Family Fun

October school time has been all about having fun and what kid doesn't learn while having fun. Here is a sample of the week of October 18-24.

Caleb and Hannah made birthday cards for cousin Brookie and Aunt Hopey.

We used corn kernels to work on addition.

Hannah had fun playing in the corn.

Our homeschool caregroup met at CiCi's pizza for lunch then enjoyed a field trip to Portman's Music Academy. They learned about several instruments and had the opportunity to try one instrument. Caleb initially said he wanted to try the trumpet, but changed his mind when it was his turn. Hannah didn't want to try either. It was a good simple exposure to instruments for them though and an opportunity to see some other homeschool families.

They spent one afternoon washing dishes. This is usually a big hit and lasted especially long this day. I had time to make brownies, get some bread mixed and baking, prepare potato soup, and cut some fruits and veggies.

On Saturday we went to an old fashion Family Fall Festival. They got to play some simple games, go on a scavenger hunt, roast marshmallows, and make a craft.

Videos of the week: I have been running for 25 minutes each afternoon and the kids think it is great to watch. Caleb runs in place beside the treadmill (for about 30 seconds) and Hannah enjoys stretching with me afterwards (wish I was a flexible as a three year old!). And the final video is of Caleb reading his second book.

A Time to Play

I have been very dissatisfied lately with how our school time had been going. I was not enjoying planning Caleb's lessons because I knew they were not appropriate for him. I was not motivated to teach the lessons, and he was not motivated to do the lessons. Caleb is fully capable of doing the entire Sonlight K curriculum, it is just not what I consider appropriate curriculum for his age. So I have been doing a lot of soul searching about what I want our days to be like. The end result of a lot of tough nights deliberating with myself, I decided that I want to embrace these precious young years. I packed up all of his Sonlight curriculum except his math (which he LOVES), and his Fun Tales early readers books. We will continue with all of our calendar time activities which includes prayer, pledge, songs, calendar activities, weather, and ABC review. We will also continue using only the Bible portion of Hubbard's Cupboard preschool curriculum. Beginning in November we will also be using some fun literature focused activities from Itty Bitty Bookworm. I am thankful that God has given me the wisdom to not waste these days. I am thankful for the opportunity to teach my children at home. And I am thankful that by doing so I have the freedom to make changes along the way to best meet the needs of our precious gifts.

So, here is a glimpse of what our week was like...

We mostly just reviewed Bible stories and memory verses. We are really just in a restructuring phase right now. Caleb did lots of Math worksheets and always amazes me how fast he catches on.

Hannah loved tracing these letter cards then wiping them clean to do again later. This is a great fine motor exercise as well as practice learning her letters.

I pulled out some preschool worksheets to do with Hannah and she was THRILLED! She told Caleb to go away, she was doing her Kindergarten! She asks for these all day and never wants to stop. She insists on writing her name on Every page. To my surprise she wrote her name rather well by herself. I had only seen her write "H" and attempt "a".

This is a picture of how Hannah wrote her name completely be herself. It doesn't always come out this well, but I am impressed! She also is making some sudden progress in letter recognition.

Caleb got to read Book 1 from his Fun Tales early readers this week.

At first he had trouble realizing there were two words and not just one long word on the page so I showed him to cover up one word.

He was so proud of himself. I was proud of him too.

This week was our monthly filed trip to Reed Creek Park. Caleb was very interested in the turtle named "Elvis" on display this month.

The theme this month was spiders so they got to make a spider craft after our nature walk.

We ended the week with a first for all four of us...pumpkin carving. Caleb and Hannah will be Mickey and Minnie Mouse for Halloween so Ron carved Mickey and Minnie pumpkins. The kids got to wash the pumpkins and scoop out the "guts". They turned out really cute.

We also had a FUN football week!

Week Eight

Bible Story: Moses and the Exodus (Exodus 13: 17-22 and Exodus 14

Bible Memory Verse: Joshua 1:9b Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. Phew...that is a long one! They are doing pretty well with it though. They usually get a few weeks to learn each verse. Our puppets have been helping with this one.

Nursery Rhyme: Red Sky at Night

Songs: Baby Moses, Let Those People Go, What's the Weather?

Other Preschool Activities this week: We painted pictures that they got storytime at the library this week. It actually went with a story we read a few weeks ago for school.

Preschool Stories: Ovals by Jennifer Burk, Moses' Big Adventure by Allia Zobel-Nolan, What's the Weather Today? by Allan Fowler

In Kindergarten this week:

History: Travel in Medieval Europe, Inca Cities, Ming China, Chinese Ways

Read-Alouds: We finished reading My Father's Dragon.

Math: We worked on "long, tall, and short", writing numbers 20-29, counting by 10's, adding single digits, numbers between, shapes, number aftertally marks, counting to 40, graphing, writing numbers 30-39, using a color coded key, patterns, and calendar

Handwriting/Spelling/Phonics: This was a review week for handwriting and we didn't do a writing assignment this week.

Science: Coasts, Caves and Caverns, Useful Earth (no experiments this week)

Caleb paints his Mouse picture from the library.

Hannah paints her Mouse picture.

We took the kids to Playhouse Disney Live and had a WONDERFUL time. Hannah had a Minnie Mouse costume that was handed down from cousin Brooklyn so I ordered Caleb a Mickey Mouse costume to match with Hannah. They will use these outfit all month for lots Halloween fun. They got lots of attention from the costumes at the Disney show. You know all the other little girls wanted to be Minnie too!

BEAUTIFUL!!!

I LOVE live shows! I was as excited about going as the kids were.