LHFHG - Unit 17, Day 3 (Math)

We've had a rough start to homeschooling.  I innocently overbooked us during Annabelle's Kindergarten year...all in the interest of socialization!  I let the world tell me what is important instead of seeking answers from God.  I have vowed that next year will be different, and I strongly feel that God has led me to make these changes.

After a very busy May, we kicked off the summer with a family beach trip to Myrtle Beach and VBS the following week.  And this week, school resumed!  She isn't too thrilled that she has to do school while all her friends are out on break.  But she pulled through the week with a very positive attitude.  Right now, we are focusing on Phonics, Fine Motor Skills (Handwriting, etc.) and Math on a daily basis.  She has Music Camp scheduled at the church next week, so we'll resume full-speed with Little Hearts for His Glory the following week.

But with the help of the LHFHG guide, I put on my creative cap to expand just a little on one of the lessons.  She LOVED this activity!  And I thought it turned out pretty cute myself.

I used Jif peanut butter lids (red) and milk lids (colored centers) with the numbers written on them.  She had to match the milk lids with the stem of the flower.  And then she added the correct number of marshmallows and/or M&M's.  I was so surprised at how well she could match up the number words with the actual numbers.  We left off learning the number words weeks ago!

Pictured with her M&M sandwich in hand!  And look at that dimple!

 

And of course Sophia got to join in on the fun too!  She requested that I take her picture for this shot.  This is my child that rarely ever smiles for the camera too...apparently only on her own accord.  I tried to teach her to make a pattern with her goodies, but she just wanted to make a pretty flower.

I just love that sweet smile!

LHFHG - Unit 5

This curriculum just keeps getting better!  Yes it has been almost a month since we started back in Unit 4 of LHFHG, but we've definitely been enjoying our journey!  In late August/early September we ventured into potty training for Sophia (which was very successful I might add), camping and the beginning of our extracurricular activities.  But, we're still weird!  Not unsocialized, but definitely still weird!  ;)

Annabelle has ballet on Mondays, Community Bible Study (for ALL of us) on Wednesdays, choir on Wednesdays (at night) and an art class on Friday.  While Annabelle attends choir on Wednesday evenings and Sophia gets to play with Ms. Becky and Ms. Eva (she LOVES them), I get the privilege of making our very own Jesse Tree (to help us celebrate advent this year) through a workshop at the church.

Annabelle is truly enjoying everything, though I am convinced that the Community Bible Study is by far her favorite!  And even Sophia is enjoying herself as she sings her Bible verse right along with me and her big sister.  Sophia talks constantly about her teachers, "Miss Manda and Miss Awison (aka Ms. Amanda and Ms. Allison).

Annabelle was coloring with colored pencils while I read the Bible Story of Pharaoh chasing the Israelites and God parting the Red Sea (Exodus 14:5-8, 21-31).  And when the story said, "Then the pillar of cloud went behind them and stood between the Egyptians and the Israelites," I grabbed the colored pencils and used them as props.  The white colored pencil is the pillar of cloud that went before the Israelites after God parted the Red Sea (blue colored pencils).  The brown colored pencil is the path of dry land.  The silver mechanical pencil is the Israelites.  The gray colored pencil is the dark pillar of cloud in front of the Egyptians.  And, the Hello Kitty pencil in the very back represents the Egyptians.  She really enjoyed the props, and the story lines regarding the pillars of cloud made a lot more sense to me when I illustrated the story using these props!

During this unit we made our own golden calves using edible peanut butter play dough that we made from scratch!  And, yes, we even ate them!  This was the artistic expression activity to go along with the people making idols out of gold while Moses was on Mt. Sinai (Exodus 32:1-4, 19-20, 30-34).  So since Moses melted the gold and made them drink the gold, we ate ours too.  Though our golden calves did not taste bitter.  As we were making the golden calves, Annabelle asked if we were going to put them in water and drink them (just as Moses made them do).

LHFHG - Unit 4

We kicked off Unit 4 today.  We studied Joseph being sold into slavery in Egypt by his brothers.  The girls used paper plates and paint to design their very own Egyptian collars.  Here they are sporting their Egyptian collars for Daddy when he arrived home!

These girls sure do love each other!



Annabelle adorned hers with jewels.

I can see after today's math lesson that I am going to have to be very patient with my type A personality child.  As we worked on today's lesson in math, she lined up dry erase markers to write the corresponding number on a marker board to coincide with an action performed (touching toes, jumping jacks, sit ups, etc.).  I didn't notice she was using the markers in a "pattern" until we were almost finished with the lesson.  As a result, I grabbed the "wrong" marker to assist her, and we both became very frustrated with the lesson.  I definitely have to find that balance of extending grace as her mom but yet exerting authority as her teacher.

During our storytime lesson in The Adventures of Reddy Fox today, she was quick to note which animals in the picture were able to swim.  This may not sound like much of an accomplishment, but I myself could not figure out what type of animals were pictured when I looked through the lesson last night.  It took me a good 5-10 minutes to realize that the otter and mink pictured could swim (even though I didn't know they were an otter and a mink) simply because they were standing on a rock in the middle of the water.  As for my 5 year old, she figured it out immediately this afternoon, and that was her very same reasoning!  Isn't it amazing the things a 5 year old can figure out through logic?

And I've also introduced a new method of teaching reading.  I decided to follow Charlotte Mason's method of teaching reading, so I have switched to a whole language method versus completely phonics.  Charlotte Mason does use a little phonics, but her method mainly focuses on the words as symbols.  And, so far, after only a few days of lessons, she knows how to read and spell rain, eagle and brain.  Those are the ones I have drilled her on at least.  I did introduce drain and train as well.  This method seems to be holding her interest a little more than The Reading Lesson.  I am seeing that Annabelle needs a more hands on approach to learning to read.  Here is a blog entry by Barefoot Voyage describing a child's first reading lessons using Charlotte Mason.  This method just makes so much sense to me.  Though every child is different so we will see!

Kindergarten Favorites

We are only a few weeks into our Kindergarten curriculum with Heart of Dakota, but I asked Annabelle this evening what she enjoys most.  She actually surprised me with her first choice as I didn't think she was a huge fan of history at first!  These are her selections in order from her most favorite to her least favorite.

1.  History (because she gets to read the Bible)
2.  Reddy Fox (aka Storytime)
3.  Devotionals, particularly Little Visits with God ("because it is like reading the Bible.")
4.  The Reading Lesson
5.  Math
6.  Handwriting

She studies science too, but I think she is lumping that in with the history lesson.  Annabelle loves reading her Bible.  She would read her Bible all day long if I didn't encourage her to read other books for pleasure.  Her love for the Bible began with The Beginner's Bible.  We bought her that first Bible for Easter 2011.  I personally think the characters are a little funny looking, but it is definitely one of her favorites!  Fortunately, the Easter Bunny brought her The Jesus Storybook Bible for Easter this year.  And that is also a new favorite for her!

LHFHG - Unit 2

Today we studied Adam and Eve, sin and their exit from the Garden of Eden.  We discussed that Adam and Eve were separated from God because of their sin.  And that we too can separate ourselves from God if we continue to sin and do not repent and work hard to change our sinful ways.

For our "Thinking Game" today, we masked off a box on the floor to represent our Garden of Eden.  Annabelle helped mask off our Garden of Eden, and it was a great lesson on measurement.  We started to use the yellow markings on the floor to determine the length of our rectangle, but then Annabelle decided she wanted her Garden of Eden to be square.  So we pulled out the ruler to properly design our Garden of Eden.

Annabelle pet her "lion" in the garden.  I wish I could take credit for her grabbing Shadow as a prop, but this was all the imagination of a 5 year old!

And she rocked her favorite (very, very well loved) baby doll, Adie, in the Garden of Eden.

I loved how she chose to rock Adie in the Garden of Eden.  This direction was not included in the guide.  Annabelle thought this one up on her own.  Though she doesn't understand it, I just pictured that one day those mothers who have lost children before birth or even those who have lost babies will once again rock their babies in heaven.  Those babies that they may have never held here on earth.  I also loved how she connected rocking a baby as a happy thing.  Do you see the joy in her eyes?

Though I don't have pictures of some of the activities outside of the Garden of Eden, she did also work hard digging outside of the garden, walked sadly around the edge of the garden and cried outside of the garden.  She learned that life outside of the garden is definitely hard at times, but that one day if we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we will live happily ever after in heaven with God and Jesus.

LHFHG Unit 1 - Continued

I'm posting this entry almost two months later!  It is amazing how much I forget if I don't post something immediately.  And I even had plenty of pictures to help jog my memory!

Annabelle, you are a handful my dear!  It was after today's lesson, Unit 1 - Day 4, that I posted an entry on the Heart of Dakota forum titled "Dawdling Child Drags out Lessons" to seek advice from more experienced homeschooling moms. 

For today's lesson, we pulled out a blue and brown piece of construction paper.  You wrote the number five on the blue piece of paper and the number six on the brown piece of paper.  I called out names of land animals and water animals and you were instructed to hop, crawl, creep, swim, etc. across the blue paper for water animals and the brown paper for land animals.  The numbers written on the papers represented the fifth (blue for the fish and birds) and sixth (brown for the land animals) days of God's creation.

Being the dawdling and creative child that you are, you promptly left the room when I called out "flamingo."  And you came back dressed appropriately as a flamingo!  It is no wonder it takes us 45 minutes to get through a typical 15 minute lesson on many days!

LHFHG Unit 1 - Kindergarten!

We began our official Kindergarten journey almost two weeks ago on Monday, May 14th.  Unfortunately, the stomach bug from Saturday turned into strep throat by Friday.  Our first day of Kindergarten was a huge success, but then the illness got the best of both of us, and I wanted to throw in the towel completely on everything, including being a mom!  It is always a huge relief to realize the exhaustion is a result of an illness because it is during those times that I doubt everything including homeschooling, expanding our family and mommyhood.

Annabelle's favorite part of school is storytime!  There is no question on that one.  My plan is to complete Little Hearts for His Glory half-speed with Annabelle.  I do, however, plan to do the Phonics and Fine Motor Skills full-speed (daily).  And based on Annabelle's interest, I suspect we'll be doing storytime at full-speed as well.  She LOVES the Thornton Burgess books!

This week Annabelle learned that there are seven continents, and she learned the names of all seven continents using the "Rhymes in Motion."  Here the girls are hopping like kangaroos to Australia singing to the tune of "Skip to My Lou."  Annabelle had originally grabbed the two bunnies that Sophia is holding to use as her kangaroo and joey.  She then lovingly shared with her little sister.

We are using the recommended Singapore Earlybird Kindergarten Mathematics 2A and 2B for Annabelle's Kindergarten year.  There are a lot of hands-on activities included in the Little Hearts for His Glory guide to coincide with the Singapore lessons.  This week she traced her numbers and then placed the corresponding number of stickers on each traced number.  This is definitely not new math  to her at all, but I understand that Singapore advances fairly quickly in the next few years, so we are going to follow the guide for now in hopes that we build a solid foundation for math in these early years.

I also filled a Ziplock bag with dishwashing liquid, and she used this to practice writing her numbers as she counted her My Little Ponies.  We were supposed to only practice writing the numbers one through five, but we had twelve ponies to work with, so she counted and formed her numbers up to twelve.  Again, we are just covering the basics for Annabelle, but Heart of Dakota makes learning so much fun that she isn't bored with the activities.  And, yes, she climbed up onto our dining room table to do math because "Grandmama let me do it."

Annabelle (and Mommy too!) also really enjoyed the Artistic Expression box for this week.  We walked our pencils in lines in large motions on white paper, and we then colored each section created by the lines using black and gray colored pencils and/or crayons.  It created the look of a collage.  Then, we drew an outline of a cross on yellow paper and glued it to our collage.  Annabelle added a picture of Jesus dying on the cross.  The key idea for this lesson was that Jesus is at the center of history.  We really had a lot of fun being artistic this week!

For our dramatic play this week, the person holding the flashlight in the middle was pretending to be the sun, and the person circling the "sun" was the "earth."  The third being just had to join in on the fun since whenever Daddy lays down on his back, one of the little people in our house always finds it necessary to jump up and down on his belly!  As the "earth" completed a circle around the "sun," we sang "Happy Birthday Dear Earth...You are now [one, two, three, etc.] years old."  How novel is that?  Heart of Dakota adds the creativity and fun to our daily lessons!  And this lesson coincided with our history lesson for the day.

I love this next picture where Daddy is pointing to himself because he is now "three years old!"  Even Daddy gets to join in on the fun!

Annabelle also enjoyed memorizing her Bible verse for this week.  Since we are doing Heart of Dakota at half-speed, I have added in a daily devotional from Little Visits with God by Allan Hart Jahsmann and Martin P. Simon.  This book was actually mine when I was a young child.  They were dear to my heart as a child, and I actually requested that my mom pass these onto me when Annabelle was a baby.  She has enjoyed them ever since.  We use this devotional on the days that we aren't using Devotions for the Children's Hour by Kenneth N. Taylor.  We are also trying to get Daddy involved in the memory of scripture by including him in the daily scripture memory games.  

Stay tuned...I am going to update this post on our 1st week of Kindergarten over the next few days, so hopefully you'll see some new pictures and text to this blog post.

Box Day!

In the homeschooling world, when new curriculum arrives in the mail, it is known as box day!  It is at this time that the homeschooling parent and child get to sift through all of the new materials.
We celebrated our Box Day today!  I finally decided that Annabelle was placed in a guide a little too young for her.  It pained me to move on up as Little Hands to Heaven is such a sweet guide.  It would have been perfect when Annabelle was 3 or 4 years old, but she needs to be challenged just a little bit more, and I could sense the boredom with her "school Bible."

So I placed my order Tuesday evening, it shipped early Wednesday morning, and we received it today!  Heart of Dakota's customer service is exceptional!

Annabelle has been suffering from a stomach bug today, but she was still so anxious to open the box despite her aching tummy.  She didn't want to wait!

Despite all of the new goodies and new chapter books (and she loves her some chapter books), she was a bit disappointed that her new "school Bible" had not yet arrived.  I ordered the Bible from a different vendor, so it should arrive by Monday or Tuesday.  But, she mentioned that she is more excited about her new Bible than any of the rest of it.  Annabelle loves her some Bible!  If you ask her, it is truly her favorite book.  The girl cannot get enough of it!

Here are pictures of our Box Day for Heart of Dakota's Little Hearts for His Glory.  I am so very anxious to get started with this new curriculum for her official start to Kindergarten.  I really think she is going to like it.

And the placement of the box on top of her head was completely her idea!  But it made for a really cute picture!  Crazy girl!