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

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.

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

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