February Lessons and Learning Games

One thing that is huge in our homeschool is learning games. Everything we can think of to help improve eye coordination, memory, thinking skills, and such is a winner in our book.

Sometimes I am just amazed at how good some of our kids are at puzzles...

Richard Scarry's Eye Spy Game

Playing Checkers

Our Lessons for February: 

This is basically what our school days look like.

Our morning starts with breakfast and me reading from their Story Bible. 

After that we start school work with an Opening Prayer - The Lord is My Shephard  

Next we start Memory Work and Recitation:

• How many letters in the alphabet? Name them
• What are the two sizes of letters? What are the two types of letters?
• What are the short vowel sounds? What are the long vowel sounds?
• What is the mark we use at the end of a sentence? At the end of a question?
• What punctuation mark shows ownership?
• What are two types of numbers? Even and Odd (Count by even numbers from 2-20)
• What word do we say when we want to ask someone to do something for us? (please)
• What words do we say when someone does something for us? (thank you)
• What do we say when we have wronged someone? (I am sorry, will you please forgive me?)
• What do we say when someone has wronged us? (I forgive you)
• What is your phone number? What is your address?
• How many days in a week/months in a year? Name them
• What line goes side to side? Horizontal What line goes up and down? Vertical
• How many senses do we have? Name them Sight, Hearing, Touch, Taste, Smell

Bible verse:

John 14:1-6 (KJV)

Let not your heart be troubled:ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. 

Poem:

Little Things by Julia Abagail Fletcher Carney

Little drops of water,

Little grains of sand,

Make the mighty ocean

And the pleasant land.

So the little moments,

Humble though they be,

Make the mighty ages

Of Eternity.

So the little errors

Lead the soul away

From the paths of virtue

Far in sin to stray.

Little deeds of kindness,

Little words of love,

Help to make earth happy

Like the Heaven above.

From there we dive into our Phonics and Spelling. We will review any new flashcards for words, blends, or diagraphs. We do the flashcards together with all the kids during phonics time. The kids are allowed to go at their own pace for spelling. If someone learns their spelling words quickly they are allowed to move right into the next lesson. Because of this, everyone is on a different spelling lesson. 

Once we are finished with Phonics and Spelling, the kids have a snack and a break time for about 30 minutes - 1 hour so they can run around and play.

 

Once they come back inside from playing, we start our history reading. This month we are learning about George Washington and Betty Ross. We will also read our science books during this time. We are learning about teeth and hygiene. We will be doing a science experiment with eggs to see how they react to different things to simulate how teeth react to the same things. (tooth paste, vinegar, soda, and then one that has nothing done to it - we will leave it in a solution for several days to see the results). We will also learn about seeds and sprouts and start some seeds in the window which we will later plant in the garden once they are big enough.

Each month we focus on one composer and one artist. This month we are listening to works by Mozart and learning about him. During math class we will listen to the music by the composer of the month.

After we come back inside we work on math while listening to our composer of the month then move into writing. The music helps create a calm relaxing mood while the kids are working hard. 

After math we start on cursive writing or copywork depending on the day of the week. M, W, F the kids work on their cursive, and T, Thur, they work on copywork. 

As the kids finish up, they play learning games (pictured above at the top of the blog) until everyone is finished. 

When everyone finishes their work, we do math drill with flash cards. 

After our math drills we have lunch and play outside. Each child takes a turn reading their book to me after lunch then runs off to play again while the other kids take their turn reading to me. Once everyone has had a turn reading to me, we head back inside to have an afternoon circle time. 

(We use a folding black board that contains our circle time learning. While some of the things on the board are made by myself, the idea and some of the content of the boards comes from Jady A. You can find her on Youtube. I did one of her training courses which went over 18 weeks of learning using a board like this with sheets to download in pdf. While we do not stick to what she showed in her training course to a T, we do use several of her ideas and printables and want to make sure she gets credit for that. She has a great channel and we have bought many of her workbooks from Amazon. She is a homeschooling mom and is very inspiring in many areas from homeschooling to parenting.)

This is the time where we look at pictures by artists, practice skip counting, practice our poem, learn a hymn, work on civics, geography, our Bible verse, and do our language lesson (we are currently learning Spanish but later this year we will start learning Latin). This month we are learning our colors in Spanish. So far the kids have learned to count 1-20 in Spanish. 

For geography we are learning the cardinal directions. We are learning skip counting by 4s this month, we have worked on counting by 2s and 3s already. For science we are learning about vertebrates and invertebrates. In civics this month we will be reviewing our US leaders as well as practicing the pledge and how to stand properly and which hand to use during the pledge. 

Our artist of the month is Jan Vermeer. We will learn about Vermeer and look at artwork done by Vermeer. One of Vermeer's most famous works of art is the Girl with the Pearl Earring. 

We also learn a new Hymn each month. This month's Hymn is Trust and Obey. 

 

Once we have finished our morning circle, I will put on what the kids call School Songs. Basically, it is a youtube playlist of what they have learned that day and in most cases everything is put to music and the kids love it, such as skip counting, our poem and hymn of the month, and things like that. We have a laptop that we play it on and the kids love it.  It pretty much their only time they get "tv time" during the day as we do not have a tv in the house . It also has things like little mini videos for the kids about the people we are learning about - George Washington, Betty Ross, Vermeer, Mozart, etc. 

At the end of the youtube playlist, we typically have an art lesson with Art Hub for Kids. 

After "school songs" the kids will play outside if it is a nice day or play inside if the weather is not good. 

If anyone had trouble with any of their work earlier I will stay and help that child. Often it is not a matter of not being able to do their work, it is more a matter of having trouble focusing. Somehow having mama stand there while they are working seems to help them stay on track or just to remind them to subtract when they want to add. 

 

Homeschooling in our Tiny House

Homeschooling in a tiny house looks a lot different than in a bigger house. All our books have to fit on two bookshelves. My amazing husband built a large drawer for under the sofa for all my flashcards, school supplies, and anything we do not need on a daily basis. 
School takes places at the table, on the sofa, outside, on trips, out in nature and everywhere we go. 

Going from a whole room dedicated to being just a school room to two book shelves in the living room is not without its challenges. 

Our curriculum is a mix. We use Memoria Press for some things. They have a curriculum for kids with special needs called Simply Classical. One of our kids uses a different math and English. She uses Schoolaid Math and Climbing to Good English. For reading the kids are doing Pathway Reading. They really enjoy the stories and they have workbooks to go along with it for comprehension.

After this school year we will be switching two of our kids to Teaching Textbooks for math. For now however one is using Rod and Staff for math and he other is using Schoolaid for math. We really like Rod and Staff for our kids who are struggling with math because it helps build a good foundation and works on helping them remember their math facts. 

For History we do a lot of read alounds. In October we read and learned about Christopher Columbus. In November we read and learned about Pocahontas, and The Thanksgiving story. In December, Sarah Morton’s Day- a Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Girl. For January, we will read and learn about Benjamin Franklin. In February we will learn about George Washington and Betty Ross,.

Every month we work on learning a new poem, bible verse, and hymn. 

So far the kids have learned the poems Something Told the Wild Geese by Rachel Field, Snowball by Shel Silverstein, and are currently learning The Wise Old Owl. 

In Spanish they have learned how to count from 1-20 now in Spanish. 

In Bible they have learned Ephesians 4:31-32, Luke 2: 7-14, and this month they are working on learning Isaiah 40: 28-31. 

We also work on learning about a composer and artist every month. This month we are learning about The Stary Night by Van Gogh and George Fredrick Handel and the Messiah. 

This is our circle time board. We work on this throughout the month. At the end of the month I update it with new poems, bible verses, and things to learn. We do this in addition to our work in Simply Classical.

A hike in the forest

Our son made a home with the mommy/teacher in the front and all the children/students listening. 

learning about where recycling goes after it leaves your house

We do not have trash or recycling pick up so we take it ourselves

Learning how to build a deck with Daddy

Our Church held a Night in Bethlehem for kids where they had all kinds of activities and crafts 

painting ornaments

shepherds keeping watch over their animals

bread making

learning to play the dreidel game

making pinch pots

making their own hammer

festival of trees

helping chop wood

Signing at church

a hike in our forest

helping Daddy put together their merry go round

We read Sarah Morton, Pilgrim Girl then wrote a sentence and drew a picture to go with it. They are working in the Simply Classical Level 3 by Memoria Press. This workbook works on everything from learning how to write sentences to letting the child learn how to make sentences more interesting by choosing adverbs and adjectives to make their sentences. Each story has about 4 different days work in the workbook. The start of the work starts with figuring out the main ideas, and what are supporting details. It also works on understanding common nouns, proper nouns, which words are capitalized because it is the first word of a sentence and which is capitalized because it is a proper noun. 

Part of the curriculum is reading the stories that teach kids History and then this workbook goes along with the biographies we read to help build understanding and comprehension in what they have heard and learned about. At the end of each story, the kids get to make up their own sentences based on what they have understood in the story and then draw a picture to go with their sentence.

There is so much I love about this workbook! 

Working on their math

Reading The Story Bible together