Homeschool Week One

Week one of homeschooling went ok. We're using "My Father's World" kindergarten curriculum - though we're not calling it Kindergarten... in case he needs more time learning the basics of reading & writing. We also kept Nathan back at church in SS & Cubbies. He's friends with so many 3-5 year olds, that he didn't even notice he's in a class of 4 year old's (with a few other boys who also aren't doing Kindergarten this year). What a praise that he hasn't a clue we held him back :)

MFW curriculum is great. But it calls for us to spend the first 2 weeks talking about Creation while introducing the alphabet. It seems to assume the student has never even seen the letters, or learned the ABC song. So I made the executive decision to spend just one week on lesson one. Because Nathan can recognize all the letters and knows 90% of their sounds. Instead of "dumbing it down", I'm letting it be review for Nathan and preschool for Faith. So far, so good.

What did we do for the foundation week on creation?

Day one we read the Bible and talked about light & dark.

Then we found pictures in magazines and made a collage of light & dark on a giant paper #1.

We finished with a snack of light & dark oreos - which was a hit :)

After Ruth went down for naps, we played ABC bingo, colored and did some scissor skill worksheets. 

Tuesday, we read about how God separated sky & water/land. We talked about how clouds are made, sang a few songs, made a #2 collage and finished with a snack of blue jello and marshmallow clouds - another hit! After Ruth went down for naps, we did another coloring worksheet and played some more with the ABCs.

Wednesday, we talked about how God made plants - so we talked about those and made another collage. By this point I'd gotten into a better groove on how to include Ruth in the project. So everyone had fun. And we finished with another fun snack: celery & peanut butter trunks with grapes as leaves, and blueberries as flowers. I know... blueberries don't grow in trees... but it's all we had in the fridge :)

Thursday we read about creation day 4, made another collage, sang songs again and had another cool snack - oranges shaped like the sun. We did more scissor work, coloring & handwriting practice during Ruth's nap.

Friday we went to the Children's museum, so we kind of abbreviated that day's lesson. We still read the Bible and made our #5 collage. And did some math & handwriting stuff, but then we all napped ;)  So no photos of a cool snack, because... well, there was none. The field trip was cool enough!

Saturday will not normally be a school day. But Daddy ran a 5K and then was planning to help some friends move. So we stuck with our schedule and finished out the 6th day of creation. At the last minute, friends came to join us so we all talked about animals & people, and finished up the collage. Then ate gummies shaped like smiley faces, to resemble people. Sure... we could have done something cool like painting with animal crackers and yogurt. But give me a break, it was Saturday ;)

Here's a picture of the kids' finished collage. They did a great job. And it only took Faith 3 days to learn that glue goes on the wrong side of the paper, so you can see the right side when it's glued down ;)

The older kids also made creation books, coloring or painting & cutting out each day's number. It wasn't until this week that I realized how poorly Faith knew her numbers... I feel like a terrible mom not knowing that. But after week one, she knows numbers 1-7 and what God made each day. And she understands how to work a pair of scissors. Which, I realize, is potentially a very very scary thing. ha  Oh, and if you ask her what day of creation is her favorite, it's day 5. When God made SEA MONSTERS. (according to the NASB) hehe

That was our first week of homeschooling. I don't plan to take a lot of photos each week, but I'll try to do a weekly update with some of the things the kids learned or are learning.