Sunflower Schoolhouse

In our science we were working on identifying things that are alive and things that are not alive. All of the boys sorted living and non living picture cards. They all completed living and non living charts. Elisha and Moses completed charts for living and non living related to things that are in a city. It was an interesting discussion.

We are working with learning our colour words. Elisha can spell all of his colour words from memory. Moses can read all of the colour words. He is working on learning to spell all of the colour words by looking at the colour words and using letter cards to spell the words. Malachi and I looked at all of the colour words (and I read them to him) and we discussed different colours. He used the letter cards to spell one colour word. He did very well at finding all of the required letters and putting them in order.

Malchi and I played Dora Dominoes. Malachi is very good with one to one matching and following directions.

Elisha, Moses, Daddy and I all played Money Bags. It was a good game of counting money. Moses has difficulty playing in a group. He has difficulty following directions. He doesn’t seem to understand waiting his turn.

Elisha can identify all coins and bills up to 100.

Elisha received a multi game board for his birthday and has been enjoying playing checkers, chess, etc. with various family members.

Moses and I enjoyed playing a fun game of Moose Track Math to practice his adding and subtracting. He did very well.

Malachi and I practiced singing the alphabet song and saying the names of the letters.

We are still working on establishing a morning routine (which is very simple personal care and grooming). We do this every day.

We are still working on establishing morning chores (simple chores to help the boys participate in taking care of the home). We do this every day.

We paid specific attention to reviewing hand washing and bed making techniques.

We went for a walk around the community. While we were walking we had a discussion about multiplication and multiplied by fives using all of our hands. We also practiced counting by fives.

We visited the community centre and the boys played and we had lunch.

We visited the community sharing room and chose some new used clothes, shoes, and toys. We discussed this as a way to recycle our things that we are finished with.

On the walk home from the community centre we discussed street safety and looking both ways before you cross.

We practiced counting by fives again (all chanting as we walked).

We played a game to help us learn if things are living or non living.

The boys had running races and did an obstacle course with Daddy.

We have been focusing on our manners (again) and working on please, thank you, and just generally asking nicely for things.

I can’t believe we have come to term 3 already. Wow! this year has sure gone by fast. I have some ideas for term 3 – but we’ll see how things go.

Here are the basics -

Wisdom Words (from Weaver – AO)

-working through grades 1-3 for everyone

Reading

-I have a large selection of books that I would like to read aloud with the boys this term in preparation for Sonlight next year. These include all the wonderful books from Winter Promise and from Noeo Science and a few other great finds.

Science Scope (Kathryn Stout)

-working through all the primary and maybe primary intermediate of most topics (leaving the human body for next year as I want to do this in depth for Moses – he loves medical stuff). We will see how much we get covered this term.

-we will use all the lovely science books we this year for our readings in areas as they come up or as Read Alouds. We will also use the science experiment kits as the topics come up.

Other Science (Unit Studies)

-we hope do our yearly unit on gardening, seeds, plants, insects, etc by planting a home school friendly hands on garden (this will tie in with Science Scope)

-we hope to do a unit on birds (this will tie in with Science Scope)

Native Indians of North America (Donna Ward and Winter Promise)

-we will continue working through this and hope to cover all the major areas by the end of the year.

Math (Unit Studies)

-here are some things I want to cover this term for all the kids at their different levels – Money, Fractions, Time, Measurement, as well as working on the basic facts (I am sure there was more, but my notebook is downstairs).

The theme for TERM 3 is to keep it simple and get lots accomplished. We also want to spend as much time as possible outside when the weather is nice.

It is my goal to post here as often as I am able and to keep the posts as detailed as possible.

Here’s to TERM 3!