Bread and Grain

Our 3rd week of school focused on bread, wheat, and other grain. We threshed wheat (kind of, they got the idea), made bread on Monday, watched some videos about how flour is processed and how bread is made in a big bakery. My favorite activity of the week was sampling different types of flour such as dark rye, spelt, rice, and cornmeal. The girls observed each with their 5 senses, even their hearing, but their favorite was tasting each. It was so fun! I got the flours from the bulk section at Fred Meyer. Then they did a little craft with it, which accidentally got gross and thrown away. Sad.

The KONOS curriculum makes our school time fun and brings in a lot of science and history. I think school would get really boring and monotonous if we just did workpages all day. I also really like that KONOS suggests Bible activities. We learned about The Lord's Prayer as part of school one day last week.

Onto week 4!!

Week 2 in the bag!

We had a great second week of school! We finished up our study in plants, seeds, and roots. We planted grass at the end of last week and watched it grow this week, recording what we had observed. We also planted random seeds in some little clay pots and will see what grows in the next few weeks.

Caley is really enjoying her math study. She loves doing her weather chart and math worksheets every day. She's also really blowing me away with her reading.

We have been studying Ruth and read about half a chapter per day and talk about it. We got Caley her own Bible, the ESV Seek and Find Bible. It has all the ESV text like our personal Bibles, but also includes illustrations and "Seek and Find" questions and simplified versions of the stories. I really enjoy it because she can read along with me as I read the text in my own Bible.


This next week we are studying grain, wheat, and yeast. We will bake bread and examine different flours.Only 6 weeks left in this quarter and then it's BABY TIME!

Obligatory First Day of School photo!

 We are ready to go! September 6, 2011

 Wes wanted in on it too, he's part of school anyway!

This was from this summer, and is so cute I had to include it. I think this was after a particularly troubling morning with the girls. After the discipline, they cuddled up and read together. I love it.

The first week!

We had a GREAT first week of school! I am so encouraged!
We did school work Tuesday, Thursday and Friday this week. Tuesday was awesome, despite Wesley being awake and active, which I've been anxious about. He happily entertained himself while I worked with the girls and even though the school room was a mess when we were done, everyone was happy and eager to help me clean up. Really all it needed was some tidying and a vacuum.
Thursday was great too, and Friday was even better because we did our work in the afternoon and Wesley was sleeping. Oh sweet peaceful school time...

Caley is a stinkin' rockstar! She is so excited to sit at the table and do her work for the day. She's reading amazingly, complying with her writing exercises, super eager to do her math work (calendar, weather graph and worksheets) and generally agreeable when something doesn't go her way. Believe me, a month ago she was a completely different kid and I didn't see this school thing happening easily. I am amazed and thankful for God's grace.

Amelia is free to come and go during school time. She sometimes likes to sit at the table with us and other times likes to go play with her toys alone. She generally will come play a game or eat snack with us in the school room. I have been doing her reading book with her but if she's not into it, I don't push it. At some point she will need to come work with us, but that's not when she's only 4.

One thing I'm learning about Caley is also to not push things, within reason. We have a hard time during writing. I have her write the current memory verse (usually only half) on her writing paper. She frequently complains that she can't write an "a" or whatever. I know she can. So I've been doing half of it and letting her finish, or she'll do the first half and I'll finish it. The thing is, three hours later when she's into something else, she's writing everything! Today she was copying what was on Sesame Street online. Her penmanship was beautiful! I know she'll come around. That's one thing I like about homeschooling...if something's not working, all we may need to do an environment change and she'll willingly show me her mad skills.

This week we studied seeds and roots, spent some time in the garden, planted grass in a pot inside, and got our rhythm down for how things may go this year. I'm so glad to be homeschooling because I get to spend my day with the three best kids ever, watching them learn, grow, fight, then hug and make-up, and move on.
Love.

Year-at-a-Glance 2011-2012

For my reference, here is a rough schedule of our school year.

I am also planning on including:

• 30 minutes per week speech therapy at Mukilteo Elementary
• 1-2 times per month co-op or field trip
• 1 time per month reading with seniors at Harbour Pointe Retirement
• Another service opportunity, perhaps through community group or women's group

September

• KONOS- Patience: Gardening/Plants/Grain/Bread
• Saxon 1
• Sorenson Reading and "A Lizard to Start With"

October

• KONOS- Patience: Human Birth/Animal Birth
• Saxon 1
• Sorenson Reading and "A Lizard to Start With"

November

• Saxon 1
• Free reading, maybe "A Lizard to Start With"
• Baby time!!

December

• Saxon 1
• Free reading
• Advent crafts/activities
• Baby!!

January

• KONOS- Trust: Deception/Sheep
• Saxon 1
• Sorenson Reading and "A Lizard to Start With"

February

• KONOS- Trust: Floating/Ships
• Saxon1
• Sorenson Reading and "A Lizard to Start With"

March

• KONOS- Trust: Flight/Airplanes
• Saxon 1
• Sorenson Reading and "A Lizard to Start With"
• Spring Break end of March

April

• KONOS- Stewardship: Ecology/Time/Money
• Saxon 1
• Sorenson Reading
• Easter Week activities

May

• KONOS- Stewardship: Prevention/Nutrition/Exercise
• Saxon 1
• Sorenson Reading

June

• KONOS- Stewardship: Rest/Fun
• Saxon 1
• Free reading
• Summer Break early June

Tomorrow is the day

Tomorrow we start our school year! I am so excited! On the agenda are some seed activities and working in the garden to learn about roots and we will plant some grass seeds in little pots. This weekend the kids helped Bill harvest some potatoes from the garden, which is basically the same thing as I planned for this week! I love how homeschooling can happen anytime, anywhere and not just during "school"!!

I hope to post our schedule sometime this week...but I'm not promising anything.

:)