September 14-20

Bible  This was our first week with our new Bible curriculum through the Explorer’s Series.  So far so good.  Jaylyn really enjoys the short stories and the questions at the end of each lesson really help her retain the information.  We’ve had so many discussions about the lessons and she brings up questions about the lessons throughout the day.  They’re sticking with her!  We’ve discussed how God loves us, God wants us to pray, and how we should tell others about Him.  Today she told me she was going to be a missionary and that she wanted to call her great grandmother to tell her about Jesus. 

Memorization  Jaylyn has been memorizing “The Caterpillar” by Christina Rossetti.  We’ve also reviewed Philippians 2:14-15 and Proverbs 17:22.  AWANA has also started for the year so we’ve had some new verses for that.  I John 4:8 is her verse for the week. 

Math  In math we completed lesson 12 and reviewed place value.  Jaylyn is doing great with addition and can do much of the 1-5 addition in her head.  As we get into the bigger numbers she still struggles but she is able to visualize adding the blocks together and can pick which rod would equal the other two smaller rods put together.  We’ve also done many story problems while we’re in the car.  We make up stories about Jaylyn going shopping for new dolls, she finds two she likes and then sees one more.  How many dolls?  Then she sees one more that would be a good friend to those dolls.  So how many now?  She’s actually able to follow along and is doing great.  She always asks for a story now.  We’ve even done some simple subtraction in our stories. 

Reading/Phonics  We have been learning the vowel sounds this week.  AHHHH, OHHHH, IHHHH, UHHH!  Jaylyn loves the sound effects of the vowels and Jaxon has been really in to learning them too.  He mostly just repeats whatever Jaylyn says.  Next week we’re going to learn some of the blends.  We have also practiced the letters that start at 2 o’clock—a, c, d, f, g, o, qu, and s.  Jaylyn is doing really well in her handwriting and her a’s, c’s, and o’s are great.  S is a hard one for her and seem to squiggle all over the page. 

Literature  We read stories from Aesop, For the Children’s Hour, Mother Stories, and A Child’s Book of Verse.  We also read stories from Andersen and a story about Picasso. 

Science  We discussed bees and hives.  We made a pretend hive under the small table and Jaylyn was the queen bee, Jaxon and I were worker bees, and Ellie was the baby bee.  We also watched several videos about bees, hives, how bees make honey, and how new hives are started.  We also took a field trip to the science museum where we played in a tractor, in the water, in a little treehouse, in the shadow box, and in the gymnastics room. 

Geography  We talked about islands and learned the word Archipelago.  Any time she saw something grouped together she would point out that it looked like an archipelago.  I love when she learns big words! 

Art/Music  We drew a bee with crayon and colored the wings with baby oil to make them transparent.  We “toe” painted on the patio.  We listened to the Flight of the Bumble Bee while we painted.  We also made a rolled bee with construction paper and added googly eyes and wax paper wings. 

On Saturday Jaylyn had art class at the art museum.  We read a book about Van Gogh and then painted with acrylic paint mixed with corn starch to make thick paint.  Jaylyn painted with brushes, forks, and knives to make a textured picture.  Then we toured the museum through the impressionism gallery and saw paintings by Monet, Renoir, and Van Gogh. 

I cannot figure out the best way to keep track of what we do in our little homeschool.  I've decided that journaling is probably the easiest way to document our preschool activities, but I'm still trying to determine the easiest formats for journaling.  I thought I would keep a weekly journal and hit some of the highlights of our week.  I know I will so enjoy reading back over these records in later years. 

Anyone have suggestions for journal-keeping?

Bible:  We’ve been reading through the Precious Moments Bible.  We just completed the stories of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.  The crucifixion stories were more detailed than any we’ve read in the past.  Jaylyn was very bothered by how hateful everyone was.  She’s still trying to grasp the concept of why Jesus died.

Memorization:  We’ve been working to memorize Psalm 23 and we’re still working on it!  We’ve made it to, “Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”  I’ve spent so much time trying to explain those verses to her.  We have been talking about the rod and the staff and how shepherds used them.  Jaylyn decided that she had shepherd dogs.  Smart girl!  Make them do all the work!

Math:  We’re still discussing place value.  Units, tens, and hundreds.  It’s beginning to make more sense now.  The teens and the numbers that end in 0 still trip her up though.

Reading:  We completed another Lesson from the EZ Lessons book.  Jaylyn is learning the ING sound and is beginning to read longer stories.  She still guesses at certain words and tries to tell stories her own way.  A + for creativity.

Literature:  We read books and poems about the ocean this week.  We’ve also begun reading through some of Aesop’s fables.  We read them over and over and over again.  Now Jaylyn talks about the stories and asks questions about them frequently.  They’re really making her think and have some great vocabulary words in them!  We also had a library trip!

Science:  We went to a neighbor’s house to watch them release their butterflies.  Jaylyn held one on her finger before it flew away.  She has been very in to butterflies again lately.  She crawled in her sleeping bag and told me it was her chrysalis.  When she came out I told her to fly away because she was a beautiful butterfly.  “No Mom!  I can’t!!!  My wings are all wet!” 

Geography:  We still talk about the 50 states and have been talking about Germany lately. 

Art/Music:  We’re working on a Good Night Moon lapbook from homeschoolshare.  We made a scroll and Jaylyn decorated it.  I wrote Psalm 23 on it and she reads it like they do in the Bible.  She’s very proud of her scroll.  We also made a shoe box mailbox so we can “mail” Daddy letters while he’s gone.  Now we just have to decorate it completely.  We also attended an art class at our local museum.  The class was about architecture and the kids built creations with all different wooden shapes.  Lots of sticky glue with that one.

We’ve been listening to Bach and Baroque music and discussing what it means to be a composer.  Now Jaylyn wants to know who “composes” every song.  We also discussed the funny powdered wigs.  She can’t figure that one out.