Week 1

Epi Kardia - Week 1 - Ancients I

Earlybird Kindergarten Mathematics (Match and Sort)







Day 1:

We learned a lot today.

We started our day off with Bible. We read Genesis 1-3.
We also did the calendar. We talked about today's date, along with the days of the week.

For History we read Bill and Pete Go Down the Nile. I got out the globe and we found Egypt and talked about it being located in Africa. I drilled Miss E later in the day about our book, and with a few prompts she got it. We also read the story Noah's Ark. Miss E and Little Man started a craft, we'll finish it later this week. (Later in the week never happened.) The craft idea came from mamajennblogs, but I googled the animal picture outside of her recommendation. We also read Psalm 105:1-7.

 For English we just worked on writing her name and we read A You're Adorable. She has been able to write her name for some time now, so we are just working on making the letters the same size. I'm not sure how to deal with how she holds her pencils. Little Man just likes to do what we are doing in his own way.

 Math is Miss E's favorite time of day. She would do several lessons all at once if I would let her. I love that she is loving math. Our lesson covered matching two objects that belong to the same set. One of the things that I'm really liking about Earlybird Kindergarten Mathematics is the vocabulary usage. In today's lesson we talked about two items being 'exactly the same'. Since her momma has a math background we expanded our lesson to talk about the items that are similar, too. Okay similar on the level of a kindergartner, but she gets it. It is really cute to hear her explain two objects as being exactly the same or similar and why.

Each week we have memorization work. This week we are memorizing Matthew 19:14.

Physical Education is required by our state. She has gymnastics on Mondays so she had a great 'work-out'.

Day 2:

Day 2 of each week will be a light day. In a few weeks we will start Bible Study Fellowship so she will be getting 2 hours worth of instruction on this day each week.

We started our day with our Bible reading: Genesis 6.
We also did the Calendar.

Today we had a fun morning with friends, we will record most of our time as physical education.

When we pulled into the garage after our play date, Miss E asked if she could do more work with the animals that are exactly the same. (She wanted to do more math!!) So, I got the van unloaded and we worked on math...


In math we matched two objects that belong to the same set. So, again there are things that are exactly the same and then things that are the same in different positions. In her workbook she had to explain the pictures using words 'These items are exactly the same.' or 'These items are similar because...' or 'These items are the same but...' Working on vocabulary.

She also did a little more work on writing her name. I'm just trying to get her to form her letters in a straight row and to make the letters 'correctly'. And we worked on our memory verse.
We also started working with a reading program called Lexia. She was not too happy about having to follow the directions and quickly learned that the program will give 'helps' if she answered the questions wrong long enough. Someone will be sitting near her the rest of the week while she works on Lexia.

1 hour of gymnastics will fulfill the requirement of PE for the day will put her over the required limit for the week. Not to mention that we played in a kiddie pool at our Friend's house.

Day 3:
We started our day off with Bible, reading Genesis 4-8:19.
We also did our calendar.

Then we moved on to math. Our math lesson matches two objects of the same color. We also talked about different shades of the same color. In her activity she was supposed to sort and match based on color and then with outfits.











 I did some leg-work a few weeks ago looking for things that I could have Little Man do while Miss E is working. I came across this activity from Confessions of a Homeschooler. I had everyone working for a few minutes, it was great!

 I was supposed to have a meeting with my education specialist with our school but it got cancelled. I already had childcare lined up, so we enjoyed a little impromptu play date. The kids played hard for at least 2 hours. Playing on the slip 'n slide and then just running around. Good way to get in the PE credits. (Not to mention the bike ride they did after Daddy got home.)

After we got home from our little outing we did Science. We read the book Storm on the Desert. We talked about life in the desert as we read the poem.

For History we talked about what she remembered from Noah's Ark and then started reading Joseph. We also read Psalm 105:8-15.

English brought on a lesson on the letter M. Miss E already knows her letters and letter sounds. (I am going to have to find a way to make our beginning phonics lessons interesting for her.) We looked a some 'm' words from the book 'Joseph' and she told me which letter in the word made the 'm' sound. She also did her work on Lexia.

Today she recited her memory verse without any prompts!!

The activity for today in our Epi Kardia lesson is to bake a Name Cake. I bought the ingredients to make the cake a few weeks ago and she was so excited. She would tell everyone that when school started she would be baking a cake. So even though it was 1000 degrees outside we started the oven and baked her cake. I had her help throughout the entire process.

 The reason for doing the cake is to have the student write their name on something other than paper. The frosting was a little difficult to handle, but I think she did a great job. She was so proud of herself. After both kids went for a bike ride with their dad I cut them each a piece, because they were so excited about the cake. They barely touched it. I guess cake made at home is not as good as the store bought kind.

**I'm trying to keep up with this daily. I apologize for the shifts in tenses and any other grammar mistakes that will drive you English people crazy. As I sit down to recap our day I write what comes to mind. I'm going to try to dictate our day in the order we do things. Mostly for me to look back on in a few weeks to figure out a set schedule that I can post for Miss E to see everyday. Right now we are, or I am, in a learning curve. The next two weeks are going to see some additions into our week, so I'm trying to take things at a minimum right now and will beef up where I can in the next month or so hence, the randomness of when we do things. Projects will be done at a time we can do them, whether during the lesson or later in the day. I'm writing this right now on Wednesday night and I'm seeing that when Miss E is seated and engaged she wants to hear all of her readings, once she moves away from where we are reading she is ready for something new.

Day 4:

We spent the morning at a friends house, so our school day did not start until later in the afternoon. It was tough.

We read Genesis 8:20-12:9 and recited our memory verse.
We also did our calendar. I thought she was getting her days of the week but she really struggles with 'today is ____', 'yesterday was _____' and 'tomorrow will be _______'. It will just take a little more practice.

Miss E is very excited about her math. Our lesson today was matching objects of the same pattern. We have descriptive conversations about the pictures and I'm working on having her use sentences when she explains what is going on, instead of me asking questions that require a one word answer.


The next thing on our agenda was English. She was not excited. She wanted to play and told me that she did not like school anymore. I got her to practice her 'm's again and then told her she could do her Lexia as long as she did the activities correctly. She did a great job!

After she was done with Lexia she was ready to sit again and we finished our reading for the day. We finished reading Joseph. Since Little Man missed it yesterday, we recapped the story for him as we looked through the pictures. We then read You Can't Take a Balloon into the Metropolitan Museum. Both kids enjoyed telling me the story, there are no words.

We had our morning play date which will be recorded in her PE journal along with playing 'in the road' when daddy got home. Physical Education is the hardest thing for me to record but the easiest thing to get her to do.

**I reflected over our day, along with comments posted on my facebook about my frustration over the afternoon. I came up with the conclusion that everyone was overly tired and really there was nothing 'fun' to do in our work. **Update: I stayed up, pretty much didn't go to bed Thursday night, working on finding other activities that we can do to enhance our curriculum. I love the curriculum we chose. I love all the books that we read that teach through literature, however I'm finding that Miss E likes to do things that give her immediate feedback. She likes her math because after she is done I congratulate her and she has a sense of accomplishment. I found several things that I will be able to choose from next week and we'll see how that goes. Please note that I understand this is just kindergarten and she does not need to do a lot. I'm not adding busy work, I'm trying to find a balance of what we can do to keep from being board as we learn.

Day 5:
Again we did the afternoon thing. It did however go better than yesterday, Praise the Lord!!
We read Genesis 12:10-16 and recited our memory verse.
We did our calendar.



In math we talked about objects that looked identical by considering their attributes. It was fun to listen to her logic on why she chose the object she did. We also colored a couple pictures together keeping them exactly the same. She does not like having to follow my direction. My little girl is very independent.

Side note: We did not start school until the afternoon. Miss E did not stay in her jammers all day. We had a chiro appointment this morning and did some house hunting. She does not like being dressed when we are home but she knows that she has to be dressed for school time. So, when we got home she changed into her jammers. Not that I could blame her, I'd rather be in my jammers, too!


We missed some of our 'poetry reading' this week so we caught up on our reading. We read Psalm 105:16-36.

We re-read Storm on the Desert. As we read we talked more about life in the desert. Once we were finished I asked Miss E to tell me what she knew about the desert. Her is what she dictated to me based on our book:

What I know about the desert....

The desert is hot, a storm, animals are thirsty.

Insects look for food.

After the rain stops, a rainbow.

Birds look for insects for food.

I learned that a tortoise was looking for water.

The thunder crashes.

We later got out the sand and the kids played, we did wait until it cooled off a little bit. 

 There is no lack of physical activity with these two. PE later in the evening...

Week one overall was a success. There were trying times but I think that will come with the territory. I'm excited to see what next week will bring. 

Thanks for taking this ride with us.

Blessings,

Elizabeth

Literature:Bill and Pete Go Down the Nile by Tomie dePaola

Noah's Ark by Story Reader
A You're Adorable by Martha Alexander
Storm on the Desert by Carolyn Lesser
Joseph by Brian Wildsmith
You Can't Take a Balloon into the Metropolitan Museum by Jacqueline Preiss Weitzman

Links to blogs that provided ideas for activities we did.

I liked up here, too.