Week 1 Highlights {Sonlight Core A} and More

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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.

The book she is using to get ideas from is Dinosaurs by Gail Gibbons

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

-at family words and sight word "the"

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.

Madelyn's 5th birthday PAW-ty!

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These puppies are now in loving homes. :)

Madelyn L-O-V-E-S dogs. Any kind of dog...large or small, ferocious or cuddly n' cute. They all bring her joy that cannot be put into words. When she's not torturing loving our big pup, she's pretending to be one herself. So, it came as no surprise that she wanted a puppy party for her birthday.

We celebrated her special day by inviting family and friends over to our house for lunch, cupcakes, and ice cream. The kids decorated paper bags that held their stuffed puppies they named and "adopted," adoption certificates, puppy chow (cocoa puffs), and free puppy coloring pages I found on the internet. I got most of the ideas for this theme off of Pinterest (of course)!

Paw prints: Junior mints and chocolate chips

Sign: scrapbook paper and puppy party printables

 Madelyn’s 5^th Birthday Interview

What is your favorite color? Pink
What is your favorite toy? Alvin & the Chipmunks stuffed animals
What is your favorite fruit? A clementine
What is your favorite tv show? Dora the Explorer
What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? grapes
What is your favorite outfit? My Hello Kitty shirt
What is your favorite game? Pet Pals
What is your favorite snack? Trail mix
What is your favorite animal? doggies
What is your favorite part of school? learning
What is your favorite book? Olivia
Who is your best friend? Emma
What is your favorite cereal? Every last one
What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play
What is your favorite holiday? Christmas
What do you like to take to bed with you at night? My big doggy
What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Every last thing
What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Broccoli
What do you want to be when you grow up? Jasmine (the Disney princess lol)

Dear Madelyn,

You are a teeny, tiny girl with a BIG personality. I think the nurse said you are in the 8th percentile for weight and height. I'm beginning to think you'll never outgrow your 3T clothes, your love for Dora, or your cute chipmunk voice :). Your days are spent playing hard and praying hard. I am glad we are getting over the I-must-sleep-with-every-toy-I-own phase. That wasn't a very fun battle. We both know you had no intention of ever sleeping on those nights. Wherever you are, your big sister is nearby. The two of you share a room, toys, books, an ornery brother, and a special sisterly bond. 

You are adventurous, funny, strong, and bright. You test your boundaries at times, and have the "I'm sorry, feel sorry for me" teary-eyed expression down.  It usually works, especially if you use it on Dad:). 

I hope turning 5 is every bit as special as you thought it would be. You are a beautiful little girl, or I guess I should say BIG girl, right?

There are 5 things that I always want you to remember to do, even when life seems hard...

 Love God, love people, live simply, scatter kindness, and care deeply.

Happy 5th birthday to my small-but-mighty Madelyn!

Love, 

Mom

 

Sneak Peek: A NEW New Room

Pin It Remember when we transformed Madelyn’s old bedroom into our school room back in February? Well, since the school year began in August, this space hasn’t had much use. The desks, as much as I love them, allow little room for me to sit with the kids and guide their learning process. By the end of the first week of school, the dining room table started serving as our main learning area. I liked being able to see what everyone was working on, and I could multi-task much easier by all of us being at the same table. I began brainstorming about how to make changes to the school room in order to make it work for us.

One day, a magical blog post at Confessions of a Homeschooler gave me a great visual of what I could do to our room. I became so obsessed with her school room, on top of having a great reason to go to Ikea, that I checked the pictures out several times a week for almost 2 months while making a list of items I liked and wanted for us. CJ agreed to an Ikea trip at the end of October/early November.  After waiting patiently for about a week, I began to drive him nuts with my begging and he agreed to go sooner. Lining up a babysitter beforehand worked in my favor.

BEFORE:

Saturday we drove to Cincinnati and back. I spent that evening helping my friend put together my furniture. By “helping” I mean I talked to her while she did most of the work. I did manage to put some furniture together by myself on Sunday because deep down I actually do enjoy this type of work…it’s a productive way to take out frustration. Here is where we are at so far:

SNEAK PEEK AFTER:

CJ still has to hang a white board, maps and posters. We also need blinds or curtains. The light is blinding in the morning!

Can’t wait until everything is finished! I’m happy to have my dining room textbook and worksheet free again!

August Sensory Bin: Back to School

Pin It Preschool starts on Monday for Madelyn. My friend’s two children will be coming 3 mornings a week for FUN learning activities as well. Since the main school focus of summer was to concentrate on getting curriculum, schedules, lessons, etc. together for Samuel and Sarah, I am left with this weekend only to gear up for preschool. Luckily this is our second year for this, so I don’t need to do a whole lot.
Sensory bins are a favorite in my house. Seriously, I have our August box set out for Monday, and the kids are eagerly waiting to open it up as if I’ve wrapped a Christmas present for them. Last year I only did a few of these because of how messy they can be (on top of the other messes involved with teaching preschool…a VERY messy job) depending on the theme and objects involved. This year I am going to try to do 1-2 per month and I’ll probably only use it for a center once a week.
Our August theme is …BACK TO SCHOOL! (some ideas came from Counting Coconuts)

Contents of bin:
Ripped up magazine paper
Scissors for cutting magazine paper
Lacing string
Numbers from an old calendar that have been hole punched for lacing
Pencils
Erasers to put on and match to pencils 
Pencil sharpener
Paper clips for linking and patterns
Pencil box
Magnetic letters that can be used on the tin pencil box
Strips of paper with kids’ names that they can use with the letters
Notebook
A few crayons

The scissors will be removed at the first sign of anyone attempting to cut off fingers, hair, anything other than magazine paper. Other than that concern, which will be discussed before any use of the bin begins, this back to school fun starts in less than two days!

Our First Day

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Oh the first day…the first day…where do I begin? Today was Samuel’s first day of 2nd grade and Sarah’s first day of Kindergarten (Madelyn starts Pre-K next Monday).  We were ALL very excited for this day to come. They asked me to pick their outfits out yesterday morning (normally I do this in the evenings) because they couldn’t wait to see what they were going to wear. Aren’t they so darn cute?!

Our day started at 7:00am. After getting dressed, eating breakfast, brushing teeth, etc., CJ sat the kids down for a Bible lesson. Two minutes into it, Samuel asked, “Is this what we’re doing all day long?”

Next, we went outside for pictures!

Just look at how happy they are!

After pictures we came inside to discuss rules and goals for the year.  Samuel and Sarah did a great job at coming up with 3 rules and 3 goals (I chose 3 each in order to keep it simple and easy to remember) to help our school year run smoothly and effectively.

Rules:

1. Obey your parents.

2. Be respectful to others (show kindness, no putdowns).

3. Be cooperative.

Goals:

1. Have fun

2. Learn

3. Help others

 

I told/showed them how our mornings would function and where they could find certain materials. We went back into the school room to do our morning board and make pictures for the art frames I bought for the walls in the school room. I also bought them each a new pencil sharpener for a little first day present (I know, amazing, right?!). Then we did a few lessons together at the dining room table.

 

Our first day came to an end. We had planned on having a picnic lunch at the park, but some wrong choices while at Staples quickly changed those plans. We’ll try again tomorrow. Maybe we’ll start a traditional 2nd day of school picnic instead!

Overall, here is how they rated their day:

We can’t wait to get to know all the homeschool families in our area better! Here’s to a great year!

Our 2011-2012 Curriculum Choices!

Pin It Let me start off by saying that I am so excited to finally put into action what I’ve had the desire to do for so long. When CJ and I started dating, he knew how much I wanted to homeschool someday. I am thankful for a supportive husband who is totally on board and in agreement with this decision. Homeschooling the girls for preschool went so well last year, and gave me the confidence to say, “Hey, I can do this next year for grade school, and have Samuel join us!” The reasons why we chose to homeschool will be saved for a different post, but I can’t tell you how many people have asked why we chose this route and how we plan on socializing them (lol).
The following curriculum choices are based on what we thought would work best for our children. I’ve seen so many different options and read blogs about what others are doing where I’ve thought, “Hmm, should we be doing that too?” CJ continues to remind me that what works for others may not work for us. So, I continue to stay focused on my family through this journey while being excited about all the new families we will meet along the way. And somewhere in between I hope to get all my questions answered!

Madelyn (Pre-K):
For Pre-k, I am pulling a lot of resources from the internet like I did last year. We will focus on one letter/sound and number/math a week, have a theme of the month, sight words, sensory bins, etc. Madelyn’s friend Isabelle will be joining us again for preschool this year, so she will have a little buddy to do learning centers and art with.  I am adding in some Montessori aspects this year as well. I am hoping to do to All About Reading Pre-Level 1 with her, but other than that my preschool curriculum is mainly DIY. Madelyn will also take ballet lessons with a group of homeschoolers.

*There will be links to the curriculum choices below soon (hopefully). 

Sarah (Kindergarten):
Phonics/Spelling- All About Spelling Level 1

Reading/Writing-Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, Bob Books, Handwriting Without Tears

Math- Math-U-See Primer

Science- Apologia Zoology 1

Social Studies- My State Fun Book

P.E.- Ballet lessons with a group of homeschoolers

Art- Library resources and whatever I come up with at home

*Not all of these subjects will be done daily. I plan on rotating some of them, and am not concerned with getting through an entire text book by the end of the year. My goal is to allow them to have a lot of hands-on experiences that they would not get from sitting in a classroom. Therefore, I don’t want homeschool to feel like public or private school.

Samuel (2nd grade):
Reading/Phonics/Spelling/Writing- A Beka Grade 2, First Language Lessons Level 2, Writing With Ease Level 2

Math- Math-U-See Beta. I went to a Math-You-See workshop and was sold on this method quickly!

Science-Apologia Zoology 1

Social Studies- My 50 States (from the same people who created the State Funbook for Kindergarten)

P.E.- Uncertain because I’ve heard that I should definitely sign him up for Swim and Gym at the Y, while others have said not to waste my money :)

Art- Library and whatever I come up with at home

Oh, and CJ is doing Bible lessons because he has an amazing gift when it comes to teaching others about the Bible.  :)