School Day Pictures

March 10, 2010 — threelittlejewells

A few pictures from some recent school days…

Can anyone guess what we’ve been studying for science this past month?

:D    Nathan, in particular, is utterly fascinated by the human body, veins, arteries, blood, bones, etc.

Mary, working on her geography puzzle of the United States & Canada.

Savvy, very diligently trying  to work the big kids addition puzzle.  (she’s a little young for it though! )

Nathan working on a 4 layer puzzle that covers the seasons- each layer is a picture of the same scene in a different season.

All three kids have been thoroughly obsessed with the poet Shel Silverstein- we’ve read from this book every day for the last 3 weeks!  Here are a few of our favorites:

Woulda Coulda Shoulda

All the Woulda-Coulda-Shouldas

Layin’ in the sun,

Talkin’ bout the things

They woulda-coulda-shoulda done…

But those Woulda-Coulda-Shouldas

All ran away and hid

From one little did.

The Folks Inside

Inside you, boy,
There’s an old man sleepin’,
Dreamin’ waitin’ for his chance.
Inside you, girl,
There’s an old lady dozin’,
Wantin’ to show you a slower dance.

So keep on playin’,
Keep on runnin’,
Keep on jumpin’, til the day
That those old folks
Down inside you
Wake up … and come out and play.

The Toy Eater

You don’t have to pick up your toys, okay?
You can leave ‘em right there on the floor,
So tonight when the Terrible Toy-Eatin’ Tookle
Comes tiptoeing’ in through the crack in the door,
He’ll crunch all your soldiers, he’ll munch on your trucks,
He’ll chew your poor puppets to shreds,
He’ll swallow your Big Wheel and slurp up your paints
And bite off your dear dollies’ heads.
Then he’ll wipe off his lips with the sails of your ship,
And making a bur pity noise,
He’ll slither away– but hey, that’s okay,
You don’t have to pick up your toys.

Mary with her phonics book.

Savvy, engrossed in some books.

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Devotions

January 9, 2010 — threelittlejewells

Family Devotions

A friend recently asked me about what we are using for family devotions in the evenings.  Here is the email I sent her.

The book is “Leading  Little Ones to God” by Marian Schoolland.  Here is the opening to the book, which I like…

“This book is intended to be a guide to parents who desire to teach their little ones about God.  Parents are the child’s best teachers, and perhaps there is nothing more important in his or her spiritual development than quiet talks with Mother or Father about the great God who made us and loves us.”

The book is divided into 14 parts with each part having 4-8 devotions.

1. Looking for God
2. God is Very Great
3. All that God Does is Good
4. Sin Spoiled the World
5. God’s Law
6. God Loves Us
7. What Jesus Did
8. About the Holy Spirit
9. How We Become Children of God
10. How God’s Children Live and Grow
11. God Helps His Children Live for Him
12. When We Pray to God
13. About God’s Church
14. Things That are To Happen

For example, Part 12. “When We Pray To God” contains these devotions:  What it means to Pray, Praying in Jesus’ Name, Where we should pray, How we should pray, What we may ask for in prayer, How God answers our prayers, The most important prayer.

****Something else we do, that I forgot to mention on the phone last night, is memorize scripture & prayers. We used this idea for our scripture memory system and it is working beautifully.   http://simplycharlottemason.com/timesavers/memorysys/

Love that it uses things you already have or can find at Wal-Mart.

We started memorizing last spring when Nathan was a young 4 and he has picked up quickly.  I would bet that your son could memorize some of the shorter verses pretty easily.

Some that we have memorized are Prov. 28:13, Phil. 4:13, Luke 1:37, John 14:6, Genesis 1:1, Ephesians 6:1, Psalm 119:11.

They are currently working on memorizing this prayer:  (Mary has it down pretty good, Nathan is almost there)

A Child’s Prayer

Lord, teach a little child to pray,

And then accept my prayers,

For thou can hear the words I say,

For thou are everywhere.

A little sparrow cannot fall

Unnoticed, Lord, by thee;

And though I am so young and small,

Thou does take care of me.

Teach me to do the thing that is right,

And when I sin, forgive;

And make it still my chief delight

To serve You while I live.

To help them memorize: I simply say a portion out loud, have them repeat it, I say the next part, they repeat it.   We do it once or twice a day until they have the whole passage memorized.  It takes almost no time.   For example:

Ephesisans 6:1  Children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right.
Me: Ephesians 6:1
Mary: repeats above.
Me: Children, obey your parents
Mary: repeats
Me: in the Lord
Mary: repeats
Me: for this is right.
Mary: repeats.
We might do this twice in the evening.

******In addition to LLOTG, scripture & prayer memorization, the children are also memorizing the Catechism for Young Children.
http://www.reformed.org/documents/index.html?mainframe=http://www.reformed.org/documents/cat_for_young_children.html

I initially printed out the entire document above but that was a little bulky for daily use so last year I bought it in booklet form- these are 2 small booklets and I keep them with the above memory system.  There are 2 booklets and they are $2.75 each- pretty cheap.
http://www.doorposts.com/details.aspx?id=8

So far they have memorized questions 1-20- SUCH a good foundation for basic knowledge of the Christian faith.   As we work through the catechism, if there is a question/answer we disagree with theologically I will either skip it or design my own “answer” for them to memorize.  So far it hasn’t been a problem.

*****I’m sure you have a good Children’s Bible but I thought I’d mention this one just in case.   After hearing several recommendations for Egermeier’s Bible Story Book we bought one and are very pleased with it.  Nice illustrations.  Short stories that are readable in 5 minutes or less.  BUT- best of all- so many Bible Story Books only contain the main Bible Stories- what I like about Egermeier’s is that it starts at the beginning, works through the entire Bible- it is VERY comprehensive.

***MUSIC- We use Wee Sing Bible Songs- I pick one song and we learn a stanza at a time in the evenings.  We sing through it once or twice at the end of devotions until we have it memorized. Pretty simple.
http://www.amazon.com/Wee-Sing-Bible-Songs-Book/dp/B002V1GZAU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262992914&sr=1-1

*So, we do a little of all of the above.  We try to work through LLOTG once a year and the rest of the year we read through Egermeier’s.  It only takes 15 minutes or so to do the reading, practice the current memory verse & review an older one, go through the Catechism questions and work on our Bible Song.   We don’t do it EVERY single night- we strive for 5 nights a week but it is often closer to 3 or 4 nights.

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School Room Tour

November 30, 2009 — threelittlejewells

I spent the weekend thoroughly cleaning and reorganizing the school room.   I thought that while it was clean, I should take some updated pictures.  :)

 

The view when you enter the room,  standing in the doorway.

Standing by the window, facing back towards the door.

 

Again, standing at the window with a view to the right side of the room.

 

CLOSE UP PICTURES

When you enter the door, looking to your left is the piano and Savvy’s shelves with *quiet* toddler toys.

Continuing around- then Nathan’s fire station and our large Year Calendar that I made.   The “theme” of our circle time this year is learning the seasons, months, days of the week, weather.   Every day they put a sticker on the calendar to mark the day.

On the far left is the corner of  our timeline- somehow that didn’t make it in the picture.   The big year calendar is immediately to it’s left.   Next up is the “seasons” calendar on top and the weather chart below it.   Our “fireplace”  and my chair.    The basket of books on the left is our current read alouds for the week and the one on the right is the extra read alouds.    The large basket under the weather chart is full of blocks.

To the right of the window is the shelf that holds most of our school stuff and the tv/vcr for watching our Math-U-See videos.

The top shelf is divided by subjects.  Second shelf is Language Arts, flashcards, manipulatives and extra art supplies.   Third shelf is all math- counting blocks, pattern blocks, logic games and math puzzles.  Bottom two shelves are puzzles.

Our BIG table- 8 feet long x 4 feet wide!   The map on the left is our pin map- we put up any postcards we get from my Dad’s travels and have marked the birth place of various friends & family who are from other countries.

Mary’s art caddy on the left.   Other than the globe, the rest of the stuff is  my teacher stuff.   Supplies that I need handy and the stack on the right is their daily work.

To the right of the table- our USA pin map where we’ve marked our home and where various family members live.   Extra desk.  Underneath desk is the bin for our listening station- it contains books on tape, headphones, books to go with the tapes, etc.  Basket is Savvy’s board books and then leaning against the wall is a stack of Nathan’s current favorite books.  He loves to curl up on the bean bag chairs in the hidey hole and pore over these books.

To the right of the bean bags/hidey hole- Mary and Nathan’s shelves (mostly).  Math balance and tape recorder for listening to books on tape.  Lots of books.  Magneatos, Indian playset, farm animals and farm.

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Schedule

November 6, 2009 — threelittlejewells

Do you have a daily schedule where you list out the time that you have blocked off for school? I am curious to see how you are fitting school and housework in and how much time you are actually spending doing school?

 

My Response:

 

Here is our day- all times are “ish” and open to change whenever I deem necessary!

7:45am Kip leaves for work.
7:45-9:00am Kids have free play in the living room.
7:45-8:30 I fix myself a glass of ice water, rustle up some breakfast for myself (kids have already eaten with dh earlier), check email, etc.

8:30-9:00am Start or switch laundry, check dinner menu and do anything necessary, clean up breakfast dishes, straighten and tidy kitchen, study and bathroom.

9:00am-10:30am Kids pick up living room to a company-ready state (takes about 5 minutes), then upstairs. Everyone gets dressed, brush teeth and hair, bathroom, make beds and tidy rooms (takes 15 ish minutes). Once finished we go to the schoolroom. Nathan and Savvy play while Mary and I do Language Arts (Explode the Code, Sight words, BOB books), Math. Then I call Nathan over and they both go through their memory work. Then we go sit down in the easy chair and I do their History Read Alouds and we check our calendar/weather/seasons.

10:30-11:30 Kids are outside playing. Sometimes Savvy is with them in our fenced in back yard, sometimes with me inside. I do a laundry switch, any necessary dinner prep, email/computer, if Savvy with me I may read to her, etc.

11:30-12:30 Lunch- make lunch, eat, kids help with clean up.

12:30-1:00 We are supposed to go back upstairs to the schoolroom at this time and do our extras- some days it is science, some times it is a weekly Art or Geography lesson or finishing History read alouds. We have missed this the last couple of weeks but I plan to get back on track with this.  I’ve been doing these at different times of the day but need to move them back to this time slot.

1:00-4:00 Kids are napping. I am getting dinner ready, sweeping the kitchen floor, taking a nap, email/computer, laundry, etc. This is generally the only time I talk on the phone- I try not to be on the phone while the kids are awake.

4:00-5:30ish Kids up- bathroom, drinks, shoes, recomb hair, etc. Usually outside to play BUT sometimes inside with something special pulled out of the toy closet.

5:30-6:00 Kids in the living room watching a video. This wayKip can walk in the door and have a few minutes to go to the bathroom, take off his work boots, unload his pockets, get a drink before he is bombarded with children. smile

6:00-6:45 Dinner and clean up.

6:45-7:45 EVERYONE, including Daddy, upstairs. Kids are pj’d, brush teeth, bathroom, etc. Then all to the schoolroom.  Kip  does handwriting/drawing lesson with Mary while I do piano practice with Nathan. Then we switch. Read aloud 1 chapter of our current “fun” read aloud (“Mr. Popper’s Penguins” right now) and then family devotions. We sometimes go over our memory work for a second time also.

7:45- kids are in bed.

Some keys to keeping the house neat & tidy:

I use gates. smile My kids are not given free reign to play in any room they want or to drag out all their toys at once.

Downstairs, they only play in the living room or at the art table in the kitchen. Upstairs they have VERY few toys in their rooms and until recently they had none at all in their rooms. We’ve recently allowed a few things in their room that were either a danger to Savvy (dollhouse has small pieces that are choking hazards) or that I didn’t have another place for (Train Table in Nathan’s room). Also, they are now 5yo and 4yo and can pick up a mess on their own. There are only Quiet Toys in the schoolroom and they are never in there without me. We pick up the room before we head downstairs at 10:30. No playing allowed at the 12:30-1:00 time slot and only Savvy plays in the evening- other kids are busy with handwriting and piano so there is very little to clean up.

Essentially, by 9am, the downstairs portion of the house is company ready and stays that way the rest of the day.

We also converted our hallway coat closet into a toy closet. Dh put shelves in and changed the door knob from one that just turned to one that has a key lock. 90% of their toys are in that closet and they can only get them out with my permission and supervision. This is a *really* big help in taming the toys.

I hope that helped you some- to see what we do all day. Again, I am not a clock Nazi- all times are approximate and we change them to suit our needs when necessary.

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Can you guess???

November 2, 2009 — threelittlejewells

Can you guess what we’ve been studying for the last two weeks?

We’ve read piles and piles of books on Egypt- the above stack isn’t even all of them.   The kids have learned about life in Ancient Egypt, papyrus and hieroglyphics, the mummification process, the location of Egypt on the globe, where the Nile River is located in Egypt, who lived along the Nile (farmers), types of animals in the Nile, travel in Ancient Egypt,  how pyramids were built and what they were used for, we’ve looked at some pictures of Egyptian art and read about life in the desert.

As we’ve been studying Egypt, we’ve read the entire book of Exodus from the Bible outlining Moses’ difficulties with the Pharaoh and the subsequent journey out of Egypt.

We’ve mummified a potato.

We placed the potato mummy in a container and covered it with a mixture of salt and baking soda.  We changed the mixture every three days or so for two weeks.

After just three days, the mummy had turned black and shrunk up quite a bit.  Also, it smelled bad!   Every time we changed the salt & baking soda mixture, I recorded the kids observations about the mummy.

After two weeks the mummy is ready to be wrapped up.

 

We made salt dough maps of Egypt.

Mixing up the salt dough.

Using a printed outline map of Egypt, the kids formed the salt dough into the approximate shape of Egypt.  After they dried, they painted the Nile River, then the green farming land alongside the Nile and then the desert was painted Red.   The Ancient Egyptians called the desert “the Red Land”.

Sample copy that Kip & I did so that the kids would have an idea of what to do.

Nathan’s map of Egypt.

Mary’s map of Egypt.

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Memory Work

October 26, 2009 — threelittlejewells

In addition to reading, math, history, science, handwriting & piano we also do a fair bit of memory work. Here are some things the kids have memorized so far this year and a few things they are currently working on.

Here’s what they’ve memorized so far:

Bible Verses:

Luke 1:37 For with God nothing shall be impossible.

Psalm 119:11 Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against You.

Ephesians 6:1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord; for this is right.

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning, God created the heaven and the Earth.

Poems:

(Mary)  The Caterpillar by Christina Rossetti

Brown and furry

Caterpillar in a hurry;

Take your walk

To the shady leaf, or stalk.

May no toad spy you,

May the little birds pass by you;

Spin and die,

To live again a butterfly.

 

(Mary) “Work” by Anonymous (Nathan will memorize this one next)

Work while you work,

Play while you play;

This is the way

To be happy each day.

All that you do,

Do with your might;

Things done by halves

Are never done right.

 

Important Info/Miscellaneous:

Mommy & Daddy’s name

Address

Phone Number

Birthday

The Four Seasons- winter, spring, summer, fall.

We’re currently working on memorizing:

John 14:6 Jesus said unto him, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no man comes to the Father, but by me.

Days of the week- Sunday through Saturday

Skip Counting by 5’s: 5-60  (in preparation for learning how to tell time)

Sight Words from The 100 Most Commonly Used English Words:   the, of, and, a, to.   (We’ll continue through the list, 5 words at a time)

Poem:

“Try, Try Again” by T.H. Palmer (Both Kids are working on this one)

‘Tis a lesson you should heed,

Try, try again;

If at first you don’t succeed,

Try, try again;

Then your courage should appear,

For, if you will persevere,

You will conquer, never fear;

Try, try again.

Prayer:

A Child’s Prayer

Lord, teach a little child to pray,

And then accept my prayers,

For thou can hear the words I say,

For thou are everywhere.

A little sparrow cannot fall

Unnoticed, Lord, by thee;

And though I am so young and small,

Thou does take care of me.

Teach me to do the thing that is right,

And when I sin, forgive;

And make it still my chief delight

To serve You while I live.

Catechism

One thing the children are working on memorizing is A Catechism for Young Children.   There are 145 questions so I imagine it may take us several years to get through it BUT I think it covers the important basics of Christianity.   They have memorized the responses to questions 1-10 and are working on 11-15 currently.

Q. 1. Who made you? A. God.
Q. 2. What else did God make? A. God made all things.
Q. 3. Why did God make you and all things ? A. For his own glory.
Q. 4. How can you glorify God? A. By loving him and doing what he commands.
Q. 5. Why ought you to glorify God? A. Because he made me and takes care of me.
Q. 6. Are there more gods than one? A. There is only one God.
Q. 7. In how many persons does this one God exist? A. In three persons.
Q. 8. What are they? A. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
Q. 9. What is God? A. God is a Spirit, and has not a body like men.
Q. 10. Where is God? A. God is everywhere.

Currently memorizing these 5 questions:

Q. 11. Can you see God? A. No; I cannot see God, but he always sees me.
Q. 12. Does God know all things? A. Yes; nothing can be hid from God.
Q. 13. Can God do all things? A. Yes; God can do all his holy will.
Q. 14. Where do you learn how to love and obey God? A. In the Bible alone.
Q. 15. Who wrote the Bible? A. Holy men who were taught by the Holy Spirit.
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Busy, Busy, Busy

October 17, 2009 — threelittlejewells

Whew!  What a Busy Week We’ve Had!

I haven’t blogged much lately because I’ve been to busy to sit down at the computer for long.

On Monday I took the children to Colonial Days at Alamance Battleground with some other homeschoolers.

Tuesday was a light day, just piano lessons here at our home.  I also spent time working on our Christmas Cards (DONE!) and our Calendars that we send out to the grandparents (DONE!).

Wednesday I went to the viewing/funeral for our 102 year old neighbor who passed away last weekend.  We will surely miss Ms. Irene- she was such a nice lady.   That afternoon the children had belt testing (they passed!  They are now high yellows!), Tae Kwon Do class, Flu shots, a stop at Party City in search of a pink cowboy hat for Mary’s Halloween costume and grocery shopping at Costco.

On Thursday my cousin Amy came to spend the day with her two little boys- 3yo Landon and 5 WEEK old Liam- as always, we had lots of fun!

Friday was my errand day.  Kip and I also spent Friday evening taking the kids annual Halloween Costume Pictures and Christmas Outfit Pictures.   We needed these done early in order to include them in the calendars.

There was a LOT of running around this week- far more than I like to do.

Pictures from Colonial Days

Apple Cider Press


Canon- we skipped the daily firing of the canon because Mary is quite afraid of loud noises.

The Jewell Kids and the Lanier Kids- most of them- missing the 1yo.

Revolutionary War Soldier- there were two of them with their tent and all their gear.  Pretty neat.

Colonial era School Teacher

Colonial Cooking and Preserving

It was COLD that day!


Spinning

Writing with a quill & ink.

Colonial Doctor and all his instruments.   Some of them were pretty…scary.  Yikes!

Blacksmith

Picnic lunch afterwards.


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Butterfly Farm

October 10, 2009 — threelittlejewells

Field Trip

Our local Homeschool Group took a field trip to All-A-Flutter Butterfly Farm on Thursday, 10/8/2009.    They had a presentation on the life cycle of the butterfly and then got to hold/feed the butterflies.

Right after I snapped this picture the butterfly she’s holding in her hand climbed off the little white sugar pad and onto her arm.  Savannah FLIPPED OUT.   She was terrified- she did not like that thing crawling on her arm.   Poor baby.

Nathan and another girl catching some butterflies.

There was a little gold fish pond that the younger kids all found fascinating.

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October 2, 2009

October 8, 2009 — threelittlejewells

Crafting….

Mary really loves to do any sort of craft.   She frequently asks me “Mommy, can we do a craft today?”. Unfortunately, I am distinctly NOT the crafty type.   When I was planning our school year last summer, I decided I would really try to incorporate more crafts into our year.  I went through my copy of “The Mailbox: Seasonal Crafts” (The Mailbox is a magazine for Preschool and Elementary Teachers with lots of crafts) and picked out a number of crafty projects to do this school year.  I bought all the supplies and made any necessary photocopies.  We’ve been trying to do one craft a week.    All the kids, but especially Mary, are really loving this!

We been studying about Abraham & Sarah this week.    Because they lived in tents, we made our own little tent crafts.   Here they are working on decorating the tent before we put it together.

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Mary’s Math

September 29, 2009 — threelittlejewells


Thursday’s Math

9/24/09- One of Mary’s math assignments on Thursday was this fun apple graphing activity- she did a pretty good job!  She only got one square wrong but the rest of it was perfect!

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