We survived the first week of school! I decided we would go
ahead and continue using the workbox system this year. I really think it makes a HUGE difference in
keeping our day running smoothly. Sarah
and Madelyn each have their own rolling cart with 10 boxes. Some days we use
all 10, and other days we may only use 6 or 7.
Sonlight Core A has been amazing. So far we just L-O-V-E the
material we are learning. Not to mention the staff was great over the summer
when it came to answering questions and helping me order the correct materials.
Read about our curriculum choices to see what we'll be using this year.
WEEK 1 REVIEW:
BIBLE
For Bible time we discussed Creation through God’s covenant
with Abraham. On most days I’ll provide the girls with a coloring page that goes
along with what we’re learning. Journeys through Bible Lands (Candle Discovery Series) is not included
with Sonlight, but we use the maps to help us get a visual of where people lived
and traveled. Our memory verse was Romans 3:23.
HISTORY
This week we studied dinosaurs, and the first people, food,
clothing and shelters. Sarah and Madelyn constructed dinosaurs using blocks and
Zoobs. We watched videos on dinosaurs and cave paintings. Afterward, the girls became cave painters and used feathers to create animal paintings. Sarah used her Loop
N Loom to practice weaving.
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| The book she is using to get ideas from is Dinosaurs by Gail Gibbons |
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| Madelyn with her very unique looking Pterodactyl. |
READING AND WRITING
Sarah is currently using first grade readers. They are
pretty easy for her, but we’re still working on building her confidence in this
area. Madelyn reviewed You Can Read: A, And, See, The, and letter F tracing. I’m
impressed with how hard Madelyn is trying on her Handwriting Without Tears
pages. She is getting better every day.
Sarah is enjoying Draw Write Now Book 3. I ordered 3 more
books in the series because Madelyn wanted to do one once she saw how much
Sarah liked her book, and I know Sarah will want to complete the whole series.
We are currently reading The Boxcar Children #1 together.
Chapter books still don’t seem to hold Madelyn’s focus for very long unless she
can fidget with something, or color, while I’m reading. Sarah sits, listens,
and soaks up read aloud time.
I also read Henny Penny and the girls retold the story in their
own words and drew pictures of the characters. They listened to the audio book
of The Kissing Hand. I found a craft and poem to go along with the story on
Pinterest.
SPELLING
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| -at family words and sight word "the" |
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| Rainbow writing |
MATH
We covered ordinal numbers, before and after, number order, and counting by 2s.
SCIENCE
We use one science curriculum for both grades to make things easier. This week we discussed vertebrates and invertebrates.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
A fuzzy caterpillar (which has been named Catapilly) joined our family this weekend. It lives on our back patio in a bucket full of leaves, grass, and any other bugs the girls can find. Madelyn pets it like a puppy and insists it smiles when she talks to it.
Looks like a great week! I never did use the workbox system, mostly because mine were older when I first heard of it, but I love the idea in theory!
ReplyDeleteOh, we're using a modified version of workboxes this year. I don't have the room for each of the kids to have a set of boxes, so I took our usual system of a WORK BINDER, added dividers for each day of the week along with calendar and help sheets, and then attached a workbox grid and velcro-dotted workbox cards (from Homeschool Creations) to the front of the binders). I hope it keeps the younger kids moving along and give them some positive reinforcement to turn the cards over and see everything done.
ReplyDeleteDraw Write Now as a hit last year, but the kids asked to return to Handwriting Without Tears. ::shrug:: It's a fun program though, huh?
Lots of hands-on activities!
Hmmm...I was looking for a new read aloud. Boxcar Children? I'll have to keep that on the list! I have until Monday to decide. My kids usually build with blocks or Legos or doodle while I read. At first I didn't like it, but they seem to REMEMBER what I read better with a little fidgeting!