"Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it." Proverbs 22:6

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

MFW 1st Grade - Week #27



BIBLE/READING:

Memory verse:   "The wise in heart accept commands, but a chattering fool comes to ruin."  Proverbs 10:8

Bible stories this week:
When Jesus Was a Boy
Jesus is Baptized
Fishermen
Healing the Man on the Mat

Caleb is doing really well.  On the days where I think he'll be acceptable to it, we've read two bible stories a day and he's even written summary sentences for both stories.  I'm really proud of him.  He's doing quite well.  I still wouldn't call him a fluent reader by any means, but I can tell all the rules he's learned this year are sinking in more and more.

He is to read ten minutes a day from his book basket books and we're to continue reading together as we have been.

Timeline additions:   We'll continue adding those as we continue reading the bible stories.  I think at my last check, we only had about 4 more to add.

MATH:  Cruising along in our Singapore Math book.  Today's lesson encouraged us to use flashcards every day so the lower end addition problems can become more concrete in his mind.  I have the giggle math games that we will also be pulling out to "play" a couple of times a week if not every day.  Those will really help those addition facts sink in.

SCIENCE:  I said it before, we're not doing science.  I've actually decided to save up the science activities for the end of the year.  When we complete all our bible stories for the rest of the year, then we'll work on the science projects.  My concern is that Randy will be out of school and here with us for the summer and I really want to have all the meat of our school done before he gets here.  If we just have the fun science activities left, Randy can participate with us and we can have some family time instead of Caleb and I being secluded to the school room for studies.

We're supposed to be in our Science with Plants science book now.  I'm going to look over those lessons and see if there are any that we can check off.  Caleb has been pretty hands on with the family garden that he and daddy have spent so much time working on.  I'm pretty convinced that a lot of those lessons he's already completed with planting and watching plants grow.  We'll see though.  If there's anything different  or really fun looking we'll surely do that also, because my little guy LOVES science.

MISCELLANEOUS:

You can really tell that our year is winding down.  Look at the length of this post and lack of pictures.  Our main focus every day is the bible verse, bible story, and continuing in math.  There isn't a lot of opportunity for picture taking in that process.  In all honesty, if he keeps reading two stories a day we'll be done by May 31st.  A couple of weeks ahead of schedule from when I thought we'd be finishing.  But, if we have to take a little longer, it's really not a big deal.  We're loving this journey...

Educating in Christ,

Pam


Saturday, May 5, 2012

MFW 1st Grade - Week #26

BIBLE/READING:    

Bible stories for the week and timeline additions:  the story of Ester and Jewish People Return Home....

Memory verse:  "The man of integrity walks securely but he who takes crooked paths will be found out."  Proverbs 10:9

I like to write the memory verse on our dry erase board for easy reference.  For this week, Caleb asked if he could write it.  I think he did a great job!


Reading Rules:  Ummmm, NONE!  We're done and in addition, Caleb completed the last page in his student workbook (what he called the dreaded Bluebook.)  Here he is celebrating!

I asked him to show me the last page in his workbook....

We've been relying on books at home the last couple of months and have not had any fun trips to the library.  I didn't realize how much we BOTH missed it.   I made time for that a few days prior and found us a HUGE stack of books to go through.    "Silly Goose's BIG Story" was a fun and very cute book.  It had a good moral to the story about friendships and we enjoyed the story SO much. 


I must admit that this book, "Blue Chicken" was a bit silly, but sweet at the same time.  A chicken gets in the way of painting the barn and before she knows it, everything and everyone around her is blue.  Can she fix it?  Well, maybe YOU need to find it at your library and find out for yourself.


MATH:    It was pretty cool when he placed the #9 in the one's spot and our place value chart was on 99.  

This week Caleb did some math worksheets from both the Children's Book of Math and from his new Singapore Math workbook.

ACTIVITY:
Celebrate Purim - we were supposed celebrate Purim by making some special cookies.  But, when I looked at the recipe, I was concerned that I would be the only person in my household that would even eat the cookies.  It seemed like a lot of work to make something that Caleb would turn his nose up at.  I later talked with my fellow MFW momma's and learned all the different ways these cookies could be made.  So, maybe, this summer we'll take some time to make the cookies.    For now, we just googled the information - looked at pictures of the cookies (and yes, Caleb wrinkled his nose right up,) and talked a bit about Purim and what it means.

If you are curious and don't know, Purim is described in the book of Ester as "days of feasting and joy and giving presents of food to one another and gifts to the poor. For Jews today it is celebrated as a fun holiday."  (From my MFW manual.)

100 Day Celebration - we celebrated our 100th day this week.  I made a post all about it so feel free to click here and jump over to check it out if you haven't already.

Our days are definitely lighter and that is such a blessing.  It is also the reason for the not-so-cluttered-post.  Caleb is reading more and more and THAT is a blessing as well.  I love the look on his face and in his eyes as he reads something that he's really enjoying!

Until next time,

Pam





Thursday, May 3, 2012

MFW 2nd Grade Sneak Peek

It's really a fun time of year right now.  1st grade is wrapping up and quickly coming to a close.  2nd grade curriculum is sitting on the shelf calling our names and pleading for some attention, "let's start this thing, time to do this, it will be so much fun, look at me, organize me...."

I purchased our 2nd grade curriculum at the end of March.  With prayer, I decided that My Father's World was a very good fit for us and we would continue on with it.  Besides, looking at the outlines on their website had me so intrigued.  Who wouldn't want to learn about Daniel Boone, Pocahontas, Abe Lincoln and so many other wonderful people?

For those people who are interested, here is what next year entails (this post is quite picture heavy, so just warning you):


ADVENTURES in MY FATHER'S WORLD

2nd Grade



TEACHER'S MANUAL

Complete with Teaching Tips

Suggestions on How to Fit it All In!

With a sample schedule....

Grid's explaining what lessons to do and on what days.

And under each day is information for the teacher - explaining what is to be covered that day and any special dialog needed to help the teacher get it right.


AMERICAN HISTORY

Here are some of the books we'll be reading.  These are what came with the curriculum.  There are pages and pages of recommendations in the back of the teacher's manual for books to get from the library to go along with the topic for the week.



 These are what MFW calls the Read-a-louds




THE UNITES STATES NOTEBOOK

A huge part of 2nd grade is creating the U.S. Notebook.   

We'll continue with our timeline of historical events.....

 And bible memory verses.

 Recite the Pledge of Allegiance

Continue with lots of copywork onto these fun pages.

I believe I saw in the curriculum that we'll be creating a poster with all the names of Jesus!

Learning lots of patriotic songs.

We'll also be covering all the states in the U.S.  

There are state stickers and states sheets with info to be learned about the state.



And we'll be learning about all the state birds.

SPELLING
Spelling by Sound and Structure

Our spelling program comes complete with spelling lists, teachers manual with answers, and recommended lessons and sentences for spelling tests.  This will be new for Caleb this year since MFW does not focus on spelling tests in 1st grade.





Language Arts
Charlotte Mason style

MATH
These are the books we've already started working on at the end of 1st grade.

ART


SCIENCE



I've already gone through the entire teachers manual and created a week by week list of supplies needed for all science projects and hands-on projects and activities.  As you can see, the list is  over 4 pages long.

BIBLE

This bible is definitely a step up from 1st grade!!

But it still has a few colorful pictures tucked inside!

MUSIC


MAPS


And we'll be receiving an issue of God's World News.  Love this magazine.  You can get it for different ages and it shares the news in the world AT their level.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Spanish


And yes.  We are going to start learning Spanish this year.  MFW recommends Rosetta Stone.  I can only hope that I'll be able to learn along with Caleb.  

SUPPLEMENTS and EXTRA'S I PICKED UP
To Go along with American History


To make learning the state birds just a little bit more fun!


A book on load from a friend whose own son LOVED studying birds and they found this science book to feed his love for the winged creatures.  


So many MFW mom's talked about these state books they found at Target.  Well, Target didn't have them when I looked, but one of the mom's was able to find them on-line at Amazon.  I ordered one and have it ready to go.  It basically adds a bit more fun to learning details about the states.  Each page in the book has two states on it.  A short, fun page, to break up the homeschool day.


So, quite a full year ahead of us.  Lots of learning to be done.  I'm certain that we're going to enjoy this year, probably more than 1st grade, since the hard work of learning TO read is behind us.  

God bless you if you hung in there to look at all of this.  

Walking with the King,

Pam