Thursday Three

...except I only got 2 pictures today :)

pre-writing practice

Melissa and Doug spelling puzzles

Handwriting...

(oops, I cut off the "He" and "me" on the first page :) )

This is one of the things we are putting in J's and T's Operation Christmas Child boxes...We are praying that God would bless those children in knowing THEY are God's masterpiece!!!!

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 :)

J's writing face

...ALWAYS with his tongue out :)

Our school drawers

This is how we do school nowadays:

We have 10 drawers (aka school drawers/workboxes) labeled with the numbers 1-10 on little circle disks with velcro attaching them to the drawers. J (and T if he is joining us) gets to pick any of the drawers, in the order of his choosing. He takes the number off of the drawer and places it in the basket on top, and we do that activity together. The catch is that we have to get through all 10 of the drawers before I will fill them with new activities and manipulatives. I LOVE doing it this way, and J seems to really be having a better attitude about everything. He has a say in what we do next, so it helps him to have a willing and teachable heart.

I fill the drawers with as many different things as I can think of. We have a set of shelves in our mud room full of different manipulatives and activities and arts/craft supplies, a file drawer full of worksheets, and sometimes I even throw in something from the kitchen (like when we sorted and ate jelly beans for the letter J.)

Here are some of the drawers from this week that didn't directly correlate with the letter K (I mean, I can only take so much of the letter activities...it just gets old!!)

In the drawer: a piece of chalk and a washcloth (our eraser)
J wrote 1-10 on the chalkboard

In the drawer: magnetic letters
J picked out vowels and put them on the chalk board
In the drawer: a notebook and a marker
J traced Genesis 1:1

In the drawer (from the Letter I): Inchworm counting cards from Confessions of a Homeschooler J counted the number of inchworms on each card and found the corresponding number

In the drawer: Inchworm clip cards also from Confessions of a Homeschooler
J placed the correct number of mini clothes pins on each card

this week, the letter f

We attempted to dye flowers red, pink, green, and blue.

The only one to KIND of turn out was the blue, but I didn't get a picture :(

We wrote F words on the chalkboard,

made "stained glass" fish

did some free painting,
went to the petting farm (after making a Farm Animals booklet),


made some fish with our footprints,
some F's with our fingerprints,
and ate some yummy fish food (gummy worms :) )


Our Bible verse was John 3:16
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son."

We read:
Dr. Seuss' The Foot Book,
Froggy Eats Out,
Franklin Goes to the Hospital,
and a book about fish

an activity

...we printed out left to right cards from Montessori Mom here.
j helped cut them out and glue them on yellow paper

largest to smallest left to right
(helps teach concept for reading and writing skills)

piece of cake, mom...

numbers

...this is really helping j learn how to write his numbers...

1. straight line down and then you're done. that's the way to make a one!
2. around and back on a railroad track. two two!
3. around a tree and around a tree, that's the way to make a three.
4. down and over and down some more, that's the way we make a four.
5. straight line down, then around. hat on to and five's a clown.
6. six is found by going down and around.
7. across the sky and down from heaven. that's the way to make a seven!
8. make an "s." don't be late! back to the top and that's an eight!
9. a loop and a line and that is nine.
10. straight line down, it's fun, it's one! with zero beside it makes ten more fun!