Catholic 1st Grade Homeschool: Day 10

Religion -

1. To encourage gratitude, and the idea that God provides all good things and everything we need, I bought a little spiral notebook to use as a gratitude journal for Little Bill. Each day I write the date at the top of the page, then "Thank you God for . . . ", then Little Bill tells me five things that he is grateful for that he wants me to write down for him. Eventually he will write his own. This is actually really enjoyable for me, because the things he adds can be really interesting and revealing!

Language -

1. Completed lesson 10 in Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.

2. We reviewed the vowels we circled on our ABC poster. I taught Bill the two rules about vowels: when one vowel is present it usually makes its short sound. And: "When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking, with its long sound."We talked about how a long vowel says its own name. In the language notebook I wrote one rule per page, and had Bill write some sample words that follow the rule.

3. I had Little Bill draw the letters of his name down the left side of the next blank page in the language notebook, and together we made a fitting acronym for his name. (An acronym is when you make a new word for each letter of a particular word, usually words having to do with your original word.)

4. Handwriting Without Tears practice, and practice writing first and last name.

Math - with calendar time

1. We reviewed counting to higher numbers, and identifying numbers on the hundred chart.

2. We discussed and played with the concept of adding zero. Use manipulatives, such as blocks, to make this concept concrete for your child.

3. We reviewed the commutative property of addition, using Bill's math notebook. I wrote sets of problems for him to solve and pointed out that each set will have the same answer: 2+3 and 3+2 as one set, for example.

4. I introduced Bill to less than and greater than. Here is a fun way to do this: simply draw a "<" onto a blank index card, and a ">" onto the back. These are mouths. Draw teeth inside, eyes on top, and any other details you can to make these into alligator heads with their mouths open. Now take out your number cards you made. Show your child the alligator card and tell him that this alligator only likes to eat big numbers. Now play with the cards and using the "greater than" and "less than" signs!

5. We reviewed number words with the game I printed out.

Notes:

During your days, use time terms regularly so that your child can get to know what the terms mean as part of everyday life. So use the words "morning", "afternoon", "night", and "AM" & "PM" so that your child becomes familiar with these terms naturally.

Science & Social Studies -

Read chapter 5 in Magic Tree House Guide to Dinosaurs.