Okay, so the letter of the week thing is how we're going to roll for the first part of the year... and we chose "I" for Insects... which ended up lasting two weeks and morphed into "Identity" due to some character issues I'd noticed... but boy this is fun (even though Hunter had his second round of tonsilitis for the year - uhh it's only March by this time).
We skipped the lapbook for insects but we did a few fun lessons. One was a measuring lesson using a book called "Inch by Inch": http://www.homeschoolshare.com/inch_by_inch.php . While we were talking about "insects" I started him doing word families using the "in" sound and made up a worksheet of my own where he had to glue "in" bits I'd cut out of newspapers to form words - think "in"ternational, "in"teresting, "in"ternet - but the boy didn't bat an eye to it... so I let Helena take over that one! Hmmm, could've been the meds or just not his thing! Speaking of meds - I had taken him to the after hours hospital care at about 10pm the night we realised his tonsils were swollen again - not the wisest. It was a good thing I'd taken the Usborne "Big Bug Search" book along - that thing kept us occupied for an hour of our over 2 we'd spent waiting... but that's another story that doesn't need to be rehashed here!
We also took a look at the "Very Hungry Caterpillar" lesson based on something I found at http://www.homeschoolshare.com/very_hungry_caterpillar.php. We especially enjoyed the insect collages.
I printed out insect coloring pages from some random search online - probably DKLT or one of those... We were going to paint our own paper using the kindergarten resources, but when I dropped off Helena I found a heap of unnamed paintings so we 'reused' those by tearing them up into smaller pieces then gluing them onto the shape of the insect we'd already colored in. I then took a black pencil or marker and re-drew the outline.
Personally, I think these look amazing (probably because I did most of the work, eh!? HA! Though Hunter's ladybug looks great!)
Hunter's tonsilitis was waning so our friends came over to spend a couple of hours with us. They are moving to Canada soon and this was our last time to just hang out. I had given Carla the heads up that we were on an insect theme so she brought along the game "Beetle" which was super cool and became the visiting storyteller with her book about butterflies! What a fun way to learn and play! I love that Lucas and Erin were able to join in our learning.
One of our random things - I think I told him to make the letter "I" or was it "F" this week out of train tracks... after he'd finished that they got into making other things. Oops - notice the heater... we had to take the chill off the room somehow before leaving for a while later...
Oh, the Biblical principle for I became "Identity" or "I am" based on Psalm 139:14 "I will praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful and I know that full well." We did a bit of personal reflection and thinking about who we are so I created a list of "I am" statements that started out obvious: "I am Hunter", "I am a son", "I am a brother" and then moved to things like "I am courageous", "I am good at learning things", "I am a prince" with scriptures as the basis for these more abstract ones. Then I printed and cut out a heap of photos of them that suited the statements and they had to glue/tape the photo next to the statement. Now they have these sheets hanging on the wall by their beds so they look at them each night. We may have to update them once in a while and maybe I should bite the bullet and do it in color sometime and laminate it because goodness gracious - if these kids can really "get" who they are and who God has called them to be - they will a) spend a lot less time trying to figure it out when they are older, and b) they'll be living proof of how God's word affects our lives! Bring it on, Lord!!!
Woo-ooo, woo-ooo, woo-ooo... "F" is for.... FIRE SAFETY!!!
This was a fun week. I went online and found heaps of fun resources at http://www.nfpa.org/categoryList.asp?categoryID=2019&URL=Safety%20Information/Fire%20Prevention%20Week/For%20kids%20and%20families and http://www.usfa.fema.gov/kids/html/homefiresafety/. We did some sequencing practice where he had to match clip art to the step... this was fun. I also gave him a crossword puzzle from one of those sites and created a 'cheat sheet' with clip art and the words so he could fill in the crossword himself. TIP: I'm finding crosswords are a great way for him to write!!!
We even sent Uncle Matt the Firefighter an email with some questions Hunter thought of based on "Flick, the Little Fire Engine"... that was fun! We made an escape plan and then... we visited the fire station...
Mr John was such a good sport - he gave them the full tour of the fire truck as if we were on a real school visit! What a kind man (helped that I brought some cake along)!
The kids mostly loved getting inside the truck and playing with the walkie talkies... hilarious!
This was cool - as he was showing them some of the equipment, Helena figured out that this was a shadow box - like she used the word shadow... must be all those different puzzles she does at kindy! Anyway - the kids know that they are not allowed to call 111 (the number here) unless there is actually an emergency and they know that they are not allowed to touch hot things... that's a good safety start, eh!
The Biblical principle for "F" is Faith
"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see". Hebrews 11:1
