Home-SU-Cool

Making the ant craft, I realized to kill some time for the preschooler, we did a sorting of eyes according size with her. We enjoyed the Little Red Hen story and used pictures to tell it. We found a Little Red Hen video too. The last picture happened this morning. I put out the books and was getting ready to read with them and then went to give my baby a feeding. When I came back, I saw this scene. It's a wonderful thing to see kids reading (even if they can't exactly read). I think MFW gives us a good variety of good literature to enjoy.  I benefitted a lot mainly from the forum on the website. Ian fell in love with Frog and Toad story . He can actually memorize it. And he likes to write lists like Toad. And he wrote thousands of them (it seems like). He kept practicing and practicing. He can actually write them by heart and not copy (like in the beginning). It's funny how interest can really spur on learning!

The favorite of this unit of course. The Anthill. We were really surprised by how much we learnt! And though I'm REALLY squeamish about anything that moves that isn't human, I'm real glad we did this. It was fun!! We also did a lapbook which I only found 3 days into the unit. Found the materials here We like the books, but I don't think they're great. The kids like the Roly Poly Spider and What a pair most. I can't tell why. Esp Roly Poly Spider. I don't think it's much content. Seems like the round spider is real cute.  We added Harold and the purple crayon ( the giant garden ) into the books, cos it's about bugs and ants!

I like the theme for this week, but felt that not enough is done to reinforce the important idea that "Jesus died for my sins". Here're the activities we'll do: *Go through the gospel using the Wordless Book again. I've explained the gospel to Ian in the past year and he understood perfectly and knows he believes and that Jesus is in him. *Using puppets from here for the Old MacDonald Song *Match adult and child animal from here *Make farm animals/babies book from here and here *other nice worksheets I found are: prepositions (farm animals) and Animal Sounds *for the preschooler, we received a Mary Had a Little Lamb book and puzzle for Christmas and we'll do that with her. *let the child write his/her sins on a paper and then cover them with a cut out cross Booklist: Beatrice's Goat by Page McBrier G is for Goat and Oh, Look! by Patricia Polacco Gordon in Charge by Jill Newton Bill Grogan's Goat , adapted by Mary Ann Hoberman L

Here's to hoping we get a better week for I-Insect! Our plan: ANTS * Anthill (I've prepared the anthill, but the ants haven't arrived! And yes, I still CAN'T believe I paid to get ants) *Ant craft using paper egg cartons *Observation log using ideas here LADYBUG *ladybug game *ladybug craft (still looking) *ladybug snack use half an apple, dots of peanut butter and put raisins on them. I think it'll be great! *some more ladybug preschooler ideas here *Ladybug math game (I like this but may not have time for it) BEES *Honey snack (still thinking) *Bee craft? *Matching bee and flower color folder game *Berenstain bear Honey Hunt board game (Activities) OTHERS *Grasshopper and Ant video *Read Little Red Hen story here BOOKLIST Are you an ant? The Roly Poly Spider Are you a ladybug The very quiet Cricket the Very Lonely Firefly Ant & Honey Bee What a Pair! Insects are my life The ant and the grasshopper Inch by inch Bugs are insects

With 3 kids, and me and hubby sick for most of the past 2 weeks and the youngest one with ear infection, allergy to meds etc...I'm grateful we even got school done at all! But we did, but we toned down and did a lot less activities.   Here are the ones we did: *colored and read about the woman at the well  *We checked out the different states of water  *did water cycle using the evaporation, condensation...  *did the rising ice experiment *did the rain in the jar experiment (failed ) *read some books. We didn't have really good ones this week  *cut some snowflakes  *drank lots of water So. Here's to some mundane weeks of homeschooling. =)

Our fav for this unit were the books and the lunch! I don't think I had a unit that I loved every book! The kids' favorite must have been Tickly Octopus and It's a good thing you're not an octopus. They really are great reads! For the lunch , here're the ingredients: Octopus: hot dog, sunflower seeds Starfish: cheese sandwich, cheerios Crab: Persimmon, raisins Seaweed, goldfish Other things we did: *Mural, using hands and fist for octopus *Acting out Rainbow Fish *Some nice worksheets *Retelling stories And we found a great video for Swimmy. In Mandarin! Ian LOVED it!

Here's the plan for W-Water unit. My biggest challenge would be how to explain living water to the spirit to a 5 year old. hmm.  Here are my planned activities: Water as Liquid   -Read Helen Frost's Water as Liquid   -putting liquid in different containers, showing that liquid conforms to containers  -guess which container has more water  -Make chart for liquid/solid/gas  Water as Solid   -Read Helen Frost's Water as Solid -Make paper snowflakes   -Rising Ice experiment Water as Gas   -Read Helen Frost's Water as Gas and Water Cycle   -Water cycle explanation and showing (ideas from here )  -Rain in a jar experiment    Other activities  -Soap-powered boat experiment -Snack ideas: popsicles? -Telling the story of Woman at the Well (and coloring) for day 1 Booklist (besides Helen Frost's) Let's Try It Out in the Water by Semour Simon and Nicole Fauteux  I get Wet Vicki Cobb Make Way for the ducklings    But I get a feeling

O-Octopus. not my favorite animal. =) But we get learn about other sea animals too!  Here's my plan! * Read Rainbow Fish and act out story using the props here * Read House for Hermit Crab and act out story using the props here * Make a under the sea mural * Color sea in Black and White World Map * Nice worksheets here and here * Make hot dog octopus snack (cut the hot dog into 8 slits (on the bottom half and boil, they curl!) * Think of a way to do some serious praising the Lord! =) The booklist A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle Herman the Helper - Robert Kraus How to Hide an Octopus - Ruth Heller (about animal camoflauge) Good Thing You're Not an Octopus! by Julie Markes (fiction) Hide and Seek Underwater Life by Valerie Davies (nonfiction) Tickly Octopus by Ruth Galloway IS this a house for hermit crab?, megan mcdonald  Swimmy Leo lionni

The books we read. We enjoyed the Berenstain Bears one and Danny and the Dinosaur most. We did the D-Dinosaur unit over Thanksgiving, so it took a long time as we took a break for that. As I said in the plan. What I was surprised about was how much my faith grew just by reading the article by Ken Ham. Here are what we did: *Dino-rama using the dinos from download -a-dinosaur *dino drawings (I was very surprised by Ian who did a really good job!) *dino play-doh. AHHH...he's not that good in this one. =) *Made a story of "Ian and the Dinosaur" (from Danny and the Dinosaur) I thought he did a great job on this! (a Charlotte Mason-y kind of thing I think) *made dinosaur book (I didn't put this in the plan but I like it very much! In fact I like the graphics by Kizclub a lot! Clean and nice) *match dinosaurs from here *made a dino craft from "D" I surprised the kids by making the dinosaur lunch (using Tyson's Nuggets). and in turn my boy surprised me by