Cherish Each Moment

First Grade–Week 5

2011-08-31T22:34:00.000-04:00

We had another great week with Core A! Samuel memorized his Bible verse for the letter E – Even a child is known by his actions, by whether his conduct is pure and right – Proverbs 20:11. He is doing a great job saying all his verses from A to E. I even tried to confuse him the other day and made him say them out of order and he still remembered them all. He gets very excited each time he adds a new verse!

In history we’ve been learning about Vikings. We had briefly talked about Vikings last year when we talked about Leif Erickson, and Samuel was excited to spend more time on them this year. His favorite project was making a Viking ship!

We finished reading My Father’s Dragon and Samuel and I were both a little sad that it was over. Samuel was so excited that Elmer and the Dragon finally got off the island! I need to get to the library and get the sequels soon.

In math, Samuel’s been learning order (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc) and also learning how to draw pictures depicting addition and subtraction problems. We had fun making a train and practicing with his stuffed animals. I made up stories for him like “The train stopped and 3 passengers got on. They sat in the 2nd, 4th, and 5th seats.” Then at the next stop different passengers would get off. He had to draw pictures to show what happened and let me know how many passengers were left.

We also worked on counting with pennies and our hundred chart.

In science we learned about rivers and how they flow to the ocean, mountains, and deserts. Samuel especially liked looking up the highest mountain peak on each continent and marking them on the markable map.

First Grade–Week 4

2011-08-19T20:18:00.000-04:00

I got a little behind on blogging so I’ve been playing catch up with our weeks-in-review. Hopefully, now that I’m caught up, I can stay on top of things.

We added another Bible verse, and can now say verses for A-D. Our D verse is Matthew 7:12 – Do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. I’m so proud of Samuel for remembering them all!

In history, we’ve been learning about Ancient Rome all week. We made a chariot for our craft on one of the days.

We started a new read-aloud, My Father’s Dragon, and Samuel and I are both loving it! Evidently there are 2 sequels to this book and we will definitely be checking them out from the library when we finish this one! Samuel begs me to read more than one chapter per day, but I’m too much of a box-checker to deviate from the schedule.

We’re trucking along in math and Samuel actually had his first test this week. Since everything on it was review from last year, he made a 100! He was very excited about it!

In science, we learned about fossils, earthquakes, and volcanoes. Samuel especially enjoyed making a volcano and watching it erupt!

Science at the Zoo

2011-08-17T21:27:00.000-04:00

I had planned on signing Samuel up for classes at our homeschool co-op, but then we found out that they have science classes at the zoo on Tuesdays also. I gave Samuel the choice between co-op and the zoo and he chose classes at the zoo. He had his first class this week and absolutely loved it! They talk about a different topic for 3-4 weeks and for these first weeks the topic is chemistry. They learned about monomers, polymers, and cross-linkers and then got to make slime and bouncy balls. Samuel had so much fun! He can’t wait to go back next week!

Showing off his slime

Mixing up his ingredients to make a bouncy ball

Doesn’t look like much yet…

Pretty cool!

First Grade–Week 3

2011-08-10T20:16:00.000-04:00

Another fun week with Sonlight Core A! I completely forgot to take pictures this week though.

We memorized Colossians 3:20 – Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. Samuel is doing a great job with his verses and can say all 3 of them together without any prompting!

In history, we finished reading about the Ancient Egypt, touched briefly on Ancient Greece, and then moved on to Ancient Rome. Samuel is loving learning about all the different cultures!

We finished reading The Boxcar Children. Samuel enjoyed it and I know our library has the rest of the series, so I may see if he wants to read anymore of them together. We also read a few stories from the James Herriot Treasury. I remember reading James Herriot’s books and loving them, so I enjoyed getting to revisit the stories with Samuel. I’m glad that he seemed to like them too.

We also started Saxon Math this week. The first few lessons are mainly just review so it’s been easy for Samuel so far, but I’m sure he’ll be challenged once it gets to new material.

We continued learning about weather in science and I wish I had remembered to take pictures because we did several experiments. We made a tornado in a bottle and a weather vane which were both really cool.

Samuel’s an Orange Belt!

2011-08-09T20:17:00.000-04:00

Samuel is still taking karate, and tonight he tested for his orange belt. He worked very hard, and practiced a lot with Daddy to be sure that he had all his moves perfect. He did very well on his test and we are both so proud of him! Starting next week, he will be in the advanced class.

First Grade–Week 2

2011-07-29T21:29:00.000-04:00

This week we started learning a new Bible verse, Acts 16:31 – Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved – you and your household.

In history, we finished reading about the first people, and began learning about the Egyptians. We made an Egyptian collar one day, which Samuel loved!

We continued reading The Boxcar Children and are now over halfway done…

In science, we started learning about weather. We did a couple of fun experiments including making our own rainbow, but I forgot to take pictures.

Samuel’s Baptism

2011-07-24T20:16:00.000-04:00

Samuel accepted Christ as his Savior about a month ago during VBS week. He was so excited to be getting baptized by Pastor Mark!

First Grade – Week 1

2011-07-20T21:28:00.000-04:00

We finished our first week of first grade this week. So far, we are both really enjoying Sonlight and are both looking forward to having a great year.

This week we…

Started reading through the Bible using Egermeier’s Bible Story Book…

Started memorizing Romans 3:23 – All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. One thing I’m really excited about this year is that Samuel is going to learn a verse for each of the 26 letters of the alphabet, and by the end of the year will have to recite them all in succession…

Learned about the first people – what they wore, how they lived, what they ate, how they traveled. One thing I added to Sonlight, is a history notebook. I found these composition books at walmart and each day I have Samuel tell me one thing he learned, I write it down, and then he draws a picture to go with it. Evenutally, I’ll make him start writing his own sentence, but I wanted to start slow.

Started reading The Boxcar Children…

Learned about the seasons in science and also did an experiment to show how air makes things move…

We are also using SL LA & Readers 1 which involves spelling, reading, explode the code, handwriting, and weekly creative writing assignments. I probably won’t mention that much on here because it is basically just doing the next thing. Nothing exciting to record. But, if Samuel has a particularly great writing assignment, I’ll probably include it.

Uncle Jon’s Birthday

2011-07-14T21:28:00.000-04:00

Uncle Jon, Aunt Kristin, and Kristin’s mom, Cookie, came to visit for a few days and to celebrate Uncle Jon’s birthday. Grandma and Gramps came down as well and we had a great time.

Samuel wanted to take them to Metcalf Bottoms, so we went there in the morning and took hot dogs for a cook out.

Samuel all ready to go

Gramps, Cookie, and Aunt Kristin watching from a distance while the rest of us had fun in the water. They refused to get in, saying the water was too cold. Wimps!

Jon jumping off the rock

Adam kissing crawdads…not sure why

gramps finally got brave enough to wade a little bit

The cold didn’t seem to bother Samuel

After we left Metcalf Bottoms, we went home and cleaned up. Then we did a little shopping at the outlet malls and went to dinner at Damon’s. After that, Jon wanted to go to The Track and ride a few go-carts before going home for cake.

He hides his age well…

Oh wait, that’s more like it!

Ch-ch-changes for 1st Grade

2011-06-07T10:50:00.001-04:00

We are making some changes in our homeschool for Samuel’s first grade year. He has been begging to study more about world cultures. He is fascinated with all things Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Japanese, Chinese, etc. anything that is different culturally than us. Since part of the reason we homeschool is to individualize his education, we are taking a year off from Heart of Dakota and are going to be doing Sonlight’s Core A – Intro to World Cultures instead. We had our box day a couple days ago and Samuel was so excited to see all the books he would be using. We haven’t been able to keep him out of them!

Here are a few pics from our Box Day:

To sum it up, here’s all the curriculum we’ll be using for 1st Grade:

Sonlight Core A – Intro to World Cultures

Sonlight LA & Readers 2 – Included in this we will be continuing with Explode the Code and A Reason for Handwriting

Sonlight Science A - Samuel is asking for more experiments, and Adam wants him to have more science than what he was getting in HOD. Adam looked at the samples, and at the guide and books now that we have them and wants us to stick with this. Since he’s the resident scientist, I trust his judgment.

Saxon Math 1 – Samuel was having a hard time with Singapore Math because there wasn’t enough practice on a concept and he wasn’t able to fully grasp it before moving on to something else. I think this will work better for him.

La Clase Divertida 1 – I meant to get started with this last year, but we never were able to fit it in. Hopefully we will fit it in this year.

Samuel will also be taking 3 classes at our co-op – Health, Music & Movement, and a science class covering Insects & Light (1 each semester)

So, we are looking forward to an exciting year. Depending on how this year goes, we will either go back to HOD next year and pick up with Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory (Samuel is on the younger side of the guides so he will still fit in) or we will continue with Sonlight.

Done with Kindergarten!

2011-06-07T10:36:00.001-04:00

We finished Little Hearts for His Glory last Friday. Samuel was so excited and proud of himself. I am amazed at how much he has grown over the past year and how much he has learned. We are looking forward to starting 1st Grade soon!

Kindergarten–Weeks 29-35

2011-05-07T16:54:00.000-04:00

I have been very bad lately at updating my blog so I’m going to try to post about what’s been going on without being too overwhelming. We’ve been having tons of fun with Little Hearts for His Glory. Next week we will be starting Unit 29 – Settlers Move West!

For the past few weeks we have been learning about the American colonists. We’ve read about the thirteen colonies, the Boston Tea Party, the Declaration of Independence, and the Revolutionary War. We’ve learned about Patrick Henry, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and just finished learning about Lewis & Clark’s expedition to the west.

We’ve also been making steady progress with handwriting, thinking skills, and math. We’ve finished reading about Chatterer the Red Squirrel and are now enjoying The Adventures of Buster Bear. Samuel’s doing a great job reading on his own and we have finished reading The Early Reader’s Bible from HOD’s emerging reader set and are now on to The Beginner’s Bible. We’ve learned several Bible verses and done lots of fun activities.

So, here’s some pics of what we have been up to…

Working on handwriting…

Grandma and Gramps came to town and we took a field trip to Dollywood for their Festival of Nations…

…of course we had to have some fun while we were there!

Making a map of what Spotswood and his men found on the other side of the Blue Ridge Mountains…

…they left the sandy beach, went over the mountains, and found a green valley with a big river running through it.

Making cards for each of the seasons in math…

Working on his Critical Thinking skills…

We read about Betsy Ross and the first American flag and Samuel had to design his own flag. This was what he came up with…

More math…sorting the months into their seasons

Drawing a ship in Boston Harbor for the Boston Tea Party…

Putting tea in the water just like the colonists…

Daddy was off work for Good Friday and said we need a field trip day to the zoo…

The python behind Samuel was huge!!

Samuel loved making this George Washington hat! He told me this was his serious George Washington face like on a dollar bill

Kindergarten–Weeks 26, 27, 28

2011-03-18T20:09:00.001-04:00

I’ve gotten a little behind with our weekly updates. So, here’s what we’ve been doing for the past several weeks. We finished up Unit 21 – The Age of Exploration, Unit 22 – The Reformation, and are halfway through Unit 23 – Settling America.

We have read about Balboa, Ponce de Leon, Pizzaro & the king of Peru, Martin Luther, John Calvin, settlers coming to Jamestown, and the Mayflower arriving in Plymouth…

We have learned Psalm 96:4-5, Acts 16:31, and are now working on Philippians 4:13…

We’ve been working on telling time to the hour and half hour in math. Samuel’s getting really good at it!

We’re still reading about Chatterer the Squirrel and are loving all the mischief he is getting into. Here are Samuel’s pages from the past couple of weeks.

We’ve also been having tons of fun with all the activities we’ve been doing. Samuel and Daddy seeing building a replica of Panama & the Panama Canal…

Seeing what it would be like to sail around South America…

…and how much shorter it would be going through the canal.

Digging for Ponce de Leon’s cross & helmet…

Filling a room full of gold coins like Pizzaro had to do for the king of Peru…

After reading about Luther not eating, we learned about digestion. Samuel “chewing” the crackers…

…digesting in the stomach…

…and walking down the intestinal track.

Painting a picture of Jamestown in the Spring…

Spear fishing like the Indians…

Kindergarten–Week 25

2011-02-25T16:34:00.001-05:00

This was a fun week with LHFHG! We finished up Unit 20 – The Spread of Christianity and started Unit 21 – The Age of Exploration.

In history, we read about King Alfred, King Richard, the Indians, and Christopher Columbus.

Samuel kept working on handwriting. He loves it when he finishes his lesson and gets to write a verse and decorate his page.

We finished learning Psalm 119:105 and are now working on Psalm 96:4-5.

In math we started working on telling time. So far, we’ve learned general times like morning, afternoon, and evening. We also started learning how to tell time to the hour.

We started a new book for story time – The Adventures of Chatterer the Red Squirrel. We were immediately drawn into the story as it started out with Chatterer running for his life from Shadow the Weasel. Samuel is really looking forward to finding out what happens. He had to write 3 adjectives to describe himself and then draw a picture of himself. He did a great job!

The highlight of Samuel’s week was the day we read about Indians. We made a tabletop Indian village and he loved it! It is now inhabited by numerous Lego men and Star Wars figurines. He has been playing with it non-stop.

On Friday we went on a field trip with our homeschool group to Rainforest Adventures Zoo. Samuel loved getting to see all the animals. They mainly have snakes, lizards, birds, and other rainforest creatures, but they also had some larger animals outside. We had a great time!

There is a snake in here, but you can’t see it. Samuel is just really into all things Egyptian right now and when he saw the Egyptian decorations he told me I had to take his picture with it!

Kindergarten–Weeks 23 & 24

2011-02-20T14:12:00.001-05:00

I forgot to do an update last week, so this one is actually for the last 2 weeks. I also haven’t done a very good job of taking pictures. Hopefully, I’ll do better next week.

The past two weeks we did Unit 19 – Christianity in the Roman Empire and got about halfway through Unit 20 – The Spread of Christianity. We read about many different men who helped spread Christianity throughout the world including St. Valentine, Polycarp, Augustine, St. Patrick, Boniface, and Charles the Great.

We’ve continued working on handwriting and explode the code. Samuel loves it when he gets to the end of a handwriting lesson and gets to write his verse and color the page.

In math, we continued working on addition and subtraction and actually finished that section. We did a review of all we’ve learned so far, and starting next week we will be learning how to tell time.

Samuel is continuing to do a great job with his reading. He is working through the Emerging Reader set from Heart of Dakota. He also loves to go to the library and get books he can read himself. Lately, he’s been enjoying Henry and Mudge and Nate the Great books.

Samuel’s verse for Unit 19 was John 3:16. He was so excited that it was a verse he already knew. For Unit 20, we are now working on Psalm 119:105.

We’ve enjoyed reading The Adventures of Grandfather Frog. We were worried when he got caught by Farmer Brown’s boy, but he was able to escape with some help from some of his friends only to jump into more trouble getting trapped in a spring. Samuel was a little anxious about how the book would end, but Grandfather Frog finally made it back home to the Smiling Pond. We’re looking forward to starting The Adventures of Chatterer the Red Squirrel next week.

Kindergarten–Week 22

2011-02-05T20:14:00.001-05:00

This week we finished up Unit 18 – The Apostles Preach the Good News. We read about Peter’s vision of clean and unclean animals, Peter in prison and being freed by an angel, Paul and Silas in jail, and Paul being shipwrecked on the island of Malta…

Continued working on subtractions, learned how to compare sets and figure out which one has more, and how to divide them fairly…

Continued practicing reading from The Early Reader’s Bible (part of the Emerging Readers set)…

Finished learning “Up From the Grave He Arose” and Samuel drew a picture of what the song makes him think of…

According to Samuel – this is the cross with 2 sleeping soldiers at the base, an angel on the left, the empty tomb and Jesus above it on the right.

Reviewed Bible verses we had learned in previous weeks. Samuel remembered most of them and did a great job reciting them for me!

Read about Grandfather Frog going to explore the big world and getting into trouble with Bowser the Hound, making friends with Danny Meadow Mouse, and then getting captured by Farmer Brown’s Boy…

Continued working on handwriting and explode the code…

Built a model of Paul and Silas in jail…

Oh no…EARTHQUAKE…the doors were opened!

The jailer is afraid the prisoners have escaped. Paul and Silas say, “It’s OK we’re all here.”

The jailer asks, “What must I do to be saved?”

Kindergarten–Week 21

2011-01-23T20:00:00.000-05:00

This week we finished up Unit 17 – Jesus’ Last Days on Earth and started Unit 18 – The Apostles Preach the Good News. We had lots of fun this week!

We read about the great commission, Jesus returning to heaven, the Holy Spirit coming at Pentecost, and about Saul’s conversion on the road to Damascus…

Continued making progress in handwriting and explode the code…

Finished memorizing Matthew 18:20 and started reviewing a few verses from previous weeks…

Continued working on subtraction in math…

Read about Grandfather Frog leaving the Smiling Pool and heading out to see the world. Samuel drew a picture showing his home…

Did a science experiment with baking soda & vinegar and watched raisins rise and fall in the liquid. We talked about how cool it was to watch the raisin's rise and how it would be even more exciting to see Jesus rise in the air!

Created his own “tongue of fire” from Pentecost

Kindergarten–Week 20

2011-01-17T19:39:00.000-05:00

This week we finished up Unit 16 – Jesus Dies and Lives Again and started Unit 17 – Jesus’ Last Days on Earth. I completely forgot to take pictures this week, but here are the highlights.

We read about Jesus’ resurrection, Jesus appearing to 2 men on the road to Emmaus, Thomas doubting Jesus had risen until he touched his hands, and Jesus telling the disciples to go and tell the whole world that He is risen

…finished memorizing the Lord’s Prayer, and began memorizing Matthew 18:20

…continued working on subtraction in math

…continued reading the Adventures of Grandfather Frog, and laughed when he outwitted Longlegs the Blue Heron and Whitetail the Marsh Hawk

We also had an unexpected box day at the end of the week. One thing I love about Heart of Dakota is the message board. The ladies there are awesome women and give great advice and encouragement about homeschooling. I had posted something on the boards about Samuel being ready to start the emerging readers, but that I wasn’t going to be able to order them till February and wondered what I could do with him till then to keep moving forward. They gave me great advice as usual. Then on Friday afternoon, Samuel went outside to play and there was a box on our front porch. I wasn’t expecting anything and was a little confused, especially when I saw that it was from HOD. I opened it and someone from the boards had anonymously sit us the entire emerging reader set so Samuel could go ahead and get started! He was so excited and we were so blessed and thankful that someone would do this for us!

Kindergarten–Week 19

2011-01-10T20:41:00.000-05:00

We started back to school this week after a great Christmas break. This week we started Unit 16 – Jesus Dies and Lives Again.

This week we read about the Last Supper, Jesus praying in Gethsemane and being betrayed by Judas, Jesus taken before Pilate, and Jesus being crucified…

Finished all the review lessons in A Reason for Handwriting A and is now starting the “real” lessons. Each week he practices words from a different Bible verse and then on Friday, he has to copy the entire verse and then gets to decorate his paper. He was so excited about this and had so much fun with it…

Began learning the Lord’s prayer…

Started the Emerging Readers with The Beginner’s Bible…

Continued working on subtraction in math…

Started reading The Adventures of Grandfather Frog and are anxiously waiting to see if Billy Mink and Little Joe Otter will be successful in their prank on Grandfather Frog…

Talked about how the world went dark when Jesus was crucified and drew a picture showing some of the differences in Night and Day…

More Christmas…

2011-01-02T21:11:00.000-05:00

We saw Adam’s family and celebrated Christmas with them over New Year’s weekend. On New Year’s Eve, Aunt Wendy and Sarah Beth stopped by the house to drop off their gifts. Samuel loves them!

Then we went to Nana’s house on New Year’s Day to open gifts and have lunch.

Samuel was so excited to get more nerf guns!

On the way home, we stopped by to see Granny. Samuel was glad to see her since she’s been sick and we haven’t been able to visit lately.

Dixie Stampede

2010-12-31T21:03:00.001-05:00

While everyone was in town, Grandma and Gramps treated us all to the Dixie Stampede. The last time we had been was several years ago when Noah was about 2. Samuel and Jack had never been and neither had Aunt Lydia. We all enjoyed ourselves and had fun cheering for the North Pole!

The whole family in one place!

Snow on the Smoky Mountains

Jack, Noah, and Samuel before the show. Don’t they look excited?

Sitting in the saloon waiting for the pre-show to start

Just the 3 of us

When we got home, Grandma wanted a picture of all the cousins before Noah and Jack had to leave. It took quite a few shots, but we finally got a pretty decent one

Sledding Fun

2010-12-31T21:03:00.000-05:00

On Sunday, we had planned to all go to church, however we woke up to several inches of snow and church was cancelled. So…we decided to try out the sleds that Grandma and Gramps had given Noah and Jack for Christmas. Everyone ended up going outside and taking a turn except for Aunt Kristin. She was a party pooper and stayed inside on baby duty.

Uncle Steven throwing snowballs

Samuel

Uncle Jon trying out the sled

Aunt Lydia takes a turn

Samuel and Noah were having tons of fun

Aunt Jennifer was a daredevil and went down on her belly

Daddy and Samuel heading down the hill. It looks like Uncle Steven is about to snowboard or ski down the hill, but he’s actually in the process of falling on his rear end!

Uncle Steven and Aunt Lydia having fun

Jack was loving the snow

Uncle Scott and Noah

Even Grandma couldn’t resist getting in on the fun

Aunt Kristin couldn’t be persuaded to go outside. She said she prefers to be warm

Holiday Happenings

2010-12-31T20:40:00.000-05:00

This Christmas was the first time in at least 4 years that my whole family was able to get together at the same time! With 4 kids in our family, 2 in the military, all of us now married and working around in-law schedules as well as our own it just doesn’t usually work out for us to all get together at the same time. We had a blast! The fun started the Monday before Christmas when Grandma and Gramps arrived. Then Uncle Steven, Aunt Lydia, and baby Lyla got there on Wednesday. Samuel was so excited to meet his new cousin and he fell in love with her! Aunt Jennifer, Uncle Scott, Noah, Jack, Uncle Jon, and Aunt Kristin all arrived around dinner time on Christmas Day and the party really got going!

Samuel and baby Lyla

Lyla and her mommy

Samuel showing off his new Phineas and Ferb pajamas before bed on Christmas Eve

Samuel opened his gifts from us on Christmas morning…

He had been begging for a nerf gun and was so excited when he got this one, later we would find out that this seemed to be the theme of the week…

Aunt Lydia, Daddy, Grandma, and Samuel putting together his new Harry Potter lego set…

Samuel had to fight Uncle Steven for his nerf gun…

After dinner on Christmas, we let the kids open their gifts and then while they played we did a white elephant exchange for the adults.

Samuel loved the Star Wars potato heads that Uncle Jon and Aunt Kristin got him…

Oh look, all the boys got nerf guns from Uncle Jon…later they each got another one from Uncle Steven. This resulted in all of the adult guys having a huge nerf gun fight while the kids begged to be allowed to play with their Christmas presents. Hmmm…

Uncle Jon and Aunt Kristin were excited about the sportsbrella they ended up with in the gift exchange. Good thing they live near the beach and will get plenty of use out of it.

Christmas Musical

2010-12-12T21:11:00.000-05:00

The Christmas program for Children’s Choir was Sunday morning. Samuel was a camel. They sang about 5 or 6 songs during the morning service. Samuel did a great job!

And, since I never got around to getting Christmas cards done…

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Kindergarten–Week 18

2010-12-11T15:18:00.001-05:00

This week we finished up Unit 15 – The People Praise Jesus and now we are officially on break till after the new year. We were going to go one more week before breaking, but we have too many other things coming up and decided that this was a good place to stop for now.

This week we…

Read about Jesus healing the blind man, Zaccheus, Jesus riding into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, and Jesus clearing the temple…

Finished all the practice lessons in A Reason for Handwriting A. When we come back after Christmas, he will start on the “real” lessons and will be writing a bible verse each week…

Memorized Mark 11:9…

(You will have to scroll to the bottom of the page and stop the music before watching)

Continued making progress on Explode the Code. He loves doing his workbook pages each day!

Continued working on subtraction for math…

Finished reading The Adventures of Danny Meadow Mouse. At first we were worried that Danny Meadow Mouse would be caught by the hawk, but luckily he escaped into a can. Unfortunately Reddy Fox knew he was in there and we were worried that he might have actually been caught, but Danny Meadow Mouse was able to outsmart him and the book ended on a happy note…

Got to experience a little of what it would be like to be blind by trying to get to different locations in the house with his eyes closed. He also did a couple of drawings with his eyes closed and did pretty well…

Painted a tree in art to show how Zaccheus had climbed in a tree to see Jesus…

Talked about old & new things and how we should take care of the things God gives us especially His house and His word and experimented in science by cleaning a penny and making it look new again…

Kindergarten–Week 17

2010-12-03T20:58:00.000-05:00

This week we’ve had a lot going on getting ready for various Christmas things at church and at home. But we managed to get school done each day and we finished up Unit 14 – Jesus Teaches Others and started Unit 15 – The People Praise Jesus. We have 2 more weeks to go before our Christmas break.

This week we…

Read the parables about the good Samaritan, the lost sheep, and the prodigal son, and Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead…

Continued working on handwriting. We are almost done with the review pages in A Reason For Handwriting A and then he will start copying a verse a week for practice…

Finished learning Matthew 7:12…

and started learning Mark 11:9 – Those in front and those in back shouted, “Hosanna!” “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!”

Finished learning the hymn “At the Cross” and made a page for our hymn notebook…

Continued reading anything and everything he can get his hands on…

Continued working on subtraction in math…

Continued working on fine motor skills with Rod & Staff workbooks…

Read about Peter Rabbit finally making it back to the briar patch and how Danny Meadow Mouse helped him get the snare of his leg and talked about how we help people too…

Pretended to be Lazarus coming out of the grave…

Kindergarten–Week 16

2010-11-27T15:20:00.000-05:00

This week we finished up Unit 13 – Jesus’ Miracles and started on Unit 14 – Jesus Teaches Others. We had a youth trip last weekend and Samuel stayed with Grandma and Gramps so we did half a week last week before he left, and then finished up this week before Thanksgiving.

We read about Jesus feeding the 5000, walking on water, the disciples seeing Jesus transfigured on the mountain, and about Jesus and the little children…

Samuel continued making progress in handwriting and his explode the code workbooks. His writing has improved greatly since the beginning of the school year. He even took it upon himself to make name cards to decorate our Thanksgiving table this year. He started to make menus too, but gave up after only making one. So Daddy and Nana made the rest…

Samuel finished learning Matthew 5:16…

and began learning Matthew 7:12 – In everything do to others what you would want them to do to you. This is what is written in the Law and in the Prophets.

Samuel has been doing a great job reading. He earned another free pizza this month through the Book-It program and was very proud of himself…

He is still working on subtraction in math. He had fun pretending to “shop” and figuring out how many items were left in the store…

We are both enjoying reading Danny Meadow Mouse for story time. We read about Peter Rabbit leaving the old Briar Patch to visit the peach orchard, and Samuel drew a picture of somewhere he had been – the movie theater…

Samuel had a lot of fun making bread after reading about Jesus feeding the 5000. I forgot to get pictures of the finished product, but we all enjoyed eating it…

He also enjoyed making a picture of the disciples’ boat in the storm. We used glue to make waves. When they dried, you could feel the waves as well as see them…

A Trip to the Zoo

2010-11-13T21:47:00.000-05:00

Today, the zoo had free admission with a donation to one of their featured charities. One of them was a food pantry so we got some canned goods out of the pantry and took a trip to the zoo. We have been debating whether or not to get season passes for awhile, but since neither of us had ever been before we didn’t know if it would be worth it to spend the money or not. After today’s trips, I think we’re leaning towards getting passes after the first of the year. With today being free, it was extremely crowded, but we still managed to see lots of animals and Samuel had a great time. Here’s a few pics from our day.

Scarlet Macaws

a baby camel

elephants

zebra

giraffe

a couple of monkeys

This is a momma chimp carrying her baby. I don’t know if you can see the baby or not, but it’s got it’s legs wrapped around her.

Here’s the baby running to the momma after she put him down

4 month old Red Pandas

Samuel seeing if his arms are as long as a condor’s

Rhinos

Kindergarten–Week 15

2010-11-12T22:07:00.000-05:00

This week we finished the last day in Unit 12 and started Unit 13 – Jesus’ Miracles. We read about Jesus and the woman at the well, the paralyzed man lowered through the roof to Jesus to be healed, Jesus calming the storm, and raising Jairus’ daughter from the dead…

Continued moving forward in handwriting and Explode the Code. He started ETC Book 2 this week…

Started learning Matthew 5:16 – “In the same way let your light shine before others. Then they will see the good things you do. And they will praise your Father who is in heaven” We played “basketball” one day and for each goal Samuel had to say his verse…

Continued working on subtraction in math…

Continued working on fine motor skills like coloring, cutting, and pasting with our rod & staff workbooks…

Had fun recreating the story of the paralyzed man being lowered through the roof and healed by Jesus with Legos…

Learned about surface tension and how the “skin” on water holds droplets together and allows boats to float. We made a boat with Jesus and the disciples and recreated a “storm”…

Karate

2010-11-10T22:12:00.000-05:00

Samuel has been begging to take karate for over a year now. We had told him he had to wait till soccer was over because we were only going to let him do one activity at a time. We finally signed him up in September and he is loving it! He asks me every morning if he has karate that night. Several friends from church take karate at the same place also. It is Christian owned and they have open and close in prayer and have a short devotional in the middle. They also focus a lot on teaching respect and manners. I finally remembered to take the camera with me and got a few pictures of him.

Practicing his roll

Stretching before class. He’s the one on the left with his legs in the air

Bowing at the start of class. He’s on the far left again.

Running to warm up

Doing push-ups…sort of

Getting ready to practice his kicks

Roundhouse kick

Side kick

Sparring. He was supposed to be practicing getting out of grabs but also trying to push her off the mat

Now he has to beat Sensei

Huddling up to pray at the end of class

We didn’t know Samuel would be earning his second stripe that night. He was very excited! One more stripe and he gets to hang his yellow belt!

Kindergarten–Week 14

2010-11-09T21:59:00.000-05:00

This was a big week for Samuel. He’s been doing so well with his work that I decided to start going full speed with him through Little Hearts for His Glory. We’ve been taking 2 days to do one day of work since he is on the young end of the age range for the guide. He is loving the faster pace because we get to read Danny Meadow Mouse every day now instead of every other day!

This week we started Unit 12 – Jesus Begins His Ministry. We read about how God fulfilled many promises by sending Jesus to earth, John the Baptist baptizing Jesus, Jesus being tempted by Satan, Jesus turning water into wine, and Peter catching many fish after Jesus told him were to cast his net…

Reviewed Bible verses we’ve learned in previous units and Samuel remembered them all perfectly…

Had a party for his stuffed animals and had to figure out how many more cups, napkins, & forks he would need to have enough for everyone in math and began learning subtraction…

Laughed when Danny Meadow Mouse tricked Reddy Fox by hiding in a hollow fence post and Reddy got hurt when he tried to pounce on him through the snow and landed on barbed wire instead! Samuel had fun acting out the story for Daddy when he got home from work…

Danny Meadow House aka Stitch hiding in a tunnel under the soft snow

Watch out Danny Meadow Mouse! Granny Fox & Reddy Fox are coming to pounce on your tunnel!

Danny Meadow Mouse runs into the hollow fence post knowing Granny and Reddy can’t dig through it

Reddy forgets there’s a fence post under the snow and pounces anyway. Ow! He landed on barbed wire.

He also drew a picture of Danny hiding from him in the snow…

Finished learning about plants in science.

Kindergarten–Week 13

2010-11-03T22:45:00.000-04:00

This week we finished up Unit 11 – The Birth of Jesus. We read about the wise men bringing gifts to Jesus and then about Jesus teaching in the temple when he was 12 years old…

We continued working on handwriting. Samuel is doing a lot better with his writing and remembering to leave spaces in between words now…

Continued learning Luke 2:52…

Continued working in his Explode the Code book. He is doing great with these workbooks. They have helped to improve his handwriting, but they area also helping him spell correctly and he loves working in them!

Earned his first personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut through the Book-It program for reading 8 books this month…

Finished learning about addition…

Read about Danny Meadow Mouse hiding from Reddy Fox and Granny Fox in his tunnels and drew a picture showing where he likes to hide…

Continued learning about plants in science.

Kindergarten–Week 12

2010-10-25T22:27:00.000-04:00

This week we continued with Unit 11 – The Birth of Jesus. We read about Mary and Joseph going to Bethlehem and having to stay a stable because there was no room at the inn and about the shepherds coming to see Jesus…

Finished learning the hymn “The Old Rugged Cross” and made a page for his hymn notebook…

Samuel got a little graphic with his drawing. He drew Jesus on the cross in the middle and the two thieve on either side. He colored lots of blood and told me that the cross was very bloody. The sky is black. On the ground next to the cross is a Roman soldier on one side, and a sad follower of Jesus on the other.

Continued working on handwriting and Explode the Code…

Continued working on addition in math…

Finished reading The Adventures of Peter Cottontail and started reading The Adventures of Danny Meadow Mouse…

Continued learning about plants in science…

Kindergarten–Week 11

2010-10-13T22:13:00.000-04:00

This week we finished up Unit 10 – Exiles in Babylon and started Unit 11 – The Birth of Jesus.

We read about Alexander the Great and his conquests and about the angel appearing to Mary and telling her that she would give birth to God’s son, Jesus…

Finished up A Reason for Handwriting Kindergarten, and started the next book…

Finished learning Romans 12:21 and started learning Luke 2:52 – And Jesus grew in wisdom, in stature, and in favor with God and man…

Continued working through Explode the Code…

Learned addition in math…

Continued working on fine motor skills in our Rod & Staff workbooks…

Laughed at Peter Rabbit trying to eat and get fat so he could hibernate all winter like his friends…

and learned about plants in science.

Kindergarten – Week 10

2010-10-01T13:51:00.000-04:00

We had a lot going on and ended up stretching this week over 2 weeks. Samuel went to Virginia with Grandma and Gramps to celebrate Noah’s birthday. Also, I don’t know what happened this week, but I didn’t get any pictures of school.

We continued with Unit 10 – Exiles in Babylon. This week we…

Read about Daniel in the lion’s den and Esther…

Continued reviewing letters we’ve already learned in handwriting…

Continued memorizing Romans 12:21…

Continued working on addition in math…

Read more of Peter Cottontail and laughed when he said he was going to eat till he got fat so he could hibernate like all his friends…

Started learning about plants in science.

Kindergarten – Week 9

2010-09-20T19:23:00.001-04:00

This week we started Unit 9 – Exiles in Babylon.

We read about the people of Judah being taking as captives into Babylon and about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace…

Continued reviewing letters in handwriting…

Started memorizing Romans 12:21 – Do not be overcome by evil. Overcome evil with good.

Continued working on phonics with our explode the code workbooks…

Did the hokey pokey to learn left and right…

Painted to illustrate how King Nebuchadnezzar saw someone else in the fire with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego…

Continued reading with Hooked on Phonics and finished reading Mustang, a chapter book…

Started learning addition in math…

Worked on fine motor skills…

Read about Daniel and the handwriting on the wall…

Traced and colored his own hand after looking at it under a magnifying glass…

Started reading Goblins, his last chapter book for Hooked on Phonics. He got so excited about it being the last one he read all five chapters in one day and completed his reading chart. He has now finished Hooked on Phonics Kindergarten through 2nd grade! We went to Pizza Hut for dinner to celebrate!

Kindergarten – Week 8

2010-09-13T20:00:00.000-04:00

This week we finished up Unit 9 – The Time of the Prophets.

We read about Jonah trying to run away from God…

About Joash and Josiah becoming kings of Judah when they were very young and following God’s way…

Practiced following directions and hiding just like Joash who listened to the priest and his wife and was safe from the queen…

Reviewed all the letters we’ve learned so far…

Finished learning Philippians 2:14…

Started Explode the Code Book 1 for phonics…

Learned about dividing objects in half and in quarters for math…

Continued reading about Peter Cottontail and wondered what was going on when all his friends told him goodbye till spring…

Continued in our workbooks from Rod & Staff working on fine motor skills…

Finished learning about weather in science and started learning about plants and how they grow…

Kindergarten – Week 7

2010-09-04T14:35:00.001-04:00

This week we continued on with Unit 9 – The Time of the Prophets.

We read about Elijah being taken to heave on a chariot of fire and Elisha performing miracles like keeping a woman’s oil jar flowing and healing Naaman of leprosy…

Practiced handwriting…

Continued memorizing Philippians 2:14. Samuel loved the day we played “basketball” and he had to say his verse every time he got a goal…

Finished up the Explode the Code primers we’d been doing for phonics and started Explode the Code 1…

Got more stickers for his Hooked on Phonics chart…

Learned the words for numbers 11-20…

Continued reading The Adventures of Peter Cottontail and laughed when Reddy Fox got into some trouble with the hornets…

Continued practicing fine motor skills…

Made a drawing with chalk and sugar water (to make the chalk glisten) of what he thinks heaven looks like…

Saw how water can remove dirt from our skin, soap can remove oil, but only God can heal our sores and diseases like Naaman was healed…

Learned that water can be a solid, liquid, or gas in science…

Kindergarten – Week 6

2010-08-28T14:37:00.000-04:00

This week we had a lot of fun finishing up Unit 8 – Israel’s First Kings and starting Unit 9 – The Time of the Prophets. Samuel’s been doing a great job. We’ve been doing Little Hearts at half speed since he was younger than the age range when we started and we were going to take 2 years to do it. He’s been doing so well that I think in a few weeks I’m going to go ahead and bump him up to full speed and just plan on finishing it by the end of his Kindergarten year. Anyway, here’s what we’ve been up to this week.

Reading about Solomon becoming king and building God’s temple and about Elijah and the prophets of Baal…

Learning to write the letter Q… (Sidenote: We are finally done with Sonlight LA K and I am so glad. I bought it last year when I thought we were going to do Sonlight and stuck with it since I had it, but I am so glad to be done with it and on to something new. It had a lot of busy work!)

Finished learning Psalms 56:3…

Started learning our new memory verse, Philippians 2:14 – Do everything without finding fault or arguing…

Continued making progress with Hooked on Phonics. Everyday Samuel counts to see how many stickers he has left to get before the end. I think he’s down to 14…

Continued learning about tens and ones…

Started learning number words for 11-20…

Continued practicing fine motor skills…

Read more about Reddy Fox trying to catch Peter Rabbit. The joke was on Reddy Fox though as he got attacked by a nest of hornets in the process…

Drew a picture of Solomon’s temple and then made it into a puzzle. We talked about how the puzzle had to be put together correctly in order for the picture to look right just like Solomon had to build the temple according to God’s directions…

Pretended to be a raven bringing bread to Elijah…

Finished learning the hymn “Man of Sorrows”…

Made a page to add to his hymn notebook…

Verse 5 says, “When He comes our glorious King…” Samuel says this is a picture of that verse. Jesus is the guy with a blue face in the middle. The squiggles at the top are lightening and the orange person at the top of the page is God watching Jesus go to earth. The other people are bystanders. The two blue/purple ones have their hands on their cheeks in astonishment and the brown guy is a roman soldier holding a spear.

Kindergarten – Week 5

2010-08-24T19:42:00.000-04:00

This week we continued with Unit 8 – Israel’s First Kings.

We read about David becoming king after Saul died, about David bringing the ark of the covenant back to Israel, and about Solomon becoming king and asking God for wisdom…

Learned to read and write the letter X…

Continued memorizing Psalms 56:3 – When I am afraid, I will trust in You and talked about how David & Solomon trusted God…

Continued making great progress with Hooked on Phonics. He is reading great and will be finished with HOP in about a month…

Learned about tens and ones in math…

Practiced fine motor skills like cutting and pasting and thinking skills like sequencing…

Continued reading The Adventures of Peter Cottontail and read how Reddy Fox tried to trick Peter Rabbit into getting eaten by playing dead…

Learned about daytime and nighttime in science…

Kindergarten – Week 4

2010-08-16T19:11:00.000-04:00

This week we started a Unit 8 – Israel’s First Kings.

We read about David anointing Samuel when he was only a boy and about David and Goliath…

Learned how to write the letter Z…

Finished reading his 2nd chapter book for Hooked on Phonics and started the last workbook for the 2nd grade level…

Learned about ordinal numbers (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc) in math…

Practiced fine motor skills…

Got to be David and threw stones at Goliath…

Started learning our new verse – Psalms 56:3 – When I am afraid I will trust in you.

Read about Saul’s hatred of David and David’s friendship with Jonathan…

Continued reading about Peter Rabbit’s adventures with Reddy Fox…

Began learning about tens & ones in math…

Drew a self portrait and wrote about character traits we have inside to show that man looks on the outside, but God looks at the inside…

Kindergarten – Week 3

2010-08-09T14:45:00.001-04:00

This week we finished up Unit 7 – The Time of the Judges.

We learned about Hannah’s prayer for a baby and the birth of Samuel…

Made a “tapestry” for God’s temple and talked about Samuel serving with Eli as a boy…

Learned to write the letter E …

Continued reading the Adventures of Peter Cottontail and were worried about Reddy Fox trying to trick Peter Rabbit…

Practiced fine motor skills by cutting and pasting…

Learned to read and write number words for 1-10…

Read about the Israelites demanding a king and Samuel anointing Saul…

Finished memorizing Psalms 121:2…

(You might need to scroll to the bottom of my blog and stop the music before you play the video)

Kindergarten – Week 2

2010-08-02T21:07:00.001-04:00

This week we continued on with Unit 7 – The Time of the Judges.

We read about Samson and his great strength..

Learned about the forces of pushing and pulling in science after reading how Samson pushed down the pillars to kill the Philistines and made a chart of things in the house that involve pushing and pulling…

Continued learning Psalm 121:2 and played “basketball”. After each basket he made, Samuel had to say his verse…

Learned about the letter Y…

Continued reading the Adventures of Peter Cottontail…

Learned to count backwards from 10 by counting out 10 crackers and then counting down as we ate each one…

Read about Ruth and Naomi…

Learned that Ruth gleaned in the barley fields, read about barley and learned it is a type of grass, drew a chart that shows barley and products that come from barley (that’s a loaf of bread and a bowl of cereal)…

Started learning number words and matching them to groups of objects…

Finished his first chapter book for Hooked on Phonics…

Kindergarten – Week 1

2010-07-26T15:56:00.000-04:00

This week we started Kindergarten. Samuel was so excited even though we haven’t really changed anything in our curriculum. To celebrate his first day of school, we went and met Daddy for lunch at Chick-fil-a. I forgot to take the camera to get pictures. Anyway, we have taken a break from school for about 6 weeks. During that time, Samuel has constantly been asking for paper and pencils or crayons so that he can draw pictures or write stories or both. I think the constant drawing paid off because I noticed his coloring and writing have both improved greatly in just the short break that we had. This week was lots of fun and Samuel was excited to be back in school. We finished up Unit 6 – The Promised Land – that we had started before our break and started on Unit 7 – The Time of the Judges.

We learned to read and write the letter G…

…read about Joshua fighting the Gibeonites and God making the sun stand still

…learned that we have day and night because the Earth rotates each day

…started reading The Adventures of Peter Cottontail for storytime

…read about God helping Gideon defeat a huge army of Midianites with only 300 men

…got to pretend to be Gideon knocking down the idols of Baal

…finished the first book in the 2nd grade level of Hooked on Phonics. He’ll be completely done in about 6 weeks.

…started learning Psalms 121:2 - “My help comes from the Lord, maker of heaven and earth.”

…finished up units of measurement in math and started learning to count backwards

…practiced fine motor skills by cutting and gluing

Uncle Jon’s Beach

2010-07-02T16:50:00.000-04:00

Ever since we started talking about going to Uncle Jon’s wedding, Samuel has been excited because that meant we would be going back to Uncle Jon’s beach (as he calls the beach in Charleston). In fact, he wanted to skip the wedding and just go to the beach! Anyway, the day after the wedding, the family was still in town so we went to the beach with Grandma, Gramps, Noah, Jack, Uncle Steven, & Aunt Lydia. The kids had a blast!

Yay the ocean!

Grandma, Jack, Daddy, and Samuel jumping waves Digging a hole to look for crabs

I love the beach, Mommy!

Gramps and Samuel jumping waves

Samuel and Daddy walking the beach

Writing his name in the sand

Burying Samuel

Uncle Jon’s Wedding

2010-07-01T20:44:00.000-04:00

We went to Charleston, SC for my brother’s wedding on June 25th. Samuel was excited to get to see his cousins, Noah and Jack, as well as his aunts, uncles, Grandma, and Gramps. The wedding was tons of fun and Samuel’s favorite part was the dancing!

Samuel wearing Uncle Jon’s infamous green wig and his 3-D glasses. He might have started a new fashion statement!Not even married yet and already fighting

The bride and groom at the rehearsal dinner

Daddy & Samuel

Uncle Jon and his nephews after the ceremony

Samuel was out on the dance floor all night long. He loved it!

The happy couple

Dancing with my hubby

Jack & Samuel dancing

More dancing

Me and my little guy

Dollywood

2010-06-07T16:49:00.000-04:00

Grandma and Gramps stopped by and spent a couple of days with us on their way up to Virginia for Jack’s preschool graduation. Samuel and I went to Dollywood with them for the day. This year they opened a ropes course called Adventure Mountain. We had done it before but didn’t get pictures. This time, Gramps couldn’t go because he wasn’t wearing the right kind of shoes so he got to be the photographer.

Samuel on the little ropes course at the bottom

Now, time for the big course… The geyser was not working last time we did this. It was a little freaky trying to balance on a rope while getting sprayed with a geyser, but it felt good in the heat!

Kindergarten Plans

2010-06-01T19:58:00.000-04:00

Hard to believe but Samuel will be starting Kindergarten! This year is the first year we actually have to report our homeschooling to the school board also so we have to be diligent about getting everything done. There aren’t too many changes in what we’re doing since Samuel is already doing some Kindergarten work, but here’s the lineup for this year:

Little Hearts for His Glory – We are continuing working through this at half speed. We probably won’t finish till December of Samuel’s 1st grade year. Since this is meant to be a kindergarten or 1st grade program it will work out fine. We just add in extra library books on whatever science and history topics we are studying each week.
Singapore Earlybird Math 2A & 2B – This is scheduled in LHFHG and we are just continuing with it. He will finish this mid-year and we will move on to the 1st grade math.
A Reason for Handwriting A
La Clase Divertida 1 – Adam and I have always wanted to learn Spanish, so we thought it would be fun to add it in to our homeschool routine and all learn together. We actually probably won’t start this for a few more months, but we are looking forward to it.
Extras – I really like the Charlotte Mason approach to homeschooling so we are adding in some of her ideas for extras. We are learning hymns using Passion Hymns for a Kid’s Heart. There are several books in this series and Samuel really likes them. We start out by reading the devotional about the hymn and then spend about a week on each verse. We learn the verse and I make sure he understands what it means. Then after we’ve done all the verses I have him make a notebook page by drawing a picture of what the hymn means to him. We also are adding nature study using ideas from http://handbookofnaturestudy.blogspot.com We may add in some kind of artist & composer study if I decide to pull something together.

PreK – Week 30

2010-05-31T19:39:00.000-04:00

This was our last week of school for awhile. We have Vacation Bible School coming up, camp with the youth group, Uncle Jon’s wedding, and then C.S.I. for a week with the youth so we will be taking a little over a month off.

Anyway, this week we read about Joshua and the Israelites marching around Jericho to make the walls fall down. We worked on learning the letter W. We also continued working with units of volume in math. Here are some pics:

Practicing writing W We’ve been using Passion Hymns for a Kid’s Heart and learning a hymn every month or so (we spend a week per verse). We finished learning “Nothing But the Blood” and Samuel drew this picture of what he thought the song meant to him.

Measuring how many cups of water were in the bowl for math. Daddy had the day off so he got to help.

When we start back to school, Samuel will be a Kindergartener!

PreK – Week 29

2010-05-24T21:18:00.000-04:00

This week we continued with Unit 6 – The Promise Land. We read about Balaam and his talking donkey, which Samuel thought was really cool. We also read about Joshua sending two spies into Jericho and Rahab keeping them safe from the soldiers.

In math, we started learning about weight and volume. Samuel had lots of fun seeing how much water different size containers would hold (you’ll see pics farther down).

We’ve been working on writing the letter Vv this week. I think we only have about 4 letters left.

Working on his Vv letter sheet Working in one of his workbooks

This was tons of fun for Samuel. I drew a wall to represent Jericho. He drew Rahab in a window on the wall. Then we mixed shaving cream and glue to make “mortar”

Samuel painted the mortar into all the cracks in the wall

Then we added a red thread to Rahab’s window so that she would be saved when Jericho was destroyed.

Measuring how much water fits in different sized containers

PreK – Week 28

2010-05-17T21:06:00.000-04:00

This week we finished up Unit 5 – The Exodus Out of Egypt and started Unit 6 – The Promised Land. We read about the Israelites building and worshipping the golden calf and talked about how silly it was that they would pray to something they had made. We also read about the spies going into the Promised Land and how they all were afraid of the people who lived there except for Joshua and Caleb.

Samuel finished memorizing Matthew 22:37 and then we started reviewing the verses that we have learned so far. I was surprised that he remembered most of them.

We finished reading The Adventures of Reddy Fox which Samuel was really excited about. Next week we will begin the next book in the series, The Adventures of Peter Cottontail.

For math, we’ve still been working on measuring. We’ve been measuring things using our feet, paces, and hand spans. We talked about how everyone’s hands and feet are different sizes so those are not good units of measurement to use.

We’ve also been working on the letter U this week. Samuel has been doing a great job with his writing. His reading is also going well and he only has a few more weeks of his current Hooked on Phonics workbook. Then he has one more to go to complete the series. He’s pretty excited about it and keeps counting how many stickers he has left to get on his reading chart.

Working on handwriting – not sure what’s going on with the face Working on his Uu letter sheet Measuring how many “feet” the couch is

Measuring using handspansMaking a golden calf out of playdoug

More handwriting

This was Samuel’s favorite thing we did this week. In science, we talked about the soil and the various layers in it. Then, we made “dirt” We used chocolate chips for the rocky layer…

Crushed graham crackers for the top soil…

And cereal for the humus layer which is made up of dead leaves and plant life

Samuel’s favorite part was eating it! He’s actually asked him to make him some “dirt” as a snack several times since then.

So excited to finish Reddy Fox

The Things He Says…

2010-05-11T19:47:00.001-04:00

Samuel comes up with some crazy stuff sometimes. He amazes me and scares me at the same time with some of the things he says. The other day he was playing and I was cleaning the house and we were listening to his Singing Bible CD (Little side note: This CD came with Little Hands to Heaven and Samuel absolutely loves it. We listen to it all the time. If you have young kids this is a great way for them to learn a lot of the Bible stories). Anyway, it was the song about Adam and Eve and Samuel said, “Mommy, if that tree was bad, why did God put it in the garden anyway?” I tried to explain to him that it was because God allows us to make choices, but I don’t think he got it.

Then, this weekend, Samuel, Adam, and I were in the car running around and Samuel got into trouble for something. After a few minutes of pouting, he said, “Daddy, I asked Jesus into my heart and told him to take away my sins but I still do bad things. Why can’t I be good?” Adam was trying to explain to Samuel that he has the same problem and that we will never be perfect.

(Side note: We aren’t sure if Samuel has actually asked Jesus into his heart or if he just says that. He actually says it a lot and he knows the story about Jesus dying on the cross for his sins, but we aren’t sure if he really understands it or if he’s just repeating back what he’s heard. He’s never prayed with one of us to accept Christ, but he says he’s prayed by himself. We’ll see as he gets older and can explain it better.)

Anyway, I’m just scared if he comes up with questions like this when he’s 5, what he’s going to come up with as he gets older. We’ll have to stay on our toes to keep up with him!

PreK – Week 27

2010-05-06T16:27:00.000-04:00

This week we continued with Unit 5 – The Exodus Out of Egypt. We read about the Israelites wandering in the desert, God providing manna and quail for them, and God giving Moses the Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai. For science, we read about birds and then made a quail out of paper (think a paper airplane decorated to look like a bird). Samuel had a lot of fun making it but we made it out of construction paper and I think it was too heavy because it didn’t fly very well at all.

We have continued memorizing Matthew 22:37. Samuel amazes me with how quickly he memorizes things. He has most of the verse memorized already and really only needs help with the reference.

We read a couple of more chapters of Reddy Fox and Reddy & Granny ended up having to move because Farmer Brown’s boy found their home. We talked about what it’s like to move, and Samuel actually remembered a lot more about our move from Chattanooga than I thought he would since he was so young at the time.

In math, we’ve continued working with non standard units of measurement. We’ve measured length and width of several different things using Legos, paper clips, pencils, crayons, and books. Samuel has a lot of fun measuring and likes to guess how long something will be before we measure it and then seeing if he’s right.

We learned the letter L this week. Samuel already knew how to make L’s because of his name, but it was a good review for him.

Working on his L letter sheet

Working on fine motor skills in his Rod & Staff workbooks

Measuring his bed using his math workbook

We Like Sheep

2010-05-03T16:26:00.001-04:00

Samuel had his musical for children’s choir last night. They did a performance called We Like Sheep. Samuel knew all his songs, but there were a lot of times he didn’t sing. I don’t know if he was tired, nervous, or just didn’t feel like singing for some reason. We didn’t get too many pictures because even though we brought both cameras, they both had dead batteries after the first couple of songs. That’s what we get for not charging them beforehand. We did manage a few pictures and a short video of them singing.

Samuel's Musical

Fun with Grandma and Gramps

2010-04-26T16:25:00.000-04:00

Adam and I helped out with Disciple Now weekend at church this weekend. Adam went to stay with the 7th grade boys, and I hosted a houseful of high school girls. We both had a great time with the kids. While we were having fun, Samuel went to Grandma and Gramps’ house for the weekend. He got to go to Day Out with Thomas, the Aquarium, and Chick-fil-a, so he was happy. Here’s a few pics mom sent me of the fun they had.

PreK – Week 26

2010-04-23T16:26:00.000-04:00

This week we started Unit 5 - The Exodus out of Egypt. For history we read about the Passover, the Israelites leaving Egypt, and the parting of the Red Sea. Samuel loves the story of Moses, so we had a lot of fun with it this week. We read about how God led the Israelites with a pillar of fire at night and a cloud by day. We used a flashlight to be the pillar of fire leading the Egyptians and took turns following each other around the house. For science we read some books about clouds, and then we did a little science experiment about how clouds carry water and then when they get too heavy they rain.

For our bible verse we started learning Matthew 22:37 - "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: you shall love your neighbor as yourself." This is the longest verse Samuel has had to learn to date so we'll see how he does.

We've continued reading about Reddy Fox and this week he got himself into trouble because he disobeyed Granny Fox's instructions. We only have a few more chapters of the book left and Samuel's getting excited about finishing it.

In math, we've begun learning nonstandard forms of measurement. We got to measure books and other objects using Legos. We also ordered objects from longest to shortest and vice versa.

This week we learned to read and write the letter K. Samuel has some trouble making a K. He can't seem to remember to make the arms meet in the middle which makes his K look more like a bracket of some sort. He'll get the hang of it though. He always does.

Samuel's been moving right along with his reading also. He surprises me every time we're out by reading a sign, or label, or something that I didn't think he could read. At this rate, we'll have Hooked on Phonics finished up early this fall.

Working on his K letter sheet

Showing off his “cloud” – a cotton ball. We felt it when it was dry, and then soaked it with water to see if it would “rain”, and…

…it did!

Swimming Lessons

2010-04-22T16:25:00.001-04:00

Samuel has been taking swimming lessons at the community center for the past couple of weeks. The class is really just to get them more comfortable in the water, than to actually teach swimming but he has had lots of fun. One of his friends from church has taken the class also, so he has really enjoyed getting to see her a couple of extra days a week. He only has 2 more classes left and then he’ll be done. I’m not sure if I’m going to try to find him another class or move on to something else.

Happy Easter!

2010-04-05T15:30:00.003-04:00

This year we've been super busy and I didn't do as much for Easter as we normally do. We had to be at church super early on Sunday because Adam and I were both in the Easter musical and we had to be there to practice. Then, we were going to Wendy and Kevin's house for lunch with Adam's family. We made a brief stop at the house in between church and lunch so we could give Samuel his Easter stuff.

I'm a slacker and didn't even do a basket this year :( But we did get him a 1 lb chocolate bunny that he was very excited about.

And, we gave him a Bible. All he's had up till now are story Bibles so he was excited about getting his very own "real" Bible. It's in the NIrV and he can read it himself. Now I need to start teaching him the books of the Bible and how to look up passages.

After that, we headed to Wendy and Kevin's house for lunch. Adam and I have suspected for about a year and a half now that Samuel is allergic to animals. He's been to the allergist and been tested and supposedly is only allergic to dust and pollen. However, we hadn't been at Wendy and Kevin's more than 45 minutes or an hour when he had a major allergic reaction. We rushed home, gave him some Benadryl and a bath and he was fine, but I'm definitely going to be taking this pics with me when we go to the allergist on the 15th for his follow up appointment. I'm going to ask them to have him retested. This is the 4th time he's broken out around animals, but this is by far the worst it's ever been.

PreK - Week 25

2010-04-02T15:06:00.003-04:00

This week we finished up Unit 4 - Jacob's Family in Egypt. We read about Moses and the burning bush, Moses returning to Egypt to tell Pharaoh "Let My people go!", and about the 10 plagues. Samuel made a book where he drew each of the 10 plagues. He had a lot of fun with it and did a great job.

In science, we read about plants and what they need to survive. We talked about how it was amazing that the burning bush was on fire but did not burn up. We also talked about living and non-living things and what living things need to survive. We went through each of the plagues and figured out if they were living things or not.

We continued learning Proverbs 3:5-6 and Samuel was able to say the entire thing. He was so proud of himself for learning it all.

We're still reading Reddy Fox. This week Samuel had to write a warning to the animals telling them that Bowser the Hound and Farmer Brown's boy are coming and they need to be careful. He even drew a picture to illustrate it.

We learned the letter N in language arts. Samuel did a great job on his handwriting. I think he's looking forward to getting through all the letters in a few more weeks though. Our LA curriculum is very repetitive each week and I think he's getting bored with it. He's doing a great job with reading though and is progressing through his Hooked on Phonics books.

In math, we finished up patterns and we've started working on the terms small, medium, and big. We've been looking at different groups of items and talking about which one is the biggest, which is the smallest, etc. Samuel already knows this so it's mainly just review for him right now.

Writing the letter n

Making his Nn letter sheet

Figuring out patterns for math

Samuel being a bush

Water & sunlight make him grow big and tall

The burning bush

Drawing his warning to the other animals from his Reddy Fox book

Working on his book of the 10 plagues

PreK - Week 24

2010-03-19T16:09:00.002-04:00

This week we've continued on with Unit 4 - Jacob's Family in Egypt. We read about Joseph interpreting Pharoah's dreams and being made second in command of Egypt so he was able to help his family during the famine. We also read about baby Moses being saved by Pharoah's daughter. The day we read about Moses, I put a stuffed animal in a basket and hid it in various parts of the house. Samuel had fun pretending to be Pharoah's daughter walking along the "river" (the house) and finding Baby Moses.

We're still working on our memory verse: Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight. Samuel has most of it down already.

Reddy Fox is still getting into trouble. This week we found out that Farmer Brown's boy has had enough of Reddy Fox and has decided to hunt down Reddy Fox once and for all. Luckily Unc' Billy Possum heard Farmer Brown plotting and was able to get back to the forest in time to warn Granny Fox and Reddy Fox to stay out of the way of Farmer Brown's boy!

This was another review week in our language arts curriculum so we really didn't do much handwriting this week. Samuel is moving along in his Hooked on Phonics book and is getting excited about his sticker chart being almost to the top.

We started learning about patterns in math and we've had fun playing with legos and making different patterns and then Samuel will see if he can finish them. He does pretty good as long as there are only 2-3 colors in the pattern. If you get a longer pattern he has a hard time figuring it out, but we'll keep working on it.

One thing Samuel and I have been doing in school is a hymn study using the book Passion Hymns for a Kid's Heart (there's a whole series of these books). For each hymn, there's a devotional that explains what the hymn means and then Samuel and I have been taking about a week per verse of the hymn to learn it. We should average about one hymn a month. Anyway, the first hymn was All Glory, Laud, and Honor. After we've learned the hymn, I'm having Samuel do a notebook page where he writes the name of the hymn and then draws a picture of what he thinks its about. This hymn talks about Palm Sunday and how the people greeted Jesus as he came into Jerusalem. Samuel did a great job on his notebook page. If you can't tell, on the right, is Jesus riding the donkey. In the middle is a palm branch, and on the left is a person.

He really got into the drawing that day and drew this on the back of his paper. The person in the middle that is circled is Jesus in the tomb. There is an angel on top of his head. In the bottom right corner, you see the empty tomb and Jesus standing outside of it. Samuel wrote He has risen at the top all by himself.

Adding another sticker to his chart

Figuring out lego patterns

Samuel's Star Wars Party

2010-03-14T16:09:00.003-04:00

Samuel had his birthday party on Saturday. He wanted a Star Wars party. I was able to find a Star Wars cake at Kroger and got plates, napkins, decorations, etc at Party City. I even found a Darth Vader pinata which he loved. Adam woke up on Saturday morning with a stomach bug so he wasn't able to come to the party. Luckily Mom, Dad, and Jennifer were here to help me get everything set up. We just had the party in the church fellowship hall and gym. It worked out great. The kids were able to run around and play and the adults were able to sit and talk (or play if they wanted). Here's a few pics. I can't put up too many because I'm wary of posting pics of other people's kids online. But here's some of Samuel, Noah, and Jack having fun.

The cake

Jack goofing off in the gym

Samuel opening gifts

Not sure what he was doing in this picture :)

The pinata!

Samuel giving it all he's got

Looking at all the candy he got afterwards

Noah's bag was full of candy

Jack looks like he had a good time

Happy 5th Birthday!

2010-03-09T19:22:00.000-05:00

Monday was Samuel's 5th birthday! He is super excited to be 5 years old and says that he is definitely a big boy now. He is having a Star Wars party on Saturday, so we didn't do too much on Monday. I let him pick what he wanted for dinner and he chose waffles. Then we let him open his gifts from us and had a small cake.

Ignore the wrapping paper :) I thought I had birthday paper and when I went to start wrapping I was completely out so I just used what I had. Samuel didn't seem to mind!

Trip to the ER

2010-03-03T19:15:00.000-05:00

Samuel had his first trip to the emergency room on Tuesday night. We went over to a friend's house on Tuesday afternoon for a playdate. We were getting ready to leave and he wanted to hug his friend Emma goodbye. As they were hugging, they lost their balance and fell. Samuel hit his head on the corner of a wooden stool when he fell. He had a pretty good size gash in the back of his head and it was bleeding quite a bit so we took him to the emergency room. He was such a big boy and didn't cry when the doctor cleaned it and then put in the staples. He has to go to the doctor in one week to have them removed.

PreK - Week 23

2010-02-26T19:39:00.001-05:00

This week we finished up Unit 3 - Abraham and His Descendants and started Unit 4 - Jacob's Family in Egypt. First we read about Jacob stealing Esau's blessing and then running away from home, Jacob's ladder, Jacob marrying Leah and Rachel, and Jacob's 12 sons. We also read about Joseph's coat of many colors and his brothers selling him as a slave.

One thing that was really cool this week was that on of the theaters in town is doing Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat this year. The official show doesn't start until March, but the last two weeks of February they did free preview shows for county residents. We took Samuel and he absolutely loved it! It was a good performance and even though it was somewhat modernized, Samuel was able to follow the story and knew what was going on because of his Bible stories earlier this week.

This was a review weeek in language arts so we didn't learn any new letters. He did a couple of worksheets and some copywork to review the letters he's learned so far.

Our new memory verse for the next couple of weeks is Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths.

We've continued reading and enjoying The Adventures of Reddy Fox. Samuel still gets so excited when I pull this book out. Hopefully he'll enjoy the others in the series when we get to them as well.

In math, we worked on recognizing and drawing shapes. Samuel already knew his shapes so it was more of a review for him. We also started learning how to sort objects according to their attributes. For instance, one day we took several of his train cars and sorted them by color, then we mixed them all back up and sorted them by how many wheels they had, then we sorted them by whether or not they carried cargo, etc. He had a lot of fun with that.

Working on one of his art projects. We wrote his name on a piece of black paper and then he used a nails to punch holes in his name. Then we put a yellow piece of paper behind it so his name would show through. It was supposed to illustrate that even though we try to hide (or run away like Jacob) God knows our hearts.

Sorting trains for math

Working in his Rod & Staff workbook

This was probably Samuel's favorite art project that we've done so far. He made an Egyptian collar out of a paper plate. He actually took his time painting and decorating and didn't rush through it like most of his projects.

He loved modeling it for us later!

Working on copywork

Doing a language arts worksheet

Sorting Legos for math

PreK - Week 22

2010-02-19T15:58:00.002-05:00

This week we continued with Unit 3 - Abraham and His Descendants. We read about God asking Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, Isaac marrying Rebekah, the birth of Jacob & Esau, and Jacob stealing Esau's birthright and blessing. We also continued working on Proverbs 20:11 as our memory verse.

For handwriting, we've been learning the letter O this week. Samuel has been doing a great job with his writing. He has really started to slow down and take his time and it makes a huge difference in the results!

In math, Samuel has been learning the concepts of more and less. We've been looking at two groups of objects, deciding which group has more or less depending on the day, and then how many more or how many less it has. It took him a little while to get the concept, but he's pretty good at it now.

We're still enjoying reading about Reddy Fox. This week, Granny Fox caught a chicken for Reddy's dinner, but then she left it behind while she chased a rabbit. When she went back to get it, the chicken was gone and she was very mad that someone took her chicken. For one of our activities, Samuel had to draw a picture of Granny Fox being mad and you'll see that in the pictures coming up. He had a lot of fun with it!

In science this week we learned about the sense of smell. We experimented by smelling different things around the house (spices, flavorings, etc) and also read several library books on the subject.

Practicing writing o's

Working on his O letter sheet. This activity comes from Sonlight LAK. He had to choose the pictures that started with the letter O and glue them on the paper. Why would they use opossum as one of the pictures for a child just learning to read and write? He got so upset with me because I told him to use that one and he kept insisting that it starts with P not O. Once we got that straightened out, everything was fine.

Working on math - I was giving him two different sets of legos and he had to count them, write the number, and then tell me which had more.

Math again only with fruit loops this time

And math again...this time he was counting sets of spoons and forks

After reading our chapter in Reddy Fox, I wrote at the top of the page "________ feels _______. Granny Fox feels _________." He filled in his name in the first blank and said that he felt happy and was playing games then he filled in that Granny Fox was mad. He drew pictures to illustrate each sentence.

The finished product...the top picture is Samuel feeling happy. He is on the left and is wearing his UT backpack and is in the field playing games. The person in the middle is a scarecrow. I am the person on the right and am taking pictures. I don't know why we don't have legs. Usually he draws people with legs, but who knows what he was thinking that day.
The picture of Granny Fox is on the bottom. She is on the left. I'm not sure what the other person? animal? on the right is and Samuel wouldn't tell me.

PreK - Week 21

2010-02-06T15:06:00.004-05:00

This week we started Unit 3 - Abraham and His Descendants. In history we read about how the people spread out after the Tower of Babel. For one of our activities, Samuel had to learn to pack an overnight back and then go on a "journey" just like the people did when they left the Tower of Babel. He liked learning to fold clothes and pack and is looking forward to the next time he goes to Grandma's house and can pack all by himself!

We also read about God calling Abraham to leave Ur and go to the land that He had promised and how God would make Abraham's descendants more numerous than the stars. In science, we learned about stars. We read a few library books about them. We also did an activity where Samuel laid on the floor and shined a flashlight on the ceiling as his star. He made it twinkle by flashing it on and off, made a falling star zoom across the ceiling, and many other fun things. He really liked that activity.

We started memorizing Proverbs 20:11 - Even a child is known by his actions, by whether his conduct is good and right. We've talked about how Abraham's actions of following God showed that he was a faithful and righteous man.

We also learned the letter J this week. Samuel has actually been taking his time with his handwriting this week and is doing a great job. We're also still reading and loving The Adventures of Reddy Fox. Samuel gets so excited each day when I pull out the book and can't wait to see what happens next. I've really been suprised at how well he listens and pays attention since there are very few pictures. Adam and I may start trying to read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to him at bedtime if he continues to do well with Reddy Fox.

In math, we've started comparing sets and learning about how to figure out one more or one less. Samuel is doing a great job with it and seems to enjoy math.

And now, for the big announcement....Samuel finished Hooked on Phonics 1st Grade this week! He was so excited and called Daddy at work to tell him that he was done with his book. We will be starting Hooked on Phonics 2nd Grade next week.

Working on his J letter sheet

Working on a page in his Rod & Staff workbook (readiness skills)

Packing his overnight bag

Coloring the picture on his handwriting page

Practicing math - I gave Samuel a card and he had to count out the right number of legos and then tell me what number would be one less

Another Rod & Staff workbook page

PreK - Week 20

2010-02-01T19:06:00.002-05:00

This week for history, we read about the tower of Babel and how God confused the people's language and told them to spread out. In language arts & handwriting, we started learning the letter D. Samuel did a great job but he does tend to get lowercase d and b confused. I just started telling him to think carefully before he would have to write a d or b and he did a lot better. He still confuses them some when he reads too, but I'm sure he'll figure it out in time. We continued learning numbers 1-10 in math. Once he learns how to write his 2's and 3's the right direction he'll be doing great. He can make them perfectly only backwards. We had a short week of school because of a lot of different stuff going on so I don't have as much to share as usual.

Samuel working on his D letter sheet

Practicing writing D's

Working on phonics

PreK - Week 19

2010-01-25T19:25:00.001-05:00

This week we continued with Unit 2 - The People Sin. We read about Adam and Eve's sin, Cain and Abel, and Noah and the flood in history. We also continued working on Ephesians 6:1 as our memory verse this week.

For science, we made a boat out of aluminum foil and floated it in the sink. We added one penny at a time to see how many it could hold without sinking. Samuel's boat held 25 pennies, mine was able to hold 68 before sinking! Then we talked about how boats have to be built a certain way to be able to stay afloat and how God had told Noah exactly how to build the ark so that it could carry Noah, his family, and all the animals safely.

We continued reading about Reddy Fox and found out that his showing off got him into big trouble. He wasn't paying attention and got shot in the leg by Farmer Brown's boy and is now lame. Samuel drew a picture of Reddy Fox and his injured leg.

In math, Samuel has been learning to write the numbers 6-10. He's doing a pretty good job with most of them. He especially likes it when I let him practice on the dry-erase board.

In language arts, we started learning the letter C this week. Samuel is doing a great job with his handwriting and his reading. He is just a couple of weeks away from finishing up the 1st grade level of Hooked on Phonics. In the past couple of weeks he has really taken off and tries to read anything he sees -- food packages, words on signs, any books laying around, etc.

Practicing handwriting
Working on his C letter page

Math - Samuel had to write out certain numbers and then put the corresponding number of stickers next to them

Not sure what's going on in this picture but it cracks me up. The towel was the Garden of Eden and I gave Samuel various directions to follow like walk around the garden, dig outside the garden, be happy in the garden, etc

I think this was him digging or planting outside the garden

Working on Explode the Code workbook

More math - he was gluing the right amount of cheerio's on each number

Writing a sentence about Reddy Fox...

...and a picture of Reddy Fox. The orange thing around his neck is a bandana. Normally Samuel colors really well, but it looks like he scribbled brown all over this one. I asked him about it and he said that is because Reddy has lots of fur.

Making his boat...

...and it floats!

PreK - Week 18

2010-01-15T16:05:00.002-05:00

We had another great week with Little Hearts for His Glory (LHFHG). Since this is a Kindergarten/First Grade program and Samuel is only PreK right now, we have only been doing it 3 days a weeks. We do phonics, handwriting, and math everyday and read library books about whatever we've been studying in history and science on the days we don't do LHFHG.

So, the first part of this week we finished up Unit 1 - The Beginning of History. We read the story of creation and talked about how God had created the world, the animals, and Adam and Eve. For science, we read about several different animals that God has made. We continued learning Matthew 19:14 and Samuel amazed me at how well he could say it! We've still been reading about Reddy Fox for storytime, and Samuel loves the story. Reddy Fox has been showing off and thinking he's smart and has gotten himself into a bit of trouble. One of his assignments this week was to write a note to Reddy Fox warning him about being too bold. Here's what he wrote:

Dear Reddy Fox,
Stop thinking you are so smart. You are going to get hurt by Bowser the Hound. Farmer Brown will be so mad. Don't take the chickens! Bowser the Hound will trap the chicken into the trash can and you won't get any Reddy Fox!
Samuel

At the end of the week, we started Unit 2 - The People Sin. We read about Adam and Eve disobeying God by eating the fruit and having to leave the Garden of Eden. For science, we read about snakes and Samuel picked out a bunch of snake books from the library to read. We also started learning Ephesians 6:1 - "Children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right" for our memory verse.

In math, we have been working on counting objects which is mainly just review for Samuel. We are also working on writing the numbers 1-5 probably. He's had a bit of trouble with 2's and 3's but I think he's getting the hang of them now.

This week was a review week for our language arts program, so we didn't work on any new letters. Here, Samuel had to pick up a picture, tell me what letter it started with and what sound it made, and then write the letter on the white board.

After reading about God creating animals in the sea and on land for history, and then reading about some of those animals in science, we played a game. The blue paper represents water and the black paper represents land. I named various animals and Samuel had to stand on the correct paper showing if they lived in the land or the water.

Working on his math workbook

Coloring in one of his Rod & Staff workbooks