School Days

Hmm...I was planning on blogging our first day of school, but, WOH!...has it been a more than month already? I can't believe how fast it has all gone by. Well, to say the very least, we have been keeping busy!

I really do love using My Father's World with the workbox system. My Father's World is very simple and the curriculum only takes maybe 1 or 1.5 hours each day, but if you go on the website forum, there are tons of ideas to supplement from other parents who are doing MFW too. So with my index card box of ideas, MFW forum and curriculum, and my various blogs I like to visit...there's is always enough to fill up the workboxes with themed activities! It's just an awesome system-and I really recommend it to anyone. James loves it...he asks to do it...that never happened last year! And it has really helped me be consistent about all areas/subjects of schooling... it is more work for me in the planning stages, however it is worth the extra work once you see the fruit of your labor~ a happy student, a happy momma and a much easier flow for your day!

So, here is a look into our First Week of School!

Our first week's theme was "Ss Sun- Jesus is the Light of the World"

Of course, my memory is fading fast...so here is a look into what I have pictures of...not so much of a comprehensive list of all we actually learned and accomplished!

ART:
We got out our paint, made handprints onto sturdy paper plates, cut out & glued a clothespin on the back of handprint. Add a magnet to the clothespin...once all is dry, WAH-LAH! You have a custom made magnet for hanging up your child's artwork. (Of course, I don't have a shot of the finished product, but maybe I will get my act together and post it at a future time!)

Bella wanted to do EVERYTHING James did, so she got to do her own version! (note: yes, I know that she is not wearing clothes in most of these pics...but that's cause any time we have paint involved...off go the clothes.)

Of course, we needed art to hang so....

Day One- I wrote out James' name in marker and he 'traced' over it with Bingo Dot Dauber Markers. Fingerpainting the Sun
Bella too! Of course!One of our studies was about Solar Weather...last year we took a trip to the planetarium and they gave out some neat freebies from NASA...one of these was a CDrom filled with cool stuff about the sun...and solar weather. Anyway, after we review this info...He created a solar storm painting. I love it! The big blob in the middle is the storm heading towards earth...the earth has a circle (magnetic field) around it to protect it from the coming radiation. You probably can't see...but he added yellow splatters for a finishing touch, to represent all the matter/particles coming out from the sun towards earth. I love his creativity!

As part of the weekly Reading Plan- one of the days is a TACTILE day... so for our first week we made our own playdough. If you have never made playdough before...IT IS SIMPLE and so much fun! Try it! Here is a recipe. We made green, cause it's James' favorite color.
I got out a place mat we got from Walmart a few years ago. He practiced rolling out letters and placing it over the printed letters on our placemat. We saved the playdough for later play of course. But it also came in handy when we made our sundial for Science:
We read a book about how time and how the sun was used in the old days to tell time. After that we cut out a cardboard circle, put a blob of our homemade playdough in the middle, and put a pencil in the center of the blob.
We went outside and marked the shadow each hour on the hour. After a while, it started to look like a clock. Then we had to move it...Daddy was coming home soon, and we didn't want him to run it over! hehe

Math:
Fun with M&M's! This is a really cool book.
and Bear Counters with M&M's to add (and subtract...boy those M&M's disappeared fast!)
And a Donald Crew book...10 Black Dots.
We used Black Magnet Dots, but you could use anything really!

Our Book of the Week was Bear Shadow.
We did many fun reading comprehension activities with this.
Here he is drawing two different ways Bear tried to get rid of his shadow. His drawing skills amaze me. He is so creative and talented for a five year old. (says his mom!)
After we read the book we went outside and had some fun with sidewalk chalk and shadows.
We played with shadows, traced the shadows in chalk...and filled in with faces, clothes, etc.
We compared them at different times throughout the day we would trace his shadow...standing in the same spot. It was neat to see where the shadow was each time...and how big it had grown, or rapidly it was shrinking!
We played shadow tag, and then acted out Bear Shadow...trying to escape our shadows. Pretending to pound nails, hide behind trees, digging holes...
Sometimes the sun would go behind a cloud and we would not have anymore to play with...

And there was a great spiritual tie in here....God is always with us and will never leave us. Even if we can see Him. He is always there!

And last but not least...we took a field trip to the GSU Raptor Center. Not really anything to do with light or Sun...but Grandma Susan was moving the next week, and we were trying to fit in as much fun quality time with her and the grandkids as possible.



Bella loved this huge toad! All throughout the presentation, she kept on wanting to go see that toad she knew was at the end of the table!

My Favorite/Unforgetable memory of this field trip? James raised his hand when they were asking for brave volunteers to come up front to the raptor/reptile show. He got picked along with his cousin, Brianna. They went up front, and were asked to close their eyes and hold out their hands. Oh boy!!! Out came two giant Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches. (SHUDDER!) well, needless to say, as much as James loves bugs and stuff...he doesn't love them in his hand...He screamed, shook it off, and ran back to his seat next to me. Poor guy cried for about 2 minutes before he calmed down. Good news is though, that he was able to enjoy the rest of the show.