math review & Danny Meadow Mouse

Sorry, no pictures today. :o(

D had a big math review page today...36 math problems reviewing +0, +1, +2 +9 and +8...all the facts he's learned the past few weeks.  He did really well...though he ended up going to the living room to work on it as K was dancing around her to Bella Dancerella video downstairs and D complained he couldn't concentrate.  He only missed 2 problems and that was because he chose not to use the blocks. :o(

We began reading aloud Danny Meadow Mouse today, discovering that Danny wishes he had a longer tale like his cousin Whitefoot.  He wasn't content with the way he was made...  D and I talked about being content with how God made us.  D says, "I am, Mommy!"  Guess Mommy needs to keep learning that lesson!  :o)

K learned more about Samson today and glued paper flowers to letter "I" which she can name and say the sound for.  She always begs me to do more "schoolwork" so she usually gets a coloring book and joins D and I at the table while he works on a lot of his subjects.

D's Bible story was about the angels telling the shepherd's about Jesus' birth.   For his activity, we felt our throat vibrate while we talked, sang, spoke in a low voice, etc.   We filled 4 glasses with various amounts of water and listening to the vibration each glass made when tapped with a spoon.  K liked this activity, too.

For Phonics D learned about consonant digraphs (two consonants on the end of a word that say a sound together...like "sh" instead of the sounds for each letter).  The words were fairly easy for him to read which is good.  He has four more books to read for his Book-It for November.  He also only has two weeks left to use his coupon from October.  I think he'll be using it to have a fun lunch or dinner with J soon!

the past 3 days

We did have school today and the past two days.  I just didn't blog about it Monday because I ran out of time and yesterday I had a very bad case of food poisoning (so bad that J had to come home from work to take care of the kids) and so finally today I'm better & have time to blog...

Monday we finished Unit 10 for both kids.  K had a final review of letters A-H and everytime she gets to letter "D" she says "that's D's letter" and everytime we get to "G" she says "that's Grandma's letter!"  I had her trace the dots I made for each letter...she surprised me and did really well! 

We read a chapter from a "new book" for D's curriculum about Alexander and a horse (frightened by a shadow) and then we got out a flashlight and made shadows, talked about what causes the shadow and why Alexander could ride the horse once he turned it to face the sun instead of having his back to the sun.  D thought it was really neat.


We began Unit 11 for both kids on Tuesday.  I was feeling bad, but we got through the work.  (I really didn't want to have to double a day later this week.)  D's Bible story was about the angel speaking to Mary, telling her she was going to have Jesus.  (Yep, we're in the NT now!)  He has a new rhyme which talks about celebrating Jesus' birthday in December and goes over the months of the year.  He is instructed to do a somersault when he hears the name of his birthday month.  He likes this!

K learned a new letter "I" which says "I-I-Impossible" and has the motion as if she's lifting something heavy.  She learned about Gideon picking the men to fight that drank water from their hands.  She drew a picture with a blue wavy line across the bottom (river) and a smile on the left side and I trace her hand on the right side.  She then circled the hand to symbolize those where the men God told Gideon to pick to fight in his army.

She knew "I" today when I brought out the flashcard!  Her Bible story was about Samson being strong.  She drew "barbells" (weights) for her count on me paper.  I drew the first one and then she did all the rest.  She wrote the numbers in purple crayon (over top the ones I wrote in pink).
 

Her activity was to lift several objects and put them in a line...lightest to heaviest.  We used various toys from the playroom.  She knew "light" and "heavy."  :o)

D's Bible story today was about Jesus being born in a stable.  D asked "how did the baby come out of Mary?"  My answer, "How God made babies to come out."  Oh goodness, didn't want to go into details today about it.  His activity was to set up a nativity and so I grabbed the Playmobil nativity out of our Christmas box (I had gotten last summer at a garage sale!).  The kids had fun setting it up and playing with it for a few minutes.  Then we packed it away again until after Thanksgiving. ;o)

We finished Peter Cottontail (a.k.a. Peter Rabbit) today - he finally learns that he can't hibernate or be like other animals because he was made to be a rabbit!  When I asked D what his favorite part of the book was, he said "the whole thing!"  I'm glad he enjoyed it.

He's nearing the end of chapter 10 in his math book.  He completed the last lesson review page today, but he's still not solid on his facts yet.  So we'll review more tomorrow and take his test on Friday.  He's anxious to get into chapter 11, but I told him he has to be able to say the answers to his facts "fast" before he can move on.  The next chapter is about shapes & counting by 2's which he knows...so I'm thinking we'll continue reviewing his facts daily.

He copied his verse for Unit 11 today (sorry the picture is light to see his pencil) and when I put away his other handwriting papers from the bulletin board, I looked at his handwriting from September.  What a change!  I showed D the difference between the papers.  I love keeping a portfolio of his work (besides for assessment at the end of the school year) to show him how he's progressing!

horns, Jericho walls rebuilt, King May I?, science & storytime cookies

This post is loaded with pics as we did a lot of activities during our school time this morning...

K reviewed her letters - she chose to circle "Ee" in the top section and then had to match the letters correctly on the bottom.  She did it correctly and made her lines a bit creatively...just like D does.  Oh boy!

She drew "horns" (triangles) in each box of her "count on me" paper.  I drew one, then she drew one and we went on like this until the 5th one which she did all by herself to finish the page.  Her "horns" weren't exactly triangles, but they were "horns" to her so I guess that's all that matters...we'll work more on being exact next year!  :o)

Her Bible story was about the walls of Jericho falling down and so we built a circular "city" with our cardboard blocks.  Then K marched around it...

Then D joined in and K was being bossy, telling him not to touch the blocks because he'd knock one over as he cut the circle too close.

When it came time for the walls to fall down D smashed the whole thing himself... 

K was not happy (arms crossed, scowl on her face) and D's expression says "What?"...

So we rebuilt the walls and then K got to knock it down all by herself...

D's Bible story today was about Esther approaching the King.  We played a version of "King, May I?" where I began as the King and D began as the Queen.  He had to ask me if he could take a certain number/kind of steps toward me.  If I raised the scepter (we used K's "magic mirror") then he could take that many steps.  If I didn't raise the scepter he had to stand still.  Once he reached me, he asked to save the lives of his people just like Esther did in the Bible story.  We played two rounds so he had a chance to be the King, too.

Here's a picture of his handwriting from today.  I had written -y words that we're reading & learning about in Phonics Pathways.  He did well copying them.  He could tell me when consonants are doubled or left alone when the -y is added.  Hooray!  Love when he can teach back to me!

The chapter in Peter Cottontail today was all about Peter deciding he will sleep all winter just like the other animals.  D and I had a good laugh about this...a rabbit hibernating?! We'll finish the book early next week.

After D's "regular" schoolwork was done, we got out the Pop Bottle Science kit.  We picked two to do today.

For the first experiment, we used a medicine dropper to drop water drops into the pop bottle cap.  We counted the drops to see how many it took to fill the cap...239.  We then dumped the water out and wiped the cap with one drop of dish detergent (we did not rinse it).  We then added water drops again, only this time only 160 drops filled the cap.  D learned it's because of the soap residue - it mixes with the water and doesn't allow the molecules to stick together as well as when there's just a clean cap & water drops.

For the second experiment, we filled the bottom section of the pop bottle with water, D dumped pepper on top of the water then stuck his finger into it.  Nothing happened, some pepper stuck on his finger.  He then rubbed his fingertip on a bar of soap, then stuck his finger in the pepper water.  The pepper immediately "swam" away from his fingertip to the sides of the bottle.  He loved it!  He learned that the soap mixes with the water molecules and makes the water molecules less clingy.  As the molecules relaxed, it changed the surface tension and pushed the pepper outwards to the sides of the bottle.

After science we read two stories about bears for our "storytime" today...Old Bear & Little Bear's Trousers. I had made a small batch of snickerdoodle dough right after breakfast this morning and tucked it away in the fridge without the kids knowing.  The kids were delighted when I pulled out the dough and told them they could make teddy bear face cookies themselves.  Oh what fun!  It kept them occupied for 45 minutes. While the cookies baked, they ate lunch and then devoured a few after they were cooled.  Yum!

  

 

K added a nose (mini chocolate chip) to one of her cookies along with 2 eyes...I thought it turned out really cute.  Looks like I'll have two great little cookie-bakers for Christmas cookies this year!  :o)

crossing the Jordan & glitter

Today's school work was from Unit 10/Day 3 for both kids.  K really liked her Bible story...crossing the Jordan River carrying the ark of the covenant.  When the men's feet (men who were carrying the ark) touched the water, the water parted and they walked across the river on dry ground.  She had to "cross the Jordan" today walking on a tape line carrying an "ark."  We used duct tape since I haven't gotten masking tape yet and K picked a teddy bear blanket to carry as the "ark."

For her letter review today, she picked a letter to make "glittery" and she chose "G" because as we were revewing the letter names & sounds with her flashcards she kept asking for Grandma's letter..."G."  So this glittery "G" is for Grandma, today!  (Hi Mom!)  :o)

D completed his second page of chapter 10 for math...had a little difficulty adding 8 again since he refused to use the blocks.  I made a set of +8 fact flashcards to help him review this week.  I have a feeling we'll stay on chapter 10 for all the lesson pages & review pages to make sure he knows the facts before moving on.

In Phonics he learned about the suffix -y when to double the consonant & when to leave it "as is" and just add -y to the end.  Do you know when to double the consonant?!  When it's a single consonant (like "fun)...funny.  When it's a double consonant on the end of the original word, -y is just added to the end like "mist"...misty.  He seemed to understand this and read the entire page of words.  The book suggests he write each word from dictation, but I haven't made him write them yet.

For his Thinking Skills paper today, he was supposed to copy a block pattern.  He rushed a bit and had to redo it since the lines he made with his pencil weren't the same shape as the pattern.  He tends to think these pages are easy (and they are - at least what he's supposed to do) but they're for "following directions" and some days he needs lots of work on it. :o)

His Bible story today was about Daniel in the lion's den and so for his science activity we read about animals and insects who camouflage themselves.  We compared Legos on the carpet to Legos on top of the same colors on a colored blanket to see if we could camouflage them.  He'd much rather do something more "scientific" and messy.  We'll do a Pop Bottle Science project tomorrow since it'll be Friday.  :o)

During today's reading of Peter Cottontail, he finally found out what the animals were doing during the winter - hibernating.  The book writes the possum's ("Unc' Billy Possum") speech in a very thick southern accent.  D said when we were done reading, "that guy talks funny."  I agreed with him as it's quite a mouthful to read, too!

all about walls today

We had a fun day of school today.  K built the walls of Jericho out of sunbutter & crackers after we read the Bible story about Rahab and the spies & listened to her song about Jericho's walls falling down.  After she had built the wall, I asked her what the Israelites did to the walls of Jericho?  Her reply, "They ate them!"  D and I both got a good laugh out of that one.  :o)

She like using the knife to spread the sunbutter...lately she's been pulling out her ponytail holders minutes after I do her hair in the morning.  Halfway through her project I found her ponytail holder downstairs and put her hair back again...

D's Bible story was about God writing on the wall after King B used the temple things for a party & continued worshiped idols and not God.  We talked about his hand - various aspects of it (veins, knuckles, each finger, fingernails, etc.)  He then drew his hand, cut it out and pretended to write on the wall.

See the dark green lines...those are the veins. ;o)  I had asked what they were and he said, "Veins, though I should have made them lighter green."  I assured him it was okay - this is the frist time he's tried to draw a "real" hand.

Pretending to "write" on the wall...

After we were done with this activity, I had to tell K specifically that we don't ever write on the wall because I had visions of her actually drawing on the walls at some point.  I hope she understood!  We'll see...

D began chapter 10 for his math today which was adding 8.  A lot like adding 9 - making the 8 block gain 2 units to make 10 then adding the remaining units.  He's enjoying, but still refuses to use the blocks to help him sometimes.  Today he missed 4 problems on his page because he was rushing, not using the blocks.  Oops!  I make him do them over and get the right answer...he's not too pleased about it, but he needs to learn to use the blocks when he's stumped and not just guess the answer.

He is enjoying his rhyme for unit 10 since it's to the tune of "Jingle Bells" and is about all of his Bible stories for this unit.  He also knows his verse for this week already and wrote it today.  His handwriting is improving.  Hooray!

house, fire & 10 men

We had a great school day this morning again.  It really helps when C naps the entire hour a half that it takes us to do school.  D and K each began Unit 10 today.

D's Bible story today was about the Shadrach, Meshach & Abindigo who King Nebuchadnezzar had thrown into the fire for worshiping God and not idols.  We read the story from the Bible story book first and then went to Daniel in the Bible to read a few verses.  The book left out the part about the men coming out of the fire not even smelling like smoke.  D and I talked about the few times we've been near a bonfire at Grandma & Pap's house and we smell like smoke just sitting near the fire.  How neat it was that these men weren't burned and didn't smell like fire/smoke!  D's words, "That's amazing!"  He then went on to tell me how amazing God is that He could make a man walk just by speaking (NT story he's heard before).

I love teaching him at home and know this is where God wants me to be right now.  I also love having this curriculum that is Christ-centered.  I'm so thankful he's getting knowledge of the Bible so young and has a relationship with Jesus.  My prayer is that he'll continue to grow his relationship and be the man God wants him to be.  I want to ..."have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth." (3 John 4).  I always have thought of this verse in terms of children being grown, but God's brought it to my mind a lot lately and I think it applies to the present.  Walking in truth is a lifestyle - I want it now for them not something they'll just "do" later on...

Back to school - for an art activity to go with his Bible story - we wrote 3+1 (3 men plus the angel God sent to protect them) with Sharpie on white paper and he painted over it with a thick layer of  red, orange & yellow paint.  D then used a toothpick to make the paint textured & move the paint into flame shapes.

 

His Thinking Skills page today was a large blank box where he had to draw a picture of the front of our home.  We went outside (D, K & I) stood on the sidewalk by the road and D drew his picture.  Not bad...left out one window on the right because it wouldn't fit. :o)  He brought it back inside and colored it and filled in more details as I read a chapter of Peter Cottontail.  Don't you just love the jumbo jet on top of the roof?!  We have these airplanes fly over a lot on their way to land.  They are so loud, but fun to watch.

D took his math test for chapter 9 today.  Originally, I was going to have him do another review page, but when I went through the +9 flashcards, he knew them better than I thought he did.  He really wanted to do his test, so I let him.  He got everything right!  :o)

K's Bible Story today was about God telling Moses that Joshua would lead the Israelites.  For her #10 page (last page of her counting book), she cut out 10 men or "Joshua's" as she called them. :o)  She did it all by herself while I was helping D with his Phonics.  When she was done she counted all of them - 1-10 correctly!  We then looked back through her book - 1 tree, 2 hands...etc.  All the pages are hole-punched and in a 3-prong paper folder. 

K has a letter review this week: A-H and so her rhyme reviews all the letter sounds & motions.  She did them correctly when I went through her flashcards with her.  I was happy!  She knows C now!  :o)  We also went back through the 4 pages in her devotional book for letters E-H.  She loves this book and especially the pictures of the little kids doing the right/wrong things.  Each letter had a specific verse we reviewed.

When I told her she was done with school, she said, "No, I want to do more school today."  She stayed at the table and played with the math blocks while D worked on his math test.  :o)  I love that she loves school!

Tonight we're headed to a bookstore to meet Mike Berenstain and pick up the Give Thanks book. I'm so excited!  D told me he doesn't want to go - but that's what he always says about doing something new/different.  He's going.  :o) 

Grapes, H & Spies

We had an uninterrupted school morning today because C was actually a good little napper!  K's Bible story was about the 12 spies who went to look at the Promised Land  - 2 came back with a good report & grapes and 10 came back and said the people were giants and they couldn't defeat them.  K's art activity was to make bunches of grapes.  I opted to have her stamp them with a cartoon-font "o" after drawing brown vine/stems with crayon.  She stamped for awhile then used her finger to make "baby grapes" and she had fun.  ;o)

She finished Unit 9 today and so I taped the "H" to floor for her to walk on.  It was significantly smaller than the other taped letters of prior units because we ran out of tape...oops!

D wanted to participate in her Bible activity and so they both pretended to tiptoe around the playroom in search of grapes (large beachball).  They really had to watch their step as the playroom was an incredible mess!  It gets cleaned about once a week, but this weekend we didn't make it a priority.  It's funny to see where the "invisible" line of the school area begins - at the bottom of the picture on the other side of the Lego pile. :o)

D learned about Joash & Josiah - young kings of Judah who obeyed God.  His devotional today was about the Bible and spending time reading it.  He read a few verses along with me from 2 Timothy 3 and 4, too.  I'm encouraging him to begin to read it on his own and may pick a verse from his Bible story for him to read each school day to get him started.

D also told me today that he likes to do the left side (Bible & History) of his guide last because he likes it the best.  So when we began with his Phonics, he said "I like these, too, I just like Bible better." :o)  It made me smile.

D completed a review page for math chapter 9 today, but still has a few issues adding 9.  I made him the 9 facts flashcards today and he breezed through the +2, +3, +4 & +5, but slowed down at +6 to +9.  We'll keep reviewing until it's mastered...another few days I think.

He read through his Phonics Pathways page and another HOP book to add to his November Book-It List (he's completed 4 of his 16 for the month now).  His mind moves quickly and sometimes I have to slow him down - he will add an -s or something else to the end of the word instead of letting his eyes look at all the letters before moving onto the next word.

We're just about done with Peter Cottontail and should finish next Monday.  The past few chapters have been about Peter learning about hibernation since a lot of the animals in the forest are telling him "I'll see you in the spring."  I think I'm enjoying reading these books to D as much as he enjoys listening to them. :o)