Sonlight: Day 4

(Once again I apologize for the quality of these photos.)

This was a fun activity. I had to get the 4 items shown in the picture (doll, scissors, paperclip & box of crayons) and lay them on a tray in front of him. I let him study them and then asked him to turn around. I would then remove ONE of the items and he would have to color the item on his sheet that was missing from the tray. It took him a minute to understand what I was asking him to do but after he figured it out he did excellent!

Copywork #3: Write his name again

We made a paper chain snake after we read more about Adam & Eve and how they were tempted by the serpant.

Ta-da!

Day 4:

Bible: Story of how Adam and Eve are tempted/memory verse

Storybook: "There was a Little Girl" short story

Readiness Skills: 2 pages from workbook

Science: Berenstain bears big book of science & nature- just a few pages about what happens when it snows

Language Arts: Copywork 3, Learned Days in months (Thirty days hath sept, etc), attempted "Finish the story" (I start a story and let him finish it however he wants..he wasn't interested in participating though.)

Handwriting: 3 pages out of Handwriting Without Tears

Tomorrow is technically our last "Sonlight" day for this week, but Braxton loves school so much he asks to do it on the weekend so I have a few things planned for Sat/Sun if he asks! I'm excited! This has been a great week so far.

Keep checking in for more on how we're doing!

Sonlight: Day 2 & 3

Please ignore the low quality of the photos. I took them with my camera phone. I swear, better quality photos will be posted in the future...after I purchase a new camera! :) Okay, so I will hopefully start doing these posts WEEKLY rather than daily but I am just SO EXCITED to share what we have been doing! So here are days 2 and 3.

Day 2:

simple mazes

Here he was instructed to only color the photos that were the same. I did not help one bit.

He was told to color the ladybugs red, the bees yellow & the flies black. Then he practiced horizontal and vertical lines and loops.

Tuesday Day 2:

Bible: Story of creation

Storybook: Read the story of Jack and Jill, and "Uncle Wiggily and Stubby Toes"

Science: Berenstain Bears Big Book of Science and Nature: Read about Winter

Language Arts: went over the days of the week and did 3 work sheets from handwriting without tears

Day 3:

We did 3 sheets like this. He already knows most of his shapes but he did learn "crescent" and "oval" today. We did colors Green, Yellow and Red. This was from his handwriting without tears book.

Simple "what goes with what" work sheet. He did great!

Wednesday Day 3:

Bible: Story of Adam & Eve & Memory Verse

Storybook: Story of Simple Simon, The Little Sparrow (GREAT story!!)

Science: Read about snow from The Berenstain Bears' Big Book of Science and Nature (ironic since we just got a ton of snow!)

Language Arts: Copywork activity (write name again), went over the months of the year

LA activity: I would put two things in front of Braxton (example: a fork and a cup) and would ask him which one started with the letter F. We did 3 rounds and he got all 3 correct!

Braxton really enjoys hands on activities, and sonlight is not very hands on. I think I will start looking for a craft or something that goes with each weeks lesson(s) and maybe do some fun hands on stuff every Friday. He is happiest when he is working on stuff in his workbooks.

Check back tomorrow or Friday to see more!

Sonlight Day 1

As my last post mentioned, yesterday was our first *official* day of PRESCHOOL! Oh my! Braxton was so excited to be starting school again. He's really missed it. When I was cleaning out the homeschool room and getting everything set up he asked if we were going to do school. I replied, "Yes, we are starting today." His eyes lit up. "Today?! Really?" :)


He loves homeschool. ♥


So here is what we did yesterday :


Bible:
-Learned & Recited Memory Verse (Proverbs 4:20)


Storybook:
-Read "Old Mother Goose"

-Read "Rabbit & Tiger Save the World" and discussed how Rabbit and Tiger are different and how they are the same

-Read "Baby Chick"


Readiness Skills:
-2 pages from his work book


Science:
-Read pages 4-7 of The Berenstein Bears Big Book of Science & Nature (learned about the seasons of the year)


Language Arts:
-Copywork *had to write his name by copying the example I gave him
-Browsed the "F" page of his Picture Dictionary, took note that all the pictures on the page start with the letter F, explained what sound the letter F makes, we tried to think of more words that start with the letter F
-Made a letter F sheet *Everyday we'll be adding pictures of things that start with the letter F


Handwriting:
-p. 5-6 -2 color pages

What a break!

When I said we were going to take a break, I never expected a 5 or 6 month break! Wow! We have been moved into our new house for awhile and we love it! We are settled in and ready to start school again...in fact....


In December we purchased some ready made curriculum. I don't remember if I mentioned what we decided to go with so if I already told you, forgive me. We chose Sonlight! It was a lot more money than we originally wanted to spend but after researching several different companies it was a no brainer. We decided to go with the P4/5 program rather than the P3/4 since Braxton is turning 4 soon and will be using this from the age of 4-5. I have heard the P4/5 is advanced for a 4-5 year old and is better used as K but I think Braxton will do great! Also, the package I chose did not include a handwriting course so I am supplementing with Handwriting Without Tears Pre-K. It's a crayon only work book and he really likes it so far!

Yesterday was our first day and it was great! When I first looked at the schedule I thought it was going to be a LOT of work but it wasn't too bad. I think it only took about an hour. My next post will go into more detail of what we did.

Just wanted to update. I don't know if I'll be making daily or weekly posts because there aren't as many "hands on" things with Sonlight, mostly reading and that would make for some boring photos.

Off to write about our first day of school. :)

Taking a Break

We've decided to take a short break or "vacation" from school. We just bought a house and are moving in next month! So we are packing/planning for our daughters 1st birthday party which is also next month. So much to do!

So when we get settled into the new house we'll continue with Letter of the Week. :)

Letter D: Dinosaurs

We kind of slacked off this week. Josh had the week off for both of our birthdays (they're just 2 days apart) so I wanted the kids to enjoy having him home. So, we didn't do much school but we made up for that with a super cool trip to a Museum in Norman! :)

So, the fun pics first.
Braxton had a BLAST. Almost the entire museum was about Dinosaurs or prehistoric animals/creatures. FUN! We didn't think Braxton would love it as much as he did but we were sooo wrong! He has been talking about it the past week and of course telling anyone he comes in contact with that he "got to see Dinosaurs, but they aren't real. They're dead." lol

Now, onto school. Below is the dinosaur lapbook I made for him (I can't wait til he starts making these himself!) ;)
2 sequencing game, a counting game, a puzzle, 2 places to practice writing "D" and "Dinosaur" and then he drew some dinosaurs on there. (Betcha thought that was just scribbling, eh?) (Games are from here)

Puzzle time!

He wrote DAD! (with some help, the top one was the example I wrote for him, he decided to do it all in uppercase though, not so great at the lowercase yet. That's okay though, we're really just focusing on uppercase anyways!)

Coloring a dinosaur for the front of his dinosaur lapbook. Also, no pictures of this but he did his first color by number! (Let's just say we still need practice with that!)

Letter D/d tracing


Cute little Dinosaur



Tracing the letter D, he get's so frustrated when he goes off the lines. :(

Letter D craft from Homeschool Creations (This was such a cute & fun Dino to make!)

Completed :)

I wanted him to practice writing the letter D (without tracing), as you can see he writes it backwards...and then he decided letter A sounded like MUCH more fun!

We also read 'How do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food" (There is actually a bunch of books like this about Dinosaurs but this was the only one our library had available.) We read a few more books about Dinosaurs but I can't recall the names of the books now.

And finally, we had a DINO DIG! I made some homemade playdough, used plastic dinosaur toys to make impressions in the dough and then baked until hard. Josh hid them outside in the dirt and we had Braxton go looking for "fossils." It was a big hit!

Letter C

This week we learned about the letter C and our theme was CATERPILLARS! I didn't get to take as many pictures as usual, my camera was MIA for a bit.

Everything we did can be found at Confessions of a Homeschooler and Homeschool Creations. ♥ these blogs!!

Here is Braxton making the letter C with his mosaic peg board.


His Caterpillar minibook :)


I loved this craft. I cut out all the pieces for him and he constructed the milkweed plant & caterpillars. I tried getting him to follow a pattern (white, black, yellow, white, black, yellow) but he had no interest. Oh well! Still very cute!

Every week we do an alphabet craft from Homeschool Creations. This week it was a crab. Again, I cut out all the pieces and he put them together. (We're working on scissor skills...we've got LOTS of work to do there...) I tried getting him to use smaller googly eyes but he insisted on the big ones. :)

Caterpillar lacing card

Hungry Caterpillar

Coloring his hungry caterpillar

He also practiced tracing the letter C and we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. We've also got a little caterpillar grandma caught for us (honestly I think it is a silk worm since it's in a cocoon not a chrysalis) so we're waiting for the butterfly (ahem, moth) to come out.

Braxton really seems to be learning the letters this time and I am so glad! Anywhere we go he wants to point out the letters he sees. He writes the letter A (by memory) all the time (he says that is his favorite letter) and he really wants to learn how to write his name. Everyone seems to be noticing how much he is learning and it really makes me happy since I've had SO much negative comments about my decision to homeschool.

Next theme: DINOSAURS (he's going to LOVE it!)