Weeks 3 and 4 Highlights {Sonlight Core A}

Pin It I didn't stop to take many pictures during weeks 3 and 4. Here are the moments I did manage to capture...

BIBLE

We memorized Colossians 3:20, Mathew 7:12, and learned about Joseph and his brothers. I will always remember Samuel telling me this story when he was in preschool, exclaiming (in the cutest 3 year-old boy voice ever), “Those mean brudders got blood on his beautiful, beautiful coat!!” The girls used bingo dot markers to make colorful coats for Joseph.

Madelyn said, "Oops! He put on his Christmas coat!" haha!

HISTORY

Weeks 3 and 4 focused on Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. Samuel decided that the rich people must be extremely lazy since they had slaves to do everything for them, but he did think lying down for meals and eating with fingers was very cool.
  

Madelyn and Sarah made Olive leaf crowns.

HEALTH

We discussed different emotions, and how to deal with people making us angry or sad. Sarah wrote about being happy and sad in her journal.

READING

The girls acted out a scene from Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

Madelyn decided Marlie needed to hear a story while she was eating...

 MATH

Madelyn worked on addition problems using her Math-U-See blocks.

Week 2 Highlights {Sonlight Core A} and a Cookie Unit Study

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Week 2

HISTORY

Our focus was on Ancient Egypt. Interesting fact: Ancient Egyptians would shave half of their eyebrow off when their cat died. This expressed how upset they were.

BIBLE

We read about Abraham, Isaac, Jacob & Esau. Our memory verse was Acts 16:31, and the song that helped us memorize the verse was very catchy. :) Let's just say memory work wasn't a problem for us!

SPELLING/LANGUAGE

Sarah used Melissa & Doug wooden letter beads and pipe cleaners to practice her new words. Since she loves this activity, I left the beads and other supplies in her spelling workbox all week so she could access them whenever she wanted.

We worked on story sequencing, similes, and wrote a paragraph about family. 

Here is what Sarah had to say about our family:

 “Our family likes to spend time together. We play games, clean, paint, and watch movies. We love to read and go places like the zoo. Being together is important to us.” :)

SCIENCE

These lessons have been so enjoyable because they are simple, hold the girls’ attention, and have fun activities to go along with each topic. This week we played a quick game of animal charades. Can you guess what Sarah is?

 ...an octopus of course! ;)

HEALTH

For Health, we talked about what made each of us special. The girls discussed how they were alike and different, and what special gifts they’ve been blessed with. They made self-portraits…Madelyn was pretty amused with this activity. 

COOKIE UNIT STUDY

This past week we took a small break from Sonlight to do an Amanda Bennett cookie unit study. C.J. was off of work for the week, so I did not want to attempt a regular schedule. Madelyn suggested that we invite some friends over to make cookies, so we had a fun week of baking and learning about the wonderful history of cookies. Does anyone know that song that Dora sings when she's mixing chocolate? Bate Bate Chocolate? Yeah, the kids sang that repeatedly...as in over and over every time someone picked up the mixing spoon lol. Thanks for the Spanish lesson, Dora!

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.

Our Routine

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When it comes to our daily routine I have learned that, for our family, we thrive more on the routine aspect rather than specific times of day.  Life happens when you homeschool.  Math cannot always start at 9:30 like you’d like it to. Flexibility is important because you just never know when a play date or field trip will present itself!  

My alarm is set for 7 AM during the school week. I, however, am a snooze button hitter. C.J. is not.  My snooze button hitting annoys him. His alarm is set for 7:20, which is when we both decide to crawl out of bed to get Samuel ready for school. The girls usually hear the commotion and wake up shortly after.  Guess how many morning people we have in our household? ZERO. So, even though we get off to a slow start, we (usually) are ready to pick up the pace after breakfast.

C.J. takes Samuel to school while the girls finish getting ready and doing their chores. 

At 9AM school starts at home. We use and love the workbox system!

Our school day starts with the Pledge of Allegiance, calendar time, Bible, and History/Geography.  I am noticing that this seems to be Sarah’s favorite time for learning. She retells everything she learns during History to Samuel, so at least I know the information is being retained! After we’re done with these subjects, the girls take a snack break.

Next we have a big block of Language Arts and read alouds, followed by lunch sometime between 12:30 and 1PM. If we get done with LA early, and we almost always do, they’ll play outside until we’re ready to eat.

Starting in September, we’ll have co-op on Tuesdays and Fridays, so the morning routine will be rearranged a little on those days. 

C.J. makes lunch unless he has to go into work early. I use this time to do laundry. 

After lunch, we finish up the school day with Math and our special subject (Science, Heath, Art/Craft, or Computer). Sarah and Madelyn are then free to play until we have to pick up Samuel from school.  Sometimes I’ll have them sit and read together. It all depends on whether or not we have time to pick up a toy mess before getting Samuel. 

Once Samuel is home we have our afternoon snack. At 4PM he is supposed to start his homework. This is usually a huge battle that I don’t look forward to. When homework is FINALLY done and checked, I race to get dinner on the table, everyone fed, and the kitchen cleaned up before heading to soccer practice 3 evenings a week. When Samuel IS cooperative about doing homework, he has time to go outside with Sarah and Madelyn and play with neighborhood friends for a little while. The days we don’t have soccer are much less stressful. AWANA starts in September, so that will only leave our Friday evenings free for a little while.  I would much rather raise active children than couch potatoes any day!

Soccer is the last activity of the day before our bedtime routine. We have one final clean up time, snack, bath, teeth brushed, reading, and prayer time. I like to start these things at 7:30, with the intention of having everyone fast asleep by 8:30-9PM. After 9, I do my evening chores and plan for the next day. 

While this routine works wonderfully for us, I do wish I was a morning person instead of a night owl. It's 2AM and I'm wide awake! That 7AM snooze button will be here way too soon! :)