Homeschool Recap, May 16th (Week 33) DONE!

That's it, folks.  First Grade is over for Preston.  Man, it went by so quickly!!!  We had fun, we had tears, we did some really fun stuff, we argued a lot, but all in all... we learned.  And that's what matters!  We both enjoyed using My Father's World First Grade and look forward to starting up Adventures in My Father's World in a few months as a Second Grader!  Woo hoo!

On Monday, Preston finished up the last of his Science With Plants book, learning about how plants use other plants to grow, spread and function.  Then I gave him a Math Mammoth First Grade end-of-the-year test, which he passed with a 97%!  So proud of him.  The rest of the week we've been reviewing and putting together his First Grade Binder, which holds a little bit of everything we want to keep and remember from each subject.  It was fun looking back at all the things we've done since September.  He's learned hymns, some Spanish, adding and subtracting double digit numbers, lots of Bible history and plenty of science concepts!  His handwriting has improved, as long as he WANTS to write, lol.  He is reading exceptionally well.  I couldn't be prouder of him!  Way to go, kiddo!

I didn't really do "Tot School" as much as I hoped... or at least not in the way I envisioned it in my head as we started out.  Obviously, Callen has grown and learned by leaps and bounds since we started our school year, so I certainly can't complain about that.  He did what he needed to do while we did what we needed to do, and it was frustrating and majorly distracting for Preston and me at times... but that's the way it goes.  Here's hoping next year we can figure out a better system, though.  Haha!

Here's Preston's reaction to being DONE with First Grade:

Homeschool Recap, May 11th (Week 32)...

In our Homeschool this week...

Tot School: Callen's vocabulary is continuing to expand by the day... repeating everything, putting words together to form sentences, singing songs.  So exciting!

Bible: Preston and I went over Proverbs 19:21 (which is a personal favorite of mine, definitely something that needs to be remembered constantly!), "Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails."  We also finished up our Bible Timeline by reading and talking about the church, Paul's conversion, Peter in jail and the New Heaven and the New Earth.  Preston read me all of his summaries written in the Bible Notebook as a review.

Reading/Writing: We went over a few things as review, such as "What is an author?" and things like that.  We are finishing up Hank the Cowdog #13 at bedtime, and he's been reading stories to himself and his little brother all week.  =)

Math: We continued the Math Mammoth chapter reviews and he did very well again.  Seems to have all the concepts down he was suppose to learn in First Grade, at least according to MM's curriculum.


Science:  This week's science from book Science with Plants was about plants and soil.

Music/Art: Nothing new this week.  His "art" lesson was to use the I Can Draw Animals book to draw some pictures for the Mother's Day cards we sent to the grandmas.  I caught him singing and humming "Holy Holy Holy" a lot this week... he says it's his favorite hymn that we learned this year.  That makes me happy to hear.

Spanish: We informally reviewed some various Spanish topics and words throughout the day.  I'd just point at something and ask how to say it in Spanish, or mention something in Spanish and have him tell me what I was talking about.

This was our last full week of lessons.  Next week we have basically just review for three days, and he's done with First Grade!  Wow!

We are using My Father's World First Grade. See our curriculum here.

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Homeschool Recap, May 4th (Week 31)...

In our Homeschool this week...

Tot School: Callen's vocabulary is exploding... he's definitely putting words together to form sentences, picking up on new words constantly.  That boy is growing!

Bible: Preston and I went over Proverbs 11:30, "The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise."  We also went through Jesus's ultimate showing of love, His dying on the cross, his resurrection and Pentecost.

Reading/Writing: Preston's writing is continuing to improve, however we still have the daily battle of simply getting him to do the copy work or the summary sentences for the Bible Reader.  When he WANTS to sit and write, he does so well... but when it's "time to write," he is totally disinterested.

Math: We'll be starting Math Mammoth for 2nd Grade next school year, so I wanted to make sure we had covered everything they go over in 1st.  We've been working through the chapter reviews and Preston is doing so well!  He can sit and do nearly all of the worksheets himself with very little errors!  Yay!  We also reviewed graphing with one big bar graph about our weather.  Since school started we have kept track of the weather each day on a monthly graph, then we took all that data and put it on a large combined graph to see which kind of weather we experienced most!

Creating our large bar graph from our data.

Sunny days obviously won!  =)

Preston also spent some time playing with the pattern blocks, and made some fun 3D type designs, including a cross section of our Earth (Preston showed me the core, outer core, mantle and crust - all on his own!).

Earth in back, random cool design in front!

Callen wanted to play too!

Science:  This week's science from book Science with Plants was about new plants from old ones and plants leaving home.  We boys also had a blast following around a fuzzy, black caterpillar all over our yard the other day.

We never did figure out where he was going.

Music/Art: No new hymn this week, we finished our Hymns for a Kid's Heart book last week!  Preston looked through the Come Look With Me art books and I had him draw some animals from I Can Draw Animals.  He liked that a lot.

Spanish: This week we continued going over days of the week and months of the year.

It's been warm during the day so we have been trying to play outside in the morning or in the evening.  The boys enjoyed time outside after dark this week, thanks to our lights!

Backyard fun after dark!

We are using My Father's World First Grade. See our curriculum here.

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Homeschool Recap, April 27th (Week 30)...

In my life this week...
This week was crazy, ridiculous, out of control.  Monday we took the Kia Soul in to the shop to get the hail damage fixed, and thankfully got a rental so that we could remain a two-car family for the week.  On Tuesday, the kids and I picked up the grandparents from the airport.  They were in town to visit quickly and pick up their belongings and home furnishings, which have been in storage since they left for Michigan in February.  It was a very rushed, busy visit, but the boys enjoyed some time with them for sure!  On Wednesday, I kicked off my preschool book fair in East Dallas, which took place on Thursday and Friday as well.  I also worked Power FM's Share-A-Thon on Wednesday and Friday, and added in an evening book party on Friday too.  On Friday, I was out of the house from 7:30am until 10:30pm!  Whoa.  I'm glad all that business is over!  Whew.  It was fun, but man... I'm not used to that much going, going, going anymore!  And a giant thanks to my mom and husband for watching the kids so much the past few weeks while I've been busy with Usborne things.  I am about to have met my April goal and am working towards meeting my May goal, to earn that iPad3!!!  So excited!

Needless to say, our homeschooling this week was extremely light!

In our Homeschool this week...

Tot School: Callen sings little songs and is starting to hold conversation.  He loves pointing out things and stating their names or characteristics, like "blue!" "red!" "bus!" etc.

Bible: Preston and I went over Proverbs 10:1, "A wise son brings joy to his father, but a foolish son brings grief to his mother."  We also went over the parable of the Lost Son, the Blind Man, Zacchaeus and the Last Supper.

Reading/Writing: Preston has been reading aloud to his brother a lot again lately.  LOVE THAT! 

Math: Worked adding and subtracting three-digit numbers this week, and he FINISHED the Complete Book of Math!

Science:  This week's science from book Science with Plants was about how flowers and trees.

Music/Art: Our hymn this week was still "Eternal Father, Strong to Save."

Spanish: This week we went over days of the week and months of the year.  Very briefly, so those need more work. 

We are using My Father's World First Grade. See our curriculum here.

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Homeschool Recap, April 20th (Week 29)...

In our Homeschool this week...

Tot School: Callen is picking up on some songs, numbers and letters lately.  He's also adding tons of new words to his vocabulary lately - a lot of them sound exactly the same to me, but he knows what he's trying to tell me!

Bible: Preston and I went over Proverbs 22:9, "A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor."  We also went through Jesus raising the dead/healing the sick through the parable of the lost coin.

Reading/Writing: Preston has been reading aloud to his brother a lot again lately.  LOVE THAT! 

Math: Worked adding and subtracting three-digit numbers this week, and he only has one page left of his Complete Book of Math!

Science:  This week's science from book Science with Plants was about how plants need and use water and light.  We continue to watch our bean plants grow taller each day.  Our snapdragons do not appear to be making it, though, inside of their little individual greenhouse.  Not sure what happened there. 

Music/Art: Our hymn this week was "Eternal Father, Strong to Save."  And we completed the last page in our Musical Instruments coloring book, it was a page on the harp.  We listened to some familiar songs on harp, and then finished up with The Lord of the Rings soundtrack performed live by a symphony so Preston could see and hear all the instruments working together.

Spanish: We continued learning some new words... action, describing and what not.  We're very near done with our Complete Book of Spanish too!

We are using My Father's World First Grade. See our curriculum here.

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The Lord of the Rings Symphony...

Today, Preston finished up his Musical Instruments coloring book. Each week we've been going over various instruments... talking about them, watching and listening to their sounds on youtube and whatnot. Today, we watched parts of this video... the soundtrack to The Lord of the Rings, so he could see the full symphony working together to create beautiful music that tell a story! So fun!

Homeschool Recap, April 13th (Week 28)...

In my life this week...

I have another van!  It's a 2000 Honda Odyssey (yes, another Odyssey).  It's so much better than the last one... looks nicer, runs better, just overall so much better!  Praise God for His blessings and His timing.  Hoping to keep this one longer than a week, of course! 

Honda Odyssey, you are the van for me!

Playing while getting the van detailed.

On Friday, I watched a friends 2.5 year old daughter.  That was an interesting experiment.  I don't think Callen ever really adjusted to her being there (he swung at her a few times and she shoved him a few times, so... yeah).  At first, they just stared at each other, giggled every once in a while and stood there.  Then they warmed up a bit, Callen "showed her around" the house, pointing out things and babbling.  I had a play-date Usborne book party so I took the kiddos with me and all three had a blast playing with all the kids and toys at our friend's house.  On the way home, both littles fell asleep and stayed asleep for a good, long while.  Overall, it was a good day with an extra toddler... definitely went better than I had worried about, haha!

Getting used to each other.

Chalking w/a friend at the party.

In our Homeschool this week...

Tot School: Callen had a complete breakdown on Saturday morning.  He dropped his bowl of dry cereal in the kitchen floor and Michael told him to pick it up.  He said, "no."  Michael tried to get him to pick it up and it turned into an hour long ordeal (I'm not even kidding, an hour) where Callen refused to pick up the cereal, was screaming, crying, resisting.  We sat in the floor with him, tried to "reason" with him, took away toys, tried to bribe him, gave him a spanking and more... he just absolutely refused to pick up the pieces of cereal and put them back in his bowl or the trash can.  It was CRAZY.  He is very strong-willed, but I had never experienced anything like this before.  We finally just left him alone because we had stuff to do... Preston came along and picked up most of the cereal, then Callen picked up the last few and poured the bowl into the trash.  Geez.  He is definitely in a defiant phase.  I pray it passes QUICKLY!

Rolling around in the plastic Easter eggs.

Bible: Preston and I went over Proverbs 15:16, "Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great wealth with turmoil."  We also learned more about the calling of Matthew, Jesus choosing his 12 disciples, the parable of the farmer and the seeds and the stormy sea that Jesus calmed.

Reading/Writing: Preston's writing is certainly improving when he is in the right mood to do well.  When he isn't, it's a mess.  

We took school to the car wash, lol.

Math: Worked on money... recognizing, adding and subtracting coins.  He did really well with this, like adding a bunch of coins to see if you have enough to purchase something.  We also finished up the last page about fractions and did some two-digit adding that required regrouping.  Preston is getting it down.  And we are getting close to being done with the Complete Book of Math!

Science:  This week's science from book Science with Plants was about growing plants.  We kept watching our bean seeds, and boy, have they sprouted.  I actually just replanted them in some soil and a pot because they were so tall!  Our snapdragons are starting to sprout a bit too.

Our growing bean stalks!

Music/Art: Our hymn this week was "Our God, Our Help in Ages Past."  And we talked about the accordion.  I also picked up Drawing with Children again, and we did an exercise that had us drawing an object without looking at our pencil/paper.  That brought upon quite a bit of giggling between Preston and me... it was pretty funny!  I think he rather enjoyed it, as did I.

Spanish: This week we learned some action words.  Preston isn't picking up on these (remember them) as well as he has been with words in the past... so I'm trying to take it a bit slower.  He's also just not really giving his best effort either, so ... he might be a bit burned out.  But hey, only 23 days of school left!  Wow!

The countdown has begun!

We are using My Father's World First Grade. See our curriculum here.

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Homeschool Recap, April 6th (Week 27)...

In my life this week...

Um. Yeah.  What?  I dunno where this week went.  Crazy how that happens.  Let's see...  I can tell you that yesterday I watched a friends kids... 6 yr old girl and 4 yr old boy.  They all had a blast together, playing and doing stuff.  For the most part.  I watched them for about 10 hours, and by the end of the it, the kids were pretty much done with each other.  Hehe.  It made for an interesting day, for sure! 

Preston & Natalie working on Easter sticker scenes.

The kids did some drawing & stamping.

Other than that, we did get our insurance check for the van so now we look for a new (to us) family vehicle!  Praying for God's guidance in finding the right van for us.  Again.  Today (Saturday), we got up early, went out to the Grand Prairie Farmers Market for the Easter fun.  The boys got some candy, got their faces painted and we bought some random treats: blueberries, white chocolate chip & cranberry cookies, beef jerky and honey lip balm (mmm!).

Callen was not excited about Easter Bunny!

Callen got a baseball on his cheek!

Preston got Mickey!

In our Homeschool this week...

Tot School: Callen's vocabulary is exploding.  He is copying nearly everything we say.  He is also ALWAYS hungry so I imagine he'll be having a good growth spurt here soon.

Bible: Preston and I worked on memorizing and understanding Proverbs 10:8, "The wise in heart accept command, but the chattering fool comes to ruin."  He read and illustrated Jesus as a boy, Jesus being baptized and Jesus helping the fishermen.

Reading/Writing: Preston didn't read on his own as much as last week.  We're still reading Hank The Cowdog #12 at bedtime.

Math: Worked on time some more.  Did a refresher and added in to the 5's (he had previously done whole hours, half hours and a little bit of quarter hours).  Doing pretty well with this!

Science:  This week's science started the book Science with Plants.  We talked about seeds and how plants start to grow.  We are doing the bean plant thing, with the beans in a clear container against moist paper towels.  A few of them sprouted after just a few days.  We also planted some flowers in a little VeggieTales greenhouse thingee I bought from Mardel last week.  We'll see how those work out.

Beans!

Tiny flower pots on the window sill.

Music/Art: Our hymn this week was "Our God, Our Help in Ages Past."  And we talked about the piano, and listened to our Peter & The Wolf CD.

Spanish: This week we worked on el, la, los, las, un, una, unos and unas.  It's a bit confusing, but after working on it a while he was doing pretty well with it.  Just gotta keep practicing, keep it fresh on his mind and he'll figure it out!

We are using My Father's World First Grade. See our curriculum here.

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Homeschool Recap, Mar 30th (Week 26)...

In my life this week...

I didn't post last week because we kinda had a split Spring Break.  Last week, we had school Thurs-Friday, and this week we did school Mon-Wed... and some Saturday, lol.  Last week, Michael and I celebrated our 10th anniversary by sending the kids to grandma's for two nights and just had some time to ourselves.  It was wonderful!  Then we jumped right into a super crazy couple of weeks.  I was majorly busy with my Usborne stuff.  Which is good, of course.  And on Thursday, my mom and I took the boys to the Dallas World Aquarium with our homeschool group. We had a blast!

In our Homeschool this week...

Tot School: Callen is ... very tiring.  Lol.  But he is saying "thank you" sooooo cutely when you give him something for him.  It's very sweet, and ALMOST makes up for his rascal-ness.  Or, y'know, whatever you would call it.

Bible: Preston and I worked on memorizing and understanding Proverbs 10:9, "The man of integrity walks securely, but he who takes crooked paths will be found out."  We also finished out the books of the Bible with Jude and Revelation.  We talked about Esther and rebuilding the temple to finish out the Old Testament readings we had, and then moved on to the New Testament stories including Mary and the Angel, and Jesus being born.  Preston's illustration of Jesus' birthday:

That's God saying "Hi Son!"  Lol!  Love it.

Reading/Writing: From now on, Preston is supposed to be doing about 10 minutes of reading on his own.  He's been doing well with that, because he really enjoys reading.  We finished up the student Workbook, all done with that!

Math: Worked on graphing with some pages from our math book, and..... completed our 100's Chart! We had a 100 Celebration, where Preston got 100 pieces of cereal for breakfast and several silly things like that throughout the day.  He got a neat robot puzzle that had, of course, 100 pieces!

New puzzle!  Callen picked it out for Bubba.

Our Morning Board showing our 100's.

A fun activity involving the 100's chart.

Science:  This week's science them was Frozen Water in Science With Water. We played with ice, of course.  Melted it, saw how it expands, etc.

Music/Art: We didn't do a hymn this week.  We talked about the banjo, and listened to some banjo music.  Looked at our last landscape portrait in Come Look With Me Landscape.

Spanish: We are learning some parts of speech, like tu and usted, and several verbs, like leer (to read), jugar (to play), etc.

We are using My Father's World First Grade. See our curriculum here.

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