Just another reason I love homeschooling...

Today, we did school at the Butterfly Exhibit in Dallas
Math, Reading, Writing, Science, Art, and Recess
all wrapped up in one Field Trip :)

T working on his questions

E looking for butterflies on the "map"

It was so fun letting them explore and have the freedom to go wherever they wanted.

Don't miss the butterfly in this one...

T listening to the man describe the moth's camouflage

Outside to explore, snack, and let the stroller-bound boy out to stretch his legs

Kindergarten

Well, we are in the swing of things here at Frye Academy :)

We have quite the schedule/routine down, and while I know it could (and will) change eventually, the boys and I are thriving in it for the time being!! We work on the following subjects and curricula throughout the morning and into the afternoon, during the little boys' naps if things get too rowdy. Every day is a little different, because the middle littles are in Mother's Day Out 2 (E) and 3 (T) days a week. We save some things to do WITH T, and we have certain things we only do when E is out of the house...or when S (the baby) is sleeping ever so peacefully (or at least playing and not screaming his head off) in his bed :)

Handwriting

Science (Creation Unit: The World God Made, Creation Crafts...and after that, I plan on starting a book of really fun experiments called The Backyard Scientist)

Language Arts/Phonics (Explode the Code, Vocabulary cards from RRSP)

Art (We are learning how to draw...and by we, I mean WE; I also just bought a book called How to Teach Art to Children and am hoping it is as fabulous as its reviews claim!)

Reading (Read Aloud: Pinocchio (the original classic) and next, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; Scott Foresman and McGraw-Hill curricula; Bob Books; Animal Antics books)

Math (Math U See, Scott Foresman, Addition/Subtraction, 1-100)

Bible (Memory Verses that go along with our Science curriculum...all about creation: Col. 1:16, Gen. 1:1, John 1:3; Jesus Storybook Bible along with Read and Share Devotional, Hero Tales, Vol IV, always going back to the Village Church's 5 foundational truths)

Speech

History/Geography (Maps, America/Texas, and thematic units...We are about to start one on Pilgrims and Indians in preparation for Thanksgiving)

My main focus for both of the older boys is Handwriting, Reading, and Math (you know...reading, writing, and arithmetic, right?!) All of the other subjects are basically ways to incorporate those 3 foundations in new and exciting ways and fun excuses to keep their brains working hard! We also still love using our school drawers, but things are more organized by subject at this point in the game :)

This week, the letter N

Lessons from the story of Noah's Ark

We made rainbow crayons (We've done this before, but they just never turn out that well...I'm wondering if I should use a different mold or something.)


Our Noah's Ark lapbook:
side note...I only posted this on YouTube, because the video clip was too large for my free Vimeo account. Don't expect many YouTube videos from me!!


Lessons from the Newspaper
We talked about what a newspaper was, what you can/should find in a newspaper, and we looked at the pictures of the teams coming to town for the Super Bowl!! (Their favorite part :) )

We also searched the newspaper for different letters and numbers, checked this week's weather, and looked at the colorful pictures in the comics!

Lessons from Franklin's Neighborhood
**We LOVE Franklin books!!*
J and T drew their favorite things in our neighborhood (journal activity)

Math lessons
We decorated our wall alphabet letter N with nickel stickers.
We stole THIS idea from an ingenious mother and learned about how 5 pennies=1 nickel AND 5 nickels=1 quarter ;) (See, home schooling even at bedtime!!)
We also ran with the money theme, since we started it last week for M week. We made a money lapbook! (2 lapbooks in one week...watch out! haha)

Science lessons
We read books about the different types of noses animals have. We talked about smelling, sniffing, sneezing, and "snotting!" ha (quite appropriate for our last 2 weeks of nasty cold bugs) We also read one of my all-time favorite books, "Stand back," Said the Elephant, "I'm Going to Sneeze!"