Friday, August 23, 2013

I've SURVIVED!

I began this post - then life overtook me and I didn't get back to it...but I will leave it as I started it and then continue...I hope you enjoy my ramblings...

Our first week of school has come and gone and I can say I have survived!

Is that bad?

Well ptttthhh (tongue sticking out, nose crinkled, arms waving) to you!

:)

We began our new school year this week and while day 2 met with many challenges, overall it's been good.

We've settled into routine nicely, and boy oh boy do I like routine.  The boys agree apparently even thought they may not like admitting it.  Hehe

Our school hours are 10-2:30, I love that.  It gives us a good base of what is allowed when without hundreds of questions (that they already know the answer too).

I have also incorporated interactive journals this year - the boys have a journal for science, spelling, poetry, literature study and history.

Here is a look at Bug's poetry journal.  On the right side of the page is the introduction info we went over about Rudyard Kipling.  Then on the right is the "connection" he made with this info.  He drew a scene from the jungle book.
 
Here is a look at Bug's spelling journal.  One day 1 he goes over the words (that is the green sheet on the right hand side; and makes flash cards (in the pocket on the left).  Then the next day he does review words by finding them in the sentences (red sheet) and an activity - like the word find on the left.  Day three he words in his building spelling skills book, Day 4 he takes a pre-test (or test).  Everything gets glued onto these two pages.  That way he can see all of his work for Unit 1 at one time when he is reviewing.
 
This is a look into Red's history journal (Day 2).  This year we are studying Our Nation Under God by Christian Liberty Press.  On the right you can see the information that I provided them (we glued it in).  Then the boys made flaps to cover the definition of each type of government. 
 
Here is a look at Bug's science journal.  We are using Zoology 1 Flying animals of the 5th day by Apologia.  I got the lapbook that goes with the curriculum from currclick and I am so excited that I did.  We are using all the lapbook parts in our interactive journal.  On the first day we review "What is zoology" and the boys wrote down the definition in a mini book.   Then we added that to the journal.  Our next lesson was about Animal Classification, after the lesson, we created a brochure and added it to our journal.  When we complete lesson 1, these pages will be filled.










Here's a look at Bug's History Journal (Day 1).  On the right you will see Chapter 1 and the information we discussed.  Then you can see the various flaps we made to cover verses we looked up.  We were talking about since God created our world he has the right to govern us.  So we looked up several verses in the bible.  We either glued or wrote the verse on in our journal and created a flap to go over it.  The blue is our Jesus flap, the black is the "universe" and the white is a cloud.



Here is a screen shot of the board during our government lesson.  I am so excited about my new board...it's so big and I have so much room...love love love it!


We did a poetry lesson over "lanterns" - which is a light, airy Japanese poem.  Here you can see what we were learning.  Line 1. is one syllable, Line 2 is two syllables, Line 3 is three syllables, Line 4 is four syllables and Line 5 is one syllable.  Next to it you can see the poem that Bug wrote about the color purple and the poem I wrote about God.
 
Here you can see a few of our lanterns hanging on the wall.  Ms. Kellie, I think the space one is for you.  Your Jr. Astronaut Training classes have certainly made an impact! 

Space
Is Cool
and it is
black and has stars
Cool
 


The work is done....


The board is clean...
 

 
The work all checked...
 
And that's all folks....wow, I can't believe another year has begun.  I am so very blessed be able to teach my boys.  I have to remind myself of this blessing time after time, but I truly feel blessed.
 
Until next time...hug your babies and to love one another...
 
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