Week in review #2

We do everything together as a family, sometimes the things we do are a little too young for Rylee. Some things we do are too old for Nathan. They do not have to participate in anything unless they want to. They almost always do though. Actually they beg for more school. I am always looking for new ideas to try with them.

Calendar Time:

In the past we have been doing an unofficial Calendar time each day. This is where you discuss things like Letters, numbers, shapes, the date, the day, the time, the weather, etc. We also like to practice a song and a scripture verse and several other things. All this week I have been working on revamping our Calendar Time. So beginning next week we will start using some of the fun things I have been working on. Look for that in my next week in review...

Math: 

We are using Math U See. They are both doing Primer right now. It seems to be working pretty well. Nathan is taking it very slow- he mostly just wants to play with the blocks. Rylee is steadily working her way through the book. I do not force it on her. I have found that she will enjoy a lesson that last about ten minutes. Anymore then that and I lose her. We also do a lot of printable Math games that I find online. Rylee is also using Time4Learning Kindergarten Math.

Language Arts: 

We are using so many resources for LA. Both kids love Starfall. They think it is a reward and beg for it. Rylee is using Time4Learning Kindergarten LA. My favorite LA program that we use is the book Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons. We do several lessons each week.. 

We use Bob books. We just read one over and over until Rylee can read every word and then move on to the next one.  

Our letter of the week this week was the letter Bb for Butterfly. I will do a post with pictures of the different activities we did with this. They also include some easy math and color recognition, writing, etc. Rylee gets a lot of practice writing on her own. She loves to take the Bob books and copy the entire book onto a piece of paper. She does this with other random things with writing on them too. They practice their names on all of their art projects. Nathan is working on his first name in all capital letters. Rylee writes her first and last name  with Capital and lowercase letters. They each have a Tag reading system which help them read books alone during quite time. They both play learning games on Nathan's Leapster (this helps with math too).

Science: 

We are reading through Apologia Astronomy. We love Apologia Science. I am really impressed with how much information the kids get out of it. It is full of projects to do. They are all very inexpensive- usually free. We made the Solar System out of play dough.

History/Geography: 

We are learning about U.S. History this year. This week we learned about the Pilgrims. We read "The Pilgrims of Plimoth".

For Geography we have been pointing things out on the United States Map. I have a really fun Geography unit that we will start soon. 

Art: 

We painted and colored several times. We also did a few projects for Letter of the Week. We did Beautiful Junk. This is where I give them a bunch of  "garbage" (cereal boxes, toilet paper tubes, applesauce containers, etc.) I also give them glue, markers, ribbon, glitter, paint, tape, scissors, etc. Then they make anything they want with it. This is Rylee's absolute favorite thing to do. We did an Art lesson using the book "The way they see it" on impressions. We made impressions in play dough.

Scripture Study: 

During breakfast I read a chapter from the Old Testament. We will be moving on to the New Testament next month. We do the majority of the other things during Calendar Time. We practice memorizing a verse. We practice singing a song from the Children's songbook and then I read a chapter from the children's Old Testament Stories. 

Family Read Aloud: 

Prince Caspian

Picture books: (the ones I can remember anyway :) )

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom- we read this every week to go with our Letter of the Week. Nathan calls it Chicken Back Boom Boom. :)

Benjamin and Bumper to the Rescue- Nathan insisted that Benjamin's name was really Max.

Butterfly Birthday- Teaches the cycle of the butterfly.

Piglet and Mama- my kids loved this story about a piglet that gets lost from her Mama.

And to think that I saw it on Mulberry Street

One fish two fish red fish blue fish

Sammy the seal

Click, Clack, Moo Cows That Type

The Belly Book

Excavators- all about- you guessed it- Excavators.

Bark, George- only a hundred times. They love this book. It is about a dog that keeps making other animal sounds. So his mom takes him to the vet and the vet ends up pulling a bunch of animals out of him. Then there is a surprise ending that makes my kids eyes get big every time I read it. I won't tell you what it is because you are going to have to read  this book so many times that you should at least be able to get enjoyment out of it the first time. :)

The Grandma Mix-up- this was one of my favorite books as a kid.

Green Eggs and Ham- again at least a hundred times.

Books on CD:

Pippi Longstocking

The Magicians Nephew

The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe

Homeschool Group:

Rylee had the stomach flu so we were unable to make it. :(

Learning through Play:

Games

Puzzles

Legos

Triangle magnet blocks that form a cube- Nathan can't get enough play with these.

And much more...

I will post photos of our week soon.