Cool School at Home

Jack and the beanstalk

2011-09-24T19:24:00.001-07:00

Evan is reading a story about Jack and the beanstalk. We are doing a fun project about this story. I got this idea from a homeschool mom's website.
First, I lay down a piece of large white paper on the floor and draw a tree like plant. Evan is the one have to color it with green color to make it just like a giant bean stalk. He sure having fun doing that.

Then, he cut out the plant.

I taped it on the back of the door. We find several pictures of him and Ethan and then cut out the body outline.

This is the close up of the beanstalk which Ethan and Evan are "climbing" it.

Family lapbook

2011-08-26T06:06:00.001-07:00

Evan is learning how to write Chinese words daily since last year. He is still in learning stage so I have to review the words he learned everyday. Chinese words need a lot of memorizing, the more they see the words, the familiar they are with those words. Making a lapbook is a fun way to encourage him to apply what he learned so far. Today we are making a family lapbook.

Chinese Poem with craft

2011-05-18T11:22:00.000-07:00

I am amazed to see how quickly Evan learn to memorize and recite the Chinese poems. Besides reciting the poem, I let him do some craft associate with the poem. This week, we are learning a poem about bee.

【蜂】作者：罗隐

　　不论平地与山尖，无限风光尽被占。采得百花成蜜后，为谁辛苦为谁甜？

　　提示：

　　不论在平地或是山顶，都有蜜蜂在辛勤劳动，美好的风光几乎都有它的踪迹。采得花粉酿成蜜却属于他人，为谁辛苦为谁甜啊？

It is a easy craft. First, I let him draw and color few flowers. Then, he cut and paste them on a black paper. This is a collage technique.

Then, I poured some tempera yellow paint and asked him to do finger painting for the bee body.. This is a fun way to let small kid to experience the finger painting. I used some small brush to make the line on the bee body.

He used the white crayon to draw the wings on the bees.

My little body

2011-03-11T10:06:00.000-08:00

This is an easy project to do with small kids from preschool to Kinder. First, find a big piece of white paper and ask the kid lay down on top of it. The adult can trace his or her body with pencil. Then, they can trace around their own body layout with a marker pen. Then, they can draw their eyes, nose, mouth and teeth on the face.

I teach Evan Chinese and English at the same time. So, he got to learn to recognize both body's vocabulary. So far, he learns mostly about the body part on the face and hand and feet. I used two different color papers to write down the English and Chinese words. Then, he got to match the body part with those words.

Ear 耳
Eye 眼
Nose 鼻
Mouth 口
Head 头
Teeth 牙
Hand 手
Feet 脚

Mr.Seahorse (海马先生)

2011-02-23T10:23:00.000-08:00

This is a very interesting book about seahorse daddy taking care of his babies. I found this book in Chinese version. After reading it, I let Evan do some painting and cutting to make a collage out of the pictures.

First, I drew a big seahorse and three little seahorse. Then, he just paint whatever color he likes on them.
He cut some green stripes to make the seaweed and pasted on the blue paper.
This is the final product.

Texas Wildlife

2010-05-18T14:13:00.000-07:00

http://theteohs.blogspot.com/2010/05/texas-wildlife.html

It is coming to the end of May. Besides finishing up the worksheet, we attend classes in local science museum along with other homeschoolers.

Building helicopter

2010-05-16T13:52:00.000-07:00

I like to buy constructive toys for my boys. Ethan is quick temper person and I would like to train him to be more patience. Building this helicopter of course took a lot of effort out of him. At first, he did not want to do it because it seemed hard to construct. I then encouraged him to do it together with me. Finally, a helicopter is built... .

Observing dirt

2010-05-07T20:56:00.000-07:00

Earth Day is a good time to show the boys how to appreciate the earth. From one of the program in PBS channel, I got an idea for the science project. It is easy to do and we just do it from our backyard. That is digging out the dirt and observing it.

Field trip to Houston Natural Science Museum

2010-05-07T20:50:00.000-07:00

The museums in Houston always offering good educational program. Thanks to one of the mom from a homeschool group who organizes different kinds of field trip to the museum. This time we joined the other families for this field trip learning about Paleontology. The boys got the chance to see all kinds of fossils and the dino's exhibition.

http://theteohs.blogspot.com/2010/05/houston-natural-science-museum.html

A visit to Houston Audobon

2010-05-07T20:27:00.000-07:00

Exploring nature is one part of our homeschool curriculum. The Houston Audobon is a great place to explore during spring time.

http://theteohs.blogspot.com/2010/05/houston-audubon.html

Spring Break

2010-03-19T11:55:00.000-07:00

This week is the school spring break. I let the boys have a short one week off. They still have some worksheet to do but not as much as regular week.

We went to the Houston Children Museum yesterday. That is a cool fun place for the children. They sure had fun there.

Basically, Ethan did all of his first grade worksheets for past few months. Now, I am giving him some test to see how far he learned so far.

Week 28

2010-03-06T10:59:00.000-08:00

Learning about graph:
We record the type of weather for February. Now, is the time to do the graph about it. Ethan has to figure out what kinds of weather occurs last month and how many time per month. Then, he drew a graph out of it.

This is a good learning tool for little kids. Math is everywhere.

http://theteohs.blogspot.com/2010/03/nature-scavenger-hunt.html

Exploring nature is another way to educate the kids how to appreciate the things surrounding them.

This week, we have two field trip. One is the Houston Arboretum center and another is Sugarland Natural Science Museum. The first one is just by our own and the museum trip is with one of the Homeschool group that we joined recently.

We check out a book from the library --A very hungry caterpillar in Chinese version. After reading the book, the boys made a simple craft of caterpillar and butterfly. Ethan had to write the caterpillar in chinese and he drew quite a cute caterpillar too.

Week 27

2010-03-06T10:51:00.000-08:00

Geography:
Ethan is learning all the America 50 states. We are doing the southeastern states this week. I drew a map as below while telling him the exact location of each states on the map. I used the Man In the Map book to introduce him all the states. I really like this book because it uses simple clues to let us to remember all the states in no time. I am learning as well.

I bought this wooden U.S map puzzle pieces at the garage sale for $1... cheap

Ethan finished all the basic first grade worksheets. I am now focusing on unit study with topics that interests him and Evan.

Simple machines:
They are designing his own machine.

Ethan first drawing of his imaginary machines.

Second drawing

Evan's drawing of his machine.

Using legos to build their machines.

Our homeschool schedule is all year round. We take a break when we need some time to relax. Since we are going to move to the new house, I think I will slow down a bit on the work for the boys.

Week 26

2010-02-22T11:19:00.001-08:00

As usual, Ethan got a routine worksheet to finish which include spelling, math, science, social study and Language Art. He did the Beestar.org math practices twice a week. He had to write Chinese everyday too.

We put aside the Dinosaur unit study this week. Since it is still during Chinese New Year, we did a dragon art this week. It is an easy art project..

Material:
A disposable cup. Cut into slit as show in picture for the mouth of the dragon. Put two black dot on each side of the cup for the eyes.

Cut a long strip of paper and decorated it as the dragon body. Cut a semicircle on the first part of the paper and paste it on the back of the cup.

Cut a small hole on the cup and slit a straw into it so that the kid can hold it as they are holding the dragon body.

Tape a stick ( we use the chopstick) on the dragon body so that the kid can hold it with another hand.

Evan is learning to write number 8. To my surprise, he can write it well. I taught him to write it as he is driving along the racing car track.

Learning number with stickers.
I wrote certain numbers on the papers. Evan put the stickers on each line according to the numbers written on the left side.

Natural is the best place to educate the kids. We like to walk around the condo area and enjoy the natural scene. We found there was a pile of white pebbles near the dumpster and on the other side of the pool. We decided to pick them up and put inside our aquarium. Before we do that, I let the boys observed the pebbles and compared them to the other rocks. Those pebbles are so smooth and white in color.

Estimation game:
I like to ask the boys some math questions whenever I got a chance. I asked them to estimate how many white pebbles in total. They both gave me some answers and started to count them all.
Ethan suggested to count them by tens.

Big Brother read to little brother

2010-02-18T13:23:00.001-08:00

Ethan is reading a story book to Evan. I just love the way they sit on the sofa quietly and read the books together. Ethan can read book very well and he just feel proud that he can read a story to his little brother. But, sometimes, he read a bit fast and Evan has to ask me again what the story is about.

Week 25 Weekly Homeschool Report

2010-02-12T19:41:00.000-08:00

This week we only have four "school" days. I let the boys off on Friday since Chinese New Year is on this weekend.
Ethan still has to finish all the regular school worksheets and complete his math practice online.

Next coming Monday is President Day to remember Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, the two great U.S president. The boys are reading a book about Abraham Lincoln and they made a log cabin out of the ice cream stick. Abraham Lincoln was born in a log cabin, so, I let them made a cabin by using simple material. Ethan put an penny( Abe's face is on the penny) on the paper and made a sun out of it.

I bought a set of U.S President flash card and let them see who were Abraham Lincoln and George Washington.

Another way to encourage Ethan to write is asking him to write an invitation cards to his friends. We are moving, so I let him invites his friends over for a playdate. He got to write his own invitation card and mail them to his friends. He was so excited to be able to put a stamps on the envelope and mailed them away.

Art time.
The boys had to use their imagination to put the white color on the black paper. They have to draw something out and let me guess what it is about.

Ethan told me he drew a cactus.

Evan told me he drew some kids playing snowballs.

What do you think?

I just love this book. It shows the boys they can use all kinds of material to make different kinds of faces.

Evan's face'

Ethan's face.

An easy Chinese New Year craft

2010-02-07T17:37:00.000-08:00

First, I wrote a word 春, means spring, on a piece of red paper. Chinese New Year is the Spring Festival. Spring means all the life begins again and we are blessed to undergo the cold winter months. The boys have to cut along the words and paste it on the doors.

Week 24 Weekly homeschool report

2010-02-07T17:08:00.000-08:00

This week is a bit busy weeks. Chinese New Year is coming, Valentines is coming and it happens this year both fall in same day , 2/14/2010. I let the boys read all kinds of books about both events and do some craft about it.

First, I wrote a word 春, means spring, on a piece of red paper. Chinese New Year is the Spring Festival. Spring means all the life begins again and we are blessed to undergo the cold winter months. The boys have to cut along the words and paste it on the doors.

This week, I started back my Chinese lesson with the boys. It has being a long time they do not write the Chinese words and Eric is starting to complain about it.. I mean nagging to me. I used the 弟子规 as a basic learning tool. This is a GUIDE TO A HAPPY LIFE. Di Zi Gui, in English, means standards for being a good student and child. It is the guide to a happy life. For thousand of years, this book contained the recommended standards for students. Even though they seem stringent by today’s standards, it is apparent that the people of that time felt it was important that the child should be well-disciplined and taught moral principles and virtues when still very young. They felt that without strict discipline and moral standards, a child would amount to nothing. Not knowing what it meant to be dutiful to parents and respectful to teachers, a child would grow up not listening to or respecting anyone.

The boys have to recite the books one section each week. To my surprise, they memorized them well and even Evan can recite it without problem. Ethan has to write the words each day and this help him to learn new words and practice to write it.

I start to teach Evan reading. He is a bit slow but I am not rushing him. I let him learn by his pace. Starfall.com is a good website to learn reading. We start the at-word story and he had to trace the words from the story. I make one myself to reinforce his understanding.

We still on the dino unit study. Our wall is getting more dinos on it because each day they are learning one dino.

Ethan has to write a report about a particular dinosaur as show below.

Evan just do some worksheet relating to dino from the learningpage.com.

We are doing some fossil experiments too. I got a bag of plaster and some sand from outdoor. The boys prepare the sand and put it inside the used milk carton. They put their foot inside to make a deep footprints. They stir the plaster with some water and pour it into the footprints. After one hour, it dried up. They then took the dried footprint out and brush it. This is what a paleontologist did once they discovered a new fossil.

Evan is learning to trace.

Week 22 and week23

2010-01-29T16:28:00.000-08:00

Geography:
I got this USA puzzle from garage sale. This is a good tool for Ethan to learn US geography. We are using the Man IN the Map Book to learn the states. So far, we are in North Western States.

Ethan is learning multiplication table 5. One of the easy way to introduce to this concept is using the items around the house and show him how to divide the lego pieces into different number of containers.

First, I ask him how to divide 15 legos into 5 jars. Then, he has to figure out one jar can hold 3 pieces of legos, how many jars he should have to put 15 pieces of legos.

Evan is learning the pattern by using these legos pieces. He can arrange them according to the color into different jars. Well, I try to not buy too much math manipulatives, I just use things that I could find around the house.

The boys like dinosaurs and I decide to give them Dino Unit Study. I fully utilize the internet to find all the material free online. PBSKIDS.org got a good children program---DINO TRAIN, which they like to watch and learn new dino name each time. I think they are better than me in recognizing all those dinosaurs.

Learningpage.com is a good website providing free worksheet for the dino theme. Evan

I transform the white wall into a Dino Land. I divide it into three dino eras which are Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous. They color the dino and paste on the wall according the era it lives on.

Week 21 Homeschool Report

2010-01-17T16:47:00.001-08:00

This week is a geography week. This week we are learning North America countries. I am learning together with Ethan as well since I am poor in World Geography too. I found a good website where we can learn the name of the countries easily. I learned about this good website from one of the homeschool mom's blog. First, I download the Globalmania file and download the Sterra software to learn the geography.

To my surprise, Ethan learned all the countries of North America within one day and so did I. We managed to click on the name of the countries with no problems.

Another book that I highly recommend is The Little Man in the map. It uses a very entertaining way to introduce all the states in America. Below is what Ethan learned the first five states which resemble a little man on the map. The hat is Minnesota,the face is Iowa, the shirt is Missouri, the pant is Arkansas and the boot is Louisiana.

Social Study: Learning about Martin Luther King story.

Math: Continue on Mathletics.com and Beestar.org practice exercises. Ethan is starting doing Second Grade Math.

Language Art: Review the Adverb and Homonyms.

Reading: Read book and doing the quizzes on Bookadventure.org

For Evan, he is still doing the preschool activites and skills. This week, I let him try to use a simple tool, a tweezer, to get the pom pom balls.

This is a good Math game for little kids too. I drew four boxes with numbers. He has to put the pom pom according to the color and numbers on the certain boxes.

Making the Pine cone bird seeder.
This is an easy art project for the little kids. First, get a pine cone and spread the Peanut Butter all over it. Then, roll it over the sunflower seed which will stick on the cone. Then, put a string on top of the cone and hang it on the tree branch to attract the birds.

The boys start to play tennis again every Wednesday and Saturday for the Winter session. So far, they enjoy it. This time, they have the tennis lesson at Zina Garrison Tennis Academy which provide free lesson for the kids.

2010---- Week 20 report

2010-01-08T14:24:00.000-08:00

This week Science is all about Ocean Animal. I found a good website which provides FREE worksheet about this topic. The website is learningpage.com.

They make some fish origami and pasted on a piece of paper which they painted blue.

Back to full week schedule again after two weeks holiday.

Ethan learned about animal groups. He can differentiate which animal belongs to which group.

For Math, he did some exercise from http://www.mathletics.com/ which I sign up for one year for him to do the math problems. He is now on Second Grade level but I still let him practice some First Grade problems for his revision.

Grammar:

He learned about statement, exclamation and asking sentences. He can write a complete sentences but he always forget to put the capital letter and period at the end.

Beginning of this year, I want him to read more books. I found one good website which encouraging the kids to read more and earn prizes. once he read a book, he can log on to the www.bookadventure.org to answer some quizzes about the book he just read.

For Evan, he is doing some cutting,tracing and playing with the toys. He is getting better and better in cutting something out from a paper and paste it on some paper. I am trying to train his fine motor skill. Besides cutting, playing with his Lego blocks help too.

Week 18 and 19

2010-01-02T11:59:00.000-08:00

Week 18 and Week 19 are the relaxing week with two holidays--Christmas and New Year. The Houston School District got two week holiday and I decided to give the boys a short break. They still have to do their work but not as much as regular school week.

I found one good website that I could download free worksheet for the Winter Theme. The website is learningpage.com and they did some fun worksheets about Winter.

We went to library for the story time and they got to do some cute craft about Christmas too.

Week 15 to week 17 Homeschool Weekly Report

2010-01-02T11:49:00.000-08:00

My camera is not working, hence, I could not take any pictures for the homeschool report.

For the record purposes, I list down what the boys had accomplish so far.

Since Ethan is at first grade level, he got to do more works than Evan(preschooler).

Ethan:
Reading: He had to do one reading comprehension worksheet everyday. He can read well and understand more on what he being reading so far.

Writing: I gave him some topic to write on his journal book. He will draw some pictures on it and write about what he thought about that pictures.

Spelling: I am using Homeschool Learning Network spelling worksheet. He had to write down the spelling list three times on Monday, then, I will test his spelling on Tuesday. So far, I am quite impressed on his spelling ability.

Grammar: He is learning Homonym, Synonym, Question, Statement during these weeks. He did some review on Pronoun and Adverb.

Math: He did the free Math Practice on Beestar.org twice a week. Besides, I gave him the Math worksheet from the books.

Science: He finished up the Food Group Notebook. We are working on Animal Group and Ocean Animal.

Chinese: He still has the Chinese school to attend and he got the homework from the teacher.

Week 14--Homeschool weekly report

2009-11-29T07:33:00.000-08:00

This week is Thanksgiving week. Everyone is on holiday mood, the school kids are taking three days off, but the boys still continue on school works and take one day off on Thursday. This is a week to give and thanks. Ethan wrote several thank you notes to give to his friends.

Art:
Making pine cone turkey. This is an easy art and craft for the small kids. Just go outside to collect some pine cones and prepared some colorful feathers, pompoms and googly eyes. Stick the feather on the pine cones. Glue the eyes on pom poms and stick on the front of the cones. You will have a pretty turkey to display around the house.

Footprint turkey.
This is another craft we did after the pine cone turkey. I put some paint on the boys foot and they had to make a footprint on a piece of white paper. The back of the foot will become turkey head and they cut out some feather shape paper to paste around it.

Grammar:
Ethan is working on his Homophones this week.

Science:
Still working on food pyramid. I am using the EvanMoore Pocket Book for Food Pyramid for his project. We read about this great book from library to get better understand about the food group.

Week 13- Homeschool report

2009-11-21T05:54:00.000-08:00

Math:
Everyday, Ethan has to practice his multiplication table. He is good until Table 5. He has to do the multiplication the first thing in the morning.

Science:
We almost finish the Human Body project. Ethan learned about Food Pyramid and eating healthy food is important. He is doing his Pocketbook about Food Pyramid. He got the food pictures from the brochure or magazines to divide them into 5 food group.

Art:
Thanksgiving is coming. We read a lot of books about Thanksgiving and I decided let the boys made the Indian headband. This is an easy craft and they had fun doing it and playing with it.

They wanted to be a real Indian, so , I had to put a napkin around their waist area and cover their private part. Ethan drew some silly pattern on his face with the washable marker.

Weaving:

This is a good art project for them. It requires patience and skill. To my surprise, Ethan did his weaving all by himself and he was proud of it.

Making Mosaic:
I found this good art book from Half Price Bookstore. It is for 3+ kids and Evan can do the mosaic pictures by himself by peeling off the sticker according to the color and shapes.

Week 12 Homeschool Weekly Report

2009-11-13T13:01:00.000-08:00

Leaves Hunting
Now is a good time to let the kids do some observation about the leaves and trees. They noticed that the color is changing and a lot of leaves are falling off. Ethan shoot some trees pictures as show below.

Leaves art
By using used toothbrush and some paints along with the leaves that they picked early morning, they are making some leaves art. It is the time they got dirty on their hands. This is an easy art to do, the boys put some paint on the toothbrush and then run their fingers through the brush and let the paints splash on the paper. They had to put some leaves on top of the paper so that the area covered by the leaves will not get the paint as show below:

Helping little brother
Ethan is showing Evan how to write Gg.

Health Museum Science Class:
This week topic is Squeky Clean. The teacher is showing the kids how to take care of themselves and always keeping clean. Evan got the chance to play with the teeth and toothbrush.

Week 11 Homeschool Weekly Report

2009-11-06T12:41:00.000-08:00

Homemade game:
Children love games and they can learn well through playing simple game. In large piece of paper, I wrote down some numbers and put some stars and question marks in between. It is just like playing a racing game to see who get the end first. But if one of us landed on * or ?, we had to pick up the star or question mark card to perform or answer some questions.
In this case, I wrote down some math questions that he had learn some far this week. Such as 1 foot equal to ________ inches, 1 year has _________ days and etc.

Sorting the beans:
This is an easy and fun learning process for the little kids to learn sorting. Get some beans with two different colors and let them sort it out according to the color. In this case, I used the old muffin cup pan to let him put the same color beans in one cup.

Learning numbers:
On a piece of paper, I wrote down some numbers. I had collected a lot of bottle caps at home and it is very useful for counting. Evan knows how to match the number with same number of bottle caps.

Math Question of the day:
I wrote a math question every day, and Ethan will solve it on board. I am training him how to think before answer the question. He has to know how to read and understand the question, what operation he has to apply and show me his work.

Writing:
Using the meat tray, the boys wrote some letter on it. For Evan, I poke some hole there to form a letter and he had to trace around it.

Week 10 Homeschool Report

2009-10-31T14:46:00.000-07:00

Math: Measurement
Ethan is learning how to measure things with ruler and learning about inches and feet this week.
He found some items around the house and measured them with ruler. He had to tell me which items is measure with inched or feet.

Another fun way to learn about measuring is asking them to measure with nonstandard measurement such as their feet. They have to walk a long line from one end of the wall to another end to measure how long is the house.

Math: Pattern and number 11
Evan is learning about pattern with the Lego. He had to arrange them in pattern with different color.

He had to find 11 blocks and 11 toy cars from the toy box. He learned counting one by one.

Halloween Craft: Colorful Spider
This is an easy craft. I learned that from local library where they put out this cute decoration in the story room. First, prepare the items such as pompom, glue, pipe cleaner and googly eyes.

You need four pipe cleaners and fold them in half, so that one side got four legs to make eight legs for the spider. Twisted and bend it and glue the pompom ( 2 for the two body part) at the middle of the pipe cleaner. Glue the googly eyes on top of the pompom,,, walah,, you got a colorful spider.

Writing:

He wrote about this little monster with descriptive words. I asked him to find out the noun, adjectives and verbs from his own essay.

Week9 Homeschool Report

2009-10-24T07:13:00.000-07:00

Homemade magnetic Haunted House puzzle. I got this idea from one of the homeschool mom but modify a bit. I used the fabric from the old clothes and cut them into several shapes and pasted on the cardboard. After all the pasting and cutting, I put a magnet tape on the back and let the boys play with it. They made up their own story about the five little ghosts and the haunted house.

Math for Evan:Learning number and sorting
I drew some number from 1 to 10 on a cardboard and divided into 10 little boxes. Evan had to match the number of the army/Indian/Cowboys to the according number. This a easy to made Math game for the small kids to learn about number.

For the sorting game, I gave him some seashells that we collected last time and asked him to count it for me. He then had to sort them out according to the sizes.

Grammar: Review the Noun, Pronoun, Adverb, Verb, Adjective and Contraction
By using a big sheet of white paper, I drew six column and Ethan had to match the words into right places. Such as he had to put pretty in Adjective column. He being learning all these grammar rules past 8 weeks. I would like to know how much he can remember so far.

Science: This week we are still focusing on Human Body. This week is about Muscular and Skeletal System. We do a experiment showing that muscle can only pull not push. I am using the
Panda Press Science Curriculunm.

Week 8 Homeschool Report

2009-10-17T16:00:00.000-07:00

Ethan has a regular study schedule with all kinds of subjects. We did some projects this week about human body and it will take few weeks to learn about this topic.

Since most of the Ethan's science class is all about Human Body. I decided to let him learn more about human body by doing some project. First I found the body system labels for him to cut out. Evan and I traced around his body on a big sheet of white paper. He then cut his body cut and put the right body system on it.

Learning about feeling: Evan is doing a worksheet about feeling. He has to determine whether the person is feeling sad or happy. Then, he decided to make a mask with happy face on it.

Evan also do the learning while Ethan is doing his own works. This week, I refocus on his knowledge about shapes. There are many things around the house to learn about shapes. I drew some shapes on a paper and ask him to match the shape with the blocks with different shapes.

Learning compound words by using small cards. I wrote down several compound words on small cards such as cowboy into two separate cards. One with cow and another one with boy, he has to match these two words to make it compound word.

Playing Domino is a good math game to teach Ethan counting by 5's. Dad sat down with the boys to play the fun game.

Week 7 Homeschool Report

2009-10-11T17:43:00.000-07:00

October is here!! I decided to start our week of learning by introducing theme for the boys because both of them can learn together. Ethan still have his regular works to do. His works are listed as below:
Grammar: Learning about Contractions
Reading: Comprehension worksheet
Writing: I am using Daily 6 traits writing book from Evan Moore to introduce him the writing technique.
Math: Review Time and Hour. Daily skill practice including addition and substraction. I found the worksheet online.
Science: Learning about weather.

Moon Cake Festival 2009

2009-10-04T07:40:00.001-07:00

This year, the boys learned more about the story of MoonCake Festival, the origin of mooncake and the legendary story about HouYi and ChangE. I bought two modern lantern from the Chinese store for them. Actually, they picked the lantern themselves and I did not know that it does make annoying sound. The boys just love the sound effect but not Eric..

Weekly Homeschool Report--Week6

2009-10-02T14:07:00.000-07:00

Another week passed by...This week I am more focus on a unit study about Moon Cake Festival. Ethan still worked on the worksheets every morning and finished his online course through Time4learning.com.

Moon Cake festival is around the corner. I would like the boys to know more about the festival. I searched online to look for more material about this festival and found some interesting stories. I told them about the legendary story and the origin of the mooncake. We went to the Mama Grocery Store to buy two modern lantern( plastic one with annoying noise).

I found a YouTube video clip about Moon Cake Festival online and let the boys watched it so that they have a better idea about this Chinese Festival. The video clip can be seen here:

Chinese poem about the moon cake festival

The boys is showing off their lantern.

We borrowed this game from local library. They liked it so much. This game is called Straw and Connectors.

Math: Learning about Time
I wrote down different time on several pieces of paper. I lay them down on the floor and gave Ethan some pop quiz about time. I asked him some questions and he had to figure out the answer and step on the right paper. For example, I will ask him simple question such as
"Now is 3pm, 2 hours later is what time?"

For Evan, he is learning sorting the straws according to the colors. We played estimation game trying to guess the amount of the straws in each color groups.

Ethan trying to build a house and Evan is lying down on the floor. Evan told me that Ethan is measuring him

Science: Observing the mold
I put two bread and cucumbers on a plate. The boys will do the observation on the bread and cucumber for one week. Ethan will write down the changes on the bread and cucumbers. First day, the breads are soft and the cucumbers are fresh. The second day, the bread is hardened and the cucumbers are shrink. I told them mold will form the following days and they will see some black stuff on the bread.

For Evan, we continue on letter of the week. This week is Letter Ff.

He had to paste all the pictures starting with F on this Ff words book. We made the letter books every week.

Weekly Homeschool report-Week 5

2009-09-23T11:39:00.001-07:00

Homeschooling does not mean that we have to stay at home whole day and study. One day while we phoned back to Malaysia, my father-in-law was concern about his grandchildren being isolated and does not know how to socialize with other kids. I would like to let him know that Evan and Ethan are doing great and they got the chance to go out a lot ( I mean in public places very often) and meeting with different people from different ages.

I signed Ethan up for the Health Museum science class once a week. Evan got the chance to stay in class for the lesson too. Ethan has the Chinese school every Sunday.

We joined the homeschool group. We attend the Art and Music class every other Thursday. Park day is on every other Friday. Normally, after the park day, we will stop by Eric's office to have lunch with him. The boys got to meet their dad's coworkers and see his office.

Ethan has the online curriculum through Time4learning.com every day. I prepared the worksheets for him to do in the morning. He played computer game after his work is done. They played their toys and go to the playground.

Math: Money
Ethan has no problem in recognizing the money value. I have to work more on his word problem. One of the assignment is I gave him a grocery store price list and asked him to cut out the items with different prices.He had to cut out the items which are below $1, above $2,about $5, items which are on sale, expensive items and cheap items.

Grammar: Pronouns

Poem: Autumn Leaves
Fall is here. Leaves starting to fall. It is a good time for them to go outside to observe the leaves and collect them.

A lot of things we can do about the leaves. They sort and compare the leaves. They do some counting. They do some rubbing on the leaves to make the leaves art. We do some leaves pressing but it has to wait one month later to get the dry leaves and flowers.

We go around the neighborhood to collect the leaves.

Sorting and comparing the leaves.

Geography: Continents and Oceans.
I did some review with him to test him whether he still remember the continents and oceans. He did it well. There is one good link to test the knowledge of geography that we try this week is http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/World_Continents.htm.

I used the playdough to shape a little ball to represent the earth. I drew a line in the middle of the earth to represent the equator line. Then, Ethan cut it in half. This is a good way to introduce the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere. Then, another half from top to bottom to represent East and West Hemisphere.

Science: Digestive system
Ethan had the science class in Health Museum. Evan and I stayed in the class too.

As usual, Ethan went up to be a volunteer. His apron is showing the body digestive system. Esophagus, stomach, large intestine and small intestine.

The instructor is showing how big and wide is the large intestine.
This is another example of showing how long is the small intestine.

The kids got the chance to observe the peristalsis process--- the movement of the food from mouth to stomach.

They played bingo about good and junk food in the class.

Art and music class.

Story time during lunch with other homeschool kids.

Art : making collage

Learning about pattern and shape:
Ethan is master in this activity. Evan still have to learn how to make the pattern.

Weekly Homeschool Report-Week4

2009-09-18T11:45:00.001-07:00

This is our fourth week in homeschooling. Ethan is starting to get use of the homeschool system. He starts his day at 7am. Brushing and eating breakfast. Read his book until 8am. He finishes all the worksheets(math, reading, writing, grammar, spelling, words skill, chinese) at around 9am. He then will have the lessons from the Time4learning.com for other subjects.

This week is the first week he has the science class at Houston Health Museum. This week lesson is about brain.

He still has his tennis lesson every Tuesday and Thursday. Friday is the homeschool group park day. He met some friends there. Evan was having fun too at the park.

Math: Learning about Money
He did a lot of worksheets about money. We play some money game. I know he has no problem in recognizing money value. I am going to introduce him how to calculate the change next week and some words problems.

Every Tuesday and Thursday, I let him do some math problems online in Beestar.org. This help me to keep track what he has learn and understand so far.

Grammar: Adjective

Poem: Recite and Rewrite. As usual, he has to find the correct words to place into the blank space. He rewrote the poem to practice his handwriting. From the poem, he has to find the rhyming words.

Science: Brain ( science lesson from the Health Museum class)

We did some reading about brain. I have a human body sticker book and he got to find the stickers to place on the brain.

Geography: seven continents
I found the continents pictures from abcteach.com. I lay them on the floor and let Ethan recognized them. He then has to cut them out and leaving out the name of the continents.

I scrambled the continents and asked him to put the right name on the pictures.

He has to arrange to the continents in the right position.

Homeschool group park day at Lost Creek Park, Sugarland.

Letter of the week --Dd

2009-09-18T11:25:00.000-07:00

This week, I started using the Progressive Phonic material to teach Evan more in phonic. The first book is about the dog and it happens that this week I am going to introduce him the letter Dd.

We check out several books from the library all about dogs. These are just a few we read.

These are some of the worksheets Evan being working on. He learned about the square shape.
As usual, he did some tracing, connect the dots and making the Ds words book.

Walking the dog trail. I wrote the dog and dod words on several papers and lay down on the floor. Evan has to follow the trail with the dog word on it. This help him to memorize the dog word.

These are some of the bottle caps that I collected for math purposes. I put all the caps on the floor and let the boys sort them out according to the colors and sizes.
We played estimation games and let the boys guess how many of the bottle caps on the floor and see who got the close guess.

They sorted the bottle caps by color and compared which one is the most. Evan will tell me which one is more and which one is less.

Weekly report--Week 3

2009-09-14T19:32:00.001-07:00

Grammar: Verb and Noun
This week is the review week for the grammar. He did a lot of worksheet about Noun and Verb.

Poem: Recite and rewrite
Every week, I wrote a poem into a big piece of paper and left few words blank. Ethan will pasted the right words into right place.
He had to rewrite the whole poem nicely and find all the rhyming words out of it.

Social Study: This week in Time4learning.com( a website I subscribe to let Ethan learn different subjects online), he learned about needs and wants. I drew a big circle with three parts and asked him to draw the basic needs.

Chinese: Learning a new song with sign language. This week is about having good habits.

Life skill: Learning to cook and helping in kitchen

The boys are very interested in cooking. But too bad they are too small to cook the big meals so, I just let them help me to prepare to cook rice.

Ethan is always wondering how the soup come from. So, I show him how to cook the soup. He is so fascinating about the water plus vegetable plus some chicken will become soup.

Science experiment: Vegetable or Fruits

This is a simple experiment to do at home. I took out different kinds of vegetables and fruits from the fridge. They have to group them into categories and determine which is fruits or vegetables. To my surprise, they manage to group them into right group including tomato.

There are two easy way to determine the vege and fruits. Cut the items listed above, if got seeds inside, then it is fruits. If not, then it is vegetables.

Math: Learn about Time
It has being three weeks I focus teaching him about TIME. He can read the time well now but still have to practice more.

Art and Music: Starting this week, Ethan and Evan will attend a art and music class offered by a homeschool group on each Thursday. They are having fun there, too bad I forget to bring camera to show what they have done in the class.

Learning Chinese Website

2009-09-14T10:53:00.001-07:00

I read about this website from a local Chinese newspaper. I check on it and found out it is quite good in teaching Chinese to the small kids. I just signed up for free and my boys just love it. I thought this is good to introduce to all other families with small kids at home who want to learn Chinese in fun way.

The website is : yes.com.cn

It is very interactive and fun to learn new Chinese words each day.

Multiplication table 2

2009-09-13T07:59:00.000-07:00

Evan is learning multiplication too along with his big brother. That is so cute, isn't he?

Letter of the week --Cc

2009-09-13T07:26:00.000-07:00

These are the books from our own bookshelf. When I read the books, I asked Evan to show me the what words start with Cc.

I wrote several Cat words on a piece of paper mixing with other words. Evan can recognize the CAT and circles them all right.

He is tracing a cat.
Playing tangram. This is a good game to reinforce the shapes and making nice pictures.

Texas Lapbook

2009-09-13T06:31:00.000-07:00

This is Ethan's first lapbook for this school year. It is about Texas with simple facts. I find most of the materials from the homeschoolshare.com.

Good website to teach phonics to young kids

2009-09-09T11:05:00.000-07:00

I am always looking for good websites to teach my little boy,Evan to learn new things. He is three years old now and it is a good time to teach him phonics. He knows his ABC well and I am in the process in preparing to read as well as his big brother.

Starfall.com is a good website to teach phonics and I always recommend it to my friends who has small kids. Today, I read a homeschool mom's blog from my homeschooling group. There is good deals of resources which including this good FREE website teaching phonics. It is called Progressive Phonics. You can download the books and worksheet for FREE after you register in the site. Check it out!

Ethan learning multiplication table 4

2009-09-07T12:55:00.000-07:00

Learning multiplication table 4. He knows the table 2 and 3. It is time to learn table 4 by heart. Kids can learn anything if we teach them in proper way.

Letter of the week --Bb

2009-09-05T11:15:00.000-07:00

This week is Bb week. I found a lot of worksheet and art about Bear which is a familiar to most of the kids. Library is my best place to check out all the books about Bears. There are tons of books about bears.
Below are the books we read about bear for this week.
Making the bear

The big brother wanted to do one bear too.

Crazy about Picachu

Ethan checked out a Pokemom drawing book from library. He traced the pictures and colored it. They watched the movie about Pokemom and played by immitating different Pokemom action.

Evan is learning how to write. He had to write his name everyday. Most of the time, I have to hold his hand and help him to write. He can write the first two letters of his name well, the E and v but not the a and n.

These are the worksheets I found online for him to do including connect the dots, coloring sheet, handwriting pratice and color by letter.

Weekly Homeschool Report--week2

2009-09-05T10:51:00.000-07:00

Week 2 Report

Homeschool Weekly Report

This week, I face a challenge in teaching Science because the material I use is a bit hard for Ethan's level. I have to find another suitable Science curriculum for him.

I sign up Time4learning.com for Ethan to supplement his studies. This website is very interactive and help me a lot in record keeping. It will record what Ethan has being doing so far daily. It consists Language Art, Math and Science. There is presentation online and quiz after the that.

Besides, Ethan starts the tennis lesson this week. It is offered by Houston Park and Recreation twice a week for FREE. He got to meet other kids about his age and play tennis.

Friday is the park day. We went to Lost Creek Park in Sugarland to meet other homeschool families. Ethan makes some friends there. Evan was having fun too playing at the playground. Luckily the weather is not too hot for him to stay outside for long time. After the playdate, we met Eric at his office to have lunch with him. The boys got the chance to see his dad's working place and met other people in the office.

Letter of the Week ---Aa

2009-08-28T14:32:00.000-07:00

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.

e
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

2009-08-24T12:17:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-22T21:07:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-22T21:02:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-22T21:00:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-22T20:20:00.000-07:00

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。

Week 16 Butterfly

2009-08-08T12:59:00.000-07:00

We learned about butterfly last year with Ethan. This time, Evan is the one who learn it more.
He used the playdough to make the butterfly by using the butterfly mold. I let him used two color of the playdough to make different butterfly sizes.

Connect dot to dot by number. I found this worksheet online and it is in butterfly pictures. He is learning the numbers now and this is a good chance for him to practice his numbers.

Playing playdough and making butterflies.

Grouping the butterflies by colors and sizes.

Making owl. O for Owl.

Letter of the week: Qq

I got this craft idea from one of the mom. She is so creative and I like this craft and so did the boys. The instruction is here.

Craft time: Making picture frames.
I am using used cardboard to cut into frames shapes. Then wrap it with aluminum foils to make it shiny. The boys drew some pictures and put it in the frame. They design the frame by drawing some cute pictures on the aluminum foil.

Using kitchen tools: This is fun for small kids. He was so happy to see the beans go through the funnels into the glass bottles.
I let him do this activities while the big brother is doing his worksheet.

Sorting the black and white beans.

Math game: Estimation and grouping

2009-08-08T12:46:00.000-07:00

This is a good math game to introduce the kids about estimation and grouping.

Estimation:
I get 4 jars and put different kinds of items inside. The boys have to look through the jars and guess or estimate how many of those things. I wrote their answer down on a piece of paper.

After everyone had done their estimation, I took those items out and counted with them one by one. We then compared the answer which they gave earlier and see who got the most answer right.

Grouping:
After we took all the items out, I asked them how they can group those items into different categories. For example the toy soldiers and Indians, they grouped them into different categories. They noticed that there are different colors, some soldiers standing and some bending and they group them into soldiers and Indians.

Week 15 Rain

2009-08-08T12:44:00.001-07:00

This week the boys learned about Rain. They did the craft by using some white cotton to be cloud which dab with some gray color.Evan drew some rain from the cloud.

Ethan is drawing the raining picture with his own imagination. One day of this week, Houston got some rain and I let the boys went outside to play with the rain. Evan did not dare to go out under the rain but Ethan did enjoy himself in the rain.

This is Evan first drawing. He started to hold the pencil or marker right and drew a person by himself.

Tracing and cutting: I drew some shapes with dot line and asked him to trace the shape. He then cut them out.

He matched the shape with the drawing and glue them on it.

Week 13 Horse Theme

2009-07-30T18:47:00.001-07:00

This is a funny book telling about Horse.

This week we learn about horses. I cut out the horse model and let Evan tell me what color is the horse.

I played a game with them by hiding the horses all over the places and give them some clues where to find them. They were having fun finding the horses just like the Easter Egg Hunt.

Evan is gluing the mane on the horse.I cut out the old clothes into small pieces for him to glue on. I kept telling him the hair on the horse is called Mane. He remember that after the lesson.

This week letter:Ll

I wrote the L shape and let Evan tell me what is the letter on the paper. He recognize it well. I cut out several love shapes for him to paste on the letter and tell him Love starts with L.

Craft: Introduce symmetry with the colorful painting.

First, fold the paper in half. Then, let the kids put the paint on only one side of the paper and fold it. Press hard and open the paper. They will see the symmetry pattern on the paper.

Evan is showing me his art work. He felt amazed that the color is pressed on other side with same pattern.

When Evan is doing his work, Ethan is doing his worksheet.

I colored different colors on a piece of paper and ask Evan to tell me the color. He then have to cut it out using scissor and match the color with the pegs which got color on it. He is using two skills at once during this activities. First, he has to use scissor ( still not very good at it) and then
using his finger to open the peg.

Learning about pattern

2009-07-19T13:23:00.001-07:00

This is good Math learning game for Ethan. He knows about counting by 3s and 4s. I cut the Styrofoam tray into small pieces with different shapes and numbers. I scrambled the pieces and he had to arrange them in order with pattern.

Sink or float

2009-07-19T13:17:00.000-07:00

Five items: Peach, block, pebble, balls, bottle cap.

This week the science experiment is about density. I took several items with different density and ask the kids what things will float or sink.

The boys put the ice into the water and to see whether it will float of sink. They all guessed it wrong. They thought the ice will sink under the water.

This is the result from Ethan.

Week 12 Car theme

2009-07-19T12:46:00.001-07:00

I believe most of the boys love cars and they will have a lot of toy cars scattered around the house with different sizes, shapes and functions.

Toy car is always the popular toy for my boys. Introducing this topic is not difficult because they are so familiar with cars.

I cut out these car model out of the papers with two sizes. I asked Evan to group the cars according to the colors. Then, he sort the cars according to the sizes.

Tracing and coloring.

I drew two cars with no wheels. Evan finger painted two wheels on each car.

Evan is learning how to use the scissors. He is not that skillful yet to master the scissor. I let him cut the Styrofoam tray into tiny pieces and he is enjoying the process.

Letter of the week: Kk
I cut out two kinds of keys and let Evan pasted on the K letter. He has no problem differentiated the keys and can group them according to colors and shapes.

Week 11 Train

2009-07-15T14:09:00.000-07:00

These are the books we read about train.
Kids just love train. They like to imitate the sound of the train going CHOO CHOO CHOO. This is a interesting theme to introduce to them.

We have these colorful blocks at home. The boys will make different kinds of things. This time, Evan is making the train by connecting the blocks. This is one of their favorite toys of all.

I cut out the train model out of the color paper and wrote the numbers and alphabets. Evan has to put them in order.
One of the thing I did is asking him to sort the train into colors out of these models.

Material for the train.
Pegs, cotton, bottle caps, paper clips, toilet paper rolls, paint.

The train made out of toilet paper roll, bottle caps, paper clip, peg and the cotton. I got this idea from HomeSchoolCreation mom. This mom always got a great idea in doing the craft.

Letter of the week: Jj
This is a cute jellyfish made by Evan. I cut semicircle for the body and tear off several tissue paper for him to paste on the body. Then, he requested to put on the googly eyes for the jelly fish.

Learning 5 senses

2009-07-04T13:47:00.001-07:00

This is a simple science experiment to teach the young age kids about their five senses. Ethan learned that in school but I want to introduce to Evan too at home. Both of them enjoy the fun out of it.

Smelling:

I put different items with strong aroma inside the Easter Egg Shell. They have to smell it through the small hole and guess what is inside the egg.

I put the cinnamon powder, curry powder, pepper and lemon which is available from my kitchen.

He is using his smelling sense to guess the thing inside the egg.

Touching and Seeing:
I put different kind of items inside a box and covered Ethan eye's and let him to touch them and make a guess. Evan does not want to participate but he

Hearing:

I put marble, rice, cereal and paper into four different containers. The boys have to shake the containers and guess what is inside the containers.

Shaking the container and hearing the noise.

Writing his result. He only guessed one thing right out of four. Too bad!

Tasting:

I prepared four different things with different flavor. Ethan covered his eyes and Evan fed him with those food. He was having fun in guessing what is putting inside his mouth.

They ended up eating all the things.

Which melt faster?

2009-07-04T13:09:00.000-07:00

I put two toys inside the water and freeze it overnight. The boys are so excited to see those toys inside the ice and eager to take them out of the ice.

The result show that the ice is melting faster with salt on it .

Drawing his observation

Conclusion: Salt lower the ice temperature and it make the ice melts faster.

Making Bird Nest

2009-07-04T13:00:00.000-07:00

Picking up the twig around the park.

Collecting the materials for the bird nest.

At this early age, Evan is interested in everything out of the nature. Getting material from the nature is easy and free. After watching Sid the Science Kid from the local PBS channel, it gave me an idea to do the science experiment out of the house. While Ethan was having his tennis lesson, Evan was busy collecting the twigs and leaves to make a bird nest. I told him bird nest is like a house for the birds to live in.

Happy July Fourth ---Making the Torn Paper Star

2009-07-02T11:10:00.000-07:00

Finished Product---the Torn Paper Star

This weekend is the big day for United States of America.. Happy Birthday!! It is Independence Day. I tell the boys a brief story about this important day by reading them some books.

We make the Torn paper star today. They boys had to trace two big stars on blue and white paper and then cut it out. Evan is good at tracing but not cutting. He is showing me the sour face when cutting the star out.

The messy table full of paper.

Learning new Chinese Words

2009-07-02T11:03:00.000-07:00

Ethan is learning new Chinese words. I have to test him to see whether he remembers the words. Chinese is very difficult to learn. You have to memorize the character and how to pronounce it correctly.

Sometimes, I have to find a fun game for him to play and learn at the same time such as this matching words game.

Week 10 Duck Theme

2009-06-25T17:20:00.001-07:00

These are the books we check out from library all about duck.

This week is all about duck. I drew five little ducklings and a mother duck. Evan already how to sing that Five Little Duck song very well. I purposely wrote the duck word by mistake and ask the boys to find out which one is the correct spelling.

Evan likes to do the connect the dot, I found one duck picture and he managed to connect those dots all by himself and color it pretty well.

Craft time: They are helping each other to trace the hand to make the duck tail. Bruno is Ethan's friend. I am babysitting him this summer and he is doing the craft together with us.

The ducklings craft. They are so cute. Ethan drew an angry duck( the one at the right)

I wrote the number from 1 to 5 on the ducklings body. Evan has to arrange those numbers in order. This is a good Math lesson for young kid. Besides, I purposely cut those ducklings in different direction so that I can teach him about left or right. He will tell me which duckling is facing right and which one is facing left.

The boys are good in imitating the duck.

Week 9 Sun theme

2009-06-19T11:34:00.000-07:00

This is the learning board which I put all the things the boys learn on this week. Evan completed the Sun dot-to-dot sheet and also coloring page.

I got a activity book which talk about the Sun, Moon and Earth. I cut out three of them and connected with brass fastener to show the boys how the Earth moving around the Sun and how the moon moving around the Earth.

I gave Evan this worksheet to test his counting. I drew several suns and asked him to count and put the magnet numbers to match it.

I copy this poem down and let Ethan recite it. Some activities I did with Ethan about this poem is asking him to find 5 nouns from the poem and asked him who wrote this poem. He then had to draw something based on his understanding from the poem.

The Sun Shines Down
by Katrina Lybbert

The sun shines down on me,
On flowers, grass, and a bumblebee.

The sun shines down on you,
On trees, birds, and lakes so blue.

The sun shines down on everyone,
How happy we are to play in the sun!

Homemade Alphabet game--FREE

2009-06-19T11:17:00.001-07:00

Matching the letters with lower and upper case.

I cut out 26 cards for Upper Case and 26 cards for Lower Case out of the cereal box. The boys has to match the letters. Ethan is way too good on this and he finished faster than Evan. Evan is trying his best to match the letters.

Ethan got a great idea in putting those letters into words. We both raced to see how many words we managed to make out of those letters.

Learning graph

2009-06-19T11:11:00.000-07:00

I start to introduce Chart/Graph concept to Ethan. I asked to count how many shoes each one of us have at home and compare who got more shoes.

It turns out mommy got more shoes than others and daddy got the least. I think this is common thing in every household, right?

He got better idea about graph is very useful to make comparison.

Week 8 Moon Theme

2009-06-14T18:00:00.001-07:00

Moon is a very common thing in every child life. They see it all the time and there are so many things we can talk about the moon.

This is a good book to read to the kids about moon. We got it from local library.

In order to let the boys know what is crater, I asked them to use the playdough to make a mooon shape and poke the surface with their finger in order to make crater. I told them, moon is nothing but got a lot of craters with is like a big hole.

Ethan is showing me the moon with craters on it.

Moon craft: By using unwanted foam tray, I drew the shape of full moon and crescent moon. Then cut it out and let the kids put the color on.

Ethan got a red moon. That is what he wanted.

Then, the kids wanted to tie it out along with the star they made last week.

Evan knows all his color. I try to introduce him to the words of colors. I wrote those words on a piece of paper with certain color. He then has to match the foam beads on correct color on that paper.

Eye and hand coordination: By giving him one string of shoe lace, he has to put all those beads into it. At first, he is having difficult time, but after a while, he is so excited that he manage to do it.

Ethan is making funny face again after wearing the colorful beads.

Sorting: By using unwanted baking muffin pan, you can ask the kids sort same color of beads into one hole.

I wrote the moon and star in Chinese. Ethan already knew the words before and it is the time I tested him.

Evan is putting the glue on the star.

Week7 Star

2009-06-08T12:28:00.001-07:00

These are some of the books we read about stars.

Ethan drew small stars inside the big star.

Ethan is learning how to draw a star by himself.

Evan just color the star shape I had cut out for him.

The boys decided to decorate the stars and hang them on the ceiling.

Star is not a hard topic to introduce to the small kids. They sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star when they are small. They know about the shape of star.

I drew some stars with different colors on a piece of paper. I asked Evan to count how many stars with different colors. How many stars are red? green? purple? He then used the magnetic numbers to show me the number of stars he counted.

Evan started showing interest in connecting the dots. I used the easy number from 1 to 10 to make a star shape and asked him to connect the dots.

This week we learn letter S. I drew a big S on a piece of paper and asked him to put the star sticker inside the letter S.

Sorting game. On a piece of paper, I drew four column with different color stars. Evan had to use the foam stars to put into right column with right color.

Ethan is showing Evan how to arrange the stars in pattern. He is good at it.

Week6 Rainbow Theme

2009-05-25T06:28:00.000-07:00

Rainbow is the easy topic to introduce to the kids, just that it is not easy to see a bridge of rainbow across the sky here in Houston. So, I just blow the bubbles under the sun and tell Evan that the color reflect from the sun to the bubbles is called rainbow.

I found some interesting activities online for this topic. From the makinglearningfun.com, I looked for the rainbow theme and download some worksheets and get some ideas.

Evan likes to do the finger painting, so, instead of cut and paste the color paper on the rainbow worksheet, I just let him having fun messing with the paint.

He used the number stickers that I prepared before and matched those numbers to the worksheet. He is good from 1 to 10 , but need some time in finding 11 to 20.

Letter of the Week----R

This week letter is R. I found an interesting idea from No Time For Flashcard site to the colorful letter R. Really thanks to those creative mom who has such a wonderful idea.

Rainbow bread

Another cool thing in learning rainbow is playing with the color by mixing the food coloring into the water. The boys have such a wonderful time in mixing and stirring and observing the color. They are just amazed to see how the color mix together to change into another color. After the mixing process, I let them use a brush to brush those color on a piece of bread to do the rainbow bread. Then, I toast it in the oven and let them eat the bread full of color.

Week5 Zoo Theme

2009-05-17T17:56:00.000-07:00

According to the letteroftheweek.com curriculum, this week suppose is Lighthouse theme. Too bad I could not find enough material about lighthouse so I choose the Zoo as our weekly theme.

This is book that we read while doing this week theme.

We have Houston Zoo membership. I brought both boys there several times. So, when I wrote the words ZOO, Evan knew it immediately. We have some zoo animal toys and I took them out so that he can play with it. One thing I did with the animal figures was while I read about the Zoo book, I will ask him to point to that particular animals mentioned in the book.
I drew some spots, stripes, humps, long neck,long horn and long trunk on six separate boxes on a piece of paper and asked him to match the specific characteristic with those animals. He managed to do it well.

This week number is number 5. I asked him to show me number 5 from a bunch of numbers. When he was eating his cereal, I asked him to take out five cereals from his bowl and he did.

I got some lapbook material from Homeschoolshare.com and printed it out to let Evan do the Zoo lapbook. This is the simple lapbook. It is all about numbers and animals. Each pocket got certain amount of animal and he had to match that numbers on the pocket.

Then, I asked him to sing an Elephant song for me in Chinese. It is about a kid asking a baby elephant why he got such a long trunk. Is it because he is lying too much? Then, the baby elephant told him that it is because his mom said it is beautiful to have a long trunk and not because he is lying too much.

Week 4 Eye Theme

2009-05-13T10:35:00.001-07:00

This week we learn about eye. Dr.Seuss Eyes Book is very great to introduce the small kids about their eyes. I told Evan that eyes are very important for us to see around, without them , it is hard to get anything we want or go anywhere.

I thought about a simple game to let him know how important it is to have eyes and we should take good care of them. First, I put a things in front of him and asked him to get them with the eyes open. He did it easily. Then, I wrapped a scarf around his eyes to blind him and asked him to go to the front to get something, he had a difficult time to figure out where to go.

I drew different color of eyes and asked him to match the pegs with the color on it. This is the simple game for the small kids to learn about color and matching. I took some pegs and painted them with different colors. Then, he had to match those colors with the eyes' color. This is good for their eye and hand coordination too.

This week's letter is Dd. This time, I put some rice on a baking tray and let him traced the letter D from it. This is fun for little kids to learn their letters or numbers.

We had a little experiments to learn about different colors. I took out some food coloring and some containers with water. Ethan and Evan had a good time in pouring and mixing the color. It was fun to watch them acted like a little scientist and they were excited to see the water changed to different colors. Ethan knew the color combination. He told me blue and red become purple and red and yellow become orange. He showed his little brother how to mix two colors and observed them to change to another color.