Unit 11- Insects

Unit 9- Octopus

Favorite thing about homeschooling this week? The flexibility 

Kids wanted school so.....

"Even the Octopus Praiaes the Lord" Psalm 145:21 

Unit 8- Dinosaur

I wasn't planning on this unit until after Thanksgiving , but decided to bump it forward rather than having a review week. We covered all of our material during the previous weeks and aren't needing any additional coverage this week. 

I went in to huge research mode(I enjoy this part of planning lessons) to find Intelligent Design resources regarding dinosaurs. Ken Ham from Answers in Genesis had a biblical viewpoint that was age appropriate for curious little boys. In learning quite a bit during this process as well. His was the only one I found, so glad it was meaty!

In case you are curious like me, the biggest difference is the young earth theory, weaving in the creation account in Gensis as well as the Ark, the flood, fossils, looking at Job 40 with new eyes where very large animals not describing any other existing animals we know are found .

A glimpse at all the Dino books we have. A couple do mention non-biblical ideas. At this stage for a 3 and 5 year old, we'll use the two books for reference on names, size and what they ate. 

Other fun during dinosaur week:

Posters :

 

Unit 7- Us

I actually downloaded all 1800 photos off my phone, so I'm blogging from my desktop today.

Weekly, I've been aiming to have a faith based, a fictional preschool and non fiction science book to learn more about each units letter, object and bible words. I had several books already about how God created each of us differently and uniquely special. I have 5 of these already and bought the other five since this idea is such a basic fundamental idea of our sense of self, how we carry ourselves and treat other people .

Letter U books:

Human Body

Us went in to more specifics of the 5 senses. This is the weekly letter card:

We watched several videos on the senses and read this book:

 

Munchkin has enjoyed discovering writing and drawing so much this year. He has surpassed my expectations and goals that I wrote out at the beginning of the year in this area.

Doodlebug matches up the letters very well with no help from me:

Highway letters:

Verse visuals I made using a family picture that a friend from church  did for us.

Munchkin wowed me with making up his own words to go with the vowel ladder.

Unit 6- Turtle

Visuals and Activities : 

Books , Visuals & toys

Unit 4- Apple

Great faith tie in for apple between the garden for Adam and Eve for Doodlebug and Fruit of the Spirit for Munchkin . 

Munchkin has requested an apple pie, so I'll be learning something new this week too. I've never made one before , here goes life long learning for all of us :-)

Unit 2- Moon highlights

Day 2

Unit 2- Moon

Here's our Intro to moon,. I really appreciate  how this program weaves science, bible knowledge, outreach, living a Godly life, character and the big picture of God's creation. 

The moon (us) does not give off any light of it's own. The moon only reflects the light off the Sun (God) , also referencing last week's unit and both are creations of God going back to the intro weeks on Creation. 

Top row: Books, letter match up

Middle: moon documentaryand chocolate sandwich cookie moon phase activity 

Bottom: flashlight and mirror concept activity & M lacing letters for fine motor

Here is attempt #1 of gluten free play doh. We are not a fan. We'll be trying one of the many other different recipes I found off Pinterest until we find one both kids will play with. 

This recipe left a very oily residue on our hands. My 3 year old wouldn't touch it after he realized that. 

They played ' Spaceship' with different size boxes including Lightning. We pretended we were going to the moon. 

Progress on our new checklist . It keeps mama on track . What ever doesn't get highlighted on that day, bumps to our review weeks. 

Weekly Routine

Here is my my new checklist for each week. I highlight as we complete each activity during the week. It's a four day week as we take Wednesday mornings  off for my Mom to Mom group. We have a review week after every 5 units and we'll cover anything missed or do fun additional activities to reinforce the bible verse and concept on those days. 

Reminders on our learning wall: 

Learning wall 2014-2015

After our first real learning unit last week, our rhythm and schedule got some tweaking . All the wall visuals for both boys came upstairs. I really like how this is coming together .  I also grouped all of our daily activities in to separate boxes , but that's another post...

The top weekly calendar of daily activities is for me. I'm a visual teacher. The flannel board with the words to remember are for the boys. They like to play, point and talk about them. I made the visuals with a design software. I'm working on thwe whole year's, it's a work in progress.

Since the subtitle for Munchkins curriculum is seeing the world through God's eyes, I decided to keep the Creation numbers doodlbe bug colored in the first two intro weeks. Doodble bugs 3 year old learning poster and bible verse are hung here.

Calendar time with the days of the week. I found the creation calendar cards, printed and laminated them, backing them with velcro circles. In between the two is the start of our caterpillar that we'll continue to add to as we go through out the year.

Letter of the week reminder. 1- Munchlin's reminder of the words, the spanish word for the weekly object and the people in the words with that letter that don't have the bible in their own language. 2- is the corresponding Character trait that starts with that letter. 3- 100 day chart. We'll do something fun when we hit day 66 as that will be half way though our school year. We school 4 days a week with with 26 units and 7 review weeks for a total of 132 days of school.

Sun- highlights

Hmmm not sure I need 5 daily posts for all 26 units, I can see how that would get old. Although , since I'm planning to  do MFW with our two younger boys , it would help to jog my memory with what I used . Sooo, maybe just a daily collage pic and a weekly recap with details at the end.

Day 2 of Sun: started handwriting with M. Matching letters for D

Learning g wall is slowly coming together . Need an art spot and room for the alphbet quilt we are making. Caterpillar badges are going downstairs per Ms request

Trinity Academy

   For school transcript purposes, we chose a name for our homeschool going forward. In our state, a homeschool is treated like a private school. We'll be known as Trinity Academy. So many threes and that includes the number of reasons we chose it ;-)
1. All of the boys' education is based on the  Holy Trinity- Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
2. God has put in our heart that three is the number of children He has in store for us.
3. Our scripture verse we chose is from Micah 6:8 where God has three instructions for us. To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

   We chose My Father's World kinder curriculum this year for our oldest guy.  The following reasons played in to our decision: 

1. The subtitle 'Seeing the world through God's eyes' pulled me in

2. It's a play based faith learning curriculum which is great for 3 hands-on, body moving boys

3. With three kids this year, I was ready for a full on box curriculum where I'm not pulling from multiple sources

4. Living book based with fiction and non fiction 

5. Integrated unit studies that include science, literature, bible, math,  writing , history, critical thinking etc etc

6. Light for kinder and 1st. Umm he's not quite 5, learning is not a race for us, but a journey . We may repeat next year or stretch it out over the next two years.

7. It's very missions focused through 12th grade. 

8. Seeing every day objects that will remind our kids of God, who He is, what He's done for us and what we can do for Him and others to say thank you

9. MFW Has a GREAT format for families with multiple kids

   We have loved ABC Jesus Loves Me for help with direction in preschool books, activities, crafts and play ideas for the last three years . We'll incorporate that still for our 3 year old, in addition to any MFW ideas I can tweak to be age appropriate .  It's also God centered play based learning .We actually heard about MFW through that group since they are  so similar . 

   We aren't ruled by the curriculum but use it for structure, schedule and inspiration . We supplement, skip or rearrange as what suits my teaching style, the boys learning styles and our family needs . 

   In case you're new to the blog and are curious as to why we homeschool at all and plan to do so for the foreseeable future; it really comes down to one reason:

1. My husband's fluctuating work schedule . If we did the traditional preschool then either public or private school , our boys would go days with out seeing their dad and we are just not ok with that. This happens several days a week, which fluctuate and he can't dictate which days. He starts work from home in his office around 11 and ends at 7. Our boys have a 7:30 bed time , that quality time math is just dismal.  When our oldest first reached preschool age, my husband was at a different job and we just couldn't afford the tuition. Once I started researching all the options, I started doing learning for a quarter of the cost at home. Once his job changed, the money issue was solved, but then it became a time issue. Sure, we miss out on being part of our church's preschool crowd, but it just wasn't a fit for us. Now, I love what we do and what it adds to our family.

   We don't judge what is best for others as we don't want what's best for our family judged either . We can't control comments from others either , but are confident in our decision after much prayer, discussion and research. We aren't supposed to be carbon copies of each other. Every family has different challenges, gifts and circumstances. Differences aren't a threat, living life at any one else, or about judgement. It's not a rejection or about excluding others. It's a healthy normal part of living life on planet earth. Talking about someone else's education decisions with respect and love is always welcome. Our educational decision is one part of our lives. We don't gain our worth, identity or salvation from it, it's just what works for our family . 

   Homeschooling has been a blessing to us (yes, these benefits can be present no matter your choice , but I can't speak to the others since we've never done them) in the following ways:

1. More family time. 

2. Watching my boys play, learn and work things out during the day.

3. Being the main influence for character, manners, faith and discipline.

4. Different age groups and how that reflects real world. Most of my friends are 5-10 years in age difference from me and I love them dearly.

5. I have grown nieces and nephews as I'm an older mom with little ones. I've seen how fast they grow. I want to see these little faces the most. The longer I do this I admit, I'm selfish and don't want someone else getting to be with them all day as the influence that spends most of the day with them.

6. We have multiple food issues, one that is still new and this gives me time to figure out what works best for our family . 

7. Slower, more organic natural pace to our lives and schedules . 

Challenges this year: 

1. Being in the minority, we aren't close with anyone else who does this. It can be a bit lonely. Thankfully, we do have several friends who do our church's preschool and are available for play dates during the week on their home days. We are looking forward to joining a coop next year when we qualify with having at least a 5 year old in September. Also, in the next couple years sports teams, instrument lessons etc will come in to play as well.

2. This curriculum has 6 day learning units and goes in phonetic order. Both of those were new for us this year. We decided to do 5 units, 5 days a piece and roll that 6th day of each proceeding unit in to a review week. We'll still have the same amount of learning days that way with out having a new unit start on a different rolling day each time.

   With only having two kids of preschool learning age, we are able to do our learning when #3 has his morning  nap. He's a great sleeper and this gives us 1-2 hours which is plenty of time to cover the 5 or 6 items on our daily agenda. The two big guys are used to this schedule and flow smoothly for the most part because this is their norm. We have our challenges sharing , taking turns, waiting. We have interruptions, and consequences that take precedent. As I tell the boys , all kids have their main job as learning . Some kids go to a building during the day and some don't. Simple as that. 

   Nope not getting paid for this post or doing what we do, well monetarily anyway. No mom does ;-) In case you are wondering, both my husband and I were public school educated and enjoyed our experience.  I am working out some issues not that I'm blogging via phone, please bear with me.

2014-2015 School Year

This year, the new curriculum we will be using is My Father's World Kindergarten (MFW) with our oldest boy, who will turn 5 in November. He is ready for all their components with the exception of handwriting, so we'll go through this curriculum for as long as it takes to get a good start on having him write his letters. We will continue to use ABC Jesus Loves Me (ABCJLM) with year 3 for our middle son this year, only in the order that MFW suggests so I can teach both boys at once with the age appropriate information, arts and activities. Boy #3 will be along for the ride and sit in and play as his napping and eating schedule allow at 4 months old ;-)

Munchkin (will be 5 in November):

Getting kinder organized

Literature Package from MFW

Music

MFW kinder goes in order of phonetic sound, so S is the first unit, M,

A book of bibleless people to go through during the year

Lots of fun supplements

Starting to build our YWAM library

Doodlebug (turned 3 in June):

We are going to add the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom tree for him this year, I think he's really going to enjoy that.

Lightening: (born in April)  Along for the fun :-D


Getting Ready:

New table and chairs to do projects, activities, arts and crafts.

New file cabinet addition for organization in our library

Fresh organized area is a great way to start a new school year :-)

Week 32 ABCJLM

 

Wheee, we made it! I might have just been the worst end of year homeschool mom ever this last week with no arts, crafts, fine or gross motor. We read the books, sang the songs and probably did a few videos that might have tied in at this point. But, we finished, so it's a win :-D