Weekly Highlights - Week One

I am so excited! This is our first week of school! We are easing our way into school, so we only did two days this week. We are using My Father's World Kindergarten. I was so excited that I already posted about each day:

First Day of Kindergarten

Kindergarten Day 2

Hopefully I'll be able to contain myself next week and not post until the end of the week. :)

For more weekly homeschool highlights swing on over to Mishmash Maggie.

Kindergarten Day 2

Today we had our first theme day at school. Remember when you were younger and you either dressed in backwards clothes or had crazy hair for spirit week? Well today was PJ day for us. :) I'm sure we will be having a lot of those. We slept in until 8 and by the time I got everyone fed I realized that if I took the time to get myself showered and everyone dressed before the school bell rang, Myanna would be fussy and need to be fed and put down for her nap. Then it would be time for lunch. Even though it's possible for us to do school in the afternoons, I know myself and I'm not that disciplined. Yet.

Today we learned about the 2nd day of Creation and how God separated the waters from the waters to create sky above and water below. Next we learned the names of the letters Cc and Dd. Then we reviewed the letters Aa and Bb. Jacob didn't pay much attention today. Johnny spent most of the lesson on his head. I think that next time if I recognize that they are a little hyper we'll sing a few action songs first.

Here are their pages for their Creation Book:




Note to self: buy smaller cotton balls for art projects.

Today's lesson lasted 45 minutes - just long enough. :)



I copied a couple of worksheets from their Rod and Staff Readiness books, because I want Johnny to learn how to draw his shapes. He was more interested in cutting than drawing though and surprised me by cutting out the squares and triangles.

Time for lunch!

All better! Don't you love her new Baby Legs?

I guess I better get everyone dressed now. I might just put it off a little longer since Myanna is sleeping and the boys are busy watching the landscapers. I do want to read the book of Esther since I get to go to Bible Study tonight. I'm so excited! I haven't been to a study since just before Myanna was born last February.

First Day of Kindergarten

Here is my proud Kindergartner. After researching and even purchasing several pre-school/pre-K curricula we decided to go ahead and start My Father's World Kindergarten even though he'll only be 4 in December. There are 166 daily lessons each lasting 60-90 minutes. I plan only "doing school" about 2-3 days per week. So Johnny will be a Kindergartner for probably a year and a half. :) What I love most about MFW K is the way the Bible is woven throughout instead of tacked on as an extra subject. For example, we learn that Sun starts with S-s and that Jesus is the light of the world. Then we learn that like the (M-m) moon reflects the light of the sun we reflect the light of Jesus. Neat, huh?


While Jacob is not ready to participate fully in MFW K (he will be 3 in March) he can sit with us for a lot of the activities. I plan on printing off some simpler worksheets for him so that he can feel included in school.


And of course I couldn't leave out Myanna.

We will spend the first 10 days of MFW K learning about the 7 days of creation, introducing letter names and numbers 1-7. I'm also adding some cutting practice and basic shape drawing for Johnny. We started our school day with prayer. I love how Jacob repeats everything I pray. Then we read Genesis 1:1-5 from Johnny's new NIRV Adventure Bible:


We chose this translation because it's easier to read and understand for young children, but it's a "real" Bible not a picture book. I also like the study aspects of it. There is an introduction before each book about the author, purpose, what we will learn, specific stories, etc. There is even a reference section at the back with a small concordance, dictionary and maps.

We then reviewed what we had read. The goal is to have Johnny repeat back to me in his own words what he heard. Of course at this age it took a lot of prompting and questioning. Then we moved onto making our #1 for our Creation Timeline:





I had to go and change a stinky Myanna diaper and when I cam back to the table Johnny had turned his paper over and traced his hand.



MFW allows us to copy the creation time line and book activities for the whole family. If for some reason I decide to have Jacob participate in the rest of the student workbook activities I'll have to pay an additional $35 for a student package. I doubt I will this year. He is not ready for it and I have other worksheets that he can do.

Then we moved to the family room to learn/review the letters Aa and Bb.

Myanna is supervising. :)

Using the letter chart I sang through the ABCs while Jacob and then Johnny pointed to each letter. They have a cute ending to the song: "Now I know my ABCs. And I know that God loves me!!


Then using the Aa and Bb game cards I taught them the letters. Johnny already knew them so it was more for me getting used to how the lessons would go over the next nine days. I decided for now to keep the uppercase and lowercase letters together. Next we reviewed all of the letters we've learned (only two since it was the first day) using the ABC chart. I asked the boys to put a button on the letter Aa then on the letter Bb. One good thing about Jacob playing along with us is that when he gets it wrong Johnny can correct him. And also when Jacob did put the button the correct letter Johnny got so excited for him, "Yea YoYo". It was sweet. Then we reviewed again using the letter game cards. A little repetitive since it was the first day, but it set-up a good foundation to add upon.

Here is our first page for our Creation Book:



The directions in the student packet have the student glue the verse onto a piece of white paper and then draw a picture of the verse. I'm glad that in the teacher handbook there are alternative directions where I can cut out things for the boys to paste onto paper along with the verse. At this age each page would just be a scribble. :) Johnny was fascinated that the white crayon drew on the black paper, but you couldn't see it on the white.

To finish off the day I was supposed to start teaching them the hymn "This is My Father's World". Well as most of you know I like to sing, but no one likes to listen. :) So instead I purchased the mp3 from one of the Praise Baby CDs and played it in the background while the boys were cutting.


I thought there were some cutting worksheets in one of the About Three workbooks from Rod and Staff. The only ones I saw started with having them cut out a small circle, triangle, and square. So I just got out a ruler and drew lines onto construction paper. Johnny didn't like that Jacob was ripping his paper instead of using the scissors.


This was a wonderful first day of Kindergarten for Johnny. It was short, about 35 minutes, but it held his attention. I can't wait until we start the regular lessons and Johnny starts to learn his letter sounds. :)

Oh and the book For the Children's sake by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay came with the curriculum:


It explains the Charlotte Mason style of education. When I was looking at MFW this summer I didn't fully understand the Mason or Classical method of teaching, I just knew that I loved the curriculum. I have only just started this book and it's fascinating. I really like a lot of her ideas.

Play Date at Gateway Park

The kiddos and I had a fun morning at Gateway Park.  I’m not sure how long it’s been there, but it seems fairly new.  They have a small splash pad and two playgrounds.  There is partial cover over the playgrounds and a nearby ramada with two picnic tables.  Yes it’s in El Mirage, but I felt perfectly safe.

I had to get some pictures of Myanna in her swimsuit before we left:

The swimsuit and hat were a gift from my sister’s friend Tiffany.  I didn’t think she’d get to wear it before she outgrew it since we don’t have a pool. 

Here are the boy’s and their friends at the splash pad:

Here is my little monkey climbing on the big kids playground:

And what is Myanna doing?

Just chilling in her carseat.

We are looking forward to the next play date.  :)

Letter of the Week – Bumble “B”

I’m still playing catch-up, I think we did this one last week.  We already had a couple of Bee books at home so no trip to the library for us:

This is a cute book about a grandfather and his granddaughter who go chasing after bees to find their hive in a tree.  Along the way others from the town join in the chase.  I stumbled over quite a few names – I never did figure out the nationality.  It has a nice moral at the end – reading a book is just as good of an adventure as running around outside.

This book was a gift from Grammy for Jacob’s last birthday.  It has moving pictures so you can see the bee’s wings flapping, the dog running, etc.  It’s a cute simple story that teaches us that bees help the flowers and trees grow so we shouldn’t be afraid of them.  The last couple of pages list a bunch of bee facts.

Here are the boy’s making their Bumble “B”s from No Time for Flashcards:

Johnny working away.

Jacob loves the glue.

Our little observer.

Johnny is at the perfect age for these crafts 3 1/2.  Jacob usually gets frustrated at some point and has to go to his room to cool down for a little while. 

Our Newest Family Addition

Zoe is a one year-old Chihuahua.

Letter of the Week – A is for Alligator

 

I was inspired by my friend Monica to start doing  “Letter of the Week” crafts with my boys.  She led me to a wonderful site, No Time for Flashcards, which is full of craft ideas, book suggestions, songs, and so much more.  A couple of weeks ago we made an Alligator A:

 

To go along with the Letter of the Week theme we read two books about Alligators:

We loved this book so much that I ordered it for our home library.  It’s about an alligator who comes creeping, creeping, creeping up the stairs and into the children’s apartment.  The children are scared at first, (Who wouldn’t be if they were faced with a real live alligator?), but in the end they pluck up their courage and tell the alligator to GET OUT!  Now whose scared?  I love books like this where you can really put a lot of drama into the reading and the boys loved running away from the alligator.

 

The boys loved this book.  After we took it back to the library Johnny still asked to read it.  I didn’t care for the ending.  In the book Kristen’s parents accidentally bring home a baby alligator instead of her baby brother.  Then they bring home a baby seal.  Then a baby gorilla.  Finally Kristen has to go and get her brother.  I realize that soon enough my kids will think that they are smarter than me, but I don’t care to read a book to them over and over right now that promotes that.  So that’s why we won’t be adding this to our collection.  Oh and it’s not available new from Amazon anyways.  :)

We also read through this alphabet book:

There is a different animal for each letter of the alphabet.  Even xoona moth for x.  The illustrations were beautiful, but I read or heard somewhere this week that it’s better to save books where the letters aren’t in a clear typeface for when they are older.  This book incorporates each letter into the illustrations.

Also I discovered that we own a toddler ABC Bible:

We read about the angels appearing before the shepherds for the letter A.  They have a short 4 line story for each letter along with hand motions.  Then there is a short poem.

The following weekend we took a field trip to see an alligator.  Sort of.  We decided to drive out to Tempe that Saturday and have lunch at the Rainforest Cafe.  The boys got to see the mechanical alligator biting at the coins out front.  They thought it was neat.  I had forgotten how it feels like you are eating inside of a Disneyland ride at that restaurant.