2 in 1

It was 2 school days crammed into 1 for today.  My heart wasn't 100% in the schoolwork, but I knew we had to get 2 days done after skipping school on Tuesday for the party and not knowing how the rest of the week would play out with traveling.

Overall the kids did a great job.  There were a few complaints from D about doing 2 math pages and completing his handwriting, but he worked really hard and we were done in  2 1/2 hours this morning.

K's story and activity today was about God parting the Red Sea for the Israelites to cross and get away from the Egyptian army who was following them.  Her project today was to paint a piece of paper with "sea colors" only blue green & purple after I placed a piece of tape down through the center.  When she was done painting, the tape was removed to reveal the "dry land" God provided for the Israelites to walk on.  She did a great job using only the 3 colors to paint (good listening!).

At the beginning of the painting...(yes, those are Legos all over the floor on the right side of the picture - D was building something while I was working with K...we school among the mess somedays!).

Picture completed &  tape removed...she's so proud of her work!

 

K told me that the letter for the Unit was "G" and it said "F-F-F" - at that moment I realized we wouldn't do 2 days worth of work for her today.  We need to stay on letter "G" and practice that it says "G-G-G" another day!  Today was the day to tape the letter on the floor and she danced around the taped "G."

D coloring King David's crown to add to his timeline on the wall.  He was so excited we finally added something new after weeks of not adding anything because there's a gap between the history book we're using and the Bible stories we're learning.  His Bible stories today were about King David & King Solomon.

 

For Phonics today, D read two Hooked on Phonics readers instead of a chapter or two in the Magic Treehouse book.  While he reads the chapters in that book well, I think he's discouraged by the number of words on the pages.  Somehow books that have pictures on each page are more fun to read.  I don't want to discourage his reading endeavors, so I gave in today.  We'll pick the Magic Treehouse back up in a few weeks maybe?!  :o)

He finished chapter 8 in math today and will take his test tomorrow.  He did much better today concentrating and getting every "unknown" number problem correct on his own.  Yeah!  He even figured out a "tricky" (2 step) word problem all by himself.

I read two chapters of Peter Cottontail today and K was sitting at the table coloring as I read.  When it came time to ask questions about the chapter I read, K answered before D (and she was right!).  I'm so glad she can listen in...the chapter & question were about one of the animals helping another animal do something bad.  Even though they were "helping" it wasn't right to do something bad and K knew it.

Side Note: In the car tonight while on our way to pick up the van from the mechanic's - D was telling J about his rough behavior this afternoon.  K chimed in "It makes Jesus sad when we disobey."  I couldn't turn around and let D see a huge smile on my face, but if I had I'm sure I would have seen a look on D's face that read "can I smack her?"  I'm glad she's getting it and able to see wrong behavior in others...now, if she can only see it in HER behavior.  :o)

C enjoyed hanging out in her pack'n'play while the "big" kids do school.  D and K had used her gate yesterday to make a "boat" in the basement and I wasn't about to destroy the boat today in order to confine C.  The pack'n'play was the easier option. :o)

Two budding pianists and a third observing...(yep, K's wearing her tutu again).  The kids LOVE the piano whether they're playing with me or on their own and they have observed our 3 piano rules for the past 3 days...no banging the keys, no lowering the fallboard (cover that can pinch fingers), no kicking the piano.  I think it helped to give them a mini beginner lesson on Monday about soft & loud sounds...not banging.  :o) 

I should have taken a picture on Monday, but I didn't.  This is K's "8" page from Monday...she did all the cutting by herself and automatically added the blue sticker at the bottom right when she was finished without asking me...to make her paper "just like D's."  (He always picks a sticker for his math, handwriting and thinking skills papers once I've checked his work.)

 

I'm not sure when I'll post again - it may not be until next Tuesday.  We'll be doing school tomorrow, Friday and Monday whenever we can fit it in...

a day off...

Today we took a "day off" from our school work to go to the party at church (see pics on other blog) and by the time we arrived home (2 p.m.) the kids wanted to be outside and I'm not going to argue when they beg to play outside since that seems to happen infrequently now that the weather is cooler, more wet, cloudier, etc. We'll make up for it tomorrow (Wednesday).  :o)

On Monday, we completed Unit 8, Day 3 work for both kids.  D had a bit of difficulty in math - he wrote the first few problem's answers really BIG and I had asked him the other day not to do that or there would be a consequence.  He ended up losing his video game time yesterday because of it.  Then, when I checked over his paper before we moved on to another subject, I found a few of the "unknown" problems were wrong.  He had 8 + 2 = 6 instead of 4 + 2 = 6 and he did it for several of those types of problems.  I erased the ones that were incorrect and he went back and did them correctly.

He read another chapter in the Magic Treehouse book.  He's enjoying the story and doing well reading words that were new to him a few days ago that he now reads fluently.

K had to cut out 8 pieces of jewelry for her counting page for her counting book.  I used a combination of stickers and drawings for her to cut out and she did it all by herself again.  Her Bible story was about the Israelites fleeing Egypt once Pharaoh said they could "GO!"  The Egyptians gave them gold, silver and more so that's how the jewelry tied into her counting page.

We had  break in our school day due to the piano being delivered to the house around noon.  The kids were so excited that they immediately sat down to play it as soon as the movers left.  I ended up getting out the lesson books I had begun with D last year and they both sat down and completed the first lesson.  I'm excited that they're excited to learn to play it!

We finished our school day while we ate lunch around 1 p.m.  :o)

stars, storytime & self-portrait

Today was K's day to glue something to her letter of the unit - G.  It was suggested to use cotton balls or yarn again, but I thought it would be fun to use paper stars because her Bible story today was about the Israelites leaving Egypt at night after the last plague.  I used our construction paper scraps and punched out stars (love my scrapbook punches - I'm always using them for something else) and had her glue them to black paper where I had drawn a large G.  She worked so diligently placing stars inside the letter.  She began at the inside part and worked her way all the way around to the top of the G.  I was impressed.

Here she is happy to have completed it! 

D's Bible story was about Saul trying to kill David.  We talked about how Saul had anger inside his heart, God can see what's on the inside of us, even if the outside looks good/clean, the inside is what really matters.  D had to draw a self-portrait of himself.  I was hoping for a larger head, but he said, "I want to draw me how I always draw me."  So I let him.

On a second piece of paper I had him tell me some words to describe himself and this is the list he came up with..."know & love Jesus, good, kind, tender-hearted (sensitive), helpful, obedient, friendly & shy sometimes."  I think he did a great job!

We did everything else for D today - a math review page for chapter 8, phonics pathways - reading words that D complained about doing (he thinks it's too easy for him...guess we'll speed through a few pages & find something more difficult), another chapter in Magie Treehouse #1...D will get his Book-It pizza certificate next Friday!  The chapter in the Petter Cottontail book today was about Shadow the Weasel, Reddy Fox and Peter tricking them.  D's enjoying listening to the Peter Cottontail book, he's always outsmarting Reddy Fox or another animal in some way.

Last night at bedtime, D reminded me that today is "storytime day" since we began it last week after deciding not to travel so far to the other library that does storytime.  He was a bit frustrated we did school work today since last Friday we did storytime activities & science, not our usual curriculum.  I told him that some Friday's we'll take a break, but that other Friday's (like today) we'll do school..  He was okay with it.

For "storytime" today, I picked 3 Elmer (elephant) books off our bookshelf since K had been wanting to learn more about elephants on Wednesday when we completed part of her Cubbies book project about an elephant.  The kids were finishing up some schoolwork, so I went upstairs and made a "storytime snack" since they kept telling me they were STARVING...you know, it's only been 2 hours since breakfast.  :o)  I peeled & cored an apple, sliced it into donut-like shapes, topped each slice with sunbutter & mini chocolate chips.

When I came down the stairs, they were delighted with "apple pizzas"  I had made and ate their "pizzas" while I read the Elmer books (Elmer, Elmer in the Snow, Elmer & the Lost Teddy Bear).  They were begging for more "pizzas" and I assured them we'll have them again.

 

When we were done reading, I drew elephants for them to color like Elmer (he's patchwork, but in the Elmer book the other elephants paint themselves one day a year when Elmer paints himself elephant color - the book is opened to that page on the table in the picture).  They had fun, so I think it was a sucessful storytime. :o) 



 Hooray for weekends!  As much as I enjoy schooling the kids, it's always nice when Friday comes and we have a two day break from our school routine.

Defeating Goliath & Passover

K was dressed as a ballerina today for school.  She wore this tutu the entire morning, complete with the slippers, except for when she had a potty break.  Now she can costume herself which is nice.

For the first few units, K and D's Bible stories were the same, but then K's slowed down and D's kept going so they are now years apart from each other in the Bible.  However, it's nice review for D to hear K's lessons each day.   He often tells the story to K before I can read it to her. :o)

D studied the story of David & Goliath today.  His activity after the reading was to throw "stones" at Goliath.  We had to place Goliath 9 feet from the floor since he was really tall!  Since we were in the basement, it meant that Goliath had to be in the stairway wall because the ceiling of the playroom is short.  :o)  The kids didn't mind.  D threw the "stones" (beanbags) and finally cracked his face.  K wanted to be a part of the action, so she took a break from playing on the computer and climbed the steps to help her reach his face.

K learned about the last plague and Passover today.  For her "Count On" paper she drew 5 doors with doorknobs and then went back and colored blood on the sides and tops of the doors (what the Israelites where to do so their firstborn would live).  D wrote the numbers as K counted.

She also learned her "new" letter today: "G" which we related to "G-G-ma" (what she calls my grandma) to help her remember the name of it.  She also learned a new rhyme which she LOVES.

For math, D completed the third page of chapter 8.  He asked when he would be done with the chapter and I told him we'll finish on Monday with the test and then go on to chapter 9 on Tuesday.  He just can't get enough of it!  That's a good thing!  :o)  Here's his paper from today...notice the erased zero at the top?  His first zero was a swirl so I erased it and asked him to make it a true "zero" so he made a HUGE one, I erased that one and asked him to make it the right size.  He did.  It was one of those times where "here's the line &  let's see how close we can come to crossing it and truly testing Mommy today."  Grrrr.  I kept my cool and he did what I asked or else there would have been consequences.

For Phonics, he read through 2 pages of Pathways which were all about reading & sounding out four-letter words.  A review for him, but I still had him do it.  You can't ever read too much!  He then went on to read chapter 2 of The Magic Treehouse #1 book.  He read "everywhere" and "Pennsylvania" without any help from me.  Yippee!  I assured him that the more he reads, the more words he will be able to read the "fast way" (without stopping to sound them out).  He's happy.   Since the chapters in the book are several pages (many without pictures), I'm counting each chapter as a "book" for his Book-It list.

D's rhyme was actually a song that was sung to the tune of "The Little Green Frog" which I had the music for, so we all sat down at the keyboard to sing his rhyme.  I am so happy that he enjoys this part of his school day.  For the first few weeks he complained about it.  Now he chooses to do it and will often participate in K's rhymes, too.

The weather is sunny and 68 this afternoon so as soon as C's up, we're headed outside to play and take a walk for our "P.E." for today.  Oh, I wish it would last a few more weeks, but I know the cold & rain is coming this weekend. ;o(

Finishing Unit 7

The past 3 days we finished up Unit 7 for both D&K...

On Monday we had school in the dining room for something different.  K painted letter "F" which she knows says "f-f-f" and has remembered it every day.  Hooray!   I was working with D while she painted and when I looked over I realized she was not only painting letter "F" but the entire paper.  She definitely had a good time with the watercolor paints!


D's Bible story was about Ruth & Naomi on Monday and so we talked about plants & seeds, but especially barley and how it grows for Science.  It was nice to be near my computer with internet access (the kid's computer downstairs does not have it) so we could look up a picture of the barley for D to draw.  D doesn't look happy in the picture, but honestly he was proud to show off his work I just snapped the picture before he smiled. :o)
He began with the grass (labeled 1) and then the barley (labeled 2) and then products that come from barley (labeled 3) like bread (looks like "Swiss Cheese" on the right side of his picture) and cereal.  He learned a lot because on Tuesday, he was drawing just for fun and drew a silo with a picture of a barley plant on the side of it.  That picture is amazing .  :o)

D's created a "tapestry" on Tuesday to go with his Bible story about Samuel in the temple.  He had fun arranging the colored paper squares on the yellow background.  K really wanted to do it too, especially the cutting of the squares, but I chose to work with her on her number 7 paper.  She had to cut out 7 shoes, so we found 3 pairs and a single shoe from some magazines.  She did a great job cutting on her own again and gluing on her own (as you can tell from the upside down pairs of shoes :o).

Today we completed Unit 7 with K learning about Moses, Pharaoh and the first plague - God turned water to blood.  She enjoyed playing in a tub of warm soapy water for about an hour.  It was nice to have her occupied with this activity (D played just a few minutes when I took the picture) so I could spend more time with D while C took her morning nap.

After D was done with his school work, we took the tub upstairs and used red food coloring to turn it red.  I had to get a white mug out and show them the water did turn red as in the blue tub it didn't look so red. ;o)  I also assured them God just turned the water automatically - He didn't use food coloring like Mommy. 

D's Bible story today was about the Ark of the covenant being moved by the enemies of the Israelites and causing the enemy idol to fall down.  He acted out the story using a yellow gear (pretend gold ark) in an empty puzzle box (cart), pushed on the floor to the "idol" (pretend syrup bottle from K's kitchen).  He decided to do this activity last today.  It's funny because the past month he's always opted to do the Bible story & fun activities first and now he does everything else first and then does something "fun" last. 




For math so far this week, D completed the chapter 7 test and began chapter 8 where he's now "solving for the unknown" which will tie in with subtraction soon.  He loves figuring out the problems because they're all like this...  ? + 2 = 6   He was actually puzzled a bit on Tuesday when we began Chapter 8 and had a problem that used 0 like ? + 5 = 5.  I thought, FINALLY!  It takes us 8 chapters in MUS's Alpha book to finally puzzle him just a bit.   Though today he had a similar problem and it didn't puzzle him at all.  He's just going to be good at math (and science)...with a mommy as a teacher who's least favorite subjects in school were always math & science!  :o)

In Phonics, D read the first chapter of The Magic Treehouse #1 book.  And today he read a small chapter book called Dog Detective that's from a Hooked on Phonics set a friend gave me.  We reviewed the c, k, and ck sounds in Phonics Pathways and will move on to another "rule" tomorrow.  I really like this book because it's also teaching him to spell as we go, too.  Though he dislikes the writing part.  :o)  

Pop Bottle Science

Today we did "Pop Bottle Science" - it's a book & supplies I had bought awhile ago for $2. D found it last week and has been BEGGING to do an experiment. He is the science & math kid. Our experiment didn't work out quite right...the balloon on top of the bottle was to expand (a lot more than it did). We tried it twice and it still didn't work. I'm not sure if it's because the pop bottle comes apart and maybe we should use a "real" pop bottle?! Or maybe it's just me. I'm not a science person. ;O(

Pushing the baking soda wrapped in a paper towel inside the top of the bottle filled halfway with vinegar...

Watching the baking soda & vinegar "fizz" and make carbon dioxide which was supposed to make the balloon blow up on top of the bottle... Oh well, maybe he can try it again tomorrow with J, since he enjoys science?! :o)


Yesterday K had a taped "F" on the floor that she stuck stickers to...


The completed "F" and whenever I get a picture of K, D wants to be in it too even though he didn't do the stickers. :o)

Putting glue on the "basket" - notice her tongue, she's concetrating a lot! K cutting the strips of green all by herself...
K's completed Baby Moses picture...
D read the ENTIRE book of Nate the Great (all 60 pages) yesterday so I told him we'd count it for 2 books. I kept asking him if he wanted to stop, after the first 20 pages, but he assured me he could read the whole book and he wanted to figure out the mystery. :o) He did a great job!

knocking down idols & 2 pages of math

Today was cold & rainy so it was nice to stay inside all day and not have to go anywhere.

We began Unit 7 today so K learned a new letter..."F" and the motions that go with the sound are all 10 fingers waving like a flame (since we'll talk about the burning bush during this unit). She also learned a new fingerplay about Moses.

Today's Bible story was about the Israelites being slaves in Egypt. She had to act out making bricks which were a lot of directions to follow but she did well.

Then she drew 5 bricks (1 in each box) for her counting paper. When she was done D wrote the numbers as she counted to 5. I like seeing them work together.

After she was done her "school" as she calls it, she headed for the computer and played Dr. Seuss for awhile. The game has a lot of fun letter & number activities and it's fun because I can click on "progress" to see how she's doing on every activity since I'm not always right there watching what she's getting right/wrong. We switched headphones with another pair D had which fit her head a lot better, so she no longer has to wear a hat and then the headphones to keep them in place.


One of D's activities that went with his Bible story was to knock down idols (we read about the Israelites disobeying God & worshiping idols). He used the cardboard blocks to make idols and then knocked them down with beanbags. At first he just had 4 blocks upright then he became more elaborate and build a block tower since that was much more fun to knock down than just single blocks. I caught the blocks falling down in this picture...
I gave D the choice today of what math page to do - 7C or 7D and his choice was BOTH. I was surprised but won't say "no" to doing two pages in math. :o)

I thought this picture was cute...
His second page completed...he loves adding 10's and 100's even though there are only 2-3 problems like that on each page. He also enjoys story problems which I'm glad this curriculum has him doing every day since that is something that can often confuse kids.
D also read through A Kiss for Little Bear (his 10th book for the month!) and did really well learning a few new words like "decided, wedding, grandmother..." and more. In Phonics Pathways he reviewed the "k" sound is "ck" with a short vowel & one syllable word. He liked clapping out syllables yesterday & today as we talked about what a syllable is. I'm enjoying the Pathways book since it's not sorted by lesson so we really can go at our own pace and stay at a concept until he knows it.

We read another chapter of Peter Cottontail and it was about Reddy Fox which was fun. The past two chapters have been about playing tricks and so D and I have had some discussion about playing tricks & mischief. I like the discussions this book brings up - D is learning right/wrong from the characters, too.

P.E. Day

We did school this morning as usual, ate lunch and then headed out the door by 12:15 p.m. to get to P.E. at a YMCA that's a little ways from our home. It was a fun program. D & K are in the younger class together and thankfully don't mind that they're with each other. :o)

Today's focus was all about movement so the teacher began with stretches, then read a story and they acted like animals in the book and any other animal the kids named. She then read a spider story and they acted like spiders, did several movement songs and more activities for the first hour. The second hour was free play in the gym with balls and scooters. D and K LOVED the scooters. At the end of the hour, the teacher had the kids race from one side to the other running, hopping, jumping, crab-walking, on scooters, etc.

It was a lot of fun and definitely wore the kids out! I only wish it were every week instead of every 2 weeks. :O) I have to remember my camera next time so I can get pictures of them playing.

C was (thankfully) very content to be in the carrier and I sat and watched D&K play most of the time. It was nice to have someone else entertain them for awhile! It's worth every penny!

"...and the walls came tumbling down."

D's Bible story today was the Israelites crossing the Jordan River and the Battle of Jericho. He was able to build a tower with our cardboard blocks. K, D and I marched around it 7x, "blew a trumpet" and then shouted and D kicked the walls over to reenact the 7th day they walked around the city walls. Obviously, the day it actually happened God made the walls fall all on their own which D thought was really neat. :o)



He began chapter 7 in math today and was delighted to begin adding 10's and 100's. The chapter is about adding 2 and the 10's and 100's are thrown in for practice in place value. He had just two problems on his page (40+20 and 200+200) but was still excited about doing them. He also learned about odd/even numbers. We divided the Cheerios that were on the table for K's project...he discovered the even numbers can be divided evenly but the odd numbers cannot be divided evenly. He then told me that he already knew 9 was an odd number because that's how many marbles we have in the marble run set and K and him always dispute over who gets 5 and who gets 4. D read Home for a Bunny today and did really well - sounding out just a few words he hasn't read before. He also could identity what vowels go with "c" and "k" so we're moving on in Phonics Pathways tomorrow. Hooray!

I combined K's Days 3 & 4 of this unit together since we didn't do her activities last Friday. We read about Joseph and how he forgave his brothers. We also read the little devotional about letter "E" - God loves Everyone. She was dressed in her purple tutu for school today since the pink dress still needs to be repaired.

She also glued Cheerios to "E" since I didn't have any dry beans in the house. D wanted to join in on the fun and I thought he just wanted a morning snack of Cheerios - but he finished the project. :o)


K's "E" made all by herself...
Tomorrow afternoon is homeschool PE at a nearby YMCA - should be an adventure... but hopefully a fun one for the kids. :o)

afternoon school

Today was crazy - we ran to the doctor's office for Claire and weren't home until noon. Drew and I finally sat down to start the school day at 12:30 p.m. We skipped Kate's school today and will do it tomorrow when my parents are here. We skipped Drew's "fun activity" today and will do it tomorrow because he wanted to show my parents. And it's another "no picture" day...sorry!

Drew read Whose Mouse are You? and we talked about what " 's " means (showing possession) and then wrote all 3 kid's names on the board with their favorite things so he could see it personally. :o) We reviewed the spelling for "c" and "k" again. I had him write a "c" on "k" on the board before each vowel showing the phonics rule and then we wrote a few examples of words that are spelled that way below each set of letters. He missed two of the "c" and "k" combinations, so we'll keep working on it until it's 100%. At least he's learning to spell as we go... ;O)

He completed his chapter 6 test...writing 0-100 with a bit of modification today since our struggle yesterday. At least it's all done now. :o) He gets skip counting by 10's so that's good. We're ready to move on to chapter 7 on Monday.

We read the second chapter of Peter Cottontail and learned that Peter Rabbit changed his name to Peter Cottontail and how all the other forest creatures thought this was funny. Peter's quite a different character than Reddy Fox, but Drew is still enjoying this new book.

good day until it came to number writing...

No pics today, sorry! The kids completed Unit 6/Day 2.

They played "Joseph, May I" for one of Kate's activities since her Bible story was about Pharaoh making Joseph in charge of Egypt during the years of abundance & famine. Obedience was the theme and so they had to obey what "Joseph" said whether it be "yes" or "no" after they initially asked Joseph what kind/how many steps they could take towards him. I began as Joseph, then Drew and then Kate...she was cute, she said yes to everything!

Drew's Bible story was about Balaam's donkey speaking and so we used a pretend sword and had Drew and Kate be the donkeys and be doing a certain motion but when I (pretending to be the angel) raised the sword they had to stop and speak like Balaam's donkey did.

Drew had fun listening to the first chapter of Peter Cottontail today. It was all about Peter Rabbit wanting to change his name when Jimmy Skunk assures him that it's foolish to change his name because what you do is what really makes your name.

Kate knew her letter "E" and could make the "E-E-E" sound in her rhyme which talks about the famine in Egypt. She completed the Hide'n'Seek letter page completely on her own - she found all the upper/lowercase "E's" and then drew lines connecting the "E"to the "e." She also Drew 5 rings in her "Count on me" page while Drew wrote the numbers underneath each while Kate counted. It's fun to be in a routine now - she knows what's coming in each unit as far as a new letter, rhyme and Bible stories but the paper she completes are very similar.

Drew read through The Carrot Seed today for his 6th book. He had a few words he had to sound out but otherwise he read perfectly. I tied his handwriting paper into his "c" and "k" combinations/words from Phonics Pathways so he wrote each combination "ca, ke, ki, co and cu" and then I let him choose which word he wanted to write for each combination. He did well. I even let him do it in marker today just for something different.

The last subject of the day was math for Drew and up until this point the morning had gone well. I had him write his numbers 0-100 (remember I let him skip it yesterday and he had done it almost perfectly on Tuesday) since that was on the review page for the day.. It took him over 30 minutes to write from 0-30...not because he's slow but because he was watching Kate play the computer game, interacting with Claire and just not focusing on his work. I finally took the girls upstairs and left Drew downstairs which resulted in him getting upset and crying. At 12:30 p.m. when Jim called (an hour after Drew began his math paper) he talked with Drew and finally Drew finished his paper 1 1/2 hours after he started it. Goodness.

I decided I'm going to delay the test on chapter 6 until Monday and I think we'll do something else for math tomorrow. My parents will be here for the day and I don't want him spending HOURS writing 0-100 again. :oS

making dirt & cutting 6

We had a good morning of school today despite Kate's feisty-ness (I'm blaming it on the steroids she's on for croup combined with her sin nature. ;o)

We began Unit 6 for both Drew and Kate today...new rhymes, new letter...what fun!

Drew's Bible story today was about Moses striking the rock and the Israelites wandering in the Wilderness for 40 years prior to entering the Promised Land/Canaan. His rhyme is actually to the tune of "Row, Row, Row you Boat" which he did today...no complaining. Yeah!

For Science, Drew learned about seeds & soil which corresponded with the rich soil/plants that were in the Promised Land. He made "dirt" and of course Kate wanted to join in on the fun. We used mini chocolate chips to be the "rocky layer" then crushed graham crackers to be the "topsoil layer" and then cornflakes to be the "humus layer" like dried leaves, twigs, etc.

They were supposed to layer the types of dirt in the glass and see the layers, but both of them began shaking their glasses prior to getting the cornflakes dumped. Oh, well. :oS They then ate their "dirt" and I explained to Kate (and Drew) that we do not eat REAL dirt. Just in case she ever thinks about it while she's outside playing...
While they continued to eat "dirt" - I read the last chapter of Reddy Fox to Drew. He was sad to see the story come to an end, and when asked what his favorite part was he replied, "I liked all of it!" We'll begin Peter Cottontail tomorrow and the same forest characters will be in that book since it's by the same author. :o)

For Phonics, Drew read through Green Eggs & Ham and did an amazing job. It's kind of repetitive on pages and so I had to stop him a few times since he was skipping over the beginning of the sentence just assuming it was like the previous one, when it was often different. Other than that, he read right through the book very fluently and Kate sat and listened today.

He also read through another page of Phonics Pathways learning the difference between "k" and "c" words - k comes before e and i usually and c comes before a, o and u (usually). We'll spend another day or two on this before moving on. I want him to be able to think about spelling certain words. I know spelling will come in his 1st grade curriculum, but hopefully it will help him to write some words while learning these phonics rules.

He completed a few pages from his math book so we'll finish chapter 6 by Friday. I gave him a break from writing all the numbers 1-100. He was skip-counting by 10's today from 0-100. He will write all the numbers again tomorrow and again for his test on Friday. He assures me he knows all of them anyway, but I told him we have to do it for practice. ;o)

Kate's Bible story was about Joseph interpreting Pharaoh's dreams and so for her counting page she cut out blankets & pillows that I had outlined on scrap patterned paper from my scrapbooking supplies. She cut and glued everything by herself.
She was delighted to learn a new letter today...E says "E-E-E" and her hand motion is to empty a jar which goes with her rhyme.

Her songs in each unit correspond with the Bible stories and are taken from The Singing Bible which I LOVE - great lyrics and varying styles of music. We have been listening to it in the van lately on Monday/Wednesday as we drive to and from campus. Kate's favorite song right now is about Joseph. I love that when we head to the car she says, "I want to listen to Joseph!" Drew even enjoys listening to the stories & songs and can already quote some of the stories.

I just received an e-mail tonight from another local co-op - the one I'm hoping to get involved with more next year since they have a waiting list for their classes this year. It was about YMCA P.E. classes that meet twice a month beginning next week and ending in December. Both Drew and Kate can be involved in the same class. We're going to try it out on Tuesday. I'm excited!

Edible Playdough & Letters A-D

Last night Jim had to work, so I was home with the kids and while we were playing downstairs, Kate told me she'd like to do her school. So we did it at 6:30 p.m. last night right after we reviewed our AWANA verses. :o)

Today we finished Unit 5 for both kids. It was nice to have a "normal" homeschool day today with no plans to go out at all after our crazy day yesterday.

Drew's Bible story was about the Israelites making a golden calf to worship instead of worshiping the our true GOD. Moses was very angry with the people and ground the gold into powder and made the people drink it in water. UGH! Drew's artistic activity today was to use edible playdough to make a "golden calf" and then eat it...although I assured him we weren't going to worship this calf.
Drew hard at work making his calf...
Drew's completed golden calf...

Kate participated in only EATING the playdough, which is why I don't have any pictures of her "calf." :o) (She also wore her princess dress again all morning.)

Drew began chapter 6 in his math book - counting to 100 by ones & tens. For his page today, he had to write 0-100 which took him 20 minutes! When I checked his work, I found only 5 numbers mixed up - probably because he was distracted - but the rest were all correct. At the bottom of the page, he had to count by 10's and write them vertically and horizontally and he did it all correctly. I think we'll be done with this chapter by Friday. I've got to get to something that stumps him! Ha!

For Phonics, he read Inside, Outside, Upside Down all by himself (book #4 for October). When Kate heard him reading she left what she was playing with and came over to listen. I love it! Drew also read through an entire page in Phonics Pathways. He learned about "a" coming before words that begin with a consonant and "an" coming before words that begin with a vowel.

We read the second to last chapter in Reddy Fox which began..."Hardy had jolly, round, red Mr. Sun thrown off his nightcap and come out from his home behind the Purple Hills for his daily climb up in the blue, blue sky..." I stopped reading and asked Drew what I read about. He thought for a minute and didn't answer so I read it again and gave him a hint...the sun...then his eyes lit up and he thought it was a neat description of a sunrise (and I did, too).

We also discovered the word "quarrelling" and talked about it's meaning. I'm sure I'll hear him use in another day or so whenever he and Kate argue about something. :o) I really like this book and look forward to reading more throughout the year by the same author, Thornton Burgess.

The final activity Drew completed was another Thinking Skills page. He had to color 4 shapes 4 different colors and then count each and write the correct number in the blank at the bottom of the page. I had him read the directions by himself while I listened and then left him to complete it on his own. When I returned, he had it done everything correctly. Hooray! The book is working!

Kate's Bible story was about Joseph obeying the people in charge of him and telling the truth which pleased God and allowed God to have Joseph in charge of other people. She acted out obeying instructions like "putting toys away" and "closing doors softly" and then she had to shake her head "yes" or "no" to statements I made (telling the truth). The first one in the book was "Your hair is red."

Kate wrote each of her 4 letters that she's learned in the past 4 units on one of our small marker boards. She did a great job, other than the "D" looking like an "O"... (It's nice that she's going to be right-handed.)




Kate did her rhyme for Unit 5 and I caught just the beginning of it until the camera shut off. She's doing the motions for each of the sounds just in case you wonder (A - hands to cheek like a scream, B - arms folded rock boat, C- pat legs, D- hold reigns of camel). :o)

We learned about A-A-Adam,
And B-B-Boat,
and C-C-Clippety Clop,
and D-D-Dusty Camel..."