So here is our creation calendar all set up for August. And you can see the saints days put up on the calendar as well. The creation calendar set includes a set of seven creation cards without numbers. Save this set, as we will use it for day 13. Remember that you can follow along with the current liturgical season, daily liturgy of the Word, saints days and more at Walking Through the Year With Jesus.
Religion -
--> We will be using a standard religious script with each religion lesson this year. I have made this script to incorporate liturgy into our lessons. Go to the page to see the script (see right sidebar), and there is also a print-friendly version as well so that you can print it out to use each day.
1. We said a blessing for the new school year.
2. We read the creation story in our children's Bible, and discussed how God is our loving Father who made all good things and He loves us. Since God made all people, He wants us to love each other and be kind to each other, and also to be grateful to God for all good things. We discussed how we can talk to God in prayer and God always hears us. We can praise Him, thank Him, and bring our own and others' needs to Him in prayer.
3. We read Emma and Mommy Talk to God, which is about a child learning to trust and pray to God, as well as to pray for her enemies.
Language -
--> We are working on reading this year with the book, How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. This is a wonderful book that I have used with multiple children. It is easy, takes just a few minutes each day, and it really does work! Everything is explanatory and scripted, so just pick it up and jump in from day 1 - no prep work, no extra materials - just open it up and start teaching! The book does not go in abc order. Rather is goes in such an order that kids can start putting letters together to make words shortly into the program. Other activities we do will follow this letter order.
So today we did lesson 1, which includes the letters m and s.
1. We reviewed letter sounds with an ABC poster that I printed out:
2. We reviewed capital and lowercase letters with our frog & lillipads game. (You can print your own capital and lowercase game with bears by clicking here.) Little Bill spontaneously wanted to line up the frogs into alphabetical order, which is good practice:
3. Handwriting practice in Handwriting Without Tears. I've used this series with all of my children. I could sing its praises here, but it'd be better for you to visit the website and see why its a great program. I also had Bill practice writing his first name.
Math -
--> Each math session starts with working in our calendar binder. See the calendar time page (see tab on right) to learn how to make and use a calendar binder each day.
1. Count to 100 (or as high as your child can go).
2. Introduce counting by 2's using a great printable from Homeschool Creations. I told Little Bill that to learn how to count by 2's, he can say a number out loud, say the next number quietly in his head, then say the next number out loud, and so on. You can lessen your schoolday load and make learning fast and easy by incorporating it into your days. For example, once I taught my other children (when they were Little Bill's age) how to skip count, we would then practice at bedtime for lights out. I would stand by the bedroom light-switch and invite the child to count by 2's to 10 or 20, for example, and then when we reached the designated number it was blast-off! and I would turn off the light.
3. Play with adding numbers. I made this domino addition worksheet (just draw blank dominoes and a blank addition problem on a plain piece of paper) and used a tin of colorful dominos I bought at our dollar store. Little Bill would close his eyes and pick a domino out of the tin. Then he colored the dots on the blank dominos on the worksheet, wrote each number, and then added and wrote the answer. Making math fun this way helps kids to learn and enjoy their schoolwork at the same time!
--> Kids are very concrete thinkers at this age, so encourage the use of fingers or objects like blocks to count on when adding or subtracting.
Science & Social Studies-
This year we are introducing science and social studies by using the Magic Tree House book series as a springboard for explorations into different topics. The first book is called Dinosaurs Before Dark and is, you guessed it!, about dinosaurs. For most topics in The Magic Tree House series, there is a fictional story where the main characters, Jack and Annie, magically travel back to different time periods. In their adventures they learn about the time they are in. Then there is a non-fiction companion book written as a guide that Jack and Annie have seemingly jotted notes in. Its a delightful series and Little Bill loves it.
So the plan is to spend one week reading through and enjoying the fiction book. Then spend one week reading through the non-fiction book and doing activities to go with it. Today we read the first two chapters in Dinosaurs Before Dark.
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