N is for Nest.

Last, last week our letter and theme was N-n-nest and the number for the week was 5. Evalyn has been practicing writing all the numbers when we do our calendar and our 100 chart every day. When we aren't doing school, she is practicing what we have learned on the magna-doodle.  The other day she brought it to me to show me what she had been working on! She tells me that writing her numbers and letters is favorite thing to do at school.

Each week there is a phrase that goes along with the theme we are studying that teaches Evalyn about who God is. For this week it was 'God takes good care of me' and we learned that just like the mama bird takes good care making a nest, sitting on her eggs and then going to find food for her baby birds, God is always providing everything that we need!

Evalyn also makes a badge that we display and she can remember what she has learned through out the year. Here is her nest badge.

We made edible nests! It was a messy project but she had fun. I messed up and got shredded wheat cereal instead of the biscuits (which were supposed to be the grass) so it was 'soupier' than it should have been. There were sticks (chow mien noodles) and of course, mud (peanut butter and chocolate chips melted together).

I added Whopper eggs and they enjoyed the rich, messy treat at snack time! The older two only ate a third of their nest but Eli ate almost the whole thing and I had to cut him off so he didn't get a stomach ache!! 

Yum!

On the last day of each week Evalyn has a worksheet that she draws 4 different pictures starting with the letter we are working on. Then she writes the uppercase and lowercase letter on the lines below.

She drew a nest, a nickel, a necklace and a net and she was very proud of them. She is timid when it comes to drawing with out a picture or looking at anything. I'm hoping this activity will help her build confidence in her abilities.

Her favorite craft for the week was making this tree and nest picture! She's such a cutie!

My favorite thing about school is getting to work one on one with my little girl. :)

A is for Apple.

A couple weeks ago we did the letter A and did some apple activities!

Making a graph of the different color of apples we had.

Evie's scissor skills have drastically improved since we first started. She takes a lot of pride in her work :)

Ingredients for the apple pie we made.

The finished product!

We had fun with the Letter A!

L is for Leaf

Last week was our third week of Kindergarten and it was a tricky one. We took the week before off because the weather was ridiculously freezing, -19 degrees one day! So we didn't do much but try to stay warm.

It was a tad bit better the next week but still not ideal for a 'Leaf' study, which was the theme we were doing. There aren't many leaves to be found outside this time of year where we live so we improvised and went to a local plant nursery instead.

Not the same, but we found leaves! It worked.

We are starting to get the groove with the curriculum. My Father's World Kindergarten curriculum has set up with a routine where we do the same thing on the same days of the week. For example, every Day 1 looks the same schedule wise, every Day 2 has the same activities/routine, and so on for all 6 days of each unit. We both appreciate that, as Evalyn is catching on to what we do next and there isn't as much needed instruction as when we first started.

On of our first daily activities is looking at the calendar and talking about the date and the day of the week. She gets to practice her counting, writing {she traces the number}, shapes and colors {she draws a shape around the number with a color I chose}.

Next, she puts the day on her '100 Chart' while we keep track of the days we have done school. When we get to 100 we are going to have a celebration! After logging the day on her chart, she adds a straw to a cup and when she has 10 loose straws in the cup we put a rubber band around them and start a new set of 10. It helps her learn skip counting by 10's.

Pictures from our trip to the nursery:

Trying to reach up to the tallest plant we saw. Also the largest Leaf!

Watching the coy fish swim and trying not to get splashed!

Working on her math page, this week it was the number 3 and she was coloring the leaves in a certain pattern. They gave her the first 4 colors and then she had to figure out the pattern and finish the rest.

Another activity was doing a leaf rubbing. We used the leaves we picked up off the floor of the nursery.

M is for Moon

Last week we studied the letter M, the moon and the number 2. We have made it through our 2nd week of school! I really like the flexibility, but we both definitely do better right after breakfast. A couple days we have had to move school to after lunch {usually rest/nap time} and I can tell a significant difference in how receptive she is. Rest time is still very necessary for this busy little girl.

Here she's working on the picture cards and tracing the letter while practicing the sound that 'M' makes. 

We read the book The Moon Might Be Milk by Lisa Shulman and in it is a recipe for Sugar Moon cookies. Of course, we had to give them a try!

They were easy, tasty and fun. 

I wanted to supplement a little more math into her school so we are using Singapore math activity book to have more practice with different concepts. She LOVES this part and I have to cut her off or she would do the whole workbook in one sitting!

I asked her what her favorite part of school is and she told me the worksheets is her favorite. Works for me! 

My favorite part is the one on one time we get to spend together. Another week down!

S is for Sun

We finished up our Creation week review a couple weeks ago and last week we went through the first 5 days of the first unit: S-s-sun!

The words to remember for the week are "Jesus is the light of the world." Evalyn and I spent a little bit of time each day talking about how Jesus is our light, He helps us see with our mind and our hearts. Just like a light, He shows where to go and how to live.

Our letter was S, our number was 1 and our theme was the sun. Evalyn learned a lot about the sun! We did some hands on activities and read quite a few library books about the sun. We both enjoyed the first unit.

Coloring her Picture Cards which she later cut out and put inside the letter envelope. We did several activities using these cards during the week.

She practiced writing her uppercase and lowercase "S" in salt.

We put these grapes in the window and have been checking them everyday while we wait for the sun to make them into raisins.

This activity I found here on Pinterest. It's a Sun in a bottle! It's just oil and water with red food coloring. When you swish it around it resembles the look of hot gases like the sun is made up of.

It was hard to get a good picture of how it worked.

We had sun themed snacks, this day was an orange.

And little brothers joined in for that part!

Another tactile letter activity was using yarn and glue to form the letter "S" on her paper.

We made a sundial to observe how the sun moving through the sky can help us know what time of day it is.

**We are using My Father's World Kindergarten curriculum.

Ready or Not!

We are jumping head first - into kindergarten!

Evie will be for 5 in July and it might seem a little early {not to mention odd} to start her now {and in January}, but we are going with it! It could be a total flop and we will need to revisit key concepts later on. I'm ok with that for now.

Her and I both are feeling a little restless when it comes to 'school stuff' for her. She is eager to 'do school' and I like to have the directed, intentional time with her. I just struggle to plan and execute those activities with her.

As a family, we have chosen to homeschool - at least for now. Knowing we can always re-evaluate and make changes as needed. At this point it seems right for us.

It took me a long time to nail down exactly what I wanted to do for curriculum, if I even needed it for kindergarten. While some may be able to cover all the necessary material with out purchasing anything, I am not one of those people! I need simple, laid out instructions {sing this song, do this craft, tell your student this, etc} in order to feel confident that I'm dong what I'm supposed to do.

After looking and looking.... and looking, even trying out a few different options, I settled on using 'My Father's World' and starting with their kindergarten curriculum. I did a lot excessive research, on their site, on Pinterest, on blogs, read countless reviews and really just over analyzed the whole thing! I tend to do that.

But the good news is, I think I have found the perfect fit! So we are going to go with it and see how it goes.

We did our first day this morning and it was a lot of fun. It didn't take long but she seemed to enjoy it. The first 10 days {which I am combining and making it only 5 days} is a review and they go over letter names and the numerals 1-7 while covering the six days God used to create the world and the seventh day of rest. Evie knows the letters names and her numbers up to 14 or something like that. She is really ready to start focusing on letter sounds and more numbers and maybe even start reading by the end of the year! That would be exciting!

We are doing our school year January-November for a couple different reasons:
1. Brandon's work schedule allows him to spend time with the boys while I work one-on-one with Evie. Come next January we won't know what his schedule will be and we'd have to adjust how we do school half way through the school year.
2. We are having our 4th baby in May, and I'm hoping that getting started with school before the baby comes means we will have a better chance picking it back up after we are settled in with a new baby, rather then having to gather motivation and energy just to start. {I have scheduled a nice, long break right around baby's due date and after to give us time to enjoy, settle and adjust!}
3. She's ready, I'm ready and why not!

Here's a few pictures from what we did today... {They are all phone pictures and a bit grainy : /}

She looks so focused in these pictures, but I promise she enjoyed it! Ha!

And we finished off with cookies and milk for snack. :)

I didn't take any pictures, but her and I took a walk around the neighborhood so we could observe, enjoy and thank God for the daytime and sky that He created for us. We just talked about the nighttime and about the sea, since we couldn't observe those.

I'm hoping I can share how the rest of our week goes!