Week Four

What a WONDERFUL week we had learning this week! I struggled many times this week to decide if I am really doing the right thing by beginning school so young with my kids. One day I was prepared to take all the books off the shelf, box them up, and wait until they are older.....two hours later we had the best school day so far! So what came of that experience is this. I will continue with school, but (1.) It won't be the most important part of our day (2.) For now, if Caleb is really uninterested we will move on to something else (3.) The majority of our day/week will still be three and four year old appropriate play time. We will probably take two years on Kindergarten anyway since I started early. They have been begging me to do more of the things that they love; hide and seek, games from the game closet, baby dolls, dress-up, build a club house, etc. There are MANY years ahead for hours of school everyday and really I am not looking forward to it much. Too soon, they won't want to play with Mommy all the time and I am not ready to take that away from them! So, school will remain a part of our week, but PLAY will rule the DAY!

Bible Story: Noah Genesis 6-8

Bible Memory Verse: Psalm 119:1 "Thy Word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee."

Nursery Rhyme: Rub a Dub Dub

Songs: Who Built the Ark, Noah's Arky Arky, A to Z with Noah- We had a great time with music this week. One day they danced all around the room for 15 minutes. I think a fun set of basic instruments might be a good idea for our Christmas list. We have a toy drum, xylophone, and harmonica, but they love this part of our day so it would be a fun area to add to.

Preschool Activities this week: We put butterfly stickers on the letter Bb. Made rainbows with clear contact paper, tissue paper, and cotton balls. Float or Sink activity.

Preschool Stories: Yeah! Book finding success this week! I found one book from our list at the library, but then found two more books on topic at our church library when I wasn't really even looking for them. Just saw them while the kids were picking out some books. Then I also finally learned how to make the best use of my library card. With a pin number I can search for books online and have books sent to my local library from any library in the state of GA! I have 11 books on hold! This week we read The First Rainbow by Sue Box, On Noah's Ark by Jan Brett, and Noah and the Ark and the Animals by Andrew Elborn.

In Kindergarten this week: Caleb writes, colors, and cuts with his tongue out. Must be a boy thing because there are other males in our family who do this. One day this week, Hannah looked at Caleb and said, "Why you sticking your tongue out that way?"

History: We continued reading about the Roman people. Caleb, who has recently found great pleasure in loud burps was thrilled to learn that the Romans believed it was good manners to burp if you enjoyed your meal.

We began a new part of our history studies this week. Throughout the year we will be reading about different missionaries using the book I Heard Good News Today by Cornelia Lehn. When I first saw this book I thought it would be impossible to get Caleb to actually listen to the stories and certainly he wouldn't understand them. Then I had a brilliant idea. I had Caleb bring me all his Weebles. Caleb and I acted out the story with his weebles while I read. It was so fun and he could retell most of the story to Daddy later. No, he doesn't completely understand the full concept of what we read, but oh what wonderful seeds are being planted in his heart and mind. Hannah was out shopping with Daddy while we did this story. I am eager to see how she likes our "puppet play" approach.

Read-Alouds: Just as I anticipated, the book we are to be reading for the next couple of weeks is completely off grade level. We read through the first 8 pages, but then I quickly returned it to the shelf. I am hopeful for our next book which we will begin in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, we have MANY other books to read together!

Math: Caleb was introduced to some simple addition this week. He thought that was great! He LOVED our last day of math this week because it didn't end with asking him to write three rows of numbers for practice. New plan...no more writing rows of numbers. He still writes them in other areas of his work.

Handwriting/Language Arts: Caleb practiced writing his city, state, and zip code and the letter "a". We reviewed the letter "Tt". He had to find 5 pictures from a magazine that start with the letter "Tt". He found turtle, tooth, tree, toothbrush, and turkey.

Caleb had a fun writing assignment to this week which he completed well beyond my expectations. He was asked to write a story called "The Visitor". I asked him to tell me a story about a time someone came to our house to visit. Here is what he told me....

Once upon a time there was a little boy named Caleb. One day Papaw Skunk came. The next morning we were having breakfast in the dining room. We opened presents. I got Eve and a new bunny movie. We all got in Daddy's truck. Papaw Skunk, Hannah, Caleb, Daddy, and Mommy went to the aquarium. Mommy and Hannah went to the bathroom then we went into a big room to watch a movie about fish. Bubbles popped on us in the movie and a big fish came up to eat us. Then we were looking at some fish. The end.

The best part is, I typed up a book for him and he illustrated it for me! I never believed HE would draw a pictures for me. Totally not his thing. He didn't even complain about it. He is SO proud to be an author/illustrator. I made two copies of the book (one to keep and one for Caleb to take to Papaw Skunk next week). Looking forward to more stories!

Science: Wow! Even science was great fun this week. We read about fossils then had lots of fun with earthquakes, hurricanes, and volcanoes. His science book is Internet linked and we found lots of cool stuff to explore online this week. Then Daddy helped us build a volcano. We had another experiment planned for this week, but didn't get to it.

We did more scissor practice, cutting the grass for a tiger to hide behind. We studied another picture in an art book and Caleb did a good job discussing it with me.

Week Four Bulletin Board

We had a swimming party with our homeschool care group this week. Hannah's first time in a BIG pool and only Caleb's second. OH how they need someone who is not afraid of the water to help them. (I am NOT a water person!)

So, this picture really has nothing to do with school other than it is a classic picture of my favorite 4 year old!

Hannah proud of her butterflies.

Caleb excited about discussing burping in his history book.

Hannah halfway into a full afternoon of playdough fun...her FAVORITE. She made quite a mess this day, but this playdough was getting old and needed to be thrown out anyway, she was having a wonderful time, and she stayed busy with it for probably an hour.

Look at the hair in her face! She got a hair cut this week too! You will see the shorter hair in the volcano pictures.

"Teaching" the stuffed animals. I asked her to take the chairs to Caleb's room while I vacuumed up the play dough mess. This is how I found her.

We did this activity during bathtime. I gave them this tray and asked them which items would sink and which would float. Caleb did a good job predicting. Hannah just wanted to get right to it and find out.

Sweet rainbow

Oh, this BOY! This craft was not exactly his idea of fun. I gave him permission to not complete it but he just can't handle Hannah doing it and leaving his undone so he made his tissue paper pieces as large as he could and pressed on to completion.

Enjoying the missionary story, told with the help of Weebles.

Creating a volcano

Hannah finally enjoyed riding her bike that she got for her birthday in June.

Vidoes from the week.

Week Three

It was a crazy busy week for us around here. We were all (well, mostly Mom) very tired on Monday from too much yard work over the weekend, plus getting Dad packed up to fly to Colorado for a week, so school did not happen on Monday. Tuesday we had an extra student at our school (I was babysitting another 3 year old), so school was minimal. We also had a field trip this week which took us away from the "classroom" for a few hours. Since Daddy wasn't returning until Saturday night, we managed to use Saturday to get all caught up for the week. Here is what we did...

Bible Story: Adam and Eve Genesis 1:27 and Genesis 3- This week we discussed Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit from the garden. For us, it was an opportunity to discuss disobedience (although my kids never disobey ;)).

Bible Memory Verse: Psalm 119:1 "Thy Word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee." I thought this one might be a little more difficult for them, but I added a few motions and sure enough, by the end of the week they both knew it! I am so proud of them.

Nursery Rhyme: Little Jack Horner

Songs: Standing in the Need of Prayer, God Made My Face, Be Careful Little Eyes, Way Up High (Way Up High was their favorite this week)

Other Preschool Activities this week: We were working on the letter "Aa" this week. Caleb has known all of his letters both upper and lowercase as well as phonics for quite a while, but this is a skill that Hannah has very little interest in. We like doing the letter crafts, but the letter sorting activities that are included with Hubbard's Cupboard are not really the way I would like to teach her plus the prep is a little time consuming. Next week we will spend more time playing one of our many games, puzzles, or other activities to incorporate letter review instead.

We also worked on learning our address and phone number. I was a bit shocked to realize Caleb already knew both since I had never tried to teach him before. Hannah can now tell you her street address, but the phone number may take us a while. I also did a quick check to make sure that both kids could tell someone the names of each of our family members (dad, mom, brother, and sister) for safety purposes. They both knew all the names and I love to hear Hannah say, "Ron Davis". So Cute!

Preschool Stories: I wasn't able to find any of the suggested books at our library this week. However, we have greatly enjoyed reading Calling All Toddlers by Francesca Simon and Susan Winter which was Hannah's pick from the library this week.

In Kindergarten this week:

History: We continued reading about the Egyptian people and then moved on to the Romans. I have changed my approach in how I present the reading material to Caleb in that instead of insisting on reading every word we mostly look at the pictures and I follow his lead on what parts to concentrate on. Once he had time to look at the pictures and I ask him a few questions then he starts getting interested and I read the parts that correspond to what he is interested in. We also started using our globe to find the places we are learning about and that was great fun.

Read-Alouds: We finished reading The Boxcar Children this week. It was a great book and I was very pleased with Caleb's comprehension of this story. He enjoys getting to tell Daddy about what happened in "his" story that day and that is a perfect way for me to see how much he is comprehending from our reading time. I am not overly excited about our next read-aloud selection, but anxious to see how it goes.

Math: We did a little beginning work with telling time on the hour. He likes doing this. We also worked on shapes, specifically "hexagon". The rest of math was pretty much the same, reviewing skills he already knows and fussing about having to write his numbers.

Handwriting/Spelling/Phonics: Caleb practiced writing his street address and the letter "c". We reviewed the letter "M". He had to find 5 pictures from a magazine that start with the letter "M". He found make-up, milk, mouse, mitten, and mushroom.

Science: More learning about weather. In the next week or two we are going to try out letting Dad take over the science teaching. I think EVERYONE will enjoy it more this way. Caleb will be thrilled to have the time with Daddy, Daddy will enjoy getting to be a part of "school", the experiments will get completed much more extensively, and I will be more than happy to pass off my most dreaded subject.

We did more scissor practice, cutting the legs on Cha Cha Charlie. We studied another picture in an art book and Caleb surprised me by flipping back to compare some of the art from two weeks ago with this weeks page.

Our bulletin board this week. Not as many crafts this week so it looks a little empty.




When Daddy is out of town we usually take one night to have a movie night. I painted Hannah's nails, Caleb popped popcorn, we watched Minnesota Cuke and the Search for Noah's Umbrella (the newest Veggie Tales movie) Caleb is still in love with Veggie Tales. We usually pre-purchase any new releases. He can even tell you the exact date the next movie will be released. After the movie we all piled in to Caleb's bed and went to sleep.



Our visiting student enjoyed music time then he was all finished with school and back to cars in Caleb's room. Caleb wears his silly glasses frequently. This week he wore them to the barber shop and to Bible Study Wednesday night.

Painting fingerprint apples on the letter Aa

Playing "Happy Apple". This game helps learn numbers, matching, taking turns. They love to play games.

We cut open an apple and counted the seeds inside then painted with the apple halves.

We had a fun field trip this week to Reed Creek Park. Once a month they have a Preschool Nature Walk. This months focus was Dragonflies. They sang songs about dragonflies, looked at some books to identify the different colors of dragonflies, used a spy glass (toilet paper roll) to look for dragonflies as we walked along the boardwalk, did a little dance in the pavilion, and made a craft (they got to color their own cloth dragonfly). It was a wonderful morning. We will continue participating in this each month. Caleb and Hannah are wearing denim overalls and white shirts, notice Caleb is always front and center!

Hannah was reading a Bible story to her babies.

Separating uppercase A from lowercase A

How many apples on the tree? Hannah matched red pom poms (apples) to the number of apples on the tree.

Week Two

Here is a recap of what we did at Hallelujah Harvest this week:


Bible Story: Creation Genesis 1:1-31- most of our preschool work related to creation in some way this week just as it did last week.


Bible Memory Verse: Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Caleb and Hannah have both memorized this verse. Watch the video at the end of this post to see them reciting the verse.


Nursery Rhyme: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star


Songs: God Made Me, He's Got the Whole World in His Hands, This is the Day, and Hannah added her own favorite from her class at church (I'm in the Lord's Army).


Other Preschool Activities this week: Creation Clothespin matching game, new egg carton shake, painting a yellow sun, swim or fly animal sort, creation book pages 4-7, animal/number match, bird feathers craft, red tissue paper heart


Preschool Stories: Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr., Who Said Red? by Mary Serfozo, and The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear by Audrey Wood. The kids loved these stories. Several nights they came into the school room before bed to get these books to take to bed with them.


In Kindergarten this week:


History: We read about what the Egyptian people were like- what they wore, what they ate, what their homes were like, etc. Caleb and I are still bored with this. I have too much knowledge and training about how to make these things fun and exciting to continue this way, but how do I find time to plan?

Read-Alouds: We continued reading The Boxcar Children and it continues to be our favorite part of Kindergarten. We have four more chapters to go.

Math: The math was still very easy for Caleb, but he REALLY didn't like doing it. He wants to just tell me the answer and move on. He can't stand practicing writing his numbers or coloring the answer. Right now we are just learning the numbers 1-10 which he already knows, but learning to write them (and correctly) is challenging. He can do it, he just doesn't like to. The only concept that was new for Caleb this week was tally marks but he caught on immediately.

Handwriting/Spelling/Phonics: Caleb practiced writing his last name and the letter "O". We talked about how God created the octopus and actually learned some pretty cool things about the octopus.

Science: More learning about weather and rainbows. Better than last week, but still an area that will require a little more planning on my part.

We did more scissor practice which both kids enjoyed. We studied another picture in an art book. This week Caleb was much more interested in discussing the art selection.

Bulletin Board after completing Week One



Bulletin Board after completing week 2

Hannah painting her sun.

Caleb painting his sun- made sure he covered EVERY white spot. When Hannah saw his completed she wanted hers back to do again because hers still had white spots on it. I didn't give it back to her, partly because I don't want her to think her's has to look just like Caleb's, but mostly because we still had lots to do and needed to move on. I know, I know...she is three, slow down, savor the moment, and let her create.

Creation Matching Game- Hannah LOVES these types of activities!

Caleb rebelling against completing his math work.

"Field Trip" to the dentist. Both kids got their teeth cleaned. Hannah insisted on sitting in my lap so I didn't get a picture of her.

"I said, don't take any more pictures!" No kidding, that is really what he was saying here.

God created birds. We were also discussing the colors orange and purple.

Hannah is laughing because she covered her birds eyes with a feather, looked like a black blindfold.

She is sorting animals (swim or fly). If it was something that flies, she would put it in the right pile then flap her arms to "fly". Funny girl!

Creation concoction. We started with an empty bowl since in the beginning there was nothing, only God. Then we added yummy stuff for each day of creation. Day (cool whip), Night (chocolate chips), Sky (marshmallows), land/sea (green/blue M&M's), fish (goldfish crackers), Animals (animal crackers), and on the 7th day God rested and it was good. Eat up and Enjoy! They thought I had lost my mind giving them all these snacks at one time!

We purchased an awesome globe to add to our school room this week. The whole family has really enjoyed "playing" with it. A surprising splurge for this frugal momma, but one I felt was worth it for the educational value. I am HORRIBLE at geography and would like the whole family to improve in this area.

Climbing the dirt mountain in our front yard. Actually the day after this was taken our sod was delivered and laid. This yard project is finally almost complete!!!

Other events worth remembering from this week:

1. Caleb had his hand on his head (to prop it up while whining about doing handwriting work). He felt the pulse in his head and said, "Mommy, feel my head, it is beeping like my heart!"

2. Hannah knocked all the month words and numbers off of our perpectual calendar. I asked Caleb to put it back together for me and while doing so I realized he can identify (read) the months of the year and put them in order. There are no pictures or clues on these to help he just knew them!

3. When we opened our new globe Caleb asked me where the sand was. He then pointed to Mexico which on our globe is brown like sand and said, "oh, here it is, is Mexico the sand?". I have NO idea how he knew that was Mexico. Then he gave the globe a spin, turned it to see the bottom and said, "look, here's Antartica". Amazed, I asked, "Caleb, how do you know where Antartica is?" He said, "because that's were Curious George went to look for the penguins." Why am I spending money on curriculum when he can just watch PBS all day? Just kidding, but seriously, he has learned quite a bit (of good stuff) from those shows. We do still need to limit his tube time a little more though.

Some sweet videos of some of my favorite memories from this week:

Week One

Our first week of school is complete! Overall it was a huge success and although I am thankful that the weekend is here and gives us a couple of days off, I am looking forward to next week. Here is a recap of what we did at Hallelujah Harvest this week:
Bible Story: Creation Genesis 1:1-31- most of our preschool work related to creation in some way this week. We will continue this story next week.
Bible Memory Verse: Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Caleb memorized this verse this week. Hannah can say it with very little help. This will be their verse again next week.
Nursery Rhyme: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
Songs: God Made Me, He's Got the Whole World in His Hands, and This is the Day (They both loved song time this week)
Other Preschool Activities this week: Creation Book Craft, Egg Carton Shake, Day/Night Matching, wave bottle, Writing in shaving cream and chocolate pudding, oreo snack, creation collage

I am very impressed with our first week of using Hubbard's Cupboard curriculum. We all loved it!

In Kindergarten this week:
History: We read about what the earliest people were like- what they wore, what they ate, what their homes were like, etc. Overall Caleb and I were both a bit bored with this, but he has told everyone this week that he learned that people in his ate lizards. He thought that was very disgusting!

Read-Alouds: Our first read-aloud is The Boxcar Children. This is probably our favorite part of Kindergarten so far. Caleb loves snuggling up on the couch to be read to and seems to comprehend really well. I enjoy reading the books with him and find that I am looking forward to finding out what will happen next (only 1 chapter a day!).

Math: The math was super simple this week, but a good encouraging way to begin. The simplicity will build some confidence up for harder lessons to come. We are enjoying the math so far though.

Handwriting/Spelling/Phonics: Caleb practiced writing his name and worked on some fine motor skills and holding his pencil correctly. I think this will be a difficult subject for us this year. Caleb is a perfectionist like his daddy and if he can't do something perfectly he doesn't want to do it at all. His fine motor skills could certainly use some work and he knows it so he wants to get through this work quickly and move on to something else.

Science: This was my least favorite subject this week which came as no surprise. I have never liked science. I also feel like this science curriculum is way to much for Kindergarten. I will take some time this weekend to re-evaluate my approach to this part of our day. Could be a lot of fun, might just require a little more prior planning. This week we were discussing the effects of the earth rotating and revolving- that is a very difficult concept to comprehend! Next week is weather.

We did some scissor practice which both kids enjoyed. We also studied a picture in an art book. Caleb really did not like the art lesson. Here are a few pictures from days 3 and 4.

Wave Bottle- God created the sky and the sea.

Creation Book- Day 2 God Created the sky and the Sea.

Blue: sponge painting with blue paint on blue paper. Hannah used a moon sponge. Caleb chose the star.

Day 3: God created land, grass, flowers, and trees. They LOVE having their hands painted for craft time. They think it tickles!

Hannah sorted numbers with the pictures. This was good practice for her and she did much better than I expected.

Writing numbers in pudding. Hannah loved this. Caleb just wanted to know why I took his pudding out of his cup and wanted to know where his spoon was.

Creation collage