Homeschool Highlights 7/20/20 - 7/24/20

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This week we started preparing to go home to Louisiana! Rod should be finished here today or tomorrow and we will head back home. Here are a few highlights from our week.

Starting last Thursday I started eating healthy. I stay below 1000 calories a day by eating healthy, whole foods. I've lost weight but I'm not sure how much because I didn't bring any scales with me! When we get home in a few days, I'll weigh myself and know. I feel great, I'm drinking tons of water, and exercising with some light aerobics videos. I can tell in my stomach area, my legs, and my face that I'm smaller. My shorts are fitting better and even my kids have mentioned that I look smaller!

Sweet potatoes and turkey sausage - my new favorite quick and easy meal

Titus completed week 3 in Adventures in U.S. History by My Father's World. We read about Jamestown and Pocahontas and pilgrims in Holland getting ready to come to America. 

In science he did a few experiments with air, including one where he filled up a cup with water, put a piece of cardboard over the top, and flipped it upside down. He was amazed that the cardboard stayed on the cup and kept the water from spilling out! He also likes filling out his experiment sheet.

He is about halfway through with Singapore 1B and just started multiplication. I was very surprised by how quickly he caught on to the concept and how well he did!

He learned about possessive nouns and apostrophes in language arts and worked on his cursive. He did four lessons in his art book and read several books on his own. 

Zeke's theme this week was bugs! We based our week on the book Mrs. Peanuckle's Bug Alphabet. Monday he had a bug transfer tray. He couldn't use the tongs, so he used his fingers to transfer the bugs from the tray into the lids. 

Tuesday he had a bug rescue tray. He had to peel the masking tape off of the bugs to "rescue" them. He loved this tray!

Wednesday he had a bug color smack tray. I gave him a fly-swat and he had to smack the bugs when I called out a color. He lost interest in following directions, but he loved using the fly-swat on anything and anyone!

Thursday he had a sensory tray. I filled the tray with oatmeal, bugs, a magnifying glass, and a bug net. This was a super simple sensory tray but he had the best time with it!

He also had this tot tray last Saturday. I gave him four pool diving rings and plastic keys in matching colors. He had to match the keys to the rings. He did a very good job on this!

The bug theme is an Explore With Books unit in my Etsy Shop, link in sidebar. If you're not following my toddler account on Instagram, you should! I have flash sales each Friday, I share a daily Tot Tray for Zeke with easy and fun tot school activities, and helpful hints to teaching and raising toddlers - @toddler_school.

Here are a few random shots from the week!

Honey, oats, and peanut butter - oh and some mini semi-sweet chocolate chips - a healthy alternative to oatmeal cookies for myself and my kids - at 115 calories each I can only eat one but it does satisfy my sweet tooth

How was your week?

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Homeschool Highlights 7/13/20 - 7/17/20

Our time in Texas has almost come to an end. Rod thinks we will be heading home by the end of next week! We are all ready to get back to our house and our normal routines. Living in the camper is not easy with five kids and two adults! (Mikaela stayed home this time because she has a job.) Zeke has decided he HATES showers and there's not a bathtub in this camper. So that's turned into a fun time of day! Not.

Titus completed his second week of My Father's World Adventures in U.S. History. We are really loving this curriculum. I'll break down what he did in each subject briefly.

History - We read about Christopher Columbus and some Spanish settlers who traveled by ship. He made a notebooking page about Columbus and narrated back to me what I read aloud to him each day.

Science - We learned about science experiments and did a quick demonstration on air. He and Silas each had a piece of paper and they had to fan it with cardboard to get it to move. The paper "raced" to see who could reach the finish line first.

Bible - We learned about Jesus and started making our "Names of Jesus" poster. He read from the NIRV Bible, which is a great translation for young kids. It's written at an end-of-second grade level.

Math - He is flying through Singapore 1B, which is mostly review right now. He's been working on place value and adding and subtracting two digit numbers. He does anywhere from 4-10 pages a day. We're trying to get to the multiplication section so we can work on that before beginning 2A.

Language Arts - He learned how to put words in alphabetical order (simple sets like, dog, apple, cat). He also had an introduction to contractions. We do Language Arts three times a week.

Cursive - He is learning the beginning strokes of cursive and will start learning letters next week.

Art - The art book provided by MFW is excellent. Titus loves it! He is learning how to draw simple but cute people with "hot dog" feet right now.

Zeke used the book unit "Birds" from the Explore With Books series I'm writing. The book we read is called "Birds" by Kevin Henkes. Here is a quick breakdown of what we did each day.

Monday - Bird Feather Matching: I put colored bird feathers in a colander and Zeke had to pull the feathers out and match them to the bird cards.

Tuesday - Bird Size Sorting - I had big and small bird cards he had to sort by size. He did a great job! We learned the words "big" and "small."

Wednesday - Egg Counting - Zeke had to put the eggs (glass beads) onto each nest counting card. We used the cards 1-3 and he did a really good job. Then he had to transfer one egg (white pom poms) into each section of the tray to work on counting and one-to-one correspondence. He did this and then he used the beads for this!

Thursday - Sensory Tray - I used brown shredded paper for the nest and cut up pipe-cleaners for the worms. Zeke used his magnetic wand to find the worms in the nest. We also sorted them by color.

Friday - Playdough Tinker Tray - I made Zeke a tray with playdough, brown shredded paper, pipe-cleaner worms, glass beads, twigs, and feathers. He made a "nest." He loves the playdough tinker trays I set up for him!

The "Birds" Explore With Books unit is available in my Etsy shop - link in sidebar. You can buy the PDF for $5.00 or the complete physical kit with every needed supply for $20.00.

Here are a few random shots from the week:

How was your week?

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