Sunday school

So the beauty of this flexibility thing is that I can just up and decide we now do school on Monday, Wednesday, and Sunday (instead of Thursday). Thursday has become my day to bake for Shabbos, and I sometimes work in the afternoon, and it was just overwhelming to think about trying to throw school into there, too.  So today was our first regularly scheduled "Sunday School".

First, we had a little time to Skype with Granny (my Grandmother). Eli did his warm up for her, and we sang "Yellow is the Sun" and he read her Little Cloud. He did a great job with both, and we checked two things off our to-do list while getting to include someone special in our lessons. 

Next, we moved onto our review of all the different ways to show numbers. First we did just tally sticks. 

Then we did all the different ways we have learned: tally sticks, tiles, the abacus, and our fingers!

After reviewing 1-7, and then adding in 8 (with less than zero problems....is that even possible?), we moved onto comparison words. We worked on the difference in words when comparing two things vs. more than two things. 

Which one is longer?

Which one is longest? 

Which book is thicker?

We also worked on ordinal words: first, second, third (or last, in this case). We used objects from the busy box for this activity. 

Which item is first?

After we finished learning the new words, we played a fun math matching game with the Finger Cards. 

In case you were wondering, I won. E congratulated me - what great sportsmanship!

After we finished math, we moved onto handwriting. Once again, I didn't feel like doing what we had planned, so I skipped those lessons and we actually moved onto Monday's lesson. We used our mat to build the letters that start in the upper right hand corner. We reviewed big/little lines and curves and the types of lines (vertical, horizontal, and diagonal). 

Introducing the abacus and Torah study

As you can see, E didn't even bother to get dressed today - one of the benefits of homeschool. ;)

Today, we started with handwriting. I decided not to do one of the lessons because it involved music. I am just going to put the CD in the car and they'll learn it there. We moved right along to building letter with our wooden manipulatives. E did the entire alphabet!

We also reviewed they types of lines we need to make our letters - vertical, horizontal, and diagonal.

Next we moved on to math. We had quite a few interruptions from T & R, but we finally got it done! We started with reviewing our book and song.

Then we introduced 7, and E had no trouble showing me with his tally sticks. It took him a minute to understand how to do it with the colored tiles, but he is certainly a quick learner!

Our new math manipulative for today was the abacus. I thought he might be confused by how it worked - WRONG. It took him exactly one example to understand how to show 1-7 (and probably 8-10, but we didn't practice those) and what it means when I say "clear your abacus."

After we finished math, we joined T on the couch and began our introduction to the Torah. I purchased the JPS Illustrated Children's Bible. Even though it's not quite the time of year for us to be discussing creation, we decided to just start at the beginning. 

Short and sweet

Today was our first day of doing homeschool after a morning of PreK. We only had two subjects to do - math and handwriting. 

We started with math. Today we did Lesson 6. It began with a review of our book and song.

Then we practiced oral patterns and matching. He got it really quick and we were done with the whole thing in under 15 min. 

Then we moved on to handwriting. We worked on learning the terms vertical, horizontal,  and diagonal. We used the long and short lines to show these new words.

We learned what kind of lines you need to make an A (among other letters).

Today we also started in the workbook. E did the first page, which focused on pencil control. 

Later, when Daddy got home, we pulled out our new library books for this week. E was SO excited that I had brought home Little Cloud and he sT down and read it to me with very little help. He is looking forward to sharing it with his Mema when she comes to visit next week!

We took a sick day.

Last week we had our first opportunity to enjoy the flexibility of homeschooling. We took a sick day on Friday, and did our make-up day on Sunday (8/17). Bonus: Daddy was here to watch the toddler!

Today we did lessons 5 & 6 of our math book. We reviewed patterns, and tried a couple different sequences (do-re-mi and do-re-re). 

Then we did some more active learning using the nursery rhyme "Hickory Dickory Dock". 

The clock struck 4....

He hit the floor...

Previously, we had focused on our left side, since numbers 1-5 are shown only on the left hand. Today, we introduced the right side! We practiced showing body parts on both sides.

Next, we worked on showing the number 6 different ways. With the tiles, we show it as 5 of one color, and 1 of another color. This helps with visually identifying that 6 = 5 and 1 (like we learned in our song). E caught on quickly and knew exactly how to show 6 using his tally sticks, too!

After math, we worked on more handwriting readiness. Today, we spent more time with our wooden lines and curves. We polished them, grouped them, talked about their similarities and differences, and practiced descriptive words such as above, below, under, over, around, horizontal, and vertical.

Last, we worked on our solar system unit. We learned some new vocabulary (atmosphere, energy, temperature, sun spot, and solar flare) and added it to our bulletin board. We also started making our solar system books. We did our book covers, title pages, and our first page about the Sun. 

We practiced doing research and looked through all the books we had to find the information we needed to do our Sun page. E very intently looked at the pictures of the Sun's surface as he colored. He wanted it to be accurate. 

He chose to color it mostly orange, with yellow and red areas to show the change in temperature. Then he added black sun spots. 

So that wraps up our first week. We had a lot of fun and learned many new things! We are taking a week off since the kids are starting preschool (out of the home) this week, but we will resume August 25th!

Center for Puppetry Arts - The Very Hungry Caterpillar

On Wednesday, August 13, we went on our first field trip to The Center for Puppetry Arts to see The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Other Stories by Eric Carle. 

Before the show, we met up with some other homeschooling friends (who allowed us to jump in on their group rate deal!). 

All ready for the show with their own caterpillars!

It was really a great show. They told three stories - The Little Cloud (which none of us knew), The Mixed-up Chameleon (which was a favorite in our house until the book was destroyed), and The Very Hungry Caterpillar. After the show, the puppeteers came out to answer questions and show off the puppets.  

Eli got chosen to have his question answered! He asked to see the Little Cloud puppet again. 

After the show, we did a quick walk through the museum and found some familiar faces!

They also learned about some sound and lighting effects. 

At the end of our tour, they did a very brief puppet show for me. 

We had a great time on our first field trip, and I'm extremely proud of how well they behaved during the show and in the museum. We can't wait to go again!