I'm so grateful my husband was willing to go along with the girls and a bunch of other mom's and their kids. I have true hay fever in that I can't even be around hay without having a reaction! He knows how much I love pictures and I have certainly trained him well. He came back with a camera full!
I am so blessed to have such a supportive husband who not only is 100% on board with homeschooling, he also willingly teaching the younger girls on Friday while I go teach at Deerstream Learning Center. I've mentioned this before, but I finally had the chance to snap a picture this week!
Now on to our week....
Little Hands to Heaven: Unit 9
This week Grace continued studying about the Israelites wandering in the wilderness. She kept wanting to skip ahead and read the stories she wanted to, but we were able to get through all the stories for the week without minimal hullabaloo.
She counted to 10 using stickers and surprised me with how straight her lines were on her matching worksheets. I continue to love Rod and Staff's About 3 series for her! When we started these books back in August she didn't quite grasp the concept of matching and I had to hold her hand to help her draw straight lines. In only three months, completing about four pages a week, she is now able to match and draw the lines all on her own. Watching her learn has been so much fun! 
Her favorite activity by far during the week was when her sisters helped her build a tabernacle. I love that after they were done they wanted to play with the tabernacle. After all, Little People need a place to worship God too, right? I have no idea what Grace is doing in this picture. She's quite a ham!
Little Hearts for His Glory: Unit 12
Beth continued on studying the life of Christ in history. This week we focused on several of the miracles Jesus performed. We reviews five different Bible verses she has already studied and she was incredibly proud to still remember them all. We also continued working on the months of the year. By the end of the week Beth could say them all in order and was quite pleased with herself.
What was the highlight of Beth's week? A new math book! Since Rose struggled last year in 1st grade with Singapore we decided to go with a more traditional math program. Rod and Staff math has been a great fit so far for Rose so we decided to move Beth into this as well once she finished her kindergarten Singapore math book. She started the 1st grade book this week and couldn't get enough!
Bigger Hearts for His Glory: Unit 11
Rose loves homeschooling. The other night she prayed and thanked God that He allowed us to homeschool. Isn't that what every one of us on this journey wants to hear? I know she meant it, but I also know there will be times she may not feel this way in the future, so I wanted to make sure I recorded it for a later date when I need some encouragement!
This week in history we talked about the slave trade. I'm not sure she was aware of slavery before this lesson. She seemed rightfully appalled when I explained it. Then she asked if there still was slavery. I explained there wasn't slavery anymore in America...then she asked about the rest of the world. How do I explain to my innocent daughter that there is still such great evil in our world? I did so gently without much detail, but I realized that as she grows up there will be many moment like this when small bit of her innocence is chipped away.
She really enjoyed learning the three main climate zones: Polar, Temperate, and Tropical. She took her small toy and hopped her around the globe. The activity first asked for me to point to a zone and she would act comfortable, warm, or cold...however she seemed a little self-conscious about this so we chose a different approach. I loved the voice she gave her little character when she said, "Oh my! It's so cold here!"
I had one more highlight of the week...the girls listened to The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe audio drama by Focus on the Family. Watching them experience this great literature for the first time is something I'll never forget. I expected Rose to really enjoy it, but I was pleasantly surprised for the younger two to also get really excited! They've been playing Narnia all week long. How exciting to see my girls so in love with such great literature!
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The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe - Focus on the Family Radio Theatre audiodrama on CD
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I, too, did Singapore last year with both of my boys. Both of them did pretty well, but this year it started to be too hard for both. We switched to R&S math as well. I may give Singapore another try again next year, but for now the repetition has built some confidence in both of my kids. My oldest was struggling to understand division with remainders, and we got out the c-rods, and he finally got it. I love Singapore, but I'm starting to appreciate the traditional approach of R&S. I never thought I would come around to thinking this way, but for my boys it is the best option right now.
ReplyDeleteWe are loving the poetry too. I love how you are doing it. I need to make new copies of the poems, and get some new highlighters.
Math isn't my strong suit so I went with Singapore just because HOD recommended it. I never really liked it but I didn't know why. Rod and Staff is really traditional and overall it really just made sense to both of us!
DeleteI'm so excited that your children loved listening to literature. My daughter has listened to many an audio book and greatly enjoyed it. If you are looking for some literature that is by homeschoolers, or has homeschoolers as the characters you might check out HomeschoolLiterature.com. I was looking for homeschool friendly literature and enjoyed the selection I found on that site. Remember that your kids never get to old to hear great literature read to them either by you or on recordings. It allows them to concentrate on the story instead of working on the reading. Happy homeschooling!
ReplyDeleteLinda
Thanks for the recommendation!
DeleteMath really is a subject that needs to be tailored to the child. We have come back to Singapore because I now know how to accommodate it for my eldest, and My youngest thrives on the mental math so for now its a good fit for us. We also love the Narnia series on CD.
ReplyDelete