This week in homeschooling

   So I had every intention of sitting down this quiet morning, with a cup of coffee and finish tales from Clackamas lake. My good friend Sarah has pointed out a few times how I never wrapped that trip up. I promise it is coming but I am sure if I go into the bedroom one more time to look for the cord I need to connect the picture thing (like my techology knowledge?) to the laptop, husband will throw a pillow at me.
   So instead, I am sitting at the dinner table coffee cup steaming by my side as the sky slowly melts from a velvety black to dark blue. Pandora is streaming some Billie Holiday and the apple pumpkin bread (recipe to follow at some point) is making the room smell spicy and sweet.
   I set my alarm for 6am. I have done this every morning since Monday but this is only the second day that I managed to NOT hit the off button and fallen back to sleep until husband has to wake up for work. When the boys were younger, I would wake up naturally between 5-6am. It was great! I was able to get my cleaning down, cooking projects started, have me time. My sleep cycle has changed in the last year. I stay up to about 11 and waking up before 7 is not fun and could result in injury (to someone else, not me). I am trying to recreate that early morning productive time so that is why I am here right now. Blogging (Shhh, just ignore the large pile of laundry in the corner and the dust bunnies rolling by like tumbleweeds).
   This week in homeschool started out rocky. Number 1 apparently thinks he can act like a moody teenager. Whenever it would be "work time" thunder rolled and lightening cracked and the sweet, loving, kind boy was eaten by a demon who became argumentative and rude. Obviously, he wasn't liking what we were doing and I can't blame him. I had dropped the ball. Basically, I was asking him to do worksheets, and worksheets, and worksheets. I hate worksheets. And here I was force feeding him worksheets because it is so so so much easier to give a kid a worksheet than actually plan activities. Demon child number 1 had to go so I ditched the worksheets and started planning better and far more engaging activities.
   Our lovely Aunt Susie, left for Spain this week and we went with her...kinda. We have spent a chunk of our "work time" learning about Spain. I can say without a doubt the kids have enjoyed learning about bullfighting and encierro (running with the bulls). We have watched a lot of people getting gored. On a positive note, number 1 is pretty knowledgeable about how to successfully run with bulls and not get trampled, gored, or injured in any other way. Some of the activities, besides watching slightly inappropriate videos on youtube, has been reading about Spain (duh!), learning a few Spanish words, making Spanish recipes, learning about it's landscape, flag, Spanish pastimes (soccer, flamenco,), the awesomeness of the siesta, etc. Simple basic information.Later today we are going to delve into Picasso and make a few Picasso inspired self-portraits Here is a couple  pictures of our Spain Adventure:

Number 2's interpretation of the Spanish Flag

Number 1's take on the 1795 Spanish Flag

A map of Spain with Barcelona highlighted. That is where Aunt Susie is going

   Every week, we learn 4 new sight words. I needed a fun, new way to work on memorizing them. Just putting a notecard into Number 1's face and expecting him to enjoy being drilled wasn't working. Go figure. I made a game board and put it into a page protector. I then wrote the sight words we are working on in each square of the board game. Writing the words with a wet erase marker makes it easy to remake the game to include new words, or make it a math game, etc quickly. Number 1 was grouchy we had to play this game but once we actually played, he loved it and requested we play a second time. BOOYA!

Another fun sight word activity is ZAP! I wrote our sight words on different shaped wood pieces and put them into a container. You set a timer (we did 7 minutes) and you take turns picking out a piece. If you read the word correctly, you keep the piece. If you incorrectly read it, you put it back. If you get a zap, you put all your pieces back. We played this 2-3 times the first time I introduced it this week.

   Number 1 is a good reader, however he tries reading by looking at the pictures, not the words. I wanted to encourage him to read the words so instead of having him practice reading just from a boring book (Pat the cat, He has a bat, etc). I write a simple sentence on paper, which he has to read in order to figure out how to illustrate it. This one is a winner.

Notice how "The cow is mad" picture is a bullfight.

   We have also been working on nouns, verbs, and adjective this week. We would take turns thinking of nouns, verbs, or adjectives. Once we had a good list we would  tell each other a sentence and the listener would then have to identify the noun, verb, or adjective in the sentence. Mad libs were also used which were a hit.
   For science Friday this week, we are kicking off our geology unit. We are going to dig in the backyard and see how the soil color changes. I found that experiment here: http://www.education.com/activity/article/crocodile_hop_reading_first/
I need breakfast now and should probably tackle that laundry over there. Happy Thursday!