Happy Week 3 friends!
Introducing Pre-K2
Each week on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday I get the joy of being able to help care for my 2 year old nephew while his big sister is her for the school day. One of the things that used to happen was that he and Madilynn would hang out and play together or take naps at the same time while I would get through school with the big kids. This year, however, we added in kindergarten so part of his play time is being taken up with her focusing on school things. Last week while we were finishing up our school work on Thursday I remembered about ABC Jesus Loves Me’s 2 year “preschool” curriculum. So I made the executive decision that I would begin incorporating some of that program into the 3 days I have William in my care each week and we began that on Monday.
While the majority of this curriculum is play based there are a few times that we sit at the table together and color a picture, learn our colors and shapes, and learn poems and songs. This week we began with learning the color red, circles, some letter introduction, and learning the number 1. We read the beginning of the Creation story in the Bible and made pictures for the creation unit to begin his own “Creation Book” and we read the story Llama Llama Red Pajama. (Timely since William has also stared being very fussy and all in a tizzy at bed time at his house.)
We learned the song This Little Light of Mine (the same song Madilynn is learning in Kindergarten this week) and we learned the Bible verse Genesis 1:1. William colored a lot of fun pictures and we laughed and sang as we practiced making circles. It was a great first week of preschool.
Kindergarten
This week for kindergarten was pretty quiet. We learned about the moon and the letter M, and the number 2. Like I said last week the worksheets she will do each week are the same each day so she gets the repetition of writing the letter or the week, practicing the letter sound and as we progress she will also practice the letters that came before. That means that while we were learning the letter “Mm” this week we also practiced the letter “Ss” from last week.
When it came to learning about the moon Madilynn learned about the phases of the moon with a coloring page and watching some fun videos. Normally I like to do a phase of the moon activity with Oreo cookies but we were out this time so maybe we will go back to it next week when I can get to the grocery store.
5th and 7th Grade
This week for our content based subjects we began to get into the meat of our study. In our history study we began reading about things that were taking place in Europe in the late 1850’s. One of the things I like the most about the way the history program I use is laid out is that it incorporates world history throughout the entire year. While there may be some points where we are just focusing on what is happening in America we will always go back and see what is happening around the world at the same time.
In science we continued out study of matter. This week’s focus was mostly on the different states of liquid matter which included looking as water, ice, and steam. On Thursday we even made our own “gloop” out of cornstarch, water, and some blue food coloring to show how something can be both a liquid and a solid at the same-ish time. The kids had fun with that experiment and I spent most of the rest of the day cleaning up cornstarch in my kitchen.
Independent work this week went relatively smoothly. It is always a good week when math and language arts are completed with little to no tears. While I can’t say that we didn’t have any tears or frustration this week, I can say that it was minimal. The attitudes toward the work was good and everyone, for the most part, completed everything well.
Part of the joy of homeschooling is the simple, the routine of each day. It is the deep conversations that I have the opportunity to have with the kids over the topics of the day, seeing the light bulb click on when a math or writing concept just suddenly makes sense, and the laughter that comes from the other room or outside on in the yard as the kids build their relationships together and learn to enjoy spending time with each other without technological devices in their hands.
This week has been about slowing down (somewhat) and getting deeply into the routine of school. Stop back by next Friday to see what week 4 brings!
A Wise Woman in Progress 