Homeschooling - Week Three

So far, so good! This is our last day of week three & so far we've managed to stay on track w/ the lessons I've planned. We did have a few days where we got behind, but were able to catch up the next day. Yesterday, we even did a little extra science. We were studying seals & sea lions. The opposite page had information about seahorses & The Prophet said he wanted to read about them, too. So after he did the narration on seals & sea lions (the best so far in stating in his own words what he's learned) we read about the seahorses. For that narration, he wanted to draw a seahorse & did very well. He was meticulous in choosing what color crayons to use.

He has definitely come a long way in coloring. From the beginning, he's never really been interested in coloring. He's a great artist, especially if he's drawing something from Star Wars (go figure!) Whenever he had to color the back of a handwriting page in Kindergarten, he would just scribble though. One day, he really took his time & did a great job. I let him pick a sticker to put on the page. For most of the days after that, he did much better & spent time making it as neat as possible. Now, he puts a lot of thought into the colors he chooses for his pages.

For History, we've been studying Ancient Egypt & he is loving it! One of the women in our homeschool group suggested the Discovery Kids website so I checked it out last night. They have a section where you can type in any word or name & see how it would look in hieroglyphics. There is also a section where you go through the steps of making a mummy to preserve the body before burial. He had a great time w/ both. This is another great thing about homeschooling: you can take time to study subjects of interest further instead of having to move on w/ the rest of the class.

The Archangel has been doing well w/ his schoolwork. I have a great supply of worksheets & preschool books that he loves to work through. Last year, I just pulled out a few at a time for him to do. This year, I put together a week's worth in a folder: several pre-reading/handwriting sheets, science pages, & some math work. He also does some of The Prophet's art projects if I feel it is something he's able to handle. Last week, they made their own cave paintings on paper grocery bags. They crumpled up the bags for the wall texture, spread them out, then used black acrylic paint for the drawings. They added beige & reddish-brown for shading the images. Both of them did a great job!

So far, The Princess has been napping during school time, but that will change on Mon. when we add the rest of our school subjects. I'm going to put together a box for her & The Archangel that includes various things they can play w/ only during school time. He will still do his worksheets, but I won't expect him to work all day long. I will also do a few things w/ The Princess, but hers will not be structured. I'm going to start the day w/ Circle Time, where we will open w/ a daily prayer & devotion, read the Gospel & Saint of the Day, sing a few songs, go over the calendar, & say the Pledge of Allegiance. Hopefully, this will help to get us into the mindset of school for the day.

Peace, munchesmom