Proverbs 6:6-8

We didn't get as much school done this week as I wanted to, but all in all it was a successful week.  
Tomorrow the kids will work on another lapbook for the Easter hymn writers.  We only got to 1 this week.  There are still 2 left.  But I was focusing more on main subjects this week.  
The kids and I have both done a pretty good job memorizing Proverbs 6:6.  We are still working on Proverbs 6:7 so that means we haven't moved to verse 8 yet.  But we'll get there!  I am slow on memorizing, myself.  They are faster than me, but I am working more on their AWANA verses than this verse.
This week for Easter we are going to focus mostly on Easter things.  I think maybe I'll take a few days and work on the main subjects too, and maybe double up lessons.  But I want a lot of this week to be focused on Easter.  The resurrection, not the candy and basket.  In fact, I am thinking of maybe not even getting them a basket this year.  Leave it to one of the grandparents...lol
I will probably be back on to blog after I make this weeks schedule out.  I wanted to share it last week, but I never got the chance to type it up.  I really don't think anyone out there wants to see it anyhow, but I want to post it.  And it's my blog and I'll post what I want to!  lol  

 

Lapbook on Ants

This was the kids first lapbook and they absolutely LOVED it!  It was so much fun for all of us.  We read books on the ants and they chose which ants they wanted to narrow the study down to.  Amanda chose the weaver ants and Kyle chose the honeypot ants.  They had to do some of their own research also for the first time.
I allowed them to be creative on the folders that we used because I wasn't able to buy colored folders.  After they got everything glued on, I let them decorate it if they wanted.  I did not make Kyle do all 3 of the folders for the study because it took him longer to do the one folder than it took Amanda to do all 3.  He is only 5 years old and wasn't supposed to start school this year.  He should start Kindergarten this Fall, but he wanted to start, and I home school, so why not?  
The first one is Amanda's.  This is her cover page.

 Her Table of Contents

 The inside of the first folder.  All of those are mini-books or pull-out pages.

 Here is Amanda's colorful ant. 

 2nd folder

 3rd folder

 Kyle's cover

 Kyle's artwork of different ants and their food.

 Inside of Kyle's

 

Science

I sat down today and figured out how I wanted to end science for the year.  I made the plans for the rest of the year all the way up to our last unit on plants.  This will be quite an extended unit I think and I need to spend more time to plan it out.  The lessons that are numbered are from A Beka Science 1 book.

1.  Lesson 25-27
     Finish ant lapbook
     Read book on ants

This lesson concludes our ant unit.  The next unit is on how things work.  Such as pulleys, levers, wheels, magnets, etc. 

2.  Lesson 11 

3.  Lesson 12


4.  Lesson 13


5.  Lesson 14


6.  Read Berenstain Bear's Science book (I had this when I was younger and did a science experiment out of it for 6th grade.  It explains the pulleys, levers, wheels and other things like that and the kids love those Bears!)


Lesson 15-24 covers the animal kingdom.  We will choose animals to go into more depth later on.


7.  Lesson 15 & 16

8.  Lesson 17-18

9.  Lesson 19


10.  Lesson 20-21


11.  Lesson 22-23


12.  Lesson 24

13.  Start Birds Unit- learn about body parts & feathers, Use Free.Bird bird body copywork pages to label bird bodyparts

14.  Learn about migration, Start bird-watching journal, Give kids Free.Bird Nature Journal cover


15.  Learn about mating/nestin


16.  Learn about babies


17.  Look at books with birds in Washington and choose bird to do lapbook


18.  Research favorite foods, flowers, etc. of chosen bird, take notes


19.  Anatomy lapbook


20.  Migration lapbook


21.  Nest lapbook


22.  Babies lapbook


23.  Predators lapbok


24.  Poem and song lapbook


25.  Observation lapbook, Transfer info from bird-watching journal


26.  Finish Bird Lapbook


All of these lapbook pages will most likely be done faster than one lesson per day.  Amanda loves to do it and will probably do more than one page a day.  And that is fine by me!

Just a Little Note for the Evening

We have just about finished our ant study.  I want to read 2 more books to the kids and Amanda has to finish her lapbook now that we have brads.  

This week they are doing a lapbook on Easter hymns and the writes.  We are only going to cover 3; Martin Luther, Fanny Crosby and Charles Wesley.  We are going to do another study next week for Easter.  It is a study that breaks down the Easter story for kids.  Actually they are devotionals.  

After that we will start our bird project.  I am doing some research and planning for that now.  I am not sure yet how long this study will last. 

Tonight I am going to sit down with Amanda's Science book and see what is in it for the whole unit.  I know I am covering a lot of things on my own.  And after birds I want to do flowers, plants, trees, gardens and such.  I have a lot of planning to do but it's perfect Spring and Summer studies. 

I am kinda tired and want to get off the PC, but I just wanted to type what was on my mind.  

The Ants Go Marching 1 by 1.....

School this week was so breezy!  The kids even did school work on Saturday and extra on a few of the other days.  I like that!  That means I am doing something right.  I have gotten much more relaxed about our teaching and learning styles.  That doesn't mean my kids aren't going to be learning or even learning slower than students in public school.  It simply means that we are going to make learning fun and enjoyable!

Both Amanda and Kyle are craving to learn about ants and can hardly wait to work on their lapbooks.  Amanda has been so proud of hers.  She has even finished the 1st folder.  There are 3 to the ant study.  I will take pictures when they are all done.  

I have broken down the schedule a little bit so we still don't get overwhelmed.  Instead of trying to squish in Social Studies/History and Science into each day, when I want the focus more on Math and Phonics currently?  So Monday and Friday we will have Social Studies and on Wednesday we will do Science.  Then if we want to squeeze more Science in on Saturday we can.  Or I would actually like to do a lot of our Science stuff during the summer.

For myself I have been reading a book about ants.  This is to help broaden my understanding of ants before I teach the kids about them and it also feeds my healthy appetite for knowledge!  The book is called Journey to the Ants: A Story of Scientific Exploration by Bert Holldobler & Edward O. Wilson.  It is such an interesting book, really.  I do not care of the Darwin and evolution mentions, but being as sure of my Christian faith as I am, I can ignore those parts.  The rest of the knowledge is really good.  

 

This week I am looking forward to more learning and teaching.  The kids also are.  I found directions for finding the queen in an ant nest and am thinking that maybe I will search for her in the small nest outside.  I don't like getting bit or the ants on me so we'll see if I do it.  It hurts when these small ants bite!

Easter is coming up and next week we will be starting our Easter lessons.  I have a lapbook for that and am also going to be reading lots of the Bible.   

A New Approach

Lately we have been struggling to do our school work.  I started wondering if there was another way to go about it that we would actually be excited to do.  I started researching, thanks to my Homeschoolbar Tool Bar, and found a few new ideas to implement to make school more fun.  So here are the decisions that I have made:

First, we are not going to keep learning everything straight from the text books.  It's just boring and takes away the freedom of homeschooling.  Currently the only subjects we are going to follow the teacher texts is math and phonics.  

Second, I have decided to combine all of the subjects except math, reading and phonics.  Kyle had done his Science at the beginning of the year, and I am not impressed with A Beka Kindergarten Science.  Amanda has only done a little of her Science this year and what Kyle missed will be covered in many other areas, it's general things.  This means they are doing History, Science, Lapbooks/Notebooks and Bible together.  Amanda will do Math, Phonics, Reading, Copywork and pretty soon, Journalling.  Kyle will have Math, Phonics and small amounts of copywork.

Third, as explained above, I have started using lapbooks.  We are doing our first one right now on Ants.  They love it!  It's very hands-on and they can add their own touches.  Using lapbooks combines Science, Language Arts, Reading, Art, History and sometimes Math.  Notebooking is almost the same thing but you use a 3-ring binder for a notebook.  It has more journalling pages in it.  These can also include the Bible lessons.  We are going to be memorizing Proverbs 6:6-8 and Proverbs 30:25 for this lesson. 

Fourth I am also doing copywork instead of following the A Beka Writing plans.  There are so much that they can use as copywork.  Right now Amanda is copying the song All Things Bright and Beautiful.  There are also a couple Bible verses thrown in for a couple lessons.  Copywork is just that, copying what is written already.  It's not tracing. I got a few books free and bought one that teaches good character *wink wink*.  


We are enjoying this much more so far.  Why shouldn't school be fun?  I'm all for fun and learning!