Week Three (and Four): Letter C

No, we didn't do D with C and I forgot about it! We were just so busy it took me two weeks to get through the letter C. The one nice thing about being on our own schedule is we can do whatever we want. I had to remind myself this week that this is suppose to be fun and engaging. This week was far from that. I think part of that was due to the letter we were doing and what I had prepared. For the letter C we looked at Cars.

Our vocabulary for the week was bumper, windshield, hood and tire. I think A already knew these words but they were good for E to learn. Our nursery rhyme was Cock Crows in the Morn. One great aspect of this week was we all enjoyed our C books for the week. We read: The Very Hungry Caterpillar and The Very Quiet Cricket both are by Eric Carle, Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina, Clickety Clack by Rob and Amy Spence, The Crook can Cook by Kelly Doudna, Over at the Castle by Boni Ashburn and Clip-Clop by Nicola Smee. E loved Clip-Clop! (I feel like we had more books. Maybe that is because A wanted me to keep reading some of the B week books to her this week. My children love to read. Now I just hope it lasts.)

We didn't get much into music this week. Hopefully, we will do better. I really wanted to play Aaron Coplands' Appalachian Spring, but like I said, it was a weird week. Maybe next time around we can try it.

For Bible time we read about Creation and our memory verse for the week was from Colossians 3:20: Children, obey your parents in all things. This proved to be much needed because we had some major obedience issues in our home this week.

For math we did number three. Again we stacked blocks and counted them. We also ordered big, bigger, biggest and small, smaller, smallest. I tried to find three of a similar object and ask A which one was which or to put them in size order. For E I asked her which one was big or small. It's Not Easy Being Big by Stephanie St.Pierre was a grat book to read while we worked on these concepts. I think A learned them for the most part. She has a little trouble with the middle sizes but that will come with more practice and time. We also looked at squares. A really already knows her shapes so I have been using this more for E as an introduction/reinforcement for her. Looking back I might change this shape to be triangle since it has three sides and this is the week we did the number three.

For science we looked at: cardinals, chrysanthemum, columbine, cougar, camel, (oh, I forgot we did sing Alice the Camel) crab and clown fish. We also read about corn this week too.

For social studies we tried to learn about Christopher Columbus but we didn't do much with that.

Wow, I really did not enjoy this week. I know part of it was because our activities were so broken up. but it is also true that: if you don't enjoy it you don't want to do it! Hopefully D will be a better week.

Week Two: The Letter B

For week two we have had so much fun learning about BUTTERFLIES!

For our vocabulary we learned about wings, thorax, antenna and we even added chrysalis after we learned about them! I found a great nursery rhyme about Butterflies called Butterfly, Butterfly. We found some great books: Blackberry Banquet by Terry Pierce (this was more up to E's speed), Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey, and Cowgirl Rosie and Her Five Baby Bison by Stephen Gulbis.

For music we sang Take Me Out to the Ball Game, All Things Bright and Beautiful, and Baa Baa Black Sheep.

For our Bible story we read about the Tower of Babel and our memory verse was: Psalm 150:6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.

For science we looked at bluebirds, buttercups, bluebells, bison, beluga whales and beavers. We read some books that related to butterflies. I liked doing this because we talked about the lifecycle of a butterfly and added a little more science in. A also really enjoyed this too.

For math we looked at the number two. We took out her blocks and made stacks of two all over the floor. When we were done we counted all of them up! We also talked about what objects came in twos. We also worked on more or less. I would take different objects and place them in different groups. One group would have maybe three of the same thing and the other would only have one. (We didn't get very large piles.) I then asked her which was more or less and alternated and mixed up what I was asking.  I  Instead of a shape this week we did a color. Can you guess what it is? Yes, it was BLUE! We walked around the house and yard looking for whatever we could find that was blue.

For social studies we learned about Ben Franklin. While we were reading about him A made a comment that he was born in Massachusetts just like Johnny Appleseed!

We also talked about bread a little bit and how it was made and the work required to make it. During the week we took a little "field trip". The only bakery I could think of was our local Panera. So we went around lunch time and got a bagel, yep it starts with B too, to eat. After we were done and the restaurant had cleared out we went up and looked around some more. I showed her all of the different kinds of bread, we were able to see the oven a little, some of the materials sitting out and a large cooling rack. She really enjoyed seeing everything we had talked and read about. We will definitely try to keep doing this more often. 

For our activity this week we baked bread. A and E were not as interested in this activity as the ones we did last week so I think we need to go back to more artsy projects!

Well, we are moving on to the letter C!

Week One: The Letter A

For our first week of school we looked at the letter A. Our theme for the week was apples. For our vocabulary we learned about the stem, peel, and seeds. Some of the books A enjoyed reading were The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall and How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman (I liked them both a lot too).  I found an old poem called An Apple Pie which was enjoyable to recite with the girls.

The girls enjoyed singing songs about apples. I did a simple search and found a song the replaced BINGO for APPLE, another one about an apple tree sung to the tune of I'm a Little Tea Pot and so many others. There are so many creative people out there who have come up with such cute and imaginative songs. Of course we also sang the Johnny Apple Seed song.

For our Bible lesson we read about Adam and Eve. Our scripture verse for the week was: Psalm 145:9 The Lord is good to all.

In math we had fun walking around the house and looking for objects that were round. A and I took pictures of them and then made them into a collage. I tried to let her cut out objects from a magazine that had just one thing but instead she cut her shirt! I very quickly put the scissors away. I don't think we are ready to learn that motor skill yet.

For science we looked at an albatross, aster, antelope and abalone. I think I am going to do something different here because I don't like how this has gone. Look in the future weeks to see how this gets changed!

For social studies we read about Johnny Appleseed. A can now tell you what he did, where he was born and where he is buried!

A and E had lots of fun with art. I need to incorporate this more because it was just so much fun for both of them. We made an animal paper bag puppet. I dug out some old craft supplies for the girls to glue onto their paper bags and let them color them. They had fun talking and playing with each other. Both the girls also really enjoyed painting an apple. I drew and apple on paper and they finger painted it.

All in all we have had a great first week. I think there are some things to try differently but I would say it was a great week of learning, loads of fun and a general success! Lets bring on the letter B.

I will try and get some pictures up here soon for you to see the girls hard at work.