Week 1

The original posting for this blog was on August 8, 2009.

We've had a blast during our first official week of homeschooling. Of course, there was some tweaking that I had to do to make the curriculum that we are using fit our needs, but it's coming together. Rather than doing the 3 days a week that the curriculum suggests, we do a little bit each day. This allows more time for free play.

This week was review of things that Peaknuckle (this was a nickname that Uncle gave when daughter was born, so we'll use it here) already knew for the most part. Coming in to our Pre-K 3 year, Peaknuckle recognizes numbers 1-10, all uppercase letters, and most lower case numbers. She knows the sounds that most of the letters make, recognizes her name written, and can write many letters/numbers. She also knows the days of the week in order and has memorized quite a few memory verses. She knows all colors and as many shapes as I can name. This is the foundation with which we are working.

Something Peaknuckle has struggled with is order or time of the day. Sometimes she wakes from nap thinking that it is breakfast time or wakes up in the morning and wants dinner. To help with this, I found schedule cards on a website that could be downloaded. These have everything that we could possible think of doing in a day. I laminated them and put magnets on the back. Now each morning she checks the schedule to see what we will be doing that day. She loves running back to see what is next. "Breakfast", "Brush Teeth", and "Get Dressed" always come first. After that the order mixes up a bit depending on the day. Here is a little of what our days looked like this week.

Bible Time:

We are working our way through the Bible. We began this week with Creation. Her memory verse was Genesis 1:1. Activities included:

Telling the story using different picture bibles, felt board scenes, and video demonstrations.

Going on a listening walk to listen for things that God made. As she heard them she wrote them down in her journal. She heard wind, a car, trees blowing, Bean, and clouds (?).

We went to the library and checked out books on Creation to read.

She played with the felt scenes and retold the creation story to Bean and her baby doll. The baby doll was a better listener.

She has been working on a Creation book. She is making a page for each day of Creation. We've covered days 1-3.

Her favorite part of Bible this week was making our Creation Concotion for our "Snack/Bible Time" before bed. We began with whipped cream to represent the light that God created on Day 1. We added chocolate chips for the night. Day 2 we added marshmallows for sky. Day 3 we added a few drops of blue food coloring for water and green sprinkles for land. Day 4 we added star sprinkles. Day 5 we added gummy frogs because I couldn't find gummy fish or birds. Day 6 we added animal crakers. I wanted to add a gingerbread man, but couldn't find them. For Day 7, she relaxed and enjoyed her creation.

Math:

To go along with the days of creation, we reviewed numbers 1-3 on the corresponding day of creation. She practiced writing these numbers in fingerpaint and flour.

We've also included colors in with our Math time. This is mainly for Bean's sake, but he doesn't stick around for too long. We read Mouse Paint and White Rabbit's Color book and did our own color experiments. They discovered what happens when you mix various colors together.

Of course we do lots of counting, adding, and subtracting throughout our daily activites.

Science: God's Creation

We talked about the different things in God's creation. We did an oreo cookie visual for day/night. She sorted picture cards according to whether they happened in the day time night time. We read books about various things in creation. We talked about a lot of things she had questions on (how the sun rises and sets, planets, and why do bees sting).

We created a wave bottle.

Circle/Calendar:

We review the days of the week and what comes next each day. We count to find out the day of the month. We read the date (Today is Friday, August 8, 2009). We sing, chant, and move to the ABCs.

ART:

We made a black and white collage to represent day and night. We painted with the colors we were talking about and made a picture with the colors we made by mixing paints.

READ, READ, READ

We do LOTS of reading!

COOKING:

Peaknuckle helped me with a lot of meals. She added ingredients, mixed, placed food on sandwhiches or plates, and helped set the table. Her favorite meal to create this week was chocolate chip pancakes.

DRAMATIC PLAY

Lots of pretending: baby dolls, doll house, restraunt, animals, dress up, etc.

OTHER:

Harmony Road Music class - covered keyboard readiness skills, pitch, tamborine and bells

Outside Play

Imagination Station Art

Playdate

This was a little of our week. I hope you've enjoyed getting a glimpse into our homeschool. I'm sure that my summaries will get shorter as time goes.

Our Circle/Calendar Time


Mixing paint to create new colors


Making numbers in flour. This soon turned into "bread making."


Creating black and white collage


cooking with Daddy :)


Making Creation Concoction


Our sensory tub - this month craft pom poms, play ice cream scoop and dishes


Bean's math time on blue day :)


Watching the wave bottle she made


pictures sorted by day or night activities




music class