Dec
Desert Scene
We have been continuing our study of different habitats around the world and the animals that live in those habitats. Our latest stop was the desert. We learned about where the deserts are located, the weather in the desert, the animals that live in the desert and their classifications and what kind of food they eat.
One of the animals we learned about was the camel. We did a little demonstration to learn why camels have such big feet. First, Hailey took a small circle of cardboard and pushed it into some sand. It sunk right down into the sand.
Then she tried the same thing with a larger cardboard cut out, representing a camel’s large foot. It did not sink into the sand, just like camels feet do not sink into the desert sand.
Hailey also created a representation of the desert. She mixed some white and brown paint to create a sand color. Then she mixed in some sand to give it some texture.
As we learned about different plants and animals, Hailey added them to her poster.
Hailey’s completed desert scene.
Nov
Preschool Wrap Up
We read Hansel and Gretel for our book of the week. I could not come up with a lot of activities to go along with it but here are the few things we did.
Hunter made his own little house out of candy- we put Graham Crackers on card stock, using frosting, in the shape of a house. Then we used frosting to put some yummy candy on the house.
Hunter colored some pictures from the story of Hansel and Gretel and then acted out the story, with popsicle stick puppets.
Other stuff we did:
Harper enjoyed coloring and thinking she was doing school too.
Hunter working on connecting all of the blue shapes without touching any other color.
This little cutie loves to color
Hunter busy working on his Mighty Minds manipulative.
Nov
Grapevine Studies Review
We start each homeschool day with Bible as our first subject. I have really wanted to be able to combine Hailey and Hunter for Bible to save myself a little time. But, with their age difference (5 years) it is hard to find something that really works well for both of them. Then I tried Grapevine Studies, where I am able to do one lesson with both of them. There are, of course, different requirements for children of various ages, but it can be used with a wide range of ages.
This is a sample page from the 64 page teacher book. I did not print it out, but rather used my laptop as my guide when teaching. Each lesson gives a read aloud from the Bible to do. Then there are some notes about what to discuss with the students. There are drawings to show the teacher what to draw on the white board for the students to copy onto their page. There are different activities for the kids to do depending on their capabilities. There are words to look up in a Bible Dictionary, there are memory verses, and review questions and answers.
This is an example of the Traceable student version of the Birth of Jesus. I used this with Hunter (age 3). Hailey’s pages were exactly the same but without the gray scale drawings to be traced. Both the traceable and the regular version have 48 pages each. For each day I printed out a copy for each of them to have to do their work on.
So, how did we use The Birth of Jesus Studies?
Each day we went over the Bible story, verses, and discussion. Then the kids would do their stick figure drawings about the story. This seemed to really help them to remember what we had been learning about. It is great for them to be able to look back over their past work, see the pictures, and remember what they learned.
The first day we used Grapevine I did have to use a little bribery to get Hunter to participate. But, after the first day I never had to bribe him again- he came right away when I said it was time for Bible. Some days even Buzz & Woody, and Mr. Incredible and Dash came to hear the Bible story 🙂
Both Hailey and Hunter did really well with listening to the verses and drawing their pictures. Hunter became quite fascinated with Herod and that he wanted to kill baby Jesus. He talked about it over and over again, and was rather relieved to find out that Herod died. Since the lesson on Herod, anytime we discuss something from the Bible he wants to know if Herod was involved haha
This is a sample of a page of Hailey’s work, her stick figure drawings are about when Mary found out she was going to have a baby.
Here is a sample of Hunter’s work, the gray scale drawings there for him to trace. There are also lesson review questions which Hailey and Hunter were both able to answer, as well as a suggested memory verse.
We had a lot of fun using Grapevine Studies! Drawing the stick figures really helps the kids to remember what the lessons were about. I would definitely recommend Grapevine to anyone looking for a good Bible curriculum.
Want to see more about Grapevine? Check these out:
