Following Foundations 8/7/09 August 8, 2009

Well, this was our first week of school! We celebrated our first day by taking pictures on the front porch and by going out for lunch. The week went really well, and I was pleased with how well everything flowed. Although, I did discover on the first day that Little Man needs to be napping while I read to the other two. Fortunately, he’s still taking two naps a day!

EG and AZ both started swim lessons this week. They both did well and jumped off the side of the pool. The instructor finally had to dunk EG all the way under the water. She was only getting her chin wet.  Her brother was doing the same thing but never got dunked. Maybe they go easy on the three year olds.

We attempted a nature walk this week, and I think it went okay. My biggest difficulty is trying to find an appropriate and safe place to go. I finally decided on an area in our neighborhood near a ditch with some flowing water. The kids had a good time looking around, but I was having a hard time finding something for their bug house. Eventually, I spied some cicada skins hanging on some trees. We collected three of them and saw many more higher in the trees. After we got back home, I found a neat video online about the life cycle of the cicada. They thought it was really neat to watch the cicadas molt and were very excited to tell Daddy all about it when he got home.

EG (5 yrs old):

The big kindergartener! She was very excited. She kept asking me if she was big enough for science. She said “Maybe just a little science?!” Well, Sonlight’s Science K has been her favorite this week. We sat in the laundry room with a flashlight and a globe and talked about night and day. We talked about the seasons and solar eclipses. The experiments this week were about air, and she and the Z-man had a great time doing them together. I included a picture of them doing an “air race”.

In Sonlight’s Core K, we started The Boxcar Children as our read-aloud, and we read about dinosaurs and the first people in history. I had to do a good bit of filtering of this information due to the fact that the Usborne Internet-Linked Children’s Encyclopedia is a secular book. The internet links in the encyclopedia were very good, however, and we particularly enjoyed looking at the pictures of cave paintings at Lascaux, France.

For reading and phonics, EG officially started on compound words in The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading and Explode the Code Book 4.  I say “officially” because she has been reading these words for a while now, but this is the first time we’ve looked at them as part of a lesson. She started Sonlight’s Readers 2, which begin with The Beginner’s Bible. She read five days worth in The Beginner’s Bible in two days, so we had to supplement with other stuff the rest of the week. This week she also began Singapore’s Earlybird Math B and A Reason for Handwriting Book A. The “seatwork”, which consists of math, handwriting and Explode the Code, went very quickly this week. I learned last year that if her brother is doing preschool at the table at the same time, she is more interested in what he is doing. Something that should take 15 minutes would take 45 minutes. So, this week I made the Z-man wait until she finished her seatwork before he started his preschool. This arrangement worked quite well. Of course, sometimes he was just sitting at the end of the table because he wanted to “wait his turn”.

This week she memorized Luke 12:15 which says “And he said to them ‘Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness. For one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.’” Also, she has made it through question 67 of the Baptist Catechism, which asks “What is forbidden in the fourth commandment?”

AZ (3 yrs old):

The Z-man was so excited about starting Explode the Code this week. He did well this week, but it’s still too early to tell if it will be too difficult for him. He finished his Kumon Tracing book this week and started some preschool workbooks by Rod & Staff. He also started Sonlight’s p3/4 program this week. We read Eloise Wilkin Stories,  Hans Christian Anderson’s Fairy Tales, and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom…..repeatedly. His sister enjoyed the books as much as he did. AZ has gotten so much better at sitting still and listening to books. He even sat through a couple chapters of The Boxcar Children this week.

AZ also has been working on his memory verses. This week he completed Proverbs 1:7, which says “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” He has also started working on the Baptist Catechism. He knows the first question, “Who is the first and best of beings?”, and he almost has the second question, “What is the chief end of man?”

I should have mentioned this last week, but the Z-man has made a great improvement in another area in his life. He has always been my picky eater. He eats only a handful of different things, and vegetables don’t happen to be one of them. A while back I expressed my concern to his doctor about his horrible eating habits. The doc said to just keep offering and then hopefully (and that is the keyword here) one day he would decide he liked his food. I can’t tell you how many countless times I have served green beans to this child. He has never eaten a green bean in his life.  And then….one day…….he says “Oh, I like green beans. I do” It was like the ending of the Dr. Seuss classic. And he ate his green beans, and he has eaten them two or three times since then. There is hope!!

SA (15 months):

The Little Man is still toddling along. He can take a few more steps before wiping out. He has really taken to books this week. Curious George and the Bunny has been a big hit. I taught him how to cover his eyes when he sees the picture of George covering his eyes. He can almost do the sign for ‘book’.

Me:

Well, I think it’s pretty obvious that I’ve had a busy week. I’m looped, stooped, and twisted alley-oop, and I’d really like to just pass out under a coconut tree. Chicka chicka boom boom. Nevertheless, life goes on and I have to keep moving. I had a good guitar lesson this week. I do okay playing songs in the key of D or G, but I need some major work in the other keys. So, one of my assignments for next time is to practice “Amazing Grace” in different keys. It will also be beneficial for me to practice transposing in my head.