Z is for Zacchaeus, Zoo and Zebra

YAY!  We finished our first year of schooling two boys!  Embarking on this task made me so nervous, as schooling one was tough....the thought of adding a pre-schooler to the mix was a little scary.  But we made it!  Thanks for tagging a long as we went.  I hope you had as much fun schooling as we did!

Z was, like X, stretched out over several weeks because it is so nice out side. I let the boys play and enjoy the weather.

For our memory verse we did Luke 19:5, "Zacchaeus hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today." This is a well know Bible story but proved timely like many of our other verses this year!  The concept of this story is easy for our 3 year old to grasp and remember while it was a strong reminder and challenge for our 7 year old.  Our "God is Faithful. You can be" board said, "God is Faithful. You can be forgiven."  We talked about who Zacchaeus was, what others thought of him and how others treated him.  Then we compared that to how Jesus thought of him, and treated him.  We talked about in the same way, we are sinners and Jesus has every right to treat us poorly, but He treats us with forgiveness.


Z is for Zoo, of course.  So we went to the Zoo.

And while at the Zoo, we found a ZEBRA!

For our letter project we also made a Zebra.

We did a few other fun things that incorporated Z.

We worked on our writing and tracing and did LOTS of "math" (i.e pattern blocks)

I am sure we did more but that's all I have photographed :)

For those who are done with school :: Great Job!! You finsished!  For those who haven't :: KEEP IT UP! You are sooooo close!

I am going to be doing some "summer" school with both boy and hope to post some of that but otherwise, I am going to try to resume with normal, non-school blogging....but we will see, this has been fun!

Happy Schooling or Happy Summer!

Y is for Yellow, Yarn, Yelling, Yard & YUCK!

Well, as you may have guessed from the lag in my blog, we like to slow WAY down in the spring so that the boys can spend plenty of time outside. We only have 18 lessons left with Titus' Math & History curriculum and all of his other subjects we will easily finish up in the next two weeks. SO for Justus' Pre-School, I just try to have him busy sitting with us at the table while Titus is working on a few subjects then I let him enjoy the outside before its so blazing hot that he can't! So for the letter Y we spread it out over a couple of weeks. (hence the lack of blogging)

For our Y memory verse we worked on Psalm 139:1-2, "O Lord You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I stand up. You understand my thoughts from far away." This is such a great verse, one I hope they hold in their hearts for as long as they live! I asked the boys how they felt about knowing God sees them, knows them and knows what they are going to do even before it is done. It was fun hearing their answers (well, Titus' answer I guess because Justus rarely has much to say).

For our "God is Faithful" board we did, "God is Faithful, You can be known." I obviously took this straight from the verse. We talked about how friends will come and go and they are a good thing, a gift from God, but only God will truly always know you. We talked about how God knows us even better than we know ourselves. This was a great conversation!

For our Pre-School Y week(s) we focused on the color Yellow and tried to incorperate it in as many ways as I could.

For math we used yellow foam sticks for counting. Then I made a simple number game out of them where I would say the number and he would have to pick out that stick then place them in number order in front of him. (this took maybe 1 minute to come up with and make...colored foam sticks are so useful and cheap to keep around!)

For writing we wrote with a Yellow marker in our Letter work books ::

and practiced writing our name on yellow paper::

For motor skills we stamped Ys on Yellow paper::

and glued Ys to yellow paper for our word list::

and we arranged yellow foam sticks into a Y and glued it on a paper::

And for FUN we got a Yellow ticket to ride a Yellow train::

For our Y letter project we glued Yarn on to a letter Y::

One morning after we had done a good deal of school and were about to leave for the gym, we did a Yelling contest! We thought of words we could yell that started with a Y. We ended up yelling, Yes! and Yay! Here is a funny picture of them yelling!

As I mentioned earlier, we stretched this unit out over a couple weeks so we could play out side and enjoy the amazing weather. This was conveniently Y week and we got to add Yard to our list of words that start with the letter Y. Here are some of the many, many things they did in the yard::

Lots of dirt, mud, soccer, water, bubbles, hunting and chasing animals and insects happened of the last few weeks!

Lastly, we went to a long awaited science exhibit at our local Science Museum called Grossology. It was full of all things gross. We went as our Y "field trip" for the word "YUCK!" and they actually did say, "YUCK!" alot! ha!

Other than that we did some painting and writing practice and I am sure a host of other things I did not get photographed and have escaped my memory! :)

Here is a final shot as I close out this Y unit blog.

This is what our kitchen table generally looks like on a school day. :)

Fun and crazy. (and notice the coffee) Hope you are enjoying schooling! I would love to hear what yall are up too this spring as you finish up the year with your kiddos!

Happy Schooling!

X is for X-ray

X week was fun and relaxed. EVERYONE else we know was on Spring Break this week so we stopped school many times to meet up with friends or have people over. This is one of my favorite things about homeschooling! SO MUCH FLEXIBILITY! Especially if you are diligent to work ahead. I had originally planned to take Spring Break the same week as all our friends but we decided to go to Missouri a couple weeks ago instead. Taking some time off this week didn't put a big dent in Titus' curriculum goals but we will definitely not be done by Mid-April like we had hoped. It will be the beginning of May for Math and History but all the others he will be done by the end of April. As for Justus with Pre-School, I will probably move into some shapes/numbers weeks to help him while Titus finishes up but since Titus will be down to 2 subjects I won't need a lot of time filled for Justus.

For X week we did John 3:3, "Except a man be born again, he will not see the Kingdom of God." This was a fantastic verse to ask questions that lead back to the Gospel like, "what is the Kingdom of God?" "How can a man be born again?" Titus really dialoged well and asked some good questions himself. He remembered the story from John 3 about Nicodemous so I let him recount it to us before we read it from Scripture.

Our God is Faithful board said, "God is Faithful, You can have New Life." We just continued to ask questions and let Titus talk out what was in his heart and mind about being born again and about the Kingdom of God and about New Life. We would redirect when we needed too. It was GREAT conversations!

For Justus' Pre-School work we did X is for X-Ray. Vernon's mom was a long time X-Ray Tech in a hospital and is always talking to the boys about X-Rays. Knowing X was coming up, she kindly sent us an X-ray of her hands. It was a HUGE hit!

I had Justus hold it up to the light then pull it away from the light so he could see how it worked.

Then I had him say the body part that was in the picture and point at the bones and we talked about the bones in his hands.

So for his Letter project we made an X out of bones to look like and X-Ray::

I had super hoped to do an "X marks the spot!" activity but we never got around to it....maybe next year :)

We did some book work while Titus did his book work::

And of course :: Play-doh::

We also learned a lesson this week. Never go to the zoo on Spring Break week! We had a GREAT time with friends but the Zoo was PACKED!!! Whoa, y'all. PACKED.

Only a few more weeks of posting on the Letter of The Week. I can't believe I have stuck with this! ha! But I am so glad I have. I hope you have enjoyed it and got some ideas along the way!

Happy Schooling!

W is for Weather, Whale, Watermelon and Walrus

We let W last for three weeks! I did not originally plan for it to be more than one week...but week one::

the boys got sick on Wednesday and it lasted through the weekend.

Week two::

We took a spontaneous trip to meet up with Vernon in Missouri to break up his 17 days away.

So week three we re-did W week! It was great. I am so glad we did.

For our W Bible Verse we did Psalm 56:3 "When I am afraid, I will trust in you." This was such a great verse for the 3 weeks. Vernon was out of town for a long trip to Missouri (he preached in 10 different cities in 15 days). We learned our verse and said it most nights when the boys tend to get scared. We read the verse in context and talked about how the Psalmist life was actually in danger when he wrote this. We talked about how being "Afraid" as an emotion is okay and a God given response to tell your body it is in danger. BUT it becomes sinful when we walk in our fear and/or lean on ourselves for courage.

Our "God is Faithful" board said, "God is Faithful, You can be Comforted." We talked about how God's continued faithfulness can comfort us as we are afraid. How knowing He will provide your needs and hear your prayer can comfort us when we are afraid. Very fitting for the boys and their ages.

Titus got a Weather Kit for W week. This was a fun way to integrate learning for both Justus and Titus (7 & 3 years old). They loved it and we even took it to Missouri with hopes to measure the weather with their cousins (which I don't think ever happened but it was a good idea though). The kit came with all kinds of information that was great for Titus. He showed Justus all the things he learned and how to use the tools.

For pre-school we did all kinds of things. For our letter project we did a Whale and a Walrus::

I got the Walrus idea from Totally Tots.

We did some writing in our workbook::

Thank you Target dollar bin for all the great workbooks!

For Pre-School math I made a watermelon counting game. I just took construction paper and made a pink circle and a green circle and glued them together. Then I cut out a bunch of black 'seeds' and glued them on in order. Then labeled the back with then corresponding number of seeds::

Then Justus was count the seeds and turn the piece over. Then we worked toward putting them in order.

In the boys Science class we are on the chapter on Birds. We talked about Wings and tied that into W. :) This week at co-op Science class we built bird houses. I didn't get any action shots but here is one of Justus with his while he waited for the last step.

The first week of W we went to the zoo for a W field trip (before the boys got sick). We said we were enjoying the "Wonderful Weather." Sometimes you have to stretch it :) We enjoyed the weather by celebrating the zoo opening the Train for Spring!

There are still a few things I have not mentioned on the blog that we use often and that I recommend. One is "My Giant Sticker Activity Book." This book has over 600 stickers. How it works is that it is by section. (Letters/Shapes/Colors/Patterns)

Between every so many pages are sticker pages that correspond with the Workbook pages. The stickers are all mixed up with the other workbook page's pictures. The child looks at the Workbook page then tries to find the correct sticker from the sticker pages. Then (I help pull sticker off the sticker page) the child places the sticker on the page. Here is an example of a page finished and a page not yet started.

Also I made these very quickly one day. I can use them for many things from matching to patterns. I just took a piece of black construction paper and cut out shapes. Then glued them on red card stock. SIMPLE and CHEAP! :) Justus loves them!

I hope School is going so well for yall! I would love to hear! We only have a month left for Pre-School and just a little longer than that for Titus' 2nd grade curriculum!!

Enjoy your littles and Happy Schooling!