Saturday, May 29, 2010

Some School year end.... funnies!

Have a great day!!




 

Friday, May 21, 2010

Storm in the Night FIAR Study





Hi! Last week we completed our Five in a Row study on the book The Storm in the night, by Mary Stolz. I was going to start on Peter rabbit, but due to the Rainy season here in Germany, I thought it was a perfect study!

We learned about Clouds, thier names, their shapes, the purpose, the water cycle.. lots of fun!

We did a little craft of gluing "stuffing" to paper in the shapes of the differant clouds.. for their lapbook
I then wrote the definition of each one....


We studied a few storms in the Bible. For This study we used our Rhyme Bible. It's a wonderfully illustrated storybook, for all ages. we loved it!

Along with the study of Jesus Calming the storm, we did a picture craft, and a maze, and JT did a related word search. The craft was a huge hit! Also we listend to the vegie tales song  ( called OVER, OVER) a million times! It is a family favorite. you can listen to it by clicking the above link. (psst don't forget their is the story of Noah, and Jonah too)



Psalm 27:1



The LORD is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid?


Psalm 56:3-4



When I am afraid, I will trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can mortal man do to me?



We did manage to do a lapbook for this study, although it was a bit hard to find things to use for it. There isn't alot out for the actual book, but we had alot of fun, and I just made my own little inserts when needed.

Here are some things we used for our lapbooks and our learning center
My weather book,  Water cycle wheel, Weather Calendar, Weather phrases in German, Seasons weather wheel, Weather prediction rainbow, thunder & lightning, Lightbulb , facial expressions, clouds , Vocabulary words also the 5 senses is great to do as well, but since we covered that earlier this year, i left it out of this study.


This was alot of fun, and a BIG word for the kids "onomatopoeia" but Tigger sings it song on poohs spring movie.. so they just love saying it, Some words from the story were  ping, ping ping, ticktickeytock, bong, bong bong...

During our study, JT learned about facial expression. and how to draw expressions... here is his first attempt. He had a great time with this.


And with KT we studied the word "Profile..." In the story, several of the illustrations show profiles of the charachters,  I had the kids go around the house and try to find anythign that has a profile....
look what they found! minnie, goofy, buster, and we did a fun little search in mommy's magazines for more profiles..
we played a few weather games. This is from Lakeshore learning. Seemed to easy, but they actually loved it!


After we played this game, I asked them to draw a picture of their favorite season, and use the little cards from the game as an idea of what to draw to remind them of that season...  here is Kt's... hers is WINTER.



JT says he loves ALL the seasons, and he can't draw just one!! But he settled for Spring...



We also played a german version of Weather bingo.. one of our favorites.

I got this cute unbrella craft from..yikes! i forget.. ( i will find it)





Do you know when the unbrella was invented? click here- Unbrella Facts


To continue our study of impressionists, and I am always trying to find Famous works of Art to go with our studies..I printed out Van Gogh for our learning center.  I then save them in our ART binder in a sheet protector for them to flip through...




I also looked up online some other paintings related to storms, and Rain, and this is what I found... this was for thier lapbook.
This was a little project we did together, but it was to late in the day and no one wanted to count after they colored!

Here are some go alongs I already had on hand, for our learning Center. these were wonderful!













Cloudy with a chance of meatballs was their favorite!





These were also some other things we posted in our Learning Center, and each day the kids glued on the weather for teh day...
On my learning center is a beautiful quilt my dear friend Jen made for me before she moved. I love it so! since their is a quilt in the story the boy hides under becuase he was scared, i thought it fitting to use in our learning center. This was also great for KT's Counting time! she loved that.



Also on our learning center was a Lamp. In the story the power is out.. and in the end the lights come back on. I kept this light on during the week, we learned all about the differant Sources of light.  I lit a lighter in our room when it was completely dark, we played with flash lights, etc...
And a little fun in the Rain!


And this conlcludes our study of the Storm in the Night!
some other great resources for this study are :
Living and learning ( blog) Study of storm in the night she had some great resource links check it out!
A mother's journal (blog) study of the storm in the night
Send in the clouds


Jt caught his first butterfly today! He is so excited!

I decided to add my growing collection of simple reading books for JT to encourage him in his reading. He was soooo amazed when I told him HE could read ALL these books... So, for now they are there for him to pick up when he likes..

Next week we plan to start the Tale of Peter rabbit! mommy's excited! been planning on this one a while! ..





Friday, May 14, 2010

How do you encourage dad to be involved in your homeschool?

I read a great article today~!

Involving Dad in your Homeschool over at Simple Homeschool. I really appreciated all Renee shared and wanted to share it with you! This is a great read for Moms & Dads.

In our home, yes, I am the primary teacher as some would say. I read all the how to books, the curriculum reviews, get the lessons together, etc...  But the Daddy in this house, is becoming more involved in our children's "schooling" everday. 



 One thing we are going to do while daddy is away, is sending him 7 stories a week, so he can read it to the kinders over the webcam.

 And He is going to start the Book the Story of the World vol 1 with JT one night a week,  and that is going to be fun for both of them I think. Daddy is a History buff, and who better to teach History then? =)

I am so blessed that He wants to be part of their schooling, while home or far away. He is always so eager to join in whatever we are doing at home, and loves to take part in any outings. Not only is great bonding time for the children, but I think that ultimately being involved in the schooling as often as he can; really brings our family closer. 

I have been learning to step back, and just let dad be dad in the way he shares things. Sometimes I think the way he shares things are way over the kids heads..only to see he was right on and they totally get it!

Sometimes I want to and do, step in and say..."here is a better way".. and I need to let DAD do his thing HIS way... He has so much to offer, and I want to do what  I can to include him throughout our Schooling Journey.  As Renee says STAND BACK.  and SUPPORT DAD -DIRECTED LEARNING. =)











And when I do stand back, I get to capture these moments!

What are some things  you do to encourage Dad to be involved in your homeschool?


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