Community Helper - Veterinarian

We are continuing to learn about our community helpers and this week we were learning all about a Veterinarian and how they care for animals. Our local Animal Hospital was kind enough to let us tour their facility and give as a talk about what they do. Dr. Mason did a mock exam with her stuffed dog Valentine and explained to the children how similar in exam on an animal is compared to when they go to the doctor for an exam. She showed them an "eye" scope and an "ear" scope, a model of a dog's heart, some x-rays of a female dog that was pregnant and you could clearly see the puppies.





We got to tour the back office where there was a surgery of a cat being spade going on. We of course could not go into the surgery room but you could see in there. We also got to see where they board animals and where the sick animals stay. It was very informative and a great experience for the kids. A little on the smelly side, but still fun!

Yellow and Blue make Green

Today and yesterday we have been working on measurements, 1 cup, 1 quart and 1 gallon. We also worked on identifying full, empty and 1/2 full. I also showed him how to read a recipe card.

1 cup yellow water
1 cup blue water



Logan had to measure out 1 cup of the yellow water and pour it into a bottle. Then he had to measure out 1 cup of the blue water and pour it into the bottle. We watched in amazement as the two colors mixed together to make green!



We talked about if the water in the 1 cup would fit into the quart container and if the water in the gallon container would fit into the 1 cup and the quart container. I had him tell me what would happen if we poured the gallon into the 1 cup measuring cup! It was a great little project that gave opportunities to touch on several little topics.

Time to get back at it

Much of our Thanksgiving break I spent a lot of time researching Math curriculum. We only have about 5 weeks left of our Saxon K book so I need to decide if I am going to continue using Saxon or switch. After hours on the computer looking at different programs and even more hours talking to different people, I am pretty sure I am switching over to Right Start Math. I think it is an excellent program that teaches children to think the "math" way. Now all I have to decide is which kit I am going to buy and actually buy it! I have enjoyed Saxon and would not say anything bad about it, I just think Right Start is going to be a little better for us.

We are making yet another switch in our phonics program as well. Or I guess I should say I'm adding more to our phonics. We have started to use Explode the Code Level 1 book and Logan really seems to like it. He only will do 1 page before he wants to quit though. Phonics is not clicking yet with him so he gets frustrated and would rather not do it. He can read, but it doesn't come as fast to him as he would like. We are working on it, which is why I have so many different phonics "games" to do with him. At least doing a game, he doesn't realize he is doing his phonics!

Fire Safety

We are going to tour our local fire station and get a fire safety talk tomorrow so I decided that a quick unit study on fire safety was in order. I found this lapbook and thought it fit right in with what I wanted to cover. We had fun putting it together.



While doing this lapbook, I realized how much I take for granted the simple things like knowing how to get out of the house if something were to happen, especially with a 2 1/2 yr old in the house that still sleeps in a crib. I walked Logan through how to get out of his room if he couldn't get out of the house the "normal" way. I made him unlock and open the window, which he has never done before. I showed him how to push the screen out and told him what he would do to climb out the window. At some point, with my husbands on hand, I would like him to actually crawl through the window. We live in a ranch home but he still was asking a lot of questions about how he was going to get to the ground. I also realized that even though he is well aware that we call 911 to get the police and fire fighters, he has never used a phone before where he actually pressed the buttons. With today technology he has only used my cell phone and knows how to find Daddy's and Grandma's name on the phone to dial but didn't know how to press the numbers and then hit send!

I am so glad that we did this unit study but I hope that we never have to use it!

Owls

We saw owls while we were at one of our state parks a couple weeks ago and Logan has been talking about them ever since so I decided what a great topic to do a lapbook on! We learned that they are nocturnal, what they like to eat, where they like to sleep and all kinds of fun facts about owls.



I got the lapbook template from homeschoolshare.

I found this cute paper bag owl craft from DLTK to go along with our unit study.



Even Lain got to get in on this one!

Phonics fun!

Phonics is my biggest concern with Logan. For some reason I fear that I will not be able to teach the boy how to read! We started off with Abeka phonics, reading and writing and it just wasn't working with me or him. I have switched over to a bunch of different things I've pulled together from different sites and it seems to be working. It's more game/hands on type activities so he doesn't have to "think" so much (at least he doesn't realize he is.) Today we used these phonics cards I found from here and I love them. There is a picture and under the picture are 5 word choices that they have to pick from. When they find the correct word they hook a clothes pin over it. Simple and fun. I even caught him reading the words next to the correct word. He would say something like, "next to cat" and so on. I love it!

Busy, busy, busy

So now that Halloween is over I think things will settle down...that is until the Christmas season starts!

We went to a Horse Rescue Farm 2 weeks ago and Logan absolutely loved it. We got to meet, and pet, most of the 65 horses that are on the farm. It was such a fun experience for the boys to see where and how horses live. We walked in the pastures and walked in the barn and even learned how to clean a horse. They had a couple ponies that they let the kids brush. Logan was having so much fun at the end of the tour that he asked if he could help them clean out the stalls!

The Calendar!

Part of Saxon's K curriculum is doing the calendar everyday. They give you a book and every double page is a blank month and you fill in each date as you go. You talk about today, tomorrow, yesterday, the days of the week and the months of the year. They also do a different pattern each month where the kids fill in the day squares with a color ABB pattern one month, AABB pattern next and so on. Well I've always thought this was a little boring so about a week ago I went and bought a cool calendar to hang on the wall! I also found the months of the year and days of the week songs on youtube that we are now going to sing everyday! This was so much more fun!

I just have to figure out what to do about the daily patterns....hmmmm??? Although he seems to have his patterns down, I don't want him to forget them.

Fall Tree

We are doing a fall until study right now so today we decided to make a fall tree using tissue paper squares. I remember doing tissue paper crafts as a child and really like them so I have been wanting to do one for awhile now. I'm also trying to get Lain involved in some stuff with school and I thought he could handle this one. We had a little mess with glue, but nothing major. When Lain "messed up" by putting a leaf in the wrong spot, Logan reminded me that leaves fall off the tress so not only did we need to put them on our tree we also needed to put some on the ground :)


Logan's finished product


Lain's finished product

Judy the Clock

Today was the first day that we used "Judy" the clock in our Saxon math lessons. Logan could have played with Judy for an hour if we didn't have to leave to go to our Spanish class! So funny the things they enjoy "learning!" He already knows the time on the hour but I'm sure he will quickly pick up the rest based on his interest.

Fun stuff

One of my problems over the last several weeks since we started homeschooling is that I find that I'm concentrating more on the "meat" of the curriculum and I am forgetting to have him do the fun stuff. So today I have been creating fun things to add to our daily curriculum and I'm pretty excited about what I have found so far.


I am so excited about this little phonics flip chart that a friend of mine made that I made one for Logan tonight. I know he is going to love it. I want to change out the yarn for the rings but I didn't have any here at the house. I know Logan is going to like this. You can down load the template here.



I also made these little number cards that I saw on another blogger's site, and even though she was using them for her little one to clip clothes pins or paper clips to, which I think is great, I am going to use them for addition cards. After I printed these out, I started thinking Logan is probably a little past this but I still wanted to use them.



I bought some stringing beads as well today but I am trying to figure out how to make some pattern cards for Logan to use. I tried taking pictures of the beads in patterns that I want him to duplicate, but I didn't like the way they turned out. Hopefully I will run across something.

I am a blogger!

So this should be interesting since I have never blogged before so please forgive me while I work through figuring out all the frills