3 (or 4...I CAN'T remember) weeks into homeschool

OK, it's not really that bad.  I am losing track of the days, but I'm not so much focused on how long we've done this but rather, what unit/day we are on with the kid's guide books.  My goal of this blog post is to update on what the kids are learning and how life is.

Vanessa: She is going through a learning guidebook from Heart of Dakota meant for kids 2-5.  It is technically a preschool program, but it has extensions for Kindergarten level.  She learns a little rhyme that teaches a story and phonics for each letter for each Unit (5 days worth of material).  She reads a Bible story, a little ABC devotional once a week to correspond with the letter, does a craft activity, sometimes acts out the Bible story, and listens to a song that goes with everything.  In addition to this, she does a Kindergarten level handwriting book, math book, and a lesson on how to read.  I don't have a schedule for her 3 extra books, but we take them at her pace.  She flies through the math, does about 1 or 2 handwriting pages to practice letters, and I work 1-1 with her to pronounce words in the reading book at her pace.  To sum up her units:

Unit 1
- A-A-Adam rhyming/make the motions song once each day for a week.
- Bible lessons: God made the world, Everyone is Happy, God Makes Adam and Eve, Adam and Eve Disobey God, and Cain kills Abel
- Once/week devotion with a verse that starts with the letter A: "A soft answer turns away wrath." Prov 15:1.  This devotion spoke to her little heart.  It told a story of two girls who had a little fight and the girl who spoke sweetly turned her friend's anger into softness and they became friends again.  Vanessa learned the word "wrath" and she often reminds me to speak softer.
- Songs "God Made the Universe", "Two Trees", and "God's Promise"
- crafts that go with each thing..rainbows, etc

Unit 2
- Noah's Big Boat rhyming/make the motions song once each day for a week
- Bible lessons: Noah builds a Big Boat, The Animals go into the Boat, It Rains for Days and Days, Noah and his family are safe, Proud men build the Tower of Babel
- Once/week devotion verse that starts with the letter B: "Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God."  She liked this too - and realized that when she makes peace and is kind to her siblings, God is happy too.  We make peace with God when we confess our sins to God and believe that Jesus took the punishment for our sins.
Song "Noah Built a boat"
- crafts

Unit 3
- "Clippity-Clippity C-C-Clack! God tells Abraham you must pack!" rhyming/make the motions song once a day for a week.
- Bible Lessons: Abraham is God's friend, God Gives Abraham the Best, God promises Abraham a son, Three men from Heaven, God tests Abraham's love.  She "gets it!" with the story about God telling Abraham to kill his son Isaac as a sacrifice.  I had to explain that God was simply testing Abraham and had a bigger plan than Abraham could see.  She could see that a sacrifice was necessary, but God provided a ram caught in the bush JUST IN TIME so Abraham didn't have to kill Isaac.  Cool to see her learn that.
- Once/week devotion verse that starts with the letter C: "Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to the Lord." Col 3:20.  Story about kids who knew what they were supposed to do well, but rushed instead, went out to play, and came back in because they felt bad they didn't obey their parents.
- Song, "God began a nation"

Vanessa's reading has picked up paces!!  She is on the third lesson of 20 in the Reading Lesson book, and reads stories like "Meg sad, meg met sad dog, sad dog sat, meg sad." and "the cat met the dog. the dog met the rat, the rat met the cat"

Calvin: He is going through Beyond Little Hearts For His Glory (2 levels above Vanessa) guidebook.  His "Learning Through History" part gives an overview of early American history from 1565-1860.  It emphasizes God's plan throughout history.  His Bible memory verse, devotions, science, art, geography, timeline and history activities, poetry, writing skills, and music are all inspired by the "learning through history" focus, so the entire day of learning is connected.

Unit 1:
American Pioneers and Patriots book - I read this to him and they are stories of what it may have been like to BE a pioneer getting on a boat from Spain to Florida.  Catalina and Pedro, characters.
He's making a timeline and adding things to it as we go.
"The Storm" poem (some ships didn't make it)
Geography: 7 continents
Bible study verse, Psalm 4:8 about peace.  The pioneers had peace even though it was hard.
Music, "I will lie down in peace" song about Ps 4:8
Spelling list for the week.
Read-aloud story time, introduce the word "Biography" - I'm reading William Henry Harrison and spacing it out to spread across 4 units of school.  He loves this book and can't wait to hear more!
Calvin reads aloud to me for some time every day from The Early Reader's Bible.  He's an emerging reader. Getting stronger.
Math (Singapore 2A) and does a scheduled lesson.  Its been easy for him the first 2 units and the third has been harder, mentally adding things like 34+172 but he's catching on.
He copies the assigned poem for handwriting practice.
Science: learning how blubber keeps sea creatures warm, oceans have currents (water experiment shooting water UNDER water), flying squirrels and how they can glide 3 times further than they are up in the air.  He totally got this. "SO IF A SQUIRREL IS 100 FEET UP IN A TREE, IT CAN GLIDE 300 FEET AWAY!!" he exclaimed in amazement.

Unit 2:
American Pioneers and Patriots book - Sally and Richard. Kids had a lot of responsibilities!
Story of Ruth - the pioneers could have given up and gone home, but just like Ruth, they faithfully stayed on their path.
"Father, We Thank Thee" poem (appreciate/read classic poetry)
Galatians 6:9 "do not lose heart while doing good"
Song "If we don't lose heart"
Spelling/grammer - introduce idea that sentences have two parts, subjects and predicates. Write some subjects, write some predicates on index cards - mix them up to make your own sentences. He loved this, and wanted to add more.
Reading from Early Reader's Bible
Math assignments (laid out for me in the back of the book - what to do for each unit/day)
Read more William Henry Harrison biography
Copying poems for handwriting

Unit 3:
Stories of the Pilgrims - explained how the believers were pressured into going to King James' church and they hid in the dark places and moved from house to house to worship God the way the Bible wanted them to, not the way King James wanted them to.
Poem: "Uphill"
1 John 4:15-16a God is Love
Song "God is Love"
Spelling
Copy poem in nice handwriting
Biography reading
Reading on his own
Math
Science, pollen moves from flower to flower by bees. Flower stops smelling fragrant when pollen is gone.

Violet: She is going through the Preparing Hearts for His Glory (2 levels above Calvin) guidebook.  Her "Learning through History" focus is an overview of world history from creation to the late 1900's told in story form.  Biblical stories are woven through other stories from world history to show the flow of history.  It involves read-aloud books that I read to her, books she reads herself, oral narration practice, written narration lessons, oral comprehension and opinion questions, Biblical applications, geography quick-finds, timeline entries, vocabulary studies, research questions, weekly history projects, weekly notebooking, copywork, and corresponding independent literature readings and assignments.  (I pretty much copied that from the back of her book, it said it much better than I could have).
Her basics learning (reading, writing, math) section includes poetry by Robert Louis Stephenson, dictation practices, English books, Bible study on Psalms with music, science readings, weekly notebooking, oral narration, comprehension and Biblical application questions, and experiments.  The science loosely correspond with the history.
Violet's units are only 4 days per Unit, while the other kids have 5 days per unit.  Violet's work takes 4-5 hours per day, and this gives me the flexibility to have her only do 1/2 day's work if we have to and finish on Friday, or if we are on schedule, have her take a day off and focus on piano or something else she's interested in (typing lessons, a longer art project, etc).  I have liked this flexibility A LOT.

Unit 1:
"Grandpa's Box" book - a story of a grandfather who tells his grandchildren the story of salvation.  Chapter 1-4 (one chapter a day in this unit).  Narrate back to me what you read.
Read/talk about Ephesians 6:10-20 with me.
History project - make a shield of faith and draw your own coat of arms.  Research what these things are.
Independently drawing and writing through history - this is drawing historical things and copying the story of creation in cursive.
Research what is a coat of arms.
Appreciate/study "The Swing" poetry
English lesson
Dictation (she studies a paragraph, then I read it to her and she has to write it exactly as it is written without looking).
Bible Study Psalms 1: 1-2 Lots of questions to ask and answer
Math according to schedule.
Science exploration - Arctic tundra, this could be reading with me, drawing the animals, learning
Vocabulary work from reading Grandpa's Box (warfare, allies, traitor, rebel, memorials) - use a dictionary, write the entry word, definition, use it in your own sentence.
Start timeline cards.  First card, "Creation ~4000 BC.

Unit 2:
Life in the Great Ice Age Book. Assigned pages per day.  This book is fantastic.  Super cool illustrations, and tells a story of a boy who may have lived in a tribe in the time after the flood waters went down and what was left were sheets of ice, and the climate was really different than it is today. More extremes.  Survival, hunting, cave art.
The True Story of Noah's Art. Another awesome book.  Illustrations blew me away.  Drew both of us into the life of what it may have been like to be Noah.  Loved this book.
Research other culture's flood stories.  Every culture has a flood story.  God's is true.
Art: study warm/cool colors.  Make a backdrop of warm or cool colors, let it dry, and paint a vibrant rainbow over the top of it.
Poem "Bed in Summer"
English
Dictation
Bible Study Psalms 1:1-3
Song "His Delight"
Scheduled Math
Science exploration about Arctic Tundra
Globe and how the TILT of the earth explains the seasons.  Made playdough Sun and Earth, toothpick at angle through Earth, and show how sun shines on where we live as the earth goes around the sun - explain days and a year, and seasons. Neat to see her pick up on that. Axis, equator, north/south hemispheres.
Timeline - new card "Flood ~2300 BC"  The flood changed the earth.  It was harder to survive for both animals and people. Many animals struggled to find food.  Man and animals hunted each other.
Science exploration - what makes ice melt?

Unit 3:
Life in the Great Ice Age Book.  Assigned pages per day.
Cave art! Made her own cave art which I was super impressed with.
Poem "Rain"
English - learning about types of sentences (asking, telling, commanding, exclaiming) - diagramming sentences (subjects, predicates), organizing things alphabetically.
Dictation
Bible Study Ps 1:1-4 - explained what is chaff, saw video on chaff blowing away.
Scheduled Math
Science exploration, arctic tundra, permafrost, how plants need what sun they get to survive up for north.  Life cycle of snow mosquito, when does arctic tundra have no night, how does a caterpillar survive the winter? it makes its own chemical that acts like antifreeze so it doesn't turn solid frozen like salt acts in water to make it freeze at lower temps)
Vocabulary study (sought, stalking, hulking, imbedded, North Star).
Add next timeline card "Tower of Babel" - people scattered and spread across the earth after God confused their languages.

This gives a quick overview of what they're doing.  I am still figuring out what works best and when.  Calvin needs to be upside down half the time he's learning something.  He loves to snuggle in a chair when we read, and he must have his blanket.
Vanessa is mostly content to wait for me to have some windows of time to help her - she's figured out I can't help her when I'm helping Violet and Calvin.
There are moments it feels insane, but calm moments when the teaching seems to be really effective.
I forgot MY OWN MATHEMATICAL METHOD of subtracting an equation like 6000-357.  I had to re-learn that.  Oh wow.  Violet helped me, hahahaha!!  Kids are our teachers, sometimes!

I can see how the could easily take over my life.  Yikes.  I'm learning balance.

The cool part of homeschooling is getting up when we want.  Kids are allowed downstairs after 8:00.  We eat breakfast (NOT in a rush!), then start.

Vanessa is content to color and draw all day.  She wants me to print things for her to color constantly and she's super into making her own books, which means she staples all the things she colors and draws together with a title page that I create on a word document that says "Vanessa's book of pretty stuff" or "Vanessa's book of mermaids and princesses".   She's so cute and funny, and sometimes we call her a mosquito because she's VERY persistent in getting MORE COLORING PAGES!! haha!

Eli goes to preK twice a week, and I thought I'd incorporate him into Vanessa's lessons more, but I don't.  He naps every day, so I try get her stuff done while Violet and Calvin have free time and he's sleeping.

We eat and cook sprinkled throughout the day.  Cleanup is constant and Violet and Calvin do this after every meal.  OK, I'm working on that...but lunch...every day.  They clean counter tops and sweep floor and load the dishwasher for me.  One time Calvin said "its SO full!" and insisted he needed to put the soap in and run it.  I said "ok..go for it"...and when I opened it up 2 hrs later, the entire top rack was empty.  haha.  I had to explain to him both racks had to be full.  He got it.

Another PERK of homeschool is that we now have the TIME and FUNDS to get them into gymnastics!!  Once a week on Wednesdays, we go to Cedar Valley Gymnastics.  Vanessa and Eli have a class (with other kids too) from 12-1, and from 1-2, Violet and Calvin have class together.  The instructor is pretty great and they are learning a lot already.  The gym has tables set up so I can bring school work along with me and we're actually productive.

I could make an entire new post about the gymnastics experience so far but for the sake of time, I just can't.  I have a mountain of Awana things to process tonight, and my main goal was to update my readers on how school is going!