Chicka Chicka Boom Boom {Virtual Book Club}

This month for the Virtual Book Club we read books by Bill Martin Jr. With the start of our school year I did a little bit of research to find a book that would work with what we are already learning.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is a fun book to read. We have read through the book several times. The book that I bought also has a CD with Ray Charles preforming the story. The kids love to listen to him tell the story, too. We listened to the CD version several times.

This year for Little Man (pre-k) we will be focusing on new letters each week. Here are a few letter inspired activities that we have done.

Puffy Paint Letter Tracing 
(to make homemade puffy paint, click here.)
I printed off some outlined lowercase letters for Little Man to trace or decorate with puffy paint. He starts tracing the letters and then fills the page with paint. Not a picture I can display but it is fun for him none the less.

Magnet Coconut Tree
I made my own coconut tree with construction paper, laminated it, and then added magnets. I have a huge magnetic oil pan I purchased from Wal-Mart. I pulled out our lowercase magnet letters and had Little Man decorate our tree. I left the tree and letter up on our board for several days and both kids have come by retelling the story on their own.

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Blessings,

Elizabeth

**This post is a part of the Bill Martin, Jr. Virtual Book Club. You can see more fun here.

Reality Check

I have many, many friends who homeschool their children. Some are like me and are entering their second year and others are further down the road. I had heard it said that 1st grade was a lot more work than Kindergarten ever would be. I nodded my head, said I can understand that, and continued on in the shelter of my own mind, working to finish Kindergarten. I think in my head I knew 1st grade was going to be more, I just had no idea how much more until we started a week and a half ago.

OH MY WORD!! I have yet to complete our first weeks worth of work. It has been 8 weekdays and we are barely on day 4. To be fair I did take Miss E into her school to take the MAPS test and then I had a workshop that pretty much took up a day and then we had a play date with friends we had not seen all summer; we lost several days with those activities. So, maybe it really isn't as bad as I think it is but for a planner, this is bad!

I talked with a very wise friend and she reminded me again that 1st grade is a lot more demanding and that until you start it you have no idea. I was very encouraged after I talked with her. It is funny how sometimes you hear things, thoughts run through your head, but until you have that one-on-one conversation things don't really 'sink in'. It is like when you tell your kids something over and over and they still do it, but when a third party comes in and tells them the exact same thing they 'understand', my conversation with my friend was exactly that!

So, I'm going to have to squash the box that I hold homeschool in, in my head. The plan that worked for Kindergarten is not going to work for 1st grade. How I planned last year is not going to work this year. Our curriculum is broken up into weeks which amount to 5 days, however for us it might take just a little bit longer. Not because Miss E is slow or anything, we just have other commitments that will take up time. One of the beauties of homechooling is the flexibility one has to teach their own children.

Our first day went great! I'm praying that we find the rhythm that makes most of our days successful both for Miss E and for Little Man. Letting go of the 'calendar' is going to be tough, but I think it is something God wants me to work on. I know that HE called me to this adventure and He will help me get through it as long as I trust in Him.

Blessings,
Elizabeth

The Start of Year Number Two

Today, August 28, 2013 is the official start of our second year of home schooling.

My 1st grader - EpiKardia 1

My Pre-Ker - God's Little Explorer

**To see more about our curriculum choices, see my post here
.

We started our day with Bible and prayer.

We did our calendar notebook. This is going to be a work in progress for the next few days if not weeks. Once I get our routine nailed down, I'll post more details. Right now we are just filing out a calendar with the correct date. We are also counting the number of days we are in school and are making that number with coin money.

Miss E and I did math while Little Man decorated the cover page to his ABC binder.

I had Miss E take a break from her stuff and we read Going on a Bear Hunt, which comes from Little Man's Pre-K. This morning before the kids woke up, I took our Children's Story Bible and wrapped it in paper. I hid it along with a few school supplies around the house. After we read the Bear Hunt book, I told the kids that I had hidden school supplies around the house and that they were going on a treasure hunt. The 'treasures' were hidden in draws and cabinets with an 'x'; 'x' marks the spot!! They had fun looking around the house for the 'x' and brought what they found to the table. Together they opened the special treasure and we talked about how the Bible IS a treasure book and how important it is going to be to our school day. 

While the kids had a little snack, I read a couple of stories from the Children's Bible. We then defined 'science' and talked about some science vocabulary words. 

The kids were ready for another break, so I had them make their very own binoculars. They had a lot of fun with stickers!

Miss E and I wrapped up her day with our memory verse, spelling words, and copy work.

We took roughly 3 hours this morning. Not too bad for putting more into our day that we are used to. Little Man did well with his stuff which made me happy and Miss E is a pro!! We made it through without tears which is always good in my book!!

I can't wait to see how everything meshes together and to watch them learn.

Blessings,

Elizabeth

2013-2014 School Year!

Welcome to the 2013-2014 school year!!

Little Man (4) is in Pre-K and Miss E (6) is in first grade!

Last year Little Man just followed around with Miss E and I. By the spring he was asking to do school like his sister. So, we are going to do a formal program with him. I hope to keep the blog updated and it is my hope that you enjoy following this journey with us. To be completely honest though, I have a full plate. I want so much to keep up with what we do so that the kids have something to look back on but the blog is not a priority in my life. As of right now, I am not an affiliate with any company, so the links are just for your reference. My blog is my journal.

We will continue our journey in reading through the Bible. This will be year 2!! This year we are going to use The One Year Chronological Bible.

This year we are continuing with Epi Kardia and Singapore Math for Miss E.
I am also supplementing with Wordly Wise 3000, Zaner-Bloser, and Explode the Code. Miss E will be doing Bible Study Fellowship with her daddy which will be our Bible curriculum. We will all be studying the book of Matthew.

Little Man will be doing God's Little Explorers with a bunch of other things thrown in as he asks for activities to do. He will also be following Miss E and I as we go though her stuff.

Together the kids will do Family Time Fitness and a calendar notebook. I'm being eclectic with our calendar notebook. I'm using pages from MamaJenn, Mama's Learning Corner, and Mrs. Meacham.

I'm looking forward to this next chapter. Here is to another successful year!

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Blessings,
Elizabeth