The Mystery

There was a mystery to solve at our house yesterday. As we've been enjoying our sunflower, it was revealed that the flower is not just one flower! But how could that be? It looks like one flower.


So Agents Chase and Agent John were called to solve the mystery.

After asking some hard questions and doing some research, they solved the case.





The sunflower is not one flower because it is made up of many flowers!






Good job Agents Chase and John!


They were rewarded with a dip into the Hotwheels bag for their good work.

Sunflowers

We're all sick today so we took it easy. And inspired by the sunflowers, this is what we did today.

We looked at this picture.



We read from this book.



And we painted these.




Even the little one got in on the fun. His first watercolor ever! He was so proud.

Weekly Report Aug. 23-28

Well, this week has been all about a slow re-entry. Slow. B started copywork and math, and that's about it as far as academics goes (aside from free reading). Tried to spend some time with S reading and writing letters. This week was more about trying to find our rhythm and routine. How do I spend time with each child and get the others to be productively occupied during that time? Tonight I thought about starting the day reading to D after breakfast and chores. B can spend that time reading the bible then moving onto some independent work. S can have independent room play. Next, I will move onto spending time with S while B plays with D. And finally, I will spend time with B while S and D play together and maybe watch an educational show. (How confusing was that?) Would that work I wonder? After that we'll break for snack and reading then move onto table time all together.

This week I got easily frustrated and upset at my own inabilities. Of course, I took it out on the kids. Next week is a new week though. I just have to remind myself to relax and to take things slowly. The most important thing for me is to spend time loving them and enjoying them. This is what they need most right now. I've got to learn to laugh and play with them. So, note to self for next week: laugh and play and dance!

S worked on building a fort with the pegs and wanted me to post a picture. So here it is.




And our sunflower finally bloomed!

Why study nature?

This is why I want my kids to do nature study. Not only to observe and be attentive to details, not only to draw and to appreciate, but to draw nearer to God, to worship Him, and to fellowship with Him.

Here's an article by Melissa that explains it well.



[edit 9/17/08]

Here's another good reason to study nature: to know and to understand those things that are near and relevant to us. This was posted by Barb.

The Museum Shelf

Here's a picture of our nature shelf. Our museum board sits on it and it houses some other "exhibits".
We actually cleared off the board the other day to make room for some more discoveries. And the entries were placed into a new museum binder.

Curriculum 2008-09 (Grade 2)

These are my plans for B's second grade:

Handwriting Continue with copywork. I created two copywork books for him this year. One is for scripture verses and another for all others (including Happy Scribe's Weather Folklore). We may start cursive in the second quarter or I might wait until his third year. I don't want to weigh him down with learning cursive when he's still getting into the habit of printing.

Spelling We'll finish ETC 2 1/2 and go on to #3. I'll use the lists after each lesson to test spelling again. And I would like to add short dictations (eg. The cat sat up), working up to a little bit longer dictations by the end of the year.

Comprehension & Composition We will continue with daily oral narrations from Aesop (maybe 50 Famous Stories after that). I will require oral narrations from literature and history read-a-louds as well as from assigned readers. We will start poetry memorization. And in the second quarter, I would like him to start short written narrations once a week. Also, the field guide pages for our animal study is my attempt to get him to notebook and to write on his own.

Grammar FLL

Reading Reading instruction - reading a book together that is above his level once in a while to help increase his reading ability, comprehension, vocabulary,...
Assigned reading (readers) - will use book lists from Sonlight and Veritas Press
Read-a-louds - I have to figure out a way we can do this.
Quiet reading

Science Sonlight Science 1 and Animal World from Winter Promise. Nature studies as well.

History American history at co-op.

The Museum

I want to encourage nature studies in our home. A while back, we read The Boxcar Children: The Surpirse Island where the Alden children set up The Alden Natural Museum. This inspired Batman to start our museum and it encourages him to discover and journal new things for it. So he will showcase his finds here. (I've taken out our name for the blog).