Beyond Unit 2

(I am trying to get caught up!  We’re currently on Unit 11, and I have only posted Unit 1.  We did Unit 2 before Christmas, and it’s now March 16th.  You’re going to be bombarded with posts in the next few weeks, because I am determined to get through it all!)

 

This week, we read about pioneers from England settling Jamestown.  Did you know that Jamestown was settled BEFORE the Pilgrims came to America?  Jamestown was settled in 1607, and the Pilgrims founded the Plymouth colony in 1620.

In these pictures, Alex is adding Jamestown to his timeline grid. 

 

This week’s Bible verse was Galatians 6:9.  We compared how we should not grow weary of doing good with how the men in Jamestown worked hard and thanked God for their blessings.  I love how each day of the unit has a few questions to help children relate the verse to their own life, and most days have an active way to practice the verse with motions or exercise.  Alex and I enjoy doing these little exercises together!

Each week includes a reading from a devotion book called Morning Bells.  Though this is an old book, and the writing and language styles are not typical of what read we often read, there is much to be learned from reading this book.  Alex doesn’t care for it, but the lessons seem to stick in his head anyway.


I really wasn’t sure how we’d handle spelling this year.  I considered Spelling You See, Level B.  I really believe that Spelling You See, Level A gave Alex a great deal of confidence in spelling.  I also really wanted to try All About Spelling, Level 1.  I’d purchased it at our homeschool convention last spring, as I’ve been so thrilled with All About Reading.

Beyond has spelling built into the guide, though, and that’s what Alex chose when given his options.  He really likes using the index cards to copy the words on to the white board or on Lego spelling paper pages that we found online.  He is using List 2, which is 2nd grade spelling words.  This boy is really quick to pick up on spelling concepts, and he’s breezing through the words with ease!
 

Days 1 – 4 are spent working on spelling and copywork.  Day 5 of each unit is devoted to a grammar concept and copywork.  This unit’s grammar concept was finding the correct place to put a period to separate run-on sentences.

Uh, I have no pictures & I have NO idea where we were at with math at this time because we’re going at Alex’s pace.  We were somewhere in the middle of Singapore 1A

I can’t find a picture, but Alex learned about map skills, drawing a map to show how to find Sally’s missing little brother Richard.  (These are characters in our history reading.)

We continued to read through Gladys Aylward, learning about this brave missionary to China.  Although this was the most challenging chapter book I’ve ever read to Alex, I am so glad we read it.  It has opened his eyes to challenges, the courage of missionaries, and what it means to truly live out our faith.  It has also helped him learn to sit and listen to a long chapter book.

We printed all of the poems from the files in the Beyond Facebook group, and I had them bound into a book.  Each day, Alex copies two lines of the poem to practice copying, handwriting, spelling, and proper punctuation and capitalization.  At the end of the week, he illustrates the poem.

Copywork is not his favorite thing, but I am seeing him improve as we continue through Beyond.

 

The Day 5 Bible study was to read and discuss the story of Ruth and Boaz.  After doing so, the Artistic Expression activity involved making an accordian-folded field and brown/black pieces of grain to stand in the field.  I can’t find a picture.  It was a good lesson in following directions to make an art project turn out correctly.

After reading about how Sally’s brother caught a baby squirrel, we learned a little about squirrels in science.  We learned how tree squirrels can stretch and flatten their bodies to glide through the air.

We explored this by dropping a crumpled paper ball and a full, flat sheet of paper.  We looked at which one fell faster, and we talked about how spreading out flat could help the tree squirrel to glide.

 

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January Photo Dump (and a RAK !)

What?!  It’s February 3rd, and I’m posting the January photo dump already?!  Wow.  Don’t worry – it won’t happen again.  You’ll probably have to wait until May to see the February pictures, ha ha!

We haven’t taken the kids bowling in a very long time,
so it was about time to go again…


Alex refused to use the ball ramp, so his score was lower than Max or Jensyn. 
That annoyed him, and he refused to recognize that their scores were higher because
they were using the ball roller.  He was very frustrated.  Everyone else had fun, though!


Birthday party fun

Crazy Lego creations – Alex specifically asked me to take & post this picture.

cousins…boy, do we love this happy little guy!
(And Jensyn, in case you ever wonder, you’re going through a phase
where  you don’t want to match.  I did NOT dress you like this, I promise!)

Now, for the Random Act of Kindness that caught us totally off guard…

After Alex’s Upward game on Saturday morning (31st),  Keith suggested that we go to Steak & Shake and an indoor fun center.  The forecast called for HEAVY snow on Saturday night and Sunday, so he thought it might be nice to get out of the house for the day since we’d likely be spending the next few days at home. 

At Steak & Shake, a lady (around 60ish?) was sitting alone across the aisle from us.  I kept catching her smiling as she watched our kiddos.  When she finished her meal, she got up & stopped by our table for just a moment to say that we had a beautiful family.  We smiled, thanked her, and she went on her way.

20 minutes later, as Keith is pulling out the coupons and getting ready to pay, the waitress walked up and said, “Save your coupons for another day.” 

We looked at her, wondering why she would say that.  Then she said, “Do you remember the lady who told you that you have a beautiful family?  She paid for your lunch.  She wants you to know that you reminded her of her son, who she doesn’t see very often.”

Oh.  My.  You sometimes hear stories of this happening, but we certainly never expected it to happen to us!   My eyes just filled with tears at being the recipients of such a sweet kindness!  We look forward to finding a time to pay it forward!

Moving on to Jak’s…I’d hoped Keith could use his cell phone (which takes great pictures), but his battery died.  So we only have a few lousy pictures from my cell phone.  The kids LOVED Ballocity – a climbing structure with tunnels and slides and lots of foam balls.  They played in there for an hour!

Then the boys tried the lower level of the Sky Trail, which they loved!  Max thinks he would like the big one, but he’s two inches too short.  Alex was tall enough for the big one, but had no interest in trying it!  (It was really high up!  I would have done it, but even I would have been a bit nervous!)

We tried this little music game, where you stomp on the pictures.  Jensyn liked it a lot!

We played a little skee ball, a few arcade & crane games, and just did what we could to use up the points on our card.  Each child picked out a piece of candy and a bouncy ball in the prize shop.  It ended up being a really fun day, and we did get the predicted snow (11 inches), so we’re glad we had a chance to get out and have a great time burning off energy!

MFW K Unit 6 – Turtle (Max)

{CLICK HERE} to view the rest of our MFW K unit posts.
{CLICK HERE} to read our 2012 Turtle Unit post with our older son.

In this unit, we learned the letter Tt for turtle.
Our Bible words were: I don’t quit; I persevere!

These are the books we enjoyed throughout the week – click on any book image below to read the book description on Amazon.  (We love to buy used copies; they’re usually in good shape, and the price is right!)

Too much time has passed, and I can’t remember which non-fiction books we read besides the two shown below.  Whoops!  Oh, and my kids always laugh at Mr. Putter & Tabby Run The Race.  It’s a silly story about perseverance.

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So, let’s just be honest…some days I remember to do calendar with Max.  Other days, I forget.  So we are not getting very far on our calendar board!  He knows his days, months, and numbers.  He’s starting to sound out CVC words. He’s learning every day.  So I’m not a failure (ha!), but calendar?  It happens when it happens.

Perseverance.  Running the race set before us.
Good stuff!

I don’t have any pictures, though.
Poor second child – let’s see if I even manage to post pictures of
Jensyn when it’s her turn for MFW K!

Learning about T and it’s /t/ sound.

Reading words! My little boy is READING WORDS!

Granted, he read ‘Sam’, ‘Ann’, and ‘man’…so it wasn’t much, but those are words, and he could read them!  I wish I’d been able to snap a picture at the moment he realized he had READ!  He looked at me with this amazing look of awe and said, “I can READ?”

Honestly, I think that this is my FAVORITE thing about homeschooling (academically, anyways…).  There’s something so special about being the one who is sitting there with your child as he figures out how to put the sounds together to make words.  It’s pretty amazing to watch  a child’s eyes LIGHT UP with joy when they realize they’ve read a word!  I’m so glad to be the one to watch my children’s excitement at learning to read.

 

Alex neved liked cuisenaire rods all that much, but Max really enjoys this activity!
I love how each child is so different!
 

I don’t think we did anything too ‘science-y’, other than reading lots of good books about turtles.  We did read some great non-fiction, though!

We made this cute little guy with construction paper, tissue paper, and clear contact paper.
Max was pretty proud of his cute little turtle.

 
(Jensyn is 3.5 years old.)

I don’t insist on participation from Jensyn.  She is free to join us or to wander away, but so far, she almost always wants to be a part of MFW K!  She sits with us as we read picture books, does the art or science projects, and completes papers or puzzles at the table.  She loves the Lauri alphabet puzzle included in MFW K!

We’ve filled a canvas bag with preschool workbooks and a crayon box.  She LOVES to sit at the table and do her own “work”!

She loves to sing the “A-A-Apple” song with us, and she loves to sing the Days & Months songs with Max, as well.

She can write her name with a reminder or two if she get stuck on how to make a Y or S.  She can count to 20.  She knows most of her uppercase alphabet letters.  She’s starting to color in the lines, although her color choices are usually hilarious!  She knows all of her colors, and I’m pretty sure she knows her shapes.