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!

Unit 14 complete...now on to Christmas!

We completed unit 14 for both kids this past week.  It was a bit of challenge since daddy was home this week with us.  :o)

D's Bible stories were about more of Jesus' miracles.   His rhyme for the unit was set to the tune of "I'm a little teapot."  On Wednesday we had forgotten to do the rhyme at the end of the school day and as we were driving home from church that night he said out of the blue, "We need to do my rhyme when we get home, Mom!"  He has a great memory!

He completed chapter 13 for his math which was about shapes (easy for him) and I may put off chapter 14 for a week or two in January so we can get him mastering his addition facts.  He can figure out +8 and +9 but he really needs to master them (according to the notes in the teacher's guide) before I have him moving on.  Another nice feature of homeschool - we can spend extra time on a concept if he needs it, or fly through it (like the shapes) because he's already mastered it.

For Phonics, D finished up another HOP chapter book this week and earned his December Book-It.   He's reading fluently but is always looking at the picture on the page prior to reading the text and then asking me what's happening.  I've had to remind him to read first and then look at the picture since the text describes what's going on in the picture. :o)  He's learning!

He's continuing to work his way through Phonics Pathways even though some of it is a review of 100 Easy Lessons.  He's learning the "rules" and hopefully that will help him with spelling and reading.  In January I'll begin having him write a few words from dictation since the book recommends having students write as well as read the words.  He won't like it, but I figure we better ease into it, since next year's curriculum guide will have him doing a lot more writing than he is doing this year!

Our read-aloud book is Danny Meadow Mouse and the chapters this week were all about Danny being a good friend to Peter Rabbit after Peter allowed Danny to live with him in the Briar-Patch.  Peter got caught in a snare in Farmer Brown's orchard - Danny helped him get out of the wire.  Silly animal stories but D enjoys them - it's something different than what he's reading for Phonics or what we read-aloud outside of our school work.  K often listens to the stories, too!

On Friday D had to write about helping someone since Danny was helping Peter Rabbit in the store.  D chose ME!  It was cute - he wrote that he could help Mommy cook, clean and do laundry (since he always puts his folded clothes away now).  He even drew two helping hands on his paper (complete with green-colored veins).  ;o)

K's Bible stories were about David's life as king.  She also learned the letter "L" and had a little trouble making the "L" sound.  Yesterday she glued various pieces of yarn in shortest - longest order.  She is begging me to paint everyday and is often disappointed when I don't get the paints out.  Her lesson from the Big Thoughts book this week was about "L" - for Lying - what's not good to do.  I had an interesting discussion with her about lying - since she's lied lately about having accidents.

Now we're on vacation from school work until January 4, so this blog will be left alone until then and I am hoping to get more pictures on it in January because I know it's more fun to read with PICTURES!  :o)   

Merry Christmas!

waves & kindness

We finished Unit 13 for both kids on Friday and will tackle Unit 14 this next week, then take 2 weeks off for Christmas...yeah! 

D's Bible story was about Jesus walking on the water.  He drew a picture of the boat (some of the disciples in it) and then used glue to make waves as the water around the boat.  When the glue dried it was "puffy" and looked "wet" since it dried clear and shiny.  D had given me a bit of a fit as he wanted to just color the waves not use the glue, but I told him we were following directions...one of those things I always wonder if I'm doing the right thing or if I should let him do his own thing.  The teacher in me stresses about following directions correctly now in the little things so that it carries over into his life in the "big things" one day...

K reviewed letter "K" and we read the "K" page in her Big Thoughts book.  It was all about kindness, doing kind things for others so we had an interesting discussion about kindness and how she can be kind. :o)  I love those moments with her.  She always begs for more activities and most days I give her an "extra" one while I continue helping D.  Some days she'll cut out the letter we're working on - kind of like her counting book.  Other days, I'll pick out a coloring page.  And the rest of the days, she opts to get on the computer and play a few computer learning games.

baking bread feeding 5, not 5000

Today the activity for D to do along with his history (Bible) was baking bread since he read about Jesus' miracle when He made 5 loaves of bread (and 2 fish) feed 5000 people.  Our loaf fed 5 people. :o)

It was fun!  D was instructed to add ingredients & mix the dough in large Ziploc bag...

He was then to knead the dough for 8 minutes...he kneaded about 2 minutes then I took over. ;o)

He didn't mind getting his hands all messy or sticky though...

 We then placed the dough in a bowl and let it rise for 30 minutes.  Time was up while the kids were eating lunch so I ended up flattening it, rolling it and placing it in the loaf pan to rise again prior to baking it.

After baking, the final product of all our labor was this...

It was really good! D had a slice this afternoon and then another slice with dinner tonight. :o)

For Phonics, D read an entire HOP chapter book today.  It was about a detective and he was interested in it and asked to read all of it after chapter 1.  I wasn't going to say "no" to more reading.  I also encouraged him to begin reading our other "easy" chapter books on our bookshelves...we only have a few hundred books here at home. :O)  I told him we could make a chart to count the books he reads and after so many he could get something special (besides the Book-It certificate each month).  He read one right after lunch and designed his own chart - making a HUGE gauge that was already colored in for one book. I love it!

K learned about David & Jonathan today and had a few activities about friendship/sharing.  She painted her letter "K" with watercolor paints and listened to her Singing Bible CD song about David.

PE - Gymnastics today!

The kids were delighted that PE today at the Y was all about gymnastics.  I've been keeping the girls home from church because of their coughs, but felt it didn't matter for PE since the other kids are there coughing.

They warmed up with stretches and then moved from the gymnastics area into this small room with a gymnastics obstacle course...

They began at the bar - holding themselves up with their arms...

Later hanging by their arms with their legs touching the bar for 3 seconds...

 

D kept telling the instructor he could hang for 300 seconds...

After the bar they moved onto somersaults down a "hill" mat...

 

C watching...she was really good for the entire 2 hours we were there...not napping, of course.  :o)

 

After the somersaults, the kids went down a slide (you can see it in the back of the picture through the mirror) and then had to walk across balance beam stepping over the beanbags.

 

K dancing after coming over to me to get a drink from her water bottle...

 

They spent about 30 minutes in the small room doing the obstacle course and hanging from the bar.  Then moved back into the big room with the large gymnastics equipment.

D walking across the "low" balance beam in the gymnastics room...

 

D walking across the "high" balance beam in the same area...he kept telling the instructor he could do it all by himself.  I have no doubt he could, but she had to hold on for safety reasons and I had to explain that to him later.  He was practically running across the beam...

 

K making her way across the "low" beam...

 

Then going across the "high" beam...no fear!  I was impressed!

 

Her "dismount" at the end of the "high" beam...

 

The last hour of the PE is always free-play time in the gym.  Today there was a large ball out and the kids kicked, rolled and pushed it around for awhile and also had a blast on the scooters - their favorite!  

 

 

December school so far...

We completed Unit 12 last week.  D's moved into the New Testament for his History beginning with the birth of Jesus.  He added this picture to his timeline last week for the wall...

The past few days we've been reading about the miracles Jesus did while on earth.  We read the one about Jesus asking the men to throw their net back into the water after fishing all night catching nothing.  When they did their nets were full of fish.  D had to draw a fish that day and made a cute one!  This was all him...he was adding a baby fish at the bottom when I took the picture...

The day we read about Jesus turning the water into wine...for a science activity D poured water into various containers he chose.  He discovered that water takes the shape of the container...flower, muffin tin, circle, bowl, etc.  K had to do it, too, of course!

 

D completed chapter 11 (review of shapes & counting by 2's) in his math and has moved onto chapter 12 this week which is adding doubles (3+3, 4+4 etc.).  He is also practicing reading, writing and spelling the number words "zero-nine."  He loves his math and is always looking to the next chapter to see what's coming.

For Phonics, D is learning about digraphs (ch, tch,) and more.  Throughout the Phonics Pathways book there are witty sayings that I think are a bit "corny" but D loves them and will often read them himself and then ask me what they mean.  He's finished all the beginning readers from HOP (hooked on phonics) that a friend gave to me and have moved onto the chapter books.   He's reading a chapter a day and doing an amazing job.  Lately I haven't had to help him at all...except when he's mis-read something because he's rushing.  Can't wait for him to read chapter books on his own for fun!   He earned his Book-It certificate for November but has yet to get his pizza yet!  :o)  

We began Danny Meadow Mouse for his read-aloud just before Thanksgiving.  He's already met up with Reddy Fox and the other characters from the other books we've read.  One day last week D had to make a snow mound and hide something behind it just like Granny Fox hid herself under snow trying to catch Danny Meadow Mouse.  D chose Pac-Man and had to write two descriptive words and draw a picture...

K completed her Unit 12 last week learning about letter "J" and the story of Samuel.  She is working through Unit 13 this week and was so excited the letter is "K" which is "her letter" as she calls it.  She is learning about David this week and created this scene to go with her Bible story yesterday learning about David being a shepherd and taking care of sheep.  She cut out the clouds with scissors and glued two cotton balls side by side for the sheep.  She also colored the stream blue and did a nice job staying in the "lines" I drew for the outline of the river.

It's hard to believe we're almost 4 months into our school year already.  It's been an adventure so far, but I LOVE it and so do the kids.  I wouldn't trade this time with them for anything!  Last night at our Bible study, our leader was talking about God giving us the desires of our hearts when we delight in Him, obey Him, and follow Him and I sat there thinking about my desire to school the kids.  Thank you, Lord for this amazing privilege right now!

Neglected blog but not neglected school

So I've been really bad with the blog thing for two weeks.  I'll get back to it!  Even though this blog was neglected our school days were not.  We took a break only from the 25-27 for Thanksgiving but resumed our school on Monday with Unit 12, Day 1. 

I will update soon with pictures!