Parade & Festival Fun

We’re not always around on the weekend of our town’s annual parade & festival.  This year, though, we were home and able to attend!

We started the (hot!) morning at the parade.  The kids were SUPER excited to watch everything go by and collect candy.  They did NOT love the noise of the fire engines.  None of them were scared, but they all covered their ears!

Walking the landscaping rails while we waited for the parade to start.


Still waiting for the parade to start…they attached their candy bags (an advertisment from a local business) to the nails sticking out of this utility pole.


One of the Orak cars died right in front of us.  We got to watch them make a quick repair while the parade was at a stand still for a few minutes.  The man facing us was saying that he can’t take his car out of gear to help, or his car has issues, too.


After the parade, we walked down to the festival at the park.  Alex made friends with a clown and got some ‘clown money’ as a souvenir.



We allowed each child to spend $5 at the festival. 
The boys chose to use their money to buy some time on the inflatables. 
Jensyn took her money straight to a jewelry booth and bought a pretty princess bracelet.





We had lunch, walked around, ran into some friends and chatted a bit, and then let the kids cool their feet in the fountain before we headed home for the rest of the afternoon.


This little sweetheart doesn’t nap anymore, but she simply couldn’t keep her eyes open after such a fun morning.  She was snuggled on the couch watching TV with Daddy, and her eyes kept closing on her.  She ended up sleeping on Daddy for almost an hour.  I must say…I was VERY jealous of that cozy snuggle!



At night, we headed back to the park for fireworks.  We sat with a friend from church & her little boy, and our kids ran around together and played until the fireworks started.  It’s impossible to take a good picture of fireworks without a good camera, but Jensyn asked me to try. 

I also took a little video for her.  It’s not a great video, but I love that I will be able to look back and remember her sweet little voice at 4 years old. 

Curriculum Choices 2015

This year, all three of our children are in their own Heart of Dakota guide!  So far, it seems like it is completely do-able!  After 5 completed school days, we’re just starting to figure out how our routine will flow to keep everyone on task, happy, and out of mischief.  We’ve had a few bumps along the way (and one reaaallllly bad day!), but I think by the end of August, we’ll have a decent flow to our day!

Heart of Dakota is just sooooo easy to use, and it’s beautifully Christ-centered.  As long as we feel it’s working well for our family, we will continue to use their curriculum as our core.  (I’d like to say we’ll use it forever, as I think we will, but you just never know!)

Using three different programs may sound complicated, but we have discovered the Heart of Dakota is SO easy to use that it’s really not a big deal…at least not at this point.  HOD slowly eases children in to independent learning, so they are gradually learning to do more and more on their own.

We’re trying to begin our day by doing a devotional reading together in the living room.  I discovered this book series through an HOD Facebook group, and I felt like it could be a good fit for all three kids this year.   We are reading a devotion each Monday, and then reading the suggested Bible readings/doing the suggested activity throughout the week.


As far as individual work time, I need 20 minutes to devote to Jensyn. (Alex does copywork and spelling practice, Max does handwriting and Rod & Staff workbook).

Then I need about 30 minutes to work with Max.  (Jensyn colors, does her ‘worksheet’ for the day, or runs off to play in her bedroom.  Alex is supposed to work on math, once I’ve given him instructions.  So far, he has daydreamed, listened in on Max’s lessons, and found other ways to waste time. I *think* I can fix this issue soon when he makes some changes in math.)

At this point, I take a break to read Max his storytime book for the day.  All 3 kids can listen to the story if they’d like.  Kids can get snacks or drinks, too.

Once Max is finished, he can run off to play while I work with Alex (at least an hour to finish math, read history together, review his Bible verse and do a brief Bible lesson, do science, etc.)

After lunch, I can do Alex’s read-aloud and finish up any of the occasional bigger projects (art/science) that would have disrupted our morning.

Heart of Dakota is our core for each child, but they also have a few additional resources.  Here’s a breakdown of child’s materials this year.

Jensyn ~ Little Hands To Heaven

We used Little Hands To Heaven with Max a few years ago, and we LOVED it!  It’s simple, sweet, Bible-based, and only takes 20 – 30 minutes to complete each day.  We supplement by adding a few free printable pages each day, and we will likely add in the Rod & Staff Preschool ABC series workbooks soon. 

I love the New Bible In Pictures for this age group.  The stories are not told quite like a traditional Bible story book.  It encourages thought and asks interesting questions.

We have an older guide, which recommends different devotional books than the ones currently recommended by Heart of Dakota.  I purchased (used, online) both of those books, but I still prefer Big Thoughts For Little People.  (If I was using LHTH with a 5 year old, I would use My ABC Bible Verses, though!)

As for the rest, I spent some time this summer collecting a variety of printables from online so that Jensyn could do a page each day and feel like a ‘big kid’.  Here’s a list of some of the printables we’re using.

Playdough Mats from 123Homeschool4Me

Bingo Marker Alphabet Letter Find

School Sparks Alphabet Letter “Mazes”

Over The Big Moon Letter Identification Dot Marker Pages

Max ~ Little Hearts For His Glory

We used Little Hearts For His Glory with Alex, and we absolutely adored it!  I was very excited to use it again with Max!  I just breathe a great big sigh of relief when I think about how ‘open and go’ it is.  There’s pretty much no advance planning for Mom – just open the guide each morning and get started!  It gets even better when you realize that this program is so amazingly Christ-centered!

LHFHG offers two Bible options.  I haven’t used the other Bible option, but I do know that we really enjoy the Family Time Bible In Pictures.  Max loves the pictures in this Bible!

We are mainly sticking with HOD’s recommendations for all subject areas, but Max is using Rod and Staff’s “Going On Eagerly” book.  HOD recommends books D & F for kindergarten or G & J for 1st grade.  We happen to own “G”, so we’re using it.

I’m also using a different handwriting choice for Max.  I prefer a traditional handwriting style, yet I’m not a fan of the page setup in “A Reason For…” which is recommended by HOD.  After lots of hunting, I found this Universal Handwriting’s newest publication with a fun little activity on each page. Max started it last spring, and he’s continuing through this book now.  When he is finished, we will likely move on to the next book in the series in order to solidify his letter formation before he starts copywork with Beyond next year.

Max is a math whiz.  It’s just his ‘thing’!  So we skipped Singapore Essential Kindergarten Book A and started him off (this past spring) with Essential Kindergarten Book B.  He’s enjoying it and doing very well so far!  We will move on to Singapore 1A early next year.

Heart of Dakota recommends two phonics options, and while I believe these are GREAT options, we choose to use All About Reading Level 1. Max will be starting this in September, once we have our school routine going smoothly.

Other resources are used, and you can find all of these resources AT THIS LINK. 

Other than that, we only use these extras from the LHFHG Facebook group:

1) Bible Memory Verses the size of index cards.  We’ve printed and laminated these verses to keep on a metal ring.

2) Storytime Notebook pages to go along with the writing/drawing activities suggested in the guide.  Having these printed and bound makes it SOOO easy to keep all of these projects together in one place as a keepsake. (We did NOT have this resource for Alex, and I am finding it such a TREAT!)

Alex ~
Beyond Little Hearts For His Glory

We started Beyond Little Hearts last November.  Since it is designed for age level, rather than grade level, are able to easily switch to a new guide mid-year.  This year, we started up with Unit 19.  I hope to finish the guide in early January, and then Alex will move on to the next guide (Bigger Hearts). 

These history books are all so neat!  They help to bring the early days of America to life for young learners!

 

He is currently finishing the last few pages in Singapore 1B mathematics (US Edition).  Singapore takes a pretty quick pace, and Alex is getting bogged down a bit at this point.  Math is not his strongest subject, and he is getting frustrated.  We have both Singapore 2A and 2B *and* Teaching Textbooks 3 as options.  (We bought a used copy of Teaching Textbooks 3 from a friend over the summer so we could check it out.)

Teaching Textbooks does have an actual textbook, but what makes it so neat is that the lesson is entirely computerized.  It’s colorful, a little bit fun, and has a great teacher who explains each detail with a visual presentation.  It is self-grading, as well, so it gives students instant feedback.  Alex did a few lessons over the summer, and he is leaning towards trying this.  Yes, it is labeled 3rd grade, but it appears to do a little review of what Alex covered in Singapore 1 and then pick up where he needs to be.

We’re also adding on Growing With Grammar Level 2 this fall.  Although Beyond includes a once-a-week grammar lesson and daily copywork, Alex was not comprehending grammar as much as we would like.  I wanted something that would have him reviewing and practicing DAILY rather than just once a week.   He has completed 5 lessons so far, and Alex is really enjoying this book!  (We may eventually switch to Rod & Staff, which is recommended by HOD, but I wanted a simple workbook to get him started.)

Other than this, all of our resources are what HOD recommends for Beyond on THIS PAGE.

Alex is going to finish the Emerging Reader series this year, and then we will decide where to go from there.  I’m not sure he is ready for DITHOR (HOD’s reading program) just yet, but we will likely read DITHOR chapter books without doing the complete program.

{Not} Back To School 2015

It’s time to get back into the homeschool routine in our house!  I like to start fairly early in August, even if we just fit in three days per week, so that we have a little more wiggle room (for sickness & vacation days) in our school year.  So we took off most of June and all of July, and now we’re easing our way back into routine.

There’s NO WAY I can manage a regular blog post for each individual child.  Although I love using the blog to keep a record of our schoolwork, and it’s so nice to be able to refer to each unit post when I need to remember details, I just can’t keep up with 3 posts/week!  So this year’s plan is to put everything into one post.  I’ll attempt to do it every 5 or so school days, but we’ll see how it goes.

Here are the kids with the school guides they are using this year. 

It’s a very busy kitchen table this year!

Here are some pictures from our first week.  Jensyn gets to go first…

LHTH Unit 1

Little Hands To Heaven is designed to be very simple and fun.  The lessons should take only 20 – 30 minutes per day.  LHTH has a very limited amount of worksheets.  My kids enjoy occasional worksheets, though, so I spent some time this summer collecting and printing a variety of pages for Jensyn to use along with LHTH this year.  We have Letter Mazes, Alphabet Playdough Mats, Dot Marker Alphabet Pages, etc.

We made pink playdough together.  The stove is not hot in this picture.  She measured, poured, and stirred.  Then I backed up her stool while I cooked it.

After that,  she used her pink playdough to decorate this letter A playdough mat.  She also used a craft stick to practice writing the letter A in the pile of playdough on her plate.  (Then, being the girly-girl that she is, Jensyn had to use the craft stick to draw a face, arms, and hair on her A!)


This is the Hide and Seek Letter Page, in which you read part of the weekly action rhyme and find/circle the letter of the week in the poem.  At the bottom of the page, Jensyn practices pencil-holding/pre-writing skills by following the line to connect the uppercase A to the lowercase a.

This another hands-on lesson…writing the letter of the week with glue, then covering it with cheerios.  We’ll make a letter wall on our stairway to the playroom to display all of Jensyn’s letters of the week.  (Max’s letters are still hanging in our stairway!)

Here she is drawing and counting apples…

This is a Unit 1 project in which you use white crayon to draw things that God created.  You then paint over the page to make your images magically appear.  It’s supposed to be done with watered-down black tempera paint.  This did NOT work for us when Max did LHTH, so this time, we used regular watercolor paints.  It worked MUCH better, but the paper was soaking wet by the time Jensyn was finished with it!

Find & Stamp the Aa letters.



Max is up next…

LHFHG Unit 2

We started the year with LHFHG Unit 2, as we did a trial run of LHFHG with Unit 1 last spring to see if Max was ready for it.  (He was MORE THAN ready!)

I decided to use the Rod & Staff books we had on hand, so Max is starting with Book G – Going On Eagerly.  This book has a polar animals theme, so there is a little science learning mixed in with the fine motor skills and thinking skills practice found in this book.  He really enjoyed it, so he will likely be doing a page every day and moving through books G, H, and I this year.


Ahhh, now THIS was fun!  This was the project on Noah’s Ark day.  Make a foil boat (no instructions – just a big piece of foil) and see how many counters it will float.  We chose to use teddy bear counters.  Max and I each made a boat.  His boat was the winner!  Afterwards, he hopped in the tub and finished off his school day with a bathtub full of math manipulatives.  (You know you’re a homeschooler when you do school naked in the bathtub, right?  LOL!)


Each of the projects below is 1/4 of a piece of white construction paper.  Max and I each colored a paper with all different brightly colored markers. Then we colored over it (PUSH HARD) with an broken, old black crayon.  After this, we etched a heart into the center of our page so that the color could show through the black.  This art project goes along with the lesson about Cain & Abel.


Handwriting – I’m soooo oddly particular about what I’ll use for handwriting because I really prefer a traditional handwriting.  The writing lines must be ‘just so’, and no letters can be funky looking.  .  I think we found a winner for Max this year! It’s Universal Publishing’s newest kindergarten handwriting book, and it has a simple, fun thinking skill activity in the middle of each page…sometimes it’s a maze, sometimes it’s a matching game…but it’s always something that keeps the page from becoming too boring.


We skipped Singapore Essential Kindergarten Book A, and we started with Book B.  Max is a math whiz.  Even this is too easy for him, but I didn’t want him to get overwhelmed with Singapore 1st grade, as it progresses quickly.  So we’re easing in with Kindergarten B, and then we’ll move on to Singapore 1 in January.

Last of all, here is Alex’s first unit…

Beyond Little Hearts, Unit 19

He’s starting to get annoyed about having his picture taken.  His ‘smile’ is actually the start of a smirk because he is proud of ruining the picture by hiding his work with his hands.  In this picture, Alex is illustrating his poetry book as an end of the week project.

This week’s poem was “Monday’s Child”.  We looked it up to be sure, and Alex was born on a Wednesday.  He was less than thrilled to find out that Wednesday’s child is full of woe.  By the end of the unit, we were both joking about it, though.

Math is not Alex’s strong suit.  He’s finishing up a few pages at the end of his Singapore 1B math book, and he is NOT happy about it.  We’ve had some very rough moments as he has worked through these pages.  I am giving him the two options for 2nd grade math, and right now he is seriously leaning toward Teaching Textbooks rather than moving on to Singapore 2A.

Spelling and grammar?  Language is DEFINTELY Alex’s strength!  He aced his end of the week spelling test without much effort.

He LOVES his new grammar book!  (Seriously.  What 7 year old LOVES a grammar book?  Alex, you’re awesome!)  We opted to have Alex take the CAT test in June, and he did not do well on the grammar portion.  I decided he needed a bit more than what the Beyond guide offers, so I ordered Growing With Grammar Level 2.  I had no idea he’d do it joyfully each day, though!  That’s a pleasant surprise!

This history lessons in this unit told the story of a little Puritan girl named Remember. Throughout the week, we learned of how Remember’s mother had to leave her home alone for several days while she went to care for a distant neighbor who was very ill.  We read of how Remember used her time wisely, how she made homemade soap, and how she saved herself from being kidnapped by an Indian. 

We also read of how she made a sand pattern on to decorate the kitchen floor.  Alex made his own ‘sand’ pattern using glue and cornmeal.

 

That’s about it for this week.  I’ll probably do a separate post soon to list out all of the resources each of the children are using this year.