Week in Review

Wondering what we’ve been up to?  Here’s a few things we have been working on:

Language Arts:

Hailey finished up working on a story that she has been writing.  She wrote up a rough draft, we typed it, and then she illustrated each page.  She was very proud of her work!  She read her story to Hunter and he really enjoyed it.

We have been having a lot of fun doing an author unit study about Tomie dePaola from Around the Kampfire.  Hailey drew pictures of the main characters in some of his books and we discussed the traits that each of those characters have.

Science:

We started a fun unit all about caterpillars and butterflies.

Each day we read a different book about caterpillars/butterflies.

The first craft we made were these cute caterpillars- which are simply pom poms glued onto a clothespin with googly eyes added.

Then next day we put our caterpillars into toilet paper rolls and wrapped yarn around the outside- this represented a chrysalis.

Hailey and Hunter colored coffee filters with washable markers,

then sprayed them with water.  The colors all bled together and looked really pretty.

We used the coffee filters to turn our clothespin caterpillars into butterflies.

We sang a song about a caterpillar turning into a butterfly.  Hailey and Hunter loved the song and the hand motions to go with it.  Here are the words that we sang:

I saw a caterpillar
climbing up a tree.
He wiggled and he wiggled,
he wiggled right at me.
I put him in a box,
“Stay right there,” I said.
But, when I opened up the box
a butterfly instead.
I couldn’t do it,
even if I tried.
Only God in heaven
could make a butterfly.

Hailey made this pretty sun catcher butterfly.

Of course, we read more books.

Hailey and Hunter worked hard on making the life cycle of a caterpillar.

Here is Hailey’s completed life cycle project- from egg to larva (caterpillar) to pupa (chrysalis) to butterfly.

We watched a Magic School Bus episode about butterflies.  We also learned about metamorphosis on Brain Pop.

Math:

Hailey has been working on multiplication and we played a memory game using the math facts she is learning.  For example- one of the cards might say 7×3 and the matching card would say 21.  It was fun to play and I love it when Hailey asks to play again!

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Week in Review

Here is a little peek at what we’ve been up to:

Language Arts:

We had some great weather and it was perfect for getting outside to do a little reading.

Science:

We finished up our worm unit.  Any of the printables you see are from The Razzle Dazzle Classroom worm unit.

Hailey created an All About Worms book using the information she learned during our unit.

Here she is drawing a picture to show how worms help the earth.

Hailey drew an observation of her worm habitat on the day she made it and then again a week later.

We finished up our unit by making yummy dirt pudding with worms (chocolate pudding, crushed Oreos, and gummy worms).

Hunter and Hailey both loved it!

Hailey’s finished book about worms.

We learned how important worms are to the earth, so when we finished observing our worms, we let them go in our garden.

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Apologia Educational Ministries Review

I have been busily searching for a great Bible curriculum to use with Hailey next year.  I never found anything I was super happy with this year, so I have kind of just pieced things together as went along.  Next year I’ll have a newborn, so I want to make sure I find something that is nicely laid out for me without much prep work involved.  I was given the chance to review What on Earth Can I Do? from Apologia Educational Ministries and I was really excited to check it out.  I knew that Apologia has a great science curriculum, but I didn’t realize they had a Bible curriculum as well.

We used What on Earth Can I Do? ($39.00), the What on Earth Can I Do? Junior Notebooking Journal ($24.00) and the What on Earth Can I Do? Coloring Book ($8.00).  We also received the What on Earth Can I Do Notebooking Journal ($24.00).

What On Earth Can I Do? is the 4th book in the christian worldview series- What We Believe by Apologia.  The book is a hardcover textbook that has 8 lessons and 294 pages that helps children understand that God gave each of us special gifts to be used for His glory.  It is designed to be used with children in grades 1-6.  The lessons can be spread out as long as you see fit for your family.  There is a suggested schedule at the beginning of the book which would make each lesson last for 3 weeks.  You could stretch them out longer or do them quicker, whatever works best for you.

The 8 lessons cover:

1. Your story or God’s story?
2. Who put you in charge?
3. Will you be found faithful?
4. Where is your treasure?
5. Where does your time go?
6. Whose life is it anyway?
7. Why isn’t it easy being green?
8. What will happen when the master returns?

Then, within those lessons there are several components that you will see covered each time.  For example, each lesson has a section called The Big Idea which introduces the main topic in that lesson.  There will also be a Short Story which tells a story about other children and gives a little glimpse into their lives.  There is also a section called Hide It in Your Heart– where there are memory verses for your child to memorize.  You will also find a section called Parables of Jesus which is a parable from the Bible that has been adapted to help students have a better understanding of the story.  There are several other important components to each lesson, but that is just a brief description of a some of them.

We also used the Junior Notebooking Journal, for the younger elementary aged children, to go along with our studies. It is a spiral bound book that is 184 pages.  In the front of the journal there is a lesson plan guide to help you plan when to read what and which notebooking pages to do.  Again, it is a suggested schedule and you should use the pace that works best for your family.  The Notebooking Journal, meant for the older elementary aged children is also spiral bound and is 236 pages.  It is geared for kids who are ready to do more writing than what is included in the Junior Notebooking Journal.

The Coloring Book has pages to color that will go along with what you are reading to your child.

So, how did we use What on Earth Can I Do?

I planned to have our lessons be a little shorter than the recommended schedule in the book.  Hailey usually gets a little restless if I read too long, so I didn’t want her to get tired of listening to me read.  Plus, with a busy toddler, sometimes it’s hard to have uninterrupted reading time.  But, when I was reading the short stories or the parables for Jesus, Hailey begged me to read a little bit more.  And, Hunter actually sat and listened too.

While I read to Hailey from the textbook, she colored in the coloring book.

After we read the section for the day in the textbook there were notebooking pages to be completed.

 This particular page is called “I Spy.”  Hailey had to write or draw about where she had seen God’s works recently.  She decided to draw a rainy day where the sun came out and then a rainbow formed.

We also learned about what a tapestry is and how God uses the different events in our lives to develop us into who we are today.  Hailey had to design a tapestry that showed important scenes from her life.  She included things like when she was born, when Hunter was born, her first day of school, doing gymnastics and more.

She made this mini book about the fabric of her life.

There are also pages to help reinforce vocabulary being learned, such as word searches and cross word puzzles.

What On Earth Can I Do involves very little prep on the part of the parent- just get your textbook and notebooking journal out and you’ll be ready to go.  I found it to be easy to use and Hailey enjoyed listening to the readings.

Here is what is boils down to for me:

Pros:
Hailey really enjoyed the stories, and I did too.  They really kept our attention and we did not want to stop reading.
The notebooking journal reinforced what we were reading and had fun and educational activities.
It is easily adaptable for a variety of ages.
You can make the lessons as long or as short as you need them to be for the attention span of your children.

Cons:
Ummmmm… I can’t think of any 🙂  It is so easy to adapt it to fit your needs that I don’t think there are any cons.

Want to see some more of Apologia?  Check them out here:

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Week In Review

We have been busily preparing for a trip to Disney World by studying the various countries at Epcot, learning about Walt Disney, and about how roller coasters work.  We left on May 9th for Disney World and we came home on the 20th.  We had a fantastic time!!  Here is just a tiny peek into some of the educational things we did while we were there.

We visited all of the countries we had studied:

Hailey in Mexico

Hunter and Hailey in Norway

We ate lunch in America

Hailey in Japan

Hailey in Morocco

Hailey and Hunter in France

Hailey in Canada

Hailey in China

Hailey in Germany

Hailey in Italy

Hailey in the United Kingdom

We stopped and colored at the various Kidcot stops and learned some more about the countries.

While we were at Epcot we also visited the butterfly garden.

Hailey even had a butterfly crawl on her hand.

While we were at Hollywood Studios we visited One Man’s Dream- a museum all about Walt Disney.  Hailey wasn’t too excited about going in at first, but she ended up loving it.  She was stopping and reading everything and was excited when we would see something we had read about before our trip in Who Was Walt Disney?

Part of our day at Animal Kingdom was spent doing the Wilderness Explorer program- very fun and educational.

Hailey and Hunter worked on matching up dinosaur teeth.

Hailey searching for various animals.

Trying to figure out a code in the Wilderness Explorer book.

Of course, we also saw lots of animals:

Hailey brushing a goat.

Hailey was very interested in this macaw.  We stayed after the show so she could ask some questions and get her picture taken with it.

She was brave enough to touch this snake and also asked several questions about it.

On the safari ride, we saw crocodiles,

giraffes,

zebras,

a lion… and so much more!

And of course, we studied how rides and roller coasters work, so we had to get some real life experience with those too 🙂

Hailey on her favorite ride at Magic Kingdom- Splash Mountain.

Hailey’s favorite ride at Epcot- Test Track.

Waiting to go on Thunder Mountain Railroad.

Hailey’s favorite ride at Hollywood Studios- the Tower of Terror.

We had a wonderful trip, and of course, we can’t wait to go back!

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