Week in Review August 24, 2012

This week came with some resistance from Jonathan on a couple of the days.   When he gives me resistance I let him go play for a while.  He usually comes back within 30 minutes wanting to do some lessons.  Some of the problem has been the hot temps and not being able to get outside.   Finally later in the week some storms came and gave some relief.  We even got out to ride bikes and play for the first time in seems like forever.  The kids took off their shoes and just ran like crazy through the grass.  

Friday morning we woke up to rain and the boys just loved being outside and running their cars through the mud puddles.  

In our math he has needed some extra practice learning tally marks.  The games so far have not interested him so I had to get creative.  He loves science so I had him get his nature journal, cardboard brick, ruler, tally sticks and a pencil.  He measured different things all over the house to see how many brick long it was and used his tally sticks to keep track.  Then he drew the tally marks in his nature journal.  He loved it and and did not complain at all about using the tally sticks.

He also used the geoboard for the first time.

Since we had some rain this week, Jonathan wanted to make an umbrella.  Daddy helped one night after work and made both the boys umbrellas for their puppies.

We continued in our reading of Winnie the Pooh and our daily scripture memory verses.  We also read aloud  Johnny Appleseed by Lindbergh.  It was fabulous and Jonathan loved the illustrations.  

To end the week Jonathan earned his yellow belt in Kenpo!  This picture is of Jonathan with his instructor, Grand Master Vernon Kam.

Week in Review August 17, 2012

We had another great week of lessons.  

Jonathan wanted to take leaves from the bushes outside and draw them in his nature journal.  He picked from several plants and trees and sat down to sketch them in his nature journal.

Look at what an awesome job he did!  

Our science this week was to compare different types of apples.  We had pink ladies, golden delicious, granny smith and red delicious.  

Jonathan liked the granny smith the best and the red delicious the least.  Christopher just loved them all!

Here is Jonathan's page in his nature journal of the shapes, colors and tastes of each apple.

In math he learned to put cards in order with beads, hands and tally marks in order.  Also, he learned to build stairs on his abacus.  We also have been reading aloud from The World of Pooh and Now We Are Six.  This week's scripture memory verse was (we have not quite memorized it yet so it will also be next week's):

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.  Hebrews 11:1

Thanks for sharing in our journey!

Week in Review August 10, 2012 (First week)

God is good!!!  Here are some of the fun things we did our very first week of school.

Bible:  We worked on scripture memory:

  Ephesians 6:1 Children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 

Jonathan also got to choose scriptures to read from his bible during family time.  We also read about Adam and Eve from our story book bible.

Math:  We did several lessons since they were pretty easy for him and the quicker pace helped keep his attention.  He and brother love doing block patterns.  We ended the week learning to use the abacus.  

Science:  We did the first 2 lessons in Outdoor Secrets.  He loved getting his new nature journal and here is a picture of the apple blossom.  Science is the subject he now asks for each day.  I had planned on science only once a week but when the weather gets nicer (110 all week) we can go outside and draw in our nature journal.  

He continued with handwriting lessons from Delightful Handwriting.  We also read aloud from Farmer Boy and Now We Are Six each day.  

We had a great week and I will keep you posted as our journey continues. 

Our Very First Day of School!

Kindergarten

Well, our very first day of school is complete.   I have to say that it was interesting to say the least.  I did not have grand plans, just a list of a few things to do.  We started with math and after about a minute Jonathan looked at me and said "this is boring".  It did make my heart sink a little but you know I am glad he said it to me and not a teacher at school.  It might have left a not so good impression on them.  So after math we did handwriting and then I read aloud a couple of pages from Farmer Boy.  

Then I brought out the M&M's.  Oh my was there excitement in the air.  I thought this would be a fun first day of school treat that I will do each year.  I gave them each a pile of M&M's and had them sort them into piles by color.  When they were all done they got to eat them.  While they ate their M&M's I read a poem from Now We Are Six by AA Milne and bible scriptures.

By this time they wanted to just go play so off they went.  A few minutes later Jonathan wanted to make some pictures for his friends.  He probably spent the most time drawing and coloring.  Being able to allow you kids to enjoy an activity fully is a blessing of homeschooling.  

Then it was off to do my chores.  As you can see I have a little helper:)

Overall it was a great day.  Thanks for stopping by and sharing in our journey!

Homeschooling Convention 2012

Our homeschooling convention was held this last weekend and I want to share some of the blessings from the event.  There were two keynote speakers this year and I took away great encouragement and advice from each one.


Heidi St John (The Busy Homeschooling Mom) talked about:

• Character first, curriculum will follow
• Marriage before motherhood

Todd Wilson (Familyman Ministries) talked about:

• Dream big!  Don't be a dream killer for our kids or husband.  
• God is big enough to kill the bad ones (dreams, I mean:))

I went to several other workshops and left feeling so uplifted and encouraged about our journey ahead.  

2012-2013 Schedule

So excited to have our schedule complete for the school year Sept. 2012- Aug. 2013!  This year will be a Kinder year for my oldest ds (soon to turn 6) and a tag along year for my youngest ds (soon to turn 3 yo).  Some subjects will not begin until year 1.  This year will be our year to ease into a routine and work on habit training.  Below is our schedule and will take about 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours per day.  We are doing a year round schedule and will be doing lessons 4 times per week.  I am so looking forward to beginning our journey!


Daily
Bible Readings from The Child's Story Bible by Vos /SCM Scripture Memory
Literature Read Alouds - Aesop Fables, Farmer Boy and The World of Pooh
RightStart Math
SCM Delightful Reading
SCM Delightful Handwriting


Weekly
Poetry - Now We Are Six by AA Milne
Nature Study - Begin our nature notebooks
Science - SCM Outdoor Secrets
Character Building - A Child's Book of Character Building, Book 1

"It's a Dry Heat"

With recent temps in the 90's, summer is right around the corner.  We are looking forward to swimming, play dates and summer movies.  This summer I am going to have some planned activities for the boys to help with the hot days we are indoors.  Grandma gave us this great project book with lots of fun things to make.  I am taking the projects (which are mainly animals) and doing a week unit study of the animal with some living books, drawing, coloring, etc.  I will post weekly updates on what we are studying.


The Homeschooling Convention is in July and I have my list of books I need to still purchase for our K year starting in September.  I really look forward to the speakers each year.  It is the perfect way to inspire you for the up coming year.