Ingrid made herself a Tinkerbell superhero costume. She’s going to outside now to save some people. She also made herself a little spaceship and helmet to zoom around in.
Archive for October, 2010
Today’s art project
Thursday, October 21st, 2010
homeschool at Grandma Bresani’s
Tuesday, October 5th, 2010My mom has been homeschooling Ingrid once a week. We call it our weekly ‘fieldtrip’. The first week, Grandma and Ingrid started sewing their doll couch and a little stuffed animal named Emily. The next week Grandma taught Ingrid how to make flower arrangements. Ingrid brought home an arrangement of silk pink roses and was very pleased with her creation. Another week they went to Hakone Gardens in Saratoga to learn a little about Japanese culture. Ingrid told me all about the beautiful bridges they crossed and how she got to feed some Koi fish. Not many people were there so they had the place to themselves. This last week Grandma and Grandpa took Ingrid to the Rosicrucian Museum in San Jose. We just started history this school year so Ingrid didn’t know much about Egyptian history yet. We did read a little the day before but mostly the purpose of the trip was to get Ingrid interested in learning. And it definitely succeeded. She came home all excited about mummies and gods and told me all about the things she’d seen. Grandma bought her a really neat book with games and puzzles and all sorts of crafts about Egypt. I’m thinking we’ll go again next year and by that time we’ll have studied ancient history and it’ll be more informative.
Homeschool is going really well this year. I bought a book that tells you what they teach in each grade and that’s been helpful in giving me ideas. I do feel more pressure this year. On Mondays, we get the most done. By Thursday, I feel more relaxed as I see how much we’ve accomplished already.
What we’ve settled into is learning Reading, Writing, Study Skills and Math 5 days a week. I’m reading Swiss Family Robinson aloud. History 2 days a week; I’m OK with one but we’re really enjoying it so we end up doing it more often. Science one day. Spanish and Music/Singing 2-3 times a week. The song book is American traditional songs, and it contains guitar chords so I can learn along with her. Arts and Crafts several days a week. Ingrid comes up with all the Arts and Crafts ideas on her own. And of course one day is a fieldtrip. Thanks to her little friend Moises, Ingrid expects to have homework every day and so homework everyday is 2 or 3 math lessons (they’re one page front and back each, about 15 minutes worth total), plus either read one chapter of a chapter book or read an entire short book. I know this sounds like a lot but actually it doesn’t take up that much time. We are done by 1-2pm each day, and that includes a few breaks to just play whatever she wants to play; plus breakfast and lunch. There are lots of breaks to go visit daddy, or show/tell him something she just learned. It works out really well that I can start her doing something and by the time I’m done doing the dishes she’s ready to have her work checked. At 2ish she cleans up her toys and gets ready to go outside; by 3 her friends are all home from school and she can do her ‘homework’ while they’re doing theirs. But most days she wants to be done by the time they come so she does hers ahead of time. Then she plays the rest of the day until it’s dark!
Here are some photos my mom took from their fieldtrips.
