Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Jocelyn's Book!

Jocelyn wanted to be like her big sister and write a book, so she began coloring several pictures and asked me to staple them together for her.

Clay and I had to laugh when we saw the cover of her book. It looks like headstones for Mommy and Daddy. We asked her what they were and she said they were rocks. ;)

Butterfly!

Madison!

Numbers and Flowers!

Rainbow!

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Gyotaku (Japanese Fish Print)

Today Madison made her own Gyotaku (Japanese Fish Print).

We labeled all of the parts of our fish.

We bought a whole fish from the grocery store.

Madison thought it was stinky and slimy!

She enjoyed painting all of the parts of the fish a different color.

Time to make our Japanese fish print.

Gyotaku!

Monday, November 8, 2010

Mobiles

Madison was thrilled to make her first mobile today of the Old World and New World. She is looking forward to learning more about Christopher Columbus this week.

We also made a school of fish! We have tons of fun fish projects planned this week.

Friday, November 5, 2010

Paper Mache Globe

This week we made our own paper mache globes.

We mixed:
1 cup of Corn Starch
1/2 cup of Water
1/2 cup of White Glue

The girls did not want to get messy, so they decided to tear the newspaper for me. I got the MESSY job of dipping the newspaper strips in the paste and covering the balloons. We had to let them dry overnight.

The next day Madison painted our globes blue to represent the oceans. We had to let them dry overnight again before we colored and glued on the continents.

Madison is so proud of her finished globe. It is hanging from the ceiling so that everyone can see it. ;)

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Happy 7th Birthday Mia!

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Noun Soup and Jingle

Madison wanted to share her Noun Soup and Noun Jingle with everyone today.


Noun Jingle
This little noun
Floating around
Names a person, place, or thing.
With a knick knack, paddy wack,
These are English rules.
Isn't language fun and cool?

Monday, November 1, 2010

Homeschooling Curriculum

Today marks the first official day of homeschooling Madison. After a lot of research, we decided on the following curriculums. Several of these I have taught in the past and have seen firsthand how much the children learn. We are very excited to get started. Madison successfully completed both the Saxon Phonics and Saxon Math Kindergarten curriculum over the summer, so we will be moving on to First Grade.


The basics of a God-centered foundation in life are molded early through the examples set by parents, and as children grow older, through diligent instruction. A Father's Care established the principles needed for additional study later in life with full color pages and age appropriate text and questions. Lessons establish the authority of Scripture, aid children to recognize their need for a savior, familiarize them with basic Biblical stories, encourage practical application of Biblical principles and connect the Bible with historical events and other subjects. Coloring, fill-in-the-blank, cut and paste, multiple choice, crossword puzzles and more comprise an an enjoyable and reverent workbook. The Teacher's Guide contains the instructions for the student book, enrichment activities, crafts, memory verses and other portions of the program. Classroom pinups, tests, and test answer key are also included.


Phonics 1 provides students with consistent review and incremental steps needed to become fluent independent readers. Each concept is introduced slowly, using incremental steps for maximum exposure and success. This kit includes a completely scripted, spiral bound, 890 page Home Study Teacher's Manual that covers each element of every lesson; this accompanies the two tablet style student workbooks. A book of literature extensions is included to help with reading comprehension, as is a Home Study Rule Book, filled with representations of the common grammatical and phonetic rules. An alphabet, mini coloring storybooks, irregular spelling book and Teaching Tool Set is also included; the Teaching Tools Set contains review decks, kid cards, rule book, phonics audiotape and video instructional guide.


Nurture a love of the English language along with an understanding of how it's correctly used, with Shurley English. Appealing to all styles of learners, students will repeatedly practice old and new skills, developing a mastery of English in reading, writing and even thinking skills.

This kit is comprised of the student workbook, teacher's manual and jingle/introductory sentence CD. Encouraging student-teacher interaction, the teacher manual is arranged by comprehensive chapters that include everything needed for the lesson, including jingles, exercises, lessons, study, test, check, writing activities and more. Lessons are scripted, with directions for student italicized, important concepts and words bolded, and charts included to help you and the students visualize each idea. Student page numbers are referenced to help both parent and child easily find their respective places. "How to get started" and "jingle guidelines" provide additional hints and information for the teacher. Answers for the student practice and tests (student pages included in the student workbook) are included chronologically.

Divided into a jingle section, reference section, practice section, and a test section, students will need to flip to the necessary section in order to complete their lesson practice. The jingle section contains the lyrics to all the jingles, while the practice section provides a variety of activities, including matching, editing, multiple-choice, short answer, writing exercises, charts and other forms of written skill practice. Each test in the test section is divided into four areas: grammar, vocabulary, language skills and a weekly summary; tests involve a variety of questions that should be familiar from the practice section. The Reference section contains vocabulary words, a beginning set up plan, general reference notes, samples, and charts.

An audio CD with the jingles and introductory sentences is also included to help students remember elements such as parts of speech.

This Level 1 kit covers nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and prepositions; statements and questions, word order, basic punctuation, letters and more.


The Math One Home Study Kit teaches children to skip count by one's, two's, five's and tens, identify ordinal position to tenth, master all basic addition and subtraction facts, measure using inches, feet, and centimeters. Also teaches how to add quarters, draw polygons, and observe information from real graphs, pictographs, and bar graphs.


Gain a thorough understanding of American history with Heritage Studies. Geography, allignment with Bible truths, relevant world history, government, economics and culture are all presented to help better understand the background of the United States. Through this study, students will learn to sequence events, summarize data, make predictions, identify sources of information, work with graphs and formulate opinions. Heritage Studies 1: The New World examines the events from pre-1000 to 1682, covering Columbus, Plymouth, traditing, Native Americans and more.


Vivid photographs, easy-to-understand text, and engaging activities introduce first-graders to the wonders of God's creation through the study of science. Students get age-appropriate experience with scientific observation and the scientific method. Each chapter is designed to become a booklet that students may take home to share with family members at the completion of the chapter.
Level One Science looks at Animals, physical science, the human body, and earth & space with simple text, colorful photographs and review activities & exercises.