School Days~ Week #9

Brrr...talk about change in weather! Last week our weather was a beautiful and pleasant 70-80 degrees! Perfect fall days with sunshine and breezes. Today it's a mere 38 and raining! I want my fall weather back!!!!! LOL!

Week #9~ October 22-26th

LITTLE BRITCHES

Bible

Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.
Proverbs 12:18

The Lord detests lying lips, but he delights in men who are truthful.
Proverbs 12:22

Reading

U like /us/ in the forms of a, e, i, o and u

Wor like /wer/

Long i spelled igh

Yeah. After trying to teach the /uh/ sound when it is a, e, i and o....I decided that it was no WONDER English is so hard to learn! I mean there is no rhyme or reason for when this one will be the case! And some of the words that were supposed to have the /uh/ sound didn't have it when I said them! LOL! Like "robin"--I say "Ro-bin" but they had it like it needed to say "Ro-bun". Even a few words Little Britches sounded out on his own, but there weren't any "uh" sounds in them! LOL! So I didn't bother to teach him differently in those circumstances

 We also began with the Bible Reader included in the MFW-1st grade curriculum.

I took the words he was to learn and wrote them each onto my laminated/magnetic 3 x 5 cards and put them up on the white board. We reviewed them each morning and he read his first page of the Bible Reader to me and daddy several times during the week. The written orange words are ones he quickly knows by sight. "Only" is at the bottom because it's a bit more tricky to figure out.

We also did a quick blend review with this set of worksheets from Confessions of a Homeschooler.

Activities

 *Hebrew/Greek and the Bible

He had to mimic the Greek alphabet letters. He loved this.

*Timeline

We put our timeline up on the wall near the ceiling. Little Britches chose a dark green yarn for the line. We put up the Hebrew card he had colored earlier in the week at the beginning and added a picture of he and Baby Britches.

 This is the view of the timeline from Little Britches' desk.

Art

My mother-in-law had him practice making a tower of cards then had him draw shapes to make a Tower of Babel. He learned that you can use shapes to draw animals too.

Math

*Addition and Time

Little Britches completed a few more worksheets and enjoyed playing the Hickory-Dickory-Dock game from a shoebox learning center EBOOK I bought during the Scholastic Express Dollar Days. He loved it except he didn't win which then led to a lesson on good sportsmanship. I actually went through and printed out quite a few of the games and laminated them for future use.

He enjoyed doing this Angry Birds Time match worksheet. I think it's from the Angry Birds unit from 1 +1 +1 = 1.

History

Completed up our study on Babylon and Nimrod with coloring pages and activities

Geography

Worked on the unit for bodies of water in our Beginning Geography book. We found the bodies of water studied (Lake Superior and St. Lawrence River) on the pull down US map and the globe.

Science

"Beach and Waves"

Things Outdoors p. 24-27 USBOURNE

Perfect timing for this study since we just got home from the beach! We learned about the surf and how waves are made.

Experiment: We fastened a piece of string to a doorknob and then worked it up and down from across the room to see how the waves work.

 Little Britches thought this was exciting...

Baby Britches eagerly wanted a turn...

Little Britches used this knowledge over the weekend as he heard about Hurricane Sandy. He told me "We learned about that!" when they started discussing how the hurricane can be out at sea and still cause big waves.

(Yay for reinforcement of our lesson!)

Read Aloud

We finished up Mouse and the Motorcycle this week. When it ended, he didn't believe me and I had to show him that it was over! LOL! Needless to say he's eager to start up the second book in the series.

I had him tell me his most favorite part and draw a coordinating picture.

 

"My favorite part was when he rode in the ambulence."

BABY BRITCHES:

Baby Britches and I went on an expedition to see what treasures we could find. We found some beautiful leaves, a cat-tail and some fun seed pods. Here is a pic of our treasures:

Baby Britches only had to see the bright red leaves one time before he was pointing them out to me as we rode around the farm on the 4wheeler. And he LOVED the seed pods. I learned they are from the Trumpet Vine (aka hummingbird vine) that grows wild here all over the fences. We opened each pod and he could use his little fingers to get all the papery like seeds out inside. We saved the pod casing as they will make great little boats!

Here is a pic of Baby Britches working on his "schoolwork"...LOL!

It was a good week and we got through a lot of schoolwork as well as enjoyed afternoons in the glorious weather!

If you are in the path of the storm on the East coast, please stay safe!!! 

We are thinking and praying for your safety!!

School Days~ Oct 15-19 (Week #8)

Oct 15-19-Week #8

Little Britches

Bible

A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control.
Proverbs 29:11

Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.
Proverbs 12:18

Bible Activity

Learned how to draw a map of the Holy Land using a cute little Fisherman Story. This was a great idea and Little Britches caught on very very fast. He also learned the naming phrase "ET purrs in the red nile med". Now when we see pictures of the Holy Land it is MUCH easier to identify! I'm in the process of drawing a larger one and laminating it for reference as we go along.

Reading

AR, OR, IR, ER, UR

We learned great helps for figuring out these sounds. I love the way they teach this part of the phonics! We review the cORn and cAR words in the booklets he has. We also did the Word Family letter strip for AR that I printed off last year. I actually printed, cut out and laminated all these word family strips. Great resource!

Math

Reviewing shapes and beginning our Addition chapter

The favorite activity this week was the "Roll a Sum" one. I have big blue dice that I found at the Dollar Tree. I gave them to him and had him roll them and write the numbers down. Then add them all up when he was done. He got into this and even let Baby Britches have a die to throw! LOL! I'll be pulling this back out for sure on the days when we need to "lighten up" math.

We also used these GREAT wood disks for counters. My mom found bags and bags of them at Goodwill for pennies and asked if I wanted them--Absolutely! So he enjoys using them for his counters. Especially since they are two sided.

Baby Britches uses them to practice putting things into slots. I made him a "token bank" from an old sour cream container and he LOVES dropping them in and then taking them out and doing it again.

We also started working on the +1 facts...I let Little Britches go through his number ring for those facts. He did it very easily.

History

Covering the story of Nimrod and the Tower of Babel from the Bible.
We are using THIS LESSON for this study.

Science

"Rivers"

Things Outdoors pg 22-23 USBOURNE

We learned about how rivers are created, and how they get polluted. We identified the things on our own river which can cause pollution.

Experiment: Made a water filter to see how the river cleanses water as it washes downstream.

(giggle) This didn't exactly have the result we were looking for. I totally forgot that OUR sand is 75% sand and 25% DIRT. So imagine our surprise when our water was DIRTIER than it was when it started! LOL! So we discussed the reasons and determined we would re-do this experiment with GOOD SAND at another time.

 Getting the water for the experiment

 Submitting a hypothesis

Pouring the water into our "filter"

Geography

Canyons and Valleys (Beginning Geography K-2)

We learned the difference between a canyon and a valley. Then viewed photos of the Grand Canyon and the Yosemite Valley. We colored pictures for each landform.

Art

My mother-in-law is working on maps with Little Britches. She had him put together a map puzzle of the United States. Then she had him use tracing paper and trace our state (Kentucky) and the ones around it. She wants him to be able to find our state on any US map--especially when it's shown on the weather channel.

Read Aloud

Mouse and the Motorcycle. We love this book, but it had been awhile since we had read it--and we hadn't finished it yet. You can imagine how happy Little Britches was to pick it back up. We are only a couple chapters from the end so we should be finishing it up on Monday. I think we will start up the second book in the series after this one is completed. He just loves reading about Ralph.

There is our week! It was so nice to be back in the groove again. We are working on great things and all this focused attention on letter combination sounds has helped Little Britches gain confidence in his reading. I let him keep his Reading Chart (from the MFW-1st grade) with him when he reads his books aloud. I've seen him glance at it a few times--especially for the new "er" sound. I'm so happy that he's not complaining as much when it comes to picking books from his book basket to read.

Baby Britches

We did the token slot bank I mentioned above. We also enjoyed playing with the new wooden block set I found for $5 at a store nearby. This keeps him amused for quite awhile right now--and the big boy too! LOL!

Back in the swing of things...

Ah. It is always nice to come home after a long trip. We arrived home on Tuesday night and everyone went straight to bed! Then Wednesday and Thursday I dealt with the men in my life who all had head colds. My husband was the worst, but thankfully he is FINALLY doing better! We always go homeopathic for treating our colds and this year we added Elderberry Cough Syrup and a "miracle" tea by Traditional Medicinals called Organic Echinacea Elder. Oh man. That tea has been a lifesaver! It works great especially when you add a dollop or two of honey. My boys have been drinking it like it's going out of style and really it's the only thing that is helping! Thankfully everyone seems to be doing a lot better and I got the best sleep I've had in a very long time last night.

We are eager to start a new week on Monday and get back into the swing of homeschooling. We had a nice break and spent a lot of time with focused learning about God and His Word while we were gone...now we are going to work on applying what we learned!

There were a few trials that occurred while we were attending the feast--the main one is that I had a miscarriage on the first Sunday we were gone. That is the day before the Feast started so it was quite a challenge to focus myself. But I prayed and walked and meditated with our Almighty Father and Comforter every day and just asked that He would help me to find joy every day. And He did. He showed me so many things to be thankful for and I was granted peace almost immediately during the trial. Satan could not rob me of being able to rejoice at the Feast! Through the sermons and hymns I was granted healing words and comfort beyond what I could have hoped and prayed for. I am grateful that our most wonderful Father allowed me to have this trial while surrounded by family and friends instead of being home alone. It truly helped the healing process move so much faster. I was also early--just 7 weeks--so my body was able to do what God made it to do on its own. I told myself that first day that if our mighty Lord wants me to have another baby, NOTHING will stop it from happening. But obviously we are saddened by our loss since we have been trying for quite awhile (since February 2011) to add to our family again. But as you and I know and draw comfort from, God is in control and if He wills it...it will be done in HIS time which will be the PERFECT time.

"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to [His] purpose." 

Romans 8:28