Homeschooling Journal: January 2014 Part 3

Food for thought...

Classical Conversations Review (Weeks 1-4)

                                                   

Homeschooling August 2013 Part 5

Inspiration...

Play Time

This was our MOPS (Moms of Preschoolers) kick-off meeting. We planned it at the Splash Pad to have fun in the sun and start the Fall semester meetings on a good note. It was a success.
                            

Has anyone read or used this book before? I am interested in getting it, but wanted to hear from someone who has used it.

                              

Nice reminder...

Spanish

Yesterday, we started to learn the alphabet in Spanish. Please keep the handout I gave the  kids because we will be using it for several weeks. I wrote the pronunciation under each  letter (with Spanish pronunciation). We did A to M. Next week, we'll do the rest and they  will learn a rap. It is kind of fast, so I wanted them to be introduced to the names of the letters first.

Art

Last week we looked at Monet and his paintings, and worked with watercolors on our own sunflowers. This week we did finger printing and stamping. Next week we will try Kandinsky and his circles.

Ballet

For ballet, we are always going to be working on flexibility, agility and balance: the key elements that make a superhero, I mean, a ballerina. 
We practiced the 5 positions more today (with arms).
I have 2 rules in my class. It'd help reinforce/talk about them at home. 
1) Listen to the instructor. 
2) No playing with the medicine balls until the end of class. Yup, they're a distraction, er, a big hit amongst the kiddos. 
I always give them a couple of minutes at the end of class to play with them, so I redeem myself a little.

French (First Class)

Well, today went great. It was shorter than we thought, but the kids did awesome! I love small groups! We learned Bonjour (hello) and Au Revoir (goodbye). Our friend, Ratounet, taught us a song with a few French words.

Here is the link: CLICK HERE.

Please show it to your kids a few times during the week and feel free to print the lyrics. In the "Au Revoir" part, there is another phrase in there, but I repeat the same as  the "Bonjour" one. Keeping it simple. :)

______________________________________

Bonjour, bonjour, bonjour Madame (Mrs.)

Bonjour, bonjour, bonjour Monsieur (Mr.)

Bonjour, bonjour, comment allez-vous? (how are you?)(comet alle voo)

Bon bon bon bon bon bon bon bon-jour!

Au Revoir, au revoir, au revoir Madame

Au Revoir, au revoir, au revoir Monsieur

Au Revoir, au revoir, comment allez-vous? (it says something else, but don't worry about it)

Au au au au au au au au au Au Revoir!

_______________________________________

Letter of the Week (My Father's World)

This week, it was "l" for "leaf." K had a wonderful time and learned a lot.

Inspiration...

This is the preparation stage for our MOPS project with the littles. K helped me paint toilet paper rolls to make cool "toys."

Our first MOPS meeting of the Fall semester went super well! The moms loved it as well as the kids!

Out of the four samples, the most popular ones were the butterfly (for the girls) and the octopus (for the boys).  It was really fun making them.

Play Time

I finally decided to become a Young Living distributor and, to Caleb's delight, my first delivery of my wonderful diffuser and essential oils also contained lots and lots of packing bubbles! He had a blast making all that noise (they were the extra jumbo ones).

Montessori Culture (Geography): Penpal and Postcard Exchange

We  are receiving more and more postcards from different states and countries! It is cool seeing the map get some color (we fill and label the states that we have gotten a postcard from). Picture of the map coming soon.

Click here to read my post on Family/Home/Homeschool Rules. It's a post with some great inspiration for those of you who want to come up with something uniquely fitting for your family.

Click here to see my post on healthy, quick and yummy lunch ideas for homeschooling days.

Family / Homeschool Rules

I got this canvas on clearance at Michael's for about $4 or so.
It is 12x24 inches.

I had never done anything like this before, so that's my excuse for it not turning out perfect.

1) I used acrylic paints, foam brushes, a thin brush for the phrases and painter's tape. 

2) Some stripes are 1.5 inches wide and and some are 2 inches wide, just to keep it interesting. 

3)I put on the painter's tape and painted every other stripe. 

4) When those dried, I painted the in-betweens and let those dry. 

5) Then, I made tiny marks with pencil so I could see where the middle of each stripe was. 

6) I wrote (very lightly) the phrase on each stripe and went over it with the thin brush and black acrylic paint.

7) Let dry and hang.

I think it turned out a lot better than I expected. I know it isn't perfect, but I wanted something homemade, original (one of a kind) and custom-made. 

In the end, I took out "TREAT OTHERS KINDLY" because it was similar to "USE KIND WORDS" and "HELP EACH OTHER" and added "WAIT YOUR TURN" instead because it is important to have that in our family rules.

I had fun making it. The picture shows the top purple stripe (RULES) and the royal blue stripe (USE KIND WORDS) to be too dark, but in person, it is actually pretty easy to read everything. It's just the way my phone took the picture.

Would you ever venture out and make something like this?

Stephanie Bruce Tristan wrote in a homeschooling FB group (used with permission):  

This is what is on our wall:
Deut. 6:1-18. Education is to learn about God; how we works in all things and is above all things. We learn in order to glorify God.
Lev. 19:18 and Matt. 7:12: Love others and cultivate family as we learn together.
Col. 3:23-24. Whatever we do, we aim to do our best for God.
Ephesians 6:1 and Col. 3:20. Obey Mommy and Daddy
Prov. 10:4-5. No play until the work is done. This means even, and especially anything electronic.

Click here to see and download some beautiful verses
Click here to see and download some awesome family/homeschool rules
Click here if you would like to download character trait cards for free