Week 5 of MFW Learning God's Story

Another great week using MFW Learning God's Story!  We did a few art projects, made some yummy chipotle ranch, and read about several types of trees.  Warning:  This post contains affiliate links.  That means if you use the link to buy something, we will be paid.  This money goes to support my family.

Memory Verse:

Proverbs 21:23-

"He who guards his mouth and his tongue keeps himself from calamity."

This verse was a great one for our whole family to focus on this week.  We've had a lot happen recently, and it was a good reminder to watch what we say.  Squirrely Girl and Miss Bear have continued to do well with the memorization, and are relating day to day life back to our memory verses and bible stories.  It makes my heart happy whenever I hear them pray for God's help in these areas!

We've also started doing a little something with our memory verses this week.  I love the CM Scripture memory system, and we made our own simple version.  You can read about it here. 






Language Arts:

Squirrely Girl reading her previous phonics lessons.

Squirrely Girl has continued with the MFW phonics.  I thought it was odd that they included -ing, -ang, and -ung together, because I thought it would be confusing.  She didn't seem to have any problems, though!    Her handwriting has already improved dramatically the past 5 weeks.   


Miss Bear is working on her ABC handwriting sheets as well as number words sheets.  I used a highlighter to make her a copywork sheet for this weeks memory verse, and I've already seen improvement in her handwriting as well.

Math:

This is week 2 of working numbers and counting.  This was needed more for Miss Bear, but Squirrely Girl had a good review with larger numbers.  She also used some leaves, rocks, and seeds we found on our nature walk to work on addition, which was great practice. 

Science:

 After reading the recommended reading for trees, we did several art projects, a failed science experiment, and read in our Fun with Nature about several species of trees.



We've also continued to examine our beans that are sprouting. (We didn't soak them until Monday!  We had a lot going on last week!)  I'm not adding that stuff until we finish it, but Bubba has loved looking at the beans.  Kids were all amazed to see the tiny plant starting to grow! 

 

Art:
One of our art activities was these tree ring paintings.  I put several shades of paint onto a plate, and the girls used their foam sponge brushes to get some paint.  They then pressed the sponge onto their paper and twirled it around, giving the great tree ring effect.  We all had a lot of fun with these!

We also made these My Years in Tree Rings pages. 

 We had talked about how trees grow a ring each year.  We then made these pictures with a ring for each year they'd been alive, and things they thought were important for each year.


Lastly, the kids made these tree crafts.  All three of them love when I tape contact paper onto the sliding glass doors.  This is something that even Bubba can mostly do himself.

Handicrafts:

Squirrely Girl started working on her first needlepoint project this week.  You can find these projects at most craft stores, and I'm sure Amazon has them as well.

 

How was your week?  How do you like to incorporate art into the weeks lessons?

1st Grade Math

We're only a few weeks into MFW 1st Grade, but I thought I'd share with you how we are doing math.  Squirrely Girl (6) has been working on her addition and subtraction facts since Spring, but it's been more laid back.  Bear (4) is still working on her numbers, but is able to do some simple addition and subtraction with the help of manipulatives.

I've seen quite a few people saying that they didn't care for the layout of the Math for first grade.  Personally, I don't mind the way the topics are arranged, but we are definitely supplementing because right now much of the work is just too easy for our little Squirrely Girl. 

We've been following along with the MFW lesson plans in The Complete Book of Math.  So far, the lessons are just a review and a little too easy for our 6 year old, but our 4 year old is keeping up well.  For now, this is working for us, but I'm evaluating mid-year if we need to buy something more challenging.

My kids love to do worksheets, so much so that sometimes they even request them on our off days!  So, we've been supplementing their math with worksheets we find online, as well as the Brain Quest 1st grade workbook as well as their Kindergarten workbook for Bear. 

 


In addition to the worksheets, we also incorporate a lot of hands on math practice.  We use our addition and subtraction flashcards along with a manipulative.

Some of our manipulatives include:

• Unifix cubes
• Pattern blocks
• Marbles
• Beans
• Coins
• Shape buttons
• Colored craft sticks
• Number bond bracelets
• Legos
• Dice
• Dominos

I also found this great little Count and Balance Scale at a yardsale!  It has numbers that can be hung on either side.  The girls love using this and seeing how many ways they can make it balance out!


I love yard sales!  We have found some awesome things to add to our homeschool from them!

 

I also made a set of 10 "Ten Frames" for the kids to use!  I did these by hand and laminated them, and as you can see I feel the need to decorate like crazy! I just think they're more fun that way!  The kids like choosing theirs for the day. 

We've used these for counting and adding with manipulatives, but we've also used them alone to talk about tens.  Squirrely Girl has gotten pretty good with knowing how many ten frames she needs to make her numbers, and then she'll grab single manipulatives for the ones.  It's really helped her to visualize place value. 




What do you use for First Grade math?  What manipulatives do you use? 

 

 

Circle Time

I love how our "circle time" starts our school day off.  It gets the kids into learning mode in a gently way, and I am able to knock out some of our books that we are reading together.  I love that we will be able to do part of our learning together before breaking apart to do age appropriate work. 

I had read numerous blogs about what they were doing for their "circle time", but none of them seemed to be exactly what I was wanting our morning to look like.  Then, I stumbled upon The Unlikely Homeschool.  This seemed to be just what I was looking for! Instead of the traditional circle time we think of with preschool, her family uses a "Start the Day Together Basket". 

I immediately fell in love with the ideas presented in her post, and went to work putting our own version of the basket together.   This is also where we keep the book basket books pertaining to the weeks topic.  I love that I have everything that I need for starting our day all in one convenient, portable place.

What does circle time look like for our family?

• I usually begin with a few songs. 
  These include hymns/worship songs, learning song, and game songs. 
• Following singing, we work on our memory work.This includes our verse for the homeschool year as well as the Proverbs we will be learning each week.
• We then read out of our devotional or bible storybook.
  
• Next, I read aloud from one of our read-alouds.This includes folk tales, fairy tales, poetry
• Then, we read a book about our science topic.On Mondays, we read from the Usborne Science books from MFW.  The rest of the days, we read various books about the topic from the MFW "book basket" suggestions and others we find.
• Finally, I go over any instructions needed for the day.

 

So, what exactly is in our Start the Day Together Basket?

Every week the contents of our basket change a bit since we are using this as our book basket as well.  I include books on topics we will be covering and some pertinent flashcards as well if we have them.  Even so, a few things remain in the basket.

•  Science with Plants
• Science with Water
• Things Outdoors
• Fun with Nature: Take-Along Guide
• The Big Book of 5 Minute Devotionals
• Folk Tales from Many Lands
• 365 Read-Aloud Bedtime Bible Stories
• Index cards with our memory verses on them.
• An activity to keep little hands busy.  (I really like these and these.)
   

As the kids grow, I'm planning on adding composer and artist studies along with map work in the mornings.  For now, this is just enough for a 6 year old, 4 year old, and 2 year old to handle.

 

 

Does your family have a circle time to start the day?  What all do you include during this time?

I linked this post to

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