Our 2nd week is done, and it also went very well! This week seemed extra busy since we had our first official co-op class (called Thursday school) to attend. I was very nervous about getting there and getting the kids involved, hoping they’d love it, etc., etc. Evie and I also visited an American Heritage Girls meeting (sort of like Girl Scouts but better), and she really liked it. Of course, any time there is the possibility of earning a badge, she’s ALL in! Here’s a run down of what went on around here last week:
Bible: We learned about the creation of Adam & Eve and the first sin. All we are doing for Bible is reading the Child’s Story Bible by Catherine Vos, so that keeps it nice and simple. We then check our art books for any relevant artwork that the kids can look over. Jacob thought it was pretty neat that the “lump” in his throat is known as an Adam’s apple so that we’ll remember that fruit being eaten. We’re also working on memorizing Scripture, and our first verse is known to both kids! Genesis 1:1. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Easy peasy like Jacob says. Now we’ll be working on Proverbs 3:5-6!
Math: We continued in our Horizon’s workbooks, and everything is going smoothly here. Last week I expressed some frustration over Jacob not being able to hold his pencil very well, and I received lots of feedback on several of the Facebook groups I’m a member on. I did get some of those triangular pencils, and he does like them. I’m also going to start doing some core strengthening exercises with him because if you develop the BIG muscles in the body, the smaller muscles tend to work better. I found a nice website laying out a bunch of fun, kid-friendly core muscle exercises here, and we’ll probably spend a few minutes every morning just getting moving this way. We’re also working on wiggling our fingers in a pattern to get those muscles moving. Lastly, we’ve sort of developed a checklist for holding a pencil properly, so he’ll go through them sort of like a pilot would before take-off. The BIGGEST one is to keep his hand on the table when he writes, and that happens to be a shoulder girdle strengthening need from what I’ve read. So, there’s something to work on for me!
Language Arts: This is going really well. I’ve made some changes in the Pathway workbook for Evie since some of the exercises just didn’t seem necessary at all, and now it’s going well. Language Lessons is great. On days when Jacob doesn’t have any Pathway exercises (he only does them every other day), I’m having him do a scissoring activity or a pre-writing activity to boost his strength.
Play-doh letter mats! We did the letter “A” in Language Lessons this week.
Five in a Row: This week we rowed Night of the Moonjellies, and the kids again just loved the activities. We made a jellyfish in a bottle, the kids got to operate a diner just like in the book (which was actually dinner that night), we played with sand and water in a tupperware box with some ocean toys thrown in for fun, we made glow-in-the-dark jellyfish to swim with in the bathtub, we made jellyfish artwork, watched jellyfish on Youtube, going on a DVD scavenger hunt, and we ATE jellyfish. (Okay, not really, but we ate hot dog slices with spaghetti poked through the middle and then cooked, and they LOOKED like jellyfish.) Just about every activity we did was a big hit! Although, they aren’t really digging reading the FIAR title once every day (which is why it’s CALLED Five in a Row). Instead, we read it once and then read a go-along book every day after. I always ask if they’d like to hear the original, but so far that’s not been happening. If I need to point something out from the manual for the day, I’ll open the original book and we’ll discuss whatever the topic is though. Our go-along books this week included Going Lobstering (which the kids LOVED), Out of the Ocean, the movie Oceans by Disney, and Hide and Seek Fog. I am SO thankful for a wonderful library!
Evie making her jellyfish watercolor. She takes her artwork very seriously. Love it!
Running the diner like in the story of Night of the Moonjellies. Jacob named it “The Hot Dog Restaurant.”
Our ocean/beach boxes. After the water was dried up, we had excellent castle-building sand.
History: Things have settled down quite a bit in our Truthquest book this week. No longer am I trying to cram 2 or 3 books into each day on EVERY topic in the book. As a matter of fact, one of the library books I selected didn’t come in on time (boooo!), and we really had to improvise on the topic of St. Augustine. I really need to start having Evie narrate back to me what she’s learned each day. I try to keep it interesting, and I want her to take something (anything) away from the readings each day.
Science: In Considering God’s Creation, we learned about the stars and the universe. We checked out a glow-in-the-dark constellation book from the library that also discussed how they got the names and stories behind the constellations. We had fun reading through that. We also checked out an online planetarium which was fun (but made her dizzy).
Prairie Primer: We read a couple of chapters in Little House in the Big Woods this week. We didn’t really complete any huge projects like last week. We did a lot of lapbooking in our Binder Builder. We learned about rabies and Louis Pasteur (with this wonderful book from my past), and I think we’ll spend a little more time looking at how they treated disease back in the day (bloodletting, etc.,) because she seemed interested in that. She was checking our cat for signs of rabies by the end of the day. 😉
Thursday School: On Thursday mornings, we wake up entirely too early and drive for 45 minutes to our co-op. Evie takes 3 classes: gym, arts & crafts, and biology. Jacob is in a 3-hour long kindergarten class where they do all sorts of different things. Anna…well, Anna was pretty miserable. She had to be up early, had to stay still and be quiet during the assembly (HA!), had to play in a small nursery she’d never been to before, etc., etc. I ended up sticking with her the whole time, and that made things rather unpleasant for both of us. I’m very hopeful this next week will be better if I do some better planning though. Otherwise, I might be bothering my sister-in-law about babysitting for me! 😀 Jacob and Evie had a lot of fun and can’t wait to go back, and I had a great time too!
This next week will be jam packed again, but the kids are ready! It’s nice to have weekends to catch our breath. But when we said prayers I mentioned I was thankful we were able to do homeschool, and Jacob said “Yea, I love homeschool.” So – YAY! Evie feels the same. I think the only one NOT enthused about it is little Anna who is sort of left hanging out to dry while everyone does everything without her. We’re working on that though…
Wise.Owl.Homeschool 
Sounds like your week went well! 🙂
Thanks for posting. Loved hearing how the first couple weeks went. My first two weeks have gone so well I cannot believe it! Thankful. We can do this!