Home school during a "short" week

This week was a bit shorter for us because Daddy took Labor Day off. So we got to spend a lot of time just spending time together being a family.

On Tuesday when we finally jumped into school we started learning 2 new poems, 1 new scripture verse, and reading a couple of fun new read alouds for our morning time. Our morning time is becoming our favorite time of the day.

When we got to the curriculum for the week Arielle started learning the letter "Ll" this week.

First we read all about leaves and how they work. We looked at how a leaf has to be attached to the tree for it to continue to live and thrive. We learned that once the leaf falls the tree it will die. That is the same thing that happens when we fall away from a life in Jesus.

Then we went on a fun walk around our neighborhood picking up leaves. We discovered that there are a lot of different kinds of trees and bushes with lots of different types of leaves.

Sometimes they even act like they like each other.

We examined the leaves, classified the leaves, and made leaf rubbings from a few of the different ones we brought home. Today we went on a walk at the zoo and while looking at the animals we also looked at the different types of leaves around the zoo. It was fun to see the different types of trees in the different habitats.

Of course there was some table work to be done as well but we kept that to a minimum this week and I actually think we will be cutting back on a lot of the worksheets and things like that. They really just take up ink and paper and we can learn the same things through other hands on methods. That is the joy of homeschooling!

She loves to draw but writing her letters correctly is a bit more challenging.

Dart is also moving along with his schooling. In science this week we continued on the human body. It was fun to see him be able to color in and identify several of the internal organs and body parts. There was a fun experiment about how chewing helps us get our food digested but I forgot to get all the supplies. Hopefully we can circle back to that one in the next few weeks.

In history we are still going through ancient history and today he got to learn how to write his name as well as the rest of the family's names in cuneiform. That was really neat.

I also became mom of the year when I let him practice his addition skills using Pez candies. I set a timer for him and he practiced adding in groups with the candies. Then when the timer went off he was able to eat the evidence. We tried to get rid of the evidence before the girls got up from their nap but it didn't work so we all had Pez candies for snack.

The candy was a bit more sour than he had anticipated it being.
It was funny!

A few work sheets were also involved for the week but again we mostly have been focusing on the hands on activities. We are moving along with our reading and we have been learning long vowel sounds this week. That one is a bit more tricky but he is picking it up pretty quickly.

I honestly think the one fear I have always heard that new home-school moms have is "Can I teach my child to read?"  I would be lying if I said I have never had that thought. I actually ask that question almost everyday. But then I look around me and I see and hear from home-school graduates everywhere and I realize that they are just fine and my kids will be too.

The rest of the week consisted of playing outside, exploring the zoo and learning a bit about roles and responsibilities around the house. It was lots for fun getting to help wash the dishes for the first time. I have to say they both did an excellent job and I was able to take 2 phone calls and get the rest of the kitchen cleaned up with only minimal mess involved. WIN!!!

Brother washing dishes and sister rinsing and stacking.

I hope you enjoyed your peek into our week as we continue to make our family our greatest adventure!

Weekly Wrap Up...In Photos

This week we had a lot of fun. There were so many great activities and a lot of learn so I thought I would just let you see it all in pictures this time. I hope you enjoy a glimpse into our week.

Introducing Morning Basket Time..and the Rest of Our Weekly Plan

Over the past few weeks I have discovered several new podcasts that I am really LOVING. All of them are done by homeschooling moms who have seen it fit to share with the world how they are thriving in their home-schooling life. For me this is WONDERFUL because it is giving me all kinds of ideas on what I can add or take away from my home school day to make things a bit more fun and enjoyable as well as getting the most out of the learning time that we have.

One thing that I have have discovered through listening to these podcasts is the concept of "Morning Time" or "Morning Basket Time". This is a time when everyone comes together for a time of learning where the important things that I as the "teacher" really want to get done but may often push aside because I feel that I need to focus more on the core subjects that the would be learning in a traditional school setting. These are also the subjects that everyone can be learning together at the same time such as history, science, and Bible.

I was so excited to get this incorporated into our home school day that I spent most of Saturday researching, reading, and tearing through my house to find the things that I wanted to fold into our Morning Time. We will be starting out small with a devotional and some bible time, a time of prayer for the start of our day, singing, and poetry. Next week we will begin to fold in scripture memory as well. I will be writing more about our "Morning Basket" on my other blog Life of a Seminary Wife in the next week or so.

And now....

Here is what we will be learning as Mars Hall Legacy Academy this week;

Kindergarten

We are moving on to the next letter in our learning. This week we will be learning the letter "Mm" 

This week's unit is all about the moon and the stars.

Bible: "I am the Light of the World"  Matthew :14-16; 2 Corinthians 3:18

Math: # 2. This week we will also start with adding colors to our calendar time for review of all the colors of the rainbow.

Science: Moon and Stars

Language Arts:  ABC song, Learning the "Mm" sound

Extra: Gymnastics on Friday. 

1st Grade

Adding in some of the more hands on activities for our 1st grade lessons really made a huge difference in how we got through school last week. Dart was excited to come in and start learning so we are going to continue on that trend and keep up this love of learning as long as I possibly can! 

Bible:  This week we are continuing the life and ministry of Jesus and how that pertains to how we can be serving God

Math: Writing out number words, Counting by 2's, Beginning Addition

Science: Finishing up the digestive system

History: Ancient Mesopotamia

Language Arts: We are still trucking along in our learning to read. We are also incorporating some other language arts skills now as well since I totally missed that part of the lesson plans from the beginning. Oh well, as long as he learns doesn't matter when we start.

Extras:Gymnastics continues every Friday as well. We are also going to be adding some art and music appreciation as well but these might get moved to our new Morning Basket Time later on down the road.

Friday Wrap Up

This week was  fun one. We are finally getting back into the swing of things when it comes to getting back into the swing of school.

This week in kindergarten we finished up with the Sun Unit. This is the first of the unit studies that are done in the My Fathers World program so the first week is always a bit rough.

So what did we do?

Well, first we all started our school time at the table together. Each kiddo took some time practicing some writing skills based on their age and level. Some were writing numbers, other letters, and another just coloring and loving the fun color options.

On Monday we put some grapes in a container in the window and we are going to see how long it takes for the sun to turn them into raisins. (Don't worry we don't plan on eating them!) Arielle things it will take 10 days for the raisins to be complete. I am pretty sure it will take a bit longer than that.

The rest of the week we talked about the sun and its effects. We studied how the earth tuns and moves around the sun and we learned about shadows.

The Book of the Week was Bear Shadow by Frank Asch.
This is a story about a little bear who tries to get rid of his shadow. It was cute to go through and the pictures are wonderful!







This week in First Grade we continued with most of our lessons from last week

We continued our study on the human body in science. We got to go through the digestive system which for a 6 year old boy was all kinds of fun (Any time you can talk about poop it's bound to be a good time) We learned how the digestive system works, the different names of the organs and muscles in our digestive system, and where to find them in our bodies. We are adding new labels to our human body charts each week. Soon we will know where everything in our body is and how it all works together.

In history this wear we are studying Ancient History. This week we continued along in our study of Ancient Egypt learning about King Tut, and adding to our Ancient Egypt timeline. Dart is really enjoying his studies on the Ancient time period so far. I hope we keep having a good time.

We are trucking along in our learning to read lessons and we also began some long vowel sound practice as well. Math this week was ordinal number. We had a lot of fun with that too. We go to pull out the shapes and do some fun math learning with those.

In Bible we are journeying through the life and ministry of Jesus in Matthew. This week we learned about Jesus' compassion and mercy through His teachings. It was especially fun because Dad got in on the learning with us for Bible on Thursday. Everyone had a good time learning about mercy and we even had a fun craft to go with it!

This was the last week that we had one of our friends here with us all the time so we also took some extra time to just play and enjoy the company. His little sister will keep coming to play at our house during the week but he is starting kindergarten in his new school on Monday! We will miss having him here to play with us but it will be an exciting new adventure for him.

So there you have it. Our weekly wrap up for what we learned in school this week. Next week I am hoping to incorporate some new things into our day to hopefully keep the tone nice and calm and less frantic. Stay tuned on Sunday evening to see what we will be learning about next week.

Thanks for stopping by!

A Bit of Catch-Up

Plans. I had big grand plans for keeping those of you out there updated and informed on what we are doing here at Mars Hall Legacy Academy. However, life got in the way of those plans. At first we got busy with how much fun we were having and then daddy ended up getting sick and had to spend a few days in the hospital. That meant that I was there with him and the kiddos got to spend a few days with a great friend. So we have already had our first big break for the year.

But we are all home now and ready to get back into the swing of things. So without further ado here is an overview of what we will be doing this week.

Kindergarten

Arielle has finished the Creation unit and we are moving on to the letter units. The first letter we will be learning is "Ss" 

This week is all about the sun.

Bible: "Jesus is the Light of the World"  John 8:12; Psalm 119: 105

Math: #1 and Intro to the number line

Science: Sun

Language Arts: Continuing ABC song, learning the S sound

Extra: Gymnastics on Friday. They have been doing an Olympic themed session so this week the parents get to come on to the floor to watch the kids do a routine.

1st Grade

I am working on tweaking a bit of how we are using this curriculum so it has been slow going getting in a routine but I think we might finally have it all sorted out. 

Bible:  This week we are continuing the life and ministry of Jesus.

Math: Skip counting, ordinal numbers and number words

Science: Bones and the digestive system

History: Ancient Egypt continued

Language Arts: For the first half of the year we will be following the "Learn to Read" lessons so that Dart can get a better grasp on his reading before jumping into the chapter books in the lessons. So this week in language arts we are doing some blending sounds and sight word reviews continued. 

Extras:Gymnastics continues every Friday as well.


Getting back into the routine after a long break is never easy but we are all excited to get back to learning and enjoying our school time!  I can't wait to share with you what we have done at the end of the week. 

Introducing Mars Hall Legacy Academy

One of the fun things I have seen several of the home-school families do around here is to name their "school". Its nice to create a nifty little hashtag when sharing photos on social media. And for the kiddos to be able to say what "school" they go to when people ask.

Over the past few weeks I have been thinking about what to call our little school and yesterday I came up with "Mars Hall Legacy Academy"

So there you have it. We are now going to be know as that when we are talking about what school we are going do. 

A logo of sorts will be coming shortly but for now we will jump into the intro to our first week of school

Kindergarten

Arielle has begun Kinder this year!

This week is all about the creation story found in Genesis 1 and 2. We will be creating a creation book, reading through the creation story in the Bible and learning fun songs that focus on God's wonderful creation. 

Bible: Genesis 1 and 2. Reading the Creation Story and discussing what God did each day of Creation

Math: Creation days  posters focusing on the numbers

Science: Creation book

Language Arts: Learning the ABC song and getting familiar with each of the 26 letters and what the look like.

Extra: Music songs like BINGO, The BIBLE, and Old MacDonald. Gymnastics continues every Friday.

1st Grade

Dartanion has begun 1st grade. Here is an overview of his first week of school

Bible:  This week we begin in Matthew and the life and ministry of Jesus

Math: Refreshers on counting and sorting. We will also start discussing Odds and Evens later in the week.

Science: This week in Science we begin with Life Science. We will begin with the body, skin, and muscles.

History: Ancient Egypt. ( I am really excited about this one!)

Language Arts: For the first half of the year we will be following the "Learn to Read" lessons so that Dart can get a better grasp on his reading before jumping into the chapter books in the lessons. So this week in language arts we are doing some blending sounds and sight word reviews.

Extras: Music and Art in nature made by God. Gymnastics continues every Friday as well. 

We are also reading together during lunch and talking about what we have read. 

So there you have it. This weeks at-a-glance. 

Come back Friday to see what we learned and see some fun pictures!

Its that time of year again

Well, here we are. Just one week away from starting a new school year.

This year we have made the decision to start Arielle in Kindergarten even though she is only 4. She is so beyond ready to start school and she could really use something to be doing with her day.

Dartanion will be starting 1st grade.

While searching for what curriculum I would be using I happened to stumble upon an online homeschool program. It is a Christian based education with Bible built in as one of the core subjects. A lot of it has an online component but I am working to modify it to be as offline as possible. There have been some that say it can't be done but they haven't met me yet! HA!

You can see more of that curriculum here at Easy Peasy All in One HomeSchool

Arielle will be going through the My Father's World Kindergarten program that Dartanion just finished. We had a lot of fun with this program last year and I am looking forward to going through it again with her.

Now that both kids are going to be "in school" I am going to be using this little corner of the internet to keep tabs on what the kids are doing. This will be the place where grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, and anyone else who wants to follow along will be able to see what we are learning and what fun activities we have going on.

My plan as of right now is to update every Sunday evening and Friday afternoon.

Sunday will be our weekly intro. I will share what we will be studying in each subject and any fun activities we have planned.

Friday will be our weekly wrap up. I will talk about any details we might have missed in our weekly intro as well as fun projects or activities we did in regards to the lessons.

I am hoping that this will be somewhat picture heavy since I want to capture the neat activities that the kids will do as they learn and grow.

I hope that you will enjoy this school year with us!

Keep an eye out on Sunday as I introduce the first week of school's lessons and activities!