OLD HOMESCHOOLERS NEVER DIE . . . THEY JUST WRITE CURRICULUM


"Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew,
like showers on new grass,
like abundant rain on tender plants."

Deuteronomy 32:2

Courses of Study

To view the Course of Study for each grade level, you can click on the "Course of Study" label
or "Search This Blog" for the specific grade level you wish to see.
To date, I have courses of study completed for kindergarten through fourth grades.

Newsletter Articles

In 2013 the Lord started me producing a newsletter for the homeschool group we are a part of. Every other month I write an article on a topic the Lord has put on my heart. I've decided to add these articles to this blog. I hope you will find encouragement through some of my ramblings. You can click on the label "Newsletter" to find the articles.

Wednesday, December 21

Christmas

We don't have school during the holiday season, but we love to decorate, bake, read, and watch videos. Every year we purchase one new Christmas book. On Christmas Eve we watch Pride and Prejudice (the BBC 5 hour version). Between each of the 6 episodes we do something, like make cookies, open presents, play a game, etc. This makes for a full and fun day!

Here is my list of favorite books to read for Christmas (in no particular order):
  • The Legend of Saint Nicholas by Demi
  • The Nutcracker by Alison Jay
  • Christmas Tapestry by Patricia Polacco
  • The Light at Tern Rock by Julia L. Sauer
  • America's First Christmas by Hertha Pauli
  • The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson
  • Miracle in a Shoe Box by Franklin Graham
  • The Christmas Stories of George MacDonald
  • No Tree for Christmas by Marilyn Lashbrook
  • Merry Christmas With Love by Sandi Patty
  • Christmas in Happy Forest by Mary Hollingsworth
  • Silent Night: A Mouse Tale by Betsy Hernandez and Donny Monk
  • A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
  • The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey by Susan Wojciechowski
  • A Cup of Christmas Tea by Tom Hegg
  • Christmas Stories from Grandma's Attic by Arleta Richardson
and my most favorite Christmas book:
  • All is Well: A Story for Christmas by Frank E. Peretti
Videos we like:
  • The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (with Loretta Swit)
  • Silent Mouse (narrated by Lynn Redgrave)
  • The Nutcracker

Saturday, November 26

Making A Spinner

A lot of the games on my blog use a spinner. If you don't have one, here is how I made mine.

First I took a scrap piece of wood and a nail. I had this spinner face that we were using at the time (yes, this spinner is probably 14 years old). I stapled the spinner face to the piece of wood then pounded the nail in at the center of the face.



Next, cut an arrow out of a piece of construction paper and tape or glue it to a large paper clip. The other end of the paper clip slips easily over the nail and freely rotates for spinning.


When you need a different spinner face for another game, just make a small hole and slip it over the nail (take the paper clip off first, then put it back on).


To work the spinner, place one finger on top of the nail and flick the pointer/paper clip with your other hand. If the pointer lands on a line, sometimes we spin again, and sometimes we add the two numbers together -- depending on the game.

School Break Goals

I've made charts with goals that I want K. and myself to accomplish each week during our winter break. Some of the goals are: drinking 6 glasses of water a day, reading a new book each week, completing a sewing project each week, and doing an exercise video four times during the week. Some are chores that need to be done. Some are things I want K. to start doing (like brushing her hair). Some are things I want to remember to do (like watching BJU's archived webinars).

At the end of each week we see who has the FEWEST boxes completed on their chart. That person has to put $1 in a jar. On the first day of first grade we will take the money and treat ourselves at Golden Spoon.



Bible Memory Verses

God gave me this really good idea: Read the passages we are going to memorize next year during our winter break.

As I thought about this, I realized that reading each passage once a week for nine weeks will make K. so familiar with the passages that when it is time to memorize them it will probably be easier.

Saturday, November 19

Kindergarten, Book Study, Week 42

This week we finished reading A Bear Called Paddington and started reading Margaret Pumphrey's Pilgrim Stories. We also recited Psalm 62:5-8, and played Fast Track and Egg Carton Tales.

Friday evening we celebrated K.'s kindergarten graduation with  family dinner. After the dinner I awarded her a Kindergarten Diploma and an Award of Merit certificate and ribbon for her memorization work. After that we went to Marie Callender's for pie.

Here are some activities you can do to expand on the book Pilgrim Stories (these are just from the first chapter):
  • Read/learn more about Robin Hood
  • Geography: England, Sherwood Forest, Scrooby, Holland
  • Find out about Scrooby Manor
  • Learn more about King James and Queen Anne
  • What did the separatists believe?
  • Play Hide-and-Seek
  • Play Drop the Handkerchief
  • Draw a picture
    • Scrooby Manor's garden
    • The Queen's carriage
    • A rose
    • The church service in the barn

Saturday, November 12

Kindergarten, Bible, Week 41

This week we:
  • Reviewed Psalm 62:5-8
  • Reviewed Catechism (3 days)
  • Read Stories 261 - 270 in Picture Story Bible
  • Other books, stories, and videos:
    • Boys and Toys from Storytime . . . Millers
    • Red Boots from Other Lands
    • Mrs. R-P and the Chocolate Cherry Treat
    • The Princess and the Kiss
  • Prayer
    • It is interesting, K. has started her own prayer journal in a small notebook she got at a birthday party.
  • Song: He Keeps Me Singing

Kindergarten, Writing, Week 41

Practice "Sentence": And talk of God who cares for me.
  • I thought K. would need 2 lines to write it, but she wanted to write it on 1 line. The first day "for me" was really squished. But she learned to write everything skinnier so it would all fit nicely on the line.
Small Muscle Development:
  • Activity: Say It With Pictures, see Writing, Week 9 for instructions
    • Our theme was Thanksgiving
Story Development:
  • Activity: Strange Sentences, from Games for Writing -- this game gives children the opportunity to compose nonsensical sentences while helping them understand the grammatical anatomy of common sentences.
    • You'll Need: a Strange Sentences Chart, and a Spinner with numbers 1 - 6, paper, pencil
      • In the book are charts with sentences broken up into pieces (Who/What, Did What, Where, When, and Punctuation). Each chart has six sentences.
    • How to Play:
      • Have your child flick the spinner.
      • It it lands on 3, then you take the Who/What from sentence number three.
      • Spin again.
      • What ever number it lands on, you take the Did What from that sentence.
      • Continue spinning a getting the sentence parts until you have the complete sentence.
      • Let your child illustrate the sentence and tell you a story about it.
    • Our sentence was: My cat lost a part in the barn during lunch!
Writing Practice:
  • Activity: Traveling Words, see Writing, Week 28 for instructions
    • The shape to write on was an autumn leaf

Kindergarten, Reading, Week 41

The genres from our textbook were:
  • Informational article
  • Poem
  • Fiction
Activity: Oops, see Reading, Week 37 for instructions

Kindergarten, Math, Week 41

Monday
  • Fractions: One-Fourth
    • Practiced with manipulative "cookies". I put four cookies on a plate and asked her what part had blue frosting. She would write the answer.
    • Then we switched and I wrote a fraction and she demonstrated it with the cookies.

Tuesday
  • Calculator: Subtraction
    • I wrote out 10 equations and had K. use the calculator to solve them and then write the answer.
Wednesday
  • Fractions: Review
Thursday
  • Game: Shape Lotto, see Math, Week 19 for instructions
Friday
  • Problem Solving: Graphs
    • We made a line graph of the temperatures from our weather journal in science
  • Game: Three Pots, see Math Week 19 for instructions
    • We finished early, and K. asked if we could play this game.

Kindergarten, History, Week 41

  • Child's History chapter 42 (New Places -- New Heroes)
    • There so were many laws in the Eastern Roman Empire that they contradicted each other
    • Justinian made just laws
    • Justinian got the secret of how to make silk cloth from China
    • King Arthur was ruling in England
  • Finished Squanto, Friend of the White Men
  • Read books about Veteran's Day, the Erie Canal, and the Statue of Liberty

Kindergarten, Science, Week 41

  • Read Down Comes the Rain by Franklyn M. Branley
  • Kept a weather journal
    • Recorded the temperature at 8 am each day (I wanted to do 8, 12, 4, and 7, but we kept forgetting all the other times except for 8:00, so by Thursday I decided to forget the other times.)
    • Recorded what the sky looked like (clear, wispy clouds, cloudy, etc)
  • We discovered that when the sky was covered with clouds, it was warmer because the clouds act like a sweater for the earth and keep the warm air from escaping.

Saturday, November 5

Thanksgiving

Here are my favorite books to read for Thanksgiving:
  • The Thanksgiving Story by Alice Dalgliesh
  • Three Young Pilgrims by Cheryl Harness
  • Pilgrims to the Rescue by Wilma Pitchford Hays
  • Squanto's Journey by Joseph Bruchac
  • Squanto, Friend of the White Men by Clyde Robert Bulla
  • If you Sailed on The Mayflower in 1620 by Ann McGovern
  • Stories of the Pilgrims by Margaret B. Pumphrey
    • This book is also published under the title Margaret Pumphrey's Pilgrim Stories. The first was revised and edited by Michael J. McHugh, this second was revised and expanded by Elvajean Hall.
  • The Landing of the Pilgrims by James Daugherty
This year I sorta went crazy getting Thanksgiving books from the library. It bothered me that so many of the books' main theme was saving turkeys from being killed or had a main character who was a vegetarian. Here are my thoughts about each book:
  • Easy Reader / Picture Books
    • Mousekin's Thanksgiving by Edna Miller -- cute story about a turkey that takes a mouse's stashes of food, then when it snows the turkey digs us the food and share with all the animals.
    • Sheriff Sally Gopher and the Thanksgiving Caper by Robert Quackenbush -- we didn't even get half way through this book. K. and I decided it was really boring.
    • Henry and Mudge Under the Yellow Moon by Cynthia Rylant -- the first story is about autumn, and is good. The third story is about an aunt coming to visit and is fine. The second story is about Henry's mother telling ghost stories. The stories scare Henry, but the scare Mudge even more.
    • Silly Tilly's Thanksgiving Dinner by Lillian Hoban -- a fun story that will make you laugh and can be read over and over
    • A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving by Charles M. Schulz -- this comic strip style story teaches us to be thankful to just be together. K. really liked this book.
    • Thanksgiving is Here! by Diane Goode -- a fun story about a family's Thanksgiving day with their extended family.
    • I am the Turkey by Michele Sobel Spirn -- a fun story about a boy that is the turkey in his class' Thanksgiving play, the problems is causes him, and how he saves the program.
    • Molly's Pilgrim by Barbara Cohen -- this one is a keeper. A story about modern day pilgrims. This is also a video.
    • 'Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving by Dav Pilkey -- a story about children saving turkeys from being killed for Thanksgiving dinners
    • The Peterkins' Thanksgiving adapted by Elizabeth Spurr -- this one is a keeper. A super fun story!! It will have to laughing!
    • An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving by Louisa May Alcott -- my friend's copy of this book has small black and white illustrations, but this one was illustrated by James Bernardin and had wonderful full-page color illustrations. This one is a keeper.
    • A Turkey for Thanksgiving by Eve Bunting -- a story about animals finding "a turkey for Thanksgiving", but it isn't what the turkey expects.
    • Over the River: A Turkey's Tale by Derek Anderson -- full of fun and lively illustrations of the song by Lydia Maria Child
    • Annie and Snowball and the Thankful Friends by Cynthia Rylant -- Annie wants a table full of guests for Thanksgiving. A good read.
    • The Thanksgiving Door by Debby Atwell -- this one is a keeper. A story about an elderly couple who unintentionally crashes a family's Thanksgiving, but are welcomed and have a wonderful day.
    • Turkey Bowl by Phil Bildner -- the Thanksgiving a boy and is friends are finally old enough to join in the family football game, it snows too hard for the extended family to come over. The kids decide they can have their own football game and there is a surprise ending.
    • The Know-Nothings Talk Turkey by Michele Sobel Spirn -- this might be a keeper. It is another book that will have you and your children laughing.
    • Thanksgiving on Plymouth Plantation by Diane Stanley -- children and their grandma travel back in time to Plymouth. It has good illustrations and teaches about the hardships endured by the Pilgrims.
  • Chapter Books
    • The Hoboken Chicken Emergency by D. Manus Pinkwater -- nonsensical but entertaining
    • The Thanksgiving Visitor by Truman Capote -- not really a chapter book, but not a book for little kids to read. A good story about a boy that gets bullied and then his Aunt invites the bully to Thanksgiving dinner where the boy finds a way to get even with the bully, but it backfires. Lots to talk about with older children.
    • The Thanksgiving Treasure by Gail Rock -- as a first response I would tell you that I liked this story because Addie makes a friend out of a family enemy. However, when I stop to really think about the story there are problems. First, the dad uses bad language, but I skipped over that. Second, Addie repeatedly disobeys her father and grandmother by riding her bike farther from town than she is supposed to.
    • The Thanksgiving Day Parade Mystery by Marion M. Markham -- a fun story of twin girls helping to solve a mystery.
    • Mayflower Treasure Hunt by Ron Roy -- a fun story about some kids solving a mystery that started on the Mayflower. Although the mystery is fictitious, it does teach about life on the Mayflower and at Plymouth.
    • The Turkeys' Side of It by Janice Lee Smith -- Adam and his best friend are the turkeys in their class' Thanksgiving program. At the end of the program they and some other children, dressed at food also, have to do a dance. The rest of the class teases them, but in the end, the class rallies together and has fun with it.
    • Thanksgiving Stories and Poems edited by Caroline Feller Bauer -- we didn't read the whole book, but we enjoyed what we did read
    • Katie Kazoo Switcheroo: Don't Be Such a Turkey by Nancy Krulik -- we didn't finish reading this book. Katie gets switched into other people, but I didn't feel like it really taught anything about the Pilgrims.
  • Books I didn't get around to reading
    • Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew by Carolyn Keene
    • Thanksgiving Turkey Trouble by Abby Klein
    • Peanut-Butter Pilgrims by Judy Delton
    • Needle and Thread by Ann M. Martin
    • A Journey to the New World by Kathryn Lasky

Kindergarten, Bible, Week 40

This week we:
  • Memorized Psalm 62:8
  • Introduced Catechism #28: Did Adam obey God? No, Adam did not obey God. Genesis 3:6
  • Reviewed Catechism (2 days)
  • Read stories 250 - 260 in Picture Story Bible
  • Other books, stories, videos:
    • Going for a Visit from Storytime . . . Millers
    • Just in Case You Ever Wonder
    • She Changed Her Mind from Missionary Stories . . . Millers
    • The Indians and the Cookies from Storytime . . . Millers
    • My Heart, Christ's Home
  • Prayer
  • Song: He Keeps Me Singing

Kindergarten, Writing, Week 40

Practice "Sentence": It is so jolly to be alive

Small Muscle Development:
  • Screw driver practice
Story Development:
  • Activity: Halting Stories, see Writing, Week 17 for instructions
Writing Practice:
  • Activity: Rhyme Time, see Writing, Week 19 for instructions

Kindergarten, Reading, Week 40

Genres from our textbook were:
  • Poetry
  • Biblical Fiction
  • Fiction
Activity: Oops, see Reading, Week 37 for instructions

Kindergarten, Math, Week 40

Monday
  • Fractions: One-Third
    • Use manipulatives and stories to practice the concept of thirds
    • Practice writing fractions
    • When we first sat down to do this, K. had a cookie. I asked her to break it into 3 pieces. The pieces were not equal. We discussed that the cookie pieces were not thirds because they pieces were not the same size. She had 3 pieces, but not thirds.
Tuesday
  • Calculator: Addition
    • I wrote out 10 equations and had K. work them on the calculator and write down the answer.
Wednesday
  • Fractions: One-Fourth
    • Used manipulatives and stories to understand fourths.
    • Worksheet to practice writing 1/4, 2/4, 3/4
Thursday
  • Game: Location Words, see Math, Week 9 for instructions
Friday
  • Problem Solving: Probability
    • We played "1 Spinner" and "21 Marble Outcomes" (the old probability activity) at Johnnie's Math Page

Kindergarten, History, Week 40

This week we looked at and read:
  • Ancient World pages 90 and 91
  • Stranger on the Silk Road by Jessica Gunderson
Because we are essentially done with Ancient History, and Thanksgiving is this month we have started reading:
  • Squanto, Friend of the White Men by Clyde Robert Bulla

Kindergarten, Science, Week 40

This week we read:
  • Snow Is Falling by Franklyn Branley
  • Looking at Weather and Seasons by Angela Royston
  • Wind is to Feel by Shirley Cook Hatch
    • We did the experiments in this book

Saturday, October 29

Kindergarten, Bible, Week 39

This week we:
  • Memorized Psalm 62:7
  • Reviewed Catechism (3 days)
  • Read stories 239 - 249 in Pictue Story Bible
  • Other books, stories, videos:
    • Silver Dollar from Storytime ... Millers
    • Muffy
    • Mrs. R-P ... Treasure Hunt
    • The Miracle from the Meadow from Missionary Stories ... Millers
    • It Has All Been Planned from Short and Sweet
  • Prayer
  • Song: He Keeps Me Singing

Kindergarten, Writing, Week 39

Practice "Sentence": With the zoos to explore

Small Muscle Development:
  • Made a mosaic
    • I had painted small wooden shapes
    • K. glued them on to an old manila folder to make a design
Story Development:
  • Activity: Mixed Up and Missing, see Writing, Week 26 for instructions
Writing Practice:
  • Activity: A Race of Words, see Writing, Week 16 for instructions

Kindergarten, Reading, Week 39

Genres from our textbook were:
  • true story
  • drama
Activity: Oops, see Reading, Week 37 for instructions

Kindergarten, Math, Week 39

Monday
  • Fractions: One-Half
    • Practiced dividing things in half (tortilla, graham cracker, apple, etc)
    • Practiced writing 1/2
    • Reviewed what the denominator and numerator mean
Tuesday
  • Calculator: plus 1, minus 1
    • Practiced plus with the calculator: 1 + 1 (2) + 1 (3) + 1 (4) etc.
    • Practiced minus with the calculator: 10 - 1 (9) - 1 (8) - 1 (7) - 1 (6) etc.
Wednesday
  • Fractions: One-Third
    • Used manipulatives I had printed for thirds (pizza, pie, chocolate bar).
    • "One Tuesday we had pizza for dinner, and it was just Papa, you, and me, so we divided the pizza in 3 equal pieces. This is called thirds. If we each got 1 piece how much would you get? (one third) This Tuesday night I went to Bible Study, so I told Papa to eat my piece of pizza. How much did Papa get? (two thirds) Do this with all the manipulatives.
    • Made a worksheet with four questions. How many pieces are yellow? etc. so K. could practice writing fractions.
Thursday
  • Game: Fast Track (subtraction), see Math, Week 27 for instructions
Friday
  • Problem Solving: Graphs
    • Made a line graph.
    • I printed a picture of chocolate candy from the internet.
    • K. counted how many pieces there were of white chocolate (made tally marks), milk chocolate, dark chocolate, and chocolate with nuts.
    • Made line graph with the information.

Kindergarten, History, Week 39

  • Read chapter 41 from Child's History
    • People called Huns lived to the northeast
    • Romans and Germanic people considered them to be very fierce
    • The leader of the Huns was Attila
    • Germans beat the Huns in 451 A.D.
    • Vandals from Africa attacked Rome, captured the city and carried away Rome's treasures
    • This is the ending of Ancient History and the beginning of the Middle Ages
  • Craft: Marble Statues from Crafts from the Past: The Romans
    • We filled an exam glove with plaster of paris, let it set on an upside-down bowl, then painted it. It can sit on a desk to hold paper clips, etc.
  • I read The Sword in the Tree by Clyde Robert Bulla
    • This book is a bit beyond the dates of our study, but it is a good story.

Kindergarten, Science, Week 39

Still more from The How and Why Book of Weather.
  • What comes out of the sky
    • When the drops of water in a cloud become too heavy to float in the air, the fall to the earth. This is rain
    • Snow is water vapor which condenses directly into ice crystals because the air high in the sky has cooled very quickly.
    • Sleet is formed when rain freezes as it falls to earth.
    • Hail is rain that the wind blows up in the sky where the air is colder. They freeze and start to fall again. Over and over they start to fall and are blown back up by the wind. Each time they start to fall a new layer of water condenses on them. Each time they are blown back up the new layer turns to ice. When the pieces of hail become too heavy for the wind to blow back up, they fall to earth. If you cut a hailstone in half, you may be able to see the layers.
  • Fireworks in the sky
    • "As water droplets are rubbed and pulled about, they are charged with electricity. Suddenly the electric charge in one part of a cloud is attracted to a charge in another part of the same cloud or in another cloud. As it shoots through the air, it causes the air to glow for an instant and we see a lightening flash." quoted from book
    • Experiment: Try it with balloons in a dark room. Rub both balloons on your clothes or a piece of furniture, then bring them together so they almost touch. You should see a flash of light. (We could not get our balloons to work. They got very "static-y" and stuck to us, but we could not get them to "make lightening".)
    • When the air is heated by the the electric charge, it expands rapidly, setting a giant air wave in motion. This is the thunder we hear. Sound takes about five seconds to travel one mile, so by counting you can tell about how far away the lightening strike was.
  • The storm with an eye
    • We read The Magic School Bus Inside a Hurricane by Joanna Cole. It has a lot of information in it, so depending on your child, don't read everything on each page.
  • Rainbows
  • Types of clouds
    • Cumulus: puffy white clouds shaped like a dome on top and flat on the bottom
    • Cirrus: high in the sky, feathery wisps of curly ice crystals
    • Stratus: layers of cloud, spread flat across the sky
    • Nimbus: dark gray rain clouds
    • We "googled" cloud images and tried to identify some of the types of clouds.
  • Experiment
    • To show that hot air expands and cold air contracts

    • Put a balloon over the mouth of a bottle, set it in a pan of water and turn on the heat. (A smaller balloon or larger bottle would have been better.)


      As the air in the bottle heats up, it expands and the balloon starts to fill with air.


      This is as big as the balloon got, that's why I think a larger bottle, or smaller balloon would have been better.


      After the bottle cooled off, I stuck it in the freezer. The cold air in the bottle contracted and sucked the balloon partly into the bottle.

Saturday, October 22

Kindergarten, Bible, Week 38

This week we:
  • Memorized Psalm 62:6
  • Introduced Catechism #27: What was Adam's part in the covenant in order to stay in the Garden of Eden? Adam was required to obey God perfectly. Genesis 2:15-17
  • Reviewed Catechism (2 days)
  • Read stories 228 - 238 in Picture Story Bible
  • Other books, stories, videos:
    • Mrs. R-P and the Chocolate Cherry Treat
    • Muffy
    • You are Special
    • Jim Elliot and the Auca Indians from Missionary Stories . . . Millers
  • Prayer
  • Song: He Keeps Me Singing 

Kindergarten, Writing, Week 38

Practice "Sentence": For a little girl of five

Small Muscle Development:
  • Cut on straight, wavy, and jagged lines
  • Cut out star, circle, square, and triangle
Story Development:
  • Activity: Write It For Me, see Writing, Week 10 for instructions
Writing Practice:
  • Activity: That's Good, That's Bad, see Writing, Week 22 for instructions

Kindergarten, Reading, Week 38

Genres from our textbook were:
  • missionary story
  • poem
  • fiction
  • informational article
A couple times this week instead of asking questions, I just had K. tell me the story in her own words.

Activity: Oops, see Reading, Week 37 for instructions

Kindergarten, Math, Week 38

Monday
  • Fractions: Halves of a set
    • We went into the kitchen and I pulled out sets of things: forks, recipe books, bowls, spices, etc.
    • K. divided each set in half
Tuesday
  • Calculator: Make numbers
    • I said or wrote a number and K. punched it into the calculator
    • Then she punched in numbers and read them to me
Wednesday
  • Fractions: One-Half
    • I had printed some manipulatives: a pizza, a pie, a chocolate candy bar (I put some figured contact paper that I had on the back side to make them durable)
    • I showed these and we talked about one-half
    • I had made a worksheet showing how to write 1/2. Explaining the denominator tells how many equal parts are in the whole and the numerator tells how many parts we are talking about. I had made four circles on the paper and divided them in half, coloring each side a different color. Then asked, "How many parts (of this circle) are yellow?" This gave K. the opportunity to write the fraction 1/2.
Thursday
  • Game: Triangles, see Math, Week 31 for instructions
Friday
  • Problem Solving
    • Activity: Number Stories, see Math, Week 26 for instructions

Kindergarten, History, Week 38

  • Read chapter 40 from Child's History
    • Rome's turn to be conquered
    • Germanic people
    • The names of the days Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday come from Germanic gods' names.
    • Angles and Saxons settled in Britain
    • "Angle-land" eventually turned into "England"
    • Vandals went in to Gaul and down into North Africa
    • Franks settled in Gaul, name changed to France
    • Goths crossed into Italy
  • Started Temples and Shrines Gift Box Craft from Crafts From the Past: The Romans
    • This is a more difficult craft and I'm assembling it and K. will get to paint it.
  • Sun-Day, Moon-Day: How the Week was Made by Cherry Gilchrist and Amanda Hall
    • Read "Wednesday" as it is the only day that has a Norse/Germanic story

United States Geography

We started a U.S. Geography class with the Support Group Co-op we have joined, so I'll add that information each week. This is a two year course, covering 1 state a week, ending with 15 weeks of California History. The goal of the class is for the children to be able to:
  1. name the state by looking at the shape
  2. be able to put the shape in the right place on a map
  3. be able to tell two things about the state
------------------------------------------------------------------
Maine
  • Has more than 60 lighthouses
  • Supplies half the lobster eaten in the United States
  • Known as the Pine Tree State
Massachusetts
  • The Pilgrims landed there
  • Benjamin Franklin was born there
New Hampshire
  • Granite / Old Man of the Mountain
  • Shipyard
    • the shipyard at Portsmouth built the Raleigh, one of the first 13 frigates the Continental Congress had built
    • today it is a Naval shipyard and repairs submarines
Vermont
  • Maple Syrup
  • Green Mountains
  • Morgan Horse
Connecticut
  • Charter Oak
  • Gave us Lollipops
  • Woods and Forests cover more than 60% of the state
Rhode Island
  • Only land given by Indians to a white man
  • Smallest state
  • Makers of fine jewelry
  • No part of the state is more than 30 miles from the ocean
New York
  • The Erie Canal
  • The Statue of Liberty
  • Niagara Falls

Kindergarten, Science, Week 38

Continuing with The How and Why Book of Weather
  • Hot air rises
    • Experiment: Remove the shade from a table lamp that has an incandescent light bulb. Turn the bulb on and let it sit for about ten minutes. Then stick your finger in corn starch (so that just a little is on your finger) and flick it at the light bulb. The light bulb heats up the air around it, causing the air to rise. The powder from the corn starch allows you to see the air rising.
  • Why hot air rises
    • When air heats up the molecules move faster, bumping into each other more, so they move farther apart.
    • Because the molecules are farther apart, the air is lighter, so it rises.
    • Experiment: Blow up a balloon and tie it. Measure around the largest part of the balloon. Set the balloon in the sun for about ten minutes. Measure the balloon again. The balloon should be bigger.
      • We tried this first with white and pink balloons because they were the easiest at hand. When they did not get larger, I searched for a balloon that was a dark color. It worked! So this experiment can also show that light colors reflect heat and dark colors absorb heat.
  • The earth does not heat evenly
    • Experiment: Put a bowl of dirt and a bowl of water in the sun for about thirty minutes. Take the temperature of the surface of the dirt and the surface of the water. If you don't have a thermometer to use, your child should be able to tell the difference just by feeling them.
    • Water does not heat as quickly as land
  • Why breezes blow
    • As the land heats up, the air above it heats up and rises. The cooler air over the water rushes in to take its place. This is called an onshore breeze.
    • At night, when the sun goes down, the land cools off faster than the water. This is because only the surface of the land has been heated, but the sun's rays go deep into water and heat it to a depth of several feet.
    • Now the water is warmer than the land. The air above it rises and the cooler air from over the land rushes in to take its place. This is called an offshore breeze.
  • Water you can't see
    • When a puddle dries up, the water molecules have jumped up into the air. We say the water has evaporated. Water carried by the air is called water vapor.
    • Heat causes water to evaporate.
    • Experiment: Take two saucers and put a teaspoon of water on each. Place one in the sun and one in shade. The water in the sun should evaporate faster.
    • Wind helps speed evaporation.
    • Experiment: Wet a paper towel. Tear it in half. Place one half where the air is still. Put the other half in a breeze (you can use a fan). Which dries faster?
    • More water will evaporate from a large surface than a small one.
    • Experiment: Put a spoonful of water on a saucer and then fill the spoon again and leave that water in the spoon. The water on the saucer should dry up faster.
  • The water cycle
    • Experiment: Take a glass and set it over some grass or small plants. They should be in the sun. A watery film begins to form on the inside of the glass. (I was surprised at how quickly it happened.) Molecules of water from the grass/plant and soil have evaporated and become water vapor. When some of them hit the cooler glass they form fine drops of water.
    • The first step in the water cycle is evaporation. Water from the grass and soil evaporated inside the glass.
    • The second step is condensation. We can see this as clouds or fog. The water vapor in the glass condensed on the inside of the glass.
    • The third step is precipitation. When water returns to earth as rain or snow. If you leave your glass over the grass for a longer period of time, larger drops of water should form and fall back to the ground.
  • What is a cloud?
    • When air becomes cooler, water vapor condenses around particles of dust (etc.) floating in the air. Millions and millions of droplets are formed high in the sky and they cluster together in groups. These are the clouds we see.
    • Sometimes clouds look bright and puffy because the sun is shining through them.
    • Sometimes the sky looks like one big gray cloud because there are so many layers of clouds that they block out the sun's rays.
    • Sometimes the clouds form very high in the sky where it is much colder, and the droplets freeze. These clouds look like wispy ribbons.
    • When water droplets form at ground level, it is called fog.
  • Dew and frost
    • At night, when the land cools off, some of the water vapor in the warm air condenses on the cooler plants, rocks, soil, playground equipment. This is called dew.
    • On very cold nights the water vapor condenses directly into ice crystals and form a white film over the ground and house roofs. This is called frost.

Monday, October 17

Even Safer than a Harvest Festival

We don't observe halloween or participate in our church's Harvest Festival. At our house October 31 is Book Report Day. At the beginning of October K. picks her favorite book (that we have read as a family this year) and we start preparing costumes, food ideas, decorations, etc. from the book.

This year K. chose Charlotte's Web. She dressed up like Fern and Papa was Mr. Zuckerman. Since I brought the bucket of slop to the table, I was Lurvy. I requested the movie Charlotte's Web (1973 movie) from the library for us to watch. Here are pictures:

 Here is Charlotte's Web. I made the web of white yarn, cut the letters out of white paper and glued glitter on it (to look like morning dew). The orange in the middle is the spider.

 Here is our sheep,

 and the goose,

 and Templeton.

 Here you can see the fence we made.

 Charlotte was made out of a gallon milk carton. We stuffed red tissue paper inside to give him a pink look. His ears, eyes, and nose were cut out of construction paper. His legs were cut from an egg carton.

 Here is our table, set for dinner.

A close-up of a pig trough.

The bucket of slop. Dinner was really quite good. It was mashed potatoes (I scrubbed the potatoes, then peeled them, so I could include the peeled skins in the food.) rice, taco flavored ground meat, peas and carrots, and cheese. We had more slop for dessert. Vanilla ice cream with chocolate bar, broken graham crackers, peanuts, chopped Oreo cookies, and raisins stirred in and re-frozen.

Columbus Day

I made K. a coloring book for Columbus Day. First, I found the complete poem In 1492 at a website called Teaching Heart. Then I found coloring pages that went with the poem, and ended up with a nice seven page coloring book.

Here are some books I like for Columbus Day:
  • Christopher Columbus by Ann McGovern, copyright 1962
  • Ship Boy with Columbus by Enid La Monte Meadowcroft, copyright 1942
  • The Voyages of Christopher Columbus by Armstrong Sperry, Landmark book, copyright 1950
  • Christopher Columbus by Bennie Rhodes, The Sowers Series, copyright 1976

Saturday, October 15

Kindergarten, Bible, Week 37

This week we:
  • Memorized Psalm 62:5
  • Reviewed Catechism (3 days)
  • Read stories 217 - 227 in Picture Story Bible
  • Other books, videos, stories:
    • The Princess and the Kiss
    • Mrs. R.P. and the Treasure Hunt
    • Muffy
    • The Shotgun that Wouldn't Fire from Missionary Stories ... Millers
  • Prayer
  • Song: He Keeps Me Singing

Kindergarten, Writing, Week 37

Practice "Sentence": What a quaint world it is
  • During this five weeks of school we are copying a poem, one line each week.
Small Muscle Development:
  • Three Color Road Race, see Writing, Week 10 for instructions
Story Development:
  • How Many Words?, see Writing, Week 27 for instructions
Writing Practice:
  • Monster Cafe, see Writing, Week 26 for instructions

Kindergarten, Reading, Week 37

Genres from our textbook were:
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
Activity: Oops from Games for Reading -- this activity gives your child practice in phonics
  • Cut squares (mine are 2" x 2") and write a letter on each square
    • In the book are five lists going from easy to difficult
    • Each list has 19 - 25 letters for groups of letters
  • Put the squares in a pile.
  • Your child picks up the top square and says the SOUND that letter makes -- NOT the name of the letter.
  • If your child does it correctly, he goes on to the next letter.
  • If he does not give the correct sound, you write "O" on a paper, and he goes on to the next letter.
  • For each mistake you write the next letter of the word "OOPS". If the whole word gets written before he completes the stack of letters, he loses the game.
  • Of course, you'll want to practice the ones he made mistakes on, but probably not during the game.

Kindergarten, Math, Week 37

Monday
  • Fractions: Equal Parts
    • Used stuffed animals and a set of 24 pieces of pasta
    • I put out 2 animals and had K. divide the pasta equally, then count and see how many each animal had.
    • Then I put out 3 animals and had K. divide the pasta equally, and count how many were in each set.
    • Then I put out 4 animals, etc.
    • Then I put out 6 animals, etc.
    • We learned that the more you have to divide something in, the smaller each set is.
    • A good book for this concept is The Doorbell Rang by Pat Hutchins



Tuesday
  • Calculator: What digital numbers look like
    • I made a paper calculator and a strip of paper with the markings of calculator numbers
    • Then I wrote a number and K. used a marker to trace how that number would look on a calculator.
    • She got frustrated about half way through, so we took a break and read for a bit.
Wednesday
  • Fractions: Halves of a Set
    • We went into K.'s room and I put out sets of blocks, animals, etc.
    • K. separated them into equal halves
    • We learned that when you make a half there are two parts and each is equal
Thursday
  • Game: Races, see Math, Weeks 25, 26, and 27 for instructions (addition)
Friday
  • Problem Solving: Graphs
    • I printed a picture of candies from the internet.
    • K. counted how many there were of each color and made a bar graph.

Kindergarten, History, Week 37

  • Looked at pages 88 and 89 of Ancient World
  • Made Roman Coins from Crafts from the Past: The Romans by Gillian Chapman
    • Roll out a piece of modeling clay until it is smooth and flat, but it needs to be thick.
    • Cut a strip of manila folder or card stock, about 1 inch wide; form it into a circle the size you want the coin(s) to be and staple it.
    • Push the circle into the clay, keeping the circular shape.
    • You can draw patterns or designs in the clay.
    • For younger children, I found it better to take a small toy and press it part way into the clay, and then remove it, leaving the shape in the clay.
    • Mix up plaster of paris. If found that two 6 oz yogurt containers of dry plaster and 1 container of cold water makes enough plaster for 7 coins of 2-inch diameter and 3/4-inch thick.
    • Pour the plaster into your molds.
    • Let them dry.
    • Remove from molds.
    • Paint your coins.
  • Read Barbarians! by Steven Kroll
    • The Goths
    • The Huns

Kindergarten, Science, Week 37

  • Read about Day 7 of Creation from The Creation
    • Discussed that God rested from His work of creation, but He is still working in our world and lives.
    • One way God is working in our world is the weather
  • Started reading The How and Why Book of Weather by George Bonsall copyright 1960
    • Sun + Air + Water = Weather
    • Air takes us space
      • Experiment of upside down glass into bowl of water; no water goes into glass because it is full of air
    • Air is real
      • Blow up a balloon; you can feel the air when you press on it
    • Air is heavy; the pressure in our bodies is equal to the air pressing down on us, so we don't feel the weight of the air
      • Hold a paper napkin with two hands; your child can easily poke a hole through it with 1 finger
      • Hold another paper napkin; have your child push with a finger from each hand at the same spot from each side of the napkin (one finger on each side of the napkin). No hole is made because the pressure on both sides of the napkin is the same.
    • Air presses down
      • At sea level the molecules of air are squished closer together than high in the sky
        • If you had a stack of pancakes 3 feet high, the pancakes at the bottom get squished by the pancakes above them. If you took two inches of pancakes from the bottom of the stack you would get more pancakes than if you took two inches from the top.
    • The sun heats up the earth during the day; the earth cools off at night
    • Winter
      • Days are shorter than nights (earth has longer time to cool)
      • Sun shines on earth at a slant (sun's rays are spread over a larger area and don't give as much heat as when the sun shines straight down as in the summer)
    • Spring
      • Days are becoming longer/Nights are becoming shorter
    • Summer
      • Longest days/shortest nights
      • Direct rays of the sun strike the earth, bringing more heat
    • Autumn
      • Days are becoming shorter/Nights are becoming longer

Saturday, October 8

More Magic School Bus Videos

Here is a list of the Magic School Bus videos that go with the study of the human body:
  • Flexes Its Muscles -- how muscles and joints work
  • Inside Ralphie -- how the body fights disease
  • For Lunch -- digestive system

Kindergarten, Book Study, Week 36

This book study we used A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond copyright 1958. There are activities in Games with Books, but we were just reading and exploring things that were interesting to us. We are only half way through the book, but here is what we have done so far:
  • Figured out how the ship would get from Peru to England
  • Talked about the fact that people in England use different words for things
  • What is marmalade?
  • What is an inventor? (Charles Macintosh invented the raincoat/mackintosh)
  • Vocabulary
    • stowaway
    • emigrate
    • keen
    • lift (elevator)
    • mackintosh
You can make a notebook of the things you do, but K. isn't excited about doing that, so we just talk about these things for many days to reinforce them.

Saturday, October 1

Kindergarten, Bible, Weeks 34 and 35

Last Saturday we went apple picking as a family and this week has been really hectic and I didn't get time to post our Week 34 activities, so I'm combining Weeks 34 and 35.

  • Memorized Psalm 23
    • verse 5 (week 34)
    • verse 6 (week 35)
  • Introduced Catechism
    • #25 on Tuesday (week 34): In what condition did God make Adam and Eve? God made them innocent and happy. Read Genesis 1:27 - 31
    • #26 on Tuesday (week 35): What is a covenant? A covenant is an agreement between two or more persons. Read Genesis 9:11-17, Psalm 105:8-11
  • Picture Story Bible
    • Stories 195 - 205 (week 34)
    • Stories 206 - 216 (week 35)
  • Other books, stories, videos:
    • Muffy
    • Just In Case You Ever Wonder
    • Too Busy Fishing from Missionary . . . Millers
    • Sylvester
    • My Heart Christ's Home
    • Mamma Lillian from Missionary . . . Millers
    • Red Rubber Boots from Other Lands
    • The Princess and the Kiss
  • Prayer
  • Song: Standing On The Promises

Kindergarten, Writing, Weeks 34 & 35

Practice sentences:
  • I buzzed Mommy at noon.
  • See my coat at the coast.
Small Muscle Development:
  • Dot-to-Dot
    • I have a book of dot-to-dots, but you can find them on-line, also.
  • Biscuit Letters, see Writing, Week 11 for instructions
Story Development:
  • Write it for Me, see Writing, Week 10 for instructions
  • "She's So Mean" - from Games for Writing -- this activity will help your child learn to develop interesting characters
    • Start your "story" by writing (or you can just talk it): I know the _____ ____ in the world. He is so _____ he . . . (finish the sentence)
    • Then your child adds a sentence, trying to outdo you.
    • Here's our story (please keep in mind this was our first try!):
      • I know the dirtiest dog in the world. He is so dirty he leaves hills where he sits. He is so dirty he shakes the mud off! Splat! He is so dirty he walks in a cloud of dust. He is so dirty he gets clean in the bath.
    • There is a list of suggested titles in the book.
Writing Practice:
  • Silence is Golden, see Writing, Week 29 for instructions
  • Monster Cafe, see Writing, Week 26 for instructions
    • This time we did a menu for a troll

Kindergarten, Reading, Weeks 34 & 35

Genres from our textbook were:
  • Biblical Fiction
  • Fiction
  • Poetry
Activities were:
  • Alphabet Words - from Games for Reading
    • The goal of this activity is to think up one word for each letter of the alphabet.
    • The following day we were going apple picking -- which meant a long drive -- so our list was things to look for on the way.
    • For some letters we pulled out the picture dictionary in order to find good words.
  • Mazes - from Games for Reading -- this is a terrific eye exercise
    • Instead of copying a maze from the book, I found one on-line and printed it.

Kindergarten, Math, Weeks 34 & 35

Week 34

Monday
  • Game: Four Numbers
    • I wrote 4 numbers (10, 6, 9, 5) on a piece of paper and we took turns writing down all the addition and subtraction equations we have learned for each number
    • Because the only subtraction equation that equals 10 is 10 - 0, we got creative: 10 + 10 - 10 = 10
    • We ended up not just sticking with the equations we have learned, making this a good "thinking" game. 3 + 3 + 3 = 9, 1 + 1+ 3 = 5, etc.
Tuesday
  • Comparison
    • I gave each of us a piece of paper that I had folded into 16 squares (then unfolded).
    • Secretly, we each wrote a number in 1 square.
    • We revealed our numbers and K. had to tell which was larger.
    • We actually had fun playing this. Some numbers were up in the thousands, and we talked about place value.
Wednesday and Friday, Weeks 34 and 35
  • Game: Triangles, see Math, Week 31 for instructions
Thursday
  • Game: Number Stories see Math, Week 26 for instructions
Week 35

Monday
  • Game: Fast Track - Subtraction see Math, Week 27 for instructions
Tuesday
  • Money see Math, Week 32, Friday for instructions
Thursday
  • Game: Races see Math, Weeks 25, 26, and 27 for instructions (addition)

Kindergarten, History, Weeks 34 & 35

  • K. really enjoys looking at the book Pompeii by Richard Platt and "acting out" the scenes shown, so we did that on many different days.
  • Read chapter 39 from Child's History
    • Christians were persecuted
    • Because of a dream emperor Constantine made Christianity a legal religion
  • Worked on our time line

Kindergarten, Science, Weeks 34 & 35

And then God made man . . .

I used the book You're Tall in the Morning But Shorter at Night by Melvin and Gilda Berger.
  • We read about cells
    • Groups of cells make tissues; groups of tissues make organs, groups of organs make organ systems
    • We found pictures of organs and organ systems, printed them and glued them on our new mural. (skeleton, muscles, heart, eye, lungs, skin, etc.)
  •  We read about the skeleton
    • Without bones we would be like a blob of jelly
      • I put a big scoop of grape jelly on a plate and we tried to make it "stand up"
      • Then we stuck toothpicks in the jelly and were able to make it "stand up" better
      • If I had thought about this ahead of time, I would have stirred up some jello. Maybe not as stiff as jigglers, but stiffer than regular jello. It probably would have worked better, but K. got the idea.
    • K. dictated what we learned about the skeleton to me and we glued it by the skeleton.
  • We read about muscles
    • K. wrote what we learned and glued it next to the picture of muscles
    • Some muscles move our bones, other muscles help us eat, digest food, move our blood, and breathe.
  • We read about digestion
    • We read that our small intestine is 22 feet long
      • I happen to have nine 12" rulers; we started at the bathtub and K. put the rulers end to end (9 feet), then I held the last one in place and K. moved the other rulers (17 feet), then I held the last one and she moved five rulers (22 feet).
      • Then I gave her a ball of yarn and she unrolled it from the last ruler to the bathtub and cut it.
      • We balled the yarn up and glued it on the mural.
    • We found a picture of the digestion system (stomach to large intestines) for the mural.
    • K. dictated the digestion process to me and we glued that up also.

  •  We read about circulation
    • We listened to our hearts
    • We played "The Blood Game"
      • I asked K. which room in our house would be like the heart. We decided on the bathroom, because it is the smalled room.
      • I told her that her bedroom was the lungs because there are two twin beds, just like she has two lungs.
      • We were the blood.
      • We went in the heart (bathroom) and "swoosh" were pumped into the lungs (bedroom) to get oxygen and then we ran back to the heart (bathroom) and then were pumped "swoosh" to _________, (This is the fun part because she got to pick different parts of the body -- eye, toes, fingers, stomach, etc. and run to some other part of the house.) Then veins take the blood back to the heart (bathroom) and "swoosh" pumped to the lungs (bedroom) and back to the heart (bathroom) and "swoosh" out to another part of the body. Repeat until child is tired.
      • K. really enjoyed this game and we have played it on many other days.
  • We read about respiration
    • We watched our chests rise and fall as we breathed.
    • I had K. get one of her blouses; I got two balloons.
    • I put the balloons inside the blouse and blew them up.
    • The book didn't mention the diaphragm, but another day K. had the hiccups and we talked about it.
  • We read about the nervous system
  • We read about our five senses
    • Books:
      • My Five Senses by Aliki
      • I Can Tell by Touching by Carolyn Otto
      • You See With Your Eyes by Melvin and Gilda Berger
      • You Smell With Your Nose by Melvin and Gilda Berger
      • You Taste With Your Tongue by Melvin and Gilda Berger
      • You Hear With Your Ears by Melvin and Gilda Berger
    • I traced K.'s hands, and drew a tongue, ear, nose, and eyes on our mural
    • We looked through magazines for things we could touch, taste, hear, smell, and see (and cut them out)
    • K. glued the pictures by the drawings of that sense.
On the last day we cut out pictures of animals and people and glued them on our "6".


Here is what the whole thing looks like now. We just have the "7" to do. I can't believe we are almost finished with our first "official" year of schooling!

Saturday, September 17

Kindergarten, Bible, Week 33

This week we:
  • Memorized Psalm 23:4
  • Reviewed Catechism
  • Read stories 184 - 194 in Picture Story Bible
  • Other books, stories, and videos:
    • Sylvester
    • They are Going to Kill You from Missionary . . . Millers
    • Muffy
    • Mrs. R-P and the Chocolate Cherry Treat
  • Prayer
  • Song: Standing on the Promises

Kindergarten, Writing, Week 33

The practice sentence this week was: I had a fluffy blanket.

Small Muscle Development:
  • Game: Jars
    • I collected 20 clean, small containers with screw-top lids (10 were Carmex, and 10 were Ensure -- grandparents are great resources!)
    • I divided the containers between K. and me (we each had 5 Carmex and 5 Ensure) and put our tub of pinto beans between us.
  • How to Play:
    • Say "Go"; players unscrew one lid, put a bean in the container and screw the lid back on.
    • Then the player goes on to another container.
    • The goal is to be the first one to put a bean in each container.
    • Once there is a bean in each container, play again by emptying each container.
    • Make sure your child wins at least once.
Story Development:
  • Game: Egg Carton Tales see Writing, Week 29 for instructions
Writing Practice:
  • Activity: Write A Letter see Writing, Week 25 for instructions

Kindergarten, Reading, Week 33

Genres from our textbook were:
  • biography
  • missionary story
  • choral reading
  • informational article
Activity: Frumdiddle from Games for Reading -- this activity gives you a fun way to increase your child's vocabulary.
  • How to Play:
    • Think of an object.
    • Give your child one clue -- they get one guess.
    • If they don't guess correctly (and it is hard to do with just one clue) give one more clue -- they guess again.
    • Keep going until they guess correctly -- at which time you say "Frumdiddle".
    • Then it is their turn to give clues about an object and you get to guess.
  • You introduce new words by saying "gigantic" instead of "big" or by using "crimson" instead of "red", etc. To keep the game fun, don't introduce more than three or four words in a game.

Kindergarten, Math, Week 33

Monday
  • Game: Races see Math, Weeks 25, 26, 27 for instructions, called Addition Facts in these weeks
Tuesday and Friday
  • Game: Triangles see Math, Week 31 for instructions
Wednesday
  • Game: Fast Track - Subtraction see Math, Week 27 for instructions
Thursday
  • Game: Uno Math
    • This time I took 5 cards (number cards only) and figured out all the ways I could make 10
    • Then I gave K. 5 cards and let her figure out all the ways she could make 10
    • We went through the whole stack this way
    • Sometimes we had to be creative, for example: 9 + 9 - 8 = 10, but except for the last 4 cards, we were able to make at least one equation that equalled 10 in each 5 cards.

Magic School Bus Videos

K. really enjoys watching Magic School Bus videos, so I thought I'd give a list of the ones that would go nicely with our unit on animals/insects.
  • Going Batty
  • Spins a Web
  • Hops Home
  • In a Beehive
  • Butterflies!

Kindergarten, History, Week 33


This week we:
  • Read chapter 38 from Child's History (A Good Emperor and a Bad Son)
    • Marcus Aurelius was a good emperor
  • The Traveler's Guide to Ancient Rome by John Malam
    • We looked at the City Library and Theater and Music
  • Pompeii by Richard Platt
    • This book takes you through the history of Pompeii, from its founding through today, visiting the ruins with wonderful illustrations.
    • At this age, we are just looking at the pictures.
  • We read Rome Antics by David Macaulay again

Kindergarten, Science, Week 33

Here are the books we read this week:
  • Amazing Snakes by Alexandra Parsons
    • Photographs; we just looked at the pictures in this book
  • Creepy, Crawly Caterpillars by Margery Facklam
    • Realistic drawings; we just looked at the pictures in this book, too
  • A Ladybug's Life by John Himmelman
    • Realistic drawings; each page has a picture with one line of text, showing the ladybug's life cycle. Does not go into detail regarding mating.
  • What Do You Do When Something Wants to Eat You? by Steve Jenkins
    • Illustrations are made from cut paper; covers a variety of animals methods of escaping danger
  • From Caterpillar to Butterfly by Deborah Heiligman
    • Drawings of caterpillar/butterfly are realistic; story of children in a classroom watching a caterpillar grow and change into a butterfly. Two to four lines of text per page.
  • Thinking About Ants by Barbara Brenner
    • Realistic paintings, but the ants are larger than life so you can see them in detail; very interesting book showing ant's lives. K. kept adding information because she enjoys watching the video: Magic School Bus Get Ants in its Pants
  • Animals in Winter by Henrietta Bandroft & Richard G. Van Gelder
    • Realistic paintings; shows how a variety of animals spend the winter; two or three lines of text per page
  • Where are the Night Animals? by Mary Ann Fraser
    • Realistic paintings; takes you through the night with a coyote, skunk, owl, opossum, raccoon, frog, bat; two or three lines of text per page
  • Snail in the Woods by Joanne Ryder
    • Simple, realistic drawings; takes you through the life cycle of a snail; one to three sentences of text per page. This is an "I can read" book.
  • How Animal Babies Stay Safe by Mary Ann Fraser
    • Realistic paintings; shows how a variety of animals are kept from danger by their parents; two to three lines of text per page
  • A Year in the Forest by Bill Hall
    • Great color and black/white drawings; starts with Spring and goes through the year following certain animals and their lives.
Just for fun books we read:
  • If You Were Born a Kitten by Marion Dane Bauer
    • Lovely, realistic, paintings; tells about a variety of baby animals, ending with "Of course, you're not a tadpole. . . . And yet you were born, too. You rode curled beneath your mother's heart, growing and growing. You floated in a salty sea, waiting and waiting. Waiting for us who were waiting for you. "We're ready," we said. And you were ready, too. So you squeezed out, wailing. Naked as a bear cub. Soft as a porcupette. Wrinkled as a deer mouse. Free as a kitten. You."
  • Imagine You Are a Tiger by Karen Wallace
    • Realistic paintings; takes you from birth to being a full-grown tiger
  • A Fawn in the Grass by Joanne Ryder
    • Realistic paintings; takes a child on a walk through the woods and all the things they see
  • Each Living Thing by Joanne Ryder
    • Realistic paintings; talks about watching out for animals and letting them be
  • The Very Clumsy Click Beetle by Eric Carle
    • Story of a click beetle learning to turn over. About 3 pages from the end you get to hear the "click" of the beetle, which, of course, makes this a very fun book!
  • Mr. Carey's Garden by Jane Cutler
    • Story of a man who allows the snails to eat his garden so he can see how pretty it is in the moonlight.
  • My Father's Hands by Joanne Ryder
    • As a father works in the garden, he shows his daughter insects and bugs he discovers.

Saturday, September 10

Kindergarten, Bible, Week 32

This week we:
  • Memorized Psalm 23:3
  • Read stories 173 - 183 in Picture Story Bible
  • Other books, stories, videos:
    • Muffy
    • The Princess and the Kiss
    • Rain Out of the Ground from Missionary . . . Millers
    • Sylvester
    • Mrs R-P and the Empty Nest
    • Gregory
  • Prayer
  • Song: Standing on the Promises

Kindergarten, Writing, Week 32

The practice sentence this week was: I waved from the exit.

Small Muscle Development:
  • We tore pieces of tissue paper and glued them on construction paper to make a picture or design.
Story Development"
  • Game: Catch My Silly see Writing, Week 5 for instructions
Writing Practice:
  • Game: Make a List from Games for Writing
    • You can choose any topic and have your child make a list of 10 items they would need or want.
    • I told K. she was going on a rocket tour through the Milky Way. What 10 things would she want to take with her?

Kindergarten, Reading, Week 32

We read from our textbook all week.
  • Genres
    • historical fiction
    • fable
    • fantasy
The fantasy story had musical instruments talking, and there were a couple instruments that K. didn't know what they looked like, so we stopped reading and looked at pictures on the internet.

Kindergarten, Math, Week 32

Monday and Tuesday
  • Game: Triangles see Math, Week 31 for instructions
    • Only I set out 6 triangles at a time
Wednesday
  • Game: Fast Track see Math, Week 27 for instructions
    • Only with subtraction equations instead of addition
Thursday
  • Game: Number Stories see Math, Week 26 for instructions
  • Game: Fast Track
Friday
  • We did subtraction with money.
  • We took turns finding items around the house to "buy".
  • The buyer set a price (10 cents or less)
    • If K. said a price over 10¢, I would say, "But it is on sale for ____."
  • The buyer would then give the money to the seller (dime, nickels, pennies) and the seller would make change, if needed.
  • When making change I would say the equation out loud. For instance if K. was buying something for 8¢ and gave me a dime, I would say, "10 minus 8 equals 2" and give her 2 pennies back.

Kindergarten, History, Week 32

This week we read Miranda the Great by Eleanor Estes and followed the journey of the cats in the book Rome Antics.

Kindergarten, Science, Week 32

This week we started looking at mammals and reptiles.

Monday
  • We pulled out the Carnivore, Herbivore, and Omnivore labels we made last week and categorized about 20 mammals and 5 reptiles.

Wednesday
  • We made labels for Nocturnal (with pictures of night) and Diurnal (with the sun and daytime pictures).
  • We categorized about 20 mammals. I was surprised how many nocturnal animals there were.
The other days of the week we read the following books:
  • Big Tracks, Little Tracks: Following Animal Prints by Millicent E. Selsam
    • This is a good book as it not only shows the tracks, but has some problems for you and your child to solve
  • A Lady Bug's Life by John Himmelman
    • Each page has a large drawing and 1 sentence of text.
  • Insects by Angela Royston
    • Excellent photographs; covers topics from "What is an insect?" to "Insect defenses" with large photographs and font. There is just enough text on each page to give the information without boring a young child.
  • The Very Quiet Cricket by Eric Carle
    • Fiction, fun book

Sunday, September 4

Kindergarten, Bible, Week 31

This week we:
  • Memorized Psalm 23:1 and 2
  • Reviewed Catechism
  • Read stories 162 - 172 in Picture Story Bible
    • going chronologically, we should finish this book in these five weeks, but that would mean reading 22 stories each week, so we are going to spread them over this five weeks and the next five weeks
  • Other books, stories, videos:
    • My Heart, Christ's Home
    • He Wasn't Crazy from Missionary . . . Millers
  • Prayer
    • we had a great answer to prayer: there was a girl for K. to play with at Park Day!
  • Song: Standing on the Promises

Kindergarten, Writing, Week 31

This week's practice sentence was: My guppy jumps.

Small Muscle Development:
  • We cut fringe on the edges of some strips of tissue paper to use for decorations
Story Development:
  • Game: How Many Words, see Writing, Week 27 for instructions
    • One time I had the words silly, quickly, and grass. My sentence was: The silly mother told her children to quickly clean the grass.
    • We laughed a lot while we were playing!
Writing Practice:
  • Activity: Word by Word, see Writing, Week 17 for instructions
    • Our title was: The Day I Scared Mother
    • We both have progressed from the first time we did this activity. I'm a bit more accepting of her ideas and K. is more interested in making a story.

Kindergarten, Reading, Week 31

Monday through Thursday we read from our textbook.
  • Ask questions using the Four Levels of Questioning and Comprehension
  • Genres
    • fiction
Friday our activity was Matches and Opposites from Games for Reading -- this game is a good way to increase vocabulary.
  • How to Play: Player A says a word (tree) and Player B says a word that matches (plant). Then Player B says a word and Player A says a word that matches. This goes on until a Player can not think of a match for the given word. Then you switch to opposites. The Player who could not think of a match gives a new word and the other Player says an opposite. This goes until a Player can not think of an opposite and you switch back to matches.

Saturday, September 3

Kindergarten, Math, Week 31

Monday
  • Game: Make Ten - Subtraction from Games for Math
    • See Math, Week 25 for instructions
Tuesday
  • Subtraction with Manipulatives
    • I wrote an equation and K. used Unifix Cubes to solve it
    • I wrote 2 equations in horizontal form and 3 in vertical form
    • Then I had K. write 5 equations.
      • I hadn't thought that this might be a problem, but never having dealt with subtraction before, she didn't really know how. For example, I had written 8 - 6 =. K. wrote for one of her equations, 6 - 8 =. I told her she would learn about that type of subtraction when she is older, but for now, the larger number needs to come first. That didn't solve the problem, so I took a stick of 6 cubes and asked K. how many she could take away. We went through all the possibilities: 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and 0. We did this twice and it seemed to solve the problem.
Wednesday
  • Game: Make Ten - Subtraction
Thursday
  • I introduced the fact family triangles. The benefit of using these is that they teach both addition and subtraction.
    • I used poster board for my triangles. The base is 7-inches and they are 4-inches tall.
    • Write one fact family on each triangle. The largest number is at the top, so that "going down the hill" you subtract, and across the bottom you add. See photo below.
      • 0/0/0; 0/1/1; 0/2/2; . . . 0/10/10
      • 1/1/2; 1/2/3; 1/3/4; . . . 1/9/10
      • 2/2/4; 2/3/5; 2/4/6; . . . 2/8/10
      • 3/3/6; 3/4/7; 3/5/8; . . . 3/7/10
      • 4/4/8; 4/5/9; 4/6/10
      • 5/5/10
  • I introduced them by writing the four facts; example: 2 + 3 = 5; 3 + 2 = 5; 5 - 2 = 3; 5 - 3 = 2 (in vertical form)
  • I had her use manipulatives to get the answers for the subtraction problems, if she needed to.
  • We did this for about ten fact families, and she still wasn't catching on to the fact that the same 3 numbers were used in each equation.
  • I had her go get three different colors of pencils and had her connect the numbers; example: blue pencil line connecting all the 2's; red pencil line connecting the 3's; green pencil line connecting the 5's.
  • We did this four times and she seemed to be getting it, so for the rest of the triangles, I covered the sum, and she gave me the answer, then I covered the other numbers and she gave me the answers; example: (cover 5) "3 plus 2 equals"; (cover 2) "5 minus 3 equals"; (cover 3) "5 minus 2 equals"

Friday
  • Game: Triangles
    • With K. not looking, I put out 5 triangles, covering 1 number on each triangle. (See photo below) I used 1-1/2" squares of black construction paper to cover the numbers.
    • K. points to one and tell what number is hidden.
    • If I think she is right, I say, "I agree".
    • If I think she is wrong, I say, "Challenge" and tell the number I think is there.
    • If she is correct, she takes the square, if I am right, I take the square.
    • After we have completed all the triangles, whoever has the most triangles wins.
    • The prize was 1/8 cup of trail mix.

Kindergarten, History, Week 31

  • Read chapter 37 in Child's History (Blood and Thunder) you can divide this chapter into 3 days
    • Nero was a Roman emperor who lived not long after Christ and is considered one of the cruelest and wickedest rulers that ever lived.
    • Nero burned Rome and blamed it on the Christians
    • The Jews decided they would no longer obey or pay taxes to Rome
    • Titus destroyed Jerusalem, killed the Jews that were in Jerusalem, and destroyed the temple
    • In 79 A.D. the volcano Vesuvius erupted and buried the city of Pompeii
    • Years later a man digging a well discovered a statue's hand, which lead to the excavation of Pompeii
  • Looked at pages 82 - 87 in Ancient World
  • The Traveler's Guide to Ancient Rome by John Malam
    • how they dressed
    • what they ate
  • Rome Antics by David Macaulay
    • read this twice
    • the second day we counted they different types of columns -- Doric, Ionic, or Corinthian

Kindergarten, Science, Week 31

Now we are learning about what God created on the sixth day -- living creatures to walk upon the earth. This first week we looked at insects.

Monday
  • Read about day 6 in The Creation
  • I printed diagrams from HarrysBigAdventure.com of a spider and an insect
  • We talked about the differences
  • I had a blank diagram of an insect, and K. labeled it
  • Then, also from Harrys Big Adventure, I had a page of 12 creatures. K. cut them apart and glued them on construction paper labeled "bugs" and "insects".
Tuesday
  • We made labels for Herbivore, Carnivore, and Omnivore with pictures from clipart of what each would eat.
  • Then I took the insect/spider section of the Wildlife Fact File; we read what each eats, and K. decided which kind of eater it is.
Wednesday
  • Read The Honey Makers by Gail Gibbons
Thursday
  • Read "Leave That Cricket Be, Alan Lee" by Barbara Ann Porte
Friday
  • K. invented her own insect (must have 3 body parts and 6 legs). This was a sheet I printed off a website.
    • Draw a picture of the insect
    • Name it
    • Where do they make their homes?
    • Draw what their homes look like
    • What do they eat?
    • What eats them?
    • How do they protect themselves from their enemies?