October 2007

Language Arts: Joey completes a reading and phonics lesson each day. In this program, he reviews 2 sight words each day that are added to his daily reading lesson. He reviews the whole collection of sight words daily. To date, he can read/identify a list of 25 words such as: "what", "and", "the", "day", "light", "everything", etc. In addition to these, he can read 8 basic color words which he uses daily in his language and math practice. Joey reads a short lesson every day and then completes 4 pages of the corresponding workbooks on phonics and reading practice. These include phonics drills of vowel - consonant combinations, writing beginning and ending sounds of words pictured, filling in the blanks for basic sentences with appropriate words, matching words, matching words with pictures, practice printing letters and identifying capital and lower case letters, etc.

Math: Joey completes at least one lesson in Saxon Math 1 each day. He is moving very quickly and concepts at this portion of the text are mostly review for him of shapes, counting, writing numbers, identifying greater and least as well as first, second, third and last; right and left; sides and angles of basic shapes etc. Joey also continues to use the calendar daily. He can name all the days of the week and properly recite the date. He records the weather and is learnign about temperature. He is telling time to the hour and understanding "how many hours until..." He completed through lesson 15 and Assessment #2.

Social Studies: Joey participates in lessons about early people and talked about how different people live/lived in different parts of the world. He is beginning an introduction to the ice age and listens to the book, "Maroo of the Winter Caves". He is able to identify where he lives on a map of the world as well as a map of the United States and California. He is practicing a song of the 50 states and can recite from Alabama to New York.

Science: Joey has been participating with the rest of the family in learning about earthquakes and volcanoes. He made his own volcano from salt dough and participated in a volcano eruption activity with baking soda and vinegar in a soda bottle. He also hunted for slugs and worms in his backyard after a rain and learned about germs he can get from dirt and worms. He observed while Joshua soaked, sprouted and planted his wheat grass. Also completed worksheets about pumkins and farms.

Life Skills/PE: Joey trains in Jiu-Jitsu twice each week for 1 hour. He also participated in a Jiu-Jitsu Tournament and did very well. He jumps on his trampoline daily and does a lot of running and climbing.
This month, we took a field trip to the Bishop's Pumpkin Farm. There, Joey did a lot of running around, rode the hayride tractor and picked a pumkin. He also rode the train and climbed a "mountain" of slides and climbing apparatus. He toured the petting zoo and saw all kinds of farm animals and watched a show about chickens and pigs and saw a pig race. He sampled fresh pressed apple cider and played in the corn maze. He completed some fun worksheets about the farm and pumpkins which were supplied by the Bishops Farm website.

Art: Joey and the rest of the family carved pumpkins together. Joey designed and drew his own face on his pumpkin. He cut open the top and emptied its insides. Joey also helped decorate the front door for trick or treaters.

September 2007

Language Arts - Completed numerous reading readiness and language arts activities, including letter recognition, shapes and patterns, sight words in context, recognizing color words, and reading color words and finding things in each color. Phonics - long and short vowels, and blending sounds, Read to him, and he looks through books on own; discussed days of the week; and completed some printing practice exercises.

Social Studies -Discussed early peoples, including cavemen. Leanred about characteristics and daily activities, including foods ate, hunting, shelter, etc. Did an activity where identified each food and illustrated it. Games – carried water, found food and shelter and built a cave.
Family relationships – discussed relationships and made a paper chain showing each individual’s place in the family, and talked about blended families.

Mathematics -
Joey did lessons on matching numbers to amount shown, wrote the numbers 1-10, patterning, shapes, telling time to the hour and the minute, and for time of day. Completed activities on shape recognition – identifying a circle, square, rectangle, triangle; daily calendar exercises; counting to 100; writing numbers; and basic graphing.

Earth science – discussed landforms: plateau, island, river, etc.; layers of the earth; and volcanoes. Talked about the earth and sun relationship, and day and night. Completed a worksheet on earth’s structure. Made a salt dough volcano.
Discussed Lassen Park and the melting pots and geysers, glacier snow melt, and water sources with no outlets observed there. Also discussed Crater Lake and it’s creation, Mt. Shasta, and volcanic formations.

Life Skills -
P.E. – swimming; Jiu Jitsu; bike riding; trampoline jumping; running; hiking and walking.

Special Interests/Electives –
Jiu Jitsu lessons
Arts and Crafts – made a leaf collage—leaves between waxed paper with melted crayons; salt dough creations; and made a paper chain.
Music – played with keyboard; singing songs

The Book of Joey

Here's Joey's page... he's ready to learn and learning to write. Here's a good place to start!