Week 3

One of the best parts of this week was the feeling that we are starting to establish a routine that works (at least for now).  I've structured Luke's work so that the subjects requiring the most work for him are immediately followed by something he enjoys.  Here is a typical school routine at our house:

Wake up
Copy work
One 30 minute show (picked by Ben)
Breakfast
Math (I help Ben and Olivia get ready when he doesn't need my help)
Read-Alouds (Luke's favorite)
       Literature
       History
Practice Bible Verse
30 minute Break - The boys entertain Olivia in their room while I (hopefully) take a quick shower and get some chores done.
Explode the Code (phonics) (Ben usually does his "schoolwork" during this time.)
Science
Extras - (art, music, spelling, etc. - depending on the day)
Break - play/lunch until rest time
Reading Practice
Story time (I read to Luke from a chapter book of his choice.  Right now, we're reading our 8th Boxcar Children book.)
Rest

The routine doesn't always work perfectly, and we definitely have distractions (ex: Olivia climbing on the table, Olivia eating the crayons, Olivia wanting to sit on top of the book that we're reading), however, I know that Luke is learning so much and Ben is gleaning tidbits from listening to the stories even while he is playing. 

Here are some highlights from the past week:

History  - The goal for Kindergarten history is simply for Luke to understand that the way people live has changed over the years and to learn that some people have done things that affect the way we live today.  One of our readings this week was about Medieval Times and the Renaissance .  This is probably the boys' favorite history topic so far.  We researched items on a coat of arms and Luke decided to make his purple (royalty) with a lion (bravery).  When the kids are older, Aaron and I plan to have all five of us create a family coat of arms, but this was a good intro.

Luke's coat of arms design

The boys also watched a few Medieval Times videos on YouTube and spent a few evenings this week engaged in battles. 

Science -  Our program is designed to spark an interest in Science and to introduce a wide variety of topics.  I love this idea for kindergarten.  We studied flowers this week, so we took a trip to an English Garden located in our town.  I wasn't sure how exciting the boys would find this to be, but it turned out to be a huge success.  They each had to find 2 of their favorite flowers, draw a picture of them, and answer four questions.  Are the sepals green?  Does it smell good?  Do you get pollen on your finger when you touch the stamen?  What is your favorite part of this flower?  My favorite part was seeing the looks on their faces when they discovered pollen on their fingers.  They loved watching the lily pad pond with the fish and fountains and I practically had to drag the away.  We also checked out the community garden on the same property and I was reminded that we need to include a service project in our school plans.

I also found an interactive website that taught kids about the parts of a flower.  Luke liked using the computer and practicing drag-and-drop, but had very little interest in reading the information.

It seems that throughout the past few weeks we've discovered more creepy crawly things in our backyard than Aaron and I have seen in the past nine years of owning the house.  I guess that is what happens when you have two boys!  We found a katydid this week, but didn't manage to get a picture because my phone wasn't charged.  Another night, they found a worm in front of our neighbors' house and decided to adopt him.  They named him Digger and created a sweet little habitat for him.  Unfortunately, within 30 minutes of bringing him home, Digger was accidentally almost squeezed in half (he managed to survive) and then was dropped between the slats of the backyard deck.

Ben School - Our letter of the week was "C" and Ben enjoyed his usually letter activities.  His highlight of the week was being introduced to sight words.  (Note: I wouldn't say that he is reading.  He isn't ready blend sounds together.)  He loves recognizing words he knows, so I introduced him to "and" and "the" this week.  He was so proud of himself!

Looking for "the" in Daddy's Wall Street Journal so that he can highlight them

Ben's Sight Word Caterpillar

C is for Caterpillar

Luke encouraged Ben as he was finding "and" in one of Luke's readers.
 

Unexpected Learning - I think this has become one of my favorite parts of our week.  I'm learning that if you pay attention, opportunities will arise to learn new things.

This week was my grandfather's 85th birthday.  My parents and my aunt bought an I-Pad for him and we all enjoyed teaching him about his new piece of technology.  I think it was a good reminder to all of us to keep learning as long as we are able.

My grandparents brought two old photo albums to the party.  The boys (especially Benjamin) listened to stories and memories as they looked through the albums with my dad.

For his birthday gift, Luke read a birthday poem to Pappaw.  He was excited, but shy, so it is a little hard to hear.

Another big event for the boys was being hired for their first "job" earning real money.  My dad paid them each $5 to move a pile of wood.  They were so proud of themselves and couldn't wait to put the money in their piggy banks (although the $10 bill almost got split in half when they were told they could split it!