only $1. We all laughed at how bad I lost. Jayden told me: "It's ok if you are sad that you lost mom. But winning isn't everything. All that matters is you had fun!" Easy for him to say since he was the winner! 

Science & Math

We have more life! Juan's cilantro suddenly started sprouting! Because it is growing in a dome, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to review water cycles again.

 Excuse my lack of artistic abilities. The kids understood and enjoyed the lesson.

 I printed this out to hang on our refrigerator. 

 My plant is continuing to grow.

 Unfortunately there is no change on the kids' plants.


We started a new math program for Jayden.  He enjoys math very much. He is constantly thinking about numbers. He is adding, subtracting, and even multiplying them all day long. Whenever he learned a new concept we would build on it with lots of worksheets. He ended up dreading math time because he thought it was becoming boring. So instead of letting his passion for math die out, I decided we needed a new approach to math. Originally I was planning on using Math U See, but after receiving the book and reviewing it, it did not seem like a good fit for him.

I wanted to find a curriculum that explained the "how" behind the math. I also wanted a curriculum with a mastery approach so that as math gets harder, Jayden's foundation in math can help him through it. He is awesome at picking up new concepts and just going along with methods, but I want him to have a more in depth understanding of what his answers really mean. I didn't want anything with an overwhelming amount of math problems per page because Jayden doesn't like to do a page of work that has too much work on it. I also needed something that would fill in any gaps that he has in math. My final criteria was that it needed to fit the common core standards. I know that these standards are controversial (and after much research I believe it is with good reason) but we will be using them as a guide to make sure the kids are on track. After a lot of searching, Math in Focus seemed to be a perfect fit!.

MIF is broken up in half with 2A being for the first half of the year and 2B for the second part. The pages are colorful enough to not be boring, but have plenty of empty spaces so that it is not overwhelming. There are visual representations for most of the problems, which explains the concept of the lesson.

I gave Jayden the assessment test and he scored into the 2B book! I decided to still purchase 2A so that we could review earlier concepts that he learned, but this time go more in depth. I am sure that if we are focused, Jayden will be able to complete 2nd grade math in a few months.

 Some of what book 2A covers:

• addition and subtraction of numbers up to 1,000
• how to write out numbers in word form, standard form, and expanded form
• multiplication
• division
• metric measurement

The best part is that he LOVES it. He is excited about math and always wants to start with it!

Caitlin still loves Time4Learning. Our membership there ends in June and we are contemplating whether or not we want to resubscribe. While she loves it, she also loves to sit down and work in her notebook or workbooks (when she is in the mood for school). She is still very young and is not due to enter kindergarten until September 2014. I am not sure what we will be working on during that time, but it may not be anything too structured since kindergarten is not mandatory. She is still learning to read and can read some basic words, knows her colors, numbers, alphabet, and is learning to add. I am pretty sure we will continue to just follow her lead since she is doing so fabulous.

Both kids are continuing their Spanish studies with Juan. He has taken his role quite seriously and even set up a notebook with his lesson plans. ;)

Play dates

We are really thankful for our homeschooling friends! It is nice to be able to see them again after we stayed inside for most of the winter.

We enjoyed some play time/dinner at Vanessa's.

J & C hanging out in the trampoline

Rocky & Caitlin performing a duet

Jayden hiding behind the couch shooting Vinny

We also headed over to the park this week and met up with Carolyn and Amanda and their kids this week. Before we got out of the car Jayden told me "Mom, I think parks are for little kids... like three and under. I think I will sit down and watch everyone play." I just told him that was fine, it was his choice. That boy did not sit down once apart from the 5 minutes it took him to eat his lunch!

 

I never realized just how close the farm is to this particular park. The kids pet and fed the animals they could reach, all of which were pretty friendly!

 

 

We have gone to the pool every day this week. I have noticed we are all much more tired when bedtime approaches. This means easier bedtimes!