Week in Review (September 24th)

Last week was a good week here at our casa.  We continued to work on our verse about loving your neighbor as yourself.  I love the way the children come and tell me that they are loving their neighbor as theirself when they do something nice for a sibling.  I am glad to see them actively applying one of the verses they've learned. 

K continued his work with the analog and digital clock this week.  We moved into working on half past the hour.  A great feature of his clock is the game that is on it.  The quiz game, as it is called, asks him to find a particular time on the clock and gives him three chances to do so before moving on to the next question.  During his rest time, he takes the clock and plays the game.  Initially, he rarely got the time correct, but now he does much better. 



We also worked on understanding more about seconds and minutes using the library books we checked out on as well as some online timers.  First we watched the second hand move all the way around an analog clock and then we watched the numbers move from zero to sixty on the digital timer.  Then we used the digital timer to see how long it took us to do various things.  K and G really enjoyed that. 

 


Watching digital timer

We did a good deal of reading and used our lettter mat and worked on beginning letter sounds for G and letter sounds and spelling for K.

Just a scrabble word as some say.  We were making the short u in the word shut into a long u by adding the silent e =)

We had some fun outside.  At the park, and the kids had the opportunity to see one of the big trees trimmed. K was absolutely engaged, and M tried to "catch" the truck as it was driving parallel to where we were.  Additionally, there is some construction going on behind our house, and the kids enjoy going on the deck or in the backyard to watch. 

Fun in the mist maker



Watching the men trim the tree

Backyard construction

All in all, a great week!

Week in Review (August 27th)

We've had a good week at our casa this week, despite the 24 hour bug that hit K and G.  Thank God it was in and out quickly.  We continued reciting Deuteronomy 6:5 with our hand motions and working on self-control during our mat time.

This week we checked out Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading (I discuss this book here) from the library again.  Both K and G were really excited about starting their "lessons" again.  K is working on the long vowel sounds made with the silent e, and G is working on the letter sounds themselves and a little song that goes with it. Even though M isn't quite big enough for lessons from the book, he has with his own special lessons.  Sometimes, he brings me the magnetic board because he likes for me to write letters there so he can say the letters/sounds =).

K has also been working on a counting activity using a set of flashcards my parents gave us along with our hundreds board.  This activity is not only good for his counting to 100 but for recognizing the numbers themselves (particularly the higher ones) and the order in which they go.

K's work up to 31

We also had some fun with an activity my friend Flo made for us.  I talk more about this activity in this post.

Count those beads G!

K and G also painted with their do-a-dot paints (thank you Publix for the pictures, which came from their free coloring books). They love art time, and I really should incorporate it more often. I have some finger paints and hope to use those soon.

K painting fruit

G painting a little bear putting some food away

Here is little M having some fun with the bead maze at my parents' church.  He did come home after that and play with our smaller bead maze some, too =).

Some fun in the rain, reading, and writing work rounded out our week; lots of fun was had and looking forward to more next week.

Week in Review (August 13th) - Let's fold clothes

We had a great week here at the academy. We are going to walk in lots of power as we are still working on our verse about God not giving us a spirit of fear.  The kids enjoy it, and K is able to talk about what the verse means in relation to not being afraid.

Our new activity brings joy to my soul.  As a stay at home mom/homeschooling mom or any mom for that matter, at times, I feel like all I do is clean and do laundry.  So now, it's time for me to give the kids the opportunity to help out, and of course, at this age, they are ready to help :).  And thus, after inspiration from Counting Coconuts, we created a practical life activity in the form of a clothes folding basket.  Both K and G have used the activity, and they both like it.  In our basket are some of M's shorts, M's onesies, and K's t-shirts.  I would like to continue to incorporate different clothing items as folding of each is mastered.

Items in our basket

G working on folding a t-shirt...I helped her with the sleeves :)

We also worked on our phonics with our letter mat; G worked on her beginning word sounds, and K added forming his blends to our work as well as spelling various words.  M absolutely loves the mat as well (and anything else that has to do with letters), and takes letters out and says their sounds.  Now, he's starting to say the names of the letters as well as saying the sounds they make. 

K and G also had fun buliding puzzles; they really love them and enjoy putting them together all the time.  K also had the opportunity to do some water color painting.  He's getting so much better at understanding and implementing the concept of covering the whole picture in color, which is nice to see.

K painting Owl from Winnie the Pooh

The kids also had fun outside with our diy water table.  They played for about an hour and fifteen minutes outside; it's been a bit rainy here lately, so the kids haven't had the opportunity to play outside as much.  It was a lot of fun for them and low maintenance for me. 

I took this picture through the screen

An enjoyable week!

Week in Review (May 14th)

Hopefully, we will be back on schedule with posts after this week =).  We have continued to work on Titus 2:12, and the children have it memorized.  They really look forward to reciting their verse at the beginning of our learning time, which makes for a happy momma. 

I am also very proud of G's accomplishment this week.  She worked hard and was able to lace her string of wooden beads.  At first, she was only able to lace the shorter ones with the biggest holes, but eventually, she was able to lace the most difficult ones.  She enjoys this work and enjoys doing it again and again.

G showing off her work

K enjoyed working rhyming words.  Unfortunately, I have no picture for this one. He started by creating a four letter word with our foam letters and went to town from there, creating word after word.  He also does a great deal of verbally rhyming words.  I have to give a big thanks to my husband because he plays a major role in  Keenen's joy in and ability to rhyme.  He "reads" them a story before bed (based on the template of Super Why, Dora, or Diego on most nights).  He works on the children's listening and reading comprehension skills, asking them to find ryhming words, listen for beginning letter sounds, and questions about the story, while simultaneously using these stories to reinforce character traits we want to see in our children.  He's pretty awesome!

Our week was rounded out with a trip to Grammy and Paw Paw's (Mommy and Poppy got to spend some much needed quality time together alone).  The grandparents have a farm, and K and G got an opportunity to ride the horse, which they thoroughly enjoyed.

K and G riding Dreamer with Grammy as a safe guard

A good time was had by all!