Living Life: Oct 7

This is our week at a glance as well as how a typical day goes for us. I get this question a lot from people who wonder exactly how you home school with different aged kids. Everyday is different and doesn't always go as scheduled but this is how it is supposed to look.

We begin our day with Calendar Time, then a devotion. Then we split up. I take the 2 year old, while the other two work independently.

Tot School
Using Heart of Dakota's Little Hands for His Glory

We start by reviewing our letter for the week. Last week, we learned the letter H. He traces the letter on our flashcard book and then we review the words in the book that start with that letter. Next, we move onto his Bible Story and then either do some sort of activity or read more books. We also work on colors and numbers. This week, I took a cute video of him counting.

Kindergarten

Using Heart of Dakota's Little Hearts for His Glory

Once we split up, my 5 year old works on the computer on either www.Starfall.com or PBSkids.org. When we come back together, we work on her memory verse for the week. We do Awana at church, so these are the verses that she learns. After this she begins working on either A Reason for Handwriting or Rod & Staff's Do it Carefully workbook. She enjoys working on both of these. Next, she moves on to Math. She's been busy working on shapes and patterns. Both of which she knows pretty well so it's just been a review. After math, we move to Phonics, which consists of Explode the Code Workbook and Hooked on Phonics. It makes me so proud to see her reading and writing words. I'll have to post a video of the next H.O.P. book she reads. Then comes Storytime. We've been reading the Burgess books as well as library or some books we already have at home. Right now, I'm reading The Adventures of Peter Cottontail. She does like these books but I can tell she enjoys books with pictures much better. She listens to both, but when I read a book with pictures, she sits close and looks at the pictures while I read. When I read the Burgess books that have no pictures, she goes to the floor and plays or dances around while I read. This is not really a problem because she can still answer the questions I ask her at the end. So she is listening at least. History is great because we read Bible stories for this with the Family Time Bible. Next, we do either Science or some type of acting out play. For example, last week, she picked up cotton balls (which was bread) with tweezers (which was a raven's beak) and placed them in a bowl. This was after reading the story of how God used the ravens to bring bread to Elijah. Sometimes, we have a song or rhyme to go along with our Bible Stories.

4th grade
Using Heart of Dakota's Preparing Hearts for His Glory

My oldest son starts on his independent work by going over his memory verse from Awana, then moves on to Science or Handwriting depending on the day. Next, he goes to the computer and does Math. We are using Teaching Textbooks this year. Then, he takes the 2 year old, so I can work with the Kindergartner After I get through working with her, she takes the youngest and they play in their room while I work with my oldest. We start with English and Spelling, then Reading, Vocabulary, History, Storytime, Typing, and Art. We don't do all of these everyday, it just depends on the day. Last week in English, we wrote a letter to give instructions to someone. He chose to write to his 3 year old cousin telling him how to play the drums. When my nephew received the letter, he was so excited, he called my oldest son to tell him he got the letter. It was so cute! He thinks the world of him. In History, we are reading from a book called Grandpa's Box. He really enjoys this book. It is about 2 kids who visit their grandparents house everyday after school and the grandpa tells them all about the Bible Stories. It's a really good book and keeps you interested. My son usually complains if we read to long and he enjoys this one. That's a definite plus.

Well this is our typical day. It doesn't always go smoothly. In fact, more times than not, it's very crazy. With a 2 year old running around, there's never a dull moment, but somehow we make it work.

Here are some pictures from the week. Somehow, I only managed to get a couple of the princess from the week but Friday we had Field Day, so I included pictures from that as well.