I've had a lot of people asking me how we did the tissue paper art.

Many have been asking me how we did the tissue paper art today,  I bought it as a kit from Target.  Here is the link to it on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Alex-My-Tissue-Art/dp/B000HV2TY2/ref=sr_1_1?s=gateway&ie=UTF8&qid=1285355915&sr=8-1

It comes with 6 shapes that are already sticky.  You just peel off the backing roll the provided tissue paper squares (or cut your own from fancier tissue paper you may have) into little balls and smush them on the backing.  It also comes with the google eyes.

Review, Part 2-- Sept. 20-24

Part 2 was a great success.  It was a nice, casual week because we were just working to catch up on things that had to be put on hold last week.


The kids asked why we weren't doing history this year, so I asked them what they'd like to do.  They wanted to review what we'd started last year and then move on, so I pulled out my copy of Story of the World Volume 3: Early Modern Times and decided to start at the beginning.  We'll also be using the activity guide for it.  Everett and Annika both did some language arts and math lessons, but I won't bore you with those details.  Here's a slide show of the history pages and a cursive sheet for each.


Everett  

Annika

Lucas wrapped up his week with phonics, math and science work.  He's really enjoying all of his McRuffy curriculum. 

We wrapped up the week with a fun art day project.  I pulled out a tissue paper art kit and the kids had a blast making their tissue paper pictures. 

As promised, here are the finished items. 

Here are few curriculum changes to note.  Everett was getting bogged down with Growing with Grammar so we'll be moving back to Junior Analytical Grammar and he asked to start at the beginning.  I will oblige him there, extra review is always good.  After finishing the Writing with Skill beta testing, he'll be using Writing with Ease instead of IEW.  Spelling is the last area of change for him, Soaring with Spelling didn't even get it's full trial, he's just bored, so we'll be pulling out All About Spelling again, and I will not try anything else.  That's the one that works for him and I should stop worrying about it.  Annika is using McRuffy's Dynamic Phonics Learning book in hopes to speed up phonics and focus more on reading than all the other Language arts stuff.  I'll also add in Writing with Ease for her and if she'd like to do All About Spelling we'll start that for her. 


I hope you all enjoy the slideshows and video.  Tune in next week for another review.

Review Part 1 -- Sept. 13-17

This week had it's ups and downs, because of them I've decided to call this  Part 1 and next week we'll finish up with  Part 2.  


We started out the week with a fun Art day.  I put out tempra paints and just let them kids go to town.  They had lots of fun and created some nice looking paintings.  

Monday we did some math and language arts and then Annika and Lucas had their first gym classes of this semester.  Late Monday night I found out that Colonial Williamsburg was having it's fall Home Educators Week this week and next, so we took off Tuesday morning and spent the day up there.  It was lots of fun and although we saw a lot, we didn't get to it all.  We plan to go back in the spring. 

Wednesday was a day of life happening and errand running.  Then Thursday I had to take the van in and spent 2.5 hours of my morning in the rudest car dealership I've ever had to deal with.  I can't wait until we are able to purchase a different vehicle so I never have to go back there again.


I hope you enjoy the slideshows again, I received many compliments on them last week, so I decided to make them a permanent part of my weekly reviews.

Review -- Sept. 6-10

We had a great week back.  Matt was able to be home with us for our first day and took pictures of me and the kids on the front porch.

This year we're putting history aside and working on geography alone in that area.  We are using pages from Home School in the Woods' Olde World US maps.  They pack a lot of information onto them.  We are also watching the History Channel series, The States, which the kids are really enjoying. 

Here are some slideshows of what the kids each did in their other subjects.  

Everett

Annika

Lucas

We will be making some small curriculum changes.  Annika will use Teaching Textbooks 3 for math and Everett will be using Soaring with Spelling and Vocabulary instead of Spelling Power. I hope you all enjoyed our week in review.  We had a lot of fun and are looking forward to next week.  

The Official 2010-2011 Curricula picks

The 2010-2011 school year is right around the corner.  We will begin on Monday, September 6th.  Yes that is Labor Day, but this gives Matt a chance to join in the actual homeschooling day, which he doesn't get to do often.  I have officially finalized my curricula choices for this year and think it's going to be a productive and fun year.


Although continuing to work on Annika's reading and Everett's writing will be a focus area, I'm also making a great effort to make sure we get Art in on a more regular basis.  I will also be adding Lucas in on a bigger level.  It's his Kindergarten year, so I want to make it lots of fun without being overwhelming to him.  He's a very bright boy and should fit into the mix without any issues.


Without further ado, here are the picks for this year.

For Everett

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For Annika

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For Lucas

I look forward to writing my "Week in Review" posts in the upcoming months.
I wish you all a wonderful fall.