Weekly Wrap-up May 26

We've come to the end of another week at Seeking Squirrels! The girls have taken moving to more school time well. We're still taking it somewhat easy, nothing like a full schedule, but we're definitely doing more. I'm getting us up to a comfortable level that I would like us to maintain through the summer for the most part.

We always start with Monkey doing some math while I work on a few things with Bear. I follow her lead on this since she is still 4 and I consider school to be optional at this point. Usually, though, she is eager to work on a few things. We often do her phonics lesson at this time and some math. Sometimes we do handwriting but that's the one she's most likely to say no to! We've recently added pages from Developing the Early Learner and she's always loved doing pages from Critical Thinking Co books. Mind Benders and Can You Find Me are her favorites.

After 20-30 minutes, Bear is ready for a break so she finds something to play and Monkey and I do spelling or we all move on to science together. This week we returned to our bubbleology unit since weather was cooperating again. They had fun experimenting with vinegar and baking soda!

My little scientist was not content with just following the procedure in our unit study. She wanted to keep trying different amounts of vinegar or baking soda to find out what worked best. I was impressed with the decisions she made. She even tried not to change both things at once. She would change only the amount of one or the other in order to note the differences. She found that it wasn't always better to just add more baking soda as she thought it would be. But she had fun pouring vinegar on all the bits of baking soda left on the ground after that one! 

This week we started a unit on Evolution that we do after science or spelling. I read to them while they color in pictures for the timeline. After that we head upstairs for read-alouds. They like to swing while I read! Monkey had a bit of a rough week sensory-wise so she spent some of the time swinging in her sensory sock. Right now we are reading A Wrinkle in Time and they are both really enjoying it. 

We had a box day this week! That means we had a box arrive with new school materials! We love box days! I wish I had gotten a picture once everything was out and spread around them but I didn't think to get that this time. 

This is the Usborne book How Things Work. I got it for a unit on Physics we'll be doing sometime this fall or winter, but Monkey read half of it right out of the box!

We took the girls to the aquarium again. They do love it there and the sensory input of touching the animals is good for Monkey. Bear likes it, too, but she's a bit more hesitant with touching them and doesn't go in to the bird cage. 

All told we had a good week! Monkey has done a great job with her independent folder. I give her the folder on Monday with a handful of worksheets she can do without my help. She is expected to finish it by Friday. I do still remind her and make sure to give her time to work on it, but she knows it's up to her to finish. She has taken the responsibility seriously! Last week she finished her folder by lunch on Friday. This week she didn't quite complete it, but we kind of lost today because daddy had a medical procedure that I needed to take him to and Monkey and Bear stayed with grandma. Monkey did a couple pages in her folder while there which is more than I expected! There isn't much left so we will finish it over the weekend. We might also do the evolution lesson we missed today so we can stay on track with it. Hey, we homeschool, no need to box school into M-F business hours!

Weekly Wrap-up May 19th

We've had a good week here at Seeking Squirrels! The girls put on a "circus" for me for Mother's Day! 😀

We spent more time on school this week. Monkey had a good break but it was time for the structure of school days. I've spent a lot of time preparing some of our work for 4th and K and finishing the school room. It's really coming together! I'll post better pics of the room when it's finished. You can see bits of it in the pics from this week. 

Bear was quite proud of herself for writing all her numbers! She loves having her own little desk in our school room. 

I got the board up for All About Spelling which made Monkey happy. Spelling has definitely become a new favorite for her. She's buzzing through the lessons.  We're waiting now for the next level to get here. 

We worked a little bit on our Bubbleology lapbooks but weren't able to do much because weather did not encourage outside play this week! We caught up with some vocabulary and assembling but no new activities. 

Bear kept herself occupied in the school room while I was working with Monkey. The playroom is next door but she likes being with us. We have plenty of puzzles, games, and art supplies that she has free access to while we're in there. 

Reading their favorite Usborne books. I do love Usborne! We have a LOT of them! 

They've been setting up "school" for their stuffies every day. Sometimes they make them little books or worksheets to finish. They will pause in their work occasionally to ask one of their animals a question. 😂

Art time with Ms. V from Home Art Studio. They painted an Egyptian landscape. I meant to get a picture of the finished products, but there was a lapse since we had to wait for the paint to dry before the last step. They did that quickly after dinner and I forgot to snap a picture. 

Monkey has started reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. We've listened to the audio book for 1 & 2, but this is her first time reading it for herself. After she's finished reading those two, we will listen to 3 together. Unless she wants to read it which I would be fine with. Once we get to 4 I will probably have her read it to herself because I'd rather Bear be older before that one. I'm not sure yet if we'll let Monkey go on to 5 when she gets there or make her wait a little while. We'll see how she handles the end of 4. 

She wasn't feeling well on Wednesday so we brought down her little sofa but she still did some work. It's nice to have the option to keep it light when she's not up for more without losing the entire day! Homeschooling win! 

Bear has been doing really well on phonics and I think she'll be reading in no time!

Next week we'll be starting the Build Your Library evolution unit. Monkey has shown interest in the topic so we thought that would make a good summer study. Much of our work for 4th and K will be arriving over the next week so I'll also be busy getting it all prepped and ready. I plan on making a post sharing our curriculum choices and also how I'm organizing it all. We will probably not wait until the start of the traditional school year to start on new materials. There's really no need for us to wait and starting earlier will give us some wiggle room for days off later!

Weekly Wrap-Up May 12

It's been a busy week! The weather has been wonderful and we were able to spend a lot of time outdoors which was great for both of the girls.

Playing at the park!

On a hike with mom and dad.

We installed a couple eye hooks in our living room and hung hammocks. This has been really good for Monkey. She's able to swing or spin just about any time. She likes to hang from it with her arms hooked over while she does work in front of her, too.

It didn't take her long to discover at least a dozen ways to sit in it!

We also got a climbing rope that can be attached here or outside on their swingset. She is definitely a climber!

That one is nothing. At tumbling she can climb all the way to the top! 

More park time! This time with a friend.

 Swimming with family from out of town.

Bear has shown more interest in learning to read so we are starting in on that. We have been doing a lot of pre-reading skills and letter play, but not pushing reading until she was ready. She has started bringing me her phonics book so here we go!

Monkey has been happy for the break and has been doing really well. We started spelling this week and she did amazing. We use All About Spelling and had made it almost to the end of level 2 when she went to PS. I asked their service rep for advice on where to start and she said to review all of level 1 and 2 before picking up a couple lessons back from where we left off. Monkey nailed all of that review in one session! She remembered every single phonogram and rule!

She has definitely been a spelling-queen lately. She spells all of the time. One of her favorite games at the moment is finding words with 3 consonants in a row. She loves when she finds more. Yesterday she found a word she loved: scratch. 3 consonants, a vowel, and 3 more consonants. She thought that was awesome! I love that she just loves to find these words naturally. She doesn't want to sit down and make a boring list of them, she just spells in her head every word that pops up that sounds like it might fit what she wants. I'm going to ramp up the spelling this year and look for a spelling bee for her.

Math is going well. Monkey still loves Beast Academy and is getting more used to the idea of having to struggle through them sometimes. I give her a break if she gets too frustrated and she usually does better when coming back to it. I love how excited she gets when she figures out a difficult one. It's definitely helping her math confidence to see that she really can do it if she keeps working at it.

Next week we're picking up the pace a bit with school work. Monkey has had a nice break but I think we're ready for a bit more structure to our days. We will still be spending a lot of time outdoors and playing with friends, though!

Weekly Wrap-Up May 5

It's been a fun week here at Seeking Squirrels! The weather is getting nicer and the girls have been able to spend more time outside. We started a unit on the science of bubbles! They both think this is great! Math, reading, science, and play is still the focus of our days. With it so nice out I am in no rush to up the academics just yet.

We planted some seeds in starter pods. A little later in the year than we'd intended but hopefully not too late! :)

Making a lapbook for our Bubbleology unit! We're using the one from Hands of a Child.

Kiwi and Koala crate came in and they are always excited for those! Bear got Wild West and Monkey got Robotics and Coding. Both hits!

Monkey decided she wanted to sew a stuffed animal for Bear while Bear was at Preschool this week. We get about an hour and a half at home while she's there. Monkey worked on it the whole time Bear was gone Monday and Wednesday and finished it just in time! She did a lot of the work herself but I helped. I love that it was her idea and she wanted to spend her time with sister gone making something for her. Bear loves it!

Just a bit of the bookwork ;)

And of course a lot of time outside because it is now SO NICE! They like the slip n slide well enough, but they mostly like to play in the tiny pool of water at the end. They're going to be thrilled when we give them a small inflatable pool as soon as daddy gets home!