22 Oct 2010

I am still sick. I was getting a lot better (almost totally well) before I came back to MLY. Then after I came back, I got worst. Today I was running with slight fever but still we managed to school.

We are in Sonlight Week 13 and 14 for the last couple of weeks. Week 14 Bible verse is really hard - 

No one can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. (Matthew 6:24)

 So I decided to teach Den the same verse in Chinese using the song "一个人不能事奉两个主”instead. She managed to pick it up after I sang it to her a few time .

A sister from my SG homeschooling group has recently attached a copywork file in her blog which coincide with Sonlight K Bible verse. I was so happy when I received it, because I have been thinking of how to teach Den to spell. In her blog, she wrote about how her kids learn to spell simply by doing copywork.

Den did two of her copyworks this week - the first one is Matthew 6:24 but not the whole verse. I just let her copy "No one can serve two masters". Then today she read a short story(included in her copywork)  and copy "It is unwise to treat friends badly".

This is how the sister arranged her copywork (For Den, we don't do copywork everyday):
•Monday – verse(s) from the Bible

•Tuesday – short story
•Wednesday - famous quotes
•Thursday – part of a poem
•Friday – journal page
 
I really like her idea of when you do copywork, you don't just rip a sentence from somewhere. Instead let your kid read the short story or poem, then copy the sentence. You can read more and download her copywork in her blog Teaching Our Own.
 
We have been studying about Native American, the pioneers, the move from East to West (America) both in History and I heard Good News Today (under Bible & Christian Stories). Today after we finished all the history about this era, we make a tepees, following the instruction given in Living Long Ago (under History).

 
 
We also listen to some of cowboys' songs here.
 
We did not do any new topic in science today, instead we did some of the Internet links on creepy crawlies:
1. Let's Talk about Insect: This one give you a very very lengthy and in depth information about insect. It is suitable for kids but we find too lengthy.
 
2. Brain Pop On Spiders: A very short animation on spiders.
 
I also let Den repeat the short vowels sounds lesson in Starfall (if you have never heard of starfall, you should really check it out. It is a free site to promote reading in phonics) because we had started using CLP's language art 101 recently and the first topic is short vowels sound.  
 
After many many months of thinking and rethinking, I decided to buy some workbooks from CLP (Christian Light Publications). It is much cheaper for me to buy workbooks from the local publications, however I cant find one local publication that have a systematic workbooks that cover from K to Grade 6. So I have been buying from various publications and I find this really inconsistent. So after much thought, I finally decided to go with CLP. CLP workbook come with Teacher Guild which is a great help for me.
 
I bought the LA 101 -110 for Den but I did not buy the Learning To Read series that are supposed to go hand in hand with the LA because I find the Learning To Read series too easy for Den. So far she enjoy doing the workbook and very excited about the quiz! Hahah! She heard so much from her friends about quiz in school that she still does not want to go to school but very looking forward in doing quiz.
 
She did lesson 3 in 101 today and she is going to do lesson 4 tomorrow. After lesson 4, there is a short quiz (like a review). She cant wait for the quiz, begging me to let her do lesson 4 today. I refused since we were running out of time.
 
We also did review on some of the Chinese words she learned and read some Chinese books.
 

For the past few weeks we also have been using a program called My Passport To India. It is a 5 weeks program (every week 2 lessons) by Mission India and Sonlight.  After we signed up (free), we received a "passport" (workbook) and a "suitcase" (donation box).

 

 

In every lesson, we watch a short video, then we see photo and read facts and stories and testimonies about India and about how God has been working in India. It has been an eye opening experience for Den. She knew some people are poor but she had no idea how poor is poor until she saw how the kids live in slum and 7 people live and sleep in a small one room hut. The testimony from one of the girl who is forced to steal to support her family filled her eyes with tears.

 
Den really want to help. She has been putting her weekly allowances into the donation box and asked her grand parents to contribute. She also tried to ask her best friend EE to donate but her explanation was too lengthy and EE ran away before Den could finish explaining! ^^
 
We are going to make some cupcakes tomorrow (1st time making cup cake, so have my fingers crossed!) and will bring them to church on Sunday to sell. We are not going to make much, may be 10 or so. So we don't expect to get much from the sale, however I think it will be a very good experience for Den. I have promised to match every dollar she collected in  the donation box. Besides that, Sonlight also going to match every dollar that kids send, up to the USD $167,00 if we send our donation before 17 Nov 2010.