Pictographs, Pastor, Presidents, Poetry, Pressure & More!

Whew! What a full week so far!!

Each day we have been doing Bible and all the basics (3 R's), plus art and sometimes science, spanish, music, gym, geography, or history (and random other fun stuff).

Bible: Continue to study the story of Joseph (O.T.). Learning GREAT lessons! This month our verse is "I praise you because you made me, in an amazing and wonderful way." Psalm 139:14 (both kids know it already)... last week our other verse was, "In the Begining, God created the Heavens and the earth" Gen. 1:1 (both know this as well!)... this weeks is harder... "I will maintain my love for him, my covenant to him will never fail" Psalm 89:28 (i'm re-explaining the meaning of this one each day to them)... God will always love us and will always keep his promises!

Math: Kendyl has learned how to make and use a picto-graph, how to write all her numbers WELL (using the Handwriting without tears program), how to add '1' to any number, how to count to 100, how to explain why a square is different from a rectangle, how to read the date on a calendar (where to find the month, date, year and how to say it), how to chart the weather, and many other math skills... all this week!!! (well, some started the first day and are reviewed each day; weather, calendar, counting, left/right, counting, etc.) Each day she does a 2-sided worksheet (this is a 1st grade curriculum)...one in the morning, then one in the afternoon with the same type of problems, to make sure she 'learned' it. :) other than the hand-writing part of it (writing the numbers), she actually REALLY likes math and 'gets it' quickly! :) yay!

Reading: We have been reading LOTS of different books...some from the library and some from our HUGE collection (i lost count after 100 or so kids' books of ours!!)...we have been reading some poetry and working on memorizing some for a 'show' of sorts she is putting together for a few friends and close family for Thanksgiving or Christmas time... We have been practicing these blends all week (sm, sn, th, sh, st, wh, ch, sh) and will be doing much more next week with them... she knows them pretty well...but I don't want to move forward in her H.O.P. until she has them mastered. We've been working on her spelling words and may not do the spelling b until next week...the point isn't to get it done quickly--it's to LEARN it! :) So, we're fine with that :)

We started reading some of the Junie B. books (thanks Tami)... they are funny! yes, Junie has a lot of bad grammar habits while talking... but, Kendyl picked up on this right away and said, "I thought she was in Kindergarten? Why does she still talk like a BABY?!" SO, it was a GREAT learning tool!! :)

Kendyl reads her H.O.P. books to Aden and David for practice and LOVES any story about animals or little kids. She would love to just read all day and listen to stories all day! :)

Writing: Still Kendyl's least favorite thing to do... but we are making it fun... H.W.T. program has lots of fun songs to sing while learning to write well, plus funny sounds... saying 'ribbot' for the 'frog jump letters', etc. we switch it up and let her write on the chalkboard or white board and use different colors and 'write' with her finger in rice, etc. :) She is getting there... SO glad I am able to do this one on one with her, because she really needs reminders to 'start at the top', 'bump the lines', etc... I know in a class of 25+ kids, she would just continue writing the 'wrong way', creating BAD habits that would be HARD to break. Today she wrote a journal page about her zoo trip and drew a pic of her petting the sharks and stingrays :)

Science: Today, Daddy did a project with the kids on pressure (was a little advanced for them and don't know how much they actually learned, but it was FUN) :) they made an ocean background for their 2 liter bottle of water and david put a 'diver' in it, that floated, attached to a pen cap... then when you squeeze it (adding pressure), the diver sinks to the bottom... fun. Plus, today outside, there was a butterfly that must have hurt it's wing or something...it was stuck in our little pool... David took it out and let it dry it's wings in the sun...it sat on Kendyl's finger for awhile...ah life science... observed it, took some pics, we'll study more about butterflies at a later time :)

History: Kendyl loves talking about presidents... sooo, we are learning the 'presidents song' and will be studying a few of them in the coming weeks and months. We checked out a book called, "Grace for President" and Kendyl is SO excited to read it tomorrow! I asked her if she wanted to be president someday and she said she couldn't, because all the rest were guys... GREAT learning opportunity! I asked her to look at their skin color and see if any of them 'looked' different... right away she said that Obama was darker... so, we talked about how he was the first African American president and how someday there could be a woman president--and it could be her!!! Her smile was Priceless!! :)

Geography: We've been talking about maps. Last week Kendyl made a map of our backyard and we've been talking about directions (n/s). This week, we've been talking more indepth about the continents (we introduced them last week). Kendyl says she really wants to visit Antartica to see the penguins...we got to talk about there not being any people there, etc. fun!

Spanish: We're adding a few words or groups of words, weekly. We've practiced, Madre, Padre, Hermano(a), chico(a), numeros 1-10, hola, adios, amigo(a), maetro(a), bebe, abuelo(a), verde, rojo, amarillo, azul so far. :)

Art: Kendyl loves art and draws every day. She has a drawer of random art supplies and things to cut/glue, etc. so, she does a lot of 'free art'. Tomorrow we will be introducing basic color wheel/mixing colors. Starting with the 3 primary and then making the secondary colors with them... then she will paint a pic with those colors :)

Music: So far, we haven't done a lot with this, other than we sing songs every day. We have done some work with sylables and clapping different beats, fast/slow, loud/soft... next week we will learn about pitch (have these great water tubes/flutes that have notes on them and they play the 'real' notes when you blow on them...should be fun!

Extracurricular: Tuesday night, Kendyl had dance class... she just loves it so much! She gets to talk with her little girl friends and dance around and watch herself in the mirror! how fun is that?! I love her teachers... they actually teach them true techniques and not just goofing-around dancing! very fun to watch! Aden is getting great social time during this as well... A little boy, Jacob, and a little boy, Bjorn, both a little older than Aden, have big sisters in Kendyl's dance class... that is a pic of Bjorn and Aden being silly during dance practice :)

Wednesday morning we had playgroup! It was our first one of the fall! A couple new faces, so that was awesome! Kendyl has her friend, kali jo there, so she's not the only 'school-aged' child and she gets to 'help me' prepare the circle times and help when I need her. :) Wednesday night, we went back to the church to sit down and chat with the new pastor! great time... Aden was mr. chatterbox, telling him everything about himself! funny stuff!

Today we went to storycraft at the library... they read about 4 stories, watched one book movie, did some fun dances and a little song about fish & a shark, and then 2 crafts! Both kids had a BLAST at this and Aden kept telling me ALL night, "mom, the library was sooo much fun tonight!".

WHEW!!! We still have one more day this week!! It's gonna be great :) Even though, I still get strange looks and mean comments when I tell people that we are homeschooling--I'm fine with it! :) Thank you, Lord for your strength and vision and wisdom!