Weeks 3-4 - A Snake in the House!

Well, I'm already running behind on the blog due to trips out of town. So this will be a quick catch up on the past two weeks. I'm also running low on pictures, because our camera batteries were not charged. Hopefully, I'll get back into the swing of things this week.

Week 3: A Snake in our House!

Bible Story: The Fall of Man - Since we were studying Adam and Eve, I borrowed a snake from my brother and sister-in-law. Each night, we tell the Bible story in a different way. We listen to it from "The Singing Bibe", read a children's story Bible, tell the story with felt, etc. One night, as we were telling the story, Alex let the snake crawl on him. Throughout the week, we would get it out to observe or talk about. This also tied into Science, because both kids were very interested.

Memory Verse: Psalm 119:11

Science: Snakes and Fruit that grows on trees.=

Phonemic Awareness: auditory discrimination - listened for words that were the same and different. we made this into a game. Rhyming - I would pause and let Peaknucke fill in a rhyming word.

Phonics: Each week from here through the rest of the "school year" we will review a letter and it's sound that corresponds with our Bible story for the week. This week was "A" for "apple". Yes, I know that we don't know for sure what fruit Adam ate, but it still ties in. We learn a song for each letter of the alphabet to help remember the sound that the letter makes. We also do a letter art project for each letter.

Alex also worked with Peaknuckle on Hooked on Phonics computer games.

Math:

We continued reviewing numerals 0-9 by playing a card game called "Happy Apple."

We opened up apples, counted the seeds and made apple prints with them.

We placed apples (pom poms) on trees according the number tree.

We also worked some on "Hooked on Math"

Calendar/Circle Time:

Continued working on months, day, year. We observed the weather. We also worked on the spelling of her full name and writing each name with capital letters for the first letter/lowercase for the rest. We've also been working on our phone number.

Science Art:

We made scratch and sniff pictures by painting fruit shapes with a mixture of water and kool-aid

Other:

tumbling, piano lessons, lots of reading, prayer, inside/outside free play, imagination station art, etc.

Week 4:

Bible Story: Noah

Memory Verse: Psalm 119:11

Calendar/Circle Time: Same

Math:

Made a zoo using animal foamie stickers. Each cage had a numeral showing how many animals to place in each cage. We practiced simple addition with this.

Newspaper Numerals- we drew a number out of a bag and hunted for that number in the newspaper. then we would draw a circle around it.

Simple dot-to-dot pictures

Phonics: B for "boat" , sorted letters uppercase and lowercase, decorated letters, hooked on phonics, letter people

So this is a very quick snapshot on what we have covered over the past two weeks.

Observing the snake...which later was lost in our furniture!


cutting, sorting, gluing uppercase and lowercase bs


apple math


Bean enjoys playing with the manipulatives

Week 2 - ..."My grace is sufficient for thee..."

2 Corinthians 12:9 says, "He said unto me, 'My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.'" His Word has proven true in my life again this week. My body has been weak, my emotions drained, and my faith stretched thin; yet, through my weakness, God has shown Himself strong. It is a difficult task to continue mothering through sickness; however, my childrens' needs do not cease when I'm under the weather. On the contrary, they seem to intensify (go figure). Each day, I sought the Lord for the patience and perseverance that I needed to accomplish what He would have me accomplish that day. Not everything on my agenda was checked off, and sometimes I failed on the patience side; but looking back over the week, I see God's work in our family. Here is a little glimpse of our week...

Calendar:

We continued with the date and weather. We've also been working on patterning with the number dates. This month were doing a simple AB pattern. We've also been counting the number of days that are left until Papa's and Mommy's birthday.

Bible:

Days 4-7 of creation. Peaknuckle continued working on her creation book. We sang songs about God's creation. Bean loves song time! Peaknuckle has her memory verse memorized: "In the beginning, God 'wreated' the heavens and the earth."

Math:

We reviewed numbers 4-7 to go along with the day of creation. We used simple rhymes to help Peaknuckle remember how to write the letter. She practiced writing numbers on her wipe of board and in cream cheese. She sorted numbers to match the picture with the corresponding number of animals on it.

Alex even got in on the homeschool planning. He came up with a counting game for Peaknuckle to play outside...running the number of sidewalk blocks away that he called. Way to go, Alex!

Science:

We observed the sun setting and talked about how this happens...a little over her head, but she was interested. She described the colors that she saw as the sun set.

We stayed up past bedtime to observe the stars. Peaknuckle noticed one very bright star. I told her that I thought it may be a plane. We waited to see if it would get closer to us. When it didn't seem to be moving, she said, "I think it's a broken plane." Later, it flew over us.

Sorted animals that fly from animals that swim. (Day 5 of Creation)

Cooking:

Husked corn, made pizza and brownies, and helped with everyday chores in the kitchen.

Phonemic Awareness:

Creation clothespin game. Same or different.

Other:

First tumbling lesson: Peaknuckle is sometimes hesitant to try new things, and she is not naturally an active girl. She prefers to stay inside and play baby dolls or read books. These things are good, but I want her to find something active that she enjoys doing. She loved tumbling! The teacher made this very age appropriate and fun for the class. She is already looking forward to next week!

Music class: Continued working on prereading music skills, keyboard readiness, and pitch. She was also introduced to several new instruments. When I asked her about the class, she said she likes it and wants to learn to play the piano.

Writing: She worked on writing numbers and letters. She enjoys using her wipe off board and does pretty well with forming the letters and numbers. I get very frustrated, however, with her grip. No matter what I say, she holds the pencil full fisted. Lately, I've chosen to ignore this so that I don't frustrate her and make her not want to write. I'll be happy to hear anyone's advice on this!

Bean's Accomplishment!

We've worked some on colors...mainly just using colors in our language alot as we talk with him. We've read books about colors. He's really into books now! Alex was reading a book that had blocks of colors in it. Alex asked him to point to the colors and he correctly identified them! Yay bean!

Here's some pictures of our week:

observing the stars

Bean paintingsorting numbers




husking corn




sorting numbers - the chocolate on her face came from making brownies with daddy. she dressed herself after swimming...this explains the backwards shirt.

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