Hi-Tech Sight Words

...if PowerPoint can be considered "hi-tech".

Isaac likes to play on the computer. I want to drill him on his sight words. Tiffany had the brilliant idea to combine the two. Result:

Just the three of us: Isaac, me, and my bald spot.

More to come. Our count stands at 30 down out of 315 (but we've only presented him with 50 so far over two days).

Weekend Update

This past weekend was a bit busier than usual for us - on top of Tiffany working *all day* Saturday. From 5 AM to after midnight (with an hour or so break around dinner), it was just me and the kids for the day. Being the weekend, we didn't do school per se, but we did have lots of experiential learning and socializing.

Bowling - Isaac is in a bowling league this year. It's a drop-in thing, and he's actually missed the last couple weeks, but it's all fairly laid back. This Saturday, he joined in the second game with three others about his age. They bowl with 6-pound balls and with the bumpers up, but he's getting the hang of the general mechanics of the game. I even got him to start putting his fingers into the holes. Now to get him to actually roll the ball down the lane instead of dropping it - we had to go retrieve his stalled ball from the middle of the lane 3 or 4 times.

Note that the ball is airborne - not standard technique.

You try bowling with a ball that is more than one-quarter your body weight!

The Caboose - After our bowling excursion, we went out for a walk. I'm glad I actually had shoes on and locked the door, because our "around the complex" walk turned into a walk to the Depot Museum and the static display caboose. Sorry no photos - I didn't think to take the camera on a "quick" walk - but I'm sure we'll be back.
The museum is just around the corner from us, but it's only open for a few hours Saturday afternoons. That doesn't stop the kids from climbing around the caboose when it's closed, of course, but today we got to go inside and see the beds, stove, desk and typewriter, etc.

Downtown - Of course, since we were already out and about, I figured we'd walk downtown to check out the Harvest of the Arts/Oktoberfest shindig. The kids weren't too much interested in all of the artist booths - they were busy with their own art:

They did perk up when we got to the Kinderplatz area - an inflatable obstacle course, sidewalk chalk, sensory tables with spaghetti noodles and play dough, a petting zoo (my kids have never met a llama/deer/chicken/bunny/goat/donkey they didn't like), and pony rides. FREE pony rides.

As I expected, Tiffany was a bit jealous that she didn't get to participate in their first horseback ride!

On the way out, what else better to eat during Oktoberfest than... pizza. They don't like it at all, do they?

Apple Picking - We were planning on going to the orchard on Saturday, but after our impromptu walk downtown, I figured we had had enough for one day. Sunday after church all four of us went out to our local orchard to pick apples - one bushel, plus however many we managed to gorge upon. I don't eat many apples out of season anymore, so my first trip to the orchard each autumn turns into my own personal applefest. I even thought twice about buying cider because I'd eaten so many apples out in the trees, but fortunately cooler heads prevailed and we now have the remnants of a gallon sitting the fridge.
I'm sure Tiffany will post more photos over at her blog, but here are a couple to set the mood.

There she goes, enjoying that American agriculture again. Nothing says fall in Michigan quite like eating an apple whilst riding a giant pumpkin.

Now, we need to get cracking on converting that bushel of fresh apples into sauce, butter, pie, and crisp!

But Don't We Walk By Faith?

My current project is setting up a pre-test for Isaac with the Dolch sight words. One of our curriculum goals for this year (I'll get them all up here eventually!) is for Isaac to master all 315 of the sight words.

I'm planning to quiz him on batches of flash cards - no more than 25 per day - to get a baseline. From there we'll figure out how to work with him to learn the rest.

Check out our Dolch Sight Words page to track our progress!

How have you worked with your kids to learn sight words?

I Didn't Think You Were in the Library That Long

Monday, and time for our weekly walk to the library. Thankfully it was chilly today, so no mosquitoes in the woods between here and there.

After picking up our requisite train books, and grabbing Rookie Readers about New Jersey, Georgia, and Connecticut, we headed to check out with the librarian. I forget exactly what she said, but we started talking about all the state books. I trotted out my trained monkey asked Isaac to tell her what the capitals of Delaware and Pennsylvania are, and threw in my latest favorite my-four-year-old-knows-this fact about the source of maple syrup.

She was duly impressed, and when I mentioned we were homeschooling, she offered her observation that the homeschoolers that come in to the library are much more willing to engage in conversation with adults, a trait that she wished her children had picked up. Take that, "what about socialization" nay-sayers!

Needless to say, Isaac tends to make quite an impression wherever he goes.

Tomorrow: first day of co-op!