We completed Calvert’s 1st Grade curriculum!! It was a success. However, I plan to explore other options for our 2nd grade year. Calvert is thorough and very well structured. It makes life much easier as far as planning. But, I think we need to find more hands on activities. While we are finished officially, I still plan to seek learning activities and keep up with reviewing math and reading.

Yippee!! Summer Break!!!

We’re nearing the end of first grade and our first year of homeschooling. We have about 16 lessons left. I’m looking forward to the break.

Looking at this blog I can’t believe that I haven’t posted anything since March. Where does the time go?

We’ve been busy.  We went to the lovely Ladew Gardens.

We planted trees at Eden Mills Nature Center.

We attended at 70’s theme Mother Daughter Dance.

We decorated eggs for Easter.

We went for a train ride at the Strasburg Railroad.

We went to the National Zoo in Washington, DC.

We had a good week. There really hasn’t been a lot to update with. And that is often a good thing. That means things are where the should be. The beginning of our week brought us St. Patrick’s Day. Whether you are Irish or not, it’s fun to celebrate. We met our homeschool group at Chuck E Cheese for some fun. And when we returned home we found we had a visit from a little leprechaun who decided to turn our schoolroom upside down. Keely remembered a Family Fun magazine article about making leprechaun traps.  Here is our version.

We spent the next couple days doing regular school.  Friday was the first day of spring so we did a couple spring crafts and some math using springtime treats.  Then we headed out to the mall and lunch as a family.  It didn’t feel very springlike temperature wise.  But all in all  a good day.

We ended our week with a Brownie Troop Social.  We found a nice Brownie Troop to join.  Keely loves doing this.  Last weekend they stood outside of a local grocery store collecting items for Harvest for the Hungry.  Right up Keely’s alley.

We had a quiet week. It started with a snow day. We still do school on snow days. School first, then play in the snow.

We made pretzels.

We made an anemometer.  It’s not the prettiest thing in the world, nor did it work great.  But, was good enough to get the point across.  This was a Calvert science project.

All in all a good week.

We had a good solid week of school work and fun.  We made a math monster.  You feed him problems,  guess the answer, and he spits out a reply so you can see if you were right.  Keely worked on a personal narrative, a story, poetry, and a play.

The narrative was about the time her Raggedy Ann doll went missing.  She wrote it and typed it (me helping), colored pictures, and made a book.

In the middle of the week we met up with our local homeschool group and had a family fun fitness day.  The bigger kids had a blast playing games like capture the flag and dodgeball.  Surprisingly, Keely got involved with the dodgeball game.  The younger ones played follow the leader, bowling, and balloon volleyball.  Everyone brought in items to contribute to trail mix.  The kids went around with baggies creating their own trail mix.  It was an all around fun filled day!

We worked on taking care of our  Earth.  We kept a water usage chart, experimented to see what happened to plastic and toilet paper when left in water, and we categorized what types of items can be recycled.

Wednesday brought the end of a 3+ month long loose tooth saga.  Keely does not like to lose her teeth.  She keeps them in there somehow until they just give up and drop out.  She won’t do anything to move the process along.  She is an expert at eating out of the sides of her mouth as to avoid the tooth coming out.  And don’t dare mention that loose tooth, unless you wish to hear whining, crying, and groaning.  The tooth finally gave up the fight and fell out.  Now you would think that would be cause for more whining and crying.  Nope.  When the tooth comes out, there is much celebration and squealing girly giggles.   On to the next tooth…

And our week wouldn’t be complete without a What did you do with Henry while you taught question.  Well, Henry decided to help himself to cookies, popcorn, candy and the items from my purse.  My counters are often a mess because I’m constantly pushing things out of his reach.  Well, he’s figured out how to get up there now with a chair.  I think I need higher shelves.

Today was our 100th day of school.  To celebrate Keely got to spend 100 coins at Chucke E Cheese with a friend. Another fun filled day, hopefully leading to an early bedtime.

Since I can’t seem to find the time to update very often, I’m going to try to do a weekly review. This week we accomplished a subtraction lapbook, wrote a story, and wrote quite a few words in Calvert script.

I know that we should be more structured in our schedule and lessons. But it seems that by the end of each week, my big plans fall apart. We attempted to follow the time schedule that Calvert suggested. That worked for a few days, but with a 2 year old running around and having to stop to clean up messes or save him from himself, it’s difficult to keep Keely focused.

I have the schedule posted and we try to begin on-time. This week, however, we dragged out our school day longer with much time to play in between. Right now, this feels right. We get in as much as possible, until I lose my student’s focus or Henry wreaks havoc. After some time, I reel her back in and start again.

Keely made pancakes (almost) all on her own 2 days this week. I realize I need to overcome my need to control and my desire to keep the mess at a minimum. Learning is just messy work, a hard fact I have to face!

She is just giddy over writing cursive/script. This is the first time during this entire year that I actually felt a sense of accomplishment with her. That I actually taught her something new to her. I have concern that she is bored and needs more of a challenge.

All in all it was a good week.

Today was our Daniel Boone lesson. Calvert suggested making a Daniel Boone hat. So we did. And here it is. When Henry saw the picture below of Keely’s hat, he pointed what he thought it looked like. I’ll save his thoughts for another day. I’ll let you be the judge.

I have a 2-year old son. Not quite ready for schooling, but definitely on the move. Often I’m asked what I do with him while I am schooling Keely. Well, I am a true rookie in this. I do whatever fits at the moment to entertain Henry. Sometimes he’ll color, do puzzles, play with his toys. Other times, he gets a burst of his own creativity. And does things like, oh I don’t know, throw an entire jar of sunflower seeds around the kitchen.


Dennis the Menace strikes again!!