Day 6 of 180

I got the bright idea of making the one blog for the required 180 days of the home school year as opposed to making separate blogs for the months through out the year. I know, I know, If only I had that bright idea from the start. But I didn't so the first 5 days are under the June 2011 blog.

So before I track todays activities I just wanted to add some "general information" about home schooling for those who might not know. Which I feel the need to do in light of recent conversations and common misconceptions.
1. It has been shown that home school children have higher success with education than children in private schools.
2. Home schooling does NOT mean your child will lack in social skills. They are not locked in the dark. They do have field trips and plenty of outings that allow them to have social interaction.
3. Different states and different types of home schooling have different requirements. We are not required to take tests and a report card does not have to be letter grades. For their bi-annual progress report I can provide a summary of the topics we have covered in each of the areas; Writing, Math, Social Studies, Science and Reading and that pretty much covers it.
4. In order to home school, I am registered through the Palmetto State Association of Homeschools. this fulfills my legal obligations.
5 Finaly, The other things I need to keep on hand is a journal of our activities (this Blog) and a portfolio that includes samples of their work ( which is also partially fulfilled through this blog) including handouts, pamphlets from field trips, reading booklist etc.
Useful Link for the beginning homeschooler: www.hslda.org

Day 6 of 180
6/15/11
We started today around 10am, since we had a meeting at 9am at the Cherokee county WIC office in Gaffney, SC.  On the way home the girls said they wanted to learn about bats, deer, bugs and Hawaii. Quite the array of topics, but I'm game.  When we got home they made themselves a turkey and cheese sandwhich with mayo and mustard (only minor assistance) and I picked out some books.  We read " Where's that Bat" by Barbara Brenner and "Bats A Nature-Fact Book" by D.J Arneson, to cover their first request and fulfill our science requirements.
  Since I feel like we are always lacking in Social Studies I picked "Career Day" by Anen Rockwell to discuss different types of jobs that are available. then we read "Stranger in the Woods" by Carl R. Sams II & Jean Stoick, which is a cute story about a snowman that these little kids made that has nuts, seed and carrots to feed animals. Ther is also a movie that goes along with this book which has beautiful photography.
Onto Writing- I had them write "Call 911 in an emergency" and "Bats are mammals." 10 times each.I am hoping that the writing helps them retain this information. Yesterday they wrote their phone #'s for the second time and I gave them candy if they were able to correctly repeat it.
After a movie and lunch break the girls got out the crayones and drew pictures of what they want to be when they grow up. After all the careers we talked about they are going to be a princess and a rockstar, Classic! 
We still needed to do some math so I pulled out some worksheets I made up awhile back. I gave Riley a sheet on regrouping two digit addition and regrouping math. That is a second grade activity but I just wanted to see how she would handle it. Can you say SUPERSTAR.lol  she had a small amount of hangups, but really did good for her first time doing it. Lilly worked on her regrouping subtraction and writing cursive letters b and c.
This is a lot for one day and we have more than met out requirements but I had Riley do some flashcards to help read basic words and threw in a dvd of 1000 places to see before you die that told about Brazil and Italy. Thats all she wrote for day 6. I'll try to add some pics for the day a little later. :)