Letter of the Week ---Aa

This week is another new week for the fall season. I start all over again to review the letters with Evan. Since Ethan is at home now, he learns and does the activities with Evan.

Letter of the week: Aa
Object: Apple and ant
Number: 1
Shape: Circle

I read the stories about apple and also the Johnny Appleseed story. I bought different kinds of apple with different sizes. Evan has to group them according to the sizes, big or small.


Grouping the apples according to the sizes.


I drew some apple shapes and cut them out. Evan has to trace the numbers on the apples and arrange them in order.


Another way to learn the letter is asking the boys to make a letter A out of the blocks.

Ant hunting:
Ant is the easiest insect to be found around the condo area. The boys looked for the ants at the bush and finally got some. We put some food on a tray and to check which food the ants like the most.

On the way to find the ants.


They are observing the ants moving around.


I cut two apples in two different ways. One is from top to bottom and one is from the middle. I let the kids compared them and tell me what is the differences. The apple on the left side is bilateral symmetry and the one at the right side is radial symmetry.
They then put the paint on the apple and made the apple prints on the papers.




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Ethan is teaching Evan how to arrange the block according to their sizes. From one block up to ten block high. I do not buy a lot of Mathematic manipulatives from the store because I know the kids can learn about math from everything that surround them anywhere anyplace.
I used the UNO cards from 1 to 9 and the blocks for the math game. Evan has to match the number of the blocks on the according UNO number card.

I cut the jelly sandwiched into circle shape. This is another way to introduce shape to the kids.

Weekly Homeschool Report---Week 1

Week 1 from 8/24/09 to 8/28/09

Ethan's worklog for this week
Homeschool Weekly Report for Ethan


Texas law does not required the homeschool family to submit any report or test score. I do this just for me own record purpose and easy for me to keep track what he has learned for one week period.


I made up this big board and put on all the works he had learn so far this week.


This week science is all about living and non living things. We did an experiment about biotic and abiotic factor. I called it a touchy box. I put some fruits and some toys in a box and covered it out. The boys had to put their hands inside the box and told me the characteristics of that items. Then, Ethan will tell me whether that is biotic or abiotic. Evan is playing along and he thought it was fun.




Math: Time
Ethan knows how to read the time but still not very good at it. I plan to use three weeks to introduce this topic with him. He did a lot of worksheet everyday. He has to tell me the time whenever I asked him.



Grammar: Noun


Poem: Recite, rewrite and disscussion.
He had to rewrite the whole poem because I want him to practice his handwriting. We discuss about the poem, he had to find the antonym from the poem and also the rhyming words.





We learn about this song from Tzu Chi education book.

Week 18 Fish

Library is our main book resource for the weekly theme。 I check out many books about fish and ocean animals to read to the boys。
These are the books we read this week。


Evan decorated the fish as if it is a rainbow fish that he read about from the book。



Letter of the week： Qq

He made a queen for the letter Q。 I got this idea from a homeschool mom。

Science： Magic balloon
I found this fun experiment from a science book。 The materials can be found around the house。 One packet of yeast， some warm water， some sugar and a balloon。


First， we mixed the yeast with sugar and warm water in a glass bottle。 Shake it and put the bottle into a pot of warm water。 Wait for few minutes， the balloon starting to blow up as if someone is blowing it but actually not。 This is because of the reaction between yeast and sugar and the warm water produce carbon Dioxide。


He was so excited to see the balloon starting to become bigger and bigger。


I am starting to videotaping Ethan for each experiment as if he is doing a presentation about the whole process。




This balloon stop blowing up because the water is coolingdown。



Matching ABC。

They were counting how tall they are with the cards。

The fishing game： This is a easy to made game。 I use long chopstick or you can use any kind of long stick and tied it with a long shoe lace。 At the end of the shoe lace， I taped a magnet。

For the fish， crabs and seahorses， I drew them on different kinds of color paper and cut them out。 The boys help me to decorate them and putting different number score。
They competed with each other in fishing game and see who got more fish。 For bigger kids， they can add up the number on the fish and see who got the higher score。

Grouping： I asked Evan to group the sea animal into three group。 He grouped them into fish， seahorse and crab categories。





Art time： Painting with the play dough。

Evan singing states song

When Ethan is learning the state song with capital city， Evan is learning too。 He only can sing up to three states and he wanted me to videotape him just like his brother。

Fun 7 Continents song

Learning is fun when we add some music into it。Ethan learned this song in few minutes and he knows all the continents in the world with no problem。 You can try it out too。

Week 17 Boat Theme

Evan is not feeling well this week. His skin flares out quite a bit and I do not let him do much works for this week. Ethan still continue with his daily routine. This week, the boys learned more about boat.



I drew a boat and label the number on certain parts of the boat and let Evan colored it by numbers. He still cannot read the words but he recognized the color. He managed to color the boat according to the numbers.



Art project: Mosaic boat


I introduced the mosaic technique for the art and craft this week. I precut the color paper into small pieces and show them how to paste the small pieces of paper onto the paper to form the boat.



Ethan did not like to do the mosaic at first because it seemed like taking a lot of time．But after seeing his little brother did the art piece， he finally sat down and started finished the work。



We have a tangram set with the boat picture。 Evan matched the shapes well。





Our Science Experiment： How strong is the egg？



This experiment is to show the boys how strong is the egg shell is。 Before the experiment， I cracked two eggs and break them into halves and cleaned them。 I put four halves egg shelves on the table and asked the boys to guess how many books we can put on the egg shelves until they break。 They all think that two to three books will break the eggs but they were amazed to see it took about 27 books to finally break the egg shells。


They were putting more books on the egg shells。



Since they were having fun with the eggs。I let them did another experiment with it。 This time， I asked to hold the egg lengthwise （ on the pointy tip of the egg） and used all they might to break the egg and see how hard it was to break it。



Then， I asked them to hold the egg in the middle part and they broke the egg easily without any problem。 But of course，they felt yucky with those slimy egg white and egg yolk。

Ethan report： He drew me a pictures to show me where is the strong part of the egg。


Math：Number 2。
Evan had to find two of each items that I mentioned below 。

He then had to follow my direction to place those items around the house。 For example， I asked him to put the yellow book under the pink table and he did it without any problem。


Estimation： I put several items into four different bottle。 The boys had to estimate how many each of the items。