School in the afternoon

We had friends come play this morning so we did school this afternoon instead and it worked well since C took a longer afternoon nap!  I didn't get many pics because my camera battery was out.

We finished Unit 16 for D&K!!!

D is getting used to his math - it's definitely making him THINK more (which is so good!) and challenging him.  I love it and I know he's enjoying it more, too.  We just have to get those facts down...thankfully this curriculum gives him a few extra weeks to work on them.  Whew!  He tried the computer game that goes with his curriculum and was sad to find out it's only math games...guess he was expecting it to be more random video game-like?!  He did play it and we'll use it off/on some weeks to reinforce what he's learning.  It separated into various concepts/levels/learning & activities. 

His Bible story today was about the Resurrection...JESUS IS ALIVE!   D enjoyed listening to this part of the story and hearing how the women found the tomb empty!

To go with the "cave" (tomb) in the Bible story, D's activity was to put 4-6 objects in a bowl, cover it and then turn turn backwards.  I took an object out and he had to guess what I removed.  He did well and K noticed the fun and came over to the table and begged to play.  We did it with her for a few turns and she did well guessing the missing objects, too!

New Math!

Today D began his new math curriculum and LOVED it!  The pictures are fun, but I really like how it teaches him to THINK not just memorize facts.  He has yet to try the computer game that goes with the 1st & 2nd grade curriculum.  I played it last night and thought it was fun.  We'll see what he thinks about it tomorrow.  ;o)


K's Bible story was about Naaman - going to see Elisha and having Elisha tell him to bathe in the Jordan River 7x  & God took away his "sores" on his body.  K wasn't too enthused about the story - I think she thought it a bit gross since a picture in the storybook showed a man with dots all over his body.  Ugh.

She did remember the letter "M" sound today!  yeah!  We're making progress!  She had to find the upper/lowercase m's on her hide/seek page today and found them all.  She also drew a nice straight line to match them up.  I was proud of her. 

She later spent some time on the computer while D was working on his school.  Lately she's half leaning/standing with her face really close to the screen (I think she needs glasses) and I had to get a picture of this today since she's wearing the tutu AGAIN and her pink "clip clop" shoes are next to her on the table.  Ha!

D's Bible story today was about Jesus dying on the cross - the most important part of history, the center of our history!  Drew was a bit teary eyed while I was reading the story from the Bible storybook.  He was excited to hear the one thief next to Jesus would go to heaven when he believed in Jesus as he hung on his cross.  We had a brief discussion about why the guards were placed in front of the stone of the tomb where Jesus was buried after He died on the cross.  D couldn't understand why some people might want to steal Jesus' body or make it appear as if He did raise again.  Probably because D already knows the good news - Jesus does RISE again, no bodies stolen, no lies...HE DID IT.  He defeated sin & death & rose again...that's the Bible story for tomorrow. :o)

The day Jesus died on the cross, the sky turned dark in the middle of day.  D had to draw a picture of day/night using bright colors for daytime and dark colors (black/gray) for nighttime.  Here's what he drew:

 

Notice the tree?  It's light on one side D told me because that's the sun on it making it lighter colored and it's dark green on the other because it's away from the sun so it looks darker.  That was all his idea & thoughts.  I'm really amazed at him. :o)

The night picture is him sleeping on top of his bunkbed in gray/black.  He doesn't really have a ladder on his bed but he told me today that he wants one for his bed.

rooster & pouring oil

We've made it halfway through this week.  Hooray! 

Our school day began when I had K start gluing sequins to her letter "M" on a piece of paper - she chose white today...probably because we were all out of pink paper. :o)

It took her quite awhile to glue them on, but in the meantime I worked with D on his Phonics, reading Grandfather Frog and Thinking Skills.  At one point I had to run upstairs to change C (she didn't nap at all this morning) :o( and when I returned D was helping K with the rest of the gluing.  It's so nice to see them working together...I'm seeing it happen more often & I LOVE IT!

When D finished helping K we went on to his Bible story while K went to play with her playdoh.

His Bible story today was about Peter denying Jesus 3 times before the rooster crowed - something Jesus had told Peter he would do, but Peter didn't believe he could do it.  D and I had a good talk about not denying Jesus in our own lives.  It's so good to be able to have these conversations with him and my prayer for him is that he continues to grow in his relationship with Jesus as the years go by.

An activity to go along with his story was to talk about roosters - crowing at dawn usually when the sun rises.  We're thankful we don't have a rooster in our yard waking us up! ;o)  He had to draw a picture of the rooster and did a great job drawing his rooster freehand while looking at one from in a picture in one of K's little books.  The picture in the book had a lot of little chicks around the rooster and D wanted to draw one in his picture, too.

I love the feet of the rooster!

K's Bible story today was about Elisha and the widow with sons who had little oil left in her jar and who was very poor.  Elisha told her to collect empty jars and God allowed the oil to keep flowing from her jar to fill all the empty jars and she sold them to take care of her and her sons.

K was delighted that she was able to act out "pouring oil" today and pour using the pitcher all by herself!  We used water for the oil and she filled 8 cups before her "oil" ran out.  I had her go get more cups from her play kitchen and try to fill them, but obviously she couldn't unless I refilled the pitcher (which I did not do).  We then talked about how it was miracle that the lady in the Bible story could keep pouring oil from the jar - God allowed the jar not to run out of oil!












She had trouble telling me the sound of "M" today but she will tell me the letter name...we're working on it.

D didn't do any math yet today because I checked the tracking link this morning for his new books and found that they're "out for delivery today." YEAH!    So we're waiting for the brown truck to come by and deliver the books & new computer game.  D wanted to do "tasty math" again but I told him another day...

"no pictures, mom!"

For some reason this morning I heard that command over & over from D&K.  They did not want me taking any pictures for anything but somehow I managed to "sneak" a few for the blog today. :o)

K helped me make her letter for the unti "M" on the floor today while she danced over it saying "mmmmm" when I began to take her picture she stopped and gave me this face below - I think it's hilarious!  And yes, she's wearing the tutu and white tights today (the pink ones I made disappear down the laundry chute yesterday).  ;o)

K's Bible story was about Elijah building an altar to God and asking God to send fire down on it from heaven so that the people who didn't believe in God would know that Elijah was worshiping & praying to the one and only TRUE God!

For her activity, K had to make an altar like Elijah's altar out of playdoh...of course she picked PINK!  She rolled the playdoh into little balls for the "stones" then rolled "logs" to place on top.

She was pleased with her work so far (and didn't object to this picture)!

She surrounded the altar with "water" (flat pink playdoh in a circle) and then made some flames on the water and logs because when God sent the fire from heaven down it consumed the altar AND the water which was AMAZING!

The finished project...

D did "tasty math" again - what he named writing fact families using butterscotch chips.  I told him we're only doing this the days we wait for his new math books to arrive (hopefully they'll be here by Thurs!).  He did well and could tell me the facts from yesterday that he did - both addition & subtraction...yeah!

He finished the HOP chapter book he was reading so we'll move onto another chapter book tomorrow.  He read about short/long "o" words in Phonics Pathways and struggled a bit...he will guess the word and then look at me to help him which I refuse to do so I point his eyes back to the book.  He's learning the "rules" but he does not like the nonsense list of words to read.  :o(

He wrote the first part of his Bible verse for this unit (Matt 6:9-12 "The Lord's Prayer" passage) and did a really nice job making his letters close together for each word with a "finger space" between the words.  I was impressed - didn't get a picture of the paper, sorry!

D's Bible story was about Jesus praying in the garden the night he was betrayed by Judas (with a kiss).  We talked about how Judas' kiss wasn't given out of love, but that our kisses are given out of love.

D's activity was to draw a large set of lips and write the names of people you love inside.  K wanted in on this activity to - D objected but I let K participate because I knew what was coming.  They were to put on "lipstick" using jelly, chocolate sauce or real lipstick - I chose jelly (grape for D and strawberry for K).  When I showed them what they were to do (put on the "lipstick" and kiss the paper all over until the jelly was used up from their lips) D ran away from the table and halfway up the steps.  K objected to doing it because of D's fuss.  So I did it and then K came back to the table and did it when she realized how fun it was.  :o) 

Jelly "lipstick" on the lips...

Kissing the paper...

Admiring her kisses & big kiss lips...

 

D opted to just draw lips...

and then had a fit about me taking his picture so he moved the paper off the table and gave me this face...

And that was the end of our school day. :o)

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...