Our First 6 Weeks – A Review

Wow, what a great first 6 weeks.  The kids tackled their school work well.  Let’s see what we did.

 

We are all learning Genesis 1.  So far we are working on the first five verses.  The science curriculum is working through the days of creation, so we are memorizing the first couple chapters of Genesis.  Even little Wyatt and Rayna are getting in on this memorizing.  Kristyn and Cora are working through the science stuff while the other two listen from time to time.  So far we got through the first day of creation.

 

We’ve been continuing with our Building A Life, character study as well. Kristyn and Cora are enjoying this curriculum a little more.  They don’t like filling in the worksheets as there is a lot of writing involved.  We need to work on penmanship, but when they aren’t interested this is tough.  One day we’ll really get on that.  You can read what we did in the last six weeks in Building A Life here.  This chapter was about meekness and loyalty.

 

Both Kristyn and Cora are working through the Grade 2 Math from ACSI.  Kristyn completed pages 109-146.  Cora finished pages 63-104.  Or thereabouts.  They’ve learned a lot about money, telling time, addition and subtraction, beginning ideas being planted about multiplication, geometry, sorting.  They are learning lots!

 

All the children have been participating in our preK / K program.  The bigger girls love to color with the little ones and help them do their crafts.  We are using a combination of a couple Letter of The Week curriculums.  Confessions of a Homeschooler put together the main curriculum I am using.  I’m adding a few things from Brightly Beaming Resources as well.  We started with the vowels and then completed the six week session with the letter B.  Wyatt asks for school work every single day!  This week long break is going to be hard foe him.  Marrissa could use something a little more challenging but is not quite ready to push herself yet, so I’ve just started to add a more difficult activity here and there.

 

Our book exposure has been huge this last six weeks.  Each week I choose about 15-20 books that relate to the letter of the week.  Some of our favorites (not necessarily connected to a letter) have been: The Napping House by Audrey Wood, The Umbrella by Jan Brett, and Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss.  Kristyn and Cora have also been choosing books to read.  The Magic Tree House series has been popular as has Junie B Jones (Cora).  Kristyn has discovered comic books and especially enjoyed The Adventures of TinTin.  Unfortunately our library system only has ONE book!  Marrissa is learning to read using Bob Books.  I caught her reading to Wyatt the other day.  She whipped through three or four of those little books with no trouble.

 

A few other odds and ends include movie night, poetry, dance, and choir.  Family Movie Night also corresponds around the letter of the week.  We’ve watched Prince of Egypt, The Incredibles, Minnesota Cuke and the Search for Noah’s Umbrella and The Bee Movie.  (I forget what the letter A was.)  The kids have really enjoyed watching movies together.  Dance and choir happen weekly for Kristyn and Cora.  They come home so excited each week!  This is a great time that I use to allow Marrissa to help out more around the house.  So often it is just easier to let the older girls do the chores, but Marrissa needs to learn these skills too!  The favorite poem by far has been Inchworm, Inchworm.

 

In addition to memorizing Genesis, we have a number of other verses we are working on.  Each week from Sunday school the children have verses to memorize.  Also each week has a verse that goes with the letter from that week.  We are using Sing the Word songs for that.  I have been programming the stereo to play just the songs we have worked on, so A, E, I, O, U and B.  That way the children learn by repetition.

 

Some of the topics discussed and learned about include:

• ants
• elephants
• inchworms
• iguanas
• octopus
• umbrellas
• butterflies
• telling time
• measuring
• being proud

 

I am excited for the next six weeks.  I’ve been planning and printing and searching for stuff on the letters C, D, F, G, H, J. The topics include (but not limited to) caterpillars, dinosaurs, fish, gumballs, hippos, jelly beans and Jesus.  I am planning the next 60 or so pages of math for the big girls.  Building A Life is all about self-control and honesty; these topics NEED to be discussed in this house.  Science will be about day two of creation.  We will memorize more Scripture and read a pile more books.  (We keep our little local library busy!)  The children are enjoying the break to do other things – mostly play outside and watch TV.

 

Striving to learn and live God's purposes,