25 days down... So much progress and learning!! :)

Today is our 25th day of Dahlstrom School of Discovery and Faith!! WOW! Awesome!!

Everyday we have done this 'routine for math...

We 'read' the calendar, point out and say the day of the week, month, date, and year and then Kendyl writes it out.

She then records the weather on a bar graph (and makes observations--there were a lot of sunny days in september and no snow days!).

Then we use a hundreds chart to count to 100 by ones and 10's. Today we started learning to count by 5's and will now do this every day as well. :) I am AMAZED--25 days ago, she couldn't count by herself past 29... now she can count on her own to 100 and by 10's to 100 as well! :) and by 2's to 10. sooo proud of her! Aden can count by 10's also, and count to 20 by ones, since he listens to us practice! :)

Then we add another number to our number line of how many days of school we've had... today we got to write 25 on the number line... then we go to the board and 'count' it while learning place values (we've had 2 sets of 10 days + 5 ones (days))... so, she is learning place value as we go through the school year. On the 100'th day of school, we will have a party! Kendyl is quite excited about that!!!

Then we play a 'right and left' game... she stands up, I call out something like, "put your right hand on your hip and your left hand on your nose" or "put your right foot up and your right hand on your head"...

There is a 'lesson' each day... addition or subtraction stories, shapes (geometry), ordinal number review, learning fractions (whole/half), etc... we do the lesson with many different materials (crayons, toys, dice, balance, blocks, apples, etc.)

Then there is a written practice sheet. She does one side at the time of the lesson and one later in the day, to make sure she has retained the info. :)

Because of this daily repitition and review, she truly understands what she is learning and really KNOWs it! I am amazed and proud of her and so excited for the next days, weeks, months of school! :)

Things Kendyl KNOWS well (that she's learned since the begining of school)...

* count by 10's to 100

*count by 2's to 10

*count by 1's to 100

*count to 10th place in ordinal numbers

*can distinguish between right and left very well (finally!)

*graphing and charting...can make her own and read other ones well

*understands and can write and read addition sentences with single digit numbers

*knows 35 sight words (knew about 30 at the start of school)

*has learned complex sounds and blends (st, sp, sn, sl, sm, ch, sh, wh, th, -all, -ook, -ike, and a few more i can't think of right now)

*is getting much more fluent in her reading (learning to 'chunk' and read as she speaks) :)

*can spell and write her last name :)

*can name and tell at least one thing about each of the 7 continents

*can say and write her phone number and address (not zip code yet)

* has memorized 7 Bible verses.

*can draw 'maps' of different locations and understands North & South (well, on a map, not the whole concept yet)

things we're working on right now...

*more sight words and blended sounds

*counting by 5's to 100

*counting to 200

*zip code

*sentence punctuation

*subtraction sentences

*place value

*whole & half

*memorizing poems and songs to 'perform' for family & friends

*reading and drawing maps, directions East and West

*other random things and more in depth into others :)