Friday Fun week 1!

 

 So once again this year we are doing a 4 day school week with a  light morning of school on Friday followed by our mini family co-op. This Friday was our first co-op day and I was hosting. We had a planning meeting last Friday and picked monthly topics. The first is nature so today we went to a local park and had a nature scavenger hunt. I printed up a list of things to find. After having a little talk about the different things on the list we broke into 3 groups and started looking.

 

Once the hunt was done we had a snack and played at the park!

First week of school!

We started our new school year this past Monday and since this week the Not Back to School Blog Hop topic is a day in the life. I thought I would give you a run down of how are school days go and do our weekly wrap up all in one post.

We kicked off our school year on Sunday with Schultuete(school cones), and an About me form I found on Pinterest for each kid.

 

 In the cones were candies, some dollar tree mad libs, bookmarks, a new shirt, a new character cup, a toy, a glow stick, and some other random things. 

Here they are telling everyone what answers they gave to the questions. This year Buster says he wants to be a Cop, Sweetpea said Chef, Buttercup said Dancer/Singer/Artist, and Buddy said a Teacher.

   

 Ok so on to a day in the life or week as it were. This school year I am running 4 Heart of Dakota guides so the easiest way I saw to keep things running smoothly was to plan to have one block of time for me to devote to each kid before lunch and one after lunch. The other kids either play or do independent work while I'm working with one. Here is a run down of a day around here: 

I set my alarm for 7:30 and usually get up a few minutes before that. The kids generally roll out of bed in this order, Buster, Buddy, Sweetpea, and then Buttercup. Sometimes the girls switch places but they are always last. Then we all eat breakfast. Once everyone is dressed and has eaten and I have my coffee ready we start school.

  

For the first block I work with Buttercup on Bible, Math, and Phonics. 

 

 During this time Buster does Bible Quiet Time, Poetry, and Science Exploration.  

 Sweetpea does her Handwriting, Hymn, and Explode the Code. 

 

 Buddy plays or does a workbook.

   

For the second block I work with Sweetpea on Bible Study, Math,Language Arts(Grammar, Spelling, Phonics.) Reading, and Poetry.

   

 While I'm working with her Buster is finishing the other subjects I mentioned and if he finishes before I'm done he moves on to either his Drawn Into the Heart of Reading book(He is reading the Hobbit right now.), or Spelling.

  

Buttercup does Handwriting or Fine Motor Skills, and Buddy plays or watches a short video.

 For the third block I work with Buster on Math, Language Arts(Grammar, Writing, Spelling, Dictation, DITHOR.), and Logic. At this point the other three kids are generally engrossed in play and making a mess creating towns of toys or towers etc. While I'm working with Buster I generally am able to get something going for lunch while making sure he is keeping on task.

Finally for the fourth block I have Buddy do his alphabet or number activity if he has one.

   

After lunch is eaten we go outside for recess. 

   

After Recess we have circle time. During this time we do Spanish, Composer Study, Artists Study, Catechism, Music, Folk Tales, and Geography. We do not do all of these daily. Usually about three things from this list per day.

   

Next I start our afternoon blocks. Buddy goes first and this is when I read to him from his Bible and a picture book, he practices his letter sounds, we do any other Little Hands activities, and listen to his Bible songs.  

 Buttercup comes next. During this time we do Storytime, History, Science, Rhyme, and her other activities/crafts/games.

   

While I'm working with the other kids Buster is doing his History Reading, Independent History, and History Project. Sweetpea is playing with either Buddy or Buttercup.

   

Once I finish with Buttercup I do Storytime, History, Science, and any other activities/projects/notebooking/crafts/vocabulary/geography etc. with Sweetpea. Some of these I can get her started on and leave her to finish while I move on to Buster.

  

For the final block I do Storytime, Geography and Bible Study with Buster.

Last but not least the kids are all required to do one chore before they can begin free time. At this time I clean up our school mess and stock our buckets for the next days work. The buckets are then placed on the floor by the book shelf so the table is clear for dinner. Once this is done I start dinner.

This is how are days go Monday-Thursday. On Friday we do a light morning of school(Spelling test, handwriting, Reading, and Khan Academy for Buster.), and then we have a mini co-op with my sister and sister in-law. We have 10 kids all together. Here is what we did this week.

School Update!

I have been terrible this school year about posting Weekly Wrap Ups for school. I just wanted to give an update about where everyone is at regarding their schooling. This week we are taking our spring break. I will break it down by kids.

Buster grade 4:

He is still plugging away with Preparing Hearts For His Glory and he completed unit 27 last week. I know I have said it before but I'm going to say it again I absolutely love this guide! Buster has learned so much this year. He is totally into the history, science, poetry and storytime. The other subjects are going great too, but of course they require more work so they aren't as exciting. Since the last time I posted about school he has finished learning about ancient times and moved through the dark ages and into the middle ages. Buster was especially interested in the Vikings. This was supposed to be a Roman Emperor leaf crown but I forgot to tell him to put the leaves sideways.

 

For science he has been studying stars, constellations, coral reefs, and Columbus.

Constellation map.

 

Model of a coral polyp.

 

For Drawn Into the Heart of Reading he has read The Sign of the Beaver and The Little Pilgrim's Progress. Both of these books were a hit and here are the projects he did for them. Character mask! Daddy interviewed him as if he was Matt from The Sign of the Beaver.

 He made a map of Christian's journey.

 

Buster decided on his own to make a map of Oregon and label all of the counties.

 As far as the rest of the subjects are concerned he is just plugging away.  

Sweetpea grade 1/2: She finished Beyond Little Hearts For His Glory at the end of February.

 Panning for gold!

  

 I then took a month to review math with her. We read Little House on the Prairie, If you traveled west in a covered wagon, and The World of Christopher Robin. She also continued with her handwriting, ETC, Reading Pathways, Phonics Pathways, and HOD Emergent readers.

  

Last week she started Bigger Hearts For His Glory. Starting now allows us to continue doing school 4 days a week. She will complete 9 weeks of school before summer break and pick up where we left off, so that she will finish at the end of next school year.

  

Sweetpea was super excited to start and our first week went really well. It is an adjustment for her because Bigger Hearts takes longer and is more involved than Beyond. I attempted to use the dictation from the back but it was a bit too hard, so she went to the second spelling word list for now. She really enjoyed learning about Columbus this week for history.
 Her Ocean painting. 

 

Learning the continents and oceans.

   

For storytime right now we are reading through a few D' Aulaire Biographies. Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, and Buffalo Bill. She is still plugging away at the Beginner's Bible because she has taken breaks from it to read other books such as, Dust For Dinner, Mouse Tales, Dolphin, and Snowshoe Thompson.  

 The biggest surprise for me this past week was how well she did with Singapore 2a and Rod and Staff English 2. She also is really enjoying the Poems and Hymns. 

Buttercup PreK/K:

  

Buttercup was still going through Little Hands to Heaven this year and in the last month or so we kind of rushed through a bunch of units. She was really ready to move up, so I decided to start her in Little Hearts For His Glory the same week as Sweetpea moved up. She will also be doing it 4 days a week.

  

Buttercup was so eager and excited to start Kindergarten, and she proved to me that she was ready. Her first week went awesome after a couple minutes of resistance the first day. For math she is using Singapore Essentials K.

   

She was learning about same and different this week so we played memory.  

For Phonics she is doing All About Reading Level 1 which she is really enjoying so far.
For handwriting she is using Hand Writing Without Tears.

   

Buttercup really enjoyed our reading time also. I let her color this picture the first day while we were reading Reddy Fox. 

 

Reddy Fox turned out to be a big hit. She also enjoyed her history and Science.

Buddy Preschool: For the most part he just plays and all of the kids take turns doing things with him. He loves his Kumon workbooks.
 

Playing with rice. This picture makes it look so sweet but it really was quite a mess.  

 Do a Dot art.

  

Buddy will start Little Hands this fall.