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Good evening friends! I haven't been able to post on this blog for a bit and I apologize.

I have given up on all of our A Beka curriculum except the math. It's the only ones I'm still using. And I barely use them for that. It's basically just a guideline of what to teach.

For phonics my girlfriend from high school gave me the Hooked on Phonics program to use. We all like this so much better. And because it includes the readers and reading comprehension stories, I can also use that instead of the A Beka Reading and Language Arts for 1st grade. I am going to do Language Arts on my own next year anyways.

I have been seeing that kids are getting out of school already for the summer. We are going to be working for most of the summer I think. We'll take a little break, maybe a month. We started late and have not worked all the way through the school year because of my migraines and such. We haven't done school this week except on Monday because of my headaches.

I finally got my PSP up and working so I made a button for our blog.

I have a couple of pictures to share also.  The first picture is the kids and Tom listening to Bible study:

The kids were doing art on their own by watching a DVD that Amanda picked out at the library called Rainy Day Activities and here's what they made for me.  Kyle made the first one, the top picture is a picture that my husband took at one of his job sites.  Kyle thought I would like that.  ;-)  Then the bottom picture is my niece Graclyn.  Amanda's is the 2nd one shown and both of her pictures are of Graclyn.

We are just about done with our obedience lessons.  There is one story left to read.  It's been left since about Tuesday, but because of my migraine we haven't done it.  I still need to write up their test also and help them with their verses.  We are also still doing our bird study.  The kids will be starting their bird lapbook next week.

Hit -N- Miss

That is how our school has been lately.

We finished our science on how toys work. Now we are learning about animals. Next is birds and I have that study all planned out.

1. Learn about birds body parts and feathers, Read First Book of Birds ebook (FBB) pg 6-16
2. Learn about birds body parts and feathers, Read FBB pg 16-25
3. Learn about migration, Start bird-watching journal, Do Nature Journal cover, Read FBB pg 52-60
4. Learn about mating/nesting, Read FBB pg 33-43
5. Learn about eggs/babies, Read FBB pg 43-51
6. Look at books with birds in Washington and choose bird to do lapbook on, Learn about bird watching, Read FBB pg 62-65, Bird Watch
7. Research favorite foods, flowers, etc. of chosen bird, Take notes, Read Bird Watching For Beginners (BWFB) ebook pg 8-19, Bird watch
8. Anatomy lapbook, Read BWFB pg 8-19, Bird watch
9. Migration lapbook, Read BWFB pg 19-22, Bird watch
10. Nest lapbook, Read BWFB pg 22-34, Bird watch
11. Babies lapbook, Read BWFB pg 34-37, Bird watch
12. Predators lapbook, Read BWFB pg 37-46, Bird watch
13. Poem and Song lapbook, Read BWFB pg. 46-52, Bird Watch
14. Observation lapbook, Transfer information from bird-watching journal, Bird watch
15. Finish bird lapbook

We have 2 more stories to read about Jacob. We read 3 of the stories about Joseph while we were camping and we will finish Joseph after Jacob. Tonight I am going to change the bulletin board. We are almost done with math for the year. Phonics and Language Arts we still have quite a bit because we started that really late. But that's ok, I don't mind working through summer. We are going to be doing Science during the summer also. A lengthy unit on plants/flowers/gardens.

We read Dinosaurs Before Dark which is book #1 of the Magic Tree House Series. Kyle really wanted to finish it today, so I read the rest to him. Amanda didn't want to do anymore reading so she will finish it later. Kyle was really into the story and that just tickled me! I will definitely encourage the reading!

I'm still here!

Oh boy! I've been so busy that I haven't stopped to blog here. I apologize!

Let's see, where to start...

Well we took a little break because we had to sell a beloved pet. That was hard on the whole family.

We tried and tried to get back into the swing of things and just couldn't and didn't want to. I decided that maybe I needed to find a new way to do school. And trying not to miss an A Beka lesson is driving me crazy!

So I stumbled upon notebooking and that brought me to Kristy for lapbooking. I have decided to try both of those in our school days. Our first project was a lapbook on ants. It was a great success!! Loved by both kids and myself!

Since History is pretty much a repeat every year, and Amanda did most of the A Beka lessons, I have decided to wait until next year and restart the Story of the World book 1. We only a few lessons into it.

Today I sat down with our A Beka Science book and figured out how I wanted to do the lessons for the rest of the year. We are not doing them in order. Well, most of them we are. I got everything planned out until we start our last unit for the year on plants and that will take us into gardening. It will be a long unit. But we can work on something like that all summer.

I went through Math 1 from A Beka and did the same thing as the science. I eliminated the lessons that we don't need and wrote in the ones we did.

For now I am going to leave the phonics 1 and reading 1 the same.

Kyle is doing all of the same subjects as Amanda now except for math, reading, writing and phonics. They are doing Bible, Memorization, lapbooks studies, Science and anything else I throw in together.

I went to a cute little book store in Sumner the other day. They have lots of used books in great condition. And so cheap! I bought quite a few for school. A few old favorites like The Borrowers, Beaver Creek and a couple of new ones that are a series that I haven't seen until just a few months ago called Magic Tree House series. I bought books 1-4. I read the first one and like it. They are very simple and easy for the kids to sit through one chapter. I also bought Pilgrim's Progress for me.

For Easter studies this year the kids are doing a lapbook on Easter hymns. One by Martin Luther, one by Fanny Crosby and one by Charles Wesley. I am also going to read a book to them called Tor, A Jerusalem Street Boy. It is a story of a street boy that is blinded by Pilate. He then finds Jesus who gives him his sight back and he dedicates his life to Jesus. The poor boy then watches all of the evils that happen during the last week of Jesus' life. It's a little old for the kids now, but I plan on reading it every year for Easter and they will eventually get it! lol

Another great thing that I would like to highlight is that with the kids doing lapbooks, they have been starting to learn how to do their own research!

Roar!

Good Evening Ladies!

Today was a pretty easy day. We started with our Bible study. When I started it, I realized that what I had chosen to read was just way too much for them, so I moved on to the next Bible lesson. It was the beginning of Noah's Ark. So we will be moving on to this study now. The border on my bulletin board is already Noah's Ark and we will put some of their work up for this theme. I also have a large Bible character of Noah that I will hang up.

We did 2 lessons in phonics to make up for missing it yesterday.

For Story of the World Amanda started a booklet of the History of her Family today. For each one of us, Greg, myself, Kyle and Nichole she has a few questions to ask us about our history. For her A Beka history we covered transportation today and it was an extremely short lesson.

She aced her math and phonics test today. And I messed up and gave her the next units phonics test and she still passed! So we'll move onto the unit after that, lol.

For our cooking class we went over the cooking terms as stated in the lesson. I didn't go to the store today (getting low on weekly funds) so we skipped the cookie making. Maybe tomorrow we can make brownies to make up for it.

Right now for arts/crafts they are making stained-glass window ornaments. I will try to remember to take pictures to post. I will also take a picture of yesterday's fruit salad.

Here's a little more...

Today for our Bible study we read the story of Cain and Abel. I have started reading out of a Bible that I had when I was a kid called My Picture Story Bible. This is a great Bible for young kids. We have just started it though. During the first 7 lessons we are also reviewing the days of creation and there is a coloring page for Amanda to color. Kyle does not enjoy coloring right now, so I only make him a copy if he wants one. After Amanda is done with a 7 days, I am going to have her make a booklet with it to turn in. After we read our story, there 4 questions at the end and I split them up between Kyle and Amanda.

Amanda uses A Beka for history this year. Today we covered communication. I also have The Story of the World series that we started using this week. When I read her the first lesson, she didn't really pay attention and couldn't answer the review questions. So today we re-read that lesson and did todays lesson. It starts with the introduction lesson, but I think once it gets going and she has things to color, she will enjoy it more. I have also gotten books from the library to do further studies. We will do each chapter for as long as she'd like to learn it.

For Language Arts right now we are reading about zoo animals. Today we started large cats. We read about Lions, Tigers and other large cats in the children's encyclopedia. For this subject right now I plan what we read and learn about. I like to plan themes that go with another subject. In A Beka math right now she has a zoo theme. After my other A Beka materials arrive for reading, I will not plan Lang. Arts for a while. They should be here any day.

We also covered some AWANA lessons. She was on a part that had to do some research with Mom so we got that done along with practicing 2 verses.

For math we are using A Beka. She is currently doing her seatwork as I type. After she is done we will do 2 lessons, we are trying to catch up.

Phonics has been done with the materials from the school that she was enrolled in last year. I was able to keep all of the phonics materials. Her new phonics materials from A Beka will arrive any day also.

We covered lesson 2 of our cooking class today. Yesterday the kids loved learning about the measuring cups and spoons. Today we reviewed safety and covered the lesson. They made the fruit salad and took turns doing steps. After it was chilled they tried it and guess what...neither one of them like it. Doesn't that figure.

Kyle has spent a lot of time today making himself a tent with his blanket. He's utilizing the kitchen drawers and any other heavy or high object that he can drag in there to hold his blanket up or down. I figure this is very creative and imaginative.

After we are done with her math lessons, we will do phonics. That is the last thing that we need to do today. Right now it is all pretty much review until our new books show up.