Week in Review: Week 6 in MFW Kindergarten

This week's theme was letter A for Apple in My Father's World God's Creation from A to Z. We had a busy week, as usual, but still did so much more than I thought we were going to!

Monday:

Zeke loves pattern blocks, so I printed this free activity from Teachers Pay Teachers for him. He had to fill in the apple shapes with pattern blocks and write how many of each shape he used. I then had him trace around the blocks and color them in. He really liked this, so I'm going to try to find some more of these for him to do.

He also colored and cut apart his picture cards for the letter A and put them in an envelope. We reviewed the other letters he has learned so far (s, m, l) and he sorted them all by beginning sound.

We read the Apple pages in the God's Amazing Creation book by My Father's World. This is the best improvement they've made to this curriculum! 

Tuesday:

I set out some red, green, and yellow felt and our Learning Resources Apple Attribute sorting set for Zoey. She sorted a little by color, and then just played for a while! I'm trying to include her in some of Zeke's activities as well as introduce her to some concepts, like colors and sorting.

Zeke did a Roll and Add activity in his morning journal. He loved rolling the dice and writing down the addition problems, so we will probably do this again soon.

I created this Fruit of the Spirit cut-and-glue activity. He loves the Fruit of the Spirit song, and can say (or sing) all nine fruits.

Zeke completed his handwriting worksheet and sound discrimination worksheet for the letter A. 

He also finished his Apple Pop Art project.

Wednesday

I cut some green, yellow, and red paper into small squares and he graphed the "apples." He has done graphing before, but he enjoys repeating activities.

He also did an Attribute Grid and his cut-and-paste sound worksheet.

He made this free Johnny Appleseed poem wreath. It turned out adorable! He water colored the apple template, and I cut the apples out for him when they dried. He glued the poem to the middle of a paper plate, and then glued the apples all around. 

Friday

He drew four pictures that began with the short /a/ - apple, alligator, animal, and ax. I dictated the words to him and he spelled them out below. This is such a great activity, and he loves doing this each week!

We traced his hand and arm on brown paper, and I cut it out along with a green tree top. He glued them to cardstock and then used his finger dipped in red paint to dot apples on the tree. I cut out a small yellow bird for him to glue in the tree, and then we glued the poem included in the lesson plan on the tree. Such a cute craft!

I also found a Parts of an Apple worksheet for him to color.

He found the geo-board and spent over an hour making designs on it!

Daily

Every day we write the date on the calendar and then say the days of the week and months of the year. He has the days of the week memorized but we're working on the months of the year!

I also have a journal page for him to do each morning in a blank sketchbook. He loves this and it is a fun way to get transitioned from playtime to schooltime. 

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Friday

He works in his Before the Code book and Rod and Staff workbooks each day, and I occasionally have a math worksheet from Abeka Math that he does. 

Books We Read

Monday, Zeke packed shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child. 

Wednesday night we had TeamKid at church. Thursday was co-op day and speech therapy afterwards. My mom watches Zoey while Zeke and I go since it's nearly an hour to co-op and another twenty minutes to speech therapy from there. It's a long day for us, and Zoey has much more fun with my mom than she would in the car all day.

We love using My Father's World for Kindergarten! It's such a fun curriculum, and it is so easy to add in extra activities (which I always do!).

How was your week?

Zeke's First Experience with Operation Christmas Child

I've been participating in Operation Christmas Child by Samaritan's Purse for close to 20 years now! I've packed shoeboxes with my kids almost every year! This year was Zeke's first year to pack his own shoebox (with help from me, of course).

After I got the big kids off on the school bus this morning, Zeke and Zoey woke up. Thanks to the time change, they're up a little earlier than normal! We ate breakfast, got dressed, and then Zeke and I started his kindergarten work. We are on A is for Apple in My Father's World curriculum, which is also week 6. 

He first did his journal page, which was just a worksheet I found, printed, cut, and taped into his journal. He had to read each number at the top of the column and dot the addition facts that had that number for the answer. He did such a good job on this!

Next, we did our calendar. He writes the date (and any dates we missed because of the weekend), we say the days of the week and months of the year, and I talk a little bit about "today", "tomorrow", and "yesterday." 

He then writes the next number on his 100 Chart (we're only on number 15 because we forget this sometimes) and we count from 1 to the number of the day.

We then did his Letter Sound Cards. He colors the pictures and cuts them out, and then we place them in an envelope with the letter glued on front. We use these cards along with the ones from previous weeks throughout our school week to review letter sounds.

We read the Apple pages in the God's Amazing World A to Z book that accompanies the curriculum. This is my third time to use this kindergarten curriculum, and this book is my favorite new addition to it! 

I printed out this free resource from Teachers Pay Teachers. Zeke loves pattern blocks so I knew he would love this activity! He had to fill in the apple shapes with pattern blocks and then write the number of each block that he used. I also had him trace around the pattern blocks and color them in the correct colors. There were several different ways you could make the apples, and Zeke really enjoyed this. 

We also started on an Apple Pop Art project (also free from Teachers Pay Teachers). I printed one out for me too because I knew he would want me to color with him. We will work on this throughout the week.

Zeke also completed three pages in Before the Code, Book B and one page in Rod and Staff's "Inside and Outside" workbook. This was on counting by 2's, which I was afraid he would have a hard time understanding, but no! He seems to really understand it so far.

After cleaning up a little, we headed to the church to pick up three shoeboxes and then to Walmart to fill them up! Zeke made two boxes for a boy, ages 5-9 and I made one for a girl, age 0-4. We got plenty of cool items - he got matching things for each box! Big dragons, UNO cards, small wooden puzzles, yo-yos, toothbrushes, hairbrushes, a new shirt, underwear and socks, crayons and coloring book, flashlights, and matchbox cars! We geared his toward a 5-year-old boy. In the girl's box I put a sun dress, panties and socks, small baby doll, yo-yo, crayons, a small wooden puzzle, toothbrush and hairbrush, small hair clips, small ocean animals, and a flashlight. I'm sure there are a few things I'm forgetting! 

The collection deadline is November 12, 2023 - next Sunday! If you're interested in Operation Christmas Child, you can search on the website to find a drop-off location near you. 

November 1st - Changes

 It's a new month, and I can hardly believe how quickly this year has flown by. We have had so many changes the past few months, but this is the biggest one of all:

Public School

I decided to put the older three in public school this year. We had started homeschooling and were about two weeks in when I decided I just could not do it. Trying to help Mercie with Algebra 2 while bouncing a crying baby on my hip was about to make me crazy! I've been homeschooling for over 16 years, and I've been through this stage before - but I was completely done. I told Rod I wanted to put them in school, and the next week they started. 

Mercie is a sophomore, we put Silas back in 7th for football (this is a football obsessed school/parish), and Titus is in 6th grade. Silas loved junior high football! He had never played on a team before, but he has played lots of backyard games with his brothers and cousins. He is really good! He had so much fun and met some new friends. 

Mercie went to homecoming dance with some friends

It's been quite an adjustment. Learning to juggle homework, classwork, tests, and projects has been the biggest hurdle for the boys. Mercie went to public school last year, so she hasn't had an adjustment period. Silas and Titus are getting the hang of things now, and Silas had straight As on his report card while Titus had A-B honor roll.

It's been so different having just the younger two at home all day! I'm enjoying the time with them. I felt like I was missing out on just spending time with them, especially Zoey, with so many other things I had to do. Homeschooling is wonderful and fun and beautiful, but this is just a new season in our life. It's also beautiful, and less stressful and overwhelming for me.

Co-Op

I joined a homeschool co-op before I decided to put the kids in public school, committed to teach three classes. I teach a Global Art class to 1-3 graders, an Ancient Greece History Pockets class to 4-6 graders, and then Aesop's Fables Literature Pockets to 1-3 graders. It's a lot. I wish I were only teaching one or two classes at the most. 

Zeke is in the kindergarten class, and he is loving it! He is thriving being around some other 4- and 5-year-olds for several hours on Thursdays. Zoey hated the nursery and cried the entire time for three weeks, so my mom is now watching her on Thursdays while we go to co-op (which is a 45 minute drive from our house) and then speech therapy (which is another 20 minutes from co-op). It worked out that we got his speech therapy appointment at 2:00 on Thursdays, since I'm already over half-way there!

Zeke is doing fantastic in speech therapy. He has had several weeks of growth and improvement with his articulation! He can now say the hard /g/ and /k/, even if he has to stop and repeat himself or think about it for a minute.

Kindergarten

We are using My Father's World Kindergarten curriculum, which I used with Silas and Titus when they were Zeke's age. It's so much fun, and I love the new additions and improvements they've made to it! Here is a brief look at the first two weeks we used (we skipped the Creation weeks):

I'm planning to start blogging regularly again (how many times have I said that?)!