Week in review: Our first week

This Monday we started our first week of school. I’m glad we waited until late August to begin because it gave the boys a few weeks of summer vacation time.  We had a light week with basic subjects and a few electives such as health and science mixed in. 


Each day we are doing Calendar Math. We made a new Calendar and Morning board this year and the boys really like it.  The boys are learning the days of the week, telling time, counting the days we are in school, keeping track of the weather and learning our weekly bible character trait.  

We being our day with a Bible Devotional from the book “First Steps: 75 Devotions for Families with young children by Paul J. Loth.

Here are the highlights of our week  

Bible
We read about the Creation Story (Genesis 1:1-8, 1:14-18) Days 1,2 and 4 of Creation.  The boys learned about God’s creations of light, sun, sky. moon and stars.  They learned that Genesis means beginning.  We read two poems; “The Moon” author unknown and “Stars” by Rhonda Backmeister.

Weekly Character Trait
Our Bible Character Trait this week is Order.
“But everything should be done
in a fitting and orderly way.”  1 Corinthians 14:40


To help the boys with keeping order in our home, I made a chart for them to see our daily routine of how their day will be. To carry this into our homeschooling, I also made a pocket chart of the areas we will be covering each day. (pictured below)



Language Arts
We read several books for our theme unit on “All About Me. We used our story wands throughout the week to discuss the stories we read.

The boys worked on their “All About me” books.  Each day they complete two pages of their book. After the end of next week when it is complete, I plan on binding each book for the boys.

My youngest son was excited when he received his own copy of the book “Picture Me Grown-Up. Our oldest son received his copy when he was little. The book is great because it has over 60 peel and press pieces that allow young children to have fun seeing themselves in different outfits and hairstyles.
Kids can imagine what they ‘d look like in different careers and imagine the pet of their dreams. The peel and press stickers allow kids to change the story again and again. My youngest had so much fun with his book throughout the week.

Health
We are using Abeka Health. Safety and Manners. This week as part of “All About Me” theme, we measured the boys’ height and weight. We discussed good and bad habits and made a list of good habits we can do instead of bad.

Science
To tie in with our Bible study on Creation, we read books about the Sun.  We read the book “Sunshine Makes the Seasons” and talked about the sun and it’s affect on weather and seasons. We viewed photos of the moon and talked about how it revolves around the earth.

We read the book “Our Stars” by Anne Rockwell. The boys learned that stars grouped together are called constellations. The boys used star stickers to complete their constellation dot to dot worksheets from Ed Helper.

Art and Crafts
The boys had fun creating sculptures with their play clay I made. I was not able to take a pick of their creations because my camera’s batteries had to be re-charged.  By the time they were, the boys had already put away their clay.  Maybe next time, I’ll catch a photo of their clay creations.


The boys made several coffee filter suns after our science lessons.  My youngest son was proud to show the red sun that he made. He glued his on a large sheet of paper and then allowed me to display it on the wall.


 
My oldest son made a yellow sun and together the boys made an orange sun.
We had a great start to our new homeschool year and I look forward to more learning experiences with my children.

Books we read this week



We are linking this post to: Homeschool Creations Preschool Corner and 5K.
Weird, Unsocialized  Homeschoolers Weekly Wrap up.

Sandra