Week 3

This was the first week of our regular schedule (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday 9-1).  The kids are getting settled and becoming more comfortable. They are now moving quickly into the "sillies". They are sometimes hard to settle to work and they make requests to "quit working" or complaints of "I'm tired". Now, setting aside the change in weather (getting cooler), the increase in allergies (which both kids have and is said to be intense this year) and the fact that Daniel is having some kind of behavior shift (I think he is having a hard time not being the "only chick" at homeschool), I sympathize but don't let them get out of their work. We do shift to other activities and then return to our other work, but I don't let them "get out of it" completely. I think that sets a bad precedent. Danielle will be going to public school next year and Daniel will be homeschooled for as long as I am able to do it (Lord willing---there is nothing wrong with me and no reason why I shouldn't be able to hs thru graduation, but well, you never know) and will have requirements by the state that he has to strive for. Best to get them in the habit of doing their work now than trying to get them into better habits when they get to "school".

We have been enjoying nice weather,  good stories and activities with our The Story of the World textbook/storybook.

playing the game : Do You See What I See?

Danny's math page using Dice (he shakes the dice and puts the numbers (based on the color of die) writes the number in the correct box then solves the problem)

making the city of Mohenjo-Daro.

we still need to add wells and streets to our project

Week 2

This week was a week of tweaking and disruption. Like week 1, we did not have school on Monday (Labor Day). We began our program of not having school on Wednesdays as Danielle has gymnastics and both kids have Wednesday nite church group (or "Church Dark" as Daniel has called it since he was a lot younger)

We have been consistent with starting our day with the Pledge of Allegiance and with Prayer.  We then move to Bible Study. The kids are doing really, really well with remembering what we are working on. This I think is due to two things: 1. the curriculum and 2. the fact that these two kids have been regular attendees of Sunday School and Wednesday nite Bible study. They both have a really good foundation.  The Grapevine Curriculum has the students listening to Bible reading, Bible discussion coupled with drawing (using stick figures) the lesson and then reviewing the lesson both at the end and then at the beginning of the next lesson. The kids had their first oral quiz on Friday. Both got 100%.

We finished our Coat of Many Colors project (take 2 grey t-shirts--i would have chosen a light tan if AC Moore had had that in kid sizes--that are a bit large for each child), have the kids paint them with paint (we chose colors that might be found in nature as the original designer of the coat would have used--well as close as we could get with clothing-fast paints anyway ;-) ) , then when dry, cut them up the middle front, put them on, wrap them around as you would with a robe and tie with either extra scrap fabric, twine, yarn or just leave without (as we did---the twine we were using became whips very quickly in the hands of these two very creative kids). :-)

Review of Week 1

 

Week 1 went well. We have my husband's niece joining us. She JUST turned 5 over the weekend and therefore missed the cut off for public school. After 2 years of pre-school, her mom and dad decided that maybe it would be nice if she could join Little D in homeschool. Naturally, I said, "But of course!"

Princess D is a beautiful little girl who is the perfect match for Little D. They are two peas in a pod AND they have the potential to fight like crazy. Oh. Boy.


We are working with the following text books and computer programs:

Both kids are in Handwriting Without Tears. Little D is in the turquoise book and Princess has just started the first book in the series (orange).

Both are doing Funnix (computer program) in both Math and Reading

Both are doing Time4Learning (on-line computer program) also for Math and Reading.

We are using Grapevine Studies for Bible. We started at the beginning with an overview of Genesis.

We are doing The Story of the World for History.

Science will be, until January, some fun experiments as the weather permits. Most of my ideas will come from kits or the internet.

We will be having story time with a plan to read 4 books each day.

There will also be games and projects (mostly centered around The Story of History) as well as a few field trips.

We will have Princess 4 days a week with a break on Wednesday beginning next week. Last week and this coming week had vacation days so we will "make up"on Wednesday. Boy, last week I was really exhausted by the time Friday came along!

Some things for next week:

1. Use PENCIL to write in my plans for the week. Only God should use pen in His planner!!
2. Don't give the kids too much down time while I am getting supplies OR Have everything ready first!! Given a break, these two immediately begin jumping on the couch, running around the house, etc.
3. Keep having them help with snack and lunch. (This helps a LOT with the above item.)
4. Make time to wiggle around, dance around, run around.

Hope you all have a great week!!


-Kim