Week 3 of MFW Exploring Countries and Cultures

This week we moved on to studying the United States.

I found this AWESOME video. The girls decided they want to make their own music video to go along with this. Stay tuned next week!

MK and H did a lot of geography map work this week. They studied the bodies of water in North America, labeled the 50 states, and are memorizing states and capitals. When the big girls are doing their geography work, T works on her Complete Book of Animals. It has tear out stories and comprehension worksheets for animals in the different continents. For the next 6 weeks she will be working on the North American animals.

I'm really seeing a breakthrough in T's reading. For the first time this week she was excited to read. I really love the Pathway reading program. It is so perfect for T. For each lesson there's a workbook page to do before reading, then the reading, and then another worksheet for comprehension. Each day there is a supplemental reading exercise that focuses on different things such as digraphs, or vocabulary. Everything is laid out nicely in the Teacher's Manual.

MK does the majority of her daily work on the computer, with the exception of Exploring Countries and Cultures. Her favorite subject is Spanish. She has been very excited to tell me all the Spanish she is learning. She is even more excited that she got BRACES this week!

I had quite a few books to go along with our United States unit. None of these are actual My Father's World recommendations, but they're all great books.

We continue our study of the United States next week!

Unit 3 (Leaf) of MFW Kindergarten

Ll for Leaf

I found this AWESOME free printable on TPT to go along with our leaf unit. TPT is probably my most favorite website ever (and no I do not work for them and no I do not get anything from saying that). I laminated the leaves with the numbers on them and we used them to practice counting out the right number.

Little E enjoyed sorting the leaves by size. (Sorry, I do not remember where I got this printable. I made it a few years ago when I was teaching Kindergarten in the classroom).

Little E made sure to point out that pink, blue and black are not real colors of leaves but she was just making a pattern.

She's doing great with her Explode the Code primer books.

The "little" girls enjoyed their science lab class with our home-school group.

 This experiment shows how the clouds hold water and when they get too full the rain comes down. It is super easy to do! Simply fill up a clear cup with water and put shaving cream on top. Add some food coloring until you see the color come through the shaving cream and down into the water.

They learned about different types of clouds and made their own cloud observers.

 This experiment was supposed to show "lightning" by rubbing the balloon on your head and then touching it with a metal object, but it didn't work. The balloons were still fun.

 This experiment showed tornadoes. Little Monopoly houses make quite the touch!

 These are the books we read for our leaf unit.

We had a lot of fun this week. Little E is progressing so nicely with My Father's World Kindergarten. It is so gentle and fun. So far it's a perfect fit for us. 

Week 2 of Exploring Countries and Cultures

Week 2 of ECC

I have to admit I'm a little bored with ECC right now. Next week we move onto the United States, and I think I will enjoy it much more once we start digging deeper into different countries. This week we learned more general geography which included the 5 oceans. We learned about latitude and longitude. Little K had fun walking all over the map when we weren't looking.

These are Rod and Staff's bee charts that I painfully made. I learned a lesson making these: Only buy Crayola crayons. The off-brand crayons are terrible! Although these posters were a pain to make they are very helpful for addition fact families.

 I don't have many pictures this week. On Wednesday we met a friend for ice cream in the middle of the day, and Thursday we had our homeschool group classes. I think I didn't take many pictures because there just wasn't too much interesting stuff going on in Week 2 of ECC.

 The girls made a cake of the world (which we actually made day 1 of week 3). I didn't help at all. I didn't even turn the oven on! MK and H made the cake and H and T frosted it. MK didn't want to be in the picture because her hair wasn't done (teens!). Everyone enjoyed eating it.

Off to America! Looking ahead, it seems to pick up the pace a bit, so I'm looking forward to that. I think we will all really enjoy it more in 2 weeks when we move on to other countries and get our "passports".  

Unit 2 (M for Moon) of My Father's World Kindergarten

Unit 2-M for Moon

"I am the light of the world."

Little E had a blast learning about the moon.

 We are using Explode the Code's primer books (Get Ready, Get Set, Go for the Code) along with MFW K. She is doing really well with it and really enjoys it. I've used these books before and I love them as a supplement but not as a complete phonics program. View the free printables page for a schedule for these books that go along with MFW K.

 Little E did great with sound sorting.

 This activity is a bit too easy for Little E (simply counting the correct number of bears) but she still had fun with it. This is a day 2 activity in the MFW K curriculum.

 She LOVES cutting. It's her favorite thing to do during school. I found this free printable on teacherspayteachers.com (TPT).

  I also found this printable on TPT. It's counting moon craters. I helped her write the first 4, but the last 4 was her version. I love how her 3 looks like an E. I can't wait to see her progress at the end of the year.

 We read Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me by Eric Carle. This printable also came free from TPT. 

 

 Little E loves doing her worksheets.

 These are the books we read for our moon unit. The My "m" Book is by Moncure. I found the whole set at Kid to Kid for only $25 (which is a very good deal-these books are hard to find and expensive). Big Thoughts for Little People has a devotion with questions for each letter. It's very cute!

 Little E read for her very first time this week (Thursday, August 21st, to be exact)! Look at her excitement!

Week 1 of ECC & MFW K

Week 1 of Exploring Countries and Cultures and MFW Kindergarten!

We started a week earlier than planned, but I think it was time! On the first day the exterminator came during school, and we went out to lunch for a special treat (not even drive-thru!). The first day went very smoothly.

The second day didn't go quite so smoothly. I overslept and when I woke up I was panicking and also really mad at myself! I got the big girls started on an assignment and then got myself ready to go because MK had an orthodontist consultation (braces here we come!). I brought along Little E's work with us, and she completed her worksheets in the dentist office. She loved the handwriting page! She said, "This is awesome work!". We came home and started our ECC work, which mainly included a John 3:16 poster. This caused some melt downs because we only had thick paint brushes and the girls were getting upset because their painting wasn't perfect. Little K and Little E had a blast though. 

Wednesday was a normal day, at home all day (finally!). We did the backyard habitat project for ECC but our backyard is extremely boring, so it wasn't that much fun.

Thursday the girls had some classes with our local homeschooling group. Little E had a blast in her science lab class! Little K worked on her worksheets while we waited for the big girls. We didn't do anything else the rest of the day, and I think I may make Thursday's our half day.

We finished our first week with a trip to the Musical Instrument Museum. It was pretty awesome! They had a room for each continent, and in each continent there was a section for each country. We got a little sampling of music and culture from almost every country in the WORLD! What a great way to kick of ECC!

In future weeks I will probably do separate posts for MFW ECC and MFW K.