Week 4

Bon Jour...we had a very busy week!  It seems we did several projects this week, so I have lots of pictures. 

It was all about the letter E for Soccer Boy.   He is getting the hang of how we do things each day.  He knows when I pull out certain sheets what he is supposed to do without me telling him.  We colored by numbers, sorted elephants by size, did some elephant graphing, painted letter Ee's, did a letter E word hunt and finally put together an E for our alphabet tree (very cute).  We didn't have gray foam, so we have a purple elephant:) We are also continuing his daily reading from his children's Bible...he really likes these stories!

This week we headed off to France.  We learned a few French words, watched a video on truffles, learned about Claude Monet and even made one of his famous waterlily masterpieces.  We learned about the history of the Eiffel Tower and made our own 20 inch replica!  We also learned that soap was accidentally invented in France, thus becoming now well known for their lovely French soaps.  We decided to make our own version...we melted glycerin and soy milk soap, then added fragrances (lavender, of course, since it is from the French countrysides..pearberry and cucumber) and then the fun part...the kids added the soap coloring to form all kinds of unique colors.  They soooo enjoyed this project and were amazed with the finished product.  We now have 21 bars of colorful soap that smell great!  The kids have been using their soap each night! 

Artsy Girl started learning about the "Writing Process" in language arts and we will continue this next week as she drafts, proofs and publishes her very own story. She also did great on her weekly spelling test with short vowel words.  We are continuing subtracting in math with 3 digit numbers (she really does not like this...she puts this off until last :( )  She is continuing her daily bible lessons and also we are still learning about the different phylums of plants (there are many!) in science.

Week # 3

This week it's all about Dinosaurs for Soccer Boy as we learn about the letter D.  We read several dinosaur books, colored, glued, sorted, traced and finally made a cute little dinosaur to add to our tree. He has been walking all over the house saying the "D" says "da"...very cute!

This week we're off to the very beautiful Spain.  We looked at pictures from our trip a couple of years ago, as well as looked at some of the Spanish tiles we brought home.  We spent time talking about how Spain is a peninsula and how they differ from islands.  We learned a few Spanish words and watched a video on Christopher Columbus and his voyages from Spain.  We ended our week studying about a very famous Spanish artist, Pablo Picasso, and re-created one of his masterpieces of a dancing clown (using geometric shapes and collage techniques).  We began studying about the thousands place in math and continued our parts of a sentence in language arts.  She had her very first spelling test and didn't miss a one!  In science, we are doing an overview of the study of botany.  We began our Bible lessons, learning about how God made us each unique and special in our own way:)

Week # 2!

We are now settling into a nice little routine. 
This week Soccer Boy learned all about the letters B and C...we even went on scavenger hunt around the house gathering items that begin with these letters.  He added his letters to our alphabet tree (pics to come soon). He is even beginning to learn the pledge and enjoying his daily bible stories.

This week it's off to The British Isles where we learned all about England, Scotland, Wales and northern Ireland and put our first stamp in our passport.  We learned about Charles Dickens, the author of her book, Oliver Twist, which she continues to read.  We spoke with our very best British accents...Artsy Girl says that mine is really terrible:)  We visited London and took a drive through the Scottish countryside to see the beautiful castles.  We ended our week making a model of Stonehenge out of flour, sand, glue and food coloring (who knew?).  It's looks really good and Artsy Girl is very proud of it.  And for our art, we learned about Vincent Van Gogh (she is fascinated that he cut his own ear off).  We began our grammar studies learning about the parts of a sentence which will continue into next week.  Still reviewing math and started our science...this year we all spending a whole year learning all about plants:)

First week of School!!

This is our first week of school for this year!  Artsy Girl has started 2nd grade and Soccer Boy is starting K4.  Things went so great. 
I was anxious about starting school with Soccer Boy, even if it is preschool, but he has been doing so well.  He is very proud of himself and loves having his own cubby with his notebook and supplies.  We started with the letter A...we sang songs, did lots of tracing, coloring and at the end of the week added our letter A to our alphabet tree on the wall. 

Artsy Girl started with some review of language arts, math and spelling.  She started reading "Oliver Twist", her first big chapter book...she's a little nervous.  This year we will be visiting over 30 countries (one a week) with our geography/history studies.   We did an overview of all the continents, learned about latitude/longitude and how to read a map/globe.  We ended our week making a paper mache globe out of a beachball!!  Sooooo much fun and very messy.  The kids had a ball making it, and when dry, Artsy Girl gave it a coat of paint with all the different continents different colors.  Enjoy the pics!! :)