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!)
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 volcanoHannah finally enjoyed riding her bike that she got for her birthday in June.
Vidoes from the week.
Hurray! Sounds like you've made a great decision that's good for all of you. The great joy of homeschooling is that you can modify it to fit the child! We've been writing and illustrating stories for a few weeks now, and Sam loves it too. It makes him so proud to have his own book full of stories! Love Hannah's hair!
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