Done with Kindergarten!

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

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

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

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!