Sunday, August 26, 2007

Trip to the Space Center













Saturday afternoon Kent and I had a hankering to do something productive with the children and after a little thought decided to drive over to Huntsville and take them to the Space Center.






They were so excited.






It was our plan to arrive in Huntsville early enough that the kids could swim and play in the pool but thunderstorms and lightening prevented that alltogether.






A nice dinner at a nearby restaurant and a less than great hotel room meant Mom and Dad didn't rest too well, but the kids seemed to enjoy the break.






Wade began the morning by going down to get his brother and sister some breakfast. Since the "table" was occupied by the laptop etc. He set up the ironing board for them to eat on! lol




We got to the Space Center around 11 and went right into the IMAX theater. At the space center the IMAX is concave and is exceptionally cool to watch a movie on. We watched the magic of flight which only spurred Wade's quest for pilot's wings.


Kent and I really enjoyed the movie too, as did Wyatt and Sylvi. It was a bit loud at times.


The Space center has a lot more to offer than when Kent and I were kids. Everyone learned a lot. Wade def. wants to go to their Aviation camp.

Even Sylvi is saying these days that she wants to fly an airplane too. Of course she says she is going to be - A horsey doctor, a chef, President and the mail lady.

Wyatt was really tired and loved a lot of it but he couldn't ride some things.


It was interested to see how intergal Huntsville was / is in the space program. Sylvi will learn some space / aeronautical vocabulary to go with this vist.

Wade will write a couple essays.

We will use things Wyatt liked to help him recall letters, numbers and such.


- additionally we are working hard on learning prefixes and root words to help increase vocabulary. Wade will be working on measurements in inches and feet this week. He will have to be precise because he will be helping Kent.
Sylvi is learning new site words with like letter combos ... our goal is to have her reading fluently on 2nd grade level by spring.
Wyatt is still learning all his letter shapes and sounds. We are working hard on all aspects ... both writing, recognizing and coordinating sounds. Our goal is to have Wyatt reading site words and counting to 100 and understanding concepts of addition and subtraction by Spring.
Blessings,
Tess













Sunday, August 12, 2007

rackin up the hours

Homeschooling is going well. Sylvi is behind Wade with actual hours doing school work. I hope to change that a bit in the next few weeks.
I am working on some creative projects that will help Sylvi with counting, addition, reading etc but will still be great fun for her.
Wyatt has learned a few more letters. He's a stubborn lil cuss so it is hard to know what he actually understands vs. what he doesn't.
Wade's writing skills are improving slowly. I am introducing him to the thesaurus this week and will have him work on editing sentences.
My goal would be to have his essays on 8th grade level by Jan. or Feb.
Being an excellent conversationalist means you can write ... just learning to put it all on paper is the hard part. Wade is an excellent conversationalist.

I want to get Sylvi reading and learning parts of speech as quickly as possible. The beauty of Wyatt and Sylvi being close in age is that I can use a lot of what has helped Sylvi to help Wyatt.

I do feel I may have to buy a phonics program to get Wyatt reading fluently. We are using Starfall.com with a lot of success.

Working on - counting money
add and substract
reading
parts of speech
writing

Wade
basic chemistry
writing improvement
long division
--
adding in
social studies - world history