Ravens, The Last Supper & New Math

Another week, another unit...16!


K's letter is "M" which is for "m-m-miracles" to go along with the stories of Elijah & Elisha she'll be learning this week.  She did a great job saying the letter and motions for the sound today.  We'll see if she remembers it tomorrow morning?!  :o)

Her Bible story today was about the prophet, Elijah, and how God had  ravens bring him his food.  To go along with her Bible story, I put 3 types of small snacks in a bowl and she had to sort them.  She was supposed to bring the food from the bowl a few feet away to the bowls where she would sort each piece, but quickly realized it would take awhile so she asked to move the bowl from the computer table to the school table. :o)  Smart girl!

Sorting the 3 types of snacks (pic left - Cheerios, raisins & butterscotch chips).  Notice her outfit of her choice for today (pic right) - her purple tutu with pink tights and purple tank top...the clothing is not a battle I choose to fight right now unless we're headed out of the house for the day.  :oS

The way she chose to sort the snacks were to pick out all the butterscotch chips first and put them in the Minnie bowl, then pick out all the raisins and put them in the purple flower-shaped bowl and then dump the Cheerios left in the white bowl into the blue sorting bowl.  :o)

She's all done sorting (pic left) so she can eat them now (pic right)!

D's Bible story was about Jesus' Last Supper with his disciples and how he commanded them to have this meal again to remember Him and so that is why we have communion at church today.  To remember Jesus and what He has done for us...his body that was broken (crucified) and the blood that was shed for our sins. 

For his activity, D set out 12 plates and cups - 1 for each disciple.

All set up!

He was then to pour grape juice (we opted to use water instead) into each cup...

 

...and then break bread into 12 pieces...

 

...and put one on each plate...

When he was done we sang a "hymn" just like Jesus did with his disciples.  D chose to sing "Blessed be the Name of the Lord" not a classic hymn but a good praise song!  :o)

D and K both enjoyed sampling the bread from the plates when we were all done with the activity since it was just a half hour before lunchtime...

We began The Adventures of Grandfather Frog as our read-aloud this morning since we finished Danny Meadow Mouse last Friday.  It's another book in the Thorton Burgess series which D is enjoying.  Today's chapter was about Jerry Muskrat warning Grandfather Frog of a trick two other forest characters were going to play on him.  The chapter contained the word "mischief" which we had read before in an earlier book this year (Reddy Fox, I think?) and D remembered the meaning.  I was happy!

He read chapter 3 in the HOP book he's working through right now - and reviewed the short i and long i sounds in various words for Phonics Pathways.  I realize often that he'd much rather read books than work through the Pathways book but I know learning the rules will help him with spelling the words later on as well as continuing to read more books...and because it's a requirement of the state we continue going through the Pathways book. :o)

I decided to change up his math curriculum.  Math U See is good in teaching the math concepts, but it's on the boring side and I was not happy with how the concepts were covered over the few years of elementary school looking ahead.  Subtraction isn't covered at all in the level he was currently working in.   I'm always thinking about IF I have to go back to work and he has to go to "real" school, he needs to be in the place where he won't be behind...ahead would be fine, I just don't want him behind. 

I've been contemplating switching to Singapore Math for a few weeks now - which is the nice thing about homeschool!  Singapore is the math curriculum that is written in our HOD guides.  I couldn't use the level written in his LHFHG guide since it's the K math level, but reading what they do each day is "FUN" and I definitely need math to be FUN for my kids since I went through school disliking it.

I gave D the "placement test" yesterday that I printed from the Singapore website and he actually LOVED doing the few pages of the test (though I didn't call it a test).  When he was done, he asked that I print more pages like it from the internet for him to do another day - you know you have a "winner" when he begs for more! ;o)  He did well on the test and placed into the "1B" level which is the second half of first grade.  I ordered the workbook, teacher's book and computer game for 1st/2nd grades yesterday...it'll be here by Thursday.  I'm so excited!

I'm selling the MUS things to recover our $$$ (thankfully the resale value on them is high!) and put it towards buying next year's curriculum.  Thinking ahead for K, she'll begin with Singapore K when she begins her Kindergarten year when she's 5 using the guide D is using this year for his Kindergaten year.

So in the meantime this week for math, we're doing "fun" things to learn facts since he struggles with some of his math facts.  Today I let D use butterscotch chips (you know since K had used them for her activity it's only FAIR that I have to let D use them so he can eat them, right?!).  He made four fact families on a piece of paper...I set out 9 chips and had him make a fact family using 3,6 & 9 so it looked like this:

3+6=9

6+3=9

9-6=3

9-3=6

Then he did 3 more families on his own and ate the chips when he was done.  He did it right and could tell me the facts when I asked him like what 5+2 equals!  :o)  We'll work more on the higher facts he really struggles with tomorrow like the +8, +9 facts!

Friday, already?!

This week seemed to fly by.  Today we finished up Unit 15 for D & K...adding in a few activities we missed yesterday due to being gone most of the day in the snow.  :o)

D's Bible story was about Jesus cleaning out the temple of all the money changers.  We talked about what God's house is really intended for...worship...not making $ like a store.  His science reading was about keeping your body clean (general hygeine) and he added that he should put bad things in it like smoking or bad drugs.  I agreed with him!  He also said he should eat the healthy things...carrots, apples, protein like cheese, etc.  (We've been working lately on trying more foods - it's coming slowly!)  His activity was to clean a dirty penny and compare it with an already clean one...thankfully we have an abundance of pennies in the junk drawer so finding two opposite ones wasn't a problem this morning. :o)

We finished reading aloud the book about Danny Meadow Mouse - the last chapter was about his escape from Reddy Fox because Reddy had lost his temper.  We had a fun discussion about losing your temper/anger...something we all need to work on!

K learned more about Solomon today and how the people rejoiced the temple was built and then we read about how Solomon eventually worshiped idols (which K learned is wrong).  To act out being happy about the temple being built - K chose an instrument (tambourine was her choice) and she danced around the room while we sang a few songs (Jesus Loves Me, Praise Him All the Little Children).  After we were done, Drew (who was at the computer during that time) said, "Mommy, You have a pretty voice."  What a sweetie!   :o)  To act out the story about Solomon worshiping the idols K had to say, "No, No, Solomon, You should worship God!"

 

She completed her letter hide'n'seek page choosing to find the K's at the top and match the uppercase to lowercase letters at the bottom - she reviewed the I-L and mixed up only the lowercase i with the lowercase l.  

She also completed her "count on" page drawing small crosses in each box all by herself and then making a number 1 all herself (I then helped her with the remaining numbers to 5 to write below the crosses).

I'm excited about how much her writing skills have grown over the past few months.  We're not working on any letters or numbers right now, just lines, circles, etc. but she's doing well and it's so much fun to watch the progress!

Oh, she is wearing clothes...her t-shirt, underwear and her purple tutu outfit this morning.  I have since made her take it off and wear pants & a sweatshirt like a normal person in the winter.  She then chose to put her Snow White dress over her sweatshirt & pants.  She's so funny!

C didn't nap well this morning so she was downstairs with us most of our school time.  She screams whenever she's confined in the colored gate now, so I've opened it and used it as a barrier between the school side of the basement & the play side of the basement. She's free to crawl within the school area which usually doesn't have too much on the floor except her toys and our feet.  :o)  She discovered the cardboard blocks today & loved tossing them around.   She also made it up the first step of the stairs before I caught her...guess we'll be gating the steps at the bottom now, too!  Oh boy..a weekend project for daddy tomorrow!

Zaccheus' Tree

The kids were playing so well this morning together that we delayed the start of our school time until around 11 a.m.  D's Bible story was about Zaccheus and so his art activity today was to paint a tree using "textured" paint (brown paint with coffee grounds mixed in).  He did a great job painting the ground, the trunk and then adding green paint (non-textured) for the leaves.

While D was reading a chapter book aloud for Phonics today, he paused after the end of a sentence and said, "those are there so you can swallow your spit."  I realized he was pointing to the period at the end of the sentence he had just finished.  Too funny!

For math, D reversed a lot of numbers...I'm hoping it's just him getting back into the groove of doing school full-time again after our two week break and not getting dyslexic...

We didn't get K's school time in today so I'll just combine two days for her tomorrow.  She'll love the "extra" activities...

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.