no snow days or delays here...

Our first day of school after Christmas & New Year's was yesterday, January 4.  It's nice not to have to worry about the weather - as I see delays or closings on the TV due to the cold & snow here - it's nice to just wake up and get downstairs to start school around 10 a.m. each day.  No coats, boots, finding lost gloves, scraping the van, warming the van, etc...another perk of homeschooling!  :o)

D balked at doing school but K was eager to get started and wanted to paint, color and do more activities than what was planned for her.  It's funny how after 2 weeks off, we have to re-learn a few things:

• sitting AT the table - not sitting ON the table (both kids)
  
• making our number 7 correctly (for some reason D is reversing it?!) 
• eating our breakfast and not asking for snacks every five minutes during school time (K)
  

We changed our school calendar dates from December to January - the kids are always excited about it at the beginning of each month and actually talked about changing it over the weekend.  :o)   I was going to write the date on the markerboard but remembered that it still had the REAL marker all over it from K's creations in December one afternoon when I wasn't downstairs with them...

I seriously need to buy another Magic Eraser (or two or even the 10 count from Sam's Club)!!!!

We began Unit 15 for both kids yesterday.  I do still enjoy the curriculum we're using this year -  it's nice to just open the book and go...not prepping anything!

K's reviewing letters A-L this week and yesterday I had her put the flashcards in order - she only mixed up E and L but otherwise had them lined up correctly and could tell me all the sounds with a bit of help from the hand motions.  Not bad for taking a break for 2 weeks!

Her Bible story the past two days was about Solomon.  We talked a bit today about the temple God told him to build and why we go to church.  She also had to act out building the temple...she was in a tutu dress at the time so it was cute to see her "swinging an ax" to "chop down a tree" and "sawing a board" or "mixing up clay" to "make bricks." :o)

K's activity was to build the temple with marshmallows and toothpicks.  As soon as I said "marshmallows" D immediately said he'd participate in this activity.  They did a great job.

The builders hard at work (I didn't let them eat the marshmallows until they were done building & I snapped a picture)...

Their finished temples:

 

D's continuing to learn about the life of Jesus for his history lessons.  Today's story was about the time Jesus healed Bartimaus (sp?).  For D's Science lesson today we talked about the sense of sight.  He had to be blindfolded and draw a picture of a face on paper.  He laughed so hard when he looked at the face he had drawn - the smile was outside the circle and the eyes were crooked.  We talked about how important sight is to draw & read and what people do who cannot see (read Braile & listen carefully).

D began chapter 14 for math yesterday...though we may be reviewing the facts for a few extra days until he masters them...this week it's doubles plus 1 (3+4, 4+5. 5+6, 6+7 etc).  It's not hard, but he tries to rush and doesn't always use the blocks when he's confused. 

We're continuing to read through Danny Meadow Mouse's adventures and today he outsmarted Mr. Blacksnake.  At times there are words I don't think D will understand or pick up on, but he does.  He amazes me.

Today we took a break from the HOP (Hooked on Phonics) chapter books a friend gave to me, to read The Great Race (Thomas the Tank Engine, Level 1 book) which was actually too easy for him, but I wanted to encourage him to read rather than discourage him at the beginning of the month. :o)   At this point, I'm going to go between the HOP chapter books and the level 1&2 readers I have on the bookshelf for his daily reading after he does a page in Phonics Pathways each day.  He looks forward to reading the books - if I can only get him reading during "free time" that will be really good!