American Artists - Hans Hofmann

We started our art curriculum for our new school year. We are continuing Great American Artists and our artist this week was Hans Hofmann. We loved viewing his colorful art work.

We always start by learning about the artist and writing a notebook page for her art notebook. I try to include a photo of the artist when possible.

She also writes an artist notecard to add to our art timeline.

J decided that she wanted to paint her project instead of the suggested project - tissue paper and paint. So, she made lots of squares on her paper and painted with watercolors.

Here is her final project.

She was able to get some bold color with her watercolors and she practiced some texturing as well. Another American artist down....See you soon.


Links

So Says Sarah - has a simple project overlapping tissue paper for Hofmann.

WES Kindergarten - this teacher discussed cool and warm colors and created a large project with her kindergarteners.

First Week of Kindergarten

This week, we learned about the days of Creation and Kaleb made a Creation wheel. He is not big on coloring but he worked on it all week.

He started his new math program from Math-U-See. He checked out his blocks and he began his lessons. He did not want to be outdone by his big sis, so he worked on a week's full lesson in a day. Once we get into newer material, I imagine he will slow it down.

We discussed what a farmer did and make a cute little chart. We will add to it as we work through this unit.

We made our train table into a farm area using our FP farm set. This has definitely been a hit with my tot.

Kaleb worked with patterns and his Unifix blocks.

We matched upper and lower case Unifix letter blocks and made a huge alphabet block. I love how these blocks are the same color as the All About Reading program letter tiles.

Kaleb practiced writing his name and he worked this name worksheet that I found for free. (link below)

We added farm words to my table top pocket chart. We will work with these each week in different ways.

He painted the back drop for his farm mural. He will add an animal each week to this mural.

I hung the mural in our hallway. Sorry for the bad light. He used sponges for the clouds and forks for the grass.

I found this scale at a homeschool sale for $1. I gave Kaleb farm animal counters and he weighed each one to see what animals were heavier.

This week for his mural he made a red barn and a farmer Kaleb. I added his picture to a farmer figure. We read many books from the library about farm equipment and such. All in all, it was a good week. I will be readjusting some of our learning activities and probably changing out my reading program (which we will use later). I have a feeling what is going to work and what won't. So I am changing as needed. Hope your school week went well. Have a good weekend.

First Week of 4th Grade

J's first week of Fourth Grade went well. We are still trying to work out the kinks but overall, she got her work done. 

J is loving her personal Bible study that we received from Sonlight Core E. She works on it daily all by herself. She has several items that she is doing independently, with me nearby to answer any questions. I love this new independence, she does too. She gets to decide just how much work she does and when she does it, as long as she gets it done by Friday.

One fun thing that we worked on this week was Mental Images while reading. I found this cute free printable of a poem My Neighbor's Dog is Purple from Tori Howard's TPT store. (link below) I read the poem to her in sections and she drew what she see in her mind. I love how her image changed!

I also taught her how to play Rummy Cube. We played it all week while we were eating lunch. She is getting pretty good.

My absolute favorite part of this week was this smile! This smile is her doing her new math program from Teaching Textbooks. She loves this program. This is a picture of her doing her math! Amazing. I should have made the switch a long time ago....well, it actually doesn't start until third grade. But she finally loves math. Yay! She is already on lesson 11 in her first week! She has been doing two lessons a day. I love it.

It was a good week. This is my first time homeschooling two children along with a tot who gets into everything! So, we are still working some kinks out. Hope your first week went well. See you soon.

Links

Tori Howard's TPT store - free printable of My Neighbor's Dog is Purple mental image activity.

Our 2016-2017 Kindergarten Curriculum Choices

This year, Kaleb will be finally joining our homeschool adventure. He went to Pre K last year and now he is ready to begin kindergarten. I thought long and hard about what to choose for him because of the type of learner he is, as well as the fact that he is a boy! All boy! Also, we have an important family change coming up and I was looking for something relatively easy - open and go. I am already finding that open and go doesn't really exist for me but it was worth a try:) Here is what we are working through for kindergarten.

Because of our recent trip to close our apartment overseas, I had access to my several programs that I worked with J when she was younger.  I truly wanted to chose Sonlight K for Kaleb this year but I was concerned about the intense reading schedule. I wasn't sure he could sit so long with the chapter books. So, I decided to use the Winter Promise Pre K/K program - I'm Ready to Learn and Journeys of Imagination together. Journeys has four thematic units - farm, pond, garden, and zoo. I am still upgrading the program with a ton of library books and activities. I was truly hoping to open and go but it just isn't in my make-up.

For Math, I chose a hands-on program Primer and Alpha by Math-U-See. For this program, Kaleb has the math blocks and the videos to complete the set. I decided to start with the Primer to ensure that Kaleb with have a strong background in math.

For Reading, had planned on starting with All About Reading Level I but after a week, it didn't seem like he was "getting" it. So, I decided to go to All About Reading Primer level. Kaleb truly knows all of his letters and sounds but he just isn't putting them together to form words. Rather than have him get frustrated, I would rather reinforce the letter sounds and such.

For handwriting, Kaleb will be working through Letters and Numbers for Me by Handwriting without Tears. I also have the mini chalkboard and the wooden letter pieces.

He is also working through Get Ready for the Code books A, B, and C. These are a great addition to his reading program as well as adding handwriting.

I also purchased the set of Developing the Early Learner books, just in case he finishes Get Ready for the Code. Not sure if he will get to this but I have it on hand. We will also be using a ton of books from the library for every unit. Already, I have reserved over 50 farm books...I couldn't help myself!

Lastly, I am hoping to work in a unit on Nursery Rhymes using Literature Pockets. I feel nursery rhymes are important for a variety of reasons. I hope that we will be able to get to it. Science and Social Studies will come from our studies with each Winter Promise Unit.

So, we will see how it goes. I stressed all summer over these choices for Kaleb. I worried about the program from Winter Promise - if it was too easy for him. But I truly wanted a program to open and go. I will definitely go back to Sonlight K - probably next year because I love Sonlight and their book choices. J and I have loved all of their literature and I know Kaleb will too. See you soon.

Our 2016-2017 4th Grade Curriculum Choices

This year will be the 14th year that I have homeschooled in one fashion or another. I can't believe it - 14 years. I probably shouldn't mention 14 years because that kinda dates me but I am proud to be a homeschooler and I hope that I will be able to continue in the future:)

My J will be in the fourth grade and these are our curriculum choices:

For Bible, we will be working through Telling God's Story Book 2. We finished Book 1 last school year and it was a good fit. We will also be continuing through The Virtue Bible that we began last school year as well. I am hoping to work in a sibling Bible study to aid the relationships of my youngers. I hope to find the time.

We have some family changes coming up this year...(more on that later) and I was debating on continuing with the Horizons Math program. I was looking for something that J could work on her own and I remembered Teaching Textbooks. My older children used these for pre-Algebra through Calculus. J will be using Math 4.

For Language Arts, J will be working through Learning Language Arts Through Literature - Orange book. I have always loved this program because it teaches Language Arts through actual passages in books - not just a simple worksheet on nouns etc...

Also, she will be finishing the Explode the Code book series by completing book 7 and 8 this year.

I added a formal spelling program called SpellWell. She will be completing book C and CC. I wanted J to work on her spelling but I also wanted it to be a program she could do on her own with exception of tests and such.

I added the fourth grade book of handwriting from Handwriting Without Tears series. I am hoping that cursive with take off before the school year is out.

We will also be finishing Sonlight's American History Core E. We were so excited when this came in the mail. We loved looking at all of the books that we will be reading this year! We have already started reading a few of the books!

We will also be working on our state study since she is in the fourth grade. We will do one lesson a week so she can learn about her home state. And we are continuing with our state notebook, hoping to finish the 50 states by the end of the year (we are half way there!). Our art program will also be the same as last year - Great American Artists to finish our second year in American history.

And last, but not least, The Prairie Primer along with all of The Little House books! I have always wanted to share this series with my older daughter but we never got around to it. This year, I was determined to do this with J. I struggled with this decision because I knew it was going to be a lot of work but I am all in....as always.

You may notice the lack of Science this year and that it for a good reason. I had planned up to a few weeks before the start of school to include a Science program for J. But I backed out - The Prairie Primer says that it is a full year of curriculum in all aspects of learning with the exception that of Math. I knew we have several changes coming up and I didn't want to become overwhelmed. (it is still a possibility;) So, I think for one year, she can forgo a formal Science program because of what we will be learning from The Little House. I think it will be a good trade and we will still be learning across the board.

We are excited at what this school year will bring as well as what we will be learning. I love that J and I will be reading/learning about Little House:) It will be a good year.

An Update:)

It is all most September and I feel like I should update our situation before I dig into our schooling and such. We had one eventful summer that began with our trip overseas to close down our life there. It was bitter-sweet. We said goodbye to friends, we sold all of our household belongings and still ended up with seven suitcases! We had an adventure, a scare (attack on our outgoing airport 2 days before we left), and some trouble on the plane. But we finally made it home....with at least four of our suitcases! (The rest followed in a few days.)

I was glad to be home. All through the trip planning and actual trip, I was fearful of some outcomes but God truly kept us safe through it all. He even spared us from the following coup. When we arrived, it was like we hadn't left. A friend and his family took us in and fed us the entire time we were there. It was such a blessing to share meals with them. They loved us, helped us, and fed us. We couldn't have done so many things without their aid.

A decade of our life overseas has come to an end. Bitter-sweet is the best word to describe our ending. We will truly miss our friends from our "other" country but we are also ready to begin again in our home country....however difficult that will be.

A Little Vacation

Yes, I know that I have been neglecting my blog lately and I truly miss it. I have been stressing lately on some family changes that will be occurring soon as well as a trip that I will be making with my DH to our "other" country. I know stressing about these issues isn't the best thing to do but I am trying to work through it. Please keep us in your prayers:) Also, please forgive this blog vacation but know that I am already planning the next school year along with more free printables. I look forward to seeing you soon.

As a side note, I just have to share the painting that my DD did for me :) Love, Love, Love. She brought it over as a surprise. Now, I just have to figure out where to hang it. Have a wonderful summer and I will see you here soon.